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Libitina, also Libentina or Lubentina, is an ancient Roman goddess of funerals and burial. Her name was used as a metonymy for death, and undertakers were known as libitinarii. Libitina was associated with Venus, and the name appears in some authors as an epithet of Venus.
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Sulpicia was an ancient Roman woman whose outstanding sexual integrity (pudicitia) earned her the honor of instituting the cult of Venus Verticordia.
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Hercules was venerated as a divinized hero and incorporated into the legends of Rome's founding. The Romans adapted Greek myths and the iconography of Heracles into their own literature and art, but the hero developed distinctly Roman characteristics. Some Greek sources as early as the 6th and 5th century BC gave Heracles Roman connections during his famous labors.
In ancient Roman religion, Fortuna Virilis was an aspect or manifestation of the goddess Fortuna who despite her name (virilis, "virile, manly") was cultivated by women only. She shared a festival day with Venus Verticordia on April 1 (Kalendae Aprilis), which first appears with the name Veneralia in the mid-4th century AD.
Venus Verticordia was an aspect of the Roman goddess Venus conceived as having the power to convert either virgins or sexually active women from dissolute desire (libido) to sexual virtue (pudicitia). Under this title, Venus was especially cultivated by married women, and on 1 April she was celebrated at the Veneralia festival with public bathing.
Sulpicia was an ancient Roman poet who was active during the reign of the emperor Domitian. She is mostly known through two poems of Martial; she is also mentioned by Ausonius, Sidonius Apollinaris, and Fulgentius. A seventy-line hexameter poem and two lines of iambic trimeter attributed to her survive; the hexameters are now generally thought to have been a fourth- or fifth-century imitation of Sulpicia. Judging by the ancient references to her and the single surviving couplet of her poetry, Sulpicia wrote love poetry discussing her desire for her husband, and was known for her frank sexuality.
The Temple of Fortuna Muliebris was a temple in ancient Rome dedicated by Proculus Verginius Tricostus Rutilus in 486 BC to the goddess Fortuna and located at the fourth milestone of the Via Latina. It was founded on behalf of the Roman women who opposed the war of Gaius Marcius Coriolanus and the Volsci against Rome, commemorating their role in ending Coriolanus' advance on the city. The temple was dedicated in 486 BCE after the war and was formally founded in 493 BCE. Aside from some inscriptions recording restoration work in the Roman imperial period, no remains of the temple exist and the date it went into disuse is unknown.
The Vallis Murcia was the Latin name of a valley in the city of Rome between the Palatine and the Aventine Hill, where the Circus Maximus was sited. It was historically significant as a communication route and a neutral place of assembly for events, ceremonies, and performances involving harvest, trade, and military exercises. The valley was particularly associated with activities of the plebs and also those bridging the patrician and plebeian divide.
Venus Obsequens was the first Venus for whom a shrine (aedes) was built in ancient Rome. Little is known of her cult beyond the circumstances of her temple founding and a likely connection to the Vinalia Rustica, an August wine festival.
References
- 1 2 3 4 Richardson 1992, p. 107.
- ↑ Richlin 2014, p. 225, citing Valerius Maximus 2.1.6.
- 1 2 Dolansky 2011, p. 197.
- ↑ Denzey 2007, p. 66.