Fulgora (mythology)

According to Augustine of Hippo's The City of God (5th century AD), Fulgora was a Roman goddess mentioned in Varro's Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum (1st century BC). ^[1] As quoted by Augustine, Varro cites Fulgora as an example of a widow goddess, alongside Populonia and Rumina. ^[2] According to Robert Dyson, she was "presumably the goddess of, or who protects against, lightning ( fulgor )". ^[3] Writing in 1910, Georg Wissowa considered it evident that Fulgora was a female equivalent of Fulgur, an epithet of Jupiter, though he notes that the prospect of the name's use as an epithet of Juno goes against the description of Fulgora as a widow. ^[4] Fulgora is unattested beyond this passage from Augustine. ^[5]

Notes

1. Wissowa, para. 1.
2. Augustine, The City of God 6.10 (Dyson, p. 263).
3. Dyson, p. 1201.
4. Wissowa, para. 1.
5. Dyson, p. 1201.

References

• Dyson, Robert W., Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Internet Archive.
• Wissowa, Georg, "Fulgora", in Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft , Band VII, Halbband 1, edited by Georg Wissowa, Stuttgart, J. B. Metzler, 1910. Wikisource.