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Egeria (mythology)

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Egeria
Nymph, giver of laws and rituals
Sculpture of Egeria on a fountain inHalifax, Nova Scotia
Other namesAegeria
Major cult centerspring and grove near thePorta Capena;Nympheum of Egeria;Temple of Diana at Nemi
Genderfemale
ConsortpossiblyNuma Pompilius
Equivalents
Etruscan equivalentpossiblyVegoia
A 16th-century drawing of Egeria

Egeria(Latin:[eːˈgɛria],[1]Ancient Greek:Ἠγερία[2]) was anymphattributed a legendary role in theearly history of Romeas a divine consort and counselor ofNuma Pompilius,the secondking of Rome,to whom she imparted laws and rituals pertaining toancient Roman religion.Her name is used as aneponymfor a female advisor or counselor.

Origin and etymology

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Egeria may predateRoman myth:she could have been ofItalicorigin in the sacred forest ofAriciainLatium,her immemorial site, which was equally the grove ofDiana Nemorensis( "Diana ofNemi"). At Aricia there was also a Manius Egerius, a male counterpart of Egeria.[3]

The nameEgeriahas been diversely interpreted.Georges Dumézilproposed it came fromē-gerere( "bear out" ), suggesting an origin from her childbirth role.[4]It may mean "of theblack poplar"(Greek αἴγειρος,aigeiros). Her role as prophetess and author of "sacred books" is similar to the EtruscanVegoia,to whom were attributed various books of prophecy, including the "Libri Fulgurales", which were used to interpret the will of the gods through lightning strikes.[5]

Function

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Egeria as a nymph or minor goddess of the Roman religious system is of unclear origin; she is consistently, though not in a very clear way, associated with another figure of theDianatype; their cult is known[6]to have been celebrated atsacred groves,such as the site ofNemiatAricia,and another one close to Rome (see section below); both goddesses are also associated with water bearing wondrous, religious or medical properties (the source in that grove at Rome was dedicated to the exclusive use of theVestals[7]); their cult was associated with other, male figures of even more obscure meaning, such as one namedVirbius,[8]or a Manius Egerius, presumably a youthful male, that anyway in later years was identified with figures like Atys or Hippolyte, because of the Diana reference (see Frazer).

Described sometime as a "mountain nymph"(Plutarch), she is usually regarded as awater nymphand somehow her cult also involved some link with childbirth, like theGreekgoddessIlithyia,but most of all, Egeria gave wisdom and prophecy in return forlibationsof water or milk at hersacred groves.This quality has been made especially popular through the tale of her relationship withNuma Pompilius(the second legendary king of Rome, who succeeded its founder Romulus).

Relationship with Numa Pompilius

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The nymph Egeria dictating the laws of Rome toNuma Pompilius,byUlpiano Checa.

According to mythology, she counseled and guided the KingNuma Pompilius(Latinnumendesignates "the expressed will of a deity"[9]) in the establishment of the original framework of laws and rituals of Rome. Numa is reputed to have written down the teachings of Egeria in "sacred books" that he had buried with him. When a chance accident brought them back to light some 500 years later, the Senate deemed them inappropriate for disclosure to the people, and ordered their destruction.[10]What made them inappropriate was some matter of religious nature with "political" bearing that apparently has not been handed down byValerius Antias,the source thatPlutarchwas using.Dionysius of Halicarnassushints that they were actually kept as a very close secret by the Pontifices.[11]

She is also gifted with oracular capabilities (she interpreted for Numa the abstruse omens of gods, for instance the episode of the omen fromFaunus).[12]In another episode, she helps Numa in a battle of wits with Jupiter himself, whereby Numa sought to gain a protective ritual against lightning strikes and thunder.[13]

Numa also invoked communicating with other deities, such asMuses;[14]hence naturally enough, the somewhat "pale" figure of Egeria was later categorized by the Romans as one of theCamenae,deities who came to be equated with theGreekMusesas Rome fell under the cultural influence of Greece; soDionysius of Halicarnassuslisted Egeria among the Muses.[15]

Egeria mournsNuma(1669) byClaude Lorrain

The precise level of her relationship to Numa has been described diversely. She is typically given the respectful labelconiūncta( "consort" );Plutarchis very evasive as of the actual mode of intimacy between Numa and Egeria, and hints that Numa himself entertained a level of ambiguity.[16]ByJuvenal's day, that tradition was treated more critically. Juvenal called her Numa'samīca(or "girlfriend" ) in a sceptical phrase.[17]

Numa Pompilius died in 673 BC of old age. According toOvid'sMetamorphoses,with Numa's death, Egeria melted into tears of sorrow, thus becoming aspring(...donec pietate dolentis / mota soror Phoebi gelidum de corpore fontem / fecit...[18]), traditionally identified with the one nearby Porta Capena in Rome.

Egeria spring in Rome

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Apse of theNinfeo d'Egeria,Parco della Caffarella,Rome

A spring and a grove once sacred to Egeria stand close to a gate of Rome, thePorta Capena.Its waters were dedicated to the exclusive use of theVestals.[19]Theninfeo,a favoredpicnicspot for nineteenth-century Romans, can still be visited in the archaeologicalPark of the Caffarella,between theAppian Wayand the even more ancientVia Latina,[20]nearby theBaths of Caracalla(a later construction).

In the second century, whenHerodes Atticusrecast an inheritedvillanearby as a great landscaped estate, the naturalgrottowas formalized as an arched interior with anapsidal endwhere a statue of Egeria once stood in a niche; the surfaces were enriched with revetments of green and whitemarblefacings and greenporphyryflooring and friezes ofmosaic.The primeval spring, one of dozens of springs that flow into the riverAlmone,was made to feed large pools, one of which was known asLacus Salutarisor "Lake of Health". Juvenal regretted an earlier phase of architectural elaboration:

Nymph of the Spring! More honour'd hadst thou been,
If, free from art, an edge of living green,
Thy bubbling fount had circumscribed alone,
And marble ne’er profaned the native stone.[21]

In culture

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Notes

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  1. ^Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012).Oxford Latin Dictionary(2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 653.
  2. ^Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 2.61.1
  3. ^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Egeria".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 12–13.
  4. ^Georges Dumézil,La religion romaine archaïque,Bibliothèque historique Payot,ISBN2-228-89297-1,1974, 2000, appendice sur la religion des Etrusques
  5. ^"Vegoia", inAugust Pauly,Georg Wissowa,et alii,Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft(Scientific Encyclopedia of the Knowledge of Classical Antiquities), J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart (1894–1980), 2nd series, 15th half-volume (1955), col. 577ff.
  6. ^James George Frazer,The Golden Bough,I, "The magician king in primitive societies"
  7. ^Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius"
  8. ^Georges Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque, Bibliothèque historique Payot,ISBN2-228-89297-1,1974, 2000, appendice sur la religion des Etrusques
  9. ^Georges Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque, Bibliothèque historique Payot,ISBN2-228-89297-1,1974, 2000, appendice sur la religion des Etrusques,p47
  10. ^Plutarch,"The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius"; Livy AUC libri XXXVIII.
  11. ^note by Gerard Walter, editor of Plutarch'sParallel Lives;translation by Jacques Amyot, La Pléïade volume n°43, 1967
  12. ^Georges Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque, Bibliothèque historique Payot,ISBN2-228-89297-1,1974, 2000, appendice sur la religion des Etrusques p377
  13. ^Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius, §XXVII"
  14. ^Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius"
  15. ^Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ii. 6o.
  16. ^Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius,4.2 and 8.6.
  17. ^Alex Hardie, "Juvenal, the Phaedrus, and the Truth about Rome"The Classical QuarterlyNew Series,48.1 (1998), pp. 234-251.
  18. ^Ovid,Metamorphosesxv. 479.
  19. ^Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius"
  20. ^Information about the Park of the CaffarellaArchived1999-10-11 at theWayback Machine
  21. ^Juvenal,Satire3.17–20, as translated byWilliam Gifford.
  22. ^https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-adams-out-thomas-jefferson-sally-hemings-180960789/#:~:text=Hemings%20was%20then%2014%20years,began%20having%20sex%20with%20Hemings.
  23. ^"Egeria".Stargate Lexicon.
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