Egeria (mythology)
Encyclopedia
Egeria was a nymph attributed a legendary role in the early history of Rome as a divine consort and counselor of the Sabine
second king of Rome
, Numa Pompilius
, to whom she imparted laws and rituals pertaining to ancient Roman religion
. Her name is used as an eponym
for a female advisor or counselor.
s, such as the site of Nemi
at Aricia, and another one close to Rome, expedient for her presumed regular meetings with King Numa; both goddesses are also associated with water gifted with wondrous, religious or medical properties (the source in that grove at Rome was dedicated to the exclusive use of the Vestals); their cult was associated with other, male figures of even more obscure meaning, such as one named Virbius, 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 a water nymph
and somehow her cult also involved some link with childbirth, like the Greek
goddess Ilithyia
.
But most of all, Egeria gave wisdom and prophecy in return for libation
s of water or milk at her sacred grove
s. This quality has been made especially popular through the tale of her relationship with Numa Pompilius
(the second legendary king of Rome, that succeeded its founder Romulus);
In this myth she is shown as counselor and guide to King Numa in the establishment of the original framework of laws and rituals of Rome, and in this role she is somehow uniquely in Roman mythology associated with "sacred books"; Numa (latin "numen
" designates "the expressed will of a deity") is reputed to have written down the teachings of Egeria in "sacred books" that he made bury with him; when some chance accident brought them back to light some 400 years later, they were deemed by the Senate inappropriate for disclosure to the people and destroyed by their order; what made them inappropriate was certainly of "political" nature but apparently has not been handed down by Valerius Antias
, the source that Plutarch
was using.Dionysius of Halicarnassus
hints that they were actually kept as a very close secret by the Pontifices.
She is also gifted with oracular capabilities (she interpreted for Numa the abstruse omens of gods, for instance the episode of the omen from Faunus
). In another episode she helps Numa in a battle of wits with Jupiter himself, whereby Numa sought to gain a protective ritual against lightning strokes and thunder.
The name Egeria has been diversely interpreted; it might mean "of the black poplar" (needs source); George Dumézil proposed it came from "e-gerere", suggesting it came from her childbirth role, though this sounds very unlikely; her role as prophetess and author of "sacred books" (even through the proxy of Numa) would compare her to the Etruscan figure of Vegoia
(alleged author among other things of "Libri Fulgurales", which give keys to interpreting the meaning of lightning strokes, seen as ominous messages from deities, a variety of them) .
Numa also invoked communicating with other deities, such as Muses; hence naturally enough, the somewhat "pale" figure of Egeria was later categorized by the Romans as one of the Camenae
, deities who came to be equated with the Greek
Muses as Rome fell under the cultural influence of Greece; so Dionysius of Halicarnassus
listed Egeria among the Muses.
The precise level of her relationship to Numa has been described diversely sometimes as Amica, but ordinarily has been qualified with the more respectful coniuncta ("consort"); Plutarch
is very evasive as of the actual mode, and hints that Numa himself entertained a level of ambiguïty. In later years that tradition came under critical review in Juvenal's day.
Numa Pompilius died in 673 BC of old age. According to Ovid
's Metamorphoses
, after Numa's death Egeria was transformed into a spring
, this sort of place being a usual site of inspiration and prophecy in antiquity.
: she could have been of Italic
origin in the sacred forest of Aricia in Latium
, her immemorial site, which was equally the grove of Diana Nemorensis
("Diana of Nemi
"). At Aricia there was also a Manius Egerius, a male counterpart of Egeria.
, near where the Baths of Caracalla
were built in the third century. In the second century, when Herodes Atticus
recast an inherited villa
nearby as a great landscaped estate, the natural grotto
was formalized as an arched interior with an apsidal end
where a statue of Egeria once stood in a niche; the surfaces were enriched with revetments of green and white marble
facings and green porphyry
flooring and friezes of mosaic
. The primeval spring, one of dozens of springs that flow into the river Almone, was made to feed large pools, one of which was known as Lacus Salutaris or "Lake of Health". Juvenal regretted an earlier phase of architectural elaboration:
The ninfeo
was a favored picnic
spot for nineteenth-century Romans and can still be visited in the archaeological park of the Caffarella
, between the Appian Way
and the even more ancient Via Latina
.
Sabine
The Sabines were an Italic tribe that lived in the central Appennines of ancient Italy, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome...
second king of Rome
King of Rome
The King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine Hill. Seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last king was overthrown. These kings ruled for...
, Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus. What tales are descended to us about him come from Valerius Antias, an author from the early part of the 1st century BC known through limited mentions of later authors , Dionysius of Halicarnassus circa 60BC-...
, to whom she imparted laws and rituals pertaining to ancient Roman religion
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
. Her name is used as an eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
for a female advisor or counselor.
Function
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 the Diana type; their cult is known to have been celebrated at sacred groveSacred grove
A sacred grove is a grove of trees of special religious importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves were most prominent in the Ancient Near East and prehistoric Europe, but feature in various cultures throughout the world...
s, such as the site of Nemi
Nemi
Nemi is a town and comune in the province of Rome , in the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Nemi, a volcanic crater lake. It is 6 km NW of Velletri and about 30 km southeast of Rome....
at Aricia, and another one close to Rome, expedient for her presumed regular meetings with King Numa; both goddesses are also associated with water gifted with wondrous, religious or medical properties (the source in that grove at Rome was dedicated to the exclusive use of the Vestals); their cult was associated with other, male figures of even more obscure meaning, such as one named Virbius, 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 a water nymph
Nymph
A nymph in Greek mythology is a female minor nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing;...
and somehow her cult also involved some link with childbirth, like the Greek
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
goddess Ilithyia
Ilithyia
Eileithyia or Ilithyia , was the Cretan goddess adopted into ancient Greek religion and myth as the goddess of childbirth and midwifery.-Etymology and cult:...
.
But most of all, Egeria gave wisdom and prophecy in return for libation
Libation
A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit or in memory of those who have died. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in various cultures today....
s of water or milk at her sacred grove
Sacred grove
A sacred grove is a grove of trees of special religious importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves were most prominent in the Ancient Near East and prehistoric Europe, but feature in various cultures throughout the world...
s. This quality has been made especially popular through the tale of her relationship with Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus. What tales are descended to us about him come from Valerius Antias, an author from the early part of the 1st century BC known through limited mentions of later authors , Dionysius of Halicarnassus circa 60BC-...
(the second legendary king of Rome, that succeeded its founder Romulus);
In this myth she is shown as counselor and guide to King Numa in the establishment of the original framework of laws and rituals of Rome, and in this role she is somehow uniquely in Roman mythology associated with "sacred books"; Numa (latin "numen
Numen
Numen is a Latin term for a potential, guiding the course of events in a particular place or in the whole world, used in Roman philosophical and religious thought...
" designates "the expressed will of a deity") is reputed to have written down the teachings of Egeria in "sacred books" that he made bury with him; when some chance accident brought them back to light some 400 years later, they were deemed by the Senate inappropriate for disclosure to the people and destroyed by their order; what made them inappropriate was certainly of "political" nature but apparently has not been handed down by Valerius Antias
Valerius Antias
Valerius Antias was an ancient Roman annalist whom Livy mentions as a source. No complete works of his survive but from the sixty-five fragments said to be his in the works of other authors it has been deduced that he wrote a chronicle of ancient Rome in at least seventy-five books...
, the source that Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
was using.Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...
hints that they were actually kept as a very close secret by the Pontifices.
She is also gifted with oracular capabilities (she interpreted for Numa the abstruse omens of gods, for instance the episode of the omen from Faunus
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan....
). In another episode she helps Numa in a battle of wits with Jupiter himself, whereby Numa sought to gain a protective ritual against lightning strokes and thunder.
The name Egeria has been diversely interpreted; it might mean "of the black poplar" (needs source); George Dumézil proposed it came from "e-gerere", suggesting it came from her childbirth role, though this sounds very unlikely; her role as prophetess and author of "sacred books" (even through the proxy of Numa) would compare her to the Etruscan figure of Vegoia
Vegoia
Vegoia is a nymph and/or sibyl in the Etruscan religious framework that is vested with the responsibility of writing some parts of their large and complex set of sacred books, of initiating the Etruscan people to the arts, rules and rituals of land marking, and of...
(alleged author among other things of "Libri Fulgurales", which give keys to interpreting the meaning of lightning strokes, seen as ominous messages from deities, a variety of them) .
Numa also invoked communicating with other deities, such as Muses; hence naturally enough, the somewhat "pale" figure of Egeria was later categorized by the Romans as one of the Camenae
Camenae
In Roman mythology, the Camenae were originally goddesses of childbirth, wells and fountains, and also prophetic deities.There were four Camenae:*Carmenta*Egeria*Antevorta, or Porrima...
, deities who came to be equated with the Greek
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
Muses as Rome fell under the cultural influence of Greece; so Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...
listed Egeria among the Muses.
The precise level of her relationship to Numa has been described diversely sometimes as Amica, but ordinarily has been qualified with the more respectful coniuncta ("consort"); Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
is very evasive as of the actual mode, and hints that Numa himself entertained a level of ambiguïty. In later years that tradition came under critical review in Juvenal's day.
Numa Pompilius died in 673 BC of old age. According to Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)
Metamorphoses is a Latin narrative poem in fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid describing the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Completed in AD 8, it is recognized as a masterpiece of Golden Age Latin literature...
, after Numa's death Egeria was transformed into a spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
, this sort of place being a usual site of inspiration and prophecy in antiquity.
At Aricia
Egeria may predate Roman mythRoman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
: she could have been of Italic
Ancient Italic peoples
Ancient people of Italy are all those people that lived in Italy before the Roman domination.Not all of these various people are linguistically or ethnically closely related...
origin in the sacred forest of Aricia in Latium
Latium
Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...
, her immemorial site, which was equally the grove of Diana Nemorensis
Diana Nemorensis
Diana Nemorensis, "Diana of Nemi" also known as “Diana of the Wood”, was an Italic form of the goddess who became Hellenised during the fourth century BCE and conflated with Artemis. Her sanctuary was to be found on the northern shore of Lake Nemi beneath the cliffs of the modern city Nemi...
("Diana of Nemi
Nemi
Nemi is a town and comune in the province of Rome , in the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Nemi, a volcanic crater lake. It is 6 km NW of Velletri and about 30 km southeast of Rome....
"). At Aricia there was also a Manius Egerius, a male counterpart of Egeria.
At Rome
A grove sacred to Egeria in connection with Numa stood close by a busy gate of Rome, the Porta CapenaPorta Capena
The Porta Capena was a gate in the Servian Wall near the Caelian Hill, in Rome, Italy according to Roman tradition the sacred grove where Numa Pompilius and the nymph Egeria used to meet. It was one of the main entries to the city of Rome, since it opened on the Appian Way...
, near where the Baths of Caracalla
Baths of Caracalla
The Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy were Roman public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 216, during the reign of the Emperor Caracalla.- History :...
were built in the third century. In the second century, when Herodes Atticus
Herodes Atticus
Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, otherwise known as Herodes Atticus was a very distinguished, rich Greek aristocrat who served as a Roman Senator and a Sophist. He is notable as a proponent in the Second Sophistic by Philostratus.-Ancestry and Family:Herodes Atticus...
recast an inherited villa
Roman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
nearby as a great landscaped estate, the natural grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
was formalized as an arched interior with an apsidal end
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
where a statue of Egeria once stood in a niche; the surfaces were enriched with revetments of green and white marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
facings and green porphyry
Porphyry (geology)
Porphyry is a variety of igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocrysts...
flooring and friezes of mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
. The primeval spring, one of dozens of springs that flow into the river Almone, was made to feed large pools, one of which was known as Lacus Salutaris or "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.
The ninfeo
Nymphaeum
A nymphaeum or nymphaion , in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs....
was a favored picnic
Picnic
In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...
spot for nineteenth-century Romans and can still be visited in the archaeological park of the Caffarella
Park of the Caffarella
-History:The Caffarella Park is a large park in Rome, Italy, protected from development. It is part of the Parco Regionale Appia Antica . The park is contained in the Caffarella Valley and is bordered on its northern side by the Via Latina and on its southern by the Appian Way. It extends...
, between the Appian Way
Appian Way
The Appian Way was one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, Apulia, in southeast Italy...
and the even more ancient Via Latina
Via Latina
The Via Latina was a Roman road of Italy, running southeast from Rome for about 200 kilometers.It led from the Porta Latina in the Aurelian walls of Rome to the pass of Mons Algidus; it was important in the early military history of Rome...
.
In modern literature
- In Nathaniel LeeNathaniel LeeNathaniel Lee was an English dramatist.He was the son of Dr Richard Lee, a Presbyterian clergyman who was rector of Hatfield and held many preferments under the Commonwealth...
's English RestorationEnglish RestorationThe Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
tragedy Lucius Junius BrutusLucius Junius BrutusLucius Junius Brutus was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first consuls in 509 BC. He was claimed as an ancestor of the Roman gens Junia, including Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of Caesar's assassins.- Background :...
(1680), Egeria appears in a vision to Brutus' son Titus. - In Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
, the priest Chasuble refers to Cecily's tutor Miss Prism as "Egeria."