For other uses, see Feronia

Feronia

Feronia may mean:* Feronia , a goddess of fertility in Roman and Etruscan mythology* Feronia , a genus of plants* Feronia Inc., a plantations company operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

.

In 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...

, Feronia was a goddess broadly associated with fertility and abundance. She was especially honored among plebeians

Plebs

The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...

 and freedmen. Her festival, the Feroniae, was November 13, during the Ludi

Ludi

Ludi were public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people . Ludi were held in conjunction with, or sometimes as the major feature of, Roman religious festivals, and were also presented as part of the cult of state.The earliest ludi were horse races in the circus...

 Plebeii ("Plebeian

Plebs

The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...

 Games"), in conjunction with Fortuna Primigenia; both were goddesses of Praeneste.

Origins and functions

Varro

Varro

Varro was a Roman cognomen carried by:*Marcus Terentius Varro, sometimes known as Varro Reatinus, the scholar*Publius Terentius Varro or Varro Atacinus, the poet*Gaius Terentius Varro, the consul defeated at the battle of Cannae...

 places Feronia in his list of Sabine gods who had altars in Rome. Inscriptions

Epigraphy

Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...

 to Feronia are found mostly in central Italy. She was among the deities that Sabine moneyer

Moneyer

A moneyer is someone who physically creates money. Moneyers have a long tradition, dating back at least to ancient Greece. They became most prominent in the Roman Republic, continuing into the empire.-Roman Republican moneyers:...

s placed on their coins to honor their heritage. She may have been introduced into Roman religious practice when Manius Curius Dentatus conquered Sabinum in the early 3rd century BC.

Many versions of Feronia’s cult have been supposed, and it is not quite clear that she was only one goddess or had only one function in ancient times. Some Latins believed Feronia to be a harvest goddess, and honoured her with the harvest firstfruits

Harvest festival

A Harvest Festival is an annual celebration which occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times throughout the world...

 in order to secure a good harvest the following year.

Feronia also served as a goddess of travellers, fire, and waters.

In Vergil's Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

, troops from Feronia's grove

Feronia (Etruria)

Feronia or Lucus Feroniae was an ancient town of southern Etruria, at the foot of Mount Soracte, within the territory of Capena, with a celebrated temple or shrine of the goddess from whom it derived its name, and a sacred grove, attached to it...

 fight on the side of Turnus

Turnus

In Virgil's Aeneid, Turnus was the King of the Rutuli, and the chief antagonist of the hero Aeneas.-Biography:Prior to Aeneas' arrival in Italy, Turnus was the primary potential suitor of Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, King of the Latin people. Upon Aeneas' arrival, however, Lavinia is promised to...

 against Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

. The Arcadian king Evander

Evander

In Roman mythology, Evander , also spelled Euander, was a deific culture hero from Arcadia, Greece, who brought the Greek pantheon, laws and alphabet to Italy, where he founded the city of Pallantium on the future site of Rome, sixty years...

 recalls how in his youth he killed a son of Feronia, Erulus, who like Geryon

Geryon

In Greek mythology, Geryon , son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe and grandson of Medusa, was a fearsome giant who dwelt on the island Erytheia of the mythic Hesperides in the far west of the Mediterranean. A more literal-minded later generation of Greeks associated the region with Tartessos in southern...

 had a triple body and a triple soul; Evander thus had to kill him thrice. Erulus, whom Vergil identifies as king at Praeneste, is otherwise unknown in literature.

Cult sites

Feronia had a temple at the base of Mt. Soracte which was near Capena.The Lucus Feroniae

Lucus Feroniae

Lucus Feroniae was an ancient sacred grove dedicated to the Sabine goddess Feronia. It was located in Etruria, across the ancient Via Tiberina, in what is now the territory of the modern commune of Capena, Lazio, next to the border with the neighbouring commune of Fiano Romano.It was visited both...

, or "grove of Feronia" (Fiano Romano

Fiano Romano

Fiano Romano is a town and comune in the province of Rome, Italy, approximately 40 kilometers north that city. It is the birthplace of the Italian actress Sabrina Ferilli....

) was the site of an annual festival in her honour, which was in the nature of a trade fair. The place, in the territory of Capena

Capena

Capena is a town and comune in the province of Rome, Lazio region . The town has borrowed its modern name from a pre-Roman and Roman settlement that was located three kilometres to its north....

 in southwestern Etruria

Etruria

Etruria—usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia—was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna, and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...

, was plundered of its gold and silver by Hannibal's retreating troops in 211 BCE, when he turned aside from the Via Salaria

Via Salaria

The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy.It eventually ran from Rome to Castrum Truentinum on the Adriatic coast - a distance of 242 km. The road also passed through Reate and Asculum...

 to visit the sanctuary; later it became an Augustan

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

 colonia

Colonia (Roman)

A Roman colonia was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of Roman city.-History:...

. Its status as a colony is recorded in a single inscription, copied in a manuscript of the rule of the Farfa Abbey

Abbey of Farfa

Farfa Abbey is a territorial abbey in northern Lazio, central Italy. It is one of the most famous abbeys of Europe. It belongs to the Benedictine Order and is located about 60 km from Rome, in the commune of Fara Sabina, not far from the Fara Sabina railway station.-History:A legend in the...

 as colonia Iulia Felix Lucoferonensis.

Another important site was in Anxur (Terracina

Terracina

Terracina is a town and comune of the province of Latina - , Italy, 76 km SE of Rome by rail .-Ancient times:...

, southern 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...

), where Servius recorded a joint cult of "the boy Jupiter" (puer Iuppiter) under the name of Anxyrus and "Juno the Virgin" (Iuno virgo), whom he identifies as Feronia. According to another tradition, slaves who had just been freed might go to the shrine at Terracina

Terracina

Terracina is a town and comune of the province of Latina - , Italy, 76 km SE of Rome by rail .-Ancient times:...

 and receive upon their shaved heads the pileus

Pileus (hat)

The pileus — also pilleus or pilleum — was a cap worn by sailors in Ancient Greece and later copied by Ancient Rome. It was a brimless, felt cap, somewhat similar to a fez...

, a hat that symbolized their liberty.

Her temple in the Campus Martius

Campus Martius

The Campus Martius , was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome...

, in what is now Largo di Torre Argentina

Largo di Torre Argentina

Largo di Torre Argentina is a square in Rome, Italy, that hosts four Republican Roman temples, and the remains of Pompey's Theatre. It is located in the ancient Campus Martius....

 was established before 217 B.C.E. It may have been dedicated by Curtius Dentatus following his victory over the Sabines. His building program also included the Anio Vetus, a major new aqueduct

Roman aqueduct

The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to serve any large city in their empire, as well as many small towns and industrial sites. The city of Rome had the largest concentration of aqueducts, with water being supplied by eleven aqueducts constructed over a period of about 500 years...

, and a number of fountains are near the temple. Feronia's cults at Aquileia

Aquileia

Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso , the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times...

 and Terracina were near springs that were used in her rites. The Augustan poet

Augustan literature (ancient Rome)

Augustan literature is the period of Latin literature written during the reign of Augustus , the first Roman emperor. In literary histories of the first part of the 20th century and earlier, Augustan literature was regarded along with that of the Late Republic as constituting the Golden Age of...

 Horace

Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...

 speaks of the water (lympha

Lympha

The Lympha is an ancient Roman deity of fresh water. She is one of twelve agricultural deities listed by Varro as "leaders" of Roman farmers, because "without water all agriculture is dry and poor." The Lymphae are often connected to Fons, "Source" or "Font," a god of fountains and wellheads...

) of Feronia, in which "we bathe our face and hands."

The Feralia

Feralia

Feralia was an ancient Roman public festival celebrating the Manes which fell on the 21st of February as recorded by Ovid in Book II of his Fasti. This day marked the end of Parentalia, a nine day festival honoring the dead ancestors...

on February 21 is a festival of Jupiter Feretrius, not Feronia.

Freedmen and libertas

Varro

Varro

Varro was a Roman cognomen carried by:*Marcus Terentius Varro, sometimes known as Varro Reatinus, the scholar*Publius Terentius Varro or Varro Atacinus, the poet*Gaius Terentius Varro, the consul defeated at the battle of Cannae...

 identified Feronia with Libertas

Libertas

Libertas was the Roman goddess and embodiment of liberty.- Temples and derived inspirations :In 238 BC, before the Second Punic War, having long been a Roman deity along with other personified virtues, Libertas assumed goddess status...

, the goddess who personified Liberty. According to Servius, Feronia was a tutelary goddess of freedmen (dea libertorum). A stone at the Terracina shrine was inscribed "let deserving slaves sit down so that they may stand up free." Livy

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

notes that in 217 BC freedwomen collected money as a gift for Feronia.
Some sources state that slaves were set free at her temple near Ternacia.

Continuation

Charles Godfrey Leland found surviving traditions concerning the "witch" Feronia in 19th century Tuscany.