Moderator: Aldus Marius
Wikipedia wrote:... Veiovis (Vediovis) is one of the oldest of the Roman gods. He is a god of healing, and was later associated with the Greek Asclepius. He was mostly worshipped in Rome and Bovillae in Latium. On the Capitoline Hill and on the Tiber Island temples were erected in his honour. In spring, goats were sacrificed to avert plagues.
Veiovis is portrayed as a young man, holding a bunch of arrows (or lightning bolts) in his hand, and is accompanied by a goat. He is probably based on the Etruscan god Veive.
... We find him in the Sabine deity system, and in the Etruscans' as well. But they let show a constant updating of his condition and his use by people: [He appears]
escaping from netherworld,
[as a] Volcanic God responsible of marshland and earthquakes, and later
[as a] guardian angel in charge of
- slaves and
- fighters refusing to lose.
[as a] God of deceivers, [who] was called
- to protect right causes and
- to give pain and deception to enemies.
His temple was a haven safe from police for wrongly persecuted people, and dedicated to the protection of the new comers in Rome.
... Aulus Gellius, in the Noctes Atticae, speculated that Veiovis was the inverse or ill-omened counterpart of Jupiter; compare Summanus. Aulus Gellius observes that the particle ve- that prefixes the name of the god also appears in Latin words such as vesanus, "insane," and thus interprets the name Veiovis as the anti-Jove. Aulus Gellius also informs us that Veiovis received the sacrifice of a female goat....
... In art, he was depicted as a youth holding a laurel wreath and some arrows, next to a goat. He had a temple between the two peaks of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, where his statue had a beardless head and carried a bundle of arrows in his right hand. It stood next to a statue of a goat. ...
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest