Portunus (mythology)
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In Roman mythology, Portunes (alternatively spelled Portumnes or Portunus) was a god of keys and doors and livestock. He later became associated with Palaemon and became primarily a god of ports and harbors. He protected the warehouses where grain was stored.
His festival, on August 17, was the Portunalia. On this day, keys were thrown into a fire for good luck in a very solemn and lugubrious manner. His attribute was a key.
The Ionic temple dedicated to Portunus in Rome (illustration, above left) is still more familiar by its erroneous designation, the Temple of Fortuna Virilis ("manly fortune") given it by antiquaries. It is in the ancient Forum Boarium by the Tiber. In Antiquity the site overlooked the Port Tiberinus at a sharp bend in the river; from here, Portunus watched over cattle-barges as they entered the city from Ostia.
The temple was built ca 100 BCE and restored in the first century BCE. It owes its state of preservation from its being converted to use as a church in 872 and rededicated to Santa Maria Egyziaca (Saint Mary of Egypt). Its Ionic order has been much admired, drawn and engraved and copied since the 16th century (illustration, left). The original coating of stucco over its tufa and travertine construction has been lost. The temple is similar to the Maison Carrée in Nîmes. Both are raised on high podiums. The Temple of Portunes retains its frontal stairs. Like the Maison Carrée it has a porch (pronaos) two columns deep; the cella has been expanded so that the remaining columns are half-buried in the cella walls, a form called pseudoperipteral, whereas a truly peripteral temple like the Parthenon is entirely surrounded by free-standing columns.
The circular Temple of Hercules Victor is located behind the Temple of Portunus in the Forum Boarium.