Camena
A camena (plural camenae ) is a Roman spring deity comparable to the Greek nymphs .
The origin and meaning of the name are controversial. Already in antiquity one suspected a connection with Latin carmen , "song" or "poem" due to the older form of the name Carmena or Casmena and understood the Camenae as goddesses of poetry and art in general. That is why they were equated early on with the Greek muses , for example in the Odusia of Livius Andronicus .
In modern research, this etymology was initially adopted, but the basic word carmen was interpreted more in the sense of “prophecy”, “oracle song” or “oracle saying” and the Camena was seen as a prophetic deity. Other theories, however, assume an Etruscan origin of the word.
Even in Augustan times, the Camenae were occasionally mentioned in poetry, but their name was apparently only understood as a Latin translation of the Greek term “ muse ”. Their cult was probably abandoned in the early imperial period.
The Camenae was by King Numa Pompilius on the advice of the nymph Egeria toward a grove with a source and a Aedicula from bronze was consecrated, where they were worshiped with water and milk victims. The water of the spring, which is said to have been particularly good, was used by the vestals to clean their temple.
The grove was to the left of the Via Appia in front of the Porta Capena . A vicus Camenarum still existed in Regio I in 136, but the sanctuary was profaned because the area had been leased to Jewish traders.
The bronze aedicula was brought to the neighboring temple of Honos and Virtus while still in the republic , after it was struck by lightning between 189 and 179 BC. It was then transferred by Marcus Fulvius Nobilior to the temple of Hercules Musarum built by him .
swell
- Juvenal Saturae 3.10f.
- Livy Ab urbe condita 1,21,3
- Ovid Fasti 3,275; Metamorphoses 15,482
- Plutarch Numa 13
- Servius Commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 1,8; Commentarius in Vergilii eclogas 7.21
- Sulpicius Severus 63f.
literature
- Emil Aust : Camenae. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Col. 1427 f.
- Georg Wissowa : Camenae . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 846-848 ( digitized version ).