Egeria (mythology)

Nymphaeum of Egeria in Rome in the valley of the Caffarella

Egeria weeps for Numa Pompilius ( Claude Lorrain 1669)

In Roman mythology, Egeria is the nymph of the spring of the same name, closely associated with the sanctuary of Diana of Aricia .

Egeria is said to have been the mistress of the legendary second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius . According to legend, she advised him on important decisions and thus showed him the way to wise rule. Numa is said to have also received the Ancilia from her, twelve bronze shields on whose possession, according to legend, Rome's power was based. Later it was said that the king had only invented the nymph in order to give more weight to his statements and to induce the people to uncritically accept and obey his rules.

According to Ovid , Egeria is said to have withdrawn to Aricia after the death of Numa and transformed into the Egeria spring there in tearful sorrow.

The grotto of the nymph Egeria in Rome is a popular motif in painting and literature. Nymph grottoes were often reproduced in parks, for example in the Rheinsberg Palace Park and in the Wörlitzer Park .

literature

• Georg Wissowa : Egeria . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 1216 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ernst Samter : Egeria. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, Stuttgart 1893ff., Col. 1980 f.
• Georg Wissowa: Religion and cult of the Romans. 2nd ed. 1912, pp. 160, 219, 248-250
• Fritz Graf : Egeria. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , Sp. 1997.

See also

• (13) Egeria

Web links

Commons : Egeria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The grotto of the nymph Egeria in pictures and texts from the time of Goethe

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Strabon 5, 3, 12; Virgil Aeneis 7, 761-777; Scholion to Juvenal Saturae 3, 17.
2. ↑ Dionysius of Halicarnassus Antiquitates Romanae 2, 60; Ovid Fasti 3, 273-299; Plutarch Numa 4, 2.
3. ↑ Quintus Ennius Annals 114.
4. ↑ Ovid Metamorphosen 15, 478-551.