Fons (mythology)

Fons , also Fontus or Fontanus , is one of the numerous "little" gods of Roman mythology . He is the god of springs, wells and flowing water.

Fons is one of the oldest and apparently indigenous Roman gods. The statement handed down by the late antique orator Arnobius that he was the son of Iuturna and Ianus seems to be a later construction, since the original Roman religion did not yet have genealogies of gods.

His festival, called Fontanalia , was celebrated on October 13th . On its festival, fountains and springs were decorated with flowers. His altar was on the hill of Ianiculum , west of the Tiber .

Sometimes inscriptions also speak of fontes in the plural, which suggests that there was the idea of "source spirits", which are often mentioned together with the nymphs .

literature

Fritz Böhm : Fons . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 2, Stuttgart 1909, Col. 2838-2841.
Erika Simon : Fons . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume 000004IV, Zurich / Munich 1988, pp. 148-149.
Hermann Steuding : Fons . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1, 2, Leipzig 1890, Sp. 1496-1498 ( digitized version ).

Remarks

↑ Arnobius, Disputationes adversus gentes 3.29. Cf. Fritz Böhm : Fons . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 2, Stuttgart 1909, Col. 2838-2841, here Col. 2839.
↑ Also Fritz Böhm: Fons . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 2, Stuttgart 1909, Col. 2838-2841, here Col. 2841.

[1] Arnobius, Disputationes adversus gentes 3.29. Cf. Fritz Böhm : Fons . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 2, Stuttgart 1909, Col. 2838-2841, here Col. 2839.

[2] Also Fritz Böhm: Fons . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 2, Stuttgart 1909, Col. 2838-2841, here Col. 2841.