Virbius

Nemorensis lacus , on the bank of which Virbius was worshiped (painting by William Turner , c. 1828)

In Roman mythology, Virbius is a deity from the circle of Diana Nemorensis . The name is interpreted by Servius as up to virum ("twice man").

Virbius was identified with the Greek hero Hippolytos , son of Theseus . This was cursed by his father because he mistakenly believed that Hippolytus had made a mistake on his stepmother Phaidra . Then Hippolytus was attacked by Poseidon at the sea level and smashed by his horses running through. In a variant of the myth, however, he does not remain dead, but is revived by Asklepios . Afterwards he either emigrated to Italy and founded the sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis in Aricia , or he was transferred by Artemis there, where he was venerated by the Latins under the name Virbius.

The reason given for the equation was that Hippolytus was killed by horses and that horses were taboo in the grove of Aricia. This does not seem plausible, however, since the taboo applied to the entire sanctuary and was not specific to Virbius. The equation is rejected by Horace . The background could include the fact that both Diana and the nymph Egeria, also venerated in the sanctuary, were deities of women and specifically helpers during childbirth. Hippolytus, to whom the virgins sacrificed a lock of hair before the wedding, also has a special relationship with women. Georg Wissowa, for example, suspects Hippolytos to be a "birth-facilitating demon".

It has been suggested that August 13th was deliberately chosen as the day of remembrance of the horse-torn martyr Hippolytus of Rome , as this day is also the main festival of the sanctuary of Aricia.

The road that climbed from Bovillae to Aricia was called clivus Virbi . It was known for the very numerous beggar folk who were present there and apparently hoped for alms from the pilgrims to the shrine.

Virbius appears to have been portrayed as an older man. His cult image could not be touched. There seems to have been little veneration outside the sanctuary of Aricia. The only evidence of such a cult is a funerary inscription that mentions a flamen Virbialis , a priest of Virbius.

A son of Virbius-Hippolytos of the same name appears at Virgil , who leads the Latins of Acacia against Aeneas under Turnus . Finally, with Silius Italicus , Virbius is one of three sons of Egeria. His brothers are Capys and Albanus.

swell

• Ovid , Metamorphoses 15, 479-551
• Virgil , Aeneid 7.761-783

literature

• Carsten Binder: Virbius. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01470-3 , Sp. 242.
• Gerhard Radke: Virbius. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX A, 1, Stuttgart 1961, Col. 178-182.
• Georg Wissowa : Virbius . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 6, Leipzig 1937, Col. 328-330 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Servius, Commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 7,761.
2. ↑ Pausanias 2,27,4.
3. ↑ Virgil , Aeneid 7,761-783; Ovid Fasti 6,755-758; Hyginus Mythographus Fabulae 251.
4. ↑ Virgil, Aeneid 7,774-779; Ovid, Fasti 3,266.
5. ↑ Horace Carmina 4, 7, 25f
6. ↑ Wissowa Virbius in Roscher, Vol. 6, Col. 330
7. ^ J. Rendel Harris: The Annotators of the Codex Bezae. London 1901, pp. 101f
8. ↑ Persius , Saturae 6.56.
9. ↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses 15,539f.
10. ^ Servius, Commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 7,776.
11. ↑ CIL 10.1493
12. ↑ Virgil, Aeneid 7,781-783.
13. ↑ Silius Italicus, Punica 4,380f.