The cult of the goddess Mefitis in light of literary and epigraphic sources

Vol.27,No.1(2022)

Agata Szylińczuk

https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2022-1-8

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/145033

PDF
Abstract
The Italian goddess Mephitis was worshipped mainly in central and southern Italy between the 7th century BC and the 2nd century AD. The etymology of her name indicates liminal and mediating aspects. We can find evidence of other gods being worshipped in her cult places such as Jupiter, Mars, and Hercules. Mephitis has been linked to Leukotea, Venus, Diana, and Juno. The goddess was deprecated in the minds of Roman authors due to a negative association with sulphurous fumes in Valle d'Ansanto. I researched the way the cult of Mefitis was spread and I answered how and why this cult was changed. For this purpose, I described the literary and epigraphic sources and her cult places in Italy. The inscriptions from Mefitis' cult places contain mostly Oscan names of worshippers. A few of them were among the urban elite. The names of gentes are repeated in a few places, for example gens Mammia is found in Pompei and Potentia. The members of Oscan gentes perhaps carried the cult of the goddess to other cities and were adapted there to new circumstances. In Capua, the goddess appears at the temple of Diana and in Pompei she was identified with the figure of Venus Pompeian, who perhaps took over from her the epithet Fisica, appearing by the name of Mefitis already in Rossano di Vaglio and Grumentum. In the sanctuary of Ansanto, her original figure as the protector of fields (expressed in the epithet arva) was changed to the deity of sulphurous fumes and that figure of the goddess prevailed in the later literary sources. The figure of Mefitis is complicated and multipronged. It seems that every cult place exposed different aspects of the goddess.

Keywords:
Italy; religion; Mefitis; cult places; Italian goddess

Pages:
107–117
References

AE – L'Année épigraphique. (1888–). Paris.

Battiloro, I. (2018). The Archaeology of Lucanian Cult Places: Fourth Century BC to the Early Imperial Age. New York: Routledge.

Borbonus, D., Dumser, E. A., Galli, A. B., et al. (2002). Mapping of Augustan Rome (ed. E. A. Dumser). Portsmouth: Journal of Roman Archaeology.

Bottini, A. (1988). La religione delle genti indigene. In G. Pugliese Carratelli (Ed.), Magna Grecia, 3: Vita religiosa e cultura letteraria filosofica e scientifica (pp. 55–90). Milano: Electa.

de Cazanove, O. (2003). Le lieu de culte de Méfitis dans les Ampsancti ualles: des sources documentaires hétérogènes. In Idem, & J. Scheid (Eds.), Sanctuaires et sources (pp. 145–181). Naples: Collection du Centre Jean Bérard.

CIL = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. (1863– ). Ed. T. Mommsen (Vols. V–X). Berlin: Reimer.

Coarelli, F. (1996). Mefitis, aedes, lucus. In E. M. Steinby (Ed.), Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae (Vol. III; pp. 239–240). Roma: Ed. Quasar.

Coarelli, F. (1998). Il culto di Mefitis in Campania e Roma. In G. Greco (Ed.), I culti della Campania antica. Atti del convegno di studi in ricordo di Nazarena Valenza Mele (pp. 185–190). Roma: Bretschneider.

Falasca, G. (2002). Mefitis, divinità osca delle acque (ovvero della mediazione). Eutopia, 2(2), 7–56.

Ferrando, S. (2017). Antichi riti purificatori dell'Italia preromana: il caso del santuario di Mefitis nella valle d'Ansanto. OTIVM. Archeologia e Cultura del Mondo Antico, 3(3), 1–18.

Hamilton Swindler, M. (1923). Venus Pompeiana and the new pompeian frescoes. American Journal of Archeology, 27, 302–313. | DOI 10.2307/497848

Koch, C. (1955). Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der römischen Venus-Verehrung. Hermes, 83, 1–51.

Lejeune, M. (1986). Méfitis, déesse osque. Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 130(1), 202–213.

Lejeune, M. (1990). Méfitis d'après les dédicaces lucaniennes de Rossano di Vaglio. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters.

LTUR = Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae. (1993–2000). Ed. M. Steinby. Roma: Ed. Quasar.

Petraccia, M. F. (2014). Mefitis, dea salutifera? GERION, 32, 181–198.

Pobjoy, M. (1997). A New Reading of the Mosaic Inscription in the Temple of Diana Tifatina. Papers of the British School at Rome, 65, 59–88. | DOI 10.1017/S0068246200010588

Poccetti, P. (1984). Mefitis. AION, 4, 237–260.

Poccetti, P. (2008a). Mefitis rivisitata (vent'anni dopo e oltre con prolegomeni ed epilegomeni minimi). In A. Mele (Ed.), Il culto della dea Mefite e la Valle d'Ansanto. Ricerche su un giacimento archeologico e culturale dei Samnites Hirpini (pp. 139–177). Avellino: Elio Sellino.

Poccetti, P. (2008b). In margine alle nuove acquisizioni epigrafiche nel contesto dell'Ansanto. In A. Mele (Ed.), Il culto della dea Mefite e la Valle d'Ansanto. Ricerche su un giacimento archeologico e culturale dei Samnites Hirpini (pp. 369–385). Avellino: Elio Sellino.

Poccetti, P., & Nava, M. L. (2001). Il santuario lucano di Rossano di Vaglio. Una nuova dedica osca ad Ercole. Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Antiquité, 113(1), 95–122.

RV = Lejeune, M. (1990). Méfitis d'après les dédicaces lucaniennes de Rossano di Vaglio. Louvain-la- Neuve: Peeters.

Torelli, M. R. (1990). I culti di Rossano di Vaglio. In M. Salvatore (Ed.), Basilicata: l'espansionismo romano nel sud-est d'Italia. Il quadro archeologico. Atti del Convegno di Venosa (pp. 83–93). Venosa: Osanna.

de Vaan, M. (2008). Caper. In Idem (Ed.), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages. Leiden – Boston: Brill.

Ve = Vetter, E. (1953). Handbuch der italischen Dialekte (Vol. I). Heidelberg: Winter.

Metrics

0

Crossref logo

1

99

Views

0

PDF views

PDF