Lora Holland Goldthwaite

• PhD
• Professor at University of North Carolina at Asheville

In Etruria the fantastic antlered female deer was a motif known at several major Etruscan sites, including Caere, Veii, Tarquinii, and Orvieto, some on monumental temple architecture and some in the minor arts.

This contribution aims to re-establish the ancient understanding of antlered Mediterranean deer associated with Artemis in Greek myth as females. An analysis of Greek literary sources that unambiguously describe such deer illuminates a corpus of visual evidence that is collected here for the first time. Modern scientific studies have documented cer...

An overview and analysis of Catullus' literary hymn to Diana (c. 34), forthcoming in Vol. 1 of PAW (Prayer in the Ancient World), published by Brill. For more information see https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/55335

Published in Collection Latomus, Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, vol. 14 (pp. 95-115), in 2008, this article examines a votive bronze spear point dedicated to the goddess Diana during the Mid-Republic at the sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis at the Lago di Nemi, Italy. The author argues that the dedicator was a freedwoman named Paperia,...

Faunus and Fauna (plural Fauni) are Latin prophetic deities. Their voices typically issued from groves; most Roman gods, including those of the state, in contrast, communicated with humans not by speaking, but via signs from the natural world.

The Cetamura Treasure, discovered in 2015 at the site of Cetamura del Chianti, is a hoard of 194 silver coins of the Roman Republic, the first from the historical Chianti in Tuscany. Published in conjunction with an exhibit of the coins in Siena focused on 30 representative coins, but with a handlist of all 194 coins.

The Meditrinalia was a Latin wine festival celebrated on October 11, attested in Latin literature and on some Roman calendars (fasti ).

Diana (often Deana in inscriptions) was a Latin goddess who was assimilated early in Italian history with Artemis, a virgin nature goddess whose worship was widespread and important in Greece and in Magna Grecia.

Carmentis (Carmenta at Livy 1.7.8) is an early Roman goddess, or perhaps one of a divine group, the Carmentes. Her name probably derives from Latin carmen (a special utterance, such as a spell, song, or poem), which suggests her original nature as the abstraction of the prophetic voice. Indigitamenta such as Postvorta (“Turned Backwards”) and Porri...

Liber, or Leiber (Varro Ling . 6.2 cites an old form *Loebesos), and Libera are indigenous Roman/Italian deities, male and female of the same‐name type like Faunus/Fauna, and perhaps the Pales and Robigo/Robigus.

Janus is the Roman god of the passage (Latin ianua ), including doorways, archways, and bridges, as well as metaphorical transitions. His name is given to January, which became the gateway into the New Year (Ov. Fast . 1), the Janiculum hill, ianuli (a type of verse), and ianual (a sacrificial cake). In Indo‐European terms Janus seems to be “a pers...

In Rome and Latium, the Liberalia festival on March 17 was probably a coming‐of‐age celebration appropriate for “free children” (l̄ıberi l̄ıberi ).

Bellona, or Duel(l)ona, is the Roman goddess of war. Her name comes from the Latin word for “war,” bellum (archaic duellum ).

Vortumnus is an enigmatic Italic or Etruscan god whom Varro calls “the principal god of Etruria” ( Ling . 5.46).

An aedituus/aeditua (older form aeditumnus , also aeditimus and aeiditumus ) is an official caretaker or guardian for a building ( aedes ) that houses a deity, that is, an aedes sacra or temple.

Ambarvalia refers to a particular type of Roman lustration rite, and presumably a related festival, involving farm animals (typically a suovetaurilia) led thrice around a circuit of fields to be purified and made productive by their sacrifice to a range of protective and agricultural deities. The epigraphical evidence of the priesthood of Arval bro...

Subtitle: Papers in Memory of Carin M. C. Green Editors: Sinclair Bell and Lora Holland

The report reviews the results of four campaigns of excavation in an Etruscan well at Cetamura del Chianti (2011–2014). Dug to a depth of 100 Etruscan feet around 300 B.C.E., the well was in use throughout the Late Etruscan period, overlapping in a transitional phase with the Roman Republican period (ca. 100–50 B.C.E.), and continuing in use during...

Salacia is a water goddess. Wissowa (1912: 225–9) locates her among the di indigetes since she is often coupled with Neptune as Salacia Neptuni, perhaps as an abstraction or a representation of a power of Neptune.

Ritual lustration of fields and crops is a feature of some pre-industrial agricultural communities, for example, Bronze Age Ugaritic practices in southwest Asia or eighth century ce Japanese Shinto rites.

Female PriesthoodsGendered Deities and Domestic CultWomen and the Imperial CultWhat's Next for the Study of Women in Roman Religion?Recommended Further Reading

: A cultural response to language can be detected in the mythology concerning three pairs of male and female deities in Roman religion: Liber/Libera, Faunus/Fauna, and Janus/Jana. Their same-name status usually invokes the familial relationships of the agnatic nomenclatural system, that is, brother/sister and father/daughter. The interpretation of...

Book Review: Architectural Sculpture - Barringer(J.M.)Art, Myth, and Ritual in Classical Greece. Pp. xvi + 267, ills, maps. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Paper, £16.99, US$27.99. (Cased, £45, US$85). ISBN: 978-0-521-64647-5 (978-0-521-64134-0 hbk). - Volume 60 Issue 1 - Lora L. Holland

Roman Religion - Rüpke(J.)Religion of the Romans. Translated and edited by GordonRichard. Pp. xvi + 350, ills. Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2007. Paper, £18.99 (Cased, £60). ISBN: 978-0-7456-3015-1 (978-0-7456-3014-4 hbk). - Volume 59 Issue 2 - Lora L. Holland

Religious and historical aspects of Euripides' innovative aetiology for the cult of Medea's children (Med. 1378-83) have been much discussed; less attention has been paid to Medea's fear that an enemy might abuse her children's corpses and tomb if she does not bury them in Hera Acraea's precinct. An analysis of Medea's enemies in the play, of the p...

A study of CIL1(2).45, a mid-Republican dedication to the goddess Diana, made by a certain noutrix Paperia at the sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis at the Lago di Nemi, Italy. This unique Republican attestation of a wet nurse has been used as evidence for a slave woman's prayer to Diana for a good milk supply, but the use of the nomen gentilicium, Pape...

Plutarch draws Aemilius Paullus into the philosophical tradition both by assigning to him Pythagoras as an ancestor, and by his portrayal of the man as a type of Socrates through metaphorical imagery and anecdote. Especially pertinent are Aemilius' roles as helmsman, religious leader, and charioteer in his conduct of the Battle of Pydna, the narrat...

This study explores the significance of Medea's conjugal family for the plot of the Medea. Both Jason and the royal family at Corinth belong to the House of Aeolus; coherent reference to this House is central to the play's mythological imagery. The House's mythography, of which the chorus shows awareness, involves an inherited curse associated with...

This study explores the significance of Medea's conjugal family for the plot of the Medea. Both Jason and the royal family at Corinth belong to the House of Aeolus; coherent reference to this House is central to the play's mythological imagery. The House's mythography, of which the chorus shows awareness, involves an inherited curse associated with...