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<font size="2" color="660000">''This article is about the Roman goddess Nenia. For the ancient Roman vocal music see [[Nenia]].''<br>''For the modern poetic and musical development see [[Nänie]].''</font>
<font size="2" color="660000">''This article is about the Roman goddess Nenia. For the ancient Roman vocal music see '''[[Nenia]]'''.''<br>''For the modern poetic and musical development see '''[[Nänie]]'''.''<br>''For the insect genus of the [[Noctuidae]] family see '''[[Naenia]]'''.''</font>


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Revision as of 10:05, 22 July 2007

This article is about the Roman goddess Nenia. For the ancient Roman vocal music see Nenia.
For the modern poetic and musical development see Nänie.
For the insect genus of the Noctuidae family see Naenia.

The Nenia Dea (or short: Nenia, never: Naenia[1]) was an ancient goddess of Rome, who had a sanctuary outside of the Porta Viminalis.[2] The cult of the Nenia is doubtlessly a very old one, but according to Wissowa[3] the location of Nenia's shrine outside of the center of early Rome indicates that she didn't belong to the earliest circle of Roman deities.

Goddess of the Roman funerary lament

Nenia shares her name with the nenia that sometimes took the meaning of carmen funebre ("dirge"), and Marcus Terentius Varro regarded the Nenia Dea as a personification of the funerary lament's protective power.[4] She was therefore a goddess also connected to the end of a person's life. It has to be noted that Varro assigned the Nenia Dea to a polar position with respect to the god Ianus, which was probably inspired by one of the ancient Roman etymologies of the word nenia, defining it as nenia ' finis' ("end", fig.: "finale").[5]

Arnobius of Sicca places men, who are near to death, under Nenia's care.[6] Although Arnobius' writings are mainly influenced by Cornelius Antistius Labeo, the identification of Nenia as the goddess of human transience here also suggests a Varronian origin.[7] It is unclear whether Tertullian referred to the Nenia Dea, when he wrote about the "goddess of death herself".[8] If the worship of Nenia herself was part of the last rites is uncertain. However, Lucius Afranius clearly associates the term nenia (i.e. the funeral song) with the obsequies.[9]

Further hypotheses

Heller rejects Nenia's status as a funerary deity and makes a guess as to her original nature as the goddess of "children's playtime".[10] Heller's restrictive emphasis on nenia as a "jingle" or "plaything" has however been refuted,[11] since sufficient sources on the funerary nature have been delivered by Heller himself, albeit disregarded.[12]

In any case, even Heller's erroneous interpretation of the term nenia could in principle be applicable to Roman funerary customs, because death was also seen as a rebirth into the realm of the dead. The dirges could have paralleled the lullabies that mothers sing to their children.[13] Lucretius explicitely connects the funeral lamentations with the "wail that children raise upon first seeing the shores of light."[14] Therefore Nenia's character might have included all philosophies as expressed in the lament to fend off perdition, the child's lullaby and the wailing of rebirth. However, since the sources are silent in this respect, Heller's and Corbeill's views on the Nenia Dea can only remain speculation.

References

  1. ↑ This alternative spelling was only used in some secondary scholarly publications and does not accord with any of the ancient sources on the goddess, although it might in theory have been used also by the Romans.
  2. ↑ Sextus Pompeius Festus, De verborum significatu 161.32–162.1 Müller, 2nd ed. Leipzig 1880 (156.13–15 Lindsay, Leipzig 1913): <Neniae deae> sacellum ultra portam <Viminalelm …… > …………t aediculam. Cf. Paulus ed. of Fest. De verb. sign. 163 Müller (157 Lindsay): Neniae deae sacellum extra portam Viminalem fuerat dedicatum.
  3. ↑ Georg Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, München 1912/1971, p. 197
  4. ↑ Marcus Terentius Varro, Antiquitatum rerum humanarum et divinarum libri XLI 14, fragment 65 Agahd, Leipzig 1898; testimony in: Aurelius Augustinus, De Civitate Dei 6.9; see also: Georg Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, München 1912/1971, p. 245; Kroll, "Nenia", in: RE 2392; Kurt Latte: Römische Religionsgeschichte, München 1960, p. 52
  5. ↑ See the article on the nenia for this specific etymology including sources.
  6. ↑ Arnobius of Sicca, Against the heathen 4.7
  7. ↑ Contra: R. Agahd "Varronis Antiquitatum rerum divinarum Libri", in: Jahrbuch für classische Philologie, Supplement Volume 24, Leipzig 1898, p. 124; pro: John Lewis Heller: "Nenia", in: Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 74, 1943, p. 225: The expliciteness of the identification as finis strongly suggests a Varronian origin.
  8. ↑ Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Libri duo ad Nationes II.15
  9. ↑ Lucius Afranius, Com. fragment 2181, in Sextus Pompeius Festus, De verborum significatu 161.14–16 Müller (154.20–22 Lindsay); John Lewis Heller: "Nenia", in: Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 74, 1943, p. 228, fragment completed as: <Afra>nius in Materte<ris: ut cum nenia tibicines exe>quias eant. See also: Thomas Habinek, The World of Roman Song. From Ritualized Speech to Social Order, Baltimore 2005
  10. ↑ John Lewis Heller: "Nenia", in: Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 74, 1943, p. 263
  11. ↑ Wilhelm Kierdorf, Laudatio Funebris. Interpretationen und Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung der römischen Leichenrede, Meisenheim am Glan 1980, p. 97; Kurt Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte, München 1960, p.101; also referring to Nilsson, Opusc. I 107
  12. ↑ Thomas Habinek, The World of Roman Song. From Ritualized Speech to Social Order, Baltimore 2005, pp. 233–243
  13. ↑ Anthony Corbeill, Nature Embodied. Gesture in Ancient Rome, Princeton 2004; cp. also the feeding of the deceased with breast-milk as a Roman funerary custom.
  14. ↑ Titus Lucretius Carus, On the Nature of Things, II 575–577; see also II 579–80

See also

Other Roman gods connected to death, dying or the realm of the dead are:

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