The gate of the year

Clay statue of the goddess Angitia on her throne, III-II century B.C., discovered in Luco dei Marsi (L’Aquila) and now in the National Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale “La Civitella”), Chieti, Italy.
Angitia was a goddess venerated mostly by the Marsi, an ancient Italic population inhabiting the area around the lake Fucinus, in actual Abruzzi. The name of the goddess is related with the Latin term anguis (“snake”) and it seems that her cult implied ceremonies to heal from snakebites. The Marsi enjoyed the fame of experts in the magical arts. Virgil describes the Marsian priest Umbro, “who with charm and touch was wont to shed slumber on the viperous brood and water-snakes of baneful breath, soothing their wrath and curing their bites with his skill” (Aeneid, VII, 750-755). Silius Italicus attributes the same curative art to the Marsian warriors (Punica, VIII, 495-498). This skill had been taught them by Angitia herself, who “first revealed to them magic herbs, and taught them to tame vipers by handling them, to drive the moon from the sky, to arrest the course of rivers by their muttering, and to strip the hills by calling down the forests” (Silius Italicus, Punica, VIII, 499-501). According to a mythological tradition, Angitia was the daughter of the King of Colchis and sister to Medea and Circe, both well-known in Greek mythology for their knowledge of the magical arts (Servius, Comment to Aeneid, VII, 759). The cult place of the goddess was a sacred grove (Lucus Angitiae), whose name still remains in that of the town of Luco dei Marsi, where the excavations have brought to light the remains of a temple of the Augustan age. In the town of Cocullo, in the province of L’Aquila, survived until nowadays the feast of the serpari (“snake hunters”), during which the statue of St. Dominic is brought in procession covered with live snakes.

[Image: http://www.antika.it/0015313_celano-aq-ritornano-le-dee-di-luco-dei-marsi.html]




Female Symbols

Back

Clay statue of the goddess Angitia on her throne, III-II century B.C., discovered in Luco dei Marsi (L’Aquila) and now in the National Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale “La Civitella”), Chieti, Italy. Angitia was a goddess venerated mostly by the Marsi, an ancient Italic population inhabiting the area around the lake Fucinus, in actual Abruzzi. The name of the goddess is related with the Latin term anguis (“snake”) and it seems that her cult implied ceremonies to heal from snakebites. The Marsi enjoyed the fame of experts in the magical arts. Virgil describes the Marsian priest Umbro, “who with charm and touch was wont to shed slumber on the viperous brood and water-snakes of baneful breath, soothing their wrath and curing their bites with his skill” (Aeneid, VII, 750-755). Silius Italicus attributes the same curative art to the Marsian warriors (Punica, VIII, 495-498). This skill had been taught them by Angitia herself, who “first revealed to them magic herbs, and taught them to tame vipers by handling them, to drive the moon from the sky, to arrest the course of rivers by their muttering, and to strip the hills by calling down the forests” (Silius Italicus, Punica, VIII, 499-501). According to a mythological tradition, Angitia was the daughter of the King of Colchis and sister to Medea and Circe, both well-known in Greek mythology for their knowledge of the magical arts (Servius, Comment to Aeneid, VII, 759). The cult place of the goddess was a sacred grove (Lucus Angitiae), whose name still remains in that of the town of Luco dei Marsi, where the excavations have brought to light the remains of a temple of the Augustan age. In the town of Cocullo, in the province of L’Aquila, survived until nowadays the feast of the serpari (“snake hunters”), during which the statue of St. Dominic is brought in procession covered with live snakes. [Image: http://www.antika.it/0015313_celano-aq-ritornano-le-dee-di-luco-dei-marsi.html]