DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0139
90 FEMALE WATER-SPIRITS OF ANCIENT ITALY, [cHAl\
The mythology of ancient Italy also supplies us with
similar instances of holy virgins, supposed to dwell in
fountains and rivers, which were consequently objects of
religious veneration to the people. Thus the Poet sings
of Anna Perenna,
Corniger hanc cupidis rapuisse Numicius undis
Creditur, et stagnis occuluisse suis29:
and the same deified being was believed to keep watch
over other waters30. The " domus Albuneae resonantis31,"
and another still more sacred source, which existed in the
vicinity of Rome, may likewise be mentioned.
Egeria32! sweet creation of some heart,
Which found no mortal resting-place so fair
As thine ideal breast.
and rivers appears still to be preserved, in much of its heathen force, among
some stems of the Slavonian race : see the authors indicated in Malte-
Brun, Ge'ographie Universelle, Tom. vi. p. 557, 8. The water-deities used
to receive the highest honours in the old religion of Germany, and, as late
as the twelfth century, the Pagan Prussians thought the sanctity of their
sacred groves and fountains would have been polluted by the approach of any
Christian: Helmoldus, in Cluver. German. Antiq. i. c. xxxiv. Solus
prohibetur accessus lucorum et fontium, quos autumant pollui Christian-
orum accessu. It is said by Professor J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,
pp. 278, 9. that, even at the present day, "obgleich das Christenthum—
die alten Wassergeister als teuflische Wesen darstellt, so behalt das Volk
doch eine gewisse Scheu und Verehrung bei, und hat noch nicht alien
Glauben an ihre Macht und ihren Einfluss aufgegeben." With respect
to Greece, it is observed by Fauriel, Chants populaires de la Grece
Moderne, Tom. i. p. lxxxii. " Aujourd'hui, comme autrefois, point de
riviere en Grece, point de source, point de montagne, de rocher, de caverne,
de maison meme, qui n'ait son ge'nie.
39 Ovid, Fasti, in. 647- Compare Heyne, Exc. iit. on Virg. Aen.vn.
Ruperti, on Silius Italicus, i. 666.
30 Virgil, Aen. xn. 139.
Deam, stagnis quae fluminibusque sonoris
Praesidet.
31 Horace, Od. i. 7- 12. Virgil, Aen. vn. 82. where Servius writes:
Sacro fonte : nullus enim fons non sacer.
32 Livy, i. 21. Ovid, Fast. in. 275. Heyne, on Virgil, Aen. vu. 761.
Juvenal, in. 13. 19. Sacri fontis nemus—Numen aquae. In the last
passage Wakefield (on Lucret. i. 131.) wantonly proposes to read Flumen
instead of Numen. Sulpicia, Sat. v. 67.
Nam laureta Numac,. fontcsquc habitainua eosdem.
The mythology of ancient Italy also supplies us with
similar instances of holy virgins, supposed to dwell in
fountains and rivers, which were consequently objects of
religious veneration to the people. Thus the Poet sings
of Anna Perenna,
Corniger hanc cupidis rapuisse Numicius undis
Creditur, et stagnis occuluisse suis29:
and the same deified being was believed to keep watch
over other waters30. The " domus Albuneae resonantis31,"
and another still more sacred source, which existed in the
vicinity of Rome, may likewise be mentioned.
Egeria32! sweet creation of some heart,
Which found no mortal resting-place so fair
As thine ideal breast.
and rivers appears still to be preserved, in much of its heathen force, among
some stems of the Slavonian race : see the authors indicated in Malte-
Brun, Ge'ographie Universelle, Tom. vi. p. 557, 8. The water-deities used
to receive the highest honours in the old religion of Germany, and, as late
as the twelfth century, the Pagan Prussians thought the sanctity of their
sacred groves and fountains would have been polluted by the approach of any
Christian: Helmoldus, in Cluver. German. Antiq. i. c. xxxiv. Solus
prohibetur accessus lucorum et fontium, quos autumant pollui Christian-
orum accessu. It is said by Professor J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,
pp. 278, 9. that, even at the present day, "obgleich das Christenthum—
die alten Wassergeister als teuflische Wesen darstellt, so behalt das Volk
doch eine gewisse Scheu und Verehrung bei, und hat noch nicht alien
Glauben an ihre Macht und ihren Einfluss aufgegeben." With respect
to Greece, it is observed by Fauriel, Chants populaires de la Grece
Moderne, Tom. i. p. lxxxii. " Aujourd'hui, comme autrefois, point de
riviere en Grece, point de source, point de montagne, de rocher, de caverne,
de maison meme, qui n'ait son ge'nie.
39 Ovid, Fasti, in. 647- Compare Heyne, Exc. iit. on Virg. Aen.vn.
Ruperti, on Silius Italicus, i. 666.
30 Virgil, Aen. xn. 139.
Deam, stagnis quae fluminibusque sonoris
Praesidet.
31 Horace, Od. i. 7- 12. Virgil, Aen. vn. 82. where Servius writes:
Sacro fonte : nullus enim fons non sacer.
32 Livy, i. 21. Ovid, Fast. in. 275. Heyne, on Virgil, Aen. vu. 761.
Juvenal, in. 13. 19. Sacri fontis nemus—Numen aquae. In the last
passage Wakefield (on Lucret. i. 131.) wantonly proposes to read Flumen
instead of Numen. Sulpicia, Sat. v. 67.
Nam laureta Numac,. fontcsquc habitainua eosdem.