Carmenta
Goddess of childbirth and prophecy, protector of mothers and children, patron of midwives, inventor of the alphabet
Member of the Camenae
Nicostrata-Carmenta inventing the Latin alphabet (Antoine Dufour, 1504)
Other namesNicostrate
Major cult centera shrine near the Porta Carmentalis
Genderfemale
FestivalsCarmentalia
OffspringEvander of Pallantium
Carmenta as Nicostrate/Nicostrata

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Carmenta was a goddess of childbirth and prophecy, associated with technological innovation as well as the protection of mothers and children and a patron of midwives. She was also said to have invented the Latin alphabet.

Background

Porta Carmentalis (at location 12)

The name Carmenta is derived from Latin carmen, meaning a magic spell, oracle or song, and also the root of the English word charm. Her original name was Nicostrate (Greek: Νικοστράτη, "victory-army"), but it was changed later to honor her renown for giving oracles (Latin singular: carmen). She was the mother of Evander of Pallene (fathered by Hermes) and, along with other Greek followers, they founded the town of Pallantium which later was one of the sites of the start of Rome. Gaius Julius Hyginus (Fab. 277) mentions the legend that it was she who altered fifteen letters of the Greek alphabet to become the Latin alphabet which her son Evander introduced into Latium. Carmenta was one of the Camenae and the Cimmerian Sibyl. The leader of her cult was called the flamen carmentalis.

It was forbidden to wear leather or other forms of dead skin in her temple which was next to the Porta Carmentalis in Rome. Her festival, called the Carmentalia, was celebrated primarily by women on January 11 and January 15. She is remembered in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361–62. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Boccaccio, Giovanni (2003). Famous Women. I Tatti Renaissance Library. Vol. 1. Translated by Virginia Brown. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. xi. ISBN 0-674-01130-9.

Primary sources

  • Ovid, Fasti i.461-542
  • Servius, In Aeneida viii.51
  • Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium i.10, 13

Secondary sources

  • The Dictionary of Classical Mythology by Pierre Grimal, page 89 "Carmenta"
  • The Book of the City of Ladies, by Christine de Pizan, section I.33.2
  • The Lincoln Beacon, Lincoln, Kansas, United States of America "Carmenta" 16 September 1880.
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