{"title":"Love, death, and funerals in ancient Rome: on the goddess Libitina","authors":"D. Miano","doi":"10.1080/13576275.2022.2066290","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT One of the most striking characteristics of Roman funerals, is that they and the related personnel were associated with a suburban grove consecrated to Libitina, whose name can also metonymically mean ‘death’. Several ancient writers talk about this goddess, and occasionally associate her with Venus. In this paper, I shall use metonymy to explore the semantics of the deity, and I shall argue that Libitina was a liminal deity, whose position at the margins of the city was mirrored by her position at the margins of Roman polytheism. This shows the strong interconnection between language, urbanity and religion.","PeriodicalId":40045,"journal":{"name":"Mortality","volume":"27 1","pages":"159 - 170"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mortality","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2022.2066290","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT One of the most striking characteristics of Roman funerals, is that they and the related personnel were associated with a suburban grove consecrated to Libitina, whose name can also metonymically mean ‘death’. Several ancient writers talk about this goddess, and occasionally associate her with Venus. In this paper, I shall use metonymy to explore the semantics of the deity, and I shall argue that Libitina was a liminal deity, whose position at the margins of the city was mirrored by her position at the margins of Roman polytheism. This shows the strong interconnection between language, urbanity and religion.
期刊介绍:
A foremost international, interdisciplinary journal that has relevance both for academics and professionals concerned with human mortality. Mortality is essential reading for those in the field of death studies and in a range of disciplines, including anthropology, art, classics, history, literature, medicine, music, socio-legal studies, social policy, sociology, philosophy, psychology and religious studies. The journal is also of special interest and relevance for those professionally or voluntarily engaged in the health and caring professions, in bereavement counselling, the funeral industries, and in central and local government.