Furrinalia


Furrinalia

July 25Furrina (or Furina) was an ancient Roman deity whose reason for existence has been largely forgotten. She might have been associated with a spring or springs, and some experts regard her as a spirit of the darkness. Others say she was the goddess of robbers. All that is known for certain is that she possessed a grove (on the slopes of the Janiculum, a ridge near the Tiber River), a festival (the Furrinalia, on July 25), and her own flamen, or priest, named Furrinalis. Although Furrina belongs to the earliest of Roman religions, the Furrinalia continued to be observed in later Roman times. It was in Furrina's grove that the Roman tribune Gaius Sempronius Gracchus ordered his slave to kill him in 121 b.c.e.
SOURCES:
ClassDict-1984, p. 246
DictFolkMyth-1984, p. 428
DictRomRel-1996, p. 90
FestRom-1981, p. 168
OxClassDict-1970, p. 451
OxYear-1999, p. 306
(c)