Helernus

Helernus, also known as Alernus, was an Archaic Roman deity.[1] He was a minor god of the underworld, and god of the beans used during the Lemuria festival during May.[2] His sacred grove (lucus) was near the mouth of the Tiber river.[3] Sacrifices were made to him annually on the 1st of February by the Roman Pontiffs, in which a black ox was killed.[lower-alpha 1][1][5] He had one daughter, named Carna, who was goddess of protecting the intestines of children from vampires.[2]

Poultney and others compare Helernus with the similarly (apparently) chthonic deity Hule/Horse/Huřie who shows up a couple times in the Umbrian Iguvine Tablets. [6]

References

Notes
  1. One of the evidences for his being a minor chthonic deity is his sacrifice being a black ox, as only gods of the underworld were given black animals as sacrifice.[4]

Citations
  1. Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society 1977, p. 131.
  2. Turcan & Nevill 2001, pp. 63–64.
  3. Elsner & Rutherford 2007, p. 24.
  4. Scullard 1981, p. 72.
  5. Frazer 2012, p. 190.
  6. Poultney, J.W. "Bronze Tables of Iguvium" 1959 p. 214 https://archive.org/details/bronzetablesofig00poul/page/n19/mode/2up

Books
  • Elsner, Jas'; Rutherford, Ian (2007). Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191566752.
  • Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society (1977). Talanta: Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society (8-15 ed.). Wolters-Noordhoff. OCLC 1004669.
  • Scullard, H.H. (1981). Festivals and ceremonies of the Roman Republic. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801414022.
  • Frazer, James George (2012). The Golden Bough. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108047319. Archived from the original on January 8, 2023.
  • Turcan, Robert; Nevill, Antonia (2001). The Gods of ancient Rome: religion in everyday life from archaic to imperial times. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781136058509.
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