Mefitis

Mefitis was the Samnite goddess of the foul-smelling gases of the earth, worshipped in central and southern Italy since before Roman times, with her main shrine at the volcano Ampsanctus in Samnium. There was a temple dedicated to her in Cremona, and another temple dedicated to her on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. It is theorized that Mefitis was originally a goddess of underground sources, such as natural springs—the fact that many of these springs were sulfurous led to her association with noxious gases. She is almost always identified with volcanoes, having been worshipped at Pompeii. Her name, which likely means "one who smokes in the middle", is also seen as Mephitis.

Face of the goddess Mefitis, bronze fragment stored in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Basilicata (National Archaeological Museum of Basilicata), Potenza.

Overview

In Roman mythology, Mefitis (or Mephitis; Mefite in Italian) was a minor goddess of the poisonous gases emitted from the ground in swamps and volcanic vapors.

Foul-smelling geological fissures connected to the divinity (see below) are located in Italy along the Via Appia between Rome and Brindisi. There, the ancient Romans would rest on their travels and pay homage to the goddess by performing animal sacrifices using the fissure's deadly gases. Today, it lies near the village of Rocca San Felice in the province of Avellino (Campania region).[1]

Virgil describes this sanctuary in the Aeneid:

In midst of Italy, well known to fame,

There lies a lake (Amsanctus is the name) Below the lofty mounts: on either side Thick forests the forbidden entrance hide. Full in the center of the sacred wood An arm arises of the Stygian flood, Which, breaking from beneath with bellowing sound, Whirls the black waves and rattling stones around. Here Pluto pants for breath from out his cell,

And opens wide the grinning jaws of hell.

— Book VII, lines 563–570

Varro mentions a Grove of Mefitis on the Esquiline.[2]

Etymology and derivatives

The etymology of the name Mefitis is controversial, but according to the Italian linguist Alberto Manco, the system of the epithets that identified the goddess from place to place would prove her relationship with a water-based dimension.[3]

"Mephitic", derived from Mefitis, is now an adjective in the English language meaning "offensive in odour"; "noxious"; and "poisonous". In Italian, a mefite is also a solfatara or fumarole (i.e., a gaseous fissure).

The name of the family of animals Mephitidae (mephitids, or skunks and their kin) and of the genus Mephitis (skunks of North and Central America) are both related to mephitic, so named for the noxious secretions of their scent glands.

See also

References
  1. Michele Sisto et al., Geocartographic history of a natural monument of Southern Apennines: the Geosite of Mephite in Ansanto Valley (in Italian), academia.edu, link retrieved on July 1st, 2020.
  2. Varro. De Lingua Latina V.49. Translated by Kent, Roland G. Loeb. p. 46.
  3. Alberto Manco, "Mefītis: gli epiteti", AION Linguistica 31/2009, 301-312.

Further reading


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