Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/180

 166 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY the dead, she was called Dea Muta or Tacita (' the dumb or silent goddess 7 ). Perhaps it would be best to place in this group Acca Larentia (mother of the Lares ? ) also, to whom funeral sacrifices were offered at the feast of the Larentalia (23d of December) ; for her attributes seem to characterize her, like Tellus, as a goddess of the fruit- fulness of the ground. (For Libitina see 216.) Tellus: Ovid, Met. i. 80; Vergil, Aen. iv. 166; Shak., Hamlet iii. 2, 166, Pericles iv. 1, 14. V. PERSONIFICATIONS 214. By transferring to the spiritual and moral realm the same kind of conceptions which had called forth belief in the spirits of activity (Indigetes), the Romans very early reached the point of worshiping actual per- sonifications. To the oldest of these belong the following : Fortuna (the goddess of ' fortune '), usually distinguished by a rudder and a cornucopia; Fides (' fidelity '), with ears of corn and a fruit basket ; Concordia (' harmony '), with a horn of plenty and a cup ; Honos and Virtus (the god of ' honor ' and the female representative of ' valor ? ), both in full armor ; Spes (' hope '), with a flower in her hand; Pudicitia (' chastity '), veiled; and Salus (' deliv- erance/ 'safety'). Afterwards were added Pietas ('love of parents 7 ), Libertas ('freedom 7 ), Febris (' goddess of fevers '), dementia (' mildness '), with cup and scepter, Pax (' goddess of peace '), with the olive branch. Finally, in the imperial epoch, it became the custom to personify any abstract idea whatever in the form of a woman distinguished by fitting attributes.