#carmentis

[flaroh]

Happy Carmentalia! 💃⏳✍️ may her life-bringing and omniscient future outlook bless us in this new year✨

On the 11th and 15th of January, ancient Romans celebrated the goddess Carmentis (aka Carmenta), who was the protector of midwives and their clients in childbirth, the observer of the future and the past, and the mythical inventor of the Latin alphabet(!!)!

I’ve drawn her here in a dual form emulating her sisterly attendants, Postvorta and Antevorta, who represented what has been and what shall come to pass, as well as the position of the child in childbirth (being born either head-first or feet-first). She was important enough to have a dedicated flamen (priest) out of the only fifteen in Roman state-sponsored religion. Her base was largely female, and one of the few things we know for certain about her worship is that leather and any “dead” animal products were banned from her temple as to not desecrate it with death.

[tumbling-to-the-deities]

Happy Carmentalia Again!

Did you know that matrons originally were given the honor to ride in carriages? The word for carriage is “carpenta” which Ovid said were named after Evander’s mother. Though a look on the etymology of the words “Carpenter” and “carpenta” reveals that the word was borrowed from Gaul.

(https://www.etymonline.com/word/carpenter) (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/carpentum#Latin)

Ovid recounts that the honor was taken away so every women vowed not to give birth until it was given back. Their wombs were freed from the burden of childbirth through a “unpredictable force“. I read other translations of the Fasti and some would translate it as a “secret thrust“ or a “secret stroke“.

(https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkOne.php#anchor_Toc69367264)

(https://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidFasti1.html)

(https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t48p78f21&view=1up&seq=45)

I get the impression that they may have been purposefully causing their own miscarriage through physical force.

The honor was given back and two festivals will be held in honor of Carmenta.

(https://books.google.com/books?id=IKqOUfqt4cIC&pg=PA46#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Regarding the story about Nicostrate, Ovid’s Fasti does acknowledge a Greek origin for Her as Hercules was entertained in a Tegean house. Tegea is noted to be one of the important towns from Arcadia, Greece. I have not done much research or found academic sources yet on Her Greek name or identity. Feel free to take a look at the links down below.

(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Tegea)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimmerian_Sibyl)

(http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/camenae.php) 

Though I have found a source that explicitly links the Carmenae with the Greek Muses. When translating the Odyssey into Latin, Titus Andronicus translated “Mousa“ as “Camena“. This choice was reportedly made since “Camena“ links to the word “Carmen“ which means poem.

(https://www.academia.edu/4852617/Translating_a_translation_the_Odusia_by_Livius_Andronicus_and_its_English_versions)

She is also recorded in De Mulieribus Claris (On Famous Women) which is the first collection to dedicate to women in Western literature.

(https://books.google.com/books?id=pArYB6VgRq8C&pg=PA14&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=Carmen&f=false)

[sec-pulumchval]

A PBP post on the Camenae, the Roman nymph-goddesses of prophecy and childbirth.