Helernus, also known as Alernus, was an Archaic Roman deity. He was a minor god of the underworld, and god of the beans used during the Lemuria festival during May. His sacred grove (lucus) was near the mouth of the Tiber river. Sacrifices were made to him annually on 1 February by the Roman Pontiffs, in which a black ox was killed. He had one daughter, named Carna, who was goddess of protecting the intestines of children from vampires.
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.
References
Notes
- 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.
Citations
- ^ Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society 1977, p. 131.
- ^ Turcan & Nevill 2001, pp. 63–64.
- Elsner & Rutherford 2007, p. 24.
- Scullard 1981, p. 72.
- Frazer 2012, p. 190.
- 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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