FAUNI, or FAUNS, a species of demi-gods, inhabiting the forests, called also Sylvāni. They were sons of Faunus and Fauna, or Fatua, king and queen of the Latins, and though accounted demi-gods, were supposed to die after a long life. Arnobius, indeed, has shown that their father, or chief, lived only one hundred and twenty years. The Fauns were Roman deities, unknown to the Greeks. The Roman Faunus was the same with the Greek Pan; and as in the poets we find frequent mention of Fauns, and Pans, or Panes, in the plural number, most probable the Fauns were the same with the Pans, and all descended from one progenitor.
The Romans called them Fauni and Ficarii. The denomination Ficarii was not derived from the Latin ficus a fig, as some have imagined, but from ficus, fici, a sort of fleshy tumor or excrescence growing on the eyelids and other parts of the body, which the Fauns were represented as having. They were called Fauni, a fando, from speaking, because they were wont to speak and converse with men; an instance of which is given in the voice that was heard from the wood, in the battle between the Romans and Etrurians for the restoration of the Tarquins, and which encouraged the Romans to fight. We are told that the Fauni were husbandmen, the Satyrs vine-dressers, and the Sylvāni those who cut down wood in the forests.
They were represented with horns on their heads, pointed ears, and crowned with branches of the pine, which was a tree sacred to them, whilst their lower extremities resembled those of a goat.
Horace makes Faunus the guardian and protector of men of wit, and Virgil, a god of oracles and predictions; but this is, perhaps, founded on the etymology of his name, for φωνειν in Greek, and Fari in Latin, of which it has been supposed a derivative, signify to speak; and it was, perhaps, for the same reason, they called his wife Fauna, that is, Fatidica, prophetess. Faunus is described by Ovid with horns on his head, and crowned with the pine tree.
PRIAPUS is said, by some, to have been the son of Bacchus and Nais, or as others will have it, of Chiŏne; but the generality of authors agree, that he was son of Bacchus and Venus. He was born at Lampsăchus, a city of Mysia, at the mouth of the Hellespont, but in so deformed a state, that his mother, through shame, abandoned him. On his growing up to maturity, the inhabitants of the place banished him their territories, on account of his vicious habits; but being soon after visited with an epidemic disease, the Lampsacans consulted the oracle of Dodōna, and Priāpus was in consequence recalled. Temples were erected to him as the tutelar deity of vineyards and gardens, to defend them from thieves and from birds.
He is usually represented naked and obscene, with a stern countenance, matted hair, crowned with garden herbs, and holding a wooden sword, or scythe, whilst his body terminates in a shapeless trunk. His figures are generally erected in gardens and orchards to serve as scarecrows. Priāpus held a pruning-hook in his hands, when he had hands, for he was sometimes nothing more than a mere log of wood, as Martial somewhat humorously calls him. Indeed the Roman poets in general seem to have looked on him as a ridiculous god, and are all ready enough either to despise or abuse him.
Trimalchio, in his ridiculous feasts described by Petronius, had a figure of this god to be held up during his dessert: it was made of paste, and, as Horace observes on another occasion, that he owed all his divinity to the carpenter, Petronius seems to hint that he was wholly obliged for it to the pastry cook in this. Some mythologists make the birth of Priāpus allude to that radical moisture which supports all vegetable productions, and which is produced by Bacchus and Venus, that is, the solar heat, and the fluid whence Venus is said to have sprung. Some affirm that he was the same with the Baal of the Phœnicians, mentioned in scripture.
ARISTÆUS, son of Apollo, by the nymph Cyrene, daughter of Hypseus, king of the Lapĭthæ, was born in Lybia, and in that part of it where the city Cyrene was built. He received his education from the nymphs, who taught him to extract oil from olives, and to make honey, cheese, and butter; all which arts he communicated to mankind. Going to Thebes, he there married Autonŏe, daughter of Cadmus, and, by her, was father to Actæon, who was torn in pieces by his own dogs. At length he passed into Thrace, where Bacchus initiated him into the mysteries of the Orgia, and taught him many things conducive to the happiness of life. Having dwelt some time near Mount Hemus, he disappeared, and not only the barbarous people of that country, but the Greeks likewise decreed him divine honors.
It is remarked by Bayle, that Aristæus found out the solstitial rising of Sirius, or the dog-star; and he adds, it is certain that this star had a particular relation to Aristæus; for this reason, when the heats of the dog-star laid waste the Cyclădes, and occasioned there a pestilence, Aristæus was entreated to put a stop to it. He went directly into the isle of Cea, and built an altar to Jupiter, offered sacrifices to that deity, as well to the malignant star, and established an anniversary for it. These produced a very good effect, for it was from thence that the Etesian winds had their origin, which continue forty days, and temper the heat of the summer. On his death, for the services he had rendered mankind, he was placed among the stars, and is the Aquarius of the Zodiac.
TERMINUS was a very ancient deity among the Romans, whose worship was first instituted by Numa Pompilius, he having erected in his honor on the Tarpeian hill a temple which was open at the top. This deity was thought to preside over the stones or land-marks, called Termĭni, which were so highly venerated, that it was sacrilege to move them, and the criminal becoming devoted to the gods, it was lawful for any man to kill him. The Roman Termĭni were square stones or posts, much resembling our mile-stones, erected to show that no force or violence should be used in settling mutual boundaries; they were sometimes crowned with a human head, but had seldom any inscriptions; one, however, is mentioned to this effect, “Whosoever shall take away this, or shall order it to be taken away, may he die the last of his family.”