VERTUMNUS, the Proteus of the Roman ritual, was the god of tradesmen, and, from the power he had of assuming any shape, was believed to preside over the thoughts of mankind. His courtship of Pomōna makes one of the most elegant and entertaining stories in Ovid. The Romans esteemed him the god of tradesmen, from the turns and changes which traffic effects. There was no god had a greater variety of representations than Vertumnus. He is painted with a garland of flowers on his head, a pruning hook in one hand, and ripe fruits in the other. Pomōna has a pruning hook in her right hand, and a branch in her left. Pliny introduces this goddess personally, even in his prose, to make her speak in praise of the fruits committed to her care. We learn from Ovid that this goddess was of that class which they anciently called Hamadryads.
Both these deities were unknown to the Greeks, and only honored by the Romans. Some imagine Vertumnus an emblem of the year, which, though it assume different dresses according to the different seasons, is at no time so luxuriant as in autumn, when the harvest is crowned, and the fruits appear in their full perfection and lustre; but historians say that Vertumnus was an ancient king of the Tuscans, who first taught his people the method of planting orchards, gardens, and vineyards, and the manner of cultivating, pruning, and grafting fruit-trees; whence he is reported to have married Pomōna. Some think he was called Vertumnus, from turning the lake Curtus into the Tiber.
CHAPTER VI.
Goddesses of the Woods.
Diana, daughter of Jupiter and Latōna, and sister of Apollo, was born in the island of Delos. She had a threefold divinity, being styled Diāna on earth, Luna, or the moon, in heaven, and Hecăte, or Proserpine, in hell. The poets say she had three heads, one of a horse, another of a woman, and the third of a dog. Hesiod makes Diāna, Luna, and Hecăte, three distinguished goddesses.
Of all the various characters of this goddess, there is no one more known than that of her presiding over woods, and delighting in hunting. The Diāna Venatrix, or goddess of the chase, is frequently represented as running on, with her vest flying back with the wind, notwithstanding its being shortened, and girt about her for expedition. She is tall of stature, and her face, though so very handsome, is something manly. Her feet are sometimes bare, and sometimes adorned with a sort of buskin, which was worn by the huntresses of old. She often has a quiver on her shoulder, and sometimes holds a javelin, but more usually her bow, in her right hand. It is thus she makes her appearance in several of her statues, and it is thus the Roman poets describe her, particularly in the epithets they give this goddess, in the use of which they are so happy that they often bring the idea of whole figures of her into your mind by a single word. The statues of this Diāna were very frequent in woods: she was represented there in all the different ways they could think of; sometimes as hunting, sometimes as bathing, and sometimes as resting herself after her fatigue. The height of Diāna's stature is frequently marked out in the poets, and that, generally, by comparing her with her nymphs.
Another great character of Diāna is that under which she is represented as the intelligence which presides over the planet of the moon; in which she is depicted in her car as directing that planet. Her figure under this character is frequently enough to be met with on gems and medals, which generally exhibit her with a lunar crown, or crescent on her forehead, and sometimes as drawn by stags, sometimes by does, but, more commonly than either, by horses. The poets speak of her chariot and her horses; they agree with the artists in giving her but two, and show, that the painters of old generally drew them of a perfect white color.
A third remarkable way of representing Diāna was with three bodies; this is very common among the ancient figures of the goddess, and it is hence the poets call her the triple, the three-headed, and the three-bodied Diāna. Her distinguishing name under this triple appearance is Hecăte, or Trivia; a goddess frequently invoked in enchantments, and fit for such black operations; for this is the infernal Diana, and as such is represented with the characteristics of a fury, rather than as one of the twelve great celestial deities: all her hands hold instruments of terror, and generally grasp either cords, or swords, or serpents, or fire-brands.
There are various conjectures concerning the name Hecăte, which is supposed to come from a Greek word signifying an hundred, either because an hundred victims at a time used to be offered to her, or else because by her edicts the ghosts of those who die without burial, wander an hundred years upon the banks of the Styx. Mythologists say that Hecăte is the order and force of the Fates, who obtained from the divine power that influence which they have over human bodies; that the operation of the Fates are hidden, but descend by the means and interposition of the stars, wherefore it is necessary that all inferior things submit to the cares, calamities, and death which the Fates bring upon them, without any possibility of resisting the divine will.