[193] Mirror of the Months.
June 1.
Ovid assigns the first of June to “Carna,” the goddess of the hinge; who also presided over the vital parts of man, especially the liver and the heart. Massey, commenting on his taste, cannot divine the connection between such a power and the patronage of hinges. “False notions,” he says, “in every mode of religion, lead men naturally into confusion.”
Carna, the goddess of the hinge, demands
The first of June; upon her power depends
To open what is shut, what’s shut unbar;
And whence this power she has, my muse declare
For length of time has made the thing obscure,
Fame only tells us that she has that power.
Helernus’ grove near to the Tiber lies,
Where still the priests repair to sacrifice;
From hence a nymph, whose name was Granè, sprung,
Whom many, unsuccessful, courted long;
To range the spacious fields, and kill the deer,
With darts and mangling spears, was all her care;
She had no quiver, yet so bright she seemed,
She was by many Phœbus’ sister deemed.
Ovid.
The poet then relates that Janos made this Granè (or Carna) goddess of the hinge;
And then a white thorn stick he to her gave,
By which she ever after power should have,
To drive by night all om’nous birds away,
That scream, and o’er our houses hov’ring stray.