Agenoria is a

Roman goddess Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representat ...

of activity ''(actus)''. Her name is presumably derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

verb ''agō,'' "to do, drive, go";

present participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

''agēns''. She is named only by

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

, who places her among the deities who are concerned with childhood. She is thus one of the goddesses who endows the child with a developmental capacity, such as walking, singing, reasoning, and learning to count. W.H. Roscher includes Agenoria among the ''

indigitamenta In ancient Roman religion, the ''indigitamenta'' were lists of deities kept by the College of Pontiffs to assure that the correct divine names were invoked for public prayers. These lists or books probably described the nature of the various deiti ...

'', the list of deities maintained by Roman priests to assure that the correct divinity was invoked for rituals.

Renaissance allegory

Despite her obscurity, Agenoria is the title character of the first of four Latin

apologue An apologue or apolog (from the Greek ἀπόλογος, a "statement" or "account") is a brief fable or allegorical story with pointed or exaggerated details, meant to serve as a pleasant vehicle for a moral doctrine or to convey a useful lesson ...

s written in 1497 by the

Italian humanist Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...

Pandolfo Collenuccio Pandolfo is the Italian form of the masculine given name Pandulf. It may refer to: Given name *Pandolfo da Lucca (1101–1201), 12th-century Italian cardinal *Pandolfo I Malatesta (c. 1267–1326), Italian condottiero and Lord of Rimini *Pandolfo ...

in honor of

Ercole II d'Este Ercole II d'Este (5 April 1508 – 3 October 1559) was Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio from 1534 to 1559. He was the eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. Biography Through his mother, Ercole was a grandson of Pope Alexander ...

duke of Ferrara Emperor Frederick III conferred Borso d'Este, Lord of Ferrara, with the Duchy of Modena and Reggio in 1452, while Pope Paul II formally elevated him in 1471 as Duke of Ferrara, over which the family had in fact long presided. This latter territo ...

. The allegorical fiction ''Agenoria'', influenced by

Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore ...

, begins with the

betrothal An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...

of Inertia (Inactivity) to Labor, whose wedding gifts such as farm animals and sweat result in a breakup. Labor then weds Agenoria (Activity). Their wedding is attended by a number of other

personification Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as a type of anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their b ...

s, including Ubertas (Abundance) and

Voluptas In Roman mythology, Voluptas or Volupta is the daughter born from the union of Cupid and Psyche, according to Apuleius. The Latin word ''voluptas'' means 'pleasure' or 'delight'; Voluptas is known as the goddess of "sensual pleasures". She is ofte ...

(Pleasure), whose presence arouses the violence of Inertia and her followers. The defeat of the virtuous company of Agenoria and Labor is prevented only by the ''

deus ex machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...

'' intervention of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

. One of the wedding guests, Politia (Civilization) then praises the contributions to human society made by Labor, Agenoria, and the other attendant virtues. Jupiter asserts that Agenoria is under his divine protection.David Marsh, ''Lucian and the Latins: Humor and Humanism in the Early Renaissance'' (University of Michigan Press, 1998), pp. 144–146.

References

{{Roman religion Roman goddesses Childhood goddesses Personifications in Roman mythology

Renaissance allegory

See also

References