Febris (), or Dea Febris (), is the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

goddess of fevers, who embodied, but also protected people from

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a body temperature, temperature above the human body temperature, normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, set point. There is not a single ...

and

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

. Because of this, Febris was a feared goddess whom people wanted the favour of. She does not have a myth of her own. Among her characteristic attributes are "shrewdness" and "honesty", according to

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in ...

's ''

Apocolocyntosis The ''Apocolocyntosis (divi) Claudii'', literally ''The Pumpkinification of ''(''the Divine'')'' Claudius'', is a satire on the Roman emperor Claudius, which, according to Cassius Dio, was written by Seneca the Younger. A partly extant Menippean ...

''.Seneca the Younger, ''

'', 6 Febris was accompanied by two daughters or sisters of her named Dea Tertiana and Dea Quartana, the goddesses of tertian and

quartan fever Quartan fever is one of the four types of malaria which can be contracted by humans. It is specifically caused by the ''Plasmodium malariae'' species, one of the six species of the protozoan genus ''Plasmodium''. Quartan fever is a form of malaria ...

of malaria because the fever would come back in every three or four days.

Theodorus Priscianus Theodorus Priscianus ( el, Θεόδωρος ὁ Πρισκιανός) was a physician at Constantinople during the fourth century, and the author of the Latin work ''Rerum Medicarum'' in four books. Career Priscianus was a pupil of the physician V ...

mentions

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

as Tertiana and Quartana's father. The goddess Febris belongs to the

apotropaic Apotropaic magic (from Greek "to ward off") or protective magic is a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of supersti ...

(turning away) deities (Lat. ''Dii averrunci'') who have power over a specific evil: to impose it or to get rid of it. Romans worshipped Febris so she would not do harm to them. She may have originated from the Etruscan-Roman god of purification,

Februus Februus is an ancient Italic god of purifications, who was worshipped by both the Romans and Etruscans. He was also worshipped as the god of the underworld by the Etruscans. For them, Februus was also the god of riches (money and gold) and death, ...

. Unlike most

Roman deities The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Greek counterparts (see ''interpretatio graeca''), integrating Greek myths, iconography, and sometimes religious practices into Roman culture, including Latin literat ...

, Febris was not derived from a Greek deity.

Name

''Febris'' is 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 ...

word for

which the English word "

" has originated from. The word ''

febris Febris (), or Dea Febris (), is the Roman goddess of fevers, who embodied, but also protected people from fever and malaria. Because of this, Febris was a feared goddess whom people wanted the favour of. She does not have a myth of her own. Among ...

'' is from

Proto-Italic The Proto-Italic language is the ancestor of the Italic languages, most notably Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. It is not directly attested in writing, but has been reconstructed to some degree through the comparative method. P ...

''*feɣʷris'', from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

''*dʰegʷʰris'' (which is an extension of the root ''*dʰegʷʰ-'' meaning “to burn, warm”). Her name is often translated to English as Fever. Some of

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

's epithets are spelt similarly to Febris' name, such as ''Februalis, Februata, Februa'' which are also of the same etymological root as ''febris''.

Cult

Febris had three temples in ancient Rome, of which one was located between the

Palatine A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

and

Velabrum The Velabrum () is the low valley in the city of Rome that connects the Forum with the Forum Boarium, and the Capitoline Hill with the western slope of the Palatine Hill. The name Velabrum may translate to "place of mud." It was believed that befor ...

. The second temple was on the

Esquiline The Esquiline Hill (; la, Collis Esquilinus; it, Esquilino ) is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. Its southernmost cusp is the ''Oppius'' (Oppian Hill). Etymology The origin of the name ''Esquiline'' is still under much debate. One view is ...

and the last on the

Vicus Longus The vicus Longus was a street in Regio VI of ancient Rome, linking the Suburra to the summit of the Quirinal Hill along the valley between the Quirinal Hill and the Viminal Hill. Livy (X.23.6.) mentions it in relation to the dedication of an alta ...

. Febris' temples were visited by people with fevers. In those temples, people wore protective amulets against diseases, especially malaria at the time. She was invoked with the formula ''Febris diva, Febris sancta, Febris magna'' (Divine Fever, Holy Fever, Great Fever). An inscription, which was later revealed to be a forgery,Burke, Paul F.. "Malaria in the Greco-Roman World: A Historical and Epidemiological Survey". Band 37/3. Teilband Philosophie, Wissenschaften, Technik. Wissenschaften (Medizin und Biologie orts., edited by Wolfgang Haase, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 1996, pp. 2252-2281. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110809008-005 saying ''Febri Divae, Febri Sanctae, Febri Magnae, Camilla Amata pro filio male affecto'' was discovered in

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

An inscription dedicated to Quartana in

Nemausus Deus Nemausus is often said to have been the Celtic patron god of Nemausus (Nîmes). The god does not seem to have been worshipped outside this locality. The city certainly derives its name from Nemausus, which was perhaps the sacred wood in which ...

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

, dated to the third century (CIL 12.3129) and another inscription dedicated to Tertiana in

Habitancum Habitancum was an ancient Roman fort (castrum) located at Risingham, Northumberland, England. The fort was one of the defensive structures built along Dere Street, a Roman road running from York to Corbridge and onwards to Melrose in what is now ...

(Risingham), Northern England (CIL 7.999) were discovered.Tavenner, Eugene. “Notes on the Development of Early Roman Religion.” The Classical Weekly, vol. 11, no. 13, 1918, pp. 97–102. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4387581. Accessed 10 Dec. 2022. The Ancient Greeks under Roman rule may have worshipped a similar fever god named Pyretos (Πυρετός,Unlike the Latin word for fever

, which is feminine, the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word for fever πυρετός is masculine. This explains why the Greek fever deity would be male. ), analogous to Roman Febris. Febris might have been worshipped in the Medieval-era Christian Rome disguised under the name ''Madonna delle Febbri'' (or ''della Febbre'') as one of her temples is known to be converted into a church. The cult of Febris could be as old as the Roman civilisation.

In literature

''Apocolocyntosis''

Febris appears with

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

in the sixth part of ''

''. She reveals that

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...

was a "German

" and a liar along with many other things about him when Claudius lied to

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 ...

about himself. This made Emperor Claudius angry, Claudius expressed his wrath by shouting unintelligible words that nobody understood, except for the order by a hand gesture for Febris to be

beheaded Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

. However, his wish was dismissed.

Poliziano's ''In Albieram Albitiam puellam formosissimam morientem'' (1473)

Febris was included as a character in the Italian poet

Angelo Poliziano Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...

work ''In Albieram Albitiam puellam formosissimam morientem''. Poliziano's Febris is a fictional depiction rather than an actual depiction. Perosa, Alessandro, et al. “Febris: A Poetic Myth Created by Poliziano.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 9, 1946, pp. 74–95. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/750310. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022. Febris appears to a dying young woman named Albiera degli Albizzi. Despite never being physically described previously, Poliziano depicted Febris holding a torch in one hand and a snowball in the other, in a chariot drawn by monster-like lions which was accompanied by a train of monsters. She was described as looking "gruesome", similar to

Erinyes The Erinyes ( ; sing. Erinys ; grc, Ἐρινύες, pl. of ), also known as the Furies, and the Eumenides, were female chthonic deities of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. A formulaic oath in the ''Iliad'' invokes ...

, as opposed to the beauty of Albiera degli Albizzi. She gives a deadly poison to sick Albizzi after saying "those who live sweet, die sweet" and then flies away with the lions.

Notes

References

External links

Myth Index - Febris
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Health goddesses Roman goddesses Malaria Ancient Roman medicine Roman deities {{Ancient Roman medicine