Fauna is a Roman rustic goddess said in differing ancient sources to be the wife, sister, or daughter of Faunus (the Roman counterpart of Pan). Varro regarded her as the female counterpart of Faunus, and said that the ''fauni'' all had prophetic powers. She is also called Fatua or Fenta Fauna.

Name

Etymology

The name ''Fauna'' is a feminine form of Latin '' Faunus'', the deity of the countryside. ''Faunus'' itself is generally thought to stem from Proto-Italic ''*fawe'' or ''*fawono'', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ''*bʰh₂u-n'' ('favourable'). Consequently,

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French philologist, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and mythology. He was a professor at Istanbul University, École pratique d ...

translated her name as "the Favourable." In his conceptual approach to Roman deity, Michael Lipka sees Faunus and Fauna as an example of a characteristically Roman tendency to form gender-complementary pairs within a sphere of functionality. The male-female figures never have equal prominence, and one partner (not always the female) seems to have been modelled on the other. An Oscan dedication naming ''Fatuveís'' (= ''Fatui'',

genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

singular), found at Aeclanum in

Irpinia Irpinia (Modern Latin ''Hirpinia'') is a geographical and cultural region of Southern Italy. It was the inland territory of the ancient ''Hirpini'' tribe, and its extent matches approximately today's province of Avellino. Geography The territor ...

, indicates that the concept is Italic. Fauna has also been dismissed as merely "an artificial construction of scholarly casuistics."

Ancient interpretations

Varro explained the role of Faunus and Fauna as prophetic deities:

''Fauni'' are gods of the
Latins The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic. Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ...
, so that there is both a male ''Faunus'' and a female ''Fauna''; there is a tradition that they used to speak of (''fari'') future events in wooded places using the verses they call 'Saturnians', and thus they were called '' 'Fauni' '' from 'speaking' (''fando'').

Servius Servius is the name of: * Servius (praenomen), the personal name * Maurus Servius Honoratus, a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian * Servius Tullius, the Roman king * Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the 1st century BC Roman jurist See ...

identifies Faunus with Fatuclus, and says his wife is Fatua or Fauna, deriving the names as Varro did from ''fari'', "to speak," "because they can foretell the future." The early Christian author

Lactantius Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Cr ...

called her ''Fenta Fauna'' and said that she was both the sister and wife of Faunus; according to Lactantius, Fatua sang the ''fata'', "fates," to women as Faunus did to men. Justin said that Fatua, the wife of Faunus, "being filled with divine spirit assiduously predicted future events as if in a madness ''(furor)''," and thus the verb for divinely inspired speech is ''fatuari''. While several etymologists in antiquity derived the names ''Fauna'' and ''Faunus'' from ''fari'', "to speak,"

Macrobius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius (fl. AD 400), was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was ...

regarded Fauna's name as deriving from ''faveo, favere'', "to favor, nurture," "because she nurtures all that is useful to living creatures."''Quod omni usui animantium favet'':

, ''Saturnalia'' 1.12.21–22,

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a series of books originally published by Heinemann in London, but is currently published by Harvard University Press. The library contains important works of ancient Greek and L ...

translation, Robert A. Kaster, ''Macrobius. Saturnalia Books 1–2'' (Harvard University Press, 2011), p. 147, note 253. According to Macrobius, the Books of the Pontiffs ''( pontificum libri)'' treated Bona Dea, Fauna,

Ops In ancient Roman religion, Ops or ''Opis'' (Latin: "Plenty") was a fertility deity and earth goddess of Sabine origin. Her equivalent in Greek mythology was Rhea. Iconography In Ops' statues and coins, she is figured sitting down, as Chthon ...

Name

Etymology

Ancient interpretations

See also

References

Citations

General bibliography