Pomona (, ) was a goddess of fruitful abundance in

ancient Roman religion Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, ...

and

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

. Her name comes from the Latin word ''pomum'', "fruit", specifically orchard fruit. Pomona was said to be a wood nymph.

Etymology

The name ''Pōmōna'' is a derivation from

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 ...

''pōmus'' ('fruit-tree, fruit'), possibly stemming 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 ...

''*po-e/omo'' ('taken off, picked?'), cognate with

Umbrian Umbrian is an extinct Italic language formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italian region of Umbria. Within the Italic languages it is closely related to the Oscan group and is therefore associated with it in the group of Osco-Umbrian ...

Puemune, ultimately 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- ...

''*h₁e/omo'' ('what is (to be) taken').

Mythology

In the myth narrated by

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the t ...

, she scorned the love of the woodland gods Silvanus and

Picus Picus was a figure in Roman mythology, the first king of Latium. He was the son of Saturn, also known as Stercutus. He was the founder of the first Latin tribe and settlement, Laurentum, located a few miles to the Southeast of the site of the lat ...

, but married

Vertumnus In Roman mythology, Vertumnus (; also Vortumnus or Vertimnus) is the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees. He could change his form at will; using this power, according to Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' (xiv) ...

after he tricked her, disguised as an old woman. She and Vertumnus shared a festival held on August 13. Her priest was called the ''

flamen A (plural ''flamens'' or ''flamines'') was a priest of the ancient Roman religion who was assigned to one of eighteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important of these were the three (or "major priests"), who ser ...

Pomonalis''. The

pruning Pruning is a horticultural, arboricultural, and silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. The practice entails the ''targeted'' removal of diseased, damaged, dead, ...

knife was her attribute. There is a grove that is sacred to her called the ''Pomonal'', located not far from Ostia, the ancient port of Rome. Pomona was the goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards. Unlike many other Roman goddesses and gods, she does not have a Greek counterpart, though she is commonly associated with

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter (; Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although she ...

. She watches over and protects fruit trees and cares for their cultivation. She was not actually associated with the harvest of fruits itself, but with the flourishing of the fruit trees. In artistic depictions she is generally shown with a platter of fruit or a cornucopia.

Namesakes

The city of

Pomona, California Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Polytech ...

, in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

, is named after the goddess.

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...

was founded in the city and retained its name even after relocating to its present-day location in Claremont. The town of

Pomona Park, Florida Pomona Park is a town in Putnam County, Florida, United States. The population was 912 at the 2010 census and has gone up to 916 in the 2018 estimates. The town is part of the Palatka Micropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Pomona Park is loca ...

in Putnam County is named after the goddess of fruit from the time citrus horticulture dominated the economy of the area. The Pomona Docks (formerly part of the Manchester docks) were built on the site of the Pomona Gardens. A former public house nearby was named the Pomona Palace.

32 Pomona Pomona ( ; minor planet designation: 32 Pomona) is a stony main-belt asteroid that is in diameter. It was discovered by German-French astronomer Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt on October 26, 1854, and is named after Pōmōna, the Roman godd ...

is a

main belt asteroid The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

discovered in 1854.

Representations in art

A bronze statue of Pomona sits atop the

Pulitzer Fountain Pulitzer may refer to: *Joseph Pulitzer, a 20th century media magnate *Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award *Pulitzer (surname) *Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain *Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-prof ...

in Manhattan's

Grand Army Plaza Grand Army Plaza, originally known as Prospect Park Plaza, is a public plaza that comprises the northern corner and the main entrance of Prospect Park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It consists of concentric oval rings arranged as s ...

in New York. The fountain was funded by newspaper tycoon

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...

, designed by the architect Thomas Hastings, and crowned by a statue conceived by the sculptor

Karl Bitter Karl Theodore Francis Bitter (December 6, 1867 – April 9, 1915) was an Austrian-born American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work. Life and career The son of Carl and Henrietta Bitter, he was ...

. The fountain was dedicated in May 1916. Pomona is briefly mentioned in C. S. Lewis's children's book ''

Prince Caspian ''Prince Caspian'' (originally published as ''Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia'') is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1951. It was the second published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of N ...

''. ''Der Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona'' ("The Victory of Fruitful Pomona") is a 1702 opera by

Reinhard Keiser Reinhard Keiser (9 January 1674 – 12 September 1739) was a German opera composer based in Hamburg. He wrote over a hundred operas. Johann Adolf Scheibe (writing in 1745) considered him an equal to Johann Kuhnau, George Frideric Handel and Geor ...

. '' Pomona'' is the title of a play by Alistair McDowell, commissioned in 2014 for the

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama , image_name = Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.jpg , image_size = , motto = , established = 1949 , type = Public , staff = , vice_chancellor = , students = 779 (2017/18) , undergrad ...

. Pomona briefly appears in Rick Riordan's fantasy novel ''

The Last Olympian ''The Last Olympian'' is a fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology by Rick Riordan, published on May 5, 2009. It is the fifth and final novel of the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series and serves as the direct sequel to '' The Battle ...

'', in which she expresses sympathy toward those rebelling against the rule of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the 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 slightly less than one-thousandth th ...

Pomona Sprout The following fictional characters are staff members and denizens of Hogwarts in the ''Harry Potter'' books written by J. K. Rowling. The staff and their positions Teachers and staff members The following teachers and staff members do not h ...

is professor of

Herbology Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedi ...

(magical botany) in the

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Ho ...

novels. Pomona is one of three statues featured at the Massachusetts Horticulture Society's

Elm Bank Horticulture Center The Gardens at Elm Bank, home of Massachusetts Horticultural Society, occupies of Elm Bank Reservation, a recreational area of woodlands, fields, and former estate property on the Charles River managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservat ...

, along with Ceres and Flora.

Gallery

File:Nicolas Fouché 001.jpg, Pomona, by Nicolas Fouché, ' 1700. Image:0 Vertumne et Pomone - Peter Paul Rubens (1617-1619).JPG, ''

and Pomona'' by

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditi ...

, 1617–1619, private collection in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. File:Modern_tapestry_depicting_the_goddess_Pomona.jpg, Tapestry depicting the goddess Pomona.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{Authority control Agricultural goddesses Dryads Roman goddesses Personifications in Roman mythology