CARNA. - C. is a Roman goddess who had a sanctuary on the Caelian Hill; her festival fell on June 1st, a day sacred to Juno and popularly called kalendae fabariae: in fact, among the sacrifices offered to C. there figured, besides pork, a mixture of emmer and beans. To these scanty cult data should be added the isolated epigraphic notice about the festival Carnaria, with an offering of roses, a festival whose reference to C. is, however, doubtful. C. was credited with the protection of newborns from the stryges. Ovidian mythology colors our knowledge of C. with other elements; the poet considers her as the goddess of the thistle; she would have been a modest nymph, born in the grove of the god Helernus, believed to be the sister of Apollo, who, hidden in a cave, would have escaped everyone, with the exception of Ianus who saw even behind his back. The mythological connection with Ianus and the cultic one with Iuno prove significant in the light of the cultic connections between Ianus and Iuno.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: W. F. Otto, Römische « Sondergötter », in Rheinisches Museum, 64 (1909), p. 439 ff.; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Munich 1912, p. 236; R. Pettazzoni, C., in Studi etniche, 14 (1940), p. 163 ff.

Angelo Brelich

@incollection{ec3_carna, author = {Brelich, Angelo}, title = {Carna}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {901--902}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/carna} }

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