PORTUNALIA. - Festival on 17 Aug. in the oldest Roman calendar, dedicated to the god Portunus, about whose character literary testimonies give uncertain and vague information (god of doors or of harbors). The ancient importance of the god emerges from the fact that he had his own flamen, called Portunalis, of whose functions, however, nothing is known except the task of anointing, on certain occasions, the sacred weapons of the god Quirinus.

The P. were celebrated on the bank of the Tiber, near the Pons Aemilius, where the temple of the god was located: in a late calendar the day is defined, rather than P., as Tiberinalia. This connection with the river or with waters seems to emerge from the mythological identification of Portunus with the Greek Melicertes-Palaemon. On the other hand, Portunus is inseparable from the sphere of Janus: the P. are the dedication day of an ancient temple of Janus; and one rite of the P. consists in burning keys, while the key is known as an attribute of Janus.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: W. Warde Fowler, Roman festivals, London 1899, p. 202 ff.; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Munich 1912, p. 111 f.

Angelo Brelich

@incollection{ec9_portunalia, author = {Brelich, Angelo}, title = {Portunalia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1819--1820}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/portunalia} }

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