VEDOIOVE. - God of the ancient Roman religion. The festival marked on May 21 in the archaic calendar with the single word Agonium proves (from later calendrical annotations) to be sacred to V.

The position of this festival, midway between the Lemuria and the Carnaria, would already shed light on the infernal character of the god, even where this did not appear evident from other facts: the name of the god implies a negative reference to Jupiter (ve-lovis, like ve-tanas, ve-cori); the god is invoked together with the Manes. In Rome he has a temple on the Tiber Island (festival: January 1) and another on the Capitoline «inter duos lucos» (festival: March 7). His cult image represented him in the form of a youth with a bow in his hand - thus resembling Apollo - but with a goat at his feet. To V. was dedicated the gentilician cult of the gens Iulia, a fact that does not seem devoid of connections with the Augustan cult of Apollo.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: G. Wissowa, Religion und kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Munich 1912, p. 236 ff.; C. Koch, Der römische Juppiter, Frankfurt am Main 1937, p. 67 ff.; F. Altheim, A history of roman religion, London 1938, p. 262 ff.; K. Kerenyi, La religione antica, Bologna 1940.

Angelo Brelich

@incollection{ec12_vediove, author = {Brelich, Angelo}, title = {Vediove}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1154}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vediove} }

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Vedoiove

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