VOLTURNALIA. – A festival on 27 August in the archaic Roman calendar, sacred to the god Volturnus, who had his own special priest (flamen Volturnalis).
Since in Campania Volturnus was the name of a river, which a Roman calendar also records, for the festival, a sacrifice Volturno fluminis, and since in mythology the god appears as the father of Juturna, it was thought to explain his name from volvere (to roll). More recently, the name has been linked to the Etruscan gentilician vel-thur-na, noting how the root vel (which at the same time is an Etruscan divine name appearing on the bronze liver of Piacenza) is also found in the bases of the divine names Volturnus and Vortumnus, chief god of the Etruscans.
BIBL.: Th. Mommsen, in CIL, I, 327; W. Warde Fowler, Roman festivals, London 1899, p. 214; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Munich 1912, p. 224; id., in W. Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon für klassische Mythologie, VI, col. 370; J. Heurgon, in Revue des études latines, 14 (1936), pp. 105 ff.
Angelo Brici.