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Murcia (deity)

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Detail from the Foligno relief of the Circus Maximus, showing the shrine of Murcia with a myrtle tree in the lower right, just above the broken corner[1]

Murcia was a little-known goddess in ancient Rome. Her name occurs as an epithet of Venus.[2]

According to Livy[3] she had a temple at the foot of the Aventine Hill near to the Palatine Hill. Murcus is said to have been an old name for the Aventine Hill itself;[4] hence the adjective murtius (= murcius) was applied to the turning-posts of the Circus Maximus, which was also situated in a valley between the Aventine and the Palatine Hills.[5]

The name Murcia was linked to the name of the myrtle tree (Latin myrtus) by folk etymology; hence the spellings Murtia and Murtea. This association with myrtle, which was a sign of Venus, led to her naming as "Venus of the Myrtles".[6][7] Christian writers, in their turn, connected Murcia with the adjective murcus or murcidus "lazy, inactive", thus interpreting her as a "goddess of sloth and laziness".[8][9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Humphrey 1986, p. 95.
  2. ^ Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
  3. ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:33
  4. ^ Paulus Diaconus, Epitoma Festi, p. 148M
  5. ^ Apuleius, Metamorphoses, 6. 8
  6. ^ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, XV. 36
  7. ^ Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 20
  8. ^ Augustine, De civitate Dei, IV. 16
  9. ^ Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, IV. 9

Sources

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  • Humphrey, John H. (1986). Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing. University of California Press.
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