# Helernus > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Helernus > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Helernus.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helernus > Source revision: 1351542943 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Archaic Roman deity}} '''Helernus''', also known as Alernus, was an Archaic Roman deity.{{sfn|Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society|1977|p=131}} Very little is known of this god; not even his name is fully certain. In some manuscripts of [Ovid](/source/Ovid), he is recorded with either the name {{Lang|la|Avernus}} or {{Lang|la|Alernus}}, which later scholars emended to {{Lang|la|Helernus}}. The classicist [Georg Wissowa](/source/Georg_Wissowa) etymologically connected his name to {{Lang|la|holus, holeris}} ("vegetable") and considered him a god of vegetables.{{Sfn|Forsythe|2012|p=16}} Similarly, the philologist and historian [Georges Dumézil](/source/Georges_Dum%C3%A9zil), however, argued that the deity instead had a connection to the sowing of vegetables and grains, as he was celebrated on 1 February and related to [Carna](/source/Cardea), who was herself associated with agrarian concepts.{{Sfn|Garani|2013|p=126|loc=note 1}} However, the classicist [Gary Forsythe](/source/Gary_Forsythe) has criticized these attempted edits, arguing that they are exclusively the result of later scholarly speculation and not premised upon what is directly attested in the ancient sources. Forsythe instead connects the god to a passage from the works of the 2nd-century CE grammarian [Sextus Pompeius Festus](/source/Sextus_Pompeius_Festus), who describes a sacrifice of a black ox to a god called {{Lang|la|Aeterno}}, the name of whom has been emended to {{Lang|la|Aternus}} due to a comparison with the [Latin](/source/Latin) word {{Lang|la|ater}} ("black").{{Sfn|Forsythe|2012|p=16}} His sacred grove ''([lucus](/source/lucus))'' was near the mouth of the [Tiber river](/source/Tiber_river).{{sfn|Elsner|Rutherford|2007|p=24}} He had one daughter, named Carna, who was goddess of protecting the intestines of children from vampires.{{sfn|Turcan|Nevill|2001|pp=63-64}} Sacrifices were made to him annually on 1 February by the [Roman Pontiffs](/source/College_of_Pontiffs), in which a black ox was killed.{{sfn|Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society|1977|p=131}}{{sfn|Frazer|2012|p=190}} The particular choice of a black ox as the sacrificial animal perhaps implies that he was a minor [chthonic](/source/chthonic) deity as only gods of the underworld were given black animals as sacrifice.{{sfn|Scullard|1981|p=72}} Moreover, Poultney and others compare Helernus with the potentially [chthonic](/source/Chthonic_deities) deity '''Hule'''/''Horse''/'''Huřie''' who shows up a couple times in the [Umbrian](/source/Umbrian) [Iguvine Tablets](/source/Iguvine_Tablets).{{Sfn|Poultney|1959|p=214}} ==References== ===Citations=== {{reflist}} ===Bibliography=== *{{cite book |last1=Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society |title=Talanta: Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society |date=1977 |publisher=Wolters-Noordhoff |edition=8-15 |oclc=1004669}} *{{cite book |last1=Elsner |first1=Jas' |last2=Rutherford |first2=Ian |url=https://archive.org/details/pilgrimageingrae0000unse |title=Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780191566752}} * {{Cite book |last=Forsythe |first=Gary |url=https://ia800703.us.archive.org/15/items/CompleteBooksSetsarchive/Gary%20Forsythe%20-%20Time%20in%20Roman%20Religion.%20One%20Thousand%20Years%20of%20Religious%20History%20%28Routledge%20Studies%20in%20Ancient%20History%29%20%28Retail%29.pdf |title=Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History |date=2012-05-31 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-31442-1 |language=en}} *{{cite book |last1=Frazer |first1=James George |url=https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3623 |title=The Golden Bough |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230108221526/https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3623 |archive-date=January 8, 2023 |url-status=live |isbn=9781108047319}} * {{Cite journal |last=Garani |first=Myrto |year=2013 |title=Is Carna Phoebus' Sister? (ov. Fast. 6, 101-182) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44740663 |journal=Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica |volume=103 |issue=1 |pages=125–137 |issn=0033-4987}} *{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bronzetablesofig00poul |title=The Bronze Tables of Iguvium |vauthors=Poultney JW |publisher=American Philological Association, Number XVIII |year=1959}} *{{cite book |last1=Scullard |first1=H.H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDETAQAAIAAJ |title=Festivals and ceremonies of the Roman Republic |date=1981 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |isbn=9780801414022}} *{{cite book |last1=Turcan |first1=Robert |last2=Nevill |first2=Antonia |url=https://archive.org/details/godsofancientrom0000turc |title=The Gods of ancient Rome: religion in everyday life from archaic to imperial times |date=2001 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |location=Hoboken |isbn=9781136058509}} {{AncientRome-myth-stub}} Category:Roman gods Category:Deities of classical antiquity Category:Chthonic beings Category:Underworld gods --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Helernus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helernus) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helernus?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.