Angerona is a Roman Goddess with an iconography so odd that not
even the ancients knew quite what She was about. She was represented holding
Her finger to Her bound mouth in a gesture (apparently) requesting quiet. Some
ancients believed that She was thus a Goddess of Silence, or that She represented
the secret magical name of Rome which was not to be spoken aloud. Or that She
was the Goddess of fear and anguish, and could prevent or drive away these feelings.
One legend credits Angerona with driving away a disease called angina, which
had plagued both men and animals until sacrifices were made to Her.
Her name may be akin to the Latin angustia and angor,
two related words that express ideas of narrowness and difficulty. Angustia
signifies a constricted place or time, or an entanglement (our word "anguish"
comes from it) and was used to refer to the sun's situation at the winter solstice,
when the light and warmth of the sun are at their weakest. Angor means
choking, suffocation, or anguish (the above-mentioned disease "angina",
which in modern times is the name of a heart disease featuring tightness in
the chest, is derived from this, as well as "anger"). As Angerona
had Her festival (called the Angeronalia or Divalia) on the 21st of December,
some modern scholars believe She is the goddess of the winter solstice, who
helps the sun get through this dark, difficult period. In this interpretation
Her silence indicates concentration or meditation, and Her inner voice that
conjures a powerful spell to help the sun regain its strength. Other authors,
however, point out that before the calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar, the
solstice did not occur on the 21st.
Alternately, Her name may derive from an Etruscan root, ancaru,
defined as "Goddess of Death".
Her statue was found in the Sacellum Volupiae, or the Shrine
of Voluptas, the Goddess of Pleasure, located near
the Forum by the Porta Romana, one of the most ancient gates of Rome, which
was probably located on the west side of the Palatine Hill. At the Angeronalia,
the priests made sacrifices to Her either at the Sacellum Volupiae, or in the
building called the Curia Acculeia. The Curia Acculeia was either another name
for the Sacellum Volupiae, or else an adjacent meeting-house, as evidentally
it was nearby.
Also called: Diva Angerona. Angeronia, the Goddess of the Will
and Lucky Moments, is said to be a lesser variant of Her.
