View source for Furrina

{{Short description|Roman goddess}}
'''Furrina''', also spelled '''Furina''', was an [[List of Roman deities|ancient Roman goddess]] whose function had become obscure by the 1st century BC. Her [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#cultus|cult]] dated to the earliest period of Roman religious history, since she was one of the fifteen deities who had their own [[flamen]], the ''Furrinalis'', one of the ''[[flamines minores]]''.<ref>Varro ''Lingua Latina'' VI 13.</ref> There is some evidence that Furrina was associated with water.<ref name=":0" />

==Etymology==
Furrina was a goddess of springs.<ref>''De Lingua Latina'' VI 13.</ref> According to [[Georges Dumézil]], her name was related to the moving or bubbling of water. It is cognate with Gothic ''brunna'' ("spring"), Latin ''fervēre'', from *fruur > furr by [[Metathesis (linguistics)|metathesis]] of the vowel, meaning to bubble or boil.<ref>G. Dumézil ''Fêtes romaines d'eté et d'automne'' Paris, 1975.</ref> Compare English "fervent", "effervescent", and Latin ''defruutum'' ("boiled wine").

==Religious sites==
She had a sacred spring and a shrine in Rome,<ref name=":0">[[Cicero]]  ''Ad Quintum fratrem'' 3, 1, 12.</ref> located on the southwestern slopes of Mount [[Janiculum]], on the right bank of the [[Tiber]]. The site has survived to the present day in the form of a grove, included within the gardens of [[Villa Sciarra (Rome)|Villa Sciarra]]. Excavations on the site conducted in 1910 identified a well and a system of underground channels, as well as some inscriptions dedicated to ''[[Jupiter Optimus Maximus Heliopolitanus]]'', ''Agatis'', and the ''nymphae furrinae''. However, these findings look to be of a later date (2nd century CE) and perhaps the well is not the original spring.<ref>Samuel B. Platner (and T. Ashby)  ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'', 1927 s.v.</ref>

[[Gaius Sempronius Gracchus|Gaius Gracchus]] was killed in the Grove of Furrina.

According to Cicero, another sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Furrina was located near [[Satricum]]. This place was not the most widely known one, but a hamlet near [[Arpinum]] was.<ref>Cicero ''Ad Quintum Fratrem'' 3, 1.</ref>

==Festival==
Furrina's festival was the [[Furrinalia]], held on July 25. On the [[Roman calendar]], festivals separated by an interval of three days were interconnected and belonged to the same function.<ref>As observed by Dumézil{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} and [[Georg Wissowa]].{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}</ref> In the second half of July, the two [[Lucaria]] occur on the 19th and 17th, with the [[Neptunalia]] on the 23rd and the Furrinalia on the 25th. This grouping is devoted to woods and running waters, which are intended as shelter and relief from the heat of the season, the ''canicula''.

Furrina is a low ranking deity who has her seat just above the mountain peaks.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Martianus Capella |url=https://archive.org/details/martianuscapella00mart |title=Martianus Capella |last2=Eyssenhardt |first2=Francis |date=1866 |publisher=Lipsiae : In aedibus B.G. Teubneri |others=PIMS - University of Toronto}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*Altheim, Franz (1938). ''A History of Roman Religion''. Harold Mattingly, trans. London: Metheun.
*Dowden, Ken (2000). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=b-QfhYxtKScC European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages]''. London: Routledge.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Roman goddesses]]