![]() ![]() There was also a Lord whom Laverna approached, promising by her head, to pay in full for his castle and all of its furnishings. She sells off everything but doesn’t build a temple. Laverna’s story continues with how she tricks a priest into selling her an estate swearing by her body with the promise of building a temple on the land. A thief of whom even the other gods knew little about. Leland in 1899, this book has a story retold by Virgil in which he describes Laverna as being the one female who was the craftiest and knavish of them all. I would think these three would be at odds with Laverna for helping people to commit them in the first place. This doesn’t hold up when you know who they are, Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, and that all three punish people for committing crimes. Some sources try to connect Laverna to this group. FuriesĪlso known as the Erinyes in Greek is a trio of Underworld goddesses called upon for Vengeance. I just don’t see the connection unless bad etymology and linguistics are going on. Since we’re on the subject of Etruscan deities, the goddess Furrina is mentioned as an ancient Etruscan goddess of thieves and robbers, related to the element of water.Įxcept that on closer look, Furrina is a goddess of a spring with an annual summer festival of Furrinalia once held on July 25th and was likely held for staving off summer droughts. Manes came about as a polite, euphemistic way to speak of the Inferi without really getting their attention. Closely related are the Manes, ancestral spirits. Why yes, they were a collective group of ancient shadowy, underworld Roman gods, most of whom are death gods. One is a cup found in an Etruscan tomb with the engraving: “Lavernai Pocolom” and another fragment found in the Septimius Serenus Laverna that connects her to the di inferi. Plus, there are a couple of scraps of archaeological evidence to support her. Very little is known about the Etruscans to begin with, so it’s likely that Laverna was an Underworld Goddess who then becomes a goddess of thieves as thieves have a reputation for working in the dark, whether actual night or a metaphor of darkness for in secret. Lastly, levator, meaning “a thief.” The word lucrum, meaning “gain or profit” is very much so connected to Laverna as a goddess of profit. The first is latere, meaning: “to lurk,” or from levare, meaning: “to relieve, lessen or lighten,” as it relates to shoplifters and pickpockets. While there’s some anecdotal evidence for the goddess Laverna, scholars have surmised a few different meanings for her name. So I guess it all depends on who calls upon her first if she’s going to help or hinder a would-be thief. Though, in one of Plautus’ plays, a cook does call upon Laverna to seek revenge against some thieves who stole his cooking tools. Laverna would be invoked by thieves to ensure a successful heist without getting caught. Libations to Laverna would be poured from the left hand. There was also a grove on the Via Salaria, an ancient highway that crossed the ‘calf” part of the boot for Italy from Rome up to the Tiber River. Laverna was a significant enough goddess in Roman to have her own sanctuary, a minor place of worship on Aventine to be named after her, near the Porta Lavernalis. Laverna is frequently described as having a head, but nobody, or she’s a body without a head. Sphere of Influence: Cheating, Deception, Fraud, Lies, Plagiarism, Secrets, Theft, Trickery Patron of: Charlatans, Cheaters, Liars, Thieves The poet Horace makes mention of her as does the playwright Plautus where they each call Laverna a goddess of thieves. ![]() Simply put, Laverna is the Roman goddess of Liars, Thieves, and the Underworld, more specifically, she is of Italian origins. ![]()
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