Helernus

Helernus, also known as Alernus, was an Archaic Roman deity.^[1] He was a minor god of the underworld, and god of the beans used during the Lemuria festival during May.^[2] His sacred grove (lucus) was near the mouth of the Tiber river.^[3] Sacrifices were made to him annually on the 1st of February by the Roman Pontiffs, in which a black ox was killed.^{[lower-alpha 1]}^[1]^[5] He had one daughter, named Carna, who was goddess of protecting the intestines of children from vampires.^[2]

References

Notes

↑ One of the evidences for his being a minor chthonic deity is his sacrifice being a black ox, as only gods of the underworld were given black animals as sacrifice.^[4]

Citations

1 2 Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society 1977, p. 131.
1 2 Turcan & Nevill 2001, pp. 63-64.
↑ Elsner & Rutherford 2007, p. 24.
↑ Scullard 1981, p. 72.
↑ Frazer 2012, p. 190.

Books

Elsner, Jas'; Rutherford, Ian (2007). Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191566752.
Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society (1977). Talanta: Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society (8-15 ed.). Wolters-Noordhoff. OCLC 1004669.
Scullard, H.H. (1981). Festivals and ceremonies of the Roman Republic. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801414022.
Frazer, James George (2012). The Golden Bough. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108047319.
Turcan, Robert; Nevill, Antonia (2001). The Gods of ancient Rome: religion in everyday life from archaic to imperial times. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781136058509.

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