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In Roman mythology, Laverna was a goddess of gain, thieves, cheats and the underworld. She was propitiated by libations poured with the left hand. The poet Horace and the playwright Plautus called her a goddess of thieves. In Rome, her sanctuary was near the Porta Lavernalis.
Several explanations have been given for the origins of the name: [1]
Laverna was an old Italian deity, originally one of the spirits of the underworld. A cup found in an Etruscan tomb bears the inscription "Lavernai Pocolom," (cf. poculum); and in a fragment of Septimius Serenus Laverna is expressly mentioned in connection with the di inferi. By an easy transition, she came to be regarded as the protectress of thieves, whose operations were associated with darkness. [1]
She had an altar on the Aventine Hill, near the gate called after her Lavernalis, and a grove on the Via Salaria. Her aid was invoked by thieves to enable them to carry out their plans successfully without forfeiting their reputation for piety and honesty. [2]
Her name is used for the main antagonist in the CGI animation Barbie: Fairytopia film series. Laverna is an evil fairy who is the twin sister of the land's fairy queen, The Enchantress.
In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin describes the ineffective Prefect of Police as "too cunning to be profound. In his wisdom is no stamen. It is all head and no body, like the pictures of the Goddess Laverna."
Diana is a goddess in Roman and Hellenistic religion, primarily considered a patroness of the countryside and nature, hunters, wildlife, childbirth, crossroads, the night, and the Moon. She is equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, and absorbed much of Artemis' mythology early in Roman history, including a birth on the island of Delos to parents Jupiter and Latona, and a twin brother, Apollo, though she had an independent origin in Italy.
Hecate is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, or snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depicted as three-formed or triple-bodied. She is variously associated with crossroads, night, light, magic, protection from witchcraft, drugs, the Moon, graves, and ghosts. Her earliest appearance in literature was in Hesiod's Theogony in the 8th century BCE as a goddess of great honour with domains in sky, earth, and sea. She had popular followings amongst the witches of Thessaly, and an important sanctuary among the Carians of Asia Minor in Lagina. Her oldest known representation was found in Selinunte, in Sicily.
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone, also called Kore or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld, who would later also take her into marriage.
Proserpina or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose iconography, functions and myths are virtually identical to those of Greek Persephone. Proserpina replaced or was combined with the ancient Roman fertility goddess Libera, whose principal cult was housed in the Aventine temple of the grain-goddess Ceres, along with the wine god Liber.
The Anthesteria was one of the four Athenian festivals in honor of Dionysus. It was held each year from the 11th to the 13th of the month of Anthesterion, around the time of the January or February full moon. The three days of the feast were called Pithoigia, Choës, and Chytroi.
In Roman religion, Angerona or Angeronia was an old Roman goddess, whose name and functions are variously explained. She is sometimes identified with the goddess Feronia.
Avernus was an ancient name for a volcanic crater near Cumae (Cuma), Italy, in the region of Campania west of Naples. Part of the Phlegraean Fields of volcanoes, Avernus is approximately 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) in circumference. Within the crater is Lake Avernus.
Libitina, also Libentina or Lubentina, is an ancient Roman goddess of funerals and burial. Her name was used as a metonymy for death, and undertakers were known as libitinarii. Libitina was associated with Venus, and the name appears in some authors as an epithet of Venus.
Hatmehit or Hatmehyt was an Ancient Egyptian goddess associated with the city in the Nile Delta known as Djedet or Mendes.
The Marsi were an Italic people of ancient Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus. The area in which they lived is now called Marsica. They originally spoke a language now termed Marsian which is attested by several inscriptions.
In Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal was the goddess of Kur, the land of the dead or underworld in Sumerian mythology. In later myths, she was said to rule Irkalla alongside her husband Nergal. Sometimes her name is given as Irkalla, similar to the way the name Hades was used in Greek mythology for both the underworld and its ruler, and sometimes it is given as Ninkigal, lit. "Lady of the Great Earth".
E Bukura e Dheut is an epithet in Albanian mythology and folklore, used in some traditions for a crafty fairy, and in other traditions for a chthonic/earth goddess, the counterpart of e Bukura e Detit and i Bukuri i Qiellit. As a goddess of the underworld and at the same time a personification of springtime, the Beauty of the Earth is evidently an epithet of the Albanian equivalent of the Ancient Greek Persephone, which is considered to be Prende, the Albanian dawn goddess, goddess of love, beauty, fertility, health, and protector of women, also referred to as Zoja e Bukuris "Goddess/Lady of Beauty".
In Etruscan and Sabine religion, Feronia was a goddess associated with wildlife, fertility, health, and abundance, also venerated by the Faliscans and later adopted into ancient Roman religion. As the goddess who granted freedom to slaves or civil rights to the most humble part of society, she was especially honored among plebeians and freedmen. Her festival, the Feroniae, was November 13 during the Ludi Plebeii, in conjunction with Fortuna Primigenia; both were goddesses of Praeneste.
Mother Nature is a personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of a mother or mother goddess.
Barbie: Fairytopia is a 2005 animated fantasy film directed by Walter P. Martishius and William Lau and written by Elise Allen and Diane Duane that premiered on Nickelodeon in the United States on 6 March and was released on VHS and DVD two days later. It was distributed internationally through Universal Pictures Video and Entertainment Rights.
The ancient Mesopotamian underworld, was the lowermost part of the ancient near eastern cosmos, roughly parallel to the region known as Tartarus from early Greek cosmology. It was described as a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where inhabitants were believed to continue "a transpositional version of life on earth". The only food or drink was dry dust, but family members of the deceased would pour sacred mineral libations from the earth for them to drink. In the Sumerian underworld, it was initially believed that there was no final judgement of the deceased and the dead were neither punished nor rewarded for their deeds in life.
Otter 841, also known as Sea Otter 841, is a female southern sea otter who attracted publicity in mid-2023 for her aggressive interactions with surfers and kayakers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California.
