ancient Roman religion Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the Roman people, people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as high ...

and

myth Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

, the Querquetulanae or were

nymph A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...

s of the oak grove () at a stage of producing green growth. Their sacred grove ('' lucus'') was within the Porta Querquetulana, a gate in the Servian Wall. According to Festus, it was believed that in Rome there was once an oakwood within the Porta Querquetulana onto the greening of which presided the .

Etymology

Since the ''Querquetulanae'' are the nymphs of the sacred oak grove ('), the word stems from Latin , meaning '

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

In Festus

In his entry on the Querquetulanae, the grammarian

Sextus Pompeius Festus Sextus Pompeius Festus, usually known simply as Festus, was a Ancient Rome, Roman Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian who probably flourished in the later 2nd century AD, perhaps at Narbo (Narbonne) in Gaul. Work He made a 20-volume epitome of V ...

says that their name was thought to signify that they were nymphs presiding over the oak grove as it began to produce green growth, and that the Porta Querquetulana was so called because this kind of woodland () was just within the gate. Festus says that in archaic Latin meant , 'women', as if it were the

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

form of , 'man', and that the words (singular ) and reflect this older usage. , from which the English word ''virgin'' is derived, meant a young woman who had just reached the age to be with a man (): in the ''

Etymologies Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

'' of

Isidore Isidore ( ; also spelled Isador, Isadore and Isidor) is a masculine given name. The name is derived from the Greek name ''Isídōros'' (Ἰσίδωρος, latinized ''Isidorus'') and can literally be translated to 'gift of Isis'. The name has survi ...

, "she is said to be a on account of her youthful bloom and vigor" (). In ancient etymologies, the concepts of (plural ), 'power, force, energy', and , 'flourishing vigor', were thought to belong to a semantic group that included , , and the or who possessed "youthful vigor, growth, fertility, freshness, and energy".

Denarius of Accoleius Lariscolus

denarius The ''denarius'' (; : ''dēnāriī'', ) was the standard Ancient Rome, Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the ''antoninianus''. It cont ...

issued by Publius Accoleius Lariscolus around 43–41 BC has sometimes been thought to represent the Querquetulanae on its reverse side. In this view, the head on the

obverse The obverse and reverse are the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''obverse'' ...

represents a bust of Acca Larentia. A.B. Cook interpreted the three female figures on the reverse as "archaistic caryatids" bearing a beam on which five trees are supported. He saw the nymph on the left as holding a bow, and the one on the right holding a lily. The trees, however, he identified as more likely to represent

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

es (, singular ), from which he derives the name ('young larch'), hence embodying the sisters of Phaëton transformed to larches. Alföldi established the currently dominant view that the reverse represented a "triple goddess" statue in a

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs from the ''Cupressus'' genus of the '' Cupressaceae'' family, typically found in temperate climates and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. The word ''cypress'' ...

grove, with Diana Nemorensis on the obverse to represent the origin of the '' gens Accoleia'' in Aricia. Diana, however, had an affinity with the oak, and had an ancient sanctuary on the ''Mons Querquetulanus'' (see below).

Lares Querquetulani

The Lares Querquetulani (' tutelaries of the oak grove') had a shrine ''( sacellum)'' on the Esquiline. These

Lares Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ) were Tutelary deity#Ancient Rome, guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an ama ...

may be connected to the Querquetulanae, depending on where their grove is to be located. One of the former peoples listed by Pliny who participated in the Latin Festival were the Querquetulani. Palmer thought their name in conjunction with the Lares Querquetulani and the indicated the existence of a called , since only a few names of the thirty are known. The may have also been tutelaries of the Latin Querquetulani. As indicated by inscriptions, in general Lares and nymphs might be the joint recipients of '' cultus'' in Italy and share the same sacred space.Hartswick, ''The Gardens of Sallust,'' p. 14; Cook, ''Zeus,'' vol. 2, p. 402.

References

{{Reflist Dryads Trees in mythology Topography of the ancient city of Rome Rome R. XIX Celio