Vejovis


Vejovis or Vejove was a Roman god of Etruscan origins.

Representation and worship

Vejovis was portrayed as a young man, holding a bunch of arrows, or a pilum, in his hand, and accompanied by a goat. Romans believed that Vejovis was one of the first gods to be born. He was a god of healing, and became associated with the Greek Asclepius. He was mostly worshipped in Rome and Bovillae in Latium. On the Capitoline Hill and on the Tiber Island, temples were erected in his honour.
Though he was associated with volcanic eruptions, his original role and function is obscured to us. He is occasionally identified with Apollo and young Jupiter.
Aulus Gellius, in the Noctes Atticae, written around 177 CE, speculated that Vejovis was an ill-omened counterpart of Jupiter; compare Summanus. Aulus Gellius observes that the particle ve- that prefixes the name of the god also appears in Latin words such as vesanus, "insane," and thus interprets the name Vejovis as the anti-Jove.

Temple

He had a temple between the two peaks of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, where his statue carried a bundle of arrows and stood next to a statue of a she-goat.

Sacrifices

In spring, multiple goats were sacrificed to him to avert plagues. Gellius informs us that Vejovis received the sacrifice of a female goat, sacrificed ritu humano ; this obscure phrase could possibly mean "after the manner of a human sacrifice" or "in the manner of a burial." These offerings were less about the animal sacrificed and more about the soul sacrificed.

Festivals

Vejovis had three festivals in the Roman Calendar: on 1 January, 7 March, and 21 May.