Fornax (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion, Fornax was the divine personification of the oven (fornax). Her festival, the Fornacalia, was celebrated on February 17 among the thirty curiae, the most ancient divisions of the city made by Romulus from the original three tribes of Rome. The Fornacalia was the second of two festivals involving the curiae, the other being the Fordicidia on April 19.[1] The goddess was probably conceived of to explain the festival, which was instituted for toasting the spelt (Latin far) used to bake sacrificial cakes.[2]

For the constellation, see Fornax.

Ancient sources
  • Ovid, Fasti II. 525 ff
  • Festus, De significatu verborum, under Fornacalia, p. 82 in the edition of Lindsay
  • Plutarch, Roman Questions 89

See also

References
  1. William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), pp. 71 and 303; Christopher John Smith, The Roman Clan: The gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology (Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 206–207.
  2. Smith, The Roman Clan, p. 206.


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