Fontinalia was in honor of Fontus or Funds (plural Fontes, Font or Source), a god of wells and springs in ancient Roman religion. A religious festival called Fontinalia was held on October 13 in his honor. Throughout the city, fountains and wellheads were decorated with garlands.
Fontinalia, for fountains and wells
Fontus was the son of Juturna and Janus. Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, is said to have been buried near the Fontus altar (ara Fontis) on the Janiculum. William Warde Fowler observed that between 259 and 241 BC, cults were founded for Juturna, Fons, and the Tempestates, all of whom were connected with water sources. As a god of pure water, Fons can be contrasted with Liber as a god of wine identified with Bacchus.
One inscription includes Fons among a series of deities who received expiatory sacrifices by the Arval brothers in 224 AD, when several trees in the sacred grove of Dea Dia, their chief deity, were struck by lightning and burned. Fons received twice. Fons was not among the deities depicted on the coinage of the Roman Republic.
Water as a source of regeneration played a role in the Mithraic mysteries, and inscriptions to Fons Perennis (eternal spring or unfailing stream) have been found in Mithraea. In one scene of the Mithraic cycle, the god strikes a rock, which then gushes forth water. A Mithraic text explains that the stream was a source of life-giving water and immortal refreshment.
Dedications to the "inanimate entities" of Mithraic narrative ritual, such as Fons Perennis and Petra Genetrix, treat them as divine and capable of hearing, like the nymphs and healing powers to whom they are more often made.
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On this day, the Romans celebrated Fontinalia in honor of the god of wells and autumn Fontus. Throughout the city, fountains and wellheads were decorated with garlands. #mythology #myth #legend #calendar #13October #fontus #rome
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