Anna Perenna

• an old Italian goddess, the protector or bestower of the returning year (acc. to Macr. S. 1, 12, offerings were made to her, ut annare perennareque commode liceat, and hence her name); cf. Inscr. Orell. II. 1847; II. p. 412; in later times she was identified with 1. Anna; cf. Ov. F. 3, 654; Sil. 8, 50 sq.

An ancient Italian goddess, about whose exact attributes the ancients themselves were not clear. She is probably the moongoddess of the current year, who every month renews her youth, and was therefore regarded as a goddess who bestowed long life, and all that contributes to it. About full moon on the Ides (15th) of March (then the first month of the year), in a grove of fruit trees at the first milestone on the Flaminian Way, the Romans held a feast under the open sky, wishing each other as many years of life as they drank cups of wine. (See Ovid, Fasti, iii. 523 foll.) The learned men of the Augustan Age identified Anna with Dido's sister, who, on the death of that queen, had fled from Carthage to Aeneas in Italy; but, having excited Lavinia's jealousy, threw herself into the Numicius.