Egeria

Ēgĕrĭa (Aeg-), ae, f., = Ἠγερία,

• a nymph or Camoena celebrated in Roman mythology, the wife and instructress of Numa, with two sacred groves and fountains, the one near Rome, opposite the Porta Capena, the other in the neighborhood of Aricia, Liv. 1, 19; 21; Val. Max. 1, 2, 1; Ov. F. 3, 154; 261 sq.; 4, 669; id. M. 15, 482 sq.; Verg. A. 7, 763; 775; Juv. 3, 12 sq.

Ēgeria, ae, f., eine italische weissagende Quellnymphe od. Kamene, nach der röm. Mythe Gemahlin des Numa u. dessen Beraterin in Religionseinrichtungen, deren Quelle u. Hain die Sage teils in ein Tal bei Aricia (Aricina vallis, Ov. met. 15, 488; vgl. Verg. Aen. 7, 763 sq.), teils in das bei Rom vor dem kapenischen Tor gelegene Tal (j. Cafarella gen.) verlegte (Iuven. 3, 10 sqq.), Val. Max. 1, 2, 1. Liv. 1, 19 u. 21 (s. Schmid Hor. ep. 2, 1, 27). Wagner De Egeria fonte et specu eiusque situ. Marburg 1824.

Ēgĕrĭa, (13) æ, f. , Égérie [nymphe que Numa feignait de consulter] : Liv. 1, 19, 5 ; Virg. En. 7, 763.

Egeria

A Roman goddess of fountains, who was also a goddess of birth, and possessed the gift of prophecy. It was from her fountain, in the sacred enclosure of the Camenae, before the Porta Capena in Rome, that the Vestal Virgins brought the water necessary for the baths and purifications of their office. There was another fountain of Egeria in the precincts of Diana at Aricia. In Roman legend, Egeria was the consort and counsellor of King Numa, who used to meet her in a grotto in the precincts of the Camenae. After the death of her lover she fled to the shrine of the Arician Diana, by whom, as her wailings disturbed the worship, she was changed into the fountain which bore her name. Married women worshipped her at Rome as a goddess of childbirth.