Libitina
Libitina, the goddess of corpses (in her temple were kept the funeral apparatus and the registries of death)
- I Lit.: triginta funerum milia in rationem Libitinae venerunt, were registered, Suet. Ner. 39.—
- II Transf.
- A The requisites for burial, the apparatus of funerals: pestilentia tanta erat ut Libitina vix sufficeret, i. e. it was hardly possible to bury all the dead, Liv. 40, 19, 3: ne liberorum quidem funeribus Libitina sufficiebat, id. 41, 21, 6.—
- 2 Esp., a bier, a funeral pile: dum levis arsura struitur libitina papyro, Mart. 10, 97; Plin. 37, 3, 11, § 45.—
- 3 The undertaker's business, the disposal of corpses: Libitinam exercere, Val. Max. 5, 2, 10.—
- B Death (poet.): multaque pars mei Vitabit Libitinam, Hor. C. 3, 30, 6; cf. id. S. 2, 6, 19: Libitinam evadere, Juv. 14, 122; Phaedr. 4, 18 fin.
quid enim ~a distat et epilensia?
~as fieri imperavit, quibus ‥ corpora ‥ ad ‥ coenobium allata sunt
hic, Augustine, micat aula tuae libithinae
corpus ‥ in ~a reponitur, et impositum humeris commilitonum ‥ deportatur
~as sive feretra in quibus corpora defunctorum ‥ afferuntur ‥ percipiet
pro j formula et j lebitina ab eo emptis
pro una ~a lignea
hic loculus,a bere ; est loculus bursa, parvus locus et lubitina
hec libetina, A.a bere
habere ~am, Anglicea heeler , ornatam nobilioribus ornamentis universitatis coram crucifixo in ede beate Virginis
iiij corporalia, ij ~a, ij ciste pro vestimentis
super feretrum subherse perpulchro, sub ~a pannis aureis undique decorata
remansit loco corporis cista ~e supposita
- 1. doodsgodin; in haar tempel werden alle benodigdheden voor begrafenissen bewaard en de sterfregisters bijgehouden;
- 2. (meton.) (a) benodigdheden voor een begrafenis, o.a.: draagbaar, doodsbed; (b) (poët.) dood.
- the goddess of corpses (in her temple were kept the funeral apparatus and the registries of death): acerba, H.—The apparatus of funerals: pestilentia tanta erat ut Libitina vix sufficeret, i. e. the dead could hardly be buried, L. —Death: vitare Libitinam, H., Iu.
An ancient Italian goddess of voluptuous delight and of gardens, vineyards, and vintages, originally connected with Venus, and therefore often called Venus Libitina. She was also regarded as the goddess of death and of the departed, and was therefore afterwards identified with Proserpina. By an ancient ordinance, asscribed originally to Servius Tullius, for every person who died in Rome a piece of money was deposited in her temple. Everything requisite for burials was kept there, and had to be bought or borrowed from it. Hence a person undertaking the burial of a person (an undertaker) was called libitinarius, and his business libitina; whence the expression libitina funeribus non sufficiebat—i. e. they could not all be buried. Owing to the connection of Libitina with the dead, the Roman poets frequently employ her name in the sense of death itself.