Curitis

A surname of Juno, which is usually derived from the Sabine word curis, a lance or spear, which according to the ancient notions was the symbol of the imperium and mancipium, and would accordingly designate Juno as the ruling goddess.1 Hartung2 finds in the surname Curitis an allusion to a marriage ceremony, in which some of the bride's hair was either really or symbolically cut off with the curved point of a sword.

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References

Notes

  1. Ovid. Fasti ii, 477; vi, 49; Macrobius, i, 9.
  2. Die Religion der Römer. Vol. 2, p. 72.

Sources

  • Ovid. Fasti ii, 560.
  • Plutarch. Roman Questions, 87.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.