Picumnus

An Old-Italian rustic god of growth. He is believed to have discovered the use of manure for fertilizing the fields and was as such called Sterquilinus or, according to others, Stercutus (from Latin stercus, "manure.").

Together with his brother Pilumnus he was the protector of children: Pilumnus averted children's diseases and Picumnus conferred strength and prosperity, whence both were also looked upon as the gods of good deeds, and were identified with Castor and Pollux. A couch was prepared for them in the house of the new-born.

When Danaë arrived in Italy, Picumnus (or Pilumnus) is said to have built with her the town of Ardea and to have become by her the father of Daunus.

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References

Sources

  • Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Augustine. City of God vi, 9; xviii, 15.
  • Ovid. Metamorphoses xiv, 321 ff.
  • Servius on Virgil's Aeneid ix, 4; x, 76.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Virgil. Aeneid vii, 189.

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