ee above, Sec. 43.

[1386] Compare the Greek Hestia and the Hindu house-goddess
(Hopkins, _Religions of India_, pp. 374, 530).

[1387] On the Arician Diana see Frazer, _Golden Bough_, 2d
ed., i, 230 f.

[1388] Or, better, from _dei[=a]_.

[1389] The prevailing view is that the grove is an opened
place into which light enters, and it is thus distinguished
from the dark and gloomy forest. The verbs _nitere_,
_nitescere_, _virere_, are used by Ovid and other writers to
describe this gleaming of leaves, plants, trees, groves, and
of the earth.

[1390] An early divine name expressive of intellectual power
is not probable.

[1391] On her origin cf. Wissowa, _Religion der Roemer_, p.
203 ff.

[1392] Varro, _De Re Rustica_, i, 1.

[1393] See above, Sec. 803.

[1394] In favor of Ardea, twenty miles south of Rome, as her
original seat, cf. Wissowa, _Religion der Roemer_, p. 235.

[1395] Her identification with the Greek goddess was perhaps
furthered by a supposed relation between her name and the
noun _venustas_, 'grace, beauty,' the special quality of
Aphrodite. If that was the original sense of 'Venus,' it
could hardly have indicated an aesthetic perception of nature
(Wissowa, op. cit.); such a designation would be foreign to
early ways of naming deities. Whether the stem _van_ might
mean 'general excellence' (here agricultural) is uncertain;
on the Greek epithets 'Kallisto,' 'Kalliste,' and so forth,
cf. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, p. 1270 f. The name
'Venus,' if connected with the root of _venerari_, might
mean simply 'a revered object,' a deity; cf. Bona Dea and
Ceres (creator).

[1396] Roscher's _Lexikon_, s.v. "Fortuna," col. 1518;
Fowler, _Roman Festivals_, p. 68. On licentious cults of
Venus cf. J. Rosenbaum, _Geschichte der Lustseuche im
Altertume_.

[1397] See above, Sec. 671.

[1398] Articles in Roscher, _Lexikon_, and in _Orientalische
Studien Noeldeke gewidmet_.

[1399] Inscriptions of Rammannirari and Nebuchadrezzar (Birs
Nimrud); Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_,
Index, s.v.; id., _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice
in Babylonia and Assyria_, Index, s.v. _Adad_.

[1400] There is no separate god of Sheol in the Old
Testament. On Eve as such a deity see Lidzbarski,
_Ephmeris_, i, 26; cf. Cook, _North Semitic Inscriptions_,
135.

[1401] Gen. vi, 4, cf. Ezek. xxxii, 27; Phi