ndole tamen
quadam materna praeditam fuisse nuper exposuit Preunerus," says Henzen,
quoting Preuner's _Hestia-Vesta_, an old book but a good one (p. 333).
But to return to Lua: I freely confess that I cannot explain why she was
styled Mater. We only know of her, apart from the list in Gellius and
one passage of Servius, from the two passages of Livy quoted without
comment by Dr. Frazer. The first of these (viii. 1), which may be taken
from the pontifical books, seems to let in a ray of light on her nature
and function. In 338 B.C. the Volscians had been beaten, and "armorum
magna vis" was found in their camp. "Ea Luae Matri se dare consul dixit,
finesque hostium usque ad maritimam oram depopulatus est." That is, as I
understand the words, he dedicated the enemy's spoils to the _numen_ who
was the enemy of his own crops.[1010] For if Lua be connected
etymologically with _lues_, she may be the hurtful aspect of Saturnus,
like _Tursa_ Cerfia Cerfii Martii as Buecheler explains it (_Umbrica_,
p. 98).

A curious passage of Servius may be quoted in support of this view, in
which Luae is an almost certain correction for Lunae (see Jordan's
edition of Preller's _Rom. Mythol._ vol. ii. p. 22). Commenting on
Virgil's "Arboribusque satisque lues" (_Aen._ iii. 139), he writes:
"quidam dicunt, diversis numinibus vel bene vel male faciendi potestatem
dicatam, ut Veneri coniugia, Cereri divortia, Iunoni procreationem
liberorum: sterilitatem horum tam Saturno quam Luae, hanc enim sicut
Saturnum orbandi potestatem habere." Whatever Lua may originally have
been, she seems to have been regarded as a power capable of working for
evil in the crops and in women; if you could get her to work on your
enemy's crops (cp. the _excantatio_, above p. 58), so much the better,
and the better would her claim be to the title of Mater (but Dr. Frazer
supplies us with examples of a _hostile_ spirit being called by a
family name, _e.g._, Grandfather Smallpox, _G.B._ iii. p. 98). When the
consul had dedicated the spoils to her he proceeded to assist her in her
functions by ravaging the crops of the enemy; thus she became later on a
deity of spoils. In the Macedonian triumph of B.C. 167 we find her in
company with Mars and Minerva as one of the deities to whom "spolia
hostium dicare ius fasque est" (Livy xlv. 33).

I may add here that Dr. Frazer has another arrow in his quiver to prove
that Saturnus was married: if Lua was not his wife (which no Roman
ass