Pagan Festival Shout Out: Festival Of Furrina

Furrina is an ancient Roman Goddess Who may have Etruscan origins. Her exact nature is debated; however Her worship is quite old, dating from very early times, though by the end of the Roman Republic Her cult was almost forgotten. She had a sacred grove located on the Janiculum, a long ridge or hill on the right bank of the Tiber in Rome; Her grove evidentally had a spring, and probably had a shrine there as well. In later times (the mid-1st century CE) a temple to the Syrian Triad of Jupiter Heliopolitanus (the Roman version of the Phoenician Storm God Ba'al-Hadad), Venus Heliopolitana (the Syrian Goddess Atargatis) and Mercury (considered Her son, possibly Simios) was built on the site, and perhaps because of this there have been few remains found there from Republican times.

Furrina's festival was the Furrinalia on July 25. On the Roman calendar, festivals separated by an interval of three days were interconnected and belonged to the same function. In the second half of July, the two Lucaria occur on the 19th and 17th, with the Neptunalia on the 23rd and the Furrinalia on the 25th. This grouping is devoted to woods and running waters, which are intended as a shelter and a relief from the heat of the season, the canicula.

Furrina's name has been used to connect Her to robbers or thieves, and to the Roman Goddess of Thieves Laverna. Her name is quite similar to certain Latin words relating to that idea, though if Her origins are Etruscan, it wouldn't seem likely that Her name is related, as the Etruscan language is in a family all its own and is not connected with Latin, nor is it an Indo-European language (though that would not prevent it from being a loan-word or translation, I suppose). At any rate, the similar Latin words are furina, "thief", or "robber"; furtum, "theft"; furtim, "stealthily"; and furax, "thievish" (these words are also at the root of the English furtive, meaning "stealthy" or "thief-like"). Accordingly, some authorities consider Her a Goddess of Thieves or Bandits, much like Laverna. These Latin words, oddly enough, are also related to terms pertaining to bees and bee-keeping; furina can also be used of "robber bees", or bees who steal honey from colonies not their own, usually if there is insufficient nectar to be found out in the fields at the time; and forina (an alternate spelling of Furrina) can refer to a cell of bees. What Furrina might have to do with bees, however, is not known.

Furrina's cult was not only known in Rome; She was said to have had a temple or shrine in the city of Satricum on the Liris River, not far from Arpinum in Latium, about 65 miles south east of Rome. Arpinum (the modern Arpino) is a very old city, dating from at least the 7th century BCE and said to have been founded by the Volscians; the Satricum on the Liris is not the same as the more famous Satricum destroyed by the Romans, which was, like Arpinium, a Volscian town. Perhaps these tenuous associations hint at a Volscian origin for Furrina. Regardless of her religious significance in ancient times or the reason she is so vaguely remembered is of no difference to me. What is important is that she seems to be very intriguing and once worthy to shout to the heavens. I think she needs a resurrection and adjuration of glory. Worthy of worship once more! (Information taken from Wiki and other sites on ancient dieties)