August 13th is Vertumnalia, the festival to Vertumnus, the Roman god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees. He could change his form at will, and used this power to trick the dryad (wood nymph) Pomona, the patron of orchards and gardens, into becoming his wife by disguising himself as a crone. The scholar Varro was convinced that Vertumnus was Etruscan and a major god in the pantheon. “The rites of Vertumnus bring lyre and lyric from the woods of rustic Latium. Seasons change as fast as faces, bringing forth the bounty of crop and bough. Once a god of old Tusculum, Vertumnus, master of change, revels in his pastoral triumphs.”
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