Acca Larentia

See also: Acca

Acca Larentia is an obscure goddess chtonienne of Rome (that some identify with the goddess Sabine Larenta or Larunda) with which one returned a worship on the Vélabre at the time of the Larentalia , on December 23rd.

There exist several contradictory legends on its account.

According to one of them, Acca Larentia (or Laurentia, or even Larentina) were the woman of the shepherd Faustulus, the nurse of Romulus and Rémus and mother of twelve children, in the honor of which one would have instituted the college of the twelve Frères Arvales. According to Tite-Live, this Acca Larentia was a called prostitute Lupa , from where the legendary breast feeding of the She-wolf.

According to Aulu-Cold, Acca Larentia was simply a prostitute whom her trade had enriched and which, to its death, its fortune bequeathed to Romulus (or with the Roman people).

There exists thus a legend referring to this other (?) Acca Larentia. According to Pierre Grimal:

“ Under the reign of Romulus, or that of Ancus Marcius, one feastday, the guard of the temple of Hercules in Rome, invited the god himself to take part in a set of dice, provided that the winner would provide to the other a meal and a beautiful girl. The god accepted and gained the part; the guard offered a meal in the temple to him, and got to him the favors of the most beautiful girl of Rome, in this time, Acca Larentia. When Hercules left it, he advised to him, like reward, to put itself at the service of the first man whom it would meet. This man was a Étrusque, name of Tarutius, which married it. Tarutius was extremely rich, and it was not long in dying. Acca Larentia inherited its fortune, which consisted of vast fields, close to Rome. Itself, to its death, bequeathed them to the Roman people. This version of the legend was obviously invented to give legal claims to the possession of territories asserted by Rome. In its old age, Acca Larentia disappeared without leaving traces, with the Vélabre, the place even where other Larentia was buried, the woman of Faustulus. ” ==Notes==

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