[64]
The goddess who presided over funerals was Libitina,[65] whose temple at
Rome, the undertakers furnished with all the necessaries for the
interment of the poor or rich; all dead bodies were carried through the
Porto Libitina; and the Rationes Libitinae mentioned by Suetonius, very
nearly answer to our bills of mortality.
FOOTNOTES:
[39] Either from _pilum_, a pestle; or from _pello_, to drive away;
because he procured a safe delivery.
[40] She taught the art of cutting wood with a hatchet to make fires.
[41] The inventress of brooms.
[42] From casting out the birth.
[43] Aulus Gellius.
[44] Aelian.
[45] From _erritor_, to struggle. See Ausonius, Idyll 12.
[46] Some make her the same with Rhea or Vesta.
[47] Among the Romans the midwife always laid the child on the ground,
and the father or somebody appointed, lifted it up; hence the expression
of _tollere liberos_, to educate children.
[48] This goddess had a temple at Rome, and her offerings were milk.
[49] On the Kalends of June, sacrifices were offered to Carna, of bacon
and bean flour cakes; whence they were called Fabariae.
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