Vertumnus - Roman Cult and Possible Etruscan Origin

Roman Cult and Possible Etruscan Origin

Varro was convinced that Vortumnus was Etruscan, and a major god. Vertumnus' cult arrived in Rome around 300 BC, and a temple to him was constructed on the Aventine Hill by 264 BC, the date of the fall of Volsinii (Etruscan Velzna) to the Romans. Propertius also asserts that the god was Etruscan, and came from Volsinii.

The name Vortumnus appears to derive from Etruscan Voltumna. It was likely then further contaminated in popular etymology by a pre-existing Latin word vertēre meaning "to change", hence the alternative form, Vertumnus.

Sextus Propertius refers to a bronze statue of Vortumnus that replaced an ancient wooden statue that was placed in a simple shrine called the signum Vortumni, located at the Vicus Tuscus near the Forum Romanum and decorated according to the changing seasons. The base of the statue was discovered in 1549, perhaps still in situ, but has since been lost. Its inscription referred to a restoration to the statue made in the early 4th century AD: .

Vortumnus' festival was called the Vertumnalia and was held 13 August.

The origin and nature of Vortumnus that is the subject of the elegy of Sextus Propertius, our major literary source for this god, is presented as if the statue in the Vicus Tuscus were addressing a passer-by.

Ovid recalled a time (Fasti, vi, June 9 "Vestalia") when the Roman forum was still a reedy swamp, when

That god, Vertumnus, whose name fits many forms,

Wasn’t yet so-called from damming back the river (averso amne).