Minerva (
Menrfa, or
Menrva) was the
Roman
goddess whom Hellenizing Romans from the second century BC
onwards equated with the Greek
goddess
Athena. She was the virgin goddess of
warriors,
poetry,
medicine,
wisdom,
commerce,
weaving,
crafts,
magic and the inventor of
music. She is often depicted with an owl, her
sacred creature and, through this connection, a symbol of
wisdom.
This article focuses on Minerva in ancient Rome and in
cultic practice. For information
on Latin literary mythological accounts of Minerva, which were
heavily influenced by
Greek
mythology, see
Pallas Athena,
where she is one of three virgin goddesses along with
Artemis and
Hestia.
Etruscan Menrva
The name "Minerva" is imported from the
Etruscans who called her
Menrva. Extrapolating from her Roman nature, it is
assumed that in
Etruscan
mythology, Menrva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools
and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek
Athena. Like Athena, Menrva was born from the head of
her father,
Tinia (Roman
Jupiter).
Her name has the
Proto-Indo-European
mn- stem, linked with memory as in Greek
Mnemosyne (μνημοσύνη) and
mnestis
(μνῆστις: memory, remembrance, recollection). The Romans could have
confused her foreign name with their word from the same stem.
mens meaning "mind", since one of her aspects as goddess
pertained also to the intellectual.
Cult in Rome
Menrva was part of a holy
triad with
Tinia
and
Uni, equivalent to the Roman
Capitoline Triad of
Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter.
As
Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and
doctors.
As Minerva Achaea, she was
worshipped at Luceria in Apulia where
votive gifts and arms said to be those
of Diomedes were preserved in her
temple.
In
Fasti III,
Ovid called her the "
goddess of a thousand
works." Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, though only
in Rome did she take on the warlike character shared by Athena. Her
worship was also taken out to the empire — in Britain, for example,
she was conflated with the local wisdom goddess
Sulis.
The Romans celebrated her festival from
March
19 to
March 23 during the day which is
called, in the feminine plural,
Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March,
the nineteenth, an
artisans' holiday. A
lesser version, the Minusculae Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of
June,
June 13, by the
flute-players, who were particularly useful to
religion.
In 207 BC, a guild of
poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on
the Aventine hill.
Among others, its members included
Livius Andronicus. The Aventine sanctuary
of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much
of the middle
Roman Republic.
Minerva
was worshipped on the Capitoline Hill as one of the Capitoline Triad along with Jupiter and
Juno, at the Temple of
Minerva Medica, and at the "Delubrum Minervae" a temple founded
around 50 BC by Pompey on the site now
occupied by the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva facing the present-day Piazza della
Minerva.
In modern usage
Universities and educational establishments
As patron goddess of wisdom, Minerva frequently features in
statuary, as an image on seals, and in other forms, at educational
establishments, including:
- Minerva is featured on the seals and logos of many institutions
of higher learning:
- the
University
of Louisville official seal
- University of Lincoln. Minerva's head is used as the logo of this
UK University. There is a tradition within the Lincoln rugby union
team and it is thought they are the Knights of Minerva, each match
being won in her honour.
- University at Albany, The State University
of New York. Minerva is still venerated by seniors and
their 'torch bearers' during a pre-graduation ritual called "Torch
Night" there.
- the
University
of Alabama
- the
University
of Virginia
- Union College, New York. Union College has also used Minerva as the
name of their new academic and social "Third Space" program, the
Minerva House System; and, also here, Minerva is the goddess of
Theta Delta Chi.
- UFRJ, the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.
- Escola Politécnica da USP,
Polytechnic School of University of São Paulo, in
Brazil.
- Ghent University, in Belgium
- American
Academy of Arts & Sciences, in Cambridge, Mass. The seal's principal figure is Minerva - a symbol
appropriate for an organization created in the midst of the
American Revolution and dedicated to the cultivation of every art
and science to "advance the interest, honour, dignity, and
happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."
- Minerva is also the name of the oldest student-association in
the Netherlands (Leiden University).
- Minerva decorates the keystone over the main entrance to the
Boston Public Library beneath the words, "Free to all." BPL was the
original public-financed library in America and, with all other
libraries, is the long-term memory of the human race.
- The annual prize for the best Politics student in Liverpool
Hope University in the UK is called the Minerva Prize, both because
of the association with wisdom and knowledge and because there is a
statue of Minerva on the dome of Liverpool Town Hall, the seat of
local politics in the city.
- Minerva is the Goddess of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity.
Fraternity Brothers are known as Loyal Sons of Minerva.
- Minerva is the name of a remote learning facility at Bath Spa
University in England, UK.
- Minerva is featured on the seal of the University of Science
and Arts of Oklahoma.
- A statue of Minerva stands in the entrance to Main Building at
Wells College in Aurora, NY. On the last day of spring semester
classes, graduating seniors kiss Minerva's feet for luck and
lifelong wisdom.
- Minerva is the patroness of the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Minerva is the name of the statue on the campus of Texas Woman's University that
represents the school mascot, The Pioneer Woman
- Minerva is featured in the logo of The
Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, Australia.
- Minerva is featured in the logo of Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow,
Scotland
- Minerva is featured on the seals of many schools and colleges:
on that of Union College in Schenectady, NY, the motto is
(translated from the French) "Under the laws of Minerva, we are all
brothers."
- Minerva is the patroness of the Union Philosophical Society of
Dickinson
College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
- The
Yale School
of Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut, features a Roman marble
statue of Minerva in its 4th floor atrium.
- The Minerva head is displayed outside The Natural History
Museum, Bergen, Norway
- In the Cardinal head of the University of Louisville symbol, by
the ear is the head of Minerva.
- The seal for the University of Louisville includes a large head
of Minerva.
Societies and governmental use
- The Minerva head has been associated with the Chartered Society of
Designers since its inception in 1930 and has been redefined
several times during the history of the Society by notable graphic
designers. The current logo was established in 1983.
The Great Seal of California
Medal of Honor
- The Seal of California
depicts the Goddess Minerva having sprung full grown from the brain
of Jupiter. This was interpreted as analogous to the
political birth of the State of California without having gone through the probation period of
being a Territory.
- In
the early 20th century, Manuel José Estrada
Cabrera, President of
Guatemala, tried to promote a "Cult of Minerva" in his country;
this left little legacy other than a few interesting Hellenic style "Temples" in parks around
Guatemala.
- According to John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy
(1798), the third degree of the Bavarian Illuminati was called Minerval or
Brother of Minerva, in honor of the goddess of learning.
Later, this title was adopted for the first initiation of Aleister Crowley's OTO rituals.
- Minerva is the logo of the world famous German "Max Planck
Society for the Advancement of Science" (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft)
- The
helmet of Minerva serves as the crest of the distinctive unit
insignia for Walter Reed Army Medical
Center in Washington, D.C.
- Minerva is displayed on the Medal of
Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United
States government.
- A large mozaic of Menerva is the focal art piece in the great
room of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Public monuments and places
- A
small Roman
shrine to Minerva (the only one still in situ in the UK) stands in
Handbridge, Chester. It sits in a public park, overlooking the
River Dee.
- Minerva circle is one of the famous and
busiest circles in Bangalore.
- The
Minerva Roundabout in Guadalajara, Mexico, located at the crossing of the López Mateos, Vallarta, López Cotilla, Agustín Yáñez and Golfo de
Cortez avenues, features the goddess standing on a pedestal,
surrounded by a large fountain, with an inscription which says
"Justice, wisdom and strength guard this loyal city".
- Minerva is displayed as a statue in the
Minneapolis Central
Library in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- Minerva is displayed as a statue in Pavia near the
train station, and is considered as an important landmark in the
city.
- A
statue of Minerva stands atop the dome of the Mitchell
Library in Glasgow, Scotland.
- A
seven foot statue of Minerva stands at the highest point in
Brooklyn, overlooking New York
Harbor, located in Green-Wood Cemetery.
- A
bronze statue of Minerva lies in monument square Portland,
Maine. "Our Lady of Victories Monument" dedicated
1891, Richard Morris Hunt and
Franklin Simmons.
Literature
- A collection of short stories, The Minerva Club, by
Victor Canning features a London club
for criminals. One of the stories, "Three Heads are better than
one" describes the recovery of a statuette of the Goddess Minerva
stolen from the club. Canning also wrote a novel called Castle
Minerva.
See also
Footnotes and references
- Aristotle Mirab. Narrat. 117
- http://public.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=6053&L=2
Secondary sources
See page 1090