Vica Pota: Difference between revisions

In [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]], '''Vica Pota''' was a goddess whose shrine ''([[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#aedes|aedes]])'' was located at the foot of the [[Velian Hill]], on the site of the ''[[domus]]'' of [[Publius Valerius Publicola]].<ref>[[Livy]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=Fq6L77DZc54C&dq=%22Vica+Pota%22&pg=PA204 2.7.6] and 11–12.</ref> This location would place the temple on the same side of the Velia as the [[Roman Forum|Forum]] and perhaps not far from the [[Regia]]. [[Cicero]] explains her name as deriving from ''vincendi atque potiundi'', "conquering and gaining mastery."<ref>Cicero, ''De legibus'' 2.28.</ref>

[[File:Winged victory by Stefano Bolognini.jpg|thumb|right|upright|''[[:it:Vittoria alata di Brescia|Winged Victory of Brescia]]'', 1st century BC: the earlier goddess Vica Pota became identified with Victory personified]]

In the ''[[The Pumpkinification of Claudius| Apocolocyntosis]]'', Vica Pota is the mother of Diespiter;<ref>Duncan Fishwick, ''The Imperial Cult in the Latin West'' (Brill, 2002), p. 84 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ss-NgHC16PMC&dq=%22Vica+Pota%22&pg=PA84 online.]</ref> although usually identified with [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], Diespiter is here treated as a separate deity, and in the view of [[Arthur Bernard Cook]] should perhaps be regarded as the [[chthonic]] [[Dispater]].<ref>[[Arthur Bernard Cook]], "The European Sky-God III: The Italians," ''Folklore'' 16 (1905), p. 263 [https://books.google.com/books?id=YEcKAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Vica+Pota%22&pg=PA263 online.] See also Detlev Dormeyer, "Die Apotheose in Seneca Apocolocyntosis und die Himmelfahrt Lk 24.50–53; Apg 1.9–11," in ''Testimony and Interpretation: Early Christology in its Judeo-Hellenistic Milieu: Studies in Honor of Petr Pokorný'' (Continuum, 2004), p. 137 [https://books.google.com/books?id=smoKwl8Cn_sC&dq=%22Vica+Pota%22&pg=PA137 online.]</ref> The [[Roman festival|festival]] of Vica Pota was January 5.

[[Asconius]] identifies her with [[Victoria (goddess)|Victoria]],<ref>Lawrence Richardson, ''A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 140 and 420.</ref> but she is probably an earlier Roman or [[Ancient peoples of Italy|Italic]] form of victory goddess that predated Victoria and the influence of Greek [[Nike (mythology)|Nike]];<ref>J. Rufus Fears, "The Theology of Victory at Rome," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.17.2 (1981), p. 774 [https://books.google.com/books?id=QK1M2VD1tsAC&dq=%22Vica+Pota%22&pg=PA774 online]; John T. Ramsey and A. Lewis Licht, ''The Comet of 44 B.C. and Caesar's Funeral Games'' (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 186 [https://books.google.com/books?id=SRMUiwOEaTYC&dq=%22Vica+Pota%22&pg=PA186 online.]</ref> Vica Pota was thus the older equivalent of Victoria but probably not a [[personification]] of victory as such.<ref>William Vernon Harris, ''War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, 327-70 B.C.'' (Oxford University Press, 1979, 1985), p. 124 [https://books.google.com/books?id=tSE8PW5Eq1wC&dq=%22Vica+Pota%22&pg=PA124 online.]</ref> In a conjecture not widely accepted, [[Ludwig Preller]] thought that Vica Pota might be identified with the [[Etruscan mythology|Etruscan divine figure]] Lasa Vecu.<ref>Preller, ''Römische Mythologie'' vol. 2, p. 245, as cited by Charles Hoeing, "Vica Pota," ''American Journal of Philology'' 24 (1903), p. 324 [https://books.google.com/books?id=k5ANAAAAYAAJ&dq=lasa+vecu&pg=PA324 online.]</ref>

==See also==

* [[Vacuna]], sometimes also identified as a goddess of victory

[[Category:Victory]]