Forculus
Roman · deity · regal · Recorded classification
Forculus is the panel of the door. He survives because Augustine wanted to make Roman religion look absurd and quoted Varro's list of the gods of a single doorway to do it — a god for the leaf, a goddess for the hinge, a god for the threshold. The mockery preserved the names. Whether these indigitamenta ever received cult in the way the great gods did is a real question; what is not in doubt is that a Roman antiquarian catalogued them as divine powers, and the record keeps them at that weight.
Domains
- household protection
Relations
- ally: CardeaOne of the three powers of the doorway with Cardea and Limentinus.Augustine, De civitate Dei 4.8, naming the three powers of the doorway together. (primary)
- ally: LimentinusOne of the three powers of the doorway with Cardea and Forculus.Augustine, De civitate Dei 4.8. (primary)
Sources
- Forculus is the Roman god of the door-leaf, named with Cardea and Limentinus among the small gods of the doorway in Varro's indigitamenta as preserved by Augustine.: Augustine, De civitate Dei 4.8, on Forculus, Cardea and Limentinus. (primary)