Prestota Çerfia, the Protectress
Umbrian · deity · Iguvine Umbrian religion; 3rd 1st c. BCE · Recorded classification
Prestota Çerfia is a protective goddess of Iguvium, one of the Çerfian deities who belong to the growth-god Çerfus Martius. Her name, Prestota or Praestita, means 'the one who stands before, the protectress', and in the great lustration she is invoked together with Tursa Çerfia in the imprecation against the enemies of the city, that the hostile Tadinate forces be filled with fear and turned to rout. She receives red or black pigs at the place called Rubinia. She stands at the centre of the defensive, apotropaic side of the Iguvine ritual, the divine shield set before the people.
Domains
- protection
- defence of the city
Powers
- to stand before the people of Iguvium and shield them from their foes
Epithets
- Çerfer MartierJames W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (1959), glossary s.v. Cerfus / Cerfia. (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: Çerfus MartiusExplicitly named 'of Çerfus Martius' (Çerfer Martier), she belongs to the divine circle of the growth-god Çerfus Martius.James W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (1959), pp. 268-285. (secondary)
- companion: Tursa Çerfia, Goddess of RoutPaired with Tursa Çerfia within the Çerfian group, the two goddesses of Çerfus Martius invoked together in the defensive imprecation of the lustration.Michael Weiss, Language and Ritual in Sabellic Italy (Brill, 2010), pp. 170-210. (secondary)
Sources
- Prestota Çerfia (Umbrian Prestota Çerfia Çerfer Martier) is the protectress goddess of Çerfus Martius at Iguvium, invoked to defend the city and propitiated with red or black pigs at Rubinia.: James W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (American Philological Association / Oxford University Press, 1959). (secondary); Michael Weiss, Language and Ritual in Sabellic Italy: The Ritual Complex of the Third and Fourth Tabulae Iguvinae (Brill, 2010). (secondary)