Prestota Çerfia, the Protectress

Umbrian · deity · Iguvine Umbrian religion; 3rd 1st c. BCE · deity

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.

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