Silvanus (mythology)

Silvanus
Tutelary god of woods and uncultivated lands, protector of field boundaries and cattle, protector against wolves
Bronze statue of Silvanus, said to be from Nocera in southern Italy.
Abode	The forest
Symbols	Pan flute, cypress
Gender	male
Equivalents
Greek equivalent	Silenus
Etruscan equivalent	Selvans?

Silvanus (

Silvanus is described as the divinity protecting the flocks of cattle, warding off wolves, and promoting their fertility.[2]^[9][10][11] Dolabella, a rural engineer of whom only a few pages are known, states that Silvanus was the first to set up stones to mark the limits of fields, and that every estate had three Silvani:^[12]

• a Silvanus domesticus (in inscriptions called Silvanus Larum and Silvanus sanctus sacer Larum)
• a Silvanus agrestis (also called salutaris, literally "of the fields" or "saviour"), who was worshipped by shepherds, and
• a Silvanus orientalis, literally "of the east", that is, the god presiding over the point at which an estate begins.

Hence Silvani were often referred to in the plural.

Etymology

The name Silvānus (

In the provinces outside of Italy, Silvanus was identified with numerous native gods:[17]

• Poeninus, Sinquas and Tettus in Gaul and Germany
  .
• Callirius,
  Romano-Celtic Temple containing several plaques dedicated to Silvanus Callirius has been found at Camulodunum (modern Colchester).^[18]
• Calaedicus in Spain.
• The Mogiae in Pannonia.
• Selvans in Etruria (though the validity of this identification has been contested).^[8]
• Silenus, a Greek God, merged with Silvanus in Latin Literature.^[19]
• Pan (god of forests, pastures, and shepherds), in Greco-Roman mythology.^[19]
• Aristaeus, a god/patron of shepherds, harvest and other rural arts.

The

Xavier Delamarre suggests the epithet Callirius may be related to Breton theonym Riocalat(is) (attested in Cumberland Quarries), and both mean "(God) With Wild Horses".^[21]

Worship

The sacrifices offered to Silvanus consisted of grapes, ears of grain, milk, meat, wine and pigs.

In works of Latin poetry and art, Silvanus always appears as an old man, but as cheerful and in love with Pomona.^{[6][26][27][28]} Virgil represents him as carrying the trunk of a cypress (Greek: δενδροφόρος),^[14] about which the following myth is told. Silvanus – or Apollo according to other versions^[29][30] – was in love with Cyparissus, and once by accident killed a pet hind belonging to Cyparissus. The latter died of grief, and was metamorphosed into a cypress.^[31][32][33]

In Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590–96), Silvanus appears in Canto VI of Book I. His 'wyld woodgods' (Stanza 9) save the lost and frightened Lady Una from being molested by Sans loy and take her to him. They treat her as a Queen because of her great beauty. Spenser writes in Stanza 14:

So towards old Syluanus they did her bring;

Who with the noyse awaked, commeth out,

To weet the cause, his weake steps gouerning,

And aged limbs on Cypresse stadle stout,

And with an yvie twyne his wast is girt gud about.

References