page_title: Neptune (mythology)
section_title: Paredrae
hierarchical_section_title: Neptune (mythology) / Worship / Paredrae
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Triumph of Neptune" Roman mosaic from La Chebba, Tunisia, late 2nd Century CE. Women representing the four seasons occupy each corner, along with agricultural scenes and flora. Bardo National Museum, Tunis, Tunisia.
context_page_description: Neptune is the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune is the brother of Jupiter and Pluto; the brothers preside over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld. Salacia is his wife.
  Depictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those of North Africa, are influenced by Hellenistic conventions. Neptune was likely associated with fresh water springs before the sea. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, a patron of horse-racing.
context_section_description: Paredrae are entities who pair or accompany a god. They represent the fundamental aspects or the powers of the god with whom they are associated. In Roman religion they are often female. In later times under Hellenising influence they came to be considered as separate deities and consorts of the god. However this misconception might have been widespread in earlier folk belief. In the view of Dumézil, Neptune's two paredrae Salacia and Venilia represent the overpowering and the tranquil aspects of water, both natural and domesticated: Salacia would impersonate the gushing, overbearing waters and Venilia the still or quietly flowing waters. Dumézil's interpretation has though been varied as he also stated that the jolt implied by Salacia's name, the attitude to be salax lustful, must underline a feature characteristic of the god.
  Salacia and Venilia have been discussed by scholars both ancient and modern.   Varro connects the first to salum, sea, and the second to ventus, wind. Festus writes of Salacia that she is the deity that generates the motion of the sea. While Venilia would cause the waves to come to the shore Salacia would cause their retreating towards the high sea. The issue has been discussed in many passages by Christian philosopher St. Augustine. He devotes one full chapter of his De Civitate Dei to mocking the inconsistencies inherent in the theological definition of the two entitites: since Salacia would denote the nether part of the sea, he wonders how could it be possible that she be also the retreating waves, as waves are a phenomenon of the surface of the sea. Elsewhere he writes that Venilia would be the  "hope that comes", one of the aspects or powers of the all encompassing Jupiter understood as anima mundi.
  Servius in his commentary to the Aeneid also writes about Salacia and Venilia in various passages, e.g. V 724: "(Venus) dicitur et Salacia, quae proprie meretricum dea appellata est a veteribus": "(Venus) is also called Salacia, who was particularly named goddess of prostitutes by the ancient". Elsewhere he writes that Salacia and Venilia are indeed the same entity.
  Among  modern scholars Dumézil with his followers Bloch and Schilling centre their interpretation of Neptune on the more direct, concrete, limited value and functions of water. Accordingly, Salacia would represent the forceful and violent aspect of gushing and overflowing water, Venilia the tranquil, gentle aspect of still or slowly flowing water.
  Preller, Fowler, Petersmann and Takács attribute to the theology of Neptune broader significance as a god of universal worldly fertility, particularly relevant to agriculture and human reproduction. Thence they interpret Salacia as personifying  lust and Venilia as related to  venia, the attitude of ingraciating, attraction, connected with love and desire for reproduction. Ludwig Preller remarked a significant aspect of Venilia mentioning that she was recorded in the indigitamenta also as a deity of longing, desire. He thinks this fact would allow to explain the theonym in the same way as that of Venus. Other data seem to point in the same direction: Salacia would be the parallel of Thetis as the mother of Achilles, while Venilia would be the mother of Turnus and Iuturna, whom she mothered with Daunus king of the Rutulians. According  to another source Venilia would be the partner of Janus, with whom she mothered the nymph Canens loved by Picus. These mythical data underline the reproductive function envisaged in the figures of Neptune's paredrae, particularly that of Venilia in childbirth and motherhood. A legendary king Venulus was remembered at Tibur and Lavinium.
caption: Triumph of Neptune, Roman mosaic with the Seasons in each corner and agricultural scenes and flora (La Chebba, Tunisia, late 2nd century, Bardo National Museum)
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