Minerva
originally
Menerva (Etruscan, Menfra). One of the great Roman
divinities, the goddess of wisdom; identified with the Greek
Athené (q.v.). Her name contains the same root as
mens, me-min-i, mentio, etc., and she is accordingly the thinking,
calculating, and inventive power personified. Iupiter was the first, Iuno the second, and
Minerva the third in the number of the Capitoline divinities. Tarquin, the son of Demaratus,
was believed to have united the three divinities in one common temple, and hence, when repasts
were prepared for the gods, these three always went together. She was the daughter of Iupiter,
and is said to have sometimes wielded the thunderbolts of her father. As Minerva was a virgin
divinity, and her father the supreme god, the Romans easily identified her with the Greek
Athené, and accordingly all the attributes of Athené were gradually
transferred to the Roman Minerva; but we confine ourselves at present to those which were
peculiar to the Roman goddess. Being a maiden
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Minerva. (Gem in the King Collection.)
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goddess, her sacrifices consisted of calves which had not borne the yoke. She is
said to have invented numbers; and it is added that the law respecting the driving in of the
annual nail was for this reason attached to her temple. (See
Clavus.) She was worshipped as the patroness of all the arts and trades,
and at her festival she was particularly invoked by all who desired to distinguish themselves
in any art or craft, such as painting, poetry, the art of teaching, medicine, dyeing,
spinning, weaving, and the like. This character of the goddess may be perceived also from the
proverbs “to do a thing
pingui Minerva,” i. e. to do a
thing in an awkward or clumsy manner; and
sus Minervam (docet) of a stupid
person who presumed to set right an intelligent one. Minerva, however, was the patroness, not
only of women, on whom she conferred skill in sewing, spinning, weaving, etc., but she also
guided men in the dangers of war, where victory is gained by cunning, prudence, courage, and
perseverance. Hence she was represented with a helmet, shield, and a coat of mail; and the
booty made in war was frequently dedicated to her. Minerva was further believed to be the
inventor of musical instruments, especially wind instruments, the use of which was very
important in religious worship, and which were accordingly subjected to a sort of purification
every year on the last day of the festival of Minerva. This festival lasted five days, from
the 19th to the 23d of March, and was called
Quinquatrus, because it began on
the fifth day after the Ides of the month. On this date the Roman boys brought to their
teachers the school fee (
Minerval). This number of days was not
accidental, for we are told that the number five was sacred to Minerva. The most ancient
temple of Minerva at Rome was probably that on the Capitol; another existed on the Aventine;
and she had a chapel at the foot of the Caelian Hill, where she bore the surname of Capta— a title borrowed from the Faliscans, but of doubtful
import (Ovid,
Fasti, iii. 843).
