Camenae

[ kuh-mee-nee ]

plural noun

, Roman Religion.

, singular Ca·me·na [k, uh, -, mee, -n, uh].

1. four wise and prophetic deities or fountain nymphs: Carmenta, Egeria, Antevorta, and Postvorta; later identified with the Greek Muses.

Camenae

/ kəˈmiːniː /

plural noun

1. Roman myth a group of nymphs originally associated with a sacred spring in Rome, later identified with the Greek Muses

Example Sentences

The Camenae began as useful and practical goddesses who cared for springs and wells and cured disease and foretold the future.

From Literature

But when the Greek gods came to Rome, the Camenae were identified with those impractical deities the Muses, who cared only for art and science.

From Literature

The best known of all the fragments of Naevius, and the most favourable specimen of his style, is his epitaph:— Mortales immortales flere si foret fas, Flerent divae Camenae Naevium poetam, Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro, Obliti sunt Romae loquier Latina lingua.

From Project Gutenberg

The worship of the Camenae was indeed an old and genuine part of the Roman or Italian religion; but, as was said before, their original function was to predict future events, and to communicate the knowledge of divination; not like that of the Greek Muses, to imagine bright stories of divine and human adventure,— λησμοσύνην τε κακῶν ἄμπαυμά τε μερμηράων.

From Project Gutenberg

Even the names by which two of the Camenae were known—Postvorta and Antevorta—suggest the prosaic and practical functions which they were supposed to fulfil.

From Project Gutenberg