Acca Larentia, The Semidivine Patroness and Mythic Mother of Ancient Rome
Acca Larentia, or Laurentia, was a semi-divine figure inherited from the Etruscans, known as a protector of the humble and associated with agricultural life. She was seen as an ancient Latin deity, regarded as the mother of the primitive arval brothers, an early priestly fraternity in Roman culture. According to legend, her twelve sons symbolized the twelve members of an ancient Roman priesthood, the Fratres Arvales, which mythologists believed represented the twelve months of the year (Pliny, Natural History, XVIII, 6; Gellius, VII, 7,8).
The She-wolf, with its evocative power, is the symbol of the city. The donation of Sixtus IV brought the statue to the Capitoline Hill. Initially, it stood in the fifteenth century facade of the palace. Then, it was transferred inside the palace, on the occasion of Michelangelo's architectural interventions. At that time, the twins were added, attributed to some by Pollaiolo. They transformed the ancient Lateran symbol of justice into Mater Romanorum. The creation of the work, which originally had probably nothing to do with the legend of Rome's foundation, can be traced back to Etruscan or Magna Graecia workshops of the fifth century BCE.
Scholars have proposed various interpretations of Acca Larentia's origins. One tradition, mentioned by Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius (4th–5th century CE), identifies her as the mother of the Lares, Etruscan-origin household gods revered by ancient Romans, particularly in domestic worship alongside Vesta, the hearth goddess, and the Penates.
Another version likens Acca Larentia to Mother Earth, connecting her myth with Hercules, symbolizing the marriage of Earth to Jupiter. In one narrative, during the reign of the kings, the keeper of Hercules’ temple challenged the god to a game of dice, wagering a meal and the most beautiful hetaera. The god won, and the keeper locked the enticing maiden Acca Larentia in the temple overnight, where the god, in gratitude, promised her that the first man she met would reward her handsomely. This man was Tarutius (or Tarrutius), an Etruscan merchant who, struck by her beauty, married her and left her his fortune upon his death. In gratitude, she bequeathed her lands to the Roman people, who commemorated her with the Larentalia or Larentinalia festival. These celebrations were held on December 23 near her tomb, with flamen Quirinalis priests and pontiffs performing funerary sacrifices. Her tomb was said to be located near the Velabrum, a transitional area between the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, where today the Shrine of Juturna stands. The tomb was likely an ancient sepulcher, a remnant of the necropolis that once covered much of the Forum valley.
[ca. 50 BCE] The Larentine Festival, which certain writers call the Larentalia, was named from Acca Larentia, to whom our priests officially perform ancestor-worship on the sixth day after the Saturnalia, which day is from her called the Day of the Parentalia of Larentine Acca (Varro, On the Latin Language, 6.23 - ca. 50 BCE )
Acca Larentia's tomb
Before Rome's foundation, Mediterranean cultures practiced "sacred prostitution," associated with the cult of the goddess Lupa, a deity linked to the Great Mother. This practice involved young virgins or priestesses, known as lupae, offering ritualized service in temples of the goddess near crossroads. In these temples, sacred prostitution (hierodulia) symbolized the sacred marriage (hierogamy), a fertility rite between men and deity. As these ancient cults declined, the term lupae became associated with ordinary prostitutes and brothels. Romans referred to prostitutes by many names, such as meretrices (from merere, to earn), ambulatrices (wanderers), fornicatrices (who practiced under arches), noctilucae (fireflies), and lupae (she-wolves). The lupanari, brothels named after the Latin term for prostitute (lupa), remained throughout the Roman era as places for paid pleasure, with some ruins still visible in ancient Pompeii.
[ca. 750 BCE] For the Latins not only called she-wolves "lupae," but also women of loose character, and such a woman was the wife of Faustulus, the foster-father of the infants, Acca Larentia by name. Yet the Romans sacrifice also to her, and in the month of April the priest of Mars pours libations in her honour, and the festival is called Larentalia (Plutarch, Romulus, Rom.4.3 - ca. 110 CE )
'Romulus and Remus Given Shelter by Faustulus' (c. 1643) by Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669) - Louvre Museum, Paris
The Romans later replaced Lupa’s cult with the Lupercalia festival, honoring the god Lupercus. This fertility festival involved rites performed by practitioners dressed as both goats and wolves.
As the myth of the she-wolf nourishing Romulus and Remus evolved, she was later thought to be the wife of Faustulus (Licinius Macer, 1st century BCE), who rescued the twin founders of Rome. This version, also reported by Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (3rd–4th century CE), called her Faula or Fabula, and lupa (prostitute) due to her disreputable past. Familiar with Acca Larentia’s renown and her tale with Hercules, storytellers identified her as Faustulus’s wife. In fact, after Romulus and Remus were thrown into the Tiber river, his husband shepherd brought them back to his home, where she raised theirs.
[ca. 1 BCE] Romulus at the outset instituted the Priests of the Fields, and nominated himself as the twelfth brother among them, the others being the sons of his foster-mother Acca Larentia; it was to this priesthood that was assigned as a most sacred emblem the first crown ever worn at Rome, a wreath of ears of corn tied together with a white fillet; and this dignity only ends with life, and accompanies its holders even into exile or captivity (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 12-37, 18.2.1 - ca. 77 CE )
Already the mother of twelve, when one son died, Romulus took his place, forming the Fratres Arvales. Therefore, she is identified with the Dea Dia of that collegium. The flamen Quirinalis acted in the role of Romulus (deified as Quirinus) to perform funerary rites for his foster mother Discovering their royal origins, Romulus and Remus avenged their family by killing the usurping uncle Amulius and restoring their grandfather Numitor as rightful king of Alba Longa. Thus, the she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus was identified with Acca Larentia, given her past as a courtesan.
Lastly, some scholars consider her a figure from the farcical phlyax plays of Magna Graecia, a genre of comic theater in southern Italy influenced by Greek drama and instrumental to the rise of Latin theater. Her figure was later merged with the Velabrum deity, blending the terms Lares and Larentia.
Last update: November 12, 2024
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