Section 1. Numa and Egeria.
FROM THE FOREGOING survey of custom and legend we may infer that the sacred
marriage of the powers both of vegetation and of water has been celebrated by many
peoples for the sake of promoting the fertility of the earth, on which the life of animals and
men ultimately depends, and that in such rites the part of the divine bridegroom or bride is
often sustained by a man or woman. The evidence may, therefore, lend some countenance
to the conjecture that in the sacred grove at Nemi, where the powers of vegetation and of
water manifested themselves in the fair forms of shady woods, tumbling cascades, and
glassy lake, a marriage like that of our King and Queen of May was annually celebrated
between the mortal King of the Wood and the immortal Queen of the Wood, Diana. In this
connexion an important figure in the grove was the water-nymph Egeria, who was
worshipped by pregnant women because she, like Diana, could grant them an easy delivery.
From this it seems fairly safe to conclude that, like many other springs, the water of Egeria
was credited with a power of facilitating conception as well as delivery. The votive offerings
found on the spot, which clearly refer to the begetting of children, may possibly have been
dedicated to Egeria rather than to Diana, or perhaps we should rather say that the
water-nymph Egeria is only another form of the great nature-goddess Diana herself, the
mistress of sounding rivers as well as of umbrageous woods, who had her home by the lake
and her mirror in its calm waters, and whose Greek counterpart Artemis loved to haunt
meres and springs. The identification of Egeria with Diana is confirmed by a statement of
Plutarch that Egeria was one of the oak-nymphs whom the Romans believed to preside
over every green oak-grove; for, while Diana was a goddess of the woodlands in general,
she appears to have been intimately associated with oaks in particular, especially at her
sacred grove of Nemi. Perhaps, then, Egeria was the fairy of a spring that flowed from the
roots of a sacred oak. Such a spring is said to have gushed from the foot of the great oak
at Dodona, and from its murmurous flow the priestess drew oracles. Among the Greeks a
draught of water from certain sacred springs or wells was supposed to confer prophetic
powers. This would explain the more than mortal wisdom with which, according to tradition,
Egeria inspired her royal husband or lover Numa. When we remember how very often in
early society the king is held responsible for the fall of rain and the fruitfulness of the earth,
it seems hardly rash to conjecture that in the legend of the nuptials of Numa and Egeria we
have a reminiscence of a sacred marriage which the old Roman kings regularly contracted
with a goddess of vegetation and water for the purpose of enabling him to discharge his
divine or magical functions. In such a rite the part of the goddess might be played either by
an image or a woman, and if by a woman, probably by the Queen. If there is any truth in this
conjecture, we may suppose that the King and Queen of Rome masqueraded as god and
goddess at their marriage, exactly as the King and Queen of Egypt appear to have done.
The legend of Numa and Egeria points to a sacred grove rather than to a house as the
scene of the nuptial union, which, like the marriage of the King and Queen of May, or of the
vine-god and the Queen of Athens, may have been annually celebrated as a charm to
ensure the fertility not only of the earth but of man and beast. Now, according to some
accounts, the scene of the marriage was no other than the sacred grove of Nemi, and on
quite independent grounds we have been led to suppose that in that same grove the King
of the Wood was wedded to Diana. The convergence of the two distinct lines of enquiry
suggests that the legendary union of the Roman king with Egeria may have been a
reflection or duplicate of the union of the King of the Wood with Egeria or her double
Diana. This does not imply that the Roman kings ever served as Kings of the Wood in the
Arician grove, but only that they may originally have been invested with a sacred character
of the same general kind, and may have held office on similar terms. To be more explicit, it is
possible that they reigned, not by right of birth, but in virtue of their supposed divinity as
representatives or embodiments of a god, and that as such they mated with a goddess, and
had to prove their fitness from time to time to discharge their divine functions by engaging
in a severe bodily struggle, which may often have proved fatal to them, leaving the crown
to their victorious adversary. Our knowledge of the Roman kingship is far too scanty to
allow us to affirm any one of these propositions with confidence; but at least there are
some scattered hints or indications of a similarity in all these respects between the priests
of Nemi and the kings of Rome, or perhaps rather between their remote predecessors in
the dark ages which preceded the dawn of legend. 1