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The Lympha (plural ''Lymphae'') is an ancient Roman deity of fresh water.〔Floyd G. Ballentine, "Some Phases of the Cult of the Nymphs," ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 15 (1904), p. 90.〕 She is one of twelve agricultural deities listed by Varro as "leaders" (''duces'') of Roman farmers, because "without water all agriculture is dry and poor."〔Varro, ''De re rustica'' 1.1.4–7; Peter F. Dorcey, ''The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion'' (Brill, 1992), p. 136.〕 The Lymphae are often connected to Fons, "Source" or "Font," a god of fountains and wellheads. Lympha represents a "functional focus" of fresh water, according to Michael Lipka's conceptual approach to Roman deity,〔Michael Lipka, ''Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach'' (Brill, 2009), p. 67.〕 or more generally moisture.〔Patricia A. Johnston, "The Mystery Cults and Vergil's ''Georgics''," in ''Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia'' (University of Texas Press, 2009), p. 268; Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland, ''Ancient Rome: from the early Republic to the assassination of Julius Caesar'' (Routledge, 2005), p. 137.〕 Vitruvius preserves some of her associations in the section of his work ''On Architecture'' in which he describes how the design of a temple building ''(aedes)'' should reflect the nature of the deity to be housed therein:
The name ''Lympha'' is equivalent to, but not entirely interchangeable with ''nympha'', "nymph." One dedication for restoring the water supply was made ''nymphis lymphisque augustis'', "for the nymphs and august lymphae," distinguishing the two〔''CIL'' 5.3106; Ballentine, "Some Phases," p. 95; Theodor Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," ''Philologus'' 33 (1874), p. 269.〕 as does a passage from Augustine of Hippo.〔Augustine of Hippo, ''De civitate Dei'' 4.34: the ancient Jews, he says, "did not worship Nymphs and Lymphs when the rock was smitten and poured forth water for the thirsty" (''nec quando sitientibus aquam percussa petra profudit, Nymphas Lymphasque coluerunt'', English translation by R.W. Dyson).〕 In poetic usage, ''lymphae'' as a common noun, plural or less often singular, can mean a source of fresh water, or simply "water"; compare her frequent companion Fons, whose name is a word for "fountain," but who is also invoked as a deity. When she appears in a list of proper names for deities, Lympha is seen as an object of religious reverence embodying the divine aspect of water. Like several other nature deities who appear in both the singular and the plural (such as Faunus/fauni), she has both a unified and a multiple aspect.〔Lipka, ''Roman Gods'', p. 67; Joshua Whatmough, ''The Foundations of Roman Italy'' (1937), p. 159. The simultaneous oneness and multiplicity of these deities is an example of monotheistic tendencies in ancient religion: "Lower gods were executors or manifestations of the divine will rather than independent principles of reality. Whether they are called gods, demons, angels, or ''numina'', these immortal beings are emanations of the One": Michele Renee Salzman, "Religious ''koine'' in Private Cult and Ritual: Shared Religious Traditions in Roman Religion in the First Half of the Fourth Century CE," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 113. The nymphs, with whom the ''lymphae'' are identified, are among the beings who inhabit forests, woodlands, and groves ''(silvas, nemora, lucos)'' and ponds, water sources and streams ''(lacus, fontes ac fluvios)'', according to Martianus Capella (2.167), who lists these beings as pans, fauns, ''fontes'', satyrs, ''silvani'', nymphs, ''fatui'' and ''fatuae'' (or ''fautuae''), and the mysterious ''Fanae'', from which the ''fanum'' (sacred precinct or shrine) is supposed to get its name.〕 She was the appropriate deity to pray to for maintaining the water supply, in the way that Liber provided wine or Ceres bread.〔Ballentine, "Some Phases," p. 91, citing Augustine, ''De civitate Dei'' 4.22, 34; 6.1.〕 ==Name and functions== The origin of the word ''lympha'' is obscure. It may originally have been ''lumpa'' or ''limpa'', related to the adjective ''limpidus'' meaning "clear, transparent" especially applied to liquids.〔Entries on ''limpidus'' and ''lympha'', ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), pp. 1031 and 1055; Arthur Sidgwick, ''P.vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber VII'' (Cambridge University Press Archive, n.d.), p. 61, note 377; Fernando Navarro Antolín, ''Lygdamus. Corpus Tibullianum III. 1–6: Lygdami elegiarum liber'' (Brill, 1996), pp. 418–419. In his ''Etymologies'' (20.3.4), Isidore of Seville says that "limpid ''(limpidus)'' wine, that is, clear, is so called from its resemblance to water, as if it were ''lymphidum'', because ''lympha'' is water"; translation by Stephen A. Barney ''et al.'', ''The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 398.〕 An intermediate form ''lumpha'' is also found.〔''CIL'' 1.1238, as cited by Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," p. 269. Bergk demonstrated that ''lympha'' was in origin Italic, and not a borrowed Greek term, despite the spelling.〕 The spelling seems to have been influenced by the Greek word νύμφα ''nympha'', as the upsilon (Υ,υ) and phi (Φ,φ) are normally transcribed into Latin as ''u'' or ''y'' and ''ph'' or ''f''.〔Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," pp. 264–269.〕 That ''Lympha'' is an Italic concept〔Jacqueline Champeaux, "Sorts et divination inspirée. Pour une préhistoire des oracles italiques," ''Mélanges de l'École française de Rome'' 102.2 (1990), p. 827.〕 is indicated by the Oscan cognate ''diumpā-'' (recorded in the dative plural, ''diumpaís'', "for the lymphae"), with a characteristic alternation of ''d'' for ''l''.〔Whatmough, ''Foundations of Roman Italy'', p. 383; R.S. Conway, ''The Italic Dialects'' (Cambridge University Press, 1897), p. 676; Johnston, ''Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia'', p. 268; Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen," p. 265.〕 These goddesses appear on the ''Tabula Agnonensis'' as one of 17 Samnite deities, who include the equivalents of Flora, Proserpina, and possibly Venus (all categorized with the Lymphae by Vitruvius), as well as several of the gods on Varro's list of the 12 agricultural deities. On the Oscan tablet, they appear in a group of deities who provide moisture for crops.〔Johnston, ''Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia'', pp. 268–269.〕 In the Etruscan-based cosmological schema of Martianus Capella, the Lymphae are placed in the second of 16 celestial regions, with Jupiter, Quirinus, Mars (these three constituting the Archaic Triad), the Military Lar, Juno, Fons, and the obscure Italo-Etruscan Novensiles.〔Martianus Capella, ''The Marriage of Philology and Mercury'' 1.46 (online. )〕 A 1st-century A.D. dedication was made to the Lymphae jointly with Diana.〔''CIL'' 9.4644 = ''ILS'' 3857.〕 The Italic ''lymphae'' were connected with healing cults. Juturna, who is usually called a "nymph," is identified by Varro as ''Lympha'': "Juturna is the ''Lympha'' who aids: therefore many ailing people on account of her name customarily seek out this water", with a play on the name ''Iu-turna'' and the verb ''iuvare'', "to help, aid."〔Varro, ''De lingua latina'' 5.71: (''Lympha Iuturna quae iuvaret: itaque multi aegroti propter id nomen hanc aquam petere solent''). See also Frontinus, ''On Aqueducts'' 1.4, where Juturna is in company with the Camenae and Apollo. C. Bennett Pascal, ''The Cults of Cisalpine Gaul'' (Latomus, 1964), p. 93, reads an inscription as linking the Celtic god Belenus (usually identified with Apollo) and the ''Lymphae'', but Dessau reads ''Nymphae'' (''ILS'' 4867). Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 12.139, has Juturna as a ''fons'', and Propertius (4.21.26 ), as the ''lympha salubris'' who restored a horse of Pollux (some editions emend to ''nympha''; see note to the line at ''Sexti Aurelii Propertii Elegiarum Libri Quattuor'', edited by N. Lemaire (1840), p. 448 (online )).〕 Juturna's water shrine was a spring-fed ''lacus'' in the forum which attracted cure-seekers, and Propertius connected its potency to Lake Albano and Lake Nemi, where the famous sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis was located.〔Lawrence Richardson, ''A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 74, 105, 152, 228, 230–231.〕 Juturna's cult, which Servius identifies as a ''fons'', was maintained to ensure the water supply, and she was the mother of the deity Fons.〔Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 12.139: "Juturna is a fountain ''(fons)'' in Italy. … It was customary to offer sacrifices to this fountain in respect to a scarcity of water," as cited and discussed by Ballentine, "Some Phases," pp. 91–93. The temple was vowed by G. Lutatius Catulus as the result of a naval battle during the First Punic War. Arnobius, ''Adversus Nationes'' 3.29, identifies her as the mother of Fons.〕 In Cisalpine Gaul, an inscription links the Lymphae to the Vires, "(Physical) Powers, Vigor", personified as a set of masculine divinities,〔''CIL'' 5.5648; Joseph Clyde Murley, ''The Cults of Cisalpine Gaul as Seen in the Inscriptions'' (Banta, 1922), pp. 32–33.〕 a connection that in his monumental work ''Zeus'' Arthur Bernard Cook located in the flowing or liquid aspect of the Lymphae as it relates to the production of seminal fluid.〔Arthur Bernard Cook, ''Zeus'' (Cambridge University Press Archive), p. 306.〕 As a complement to the Vires, the Lymphae and the nymphs with whom they became so closely identified embody the urge to procreate, and thus these kinds of water deities are also associated with marriage and childbirth.〔R.B. Onians, ''The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate'' (Cambridge University Press, 1951), p. 220; Ballentine, "Some Phases of the Cult of the Nymphs," p. 97ff; on marriage (mainly in regard to nymphs, but see note 216), Salvatore Settis, "'Esedra' e 'ninfeo' nella terminologia architettonica del mondo romano," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' (1973), pp. 685–688.〕 When Propertius alludes to the story of how Tiresias spied the virgin goddess Pallas Athena bathing, he plays on the sexual properties of ''lympha'' in advising against theophanies obtained against the will of the gods: "May the gods grant you other fountains ''(fontes)'': this liquid ''(lympha)'' flows for girls only, this pathless trickle of a secret threshold."〔Propertius, ''Elegies'' 4.9.59–60, as cited and discussed by Tara S. Welch, "Masculinity and Monuments in Propertius 4.9," ''American Journal of Philology'' 125 (2004), p. 81.〕 The Augustan poets frequently play with the ambiguous dual meaning of ''lympha'' as both "water source" and "nymph". In the poetry of Horace,〔Ballentine, "Some Phases," p. 94.〕 ''lymphae'' work,〔Horace, ''Carmen'' 2.3.11–12 ''(laborat)''.〕 dance,〔''Carmen'' 3.13.13–16 ''(desiliunt)'' and Epode 16.47–48 ''(desilit)''.〕 and make noise;〔Epode 2.27 ''(obstrepunt)''.〕 they are talkative,〔''Carmen'' 3.13.13–16''(loquaces)''.〕 and when they're angry they cause drought until their rites are observed.〔''Sermo'' 1.5.96–103 ''(iratis)''.〕 Some textual editors have responded to this personification by emending manuscript readings of ''lymphae'' to ''nymphae''. When the first letter of a form of ''-ympha'' is obliterated or indistinct in an inscription, the word is usually taken as ''nympha'' instead of the less common ''lympha''.〔Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," pp. 268–269; Wilhelm Adolf Boguslaw Hertzberg, note to Propertius 3.16, ''Sex. Aurelii Propertii Elegiarum Libri Quattuor'' (1845), p. 340.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lympha」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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