VENUS VERTICORDIA, AEDES
a temple built in 114 B.C., in accordance with
instructions of the Sibylline books, to atone for a case of incest among
the Vestals and a prodigium that followed the acquittal of two at the
first trial (Obseq. 37 (97); Lydus de mens. iv. 15; Ov.
Fast. iv. 157-160;
cf.
Oros. v. 15. 22). The epithet referred to the power of the goddess to
turn the mind from lust to purity (Ov. loc. cit.; Val.
Max. viii. 15. 12).
The day of dedication was 1st April (CIL i². p. 314; Ov.
Fast. iv. 133 ff.;
Lydus, loc. cit.;
Macrob. i. 12. 15). Servius speaks of a fanum Veneris
Verticordiae in the vallis Murciae (
Aen. viii. 636), but seems to be confusing the shrine of this goddess with that of Venus Murcia. This may
show that the former was near the latter; if not, there is no indication
of its location. The statue of the goddess is shown in coins of about
46 B.C. of M. Cordius Rufus (BM.
Rep. i. 523. 4037-9).
About a century earlier Sulpicia (
RE vii. 246), the wife of Q. Fulvius
Flaccus, consul for the fourth time in 209 B.C., is said to have been
selected, in accordance with the Sibylline books, as the most chaste
woman in Rome, to dedicate a simulacrum to Venus Verticordia (Val.
Max.
viii. 15. 12; Plin.
NH vii. 120;
Solin. i. 126), but what relation this
statue may have had to the later temple is not known (WR 290-291;
Pr.
Myth. i. 446;
Gilb. iii. 92).
