Mu'rcia, Mu'rtea
or MU'RTIA, a surname of Venus at Rome, where she had a chapel in the circus, with a statue. (Fest. p. 143, ed. Müller; Apul.
Met. 6.395; Tertull.
De Spect. 8; Varro,
De Ling. Lat. 5.154; August.
De Civ. Dei, 4.16;
Liv. 1.33;
Serv. ad Aen. 8.636.) He This surname, which is said to be the same as Myrtea (from
myrtus, a myrtle), was believed to indicate the fondness of the goddess for the myrtle tree, and in ancient times there is said to havebeen a myrtle grove in the front of her chapel at the foot of the Aventine. (
Plin. Nat. 15.36;
Serv. ad Aen. 1.724; Plut.
Quaest. Rom. 20.) Some of the ecclesiastical writers preferred the derivation from
murcus, i. e. stupid or awkward. (August.
De Civ. Dei, 4.16; Arnob.
ad v. Gent. 4.9.) Others again derived the name from the Syracusan word
μυκρός, tender. (Salmas.
ad Solin. p. 637.)
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