Le pericolose angustie della dea Angerona: motivi culturali e codificazione religiosa

Micol Perfigli

Abstract:

Romans invoked the goddess Angerona as protection against a terrible illness that killed men and animals through asphyxia (angina), or as defense against anxiety and worry (angores et sollicitudines). She was honoured during the festival of Angeronalia, on the 21st of December, the winter solstice, in the period of the year which the Romans called angusti dies. The goal of this paper is to elucidate different aspects of this deity through an analysis of the complex relationship of her name to the root *ang-, which was associated with various cultural manifestations of oppression, anxiety, narrowness and suffocation.