Venilia was a minor deity in Roman times, associated with the winds and the sea, and mentioned by both Virgil and Ovid. Part of a two-entities group associated with Neptune, Salacia and Vénilia, she expressed one of two aspects, domains or modes of action of the god: while Salacia can represent the rushing and possibly rebellious and dangerous flow of water, and Venilia, the calm and docile flow of the same waters. Salacia is the goddess of salt, in a time when the commodity of exchange was not money but salt itself, and no less vital than water. The more archaic cults of Salacia and Venilia were largely supplanted by the cult of Amphitrite, the official wife of Neptune, particularly venerated on the coasts and in the ports for the success of navigation and trade.
She’s today’s focus on my Patreon.
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