Last Updated on 2022/10/01
Antevorta, also known as Porrima, is included in the group of Di indigetes and is one of the four Camenae.
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She is the goddess of the future and, opposing Postvorta, presides over the birth of children when they are in the cephalic position. Seen initially as an aspect of Carmenta, she later became a figure in her own right. She and her sister Postverta (or Postvorta), also known as “the Carmentae,” were alluded to as the companions or children of the goddess Carmenta. They may have started out as two facets of Carmenta, specifically, her ability to predict the future and the past (compare to the two-faced Janus).
Pregnant ladies prayed to Antevorta and Postvorta on their respective shrines in Rome to ward off the perils of delivery. When the infant was delivered feet first, Postverta was claimed to have been there; when the baby was born head first, Antevorta. According to Varro, who also says, that they had two altars in Rome, they were invoked by pregnant women, to avert the dangers of childbirth.
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