Diva Rumina, the breastfeeding goddess

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Rumina is an archaic birth and childhood deity. She is a breastfeeding goddess.

Rumina, also known as Diva Rumina, was a deity who guarded nursing women and perhaps nursing infants in ancient Roman mythology. Not just human mothers but also animal mothers were under her purview. Rumina, one of the indigitamenta, was a more ethereal, mystical being rather than the rich story and persona of later Roman deities. Romulus and Remus were fostered by a she-wolf under the Ficus Ruminalis, a fig tree at the base of the Palatine Hill, which was close to Rumina’s shrine. In this temple, milk was offered as a sacrifice rather than the more customary wine. The tree started to die around AD 58, which was seen as a bad portent.

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