The Lady of Thieves reflects these unpleasant realities in her own nature. It often seems as though the Otherworld is playing tricks upon we mere mortals, tormenting us and deceiving us. Relevance, because the truth is that life can be harsh, and even cruel. But we can perhaps sketch out some general outlines for her continued role and relevance. What’s left to us beyond this is speculation, at least so far as the historical picture of Laverna can be drawn. We know little else for certain about her place in the Roman pantheon, other than that there was apparently a shrine dedicated to her on the Aventine Hill in Rome, close to the Porta Lavernalis (Gate of Laverna) and that she also had a sacred grove on the Via Saleria, a highway that linked Rome to the Adriatic coast. The Romans, linking Underworld darkness with furtiveness and thieves, adopted and adapted her when they came to overwhelm and absorb the Etruscan culture. She probably originated as an Etruscan goddess of the Underworld. But I suspect that the real Laverna is even darker, much darker. Laverna is thus represented as a mistress of cunning, a deceiver, and an immoral twister of words. When the assembled Gods demanded to know why Laverna had broken her oath to the priest, having sworn on her own body, she made her body disappear leaving only her head visible, saying, “Behold, I have no body!” And when they put to her that she had broken an oath upon her own head, in the case of the nobleman, she made her head disappear so that only her body remained, saying, “Behold, I have no head!”Ĭonsequently Jupiter himself appointed her, from then onward, as the patroness of all rogues, whether thieves or dishonest tradesmen.
Of course when the payment was due, and Laverna having sold off every stick and stone of the noble’s former estate for profit, she had disappeared.īoth the priest and the nobleman, realising they had been cheated, appealed to the Gods for help.
Laverna goddess symbol full#
However, a year having passed, and the day for Laverna to hold true to her promise and pay the priest for his land having come around, she was nowhere to be found.Īt the same time as she perpetrated that fraud, Laverna also went to a great nobleman and played much the same trick, swearing upon her own head that she would pay him in full within six months. Crops, cattle, poultry, timber, the buildings, the whole lot, until there was nothing left that was worth even a couple of sesterces. Within a very short space of time, Laverna had sold off everything. With that assurance, the priest transferred the land into her ownership. She swore upon her own body that she would pay him in full for the land within a year. In the story, Laverna disguised herself as the priestess of some Goddess or other, then approached a priest, offering to buy an estate from him in order to build a new temple on it. The tale of Laverna, an obscure Roman goddess of thieves, is recounted in Leland’s Aradia, considered to be one of the primary sources for the modern Witchcraft revival. The Goddess wears many disguises, and it’s no surprise to find her appearing, too, as just such a trickster. Fox, Ananse or Brer Rabbit, these tricksters generally play a catalytic role within mythic and folk traditions, acting as a kind of fulcrum around which change takes place. The trickster is a character who seems to appear within every culture and every pantheon. This short essay was originally published in the Moon Books anthology Naming the Goddess and is republished here with kind permission of the editor and publisher.
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