A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

and PILUMNUS, were regarded as two brothers, and as the beneficent gods of matrimony in the rustic religion of the ancient Romans. A couch was prepared for them in the house in which there was a newly-born child. Pilumnus was believed to ward off all the sufferings from childhood from the infant with his pilum, with which he taught to pound the grain ; and Picumnus, who, under the name of Sterquilinius, was believed to have discovered the use of manure for the fields, conferred upon the infant strength and prosperity, whence both were also looked upon as the gods of good deeds, and were identified with Castor and Pollux. (Serv. ad Aen. 9.4, 10.76; August. De Civ. Dei. 6.9, 18.15 ; Ov. Met. 14.321, &c.; Verg. A. 7.189). When Danae landed in Italy, Picumnus is said to have built with her the town of Ardea, and to have become by her the father of Dannus.

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