Querquetulanae

In ancient Roman religion and myth, the Querquetulanae or Querquetulanae virae were nymphs of the oak grove (querquetum) at a stage of producing green growth. Their sacred grove (lucus) was within the Porta Querquetulana, a gate in the Servian Wall. According to Festus, it was believed that in Rome there was once an oakwood within the Porta Querquetulana onto the greening of which presided the virae Querquetulanae.

In his entry on the Querquetulanae, Festus says that their name was thought to signify that they were nymphs presiding over the oak grove as it began to produce green growth, and that the Porta Querquetulana was so called because this kind of woodland (silva) was just within the gate.

Festus says that virae in archaic Latin meant feminae, "women," as if it were the feminine form of vir, "man", and that the words virgines (singular virgo) and viragines (virago) reflect this older usage. Virgo, from which the English word "virgin" derives, meant a young woman who had just reached the age to be with a man (vir): in the Etymologies of Isidore, "she is said to be a virgo on account of her youthful bloom and vigor" (viridiori aetate). In ancient etymologies, the concepts of vis (plural vires), "power, force, energy", and viriditas, "flourishing vigor", were thought to belong to a semantic group that included vir, virtus, and the virgo or vira who possessed "youthful vigor, growth, fertility, freshness, and energy".

A denarius issued by Publius Accoleius Lariscolus around 43–41 BC has sometimes been thought to represent the Querquetulanae on its reverse side. In this view, the head on the obverse represents a bust of Acca Larentia.

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