Mutunus Tutunus

Mutunus Tutunus or Mutinus Titinus was a Roman deity who was associated with the wedding rite of confarreatio. He seems to have been shown ithyphallic or as a phallus and corresponded to the extent Priapus Greek mythology. Presumably, however, was his cult image no human form or Herme, but a phallus with pronounced testicles. It has been suggested that the FASCINUM to Mutunus Tutunus in a similar relationship is like the Herme to Mercury.

In his cult image, the bride is said to have wagered throughout the course of the wedding ceremonies, so that the God they defloriere Christian authors reported. In particular, the size of the phallus is imagined. How is Augustine:

" But also Priapus is present, the above male, whose monstrous and abominable element, the newlyweds had set, according to the most respectable and pious custom of matrons. "

How much of this polemical reports actually goes back to Varro, is difficult to decide.

Uncertain is whether in fact a double-barreled name is present since Varro Write a Mutunus vel ( "or" ) Tutunus, the Christian authors, however, of Mutunus et ( "and") Tutunus, ie that are actually Mutunus and Tutunus two traditional forms of the name of God what already Varro time ambiguity existed. Maybe the name is related to Mutunus Mutto, meaning " penis " and testified muttonium, the term for a phallic amulet.

After Festus there was a sanctuary of Mutunus Tutunus on the Velia, which was visited by Roman ladies alone, where she wore a toga praetexta, a really highly placed persons and priests reserved for Zeremonialkleidungsstück, which suggests that there are representatives of a patrician priesthood acted.

Another possible interpretation depends, in turn, together with the wedding customs: not only priests and dignitaries wore the toga with the purple stripes, but also boys on the day of their manhood. For girls, the corresponding day was the wedding day, they took off their children's clothing and disguises ( capite velato ) in the toga praetexta a sacrifice offered up, possibly just in the sanctuary of Mutunus Tutunus, where is the above symbolic deflowering could take place, the but one can not say exactly because of the state of the traditional text.

Also unclear is the fate of the sanctuary: This time-honored shrine seems to have been torn down by Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus and erected in its place a bathing facility, certainly not without the consent of Augustus, whose faithful followers Domitius Calvinus was. The point at Festus is heavily corrupted and narrated by Paul the Deacon extract only very briefly.