the roman god of hot wet doo-doo

i don’t like discussing religion on the ragbag because i don’t believe in words that end in -ion. but from time to time i do make an exception. today is one of those times because i just learned about sterculius, the roman god of hot wet doo-doo.

for a poo god to make sense, one must understand that the early romans were deeply agrarian and that feces was then (as it still is all these many years later) a dependable fertilizer. thus, to pray to sterculius was to pray for a bountiful harvest. in fact, there was an entire of pantheon of kooky field gods:

Collina [presided] over the hills, and Vallonia over the valleys. Epona had charge of horses, Bubona of oxen. Seia or Segetra looked to the seed and the springing corn. Runcina was invoked when the fields were to be weeded; Occator, when they were to be harrowed. Sator and Sarritor presided over sowing and raking. Robigus or Robigo was worshiped to avert mildew.

there you have it, the next time that you spot some gnarly mildew in your fraternity house shower stall, drop robigo a quick prayer and hopefully everything will get cleared up in time for your next round of hazing.

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picture: the god sterculius as depicted in an old beavis and butt-head episode.
source: the mythology of ancient greece and italy (1854).