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PICUS , in See also:Roman See also:mythology, originally the See also:woodpecker, the favourite See also:bird and See also:symbol of See also:Mars as the See also:god of both nature and See also:war. He appears later as a spirit of the forests, endowed with the See also:gift of prophecy, haunting springs and streams, witha See also:special See also:sanctuary in a See also:grove on the Aventine. As a god of See also:agriculture, especially connected with manuring the See also:soil, he is called the son of Stercutus (from stercus, dung, a name of See also:Saturn). Again, Picus is the first See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king of See also:Latium, son of Saturn and See also:father of See also:Faunus. See also:Virgil (Aen. vii. 170) describes the reception of the ambassadors of See also:Aeneas by See also:Latinus in an See also:ancient See also:temple or See also:palace, containing figures of his divine ancestors, amongst them Picus, famous as an augur and soothsayer. Ac-cording to See also:Ovid (Metam. xiv., 320), See also:Circe, while gathering herbs in the See also:forest, saw the youthful See also:hero out See also:hunting, and immediately See also:fell in love with him. Picus rejected her advances, and the goddess in her anger changed him into a woodpecker, which pecks impotently at the branches of trees, but still retains prophetic See also:powers. The See also:purple cloak which Picus wore fastened by a See also:golden clasp is preserved in the plumage of the bird. In the simplest See also:form of See also:art, he was represented by a wooden See also:pillar surmounted by a woodpecker; later, as a See also:young See also:man with the bird upon his See also:head.
PIcuMNus is merely another form of Picus, and with him is associated his See also:brother and See also:double PILUMxus. Picumnus, a rustic deity (like Picus) and See also:husband of See also:Pomona, is specially concerned with the manuring of the soil and hence called Sterquilinus, while Pilumnus is the inventor of the pounding of See also:grain, so named from the pestle (pilum) used by bakers. See also:tinder a different aspect, the pair were regarded as the guardians of See also:women in childbed and- of new-See also:born See also:children. Before the See also:child was taken up and formally recognized by the father, a See also:couch was set out for them in the See also:atrium, where their presence guarded it from all evil. See also:Augustine (De civitate dei, vi. 9) mentions a curious See also:custom: to protect a woman in childbed from possible violence on the See also:part of See also:Silvanus, the assistance of three deities was invoked—Intercidona (the hewer), Pilumnus (the pounder) and Deverra (the sweeper). These deities were symbolically represented by three men who went See also:round the See also:house by See also:night. One smote the See also:threshold with an See also:axe, another with a pestle, the third swept it with a See also:broom—three symbols of culture (for trees were hewn down with the axe, grain pounded with the pestle, and the fruits of the See also:- FIELD (a word common to many West German languages, cf. Ger. Feld, Dutch veld, possibly cognate with O.E. f olde, the earth, and ultimately with root of the Gr. irAaror, broad)
- FIELD, CYRUS WEST (1819-1892)
- FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY (18o5-1894)
- FIELD, EUGENE (1850-1895)
- FIELD, FREDERICK (18o1—1885)
- FIELD, HENRY MARTYN (1822-1907)
- FIELD, JOHN (1782—1837)
- FIELD, MARSHALL (183 1906)
- FIELD, NATHAN (1587—1633)
- FIELD, STEPHEN JOHNSON (1816-1899)
- FIELD, WILLIAM VENTRIS FIELD, BARON (1813-1907)
field swept up with the broom) which Silvanus could not endure.
End of Article: PICUS
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