Hail Vediovis!
Hail to the mysterious god!
May we bridge the netherworld with the upper world of flowers and springtime growth!
May we listen to and be protected by the voice of freedom!
Salve Diovis!

* * * * *

The Agonium of May is one of four Agonia in the year as a whole – each associated with a nominally different deity: the Agonium Martiale of 17 March to Mars and/or Quirinus, the Agonium of 11 December that begins the Latin yuletide to Sol Indiges, and the Agonium of January – the first feriae of the solar year – to Janus. According to the Fasti Venusini, the dies agonalis of May is dedicated to the god Vediovis. This otherwise unknown figure is possibly an indigitation of Mars or at least a chthonian figure of the underworld such as Quirinus. Augustine mentions a god Agonus who was possibly a deity of the Sabine settlement on the Quirinal otherwise known as the collis Agonalis. This last would tie the figure even more closely to Quirinus, and in general Vediovis may be accepted as an alternate name for Quirinus or Agonus. Ludwig Preller conjectures that the name of Vediovis (or Veiovis) is derived from an archaic Latin negative ve signifying ‘not’. Vediovis, then, would be ‘not Jupiter’ or ‘other than Jupiter’, namely, either Mars or Quirinus or both. In historical times, Vediovis became identified with Apollo. He had a temple on the Insula Tiberina but is otherwise associated with the asylum founded by Romulus between the two peaks of the Capitoline hill (inter duos lucos).

At the foot of Vediovis’ statue in his temple on the Tiber Island is a depiction of a goat – an animal that otherwise has chthonic/underworld associations. While we do not know what rituals would have been performed on this day, Vediovis would most likely be a netherworld figure who contrasts with the celestial lord as Jupiter.