The Death of Hippolytus and the Rebirth of Virbius, [Lactantius, Div. Inst.1.17]

 

Name:  Lactantius Date:  3rd century CE Region:  Numidia [modern Tunisia] Citation:    Div. Inst. 1.17

[Condemning the love affairs of the gods, Lactantius criticizes the relationship between Artemis and Hippolytus, insinuating that it was impure. He follows this passage with wild accusations that will not be published here.] When another goddess [Diana] nearly lost her lover [Hippoluytus / Virbius] who was “torn apart by spooked horses,” she begged the most famous healer Asclepius to heal him. And, once he was healed, she “took him away safely to a remote location, Entrusted him to the nymph Egeria, And abandoned him to the grove, Where he, alone and forgotten in the woods of Italy Would spend the rest of his life Under the changed name Virbius.”

Altera cum pene amatorem suum perdidisset,qui erat "turbatis distractus equis," praestantissimum medicum Asclepium curando iuveni advocavit, eumque sanatum: "Secretis alma recondit / sedibus, et nymphaea Egeriae, nemorique relegate: / solus ubi in silvis Italis ignobilis aevum / exigeret, versoque ubi nomine Virbius esset."