Carmentes

We propose an original re-classification in two groups within the numerous nymphs in the Camenae’s grove of Rome, one organized around Carmenta, kardo, human birth fates and physical birth, the other around Egeria, decumanus, human life span and the passing of time. Then taking as base our detailed argumentation of the several forms of the name of Vegoia, we obtain a qualitative refinement and extension of that classification by including in the method the nymphs mentioned on the Tor Tignosa stones, through relying on the reading Lare Vesuia made for the fourth of them by H.G.Kolbe. This input enables a new interpretation of the three Parcae, and in particular Decima, and of the three Carmentes, particularly Carmenta. This interpretation highlights these two sets of three deities as a "doublet" operating complementarily within a holistic conception of time, space, the life of single human individuals and that of their communities, the world of gods and the cosmos sphere, according to a dualistic vision quite likely of Etruscan origin. Space is structured by the east-west and south-north directions, and cosmogonic time by the fundamental distinction between the world of mankind and that of the gods, mankind between birth and death, and the Gods, engaged in the universal and timeless rivalry between the celestial world and the underworld.