Xii (Ante Caes. x). Kal. Ian. (Dec. 21). Np
Diva[lia]. (Maff. Praen.)
Praen. adds a terribly mutilated note, which Mommsen thus fills up from stray hints in Varro, Pliny (following Verrius), and Macrobius1212:
FERIAE DIVA[E ANGERONAE, QUAE AB ANGINAE MORBO] APPELL[ATUR, QUOD REMEDIA EIUS QUONDAM] PRAE[CEPIT. STATUERUNT EAM ORE OBLIGATO] IN AR[A VOLUPIAE, UT QUI NO]SSET N[OMEN] OCCUL[TUM URBIS, TACERET. S]UNT TAMEN, [QUI FIERI ID SACRU]M AIUNT OB AN[NUM NOVUM; MANI]FESTUM ESSE [ENIM PRINCIPIU]M [A]NNI NOV[I].
The date given by Pliny and Macrobius proves that Angerona was the deity of the Divalia; but the etymology of the latter is useless, and the statement of Pliny as to the statue with the mouth gagged and sealed fails to give us any clue to the nature or function of the goddess1213. Angerona is, in fact, the North Pole of our exploration: no one has ever reached her, and probably no one ever will. The mention of Volupia by Macrobius gives no help; she is only elsewhere mentioned as one of the numina of the Indigitamenta by Augustine1214. The only possible clue is that of which Mommsen has taken advantage in the very clever completion of Verrius’ last words, viz. the fact that this day (21st) is the centre one of the winter solstice. He here even allows himself an etymology, and derives Angeronalia ‘ab angerendo, id est ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀναφέρεσθαι τὸν ἥλιον’: quoting Plutarch (de Iside, ch. 52) for similar Egyptian ideas of the sun’s birth at this time. Though the etymology may be doubtful, the inference from the date of the festival is certainly acceptable, in the absence of anything more definite: and the ‘Praenestine fragments’ clearly suggest the word ‘annus.’