Ферония: Богиня дикой природы и свободы в италийской религии.

Italic goddess of wilderness and liberty

In Etruscan and Sabine religion, Feronia was a goddess associated with wildlife, fertility, health, and abundance, also venerated by the Faliscans and later adopted into ancient Roman religion. As the goddess who granted freedom to slaves or civil rights to the most humble part of society, she was especially honored among plebeians and freedmen. Her festival, the Feroniae, was November 13 (the ides of November) during the Ludi Plebeii ("Plebeian Games"), in conjunction with Fortuna Primigenia; both were goddesses of Praeneste. Note that the similar sounding Feralia on February 21 is a festival of Jupiter Feretrius, not Feronia.

Feronia's name is derived from a Sabine adjective corresponding to Latin fĕrus, but with a long vowel, i. e. Fērōnǐa. The root fer has cognate words in every Indo European language (e. g. Greek θήρ, θήριον, English feral.) Latin fĕrus means "not cultivated, untamed" (Thesaurus Linguae Latinae), "of the field, wood", "untamed", "not mitigated by any cultivation" (Forcellini Totius Latinitatis Lexicon) which fits the environment of the sanctuaries of Feronia and is very close to rudis (rude). Feronia is one of the Roman and Italic goddesses whose name is formed by a root ending with the suffix ona or onia. This form of a noun denotes a difficult or dangerous state or condition: The deity is a sovereign of that danger, only to help man to best avoid damage or get the greatest advantage, such as Angerona for the angusti dies near the winter solstice.

Another important site was near Anxur (Terracina, southern Latium), in a wood three Roman miles from the town, where Servius recorded a joint cult of "the boy Jupiter" (puer Iuppiter) under the name of Anxyrus and "Juno the Virgin" (Iuno virgo), whom he identifies as Feronia. cited by Dumézil.

Charles Godfrey Leland reported surviving traditions of the "witch" Feronia in 19th century Tuscany.

The asteroid 72 Feronia is named for her.