Libitina: the Venus of Funerals

Join us at the Institute for the Study of Feminine Myth--$10 "Thinker's Tavern" sessions on Thursdays in July! This week's podcast is about Libitina, Roman goddess of funerals, corpses, and burials. We discuss the debated etymology of her name--is she connected to Venus and to voluptuous pleasure, or is that an error? Varro connects Libitina to "libido", and we also need to consider the ancient Etruscan goddess Alpanu, who is said to be Libitina's forerunner. What we may find is a different attitude toward the connection between life and death.

You can listen to Libitina: the Venus of Funerals online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Libitina: the Venus of Funerals is an episode from Chthonia by Brigid Burke.

This episode is 51:48 long.

This episode was published on Jul 7, 2025.

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