Roman Pantheonvessel
Cornucopia
- Infinite Abundance
- Prosperity Blessing
- Hunger Banishment
- Wealth Generation
The Horn of Plenty, a magical horn that produces endless food and drink. Associated with the goddess Abundantia and the infant Jupiter, who was nursed by the goat Amalthea whose horn became the cornucopia.
About Cornucopia
Horn of Amalthea
Greek myth, retold in Ovid's Fasti and in Hyginus, has the infant Zeus nursed by the goat Amalthea; a broken horn becomes the inexhaustible cornucopia. Roman coinage and cult give the horn to Fortuna, Abundantia, and river-gods. It is an emblem of plenty in Hellenistic and Roman art, not a quest object with a thief and a dragon. The nurse-goat story is the origin tale; Roman religion spreads the image on altars and reverses of coins.
Origin
One of the horns of the goat Amalthea, who nursed the infant Jupiter in hiding from Saturn. When the horn broke off, Jupiter blessed it with the power of endless abundance.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Ovid, Fasti (Amalthea) / Hyginus, Astronomica
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
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