VERTUMNUS
Form: "the turner," "changer".
An Italian god of fruits, who presided over the changing year, especially over the fruits of the earth, whether in orchards or in gardens. Hence he was generally represented as a gardener and a cultivator of the soil, with fruits in his lap and a pruning knife in his hand, and was honoured by the country folk with the produce of their orchards, etc. In the belief of the people, he possessed the faculty of changing himself into all possible shapes, and they related how by one of his transformations he won Pomona for his wife. In Rome his statue of bronze stood in the Tuscan quarter, where a considerable trade went on; he was on this aecount regarded as the protector of business and exchange. Sacrifice was offered to him in his chapel on the Aventine on August 13th. [Propertius, iv 2.]
Pictures and Media
VERTUMMUS.