Libitina

Origin: N/A
Gender: Female
Meaning: N/A
Pronunciation: lib-ih-TEE-nah
Other Forms: N/A

This beautiful name is that of the Roman Goddess of death, funerals, and burials. She is associated with Venus, and sometimes Proserpina, and some believe her origin is ultimately Etruscan, and that her name comes from lupu, meaning "to die". Other think it comes from the Latin lubere, "to be pleasing". Her male counterpart is sometimes considered to be Orcus, God of the Underworld, who also punished those who broke oaths.

The sacred grove of Libitina was on Esquiline Hill. A cemetery was located outside it's gates, and a temple dedicated to Venus is there to celebrate the day it was founded. When someone died, the temple would take a coin, a "death tax", and a guild of funeral directors were based in the grove. She was sometimes depicted as winged, and often wore robes. The Colosseum had a gate dedicated to her, for the gladiators that died there.

Libitina is also the name of Gothic band formed in 1994 by a group of Sheffield students.