The name Carmenta is generally derived from the Latin carmen, meaning a spell, oracle, or song, a term that is also the root of the English word “charm.” Her original name was
Nicostrate (, "victory-army"), but it was changed later to honor her renown for giving oracles (Latin singular:
carmen). She was the mother of
Evander of Pallene (fathered by
Hermes) and, along with other Greek followers, they founded the town of
Pallantium which later was one of the sites of the start of Rome.
Gaius Julius Hyginus (
Fab. 277) mentions the legend that it was she who altered fifteen letters of the
Greek alphabet to become the Latin alphabet which her son Evander introduced into
Latium. Carmenta was one of the
Camenae and the
Cimmerian Sibyl. The leader of her cult was called the
flamen carmentalis. It was forbidden to wear
leather or other forms of dead skin in her temple, which was next to the
Porta Carmentalis, and close to the
Theater of Marcellus in
Rome. Her festival, called the
Carmentalia, was celebrated primarily by women on January 11 and January 15. She is remembered in
De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the
Florentine author
Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 136162. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. ==See also==