Vejovis was portrayed as a young man, holding a bunch of arrows (or lightning bolts), or a
pilum, in his hand, and accompanied by a goat. Romans believed that Vejovis was one of the first gods to be born. He was a god of healing, and became associated with the Greek
Asclepius. He was mostly worshipped in
Rome and
Bovillae in
Latium. On the
Capitoline Hill and on the
Tiber Island, temples were erected in his honour. Though he was associated with volcanic eruptions, his original role and function is obscured to us. He is occasionally identified with
Apollo and young
Jupiter. Aulus Gellius, in the
Noctes Atticae, written around 177 CE, speculated that Vejovis was an ill-omened counterpart of
Jupiter; compare
Summanus. Aulus Gellius observes that the particle
ve- that prefixes the name of the god also appears in
Latin words such as
vesanus, "insane," and thus interprets the name Vejovis as the anti-
Jove.
Temple He had a
temple between the two peaks of the
Capitoline Hill in
Rome, where his statue carried a bundle of arrows and stood next to a statue of a she-goat.
Sacrifices In spring, multiple goats were sacrificed to him to avert plagues.
Gellius informs us that Vejovis received the
sacrifice of a female
goat, sacrificed
ritu humano (lit. "by human rite"); this obscure phrase could possibly mean "after the manner of a
human sacrifice" or "in the manner of a burial." These offerings were less about the animal sacrificed and more about the soul sacrificed. ==Festivals==