Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
56.
_What is the reason, that it is commonly received, that certein matrons of the city at the first founded and built the temple of_ Carmenta, _and to this day honour it highly with great reverence_? FOR it is said, that upon a time the Senat had forbidden the dames and wives of the city to ride in coatches: whereupon they tooke such a stomacke and were so despighteous, that to be revenged of their husbands, they conspired altogether not to conceive or be with child by them, nor to bring them any more babes: and in this minde they persisted still, untill their husbands began to bethinke them selves better of the matter, and let them have their will to ride in their coatches againe as before time: and then they began to breede and beare children a fresh: and those who soonest conceived and bare most and with greatest ease, founded then the temple of _Carmenta_. And as I suppose this _Carmenta_ was the mother of _Evander_, who came with him into _Italy_; whose right name indeed was _Themis_, or as some say _Nicostrata_: now for that she rendred propheticall answeres and oracles in verse, the Latins surnamed her _Carmenta_: for verses in their tongue they call _Carmina_. Others are of opinion, that _Carmenta_ was one of the Destinies, which is the cause that such matrons and mothers sacrifice unto her. And the Etymologie of this name _Carmenta_, is as much as _Carens mente_, that is to say, beside her right wits or bestraught, by reason that her senses were so ravished and transported: so that her verses gave her not the name _Carmenta_, but contrariwise, her verses were called _Carmina_ of her, because when she was thus ravished and caried beside herselfe, she chanted certeine oracles and prophesies in verse.
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