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In Roman mythology, Vertumnus (; also Vortumnus or Vertimnus) is the god of seasons, change" Vertumnus then, that turn'st the year about," (Thomas Nashe, Summer's Last Will and Testament (1592, printed 1600)). and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees. He could change his form at will; using this power, according to Ovid's Metamorphoses (xiv), he tricked Pomona into talking to him by disguising himself as an old woman and gaining entry to her orchard, then using a narrative warning of the dangers of rejecting a suitor (the embedded tale of Anaxarete) to seduce her. The tale of Vertumnus and Pomona has been called "the first exclusively Latin tale."It is called the first exclusively Latin tale by Charles Fantazzi, "The revindication of Roman myth in the Pomona-Vertumnus tale", in N. Barbu et al., eds. Ovidianum (Bucharest, 1976:288), as Roxanne Gentilcore notes in "The Landscape of desire: the tale of Pomona and Vertumnus in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'", Phoenix 49.2 (Summer 1995:110-120), p. 110 ("It has also been called the first exclusively Latin tale") and note 1.
Vertumnus's Roman festivals was called the Vertumnalia and was held 13 August.Ovid, Fasti.
Varro was convinced that Vortumnus was Etruscan, and a major god.Varro, De lingua latina V.46: "Ab eis the dictus Vicus Tuscus, et ideo ibi Vortumnum stare, quod is deus Etruriae princeps" Vertumnus's cult arrived in Rome around 300 BC, and a temple to him was constructed on the Aventine Hill by 264 BC, the date when Volsinii (Etruscan Velzna) fell to the Romans. Propertius, the major literary source for the god, also asserts that the god was Etruscan, and came from Volsinii.
Propertius refers to a bronze statue of VortumnusPropertius, Elegy 4.2.41-46 made by the legendary Mamurius Veturius, who was also credited with the twelve ritual shields (ancile) of Mars's priests, known as the Salii. The bronze statue replaced an ancient maple statue (xoanon) supposed to have been brought to Rome in the time of Romulus.Daniel P. Harmon, "Religion in the Latin Elegists", Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 2.16.3 (1986), pp. 1960–61; W.A. Camps, Propertius: Elegies Book IV (Cambridge University Press, 1968), p. 77. The statue of Vortumnus (signum Vortumni) stood in a simple shrine located at the Vicus Tuscus near the Forum Romanum,Michael C. J. Putnam, "The Shrine of Vortumnus" American Journal of Archaeology vol 71, 2, pp 177-179 (April 1967). and was decorated according to the changing seasons. In his poem about the god, Propertius has the statue of Vortumnus speak in first-person as if to a passer-by.E. C. Marquis (1974) "Vertumnus in Propertius 4, 2". Hermes, vol 102, no 3, pp 491-500.
The base of the statue was discovered in 1549, perhaps still in situ, but has since been lost. An inscription CIL VI.1.804: VORTUMNUS TEMPORIBUS DIOCLETIANI ET MAXIMIANI commemorated a restoration to the statue under Diocletian and Maximian in the early 4th century AD.R. Lanciani (1903) Storia degli scavi di Roma vol. II, p. 204f.
The subject was even woven into tapestry in series with the generic theme Loves of the Gods, of which the mid-16th-century Brussels tapestry at Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, woven to cartoons attributed to Jan Vermeyen, must be among the earliest. François Boucher provided designs for the tapestry-weaver Maurice Jacques at the Gobelins tapestry manufactory for a series that included Vertumnus and Pomona (1775–1778). A similar theme of erotic disguise is found with Jupiter wooing Callisto in the guise of Diana, an example of which is at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Mme de Pompadour, who sang well and danced gracefully, played the role of Pomone in a pastoral presented to a small audience at Versailles;
See also article Le Devin du Village. the sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (1760) alludes to the event.
Camille Claudel sculpted a sensual marble version of "Vertumnus and Pomona" in 1905 (Musée Rodin, Paris).
Joseph Brodsky wrote a poem about Vertumnus.
Conversely, Roxanne Gentilcore reads in its diction and narrative strategies images of deception, veiled threat and seduction, in which Pomona, the tamed hamadryad now embodying the orchard, does not have a voice.Roxanne Gentilcore (1995) "The Landscape of Desire: The Tale of Pomona and Vertumnus in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'", Phoenix 49.2 (Summer 1995:110-120).
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