LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Academy · Biography & Mythology

Feretrius

a surname of Jupiter, which is probably derived from ferire, to strike; for persons who took an oath called upon Jupiter, if they swore falsely, to strike them as they struck the victim they sacrificed to him. (Fest. s. v. Lapidem Silicem.) Others derived it from ferre, because he was the giver of peace, or because people dedicated (ferebant) to him spolia opima. (Fest. s. v. Feretrius; Liv. 1.10; Propert. 4.10. 46; comp. JUPITER.)

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.