"The Victoria Jubilee Fountain was added to the Gardens in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It is a classical-style fountain with a Corinthian column rising from a heavy formal basin to support the nymph Egeria. Egeria is one of the most highly regarded of all of the nymphs and was one of the four Camenae - the Roman equivalent to the Ancient Greek Muses. “Egeria” was seen as the divine consort, political advisor and counselor of King Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome after Rome's first king and founder, King Romulus. The name Egeria is an eponym for a female advisor or counselor. She is surrounded by four water babies, or “Putti”, a popular Renaissance motif, riding on sea serpents. The Italian word comes from the Latin word putus, meaning "boy" or "child”, and Putti are considered to be guardian or messenger spirits. The Fountain sits in the centre of the most axially symmetrical part of the Gardens. On four sides of her, equally placed, are serpentine and scroll beds which have existed for over a century. These shaped beds feature densely planted annual plants, whose purpose is to emphasize the shape of the beds over the plant material.
During 2012, the Diamond Jubilee year of Queen Elizabeth II, the fountain underwent extensive restoration, partially funded by donations to The Friends of the Public Gardens’ Victoria Jubilee Campaign." (
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"Egeria was a nymph who was given a legendary role in Rome's early history as a divine consort and counselor of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to whom she imparted laws and rituals pertaining to ancient Roman religion. Her name is used as an eponym for a female advisor or counselor.
Origin and etymology
Egeria may predate Roman myth: she could have been of Italic origin in the sacred forest of Aricia in Latium, her immemorial site, which was equally the grove of Diana Nemorensis ("Diana of Nemi"). At Aricia there was also a Manius Egerius, a male counterpart of Egeria.
The name Egeria has been diversely interpreted. Georges Dumézil proposed it came from e-gerere ("bear out"), suggesting an origin from her childbirth role. It may mean "of the black poplar". Her role as prophetess and author of "sacred books" would compare her to the Etruscan figure of Vegoia (alleged author among other things of "Libri Fulgurales", which give keys to interpreting the meaning of lightning strikes, seen as ominous messages from a variety of deities).
Function
Egeria as a nymph or minor goddess of the Roman religious system is of unclear origin; she is consistently, though not in a very clear way, associated with another figure of the Diana type; their cult is known to have been celebrated at sacred groves, such as the site of Nemi at Aricia, and another one close to Rome (see section below); both goddesses are also associated with water bearing wondrous, religious or medical properties (the source in that grove at Rome was dedicated to the exclusive use of the Vestals); their cult was associated with other, male figures of even more obscure meaning, such as one named Virbius, or a Manius Egerius, presumably a youthful male, that anyway in later years was identified with figures like Atys or Hippolyte, because of the Diana reference (see Frazer).
Described sometime as a "mountain nymph" (Plutarch), she is usually regarded as a water nymph and somehow her cult also involved some link with childbirth, like the Greek goddess Ilithyia.
But most of all, Egeria gave wisdom and prophecy in return for libations of water or milk at her sacred groves. This quality has been made especially popular through the tale of her relationship with Numa Pompilius (the second legendary king of Rome, who succeeded its founder Romulus)." (
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