Editing Cardea (section)

==Cardea and doorways==
[[File:0 Sarcophage - Quatre saisons - Musei Capitolini - MC1185.jpg|thumb|upright=1.36|Allegorical depiction of the Four Seasons (''[[Horae]]'') and smaller attendant figures that flank a Roman double-doorway representing the entrance to the afterlife,<ref>Melissa Barden Dowling, "A Time to Regender: The Transformation of Roman Time", in ''Time and Uncertainty'' (Brill, 2004), p. 184.</ref> on a mid-3rd century AD [[sarcophagus]]]]
In the [[Christian polemic]] of the [[Church Fathers]], Cardea is associated with two otherwise unknown deities who preside over doorways: '''Forculus'''<!--boldface because a redirect to this page-->, from ''fores'', "door", plural in form because double doors were common on public buildings and elite homes (''[[domus|domūs]]''); and '''Limentinus'''<!--boldface because a redirect to this page-->, from ''limen, liminis'', "threshold" (compare English "[[Liminality|liminal]]").<ref>[[Augustine of Hippo]], ''De civitate Dei'' 4.8; [[Tertullian]], ''De corona militaris'' 13 and ''De idolatria'' 15; [[Cyprian]], ''De idolorum vanitate'' 4.</ref> [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]] mocks the apparent triviality of these "little gods" in one of his "attacks against the multitude of gods",<ref>[[Maijastina Kahlos|Kahlos, Maijastina]]. ''Debate and Dialogue: Christian and Pagan Cultures c. 360–430'' (Ashgate, 2007), p. 139.</ref> noting that while one doorkeeper is adequate for a human household, the Roman gods require three: "evidently Forculus can't watch the hinge and the threshold at the same time." Modern scholarship has pointed out that this particular set of divinities belongs to rituals of marking out sacred space and fixing boundaries, religious developments hypothesized to have occurred during the transition from [[pastoralism]] to an [[agrarian society]]. Among Roman deities of this type, [[Terminus (god)|Terminus]] was the most significant.<ref>Roger D. Woodard, ''Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult'' (University of Illinois Press, 2006), pp. 246–247.</ref>

Stefan Weinstock conjectured that these three doorway deities had a place in [[cosmology]] as the ''Ianitores terrestres'', "doorkeepers of the earth", guarding the passage to the earthly sphere. In the schema presented by [[Martianus Capella]], the ''Ianitores terrestres'' are placed in region 16 among deities of the lowest ranks, while [[Janus]], the divine doorkeeper ''par excellence'',{{sfnp|McDonough|1997|p=333}} is placed in region 1. This arrangement may represent the ''ianuae [[Caelus|coeli]]'', the two doors of the heavens identified with the [[solstice]]s.<ref>Stefan Weinstock, "Martianus Capella and the Cosmic System of the Etruscans", ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 36 (1946), p. 106. See also René Guénon, ''Fundamental Symbols'' (Cambridge: Quinta Essentia, 1995), chapter 37, "The Solstitial Gate".</ref> [[Isidore of Seville]] says that there are two ''ianuae coeli'', one rising (that is, in the East) and one setting (the West): "The sun advances from the one gate, by the other he recedes."<ref>[[Isidore of Seville]], ''[[Etymologiae]]'' 13.1.7: ''Ianuae caeli duae sunt, oriens et occasus. Nam una porta sol procedit, alia se recipit''.</ref>

Isidore's definition is followed immediately by an explanation of the ''cardines'' (plural of ''cardo''), the north-south pivots of the axis on which the sphere of the world rotates. These are analogous to the top-and-bottom pivot hinges of a Roman door.<ref>See drawings of Roman door hinges in ''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities'', vol. 1, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RacKAAAAIAAJ&dq=cardo+intitle%3AHarper%27s+intitle%3ADictionary+intitle%3Aof+intitle%3AClassical+intitle%3ALiterature+intitle%3Aand+intitle%3AAntiquities&pg=PA279 p. 279]</ref>

In addition to the meaning of "door hinge", the ''cardo'' was also a fundamental concept in Roman [[surveying]] and city planning. The ''cardo'' was the main north-south street of a town, the surveying of which was attended by [[augur]]al procedures that aligned terrestrial and celestial space. The ''cardo'' was also a principle in the layout of the [[Roman army]]'s marching camp, the gates of which were aligned with the cardinal ( a word derived from Latin ''cardo/cardinis'') points to the extent that the terrain permitted.<ref>Alan Richardson, in a series of articles in ''Oxford Journal of Archaeology'': "The Numerical Basis of Roman Camps", 19.4 (2000) 425–437; "The Order of Battle in the Roman Army: Evidence from Marching Camps", 20.2 (2001) 171–185; "The Orientation of Roman Camps and Forts", ''Oxford Journal of Archaeology'' 24.4 (2005) 415–426.</ref>