# Novensiles divi *The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 26 Aug 1997* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### m.driussi *26 Aug 1997, 18:58* Here's an odd tidbit, recently turned up in Latin dictionary . . . I was looking up something else, as so often is the case, when I saw a couple of entries. "noveni -ae, a, _nine each, nine at a time; poetic, nine._" Well sure, that makes perfect sense and hardly worth mentioning (November, etc.). However, the next one . . . "Novensiles divi, _gods whose worship had been introduced from foreign countries._" Wow. Since "Noven-" seems to be the prefix or root meaning nine, this Latin word sure looks to me like "the nine gods" (as opposed to "the new (foreign) gods"). Then again, I don't know Latin. Anyway, let's say that this category "Novensiles divi" actually has only nine figures in it--quick, who would they be? All those mystery cults of exotic Eastern religions in ancient Rome spring to mind: Osirus, Cybelle . . . Mithras? Orpheus? Isis? Just a random thought. =mantis= ---