Virbius

“Virbius,” given to Hippolytus, was a convincing proof.

A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

The youth was then conveyed by the goddess to Italy, where he haunts the sacred wood of Virbius disguised as an ancient man.

The Bull From The Sea Renault, Mary 1962

Likewise the seed of Hippolytus marched to war, Virbius [762-796] most excellent in beauty, sent by his mother Aricia.

The Aeneid of Virgil 70 BC-19 BC Virgil

But Trivia the bountiful hides Hippolytus in a secret habitation, and sends him away to the nymph Egeria and the woodland's keeping, where, solitary in Italian forests, he should spend an inglorious life, and have Virbius for his altered name.

The Aeneid of Virgil 70 BC-19 BC Virgil

So far, therefore, the relation of the goat to Athena is parallel to the relation of the horse to Virbius, both animals being excluded from the sanctuary on the ground of injury done by them to the god.

Chapter 49. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals. § 5. Virbius and the Horse 1922

Having found, first, that spirits of the corn are not infrequently represented in the form of horses; and, second, that the animal which in later legends is said to have injured the god was sometimes originally the god himself, we may conjecture that the horses by which Virbius or Hippolytus was said to have been slain were really embodiments of him as a deity of vegetation.

Chapter 49. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals. § 5. Virbius and the Horse 1922

By doing so we shall not only have fresh examples of killing the god, but may hope also to clear up some points which remain obscure in the myths and worship of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, Demeter, and Virbius.

Chapter 48. The Corn-Spirit as an Animal. § 1. Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit 1922

We must ask ourselves, Why did the author of these legends pitch upon Orestes and Hippolytus in order to explain Virbius and the King of the Wood?

Chapter 1. The King of the Wood. § 2. Artemis and Hippolytus 1922

Now, if we knew the ritual of the Arician grove better, we might find that the rule of excluding horses from it, like the rule of excluding goats from the Acropolis at Athens, was subject to an annual exception, a horse being once a year taken into the grove and sacrificed as an embodiment of the god Virbius.

Chapter 49. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals. § 5. Virbius and the Horse 1922

WE are now in a position to hazard a conjecture as to the meaning of the tradition that Virbius, the first of the divine Kings of the Wood at Aricia, had been killed in the character of Hippolytus by horses.

Chapter 49. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals. § 5. Virbius and the Horse 1922