Picus

• son of Saturn, grandfather of Latinus, king of the aborigines, and a prophet; he was changed by Circe, whose love he had slighted, into a woodpecker, Ov. M. 14, 320; Verg. A. 7, 189 Serv.; Juv. 8, 131.

(Πῖκος), a Latin prophetic divinity, is described as a son of Saturnus or Sterculus, as the husband of Canens, and the father of Faunus (Ov. Met. 14.320, 338, Fast. 3.291; Verg. A. 7.48; Serv. ad Aen. 10.76). In some traditions he was called the first king of Italy (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 1232). He was a famous soothsayer and augur, and, as he made use in these things of a picus (a wood-pecker), he himself also was called Picus. He was represented in a rude and primitive manner as a wooden pillar with a wood-pecker on the top of it, but afterwards as a young man with a wood-pecker on his head (Dionys. A. R. 1.14; Ov. Met. 14.314; Verg. A. 7.187). The whole legend of Picus is founded on the notion that the wood-pecker is a prophetic bird, sacred to Mars. Pomona, it is said, was beloved by him, and when Circe's love for him was not requited, she changed him into a wood-pecker, who, however, retained the prophetic powers which he had formerly possessed as a man. (Verg. A. 7.190; Ov. Met. 14.346; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 21; Ov. Fast. 3.37.) [L.S]

An Italian god of agriculture, and especially of manure, hence called son of Stercutus (“the dunger”—i. e. Saturn). He also appears as a forest-god with prophetic powers, and as father of Faunus (Verg. Aen. viii. 48). In Latin legend he plays a prominent part as a warlike hero, the earliest king of Latium, of great wealth, who was finally changed into a woodpecker (picus) (ib. 187- 190). According to Ovid (Met. xiv. 320-396), this was because he spurned the love of Circé and was faithful to the beautiful nymph Canens. Probably Picus was originally the woodpecker, the symbol of Mars as giver of fertility and warlike prowess, and from this symbol there was developed a separate deity.