Robigus

• a god of the Romans, who averted mildew, Varr. L. L. 6, § 16 Müll.; id. R. R. 1, 1, 6; Fest. p. 267 Müll.; Serv. Verg. G. 1, 151; Gell. 5, 12, 14; cf. Robigalia.— Acc. to Ov. F. 4, 907; Tert. Spect. 15 fin., and Lact. 1, 20, 17, this was a female deity, and was called Robigo.

(or fem. ROBI'GO) is described by some Latin writers as a divinity worshipped for the purpose of averting blight or too great heat from the young cornfields. The festival of the Robigalia was celebrated on the 25th of April, and was said to have been instituted by Numa (Varro, de Ling. Lat. 6.16; Serv. ad Virg. Georg. 1.151; Gellius, 5.12; Ov. Fast. 4.907, 911). But considering the uncertainty of the ancients themselves as to whether the divinity was masculine or feminine, and that the Romans did not pay divine honours to any evil demon, it is highly probable that the divinity Robigus, or Robigo, is only an abstraction of the later Romans from the festival of the Robigalia. (Comp. Varro, de Re Rust. 1.2.) [L.S]

the male, Robīgo, the female deity among the Romans (Tertull. Spect. 5), who protected the corn from blight (robigo) (Varro, L. L. vi. 16). On April 25th a festival called the Robigalia, supposed to have been instituted by Numa, was held in their honour in their grove, distant nearly five miles from Rome. The citizens marched to the spot in white festal attire, under the conduct of the flamen Quirinalis, Robigus having at first apparently represented only a particular function of Mars (or Quirinus), as protector of the arable land. After a prayer, accompanied by offerings of incense and wine, for the preservation of the ripening seed, the flamen offered sacrifice with the entrails of a young sorrel dog and a sheep. Certain races were also held.