Note 45 — XIX. EXCREMENT GODS OF ROMANS AND EGYPTIANS.
Reading edition
There is another opinion concerning Cloacina—that she was one of the names given to a statue of Venus found in the Cloaca Maxima. Smith, in his Dictionary of Antiquities, London, 1850, expresses this view, and seems to be followed by the American and Britannic Encyclopædias. Lemprière defines Cloacina: “A goddess of Rome, who presided over the Cloacæ—some suppose her to be Venus—whose statue was found in the Cloacæ, whence the name.”—(See, also, in Anthon’s Classical Dictionary.)
Higgins says that “the famous statue of Venus Cloacina was found in them (the Cloacæ Maximæ) by Romulus.”—(Anacalypsis, footnote to p. 624, London, 1836.)
Torquemada insists that the Romans borrowed this goddess from the Egyptians: “A esta diosa llamaron Cloacina, Diosa que presidia en sus albanares y los guardaba, que son los lugares donde van á parar todas las suciedades, inmundicias, y vascosidades de una Republica.”—(Torquemada, lib. vi. chap. 17.)
Torquemada, who makes manifest in his writings an intimate acquaintance with Greek and Roman mythology, fortifies his position by references from St. Clement, Itinerar., lib. 5; Lactantius, Divinas Ejus, lib. 1, chap. 20; Epistle of St. Clement to St. James the Less, Eusebius, de Preparatione Evangel., chap. 1; St. Augustine, Civ. Dei, lib. 2, chap. 22; Diod. Sic., lib. 1, chap. 2, and lib. 2, chap. 4; Lucian, Dialogues, Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, Pliny, lib. 10, chap. 27, and lib. 11, chap. 21; Theodoret, lib. 3, de Evangelii veritatis cognitione.