Note 954 — MENSIS SEPTEMBER.
Reading edition
Robertson Smith (Religion of the Semites, 42 foll.) seems to trace the idea back to an actual physical fatherhood. Mr. Farnell, on the other hand (Cults of the Greek States, i. 49), believes that in the case of Zeus it expresses ‘rather a moral or spiritual idea than any real theological belief concerning physical or human origins.’ In Italy, I think, the suffix pater indicates a special connexion with a particular stock, and one rather of guardianship than of actual fatherhood. See above on Neptunalia.