The glyph of Orcus stands at the centre. The branches around it show the symbolism in four colours: gods in gold, archetypes in blue, traditions in green and narratives in red. Touch a branch and its explanation opens below the map.
The underworld and its godPlace and person
In Latin, Orcus names both the place where the dead go and the god of that place. Ennius speaks of the underworld as the high Acherusian temples of Orcus, while Plautus and Cicero use Orcus as the name of the god of the underworld. In official Roman language the same god is more often called Dis Pater.
The jaws of OrcusAeneid VI
When Virgil describes the descent of Aeneas to the underworld, he calls the entrance the jaws of Orcus. Grief, Cares, Diseases, Old Age, Fear, Hunger, Poverty, Death, Toil and Sleep sit there. Across from them are War, the iron chambers of the Erinyes and raving Discord.
The fifth dayGeorgics I
In the Georgics Virgil advises avoiding the fifth day of the month, because pale Orcus and the Eumenides were born on that day. These lines follow the verses of Hesiod's Works and Days which say that the Erinyes attended the birth of Horkos on the fifth day.
The question of HorkosWhere does the name come from?
Virgil put Orcus in place of the Horkos (oath) of Hesiod, and this supports the view that the name Orcus comes from the Greek horkos. Other linguists tie the name to a Latin root or to Etruscan. Modern accounts that present Orcus as the god who punishes oath breakers derive from this link, and no such role appears explicitly in the Latin texts. Horkos on the Eris page →
Orcus the reaperHorace
In one of his letters Horace writes that Orcus reaps the great together with the small. In one ode he calls a man the victim of Orcus who pities nothing, and in another he speaks of rapacious Orcus. The image of death taking everyone without distinction travels together with the name Orcus.
Settling accounts with OrcusEveryday Latin
The Latin expression to settle accounts with Orcus was used to mean putting one's life at risk. In the comedies of Plautus a door is called the door of Orcus. These uses show that Orcus lived in everyday speech more than in the language of ritual.
Dis PaterThe official name
Dis Pater is the official name of the Roman god of the underworld and the counterpart of the Greek Pluton. Orcus is a figure closer to death itself, more frightening and more a figure of the common people. Ancient writers sometimes use the two names in place of each other.
Etruscan AitaThe god in the wolf cap
The name of the Etruscan god of the underworld is Aita, and in the tomb paintings at Tarquinia he is shown wearing a cap made of wolf skin. The Minor Planet Center and some sources present Orcus as an Etruscan god, but the name Orcus does not occur in Etruscan inscriptions. An Etruscan origin is an assumption.
VanthThe name of the moon
Vanth is the Etruscan guide of souls who leads the dead to the underworld. According to the Minor Planet Center record, she is shown on tomb paintings and sarcophagi with wings and a torch in her hand, and she often stands beside Charun. The moon of Orcus was found in 2005 and named in 2010, and the name was proposed by S. Taaffe.
CharunThe guardian with the hammer
Charun is a figure in Etruscan tomb paintings who guards the gate of the underworld and carries a hammer. His name comes from the Greek ferryman Charon, but Etruscan art shows him with a far more frightening face. Charon in the family tree →
The Tomb of OrcusTarquinia
An Etruscan tomb found at Tarquinia in 1868 and dated to the fourth century BC was given the name Tomba dell'Orco, the Tomb of Orcus, in modern times. Inside are paintings of Aita and his wife Phersipnai, of Odysseus blinding Polyphemus and of the underworld demon Tuchulcha. The name is a modern one, and the name Orcus is not written in the tomb.
The Italian orcoFolk tale
In medieval Italian the name Orcus lived on in the form orco, meaning a man-eating giant or demon. A giant mouth carved into the rock in the sixteenth century at the Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo is a famous example of this Orco image. It has been suggested that the French word ogre also comes from here, but this origin is disputed.
The orcneas of BeowulfOld English
When the Beowulf poem lists the monsters descended from Cain, it uses the word orcneas. The word is thought to be formed from the Latin Orcus and an Old English root meaning corpse. J. R. R. Tolkien said that he took the word orc in his books from Old English.
The anti-Pluto2:3 resonance
Orcus and Pluto each go twice around the Sun for every three circuits of Neptune, but they stand in opposite phases of their orbits. Both have a large moon. This is why the discovery team chose one of the Roman counterparts of Pluto. The Pluto page →
Orcus in modern astrologyMelanie Reinhart
The astrologer Melanie Reinhart published notes on Orcus in 2007 and represented it with a Pluto glyph turned upside down, following the idea of the anti-Pluto. This is the personal reading of one interpreter, and no shared tradition has formed among astrologers. It has no link to the classical system of dignities.