Sterquilinus

In Roman mythology, Sterquilinus ("mamure" or "feces") — also called Stercutus and Sterculius — was a god of feces. He may have been equivalent to Picumnus. The Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology gives the name as Stercutius, a pseudonym of Saturn, under which the latter used to supervise the manuring of the fields.

The name Sterquilinus comes from the Latin "stercus" meaning "fetilizer" or "manure". His name was altered to avoid confusion.^[1]

Early Romans were an agrarian civilization and, functionally, most of their original pantheon of gods — as against the later ones they adapted to Greek stereotypes — were of a rural nature with figures such as Pomona, Ceres, Flora, Dea Dia; so it was only apt for them to have a god supervising the basics of organic fertilization. Sterquilinus essentially taught the use of manure in agricultural processes. He was not the sole deity of manure on its own; as in, sewage.

References in popular culture

• Sterculius was in "Peace, Love & Understanding" (1992), the second pilot episode of Beavis and Butt-head, where his spirit rose from a port-a-potty crushed by a monster truck. In a rare moment of lucid thought, Butt-head correctly identifies Sterculius.
• A temple dedicated to Sterquilinus is currently being constructed in the Norwegian town of Skien. The project is currently led by August Sem Moen, with William Aardal and Alexander Høvset as current investors.

Namesakes

The following terms and names are derived from Sterculius:

• Sterculiaceae, a family of flowering plants
  • Sterculioideae, a subfamily of the Malvaceae family
    • Sterculia, a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae (a reference to unpleasant aroma)
• Stercorariidae, the skua family of sea birds (the food disgorged by other birds when pursued by skuas was once thought to be excrement)
  • Stercorarius a genus in the family Stercorariidae
• Strongyloides stercoralis, a nematode parasite living in the small intestines of humans
• Penestola stercoralis, a moth in the Crambidae family
• Stercoral ulcer, sometimes leading to stercoral perforation
• Typhlitis stercoralis, typhlitis resulting from retention of feces in the caecum
• Stercoraceous vomiting, or fecal vomiting
• Stercorin, or coprostanol, a compound frequently used as a biomarker for the presence of human feces in the environment
• Stercorite, a mineral originally discovered in guano
• Stercolith, a fecolith
• Stercoranism, the doctrine that consecrated elements of the Eucharist become feces after ingestion
• Stercorary, a place, properly secured from the weather, for containing feces
• Stercoration, an obsolete English term for manuring with dung
• Stercoricolous, a term for organisms inhabiting deposits of excrement
• Sterculic acid, the cyclopropene fatty acid, 8-(2-octylcyclopropenyl) octanoic acid, found in some tropical vegetable oils

References