Skip to content
Faunus, a MythSource painting
Roman

Faunus

The Prophetic One · Father of Latinus · King of the Aborigines

01Identity

Faunus in Roman tradition

As a rustic Roman deity, Faunus governs forests, wilderness, fields, agriculture, flocks and shepherds, while also possessing powers of prophecy and divination. Known as the prophetic one and as Father Faunus, he and the nymph Marica became the parents of Latinus, who later ruled the Aborigines of central Italy. Latinus sought Faunus’s oracle at Albunea and received a warning concerning his daughter’s marriage.

Top questions

The quick answers

  • Who is Faunus?

    Faunus is a Roman deity associated with forests and wilderness, fields and agriculture, flocks and shepherds, prophecy and divination, fertility and sexual potency.
    Source

    Source

    • Classical Mythology a to Z
    • Greek and Roman Necromancy
    • The Oxford Companion to World Mythology
    • Dictionary of Mythology

  • What is Faunus the god of?

    forests and wilderness, fields and agriculture, flocks and shepherds, prophecy and divination, fertility and sexual potency
    Source

    Source

    • Classical Mythology a to Z
    • Greek and Roman Necromancy
    • The Oxford Companion to World Mythology

  • What family links are recorded for Faunus?

    Father: Picus, Mother: Canens, Spouse: Dryope, 1 child, 1 sibling.
02Family

Faunus’s family, at a glance

Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.

PicusCanens
FaunusFauna

with Dryope, Fauna, Vitellia

Tarquitus
03The names

The names Faunus answers to

Fatuus

The prophetic or prophetic-speaking one

SourceClassical Mythology a to Z

Lupercus

The wolf-protecting rustic god

SourceDictionary of Mythology

Inuus

A fertility god associated with sexual potency

SourceClassical Mythology a to Z

Pater Faunus

Father Faunus, the ancestral rustic deity

SourceDictionary of Mythology

04The myths

The myths of Faunus

1 myth, each traced to its primary text and corpus sources.

Faunus and Marica

Faunus joined with the nymph Marica, and their son was Latinus. Latinus later became a king among the aboriginal inhabitants of central Italy. He ruled the people who lived there before Rome was founded. During his reign, Aeneas arrived in the land. Latinus encountered him as the ancestral king of the country. Aeneas therefore came before the ruler descended from Faunus and Marica. The meeting took place while Latinus still held the kingship among the older inhabitants of central Italy.

Latinus also sought guidance from Faunus at the oracle beneath the forest of Albunea. He slaughtered a hundred wool-bearing sheep for the rite. He spread their fleeces across the ground and lay upon them through the silent night. He waited there for the god who was both his father and the power behind the oracle. A voice came from the deep wood and answered him. It warned Latinus not to arrange a Latin marriage alliance for his daughter. The warning came from Faunus, who spoke as the prophetic father of the king. Latinus received the command while he lay beneath Albunea's forest, and the oracle ended with the forbidden marriage alliance still before him.

Faunus and Marica, a MythSource painting of the scene

In the modern world

No modern rework confirmed yet.

3 sources· checked 2026-08-19

  1. 1The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)T1
  2. 2Apollodorus, The LibraryT1

    Quote

    “Faunus fathered Latinus by Marica, and Latinus, lying on sheep fleeces at Albunea after sacrificing a hundred sheep, received an oracle forbidding him to arrange a Latin marriage for his daughter.”

    Apollodorus, The Library

  3. 3Greek and Roman NecromancyT1

Also appears in

The myths across MythSource where Faunus features, each on that figure’s page.

The film

The Underdrawing video on Faunus embeds here once it publishes.