A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter C

Cloacina

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Roman goddess of sewers and purification, later associated with Venus

Detailed Definition
Cloacina originally presided over Rome’s Cloaca Maxima, the great sewer system, symbolizing civic sanitation and moral cleansing. Over time, she merged with Venus as Venus Cloacina, representing reconciliation and purity. Though obscure, she appears in poetic contexts emphasizing urban order, hidden infrastructure, or the paradox of finding divinity in humble or unclean places—often used metaphorically in satire or civic poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
Cloacina, goddess of sewers and purification, is invoked in Varro’s writings as protector of Rome’s Cloaca Maxima; Livy notes a shrine to Cloacina in the Roman Forum where peace was once sworn; Ovid in Fasti explains her name derives from “cloaca” (sewer) but also “cluere” (to purify); She appears in inscriptions as “Venus Cloacina,” linking love and civic cleanliness; Martial jokingly refers to Cloacina when describing urban sanitation; In Roman civic poetry, Cloacina symbolizes the hidden infrastructure that sustains public health.
Additional Notes
Cloacina, a uniquely Roman deity, presided over the Cloaca Maxima (Rome’s great sewer) and symbolized purification and civic infrastructure; later identified with Venus as Venus Cloacina, blending love and public health; mentioned by Livy and Ovid (Fasti), she represents the Roman ideal that cleanliness and order sustain civilization; rarely a central poetic figure, but useful for irony, urban satire, or discussions of hidden societal foundations; students should note her as an example of how Roman religion sacralized practical engineering; related to Salus (health) and Concordia (social harmony).
Also Known As
Venus Cloacina Goddess of the Sewer Purifier of Rome Guardian of Sanitation
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