Dea Tacita, celebrated during the Lemuria, embodies silence as protection against malevolent spirits. In poetic invocations, she represents the power of the unsaid, mourning, or the necessary quiet after trauma—often appearing in elegiac or magical contexts where silence wards off chaos.

Dea Tacita (“Silent Goddess”) is likely another name for Larunda, a nymph punished by Jupiter with muteness after revealing his affair; Ovid recounts how Mercury fathered the Lares with her; her silence symbolizes enforced secrecy or the power of the unsaid; worshipped during the February Lemuria rites to appease restless dead; poets use her in nocturnal or chthonic verse to explore themes of voicelessness, hidden knowledge, or the underworld’s quiet judgment; her cult reflects Roman anxiety about gossip, divine secrets, and the dangers of speech.