: Goddess Nenia; rarely Naenia[1]) was an ancient funeral deity of Rome, who had a sanctuary outside the Porta Viminalis.
[6] Although Arnobius' writings are mainly influenced by Cornelius Labeo, the identification of Nenia as the goddess of human transience here also suggests a Varronian origin.
[9] Heller rejects Nenia's status as a funerary deity and makes a guess as to her original nature as the goddess of "children's playtime".
[12] In any case, even Heller's erroneous interpretation of the term nenia could in principle be applicable to Roman funerary customs, because death was also seen as a rebirth into the afterlife.
"[13] Furthermore, the dirges could sometimes also have paralleled the lullabies that mothers sing to their children,[14] since some neniae were sung with a soothing voice.