Velificatio Velificatio Velificatio is a stylistic device used in ancient Roman art to frame a deity by means of a billowing garment. It represents "vigorous movement," an epiphany, or "the vault of heaven," often appearing with celestial, weather, or sea deities. It is characteristic of the iconography of the Aurae, the Breezes personified, and one of the elements which distinguish representations of Luna, the Roman goddess of the Moon, alluding to her astral course. A figure so framed is a velificans (plural velificantes). Not all deities are portrayed as "velificantes", but the device might be used to mark a member of
Luna (goddess) and literature, myths of Selene are adapted under the name of Luna. The myth of Endymion, for instance, was a popular subject for Roman wall painting. Varro lists Luna among twelve deities who are vital to agriculture, as does Vergil in a different list of twelve, in which he refers to Luna and Sol as "clarissima mundi lumina", the world's clearest sources of light. Varro also lists Luna among twenty principal gods of Rome ("di selecti"). In this list, Luna is distinguished from both Diana and Juno, who also appear on it. The Romans dated the cultivation of Luna as