Carmentis or Carmenta, in Roman myth, a prophetic goddess, mother of Evander the first settler at Rome. She may have been a water-goddess, and she was certainly a goddess of protection in childbirth, worshipped by matrons. A minor flamen was assigned to her, and her festival, the Carmentalia, was on 11 and 15 January. It was said to have been inaugurated by the senate in the third century BC to mark the successful protest of Roman women who refused to have children until the senate restored their right, recently taken away from them, to ride in carriages (see CAMILLUS). One of the gates of Rome near the foot of the Capitoline hill was named after her, the Porta Carmentalis.
