Pomona (Latin: Pōmōna) was the Roman goddess — often cast as a wood nymph — of fruit trees, orchards, and fruitful abundance. Her name comes from Latin pomum, "fruit" (especially orchard fruit). She has no clear Greek counterpart; Ovid's Metamorphoses makes her the hard-won bride of Vertumnus, god of the turning year.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Pomona (mythology)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Cult and attributes
Pomona watched over the flourishing of fruit trees rather than the harvest itself. Her priest was the flamen Pomonalis; the pruning knife was her attribute. A grove called the Pomonal stood not far from Ostia. She and Vertumnus shared a festival on 13 August.
II.Ovid's Vertumnus
In Metamorphoses Book 14, Pomona fences her Palatine orchard and scorns woodland suitors — Silvanus, Picus, and others — until Vertumnus, disguised as an old woman, persuades her with the cautionary tale of Anaxarete and then reveals his true form. She yields; later art and allegory often show the pair as autumn's fruitful couple.