Lupercalia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lupercalia | |
|---|---|
| Observed by | Roman, Pre-Roman Civilizations |
| Type | Pagan, Historical |
| Date | February 15 |
The Lupercalia was a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed on February 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility,[1]
Contents |
[edit] Origins
Justin Martyr identified Faunus as Lupercus, "the one who wards off the wolf", but his identification is not supported by any earlier classical sources; a she-wolf is a protective totem of Rome, since one was the mythological foster mother of the Eternal City's founding twins Romulus and Remus.
This festival was also called Februatio, and the day dies februatus[2] (from Latin februare= to purify). Hence the name of the month of February, the last of the old Roman year which started in March, the month of Mars, the god of war, is derived from the Latin februare, "to purify" (meant as one of the effects of fever, which has the same linguistic root).
This festival's origins are older than the legendary founding of Rome: according to Varro,[3] the course was originally run round the boundaries of the most ancient Palatine settlement, extended to the whole city, according to Ovid's Fasti[4] In front of the Porta Romana, on the western side of the Palatine hill, close to the Ficus Ruminalis and the Casa Romuli, was the cave of Lupercus; in it, according to the legend, the she-wolf had suckled the twins, and the Etruscan bronze Capitoline Wolf which is still preserved in the Museo Capitolino, was placed in it in 296 B.C. But the festival itself contains no reference to the Romulus legend, which is probably later in origin, though earlier than the Hellenizing Evander legend. The object of the festival was, by expiation and purification, to secure the fruitfulness of the land, the increase of the flocks and the prosperity of the whole people. It survived until 494, when it was changed by Pope Gelasius into the feast of the Purification of the Virgin (then on February 14, now on February 2). Lupercus, in whose honor the festival was held, is identified with various gods, none of whom were identified with the "deo Februario" of Gelasius[5] "The god of the Lupercalia is given many names— Faunus,[6] Pan, Lupercus, Lycaeus, Inuus— even Bacchus and Juno are mentioned— but the name of the month is nowhere else applied to the god. Late writers refer to a Februus, the personification of the month."[7] That the observance was one of apotropaic magic rather than a veneration of a deity would help to explain its survival in a Christianized Rome.
[edit] The celebration during the Late Republic and Empire
The festival was celebrated near the cave of Lupercal on the Palatine (one of the seven Roman hills), to expiate and purify new life in the Spring. The Lupercal cave, which had fallen into a state of decay, was rebuilt by Augustus; the celebration of the festival had been maintained, as we know from the famous occurrence of it in 44 BC.
The religious ceremonies were directed by the Luperci, the "brothers of the wolf (lupus)", a corporation of priests of Faunus, dressed only in a goatskin, whose institution is attributed either to the Arcadian Evander, or to Romulus and Remus. The Luperci were divided into two collegia, called Quinctiliani (or Quinctiales) and Fabiani, from the gens Quinctilia (or Quinctia) viz. gens Fabia; at the head of each of these colleges was a magister. In 44 BC. a third college, Luperci Julii, was instituted in honor of Julius Caesar, the first magister of which was Mark Anthony. In imperial times the members were usually of equestrian standing.
The festival began with the sacrifice by the Luperci (or the flamen dialis) of two male goats and a dog. Next two patrician young Luperci were led to the altar, to be anointed on their foreheads with the sacrificial blood, which was wiped off the bloody knife with wool soaked in milk, after which they were expected to smile and laugh; the smearing of the forehead with blood probably refers to human sacrifice originally practised at the festival.
The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the victims, which were called Februa, dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed goats, in imitation of Lupercus, and ran round the walls of the old Palatine city, the line of which was marked with stones, with the thongs in their hands in two bands, striking the people who crowded near. Girls and young women would line up on their route to receive lashes from these whips. This was supposed to ensure fertility, prevent sterility in women and ease the pains of childbirth. This tradition itself may survive (Christianised, and shifted to Spring) in certain ritual Easter Monday whippings.
[edit] The Lupercalia in the fifth century
By the fifth century, when the public performance of pagan rites had been outlawed, a nominally Christian Roman populace still clung to the Lupercalia in the time of Gelasius (494-96). It had been literally degraded since the first century, when in 44 BC the consul Mark Antony did not scruple to run with the Luperci;[8] now the upper classes left the festivities to the rabble,[9] prompting Pope Gelasius I's taunt to the senators who would preserve it: "If you assert that this rite has salutary force, celebrate it yourselves in the ancestral fashion; run nude yourselves that you may properly carry out the mockery."[10] The remark was addressed to the senator Andromachus by Gelasius in an extended literary epistle that was virtually a thesis against Lupercalia. Gelasius finally abolished the Lupercalia after a long contest. The feast of St. Valentine among a host of unknown martyrs was first declared February 14 by Pope Gelasius I in 496.
[edit] References in art
William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar begins during Lupercalia, with Caesar's rejection of the "kingly crown", as reported by Mark Antony, being used to turn the sympathies of the Roman people against the assassins (Act 3, Scene 2).
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Lydus, De mensibus iv.25.
- ^ Varro, Censor vi.34.
- ^ Censor 22.14.
- ^ Fasti, 2.31.
- ^ His purpose in writing the epistle to Andromachus was to ensure quia daeminia non colantur et deo februario non litetur.
- ^ Evander in the Hellenized legend is a translation of Faunus (the "kindly").
- ^ In Lydus. Green 1931:64.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Antony.
- ^ ad viles trivialesque personas, abiectos et infimos. (Gelasius)
- ^ Gelasius, Epistle to Andromachus, quoted in Green 1931:65.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. Gelasius I
- William M. Green, "The Lupercalia in the Fifth Century" Classical Philology '26.1 (January 1931), pp. 60-69.
[edit] External links
- Faunus in pantheon.org
- William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1875: Lupercalia.
- Pauly-Wissowa
- Legendary Lupercalia lottery
- Marquardt, Romische Staatsverwaltung, iii. (1885) p. 438'
- W. Warde Fowler, Roman Festivals (1899), p. 390 foil., and article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (3rd ed. 1891).
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