MAY (not the Theresa variety) + Ancient Rome

A nod to Music Monday first, according to the lyrics I'm several days late....



May is now fully upon us.

I've not scribbled about ancient Roman Festivals for a while so, a look at what used to be going on, way back when in Ancient Rome, during the month of May.

The last days of April and first three days of May saw Ludi Floriales, honouring Flora, goddess of flowers, fertility, sex, the blossom of spring and the renewal of the cycle of life.

"Ludi" = Games by the way, and these springtime Games, dating from 173 BC, primarily celebrated fertility. From ancient writings, it appears Ludi Floriales were on the wanton, spicy side, including strip-tease performances by prostitutes. An abundance of flowers would have been displayed around the city, and in garlands bedecking its citizens. On the final day of the Games chariot races were held. It's thought that the Maypole, as a phallic symbol, is probably a descendant of these Roman Games.


Ancient Rome had barely caught its breath after those licentious goings on when another festival kicked in:Lemuria, on May 9, 11 and 13. To appease the ghosts of the dead, who were believed to be walking the city on these dates, Romans would walk barefoot and throw black beans over their shoulders, during darkness. Each head of household was required to do this nine times at midnight, while his household members clashed metal pots to persuade ancestral ghosts to leave.

Ancient Roman writer, Ovid believed that the source of these practices was guilt, due to the murder of Remus, brother of Romulus, founder of Rome. (Remuria/Lemuria) See Wikipedia here.

Around a week after Lemuria came Agonalia, on May 21. This festival honored a little known god, Vediovis. The object of it is thought to have related to protection and/or war. A ram would be sacrificed by an important religious official.

 Model of a Lituus

Two days later, May 23, saw Tubilustrium, honouring Vulcan. The god Vulcan was responsible for manufacture of sacred war trumpets or tubas(the lituus). Sacrifice of a female lamb marked this festival, and Salii (see Wikipedia) twelve youths known as the leaping priests of Mars, danced through the streets.

That was it for May. Citizens were involved in festivals during the first half of the month, they no doubt needed a rest after the naughtiness of the month's first few days, followed by some ghost-busting activities! Festivals later in the month were the responsibility of city officials and dignitaries.

Hinges

The door of history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. –Thomas S. Monson

June 1st - or, as ancient Romans called it the calends/kalends of June. Their calendar differed from ours in fine detail, due to a Pope's later reorganisation of it. Anyway, Romans called the first day of every month the "calends". (Wikipedia)

On this day, the pontiffs would announce the number of days until the next month at the Curia Calabra; in addition, debtors had to pay off their debts on this day. These debts were inscribed in the kalendaria, effectively an accounting book.

So...on the calends of June Romans honoured one of their lesser goddesses - Cardea. She had the job of ruling over door hinges. Someone, somewhere online had a good title for gods and goddesses of this lesser order: "odd jobs gods". On the face of it her job seemed of little importance but, looked at from a wider angle, it's not as much of an odd job as it at first might seem.

Cardea is the Roman Goddess of the Door Hinge, who protects the family and children of the house and keeps evil spirits from crossing the threshold. Her name comes from the Latin word cardo, which means "hinge" and which also encompasses the wider symbolism of the pole or axis around which the earth spins. She is therefore a Goddess of the Center as well as the change that emanates out from that center. The word cardo was also used by the Romans to refer to the north-south axis on which a new city was founded (the east-west line being the decumanus), and from this we get our word cardinal, meaning fundamental or principal, especially regarding the directions.

Cardea has close ties with the ancient Roman God Janus, God of Beginnings and Endings, who also watched over doorways, and was depicted as having two faces to see both past and future (our month January, the first month of the year, is still named for Him). The tales say that Cardea and Janus were lovers; and to reward Her for sleeping with Him, or perhaps from love, He gave Her the door-hinge as Her emblem, and the power to prevent evil spirits from passing through doors. Because She could keep bad spirits out of the house, Cardea was worshipped as the protector of children, for it was believed (or at least the children believed) that at night witches transformed themselves into screech-owls and flew in the windows of the house to suck the blood of unwary children. (The Latin words striga, "witch, hag, vampire", and strix, "screech owl, vampire" are clearly related.)

The legends say that Cardea protected these children with hawthorn (also known as whitethorn), by hanging a small branch of it over the child's window or in the baby's cradle.
(See HERE)

Neptune

 Coin of Sextus Pompeius,
showing the god Neptune

here

 

December 1st - in ancient Rome on this date a festival in honour of their god Neptune was held. We've long since abandoned the idea of gods, but Neptune remains, as a far away planet and as an astrological concept, which we can still choose to celebrate if we feel so inclined.

Astrological Neptune has provided astrologers with lots of leeway to imagine, suppose, suggest, wax lyrical on its possible interpretations - in fact entire books have been written about Neptune by astrologers.

In the section on Neptune in Louis MacNeice's book "Astrology" he notes that astrologer Ingrid Lind suggested that, in the cases of slow-running planets, the transits are the things to look for, and wrote that Neptune's transits lead to muddle - she adds "it really takes a strong and sane man to control the Neptune in him". Readers are left to surmise how a woman reacts to her Neptune! Astrologer Evangeline Adams said that Neptune has more to do with Zeitgeist than with individuals.

It takes Neptune around 15 years to pass through one zodiac sign. Neither Neptune nor Pluto can complete the zodiac in a human lifetime, so there's no chance to compare what happened last time an indivdual experienced, say, Neptune conjunct Sun in Aquarius, because there was no last time and there will be no next time. Neptune's stay with any of our personal planets is a one-time-only affair.

Neptune, modern ruler of Pisces, is briefly described by Rob Tillett:

"Neptune, the planet of deception and spiritual enlightenment, rules the oppressed and abandoned: the misfits of society. On a higher level it rules visionaries, and those who are glamorous and charismatic. It represents spirituality, mysticism, and ideals.

Speaking personally, Neptune's house position and its aspects with other planets in your chart will describe spirituality, abstract thinking, illusion, disillusionment, and areas of your life where things aren't always what they seem. It rules derangement, guilt, persecution and describes the potential for experiences related to confinement, abandonment, and addiction or physical intolerance to drugs and alcohol.

Neptune's role in society is often to cloud the issues, making things seem other than they are. Neptune is the master of disguise. Ruling oil, liquids, solvents (and makeup!), this mighty force usually operates beneath the surface, but can be brought into the forefront of consciousness when affected by significant transits from the visible planets."

I have Neptune at 23 Virgo trine Mercury in Capricorn. I see this simply as a grounding aspect through Earthy indications. I refuse to become carried away by what I see as the more fanciful sides of astrology or of any mystical subject.

Natal Neptune in Virgo also squares Venus in Sagittarius. An astrological reading I bought many years ago mentioned (and possibly with reference to Neptune Square Venus) that I'd have disappointments in my romantic relationships. I did, but then, who doesn't?

Transiting Neptune has been conjunct natal Jupiter for much of this year. I've flipped through several interpretations online for this transit: religion and/or spirituality loom large. Neither fits for me. The single interpretation I've found that partially fits my experience, so far, is this paragraph from Aquarian Digest

Several astrology authors note about this transit that it can bring great material as well as spiritual rewards. But the material rewards, if they were to come, would come without effort during this particular transit. The real opportunity here is to focus on the transpersonal and the higher spiritual realms.

How does that fit? My absolutely "out of the blue" experience of becoming, or to become, recipient of monetary benefits from the estates of two relatives in the UK; part is still to be realised, probably sometime during next year.

Nebulous Neptune

 Neptune Calming the Tempest  (Rubens, 1635)

I suppose it's fitting that the origins of the god Neptune's astrological connection to the seas is a wee bit nebulous. Astrological Neptune is known for nebulousness. Custom and practice does seem to have made it a relevant connection - sometimes.

While reading something else on Roman festivals in general I noticed this from The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic by William Warde Fowler at Google books HERE. Clicking on the segments will bring up clearer images.

And from crystalinks.com HERE:

Neptune is the god of the sea in Roman mythology, a brother of Jupiter and Pluto. He is analogous but not identical to the god Poseidon of Greek mythology. The Roman conception of Neptune owed a great deal to the Etruscan god Nethuns. Originally he was an Italic god paired with Salacia, possibly the goddess of the salt water. At an early date (399 BC) he was identified with Poseidon, when the Sibylline books ordered a lectisternium in his honour (Livy v. 13).

In earlier times it was the god Portunes or Fortunus who was thanked for naval victories, but Neptune supplanted him in this role by at least the first century BC, when Sextus Pompeius called himself "son of Neptune".

Neptune was associated as well with fresh water, as opposed to Oceanus, god of the world-ocean.

Like Poseidon, Neptune was also worshipped by the Romans as a god of horses, under the name Neptune Equester, patron of horse-racing.

Neptune was also considered the legendary progenitor god of a Latin stock, the Faliscans - ancient Italian people - who called themselves Neptunia proles. In this respect he was the equivalent of Mars, Janus, Saturn and even Jupiter among Latin tribes.

  Neptune Sending a Deluge to Troy, by Antonio Tempesta (17th century).

And there's this from tribunesandtriumphs.org:

.....In searching for the mythological sense of the fable, we must again have recourse to Egypt, that kingdom which, above all others, has furnished the most ample harvest for the reaper of mysteries. The Egyptians, to denote navigation, and the return of the Phoenician fleet, which annually visited their coast, used the figure of an Osiris borne on a winged horse, and holding a three-forked spear, or harpoon. To this image they gave the name of Poseidon, or Neptune, which, as the Greeks and Romans afterwards adopted, sufficiently proves this deity had his birth here. Thus the maritime Osiris of the Egyptians became a new deity with those who knew not the meaning of the symbol.

So, Roman Neptune took on characteristics of Greek Poseidon, Greek Poseidon took on characteristics of an Egyptian depiction. What happened in astrology, though, to Neptune's link with horses and "stock" - why weren't these attached to Neptune, as well as a connection to the sea?

Pregnant Cows or Pregnant Barley?

Hat-tip Wikipedia

Fordicidia, a Roman agricultural festival in honour of goddess Tellus, known as "Grain Goddess", regularly associated with Ceres in rituals pertaining to the earth and agricultural fertility was held in Ancient Rome every
April 15.

A pregnant cow (forda or horda) was sacrificed to Tellus in each of the 30 wards of Rome and one on the Capitoline Hill. The sacrifice was in hope of promoting fertility (presumably of cattle and crops in the fields). The unborn calves were cut away from the mother, burnt, and the ashes were used by the Vestal Virgins in a purification rite in the festival of Parilia on 21 April. (An archived post on Parilia is HERE)

That's one version of the tale, the most widely reported, and a pretty gruesome one at that! One website has a different take on the Fordicidia/Fordicalia. The writer at piereliogion.org suspects that something could have been lost in translation. The theory goes like this:

......the words forda and horda do mean ‘pregnant cows’, that is, ‘cows in calf.’ The two different forms forda- and horda- are dialect forms in which the h- and f- are allophonic (you say tomayto, I say tomahto). There is a similar situation with the words hordeum and fordeum which both mean ‘barley’ ......Furthermore, the name of the festival Fordicidea, the form usually used in classical Rome is questionable. The name in Ovid’s Fasti certainly ends in -cidea which has a meaning ‘slaughter’ (as in ‘suicide, genocide’), but both Hordicalia and Fordicalia are also attested various places as names of the festival and these have the more usual form of the name of a festival in Latin, with a typical -alia ending.....

The writer points out that wastefully slaughtering upwards of 30 pregnant cows was not in the best interests of farmers, and had no sympathetic magical resonance with prayers that there should be a good harvest of grain in the coming season - Tellus being Grain Goddess.

Regarding the alternative explanation, the writer goes on to explain:

How can barley be pregnant, one might well ask? Barley gets pregnant in the spring, when the over-wintered grain (which just looks like lawn grass all winter), shoots up and begins to form ears, inside the stalks. At first it isn’t noticeable, but eventually, a close look shows that the stalks between the nodes are getting “fat” because the ears are forming inside, while they are still covered by the sheaf of one of the blades of the barley. In English, the barley is said to be “in the blade” meaning that it is forming ears. This is a time of great anxiety for grain farmers since they are hoping that everything will turn out right and the ears will eventually shoot above the main part of the plant and then ripen properly. Very widely among the Indo-Europeans, there is a festival to encourage the grain growth at this time, which seems to be the main impetus for these Tellus Mater festivals.

It's hard to say which version is most likely correct, but I'm thinking that, if Roman high authorities had anything to do with it, then I doubt the sensibilities of the farmers for their cows would be taken into account. Slaughter of the pregnant cattle, if ordered from on high, would have to be carried out, regardless. Makes little sense to us, but then, so do many orders of our 21st century governments.

Day of Venus

It's All Fools' Day, but it's also Venus's day. Ancient Romans celebrated The Veneralia on this day, in tribute to Venus Verticordia ("Venus the changer of hearts") and Fortuna Virilis ("Manly" or "Virile Fortune").

It was the Romans who named the month Aprilis, possibly a reference to the Latin verb aperire, to open (the season when trees and flowers begin to open); or perhaps as April, being sacred to the goddess Venus, and her Veneralia being held on the first day, Aprilis was originally Aphrilis, from the name of Venus's equivalent Greek goddess, Aphrodite (Aphros).

The cult of Venus Verticordia established in 220 BC, during the last years of Rome's Punic Wars, was in response to advice from a Sibylline oracle. A series of prodigies was taken to signify divine displeasure at sexual offenses among Romans of every category and class, including several men and three Vestal Virgins. Tsk tsk!!

"A series of prodigies"...hmm, obviously not referring to a band of baby mathematicians or lyre players, nifty beyond their years. Collins English Dictionary clears that up:

prodigy
1. a person, esp a child, of unusual or marvellous talents
2. anything that is a cause of wonder and amazement

3. something monstrous or abnormal
4. an archaic word for omen.

Ceremonials during Veneralia entailed all women, both married and unmarried, visiting the men's baths. It was a day for women to seek divine support and aid in their love lives. Wearing myrtle wreaths, they would make a libation of poppy with milk and honey and drink the potion while praying that Venus would bring them harmony and peace. Incense was also offered to the goddess in hope of hiding any perceived physical imperfections from view while the women were in the baths.

In 114 BC Venus Verticordia was given her own temple. She was meant to persuade Romans of both sexes and every class, whether married or unmarried, to cherish the traditional sexual proprieties and morality known to please the gods and benefit the State. During the Veneralia, her cult image was taken from her temple to the men's baths, where it was undressed and washed in warm water by her female attendants, then garlanded with myrtle. Women and men asked Venus Verticordia for her help in love, sex, betrothal and marriage.

See also: Wikipedia

Saturn versus Saturnalia

17 December, in the Roman calendar, marked the beginning of Saturnalia, a two-week festival celebrating the god Saturn. Because, in traditional astrology, Saturn the planet has been labelled a malefic - the "greatest malefic" in fact, one might find it puzzling that Romans celebrated so enthusiastically the god after whom the planet has been named. Or, conversely, why the farthest visible planet from Earth was so named, and accredited as malefic when its godly namesake had been so obviously revered.

In her book Mythic Astrology, astrologer Liz Greene began a chapter on Saturn thus:

The Golden Age is an ancient and indestructible human dream. Not only the bible, but the myths of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans describe it, each with its own story of a Fall when divine law was transgressed by erring humans. And we conjure up the dream of the Golden Age now, whenever we turn to the past and glimpse the shining vision of a time of law and order, when human beings lived in harmony with the cycles of nature and had not yet degenerated into violence and corruption. In Hesiod's Cosmogony this Golden Age was under benign rule of the stern but just Greek deity, Kronos, whom the Romans called Saturn. He was god of earth, not of heaven, and he governed the orderly cycles of the seasons, the irrevocable passage of time, and the laws by which men and women might live in accordance with nature and their own mortality. As patron of agriculture and lord of the harvest, he symbolized the fertility of the tilled earth and conferred the rewards of honest effort. He was a working god and a wise king, who taught men and women how to press the olive and cultivate the vine. To those who obeyed his laws of discipline, time and mortality, he was a generous ruler who offered peace and abundance. To those who sought to impose their own will on the laws of life itself, he was a merciless and implacable judge. The Romans worshiped his friendly face at the year's end through the two-week carnival of the Saturnalia, which even Rio, in Brazil, has never succeeded in surpassing. It has been suggested that the name Saturn comes from the Latin 'sator', meaning to sow; and on the most profound level this god symbolized the dictum that as we sow, so shall we reap.

In Louis MacNeice's book, Astrology, I found the illustration below - click on it for a sharper image:

15th-century German allegorical picture of Saturn and some of the types of people associated with this planet. Saturn, depicted as aa horseman, rides in the sky above his two Zodiac signs, Capricorn and Aquarius. To astrologers, Saturn's influence is mostly malignant, causing misfortune, disease and death - indicated here by the criminals in the stocks and on the gallows and the hobbling cripple. Some less unfortunate Saturn types portrayed are the farmer (plowing), the gardener (digging), and the tanner (skinning a horse).

Saturnalia was in no way malignant, apart perhaps from a few nasty hangovers after days of carousing. During the long festival all social hierarchies and obligations were temporarily suspended, creating a period of chaos, a world upside down, symbol of renewal.

From Winter Solstice Traditions. Hat tip HERE

The Romans called it Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The Roman midwinter holiday, Saturnalia, was both a gigantic fair and a festival of the home. Riotous merry-making took place, and the halls of houses were decked with boughs of laurel and evergreen trees. Lamps were kept burning to ward off the spirits of darkness. Schools were closed, the army rested, and no criminals were executed. Friends visited one another, bringing good-luck gifts of fruit, cakes, candles, dolls, jewellery, and incense. Temples were decorated with evergreens symbolizing life's continuity, and processions of people with masked or blackened faces and fantastic hats danced through the streets...... Roman masters feasted with slaves, who were given the freedom to do and say what they liked (the medieval custom of all the inhabitants of the manor, including servants and lords alike, sitting down together for a great Christmas feast, came from this tradition). A Mock King was appointed to take charge of the revels (the Lord of Misrule of medieval Christmas festivities had his origin here).

So... Saturnalia was a reverse of the Saturnian norm, an annual loosening of daily demands, bonds and customs. Sounds like a good idea! As Mick Jagger is credited as having said though, "It’s okay to let yourself go, just as long as you let yourself back." That is a fairly Saturnian statement to my mind. Hmmm. Well, well, well, whad'ya know? Jagger has Saturn in his first house, could be quite close to his ascending degree. (See astro.com HERE.)

Bellona, Goddess & Asteroid

 Standing Bellona by Andrea Schiavone (c. 1535)

We can never go far before bumping into yet another Roman festival! Today, June 3rd was celebrated in ancient Rome as the festival of Bellona, goddess of war, identified variously as wife, sister or companion of their war god Mars. Bellona is usually shown wearing a plumed helmet and armor, armed with sword and spear and carrying a shield; sometimes she carries a flaming torch.

"She is described as loud and active, barking orders or war-cries, Her weapons clanging as She runs. She is credited with inspiring violence, starting wars, and goading soldiers into battle; Virgil described Her as carrying a bloodstained scourge or whip. She was believed to make wars and battles go well for those who invoked Her."

(For more see HERE)

Bellona was sufficiently honoured in Rome to have a temple dedicated to her on the Capitoline Hill. Meetings relating to foreign wars were conducted there.
More at Wikipedia
(Illustration from HERE.)

There's a large main belt asteroid named after Bellona, it's #28 in the asteroid list. It was discovered by R. Luther on March 1, 1854; the name was chosen to mark the beginning of the Crimean War.

Using Astrodienst's Extended chart Selection it's possible to discover where Bellona lay at one's time of birth. When I was born it was at 22 Capricorn conjunct my natal Mercury within a degree. What that could mean, if anything, would be to add an energetic Mars-like flavour to the mix. But there are so many asteroids spinning around, I doubt there's much astrological significance other than the curiosity of it all.

On 31 May 2014, if my cack-handed research is correct Bellona was at 19 Aries, so ought to be feeling right at home! (See here.)

Music Monday's Sheepish Segue

The sheep counting mentioned in my previous post segues nicely into Parilia - it's another of those many and varied ancient Roman festivals. The Parilia was a rural custom performed annually on April 21. Its purpose was the cleansing of sheep and shepherds, in acknowledgment of Roman deity Pales, a deity of uncertain gender, patron of shepherds and sheep. From Wikipedia:

"The pastoral structure of the festival is carried out by the shepherd himself. After the sheep pen had been decorated with green branches and a wreath draped on the gate, the remainder of the ceremony took place in sequence. At the first sign of daylight, the shepherd would purify the sheep: by sweeping the pen and then constructing a bonfire of straw, olive branches, laurel, and sulfur. The noises produced by this burning combination were interpreted as a beneficial omen. The shepherd would jump through this flame, dragging his sheep along with him. Offerings of millet, cakes, and milk were then presented before Pales, marking the second segment of the ceremony. After these offerings, the shepherd would wet his hands with dew, face the east, and repeat a prayer four times. Such prayers requested Pales’s assistance in freeing the shepherd and the flock from evils brought about by accidental wrongdoings (e.g. trespassing on sacred grounds and removing water from a sacred water source). The final portion of the rural festival made use of the beverage burranica, a combination of milk and sapa (boiled wine). After consumption of this beverage, the shepherd would leap through the fire three times, bringing an end to the ceremony......"

As it's Music Monday, some sheep-related music is called for. How about Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantata number 208 aka Sheep May Safely Graze ? Here is Eugene Ormandy's orchestral version in a video with some lovely photographs of....guess what...



There's a choral version HERE, and some notes about the origin of the Cantata at a blog HERE.
English translation of the lyrics =

Sheep may safely graze and pasture
Where a shepherd guards them well.
So the nation ruled in wisdom
Knows and shares the many blessings
Which both peace and plenty bring.

The Ides of September & Chocolate Day

13 September: Romans called it the Ides of September, and on this date celebrated with a feast known as Epulum Jovis.
Wikipedia:

In ancient Roman religion, the Epulum Jovis was a sumptuous ritual feast offered to Jove on the Ides of September (September 13) and a smaller feast on the Ides of November (November 13). It was celebrated during the Ludi Romani ("Roman Games") and the Ludi Plebeii ("Plebeian Games").

The gods were formally invited, and attended in the form of statues. These were arranged on luxurious couches (pulvinaria) placed at the most honorable part of the table. Fine food was served, as if they were able to eat. The priests designated as epulones, or masters of the feast, organized and carried out the ritual, and acted as "gastronomic proxies" in eating the food.

Another description of the proceedings, this from The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic by William Warde Fowler:

........We may agree with the latest investigator of the Jupiter-cult that the origin of the epulum is to be looked for in a form of thanksgiving to Jupiter for preservation of the state from perils of the war season, and that no better date could be found for it than the foundation date of the Capitoline temple. This epulum was one of the most singular and striking scenes in Roman public life. It began with a sacrifice; the victim is not mentioned but it was no doubt a heifer, and probably a white one. Then took place the epulum proper, which the three deities of the Capitol seem to have shared in visible form with the magistrates and senate. The images of the gods were decked out as for a feast and the face of Jupiter painted red with minium, like that of the triumphator. Jupiter had a couch, and Juno and Minerva each a sella (chair), and the meal went on in their presence.

The Capitoline Triad was introduced to Rome by the Tarquins, and perhaps was an Etruscan creation. It is possible that the Etruscans looked on Minerva as a goddess of destiny, in addition to the royal couple Uni (Juno) and Tinia (Jupiter). In Rome, Minerva later assumed a military aspect under the influence of Athena Pallas. With the advent of the Republic, it is thought that Jupiter became the only king of Rome, rather than simply the first of the great gods.

That was then, this is now - today we content ourselves by celebrating International Chocolate Day (who knew?) Hey, at least we don't have to sacrifice a white heifer!

Today: Once upon a Time - Feast of Fools

Today, February 17, in ancient Rome marked what was known as the Feast of Fools, it was also date of the Quirinalia. Quirinalia celebrated the Sabine god Quirinus, thought to have been divine incarnation of the city's founder, Romulus. Quirinus was originally part of an archaic Roman triad with Jupiter and Mars. One of Rome's 7 Hills is named for Quirinus - The Quirinal.
(Illustration: Quirinal Hill , one of the Seven Hills of Rome and the location of the official residence of the Italian Head of State. Quirinal Palace was the residence of the king of Italy until the monarchy was abolished in 1946.
(Hat-tip BookDrum)
From Ovid we learn that the day of Quirinalia had  a second name.


Learn too why this day is called the Feast of Fools.
The reason for it is trivial but fitting.
The earth of old was farmed by ignorant men:
Fierce wars weakened their powerful bodies . . .

And round the Forum hang many tablets,
On which every ward displays its particular sign.
Foolish people don’t know which is their ward,
So they hold the feast on the last possible day.


Clarification: The City of Rome was divided into wards (curiae). Each ward celebrated a moveable feast dedicated to its local goddess of the baking-oven, Fornax (festival was called The Fornacalia). These celebrations were set for different dates for each ward, between 5 and 17 February, each ward's date being posted on a tablet in The Forum. Any citizens who missed their local celebration could carry out their dedications in The Forum at Quirinalia, the last date available for Fornacalia, when all 30 curiae could be in attendance. So.... Feast of Fools = the feast for those who, through ignorance or carelessness, had missed the date for their own ward's celebration.

Ritual Sacrifice ~~ Agonalia

A note at Wikipedia's page for today, 9 January mentions that in Roman times the date would have marked the first Agonalia or Agonia. This is an obscure archaic religious observance celebrated in ancient Rome several times a year, in honor of various divinities. Ancient calendars indicate that it was celebrated regularly on January 9, May 21, and December 11. The object of this festival was a disputed point among the ancients themselves. The offering sacrificed to the guardian gods of the state was a ram.

Sacrifice. Which hapless early human culture first dreamed up that concept? Or was it one of those mysterious practices which cropped up all over the inhabited areas of the globe more or less concurrently?

The practice of ritual sacrifice can be traced further back than Roman and Greek civilisations. Ancient cultures of South America, Scandinavia, Britain, the Middle East all show evidence of ritual sacrifice having been part of their way of life. Appeasing or cajoling "the gods" would seem to have been the point of it all. The spilling of blood, whether animal or human, was powerfully symbolic - fresh blood had the mysterious, even magical, ingredient signifying life itself. Blood, then,was the highest offering possible. This idea of blood being a magical entity was carried through also by early practitioners of magick.

Gods who need appeasing or cajoling though? How did that idea arise? Perhaps due to the rigours of climate: droughts when water became hard to find, hurricanes, gales, floods, scorching heat, deep snow, heavy frosts all could interfere with primitive routines and the need to find food and shelter. For some reason the early human brain decided that all their various travails must be the doings of some unseen hand, belonging to some unseen being - who had better be appeased and cajoled if life were to continue in their neck of the woods.

That was all once upon a time stuff - in the 20th/21st century:

"And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made........" (Paul Simon)

FERONIA & LADY LIBERTY

In Roman times a feast day in honour of the goddess Feronia was held around now. Some sources say 15th of the month, some 13th, confusion probably arising from the date of the Ides of November. The Ides are thought to have originally marked the day of the full moon: 13th day of the months with 29 days, but 15th day of months with 31 days, according to Roman calendars.

Feronia actually pre-dates Rome. Worship of this goddess is thought to have Sabine or Etruscan roots. A number of godly "oversights" have been attributed to Feronia, she seems to have picked 'em up like moss over the centuries. Freedom from bondage (slaves regarded Feronia as a goddess of freedom, and believed that sitting on a holy stone in one of her sanctuaries would set them free); protector of freedmen and freedwomen; fertility and abundance; springs and groves; harvest goddess; agriculture and fire; magic; a witch goddess with the power to walk over red hot materials all came within her purview. There's also a myth connecting Feronia to Rome's legendary founders, the twins Romulus and Remus. The story goes that a wolf suckled the twin babies. Wolves are the sacred animals of Mars, the twins’ divine father. Wolves were associated with Italian deities: Faunus, Sylvanus, Diana, and.... Feronia.

Here's a thought: was the Statue of Liberty in reality a representation of, or an image inspired by, the myth of Feronia? Some say it's quite possible that sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi had an ancient goddess in mind when designing his now iconic sculpture.

Vejovis ~ Haruspicy ~ Divination ~ Rome ~ Bath, England.

At the foot of Wikipedia's page for 7 March it's noted that this day is "one of the days dedicated to Vejovis (Roman Empire)". The other two days dedicated to Vejovis were 1 January and 21 May.

Curiosity sent me on a Googling trip.

The original significance of Vejovis has become increasingly hazy over the centuries. He was considered by Romans to be a god of healing, and associated with the Greek Asclepius. There has, though, been constant tweaking of his significance and use by the people. Also connected to his name: escaping from netherworld, Volcanic God responsible for marshland and earthquakes, guardian angel in charge of slaves and fighters refusing to lose. God of deceivers, called to protect right causes and to give pain and deception to enemies. He has been identified with Apollo, with the infant Jupiter, and the Anti-Jupiter, which could be suggested by his name. Aulus Gellius observed that the ve- that prefixes the name also appears in Latin words such as vesanus = insane, so interprets Vejovis as the anti- or opposite of Jove

A multi-tasking god for all seasons then?

Vejovis has usually been depicted as a youth holding a laurel wreath and arrows, standing next to a goat. A temple between the two peaks of the Capitoline Hill in Rome was dedicated to him.

An intetrpretation marked as "dubious" interested me most. Vejovis may be based on the Etruscan god of vendetta, known to them by the name Vetis written on the Piacenza Liver, a bronze model used in haruspical divination.

Forget Vejovis, what the heck was haruspical divination ?

See lines from T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets: The Dry Salvages

To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits,
To report the behaviour of the sea monster,
Describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry,
Observe disease in signatures, evoke
Biography from the wrinkles of the palm
And tragedy from fingers; release omens
By sortilege, or tea leaves, riddle the inevitable
With playing cards, fiddle with pentagrams
Or barbituric acids, or dissect
The recurrent image into pre-conscious terrors—
To explore the womb, or tomb, or dreams; all these are usual
Pastimes and drugs, and features of the press:
And always will be, some of them especially
When there is distress of nations and perplexity
Whether on the shores of Asia, or in the Edgware Road.

It was haruspex Spurinna who warned Julius Caesar to beware the Ides of March.


E-notes tells us:

In Roman and Etruscan religious practice, a haruspex (plural haruspices; Latin auspex, plural auspices) was a man trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, hepatoscopy or hepatomancy.

Haruspicy is the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry. The rites were paralleled by other rites of divination such as the interpretation of lightning strikes, of the flight of birds (augury), and of other natural omens.

Haruspicy is not original to Etruscans nor Romans, but considered to have originated from the Near East.

The Nineveh library texts name more than a dozen liver-related terms and before cuneiform writing was even deciphered, hints of the existence of Babylonian hepatoscopy were recorded in the Bible. One Babylonian clay model of a sheep's liver, dated between 2050 and 1750 BC, is conserved in the British Museum. The model was used for omen divination which was important to Mesopotamian medicine. This study was carried out by priests and seers who looked for signs in the stars, or in the organs of sacrificed animals, to tell them things about a patient’s illness. Wooden pegs were placed in the holes of the clay tablet to record features found in a sacrificed animal's liver. The priest or seer then used these features to predict the course of a patient's illness.

This, then, is where Vejovis could have picked up the connection to Asclepius and medicine.

Evidence has been found of haruspicy in Bath, England where words engraved on the base of a long-gone statue show a haruspex honouring a goddess.

(The inscription reveals that the stone was set up by L. Marcius Memor, a haruspex, who was a special kind of priest for whom no other parallel is known from Roman Britain. It was dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva and is likely to have supported a statue of her. See more on the stone HERE. )