The gate of the year

Opening of the Mundus

View of the Umbilicus Urbis Romae, a circular masonry structure, at the centre of the Roman Forum, which was regarded as the symbolic centre of the city. The original structure was built probably in the II century B.C., but the actual remains are datable to the reconstruction of the monument at the time of Septimius Severus, in the II century A.D. This building was identified by some scholars as a mundus, a ritual pit regarded as an entrance to the Underworld. Tough this identification has not been universally accepted, there is no reason to doubt that they were very close neighbours, based on the same symbolic conceptions (Versnel 1994, p. 173).
Thrice every year, on August, October and November, a pit was consecrated to the gods Manes in the Ceres sanctuary (Mundus Cereris). It was said then that the “mundus is open” (mundus patet), signifying, as Macrobius said, that Pluto’s mouth (Plutonis fauce) was opened, namely that it was possible to communicate with the world of the dead (Macrobius, Saturnalia, I, 16). In those days it was believed that the shadows of the dead had free course among the living, and it was thus prohibited to conduct every official activity. This ritual recalls the goddess Ceres’ function as not only a divinity of the growth of cereals, but also a goddess of the dead. Such a double function confirms, once again, the relationship of absolute continuity and contiguity between life and death, both regarded as manifestations of the generative power of nature.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umbilicus_urbis.JPG]




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Opening of the Mundus View of the Umbilicus Urbis Romae, a circular masonry structure, at the centre of the Roman Forum, which was regarded as the symbolic centre of the city. The original structure was built probably in the II century B.C., but the actual remains are datable to the reconstruction of the monument at the time of Septimius Severus, in the II century A.D. This building was identified by some scholars as a mundus, a ritual pit regarded as an entrance to the Underworld. Tough this identification has not been universally accepted, there is no reason to doubt that they were very close neighbours, based on the same symbolic conceptions (Versnel 1994, p. 173). Thrice every year, on August, October and November, a pit was consecrated to the gods Manes in the Ceres sanctuary (Mundus Cereris). It was said then that the “mundus is open” (mundus patet), signifying, as Macrobius said, that Pluto’s mouth (Plutonis fauce) was opened, namely that it was possible to communicate with the world of the dead (Macrobius, Saturnalia, I, 16). In those days it was believed that the shadows of the dead had free course among the living, and it was thus prohibited to conduct every official activity. This ritual recalls the goddess Ceres’ function as not only a divinity of the growth of cereals, but also a goddess of the dead. Such a double function confirms, once again, the relationship of absolute continuity and contiguity between life and death, both regarded as manifestations of the generative power of nature. [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umbilicus_urbis.JPG]