The gate of the year

The Lupercalia

View of the Palatine Hill from the Imperial Fora, Rome.
According to mythology, Rome originated on the Palatine, where archaeological excavations have brought to light remains dating to the X century B.C. Virgil, in the Aeneid, reports the tradition according to which the hill was originally inhabited by a colony of Greeks, coming from Arcadia under the leadership of the king Evander. They had brought to Italy the cult of Pan, which was practiced near Mount Lykaion, where some ceremonies were performed that implied the transformation into wolves. To the god Pan, who the Romans had identified with Faunus, was consecrated a cave at the foot of the Palatine Hill, called Lupercal, where it was believed the two twins, Romulus and Remus, had been suckled by a she-wolf (Aeneid, VIII, 343-344). It was just around the Palatine, that on February 15, during the period devoted to the celebration of the dead, was held the feast of the Lupercalia. The name of the festival derives from the Luperci, a priestly fraternity which Cicero describes as a “wild sodality, thoroughly pastoral and rustic”, which was established “before human civilization and laws” (Pro Caelio, XI, 26). In this date, the Luperci executed the sacrifice of a goat, with the skin of which, cut into thongs, they realized whips. Holding this lashes, they run all around the old city, naked and wearing only a breechcloth of goatskin, striking the people who were attending. The ritual “lashing” were mainly directed to women, who did not try to escape, because they believed that the strokes were beneficial for fertility and childbearing (Plutarch, Romulus, XXI, 6). The race of the Luperci started from the cave of Lupercal and developed around the Palatine Hill, thus delimiting the oldest centre of the city, which they limited themselves to circumscribe, without entering it. The Luperci, indeed, were associated to the pastoral world and to the “wild” god Faunus, and were thus opposed to urban life. They were “naked”, as Virgil defines them (Aeneid, VIII, 663), not so much because they were thoroughly without clothes, but because they were lacking the robe (toga), which was par excellence the citizen’s dress for the Romans. The festival of the Lupercalia configure itself, thus, as a temporary “time of disorder”, the outbreak of a wild and primordial element, which nevertheless brought with it vitality and fecundity.

[Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




Seasonal Cycles

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The Lupercalia View of the Palatine Hill from the Imperial Fora, Rome. According to mythology, Rome originated on the Palatine, where archaeological excavations have brought to light remains dating to the X century B.C. Virgil, in the Aeneid, reports the tradition according to which the hill was originally inhabited by a colony of Greeks, coming from Arcadia under the leadership of the king Evander. They had brought to Italy the cult of Pan, which was practiced near Mount Lykaion, where some ceremonies were performed that implied the transformation into wolves. To the god Pan, who the Romans had identified with Faunus, was consecrated a cave at the foot of the Palatine Hill, called Lupercal, where it was believed the two twins, Romulus and Remus, had been suckled by a she-wolf (Aeneid, VIII, 343-344). It was just around the Palatine, that on February 15, during the period devoted to the celebration of the dead, was held the feast of the Lupercalia. The name of the festival derives from the Luperci, a priestly fraternity which Cicero describes as a “wild sodality, thoroughly pastoral and rustic”, which was established “before human civilization and laws” (Pro Caelio, XI, 26). In this date, the Luperci executed the sacrifice of a goat, with the skin of which, cut into thongs, they realized whips. Holding this lashes, they run all around the old city, naked and wearing only a breechcloth of goatskin, striking the people who were attending. The ritual “lashing” were mainly directed to women, who did not try to escape, because they believed that the strokes were beneficial for fertility and childbearing (Plutarch, Romulus, XXI, 6). The race of the Luperci started from the cave of Lupercal and developed around the Palatine Hill, thus delimiting the oldest centre of the city, which they limited themselves to circumscribe, without entering it. The Luperci, indeed, were associated to the pastoral world and to the “wild” god Faunus, and were thus opposed to urban life. They were “naked”, as Virgil defines them (Aeneid, VIII, 663), not so much because they were thoroughly without clothes, but because they were lacking the robe (toga), which was par excellence the citizen’s dress for the Romans. The festival of the Lupercalia configure itself, thus, as a temporary “time of disorder”, the outbreak of a wild and primordial element, which nevertheless brought with it vitality and fecundity. [Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]