The gate of the year

Marble relief from the East side of the Ara Pacis (Rome), monument dedicated by Augustus to the Goddess of Peace in the year 9 B.C. At the centre of the scene appears the Earth goddess, Tellus, flanked by the personifications of the earth and sea winds, as a testimony of the peace established by the reign of Augustus, which was meant to spread over the earth and the sea. Tellus’s figure is probably a very old goddess, representing earth’s fertility and the female generative power, as evidenced by the two children which the goddess holds in her hands. In honour of Tellus were celebrated, on April 15, the religious feasts called Fordicidia, from the term forda, which means a pregnant cow. The central moment of the celebration was indeed the sacrifice of this animal to the goddess. The feast was part of a cycle of ceremonies having the purpose of propitiating the fertility of crops and cattle. The Fordicidia were followed, on April 19, by the Cerealia, a feast for the growth of cereals, and on April 21 by the Parilia, a ceremony devoted to promote the fecundity of the flocks and the protection of the shepherds. As evidence of this continuity, the embryos of the calves extracted from the sacrificed animals were burned by the Vestals during the Fordicidia. The ashes were then kept for six days and, on April 21, were mixed with desiccated horse blood and other ingredients and employed in the purification ritual of the Parilia. Ovid describes in this way the Fordicidia:

“Now are the cattle big with young; the ground, too, is big with seed: to teeming Earth is given a teeming victim. Some are slain in the citadel of Jupiter; the wards (Curiae) get thrice ten cows, and are splashed and drenched with blood in plenty. But when the attendants have torn the calves from the bowels of their dams, and put the cut entrails on the smoking hearths, the eldest (Vestal) Virgin burns the calves in the fire, that their ashes may purify the people on the day of Pales [Parilia]” (Fasti, IV, 633-640).

The poet further attributes the origin of the ritual to the king Numa Pompilius, who, in a period of infertility of both the earth and the animals, obtained a response from the god Faunus during a dream, who suggested him to sacrifice an animal which had two lives. In this way,

“The inwards of a pregnant cow were offered; the year proved more fruitful, and earth and cattle yielded their increase” (Fasti, IV, 671-672).

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ara_pacis_fregio_lato_ nord2_saturnia_tellus.jpg]




Female Symbols

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Marble relief from the East side of the Ara Pacis (Rome), monument dedicated by Augustus to the Goddess of Peace in the year 9 B.C. At the centre of the scene appears the Earth goddess, Tellus, flanked by the personifications of the earth and sea winds, as a testimony of the peace established by the reign of Augustus, which was meant to spread over the earth and the sea. Tellus’s figure is probably a very old goddess, representing earth’s fertility and the female generative power, as evidenced by the two children which the goddess holds in her hands. In honour of Tellus were celebrated, on April 15, the religious feasts called Fordicidia, from the term forda, which means a pregnant cow. The central moment of the celebration was indeed the sacrifice of this animal to the goddess. The feast was part of a cycle of ceremonies having the purpose of propitiating the fertility of crops and cattle. The Fordicidia were followed, on April 19, by the Cerealia, a feast for the growth of cereals, and on April 21 by the Parilia, a ceremony devoted to promote the fecundity of the flocks and the protection of the shepherds. As evidence of this continuity, the embryos of the calves extracted from the sacrificed animals were burned by the Vestals during the Fordicidia. The ashes were then kept for six days and, on April 21, were mixed with desiccated horse blood and other ingredients and employed in the purification ritual of the Parilia. Ovid describes in this way the Fordicidia: “Now are the cattle big with young; the ground, too, is big with seed: to teeming Earth is given a teeming victim. Some are slain in the citadel of Jupiter; the wards (Curiae) get thrice ten cows, and are splashed and drenched with blood in plenty. But when the attendants have torn the calves from the bowels of their dams, and put the cut entrails on the smoking hearths, the eldest (Vestal) Virgin burns the calves in the fire, that their ashes may purify the people on the day of Pales [Parilia]” (Fasti, IV, 633-640). The poet further attributes the origin of the ritual to the king Numa Pompilius, who, in a period of infertility of both the earth and the animals, obtained a response from the god Faunus during a dream, who suggested him to sacrifice an animal which had two lives. In this way, “The inwards of a pregnant cow were offered; the year proved more fruitful, and earth and cattle yielded their increase” (Fasti, IV, 671-672). [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ara_pacis_fregio_lato_ nord2_saturnia_tellus.jpg]