Part 18
This seems a weak point. Bona Dea was not more closely related to Juno than some others. I do not feel sure that the name Juno is not as much an intrusion here as Hercules, and that the real female counterpart of Genius, &c., was not a nameless _numen_ like the Bona Dea. The rise of the cult of Juno Lucina may have produced this intrusion. It is worth noting that in Etruria Minerva takes the place of Juno _(Lex._ 2266, and the illustration on 2267).
Footnote 579:
Serv. _Ecl._ 4. 62.
Footnote 580:
Paulus, 63.
Footnote 581:
Gerhard, _Etruskische Spiegel_, 147. It is also figured in _Lex._ s. v. Hercules, 2259.
Footnote 582:
e. g. by every writer in Roscher’s _Lexicon_ who has touched on the subject. Jordan seems to have dissented (Preller, ii. 284).
Footnote 583:
The opposition or conflict of the two is paralleled by the supposed myth of the contention of Mars and Minerva (Nerio) (see above, p. 60; _Lex._ 2265).
Footnote 584:
See article ‘Iunones’ in _Lex._; and De-Marchi, _La Religione nella vita domestica_, p. 70.
Footnote 585:
Roscher’s article ‘Juno’ in _Lex._ passim.
Footnote 586:
I cannot agree with Mr. Jevons (_Introduction to History of Religion_, p. 186 foll.) when he makes the Roman genius a relic of totemism, simply because _genii_ were often represented by serpents. The snake was too universally worshipped and domesticated to be easily explained as a totem. Mr. Frazer has an interesting example from Zululand, which is singularly suggestive in connexion with the doctrine of Genius (see _Golden Bough_, ii. 332), which can hardly be explained on a totemistic basis. The doctrine of Genius may certainly have had its roots in a totemistic age; but by the time it reaches us in Roman literature it has passed through so many stages that its origin is not to be dogmatized about.
Footnote 587:
I cannot attach much weight to the argument (see _Lex._ 2268) that because Aelius Stilo explained Dius Fidius as Diovis Filius he therefore had in his head some such relation of Genius to Jupiter.
Footnote 588:
If he had written Genius _Iovius_, after the manner of the Iguvian inscription, with its adjectival forms which preserve a reminiscence of the older spirit-world, he might have been nearer the mark. It may be that we get back to Jupiter himself as the Genius _par excellence_, but there is no direct proof of this. The genius of a god is a late idea, as Mr. Jevons points out in a note to _Roman Questions_, p. liii.
Footnote 589:
Livy, 22. 9; Ovid, _Fasti_, 6. 241 foll.; Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 19.
Footnote 590:
Livy, 23. 31 and 32; Marq. 270.
Footnote 591:
Marq. 358 foll.; Article ‘Sibyllini libri’ in _Dict. of Antiquities_, ed. 2.
Footnote 592:
Livy, 22. 9, 10; 23. 30, 31.
Footnote 593:
Ad _Aen._ 1. 720.
Footnote 594:
Plut. _de Fort. Rom._ 5. 10; Cic. _Nat. Deor._ 2. 61. Aust (_de Aedibus sacris_, p. 19) puts it in B.C. 115, in Scaurus’ consulship.
Footnote 595:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 6. 219 foll.; Festus, 250, s. v. _Penus_: ‘[Penus vo]catur locus intimus in aede Vestae, tegetibus saeptus, qui certis diebus circa Vestalia aperitur. Ii dies religiosi habentur.’
Footnote 596:
For the meanings of _nefastus_ and _religiosus_ see Introduction, p. 9; Marq. 291.
Footnote 597:
No doubt this was done, and the lines composed, in order to please Augustus and reflect the revival of the old _religio_.
Footnote 598:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 32.
Footnote 599:
Vol. xiv, No. 28.
Footnote 600:
p. 53.
Footnote 601:
Marq. 250. In the Andaman Islands both sons and daughters take part in the work of maintaining the fires (Man’s _Andaman Islands_, quoted by Mr. Frazer, op. cit. p. 153).
Footnote 602:
See my article ‘Sacerdos’ in _Dict. of Antiquities_, ed. 2.
Footnote 603:
Vesta herself was originally simply the fire on the hearth (Frazer, op. cit. 152). Note that the flame was obtained afresh each year on March 1, even in historical times, by the primitive method of the friction of the wood of a ‘lucky’ tree (Festus, 106), or from the sun’s rays. We are not told which priest performed this rite.
Footnote 604:
Middleton, _Rome in 1885_, p. 181 foll.
Footnote 605:
This belief, and the nature of the treasures, are fully discussed by Marquardt, p. 251, with additions by Wissowa.
Footnote 606:
Cp. Petronius, _Sat._ 44 (of the aquaelicium).
Footnote 607:
_Fasti_, 6. 395 foll.
Footnote 608:
Above, p. 110.
Footnote 609:
As the beast that usually worked in mills? There is a Pompeian painting of this scene (Gerhard, _Ant. Bild._ pl. 62).
Footnote 610:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 32 ‘Dies qui vocatur Q. St. D. F. ab eo appellatur quod eo die ex aede Vestae stercus everritur et per Capitolinum clivum in locum defertur certum.’ It is Ovid who tells us it was thrown into the Tiber (_Fasti_, 6. 713).
Footnote 611:
Jordan, _Tempel der Vesta_, p. 63.
Footnote 612:
The crushing of the grain no doubt comes down from a time when there were no mills (Helbig, _Italiker in der Poebene_, 17 and 72). The preparation of the cakes was also peculiar, and even that of the salt which was used in them (Festus, 159; cp. Serv. _Ecl._ 8. 82). The latter passage is the _locus classicus_ for all these duties: ‘Virgines Vestales tres maximae ex nonis Maiis ad pridie Idus Maias alternis diebus (i. e. on 7th, 9th, 11th?) spicas adoreas in corbibus messuariis ponunt, easque spicas ipsae virgines torrent, pinsunt, molunt, atque ita molitum condunt. Ex eo farre virgines ter in anno molam faciunt, Lupercalibus, Vestalibus, Idibus Septembribus, adiecto sale cocto et sale duro.’ For examples of the primitive method of cooking see Miss Kingsley’s _Travels in West Africa_, p. 208; and Sir Joseph Banks’s _Journal_ (ed. Hooker), p. 137.
Footnote 613:
_Penus_ means, in the first instance, food. Cic. _Nat. Deorum_, 2. 68 ‘Est omne quo vescuntur homines penus.’ Hence it came to mean the store-closet in the centre of the house, of which the Penates were the guardian spirits. Its sacred character is indicated in a passage of Columella (_R. R._ 12. 4; and see my paper on the _toga praetexta_ of Roman children, in _Classical Review_, Oct. 1896).
Footnote 614:
Varro, ap. S. Aug. _de Civ._ 7. 24; cp. 7. 16. Ovid, _Fasti_, 6. 267, writes, ‘Vesta eadem quae terra,’ but more correctly in 291, ‘Nec tu aliud Vestam quam vivam intellige flammam.’ Some moderns derive Vesta from root _vas_ = ‘dwelling,’ and make her the earth in special relation to the dwelling; e. g. O. Gilbert, i. 348 note.
Footnote 615:
Preuner, _Hestia-Vesta_, p. 221 ‘Gottheit des Feuers, sofern religiöse, ethische Ideen sich in demselben abspiegeln, nicht des Feuers als blossen Elements.’ This is surely turning the question upside down.
Footnote 616:
Tylor, _Prim. Cult._ ii. 251; Grimm, _German Mythology_ (Eng. trans.), p. 601 foll.
Footnote 617:
In July also the days were _nefasti_ from the Kalends to the 9th; but to the meaning of this we have no clue whatever.
Footnote 618:
See above, p. 115.
Footnote 619:
_G. B._ ii. 75. In an appendix (p. 373 foll. and esp. 382) will be found some other examples of the same type of ritual. Cp. also ii. 176 (from Punjaub), which example, however, does not seem in any way connected with harvest. But the practice of the Creek Indians is so unusually well attested that it deserves special attention. It is described by no less than four independent authorities (see Mr. Frazer’s note on p. 76).
Footnote 620:
Nissen, _Landeskunde_, 399.
Footnote 621:
The whole of Mr. Frazer’s section on the sacramental eating of new crops should be read in connexion with the Vestalia.
Footnote 622:
Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 7; Liv. 5. 19 and 23. The temple was in the Forum boarium, near the Circus maximus.
Footnote 623:
Wissowa in _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Mater Matuta, 2463.
Footnote 624:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 6. 473 foll.; Cic. _Nat. Deor._ 3. 48; _Tusc._ 1. 28. Plutarch (_Quaest. Rom._ 16. 1) noted a likeness between her cult and that of Leucothea in his own city of Chaeroneia; an interesting passage, though quite inconclusive as to the Greek origin of Mater Matuta. Plutarch, like Servius (_Aen._ 5. 241) and others, has adopted Ovid’s legend of Ino by way of explanation of the identity of Leucothea and Matuta. Merkel (_Fasti_, clxxxiv) believed the cult to be wholly Greek; Bouché-Leclercq (_Hist. de Divination_, iv. 147) follows Klausen in identifying Mater Matuta with Tethys (cf. Plut. _Rom._ 2) and with the deity of the oracle at Pyrgi. But see Wesseling on Diod. Sic. 15, p. 337; and Strabo, Bk. 5, p. 345.
Footnote 625:
_C. I. L._ i. 176, 177.
Footnote 626:
Liv. 6. 33. 4; Wissowa, _Lex._ 2462.
Footnote 627:
Diod. Sic. 15. 14, p. 337, and Wesseling’s note. The temple at Pyrgi was an important one, and rich enough to be plundered by Dionysius I of Syracuse. But it must be admitted that the identification of the deity of Pyrgi with Mater Matuta is not absolutely certain. Strabo, l. c., calls her Eileithyia, Aristotle (_Oecon._ 1349 b) Leucothea; and it is thought that Mater Matuta alone combines the characteristics of these two. If, however, the goddess of Pyrgi was the deity of the oracle, she might almost as well have been a Fortuna, like those of Antium and Praeneste.
Footnote 628:
Tertullian, _de Monogam_. 17.
Footnote 629:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 6. 481, with Plut. _Q. R._ 16; _Camill._ 5.
Footnote 630:
Varro, _L. L._ 5. 106. Ovid (482) writes of _liba tosta_, i. e. cakes cooked in pans rather than baked, like the _mola salsa_. See above, p. 149; and cp. Ovid, 532 ‘in subito cocta foco.’
Footnote 631:
Plut. ll. cc.; Ovid, 559 foll.
Footnote 632:
See below on Jan. 11. I cannot explain the rule that a woman prayed for nephews and nieces before her own children, which is peculiar to this cult.
Footnote 633:
Preller, i. 322; Wissowa in _Lex_.
Footnote 634:
_R. H._ (Eng. trans.) i. 162.
Footnote 635:
Lucr. 5. 654.
Footnote 636:
Paulus, 122 ‘Matrem Matutam antiqui ob bonitatem appellabant, et maturum idoneum usui,’ &c. See also Curtius, _Gk. Etym._ I. 408.
Footnote 637:
_Fasti_, 6. 569 foll.; 625 foll.: cp. Dionysius, 4. 40. Ovid has three fanciful explanations of the draping.
Footnote 638:
Ovid, l.c.; Dionys. 4. 40.
Footnote 639:
Varro ap. Nonium, p. 189; Plin. _N. H._ 8. 194, 197. See Schwegler, _R. G._ i. 712, note 3, and a full discussion in _Lex_. by R. Peter, s.v. Fortuna, p. 1509.
Footnote 640:
Dio Cassius, 58. 7.
Footnote 641:
Seneca, _Q. N._ 2. 41; Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 83; Dennis, _Etruria_, i, Introduction lvi. The passage of Seneca is a very curious one about the Etruscan lightning-lore. O. Müller guesses that the _di involuti_ were Fates (_Schicksalsgottheiten_), which would suit Fortuna (cp. Hor. _Od._ 1. 35).
Footnote 642:
There is just a possibility that it was confused with a statue of Pudicitia, also _in foro boario_, and also said to have been veiled (Festus, 242). Varro, l. c., calls the goddess of the statue, Fortuna Virgo, and Preller suggested that she was identical with Pudicitia. The lines of Ovid seem to favour this view (_Fasti_, 6. 617 foll.):
Veste data tegitur. Vetat hanc Fortuna moveri Et sic e templo est ipsa locuta suo; ‘Ore revelato qua primum luce patebit Servius, haec positi prima pudoris erit. Parcite, matronae, vetitas attingere vestes: Sollemni satis est voce movere preces.’
Footnote 643:
Mommsen in _C. I. L._ i. 2, 298.
Footnote 644:
Livy, 9. 30; Val. Max. 2. 5. 4; Varro, _L. L._ 6. 17. Cp. _C. I. L._ vi. 3696 [Magistri] quinq(uennales) [collegi] teib(icinum) Rom(anorum) qui s(acris) p(ublicis) p(raesto) s(unt) Iov(i) Epul(oni) s(acrum).
Footnote 645:
So Preller, i. 198.
Footnote 646:
Aust, in _Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, 680. Both here and in his work _de Aedibus sacris_, this scholar declines to distinguish between Iup. Invictus and Iup. Victor.
Footnote 647:
For Minerva as the patron of all such guilds see Wissowa in _Lex._ s. v. Minerva, 2984 foll.
Footnote 648:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 17. There were three days of revelry, according to Livy (9. 30): did they meet in this temple on each day? The 13th was the day of the _epulum_; which the other days were we do not know.
Footnote 649:
_L. L._ 6. 17.
Footnote 650:
Festus, 149, s. v. minusculae. Cf. Ovid, _Fasti_, 6. 695.
Footnote 651:
Livy, l. c. Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 55, who confuses two Appii Claudii, and refers the story to the Decemvir instead of to the Censor of 311 B.C. Livy omits the very Roman trait (Ov. 673 foll.) of the _libertus_ feigning to be surprised by his _patronus_.
Footnote 652:
Cohen, _Méd. Pl._ 33; Borghesi, _Op._ i. 201 (quoted by Marq. 577).
Footnote 653:
Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 202.
Footnote 654:
_Journal of Philology_, vol. xi. p. 189. It was a short pipe played with a reed, and no doubt almost the same thing as the short rough oboes which are still favourites in Italy, and which are still sometimes played two at a time in the mouth as of old. Their antiquity is vouched for by the law of the Twelve Tables, which limited the players at a funeral to ten. See Professor Anderson’s article ‘tibia’ in _Dict. of Ant._ (ed. 2).
Footnote 655:
_Fasti_, 6. 731.
Footnote 656:
Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 13.
Footnote 657:
Not to be confused, as in Livy, _Epit._ 14, with a statue of Summanus himself on the same temple (in fastigio Iovis: Cicero, _Div._ 1. 10).
Footnote 658:
_de Civ. Dei_, 4. 23.
Footnote 659:
Festus, 229, s. v. Proversum fulgor: ‘Quod diurna Iovis, nocturna Summani fulgura habentur.’ (Cp. Pliny, _N. H._ 2. 52.) An interesting inscription (_C. I. L._ vi. 206) runs, ‘Summanium fulgus conditum,’ i. e. ‘a bolt which fell before dawn was buried here.’
Footnote 660:
_L. L._ 5. 74.
Footnote 661:
Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 60.
Footnote 662:
_Études de Mythologie Gauloise_, i. p. 92. M. Gaidoz looks on these wheel-cakes as ‘emblematic of Summanus’ as a god of sun and sky.
Footnote 663:
Festus, p. 348. The MS. has ‘finctae.’
Footnote 664:
_Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. vii, No. 1 (1886), p. 44 foll.
Footnote 665:
_Fasti_, 6. 775 foll.
Footnote 666:
p. 104.
Footnote 667:
_L. L._ 61. 7.
Footnote 668:
Livy, 10. 46. 17.
Footnote 669:
_Ann._ 2. 41.
Footnote 670:
See above, the heading of this section.
Footnote 671:
_C. I. L._ 320.
Footnote 672:
See above, p. 50.
Footnote 673:
ch. i.
Footnote 674:
Marquardt, p. 2.
Footnote 675:
Pliny, _N. H._ 34. 54.
Footnote 676:
Plut. _Marius_, 26; Pliny, l. c. I follow Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 26.
Footnote 677:
Above, p. 156.
Footnote 678:
Ovid is the only authority for the worship of Fortuna on June 11 (_Fasti_, 6. 569); it is not mentioned in the calendars (Tusc. Ven. Maff.) which have notes surviving for this day.
Footnote 679:
By H. Jordan, _Symbolae ad historiam religionum Italicarum alterae_ (Königsberg, 1885). See also R. Peter, in _Lex._ s. v. Fortuna, 1542, and Aust, _Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, 647.
Footnote 680:
_C. I. L._ xiv. 2863.
Footnote 681:
_de Div._ 2. 41. 85.
Footnote 682:
Jordan, op. cit. p. 12.
Footnote 683:
See below, p. 223 foll., under Sept. 13.
Footnote 684:
Fernique, _Étude sur Préneste_, pp. 8 and 139 foll.
Footnote 685:
See also his previous letter of March 3.
Footnote 686:
He held ‘birth’ and ‘fortune’ to be words etymologically related. Cp. a communication from Prof. Kluge in the same number of the _Academy_.
Footnote 687:
_Journal of Philology_, vol. xi. 178; _Studies in Latin Literature_, p. 60.
Footnote 688:
_de Civ. Dei_, 4. 11. Cp. Serv. _Aen._ 8. 336.
Footnote 689:
l. c. ‘Castissime colitur a matribus.’ One of the ancient inscriptions from Praeneste (_C. I. L._ xi. 2863) is a dedication ‘nationu cratia’ = _nationis gratia_, which may surely mean ‘in gratitude for childbirth,’ though Mommsen would refer it to cattle, on the ground of a gloss of Festus (p. 167).
Footnote 690:
Jordan, op. cit. p. 12.
Footnote 691:
O. Gilbert, _Gesch. u. Topogr. der Stadt Rom_, ii. 260 foll.
Footnote 692:
St. John, iii. 30; St. Augustine, Sermo xii in Nativitate Domini: ‘In nativitate Christi dies crescit, in Johannis nativitate decrescit. Profectum plane facit dies, quum mundi Salvator oritur; defectum patitur quum ultimus prophetarum nascitur.’
Footnote 693:
See many examples in _The Golden Bough_, ii. 258 foll., and Brand’s _Popular Antiquities_, p. 306.
Footnote 694:
See R. Peter, in _Lex._, s. v. Fortuna, 1506.
Footnote 695:
_Études de Myth. Gaul._ i. 56 foll. On p. 58 we find, ‘La Fortune nous paraît donc sortir, par l’intermédiaire d’une image, d’une divinité du soleil.’
Footnote 696:
For the history of these symbols in Greek cults, and especially that of Tyche, see a paper by Prof. Gardner in _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. ix. p. 78, on ‘Countries and Cities in ancient art.’ The rudder seems to connect Fortuna with sea-faring; it is often accompanied by a ship’s prow (R. Peter, _Lex._ 1507); in connexion with which we may notice that even in Italy her cult is rarely found far from the sea. Cp. Horace, _Od._ 1. 35, 6 ‘dominam aequoris.’
Footnote 697:
10. 311 foll.; Marq. 578.
Footnote 698:
R. Peter, _Lex._ 1505. She is also often represented with a _modius_, and with ears of corn. Cp. Horace, l. c. (of the Fortuna of Antium): ‘Te pauper ambit sollicita prece Ruris colonus.’
Footnote 699:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 6. 573 foll. Schwegler, _R. G._ i. 711 foll.; Preller, ii. 180.
Footnote 700:
Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_, vol. ii. p. 506; Gardthausen, ‘Mastarna,’ figures the painting (plate i).
Footnote 701:
Tac. _Ann._ II. 24; the fragments of the original speech are printed from the inscription at Lyons in Mr. Furneaux’s _Annals of Tacitus_, vol. ii. p. 210.
Footnote 702:
Juvenal, 10. 74, and note of the Scholiast.
Footnote 703:
Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 52; Dennis, _Cit. and Cem._ ii. 24.
Footnote 704:
Juvenal, l.c.
Footnote 705:
See below on Sept. 13, p. 234.
Footnote 706:
Müller-Deecke, ii. 308. Gaidoz, op. cit. p. 56, on the connexion between Fortuna, Necessitas, and Nemesis.
Footnote 707:
Gerhard, _Agathodaemon_, p. 30, has other explanations.
MENSIS QUINCTILIS.
The festivals of this month are so exceedingly obscure that it seems hopeless to try to connect them in any definite way with the operations either of nature or of man. We know that this was the time when the sun’s heat became oppressive and dangerous; statistics show at the present day that the rate of mortality rises at Rome to its greatest height in July and August, as indeed is the case in southern latitudes generally. We know also that harvest of various kinds was going on in this month: ‘Quarto intervallo inter solstitium et caniculam plerique messem faciunt,’ writes Varro (_R. R._ 1. 32). We should have expected that the unhealthy season and the harvest would have left their mark on the calendar; but in the scantiness of our information we can find very few traces of their influence. We here lose the company of Ovid, who might, in spite of his inevitable ignorance, have incidentally thrown some ray of light upon the darkness; but it is clear that even Varro and Verrius knew hardly anything of the almost obsolete festivals of this month. The Poplifugia, the Lucaria, the Neptunalia, and the Furrinalia, had all at one time been great festivals, for they are marked in large capitals in the ancient calendars; but they had no more meaning for the Roman of Varro’s time than the lesser saints’-days of our calendar have for the ordinary Englishman of to-day. The ludi Apollinares, of much later date, which always maintained their interest, did not fall upon the days of any of these festivals, or obliterate them in the minds of the people; they must have decayed from pure inanition—want of practical correlation with the life and interests of a great city.
III NON. QUINCT. (JULY 5). NP.
POPLIF[UGIA]. (MAFF. AMIT. ANT.)
FERIAE IOVI. (AMIT.)
The note ‘feriae Iovi’ in the calendar of Amiternum is confirmed in a curious way, by a statement of Dio Cassius[708], who says that in B.C. 42 the Senate passed a decree that Caesar’s birthday should be celebrated on this day[709], and that any one who refused to take part in the celebration should be ‘sacer Iovi et Divo Iulio.’ But we know far too little of the rites of this day to enable us to make even a guess at the meaning of its connexion with Jupiter. It is just worth noting that two days later we find a festival of Juno, the Nonae Caprotinae; the two days may have had some connexion with each other, being separated by an interval of one day, as is the case with the three days of the Lemuria, the two days of the Lucaria in this month, and in other instances[710]; and their rites were explained by two parts of the same aetiological story—viz. that the Romans fled before the Fidenates on the 5th, and in turn defeated them on the 7th[711]. But we are quite in the dark as to the meaning of such a connexion, if such there was. Nor can we explain the singular fact that this is the only festival in the whole year, marked in large capitals in the calendars, which falls _before the Nones_[712].
There is hardly a word in the whole calendar the meaning of which is so entirely unknown to us as this word Poplifugia. Of the parallel one, the Regifugium in February, something can be made out, as we shall see[713]; and it is not unlikely that the ritualistic meaning concealed in both may be much the same. But all attempts to find a definite explanation for Poplifugia have so far been fruitless, with the single exception perhaps of that of Schwegler[714], who himself made the serious blunder of confounding this day with the Nonae Caprotinae. It is true that the two days and their rites were confused even in antiquity, but only by late writers[715]; the calendars, on the other hand, are perfectly plain and so is Varro[716], who proceeds from the one to the other in a way that can leave no doubt that he understood them as distinct.