WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS
The life of the early Roman in the fields, his activities, his hopes
and fears, are reflected in the long list of agricultural festivals
which constitute the greater part of the celebrations in the Calendar,
and follow closely the seasons and occupations of the agricultural
year. We are, of course, in the Calendar dealing, to speak strictly,
with the worship of the state, and not with the semi-private festivals
of groups of farmers, but in many instances, such as the Robigalia, the
state seems only to have taken over the cult of the farmers, preserving
carefully the site on which the celebration took place; in others, such
as the Terminalia and the Parilia, it seems to have established, as it
were, a state-counterpart of a rite performed independently at many
rustic centres: in both cases we are justified in inferring the
practice of the early Roman agriculturalist. We shall see that in most
cases these festivals are associated--though often loosely
enough--with the worship of a particular divinity. Sometimes,
however,--as in the case of the Lupercalia--it is very difficult to
discover who this divinity was; in other festivals, such as the
Robigalia, it looks as if the eponymous deity was a comparatively late
development. We may, therefore, suppose, on the analogy of what we have
already seen to be the general lines of development in Roman religion,
that the festivals in origin centred round a purpose rather than a
personality, and were addressed 'to all spirits whom it might concern';
and that later, when the _deus_ notion was on the increase, they either
attached themselves to some god whose personality was already distinct,
as the Vinalia were attached to Iuppiter, or 'developed' a deity of
their own. Among these deities, strictly functional as a rule and
existing only in connection with their special festival, we shall
notice the frequent recurrence of a divinity pair, not, of course,
mythologically related as husband and wife, but representing, perhaps,
the male and female aspects of the same process of development.
The festivals divide themselves naturally into three groups: those of
Spring, expressive of the hopes and fears for the growing crops and
herds; those of Summer, the festivals of fulfilment, including the
celebration of harvest; and those of Winter, the festivals of sowing,
of social rejoicing, and in the later months of purificatory
anticipation of the coming year.
=1. Festivals of Spring.=--The old Roman year--as may be seen clearly
enough from the names of the months still known by numbers, September,
October, etc.--began in March: according to tradition Romulus reckoned
a year of ten months altogether, and Numa added January and February.
The Spring months properly speaking may be reckoned as March, April,
and May. In March there were in the developed Calendar no festivals of
an immediately recognisable agricultural character, but the whole month
was practically consecrated to its eponymous deity, Mars. Now, to the
Roman of the Republic, Mars was undoubtedly the deity associated with
war, and his special festivals in this month are of a warlike
character: on the 9th the priests (_Salii_) began the ancient custom of
carrying his sacred shields (_ancilia_) round the town from one
ordained resting-place to another: on the 19th, Quinquatrus, the
shields were solemnly purified, and on the 23rd the same ceremony was
performed with the war-trumpets: the Equirria (horse-races) of March
14 may have had an agricultural origin--we shall meet with races later
on as a feature of rustic festivals--but they were certainly celebrated
in a military manner. Yet there is good reason for believing that Mars
was in origin associated not with war, but with the growth of
vegetation: he was, as we shall see, the chief deity addressed in the
solemn lustration of the fields (_Ambarvalia_), and if our general
notion of the development of religion with the growing needs of the
agricultural community crystallising into a state be correct, it may
well be that a deity originally concerned with the interests of the
farmer took on himself the protection of the soldier, when the fully
developed state came into collision with its neighbours. If so, we may
well have in these recurring festivals of Mars the sense, as Mr. Warde
Fowler has put it, of 'some great _numen_ at work, quickening
vegetation, and calling into life the powers of reproduction in man and
the animals.' Possibly another agricultural note is struck in the
Liberalia of the 17th: though the cult of Liber was almost entirely
overlaid by his subsequent identification with Dionysus, it seems right
to recognise in him and his female counterpart, Libera, a general
spirit of creativeness.
The character of April is much more clearly marked: the month is filled
with a series of festivals--all of a clearly agricultural
nature--prayers for the crops now in the earth, and the purification of
the men and animals on the farm. The series opens with the Fordicidia
on the 15th, when pregnant cows were sacrificed: their unborn calves
were torn from them and burnt, the ashes being kept by the Vestal
Virgin in Vesta's storehouse (_penus Vestæ_) for use at the Parilia.
The general symbolism of fertility is very clear; the goddess
associated with the festival is Tellus, the earth herself, and the
local origin of these festivals is shown in the fact that not only was
the sacrifice made for the whole people on the Capitol, but separately
in each one of the _curiae_. The Fordicidia is closely followed by the
Cerealia on the 19th--the festival of another earth-goddess (_Ceres_,
_creare_)--more especially connected with the growth of corn. A very
curious feature of the ritual was the fastening of fire-brands to the
tails of foxes, which were then let loose in what was afterwards the
Circus Maximus: a symbol possibly, as Wissowa thinks, of sunlight,
possibly of the vegetation-spirit. But the most important of the April
ceremonies is undoubtedly the Parilia of the 21st, the festival of the
very ancient rustic _numen_, Pales. Ovid's[9] description of the
celebration is so interesting and so full of the characteristic colour
of the Roman rustic festivals that I may perhaps be pardoned for
reproducing it at greater length. 'Shepherd,' he says, addressing the
rustic worshipper, 'at the first streak of dawn purify thy well-fed
flocks: let water first besprinkle them, and a branch sweep clean the
ground. Let the folds be adorned with leaves and branches fastened to
them, while a trailing wreath covers the gay-decked gates. Let blue
flames rise from the living sulphur and the sheep bleat loud as she
feels the touch of the smoking sulphur. Burn the male olive-branch and
the pine twig and juniper, and let the blazing laurel crackle amid the
hearth. A basket full of millet must go with the millet cakes: this is
the food wherein the country goddess finds pleasure most of all. Give
her too her own share of the feast and her pail of milk, and when her
share has been set aside, then with milk warm from the cow make prayer
to Pales, guardian of the woods.' The poet then recites a long prayer,
in which the farmer first begs forgiveness for any unwitting sins he
may have committed against the rustic deities, such as trespassing on
their groves or sheltering his flocks beneath their altar, and then
prays for the aversion of disease and the prosperity of crops, flocks,
and herds. 'Thus must the goddess be won, this prayer say four times
turning to the sunrise, and wash thy hands in the running stream. Then
set the rustic bowl upon the table in place of the wine-bowl, and drink
the snowy milk and dark must, and soon through the heaps of crackling
straw leap in swift course with eager limbs.' All the worshippers then
set to leaping through the blazing fires, even the flocks and herds
were driven through, and general hilarity reigned. Many points of
detail might be noticed, such as that in the urban counterpart of the
festival, which Ovid carefully distinguishes from the country
celebrations, the fire was sprinkled with the ashes from the calves of
the Fordicidia and the blood of Mars' October horse--another link
between Mars and agriculture. But it is most interesting to note the
double character of the ceremony--as a purification of man and beast on
the one hand, and on the other a prayer for the prosperity of the
season to come. Three special festivals remain in April. At the Vinalia
(_priora_) of the 23rd, the wine-skins of the previous year were opened
and the wine tasted, and, we may suppose, supplication was made for
the vintage to come, the festival being dedicated to the sky-god,
Iuppiter. At the Robigalia of the 25th the offering of a dog was made
for the aversion of mildew (_robigo_), to Robigus (who looks like a
developed eponymous deity) at the fifth milestone on the Via
Claudia--the ancient boundary of Roman territory. The Floralia of the
28th does not occur in the old Calendars, probably because it was a
moveable feast (_feriae conceptivae_), but it is an unmistakeable
petition to the _numen_ Flora for the blossoming of the season's
flowers.
May was a month of more critical importance for the welfare of the
crops, and therefore its festivals were mostly of a more sombre
character. The 9th, 11th, and 13th were the days set apart for the
Lemuria, the aversion of the hostile spirits of the dead, of which we
have already spoken, and a similarly gloomy character probably attached
to the Agonia of Vediovis on the 21st. But of far the greatest interest
is the moveable feast of the Ambarvalia, the great lustration of the
fields, which took place towards the end of the month: the date of its
occurrence was no doubt fixed according to the state of the crops in
any given year. As the individual farmer purified his own fields for
the aversion of evil, so a solemn lustration of the boundaries of the
state was performed by special priests, known as the Arval brethren
(_fratres Arvales_). With ceremonial dancing (_tripudium_) they moved
along the boundary-marks and made the farmer's most complete offering
of the pig, sheep, and ox (_suovetaurilia_): the fruits of the last
year and the new harvest (_aridae et virides_) played a large part in
the ceremonial, and a solemn litany was recited for the aversion of
every kind of pest from the crops. In Virgil's account the prayer is
made to Ceres, and we know that in imperial times, when the Ambarvalia
became very closely connected with the worship of the imperial house,
the centre of the cult was the earth-goddess, Dea Dia; but in the
earliest account of the rustic ceremony which we possess in Cato, Mars
is addressed in the unmistakeable character of an agricultural deity.
'Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee that thou mayest be gracious and
favourable to me, to my home, and my household, for which cause I have
ordained that the offering of pig, sheep, and ox be carried round my
fields, my land, and my farm: that thou mayest avert, ward off, and
keep afar all disease, visible and invisible, all barrenness, waste,
misfortune, and ill weather: that thou mayest suffer our crops, our
corn, our vines and bushes to grow and come to prosperity: that thou
mayest preserve the shepherds and the flocks in safety, and grant
health and strength to me, to my home, and my household.' We have
perhaps here another rustic ceremony addressed in origin to all
_numina_, whom it might concern, and, as it were, specialising itself
from time to time in an appeal to one definite deity or another, but it
is also clear evidence of an early agricultural association of Mars.
The Ambarvalia is one of the most picturesque of the field ceremonies,
and a peculiarly beautiful and imaginative description of it may be
found in the first chapter of Pater's _Marius the Epicurean_.
In June and July the farmer was waiting for the completion of the
harvest, and the great state-festivals of the period are not
agricultural.
=2. Festivals of the Harvest.=--In August the farmer's hopes are at
last realised, and the harvest is brought in. The season is marked by
two closely connected festivals on the 21st and 25th in honour of the
old divinity-pair, Consus (_condere_), the god of the storehouse and
Ops, the deity of the wealth of harvest. At the Consualia, an offering
is made by the _flamen Quirinalis_, assisted by the Vestal virgins, at
an underground altar in the Circus Maximus, specially uncovered for
the occasion: here we have probably not so much the notion of a
chthonic deity, as a relic of the simple practices of an early
agricultural age, when the crops were stored underground. The beasts
who had taken part in the harvest were released from their labours
during the day, and were decorated with flowers: the festival included
a race of mules, the regular Italian beasts of burden. Four days after
this general festivity occurred the second harvest-ceremony of the
Opiconsivia, held in the shrine (_sacrarium_) of the Regia, and
attended only by the _pontifex maximus_ and the Vestal virgins. This is
clearly the state-harvest of the regal period, the symbolic storing of
the state-crops in the sacred storehouse of the palace by the king and
his daughters. Both festivals are significant, and we shall meet with
Consus and Ops again in close connection in December. The _Portunalia_
of the 17th may have been another harvest-home, if we can believe the
old authorities, who tell us that Portunus was a 'god of doors'
(_portae_).
The _Vinalia Rustica_ of August 19 we cannot sufficiently interpret
through lack of information: it cannot, of course, have been the
festival of the vintage, for it is too early: it may have been a
propitiatory ceremony for the ripening grapes, in which case it was
probably connected with the _auspicatio vindemiae_, in which the
_flamen Dialis_ (note again the association of Iuppiter and the vine)
solemnly plucked the first grapes; or it may be a festival of wine, not
vines, in which case its main feature would most likely be the opening
of the last year's vintage.
September contains no great festival, and the harvest-season closes on
October 11 with the _Meditrinalia_--the nearest approach to a
thanksgiving for the vintage. On that day the first must of the new
vintage and the wine of the old were solemnly tasted, apparently as a
spell against disease, the worshipper using the strange formula, 'I
drink the new and the old wine, with new wine and old I heal (_medeor_)
disease.' This ceremony gave its name to the festival and was the cause
of the subsequent evolution of an eponymous deity, Meditrina, but there
is little doubt that in origin here, as in the other wine-festivals,
the deity concerned was at first Iuppiter. Among the other rustic
ceremonies of the month we may notice the festival of springs
(_Fontinalia_) on October 13: wells were decorated with garlands and
flowers flung into the waters.
=3. Festivals of the Winter.=--The winter-festivals cannot be summed up
under one general notion so easily as those of spring or summer, but
they fall fairly naturally into two groups--the festivals immediately
connected with agricultural life and those associated with the dead and
the underworld or with solemn purification. The main action of the
farmer's life during the winter is, of course, the sowing of the next
year's crop, which was commemorated in the ancient festival of the
Saturnalia on December 17. Though the Saturnalia is perhaps the most
familiar to us of all the Roman festivals, partly from the allusions in
the classics, especially in Horace, partly because it is no doubt the
source of many of our own Christmas festivities, it is yet almost
impossible now to recover anything of its original Roman character.
Greek influence set to work on it very early, identifying Saturnus with
Cronos and establishing him in a Greek temple with all the
accompaniments of Greek ritual. All the familiar features of the
festival--the freedom and license of the slaves, the giving of
presents, even the wax-candles, which are the prototype of those on our
own Christmas-tree--are almost certainly due to Greek origin. We are
left with nothing but the name Saturnus (connected with the root of
_semen_, _serere_) and the date to assure us that we have here in
reality a genuine Roman festival of the sowing of the crops. Of a
similar nature--marking, as Ovid tells us, the completion of the
sowing--was the _feriae sementivae_ or Paganalia, associated with the
earth-goddesses, Ceres and Tellus. Meal-cakes and a pregnant sow were
the offerings, the beasts who had helped in the ploughing were
garlanded, and prayer was made for the seed resting in the ground. A
curious feature of the winter worship is the repetition of festivals to
the harvest deities, Consus and Ops, separated by the same interval of
three days, on December 15 and 19: it may be that we have here an
indication of the final completion of the harvest, or, as Mr. Warde
Fowler has suggested, a ceremonial opening of the storehouses, to see
that the harvest is not rotting. Among the other country festivals of
the period we may notice that of Carmenta, on the 11th and 15th of
January: she seems to have been in origin a water-_numen_, but was
early associated with childbirth: hence the rigid exclusion of men from
her ceremonies and possibly the taboo on leathern thongs, on the ground
that nothing involving death must be used in the worship of a deity of
birth. The repetition of her festival may possibly point to separate
celebrations of the communities of Palatine and Quirinal. At this time,
too, occurred the rustic ceremonies at the boundaries (_Terminalia_)
and the offering to the Lares at the 'marches' (_Compitalia_), of which
we have spoken in treating of the worship of the house.
The other group of winter-festivals is of a much more gloomy and less
definitely rustic type, though they clearly date from the period of the
agricultural community. Of the Feralia of February 21, the culmination
of the festival of the kindred dead (_Parentalia_), we have already
spoken. The Larentalia is a very mysterious occasion, and was supposed
by the Romans themselves to be an offering 'at the tomb' of a legendary
Acca Larentia, mistress of Hercules. But we have seen reason to think
that Larentia was in reality a deity of the dead, and the 'tomb' a
_mundus_: if so, we have another link between the winter season and the
worship of the underworld. There remains the weird festival of the
Lupercalia on February 15, to which we have had occasion to refer
several times, and which has become more familiar to most of us than
other Roman festivals owing to its political use by Mark Antony in 44
B.C. As we have argued already, it seems to belong to the very oldest
stratum of the Palatine settlement, and we may therefore appropriately
close this account of the early festivals with a somewhat fuller
description of it. The worshippers assembled at the Lupercal, a cave on
the Palatine hill: there goats and a dog were sacrificed, and two
youths belonging to the two colleges of Fabian and Quintian (or
Quintilian) Luperci had their foreheads smeared with the knife used for
the sacrifice and wiped with wool dipped in milk--at which point it was
ordained that they should laugh. Then they girt on the skins of the
slain goats and, after feasting, ran their course round the boundaries
of the Palatine hill, followed each by his own company of youths, and
striking women on their way with strips, known as _februae_ or _Iunonis
amicula_, cut from the goats' hides. Here we have a summary of many of
the important points which we have noticed in the rustic festivals:
from the pre-Roman stratum comes the idea of communion with the
sacrificed animal in the smearing of the blood and the wearing of the
skin, and also the magic charm involved in the striking of the women to
procure fertility: it is typical of the true feeling of Roman religion
that we cannot with any certainty tell what deity was associated with
the rite, though probably it was Faunus: the rustic character of the
ceremony is indicated by the bowl of milk in which the wool was dipped
and the sacrifice of goats: the idea of lustration is clearly marked
in the course round the boundaries: the original Palatine settlement
stands out in the limits of that course and the site of the Lupercal,
and the later synoecismus is seen in the, presumably subsequent,
addition of the second college of Luperci. A careful study of the
Lupercalia as an epitome of the character and development of the Roman
agricultural festivals, though it would not show the brighter aspect of
some of the spring and summer celebrations, would yet give a true
notion of the history and spirit of the whole.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Ov., _Fast._, iv. 735.