Once a year a fete of Soranus and Feronia was held, in the precinct of
the goddess at Soracte. The ministrants were members of certain local
families called Hirpi (wolves). Pliny says, {149c} 'A few families,
styled Hirpi, at a yearly sacrifice, walk over a burnt pile of wood, yet
are not scorched. On this account they have a perpetual exemption, by
decree of the Senate, from military and all other services.' Virgil
makes Aruns say, {149d} 'Highest of gods, Apollo, guardian of Soracte,
thou of whom we are the foremost worshippers, thou for whom the burning
pile of pinewood is fed, while we, strong in faith, walk through the
midst of the fire, and press our footsteps in the glowing mass. . . .'
Strabo gives the same facts. Servius, the old commentator on Virgil,
confuses the Hirpi, not unnaturally, with the Sabine 'clan,' the Hirpini.
He says, {149e} 'Varro, always an enemy of religious belief, writes that
the Hirpini, when about to walk the fire, smear the soles of their feet
with a drug' (medicamentum). Silius Italicus (v. 175) speaks of the
ancient rite, when 'the holy bearer of the bow (Apollo) rejoices in the
kindled pyres, and the ministrant thrice gladly bears entrails to the god
through the harmless flames.' Servius gives an aetiological myth to
account for the practice. 'Wolves came and carried off the entrails from
the fire; shepherds, following them, were killed by mortal vapours from a
cave; thence ensued a pestilence, because they had followed the wolves.
An oracle bade them "play the wolf," i.e. live on plunder, whence they
were called Hirpi, wolves,' an attempt to account for a wolf clan-name.
There is also a story that, when the grave of Feronia seemed all on fire,
and the people were about carrying off the statue, it suddenly grew green
again. {150a}
Mannhardt decides that the so-called wolves leaped through the sun-god's
fire, in the interest of the health of the community. He elucidates this
by a singular French popular custom, held on St. John's Eve, at Jumieges.
The Brethren of the Green Wolf select a leader called Green Wolf, there
is an ecclesiastical procession, cure and all, a souper maigre, the
lighting of the usual St. John's fire, a dance round the fire, the
capture of next year's Green Wolf, a mimicry of throwing him into the
fire, a revel, and next day a loaf of pain benit, above a pile of green
leaves, is carried about. {150b}
The wolf, thinks Mannhardt, is the Vegetation-spirit in animal form. Many
examples of the 'Corn-wolf' in popular custom are given by Mr. Frazer in
The Golden Bough (ii. 3-6). The Hirpi of Soracte, then, are so called
because they play the part of Corn-wolves, or Korndamonen in wolf shape.
But Mannhardt adds, 'this _seems_, at least, to be the explanation.' He
then combats Kuhn's theory of Feronia as lightning goddess. {151a} He
next compares the strange Arcadian cannibal rites on Mount Lycaeus.
{151b}