Lupercalia, the festival of fertility and purification...

The principal god of this festival is hard to pinpoint. As far ago as the first century before Common Era the Romans themselves had forgotten who they honoured. Two thousand years later we are no wiser. Various records mention Pan, Lupercus, Faunus (who is probably an attribute of Pan), or even the goddess Rumina. A priesthood, the Luperci, existed soley to conduct the Lupercalia but they left nothing to tell us who they were worshipping. The Greek link to Pan is in all likelihood a fabrication. The age of this festival indicates archaic roots - ties to the Etruscans, Sabines, or other pre-Roman tribes of the region make sense. Pan cannot be the deity. It is also possible that the deity's name has been lost in history.

What we do know, however, is how the festival unfolded and what it symbolized. Its intent. It is this that enables us to connect with the spirit of the rites and through that with the God. The content of the rituals display the intimate connection between the Lupercalia and the founders of Rome - the first Shepherd Kings, Romulus and Remus.

The legend of Romulus and Remus has them cast adrift on the Tiber in a basket to avoid being murdered by their uncle. The basket came ashore beneath a wild fig where a she-wolf found them. She took them to her cave-den and suckled them. This kept them alive long enough to be rescued by a shepherd. He and his wife raised the twins as shepherds until their true nature was discovered and they went on to overthrow their uncle, restore their grandfather, Numa, to the throne, and subsequently found Roma.

The cave by the fig tree became a sacred site, the Lupercal, and each year the Lupercalia took place there. Located on the Palatine hill, this was the oldest part of Roma, the historic founding site where Romulus built his city. Interestingly, archaeologists have determined from post holes found on Palatine Hill that the area was inhabited in the eight century BCE - since Roma was apparently founded in 753 BCE, those post holes may belong to the first inhabitants. Does the Lupercalia date back to this occupation...or even earlier?

Whenever it began, the Lupercalia is a very old festival. Simply the point that Republican Romans had no idea which god they were honoring shows the age of it. But the nature of the rites also point to an ancient origin. The festival is violent, savage, and quite primitive in nature in comparison to the usual Roman rituals.

On the fifteenth day before the kalends of March Vestals brought corn-cakes made of the first grains from the previous year's harvest to the Lupercal as the Luperci assembled. The Luperci came from two priesthood colleges - the Luperci Quinctiales and the Luperci Fabiani. One man from each college was elected to enact the rites - in all likelihood these two men represented Romulus and Remus. After stripping naked, they sacrificed a black dog and a goat to the gods (it may have been other members of the Luperci who commited the sacrifice). Blood from the animals was smeared across their foreheads (with a sword?) and wiped away with wool dipped in milk. This was all greeted with great laughter and jollity.

What all this meant specifically is anyone's guess. I think it is tied to the shepherd origins of Roma - the ritual death of the herd animal and the guardian dog - and the purification of the chosen Luperci. maybe the goat represented Remus whose death was necessary to spur Romulus on to create Roma. Maybe the dog represented Romulus who founded and protected the city and in whose death came the magical transformation to divinity and ongoing divine protection of the city. The spilling of blood which marks the foundation of the Eternal City. Maybe the milk represents the she-wolf the twins suckled on - life.

But it's all idle speculation.

Following the sacrifice, the goat was skinned and the Luperci as a whole feasted. Wine formed an integral aspect of the feasting. The hide was then cut into strips: some was tied to the chosen Luperci, the rest made into februum (goat-hide whips used during the Lupercalia to whip people). Once armed, the chosen Luperci led their colleges on a purification run - a lustrare, or ritualistic going around. By this stage, all the Luperci were nearly or fully naked. They ran the pomarium (perimeter of the ancient city boundaries), and about the bases of the Seven Hills. When Ovid discusses the actions of the Luperci, he talks of piamen, or expiation. The scapegoating in other words? To expiate is to transfer offence from one to another - those that may have offended the gods and thus risk bringing divine wrath upon Roma must be expiated. Is this the intent behind the whipping? To take the sins from the people? If so, where do the sins go? Into the dead goat? The chosen Luperci? Was the earlier act of marking with blood a way to signify that these men where now the scapegoats of Rome and the subsequent cleansing with milk a sign that the role was an assumed one and no sin would stain them? After all, Rome was founded upon fraticide...

Anyway, back to the I>lustrare. Women lined the ways in hopes of being whipped by the passing runners - such activity was believed to bring easy pregnancies and childbirth, and make the barren fertile. Some women removed items of clothing to increase the area of flesh being struck. Men also lined up to get struck as a part of the purification of the city and land. Indeed, the name for the month, February, is derived from the word for purification - februare.

The Lupercalia was an important festival for the Romans until 494 CE when Pope Gelasius I banned it - presumably he had issues with naked men running about whipping women with strips of untanned goat hide...not to mention the drunken ribaldry of the day.

Today there are many who have resurrected this festival, seeking to incorporate the spirit of it into their yearly observations. Ritually slaughtering a couple of animals isn't exactly acceptable these days though and so the actual festivities have been altered. Think about ways that you can incorporate the Lupercalia into your observations - and enjoy yourself. Just remember, despite the soppy intentions of many, this festival has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, sweet sentiment, or chocolate. It's about passion, purification, expiation, and fun.

   

No potent herb, or prayer Or magic spell can make you a mother: Be patient under the blows of a fruitful hand, And soon your husband's father will be a grandfather. ~ Ovid, Fasti, Book II.