Lupercalia, also known as Lupercal, was a pastoral festival of

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. Lupercalia was also known as ''dies Februatus'', after the purification instruments called ''februa'', the basis for the month named '' Februarius''.

Name

The festival was originally known as Februa ("Purifications" or "Purgings") after the ' which was used on the day.. It was also known as ' and gave its name variously, as epithet to Juno Februalis, Februlis, or Februata in her role as patron deity of that month; to a supposed purification deity called Februus; and to

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('), the month during which the festival occurred. Ovid connects ' to an Etruscan word for "purging". The name ''Lupercalia'' was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

festival of the Arcadian Lykaia, a wolf festival (, ''lýkos''; ), and the worship of ''Lycaean Pan'', assumed to be a Greek equivalent to Faunus, as instituted by Evander. Justin describes a

cult image In the practice of religion, a cult image is a Cultural artifact, human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit or Daimon, daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, incl ...

of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans Lupercus", as nude, save for a goatskin girdle. The statue stood in the Lupercal, the cave where tradition held that Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf ( Lupa). The cave lay at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on which Romulus was thought to have founded Rome. The name of the festival most likely derives from ''lupus'', "wolf", though both the etymology and its significance are obscure. The wolf appellation may have to do with the fact that an animal predator plays a key role in male rites of passage. Despite Justin's assertion, no deity named "Lupercus" has been identified.

Rites

Locations

The rites were confined to the Lupercal cave, the Palatine Hill, and the Forum, all of which were central locations in Rome's foundation myth. Near the cave stood a sanctuary of Rumina, goddess of breastfeeding; and the wild fig-tree ('' Ficus Ruminalis'') to which Romulus and Remus were brought by the divine intervention of the river-god Tiberinus; some Roman sources name the wild fig tree ''caprificus'', literally "goat fig". Like the cultivated fig, its fruit is pendulous, and the tree exudes a milky sap if cut, which makes it a good candidate for a cult of breastfeeding.

Priesthoods

The Lupercalia had its own priesthood, the ''Luperci'' ("brothers of the wolf"), whose institution and rites were attributed either to the Arcadian culture-hero Evander, or to Romulus and Remus, erstwhile shepherds who had each established a group of followers. The ''Luperci'' were young men (''iuvenes''), usually between the ages of 20 and 40. They formed two religious '' collegia'' (associations) based on ancestry; the ''Quinctiliani'' (named after the '' gens'' Quinctia) and the ''Fabiani'' (named after the ''gens'' Fabia). Each college was headed by a ''magister''. In 44 BC, a third college, the ''Juliani'', was instituted in honor of Julius Caesar; its first ''magister'' was Mark Antony. The college of ''Juliani'' disbanded or lapsed following the Assassination of Julius Caesar, and was not re-established in the reforms of his successor, Augustus. In the Imperial era, membership of the two traditional ''collegia'' was opened to ''iuvenes'' of equestrian status.

Sacrifice and fertility rites

At the Lupercal altar, a male goat (or goats) and a dog were sacrificed by one or another of the ''Luperci'', under the supervision of the Flamen dialis,

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's chief priest. An offering was also made of salted mealcakes, prepared by the Vestal Virgins. After the blood sacrifice, two ''Luperci'' approached the altar. Their foreheads were anointed with blood from the sacrificial knife, then wiped clean with wool soaked in milk, after which they were expected to laugh. The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs (known as ') from the flayed skin of the animal, and ran with these, naked or near-naked, along the old Palatine boundary, in an anticlockwise direction around the hill. In Plutarch's description of the Lupercalia, written during the early

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, The ''Luperci'' completed their circuit of the Palatine, then returned to the ''Lupercal'' cave. While sometimes repeated uncritically by modern sources, there is no ancient evidence for any kind of lottery or sortition scheme pairing couples for sex. The first descriptions of this fictitious lottery appeared in the 15th century in relation to

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

, with a connection to the Lupercalia first asserted in 18th century antiquarian works, such as those by Alban Butler and Francis Douce.

History

Circle of Adam Elsheimer The Lupercalian Festival in Rome

The Februa was of ancient and possibly Sabine origin. After

was added to the Roman calendar, Februa occurred on its fifteenth day ('). Of its various rituals, the most important came to be those of the Lupercalia. The Romans themselves attributed the instigation of the Lupercalia to Evander, a culture hero from Arcadia who was credited with bringing the Olympic pantheon, Greek laws and alphabet to Italy, where he founded the city of Pallantium on the future site of Rome, 60 years before the Trojan War. Lupercalia was celebrated in parts of Italy; ''Luperci'' are attested by inscriptions at Velitrae, Praeneste, Nemausus (modern Nîmes) and elsewhere. The ancient cult of the Hirpi Sorani ("wolves of Soranus", from Sabine ''hirpus'' "wolf"), who practiced at Mt. Soracte, north of Rome, had elements in common with the Roman Lupercalia. Descriptions of the Lupercalia festival of 44 BC attest to its continuity. During the festival, Julius Caesar publicly refused a golden crown offered to him by Mark Antony. The Lupercal cave was restored or rebuilt by Augustus, and has been speculated to be identical with a grotto discovered in 2007, below the remains of Augustus' residence; according to scholarly consensus, the grotto is a nymphaeum, not the Lupercal. The Lupercalia festival is marked on a calendar of 354 alongside traditional and Christian festivals. Despite the banning in 391 of all non-Christian cults and festivals, the Lupercalia was celebrated by the nominally Christian populace on a regular basis into the reign of the emperor Anastasius. Pope Gelasius I (494–96) claimed that only the "vile rabble" were involved in the festival and sought its forceful abolition; the Roman Senate protested that the Lupercalia was essential to Rome's safety and well-being. This prompted Gelasius' scornful suggestion that "If you assert that this rite has salutary force, celebrate it yourselves in the ancestral fashion; run nude yourselves that you may properly carry out the mockery". There is no contemporary evidence to support the popular notions that Gelasius abolished the Lupercalia, or that he, or any other prelate, replaced it with the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A literary association between the Lupercalia and the romantic elements of Saint Valentine's Day dates back to Chaucer and poetic traditions of courtly love.Henry Ansgar Kelly (1986), in "Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine" (Leiden: Brill), pp. 58-63

Legacy

Horace's Ode III, 18 alludes to the Lupercalia. The festival or its associated rituals gave its name to the Roman month of

(') and thence to the modern month. The Roman god Februus personified both the month and purification, but seems to postdate both.

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's play ''Julius Caesar'' begins during the Lupercalia. Mark Antony is instructed by Caesar to strike his wife Calpurnia, in the hope that she will be able to conceive. Research published in 2019 suggests that the word Leprechaun derives from ''Lupercus''.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

Lupercalia {{Authority control Ancient Roman festivals February observances Wolves in folklore, religion and mythology She-wolf (Roman mythology)