The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic An...

596. For the meanings of nefastus and religiosus see Introduction, p. 9; Marq. 291.

597. No doubt this was done, and the lines composed, in order to please Augustus and reflect the revival of the old religio.

598. Varro, L. L. 6. 32.

599. Vol. xiv, No. 28.

600. p. 53.

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).

602. See my article ‘Sacerdos’ in Dict. of Antiquities, ed. 2.

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.

604. Middleton, Rome in 1885, p. 181 foll.

605. This belief, and the nature of the treasures, are fully discussed by Marquardt, p. 251, with additions by Wissowa.

606. Cp. Petronius, Sat. 44 (of the aquaelicium).

607. Fasti, 6. 395 foll.

608. Above, p. 110.

609. As the beast that usually worked in mills? There is a Pompeian painting of this scene (Gerhard, Ant. Bild. pl. 62).

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).

611. Jordan, Tempel der Vesta, p. 63.

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.

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).

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.

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.

616. Tylor, Prim. Cult. ii. 251; Grimm, German Mythology (Eng. trans.), p. 601 foll.

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.

618. See above, p. 115.

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).

620. Nissen, Landeskunde, 399.

621. The whole of Mr. Frazer’s section on the sacramental eating of new crops should be read in connexion with the Vestalia.

622. Aust, de Aedibus sacris, p. 7; Liv. 5. 19 and 23. The temple was in the Forum boarium, near the Circus maximus.

623. Wissowa in Myth. Lex. s. v. Mater Matuta, 2463.

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.

625. C. I. L. i. 176, 177.

626. Liv. 6. 33. 4; Wissowa, Lex. 2462.

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.

628. Tertullian, de Monogam. 17.

629. Ovid, Fasti, 6. 481, with Plut. Q. R. 16; Camill. 5.

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.’

631. Plut. ll. cc.; Ovid, 559 foll.

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.

633. Preller, i. 322; Wissowa in Lex.

634. R. H. (Eng. trans.) i. 162.

635. Lucr. 5. 654.