The Romans celebrated Epulum Jovis on the September 13th as a ritual feast dedicated to Jupiter, the head of the Roman pantheon.
It seems they instigated the E
So was the Epulum Jovis truly a Roman festival? Or was it a pale copy of Greek rites?
What is an Epulum?
An epulumwas a special kind of religious feast but for the gods, not mortals. It seems to have been something very similar to the dapsor offering of food made to Jupiter Dapalis described by Cato in his “On Agriculture”:
“the offering is made in this way: offer to Jupiter Dapalis a cup of wine of any size you wish…….. In making the offering use this formula: “ Jupiter Dapalis, forasmuch as it is fitting that a cup of wine be offered thee in my house and in the midst of my people, for thy sacred feast and to that end be thou honoured by the offering of this food.” Wash the hands, then take the wine and say “ Jupiter Dapalis be thou honoured by the offering of this feast, and be thou honoured by the wine placed before thee,” ……………… The feast to Jupiter consists of roasted meat and an urn of wine. Present it to Jupiter religiously, in the fitting form. “
Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes similar religious feasts in Roman temples where the participants served food to the gods in earthenware vessels. In both scenarios, the Romans deemed the gods to be spiritually but not physically present. The gods were present but invisible as the early Romans did not need the evidence of their eyes to believe.
The Rites of the Epulum Jovis
The Epulum Jovis marked the dedication of the Capitoline temple in Rome, the most important temple dedicated to Jupiter and one he shared with the goddesses of the Capitoline triad, Juno and Minerva. Fowler suggests the Romans chose the day as it tied in with thanksgiving celebrations to Jupiter for preserving the Roman state against the perils of the summer military campaign season.
This explanation is fitting, given the origins of the first temple’s construction. Etruscan King Lucius Tarquinius Priscus began building the temple to fulfil a vow made during the war with the Sabines. However, it was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome, who completed the temple. The temple was dedicated after the Roman people overthrew the final Tarquin on the September 13th 509 BC — the year the republic began.
Special priests —the Septemviri Epulones— oversaw the rites. First, a sacrifice was made — probably of a white heifer, according to Fowler. Then, the Romans held a feast for the gods.
It seems that initially, this would have been a simple feast, similar to the descriptions of Cato and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. But in 339 BC, the epulum changed.
The First Lectisternium
According to Livy, in 399 BC, “the severe winter was followed by a pestilential summer, which proved fatal to man and beast. As neither a cause nor a cure could be found for its fatal ravages, the senate ordered the Sibylline Books to be consulted.” (5.13, The History of Rome)
The books decreed that the Romans should carry out a Lectisterniumin Rome for the first time. Like the daps, the Lectisternium involved feasting the gods. But daps only included the spiritual presence of the gods. A Lectisternium implied their actual presence in the form of statues:
“Apollo and Latona, Diana and Hercules, Mercury and Neptune were for eight days propitiated on three couches decked with the most magnificent coverlets that could be obtained. Solemnities were conducted also in private houses. It is stated that throughout the City the front gates of the houses were thrown open and all sorts of things placed for general use in the open courts, all comers, whether acquaintances or strangers, being brought in to share the hospitality,”explained Livy.
As a consequence, the feast of the epulumtook on this new form, with statues of the gods reclining on couches — Jupiter with his face painted red like a Roman general, while the goddesses Juno and Minerva dined seated on chairs like republican ladies. In 217 BC, statues of the twelve great gods of the Roman state joined the Capitoline Triad — all dining in state.
A Greek or Roman Custom?
Some historians describe the Lectisternium as the Roman version of the Greek kline or theoxenia where the gods were similarly seated and the populace involved in their celebrations. But this does not mean that the Epulum Jovis was a Greek addition to the calendar.
The Romans had already established the custom of feasting their gods on September 13th. However, those initial celebrations did not require the presence of the gods. Greek ritual seems to have embellished the Epulum Jovis by introducing statues representing the deities. But it is a Roman festival nonetheless.
Sources
Cato, On Agriculture, (trans. William Davis Hooper.) Loeb Classical Library
Dumezil, G (1996 ed) Archaic Roman Religion: Vol 1 and 2, John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London
Ovid, (trans) A J Boyle and R. D Woodard), (2000) Fasti. Penguin Books
Paulus, Epitome de Sex. Pompeio Festo,
Price and Kearns, (2003) The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion. Oxford University Press
W Warde Fowler, (1899) The Roman Festivals at the Period of the Republic, Macmillan and Co.
