Probably the best-known December festival of the Roman calendar was the Saturnalia, the midwinter festival held in honor of Saturn. However, earlier in the month on the 5th December was a less well-known festival, dedicated to Saturn’s grandson, Faunus, a god of the wildwood.

The Romans celebrated Faunalia Rustica not in Rome but the countryside. For Faunus was a rural deity- and an unpredictable one to boot. Faunus was known for causing havoc to those who farmed the land around his wildwoods if not given his due. However, if he the locals pacified him correctly, Faunus could be helpful– especially during the winter season.

 

The God Faunus

 

Virgil’s Aeneid described Faunus as the father of King Latinus and the son of Picus, another Latin king, who was, in his turn, a son of Saturn. This genealogy made Faunus genetically semi-divine. However, to the Romans, Faunus was primarily a wild god of the forest. They attributed any mysterious sounds that came from the trees to him. According to Varro’s ‘On the Latin Language,’ anyone who slept in Faunus’s woods would be gifted with prophetic dreams. Ovid describes how King Numa received wisdom in this way.

Sometimes there was no need to dream. Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes how a Roman army, unsure if it should continue in war, heard a voice call out:

“From the grove near which they were encamped, calling aloud to both armies in such a manner as to be heard by all of them… The voice of the divinity exhorted the Romans to be of good courage, as having gained the victory and declared that the enemy’s dead exceeded theirs by one man. They say that Valerius, encouraged by this voice, pushed on to the Tyrrhenians’ entrenchments while it was still the dead of night, and having slain many of them and driven the rest out of the camp, made himself master of it.”

The Romans also knew Faunus as inuus or ‘fructifier.’According to Servius, quoted by Dumezil, he was: ‘ad innuendo passim cum omnibus animalibus’– another way of saying he was a Lord of the animals.

The name ‘Faunus’ comes from the root word favere or ‘kindly one.’ However, Faunus could be anything but kindly. Dionysius also describes how his apparitions could inspire ‘terror.’ He could become an incubus, pursuing women through their dreams. He could also make life a misery for farmers around his groves. For if they were foolish enough to claim any woodland and clear it for without first appeasing Faunus, the god would appear as an apparition on the edge of the fields, haunting them.

 

 

The Faunalia: a Roman Pagus

 

However, by taking precautions and offering Faunus sacrifices, it was possible to soothe and tame the god of the wildwoods– for a while at least. Ovid describes how country folk would make the “the altars of rural Faunus smoke” with sacrifices to ensure the god of the woods blessed their fields and livestock with fruitfulness– rather than persecuting and blighting them.

For this reason, the Faunalia Rustica was a festival of the countryside, which explains why it never appeared on the official calendars of Rome. III.18 of Horace’s Odescaptures the essence of the festival and its rituals:

“O Faunus, thou lover of the flying nymphs, benignly traverse my borders and sunny fields and depart propitious to the young offspring of my flocks; if a tender kid fall [a victim] to thee at the completion of the year and plenty of wines be not wanting in the goblet, the companion of Venus and the ancient altar smoke with liberal perfume.

“All the cattle sport in the grassy plain when the nones of December return to thee; the village keeping holiday enjoys leisure in the fields, together with the oxen free from toil. The wolf wanders among the fearless lambs, the wood scatters its rural leaves for thee, and the laborer rejoices to have beaten the hated ground in triple dance.” 

 

Purpose of the Faunalia

The sacrifice of a goat kid and wine to the god, while villagers danced and celebrated amongst the autumn leaves, evoked the last festivity before the harshness of winter. However, it was also essential as it ensured Faunus was on the country folk’s side during the dark season to come.  For the farmers required Faunus’ guardianship of their flocks during the harsh winter months– as well as his good favor if they were to mine his woodlands for fuel and supplement their food from Faunus’s bounty.