Celebrated in February, the
The Rite of the Lupercalia
The Lupercalia was celebrated on February 15th. Ancient and obscure in origin, it was a festival which centred on the city of Rome.
The rituals of the Lupercalia began in the Lupercal, a cave at the base of the Palatine Hill. Events began when priests sacrificed a goat and a dog and used the resulting blood to anoint two naked youths known as the Luperci. Every aspect of this ceremony of anointing was loaded with long lost significance. After being coated with blood, the youths were required to give a ritual laugh. Only then could they wipe off the excess blood from their bodies, using a piece of wool soaked in milk.
The Luperci then dressed in girdles made from the skin of the sacrificed goat. The remainder of the creature’s skin did not go to waste as it was presented to the youths as straps just before they left the cave. From there, the Luperci headed onto the streets of Rome as they raced around the Palatine. The event attracted crowds of spectators, many of them women- who would go out of their way to reach the front of the crowds- so the racing youths could strike out at them with their goat skin whips.
Exactly when the Lupercalia was first celebrated is unknown. However, we do know it was last celebrated in Rome in 494AD. The festival was then banned by Pope Gelasius I who appropriated February 15 for the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary.
A Roman Fertility Festival
While the origins of the Lupercalia are uncertain, it seems that it was a fertility festival related to the first stirrings of spring. The Romans were originally shepherds who grazed their flocks on the seven hills that eventually became their city. Ovid suggests that the origin of the Lupercalia lies in these early pastoral times and that it was a festival dedicated to the god Faunus in his role of god of the herds.
However, the fact the luperci were striking female bystanders makes a clear link between the festival and human fertility. For those who put themselves in the way of the Luperci and their whips often wanted to become pregnant. For it was believed that a slap from the strap would ensure a baby would follow.
This ritual slapping of women to ensure reproduction dates to the time of Romulus. After the abduction of the Sabine women, the Romans wished to ensure that their marriages produced children. So, the priests consulted the goddess Juno in her sacred grove. It was then that the Goddess of fertility and childbirth reputedly instructed them to instigate the rite of the goatskin straps.
Romulus, Remus and the Cave of the Lupercal
According to Ovid, Romulus and Remus were chosen as the first Luperci. The poet also offers an explanation for why it became customary for all subsequent Luperci to race naked. For the two brothers had just started the ceremonials of the
The cave of the Lupercal also has its links to Romulus and Remus. For it was reputedly the place where the she-wolf or lupa suckled the twins when they were infants. In 2007, Italian archaeologists found what they believe to be the cave of the Lupercal. An eight-metre high chamber was discovered fifteen metres beneath the decaying palace of Augustus on the Palatine Hill. However, further exploration of the cave, which was decorated with sea shells and mosaics, could not be undertaken because of fears of its collapse.
Whether this cave the real Lupercal is debatable. The decorations are suggestive of a nymphaeum and the position of the cave does not comply with ancient descriptions of the location of the Lupercal. Adriano de Regina, Rome’s superintendent of archaeology believes the mysterious subterranean space to be nothing more than a room from Nero’s first palace. But who knows what it might have been before then?
Sources
The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion (2003) Ed Simon Price and Emily Kearns. Oxford University Press: Oxford
Ovid Fasti 2 267-474. Translated and edited by A J Boyle and R D Woodard. Penguin Classics
