Greetings!
In today’s video I’ll talk about a Roman
festival that is often described as the predecessor
of St. Valentine’s Day, though I have to
say the similarities are quite limited. I’m
talking about the Lupercalia
On February 15, a fertility ritual would take
place starting at the Lupercal, a cave on
the Palatine hill in Rome.
According to Roman mythology, that cave was
the exact cave where Romulus, the legendary
founder of Rome, and his twin brother Remus
were suckled by a she-wolf.
The story goes as follows: There was a girl
called Rhea Silvia whose father used to be
king, but he was dethroned by her cruel uncle.
To prevent Rhea Silvia from having children,
the new king forced her to become a Vestal
virgin. Vestal virgins were priestesses of
the Goddess Vesta who, as the name indicates,
were forced to refrain from sexual activities.
One day, Rhea Silvia was taking a nap in a
grove that was sacred to the God Mars. As
she was lying there, the War God Himself appeared
before her and He took advantage of her.
Rhea Silvia ended up pregnant from her divine
encounter and gave birth to two baby boys
Romulus and Remus, but Rhea Silvia’s account
of what had happened could not convince her
wicked uncle.
The boys posed a great threat to him as they
could one day when they were old enough make
a claim to the throne, so they had to disappear.
The king ordered his servants to throw the
twins in the river Tiber.
But with a little help from the God Tiberinus,
the personification of the river Tiber, they
survived.
They were found on the river bank by a she-wolf
who took pity on them and took them to a nearby
cave to suckle them until they were found
by two shepherds. The cave was named “lupercal”
as “lupa” means “she-wolf” in Latin.
So on the Lupercalia, dogs and goats were
sacrificed in the Lupercal and priests would
conduct the following ritual:
After two young men of noble birth were brought
to them
The priests would touch the foreheads of these
young men with the bloodstained knife that
was used in the sacrifices.
Then,
they would wipe off the blood with wool dipped
in milk.
After this,
the two young men had to laugh as a part of
the ritual.
Next, the skins of the goats that were sacrificed
were cut into strips.
Armed with these goat skin strips, 2 or later
3 teams of young men ran around the city,
stark-naked, striking anyone that got in the
way.
Being struck by these luperci, as they were
called, was believed to increase fertility
and ease child-birth, so some women deliberately
tried to get hit.
Gods associated with this ritual are Iuno Lucina,
Lupercus and Pan/Faunus.
The actual origin and meaning of this ritual
was unclear even in antiquity –it most likely
predated Roman times– but several theories
were put forward to explain certain mysterious
elements of the ritual.
The striking of women with goat skin for example
was explained with the following story:
When king Romulus and his subjects were confronted
with low childbirth, they went to a grove
near the Esquiline Hill that was sacred to
the Goddess Iuno.
When they were sitting there, knelt down in
prayer, the tree tops started moving all of
a sudden, and it was then that they heard
the Goddess’ voice:
“Italidas matres sacer hircus inito.”
Which translates to “Let the sacred
he-goat go into the mothers of Italy.”
An augur that happened to be present interpreted
the mysterious words and sacrificed a he-goat,
skinned it and ritually whipped the women’s
backs with strips made from the hide. Soon,
many women became pregnant.
The part of the ritual were the luperci chased
people naked was explained through the story
of Romulus and Remus and the cattle thieves:
Right after a sacrifice to Faunus, Romulus
and Remus were working out naked when they
were informed that thieves were trying to
steal their CATTLE. Unable to get dressed
in time, they chased off the thieves naked.
Another explanation for their nudity can be
found in the story of Faunus who snuck into
a dark cave one day hoping to have his way
with the beautiful queen Omphale.
As it was dark inside the cave, Faunus tried
to figure out where queen Omphale was sleeping
by feeling around with his hands, but what
He did not know was that the queen had been
having fun switching clothes with her companion
Hercules earlier that night.
Deceived by the touch of soft clothes, Faunus
ended up on Hercules’s couch and everyone
woke up. When torches were lit, it became
apparent what had happened and everyone made
fun of Faunus. Faunus decided He now hated
clothes, as they had gotten in the way of
his little plan.
In conclusion I should add that the Lupercalia
were celebrated during the Parentalia, a festival
in honour of the ancestors that lasted for
several days, but I’ll probably get into
that in another video. When I do, I’ll post
a link in the description below.
Would you like to know more about the difference
between Pan, Fauns and satyrs? I dedicated
a separate video to that so if you’re interested
go ahead and check it out!
If you enjoyed this video, please like and
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comments and shares!
This was TIMOTHEVS, thanks for watching!
