Search

(Ἑκαέργη). [German version] [1] Epithet of Artemis Epithet of  Artemis (Clem. Al. Strom. 5,8,48,4f.; EpGr 460,6). Baudy, Gerhard (Constance) [German version] [2] Maiden active in the cult of Artemis A mythical maiden named Aspalis Ameilete H., from the city of Melite in Thessaly, active in the cult of  Artemis. Because she hanged herself in order to escape being raped by the tyrant Tartarus, the virgins made an annual sacrifice to her by hanging a young goat (Nikander in Antoninus Liberalis 13). Baudy, Gerhard (Constance) [German version] [3] Kore from the island of Ceos A kore from the …

[German version] (Ἄγδιστις; Ágdistis). Mythical hermaphrodite from the Phrygian Attis myth, named after the mountain rock Agdus at Pessinus (Timotheus at Arnob. 5,5-7; cf. Paus. 7,17,9-12). According to Paus. 1,4,5 the mountain itself was called A. and was the grave site of  Attis. According to the myth handed down from Timotheus (see above), the rock Agdus, fertilized by Zeus' seed, once gave birth to a being with male as well as female reproductive organs, a being so strong and fierce, that it re…

[German version] Roman festival of Mater Matuta celebrated on 11 June (Paul. Fest. 113,2 L.; InscrIt 13,2 p. 468ff.). The fact that the Fasti Antiates Maiores (InscrIt 13,2, p. 12) have the addition ‘of Mater Matuta and Fortuna ’ is evidently related to the jointly celebrated birthday ( Natalis Templi ) of the Roman double temple to the two goddesses in the Forum Boarium. The festival was widespread in Italy [2. 308]. The most detailed description is found in Ovid (Ov. Fast. 6,473-562) [1. 371-376]. Participants in the festival were exclusively married women. According to Tertul…

[German version] A shepherds' festival dedicated to the goddess Pales (hence the alternative name Palilia: Varro, Ling. 6,15; Fest. 248 L.), celebrated on 21 April both in the countryside and in the city of Rome (InscrIt 13,2 p. 443-445; main source: Ov. Fast. 4,721-862). Ovid (Fast. 4,725ff.) describes some characteristic elements of the Parilia, closely connecting the urban and the rural ceremonial traditions: The Romans fetched incense ( suffimen) from the Vestals, specifically the ashes of calves burned at the Fordicidia, bean stalks and blood from the Equus…

[German version] A ritual model that comprised a circular procession with the animals to be sacrificed later (often suovetaurilia ) and possibly other cult objects ( piamina), which was used in many circumstances. We owe Cato (Agr. 141) the detailed ritual instructions. His definitive information is confirmed by other authors, for instance Non. 539,25f. or 408,29f. who equates lustrare with circumire or circumferre (‘go’/‘take round’) (cf. among others Varro, Ling. 6,22 re armilustrium). Depending on the occasion, the gods addressed (frequently Mars) and the indivi…

[German version] (Ἄνιος; Ánios). Mentioned for the first time in the  Cypria (PEG fr. 29 = EpGF fr. 19), a mythical king of the island of  Delos. Son of  Apollo and Rhoeo. As seer and priest of the god (Schol. Lycoph. 570; Diod. Sic. 5,62,1-2; Serv. Aen. 3,80) A. prophesied that the Greeks, who were moving upon Troy, would conquer the city in the tenth year of the war, and he offered to provide for them in the meantime with the help of his daughters (the so-called   Oenotropi) Oeno, Spermo and Elai…

[German version] (Ἄδωνις; Ádōnis). Mythical shepherd youth, of Phoenician origin, who at the threshold to adulthood loses his life in a boar hunt. Despite his human genealogy he was worshipped in Greek private cultic veneration as a god. Attested for Greece from Sappho onwards (fr. 140; 168 Voigt), for Athens from the 5th cent. BC onwards. From Hellenistic times the cult became especially widespread in the eastern Mediterranean area. In the myth [1. 40 ff.] A. is the incestuously conceived son of a Phoenician King -- either Phoenix (Hes. fr. 139 MW), or Theias (A…

[German version] A social ritual celebrated in Rome on 15 February (InscrIt 13,2, p. 409) ( Lustratio : Varro, Ling. 6,34; Ov. Fast. 2,31f.; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,80,1). It began with the sacrifice of a goat at the foot of Mons Palatinus. In honour of the god Faunus (Ov. Fast. 2,267f.), the cult centre was called Lupercal (Varro, Ling. 5,85; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,32,3-5). According to Plutarch (Romulus 21,6), two young men were touched on the forehead with the bloody slaughtering knife and the blood was wiped off them again with milk-soaked wool; then they had to laugh. The sacrifice supplie…

[German version] (Ἄττις; Áttis). A young shepherd of Phrygian myth who died through self-castration, worshipped in a cult shared with  Cybele (Magna Mater). From late Hellenism onwards, both cults also spread throughout Italy and various provinces of the Roman empire [1]. According to Phrygian tradition (Timotheus in Arnob. 5,5-7; cf. Paus. 7,17,9-12), the newborn A. was abandoned in the wilderness, nourished by the milk of a goat and then brought up by shepherds (A. as a shepherd: Schol. Nic. Alex. 8; Tert. Apol. 15,2; Hippol. ref. 5,…

[German version] In Greece and  Italy, a particular tree was often closely connected with a deity or a hero: examples are the oracular oak of Zeus at Dodona (Hom. Il. 16,233-235), and Athena's sacred olive tree on the Acropolis, on which the fate of the city was supposed to depend (Hdt. 8,55). Others are the monk's pepper tree of Hera on Samos (Paus. 7,4,4), the ficus Ruminalis, which stood on the Forum as a monument to the wolf that fostered Romulus and Remus (Plin. HN. 15,77), and Apollo's bay tree, which was supposed to have been the result of the metamorph…

(Δάφνις; Dáphnis). [German version] [1] Mythical cowherd Mythical cowherd of Sicilian tradition, son of  Hermes (Stesich. fr. 102 PMG = Ael. VH 10.18; Timaeus, FGrH 566 F 83; Diod. Sic. 4,84,2). He died still a youth because of an unfortunate love affair with a  nymph and was honoured with ritual mourning songs typical of those for Adonis (Theoc. 1,64ff.; 7,73ff.). In bucolic poetry he served as the ideal for the adolescent shepherd and was seen as the originator of the shepherd's song (e.g. Diod. 4,84,3). Despite the Greek name (from   dáphnē : ‘laurel’), the fig…

[German version] Banquet in honour of  Jupiter (also included were Juno and Minerva: Val. Max. 2,1,2) on the Ides of November during the  Ludi plebeii, both events hosted by the plebeian aediles (see esp. Liv. 30,39,8). Imperial calendars [1] attest a Iovis epulum for the  Ludi Romani on the Ides of September. At this festival, the senators assembled on the Capitol for a banquet. This bonding ritual (Gell. NA 12,8,2) could not be carried out in case of extreme conflict (Cass. Dio 39,30,4). It is comparable to the Daps banquet for Jupiter celebrated domestically prior to sowing mill…

[German version] [1] (δάφνη; dáphnē). Used in antiquity as a name for the plant sacred to Apollo and Artemis ─ the  laurel Laurus nobilis L. of the Lauraceae family, not the Thymelaeacea genus of the daphne with which we are familiar today ( Cneorum). Hünemörder, Christian (Hamburg) [German version] [2] Nymph, transformed into a laurel tree (Δάφνη; Dáphnē). The chaste nymph D. devoted to  Artemis and who loved to hunt, was a daughter of the river god Ladon (or Peneius) and  Gaia. She fled from Apollo, who tried to force his affections on her, and tur…

[German version] The   feriae conceptivae held in February in the   curiae whose date was set by the Curio Maximus (Ov. Fast. 2,527f.). The roasting of religiously symbolic ‘primitive grain’   far (Paul. Fest. 73; 82 L.; Plin. HN 18,7f.) was celebrated. The ‘oven goddess’ (Ov. Fast. 6,313f.) Fornax (Ov. Fast. 2,525; Lact. Inst. 1,20,35) may be interpreted as a projection of the feast. Since the Vestals distributed   mola salsa on the  Lupercalia, for the preparation of which they needed roasted emmer, a date before 15 February may be assumed for the Fornacalia. Those who did not know to which cu…

[German version] (Ἰασίων; Iasíōn, also Ἰάσιος; Iásios and Ἴασος; Íasos). An adolescent hero from the realm of agricultural mysteries. According to a tradition from Crete, I. fathers  Plutus (personification of a wealth of grain) with  Demeter on a thrice ploughed fallow field; for this, Zeus kills him with lightning (Hom. Od. 5,125-128; Hes. Theog. 969-974; cf. schol. Theoc. 3,49-51d; Ov. Am. 3,10,25ff.). The myth explains the emergence of agriculture after the flood (schol. Hom. Od. 5,125). Older resear…

[German version] (Κάρνεια, Κάρνειος, Κάρνος; Kárneia, Kárneios, Kárnos). The C. was a standard Dorian midsummer festival dedicated to Apollo Carneus (to the ‘ram’-Apollo, cf. Hsch. s.v. κάρνος ... πρόβατον) with musical agons (Hellanicus of Lesbos, FGrH 4 F 85). It was allegedly institutionalized in 676/3 BC (Sosibius, FGrH 595 F 3). Part of the festival was the sacrifice of a ram: in Theocritus (5,82f.) a shepherd raises a choice ram just for the C. The epithet Carneus did not belong solely to  Apollo…

[German version] (Ἄβαρις). Mythical figure derived from the cult of Apollo, formed on the model of shamanistic miracle-working priests [1; 2; 3; 4]. Dated by Pindar in the time of Croesus (fr. 270 Maehler), also dated earlier by other authors [5. 16]. According to Hdt. 4,36 A., coming from the imaginary northern land of the  Hyperborei, carried the spear of  Apollo around Greece, without partaking of any food. He prophesied in a state of divine possession (Lycurg. fr. 86 = Orat. Att. p. 271 Baiter…

[German version] Natalis templi was the day on which a newly erected or restored sanctuary was consecrated to ‘its deity and thereby dedicated to its purpose. A public sacrifice offered each year commemorated this dedicatio and consecratio . The popular ‘temple birthday (Serv. Aen. 8,60) was an official holiday only if it was celebrated on the festival day of the deity involved. Otherwise, it could add a social or political dimension to the traditional celebration days of the gods: craftsmen, for example, congregated at the Roman sanctuary of Minerva on the Aventine on its natalis templi …

[German version] (ἀμφιθαλεῖς παῖδες; amphithaleîs paîdes), ‘blossom-surrounded children’, pueri patrimi et matrimi or puellae patrimae et matrimae. Designation for boys and girls, both of whose parents were still alive. If a cultic function for children was under consideration, as a rule one chose a child of this category. Examples are the carrying of branches in the  Pyanopsia (Suda s. v. εἰρεσιώνη,  Eiresione) or  Oschophoria (Schol. Nic. Alex. 109), the singing of cult songs in the secular celebrations ( sae…

[German version] Roman festival. On 15 April thirty pregnant cows ( fordae boves) were sacrificed in the  curiae (Varro, Ling. 6,15; Ov. Fast. 4,629ff.; cf. Paul Fest. 74 and 91 L. ─ in this case the dialect form Hordicidia ─ and also Varro, Rust. 2,5,6 ─ Hordicalia ─ and Lydus, Mens. 4,72 Φορδικάλια; Phordikália). According to Ovid's account, a parallel sacrifice took place on the Capitol led by the pontifices (  pontifex ) (cf. Lydus ibid.). When the sacrificial servants had removed the unborn calf from the mother's body they offered up its entrails. Afterwards, the virgo maxima of the Ve…

[German version] was the annual celebration of the league of Latin towns on the Albanus mons, in honour of  Jupiter Latiaris. The organization of the festival lay with Rome; all information regarding the foundation of the celebration, its changes and development refers to its mythical ancient history (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4,49; 6,95; Plut. Camillus 42,5 p. 151; Str. 5,3,2 p. 229). These   feriae conceptivae (Varro, Ling. 6,25) were of great political importance: Roman consuls had to set the date for this festival immediately after their acc…

[German version] According to Paul Fest. 106 L., on 19 and 21 July (InscrIt 13,2 p. 485), the Romans celebrated ‘the L. in a very large grove between the via Salaria and the Tiber’ north of the Campus Martius outside of the ancient city. The explanation in Paul Fest. creates a link to the chronologically preceding dies Alliensis: after the (mythological) defeat by the Gauls at the Allia, the surviving Romans are said to have hidden in this grove. The festival acts out a dissolution of the urban hierarchy typical for harvest festivals, a dissolution t…

[German version] A custom comparable, although not identical, to the aquaelicium , in which, during periods of extended drought, a procession of supplication was held to the Temple of Jupiter at the Capitol (Petron. 44; Tert. Apol. 40,14; Tert. De ieiunio 16,5). The name is derived from the bare feet of the married women ( matrona [1]) who were an essential part of this ritual. The women wore their hair loose, in contrast to their normal custom. The magistrates as well dispensed with their usual signs of status: they did not wear the toga praetexta ; their lictors kept the fasces lowered. Demo…

[German version] Celebrated in honour of ‘mother  Flora’, these were the   ludi (Cic. Verr. 2,5,36) which ran from the birth date of the temple on 28 April (Verrius Flaccus, Fasti Praenestini for this date; Ov. Fast. 4,947) to early May (Ov. Fast. 5,183ff.). F. are also attested to for Pisaurum (CIL XI 6357), Alba Fucens (CIL IX 3947) and Cirta (CIL VIII 6958) (see also the Agnone bronze [1]). The peasant calendars (  menologia ) and the Fasti Venusini record for 3 May a sacrifice to Flora that was meant to relate to the F. [2. 1974; 3]. According to myth, the Sabine Titus Tatius had alrea…

[German version] The festive period of the Parentalia (Menologium Colotianum InscrIt 13,2 p. 287; Menologium Vallense InscrIt 13,2 p. 293, cf. p. 408f.), celebrated in February, gave all Romans the opportunity to come together to commemorate their deceased parents and relatives, as was done privately on the anniversary of their deaths (Verg. Aen. 5,46ff.; Ov. Fast. 2,533ff.). A sacrifice to the Vestalis maxima (Vestals) marked the official beginning of the period on the 13th of February (Philocalus, InscrIt 13,2 p. 241: Virgo Vesta(lis) parentat). It concluded with the public …

[German version] (Λερναῖα; Lernaîa). A celebration of the mysteries of Demeter and Dionysus Bugenes in Argive Lerna, where both deities were honoured in a cult community (Paus. 2,36,7; 37,1), documented in literature and inscriptions [2. 290]. The mythical founder of the Lernaea was Philammon (Paus. 2,37,2). At the festival, an epiphany of tauromorphic Dionysus took place from the lake next to the sacred grove; it was triggered by trumpet signals and the drowning sacrifice of a lamb for the god…

(Κρόνος; Krónos). [German version] A. Brief description In Greek theogonic myth, K. acts as leader of the Titans, the pre-Olympian generation of gods who were defeated and overthrown by Zeus and his siblings. He was worshipped only in periods of ritual licence. The reference myths of these carnivalesque festivals connected K.'s rule, on the one hand, with the notion of a pre-Olympian world characterized by patricide and infanticide, but on the other hand, with the idea of paradisical primeval times. …

[German version] (Εἰρεσιώνη; Eiresiṓnē). Olive or laurel branch, entwined with wool, dressed with figs, ceremonial breads, and small containers of honey, oil, and wine (Pausanius Rhetor in Eust. in Il. 22,496, 1283, 7ff.; EM 303, 17ff.; Suda s.v. E.). Boys carried it from house to house while singing a song of supplication, which (just as the custom itself: Harpocr. p. 162,1ff.; Suda s.v. diakónion) was also called eiresione (Ps. Hdt. v. Hom. 33). After the procession, the eiresione was fastened to the door so that it could be seen (Aristoph. Vesp. 398f. as well as Equ. …

(Ἑρμῆς/ Hermês, in epic, also Ἑρμείας/ Hermeías, Ἑρμείης/ Hermeíēs, Ἑρμάων/ Hermáōn) I. Cult and Mythology [German version] A. Profile According to mythological tradition, a god native to Arcadia. He was, however, worshipped throughout Greece. Evidence of his name appears in Linear B as early as the Mycenaean era [1. 285f.]. A bringer of culture with a special relationship to shepherds, he belongs to the ethnological category of the trickster. In epic poetry he functioned as the messenger and herald of Zeus. Ultim…

[German version] (Μαλοφόρος; Malophóros). Doric ‘Apple bearer or ‘Sheep bearer, epithet for Demeter in Megara, where her temple lay in the port district (Paus. 1,44,3). In the Megarian colony of Selinus on Sicily, she had a sanctuary outside the city [1]. According to the foundation myth, Demeter received the name from the first sheep breeders of Megara (Paus. 1,44,3). Scholarship has applied the epithet M. either to sheep [2] or to the mysteries' symbol of the pomegranate [1]. However, the word is…