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[German version] A. Introduction The etymology of superstitio cannot be determined with any certainty (from superstes in …

[German version] Cave sanctuaries existed in antiquity in two contexts in particular: firstly as ‘sacred caves’ of the Bronze Age and Neolithic cultures, as well as of the Minoan palace period in Crete, and secondly as ‘initiation caves’ i…

[German version] Apart from the   comitia curiata the earliest form of the Roman people's Assembly convened by the   pontifices twice yearly [1. 215] (about 6th-4th cents. BC). The calata comitia (CC) take their name from the word calare (‘to call’; cf. Fest. p. 251 s.v. procalare) that was common in priestly lang…

[German version] A mixture of spelt groats and brine that was prepared by the Vestal Virgins (e.g. Varro in Non. 223) and used as a sacrificial offering in Roman cult; in the sacra publica , it was sprinkled on the sacrificial animal by the magistrate or priest as part of the immolatio (cf., for example, Cic. Div. 2,37, Serv. Aen. 2,133 and 4,57). The spelt ears from the new harvest were presented to the Vestal Virgins between the 7th and 14th of May, then dried, pounded and ground. The ground spelt was then made into mola salsa by adding the brine during the Lupercalia and Vestalia (Vesta…

[German version] (from dedicare, ‘dedicate/consecrate’). In Latin texts (inscriptions and literature) the most frequent expression for the transfer of objects and property (plots of land, temples, altars, vot…

[German version] Verbal noun of consecrare, ‘to dedicate, to declare as sacrum’; a legal act by magistrates -- often together with  pontifices -- in which the consecrated object was withdrawn from worldly/human use. A specifically Roman procedure, since in Roman understanding temples, cult images, altars and cult instruments did not have an ‘autogenous’ sacred quality. A differentiation by content between …

[German version] In its oldest source, the   senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus from 186 BC, the Latin word bacchanal is used in the singular to designate a place of cult worship (Schuhmacher, Roman Inscription II 11). In the p…

[German version] (προμαντεία/ promanteía). Privilege, first awarded in recognition of special merits in the 5th cent. BC by Delphi to cities (Plut. Pericles 21,2), and from the early 4th cent. also to individuals (Syll.3 155; FdD 3,4,9), conveying precedence when questioning the oracle of Apollo (cf. Hdt. 1,54 on the - probably unhistorical - promanteía of Croesus). From the 4th cent. on, the promanteía was often awarded along with other political privileges, esp. the proxenía (inscriptions from the 5th to 1st cents. BC, e.g., in FdD 3,1-6). The promanteía of Delphi attests both to…

[German version] The word grotto is borrowed from Greek kryptós (‘concealed, hidden’; Italian grotta, French grotte). Grotto is occasionally used as a synonym for cave but it mostly describes in particular caves with natural or artificially irrigation. In religious history grottos appear in the following contexts: 1. Grotto sanctuaries of the prehistoric period: here it is worth mentioning the cult sites of north-western European peoples that were situated in grottos and often painted with religious and mythol…

[German version] Name of a goddess with several cult-places in central Italy, which were all located outside of municipal centres, as well as a sacred spring in Aquileia. The etymology of her name is as uncertain as the origins of the…

[German version] Roman festival on 'seven hills', celebrated on December 11 (= III ID. DEC.). Already in Antiquity, the S. was associated with the foundation of the city of Rome (Antistius Labeo in Fest. p. 474; Paul. Fest. p. 459 L.; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 69). The hills to which feriae ('holidays') applied (Palatinus, Velia, Fagutal, Cermalus, Caelius, Oppius, Cispiu…

[German version] (plural Nutrices). Latin name of female deities who, as wetnurses, were nurturers and protectors of divine or human children. Three areas can be distinguished: (1) in myth, e.g. as a nurse of Jupiter (Amaltheia [1], Ov. Fast. 5,127), also metonymically as ‘nurturing mother earth’ (Hor. Carm. 1,22); (2) in the cult in and around Poetovio, where two shrines and numerous reliefs and inscriptions consecrated to the Nutrices Augustae were found [1]; the iconography shows seated female deities (individually or as a group) who are nursing children or to whom children are being presented; (3) in a North African cult, a Dea Nutrix is, as a breast-feeding wetnurse, associated iconographically and cultically with Saturnus/Frugifer [2. 200-222], or she is represented in the iconographical scheme of Tanit (Tinnit) Caelestis, to whom children are presented. The latter has caused speculation about human sacrifices [3. 2207f.]. Kourotrophos; Mother goddesses Frateantonio, Christa (Gießen) Bibliography 1 E. Diez, s.v. Nutrix, LIMC 6.1, 936-938 2 M. LeGlay, Saturne africain. Histoire, 1966 3 K. Preisendanz, s.v. Tanit, RE 4 A.2, 2178-2215.

[German version] The etymology and meaning of the term harioli are not clear: harioli is either a diminutive formation of haruspex (  Haruspices…

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[German version] I. Greco-Roman Attempts were made to reconstruct the ancient type of the ‘holy man’ (ἱερὸς ἄνθρωπος/ hieròs ánthrōpos and θεῖος ἀνήρ/ theîos anḗr…

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[German version] (κτίστης; ktístēs). Ktistes (from Greek κτίζειν/ ktízein, ‘to make habitable, to settle’ or ‘to found, set up’) is (next to archēgétēs and oikistḗs; Latin conditor) the term used in the Greek language area in pre-Christian times to describe founders of cities. In inscriptions from the Hellenistic period ktistes also often means founder of games or other public institutions (cf. e.g. CIG 2851). Christian authors use ktistes in the sense of Creator (God) (of the earth, flora, fauna etc.). Ktistes in the sense of city founder could be a god (particularly Apoll…

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[German version] I. Ancient Near East and Egypt Votive offerings (VO) to a variety of deities played an important role in the religious practices of the Ancient Middle East and Egypt, as documented by inscriptions found on consecrated objects. In Mesopotamia, the oldes…

[German version] I. General The word 'sanctuary' is derived, like the French …