33. Mantele, Mantelium, or Mantelum, was a woollen napkin, with a long loose (villis solutis) pile, which was sometimes shorn off to make it more smooth. So Virg. Æ. I. 701. Dant famuli manibus lymphas, Cereremque canistris 34. Patera, from pateo, a sort of shallow ladle employed for pouring libations to the gods. Acerra ought to be translated incense-box, not censer. The frankincense in ancient sacrifices was consumed on the altar, not in a vessel constructed for the purpose as in the ceremonies of the Jewish religion and the Roman Catholic Church. 36. (Obscænæ.) See note on Ov. Her. V. 119. p. 232. 39. (Est canis, Icarium dicunt, &c.) Every constellation had a legend attached to it. Homer and Aratus call Sirius the dog of Orion. The tale with regard to Procyon, which explains the epithet Icarius, is as follows: Dionysus visited Attica during the reign of Pandion, and was hospitably entertained by Icarius, who received a slip of the vine, and was instructed in the art of making wine. Eager to communicate to mankind the bounties of the God, he offered the new beverage to some shepherds, who, tempted by its pleasant flavour, drank copiously, became intoxicated, and then, supposing that they had been poisoned, slew Icarius. Upon recovering their senses, perceiving what they had done, they buried their victim. His daughter Erigone discovered the dead body by the aid of a favourite dog, named Mæra; and after bewailing the loss of her father, hung herself in grief. Father, daughter, and dog, all became constellations. Icarius is Bootes, Erigone is Virgo, Mæra is Procyon.1 Compare Fast. V. 723. Nocte sequente diem Canis Erigoneius exit, and Amor. II. xvi. 4. Sol licet admoto tellurem sidere findat, Sirius and Procyon are often confounded. See note on Tibull. I. i. 27. p. 141. 1 See Apollodor. III. 14, 7. Hygin. P. A. 11. 4. Fab. CXXX. 40. (Præcipitur,) i. e. is hurried on too fast is parched by the heat before it has attained to its full growth. Præcipere is to anticipate, to be beforehand with. Compare Virg. Ecl. III. 98. Cogite oves, pueri, si lac præceperit æstus, OVID. FASTI. IV. 721. INTRODUCTION. THIS extract contains an account of the Palilia, or festival of Pales, the deity of shepherds, which was celebrated on the 21st of April, (XI. Kal. Mai.) the day upon which, according to tradition, the foundations of the eternal city were laid by Romulus, the Dies Natalis Urbis Romæ. The following lines, combined with Tibullus II. v. 87, et seqq., afford full information with regard to the ceremonies observed, the object of which was the purification or lustration first of the flocks, and then of the shepherds themselves. Two points deserve attention. 1. Doubts exist as to the gender of Pales. Virgil, Tibullus, and Ovid, speak of this divinity as a female, but with Varro1 and others,2 Pales is a male god. 2. The greatest confusion exists in ancient MSS. wherever this festival is mentioned, with regard to the orthography. Parilia is found as often as Palilia, and many of the old grammarians prefer the former, which is to be taken, according to some, a partu pecoris, according to others, a partu Iliæ. There can be little doubt, however, that the true shape is Palilia, formed directly from Pales; nothing is more common than the interchange of L and R in the pronunciation of words, and the corruption Parilia having been once introduced, etymologists endeavoured to explain it by inventing a plausible derivation. 1 Servius on Virg. G. III. 1. See Arnobius adv. gent. Lib. III. 23. 40. 1. (Palilia poscor,) i. e. ordo rerum jubet me Palilia canere. Posci verbum solenne de iis, qui canere aut dicere iubentur. Met. V. 333. Poscimur Aonides, sed forsitan otia non sunt Sic Hor. C. I. xxxii. 1. Ad Lyram. Poscimur, si quid vacui sub umbra-Lusimus tecum... vid. ibi Bentl. (G.) 5. Ov. Certe, &c. The poet here points out to the goddess that he has merited her favour by a strict performance of all the rites enjoined in her worship. 5. (De vitulo cinerem.) On the 15th of April was a festival, named the Fordicidia, so called from the sacrifice of boves fordæ,1 or pregnant cows; the embryos were burnt by the Senior Vestal Virgin, and the ashes kept for the purifications of the Palilia. Igne cremat vitulos, quæ natu maxima, Virgo, Luce Palis populos purget ut ille cinis. See Ov. Fast. IV. 629......640. 6. Februa, as we have seen above p. 339, was the general term for all objects used in expiatory sacrifices. Februa Romani dixere piamina patres. 7. Leaping over heaps of blazing hay and stubble was the characteristic ceremony of the Palilia. Thus Varro quoted by the Scholiast on Persius, S. I. 72. "Palilia tam publica quam privata sunt; et est genus hilaritatis et lusus apud rusticos, ut congestis cum fœno stipulis ignem magnum transiliant, his Palilibus se expiari credentes." Compare also Propert. IV. iv. 73. Urbi festus erat; dixere Palilia patres; 1 Varro de L. L. Fordicidia a fordis bubus. Bos forda, quæ fert in ventre. See also Tibull. II. v. 87, p. 26, and the concluding couplet of this extract. 8. Another lustration which consisted in dipping a branch of laurel into pure water, and sprinkling all the objects to be purified. See extract p. 97, line 15. Uda fit hinc laurus: lauro sparguntur ab uda a branch of olive might be employed, Virg. Æ. VI. 229. Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda, a sort of brush used for this purpose is to be seen among sacred utensils represented on ancient monuments; to this the name aspergillum is given. The word, however, does not occur in any classical author. 9. (Navalibus, &c.) We have already spoken of this metaphor in note on the Ov. Fast. I. i. 4. p. 281. 11. (Virginea.. ara.) The altar of Vesta tended by the Vestal Virgins. 11. Suffimen, or suffimentum, "anything which when burnt produced an expiatory or purifying smoke," and hence, in general, anything used for purification or expiation. Festus gives the following explanation of suffimentum. Suffimenta sunt, quæ faciebant ex faba, milioque molito, mulso sparso: Ea Diis dabantur eo tempore, quo uvæ calcatæ prælo." Plin. H. N. XV. 30, speaking of the laurel, "Ob has causas equidem crediderim, honorem ei habitum in triumphis potius quam quia suffimentum sit cædis et purgatio, ut tradit Massurius." Again, Festus in verb Aqua, "Funus prosecuti, redeuntes ignem supergre diebantur aqua aspersi: quod purgationis genus vocabant suffitionem.” The verb connected with these words is suffio, "to produce smoke," "to fumigate." e. g. Virg. G. IV. 241. At suffire thymo, cerasque recidere inanes and Columella XII. xviii. 3, "Cella quoque vinaria omni stercore liberanda, et bonis odoribus suffienda." Compare also Prop. IV. viii. 83. In Lucret. II. 1096, it is used in the sense of "to warm.' Ignibus ætheriis terras suffire feraceis. 13. (Sauguis equi,) Solinus, p. 2. "Et observatum deinceps ne qua hostia Parilibus cæderetur, ut dies iste a sanguine purus esset.' There is no contradiction here. The horse alluded to was sacrificed in the month of October to Mars, in the Campus Martius: his tail was cut off, and the blood that dropped from the wound was kept in the temple of Vesta. These particulars we learn from Festus under Equus October. Propertius IV. 1. 19, alludes to the same rite, and gives the epithet, "curtus," to the horse, in consequence of the amputation described. Annuaque accenso celebrare Palilia fœno, Qualia nunc curto lustra novantur equo, where we find curvo for curto in many edd., a corruption which arose from the former epithet not being understood. 18. (Longa corona.) The garlands from their size hung down in festoons. 19. (Vivo de sulfure.) Pliny H. N. XXXV. 15, describes sulphur "Genera quatuor: vivum, quod Græci apyron, nascitur solidum, hoc est gleba." Compare Tibull. I. v. 11. Ipseque ter circum lustravi sulfure puro. Sulfura viva occurs in Virg. G. III. 449. 21. 22. See p. 207 and 331. 23. Fiscella, a diminutive from fiscina, a basket made of twigs. 25. Nunc facilis rubea texatur fiscina virga. Vir. G. I. 266. Resectis. The MSS. are in great confusion here, as will be seen from the various readings. Gierig. conj. refectus, and explains the passage thus "Ordo autem rituum est hic. Primum Deæ cibus apponitur: tum sibi dapes parant pastores. Iis refecti libant lac; mox preces faciunt. Tandem ipsi se proluunt lacte et sapa." 25. .56. Hic ego pastoremque meum lustrare quotannis Carmen precationis.-Sequitur magnus catalogus delictorum quibus sacra violari Deosque offendi superstitio veterum credebat. (G.) |