February 15th | Fastorum Liber Secundus: Februarius
F • LUPER • NP | XV Kal. | II.267-474, Ovid describes the various elements and myths that relate to the Lupercalia festival.
Tertia post Idus nudos aurora Lupercos
aspicit, et Fauni sacra bicornis eunt.
dicite, Pierides, sacrorum quae sit origo,
attigerint Latias unde petita domos. 270
Pana deum pecoris veteres coluisse feruntur
Arcades: Arcadiis plurimus ille iugis.
testis erit Pholoë, testes Stymphalides undae,
quique citis Ladon in mare currit aquis,
cinctaque pinetis nemoris iuga Nonacrini, 275
altaque Tricrene1 Parrhasiaeque nives.
Pan erat armenti, Pan illic numen equarum;
munus ob incolumes ille ferebat oves.
transtulit Euander silvestria numina secum;
hic, ubi nunc urbs est, tum locus urbis erat. 280
inde deum colimus, devectaque sacra Pelasgis
flamen adhuc prisco more Dialis obit.2
cur igitur currant, et cur (sic currere mos est)
nuda ferant posita corpora veste, rogas?
ipse deus velox discurrere gaudet in altis 285
montibus et subitas concipit ipse fugas;
ipse deus nudus nudos iubet ire ministros,
nec satis ad cursus commoda vestis erat.
ante Iovem genitum terras habuisse feruntur
Arcades, et luna gens prior illa fuit. 290
vita feris similis, nullos agitata per usus:
artis adhuc expers et rude volgus erat.
pro domibus frondes norant, pro frugibus herbas,
nectar erat palmis hausta duabus aqua.
nullus anhelabat sub adunco vomere taurus, 295
nulla sub imperio terra colentis erat:
nullus adhuc erat usus equi, se quisque ferebat:
ibat ovis lana corpus amicta sua.
sub Iove durabant et corpora nuda gerebant
docta graves imbres et tolerare Notos. 300
nunc quoque detecti referunt monumenta vetusti
moris et antiquas testificantur opes.
sed cur praecipue fugiat velamina Faunus,
traditur antiqui fabula plena ioci.
forte comes dominae iuvenis Tirynthius ibat: 305
vidit ab excelso Faunus utrumque iugo.
vidit et incaluit, “montana” que “numina,” dixit
“nil mihi vobiscum est: hic meus ardor erit.”
ibat odoratis umeros perfusa capillis
Maeonis, aurato conspicienda sinu: 310
aurea pellebant tepidos umbracula soles,
quae tamen Herculeae sustinuere manus.
iam Bacchi nemus et Tmoli vineta tenebat,
Hesperos et fusco roscidus ibat equo.
antra subit tofis laqueata et pumice vivo; 315
garrulus in primo limine rivus erat.
dumque parant epulas potandaque vina ministri,
cultibus Alciden instruit illa suis.
dat tenuis tunicas Gaetulo murice tinctas,
dat teretem zonam, qua modo cincta fuit. 320
ventre minor zona est; tunicarum vincla relaxat,
ut posset magnas exseruisse manus.
fregerat armillas non illa ad bracchia factas,
scindebant magni vincula parva pedes.
ipsa capit clavamque gravem spoliumque leonis 325
conditaque in pharetra tela minora sua.
sic epulis functi sic dant sua corpora somno,
et positis iuxta secubuere toris;
causa, repertori vitis quia sacra parabant,
quae facerent pure, cum foret orta dies. 330
noctis erat medium. quid non amor improbus audet?
roscida per tenebras Faunus ad antra venit,
utque videt comites somno vinoque solutos,
spem capit in dominis esse soporis idem.
intrat, et huc illuc temerarius errat adulter 335
et praefert cautas subsequiturque manus.
venerat ad strati captata cubilia lecti
et felix prima sorte futurus erat.
ut tetigit fulvi saetis hirsuta leonis
vellera, pertimuit sustinuitque manum, 340
attonitusque metu rediit, ut saepe viator
turbatus viso rettulit angue pedem.
inde tori, qui iunctus erat, velamina tangit
mollia, mendaci decipiturque nota.
ascendit spondaque sibi propiore recumbit, 345
et tumidum cornu durius inguen erat.
interea tunicas ora subducit ab ima:
horrebant densis aspera crura pilis.
cetera temptantem subito Tirynthius heros
reppulit: e summo decidit ille toro. 350
fit sonus, inclamat comites et lumina poscit
Maeonis: inlatis ignibus acta patent.
ille gemit lecto graviter deiectus ab alto,
membraque de dura vix sua tollit humo.
ridet et Alcides et qui videre iacentem, 355
ridet amatorem Lyda puella suum.
veste deus lusus fallentes lumina vestes
non amat et nudos ad sua sacra vocat.
adde peregrinis causas, mea Musa, Latinas,
inque suo noster pulvere currat equus. 360
cornipedi Fauno caesa de more capella
venit ad exiguas turba vocata dapes.
dumque sacerdotes veribus transuta salignis
exta parant, medias sole tenente vias,
Romulus et frater pastoralisque iuventus 365
solibus et campo corpora nuda dabant;
vectibus et iaculis et misso pondere saxi
bracchia per lusus experienda dabant:
pastor ab excelso “per devia rura iuvencos,
Romule, praedones, et Reme,” dixit “agunt.”370
longum erat armari: diversis exit uterque
partibus; occursu praeda recepta Remi.
ut rediit, veribus stridentia detrahit exta
atque ait “haec certe non nisi victor edet.”
dicta facit Fabiique simul. venit inritus illuc 375
Romulus et mensas ossaque nuda videt;
risit et indoluit Fabios potuisse Remumque
vincere, Quintilios non potuisse suos.
fama manet facti: posito velamine currunt,
et memorem famam, quod bene cessit, habet. 380
forsitan et quaeras, cur sit locus ille Lupercal,
quaeve diem tali nomine causa notet.
Silvia Vestalis caelestia semina partu
ediderat patruo regna tenente suo.
is iubet auferri parvos et in amne necari: 385
quid facis? ex istis Romulus alter erit.
iussa recusantes peragunt lacrimosa ministri
(flent tamen) et geminos in loca iussa ferunt.
Albula, quem Tiberim mersus Tiberinus in undis
reddidit, hibernis forte tumebat aquis: 390
hic, ubi nunc fora sunt, lintres errare videres,
quaque iacent valles, Maxime Circe, tuae.
huc ubi venerunt (neque enim procedere possunt
longius), ex illis unus et alter ait:
“at quam sunt similes! at quam formosus uterque! 395
plus tamen ex illis iste vigoris habet.
si genus arguitur voltu, nisi fallit imago,
nescio quem in vobis suspicor esse deum—
at si quis vestrae deus esset originis auctor,
in tam praecipiti tempore ferret opem: 400
ferret opem certe, si non ope mater egeret,
quae facta est uno mater et orba die.
nata simul, moritura simul, simul ite sub undas
corpora!” desierat deposuitque sinu.
vagierunt ambo pariter: sensisse putares. 405
hi redeunt udis in sua tecta genis.
sustinet impositos summa cavus alveus unda:
heu quantum fati parva tabella tulit!
alveus in limo silvis appulsus opacis
paulatim fluvio deficiente sedet. 410
arbor erat: remanent vestigia, quaeque vocatur
Rumina nunc ficus, Romula ficus erat.
venit ad expositos (mirum!) lupa feta gemellos:
quis credat pueris non nocuisse feram?
non nocuisse parum est, prodest quoque: quos lupa nutrit, 415
perdere cognatae sustinuere manus.
constitit et cauda teneris blanditur alumnis
et fingit lingua corpora bina sua.
Marte satos scires: timor afuit, ubera ducunt
nec sibi promissi lactis aluntur ope. 420
illa loco nomen fecit, locus ipse Lupercis.
magna dati nutrix praemia lactis habet.
quid vetat Arcadio dictos a monte Lupercos?
Faunus in Arcadia templa Lycaeus habet.
nupta, quid exspectas? non tu pollentibus herbis 425
nec prece nec magico carmine mater eris;
excipe fecundae patienter verbera dextrae,
iam socer optatum nomen habebit avi.
nam fuit illa dies, dura cum sorte maritae
reddebant uteri pignora rara sui. 430
“quid mihi” clamabat “prodest rapuisse Sabinas
Romulus (hoc illo sceptra tenente fuit)
“si mea non vires, sed bellum iniuria fecit?
utilius fuerat non habuisse nurus.”
monte sub Esquilio multis incaeduus annis 435
Iunonis magnae nomine lucus erat.
huc ubi venerunt, pariter nuptaeque virique
suppliciter posito procubuere genu,
cum subito motae tremuere cacumina silvae
et dea per lucos mira locuta suos: 440
“Italidas matres” inquit “sacer hircus inito.”
obstipuit dubio territa turba sono.
augur erat (nomen longis intercidit annis,
nuper ab Etrusca venerat exul humo),
ille caprum mactat, iussae sua terga puellae 445
pellibus exsectis percutienda dabant.
luna resumebat decimo nova cornua motu,
virque pater subito nuptaque mater erat.
gratia Lucinae! dedit haec tibi nomina lucus,
aut quia principium tu, dea, lucis habes. 450
parce, precor, gravidis, facilis Lucina, puellis
maturumque utero molliter aufer onus.
orta dies fuerit, tu desine credere ventis:
perdidit illius temporis aura fidem;
flamina non constant, et sex reserata diebus 455
carceris Aeolii ianua lata patet.
iam levis obliqua subsedit Aquarius urna:
proximus aetherios excipe, Piscis, equos.
te memorant fratremque tuum (nam iuncta micatis
signa) duos tergo sustinuisse deos. 450
terribilem quondam fugiens Typhona Dione,
tum cum pro caelo Iuppiter arma tulit,
venit ad Euphraten comitata Cupidine parvo
inque Palaestinae margine sedit aquae.
populus et cannae riparum summa tenebant, 465
spemque dabant salices hos quoque posse tegi.
dum latet, insonuit vento nemus; illa timore
pallet et hostiles credit adesse manus,
utque sinu tenuit natum, “succurrite, nymphae,
et dis auxilium ferte duobus!” ait. 470
nec mora, prosiluit. pisces subiere gemelli:
pro quo nunc dignum sidera munus habent.
inde nefas ducunt genus hoc imponere mensis
nec violant timidi piscibus ora Syri.
267 The third morn after the Ides beholds the naked Luperci, and then, too, come the rites of two-horned Faunus. Declare, Pierian Muses, the origin of the rites, and from what quarter they were fetched and reached our Latin homes. The Arcadians of old are said to have worshipped Pan,3 the god of cattle, him who haunts the Arcadian ridges. Witness Mount Pholoe,4 witness the Stymphalian waters,5 and the Ladon that seaward runs with rapid current: witness the ridges of the Nonacrine6 grove begirt with pinewoods: witness high Tricrene7 and the Parrhasian snows. There Pan was the deity of herds, and there, too, of mares; he received gifts for keeping safe the sheep. Evander brought with him across the sea his woodland deities; where now the city stands, there was then naught but the city’s site. Hence we worship the god, and the Flamen Dialis still performs in the olden way the rites8 brought hither by the Pelasgians.9 You ask, Why then do the Luperci run? and why do they strip themselves and bear their bodies naked, for so it is their wont to run? The god himself loves to scamper, fleet of foot, about the high mountains, and he himself takes suddenly to flight. The god himself is nude and bids his ministers go nude: besides, raiment sorted not well with running. The Arcadians are said to have possessed their land before the birth of Jove, and that folk is older than the moon.10 Their life was like that of beasts, unprofitably spent; artless as yet and raw was the common herd. Leaves did they use for houses, herbs for corn: water scooped up in two hollows of the hands to them was nectar. No bull panted under the weight of the bent ploughshare: no land was under the dominion of the husbandman: there was as yet no use for horses, every man carried his own weight: the sheep went clothed in its own wool. Under the open sky they lived and went about naked, inured to heavy showers and rainy winds. Even to this day the unclad ministers recall the memory of the olden custom and attest what comforts the ancients knew.
303 But to explain why Faunus should particularly eschew the use of drapery a merry tale is handed down from days of old. As chance would have it, the Tirynthian youth was walking in the company of his mistress11; Faunus saw them both from a high ridge. He saw and burned. “Ye mountain elves,” quoth he, “I’m done with you. Yon shall be my true flame.” As the Maeonian damsel tripped along, her scented locks streamed down her shoulders; her bosom shone resplendent with golden braid. A golden parasol kept off the sun’s warm beams; and yet it was the hands of Hercules that bore it up. Now had she reached the grove of Bacchus and the vineyards of Tmolus,12 and dewy Hesperus rode on his dusky steed. She passed within a cave, whereof the fretted roof was all of tufa and of living rock, and at the mouth there ran a babbling brook. While the attendants were making ready the viands and the wine for the wassail, she arrayed Alcides in her own garb. She gave him gauzy tunics in Gaetulian purple13 dipped; she gave him the dainty girdle, which but now had girt her waist. For his belly the girdle was too small; he undid the claps of the tunics to thrust out his big hands. The bracelets he had broken, not made to fit those arms; his big feet split the little shoes. She herself took the heavy club, the lion’s skin, and the lesser weapons stored in their quiver. In such array they feasted, in such array they resigned themselves to slumber, and lay down apart on beds set side by side; the reason was that they were preparing to celebrate in all purity, when day should dawn, a festival in honour of the discoverer of the vine. ’Twas midnight. What durst not wanton love essay? Through the gloom came Faunus to the dewy cave, and when he saw the attendants in drunken slumber sunk, he conceived a hope that their masters might be as sound asleep. He entered and, rash lecher, he wandered to and fro; with hands outstretched before him he felt his cautious way. At last he reached by groping the beds, where they were spread, and at his first move fortune smiled on him. When he felt the bristly skin of the tawny lion, he stayed his hand in terror, and thunderstruck recoiled, as oft on seeing a snake a wayfarer freezes in alarm. Then he touched the soft drapes of the next couch, and its deceptive touch beguiled him. He mounted and reclined on the nearer side, his swollen penis harder than horn, and meanwhile pulling up the bottom edge of the garment; there he met legs that bristled with thick rough hair. Before he could go further, the Tirynthian14 hero abruptly thrust him away, and down he fell from the top of the bed. There was a crash. Omphale called for her attendants and demanded a light: torches were brought in, and the truth was out. After his heavy fall from the high couch Faunus groaned and scarce could lift himself from the hard ground. Alcides laughed, as did all who saw him lying; the Lydian wench laughed also at her lover. Thus betrayed by vesture, the god loves not garments which deceive the eye, and bids his worshippers come naked to his rites.
359 To foreign reasons add, my Muse, some Latin ones, and let my steed career in his own dusty course. A she-goat had been sacrificed as usual to hoof-footed Faunus, and a crowd had come by invitation to partake of the scanty repast. While the priests were dressing the inwards, stuck on willow spits, the sun then riding in mid heaven, Romulus and his brother and the shepherd youth were exercising their naked bodies in the sunshine on the plain; they tried in sport the strength of their arms by crowbars and javelins and by hurling ponderous stones. Cried a shepherd from a height, “O Romulus and Remus, robbers are driving off the bullocks across the pathless lands.” To arm would have been tedious; out went the brothers both in opposite directions; but ’twas Remus who fell in with the freebooters and brought the booty back. On his return he drew the hissing inwards from the spits and said, “None but the victor surely shall eat these.” He did as he had said, he and the Fabii together. Thither came Romulus foiled, and saw the empty tables and bare bones. He laughed, and grieved that Remus and the Fabii could have conquered when his own Quintilii could not. The fame of the deed endures: they run stripped, and the success of that day enjoys a lasting fame.15
381 Perhaps you may also ask why that place16 is called the Lupercal, and what is the reason for denoting the day by such a name. Silvia, a Vestal, had given birth to heavenly babes, what time her uncle sat upon the throne. He ordered the infant boys to be carried away and drowned in the river. Rash man! one of those babes will yet be Romulus. Reluctantly his servants carry out the mournful orders (though they weep) and bear the twins to the place appointed. It chanced that the Albula, which took the name of Tiber from Tiberinus,17 drowned in its waves, was swollen with winter rain: where now the forums18 are, and where the valley of the Circus Maximus lies, you might see boats floating about. Hither when they were come, for farther they could not go, one or other of them said: “But how like they are! how beautiful is each! Yet of the two this one has more vigour. If lineage may be inferred from features, unless appearances deceive me, I fancy that some god is in you—but if some god were indeed the author of your being, he would come to your rescue in so perilous an hour; surely their mother would bring aid, if only aid she lacked not, she who has borne and lost her children in a single day. Ye bodies, born together to die together, together pass beneath the waves!” He ended, and from his bosom he laid down the twins. Both squalled alike: you would fancy they understood. With wet cheeks the bearers wended their homeward way. The hollow ark in which the babes were laid supported them on the surface of the water: ah me! how big a fate the little plank upbore! The ark drifted towards a shady wood, and, as the water gradually shoaled, it grounded on the mud. There was a tree (traces of it still remain), which is now called the Rumina19 fig-tree, but was once the Romulan fig-tree. A she-wolf which had cast her whelps came, wondrous to tell, to the abandoned twins: who could believe that the brute would not harm the boys? Far from harming, she helped them; and they whom ruthless kinsfolk would have killed with their own hands were suckled by a wolf! She halted and fawned on the tender babes with her tail, and licked into shape their two bodies with her tongue. You might know they were scions of Mars: fearless, they sucked her dugs and were fed on a supply of milk that was never meant for them. The she-wolf (lupa) gave her name to the place, and the place gave their name to the Luperci. Great is the reward the nurse has got for the milk she gave. Why should not the Luperci have been named after the Arcadian mountain? Lycaean Faunus has temples in Arcadia.20
425 Thou bride, why tarry? Neither potent herbs, nor prayer, nor magic spells shall make of thee a mother; submit with patience to the blows dealt by a fruitful hand, soon will your husband’s sire enjoy the wished-for name of grandsire. For there was a day when a hard lot ordained that wives but seldom gave their mates the pledges of the womb. Cried Romulus (for this befell when he was on the throne), “What boots it me to have ravished the Sabine women, if the wrong I did has brought me not strength but only war? Better it were our sons had never wed.” Under the Esquiline Mount a sacred grove, untouched by woodman’s axe for many a year, went by the name of the great Juno.21 Hither when they had come, husbands and wives alike in supplication bowed the knee, when of a sudden the tops of the trees shook and trembled, and wondrous words the goddess spake in her own holy grove: “Let the sacred he-goat,” said she, “go in to Italian matrons.” At the ambiguous words the crowd stood struck with terror. There was a certain augur (his name has dropped out with the long years, but he had lately come an exile from the Etruscan land): he slew a he-goat, and at his bidding the damsels offered their backs to be beaten with thongs cut from the hide. When in her tenth circuit the moon was renewing her horns, the husband was suddenly made a father and the wife a mother. Thanks to Lucina! this name, goddess, thou didst take from the sacred grove (lucus), or because with thee is the fount of light (lucis). Gracious Lucina, spare, I pray, women with child, and gently lift the ripe burden from the womb.
453 When that day has dawned, then trust no more the winds: at that season the breezes keep not faith; fickle are the blasts, and for six days the door of the Aeolian22 gaol unbarred stands open wide. Now the light Water-Carrier (Aquarius) sets with his tilted urn: next in turn do thou, Ο Fish, receive the heavenly steeds. They say that thou and thy brother (for ye are constellations that sparkle side by side) did support twain gods, upon your backs. Once on a time Dione,23 fleeing from the dreadful Typhon, when Jupiter bore arms in defence of heaven, came to the Euphrates, accompanied by the little Cupid, and sat down by the brink of the Palestinian water. Populars and reeds crowned the top of the banks, and willows offered hope that the fugitives also could find covert there. While she lay hid, the grove rustled in the wind. She turned pale with fear, and thought that bands of foes were near. Holding her child in her lap, “To the rescue, nymphs!” she said, “and to two deities bring help!” Without delay she sprang forward. Twin fish received her on their backs, wherefore they now possess the stars, a guerdon meet. Hence scrupulous Syrians count it sin to serve up such fry upon the table, and will not defile their mouths with fish.
cyllene m1: cillene X1: troezenae AUm2: troezene X2: Tricrene Merkel1.
adhuc three ϛ: ad haec AUX1m2: ab hoc m1ϛ, obit Bentley, Madvig (Adversaria ii. 106, reading adhuc for ad haec): erit A(corrected): erat UXm: eat or adit Heinsius: agit Burman. The usual reading ad haec…erat (or erit) yields no adequate sense. OBIT for ERIT is an easy and probable correction.
Here identified with Faunus.
A mountain in Arcadia, source of the river Ladon.
A lake in Arcadia.
Nonacris, a town of Arcadia.
A mountain in Arcadia.
The Lupercalia. See Appendix, p. 389. (entry for Lupercalia)
Evander, as an Arcadian, for the Arcadians were said to be Pelasgians.
They were called προσέληνοι.
Hercules and Omphale, a princess of Lydia (Maeonia).
A mountain in Lydia.
Made of the murex dye, for which the north African coast was famous.
Hercules and Lydian Omphale. See ll. 305, 310.
Ovid is endeavouring to explain the foundations of the two colleges of Luperci, the Fabii or Fabiani, and the Quintilii or Quintiliales.
A cave on the E. of the Palatine, said to have been the she-wolf’s den.
See iv. 47.
Forum Romanum and Forum Boarium.
Rumina or Ruminalis, from ruma or rumis, a “dug.”
He now suggests a Greek derivation, on the supposition that the Lupercalia had been brought from Arcadia. The mountain is Mt. Lycaeus, where was a sanctuary of Pan, whom he identifies with Faunus.
Juno Lucina, who aided women in childbed.
Aeolus, king of the winds, kept them in his house (Homer, Od. x. 1–27, Virg. Aen. i. 52).
Mother of Venus, here for Venus herself.