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Calendrical Notes
#15
To-day is the the third day before the Ides of January (ANTE DIEM III IDVS IANVARII), in modern reckoning the eleventh day of the month, and is the date of the first CARMENTALIA, the festival of the goddess CARMENTA or CARMENTIS. Fortunately the FASTI PRAENESTINI possesses a fragmentary annotation by Verrius Flaccus, thus:

''[No Business; Public Holiday.] Carmentalia . . . [Carmentis looks after childbirth and all] future events, and therefore [inside her shrine they do not allow hides of leather or any] omen associated with dead animals.''

In the Fabulae of Pseudo-Hyginus (Hyginus was a scholar of the first century B.C.E., who died in 17 C.E., the year of the consulship of Flaccus and Rufus, of the City the seven-hundred and seventy first. The Fabulae are too crude in style to be his work and are evidently summaries taken down by a later author, described by H. J. Rose as ''ADVLESCENTVM IMPERITVM, SEMIDOCTVM, STVLTVM'' (a stupid, half-learned and ignorant boy), we find that CARMENTA was named NICOSTRATE, and that the name CARMENTA was bestowed upon her for her renown as a prophetess (CARMENTA or CARMENTIS is evidently related to CARMEN, a poem, but also a spell, charm [cognate with CARMEN] incantation or a prophecy).

She was the mother of Evander, who coming banished from Arcadia founded Pallantium, and who fought with Aeneas against Turnus. He was deified after his death and had a temple on the Aventine. EVANDER is the Greek Εὔανδρος, the good or the virtuous man.

Cf. also Plutarch, from the fifty-sixth Roman Question, who gives a reverse etymology:

Some say that Carmenta was Evander's mother, and going into Italy was called Themis, but as some say, Nicostrata; who, when she sang forth oracles in verse, was called Carmenta by the Latins; for they call verses carmina. There are some of opinion that Carmenta was a Destiny, therefore the matrons sacrifice to her. But the etymology of the word is from cares mente (beside herself), by reason of divine raptures. Hence Carmenta had not her name from carmina; but contrariwise, her verses were called carmina from her, because being inspired she sang her oracles in verse.''

In the Fasti of Ovid, the four-hundred and sixty-first line we find:

''The happy prophetess, even as she lived in highest favour with the gods, so now herself a goddess hath she this day in Janus’ month all to herself.''

Carmenta's temple was at the foot of the southern end of the Capitol, near the Porta Carmentalis, where, according to Servius' commentary upon Virgil, she was buried. In the eighth book of the Aeneid, the three-hundred and thirty-sixth to the three-hundred and forty-first line, we find:

''He [Evander] scarce had said,
when near their path he showed an altar fair
and the Carmental gate, where Romans see
memorial of Carmentis, nymph divine,
the prophetess of fate, who first foretold
what honors on Aeneas' sons should fall
and lordly Pallanteum, where they dwell.''

She had a minor flamen of her own, the FLAMEN CARMENTALIS, but in the Fasti of Ovid, we find an allusion to ''the rite pontifical of the Arcadian goddess'' (Book I, Line 461) , so we must conclude that the PONTIFICES too played a part in her cult.

The cult of CARMENTA was chiefly practised by Roman matrons, with Warde Fowler citing ''clear evidence'' that women alone were admitted into her sanctuary. Varro, in the eighty-fourth chapter of seventh book of his ''Latin Language'' notes there is a verb SCORTARI, to whore, and a noun SCORTVM, a harlot, which is identical in form with the archaic SCORTVM, skin or hide, and derived from it (in the sense of hired flesh). In the Atellan farces a prostitute is alluded to as a PELLICVLA. It is thus possible that the rule against hides in the temple of a matron-goddess of childhood (though given an acceptable explanation by Ovid (Fasti, Book I, line 620), i.e. ''It is not lawful to bring leather into her shrine, lest her pure hearths should be defiled by skins of slaughtered beasts'' ) may have originally alluded to prostitutes and the later custom arose by mistake.

Plutarch, again in his fifty-sixth ''Roman Question'' attributes the temple to the matrons of Rome.

''There is a certain tradition that, when the women were prohibited by the senate from the use of chariots drawn by a pair of horses, they conspired together not to be got with child and breed children, and in this manner to be revenged on their husbands until they revoked the decree and gratified them; which being done, children were begot, and the women, becoming good breeders and very fruitful, built the temple of Carmenta.''

In the sixteenth chapter of the sixteenth book of his ''Attic Nights'', a learned commonplace-book by the second century antiquarian Aulus Gellius, we find:

''THOSE at whose birth the feet appeared first, instead of the head, which is considered the most difficult and dangerous form of parturition, are called Agrippae, a word formed from aegritudo, or “difficulty,” and pedes (feet). But Varro says that the position of children in the womb is with the head lowest and the feet raised up, not according to the nature of a man, but of a tree. For he likens the branches of a tree to the feet and legs, and the stock and trunk to the head. “Accordingly,” says he, “when they chanced to be turned upon their feet in an unnatural position, since their arms are usually extended they are wont to be held back, and then women give birth with greater difficulty. Forthe purpose of averting this danger altars were set up at Rome to the two Carmentes, of whom one was called Postverta, the other Prorsa [or Porrima], named from natural and unnatural births, and their power over them.”

These CARMENTES are have been interpreted as titles of the goddess CARMENTA (Warde Fowler) but this is not, to my mind, tenable. They must be separate goddesses, which is the sense of Aulus Gellius, and is confirmed by Ovid's ''Fasti'', (the six-hundred and twenty-third line of the first book):
''Porrima and Postverta are [there] placated, whether they be thy sisters, Maenalian goddess or companions of thine exile: the one is thought to have sung of what was long ago (PORRO), the other of what should come to pass hereafter (VENTVRVM POSTMODO).

What connection, therefore, we may ask, is there between prophecy and child-birth? Professor H. Nettleship, the Corpus Professor of Latin at Oxford in the late nineteenth century, gives us the following (cited by Warde Fowler): ''The reason why the Carmentes are worshipped by matrons is because they tell the fortunes of children''. Warde Fowler adds that ''they tell the fortunes of women in childbirth''.

Lastly, although it may seem incongruous for a goddess of childbirth to be worshipped and propitiated in mid-winter, Warde Fowler notes ''as far as we can judge from the calendar, April was the month at which marriages...were especially frequent'' citing the festival of Fortuna Virilis, in which women, prayed publicly naked in the baths ''because in them like men they appear naked in that part of the body, by which they attract men with their femininity'' (Fasti Pranestini) and that of Flora, ''who looks after the flowering of plants, to cure the barrenness of the crops'' [ditto, to which me might add the fertility of women] to which we might add that April was dedicated to Venus (ditto, again). Reckoning from April, it is in January that births might be expected.

According to Ovid, in the four-hundred and sixty-third line of the first book of the ''Fasti'', to-day is also dedicated to the nymph IVTVRNA:

'' Thee, too, sister of Turnus, the same morn enshrined at the spot where the Virgin Water circles the Field of Mars.''

TVRNVS was the Latin chieftain of the RVTVLI who sought the hand of Lavinia before it was made clear by prophecy that she should wed Aeneas. This feud led to the war between the Latins and the Trojans described in the seventh through to the twelfth book of the AENEID.

In the words of Warde Fowler, ''the fount of Juturna was near the Vesta-temple, and therefore close to the Forum: its water was used, says Servius [M. Servius Honoratus, commentator on Virgil], for all kinds of sacrifices, and itself was the object of sacrifice in a drought. All took part in the festival who used water in their daily work ('qui artificium aqua exercent'). But the Juturnalia appears in no calendar, and Aust is no doubt right in explaining it only as the dedication-festival of the temple built by Augustus in 2 B.C.E. [the year of the consulship of Augustus and Silvanus, of the City 752].

The waters of the fount of Juturna are noted for curing ills, as we see from the late first-century general and author S. IVLIVS FRONTINVS, in his treatise upon aqueducts (Book I Passage IV):

''For four hundred and forty-one years from the foundation of the City, the Romans were satisfied with the use of such waters as they drew from the Tiber, from wells, or from springs. Esteem for springs still continues, and is observed with veneration. They are believed to bring healing to the sick, as, for example, the springs of the Camenae, of Apollo, and of Juturna. But there now run into the City: the Appian aqueduct, Old Anio, Marcia, Tepula, Julia, Virgo, Alsietina, which is also called Augusta, Claudia, New Anio.''

The Virgin Water of Ovid is the AQUA VIRGO, one of the aqueducts supplying the city. Frontinus derives the name thus (Book I Passage X):

''The same man [i.e. M. Vipsanius Agrippa], after his own third consulship, in the consulship of Gaius Sentius and Quintus Lucretius [19 B.C.E., of the City 735], twelve years after he had constructed the Julian aqueduct, also brought Virgo to Rome, taking it from the estate of Lucullus. We learn that June 9 was the day that it first began to flow in the City. It was called Virgo, because a young girl pointed out certain springs to some soldiers hunting for water, and when they followed these up and dug, they found a copious supply. A small temple, situated near the spring, contains a painting which illustrates this origin of the aqueduct. The intake of Virgo is on the Collatian Way at the eighth milestone, in a marshy spot, surrounded by a concrete enclosure for the purpose of confining the gushing waters. Its volume is augmented by several tributaries.''

Returning to IVTVRNA, Varro provides us with an etymology derived from IVVARE, to give help (the seventy-first chapter of the fifth book):

''Juturna was a nymph whose function was ''iuvare'', to give help; therefore many sick persons, on account of this name, are wont to seek water from her spring''

It was from the pool fed by the spring of Juturna, the LACVS IVTVRNAE, that the DIOSCURI or Twin Brethren, Castor and Pollux, watered their horses when they came, on the Ides of Quintilis or July, bearing news of the Roman victory over the Tarquins supported by the Latin League at the great battle of Lake Regillus (Livy 2 19-20) in the year 499 B.C.E.., the year of the consulship of Aebutius and Vetusius, of the City 255, or in 496 B.C.E., the year of the consulship of Albus and Tricostus, of the City 254, for which Plutarch's Life of Aemilius Paulus, chapter 25.

''And when the Romans had conquered the Tarquins, who had taken the field against them with the Latins, two tall and beautiful men were seen at Rome a little while after, who brought direct tidings from the army. These were conjectured to be the Dioscuri. The first man who met them in front of the spring in the forum, where they were cooling their horses, which were reeking with sweat, was amazed at their report of the victory. Then, we are told, they touched his beard with their hands, quietly smiling the while, and the hair of it was changed at once from black to red, a circumstance which gave credence to their story, and fixed upon the man the surname of Ahenobarbus, that is to say, Bronze-beard.''

See also the Life of Coriolanus by the same author, chapter III:

''In the battle of which I was speaking, it is said that Castor and Pollux appeared, and that immediately after the battle they were seen, their horses all a-drip with sweat, in the forum, announcing the victory, by the fountain where their temple now stands. Therefore the day on which this victory was won, the ides of July, was consecrated to the Dioscuri.''

The modern poet Macaulay included the following lines in his ''Battle of Lake Regillus'':

XXXVII
Sempronius Atratinus
Sat in the Eastern Gate,
Beside him were three Fathers,
Each in his chair of state;
Fabius, whose nine stout grandsons
That day were in the field,
And Manlius, eldest of the Twelve
Who keep the Golden Shield;
And Sergius, the High Pontiff,
For wisdom far renowned;
In all Etruria's colleges
Was no such Pontiff found.
And all around the portal,
And high above the wall,
Stood a great throng of people,
But sad and silent all;
Young lads and stooping elders
That might not bear the mail,
Matrons with lips that quivered,
And maids with faces pale.
Since the first gleam of daylight,
Sempronius had not ceased
To listen for the rushing
Of horse-hoofs from the east.
The mist of eve was rising,
The sun was hastening down,
When he was aware of a princely pair
Fast pricking towards the town.
So like they were, man never
Saw twins so like before;
Red with gore their armor was,
Their steeds were red with gore.
XXXVIII
``Hail to the great Asylum!
Hail to the hill-tops seven!
Hail to the fire that burns for aye,
And the shield that fell from heaven!
This day, by Lake Regillus,
Under the Porcian height,
All in the lands of Tusculum
Was fought a glorious fight.
Tomorrow your Dictator
Shall bring in triumph home
The spoils of thirty cities
To deck the shrines of Rome!''
XXXIX
Then burst from that great concourse
A shout that shook the towers,
And some ran north, and some ran south,
Crying,``The day is ours!''
But on rode these strange horsemen,
With slow and lordly pace;
And none who saw their bearing
Durst ask their name or race.
On rode they to the Forum,
While laurel-boughs and flowers,
From house-tops and from windows,
Fell on their crests in showers.
When they drew nigh to Vesta,
They vaulted down amain,
And washed their horses in the well
That springs by Vesta's fane.
And straight again they mounted,
And rode to Vesta's door;
Then, like a blast, away they passed,
And no man saw them more.

Sempronius Atratinus is Aulus Sempronius Atratinus who was later consul in 497 and in 491 B.C.E., of the City 257 and 263, which consulates he shared with M. Minucius Augurinus.

''The fire that burns for aye'' is the sacred fire of Vesta, while the ''Twelve'' are the members of one of the two colleges of Salii, or Leaping Priests of Mars, who kept among twenty-four copies the ANCILE that fell from Heaven, one of the PIGNORA IMPERII or divine pledges of Roman rule, the list being given by Servius, the commentator on Virgil, in the gloss on the one-hundred and eighty-eighth line of the seventh book.

The ''Asylum'' is the temple of Asylaeus founded by Romulus upon the Capitol, and served as a place of refuge for people who fled from other Latin cities to Rome. See Livy, book one chapter eight:

''In the place which is now enclosed, between the two groves as you go up the hill, he opened a sanctuary. Thither fled, from the surrounding peoples, a miscellaneous rabble, without distinction of bond or free, eager for new conditions; and these constituted the first advance in power towards that greatness at which Romulus aimed.''

The thirty cities are the members of the Latin League.
Patrick J. Gray

'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''

From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
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Messages In This Thread
Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-13-2018, 03:26 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-15-2018, 02:32 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Robert Vermaat - 01-16-2018, 01:13 AM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-16-2018, 01:19 AM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-16-2018, 04:02 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Gunthamund Hasding - 01-16-2018, 08:06 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-16-2018, 10:31 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-17-2018, 10:47 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-18-2018, 06:43 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-19-2018, 01:45 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-20-2018, 03:54 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-21-2018, 02:24 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-22-2018, 08:10 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-23-2018, 12:58 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-24-2018, 11:51 AM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-25-2018, 04:01 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-26-2018, 02:35 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-27-2018, 05:31 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-28-2018, 05:25 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-29-2018, 01:13 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-30-2018, 11:01 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 01-31-2018, 11:00 AM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 02-01-2018, 12:42 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 02-03-2018, 01:43 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 02-04-2018, 11:58 AM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Clavdivs - 02-05-2018, 06:52 PM
RE: Calendrical Notes - by Gunthamund Hasding - 02-27-2018, 12:25 PM

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