Pers. S. 5. 185 'Tunc nigri Lemures, ovoque pericula rupto.' Plaut. Aul. 4. 4, 15 'Larvae hunc atque intemperiae insaniaeque agitant senem.' And again, Capt. 3. 4, 66 'Iam deliramenta loquitur: Larvae stimulant virum.' While by Ovid, as will be seen below, 'Manes' and 'Lemures' are considered synonymous. It appears from this and the following Extract, that two festivals were celebrated annually in honour of departed spirits; one of these was in February, and continued for more than a single day, the last day of the solemnities being called the 'Feralia.' With regard to the etymology of the word, we find in line 37 'Hanc, quia iusta ferunt, dixere Feralia lucem : Vltima placandis Manibus illa dies,' to which we ought to add the observations of Varro and Festus 'Feralia ab inferis et ferendo, quod ferunt tum epulas ad sepulcrum, quibus ius parentare l' 'Feralia, Diis Manibus sacrata festa, a ferendis epulis, vel a feriendis pecudibus appellata 2.' With regard to the second festival, see notes to the next Extract. 2. Extinctas... pyras. 'Pyra' is taken here to mean the 'place of sepulture,' and so also 'bustum' in v. 19. These sacrifices, it must be observed, were public, and without reference to individual spirits, and must be distinguished from the private funeral solemnities of the 'Silicernium' and 'Novemdialis Cena.' 5. Porrectis... coronis. The verb 'porricio' is a technical word belonging properly to the discipline of the Pontifices and Haruspices, and signifies 'to place the entrails of the victim upon the altar;' or in a more general sense, 'to present an offering to the gods 3. Thus Plaut. Pseud. 1. 3, 31 1 Varro L. L. 6. 3. 2 Festus in verb. 3 See Macrob. S. 3. 2. 'si sacruficem summo Iovi, Atque in manibus exta teneam, ut porriciam, interea loci Si lucri quid detur, potius rem divinam deseram.' So also Livy 29. 27, when describing the impressive sacrifice offered up when the fleet sailed under the command of Scipio to invade Africa, 'Secundum eas preces cruda exta victimae, uti mos est, in mare porricit, tubaque signum dedit proficiscendi.' And Virg. Ae. 5. 236 'Vobis laetus ego hoc candentem in litore taurum And again 774 'Ipse, caput tonsae foliis evinctus olivae, Stans procul in prora pateram tenet, extaque salsos In almost all passages where this word occurs, it has been confounded by transcribers with 'proiicio,' and hence in the line before us several MSS. and edd. read 'proiectis...coronis,' which they explain, 'garlands that had been thrown away in the streets by persons returning home from an entertainment.' 6. Mica salis. See note on Ov. Fast. 18. 4. 7. Ceres, i. e. ' corn or flour.' 8. Violaeque solutae, 'loose,' i. e. not woven into a chaplet. 10. Sua verba, 'appropriate words;' the words belonging to such solemnities. 13, 14. This refers to the funeral games celebrated in Sicily by Aeneas in honour of his sire, which are described at length in the fifth book of the Aeneid. Solemnia is here simply ' annual.' 16. Parentales... dies. 'Parentare,' whence are formed 'parentalis' and 'parentalia,' signifies strictly to perform the funeral rites of parents or near relations,' but is used in the general sense of 'to perform rites in honour of the dead,' 'to appease the spirits of the deceased.' Thus Caes. B. G. 7. 17 'Praestare, omnes perferre acerbitates, quam non civibus Romanis, qui Genabi perfidia Gallorum interissent, parentarent,' and Livy 24. 21 'Secundum Hieronymi caedem primo tumultuatum in Leontinis apud milites fuerat, vociferatumque ferociter parentandum regi sanguine coniuratorum esse.' In Ovid, T. 4. 10, 87, we read, 'Fama, parentales, si vos mea contigit, umbrae, Et sunt in Stygio crimina nostra foro,' where 'parentales umbrae' means simply 'shades of my parents.' 17. Omine ab isto. The evil deed is here represented poetically as being itself the augury or token of the misfortunes which would follow. 18. Suburbanis. It must be remembered that the dead were always burned or buried without the walls of the city, in obedience to the law of the XII Tables, which enacted 'HOMINEM MORTVVM IN VRBE NE SEPELITO NEVE VRITO.' 22. Deformes, i. e. ' unsightly,' 'horrible to look upon.' Compare Virg. G. 1. 476 'Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentes Visa sub obscurum noctis'.. Vulgus inane, 'an airy crowd.' 25. Viduae cessate puellae, 'ye widows refrain, during this festival, from entering into wedlock.' 'Viduae puellae' are widowed dames distinguished from the maiden brides of the next couplet. Compare v. 33 of the following Extract, from which we perceive that marriage was prohibited during the Lemuria also. On the meaning of 'viduus' consult note to 6. 2. 'Puella 'is frequently used to signify a matron, thus Hor. Od. 3. 22, 2 'Montium custos nemorumque, Virgo, = Quae laborantes utero puellas Ter vocata, audis, adimisque leto, = Diva triformis.' 26. Pinea taeda. A Roman bride was always escorted home by torch-light from the dwelling of her parents. Hence 'taeda iugalis,' or 'taeda' alone, is frequently used to signify marriage, e. g. Catull 64. 303 'Nec Thetidis taedas voluit celebrare iugales.' Ov. Her. 6. 134 'Me tibi, teque mihi taeda pudica dedit,' &c. With regard to the epithet pinea, although we know that the fir-tree has been always extensively used for torches, on account of its unctuous sap, yet both here, in the last Extract 1 Cic. de Legg. 2. 23. v. 10, in Catullus 61. 15, and similar passages, many scholars argue, with some plausibility, that we ought to substitute 'spinea,' on account of the peculiar virtues attributed to the whitethorn by the ancients. Thus Varro, quoted by Charisius 1, 'In Asia fax ex spina alba praefertur, quod purgationis causa adhibetur.' Again, Festus in verb. ‘Patrimi,' 'Patrimi et matrimi pueri praetextati tres nubentem deducunt: unus, qui facem praefert ex spina alba, quia noctu nubebant; duo, qui tenent nubentem.' And Plin. H. N. 16. 18 'Spina nuptiarum facibus auspicatissima, quoniam inde fecerint pastores qui rapuerunt Sabinas, ut auctor est Masurius.' See also Ov. Fast. 6. 129 and 165. 27. Cupidae. 'Cupienti accelerare filiae nuptias' G. 28. It was the custom to divide the hair of the bride, on the morning of her nuptials, with the point of a spear, which, according to Festus, had been thrust into the body of a gladiator. 'Caelibari hasta caput nubentis comebatur, quae in corpore gladiatoris stetisset abiecti occisique' (Festus in verb. ‘Caelibaris'). Plutarch2, in his Roman Questions, asks, 'Why do they divide the hair of brides with the point of a spear ?” (αἰχμῇ δορατίου), and Arnobius adv. Gent. 2. 67 'Nubentium crinem caelibari hasta mulcetis?' The best of the various reasons assigned for this practice by Festus and Plutarch is one adduced by the former, 'quod nuptiali iure imperio viri subiicitur nubens: quia hasta summa armorum, et imperii est.' What the meaning of the epithet 'recurva' may be it is difficult to say, unless it refers to the position in which the spear was held. There seems to be no grounds whatever for the idea that the instrument employed was not a real spear, but only an 'acus comatoria' or 'hair pin;' no such conclusion can be drawn from the word doparíov, 'a little spear,' in Plutarch. 35, 36. These rites are not to extend beyond the period when there are as many days remaining in the month as the measure employed by the poet contains feet. But Ovid is 1 P. 117, ed. Putsch. 2 He mentions the custom in his life of Romulus also. here writing in Elegiac verse, each couplet of which contains eleven feet, therefore the Feralia, the last day of the solemnities, must have taken place on the eleventh day from the end of the month, that is, on the 18th of February, and this corresponds exactly with the ancient Kalendars in which the festival is set down for XII. Kal. Mart. 38. Iusta ferunt. 'Iusta ferre;' 'Iusta facere;' 'Iusta conficere;' 'Iusta solvere;' signify technically 'to perform the last duties to the dead;' 'to render to the dead their lawful dues.' 39, 40. On the same day with the Feralia certain spells and magic rites were performed to avert the influence of evil tongues, the goddess invoked being named 'Dea Tacita,' or 'Dea Muta.' These cabalistic ceremonies are now described. 41. Tria tura, i. e. 'three grains of incense.' Observe that the three grains are grasped with three fingers, and below, seven beans are turned in the mouth; all odd numbers, and especially the numbers three, seven, and nine, being supposed to possess peculiar mystical virtue. 43. Cantata...licia, ‘enchanted threads,' i.e. threads over which spells have been pronounced. The 'licia' were of wool taken from the extremity of the 'stamen,' being used to attach the web to the loom; those described in the Pharmaceutria of Virgil (73) consist each of three plies of different colours 'Terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore Licia circumdo, terque hanc altaria circum Effigiem duco: numero deus impare gaudet Necte tribus nodis ternos, Amarylli, colores; Necte, Amarylli, modo: et, Veneris, dic, vincula necto.' Compare also the Ciris 371 'Terque novena ligat triplici diversa colore Fila; ter in gremium mecum, inquit, despue, virgo, Pliny mentions that the licia taken from a web, when tied in seven or nine knots, were believed to be a remedy for certain diseases: H. N. 28. 4. Plumbo. So the best MSS. One has 'rhombo,' a reading preferred by many editors. The meaning will be the same whichever we adopt, the object indicated being the magic reel (þóμßos, 'rhombus,' 'turbo'), one of the principal |