What was Lupercalia?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

February 11, 2002

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Rhea Silvia was a vestal, a maiden dedicated to the goddess Vesta. Mars, the god of agriculture saw Silvia one day while she was drawing water in a sacred grove. He fell in love and changed into a wolf to hunt her. During an eclipse of the sun, Mars promised to make
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Faustulus entrusting Romulus and Remus to his wife Acca Larentia, c.1643 Pietro Da Cortona
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Silvia the mother of heroes.

Silvia had broken her vows of chastity. She was ordered drown in the river. She put her twins, Romulus and Remus into a basket and set them adrift. As Silvia drowned she changed into a river goddess. The River Tiber overflowed its banks and carried the boys to the grotto of Lupercus in the hill of Palatine.

Luperca, the wife of Lupercus, changed into a she-wolf to nurse the babies. A woodpecker brought the twins solid food. Faustulus, the king's shepherd, found Romulus and Remus and took them in when they were toddlers.

The twins avenged their mother, but later argued over the site for Rome. Romulus killed his brother and built Rome on the hill of Palatine.

Lupercalia was one of the first Roman holidays, celebrated on the ides of February. It was a celebration of spring. It was the time of new lambs and kids, the time to plant fields, and to clean house. It was a festival in memory the shepherds and the she-wolf who saved the founder of Rome.

Salt and spelt (an early form of wheat) were strewn in houses to bring luck and insure prosperity. Goats and dogs were sacrificed for purification and to ensure fertility of the flocks and fields. Pan, the Greek god of flocks and pastures, became part of the festival as Rome overran the Greek civilization.

By later years, Rome was no longer an agrarian society. Mars had become the god of war. The festival of spring was confused with numerous gods from assorted tribes the Romans had conquered. Around 495, the festival was a hedonistic attempt to return Rome to glory. Lupercalia was outlawed when Pope Gelasius I forbade Catholics to participate.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a great article on the ancient grain, spelt. To learn more about this Stone Age wheat, click on the link:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/52792_spelt02.shtml

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Pliny the Elder related this legend: "A fig-tree that grows in the Forum itself, the meeting-place of Rome, is sacred because things struck by lightning are buried there, and all the more so for being a reminder of the fig-tree under which the nurse of Romulus and Remus first tended the founders of our empire....The tree is known as Ruminalis because the she-wolf was discovered beneath it giving her teats to the infant boys. A bronze statue was dedicated near by to celebrate this marvel." (Natural History, Book XV, first century CE, trans. John F. Healy)

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