Lhe lupercalia are festivals celebrated each year from February 13 to 15 by the luperci, priests of ancient Rome at the end of the year of the Roman calendar. The Luperques are united in a college which brings together the sons descending from the oldest families who founded the city of Rome.
This series of feasts celebrated the memory of Romulus and Remus suckling with a wolf and also paid homage to Faunus Lupercus, a fertility deity and defender of flocks against wolves with a half-man, half-goat aspect. The 12 Luperque priests sacrificed a goat to their god in the cave of Lupercal at the foot of the Palatine Hill where the wolf would have suckled Romulus and Remus before they were taken in by a shepherd couple whose wife, a prostitute, was nicknamed “Lupa” (the wolf in Latin). This “Lupa” was called Acca Larentia and her prostitution business made her prosperous and bequeathed her fortune to Romulus upon her death.
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The history of antiquity
Release Date | 2015-09-11T00:00:01Z |
Language | Français |
Number Of Pages | 128 |
Publication Date | 2015-09-11T00:00:01Z |