THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LUPERCALIA

Address for correspondence: Dr Krešimir Vuković The British School at Rome, Via Gramsci 61, 00197 Rome, Italy [e-mail] [e-mail]

Ancient sources present the running ritual of the Luperci as the most prominent feature of the Lupercalia, and modern scholars also first think of this when the festival is mentioned. For instance, in her book on the triumph, Beard writes:

Ask the question: ‘What happened at the Lupercalia, or the Parilia?’ and the answer will come down to the one or two picturesque details: the dash round the city at the Lupercalia; the bonfire-leaping at the Parilia. We could not hope to give any kind of coherent narrative of the festivals. (Beard, 2007: 81)

As Beard goes on to say in relation to the triumph (itself better attested than the Lupercalia), reconstructing the route that a particular Roman ritual took is no easy task. One would first have to suppose that the route was prescribed and never significantly changed, a supposition that can rarely be made with certainty. However, giving a general picture excludes singular occurrences, but is in many cases still a good way to present a pattern that was considered typical (Beard 2007: 91–106). Thus we have to allow for some form of idealization in describing the course of the Luperci while bearing in mind that I seek to posit no absolute rules. It is worth pointing out that ritual topography encourages exploration in this direction as many myths and rituals in Roman religion were closely tied to specific places so strongly that the connection to a location was preserved even when other elements significantly changed.¹

THE LUPERCAL

The most important location for the festival is the starting point of the running ritual, the Lupercal cave. This was a sanctuary dedicated to Faunus, and the place where the sacrifice of a he-goat and dog was offered to him before the running started. It is unclear whether these offerings were made inside or outside the cave, but it seems the Lupercal was the place of rituals we know little about. Varro's short note on the etymology of the Luperci (quod Lupercalibus in Lupercali sacra faciunt, ‘because they perform their rites at the Lupercal on the Lupercalia’) as well as Plutarch's tantalizing description...