OPA´LIA
OPA´LIA a Roman festival in honour of Ops (or Opis),
which was celebrated on the 14th day before the Kalends of January (Dec.
19), being the third day of the Saturnalia, which in popular usage as a time
of holiday extended from the 17th to 23rd December. From the time of
Augustus onwards the 17th belonged especially to Saturn, the 19th to Ops,
the wife of Saturn. (
Macr. 1.12; Varr.
L.
L. 6.22, ed. Müller; Festus, s. v.
Opalia.) The worshippers of Ops paid their vows sitting, and
touched the earth, of which she was the goddess (Macrob.
l.c.), with which may be compared
Il.
9.565,
Γαῖαν χερσὶν ἀλοία... πρόχνυ
καθεζομένη: the method of addressing supplications alike to
the Earth and to
ϝἐρτεροι θεοί. (See
Preller,
Rüm. Myth. pp. 416, 417.)
[
L.S] [
G.E.M]
