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Question 68. Why do the Luperci sacrifice a dog?
The Luperci are they that run up and down naked (saving
only their girdles) in the Lupercal plays, and slash all that
they meet with a whip.
Solution: Is it not because these feats are done for the
purification of the city? For they call the month February,
and indeed the very day Februatus, and the habit of whip
ping with thongs they call februare, the word signifying to
cleanse. And to speak the truth, all the Grecians have
used, and some do use to this very day, a slain dog for an
expiatory sacrifice; and among other sacrifices of purification, they offer whelps to Hecate, and sprinkle those that
need cleansing with the puppy's blood, calling this kind of
purifying puppification. Or is it that lupus is λύκος, a
wolf, and Lupercalia are Lycaea; but a dog is at enmity
with a wolf, therefore is sacrificed on the Lycaean festivals?
Or is it because the dogs do bark at and perplex the
Luperci as they scout about the city? Or is it that this
sacrifice is offered to Pan, and Pan loves dogs because of
his herds of goats.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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