I.a grotto on the Palatine Hill, sacred to the Lycean Pan (Lupercus): “gelidā monstrat sub rupe Lupercal,” Verg. A. 8, 342; “v. Serv. ad loc.: quamquam Velia non est vilior quam Lupercal,” Cic. Fam. 7, 20, 1: “forsitan et quaeras cur sit locus ille Lupercal,” Ov. F. 2, 381.—Hence,
B. Hence, plur. as subst.: Lŭpercālĭa , ĭum and ōrum, n., the festival of the Lycean Pan (Lupercus), celebrated in February, in which the priests (Luperci), with their faces painted and only a girdle about their loins (cinctuti, Ov. F. 5, 101), ran about the city striking the women whom they met, a ceremony supposed to make them fruitful: “ad Lupercalia,” Cic. Phil. 2, 34, 87; 2, 33, 84: “hodierni diei res gestas Lupercalibus habebis,” id. Q. Fr. 2, 13, 4; cf. Ov. F. 2, 267 sqq.; Serv. ad Verg. A. 8, 343.
