LECTISTE´RNIUM
LECTISTE´RNIUM (
στρῶμναι,
Dionys. A. R. 12.9,
and expressed in the kindred Greek ceremonies by the words
κλίνην στρῶσαι: Theocr. 15.127, &c.), a
sacred feast at which certain of the gods were represented as reclining
(
accubantes) on a lectus, each with the
left arm resting on a cushion (
pulvinus),
whence the lectus was called
pulvinar. It was
set in the open street, and before it was placed a table with offerings of
food from the people. Livy (
5.13) gives a
distinct account of its origin and first celebration: that it was ordained
by the Sibylline
[p. 2.16]books in a time of pestilence, B.C.
399; Duumviri sacris faciendis were appointed to hold the feast for eight
days (Dionysius,
l.c., says seven). There was a
general celebration also through the city by the citizens from their private
resources, the doors thrown open and hospitality offered to all comers, as
though to induce forgetfulness of the public troubles. The deities so
approached with prayers and a feast on this, the first, occasion were Apollo
and Latona, Diana and Hercules, Mercury and Neptune, placed in pairs on the
sacred couches; and at all proper lectisternia the deities were placed in
pairs: that is to say, their statues, covered with drapery, which Festus (s.
v.
tensa) calls
exuviae
deorum, or, as Marquardt prefers to think, draped wooden
figures with heads of bronze, wax, or marble, like the Greek acroliths, were
so arranged: possibly they were borne to the pulvinar upon sacred tensae as
on the (totally different) occasion of the Circensian games. The idea that
these statues were merely busts is probably wrong, and rests only on the
words in
Liv. 40.59, “deorum capita
quae in lectis erant,” but here
Madvig reads
qui. It is an error to confuse
this sacred rite with the
epulum Jovis, which represented the
old family offering to Jupiter Dapalis, with whom were associated the other
Capitoline deities, Juno and Minerva, as permanent protectors of the state,
and Mercurius, who in this respect bore, like Jupiter, the surname Epulo.
The
epulum Jovis was an archaic festival superintended by the
pontifices, until the special officers called
epulones were appointed, and it differed from the lectisternium,
as originally instituted, in placing the god on a lectus and the goddesses
by Roman custom, conservative in religion, on sellae. In
Liv. 22.1 it is said that a lectisternium was given to Juno
Regina on the Aventine, and in B.C. 217, after the disastrous battle of
Trasimene, there was a lectisternium for three days to six pairs of deities
(
Liv. 22.10). Livy numbers the lectisternia
which fall in his first decade; the 3rd was “pacis exposcendae
causa,” the 4th in time of pestilence upon consultation of the
Sibylline books, the 5th “placandis diis” at the outbreak of
the second Samnite war (
Liv. 7.2 and 27; 8.25). It
should be noticed that all the early lectisternia were in time of trouble to
appease the anger of heaven, not as thanksgivings, being no doubt adopted
from the Sibylline books when other means failed.
It appears from
Liv. 36.1,
42.30, that there was later a constant or perhaps daily
lectisternium, “majorem partem anni,” to certain deities. This
must be held distinct from the extraordinary lectisternium ordered for a
special crisis. It was no doubt a regular celebration in the different
temples, and its method was borrowed from the lectisternium proper. The
supplicatio, which was an old Roman rite
(
Liv. 3.63), became connected with the
lectisternium and to some extent confused with it, since it was celebrated
commonly “omnibus diis quorum pulvinaria Romae erant,” i. e. to
those deities in whose honour the lectisternium also was held. In the
imperial times, by a sort of reaction to old Roman feeling, a change was
made as regards the lectisternium, that
for
goddesses it should be a sellisternium (i. e. they should, in old
fashion, sit instead of reclining). This alteration is mentioned by Tacitus
in a celebrated chapter (
Ann. 15.44) as taking place when
Nero tried various means, and finally a persecution of Christians, to escape
the infamia of the burning of Rome (cf. also
V. Max.
2.1,
3).
As regards the origin of the lectisternium, there is some controversy.
Preller (
Römische Myth. p. 133) maintains that it
belonged to the national religion of Rome handed down from the earliest
times, and cites in proof a statement of Pliny,
Plin. Nat. 32.2, that “cenae ad pulvinaria” had
been ordained by Numa, and from Varro (quoted by Servius,
Serv. ad Aen. 10.76) that there was a
lectus spread before Picus and Pilumnus
in
behalf of child-birth. It must be recollected, however, that from the
familiarity of writers in the late Republic and Empire with the terms of the
lectisternium, they were likely to apply them to the old Roman offerings,
such as those of Jupiter Dapalis, the Lares, &c.; and these vague
notices can hardly weigh against the precise statement of Livy, that the
first lectisternium was in B.C. 399. It is safer therefore to adopt
Marquardt's view, that it was a Greek custom introduced into Rome, and
afterwards more or less amalgamated with other older institutions of native
origin. Of this Greek origin there are several indications: (1) The source
of the ordinance, the Sibylline books, is Greek. (2) Three of the deities
first so honoured were unknown to the Romans of the oldest times--Apollo,
Latona, and Artemis (the Delphic Triad)--and a fourth (Hercules) is
worshipped in new fashion, since according to Servius,
Serv. ad Aen. 8.176, the lectisternium
was prohibited at the Ara Maxima. (3) The recumbent position for the gods
and goddesses was altogether contrary to old Roman custom: in the earliest
times all in the Roman family alike sat, and in later times the wives and
children. It may be added also that the number, two on each couch, was
Greek, not Roman; for at Rome three was the number on each lectus. We know,
too, of this as a Greek rite in early times--e. g. at Athens to Zeus Soter
and Athene Soteira (
C. I. A. 2.305); to Pluto (
C. I.
A. 2.948); at Tegea to Athena (
Paus.
8.47); to
|
Pulvinar at the Theoxenia. (From a Greek vase. Roy. Soc.
Lit., N. S., ix. p. 434.)
|
Heracles, as represented in many ancient works of art; at Alexandria to
Adonis and
[p. 2.17]Aphrodite (Theoc. 15.127); and to
th<*> be added the Theoxenia at Delphi, wit<*>
A. Mommsen (
Delphika, 303) compar<*>
lectisternia.
Of the two cuts given, the first, take<*> a Greek vase,
represents the pulvinar at <*> Theoxenia of the Dioscuri, and
a palm branch upon it, offered by an Olympic victor. The mounted figures
supply pictorially the names of the Dioscuri. It must not be supposed that
they were actually so shown in the feast. The second cut, representing the
pulvinar of a lectisternium, was taken by Mr. Yates from one in the
Glyptothek at Munich. (See also
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Pulvinar of a Lectisternium. (From the Glyptothek at
Munich.)
|
on this subject Marquardt,
Röm.
Staatsverwaltung, 3.45, 187.)
[
G.E.M]