Neptune's Dolphins

April for Romans is the time of opening buds. Flowers appear, trees come into leaf, and new crops are coming up. At this time, most of the festivals are centered on honoring the fertility of the land and protecting the crops. Ovid, in “Fasti,” explains why Venus is the tutelary Goddess of April, “She gave the crops and trees their first roots.”

 

Ovid writes in “Fasti” (Note 1)

“They say Spring was named from the open (apertum) season,

Because Spring opens (aperit) everything

And the sharp Frost-bound cold vanishes, and fertile soil’s revealed,

Though kind Venus sets her hand there and claims it.”

 

VENUS VERTICORDIA and FORTUNA VIRILIS

On April 1, the Veneralia is held. During this festival, women would go where the men are, usually the baths. There they would pray to Venus Verticordia (Venus, the Changer of Hearts) and Fortuna Virilis (Fortune the Bold) for support in their love lives. Later the festival included everyone, married and single, male and female asking these two Goddesses for help in matters of the heart.

 

CYBELE, the MAGNA MATER

To commemorate the arrival of Cybele, the Idaean Mother, in Rome, the Megalesia is held from April 4 to April 10. As the Magna Mater, Cybele saved Rome from Hannibal during the Second Punic War. During the Megalesia, theatrical shows and mutual banquets were held. On the last day, the Goddess was taken on a bier in a grand procession to the Circus Maximus. Because her priests, the Galli, were castrated men who dressed as women, many modern people regard Cybele as the Goddess of Transgender People.

 

CERES and TELLUS

From the 12th to the 19th, the Cerialia is held to honor Ceres, Goddess of Agriculture and Gain. The festival is to thank Ceres for the earth’s fertility. Many of the ceremonies of the Cerialia are held in private with the participants wearing white. An Ancient Roman tradition was to set loose foxes with burning torches tied to their tails. (It was believed to drive out diseases of the land.) For Ceres, I usually walk the nearby field three times and offer milk, a traditional offering.

 

During the Cerialia, the Fordicidia is held on April 15. In Ancient Rome, pregnant cows were sacrificed to Tellus, the Goddess of Productive Power of the Earth, for the fertility of the cattle and fields. The ashes of the unborn calves were burnt and use in the Parilia later in the month. Modern Romans will burn meat and mix it with soil as an offering to Tellus.

 

PALES

On April 21, the Parilia is held. Similar to the Celtic Beltane Festival, the Parilia focuses on the purification of sheep and shepherds. Sheep pens would be cleaned out and garlands hung on the gates. Bonfires are lit and sheep are driven through them. Grain and milk are offered to Pales of Shepherds and Sheep. For this festival, I pray for healthy livestock and put a stuffed sheep between two candles.

 

Pales is a mystery as to what They are – male or female, plural or singular. This/these ancient Roman God/s are from the time before the Romans were shepherds, which adds to the confusion of who Pales is/are. I prefer to regard Pales as the entirety of all the concepts about Them. For me, They are the Protectors of Herders and Flocks.

 

In “Fasti,” Ovid writes of a ritual to Pales.

“Make dark smoke with pure burning sulphur,

And let the sheep bleat, in contact with the smoke.

Burn male-olive wood, and pine, and juniper fronds,

And let scorched laurel crackle in the hearth.

Let a basket of millet keep the millet cakes company:

The rural goddess particularly loves that food.

Add meats, and a pail of her milk, and when the meat

Is cut, offer the warm milk, pray to sylvan Pales,

Saying: ‘Protect the cattle and masters alike:

And drive everything harmful from my stalls.”

 

(The Parilia is also considered the Founding Day of Rome.)

 

VENUS ERYCINA

At the Vinalia Prior (the Festival of Wine from the Last Year), the wine from autumn is opened and offered to Venus Erycina and Jupiter. (This is the first tasting of the new wine.) Originally from Eryx in Sicily, Venus Erycina became Romanized and associated with fertility. During the Vinalia on April 23, prostitutes would offer mint and myrtle to Her, as the Goddess of Prostitutes.

 

ROBIGUS (ROBIGO)

To save crops from wheat rust, the Romans sacrificed dogs to Robigus, the God of Wheat Rust during the Robigalia on April 25. Traditionally, red animals were offered at the boundary of Roman territory to ensure protection of the crops from mildew and blight. Today, people offer red wine requesting that Robigus leave the crops alone.

 

In “Fasti,” Ovid presents a prayer for Robigus.

“Your priest, Quirinus, pronounced these words:

‘Scaly Mildew, spare the blades of corn,

And let their tender tips quiver above the soil.

Let the crops grow, nurtured by favourable stars,

Until they’re ready for the sickle.

Your power’s not slight: the corn you blight

The grieving farmer gives up for lost.

Wind and showers don’t harm the wheat as much,

Nor gleaming frost that bleaches the yellow corn,

As when the sun heats the moist stalks:

Then, dreadful goddess, is the time of your wrath.

Spare us, I pray, take your blighted hands from the harvest,

And don’t harm the crop: it’s enough that you can harm.”

 

FLORA

The Floralia, honoring Flora, the Goddess of Flowering Plants, is held from April 27 to May 1. (Fauna, the Goddess of Wildlife, is her Sister.) Coming after the Robigalia, the Floralia affirms the safety of the growing plants from harm. During this time, people adorn themselves and their homes with flowers. They also wear colorful clothing to reflect the emerging flowers. Traditionally, goats and rabbits were set loose in the crowds, while priests threw lupines, bean flowers and vetch about. This was to ensure fertility of everyone and everything.

 

Notes:

Note 1. Ovid, “Fasti,” Book IV. Translator: A.S. Kline, 2004.