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"A bowl of milk, Priapus, and these cakes, yearly, it is enough foryou
to claim; you are the guardian of a poor man's plot."
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Contributed by Marcvs Moravivs Horativs Piscinvs
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The Two Forms of SacrificeIn general there can be said to have been two forms of sacrifice previously practiced in the Religio Romana, bloodless offerings and blood sacrifice. Recognizing that blood sacrifices were made in the past and may be regarded as part of the tradition, there is more precedence in the tradition that rejects the use of blood sacrifice. At different places in the Fasti, Ovid mentions that "Formerly what served to conciliate gods and men was spelt and pure salt’s glistening grain," Sabine juniper and laurel, and garlands of flowers alone (1.338-445; 4.409-411), and that blood sacrifices were a later introduction. Later offerings of incense from distant lands were begun by Liber, these being myrrh, frankincense, and Indian nard, and also that He introduced libations of milk and honey, and special liba cakes (3.727-736) (see Recipes for Offerings page). Still later, after the introduction of the vine, libations of wine were made to some of the gods, while milk was retained as the appropriate libation for the gods and goddesses of an older tradition. Pliny mentions that rites established by Romulus continued the custom of using milk libations, and that Numa had forbidden wine libations on funeral pyres (Natural History 14.88). Tradition held that Pompilius Numa was the second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus; that same tradition credited Numa with having founded most of the institutions of the Religio Romana, including its calendar and priesthoods. The rites instituted for the state religio by Numa did not include the use of blood sacrifices, and explicitly disallowed their use. Plutarch too mentions that blood sacrifices were uncommon in the time of Numa, and that grain was the most frequently used offering (Numa 8.8). We should understand this to mean then that blood sacrifices continued in private practices, although not in the tradition of the public rites. This tradition forsaking blood sacrifices goes back further, to Pythagoras, and this was recognized in Roman traditions by making Numa a student of Pythagoras. This story may trace back to Aristoxenus who is said to have written that Romans were among Pythagoras’ followers. The story continued at least until 186 BCE, and although officially abandoned later, it is still found with Ovid into the early empire (Cicero, Republica 2.28, Tusculum 4.3; Livy 1.18, 40.29.9-14; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 2.59; Plutarch, Numa 18; Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.4.481, Fasti 3.153; Pliny, Natural History XIII.87). From Pythagoras and Numa, through Seneca and in a broader sense Apollonius of Tyana as well, there was within the Religio Romana another, older tradition which not only rejected the use of blood sacrifices, but which also made vegetarianism a pious choice in private practice. The first blood sacrifice, that of a sow, is said to have been ordered for Ceres (Ovid, Fasti 1.349, Metamorphoses 15.111-13). In Rome the Aventine Temple of Ceres had a strong association with Greek influences arriving from southern Italy. Cicero considered the worship of Ceres at Rome to have derived from the Greeks (pro Balbo 55; In C. Verrem 72.187). He states that the rituals were Greek in origin and in name, and that even the priestesses who conducted the rituals in his time were Greek and performed their rites in Greek. But we should understand these Greek rites to have been the later introduction brought to Rome when priestesses from Capua were invited in 196 BCE to perform the ritus Graecus. The earlier Temple of Ceres, dedicated in 494 BCE, was also associated with Sabellian Capua and may have had some Greek influences, but was distinctly an Italic cult. The Temple of Ceres was also dedicated to Liber and Libera in 494 BCE. The assimilation of Dionyssus with Liber did not occur until 186 BCE, however, and so the cultus deorum of Ceres, Liber, and Libera was Italic at the time of its initial introduction. It cannot therefore be said that Ceres was introduced to Rome by Greeks in the same manner that the Magna Mater arrived from Asia; only that certain aspects of Her worship was derived from Greek influences. These traditions on the cultus Cereri suggest that the adoption of blood sacrifice was a foreign introduction to the Rreligio Rromana originally established by Pompilius Numa, but not that blood sacrifices were necessarily of Greek origin. We should recall, also, that human sacrifices were made in an earlier period. The Senate outlawed the practice in 454 BCE (Pliny N. H. XXX.12; the Twelve Tablets), although we know of some later instances. The Senate again outlawed human sacrifices in 97 BCE when Licinius Crassus was consul. In certain Roman rites puppets were substituted for human victims. There is the well-known example of the Argei. These straw puppets were tossed by the Vestal Virgins into the River Tiber on 14 (15) May, who Ovid and Cicero mention as substitutes for old men that were sacrificed in an earlier age (Ovid, Fasti 5.621-662; Cicero, pro Roscio Amerino, 35.100 mentions the sexagenarios de ponte). Similarly at the Feriae Sementiva and Paganalia in January, and at the Feriae Latinae in April, puppets (oscillae) were hung in trees in substitution of an earlier practice of sacrificing boys (Probus and Servius commenting on Georgic II.389, where Virgil wrote, "invoke Thee with glad hymns, O Bacchus, and to thee hang puppet-faces on tall pines to swing." Macrobius 1.7.34). One legend held that Remus had been sacrificed to purify the pomerium wall, and recently (summer 2000) there was discovered a pomerium wall around the Palatine under which the remains of four sacrificial victims had been placed. These are believed to have been sacrificed at the time when Servius Tullius built the walls of Rome, expanding the pomerium. When Augustus rededicated the city, four pillars were buried, one inscribed in memory of Remus, either commemorating or in substitution of the Servian sacrifices. Recalling ancient practices, yet substituting puppets of straw, wax, or bread in the Religio Romana may be compared to the practices of other religions. The main celebration of Christian churches is that of a human sacrifice and a cannibalistic meal, where bread is substituted for the flesh of their founder. Among the Chinese, objects made of paper are burned in sacrifice as substitutes for what they represent. In a similar fashion the attitude towards the use of animals for blood sacrifices changed over time. In the Republican era pontifical regulations permitted wax figures or animal forms made of dough to be substituted for animal victims. In the time of Nero, the philosopher and miracle-worker Apollonius of Tyana spoke out against not only human sacrifices, but also against any of the traditional blood sacrifices. "I am not," he said, "the sort of person who prays with his eye on a knife or offers these kind of sacrifices…and if I had…I would become guilty of murder and operate with entrails that are an abomination to me and wholly unacceptable to the gods (Philstratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 8.7.9-10)." Blood sacrifices of all kinds were then banned by an imperial decree on 24 February, 391 CE. Modern practitioners of the Religio Romana, rejecting the use of blood sacrifices, have thus returned to honoring the practices first instituted by Pompilius Numa. The reasons for sacrificesThe rites of the Religio Romana employ the use of sacrifices in conjunction with prayers offered up to the gods and goddesses. The reasons for including sacrifices are given by the fourth century Neoplatonist Cynic Sallustius. 1. First is the matter of giving thanks to the gods and goddesses for all they have provided. One gives back a portion of what they have received. As such, what is appropriate to sacrifice to any deity depends upon what specific providence is under the deity. An appropriate sacrifice to Ceres, the goddess of grain, would therefore be grain or bread; for Pomona, the goddess of fruiting plants, the appropriate sacrifice would be the fruits She has provided. 2. "Prayers offered without sacrifices are only words, with sacrifices they are live words; the wording gives meaning to the life while the life animates the words." The Religio Romana promotes the growth and development of the whole person, in body, mind and soul. Thus in every rite we perform, these three components of ourselves must be involved. It is with our physical actions that we involve the use of the body, our mind in the thoughts and words we use, and our soul is in the sincere intent and devotion of the performance of our rites. The words of a prayer voice the meaning and intent, the sacrifice gives it substance, but there must also be the third portion to conjoin our soulful essence with our actions. The essence of our actions is then carried along with the essence of the sacrifice back to its divine source. 3. "The happiness of every object is its own perfection, and perfection for each is communion with its own cause." Every thing proceeds from the gods and shall return to the gods in its own time. Or as Proclus stated, "Every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it, and reverts upon it (Elements of Theology, Prop. 35). Having lived its life, performed its purpose in life, each constituent part of an object shall return to its source, its being perfected in the completion of its entire cycle of life. That is true for humans, animals, and plants, and even, it may be said, for inanimate objects as well. In the first reason given above, the perspective was from that of the deities, returning what is already under their providence. Here Sallustius looked at sacrifice from the perspective of what is being offered, that is, its returning to its divine source alone, to achieve its perfection of being. Reverting back to its origin, returning through each stage of its procession from the source, and thus returning towards the divine, a sacrifice reverts upon its own perfection in the Divine (Proclus Elements of Theology Prop. 37). The six times sacrifices are madeThere are six types of sacrifices that may be made in the Religio Romana. 1) First is to honor the gods and to commemorate certain events such as the dedication of a temple. 2) To propitiate the gods when some disaster has occurred or other event whereby the gods demand a sacrifice. 3) Similarly, if divination, dreams or visions reveal a requirement that a sacrifice needs to be made. 4) By far though, most sacrifices made by individuals are performed in thanks, after a contract was met by the gods. A vow (nuncupatio) is first made that a sacrifice will be offered, or that an altar will be erected, or a temple built or renovated, or some other action that will be taken to fulfill the vow, on condition that the god perform some request. If the request is fulfilled, the deity having accepted the vow, then one is obliged to fulfill the vow (ex voto); failure to do so would make that person sacer. Sometimes, 5) in expectation that prayers will be answered, a sacrifice is made, but there is no obligation on the part of the deity. Most often these types of sacrifices would be dedicated pro salute in hopes of being healed of some illness. 6) Lastly there are those sacrifices made, not to honor the gods or to fulfill a vow, but made instead as part of a purification rite. OblationesIn ancient times ludi were established to honor the gods and goddesses. The Ludi plebii of November, established in 220 BCE, and the Ludi Taurei Quinquennales conducted every five years in June, first established in 186 BCE, consisted of chariot races and horse races. The Ludi Apollinares of July, established in 212 BCE, and the Ludi Florales of April, established in 173 BCE, consisted of theatrical performances and chariot races. While the Ludi Saeculares of May and June consisted of three days and three nights of continuous theatrical performances. At other times poetry contests were held in honor of gods and goddesses. Composing poetry for the gods and goddesses, especially odes to the deities, is still an accepted form of offering made today. Another ancient practice was to hold a feast in honor of the gods, a lectisternitum. Couches (lecti) were set outside in front of temples, upon which were placed their images, representing that the gods and goddesses join with the celebrants at the feast. Offerings of food were placed on tables before them. In private homes this practice was also made for the Lares, not unlike at the Seder of Judaism, or the Sicilian practice for St. Joseph’s Day. Today bringing the images of the gods from the lararium (see Lararia page) to a dinner table to share in the family meal continues this practice, or otherwise food is set before the lararium. Such offerings of food are left for only as long a time as the meal takes place, and then are properly disposed. By far the most common form of sacrifice made in ancient times was the erection of altars to the gods and goddesses of Roma antiqua. These were small column-like altars with a hallow (focus) in the upper surface for a flame in which to make offerings of incense. Such arae are inscribed with the name of the deity (in ablative case) to whom it is offered, the name of the practitioner (in nominative) who erected the ara, followed by a statement of the reason. The reasons usually given were: pro salute for health, ex visu following a vision, ex voto following a vow or VSLM (Votum Solvit Libenter Merito, "kept his vow freely to the god who deserved it"), or simply to say dono dedit ("He gave this gift"). Such arae were erected at roadside shrines or in front of temples. Today grottoes and arae are set up either in a family garden or inside the home.
Following the
erection of arae then, the most common offerings used on
them, ancient or modern, is that of incense or the burning of
aromatic herbs. Herbs used for all gods and goddesses are
myrtle, bay laurel and juniper, while frankincense, myrrh, nard,
gum Arabic and orris root are common incenses. Cut flowers and
floral wreaths are another common offering. Certain herbs and
flowers are more closely associated with certain goddesses and
gods than others. An incomplete list of these associations is
given below:
Libations of unmixed wine may be offered to any of the goddesses
and gods, with the exception of Ceres, Tellus, and Pales, to
whom only milk, or honey mixed in water or in milk is offered.
Wine offered in a libation to Fauna, the Bona Dea, may be made,
provided it is referred to only as milk and to its container as
a honey pot, while no myrtle may be offered to Her. One may also
note the passage from Virgil, (Eclogue 7.33-34): Sinum lactis et
haec te liba, Priape, quotannis exspectare sat est: custos es
pauperis horti. (A bowl of milk, Priapus, and these cakes,
yearly, it is enough for you to claim; you are the guardian of a
poor man's plot.) Following in the tradition of Numa, milk is a
more acceptable general libation.
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