Ambivalent Feelings towards the Lupercalia: Discussing Civilisation in Republican and Early Imperial Rome
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Angela Ganter
Abstract
Once a year in February, a strange rite fascinated the population of the Roman metropolis. After having made a sacrifice at the grotto where the lupa was said to have nurtured the founding twins of Rome, the luperci surrounded the Palatine and crossed the Forum Romanum. Almost naked, the priests ran through the observing populace, beating female participants. Ancient and modern commentators are divided on how to evaluate these rituals. It is especially difficult to pin down emotions related to the festival. On the one hand, the Lupercalia seem to fit into the Golden Age that was proclaimed by Augustus. The presumed lifestyle of the preagricultural past was highly esteemed because it was a mode of integrating the precivilised conditions of the Romulan founding era into the culture of metropolitan Rome and thus connecting the Principate to the very beginnings of Roman culture. On the other hand, the ritual behaviour of the Luperci could be seen as an uncivilised mode of acting, which contradicted the expected habitus of the Roman elite. In Cicero, we are confronted with opposing concepts of humanitas and lascivia, controlled and ecstatic behaviour. We are confronted with emotions like hilaritas and timor. These, however, do not exclude each other, but form part of a complex of ambivalent feelings towards one and the same cult. This chapter tries to describe, and qualify, these mixed feelings by relating them to concepts of civilisation prevalent at the Late Republican and Augustan period.
Abstract
Once a year in February, a strange rite fascinated the population of the Roman metropolis. After having made a sacrifice at the grotto where the lupa was said to have nurtured the founding twins of Rome, the luperci surrounded the Palatine and crossed the Forum Romanum. Almost naked, the priests ran through the observing populace, beating female participants. Ancient and modern commentators are divided on how to evaluate these rituals. It is especially difficult to pin down emotions related to the festival. On the one hand, the Lupercalia seem to fit into the Golden Age that was proclaimed by Augustus. The presumed lifestyle of the preagricultural past was highly esteemed because it was a mode of integrating the precivilised conditions of the Romulan founding era into the culture of metropolitan Rome and thus connecting the Principate to the very beginnings of Roman culture. On the other hand, the ritual behaviour of the Luperci could be seen as an uncivilised mode of acting, which contradicted the expected habitus of the Roman elite. In Cicero, we are confronted with opposing concepts of humanitas and lascivia, controlled and ecstatic behaviour. We are confronted with emotions like hilaritas and timor. These, however, do not exclude each other, but form part of a complex of ambivalent feelings towards one and the same cult. This chapter tries to describe, and qualify, these mixed feelings by relating them to concepts of civilisation prevalent at the Late Republican and Augustan period.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements VII
- Contents IX
- List of Figures XI
- Introduction 1
- Ambivalent Affects in Experimental Psychology 29
- Mixed Emotions in Emotion Communication: A Chimera in my Brain 45
- Mixed Emotions and the Climate Crisis in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction 63
- Ubi sunt? On the Varieties and Mixed Pleasures of Poignancy 79
- Being of Two Minds in Eleventh-Century China: Affective Bimodality in Guo Xi and Su Shi 97
- Explaining (Away?) Conflicting Emotions: A View from Sanskrit Aesthetic Phenomenology 115
- Odi et Amo: On Some Ancient Readings of Mixed Affect in Catullus 135
- Bittersweet History: Cicero on Mixed Affect in Experiencing Literature 155
- Ambivalent Feelings towards the Lupercalia: Discussing Civilisation in Republican and Early Imperial Rome 171
- Bibliography 187
- List of Contributors 205
- Index 207
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements VII
- Contents IX
- List of Figures XI
- Introduction 1
- Ambivalent Affects in Experimental Psychology 29
- Mixed Emotions in Emotion Communication: A Chimera in my Brain 45
- Mixed Emotions and the Climate Crisis in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction 63
- Ubi sunt? On the Varieties and Mixed Pleasures of Poignancy 79
- Being of Two Minds in Eleventh-Century China: Affective Bimodality in Guo Xi and Su Shi 97
- Explaining (Away?) Conflicting Emotions: A View from Sanskrit Aesthetic Phenomenology 115
- Odi et Amo: On Some Ancient Readings of Mixed Affect in Catullus 135
- Bittersweet History: Cicero on Mixed Affect in Experiencing Literature 155
- Ambivalent Feelings towards the Lupercalia: Discussing Civilisation in Republican and Early Imperial Rome 171
- Bibliography 187
- List of Contributors 205
- Index 207
