Acca Larentia Author(s): Alexander H. Krappe Reviewed work(s): Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Oct.

- Dec., 1942), pp. 490-499 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/499082 . Accessed: 28/10/2011 14:15
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ACCA LARENTIA
ferarum. Magna deum mater, materque

Lucretius.

the famous foundaThere is little need to outline, for the readers of this JOURNAL, tion legend of Rome: the Twins, exposed immediately after their birth, on the bank of the Tiber, are suckled by a she-wolf (a wide-spread motive of folk-tales 1). They are found by a shepherd, Faustulus, adopted by him and nursed by his wife, who is none other than Acca Larentia, the subject of this inquiry.2 A comparison of the story with a well-known parallel legend, the birth of Cyrus, leaves little doubt about the true nature of this Acca. For just as Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf, so the young Cyrus was reported to have been suckled by a bitch.3 Subsequent rationalists (Herodotus is one of these) converted the bitch into a slave woman bearing the name of Spako, the word spaka (it is the Russian sobaka) meaning "bitch" in the language of Media.4 In other words, Acca owes her existence in the Roman tradition to the same rationalist current as the slave woman Spako in the Persian, which is as much as to say that she is a she-wolf just as Spako is a bitch.5 Nor does this exhaust the wolf theme of the Roman legend. The mother of the Twins is called Rhea Silvia. The first part of the name is obviously a Greek borrowing, Rhea being but another name for the great Anatolian mother-goddess. Silvia, an adjective meaning "forest," is as obviously an epithet promoted to a proper name; it has been plausibly conjectured to be a circumlocution designating the she-wolf whose true name, lupa, people hesitated to pronounce (as they still do in many places) from fear of attracting the dangerous animal." Finally, the name Silvius, which according to the same reasoning would mean "wolf," recurs among the names of the kings of Alba Longa, the mythical ancestors of the Roman Twins.7 We are, of course, quite aware of their spurious genealogy, but he who compiled it was certainly acquainted with the importance of the name Silvius in the traditions of Latium, or else he would have chosen some other name. To return now to the lupine nurse of the Twins. We are naturally led to inquire into the nature of Acca. Her name cannot be separated from the Greek 'AKKbO, the name of Demeter's nurse, the word dKKCo "vain female bogey," the Sanskrit akkcd "mother," the Lapp Madder-akka"mother earth," 8 the Finnish U/kko,lit. "grandfather," name of the oldest and highest god of the Finns, the Yakut aga "father,"
1 Cf. E. S. McCartney, "Greek and Roman Lore of Animal-Nursed Infants" Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters iv, 1924, pp. 15-40, New York, 1925. 2 Ovid, Fasti, ed. Frazer, London, iii, 1929, 14, n. 1, where the literary sources are cited. 3Justin, i, 4. 4Cf. Her. i, 110, 122; A. Bauer, "Die Kyros-Sage und Verwandtes" Sitzungsberichted. Wiener Akad. d. Wiss., phil.-hist. Cl. C, 1882, pp. 501 and 505; McCartney, op. cit., pp. 33 f. 5For a comparison of the Roman and Iranian traditions, cf. Bauer, op. cit., pp. 539 ff. 6 Sir James G. Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, London, 1935, pp. 416 ff. 7Frazer, The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, London, ii, 1935, p. 178. 8 E. N. Setjalh,Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungenxii, 1912, pp. 208 ff.
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Mong. aka, akha "elder brother," "master." 9 On this showing, Acca would appear to be the Roman equivalent of Mother Earth, the nourishing and life-giving, but also chthonian, divinity. If such is the case, we should expect the second name, Larentia, to bear out the conjecture. Now Larentia was connected with the feast of the Larentalia, which fell on December 23rd, as we know from the Maffeian and Praenestine calendars and the evidence of Ovid.'o On that day the priests offered her publicly mortuary honors (publice parentant).11 Macrobius (Sat. i, 10, 16) refers to the same honors as an annual parentatio. They would, therefore, seem to have resembled the regular honors paid to the dead in February and known as Parentalia. In his Roman Questions (34) Plutarch asks, among other things: "Whereas all the other Romans offer libations and sacrifices to the dead in February, why did Decimus Brutus (as Cicero relates) do this in December?" The conclusion is obvious that Decimus Brutus sacrificed to his dead on December 23rd, the day of the Larentalia. Plutarch, in asking the question, duly notes the occurrence of the Larentalia in December. The various philosophical reasons adduced by him to account for the habit of Decimus Brutus do not hold water. Neither do Sir James Frazer's, who connected the caprice of Decimus with his name and the fact that December was the tenth month of the old Roman year.'2 People are not guided by caprices in matters of this nature, and the true explanation must be sought elsewhere. Decimus was one of the heads of the conservative party, and his somewhat ostentatious manner of differing from the profanum vulgus may simply have its root in the fact that the Larentalia were known (at least to antiquarians) as an old feast of the dead. This is borne out by the striking fact that to this very day Christmas-tide is an All Souls Day in many parts of Europe and the Near East."' Acca Larentia would then appear to be the mother of the Lares, whose chthonian associations have repeatedly been suspected.14 At all events, the evidence reviewed thus far tends to show that Acca Larentia was a mother-goddess, very probably Mother Earth, manifesting herself in her usual double aspect as the magna parens of mortals and as the great chthonian goddess of death, who mercifully takes men back unto her bosom at the close of their earthly careers. Here the question arises: Why should such a divinity be thought to assume the shape of an animal hated and feared as much as was the wolf by all husbandmen and agriculturists? After all, it is not the enemies of Rome who invented the story of the Twins and their lupine nurse. The correct answer to this question was given as early as 1904 by Salomon Rei9 Cf. Max MUller, Contributionsto the Science of Mythology, London, i, 1897, p. 262 f.; H. Giintert, Kalypso, Halle, 1919, p. 53; K. Krohn, "Zur finnischen Mythologie," FolkloreFellows Communications, No. 104, Helsingfors, 1932, pp. 33 ff.; Frazer, Anthologia anthropologica.The Native Races of Asia and Europe, London, 1939, pp. 319 f.; Walde, Lat. etym. Wirterbuch2, p. 5. 1o Fasti. ed. cit. iii, 15 f. 1' Varro, De lingua latina v, 23-24; cf. Ovid, Fasti iii, 16, n. 3. 12 13 Cf. Speculum xiii, 1938, p. Ibid., p. 17. 213. 14J6r6me Carcopino, " Virgile et les origines d'Ostie, " Bibl. Ec. Franc. d'Athenes et de Rome cxvi, Paris, 1919, p. 106; Margaret C. Waites, AJA. xxiv, 1920, p. 247; Lily Ross Taylor, ibid. xxix, 1925, pp. 299 if. On the identity of Acca Larentia with the Mater Larum, cf. Dessau's note 24 on the record of the Arvales, Inscr. Sel., 9522.

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nach 15and again by O. Gruppe.1b Both scholars pointed out that chthonian divinities frequently appear in wolf-shape and that Death was originally pictured as a wolf with gaping mouth, whence such figures as the Greek Kerberos, the dogs watching the bridge Cinvat, the dogs of Yama, the wolf-shape of the Celtic Dispater, etc. The wolf-shape of Acca Larentia would then merely confirm her chthonian character. Since, in the foregoing pages, we have been guided by facts which cannot claim too close a connection with the prehistoric cults of Italy, the conclusion will not appear unnatural that Acca Larentia, so far from being an isolated figure peculiar to Italy, is likely to have parallels elsewhere in Europe and even in the Near East, and it will be useful to review these. Quite naturally, we begin our inquiry in Greece. Acca Larentia was the nurse of the Roman Twins, while her alter ego, Silvia, was their mother. On Hellenic soil we also find a twin couple, or rather twin couples: they are Apollo and Artemis, Kastor and Polydeukes; they are the children of Leto oir Leda respectively. Leto, whose Lycian name means simply "woman," is unquestionably a mother-goddess, whose fertility is sufficiently indicated by her twin birth. There also existed a tradition attested by Aristotle,'7 to the effect that on one occasion Leto assumed wolf-shape. Whether or not we accept this tradition as old, Leto, Mother Leto, was certainly merely a special form of the great Anatolian motherwith its wild animals. Her chosen companions are lions, or stags, and her servants, while engaged in her worship, transformed themselves (by masks) into the semblance of these holy animals of hers: stag, cow or bear.18 She is addressed, in the words of Aeschylus: T6ooV rrEp EUq)pc)v, Kad\a 8pootact \OETrr-roi aNEPCAov EO6VTCOV -rT Tdypov6pacov tho\pa'Trots TrITov ' erlpC'v 6pptKadAotatTEpTr~a, T-roTCrVlETx-ra ?1l3poca KpaVctI 5E 85Et?I lEV,-KCaT1IaOICa Qaa8crCTaocrco.

goddess, the T76Tvtia Op~cv, whose chosen home was the Anatolian mountain world,

She appears to have been also a lunar divinity, as may be judged (1) from her
epithets vuXia and lPKOPos; (?2)from the fact that she is the mother of the Anatolian than day
15Revue

sun-god, Apollo - the moon is frequently thought older than the sun and night older
19;

(3) from her Etruscan equivalent, Lala,20 who is characterized by the

Celtiquexxv, 1904, pp. 208-24; reprinted in Cultes, Mythes et Religions i, 1922, pp. 279-98. 1906, p. 769. Cf. also G. Welter, RA. iv (17), 1911, pp. 55-61. 17Hist. anim. vi, 35. Mr. R. P. Eckels, in his recent book, GreekWolf-Lore,Philadelphia, 1937, pp. 66 ff., tried to whittle down the evidence and to show that the traditions are aetiological tales of relatively late date; his reasoning is not very convincing. 18 Sir William M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Oxford, i, 1895, p. 89 f. 19Snorri, Gylfag., c. 10; Alexander MacBain, Celtic Mythology, Stirling, 1917, p. 64; J. Dutoit, Jatakam iv, 73; E. Siecke, "Ueber einige mythologisch wichtige Tiere," Leipzig, 1916, Mythologische Bibliothekviii (4), p. 62. At Nemea, Selene was fabled to be the mother of the sun lion; Aelian, De nat. anim xii, 7; Schol. Apol. Rhod. i, 498; Plut. De facie in orbe lunae xxiv, 6. 20 Lala is the Etr. form of Dor. Lada. On the change of d to 1 (and the reverse) cf. Michel Breal,
16 GriechischeMythologie und Religionsgeschichte, Miinchen,

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crescent;21 (4) from the name of her mother,

granting powers, all point in the same direction.30 A chthonian she certainly was not, at least not in the classical period; the last scene of Euripides' noble play Hippolytos would remove all doubt on the subject. But as a sender of the plague she had a chthonian aspect. The latter feature might perhaps explain her ursine shape, for the bear, like the wolf, might easily become a personification of Death. Some doubt might arise about the association of the animal with the moon; but this association is susceptible of proof. As is well known, one of the most prominent constellations of the northern sky, the Dipper, is known as Ursa major. This term is a literal translation of the Greek The Greeks explained this strange name by the following stories. According "ApK-ros. to some, this she-bear had been a fair mortal who, by helping the father of gods and men to while away his hours of idleness (which must have lain heavily on him), drew upon herself the wrath of Hera, who transformed her into a she-bear, which was then

goddesses (this genealogy simply indicates that the old moon gives birth to the new moon 22);(5) from the fact that her sister is Asteria, i.e. the planet Venus; 23 (6) from her starry veil, shown in a vase-painting,24and from her connection with the olive, a typical lunar plant.25 As an ancient Anatolian divinity, Leto was identified, after the Persian conquest, with AnaYtiswho, if Porphyry (De abst. iv, 16) is to be believed, was called by the Magi a she-wolf.26But Analtis was decidedly a lunar divinity, as is indicated by her function as a divine midwife, a Persian Eileithyia.27 On this showing one would expect Leto's daughter, Artemis, to have been likewise a she-wolf; but the existing evidence on this point is weak.28 On the other hand, Artemis is closely associated with another of Europe's large carnivora, the she-bear. The bear-Artemis has been discussed so frequently and by such a large number of competent critics that there is no need to revert to the subject.29 Her lunar origin is also admitted: her ro1le as divine midwife, her function as KovpoTp6pqos, her fertility-

Doi3lP, commonly applied to lunar

Melanges de mythologie et de linguistique, Paris, 1877, p. 178; Paul Kretschmer, Einleitung in die der griechischenSprache, G6ttingen, 1896, pp. 280 ff.; J. Schrijnen, Zeitschriftf. vgl. SprachGeschichte forschung xlvi, 1914, pp. 276-80; P. v. Bradke, UeberMethodeund ErgebnissederarischenAlterthumswissenschaft, Giessen, 1890, p. 245; R. S. Conway, IndogermanischeForschungenii, 1893, pp. 157-67. 21 W. H. Roscher, "Ueber Selene und Verwandtes" Studien zur griechischenMuthologie und Kuliv, Leipzig, 1890, p. 15. turgeschichte 22 23 Cicero, De nat. deor. iii, 18, 46. Ibid., pp. 18, n. 50; 99 f. 24 E. Gerhard, A V. Berlin, 1840-58, plate 26. 25 Strabo, xiv, 1. 20; Cat. xxxiv. 7. 26 Ramsay, op. cit. i, 90. This feature proves conclusively (if proof be required) that the cult of Anaitis falls outside the Zarathustrian religion; we learn from Plutarch (De Is. et Os., c. 46) that among the Persians the wolf was a chthonian animal which played a r6le in the nightly sacrifices made to Ahriman; cf. E. Benveniste, The Persian Religion accordingto the Chief Greek Texts, Paris, 1929, p. 74. 27 Cf. my book La Genese des Mythes, Paris, 1938, p. 108. 28 Gruppe, op. cit. ii, 1294, n. 4. 29 Ibid. ii, 1270; cf. S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions iii, 39: Son nom-Artemis rapproche d'arktos-joint a des temoignages litteraires et figures, prouve que 1'Artemisprimitive, celle d'Arcadie probablement, a 6t' une ourse. 30 H. Usener, Kleine Schriften iv, 1914, p. 14; Jane E. Harrison, Mythology (Our Debt to Greeceand Rome), Boston, 1924, p. 120; cf. also K. B. Stark, Berichte iiber die Verhandlungend. Kgl. Sdchsischen Gesellsch.d. Wiss. zu Leipzig, philol.-hist. Cl. viii, 1856, p. 71.

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placed in the starry sky by Zeus.31 According to others, she was a fair nymph in the retinue of Artemis who, having been seduced by Zeus, was transformed into a shebear by her angry mistress, but transposed among the stars by her lover.32Now the names of the fair heroine, KaNla-rcbor KaNNia-rrl are noms parlants and epithets of Artemis herself. As such they do not designate the constellation, but the moon.33 The she-bear, in the original version of the myth, was then transposed into the moon, an extremely widespread story motive.3" The bear-Artemis has a striking parallel figure in Asia Minor. In that country flourished the cult of the Magna Mater, a divinity frequently equated with Artemis. The bear was one of her sacred animals,3" and she, too, was probably a she-bear. In her procession figures ursa mansues, quae cultu matronali sella rehebatur.36 This connection of the animal with a cultus matronalis leads us back to the powers of fertility with which the great goddess was credited. Nor is it probably an accident that in the Troad we find the tradition of Paris being suckled by a she-bear."3It is an exact parallel of the continental Greek story of Atalanta, the alter ego of Artemis, being suckled by a she-bear.38Nor must it be forgotten that bears occupy a prominent place among the animals which enjoy the special protection of the -6Trvlci rlpc)v.39 We now understand the reason why the alter ego of Acca Larentia, the mother of the Roman Twins was called Rhea Silvia by the antiquarians responsible for the elaboration of the Romulus legend: they were aware of the fact that the mother of the Twins was but a special form of the Fl6Trvia worshipped in prehistoric Ofrlppv, Greece and Anatolia and best known, in Italy, by her Cretan name. The cult of the Magna Mater is known to have flourished, in chalcolithic times, over a territory extending from the Indus valley to the Aegean.40True, we have no positive evidence about the theriomorphic manifestations of the goddess in each part of this vast region, but it is not likely that this feature should have been peculiar only to Greece and Asia Minor. J. J. Bachofen 41 was right when he surmised that the bear cult virtually covered the same territory as the cult of the Great Mother worshipped as Dindymene, Idaea, Kybele, Rhea, Pessinuntia, etc. all over the Middle East, from Trojan Ida as far as Syria. He was equally right in his conclusion that the bearArtemis is merely a special form of the bear-Kybele.42 The bear-Artemis has a close pendant in Celtic lands, where a bear-goddess was worshipped under the name of Artio "she-bear." It is she who has given her name to the city of Berne and who is responsible for the coat-of-arms of the capital of the Helvetian republic, as well as for the bears kept in the Zwinger of the city down to
32 Pauly-Wissowa, RE. x, cols. 1726-29. Ibid., cols. 1673-74. This conclusion was drawn as early as the middle of the last century; cf. H. D. Milller, Mythologie der griechischenStdmme, Gottingen, ii, 1861, 304. 34La Gentse des Mythes, pp. 119 ff. 35Lucian, De dea syria, 41; R. H. Klausen, Aeneas und die Penaten, Hamburg-Gotha, i,. 1839, 94. n. 236. 36 Apuleius xi, 8. 7 Apollod. iii, 12, 5. 38 Apollod. iii, 9, 2; Aelian, Var. hist. xiii, 1. 19On the bear-shape of Kybele, cf. also J. J. Bachofen, Urreligion und antike Symbole, Leipzig i, 19A6, 146. 40 J. Przyluski, Revue de l'histoire des religions cv, 1932, 41Op. cit. i, p. 147. pp. 182-92. 42 Cf. also J. Keil, in Anatolian Studies presented to Sir William M. Ramsay, Manchester, 19e8, p. 96.2, n. 1. 31 11

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modern times.43 In the Gallo-Roman period she was quite naturally identified with the great Asiatic mother-goddess, for the sanctuary destroyed by St. Martin of Tours, as belonging to Dindymene, was probably one of the Celtic Artio.44 The question arises: Why, of all great carnivora, was the bear chosen to represent the great mother-goddess? Let us note, to begin with, some facts which appear somehow to be connected with our problem. The Greek word apKTos is always of the feminine gender, even when both sexes are clearly included. Likewise in Latin the word ursa frequently denotes the animal genus irrespective of sex.45 Again, among the Ostiaks of Siberia, whose language has no genders, the bear (irrespective of sex) is the daughter of the sky-god Numi Thrim, who is himself the Father of Animals and supposed, as such, to let down fish and wild animals from above for the benefit of his worshippers.46 All this would permit the inference that somehow the female impressed herself upon observers more than the male. This conclusion is borne out by the mediaeval bestiaries. They note the extraord(inary affection of the mother-bear for her young, which led to the queer belief that she licked them into shape.47 This maternal and hence fostering and kindly aspect of the bear, the Ursa matronalis, naturally favored the view that, an incarnation of motherly love, the she-bear was the personification of the great mother-goddess.48 We know far too little about the religion of the ancient Teutons and Slavs to be certain that the peoples of northern Europe worshipped a bear-goddess. That the bear was a holy animal of the Teutons would follow from evidence reviewed elsewhere.49 That the Russians regarded the animal with superstitious fear would follow from its name, medved, lit. "honey-eater," a distinct taboo name. What must be borne in mind in all considerations of this type is not only the obvious fact that divine theriomorphism and animal worship were bound to fade with the progress of the Mediterranean civilization in Central and Northern Europe, but also the no less obvious one that the bear has been on the retreat in Europe ever since the beginning of the Christian era, having been driven back by man into the forests of Russia and Scandinavia and into thinly populated mountain fastnesses in the Balkans, the Carpathians, and the Pyrenees. Such being the case, we should reasonably expect the ancient bear cult to survive in these out-of-the-way regions. In this expectation we are not disappointed: we do find this cult among the Lapps of Northern Europe, virtually throughout Siberia, and among a number of Indian tribes on the North American continent.50 Thus
Salomon Reinach, Revue Celtiquexxi, 1900, p. 288; Cultes, Mythes et Religions i, p. 31; J. A. Mac13 Culloch, The Religion of the Ancient Celts, Edinburgh, 1911, p. 212. Bachofen i, p. 141. 4 Cr. also Victor B6rard, Les Phcniciens et l'Odyssce, Paris, 1927, p. 392. 45 John Abercromby, The Pre- and Proto-historicFinns, London, i, 1898, p. 154. 46 4' Pliny, NH. viii, 36; Solinus, c. 96; Aelian, De nat. anim. ii, 19; Plutarch, De amoreprolis, c. 2; Ovid, Metam. xv, 379-81. Cf. Bachofen, Der Bdr in den Religionendes Alterthums,Basel, 1863; reprinted in Urreligioni, 138 ff. 48 49Speculum viii, 1933, p. 271; Vigfusson-Powell, OriginesIslandicae, Oxford ii, 1905, 660; J. W. Wolf, Beitrdge zur deutschenMythologie ii, 1857, pp. 64 f. 50 Frazer, Anthologia, pp. 156 ff.; A. Kannisto, "Ueber (lie Btrenzeremonien der Wogulen, in Liber saecularis. Litterarium Societas Esthonica, 1838-1938, Tartu, 1938; Leo Sternberg, ARW. viii, 1905, pp. 249 f.; 456 ff.; W. Bonser, Folk-Lore, xxxix, 1928, pp. 350 ff.; Abercromby, op. cit. i, 168; I. Zolli, Lares, viii, 1937, pp. 87-91.

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among the Apaches, we are told, "only ill-bred Americans or Europeans who have never had any 'raising' would think of speaking of the bear . . . without employing the reverential prefix ostin, meaning 'Old One'." 51 Similarly, the nations of Siberia do not like to pronounce the name of the bear; they call him "Little Old Man," "Master of the Forest," "the Venerable," "He who knows," or simply "He." 52 The European bear cult is thus seen to hark back to a very early stage of human culture, the pre-agricultural stage as we still find it, for climatological reasons, in Northern Europe and Siberia. It is a stage of scattered settlements inhabited by shepherds, hunters, and fishermen. From this point of view the Hellenic Artemis cult is clearly a survival: Artemis is the goddess of a people in a stage of culture which already in Homeric Greece was a thing of the past, except in certain out-ofthe-way districts such as Arcadia, untouched by the march of the Ionian civilization.53 If this reasoning is correct, we should expect to find, connected with the cult of Artemis, certain primitive or barbaric rites, over a large part of the territory once dedicated to her cult. In this expectation we are not deceived. The cult of Artemis is unusually rich in rites which, because of their very crudeness, hark back to a far past. One of the most curious of these was performed annually at her sanctuary at Patrae in Achaia, where she was worshipped under the cult title of Laphria.54
The festival opened with a gorgeous procession, in which the rear was brought up by her virgin priestess riding in a car drawn by deer. The following day, a great pile of dry wood having been erected over the altar and enclosed by a strong palisade, deer and many other kind of animals, including wild boars, bears and wolves, were burned alive on the altar. Pausanias relates that on one occasion he had seen some of the wild beasts breaking through the palisade and escaping by sheer strength; but the people dragged them back into the flames.

Much the same type of holocaust is described by Lucian, who saw it performed at the sanctuary of the Syrian Goddess at Hierapolis-Baalbek:55
The greatest of the festivals that they celebrate is that held at the opening of spring; some call this the Pyre, others the Lamp. On this occasion the sacrifice is performed in this way. They cut down tall trees and set them up in the court; then they bring goats and sheep and cattle and hang them living to the trees; they add to these birds and garments, and gold and silver work. After all is finished, they carry the gods around the trees and set fire under; in a moment all is in a blaze. To this solemn rite a great multitude flocks from Syria and all the regions around. Each brings his own god and the statues which each has of his own gods.

The opening of spring means the month of Nisan, the month corresponding to April. On the first three days of Nisan, as we learn from the Fihrist, the Syrians of
52 Frazer, Anthologia, loc. cit. op. cit., p. 117. 149 E. Gesammelte Bachofen, i, f.; Curtius, Urreligion Abhandlungen, Berlin, ii, 1894, 3 ff.; U. v. 63 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, HellenistischeDichtung in der Zeit des Kallimachos, Berlin, ii, 1994, pp. 48 ff. L. R. Farnell, The Attributesof God, Oxford, 1925, p. 110, rightly observes: "Of the hunting period no reflection remains in our modern religious tradition." But there existed a great many such reflections in the Graeco-Roman civilization of antiquity. 54 Paus. vii, 18, 11-13; M. P. Nilsson, Griechische Feste von religiiser Bedeutung,Leipzig, 1906, pp. 218 ff.; Ovid. ed. cit. ii, 167. Lucian, De dea syria, c. 49. 55

51 Harrison,

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Harran, who remained Astarte-worshippers down into the Middle Ages, visited the temple of the goddess in groups and offered sacrifice by burning living animals.56 In the cult of the Tyrian Heracles (Melkart) quail were offered by being burned alive."7But the quail is known to have been the holy bird of Artemis and of Leto, who conceived the twins Apollo and Artemis in the shape of a quail.58 The resemblance between these Semitic rites and the holocaust of Artemis Laphria is so striking that Victor Berard 59 did not hesitate to derive the Greek ritual from the Semitic. It would have been more prudent to be content with the inference that the great Asiatic goddess worshipped at Hierapolis and the Hellenic Artemis go back to a prehistoric mother-goddess. This conclusion is confirmed by archaeological evidence from Crete, showing that similar holocausts were offered within an enclosure on the temple floor, while two images show a goddess in sitting posture. She is none other than Artemis, the 1[6-rviac The temple in question, on the acropolis of Prinias, is the oldest known sanc08rlpOv. tuary of the great Mistress of Animals, and the holocausts offered her go back into prehistoric times.60 Like the bear-goddess, the holocaust of living animals turns up among the Celts of Western Europe. We have the accounts of the geographer Strabo and the historian Diodorus, who both appear to have drawn on a lost work of Posidonius, who was also one of the sources of Caesar's classical description of the Celtic fire festival and the famous mannequins d'osier.61
Condemned criminals were reserved by the Celts in order to be sacrificed to the gods at a great festival which took place once every five years. The more there were of such victims, the better was the outlook for good crops and general well-being. If there were not enough criminals to furnish victims, captives taken in war were immolated to supply the deficiency. When the time came the victims were sacrificed by the priests, some being shot down with arrows, others being impaled, while still others were burned alive in colossal images of wicker-work, or of wood and grass. These were filled with live men, cattle and other kinds of animals. Fire was then applied to the images, which were thus burned with their living content.62

The texts say nothing about any specific divinity to whom this offering was made, but the feature of wild animals joined to the usual victims would seem to render it very likely that the Celts, too, had their Mistress of Animals, the protectress of all wild life, in short, their Artemis. This being the case, there is a distinct possibility of the goddess Artio being somehow connected with these rites. Unfortunately, it is difficult to be certain on this point, the more so because the Greeks, too, had other
56

57Raoul-Rochette, Mim. Acad. Inscr. xvii, 1847, pp. 201 f.; Stark, loc. cit., pp. 35, 38, 44, 71. 58 Ibid., p. 70.

W. Robertson Smith, Lectureson the Religion of the Semites, London, 1894, pp. 470 f.

59De l'origine des cultes arcadiens, Paris, 1894, p. 146; Les Phiniciens et l'Odysske,Paris, 1902-1903, i, 9228. 60 M. P. Nilsson, JHS. xliii, 1993, pp. 146 f.; The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survival in GreekReligion, Lund, 1927, p. 435. 61 Strabo, iv, 4, 5; Diod. v, 32; Caesar, De bell. gal. vi, 16, 4; cf. Karl MUllenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde li, Berlin, 1891, p. 182; H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, Etudes sur le droit celtique i, Paris, 1895, 168 ff.; W. Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte i, Berlin, 1875, pp. 525 ff. 62 For certain reservations on the statements of our sources cf. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions v, Paris, 1993, pp. 9202 f.

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ALEXANDER H. KRAPPE

divinities filling this general function and being accordingly honored with holocausts of this type.63 In France the ancient rite survived down to relatively modern times, except that the victims thrown into the midsummer fires were generally cats.64 At Luchon, in the Pyrenees, on the eve of St. John, a hollow column, constructed of strong wicker-work was raised to a height of about 60 feet and interlaced with green foliage. Then the column was kindled, while the chorus of the villagers sang ancient hymns and hurled living snakes into the flames. That cats were the logical successors of wilder animals may also be seen from the fact that the great Anatolian TT-6vlca0rqppv survives to this day in Turkish fairy tales, in which the wild beasts of the mountains are referred to as her "kittens." 65 The TTO6rvlca 0rpcav is a figure whose cult has been traced from prehistoric Crete down into classical and even Hellenistic times. In the monuments she is frequently accompanied by two male figures, the Dioscuri, or their predecessors.66 This leads us back to the starting point of our inquiry, Acca Larentia and the Roman Twins, and the question of the true relationship between the Hellenic TT-6vlca0repwv and the old Italian wolf-goddess. According to a well-known passage of Macrobius (Sat. i, 1Q, Q1) the cult of the Arval Brethren was dedicated to an earth goddess called Maia, declared to be identical with the Bona Dea and with the Mater Larum, invoked by the same Brethren, while the identity of Acca Larentia with the Bona Dea may be inferred from the fact that the twelve Arval Brethren in their sacrifices to the Bona Dea represent the twelve sons of Acca Larentia.67 On the other hand, the Mater Larum appears in various monuments of religious art accompanied by two male figures, variously interpreted as the Lares or Dioscuri.68 Without deciding the question of the correct or the primary interpretation, we may be sure that these representations are connected with, or derived from, the pre-Hellenic figure of the TT-rvlia rOlppv and the Dioscuri. This important fact brings our argument to a close: Acca Larentia is the Italian known to equivalent, or derivative, of the great mother-goddess, the TT-6vlca rjOpCOv, have been worshipped, in prehistoric times, from the Indus valley to the shores of the Atlantic. She is the great mother of all life, from whom all living creatures derive their existence and to whom all must return once their short span of fleeting life has come to an end.
*#

Paus. iv, 31, 9; cf. Nilsson, Journal, p. 145; Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, pp. 473 f. de Jubainville, La Civilisation des Celtes,Paris, 1899, p. 245; Frazer, Balder the Beautiful ii, London, 1935, pp. 24 ff.; Paul Sbbillot, Le Folk-Lorede France iii, 112. 65Ignacz Kunos, Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, translated from the Hungarian version by R. Nisbet Bain, London, 1901, p. 270. 66 Ch. Picard, Revue de l'histoire des religions xcviii, 1928, pp. 60 ff. 67Aul. Gell. vii, 7, 8; Pliny, NH. xviii, 6; cf. Carcopino, op. cit., pp. 105 f. 68 On the confusion of Lares and Dioscuri cf. Waites, loc. cit., pp. 259 ff.; Taylor, loc. cit., p. 311; Marcel Bulard, La religion domestiquedans la colonie italienne de Delos (Bibl. Ed. Franc. d'Athenes et de Rome) cxxxi, Paris, 1926, p. 191.
63

64D'Arbois

ACCA LARENTIA

499

Inasmuch as the cult of the TT-6Tvia erlpcv covered a connected territory, its diffusion from some center may be taken for granted and accounted for as the work of roaming tribes. Still, it is interesting to note that a Mistress of Animals is known even to peoples who, in historical and near-prehistorical times, are not known to have been in communication with Asia or Europe. Thus the Eskimos believe in a Mother of Animals, supposed to live at the bottom of the sea and to control the supply of seals and fish.69 Artemis was not only a bear-goddess; she could and did assume many other animal forms. One of the most common of these was the deer. On this showing, and assuming that our deductions are correct, there should also have existed, in Northern Europe and Central Asia, a deer-goddess of much the same functions. That this inference is justified was shown, a few years ago, by Mr. J. G. McKay, in a paper read before the Folk-Lore Society.7G There may still linger, in the reader's mind, the question of how the she-wolf, the lupa, could ever assume maternal characteristics, a development in direct contradiction with the general reputation of that evil animal also in Italy - suffice it to recall the lupa of the first canto of Dante's great poem, such ominous derivatives as lupanar, and the Roman tradition according to which Acca Larentia was a woman of whom Puritans do not approve.71 The answer must probably be sought in the fact that by the first millennium of the pre-Christian era the bear had already disappeared from the greater part of the Italian peninsula, if it had ever existed there in a wild condition.72 Thus the T6-rTvlc 0epWv could not very well be imagined in bear-shape and the only other large carnivore was accordingly substituted. That this conjecture is not altogether without foundation may be seen from the queer tradition according to which the Lupa treated the Twins in much the same manner in which the she-bear treats her own young: et fungit lingua corpora bina sua! 3
ALEXANDER
PRINCETON,
69 70

H. KRAPPE

N. J.

L. Levy-Bruhl, Le Surnaturel et la nature dans la mentalitgprimitive, Paris, 1931, pp. 448 f. Folk-Lorexliii, 1932, pp. 144-74; cf. also J. Whatmough, JRS. xli, 1921, pp. Q45-53; F. R. Schrider, Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift xvii, 1929, p. 411. 71Livy i, 10, 4; Plut. Rom. iv, 3; Serv. ad Verg. Aen. i, 273; Aur. Vict. Orig. Gent. Rom., c. 21. 72 Sir George C. Lewis, An Historical Survey of the Astronomyof the Ancients, London, 1862, p. 65, n. 241, denied the existence of wild bears south of the Alps. On the gradual disappearance of the bear from European folk-lore and its replacement by the wolf, cf. Kaarle Krohn, Bar (Wolf) und Fuchs. Aus dem Finnischen iibersetzt von O. Hackman, Helsingfors, 1888, passim. 73Livy i, 4; Ovid, Fasti ii, 418.