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A funerary cult is a body of religious teaching and practice centered on the veneration of the dead, in which the living are thought to be able to confer benefits on the dead in the afterlife or to appease their otherwise wrathful ghosts. Rituals were carried on for the benefit of the dead, either by their relatives or by a class of priests appointed and paid to perform the rites. These rituals took place at the tombs of the dead themselves or at mortuary temples appointed to this purpose. Funerary cults are found in a wide variety of cultures.
The di inferi or dii inferi were a shadowy collective of ancient Roman deities associated with death and the underworld. The epithet inferi is also given to the mysterious Manes, a collective of ancestral spirits. The most likely origin of the word Manes is from manus or manis, meaning "good" or "kindly," which was a euphemistic way to speak of the inferi so as to avert their potential to harm or cause fear.
In ancient Roman religion, the October Horse was an animal sacrifice to Mars carried out on October 15, coinciding with the end of the agricultural and military campaigning season. The rite took place during one of three horse-racing festivals held in honor of Mars, the others being the two Equirria on February 27 and March 14.
The supplicia canum was an annual sacrifice of ancient Roman religion in which live dogs were suspended from a furca ("fork") or cross (crux) and paraded. It appears on none of the extant Roman calendars, but a late source places it on August 3 (III Non. Aug.).
References
Notes
Citations
- 1 2 Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society 1977, p. 131.
- 1 2 Turcan & Nevill 2001, pp. 63–64.
- ↑ Elsner & Rutherford 2007, p. 24.
- ↑ Scullard 1981, p. 72.
- ↑ Frazer 2012, p. 190.
- ↑ Poultney, J.W. "Bronze Tables of Iguvium" 1959 p. 214 https://archive.org/details/bronzetablesofig00poul/page/n19/mode/2up
Books
- Elsner, Jas'; Rutherford, Ian (2007). Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191566752.
- Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society (1977). Talanta: Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society (8-15 ed.). Wolters-Noordhoff. OCLC 1004669.
- Scullard, H.H. (1981). Festivals and ceremonies of the Roman Republic. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801414022.
- Frazer, James George (2012). The Golden Bough. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108047319. Archived from the original on January 8, 2023.
- Turcan, Robert; Nevill, Antonia (2001). The Gods of ancient Rome: religion in everyday life from archaic to imperial times. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781136058509.
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