Suovetaurilia

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The suovetaurilia or suovitaurilia was one of the most sacred and traditional rites of Roman religion: the sacrifice of a pig (sus), a sheep (ovis) and a bull (taurus) to the deity Mars to bless and purify land ( Lustratio ). [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Ritual

The suovetaurilia was an ancient Roman sacrifice where in which a pig, sheep, and a bull were sacrificed. Suovetaurile Louvre.jpg
The suovetaurilia was an ancient Roman sacrifice where in which a pig, sheep, and a bull were sacrificed.

There were two kinds: [4]

The ritual for private fields is preserved in Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura , "On Agriculture". It was performed each May on the festival of Ambarvalia , [6] [7] [8] a festival that involved "walking around the fields." [8] Public suovetaurilias were offered at certain state ceremonies, including agricultural festivals, [9] the conclusion of a census, and to atone for any accidental ritual errors. Traditionally, suovetaurilias were performed at five year intervals: this period was called a lustrum , [10] and the purification sought by a suovetaurilia was called lustration. [11] [12] [13]

If a temple were destroyed, the site of the temple must be purified by a suovetaurilia before a new temple could be reconstructed on the site. When the Capitolium was burnt as a result of a struggle for imperial succession in the year 69, a suovetaurilia was performed to reconsecrate the site. A public suovetaurilia was also offered to bless the army before a major military campaign. On Trajan's column, the emperor Trajan is depicted as offering a suovetaurilia to purify the Roman army. A suovetaurilia is shown on the right hand panel of The Bridgeness Slab. It was suggested that the sacrifice might have been made at the start of the building of the Antonine Wall. [14]

Performance of the suovetaurilia lactentia

Right hand panel of The Bridgeness Slab showing a suovetaurilia. Romanwallinscotl00macduoft raw 0409.jpg
Right hand panel of The Bridgeness Slab showing a suovetaurilia.

Circumambulation

The first step was to lead the three animals around the boundaries of the land to be blessed, pronouncing the following words: [16]

Cum divis volentibus quodque bene eveniat, mando tibi, Mani, uti illace suovitaurilia fundum agrum terramque meam quota ex parte sive circumagi sive circumferenda censeas, uti cures lustrare.
"That with the good help of the gods success may crown our work, I bid thee, Manius, to take care to purify my farm, my land, my ground with this suovetaurilia, in whatever part thou thinkest best for them to be driven or carried around."

"Manius" in this passage has been interpreted as a slave, land manager, soothsayer, or perhaps generic name, [17] possibly equivalent to English John Doe. [18] Alternatively, the classicist Roger Woodard proposes that this "Manius" may have functioned as the masculine equivalent of the chthonic goddess Mania. [19] According to Woodard, this god Manius may be identical with the Manius described by the 1st-century BCE Roman author Varro, [20] who writes that—according to another author named Procilius—a crack opened in the earth at the Lacus Curtius, and then the haruspices reported that a god named Manius demanded that the bravest Roman citizen must plunge into the hole. [21] If the interpretation of "Manius" as a god is accepted, then it is perhaps unusual for Cato to issue direct commands to the divinity, saying "I bid you, Manius" ("Mando, tibi Mani"). [22] It may perhaps parallel Hittite traditions, wherein another chthonic deity—the Sun goddess of the Earth—can also be addressed without much adoration or respect. [22] The presence of underworld themes in the suovetaurilia would connect with the Old Indic Sautramani rite, another tripartite sacrifice in which libations are offered to the Pitri , spirits of the deceased, to ensure their purification. [17]

Sacrificial prayer

Cato instructs that, prior to the sacrifice, the suppliant must perform a libation to Janus and Jupiter also must utter an extended prayer to Mars. [18] The prayer is written in an archaic metrical and incantatory form; even in Old Latin, the prayer contains many rhetorical figures such as alliteration and liberal use of merisms and antithesis. It illustrates the metrical and poetic format of polytheistic prayers. Calvert Watkins versifies the text as follows: [23]

Mars pater, te precor quaesoque
uti sies volens propitious
mihi domo familiaeque nostrae,
quoius re ergo
agrum terram fundumque meum
suovitaurilia circumagi iussi;

uti tu
morbos visos invisosque,
viduertatem vastitudinemque,
calamitates intemperiasque
prohibessis defendas averruncesque;

utique tu
fruges, frumenta, vineta virgultaque
grandire beneque evenire siris,
pastores pecuaque salva servassis
duisque bonam salutem valetudinemque
mihi domo familiaeque nostrae;

harumce rerum ergo,
fundi terrae agrique mei
lustrandi lustrique faciendi ergo,
sicuti dixi,
macte hisce suovitaurilibus lactentibus inmolandis esto;
Mars pater, eiusdem rei ergo
macte hisce suovitaurilibus lactentibus esto

Translation:

Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee
that thou be gracious and merciful
to me, my house, and my household;
to which intent
I have bidden this suovetaurilia to be led around
my land, my ground, my farm;

That thou
keep away, ward off, and remove
sickness, seen and unseen,
barrenness and destruction,
ruin and unseasonable influence;

And that thou permit
my harvests, my grain, my vineyards, and my plantations,
to flourish and to come to good issue
preserve in health my shepherds and my flocks,
and give good health and strength
to me, my house, and my household.

To this intent,
to the intent of purifying
my farm, my land, my ground, and of making an expiation,
as I have said,
deign to accept the offering of these suckling victims;
Father Mars, to the same intent
deign to accept the offering of this suckling suovetaurilia."

Sacrifice

Given the tripartite nature of the suovetaurilia, the ritual has been interpreted as a reflection of the trifunctional hypothesis of Georges Dumézil. [24] Collectively, the three animals perhaps correspond to each of the three supposed functions of Indo-European society. According to Émile Benveniste, the pig—which was sacred to Ceres—represents the fertility of the soil; the sheep and the ram were associated with warriors; and the bull—which was sacred to Jupiter—was otherwise sacrificed in the most important Roman religious rituals, and is therefore connected to the priesthood. [25] However, in other interpretations, it is the bull that was associated with warriors in Indo-European cultures, [24] and it was sacrificed to Mars in the suovetaurilia. [26] According to Jaan Puhvel, the role of the god Mars within the suovetaurilia singularly encompassed all manner of social ill. Mars was invoked to counter three type of misfortune—diseases, blights, and devastation—and he was compelled to enforce his protection through words ("prohibessis"), combat ("defendas"), and agricultural measures ("averrunces"). [27]

Cakes of bread were sacrificed along with the three animals. At the moment the sacrifices were made, the landowner was to say: [28] [29]

Eiusque rei ergo macte suovitaurilibus inmolandis esto.
"To this intent deign to accept the offering of these victims."

Omens

If favourable omens as a response to the sacrifice were not forthcoming, the landowner was instructed to redo the sacrifice and offer a further prayer:

Mars pater, siquid tibi in illisce suovitaurilibus lactentibus neque satisfactum est, te hisce suovitaurilibus piaculo.
"Father Mars, if aught hath not pleased thee in the offering of those sucklings, I make atonement with these victims."

If only one or two of the omens expected after the three sacrifices failed to appear, the landowner was instructed to offer an additional swine, saying:

Mars pater, quod tibi illoc porco neque satisfactum est, te hoc porco piaculo.
"Father Mars, inasmuch as thou wast not pleased by the offering of that pig, I make atonement with this pig."

The nature of the expected omens is not given by Cato. The omens, however, were likely determined by the art of haruspicy, the examination of the entrails, and especially the livers, of sacrificed animals for divinatory signs.

Parallels

Suovetaurilia in a military setting, from Trajan's Column 010 Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traianssaule, Tafel X.jpg
Suovetaurilia in a military setting, from Trajan's Column

Archaeological excavations at Satricum have revealed evidence of the sacrifice of sheep, pigs, and a cow dating to between the 5th-3rd centuries BCE. [30] : 536  Some religious rites similar to the Roman suovetaurilia were practiced by a few other Indo-European peoples, from Iberia to India. The Cabeço das Fráguas inscript (found in Portugal) describes a threefold sacrifice practiced by the Lusitanians, devoting a sheep, a pig and a bull to what may have been local gods. [31] In the Indian Sautramani ritual, a ram, a bull and a goat were sacrificed to Saraswati, Indra, and the Asvins respectively. [32] The name of the Sautramani derives from the title Sutrāman ("good-protector"), an epithet applied to the war god Indra, which parallels the prominence of the war god Mars in the Roman rite. [26] In Iran ten thousand sheep, a thousand cattle and a hundred stallions were dedicated to Ardvi Sura Anahita. [31] Similar to the above rituals is the Greek trittoíai, the oldest known being described in the Odyssey and dedicated to Poseidon. The philosopher and historian Plutarch related in the Lives Of The Noble Greeks And Romans a story from the life of Pyrrhus about the sacrifice of a ram, a pig and a bull. The Umbrian Iguvine Tables also describe a sacrificial ritual related to the aforementioned rites.[ citation needed ]

See also

References

  1. ↑ How to Be a Farmer: An Ancient Guide to Life on the Land. Princeton University Press. 2021-11-02. p. 83. ISBN   978-0-691-22473-2.
  2. ↑ Dillon, Matthew; Garland, Lynda (2013-10-28). Ancient Rome: A Sourcebook. Routledge. p. 129. ISBN   978-1-136-76143-0.
  3. ↑ Greenley, Ben; Menashe, Dan; Renshaw, James (2017-07-13). OCR Classical Civilisation GCSE Route 1: Myth and Religion. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 61. ISBN   978-1-350-01489-3.
  4. ↑ Linderski, J. (7 March 2016). "suovetaurilia". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics . doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.6149. ISBN   978-0-19-938113-5 . Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  5. ↑ Orlin, Eric (2015-11-19). Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-134-62559-8.
  6. ↑ Pascal, C. Bennett (1988). "Tibullus and the Ambarvalia" . The American Journal of Philology. 109 (4): 523–536. doi:10.2307/295078. ISSN   0002-9475. JSTOR   295078.
  7. ↑ Gagarin, Michael (2009-12-31). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Oxford University Press. p. 101. ISBN   978-0-19-517072-6.
  8. 1 2 Goldthwaite, Lora L. Holland (2013-01-21). "Ambarvalia". In Bagnall, Roger S; Brodersen, Kai; Champion, Craige B; Erskine, Andrew; Huebner, Sabine R (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (1 ed.). Wiley. p. 1. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah17026.pub2. ISBN   978-1-4051-7935-5. S2CID   241398302.
  9. ↑ Sexton, Jeremy (2017). ""Brass" Instruments and Romanization: Tubae and Cornua on the Arch at Susa" (PDF). Historic Brass Society Journal. 29: 47–60. doi:10.2153/0120170011003 (inactive 1 July 2025).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  10. ↑ Bagnall, Roger S; Brodersen, Kai; Champion, Craige B; Erskine, Andrew; Huebner, Sabine R, eds. (2013-01-21). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (1 ed.). Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah17431. ISBN   978-1-4051-7935-5.
  11. ↑ Galinsky, Karl; Lapatin, Kenneth (2016-01-01). Cultural Memories in the Roman Empire. Getty Publications. p. 240. ISBN   978-1-60606-462-7.
  12. ↑ Hitch, Sarah; Rutherford, Ian (2017-08-24). Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek World. Cambridge University Press. p. 130. ISBN   978-0-521-19103-6.
  13. ↑ Poccetti, Paolo (2016-12-05). Latinitatis rationes: Descriptive and Historical Accounts for the Latin Language. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. pp. 142–143. ISBN   978-3-11-043189-6.
  14. ↑ The Scottish antiquary, or, Northern notes & queries. Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable. 1890. pp. 19–25. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
  15. ↑ Macdonald, Sir George (1934). The Roman wall in Scotland, by Sir George Macdonald (2d ed., rev., enl., and in great part rewritten ed.). Oxford: The Clarendon press. pp. 362–365. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  16. ↑ Gardner, Jane F.; Wiedemann, Thomas (2013-01-11). The Roman Household: A Sourcebook. Routledge. p. 36. ISBN   978-1-134-95028-7.
  17. 1 2 Woodard 2006, p. 106.
  18. 1 2 Watkins 1995, p. 197.
  19. ↑ Woodard 2006, p. 116.
  20. ↑ Woodard 2006, p. 117.
  21. ↑ Varro. De Lingua Latina. 5.148.
  22. 1 2 Woodard 2006, p. 118.
  23. ↑ Watkins 1995, pp. 199–200.
  24. 1 2 Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 138.
  25. ↑ Benveniste 2016, p. 434.
  26. 1 2 Woodard 2006, p. 105.
  27. ↑ Puhvel 1978, p. 361.
  28. ↑ Whitehouse, Harvey; Martin, Luther H. (2004-09-15). Theorizing Religions Past: Archaeology, History, and Cognition. Rowman Altamira. pp. 70–71. ISBN   978-0-7591-1535-4.
  29. ↑ Turcan, Robert (2013-10-28). The Gods of Ancient Rome: Religion in Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times. Routledge. p. 41. ISBN   978-1-136-05850-9.
  30. ↑ Prummel, Wietske; Bouma, Jelle (1997). "Animal offerings at Borgo Le Ferriere (Latium, Italy) : Postpalaeolithic Europe I" (PDF). Anthropozoologica. Proceedings of the 7th ICAZ conference.
  31. 1 2 Blanca María Prósper (1999). "The inscription of Cabeço das Fraguas revisited. Lusitanian and Alteuropäisch populations in the west of the Iberian Peninsula". Transactions of the Philological Society. 97 (2): 151–184. doi:10.1111/1467-968X.00047.
  32. ↑ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 512.

Bibliography

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