Parilia in the context of "Pales"

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⭐ Core Definition: Parilia

The Parilia or Palilia was an ancient Roman festival of rural character performed annually on 21 April, aimed at cleansing both sheep and shepherd. It was carried out in acknowledgment to the Roman deity Pales, a deity of uncertain gender who was a patron of shepherds and sheep.

Ovid describes the Parilia at length in the Fasti, an elegiac poem on the Roman religious calendar, and implies that it predates the founding of Rome (753 BC in the Varronian chronology), as indicated by its pastoral and preagricultural concerns. During the Republic, farming was idealized and central to Roman identity, so the festival took on a more generally rural character. Increasing urbanization caused the rustic Parilia to be reinterpreted rather than abandoned, as Rome was an intensely traditional society. During the Imperial period, the date was celebrated as the birthday of Rome (Latin: dies natalis Romae or natalis Urbis).

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👉 Parilia in the context of Pales

In ancient Roman religion, Pales was a deity of shepherds, flocks and livestock. Regarded as male by some sources and female by others, Pales can be either singular or plural in Latin, and refers at least once to a pair of deities. Pales may have been a loose Roman equivalent of the Greek god Pan, also a deity of shepherds and flocks.

Pales's festival, called the Parilia, was celebrated on April 21. This coincided with the traditional "birthday" of the city of Rome itself. The festival was linked with a ritual purification for shepherds and their flocks. Sheep pens were cleaned and decorated with plants; bonfires were lit using sulphur with the smoke purifying the livestock; and offerings of cake and milk were given in honor of Pales. Shepherds could also wash themselves, drink milk, and jump through the bonfire smoke themselves. For observation in urban areas such as Rome which lacked shepherds, leftover ashes from calf fetuses burned at Fordicidia (the Ides of March, April 15) may have been sprinkled into sulphur bonfires.

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Parilia in the context of Aprilis

Aprilis or mensis Aprilis (April) was the second month of the ancient Roman calendar in the classical period, following Martius (March) and preceding Maius (May). On the oldest Roman calendar that had begun with March, Aprilis had been the second of ten months in the year. April had 29 days on calendars of the Roman Republic, with a day added to the month during the reform in the mid-40s BC that produced the Julian calendar.

April was marked by a series of festivals devoted to aspects of rural life, since it was a busy month for farmers. As Rome became more urbanized, the significance of some ceremonies expanded, notably the Parilia, an archaic pastoral festival celebrated as the "birthday" (dies natalis) or founding day of Rome. The month was generally preoccupied with deities who were female or ambiguous in gender, opening with the Feast of Venus on the Kalends.

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Parilia in the context of Fordicidia

In ancient Roman religion, the Fordicidia was a festival of fertility, held on the Ides of April (April 15), that pertained to farming and animal husbandry. It involved the sacrifice of a pregnant cow to Tellus, the ancient Roman goddess of the Earth, in proximity to the festival of Ceres (Cerealia) on April 19.

On the Roman religious calendar, the month of April (Aprilis) was in general preoccupied with deities who were female or ambiguous in gender, opening with the Feast of Venus on the Kalends. Several other festivals pertaining to farm life were held in April: the Parilia, a feast of shepherds, on April 21; the Robigalia on April 25, to protect crops from blight; and the Vinalia, one of the two wine festivals on the calendar, at the end of the month. Of these, the Fordicidia and Robigalia are likely to have been of greatest antiquity. William Warde Fowler, whose early 20th-century work on Roman festivals remains a standard reference, asserted that the Fordicidia was "beyond doubt one of the oldest sacrificial rites in Roman religion."

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Pales ← Aprilis ← Fordicidia
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Joseph-Benoît Suvée → Roman festival → Pales → Ovid → Fasti (Ovid) → Elegiac couplets → Roman calendar → Founding of Rome → Varronian chronology → Pastoral → Roman Republic → Roman agriculture → Mos maiorum → Roman Empire → Birthday of Rome → Latin language → Glossary of ancient Roman religion →