05 Works, Today, February 14th, is Lupercalia/ Valentine’s Day, With Footnotes – #45

Lupercalia was an ancient pastoral annual festival observed in the city of Rome between February 13 and February 15, to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility.

At the Lupercal altar, a male goat and a dog were sacrificed by one or another of the Luperci, under the supervision of the Flamen dialis, Jupiter’s chief priest, after which two of the Luperci were led to the altar, their foreheads were touched with a bloody knife, and the blood was wiped off with wool dipped in milk  Next the Luperci cut thongs from the flayed skin of the animal, and ran with these, naked or near-naked, in an anticlockwise direction around the hill. These gross whips were called, februare…

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