Friends, Romans, naked wolf-men ...

Friends, Romans, naked wolf-men ... why an ancient festival is still controversial



This article is more than 6 years old
The annual Lupercalia festival turned society upside down – and the location of its starting point is still hotly debated

their view of nudity. In fact the opposite was true. It was only during exceptional occasions that Romans were freed from their social norms – and the most spectacular occasion was the annual Lupercalia festival.

From the earliest days of Rome, 15 February was reserved for this strange festival. It was so unusual that Cicero disparaged the festival as savage and uncivilised remnants of primitive times. A closer look at the rituals might explain his attitude: men of the nobility stripped down to their underwear in order to strike women with strips of goatskin. Classed as priests, these were not men of the cloth as we would understand it – Roman religion was nothing like modern Christianity or Islam – but young men of military age who showed off their muscles running around the Palatine hill and the Forum, the city centre of ancient Rome

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Woman, 30, is charged with misconduct over video showing female prison officer

Image
Woman, 30, is charged with misconduct over video showing female prison officer apparently having sex with inmate in Wandsworth jail cell A woman has been charged with misconduct over a video showing a female prison officer apparently having sex with an inmate in a Wandsworth jail cell. Linda De Sousa Abreu, who was revealed to be the woman in the video by MailOnline on Friday, will appear in custody at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court on Monday, the Met Police said. The force launched an investigation after it was made aware of the footage on Friday before arresting a woman and taking her into police custody on the same dayThe shocking clip sees the 30-year-old wearing uniform and begins with her apparently performing a sex act on an unidentified prisoner at the Category B jail in south-west London. The footage, which MailOnline understands to be recent, then appears to shows her having sex with the prisoner while his cellmate films on a mobile phone. Footage of the cell shows a TV and ...
Read more

Why a Story of Fugitive Slaves May Not Just Be History

Image
Why a Story of Fugitive Slaves May Not Just Be History In light of the current Great Divide, there is no innocent reading of history. We mine every thesis about the Constitutional Convention or the Civil War for evidence of another agenda. History becomes covert commentary on Trump and the Resistance. So when Andrew Delbanco’s wonderful new book on fugitive slaves in antebellum America landed in my hands, I was sure I was looking at a treatise on the 2010s. Congressional dysfunction. The failure of compromise. A breakdown of the major political parties. Strong movements to affirm that black lives matter. Charges that opponents are “drenched in moralistic self-delight” (93) meeting counter-charges that there is “a higher law than the Constitution” (258) demanding separation from ungodly neighbors. Didn’t I read this in the paper this morning? In The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War, Delbanco is not averse to suc...
Read more

1480s The Portuguese populate their island colonies off the coast of western Africa

Image
1480s The Portuguese populate their island colonies off the coast of western Africa  largely with enslaved Black Africans. The Portuguese also take many African captives back to Portugal. c. 1500 Spain and Portugal begin establishing colonies in the New World. Large parts of the Caribbean will be depopulated during the European conquest. Increasingly, captives will be shipped from Africa to replace the enslaved Indians. 1600s transatlantic slave tradeSlave traders transfer captives to a ship along the western coast of Africa. The Africans will be transported across the Atlantic Ocean and enslaved in the Americas. The Dutch, English, and French also establish colonies in the New World and become major participants in the transatlantic slave trade. A large percentage of their human cargo is taken from the region of West Africa between the Sénégal and Niger rivers. Demand for slave labor rises sharply with the growth of sugar plantations in the Caribbean and tobacco plantations in the...
Read more

The Battle of Missionary Ridge,

Image
The Battle of Missionary Ridge, also known as the Battle of Chattanooga, was fought on November 25, 1863, as part of the Chattanooga campaign of the American Civil War. Following the Union victory in the Battle of Lookout  Mountain on November 24, Union forces in the Military Division of the Mississippi under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Missionary Ridge and defeated the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Braxton Bragg, forcing it to retreat to Georgia. In the morning, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, commanding the Union Army of the Tennessee, made piecemeal attacks to capture the northern end of Missionary Ridge, Tunnel Hill, but were stopped by fierce resistance from the Confederate divisions of Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, William H.T. Walker, and Carter L. Stevenson. In the afternoon, Grant was concerned that Bragg was reinforcing his right flank at Sherman's expense. He ordered the Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas, to ...
Read more

Ghaziabad: Video of woman walking nude at busy Mohan Nagar junction goes viral

Image
Ghaziabad: Video of woman walking nude at busy Mohan Nagar junction goes viral A shocking video has gone viral on social media, depicting a woman walking naked on a busy road in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad.The 9-second clip shows the woman calmly strolling without clothes amidst traffic at Mohan Nagar, one of the most busy areas, in Ghaziabad. Despite the bustling surroundings, no bystanders intervened or attempted to cover her. According to reports, the video was recorded on June 25, and the woman's identity remains undisclosed. It is unclear why she was in this state or how she came to be on the road. However, ET could not verify the authenticity of this viral video. Authorities became aware of the incident only after the video gained traction on social media, raising concerns about public safety and law enforcement in Ghaziabad.The Ghaziabad police have initiated an investigation to locate the woman and ensure her well-being. Earlier this year, a video showing a woman wearing ...
Read more