On This Day In Roman History, February 18
No historical events on this day! I will instead look back at yesterday again and discuss the feriae conceptivae Fornacalia, which normally ends on February 17. The Roman festival Fornacalia has its roots deep within ancient Roman tradition and was celebrated to honor the goddess Fornax. On February 1st I talked about a Roman festival involving the goddess of the door hinge, and today's goddess is only a little less trivial. Fornax was the personification of the oven or furnace, which made it directly related to the making and baking of bread. Families would bring a certain type of grain known as spelt to be toasted into a sacrificial cake at gathering places near the Curio Maximus. It was believed this would help prevent any baking fires that may happen over the course of the coming year.
Did you know?
This festival was associated with and also honored the Roman mythological figure Quirinus. This figure was an early god embodying the Roman state and government. The entomology for this name is almost certainly derived from the Latin "quiris" meaning "spear", or"wielder of the spear". Quirinus was most likely a Sabine deity comparable to a chief god and was adopted into early Latin culture.
Pictured: Denarius picturing Quirinus on the obverse, and Ceres enthroned on the reverse, a commemoration by a moneyer in 56 BC of a Cerialia presented by an earlier Gaius Memmius as aedile. Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, via Wikimedia Commons.
The religious historian Angelo Brelich argues to say that Quirinus and Romulus were "originally the same divine entity" during the time of Roman religion becoming demythicised. He defends this mainly by showing the similarities of the two in ancient writings, especially with their association of the specific grain of spelt. Ovid writes of Fornacalia saying "now the Curio Maximus, in a set form of words, declares the shifting date of the Fornacalia, the Feast of Ovens, and round the Forum hang many tablets, on which every ward displays its particular sign."
Opinion
Welcome to my daily opinion! It is so interesting to see the early entomology for these religious figures, and how their overlap is more common the further one looks back. The complexity of all things, even religion, grows stronger over time. As we peak further and further back into these festivals and their associated religious deities, several gods and goddess, as well as traditions, seem to merge from individual beliefs and traditions. Even between the Sabines, Etruscans, and Latins traditions and beliefs that overlap emerge during the early 900's BCE. Of course the fundamentals for these beliefs were happening long before this time, but without a time machine we will never know just how interconnected many of these religions, in their beginning, really were.
Sources
O., Boyle, A. J., & Woodard, R. D. (2004). Fasti. London: Penguin Books.
Orlin, E. M. (2010). Foreign cults in Rome: creating a Roman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press.
Warde, W. (2012). Roman festivals of the period of the republic. Place of publication not identified: Hardpress Publishing.
Special Thanks: Michael Houghan
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