Abstract
The motion of Venus is apparent in the rhythm of the many feasts associated with female life and fertility, particularly weddings and conception-related feasts.
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Notes
- 1.
Vergil, Bucolica, 8.29–30: ‘Mopse, novas incidas faces, tibi ducitur uxor; / sparge, marite, nuces, tibi deserit Hesperus Oetam.’ “To leave Mount Oeta” means “the night is falling”.
- 2.
Claudian, de raptu Proserpinae, 2.361–2: Iam suus inferno processerat Hesperus orbi: / ducitur in thalamum virgo.
- 3.
Catullus, Carmina, 62.1–32: ‘Vesper adest, iuvenes, consurgite: Vesper Olympo / exspectata diu vix tandem lumina tollit. / Surgere iam tempus, iam pinguis linquere mensas, / iam veniet virgo, iam dicetur hymenaeus […] ’/‘ Cernitis innuptae, iuvenes? Consurgite contra; / nimirum Oetaeos ostendit Noctifer ignes […] ’/‘ Hespere, quis caelo fertur crudelior ignis? / qui natam possis complexu avellere matris, / complexu matris retinentem avellere natam, / et iuveni ardenti castam donare puellam […] ’/‘ Hespere, quis caelo lucet iucundior ignis? / qui desponsa tua firmes conubia flamma, / quae pepigere viri, pepigerunt ante parentes, / nec iunxere prius quam se tuus extulit ardor. / Quid datur a divis felici optatius hora?[…] ’/‘ Hesperus e nobis, aequales, abstulit unam.’
- 4.
Ovid, Fasti, 4.133–160; here I quote lines 133–138 and 148–154: Rite deam colitis, Latiae matresque nurusque / et vos, quis vittae longaque vestis abest. / Aurea marmoreo redimicula demite collo, / demite divitias: tota lavanda est. / Aurea siccato redimicula reddite collo: / nunc alii flores, nunc nova danda rosa est.; / […] et vitium nudi corporis omne videt: / ut tegat hoc celetque viros, Fortuna Virilis / praestat et hoc parvo ture rogata facit. / Nec pigeat tritum niveo cum lacte papaver / sumere et expressis mella liquata favis; / cum primum cupido Venus est deducta marito, / hoc bibit: ex illo tempore nupta fuit.
- 5.
Ovid, Fasti, 6.479–80: Hac ibi luce ferunt Matutae sacra parenti / sceptriferas Servi templa dedisse manus.
The Latin parens is the present participle of the verb pario, “to beget, to give birth”; the primary meaning is “(she) who is begetting, who is giving birth”, from which we have drawn the more general meaning of “mother, father, parent”. So, the literal meaning of Matutae […] parenti is “to the expectant Matuta”.
- 6.
Ovid, Fasti, 6.473–636. Quoted here are lines 627–634: Namque pater Tulli Volcanus, Ocresia mater / praesignis facie Corniculana fuit. / Hanc secum Tanaquil sacris de more peractis / iussit in ornatum fundere vina focum: / hic inter cineres obsceni forma virilis / aut fuit aut visa est, sed fuit illa magis. / Iussa foco captiva sedet: conceptus ab illa / Servius a caelo semina gentis habet.
Note that the Latin praesignis does not mean “beautiful” but “foreboding”.
- 7.
Ovid, Fasti, 6.474: […] et vigil Eois Lucifer exit aquis.
- 8.
In Roman times, the practice was to count inclusively: 15 days in January + 28 in February + 31 in March + 1 in April = 75 days.
- 9.
29 days in June + 178 in July, August, September, October, November and December + 15 in January = 222 days.
- 10.
19 days in June + 257 days up to 28 February = 276; 276 + 309 days from 1 March to 11 January = 585 days.
- 11.
19 days in June + 178 in July, August, September, October, November and December + 13 in January = 210.
- 12.
Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 16.16: Quando igitur contra naturam forte conversi in pedes brachiis plerumque diductis retineri solent aegriusque tunc mulieres enituntur, huius pericoli deprecandi gratia arae statutae sunt Romae duabus Carmentibus, quarum altera ‘Postvorta’ cognominatast, ‘Prorsa’ altera a recti perversique partus et potestate et nomine.
- 13.
Censorinus, de die natali, 11.2: […] alterum minorem, quem vocant septemmestrem, qui decimetducentesimo die post conceptionem exeat ab utero. See also 9.3, 11.5 and 11.11.
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Magini, L. (2015). The Movements of Venus (and the Moon), Female Fertility, and the Feast Days of Veneralia and Matralia . In: Stars, Myths and Rituals in Etruscan Rome. Space and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07266-1_10
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