LUPERCALIA

lupercalia, a very ancient, possibly pre-roman, pastoral festival in honour of lupercus. its rites were under the superintendence of a corporation of priests called luperci,[1] whose institution is attributed either to the arcadian evander, or to romulus and remus. in front of the porta romana, on the western side of the palatine hill, close to the ficus ruminalis and the casa romuli, was the cave of lupercus; in it, according to the legend, the she-wolf had suckled the twins, and the bronze wolf, which is still preserved in the capitol, was placed in it in 296 b.c. but the festival itself, which was held on february 15th, contains no reference to the romulus legend, which is probably later in origin, though earlier than the grecizing evander legend. the festival began with the sacrifice by the luperci (or the flamen dialis) of goats and a dog; after which two of the luperci were led to the altar, their foreheads were touched with a bloody knife, and the blood wiped off with wool dipped in milk; then the ritual required that the two young men should laugh. the smearing of the forehead with blood probably refers to human sacrifice originally practised at the festival. the sacrificial feast followed, after which the luperci cut thongs from the skins of the victims and ran in two bands round the walls of the old palatine city, the line of which was marked with stones, striking the people who crowded near. a blow from the thong prevented sterility in women. these thongs were called _februa_, the festival februatio, and the day _dies februatus_ (_februare_ = to purify); hence the name of the month february, the last of the old roman year. the object of the festival was, by expiation and purification, to secure the fruitfulness of the land, the increase of the flocks and the prosperity of the whole people. the lupercal (cave of lupercus), which had fallen into a state of decay, was rebuilt by augustus; the celebration of the festival had been maintained, as we know from the famous occurrence of it in 44 b.c. it survived until a.d. 494, when it was changed by gelasius into the feast of the purification. lupercus, in whose honour the festival was held, is identified with faunus or inuus, evander ([greek: euandros]), in the greek legend being a translation of faunus (the "kindly"). the luperci were divided into two _collegia_, called quinctiliani (or quinctiales) and fabiani, from the gens quinctilia (or quinctia)[2] and fabia; at the head of each of these colleges was a magister. in 44 b.c. a third college, luperci julii, was instituted in honour of julius caesar, the first magister of which was mark antony. in imperial times the members were usually of equestrian standing. see marquardt, _romische staatsverwaltung_, iii. (1885) p. 438; w. warde fowler, _roman festivals_ (1899), p. 390 foll., and article in smith's _dictionary of greek and roman antiquities_ (3rd ed. 1891). footnotes: [1] many derivations are suggested, but it seems most probable that luperci simply means "wolves" (the last part of the word exhibiting a similar formation to _nov-erca_), the name having its origin in the primitive worship of the wolf as a wolf-god. [2] mommsen considers the quinctia to be the older gens, and the quinctilia a later introduction from alba. lupine (_lupinus_), in botany, a genus of about 100 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants of the tribe _genisteae_, of the order leguminosae. species with digitate leaves range along the west side of america from british columbia to northern chile, while a few occur in the mediterranean regions. a few others with entire leaves are found in brazil and eastern north america. the leaves are remarkable for "sleeping" in three different ways. from being in the form of a horizontal star by day, the leaflets either fall and form a hollow cone with their bases upwards (_l. pilosus_), or rise and the cone is inverted (_l. luteus_), or else the shorter leaflets fall and the longer rise, and so together form a vertical star as in many species; the object in every case being to protect the surfaces of the leaflets from radiation and consequent wetting with dew (darwin, _movements of plants_, p. 340). the flowers are of the usual "papilionaceous" or pea-like form, blue, white, purple or yellow, in long terminal spikes. the stamens are monadelphous and bear dimorphic anthers. the species of which earliest mention is made is probably _l. termis_, which was cultivated by the ancient egyptians. it is wild in some parts of the mediterranean area and is extensively cultivated in egypt. its seeds are eaten by the poor after being steeped in water to remove their bitterness; the stems furnish fuel and charcoal for gunpowder. the lupine of the ancient greeks and romans was probably _l. albus_, which is still extensively cultivated in italy, sicily and other mediterranean countries for forage, for ploughing in to enrich the land, and for its round flat seeds, which form an article of food. yellow lupine (_l. luteus_) and blue lupine (_l. angustifolius_) are also cultivated on the european continent as farm crops for green manuring. lupines are easily cultivated in moderately good garden soil; they include annuals which are among the most ornamental and most easily grown of summer flowering plants (sow in open borders in april and may), and perennials, which are grown from seed or propagated by dividing strong plants in march and april. many of the forms in cultivation are hybrid. one of the best known of the perennial species is _l. polyphyllus_, a western north american species. it grows from 3 to 6 ft. high, and has numerous varieties, including a charming white-flowered one. the tree lupine (_l. arboreus_) is a californian bush, 2 to 4 ft. high, with fragrant yellow flowers. it is only hardy in the most favoured parts of the kingdom.