#fasti

Ovid’s Fasti Book 6

Tells that Hera is Kronos’s eldest child rather than Hestia, which doesn’t really interest in me in itself but the wording is interesting, that Hera was the first to call Kronos her father, it goes nicely with my “Hera is the only child Kronos raised” headcanon.

January 14 is Mark Antony's 2105th birthday! On contemporary Roman fasti, such as the Fasti Verulani (below), the date is marked as D•VITIOSUS•EX•S•C.

image source (the first full line says: [F xi]x EN d . vitiosus . ex . s . c . anT . naTal, i.e. F [nundinal day] xix [days before the Kalends] EN [endotercissus: the type of day, where most religious or political proceedings were not permitted in the morning or evening but were acceptable in the middle of the day] d [dies] vitiosus ex . s . c . [abbreviation of Ex Senatus Consulto i.e. by decree of the Senate] anT [abbreviation for Antonius/Antony] naTal [abbreviation of natalis, a substantive noun meaning "birthday"] transl.: "a defective day, as decreed by the Senate, Antony's birthday")

Octavian (not yet Augustus), after the death of his brother-in-law/ally-turned-enemy at Actium in 30 BC and his assumption of power over Rome, had the Senate label Mark Antony's birthday as a DIES VITIOSUS (i.e. a bad, faulty, defective, corrupt day) so that Antony's remaining followers would be unable to celebrate his birthday.

Ovid, Fasti 6.249-256 Vesta, favor me; now for you I unseal My lips put to use in holy service, If it is permitted me to approach your sacred objects. I was wholly occupied in prayer: I felt celestial powers, and the joyous earth Shined in answer with a purple light. I myself, goddess (away with poets’ falsehoods) Did not see you, nor were you to be Looked upon by a man; but the things I did not know And about which I was in error’s grip, Were known to me, although no one gave me instruction. Vesta, fave: tibi nunc operata resolvimus ora,      ad tua si nobis sacra venire licet. in prece totus eram: caelestia numina sensi,       laetaque purpurea luce refulsit humus. non equidem vidi (valeant mendacia vatum)      te, dea, nec fueras aspicienda viro; sed quae nescieram quorumque errore tenebar      cognita sunt nullo praecipiente mihi.

Francesco del Cossa, The Triumph of Minerva: March (detail of the weavers), from the Room of the Months, Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara

May 9

OVID, Fasti. Translated by A. S. Kline 2004.

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When Hesperus, the Evening Star, has shown his lovely face

Three times, from that day, and the defeated stars fled Phoebus,

It will be the ancient sacred rites of the Lemuria,

When we make offerings to the voiceless spirits.

The year was once shorter, the pious rites of purification, februa,

Were unknown, nor were you, two-faced Janus, leader of the months:

Yet they still brought gifts owed to the ashes of the dead,

The grandson paid respects to his buried grandfather’s tomb.

It was May month, named for our ancestors (maiores),

And a relic of the old custom still continues.

When midnight comes, lending silence to sleep,

And all the dogs and hedgerow birds are quiet,

He who remembers ancient rites, and fears the gods,

Rises (no fetters binding his two feet)

And makes the sign with thumb and closed fingers,

Lest an insubstantial shade meets him in the silence.

After cleansing his hands in spring water,

He turns and first taking some black beans,

Throws them with averted face: saying, while throwing:

‘With these beans I throw I redeem me and mine.’

He says this nine times without looking back: the shade

Is thought to gather the beans, and follow behind, unseen.

Again he touches water, and sounds the Temesan bronze,

And asks the spirit to leave his house.

When nine times he’s cried: ‘Ancestral spirit, depart,’

He looks back, and believes the sacred rite’s fulfilled.