The Christian fear of the pagan outlook has damaged the whole consciousness of man. – D.H. Lawrence
Yesterday was Vinalia Rustica, the oldest known Roman festival to the goddess Venus; like Vinalia Urbana in the spring, it was shared between her and Jupiter, because she was the patroness of common wine while he was the patron of fine wines. Though some Roman historians insisted that the festival was sacred to Jupiter from the time of Aeneas (the dawn of Roman history), and that Venus only came into the celebration later, the evidence is that it was actually the opposite: the festival was associated with Venus Obsequens, her second-oldest aspect, who was much more like the original Latin vegetation goddess than the Greek Aphrodite. Furthermore, the more primitive rites were celebrated at her temples; the main sacrificial victim for the ritual was a ewe lamb; and the very name of the holiday indicates its original dedication to rustic wine (vinum spurcum) rather than the professionally-prepared, high-quality wine (vinum temetum) which was considered fit for religious ceremonies.
Long-time readers will probably recognize that this is a familiar pattern in the development of holidays: they usually have their origins in very ancient times, often prior to the advent of written language, and start out as agricultural celebrations presided over by women and dedicated to fertility deities. In their original forms, they usually involved blood sacrifice – sometimes even human sacrifice – and were often terrifying observances born of the fear that something could go wrong with sun or weather to destroy the crops on which they depended; these grisly rites were intended to propitiate the mysterious, capricious gods our ancestors held responsible for natural phenomena. As human civilization developed and people became more certain that the seasons at least were relatively dependable, and that the sun did not need to be bribed into returning every winter, the ceremonies became symbolic celebrations of thanksgiving rather than solemn ceremonies of bargaining and appeasement. Still later, as societies became more patriarchal, ceremonies which were originally dedicated to fertility goddesses and sacrificial vegetation gods (such as Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, etc) shifted to the control of authoritative sky-god types like Zeus who controlled the world as kings ruled countries, by force and might, rather than having to go through that messy and embarrassing annual-death bit. For example, starting in the 5th century BCE the primary winter solstice celebration in Greece began to shift from Lenaea (dedicated to Gaea and Dionysus) to Kronia (dedicated to Kronos); I suspect something similar happened in Rome about two centuries later, as Jupiter muscled in on the two wine-festivals which were previously considered the province of Venus.
But when Christianity installed its own interpretations on most of the popular pagan festivals in order to rededicate them to Christian purposes, it seems to have virtually ignored the warmer months. From Samhain to Beltane virtually every pagan holiday was converted into a Christian one, but the other half of the year was nearly empty. The Roman wine festival seems to have merged with the Celtic/Germanic festival of First Fruits (Lammas) which along with the summer solstice and autumnal equinox persisted as popular secular celebrations into the 19th century, though none of them were officially observed under Christian guises. But given that the day’s patron is also that of my profession, and that it’s conveniently located to herald the end of the Dog Days (we’ve enjoyed nights below 20o Celsius for over a week now), I decided to dedicate today’s column to Venus, and to recall a once-important occasion now consigned to the attic of history.
Syncretism: a word that came to me through the power of Twitter.
Syncretism’s a little different, though; that’s when two different religious traditions combine into something new, such as Catholicism and Obeah to create Voodoo. It can also be used for a new god who is a combination of two older ones, such as Venus Caelestis from Venus Verticordia and the Magna Mater.
Like Sikhism also (Hindu + Islam), though some Sikhs disagree with this characterization.
Doesn’t Camille Paglia argue that Catholicism itself is a syncretic construct of a Jewish sect and various pagan influences including Plato?
I don’t recall if she did, but it’s a good analysis; another strong influence is Gnosticism, and to some extent even the cult of Sol Invictus.
@Maggie: syncretism also works for subsects within a larger religious group: like the Hispano-Catholic cult of the Virgin syncretising with the home-grown Mexican cult of the Virgin de Guadelupe, or the merger of the three major Lutheran churches into the LCA back in the 80s.
Love this blog. I tend to be more Celto-Norse oriented in my Paganism, but I cannot deny the pure intellectual and spiritual allure of Aphrodite and the Greco-Roman pantheons. Guess I’ll have to convince Mrs. Ironwood that the occasion deserves proper non-sacrificing-of-sheep-but-probably-tearing-one-off neopagan celebration.
or the cult of the speaking cross (Mayan-Catholic syncretism).
The church probably wanted all the plebeians out working during those warm summer months, not carousing. Need to ensure all those clerical tummies are full during the winter!
Interesting,
You interchange Greek and Roman names as if they were different people. It is important to note that they are the same. Greek mythology was born of poems and societies personification of nature. It was always to explain nature. It is important to note, it is not a religion. The Romans, simply lacking any imagination adopted Greek Gods and renamed them. Zeus/Jupiter, Saturn/Cronus Hera/Juno, Hades/Pluto, Aphrodite/Venus etc
The harvests (fall) responsibility was Demters/Ceres. The Latin root of cereal. Her daughter was Persephone (the maiden of spring) one day, she strayed too far and was kidnapped by Hades and brought to the Underworld. There she became his bride. De meters grief was too much and soon there was no more harvest. (condensing and paraphrasing large) Zeus could not have this and sent Hermes to the underworld to get her back. Hades consented but she ate A pomegranate seed meaning she belongs to the underworld. But a deal was struck. For half the year she has to be with Hades and the other half with demeter. This is where the seasons come from. When with Demter, spring and summer flourish. The crops grow, but when she leaves, demeter returns to sadness and fall and winter arrive.
I hope this just clarifies the first paragraph and not the thesis of your post.
A Greek.
Not quite. The Latin tribes had their own, separate deities who were originally separate and distinct from the Greek; it was not until after the Romans began to expand their power and came in contact with the Greek civilization that they began to syncretize their sometimes vaguely-defined gods and goddesses with the much more distinct and interesting Greek deities. Sometimes the fit was very close, as with Zeus and Jupiter; other times there was no corresponding Roman god and the Greek was adopted part and parcel (e.g. Apollo). But in most cases the graft was an uneasy fit, and the result was something new. The Roman Venus was eventually a combination of a native Latin vegetation goddess, an Etruscan goddess named Turan, the Greek Aphrodite and even bits of Astarte and Ishtar. In a way it’s fair to say they’re the “same” goddess…but in another, very important way they aren’t at all. If you follow the links in the text, you’ll see more on the subject in several other columns.
It seems to me that, if the various Gods were real, They would all be mentally ill because Their origins, personalities, and relations keep changing. They would be all confuzzled, and They would be totally bonkers.
You have an incomplete and myopic perspective on theology.
Probably. Looking at this from the perspective of “what if this were all real” probably misses every point which ever was.
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