Fordicidia
ancient roman religion fordicidia festival fertility held ides april april pertained farming animal husbandry involved sacrifice pregnant cow tellus ancient roman goddess earth proximity festival cere cerealia april roman religious calendar month april aprilis general preoccupied deity female ambiguous gender opening feast venus kalends several festival pertaining farm life held april parilia feast shepherd april robigalia april protect crop blight vinalia one two wine festival calendar end month fordicidia robigalia likely greatest antiquity william warde fowler whose early thcentury work roman festival remains standard reference asserted fordicidia beyond doubt one oldest sacrificial rite roman religion late republican scholar varro explains name festival follows fordicidia named fordae cow forda cow one carrying unborn calf day several pregnant cow officially publicly sacrificed curia festival called fordicidia fordae caedendae pregnant cow slaughtered form horda hordicalia also found like many aspect roman law religion institution fordicidia attributed numa pompilius sabine second king rome rustic god faunus instructed numa dream sacrifice tellus would mitigate harsh agricultural condition rome grappling oracular message required interpretation death cattle king tellus must placated two cow let single heifer yield two life animae rite numa solved riddle instituting sacrifice pregnant cow ritual public cult mirrored private vice versa one sacrifice conducted behalf state case capitol one thirty curia ancient division city made romulus original three tribe first two festival involving curia fornacalia february differed ritual state corresponding local ceremony moveable date fixed annually curio maximus state sacrifice fordicidia unborn calf wrenched mother womb attendant virgo vestalis maximum vestal maximum burnt ash preserved vestal used one ingredient ritual substance suffimen along dried blood october horse previous year stalk bean harvested suffimen sprinkled bonfire parilia festival devoted purifying shepherd sheep later celebrated also birthday city sacrifice fordicidia preparation suffimen constituted first public ceremony year vestal played active role purpose sacrifice suggested augustan poet ovid elegiac calendar thcentury antiquarian john lydus book month assure fertility planted grain already growing womb mother earth guise tellus sacrifice offered certain ritual vestal presided unborn calf liminal mediating yet born living fullfledged victim sacrificed role vestal emphasizes importance linking ritual reuse element earth fertility health safety flock security city including especially military security invasion fordicidia along half festival republican rome appear calendar empire becoming christianized spirit cambridge ritualist comparative mythologist fowler pointed chinese spring festival witnessed british ambassador china john barrow temple earth large porcelain cow carried procession shattered reveal several small cowimages inside distributed among people token good growing season fowler speculated chinese rite origin animal sacrifice similar fordicidia