Rest Days; A Sociological Study 33 



Greeks invested it, represent a comparatively late development.*^ 

 The two Roman festivals of the dead, the so-called Parentalia 

 in February, the Lemuria in May, were likewise celebrated as 

 dies religiosi, true days of abstinence, when it was unlucky to 

 begin a journey or to undertake any important business. At 

 such times the temples and lawcourts were closed, magistrates 

 laid aside the insignia of office, and marriages were forbidden.*^ 

 The February celebration from the 13th to the 21st of that 

 month has been taken to embody all that was least superstitious 

 and fearful in the generally terrifying worship of the dead. The 

 Lemuria, (May 9, 11, 13), had rather an opposite character and 

 represents the more ancient rite for the expulsion of the ghosts 

 of the dead.*® The three days in the Roman year, August 24, 

 October 5, and November 8, when the door of the Lower World 

 was unclosed for the spirits of the dead to come forth — quibus 

 iiiundus patet — were also religiosi or unlucky. " When the 

 mnndus is open," said Varro, " the gate of the doleful underworld 

 gods is open, therefore it is not proper on those days for a battle 

 to be fought, troops to be levied, the army to march forth, a 

 ship to set sail, or a man to marry."*'' 



*' On the Anthesteria, from an anthropological standpoint, see particu- 

 larly Jane E. Harrison, Prolegomena to tJie Study of Greek Religion, 

 Cambridge, 1903, pp. 32 sqq.. 49 sqq. Dr. L. R. Farnell who has recently 

 examined the Anthesteria, does not share Miss Harrison's view that the 

 whole of the festival was originally an All Souls" feast. He thinks the 

 first day, the Pithoigia, was entirely joyous and Bacchic, the second day, 

 the Choes, was also a purely Dionysiac festival, though perhaps of a less 

 happy character. Dr. Farnell holds that the ritual for the third day, the 

 Chytroi, was originally an independent ceremony of ghost-riddance which 

 fell so near the Dionysiac celebration as to become attached to the latter 

 as a mournful finale (Cults of the Greek States, Oxford, 1909, v. 215 sqq.). 



"Aulus Gellius, Nodes Atticae, iv. 9, 5; Varro, De lingua Latina, vi. 

 29 sq. 



*' Ovid. Fasti, v. 419-86; W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals of the Period 

 of the Republic, London, 1899, pp. 306 .^(7(7., 106 sqq.: G. Wissowa, Religion 

 iind Kultus der Romer, Munich, 1902, pp. 187 sqq. 



** Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 16, 18. Cf. Festus, 154. Mommsen (Corpus 

 Inscriptionum Latinarum, i. part i'. 296) holds that the exercise of 

 religious rites was not forbidden on these three days. 



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