Rest Days; A Sociological Study 39 



him and seemed to banish him from her presence."^- Miss Har- 

 rison's brilHant researches have shown that the Plyntheria and its 

 attendant festival, the Kallyntheria, when Athena's image was re- 

 dressed and " beautified." were originally rites of purification at 

 harvest time, rites which must have existed long before their 

 attribution to the protecting deity of Athens. ^^ 



With the Plyntheria may be profitably compared the better- 

 known Roman festival of the Vestalia. The Athenian cere- 

 monies came in May, the Roman in June, but their content as 

 purificatory rites preliminary to the bringing-in of the first-fruits 

 was much the same. The nine days devoted to the Vestalia were 

 ill-omened (religiosi). During their celebration the innermost 

 sanctuary of Vesta, shut all the rest of the year, was opened to 

 the matrons of Rome, who crowded to it barefooted, whilst the 

 Vestals themselves offered the sacred cakes made of the first ears 

 of corn plucked a month previously. On the ninth day (June 

 15) the temple was swept and the refuse thrown into the Tiber. 

 Then the dies religiosi came to an end as soon as the last act of 

 cleansing had been duly performed — Quando stercus dclatuin fas, 

 " When the rubbish has been carried away."^* 



In addition to such festivals as the Parentalia, Lemuria, and 

 Vestalia, celebrated on unlucky days when all important under- 

 takings, both religious and secular, were intermitted, the Romans 

 had also their distinctively sacred days. The feriae, or dies 

 feriati, included all days consecrated to any deity. ^^ On the 



^"Plutarch, Alcibiades, 34. 



^^Prolegomena to tlie Study of Greek Religion, 114 sqq. In the post- 

 Exilic calendar of the Jews the Day of Firstfruits, inaugurating the Feast 

 of Weeks, is declared to be a time when " no toilsome work " is allowable 

 (Leviticus, xxiii. 21; Ntunbers, xxviii. 26). 



"Varro, De lingua Latina, vi. 2,2; Ovid, Fasti, vi. 707 sqq.; Fowler, 

 Roman Festivals, 148 sqq. 



^^ Feriae seems to have been originally fesiae (Wissowa, op. cit., 366 

 n}), hence dies feriati must have been equivalent to dies festi, though 

 some authorities hold that not all ferial days were consecrated to the 

 worship of the gods. Possible exceptions were the seven days of the 

 Saturnalia and the nundinae (infra). In the earlier period the ferial days 



39 



