“Jam nemus Egeriae, jam te ciet altus ab alba
Juppiter et soli non mitis Aricia regi.”
An archaic Greek relief, found in 1791 near the outlet of the lake, in the Vallericcia, has been sometimes thought to portray the combat between a priest and a candidate for the office. But the subject is rather the murder of Aegisthus by Orestes in presence of Clytaemnestra and Electra. See Sir W. Gell, Topography of Rome, ii. 116 sq.; O. Jahn, in Archäologische Zeitung, vii. (1849) coll. 113–118; Baumeister’s Denkmäler, p. 1112; O. Rossbach, op. cit. pp. 148 sq.; R. Lanciani, New Tales of Old Rome, p. 204.
[34] Thus there have been found many models of the organs of generation, both male and female, including wombs; figures of women with infants on their laps or on their arms; and couples seated side by side, the woman pregnant or carrying a child. See Bulletino dell’ Inst. di Corrisp. Archeologica, 1885, pp. 183 sq.; Notizie degli Scavi, 1885, pp. 160, 254; id. 1895, p. 424; O. Rossbach, op. cit. p. 160; G. H. Wallis, Illustrated Catalogue, pp. 4, 15, 17. Another group represents a woman just after delivery, supported by the midwife, who holds the child in her lap. See Graevius, Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, xii. col. 808. As to the huntress Diana, see above, p. [6].
[35] Statius, Sylvae, iii. 1. 52–60; Gratius Faliscus, Cynegeticon, i. 484 sq. As to the date we know from the calendars (W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Republic, p. 198) and from Festus (p. 343 ed. Müller; compare Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 100) that the festival of Diana on the Aventine at Rome fell on the Ides, that is, the 13th of August. Further, the Ides of August was held as the birthday of Diana at Lanuvium (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, xiv., No. 2112; G. Wilmanns, Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum, No. 319; C. G. Bruns, Fontes Juris Romani,⁷ ed. O. Gradenwitz, p. 389; H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, No. 7212). Moreover, Martial (xii. 67. 2) and Ausonius (De feriis Romanis, 5 sq.) speak of the Ides of August as Diana’s day. Hence we may safely conclude that the Hecateias idus which Statius (l.c.) mentions as the date of the festival of Diana at Nemi were no other than the Ides of August, all the more that the poet describes the time as the hottest of the year. Compare G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer (Munich, 1902), p. 201.
[36] O. Rossbach, op. cit. pp. 150 note, 161. A coin of P. Clodius Turrinus (43 B.C.) portrays Diana with a long torch in either hand. See E. Babelon, Monnaies de la République Romaine (Paris, 1885), i. 355.
[37] Ovid, Fasti, iii. 269 sq.; Propertius, iii. 24. (30) 9 sq., ed. Paley.
[38] Notizie degli Scavi, 1888, p. 193 sq.; O. Rossbach, op. cit. p. 164.
[39] Bulletino dell’ Inst. di Corrisp. Archeologica, 1885, p. 157; Notizie degli Scavi, 1888, p. 393; G. H. Wallis, Illustrated Catalogue, pp. 24–26.
[40] On the dedication of burning lamps and candles in antiquity, see M. P. Nilsson, Griechische Feste (Leipsic, 1906), p. 345, note 5. As to the derivation of the Catholic from the old heathen custom, see R. Andree, Votive und Weihegaben des Katholischen Volks in Süddeutschland (Brunswick, 1904), p. 77.