[269]. So I understand Ovid: but in line 742 in mediis focis might rather indicate a fire in the atrium of the house, and so Mannhardt takes it. In that case the fire over which they leaped (line 805) was made later on in the ceremony.
[270]. Cp. Hom. Od. 22. 481 Οἶσε θέειον, γρηύ, κακῶν ἄκος, οἶσε δέ μοι πῦρ, Ὄφρα θεειώσω μέγαρον.
[271]. Tibull. 2. 5. 28 ‘Et facta agresti lignea falce Pales.’ Tib. seems here to be transferring a rustic practice of his own day to the earliest Romans of the Palatine. But he may be simply indulging his imagination; and we cannot safely conclude that we have here a rude Italian origin of anthropomorphic ideas of the gods.
[272]. Ovid, Fasti, 4. 743-746. esp ‘dapibus resectis.’ We can hardly escape the conclusion that the idea of the common meal shared with the gods was a genuine Italian one; it is found here, in the Terminalia (Ovid, Fasti, 2. 655), and in the worship of Jupiter. See on Sept. 13 and Feb. 23.
[273]. Fasti, 4. 763 foll.
[274]. Four is unusual; three is the common number in religious rites.
[275]. ‘Conversus ad ortus Die quater, et vivo perlue rore manus.’ Ovid may perhaps be using ros for fresh water of any kind; see H. Peter’s note (Pt. II, p. 70). But the virtues of dew are great at this time of year (e. g. May-day). See Brand, Pop. Ant. 218, and Mannhardt, A. W. F. 312. Pepys records that his wife went out to gather May-dew; Diary, May 10. 1669.
[276]. The word is camella in Ovid, Fasti, 4. 779; cp. Petron. Sat, 135, and Gell. N. A. 16 7.
[277]. Or as Propertius has it (4. 4. 77):
‘Cumque super raros foeni flammantis acervos