If the party, as the religious phenomenon, as has the fundamental nature of his being separated from the common time (that of the ordinary activities dominated by impermanence and so all forms and uses, separated on a par with other realities related to the sphere of the sacred, as those places, objects, etc..), which thus makes it possible to place the ball " other "non-human stability, the calendars are tools that ensure the systematization of regular holidays: tools, therefore, the calculation of the time but most of all, and originally aimed at placing the parties, related to cosmic and natural frequency, in a chronological system.
In the calendar of ancient Rome on Oct. 15 reported the feast of ' October equus , a complex ritual that united military elements, agricultural and funeral. On that date, the Champ de Mars was taking place a chariot race after which the winning horse right of the chariot was killed by a javelin from Flamen Martialis at the altar of Mars. The sacrifice was the significance of closure of the military and the conservation of the victorious forces, represented by the animal won. Before being sacrificed horse was adorned with a collection of loaves, in order to ensure the success of the harvest. Once killed, the horse was cut the tail that was carrying travel from the Campo Marzio to the Director, so that the blood could fall into the fireplace, while the head, cut too, was fought between the inhabitants of two districts: the Sacravienses (the inhabitants of the Sacred Way, Palatine) and Suburenses (the Suburra, Quirinale). In order to ensure prosperity and removal of disease and evil, in case of victory of the first head was fixed to the wall of the Regia, in the case of victory of the latter hung on the tower Mamili. The victim's blood, maintained by the Vestal Virgins, was mixed with the ashes of the fetus removed from the cow sacrificed on the occasion of another party ( Fordicidia from ford = pregnant cows, April 17 ) and the skins of beans (related to the underworld, as a rescue of the living), to make it a magical mixture of cleansing and rejuvenation ( suffimen ), thrown on the fire on the Palatine, with subsequent use of residual ash for fumigation purifying the shepherds and flocks on the fields or spreading, April 21, the day of Parilia or Palilia (from Pales, goddess of pastoralism in turn by opinion = deliver), the feast of the shepherds and the anniversary of the founding of Rome. The suffimen place so the function of linking up three festivals and the deities of war (Mars ), agriculture ( Tellus ) of pastoralism ( Pales ) and hell, showing a mix of elements from different periods, aimed at ensuring the prosperity of the countryside and the health of humans and animals by providing shelter for a warrior god.
JG Frazer in his famous study of magic and religion, The Golden Bough (tr. it. Torino, Einaudi, 1950), states that "the use to decorate the head with a collection of loaves and the purpose of sacrifice, to procure a good harvest, indicating that the horse had killed one of those representatives of the spirit of the corn [...]. The use of cut
tail corresponds to that African cut the tails of the oxen and sacrificing for a good harvest. Both in Rome and in Africa the Aimal, apparently, was the spirit of the grain and fertilizer is believed that his power resided especially in the tail. "
The great philologist comparativists G. Dumézil, best known for his studies in religion and sovereignty of the proto-Indo-European society, has interpreted this Roman feast in the light of Vedic sources (see F Romaines êtes d'été et d ' automne, Paris, Gallimard, 1975). The horse sacrifice (skr. to śvamedha ) in the world was the king of the Vedic rites and the rite of the kings, as the royal sacrifice offered by a victorious king. A horse was a raja who exercised sovereignty, left free to move at will, when passed through the lands of another raja, or this could get hold of the horse showing signs of rejecting the sovereignty and start a war or viveversa, let it pass without action, thereby showing its status as a vassal. The horse was then sacrificed by the Raja in a solemn ceremony to affirm its sovereignty over neighboring provinces and to ensure the prosperity of the kingdom (of sacrifice Vedic v. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashvamedha ). "We see this sacrifice in the final processing, minutely detailed, of a long process in which elements provides, fertility rites, references cosmological, social reasons, is interested priestly political factors all play a role, resulting in a highly elaborate ritual and no doubt having an effect " (R. Panikkar, The Vedas , tr. com. Milano, BUR, 2001). The Rg-Veda dedicates two songs (I, 162 and 163) to ' to śvamedha , endorsing the horse in the sun and the horse represents the primordial cosmic universe. "The Vedic contribution in this regard is to emphasize the universal and cosmic character of the horse [... which] occupies a central position because it assumes in itself the entire universe and must play a vicar ( there ) .
Dumezil, with its study, said the Indo-European past of the Roman people, inviting them to reflect on links between archaic and mysterious myths and rituals found in different contexts of our remote roots.
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