Back Аргеи Bulgarian Argei Catalan Argei German Argei Spanish Argei French Argei Italian Argei Dutch Ofiary argejskie Polish Аргеи Russian
| Religion in ancient Rome |
|---|
 |
| Practices and beliefs |
| Priesthoods |
| Deities |
| Related topics |
The rituals of the Argei were archaic religious observances in ancient Rome that took place on March 16 and March 17, and again on May 14 or May 15. By the time of Augustus, the meaning of these rituals had become obscure even to those who practiced them. For the May rites, a procession of pontiffs, Vestals, and praetors made its way around a circuit of 27 stations (sacella or sacraria), where at each they retrieved a figure fashioned into human form from rush, reed, and straw, resembling men tied hand and foot.[1] After all the stations were visited, the procession, accompanied by the Flaminica Dialis in mourning guise,[1] moved to the Pons Sublicius, the oldest known bridge in Rome, where the gathered figures were tossed into the Tiber River.
Both the figures (effigies or simulacra) and the stations or shrines were called Argei, the etymology of which remains undetermined.[2]
The continuation of these rites into the later historical period when they were no longer understood demonstrates how strongly traditionalist the Romans were in matters of religion.[3]
- ^ a b Fowler, William Warde (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 457.
- ^ Robert E.A. Palmer, The Archaic Community of the Romans (Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 84.
- ^ Ittai Gradel, Emperor Worship and Roman Religion (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 11.