Consus
was a very old divinity who, as seems most likely, presided over the
underground bins in which grain would be stored. In fact, his altar
was actually underground, in the Circus Maximus, and would only be
uncovered for purposes of offering and sacrifice. He apparently had
at least two festivals (August 21 and December 15), as well as
another day on which offerings were made (July 7). The festival on
August 21 was a 'first fruits' festival, apparently to celebrate the
end of the harvest. The rites were presided over by the flamen
Quirinalis, attended by the Vestal Virgins. After the rites, there
would be a festival of horse- and/or chariot racing. Despite this,
it was also seen as a special day of rest for horses and asses, the
former being decorated with garland and both beasties given the day
off work (except the ones in the races, I suppose). At some time in
the early third century, Consus was given a temple on the Aventine
Hill by L. Papirius Cursor, which, appropriately enough, was
dedicated on August 21.
As
if that weren't interesting enough, it was also at Consualia, we are
told, that a very important event in Rome's early 'history' took
place. According to several sources, it was at Consualia that the
(in)famous 'Rape of the Sabine Women' occurred, by which the
assorted thugs and criminals who had taken asylum at Rome acquired
wives. Here's the account from Plutarch's Life of Romulus
(Project Gutenberg text), which clearly demonstrates how the ancient
Romans (or at least those with an antiquarian bent)likely perceived
the importance of these events (it's the origin of the Roman-Sabine
union, provides an account of the divinity Consus, and accounts for
some obscure Roman marriage customs, among other things):
In
the fourth month, after the city was built, as Fabius writes, the
adventure of stealing the women was attempted; and some say Romulus
himself, being naturally a martial man, and predisposed too,
perhaps, by certain oracles, to believe the fates had ordained the
future growth and greatness of Rome should depend upon the benefit
of war, upon these accounts first offered violence to the Sabines,
since he took away only thirty virgins, more to give an occasion of
war than out of any want of women. But this is not very probable; it
would seem rather that, observing his city to be filled by a
confluence of foreigners, few of whom had wives, and that the
multitude in general, consisting of a mixture of mean and obscure
men, fell under contempt, and seemed to be of no long continuance
together, and hoping farther, after the women were appeased, to make
this injury in some measure an occasion of confederacy and mutual
commerce with the Sabines, he took in hand this exploit after this
manner. First, he gave it out as if he had found an altar of a
certain god hid under ground; the god they called Consus, either the
god of counsel (for they still call a consultation consilium and
their chief magistrates consules, namely, counselors), or else the
equestrian Neptune, for the altar is kept covered in the circus
maximus at all other times, and only at horse-races is exposed to
public view; others merely say that this god had his altar hid under
ground because counsel ought to be secret and concealed. Upon
discovery of this altar, Romulus, by proclamation, appointed a day
for a splendid sacrifice, and for public games and shows, to
entertain all sorts of people; many flocked thither, and he himself
sat in front, amidst his nobles, clad in purple. Now the signal for
their falling on was to be whenever he rose and gathered up his robe
and threw it over his body; his men stood all ready armed, with
their eyes intent upon him, and when the sign was given, drawing
their swords and falling on with a great shout, they ravished away
the daughters of the Sabines, they themselves flying without any let
or hindrance. They say there were but thirty taken, and from them
the Curiae or Fraternities were named; but Valerius Antias says five
hundred and twenty-seven, Juba, six hundred and eighty-three
virgins; which was indeed the greatest excuse Romulus could allege,
namely, that they had taken no married woman, save one only,
Hersilia by name, and her too unknowingly; which showed they did not
commit this rape wantonly, but with a design purely of forming
alliance with their neighbors by the greatest and surest bonds. This
Hersilia some say Hostilius married, a most eminent man among the
Romans; others, Romulus himself, and that she bore two children to
him, a daughter, by reason of primogeniture called Prima, and one
only son, whom, from the great concourse of citizens to him at that
time, he called Aollius, but after ages Abillius. But Zenodotus the
Troezenian, in giving this account, is contradicted by many.
Among
those who committed this rape upon the virgins, there were, they
say, as it so then happened, some of the meaner sort of men, who
were carrying off a damsel, excelling all in beauty and comeliness
of stature, whom when some of superior rank that met them attempted
to take away, they cried out they were carrying her to Talasius, a
young man, indeed, but brave and worthy; hearing that, they
commended and applauded them loudly, and also some, turning back,
accompanied them with good- will and pleasure, shouting out the name
of Talasius. Hence the Romans to this very time, at their weddings,
sing Talasius for their nuptial word, as the Greeks do Hymenaeus,
because, they say, Talasius was very happy in his marriage. But
Sextius Sylla the Carthaginian, a man wanting neither learning nor
ingenuity, told me Romulus gave this word as a sign when to begin
the onset; everybody, therefore, who made prize of a maiden, cried
out, Talasius; and for that reason the custom continues so now at
marriages. But most are of opinion (of whom Juba particularly is
one) that this word was used to new-married women by way of
incitement to good housewifery and talasia (spinning), as we say in
Greek, Greek words at that time not being as yet overpowered by
Italian. But if this be the case, and if the Romans did at that time
use the word talasia as we do, a man might fancy a more probable
reason of the custom. For when the Sabines, after the war against
the Romans, were reconciled, conditions were made concerning their
women, that they should be obliged to do no other servile offices to
their husbands but what concerned spinning; it was customary,
therefore, ever after, at weddings, for those that gave the bride or
escorted her or otherwise were present, sportingly to say Talasius,
intimating that she was henceforth to serve in spinning and no more.
It continues also a custom at this very day for the bride not of
herself to pass her husband's threshold, but to be lifted over, in
memory that the Sabine virgins were carried in by violence, and did
not go in of their own will. Some say, too, the custom of parting
the bride's hair with the head of a spear was in token their
marriages began at first by war and acts of hostility, of which I
have spoken more fully in my book of Questions.
Modern
Sources
On Consualia: H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the
Roman Republic (Ithaca, 1981), p 177-178.
|