to have played a foremost part in her ritual. For during her annual festival, celebrated at the hottest time of the year, her grove was lit up by a multitude of torches, whose ruddy glare was reflected by the waters of the lake; and throughout the length and breadth of Italy the day was kept with holy rites at every domestic hearth.[1] Moreover, women whose prayers had been heard by the goddess brought lighted torches to the grove in fulfilment of their vows.[2] Lastly, the title of Vesta borne by the Arician Diana[3] points almost certainly to the maintenance of a perpetual holy fire in her sanctuary.
At her annual festival all young people went through a purificatory ceremony in her honour; dogs were crowned; and the feast consisted of a young kid, wine, and cakes, served up piping hot on platters of leaves.[4]
But Diana did not reign alone in her grove at Nemi. Two lesser divinities shared her forest sanctuary. One was Egeria, the nymph of the clear water which, bubbling from the basaltic rocks, used to fall in graceful cascades into the lake at the place called Le Mole.[5] According to one story the grove was first consecrated to Diana by a Manius Egerius, who was the ancestor of a long and distinguished line. Hence the proverb “There are many Manii at Ariciae.” Others explained the proverb very differently. They said it meant that there were a great many ugly and
- ↑ Statius, Sylv. iii. I, 52 sqq. From Martial, xii. 67, it has been inferred that the Arician festival fell on the 13th of August. The inference, however, does not seem conclusive. Statius’s expression is:—
“Tempus erat, caeli cum ardentissimus axis
Incumbit terris, ictusque Hyperione multo
Acer anhelantes incendit Sirius agros.” - ↑ Ovid, Fasti, iii. 269; Propertius, iii. 24 (30), 9 sq. ed. Paley.
- ↑ Inscript. Lat. ed. Orelli, No. 1455.
- ↑ Statius, l.c.; Gratius Faliscus, v. 483 sqq.
- ↑ Athenaeum, 10th October 1885. The water was diverted a few years ago to supply Albano. For Egeria compare Strabo, v. 3, 12; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 273 sqq.; id. Met. xv. 487 sqq.
