Abstract
Fanny L. Dolansky
Department of Classics
University of Chicago
Funera acerba and the nocturnal Lemuria: ancient rites to appease the family dead
This paper will examine the Lemuria, a Roman festival in May for the appeasement of the family dead. Specifically, it will suggest that situating the Lemuria within the demographic context of Roman society is critical to understanding the significance and persistence of the rites. I propose a connection between the prevalence of funera acerba, premature or untimely deaths of infants, children, youth, and childbearing women, and the existence of a festival aimed at placating the dead. An untimely death underlies the only surviving aetiology of the festival in Ovid's Fasti, and other sources contend that lemures (ghosts) are frightful precisely because these individuals died prematurely. The ritual is intended to protect the domus — the household and house itself — from malcontent manes (spirits of the dead) who return to harass the family they were taken from before their time.
Return to CACW 2006 "Household and Society in the Ancient World" Program