| Alex Del Mar gives a precise accounting of what happened to the change from the Old Roman calendar to the one instituted by Numa around 700 BC: “In remote times, the Roman year was divided into ten months, named Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintilis, Sextilis, Septembris, Octobris, Novembris, and Decembris, the year beginning with the vernal equinox, which was made to fall on the first day of March and the months containing 36 days each. After the adoption of the gods Mars, Aphrodite, Maia, and Juno into the Roman pantheon their names were conferred upon the first four months of the year, instead of Primus, Secundus, Tertius and Quartus. This calendar was reformed by the Decemvirs, in the sacred name of “Numa.” They divided the year into 12 months in intercalary days and conferred upon the supplementary months the names of the gods Janus and Februs. (Brumalia, or the winter solstice, was anciently the first day of the year. Beginning the year, a week after the winter solstice was an innovation). When Julius Caesar was deified his name was given to what was originally the fifth month of the year, or Quintilus. When Octavious Augustus Caesar was deified his sacerdotal name was given to the original sixth month, or Sextilis. The remaining months still bear their ancient ordinal names.” (9) Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, cites Porphyry in attempting to explain the gods and goddesses as planets, stars and other celestial deities like the sun and moon: “Therefore, among the Assyrians or Phoenicians, the goddess [Venus] is represented mourning when, in its annual course following the twelve signs of the zodiac, the Sun enters the lower hemisphere… The days shorten, and Venus is believed to be in mourning, as if the Sun were lost, carried off by a temporary death and held by Proserpine, goddess of the lower hemisphere and the antipodes.” (10) The only reason I include this here is because I can already hear people saying to themselves, “wait a minute, he never even mentioned the concept of the planets as gods.” Well, that’s mostly due to the fact that they were never really likened to celestial deities until the Roman era. The original idea of the gods and goddesses was always the mushroom and its fertility, nothing more, until it was adapted by the Greeks as a harvest and crop ritual along with the Hebrews and that was merely to disguise or occult it further. It’s also worth taking notice that Venus has taken on the name of the “Morning” Star in modern times, and in this passage, its meaning and spelling is completely different. In reference to comparative religion/mythology and the similarity of cultures and festivals, Del Mar provides another excellent quote: “After the invention of the incarnation myth in Hindustan, the vernal equinox was kept sacred to Maia, and because on this day the sun passed over the equator, the Jews were asked to believe that on the same day their forefathers passed dry-shod over the red sea. Among the pre-Christian Greeks and Romans the day was celebrated by the festivals of Magna Mater, Hilaria, and the Megalesian games; among the pre-Christian Gauls and Galatians by the feast of Virgo Paritura; (11) among the pre-Christian Saxons by that of Iestera or Ostara, the goddess of regeneration. (12) |
This accounts for its other name of Easter. The festival is therefore both Vedic, Brahminical, Buddhic and Gothic. Its exact date in various countries varied a few days, as calendars varied or became defective, or as fables and myths were invented to “explain” or to conceal its astral origin.” (13) Easter itself, goes back it seems, in etymology, through Ostara to Astarte, and quite obviously, revolves around the mushroom “egg” hiding among the tall grasses, waiting to be found by some enterprising soul. When Rome was in its infancy, in the first centuries of the city, deities were not yet represented by pictures or statues and eventually a sanctuary (Temple of Jupiter) was reconstructed on the Capitoline, around 532 BC. (14) The only previous structure was a shrine to Vesta, roofed over to protect the Sacred Fire that burned there. (15) From early times Romans had recognized the value of divine Greek lore. The Greeks were famous for their Sibyl of Cumae, a renowned oracular priestess who presided over the Apollonian oracle. The Sibylla was a prophetess, a seer, a soothsayer. Books were kept there that were believed to enshrine the Greek philosophy. The story of the acquisition of the Sibylline Books by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, last king of the Roman Kingdom, or Tarquinius Priscus, is one of the famous mythic elements of Roman history. (16) Roman history tells us that Superbus took the books to the Capitoline temple and placed them in charge of two augurs, the Duoviri Sacris Faciundus, who could not understand their contents, so he sent for two Greek interpreters. (17) According to Walter Jayne, in Healing Gods of Ancient Civilizations: “These books were used as ‘religious prescriptions’ for ceremonies in times of public emergency and Cicero says that an ordinance of the ancestors says the books should not be read by anyone except by decree of the Senate and that they were to be used for putting down rather than taking up religious fancies. The oracle, being Greek in origin, naturally advised the taking up of Hellenic deities and ceremonies therefore the entirely of Rome was bound to be brought up under Greek tutelage and thus influenced in her major and minor religious practices.” (18) (9) ibid, p. 33 (10) Cults of the Roman Empire. P. 147 (11) Dupius, III, 51, 4to ed.; Pelloutier, History des Celtes, v, 15 (12) Frickius, pt. II, Ch. X, p. 98 (13) Middle Ages Revisited, p. 159-60 (14) Livy, I, 55-56 (15) Healing Gods, p. 378; Wissowa, Die Religion und Kultus der Romer, p. 28 (16) J.S. Reid, “Worship (Roman) in ERE xii, 809; also Fowler, in ERE, c, 850-851; Marquart, Romische Staatsverwaltung, iii, 352, note 7: Fowler, Religious Experience. P. 247 (17) Dion Kassios, I, 75 (18) Healing Gods, p. 383 |