El ritual de los Cerialia y la Fundación de Lavinio
ISSN: 0213-2052
Year of publication: 2003
Issue Title: Integración y exclusión en las regiones de la antigüedad
Issue: 21
Pages: 75-85
Type: Article
More publications in: Studia historica. Historia antigua
Abstract
The strange rite practiced the day of the Cerialia in Rome, which consisted in foxes being released with torches tied to their backs, can find explanation if we associate it with a myth, that of the fox, the eagle and the wolf, happened during the foundation of Lavinio. Ceres, as a divinity particularly associated with the foundation of cities, finds perfectly well her place in this context. The celebration of the rite in Rome might indicate the appropriation, in the benefit of Rome herself, of the founding myth, in the days that followed the victory over the Latin peoples near the Regillus lake. The temple of Ceres was then dedicated, and, significantly, situated outside the pomerium, in the Aventine hill.