Dies lustricus: Difference between revisions

In ancient rome the '''''dies lustricus''''' was a traditional cermony in which an infant was purified and when the child was given a ''([[praenomen]])''. This occurred on the eighth day for girls and the ninth day for boys, a difference [[Plutarch]] explains by noting that "it is a fact that the female grows up, and attains maturity and perfection before the male."<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Roman Questions'' [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Roman_Questions*/E.html#ref233 102.]</ref> Until the umbilical cord fell off, typically on the seventh day, the baby was regarded as "more like a plant than an animal," as Plutarch expresses it.<ref>See also [[Aulus Gellius]], ''Attic Nights'' 16.16, citing Varro in saying that in the womb children are more like trees than a human being.</ref> The ceremony of the ''[[dies lustricus]]'' was thus postponed until the last tangible connection to the mother's body was dissolved, and the child was seen "as no longer forming part of the mother, and in this way as possessing an independent existence which justified its receiving a name of its own and therefore a fate of its own."<ref>Breemer and Waszink, "Fata Scribunda," p. 242.</ref> The day was celebrated with a family feast.<ref>Breemer and Waszink, "Fata Scribunda," p. 251.</ref> The [[List of Roman birth and childhood deities|childhood godess]] [[Nundina]] presides over the ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#dies lustricus|event]]'',<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''Saturnalia'' 1.16.36.</ref>