Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

9606

Plutarch, Roman Questions, 86
nan Why do men not marry during the month of May? Cf. Ovid, Fasti, v. 489. Is it because this month comes between April and June, of which they regard April as sacred to Venus and June as sacred to Juno, both of them divinities of marriage: and so they put the wedding a little earlier or wait until later? Or is it because in this month they hold their most important ceremony of purification, in which they now throw images from the bridge into the river, Cf. 272 b, supra . but in days of old they used to throw human beings? Wherefore it is the custom that the Flaminica, reputed to be consecrate to Juno, shall wear a stern face, and refrain from bathing and wearing ornaments at this time. Or is it because many of the Latins make offerings to the departed in this month? And it is for this reason, perhaps, that they worship Mercury in this month and that the month derives its name from Maia. The mother of Mercury. Or is May, as some relate, named after the older ( maior ) and June after the younger generation ( iunior )? For youth is better fitted for marriage, as Euripides From the Aeolus of Euripides; Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 369, Euripides, no. 23; Cf. Moralia, 786 a, 1094 f. also says: Old age bids Love to take her leave for aye And Aphrodite wearies of the old. They do not, therefore, marry in May, but wait for June which comes next after May.
nan Why do men not marry during the month of May? Is it because this month comes between April and June, of which they regard April as sacred to Venus and June as sacred to Juno, both of them divinities of marriage; and so they put the wedding a little earlier or wait until later? Or is it because in this month they hold their most important ceremony of purification, in which they now throw images from the bridge into the river, but in days of old they used to throw human beings? Wherefore it is the custom that the Flaminica, reputed to be consecrate to Juno, shall wear a stern face, and refrain from bathing and wearing ornaments at this time. Or is it because many of the Latins make offerings to the departed in this month? And it is for this reason, perhaps, that they worship Mercury in this month and that the month derives its name from Maia. Or is May, as some relate, named after the older (maior) and June after the younger generation (iunior)? For youth is better fitted for marriage, as Euripides also says: Old age bids Love to take her leave for aye And Aphroditê wearies of the old. They do not, therefore, marry in May, but wait for June which comes next after May.

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claudia'	Brooten (1982) 224