by some that Carmenta is the ruling destiny which presides over a man’s birth, wherefore she is worshipped by mothers.  Others say that she was the wife of Evander the Arcadian, a prophetess who used to chant oracles in verse, and hence surnamed Carmenta (for the Romans call verses carmina); whereas it is generally admitted that her right name was Nicostrate.  Some explain the name of Carmenta more plausibly as meaning that during her prophetic frenzy she was bereft of intellect; for the Romans call to lack, carcre; and mind, mentem.

We have spoken before of the feast of the Palilia.  That of the Lupercalia would seem, from the time of its celebration, to be a ceremony of purification; for it is held during the ominous days of February, a month whose name one might translate by Purification; and that particular day was originally called Febrate.  The name of this feast in Greek signifies that of wolves, and it is thought, on this account, to be very ancient, and derived from the Arcadians who came to Italy with Evander.  Still this is an open question, for the name may have arisen from the she-wolf, as we see that the Luperci start to run their course from the place where Romulus is said to have been exposed.  The circumstances of the ritual are such as to make it hard to conjecture their meaning.  They slaughter goats, and then two youths of good family are brought to them.  Then some with a bloody knife mark the foreheads of the youths, and others at once wipe the blood away with wool dipped in milk.  The youths are expected to laugh when it is wiped away.  After this they cut the skins of the goats into strips and run about naked, except a girdle round the middle, striking with the thongs all whom they meet.  Women in the prime of life do not avoid being struck, as they believe that it assists them in childbirth and promotes fertility.  It is also a peculiarity of this festival that the Luperci sacrifice a dog.  One Bontes, who wrote an elegiac poem on the origin of the Roman myths, says that when Romulus and his party had killed Amulius, they ran back in their joy to the place where the she-wolf suckled them when little, and that the feast is typical of this, and that the young nobles run,

    “As, smiting all they met, that day
    From Alba Romulus and Remus ran.”

The bloody sword is placed upon their foreheads in token of the danger and slaughter of that day, and the wiping with the milk is in remembrance of their nurse.  Caius Acilius tells us that, before the foundation of Rome, the cattle of Romulus and Remus were missing, and they, after invoking Faunus, ran out to search for them, naked, that they might not be inconvenienced by sweat; and that this is the reason that the Luperci ran about naked.  As for the dog, one would say that if the sacrifice is purificatory, it is sacrificed on behalf of those who use it.  The Greeks, in their purificatory rites, sacrifice dogs, and often make use of what is called Periskylakismos.  But if this feast be in honour of the she-wolf, in gratitude for her suckling and preserving of Romulus, then it is very natural to sacrifice a dog, for it is an enemy of wolves; unless, indeed, the beast is put to death to punish it for hindering the Luperci when they ran their course.