Arbor felix

Revision as of 14:22, 31 March 2009

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From a post by Pontifex Maximus M. Moravius Piscinus Horatianus made on the Religio Romana mailing list on Aug 27, 2008:

"Trees were once the sacred precincts of the Gods, and, following ancient established rituals, country places even now dedicate an outstandingly tall tree to a God. Even images of shining gold and ivory are worshipped less by us than forests and their silence. Different types of trees are dedicated to their own deities and these relationships are kept for all time. For example, the Italian holm oak is sacred to Jupiter, the laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Venus, and the poplar to Hercules. We also believe that the Silvani and Fauni and various goddesses are, as it were, assigned to forests by heaven (G. Plinius Secundus, Hist. Nat. 12.3)."

The first sacred shrine to be dedicated at Rome was said to be that of Jupiter Feretrius (Livy 1.10.7). This was "an oak which the shepherds held sacred" on the Capitoline Hill. Offerings and votives were hung from trees, "an oak hung with horns, a beech with animal skins… a tree trunk in which a hatchet has carved a divine effigy (Florides 1.3-4)." Apuleius mentioned similar rustic shrines and Horace dedicated a shrine to Diana beneath a pine tree overhanging his villa (Carmina 3.22.1-8). An estate would hold several such shrines, while others were near boundary markers between neighbors, or else near crossroads. "I devoutly worship the tree stump in the depths of the countryside or an ancient stone garlanded with flowers where paths cross (Tibullus 1.1.11)."

Among the many taboos placed on the flamen Dialis, one was that "the nail parings of the Dialis and his hair trimmings are buried in earth under a fruitful tree (Gellius, Noctes Atticae X.15.1-25)."

"The beneficial trees (felices arbores) are thought to be the oak, the forest oak, holm oak, cork tree, beech tree, hazel, service berry tree, white fig, pear tree, apple tree, the vine, the plum tree, cornel (red dogwood), cherry tree, and the Italian lotus (Macrobius, Saturnalia 3.20.2)." The iurglans> was the beechnut, or chestnut of Jupiter, whose fruit "they esteemed worthy of the Gods (Gavius Bassius, GRF fr. 5)."

Other trees were dedicated to the Di inferi and thus were to be avoided as "arbores infelices". These are various ferns, and the black fig, and whatever other trees have black branches or black fruits. Others are acrifolium, the wild forest pears, red plums and others that were thought to bring forth evil omens and bad prodigies.

Certain trees were regarded as protective, purifying, or beneficial. The whitethorn was carried in bridal processions as one means to protect the bride from the evil eye of onlookers, and was later hung over the lintel of the groom's house as a means of guarding against evil influences. The "Sabine herb" mentioned in marriages rites and rites of purification was a variety of juniper. The groom and bride would exchange boughs of pine that they would then place in the fire atop an altar as an offering to Juno. Certain religious articles were required to be made from specific trees. The fetiales carried spears made of cornel (Livy I.32.6-14). The fasces were rods made of elm (Plautus Asinaria 262-4). The lituus of augures was made of a single tree branch, without knots, and having a natural curl, taken from one of the "fruitful" trees (arbores felices)mentioned by Veranius, in Ex Pontificalum Quaestionum Libris, and quoted by Macrobius.

The molucum refers to the special manner in which tree limbs were stacked to form the focus on an altar. They were placed one on another, moving is a clockwise direction to build up a square tower. Certain woods were preferred, depending on the deity for who the sacrifices were made. In the case of sacrifices to the Di inferi, arbores infelices might be used, but on a round altar often set down in a pit, with the wood leaning up on one another in a circle, like a camp fire. The molucum was used only for the celestial Gods. To use arbores infelices on an altar to the celestial Gods would render the altar impure and unusable until it could be purified. Appropriate firewood would be selected according to which deity was being invoked.

There was the idea, as Pliny mentions, that certain types of trees held the numen of a particular deity. Bringing a tree limb into a shrine or house, or into a ritual, therefore meant bringing along the God's or Goddess' numen as well. So care was made on which trees to use in any ritual matter. Wooden images of the Gods were specifically made of an appropriate wood for this very reason, that the numen natural to the tree might attract a more powerful numen of the deity and thus bless whatever place in which it was placed. A number of amulets, charms and statues made of appropriate woods and herbs were placed throughout a house for the same reason, to fill it with numina of the Gods. Care was especially given to the windows of rooms where children slept, charms hung over them to ward off evil. Pliny's Natural History is filled with information on such charms, and a great deal more about the Romans' use of trees.