On the Months

EXCERPTS 2–8.

2. The attendants of Bacchus Dionysus, the god of wine called the ritual procession a Triumph original: thriambon, a name derived from the thyrsos a ritual staff tipped with a pine cone and the iambs satirical or mocking verses, as if it were a "thyrsi-iamb." Alternatively, according to Plutarch, the name comes from the word "to cry out aloud" or "to make a commotion" original Greek: throein.

3. They say the Lydians an ancient people of western Anatolia discovered wine; and not only wine, but also the cultivation of the fig tree.

4. The Romans knew wine as Must fresh, unfermented grape juice; original: mustum because the people of Sardis the capital of Lydia were the first to call it a "mystery," as if it were an "initiate" original Greek: mystēn, meaning something steeped in sacred rites.

5. The name of the Sabines an ancient Italic tribe was derived from the cultivation of the vine, a name perfectly suited to the reality; for this name signifies a "planter of the vine."

6. Messapia, or Calabria the "heel" of the Italian peninsula, is named after Messapus.

7. They call Lucania "the most wooded"; for the Romans call a grove a lucus by way of "privation" the linguistic practice of naming something for a quality it lacks; literally "a grove [of light] that lacks light", because it lacks light, just as in Greek a forest is called "timberless" original Greek: axylos.

8. The myth says that Erylus the Italian—who was defeated by Evander, the son of the prophetic Carmenta, who then held the region—possessed three lives original: animas. This story has a very philosophical meaning: for Socrates states that there are three powers inherent in the soul—

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note on 5. Sabinus: Derived from the words for "sowing" and "wine," or perhaps from the Greek word for "wine" original Greek: oinos. Festus offers a different view, following Varro, and derives it from the word "to worship" original Greek: sebesthai the gods. (Compare Creuzer, Symbolik, vol. II, p. 964).

note on 6. Messapia: Pliny, Natural History (III. 11): "The Greeks called Calabria 'Messapia' after a leader." (Compare also Paul the Deacon's summary of Festus under the entry Messapia).

note on 7. The Grove: Compare Varro, On the Latin Language (V. 60, edited by Scaliger), which Scaliger emends to: "The festival of Lucaria is likewise named from light original: luce, because that worship was established on account of the 'lost light' [of the forest clearing]."

"just as the timberless forest": This is as the Greeks say. Compare Homer, Iliad (XI. 155): "as when a consuming fire falls upon a timberless forest."

note on 8. Regarding Erylus etc.: Virgil, Aeneid (VIII. 560), where Evander speaks: "And I sent King Herilus with this right hand down to the underworld; at his birth his mother Feronia gave him (terrible to say!) three lives." On this passage, Servius a 4th-century commentator on Virgil notes: "In passing, he shows that debate between Plato and Aristotle, who wonder whether there are four or three souls in a human being: the physical, the sensory, and the intellectual, excluding the motor soul." For the name Herilus, the manuscripts of Servius...