Riemschneider’s journey into the world of pawns begins. Pins, skittles, Lares, wooden logs, and heads seem simple, but the mythological implications are enormous.
Larentia
In the ancient age cult, the constant recourse to gambling as an oracle tool is witnessed by sacrificial gifts such as the knucklebones/astragals and the numerous coins depicting players in front of the sacred image.
They played it in the presence of Ephesian Athena, Artemis of Hypapa, and Hera of Samos. Athena Skira’s ritual game was also an oracle: even in the sacred tripod of Pytho at Delphi, dice have been found. The name of Priam’s sister, Killa, would mean the three divine dice made from the bones of a donkey.
On coins, even a simple astragalus can reveal an ancient ritual game. The location of these coins it’s pretty interesting. They are primarily found in Asia Minor southern Cyprus. And as Cicero points out repeatedly, the greater seriousness and reliability of the oracles of Cilicia, of the Pisidia and Pamphylia, here we find ourselves in environments that fall within the Hittite sphere of influence.
No wonder, then, if the Roman legends in which it is recognizable as an ancient ritual game are related in one way or the other with Etruscan names and are set in ancient history.
In the life of Romulus, written by Plutarch, a lovely story is inserted (chap. 5). It tells of a priest of Hercules who once thought – according to Plutarch, out of boredom – to play dice with the god. For himself, if the game was in his favor, he asked for anything beautiful; in case of victory of the god instead, he would prepare a good meal and get a beautiful girl:
So he placed the pawns first for the god, then for himself. Thus he didn’t just roll the dice, that is, to do the simplest thing; obviously because behind this precise piloting of destiny lies not boredom but one usual activity. At the end of the game, the priest was defeated, and, as promised, he organized a dinner for the god and invited Larentia, a beautiful prostitute who was still a virgin. He hosted her in the temple of her, where he then locked her up. The god came, and to show his gratitude to the girl, he ordered her to go to the market the following day and to embrace the first man to meet her. She did as he was told. The first to meet her was Tarrutus, a man already a little ahead over the years but endowed with a considerable fortune and a bachelor. He made the acquaintance of him and became attached to her to the point of doing it heir to all his wealth.
This story, perhaps a little sentimental, of which Plutarch points precisely to the presumable source; it is proposed evidently to explain not only the ritual oracle, which still was not completely gone but so was its connection with the Lares. Larentia is precisely the one who “belongs to the Lares,“ whom the Romans pictured themselves as two dancing youths. Plutarch narrates this story precisely about the name of Larentia and her twins. Faustolus’ wife, Laurentia, would have raised the twins Romulus and Remo. In honor of her, Plutarch informs, a feast called Larentia was celebrated in April. In the history of the birth and exposure of the twins, however, not only is the name of Larentia, but our Tarrutus is also back. To a careless reader, these coincidences may appear strange and random: but it is clear that the two stories – Servius, however, tell a third one, analogous – agree with each other in elements certainly not unimportant:
Tarchetios, an extraordinarily unjust and cruel king of the Albans, had a divine apparition in his own house. A virile member came out of the hearth and remained there for many days. In Tirrenia, there was then an oracle of Thetis, from whom he had the answer that a virgin had to go from this appearance. A son would be born who one day would achieve great fame and be distinguished by courage, luck, and strength. Tarchetios revealed this oracle to one of her daughters and ordered her to mate with the phallus. But she considered it shameful, so she had a servant replace her. When Tarchetios heard about it, he got furious and did lock up both to have them executed. But in a dream, Vesta forbade him to perform, and he ordered the two captive girls to weave cloth with the promise that, when the job was done, they would be getting married. During the day, therefore, the girls rocked, but at night, by order of Tarchetios himself, others undid the work.
Meanwhile, following her relationship with the virile member, the servant gave birth to twins, whom Tarchetios entrusted to a certain Terratius to have them killed. This one instead abandoned them in the proximity of the river. She-wolf passed by and gave them her breasts; birds of various species also brought food, so they were placed in the mouths of children until a shepherd, who had watched the scene spellbound for a long time, dared approach and take them away. In this way, they were saved, and when they grew up, they attacked Tarchetios and killed him (Romulus, ch. 2).
The ancient world knows no distinctions between individual groups of Lares. The oldest description of “Lares praestites”, confirmed from a coin of Lucius Cesius, presents them to us as two seated young men, equipped with long sticks, with their eyes turned intensely to one side, and with a dog sitting between them, which they touch. Plutarch, who has collected the various legends about the twins, does not fail to add that Laurentia would have been a whore, deducing it from the name “lupa” for “prostitute” and “wolf”, which would be the feminine of “lupus“, “wolf”.
Plutarch does not explicitly identify Larentia as the former story (the one in which gambling appears) with Laurentia of the second; however, both have the same profession, as in the final analysis also the servant who replaces the still virgin daughter of Tarchetios – as Plutarch points out – she is the chosen one, the woman reserved for the service of the goddess or, as they say in Syria, a “kadischtu”, a “pure”. It always means that the mother goddess and her representatives, the “powerful ones,” are at stake in determining fate. The membership card of the two prisoners indirectly confirms this, although the poet compares it to the story of Penelope. In reality, the two girls have taken the place of the Norns or the powerful.
But let us now deal with another of the elements that appear in these stories. We must not forget that among the Hittites, the pawns assume a phallic form in worship, and the game table is called the “white altar”, in contrast with the black altar, destined instead for the holocaust. In the Roman legend of Tarchetios, the black and white altar unite in the domestic hearth, not without the sacral function being accentuated through it the insertion of Vesta. And since the hearth where they originally had their place of worship is predominantly sacred to the Lares, the differentiation between black and white altars gradually disappears. It must also be said that the Etruscans used to draw giant phalluses above the hearth, and the version Servius gives us of the story, albeit in a very abbreviated form, enlightens us on the original meaning of these fouls. It’s just the pawns drawn as such by the Hittites; here, the child’s mother has the name Okrisia, the “rock” or the “rock pin”. The identity between Terratius and Tarrutus in the two stories, only apparently so different from each other, as well as suggesting Tarchetios-Tarhund, the most important Hittite god, also very clearly indicates the sources from which the story originates. Terratius-Tarrutus is undoubtedly none other than the Hittite god Tarazanas, who was responsible for the res judicata; judged that – just as it proves the function of each judge of Asia Anterior – it is based not so much on observing the legal paragraphs as on consulting the deity in the oracle. Being a judge here always means being a priest. What distinguishes the judge is not wisdom but a vocation. To him alone, not to others, the god manifests.
The Prophetic Log
The Hittite epos of Kumarbi, to which we will return later, presents one generation more in the sequence of the gods than that of the Greek world. But this is only apparent. The first god is called Alalu; his name, as lists explain to us Hittites, means the same as log, precisely the log that finds a particular place in the field of oracles. Alalu is the personification of destiny; the link between the log and the concept of fire is not difficult to explain, considering that the log is typically intended to be burned. This also explains the net distinction of the Hittites between the black and white altar, or more precisely, between the game board and the sacrificial place, but we have already discussed this.
The connection with fire comes back, for example, in the story of Meleager, in which the log removed from the flames is linked to the fate of the young man, and in that of Paris, when Hecuba, first of the birth of his son, he dreams of generating a log of wood lapped by innumerable tongues of fire. In this case, the fire started by the log is transmitted in a certain way, like a terrible fate to the whole city.
In Christmas customs, this significant log is maintained; indeed, we would be surprised if this were not the case. And the “block” (or “stump” or “squat”) of the “Jul”, whose French denominations “calendau”, “caligneae” or “chalendel” (hence “log of the calends”) are still close to the original starting point and thus demonstrate that the logical thread is not entirely severed. The log is valid as a protective amulet for the whole following year. During the Christmas period, it must never go out: but it mustn’t even be wholly consumed since what remains of it guarantees protection and blessing, and the new log is lit with a piece of the old one. It is not the hearth that is sacred, nor the fire, which offers man (especially those from the North) the desired light and the longed-for warmth. Still, the log, linked by its shape to the image of the “phallus” and fertility, but effectively combined with the concept of luck, clearly emerges from the Etruscan-Roman legend.
Servius was a passionate follower of the goddess Fortuna, to whom he dedicated numerous temples. One could understandably say since he, given his low origins – evident in the name Servius, “slave” – owes his reign to a fortuitous event. But the “phallus” on the hearth is more than mere chance. Okrisia, the phallic-shaped stone, and Servius, the enslaved person, are tied up at the altar and at the service of the Lares in a much more profound way. The legend purports to explain that it is undoubtedly the identity of the priest and king in the function of the judge and the indissoluble link between the altar with the phallic-shaped pawn and the king.
Romulus was also considered the first of the augurs. How in Norse Völuspá, the golden pieces are said to survive at the stake of the world, even of the Romulus’ “lituus”, that is, of his own augur’s stick, it is said to have been found intact afterward. The Campidoglio fire. Even if all everything goes to ruin, the order of fate and sacred structures are unaffected by it.
Servius, the slave, and his mother Okrisia are to be placed in a relationship with another element of the Saturnalia, namely the characteristic clay doll market. Let’s see how.
The Clay Doll Market in Rome
Strangely, Lucianus does not mention the “vulgar” name of the Saturnalia, namely that of “Sigillaria.” This term is an apparent reference to the clay doll market, which lasted seven days and corresponded exactly to our Christmas market today with the plum and gingerbread men. In reality, Lucianus hints at it indirectly when he directs a dig at those who take advantage of the party to get rid of old junk, giving away things that can no longer be used usefully. Initially, the gifts consisted only of candles and “sigillaria”, meaning the latter term “everything that falls into the category of clay figurines” – one could say trinkets. They were bought at the market, during the Saturnalia, in the street inspired by the name “sigillaria”. At this point, it is natural to ask what on earth candles and figurines were for and why they exchanged these gifts.
Already the Romans sought an answer to this question. negative, without, however, arriving at least a partial result satisfying. But, if nothing else, they have provided us with some important elements. Macrobius, for example, states (I, 7, 180) various explanations for the introduction of the Saturnalia and reports a saying of a Greek oracle, which ends with the words:
“And to Hades (according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus: to the son of Kronos) send heads, but send men to the father”.
This was interpreted as a reference to human sacrifices, which only by Heracles would have been replaced with masks and candles. But the heads themselves already constitute testimony against human sacrifices since the separate burial of the heads of the sacrificed is foreign to the Greco-Roman spirit. Nor do we understand the difference between heads for Hades and human beings for the latter’s father, Kronos.
However, it must be said that the term for men (“phõta”), used here instead of the more common “andres”, corresponds approximately to the Roman term for “sigillaria”, that is, as we would say, “people”. And exactly like when we talk about gingerbread men, but including in this term even the female figures. After all, we, too, are not here today. Let’s certainly have a problem of plum men, gingerbread men, candy men, smoked men, nutcrackers, or other, more specifically, regional decorated objects, such as miners, candle holder angels, or gold laminates, and we don’t ask ourselves why all these objects emerge precisely and only around Christmas. It is, therefore, probable that even the Romans did not find their market for clay dolls is not at all strange. They exchanged the figures, rejoiced at the pleasure they could give, and then they let them get dusty on the windowsills, or they sacrificed them to the bite of time, which acts so quickly on the clay.
And yet such an attachment, albeit limited in time, to all this variety of human depictions, he must have had a profound reason. Indeed, this habit so profoundly rooted in the people exchanging gifts as “people” or heads cannot be derived from human sacrifices since these always concerned exclusively noble families. In contrast, the people were not interested in them and did not care about them. Why should they bring such symbols into each other’s homes as lovely gifts?
The reality is that there has yet to be one explanation for this clay doll market. The same term “sigillaria” explains that, initially, it was not ordinary figurines. It is used exclusively for Saturnalia. It is broader than the expression “sigilla” (“statuettes”) because it indicates “all that is inherent to the sigilla”, that is, to the figurines. They were small lucky charms derived from pawns.
The ancient pawn, whether a simple skittle or a skittle equipped with a head, will still have been understood as a human figure. Among the Hittites, it is affirmed as a “sign of luck” and returns, therefore certainly in the category of the four-leaf clover, the sweeper fireplace, and the piglet. There will be no objection if we call all these symbols “sigillaria”, nicely “kitsch”, which are still printed by the thousands on the cards auspicious. The Romans didn’t have postcards and sent figurines of clay, wax, glass, or majolica.
In Mesopotamia, the ordinary people, as opposed to the kings, the “people” therefore, were called “blackheads”. This term certainly did not mean to refer to the color of the hair (which does not differ from that of gods and kings) but rather to the head of the so widespread pawn; among the people, it was blackened and worn out by use, while that of the king was gilded or otherwise decorated. Still, the Celts call the pawn simply “man”. In the Celtic legends, the fight for the playing boards with the “men” and the fight with the pawns still occupy a leading place.
The Nordic saga also helps us in this regard: Heidrick undertook a competition with his host riddles. The riddle goes like this:
Who are the women fighting unarmed around your king? Blacks protect, and whites attack day by day. King Heidreck, can you guess? Your riddle is good, Gestumblindi; it is immediately solved. It’s the board game: the pawns fight each other without weapons around the king, and the blacks are on his side.
Pawns are called “women” due to their shape, which recalls the skirt. The Hittite deities of the mountains, who rule in hand a pawn, wear crinolines. The king’s party – there is only one – is black. On the other hand, the white enemies are more numerous. This is the “game of the king”, “hnefatafl”. The fact that only one party has the king, who is tied and can only be won by encirclement, has its reason, which we will explain later. This game is the remnant of an ancient oracle game, where a distinction still existed between the king and his entourage.
Heimdal’s Head
The head of the god Heimdal – according to tradition, a very ancient god – is the basis of one of the most characteristic “kenningar”. The “kenning” is a substitutive circumlocution, a to which not even the Greeks are foreign, for example, when they speak of “Zeus’s bullets”, meaning in real snow and hail. We also resort to a similar construct when we say, mostly jokingly – grapevine blood instead of wine. Nordic poets systematically resorted to it, establishing combinations that may appear absurd to our modern sensibility. One willingly said, “Heimdal’s head”, meaning the sword, or even “contents of Heimdal’s helmet” (head, sword). And on the contrary, we spoke of the “sword of Heimdal” when we wanted to report to the head. In another place, we even read that Heimdal would have been pierced through the head of a human being.
The explanation for these so surprising comparisons is straightforward. Based on a game table that has come down to us, in which the circles of the fields have an open hole in the center, we know that they were often used as pawns’ small pins. This was always necessary for tiny tables, but it also applies to all oriental tables, including the Indian ones. The“halatafl”, i.e., the “game of nails”, also existed in the North. The novel about fort Grettir reads:
It once happened that Thorbjörn played a board game called “halatafl“. His stepmother passed by and noticed that he was making a mistake. She scolded him because he seemed distracted, but he had one peevish response. Then she suddenly grabbed one pawn and hurled himself with the point of this against Thorbjörn’s cheekbone. But the nail slipped and stuck in his eye, which fell on his cheek.
The most frequent Hittite hieroglyph for the “a” represents a pin that ends in a human head. Heimdal was therefore pierced by one of these. This means that he is this pin. The head of the Heimdal sword is a piercing instrument, one of the pawns of the “halatafb”. But since we also know the not rare combination sword-“phallus”, we arrive at the same result: the phallic-shaped pawn, the “white altar” of the Hittites, and the nocturnal apparition on the hearth of Tarchetios.
The Roman “sigillaria” were indeed fewer game instruments dangerous than “Heimdal’s head”, but what counts for us is precisely the combination of a pointed instrument-sword-head-pawn. Consequently, the oracle demands that their feasts be taken to Hades or the father of this, Kronos, heads, and men – that is, pawns that appear in widespread usages like candles and clay figurines.
In the candles, the lighting instrument mattered not so much in winter but the shape. Even in Roman times, one candle did not look any different from today. We can explain the difference between statuettes and candles through another custom of the Romans: we are referring to the statuettes (“effigies”) and scrolls (“pilas”) of the veneration of the Lares. About the latter, we have already learned from the story of Larentia that they are fully inserted in the ritual oracle. These statuettes were therefore interpreted as human sacrifices until it was understood that the god required not men but representations of these. For this purpose, garlic and poppy heads could also be used. It is not clear what the god had to do with such statuettes and plant heads, but we have already said that the reference to human sacrifices constituted an unlikely loophole to explain a popular custom.
On the night before and following the feast of the “Lares compitales”, the divinities of the streets and borders hung from the doorposts, in their honor, woolen dolls and rolls in numbers corresponding respectively to that of the free and that of the slaves of the house. Even today, in the region of the Erzgebirge Mountains, when, on Christmas night, they place themselves at the windows of every house with as many miners as there are boys and as many candle-holder angels as there are girls, one thing happens differentiation, albeit of a different kind. The distinction between figures of the human type (wool or clay dolls) and simple alignment (candles and scrolls), still in force in our chess game, dates back to a very ancient tradition and leads in a straight line to the blackheads of the Sumerians.
But there is another deity of the border revered by Romans: Terminus, the boundary stone. The place fundamental element of her cult was on the Capitoline Hill, in the temple of Jupiter, and consisted of a rock, in correspondence with which the roof had an opening, since – as they said – the boundary stones could only be venerated outdoors. The worship of Terminus on the Capitoline Hill was not to be jeopardized by the construction of the temple of Jupiter; this concept is expressed in the legend of the cult in the form of a protest by the god against his transfer.
The birds also allowed the desecration of all the other sanctuaries, for that of Terminus; they refused your consent. This omen and indication by birds were accepted as follows: “The impossibility of moving the headquarters of the Terminus, and the fact that of all the deities he alone did not leave himself to remove from the boundaries consecrated to him would mean the untouchable solidity of the whole”. At this nod of stability, follow another prodigy to herald the greatness of supremacy. When you opened the floor to lay, the temple’s foundations would come to light a human head with an intact face. This apparition declared, in a pretty understandable way, that stronghold of future supremacy and ruler of the world. The vati who said this head was the “supreme head“ knew better. They knew the situation no less well than those who left a hole in the roof of the new shrine to ensure proper veneration for the boundary stone.
The vati who said this head was the “supreme head” knew better. They understood the situation no less well than those who left a hole in the roof of the new shrine to ensure proper reverence for the boundary stone. Just like in “Saturnalia”, the head has nothing to do with sacrifices; here, the supremacy of Rome has nothing to do with it. The opening in the roof will engage our attention again and again, but the concomitance between the head and the sky certainly shouldn’t be ignored.
In the Celtic cult of Cernunnos, the heads were spread out more important than in that of the Lares. If indeed, in honor of these last in the night before and after the feast, they hung on the pillars of “compita» or the doorsteps of dolls or rolls of fabric and poppy heads, for Cernunnos, the pillars and the lintels of the entrance portals were trimmed with heads.
Cernunnos not only has the horns of the ancient Hittite god on his head of fortune, the deer-god, but he carries the gaming board on his back and on his knees the bag with the pawns. Other times he has in one hand the board and in the other the bag from which the checkers fall out. But here, too, the heads, which certainly can appear in place of the bag, were probably nothing else than the “heads” of the “Saturnalia” consecrated to the god Hades.
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