LETTISTERNIO (LECTISTERNIUM)

LETTISTERNIO (Lectisternium). — A ritual form of ancient Roman religion, consisting in preparing the couch (lectum sternere) and offering a banquet to the gods (represented by their statues or by symbols). It is generally regarded as an imported Greek practice, given its diffusion in Greece and the presumed lack of an original Roman anthropomorphism. In any case, it must be borne in mind that, if not the precise form, the substance—the banquet offered to the divinities—is present in the most ancient strata of Italic and Roman religion. Iuppiter Dapalis takes his epithet from the banquet (daps) offered to him. In the cult of very ancient divinities such as Iuno Lucina, Picumnus, and Pilumnus, the preparation of the convivial couch is obligatory. There are periodic l. and occasional l. (e.g., to inaugurate a temple). A singular rite is the collective l. offered to several divinities, especially on the occasion of prodigies or threatening events. The first example is found at Rome in 399 B.C. (epidemic), for the following divine pairs: Apollo-Latona, Diana-Ercole, Mercurio-Nettuno. In the collective l. of 217 (defeat at Trasimeno), the twelve divinities of the Greek cult appear.