LETTISTERNIO (Lectisternium). - A ritual form of the ancient Roman religion, consisting in preparing a couch (lectum sternere) and offering a banquet to the gods (represented by their statues or by symbols). It is generally considered a Greek practice imported into Rome, given its diffusion in Greece and the presumed absence of an original Roman anthropomorphism. One must nevertheless bear 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 lectisternia and occasional ones (for example, to inaugurate a temple). A singular rite is the collective lectisternium offered to several divinities, especially on the occasion of prodigies or threatening events. The first example occurs in Rome in 399 B.C. (epidemic) for the following divine pairs: Apollo-Latona, Diana-Hercules, Mercury-Neptune. In the collective lectisternium of 217 (defeat at Lake Trasimene) the twelve divinities of the Greek cult appear.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: G. Wissowa, Lectisternium, in Pauly-Wissowa, XII, col. 1108; F. Altheim, A history of roman religion, London 1938, p. 238 ff.

Angelo Brelich

@incollection{ec7_lettisternio_lectisternium, author = {Brelich, Angelo}, title = {Lettisternio (Lectisternium)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1218}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lettisternio-lectisternium} }

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