LETTISTERNO (LECTISTERIUM)

LETTISTERNO (Lectisterium). – A ritual form of ancient Roman religion, consisting in preparing a couch (lectum sternere) and offering a banquet to the gods (represented by their statues or symbols). It is generally considered a Greek usage imported into Rome, given its spread in Greece and the supposed lack of an original Roman anthropomorphism. However, it must be borne in mind that, if not the precise form, the substance—the banquet offered to the deities—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 deities such as Iuno Lucina, Picumnus, and Pilumnus, the preparation of the convivial couch was obligatory. There are 1. periodic and 1. occasional (e.g., to inaugurate a temple). A singular rite is the collective offering to several deities, especially on the occasion of prodigies or threatening events. The first example in Rome occurs in 399 BC (an epidemic) for the following divine pairs: Apollo-Latona, Diana-Ercole, Mercurio-Nettuno. In the collective lectisternium of 217 BC (after the defeat at Trasimeno) the twelve deities of the Greek cult appear.