Carna, Proca and the Strix on the Kalends of June

Abstract

For your bowels' sake, Ovid tells the readers of his Fasti, it is customary to eat beans and bacon on the first day of June. This quaint folk custom, similar to many in our own day,' might not attract very much attention, were it not prefaced by the gruesome tale of a crying baby, a clever nymph, flying witches, and a slaughtered piglet. But, rather than being a simple collection of weird elements, the story and the custom (or, if you prefer, the myth and the ritual) can be studied in conjunction to throw light on Roman attitudes toward misfortune generally and infant death specifically, to highlight the importance to the Romans of controlling liminal space, and to illustrate the paradigmatic nature of the Roman calendar.

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