- Paculla Annia
Paculla Annia was a priestess from the southern Italian region of
Campania . According toLivy , she largely changed the rules ofBacchanalia s so that regarding nothing as impious or forbidden became the very sum of Bacchus'cult . This article relates the story as told by Livius.Rites
In
188 BC , Paculla is said to have allowed men to participate for the first time, although it is now believed that men had participated before that. The first men to be initiated were her sons,Minius andHerennius Cerrinius . She also ordered the festivities to take place by night instead of by day, and decided that instead of taking place over three days in a year there would be five days of initiation in each month. Participants of the ceremonies were to be of all sorts: men and women, young and old, noble and common people, free and slaves -- all in a celebration ofwine andsex . Finally, as a rule, it was decided that no-one older than twenty should be initiated.In the rites, men were said to have shrieked out prophecies in an
altered state of consciousness with frenzied bodily convulsions. Women, dressed asBacchantes , with hair dishevelled, would run down to theTiber with burningtorch es, plunge them into the water, and take them out again. Their flames would not diminish as they were made ofsulphur mixed with lime.The rites gradually turned into sexual orgies, particularly among the men, and men who refused to take part were sacrificed. It is said these men were fastened to a machine and taken to hidden caves, where it was claimed they were kidnapped by the gods.
The festivities were reported to
Postumius who persuaded theRoman Senate to authorize a full investigation. In186 BC , the Senate passed a strict law (the "Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus") prohibiting the Bacchanalia except under specific circumstances which required the approval of the Senate. Violators were to be executed.Witch-hunt
The charges of evil and subversive practices that were levelled against these devotees in the second century BC reappear in remarkably similar form as major elements of
European witchcraft as described by prosecutors in theMiddle Ages :Max Dashu , " [http://www.suppressedhistories.net/secret_history/roman_persecution.html Roman Persecutions] " - chronicling the first "witch-hunt".]
*secret nocturnal meetings;
*women leaders;
*children commonly initiated into the cult;
*ecstatic festivities with music, dancing, and cries followed by orgies;
*same-gender sexual practices; and
*allegations ofritual murder and othercrime s.Elements of the witch stereotype not yet present were the
Christian Devil (as this religion had not yet begun),shapeshifting , andlevitation . The last two attributes were associated with the Roman mythological creature known as the strix; this creature would later be associated with witchcraft in Italy and Eastern Europe. The fusion of these elements into the concept of a large-scale social conspiracy developed only later. Nevertheless, the mysteries led by women were already being cast as a fast-spreading cult and a serious threat tosociety at large.ee also
*
European witchcraft
*Madonna Oriente
*Witch-hunt References:
* [http://www.colorado.edu/Classics/clas2110/Faecenia.html The story of Faecennia Hispala] ,
Titus Livius , Ab Urbe Condita, XXXIX, 8-19.
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