Tavolo
Agnone
by M. Horatius Piscinus
Discovered on Monte del Cerro in
1848, in what was once Samnite territory (Molise) was a bronze tablet, bearing
Oscan inscriptions on either side. Measuring
28 x 16.5 cm, the Tavolo Agnone had a handle and iron chain from which it
could be suspended. Some regard
this tablet as the oldest example of Oscan, dating it to c. 250 BCE, while
others consider it to be of a somewhat later date.
The inscription refers to a Garden of Ceres, and the tablet was
discovered in an ancient sanctuary, remnants of which may still be seen today.
Listed on the tablet are the stations where sacrifices were to be made
during the performance of some ritual.
Side A
1.status
pus set hurtin kerriiin 2. Vezkei
statif 3. Evklui statif kerri statif 4.
Futrei kerriiai statif 5 anter
statai statif 6. Ammai kerriiai
statif 7. Diumpais kerriiais
statif 8. Lignakdikei entrai
statif 9. Anafriss kerriiuis statif
10 maatuis kerriiuis statif 11.
Diuvei verehasiui statif 12.
Diuvei regaturei statif 13
hereklui kerrriiui statif 14. Patanai piistiai
statif 15. Deivai genetai statif
16. Aasai purasiai 17. Saahtum tefurum alttrei
18. Putereipid akenei 19
sakahiter 20. Fiuusasiais az hurtum 21.
Sakarater 22. Pernai kerriiai
statif 23. Ammai
kerriiai statif 24. Fluusai
kerriiai statif 25. Evklui
paterei statif.
The
established ritual stations
which are in the Garden of Ceres. 2.
The Station of Vensicu. 3. The
station of Euclus; the station of Ceres.
4. The station of the Daughter of Ceres.
5. The station of Interstitia. 6.
The station of Amma Cerealis. 7.
The station of the Nymphs of Ceres. 8
The station of Liganacdic Interna (of Ceres).
9. The station of the Rains of Ceres.
10. The station of Matis of Ceres.
11. The station of Jupiter Juvenal.
12. The station of Jupiter Rector, the Irrigator.
13. The station of Hercules of Ceres.
14. The station of Patana Pistis.
15. The station of the Goddess Genita.
16-19. At the Altar of Fire let a holy sacrifice be sanctified in the
fires, every other year. 20-21.
To the Florae by the Garden let there be a sacrifice made.
22. The station of Perna of Ceres.
23. The station of Amma of Ceres.
24. The station of Flora of Ceres.
25. The station of Euclus the Father.
Notes for Side
A:
2.
Vezkei has been variously identified as the national god of the Aurunci (F.
Altheim, 1931; J. Heurgon, 1942), as Venus (V. Pissani, 1953; Larissa
Bonfante, 1990), as Lucina (J. Whatmough), and as the god of the revolving
year (Renard-Schilling; E. T. Salmon, 1967).
3. and 25. Euclus: chthonic Mercury, psychopomp in the circle of Ceres (F.
Altheim, Terra Mater, 1931; E.T.
Salmon, Samnium and the Samnites,
1967). Mercury’s close
association with Ceres appears in the lectisternium
of 217 BCE (Livy 22.10.9). 4.
Daughter of Ceres: Proserpina, perhaps, but it may refer to another
goddess in this tradition. Among
the Paeligni she was call Persepona after Greek influences.
5. Interstitia: “The
Goddess who stands in Between.” Possibly
this is another reference to Proserpina.
Pisani suggested she may have been the middle goddess in a triad (Lingue dell’Italia, 1953), but Salmon countered that no evidence
of triads were present in Samnium. Salmon
instead suggested that she is “the Midwife” who among the Oscan stood in
between when delivering and infant, as opposed to the Roman obstetrix
who stood “opposite” (E. T. Salmon, p. 159 n.4).
6. and 23. Amma: Mother.
Salmon, contradicting his own argument against Samnite triads, offers
that She represents the nutrix, posing a triad of “the goddess of happy childbirth” in genetrix,
obstetrix, and nutrix all
associated with Ceres (Samnium,
p.153; 159 n. 5). 7. Nymphs of springs. 8.
Liganacdici is widely accepted as meaning “Law-Giver.” Oscan entrai
is assumed to mean Latin interna.
Bonafante follows Vetteris in that Liganacdix Intera is between the
Nymphs and Imbres as the nymph of the waters who is “in between” those of
heaven (rain) and earth, thus perhaps dew, and lawgiver with the purpose of
bringing water to the garden plants in a regular and orderly fashion.
Salmon mentions Blumenthal having the Oscan
entrai be adopted from Greek
“chthonia,” and then suggests liganacdix
is after the Greek liknophoros or
the chthonic “Displayer of the Winnowing Fan,” a title of Dionyssus which
was known in Italy. 10. Matis, an unknown
god, perhaps Maris, or perhaps the agricultural Mars (Marte); his name may be
related to “maturus” meaning “ripe”. Altheim tried to equate maatuis
or matus with Latin manes.
Salmon has Mater Matuta for childbirth, nursing, and bringing dew to
crops. 11.
and 12. Jupiter appears
twice, the first time as a youth,
verehasioi identified with juventus
(CIL, IX, 5574; XI, 3245). Then
as the Erect Irrigator, or in other words, the consort of Ceres who fathered
Proserpina. That is taking diovei
regaturei as Jupiter Rector. Vetter
and Salmon prefer Jupiter Rigator, an otherwise unknown “god who brings
water.” Either way it may be, Jupiter is posed as bringing the rains to
irrigate the earth, and as the “irrigator” of Ceres.
13. Hercules does not appear
in Greek myth associated with Demeter. Yet
in Italic and Etruscan myth he may be seen as consort of Minerva, and in one
legend, married to Juno. A joint
festival for Hercules and Ceres was held on 21 December (Macrobius 3.11.10).
J. Bayet suggested that in the Tavolo Agnone Heracles fecondant (“the
fertilizing”) is meant (les origines de l’Hercule romain, 1926). This whole series of gods and heroes - Maris, Jupiter, and
Hercules – may represent a series of consorts of Ceres.
14.
Patana is Pantica or Panda in Latin, the goddess of opening, or
ripening fruits (Arnobius 4.428); the fruits in this case are grains.
She is closely associated with Ceres (Nonius Marcellus 1.6L) and later
became an indigimentum of Ceres. (Varro
distinguishes Panda from Ceres.) Pistis
refers to opening grain on the threshing floor.
15. Genita is the goddess of
the birthing of plants. She is
possibly Genita Mana of Pliny (Natural
History 29.58), and Plutarch (Roman
Qestions 52). 22. Perna, in Latin, refers to a ham, and a sow or
female piglet was the normal sacrifice made to Ceres (Ovid, Fasti i.349-350). She
has been related to Anna Perenna who was the goddess of the New Year, and also
of birthing. 24. Flora of Ceres.
In Italic myth Flora is more a goddess of flowering crops (see Ovid, Fasti
V. 261-272), especially of grains, and is closely related to Ceres.
At Rome She acquired some Greek aspects (Varro L.L.
7.45; Acta Fratum Arvalium).
Here She may be noted as a daughter of Ceres, in fact as the Daughter
mentioned at station 4. Notice
the symmetry between Euclus, the
Daughter, and Amma at the beginning, and the appearance of Amma, Flora, and
Euclus at the end
Aasas ekask eestint 2.
hurtui 3. Vezkei
4. Evklui 5. Fuutrei
6. Anter statai 7. Kerri
8. Ammai 9. Diumpais
10. Liganakdikei entrai 11.
Kerriiai 12. Anafriss 13.
Maatuis 14. Diuvei verehasiu
15. Diuvei piihiui regaturei 16
hereklui kerriiui 17. Patanai piistiai
18. Deivai genetai 19. Aasai purasiai 20
saahtum tefurum 21. Alttrei
putereipid 22. Akenei
23 hurz dekmanniuis stait.
1-2.
These altars stand in the Garden 3.
For Vensicus 4. For Euclus
5 for the Daughter 6. For Interstitia 7
for Ceres 8. For Amma
9 for the Nymphs 10-11. For Liganacdica Interna of Ceres 12. For the Rains 13.
For Matis 14. For Jupiter
Juvenalis 15. For Jupiter Pius
Rector 16. For Hercules of Ceres
17. For Patina
Pistia 18. For Divine Genita
19. At the Altar of Fire 20. a holy offering is burnt
21-22. every other year. 23.
The Garden is at the disposal of the Decimani.
Notes for Side
B:
The same stations are repeated here as on Side A, with the additional
information of the Decimani who were probably the priests or society who were
meant to maintain the sanctuary and conduct the rites.
Comments:
With its many stations, the Tavolo
Agnone depicts a rite of purifying an area referred to as the Garden of Ceres.
In this it relates to other purification rites involving a processional
circumambulation and lustrations at different stations.
Such rites were known to take place at another Oscan site, that of the
Sanctuary of Hercules (Cippus Abellanus).
These were related to the lustrations made at the city of Rome, at
Roman colonies, military camps, and for special sites like temples.
Such rites were held at special times of the year usually at the
beginning and end of the growing season.
The Tavolo Agnone is unclear on this one point, whether the full rite
was conducted every other year, or if two rites were held every year. On the Cippus Abellanus mention is made of two rites being
performed each year. It should be
noted that four stations at Agnone are outside the Garden. Pater Euclus and Amma Cerealis were worshiped both within and
outside the Garden, while Perna Cerealis and Flora Cerealis were worshiped
only outside. These four stations
outside the Garden indicate a different rite, but one of the same nature,
performed for a Festival of Flora. It
seems very close to the purification rite at Iguvium where the lustrations are
made at four city gates. It may
be then that the rite at Agnone was held at only these four stations once or
twice a year, and that all fifteen were used for a special purification rite
every other year.
The goddesses and gods associated
with Ceres on the Tavolo Agnone would seem to indicate an agricultural rite
was performed in the sanctuary. The
sequence of stations may represent the growing cycle of crops. Assuming that the “Daughter of Ceres” is Proserpina as
representing the seed that is to be sown and the numen Cereri that is frumentis
germinantibus, and later that She becomes another Daughter of Ceres in
Flora as the flowering grain, florentibus
fructibus (Augustine De Civ. Dei
4.8). From the inscription on the
Cippus Abellenus, we know of other Samnite
“rites conducted at the Holy
Sanctuary,…for the purpose of ensuring the fertility of the land, and that
this rite of fructification (had) also been common to both cities, Avellanus
and Nola.” What the Tavolo
Agnone may indicate are stations on
the boundary of such a sanctuary. The
associated rite would then have been an ambarvalia
involving a procession around the Garden of Ceres where sacrificial
offerings would have been driven or carried, and sacrifices made along the
route at each station. Virgil in Georgic I. 338-350 refers to such a rite, involving an ambarvalia
dedicated to Ceres in consecrating fields.
A parallel may also be drawn from Cato, himself a Sabellian, in De Agricultura 141 where the rite for purifying the land of an
estate called not upon Ceres, but rather on Mars to defend the field against
disease. In that it is similar to
the rite Ovid mentions is conducted to Robigo (Fasti
4. 901-942). Cato’s rite is also very closely related to that of Iguvium
where Mars Grabovius, along with Jupiter and Cerus (the consort of Ceres, not
generally found at Rome except in the Carmen
Saliari) are invoked to defend the city from disease.
An alternative arrangement of the altars could be like those discovered
at Lavinium in 1962, where thirteen altars are laid side by side (Salmon, Samnites
p. 158 n.3). However this Latium
site was in a very different context, representatives from different Latin
cities offering to the same gods but each at their own city’s altar.
The Agnone site refers to a polyatrous rite where each deity has his or
her own altar. Other Oscan sites
where similar polyatrous rites were conducted are known from Fondo Patturelli,
where a garden of thirteen altars lay on the eastern outskirts of Sabellian
Capua, and the Pisaurum site (CIL 1,
167-80). Although the exact
layout of the altars cannot be known, they were likely set in the perimeter of
a rectangular fanum.
There
appears to be some symmetry in the sequence at the beginning of the tablet in
Euclus, Ceres, the Daughter of Ceres, …Amma the Mother, and the Nymphs of
Ceres, to the sequence at the end with the Florae, Ceres, Amma, Flora, and
Euclus. Assuming that the
“Daughter of Ceres” is Flora, and that the Nymphs of Ceres are associated
with the Florae, then only the position of Ceres has been altered in the
sequence. Even the central part
of the sequence, - Matis of Ceres, Jupiter Juvenal, Jupiter Rector, Hercules
of Ceres – may delineate a symmetrical pattern.
This sequence suggests the ritual involved a representation of
regeneration. Ceres identity of
human souls as well as of the earth can be seen in the myth of Pelops. This
myth seems to trace back to the indigenous people of the region, whose more
ancient body of myth lay beneath the mysteries at Eleusis, Andania, and
Samothrace. The same
culture spread into Italy during the Neolithic.
What may indicate that the rite did involve a myth of regeneration is
the presence of Euclus, who is the Oscan Hermes acting as a psychopomp
that leads souls (cereri) into
infants and returns them to Ceres upon death.
He is depicted as the psychopomp
in second century BCE tomb paintings at Aesernia.
There are certainly enough goddesses worshiped among the stations, who
are associated in some way with birthing to suggest a rite of some kind very
different from an agricultural purification.
Whether it was a birthing rite, a deathing rite, or even possibly some
rite associated with fecundity in marriage, some rite of passage may be
implied.
The
most prominent deity on the tablet is Kerres, who may be taken as Ceres.
Significantly the tablet was found on Monte del Cerro.
Ceres is well attested throughout central and southern Italy by Her
Oscan name Kerres. No matter that
some questions were raised in the past as to whether this Oscan Kerres was
indeed the same Ceres found at Rome, among the Paeligni there was a definite
identification of Oscan Kerres as Roman Ceres.
Jupiter’s appearance in the Tavolo Agnone in association with Ceres
has been taken to indicate that the Oscan Kerres is more like Juno.
Juno, however, was not a goddess worshiped among the Oscans.
Not until Her introduction by the Romans was Juno known among the
Samnites, Her main centers among them being at the Latin colonies of Aesernia
(CIL ix, 2630) and Beneventum (ILS
3110). The Tabula Rapinensis of
the Marrucini has Kerres strongly associated with Jupiter in a manner taken to
be Juno. From Capua comes the
curse tablet of Vibia where an “avenging Ceres” or Kerres
Arentike has also been taken as an aspect more of Juno than Roman Ceres.
Some of the confusion comes from how Ceres is identified at Rome.
Her cult at Rome is found very early in the Republic with the
dedication of the Aventine Temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera in 494 BCE.
Worship of Ceres at this temple was closely associated with the
Plebeians in opposition to the Patrician cults, and with Plebeian orientation
with Sabellian Capua rather then the Patrician orientation towards Etruria.
Around 216 BCE there was a change introduced in the cult of Ceres at
Rome when women from Capua were brought to serve in Her special rites.
Supposedly the women were of Greek ancestry, as Cicero refers to them
(pro Balbo, 56).
But they may be better understood as having reaffirmed Sabellian
aspects into the Roman cult of Ceres. Later
still in 186 BCE Liber became identified with Bacchus as a Sabellian Dionysiac
cult spread to Rome, and Ceres began to become more closely identified with
Greek Demeter. In doing so, Roman
Ceres close identification with Greek Demeter, some aspects of Oscan Kerres
became identified with Juno. The
Samnite name for Jupiter was Lucetius, and there were two rather late
instances where Juno is referred to as Lucetia to connect Her with Him. Her name at Rome as Juno Lucina is another assimilation of an
Oscan goddess. These developments
at Rome do not pertain to Oscan Kerres, but do reflect what She was among the
Samnites. Jupiter was the chief
god among the Samnites (Livy A. U. C. 10.38.2),
and Ceres their chief goddess. This was especially true at Agnone where the
adjective Cerealis is applied to
most of the listed deities and She is found associated with Jupiter without
mention of any aspect of Juno. Elsewhere
other goddesses are closely identified with Her as well, such as the Marsi
Angitia (Anagtiai diivai) being
Anigitia Cerealis among the Paeligni. Unlike
Ceres at Rome, at least the Ceres found among the poets identifying Her with
Greek Demeter, Italic Ceres embraces more than just a goddess of wheat and the
fertility of the earth. She is
also a goddess of birth, marriage, the nurturing mother, regeneration,
healing, and like many other Italic deities a goddess of prophecy.
While the Garden of Ceres at Agnone may indeed have been primarily a
sanctuary associated with the fertility of the earth, some of these other
aspects of Oscan Ceres were still represented.
M
Horatius Piscinus