Priestess
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| - | '''Paculla Annia''' was a [[priestess]] from the southern Italian region of [[Campania]]. According to [[Livy]], she largely changed the rules of [[Bacchanalia]]s so that regarding nothing as [[impious]] or [[forbidden]] became the very sum of [[Dionysus|Bacchus]]' [[cult]]. This article relates the story as told by [[Livius]]. | + | :''[[priest]]'' |
| - | + | # A woman with religious duties and responsibilities in some non-Christian religions. | |
| - | == Rites == | + | |
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| - | 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 [[Initiation rite|initiated]] were her sons, [[Minius]] and [[Herennius 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 of [[wine]] and [[sex]]. Finally, as a rule, it was decided that no-one older than twenty should be initiated. | + | |
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| - | In the rites, men were said to have shrieked out [[prophecy|prophecies]] in an [[altered state of consciousness]] with frenzied bodily convulsions. Women, dressed as [[Bacchantes]], with hair dishevelled, would run down to the [[Tiber]] with burning [[torch]]es, plunge them into the water, and take them out again. Their flames would not diminish as they were made of [[sulphur]] mixed with [[Lime (mineral)|lime]]. | + | |
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| - | The rites gradually turned into sexual [[Orgy|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. | + | |
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| - | The festivities were reported to [[Postumius]] who persuaded the [[Roman Senate]] to authorize a full investigation. In [[186 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. | + | |
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| - | ==Witch-hunt== | + | |
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| - | The charges of evil and subversive practices that were levelled against these devotees in the [[2nd century BC|second century BC]] reappear in remarkably similar form as major elements of [[European witchcraft]] as described by prosecutors in the [[Middle Ages]]: | + | |
| - | *secret nocturnal meetings; | + | |
| - | *women leaders; | + | |
| - | *children commonly initiated into the cult; | + | |
| - | *ecstatic festivities with music, dancing, and cries followed by orgies; | + | |
| - | *[[Gay_sex#Same-gender_sexual_practices|same-gender sexual practices]]; and | + | |
| - | *allegations of [[ritual murder]] and other [[crime]]s. | + | |
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| - | Elements of the witch stereotype not yet present were the [[Christian]] [[Devil]] (as this religion had not yet begun), [[shapeshifting]], and [[levitation]]. The last two attributes were associated with the Roman mythological creature known as the [[Strix (mythology)|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 [[Mystery religion|mysteries]] led by women were already being cast as a fast-spreading cult and a serious threat to [[society]] at large. | + | |
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| - | ==See also== | + | |
| - | *[[European witchcraft]] | + | |
| - | *[[Madonna Oriente]] | + | |
| - | *[[Witch-hunt]] | + | |
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- A woman with religious duties and responsibilities in some non-Christian religions.
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