logies. In Greek the goddess is called
Anthephorus, Philostephanus, and even Persephone--probably the Persephone
of flowers and garlands. {149b}



Hirpi Sorani


Once a year a fete of Soranus and Feronia was held, in the precinct of
the goddess at Soracte. The ministrants were members of certain local
families called Hirpi (wolves). Pliny says, {149c} 'A few families,
styled Hirpi, at a yearly sacrifice, walk over a burnt pile of wood, yet
are not scorched. On this account they have a perpetual exemption, by
decree of the Senate, from military and all other services.' Virgil
makes Aruns say, {149d} 'Highest of gods, Apollo, guardian of Soracte,
thou of whom we are the foremost worshippers, thou for whom the burning
pile of pinewood is fed, while we, strong in faith, walk through the
midst of the fire, and press our footsteps in the glowing mass. . . .'
Strabo gives the same facts. Servius, the old commentator on Virgil,
confuses the Hirpi, not unnaturally, with the Sabine 'clan,' the Hirpini.
He says, {149e} 'Varro, always an enemy of religious belief, writes that
the Hirpini, when about to walk the fire, smear the soles of their feet
with a drug' (medicamentum). Silius Italicus (v. 175) speaks of the
ancient rite, when 'the holy bearer of the bow (Apollo) rejoices in the
kindled pyres, and the ministrant thrice gladly bears entrails to the god
through the harmless flames.' Servius gives an aetiological myth to
account for the practice. 'Wolves came and carried off the entrails from
the fire; shepherds, following them, were killed by mortal vapours from a
cave; thence ensued a pestilence, because they had followed the wolves.
An oracle bade them "play the wolf," i.e. live on plunder, whence they
were called Hirpi, wolves,' an attempt to account for a wolf clan-name.
There is also a story that, when the grave of Feronia seemed all on fire,
and the people were about carrying off the statue, it suddenly grew green
again. {150a}

Mannhardt decides that the so-called wolve

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

Anonymous may refer to: Anonymus, the Latin spelling, may refer to: