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The Wheel in the Ritual Symbolism of Some Indo-European Peoples *)

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The Wheel in the Ritual Symbolism of Some Indo-European Peoples *) IX THE WHEEL IN THE RITUAL SYMBOLISM OF SOME INDO-EUROPEAN PEOPLES *) Flour-cakes of far in the shape of wheels, liba farinacea in modum rotae fincta, were used among the Romans and called summanalia (Festus p. 474, 17 LINDSAY). Summanus was a thunder-god, C./L. vi, 206, 30879, 30880, more exact1y one to whom were ascribed night­ thunders, as those which came by day were to Juppiter (Festus pp. 66, 15,254, 1-4 LINDS., Pliny N.H. ii, 138, Aug. de ciuit. Dei iv, 23). This is not to say that Summanus is a doublet of Juppiter as Wissowa sup­ poses, for the dedications to J uppiter Summanus (C.I.L. v, 3256, from Verona, 5660, from Milan), which are of Imperial date and provincial origin, rather represent a secondary incorporation of the lesser god in the greater, on the grounds of their common activity of thundering. A pottery statue of Summanus stood on the summit of the temple of Juppiter Capitolinus when in 278 B.C it was struck by a thunder­ bolt (Cicero, de diuin. I, 16, Livy, perioch. 14, Ovid, Fast. vi, 372), and its head broken off, which was found in the Tiber at a point indicated by the haruspices. A shrine was then erected to Summanus in the neighbourhood of the Circus Maximus. The god's festival, which was also the natalis of his temple, was celebrated on J une 20, C.I.L. i2, pp. 2II (the Fasti Esquilini), 221 (F. Venusini), 243 (F. Amiterni), 320; Ovid, Fast. vi, 731, Pliny N.H. xxix, 57. It is likely that in this shrine and especially when that day came round, those flour-cakes shaped like wheels which bore the name of summanalia were offered. Bronze disks, orbes aenei, were kept in the sacellum of the "Sabine" god Semo Sancus on the Quirinal (Cato in Dion. HaI. ii, 49, 2; Ovid, Fast. vi, 217 foll.; Silius Ital. viii, 420 foll.). They had been dedicated in 329 B.C after the capture of Privernum, and were made of the *) The original of this article, La ruota nel simbolismo di alwni popoli indo­ cltropei, appeared in S.M.S.R. xxii (1949-50), pp. 12-+-38. THE WHEEL IN THE RITUAL SYMBOLISM aes received for the confiscated property O'f the traitor Vitruvius Vaccus, Livy viii, 20. In the shrine O'f Semo Sancus was also kept the text O'f the foedus Gabinum, that is the treaty of peace cO'ncluded with Gabii when it fell into the hands O'f Sextus Tarquinius. This treaty had been sworn O'ver a bull sacrificed für the occasion, and then written in archaie letters on the hide üf the victim, stretched üver a shield, pre­ sumably round, O'f woüd (Dion. HaI. iv, 58, 4). Semo Sancus was thus a güd whü protected agreements and treaties. He was indeed also called Dius Fidius (Varro, de ling. Lat. v, 66; Ovid, Fast. vi, 213 foll., Dion. HaI. ii, 49, 2, iv, 58, 4, who translates the name by ZElle; lHer·noe;), as a guarantor of fides, i.e., good faith and observance üf agreements, cf. the oath medius Fidius (Festus p. 133, 1-5 Linds.). Certain inscriptions are dedicated to Semo Sancus (süme• times miswritten Sanctus) Dius Fidius (e.I.L. vi, 567, 568, 30994), by the saeerdotes bidentales, who were entrusted with the rite of the bidental to expiate thunderbolts. Their official residence (e.I.L. xv, 7253) was ne ar the shrine of the god on the Quirinal (Dio Fidioin eolle, Fast. Venusini, e.I.L. i2 pp. 22I, 319). Another shrine üf the god stoüd ün the Insula Tiberina. Astatue of hirn 1), found together with its pedestal, which bore the inscriptiün Semoni Saneto Deo (sie) Fidio (e./.L. vi, 30994) reprüduces an archaic type of ApüllO' and müst prübably, as in the müdern restüratiün of it, carried a büw in the right hand. Büth Apollü's arrüw and Juppiter's thunderbolt 2) befit a god whü, as protector üf swürn agreements, is alsO' the punisher of their viülation. In a rite üf the Umbrian religion described in üne üf the Iguvine Tables (ii b), the persün presenting the victim, a calf, recited the votive fürmula while hülding in his hand an ur/eta 3). This ur/eta (cf. Latin orbita, orbis) was therefüre a ritual übject, we are nüt tüld üf what material 4), shaped like a wheel, and thus similar in fürm tü Semo Sancus' orbes aenei and tü the summanalia in modum rotae I) Bull. dell' Instituto 1881, 38; Annali del!' Instituto 188S, lOS foll. 2) VERG., Aen. xii, 200: audiat haec genitor (sc. Iuppiter) qui foedera fulmine sancit. 3) G. DEVOTO, Tabulae Iguvinae, ed. 2, Rome 1940, p. 366. 4) S. EITREM, Opferritus u. Voropfer, 60, renders it too dogmatically by Erz­ scheibe; CONWAY (Italic Dialects, Cambridge 1897, ii, 617) has as little foundation for his translation Ha cake in the shape of a wheel". .
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