is familiar to classical readers; it is said that every stranger who landed on the shore was sacrificed on her altar. But transported to Italy, the rite assumed a milder form. Within the sanctuary at Nemi grew a certain tree of which no branch might be broken. Only a runaway slave was allowed to break off, if he could, one of its boughs. Success in the attempt entitled him to fight the priest in single combat, and if he slew him he reigned in his stead with the title of King of the Wood (Rex Nemorensis). Tradition averred that the fateful branch was that Golden Bough which, at the Sibyl’s bidding, Aeneas plucked before he essayed the perilous journey to the world of the dead. The flight of the slave represented, it was said, the flight of Orestes; his combat with the priest was a reminiscence of the human sacrifices once offered to the Tauric Diana. This rule of succession by the sword was observed down to imperial times; for amongst his other freaks Caligula, thinking that the priest of Nemi had held office too long, hired a more stalwart ruffian to slay him.[1]
Of the worship of Diana at Nemi two leading features can still be made out. First, from the votive-offerings found in modern times on the site, it appears that she was especially worshipped by women desirous of children or of an easy delivery.[2] Second, fire seems
- ↑ Virgil, Aen. vi. 136 sqq.; Servius, ad l.; Strabo, v. 3, 12; Pausanias, ii. 27; Solinus, ii. 11; Suetonius, Callgula, 35. For the title “King of the Wood,” see Suetonius, l.c.; and compare Statius, Sylv. 111. i, 55 sq.—
“Jamque dies aderat, profugis cum regibus aptum
Fumat Aricinum Triviae nemus;”Ovid, Fasti, iii. 271, “Regna tenent fortesque manu, pedibusque fugaces;” id. Ars am. i. 259 sq.—
“Ecce suburbanae templum nemorale Dianae,
Partaque per gladios regna nocente manu.” - ↑ Bulletino dell’ Instituto, 1885, p. 153 sq.; Athenaeum, 10th October 1885; Preller, Römische Mythologie,3 i. 317. Of these votive offerings some represent women with children in their arms; one represents a delivery, etc.
