by Horatius Piscinus on Sat May 29, 2004 3:29 pm
Salvete sodales
Below is an article I posted in Ancient Worlds on the adoratio. I include it here because it touches on an issue about the different forms spirituality can take in different religious traditions. As a lifetime practitioner of a pagan tradition I have been called a few things - demon worshipper and idol worshipper come to mind. Such epitaphs are born from ignorance of a different faith. In this post I refer to a particular practice and view it from within the spiritual tradition of the Religio Romana, perhaps offering some insight into how a pagan would view worshipping at an idol, rather than worshipping the idol.
Adoratio
"(When) Caecilius sees an image of Serapis," wrote Minucius Felix Octavius, "he, as the superstitious masses are accustomed to do, moves his hand to his lips, kissing it. (II.4)." Apuleius likewise mentions the "gratia manus labris admovere" or thanks given by the movement of the hand to the lips. This he mentions in a criticism of an impious man, "Not in a lifetime to you Gods will he have prayed, no temples will he frequent. If another shrine he comes upon, he passes it, a sinful act it would be indeed were he to move his hand to his lips when giving thanks (Apologia 56 de Aemiliano)." Juvenal at one point mentions a woman praying for her children each time she comes upon a shrine of Venus, and we may assume she, too, was using the adoratio gesture (Sat. X.290).
Pliny offers an explanation of the gesture's intent, "to such thanksgiving they add a gesture, they touch the altar with their hand extended, when making adorationes before an altar, because the vital force of the Manes strongly moves within the altars (Nat. Hist. XI.250)." With Virgil we see Aeneas say, "Tango aras," or, "I touch the altar," as part of a vow (Aeneis XII.201). Indeed, Aeneas is depicted in a bas-relief on the Ara Pacis making such a gesture, in a scene taken from Aeneis VIII.81-5. By this gesture one makes physical and spiritual contact with an object through which direct contact is made with a divinity. There was an idea that all things are imbued with a degree of divinity, and that a God or Goddess might extend their power (numen) into an object or person, filling them with more divine substance so as to animate them. This idea is expressed by Ovid in the story of Tages, where a clod of earth is able to move of its own accord because it had become "filled with fate" (Met. 15.553-59: fatalam glaebam). A numen is not a god itself, but a power or presence that extends from a god. Sillilius Italicus called it vestigiasacra , literally meaning "footprints," but meaning also a vestige or trace left behind by some deity in the same way that we leave part of our body warmth in everything we touch (Punica 1.505). Gods were called to attend celebrations. When a dedication was made of a statue, an altar, a temple, or a precinct, a deity was asked to send Their numen into that place or object.
"Come hither, Hercules, who, now free of your obligations, may choose ...come hither, and grace this newly dedicated temple with the presence of your genius. (Statius Silvae 3.1.23-8: nuc ades et genium templis nascentibus infer)."
The actual receptacle for a numen was the palas; i. e. a stone placed inside an altar for just that purpose (ILS 4907). In the 1960's it was discovered that this practice of sanctifying an altar by the inclusion of a palas was continued among Christians in England up until the 14th century. Comparable would be a cenotaphium that was provided to hold the spirit of a deceased person when their body was unrecoverable. Since a numen originates from and is an extension from a deity, it can act as a conduit to the deity. At times the Romans offered their prayers directly to the numen for this very reason, that through the numen their requests would then be carried back to the God or Goddess (Horace Carmen 4.1.28). Touching an altar or statue held greater significance than simply speaking one's prayers, because it made direct contact, an immediate bond, between the devotee's spiritual essence with the divine. Thus by Aeneas touching the altar, he pledges more than his good name or his person, for he commits his spiritual essence, his authentic being, as the surety to his vow.
The gesture of which I speak is not itself an adoratio, but one of various gestures used by Romans in prayer and closely associated with a rite that was known as an adoratio. On 13 December the flamen Quirinalis, acting in place of Romulus, would be joined by the Vestales Virgines in performing a parentatio at the tomb of Acca Larentia. According to myth, Larentia had cared for Romulus and Remus as their surrogate mother. Thus the flamen Quirinalis continued the performance of rites due to a parent by her son. Larentia was also thought to be the "parent" of the order of Vestales Virgines at Rome, and thus they, too, were present to perform rites of adoratio as though to a ancestor. The Vestales Virgines also performed a parentatio at the tomb of Tarpeia on 13 February, as she was the first Vestal Virgin at Rome. The parentatio was an adoratio rite consisting of placing a series of offerings on the altar as oblationes, decorating the altar with wreathes of flowers, and performing a sacrifice (immolatio) that provided the meat of a shared meal with the deceased. Apparently the gesture of adoratio was used repeatedly during a parentatio , and thus was closely associated with the entire rite. Touching the altar, or tomb, or statue of a deceased family member renews the bond between generations of a family, both physically and spiritually. It is a natural act. Performing this gesture with a God or Goddess implies a personal relationship akin to that between family members. Outside the context of a parentatio, the gesture of adoratio still implied the entire rite. Thus if we go back to Juvenal, the woman who performed an adoratio gesture at every shrine of Venus she came upon, she was reminding the Goddess of rites previously performed in adoration of Venus and promised further rites in the future. The woman performed a regimen of rites to Venus on behalf of her children, maintaining a personal relationship with the Goddess, and by touching any object that might contain a numen linking her to Venus the woman was thus reinforcing the spiritual bonds that connected her in a personal way to Venus. Returning to what Minucius Felix had to say of the "superstitious masses" performing an adoratio gesture at every shrine they came upon, and recalling the distinction that Cicero made between superstitio and religio , employing the gesture without the attendant regimen of rites it implied amounted to a form of deception. The gesture itself is not a superstitious act, but an act of devotion when made in a religious context. It is a superstitious act to call upon a deity only when convenient or opportune, without the personal relationship that is developed through a regimen of religious rites. The same would apply where a person makes a sign of the cross each time he places a bet or thought his life in danger and never backs up his gesture by performing his devotions. That is superstition. On the other hand, a woman who follows the regimen of her faith, attending her devotions regularly, who would then make a sign of the cross as she came upon grotto with the image of Mary, is performing a religious act, one implicitly linked to all her devotions. As Apuleius said, to perform the gesture implicit of religious devotions and not perform those devotions themselves would indeed be a sinful act, because it undeservedly calls on the Gods to grant Their favor. As in any religious tradition, the context of an action distinguishes whether it is religious devotion or impious superstition.
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!