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52
of sex seems decidedly weak, and I am disposed to see in it an
epicene usage closely analogous to that of lacertae, lacerti in
Pliny's account of the lizards.
Thus we see that porcus and agnus are used as epicenes ;7, that
in the antiquated speech which survived in ritualistic formulas,
porcus and agnus are used as possessing common gender ;76 that,
therefore, porcus and agnus are used of both sexes interchangeably.
Porca is also used as an epicene interchangeably with
porcus. 77 Agna is an epicene in Fasti, IV, 648,78 and is defined
with remarkable precision in a ritualistic inscription,79 as though
there could be doubt about the sex. In the light, therefore, of
Varro's plain statement that columba was used as an epicene, I
believe that he so employed agna in his account of the sacrifice
to Jupiter at the auspicatio vindemiae, and had in mind no thought
of the animal's sex. 80 Since, therefore, we have seen that Roman
pontifical law demanded- the sacrifice of male victims to male
divinities, there is no reason to doubt that the agna of the
auspicatio vindemiae was a male.
The second apparent exception to the general rule of sacrifice 81
has thus been shown to be nothing more than apparent. The first,
an offering of a capra to Vediovis,82 is easily disposed of in the
same manner. Cato, quoted by Varro,83 employs the word as an
epicene in speaking of the habits of wild goats. Varro himself
goes further and uses caprae of wild and domestic goats alike, in
a close connection with the epicene word oves:
" See notes 71 and 72.
"Festus, pp. 286, 222, and 189; Paul. p. 6; see pp. 49-50 above. .
71 Paul. p. 235 and see p. 51 above.
"Can praecidallea agna defined by Festus (p. 223) be epicene? True
it occurs in the same passage with the definition of praecidal£ea porca,
which Festus says was an offering to Ceres, but the words, "praecidanea
agna vocabatur quae ante alias caedebatur", do not seem to me to point
to any single divinity. If this be true, the offering might be to a god as
well as to a goddess, and alias could well mean alias hostias.
.. See n. 69 above.
.. See n. 10 above.
'" Cf. pp. 34-35 above and n. 10.
"'p. 35 above. Gelliu sas: "Eum deum (i. e. Vediovem) plerumque
Apollinem esse dixerunt; immolaturque ritu humano capra eiusque animalis
figmentum iuxta simulacrum stat". For Krause on this sacrifice, see
his thesis, p. 21.
II R. R. II, 3, 3.