Lucus

Some ancient sources as well as modern etymologists derive the word "from a letting in of light" (a lucendo); that is, the lucus was the clearing encompassed by trees.Entry on "Etymology," in The Classical Tradition (Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 343. The Old High German cognate {{lang|goh|lôh}} also means "clearing, holy grove". Lucus appears to have been understood in this sense in early medieval literature; until the 10th century, it is regularly translated into OHG as {{lang|goh|harug}}, a word never used for the secular silva.D.H. Green, Language and history in the early Germanic world (Cambridge University Press, 1998, 2000), p. 26. Servius, however, somewhat perversely says that a lucus is so called because non luceat, "it is not illuminated", perhaps implying that a proper sacred grove hosted only legitimate daytime ceremonies and not dubious nocturnal rites that required torchlight.Non quod sint ibi lumina causa religionis: Servius, note to Aeneid [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053%3Abook%3D1%3Acommline%3D441 1.441]; Ken Dowden, European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2000), p. 74.

In his book On Agriculture, Cato records a Roman ritual lucum conlucare, "to clear a clearing". The officiant is instructed to offer a pig as a piaculum, a propitiation or expiatory offering made in advance of the potential wrong committed against the grove through human agency.William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), p. 191. The following words are to be formulated (verba concipito) for the particular site:

Whether thou be god or goddess (si deus, si dea) to whom this grove is dedicated, as it is thy right to receive a sacrifice of a pig for the thinning of this sacred grove, and to this intent, whether I or one at my bidding do it, may it be rightly done. To this end, in offering this pig to thee I humbly beg that thou wilt be gracious and merciful to me, to my house and household, and to my children. Wilt thou deign to receive this pig which I offer thee to this end.Cato, On Agriculture 139, Loeb Classical Library translation (1934), Bill Thayer's edition at LacusCurtius: Si deus, si dea es, quoium illud sacrum est, uti tibi ius est porco piaculo facere illiusce sacri coercendi ergo harumque rerum ergo, sive ego sive quis iussu meo fecerit, uti id recte factum siet, eius rei ergo te hoc porco piaculo inmolando bonas preces precor, uti sies volens propitius mihi domo familiaeque meae liberisque meis; harumce rerum ergo macte hoc porco piaculo inmolando esto; Robert E.A. Palmer, The Archaic Community of the Romans (Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 106, connects this ritual to the Lucaria and the clearing of sacred groves in general.

The word piaculum is repeated three times in the prayer, emphasizing that the sacrifice of the pig is not a freewill offering, but something owed to the deity by right (ius). The piaculum compensates the deity for a transgression or offense, and differs from a regular sacrifice offered in the hope of procuring favor in return (do ut des).Cyril Bailey, Phases in the Religion of Ancient Rome (University of California, 1932), p. 91.

It is tempting, but misleading, to read ecological principles into ritualized agriculture; for the early Romans, respect was the partner of fear in their regard for the divine forces in nature, and the open invocation with which this prayer begins is a contractual "out" or hedge.J. Donald Hughes, The Mediterranean: An Environmental History (ABC-Clio, 2005), p. 208. The piaculum was a guarantee that the action of clearing was valid.Nicole Belayche, "Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Related Beliefs," in A Companion to Roman Religion, p. 286. Thoreau nonetheless made admiring reference to Cato's prayer in Walden: "I would that our farmers when they cut down a forest felt some of that awe which old Romans did when they came to thin, or let in the light to, a consecrated grove (lucum conlucare)."Henry David Thoreau, Walden p. 235 in the edition of Bill McKibben (Beacon Press, 1997, 2004).

{{Main article|Lucaria}}

The Lucaria ("Grove Festival") was held on July 19 and 21, according to the Fasti Amiterni, a calendar dating from the reign of Tiberius found at Amiternum (now S. Vittorino) in Sabine territory.Rüpke, Religion of the Romans, p. 189.

A lucus might become such a focus of activity that a community grew up around it, as was the case with the Lucus Augusti that is now Lugo in Spain and the Lucus Feroniae near Capena.Dowden, European Paganism, p. 105. Lucus is therefore part of the Latin name of several different ancient places in the Roman Empire from which the modern name derives, including:

• Lucus Angitiae ("Sacred Grove of Angitia"), now Luco dei Marsi, a town in Italy
• Lucus Pisaurensis,Lucus Pisaurensis: Sacred Grove of Pesaro, Discovered by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri http://www.ilpignocco.it/en/about-us/lucus-pisaurensis/ the Sacred Grove of Pesaro, Italy; discovered by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri, an 18th-century Italian aristocrat
• Lucus Augusti, the name of multiple sites, such as:
• Lugo, the city in Spain
• Luc-en-Diois, in France
• Lucus Feroniae ("Sacred Grove of Feronia") or Feronia, a now-disappeared city in Etruria, Italy; see Torre di Terracina, Italy

• Fanum
• Lucina (goddess)
• Nemeton

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Category:Trees in religion

Category:Ancient Roman religion