Lupercalia
ancient pastoral annual festival observed in the city of Rome between February 13 and February 15
Lupercalia, also known as Lupercal, was a pastoral festival of Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. Lupercalia was also known as dies Februatus, after the purification instruments called februa, for which the month Februarius was named.
Name
The festival was originally known as Februa ("Purifications" or "Purgings") after the februum used on the day. It was also known as Februatus and gave its name variously as epithet to Juno Februalis, Februlis, or Februata in her role as that month's patron deity; to a supposed purification deity called Februus; and to February (mensis Februarius), the month during which the festival occurred. Ovid connects februare to an Etruscan word for purging.
The name Lupercalia was believed in antiquity to have some connection to the Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lykaia, a wolf festival (Ancient Greek: λύκος, lýkos; Latin: lupus), and the worship of Lycaean Pan, assumed to be a Greek equivalent to Faunus, as instituted by Evander. Justin describes a cult image of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans Lupercus", as nude, save for a goatskin girdle. The worship of Lupercus originated in the Augustan period, leaving the question open as to which god the Luperci were considered to honour before this point.
The statue stood in the Lupercal, the cave where tradition held that Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf (Lupa). The cave lay at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on which Romulus was thought to have founded Rome.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lupercalia” is ancient pastoral annual festival observed in the city of Rome between February 13 and February 15. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lupercalia, ancient and pastoral, not as a finished interpretation.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q650197. The Library of Congress control number is sh85078931. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lupercalia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.