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March 15th. On the Ides is held the joyful
feast of Anna Perenna, not far from thy banks, O Tiber, who comest
from afar. The common folk come, and scattered here and there over the
leafy grass they drink, every lad reclining beside his lass. Some camp
under the open sky; a few pitch tents; some make a leafy hut of
boughs. Others set up reeds in place of rigid pillars, and stretching
out their robes place them upon reeds. But they grow warm with sun and
wine, and pray for as many years as they take cups, and they count the
cups they drink
There they sing the ditties they picked up in the
theatres, beating time to the words with nimble hands; they set the
bowl down, and trip in dances lubberly, while the spruce sweetheart
steps about with streaming hair.
Ovid, Fasti,
III. 523 Roman calendar
The feast of Anna Perenna was celebrated
at the first milestone on the Flaminian Way ... Here, apparently
between the Flaminian and the Salarian roads, the goddess had a
fruitful grove
Macrobius tells us that in the month of March
people went to Anna Perenna
in order that they might pass the year
and many others in prosperity; and to the same effect Joannes Lydus
says that on the Ides of March public prayers were offered that the
year might be healthy
these statements furnish a clue to the
nature of the festival and of the goddess herself
The pairing of
sweethearts, lying on the grass, trolling out ribald staves, and
drinking themselves drunk, points to customs like those formerly
observed on May Day and Midsummer Eve in many parts of Europe, when
the licence accorded to the sexes was a relic of magical rites . It
was a day of Valentines.
Sir James George
Frazer (1854
- 1941), The
Golden Bough, 1922
|
Great Mother goddess
|
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.
Shakespeare,
Julius Caesar, I, ii, 32; Julius Caesar was assassinated on March
15, 44 BCE
Caesar: The ides
of March are come.
Soothsayer: Ay, Caesar; but not gone.
Shakespeare, ibid, III, i, 1
Kai su, teknon (You too, my son?).
These Greek words would more likely have been what Caesar said while being
stabbed, but are best known in their Latin form: "Et tu, Brute?"
What is still more extraordinary, many report that a certain soothsayer forewarned him of a great danger which threatened him on the ides of March, and that when the day was come, as he was going to the senate house, he called to the soothsayer, and said, laughing, 'The ides of March are come', to which he answered, softly, 'Yes, but they are not gone'.
Plutarch: Julius Caesar
Both for these reasons and because of poor health he hesitated for a long time whether to stay at home and put off what he had planned to do in the Senate. But at last, urged by Decimus Brutus not to disappoint the full meeting, which had for some time been waiting for him, he went forth almost at the end of the fifth hour. [About eleven o'clock.] When a note revealing the plot was handed him by some one on the way, he put it with others which he held in his left hand, intending to read them presently. Then, after many victims had been slain, and he could not get favorable omens, he entered the House in defiance of portents, laughing at [the seer] Spurinna and calling him a false prophet, because the ides of March were come without bringing him harm. Spurinna replied that they had of a truth come, but they had not gone.
As he took his seat, the conspirators gathered about him as if to pay their respects, and straightway Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the lead, came nearer as though to ask something. When Caesar with a gesture put him off to another time, Cimber caught his toga by both shoulders. As Caesar cried, 'Why, this is violence!', one of the Cascas [two brothers in the Senate] stabbed him from one side just below the throat. Caesar caught Casca's arm and ran it through with his stylus, but as he tried to leap to his feet, he was stopped by another wound. When he saw that he was beset on every side by drawn daggers, he muffled his head in his robe, and at the same time drew down its lap to his feet with his left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also covered. And in this wise he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek,
"You too, my child?"
Suetonius (Gaius
Suetonius Tranquillus; 75 - 160), on the death of Julius
Caesar Source
Andiamo, andiamo, presto in
Paradiso. (I am going, I am going, soon to Paradise!)
Last words of
Cardinal Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti
(b. 1774),
hyperpolyglot, died on March 15, 1849 Source
March
15
is
the 74th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (75th in leap years), with 291 days remaining.
On the dating of items in the Almanac
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Feast day of Rhea,
ancient Greek
goddess of the Earth
(Source
of date: Nigel
Pennick, The
Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont,
USA, 1992)
Rhea (or
Ria, meaning 'she who flows') was the Titaness
daughter of Uranus
and of Gaia.
She was sister to Cronus
and mother to Demeter,
Hades, Hera,
Hestia, Poseidon,
and Zeus.
She was strongly associated with Cybele.
In Roman
mythology, she was Magna
Mater deorum Idaea and identified with Ops.
In art, Rhea was
usually depicted on a chariot drawn by two lions,
not always distinguishable from Cybele.
Her husband, Cronus, castrated their father,
Uranus. After this, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires,
the Gigantes
and the Cyclopes
and set the monster Campe
to guard them. He and Rhea took the throne as King and Queen of the gods.
This time was called the Golden
Age as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone
did right and as such, there was no need.
Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia,
Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they
were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined
to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father. But
when Zeus was
about to be born, Rhea sought Uranus and Earth to devise a plan to save
him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus
and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete,
handing Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he promptly
swallowed.
Then she hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in
Crete. According to varying versions of the story:
- He was then raised by Gaia.
- He was suckled by a goat named Amalthea,
while a company of Kouretes,
soldiers, or smaller gods danced, shouted and clapped their hands to
make noise so that Cronus would not hear the baby's cry.
- He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea.
Since Cronus ruled over the earth, the heavens and the sea, she hid
him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between
earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father.
In Greek
mythology, Zeus forced the Titan
Cronus to disgorge the other children in reverse order of swallowing:
first the stone, which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus
to be a sign to mortal men, then the rest. In some versions, Metis
gave Cronus an emetic
to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open.
Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires
and the Cyclopes, who gave him thunder and the thunderbolt and lightning,
which had previously been hidden by Gaia. Together, Zeus and his brothers
and sisters with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew
Cronus and the other Titans.
In Homer,
Rhea is the mother of the gods, though not a universal mother like Cybele,
the Phrygian
Great
Mother, with whom she was later identified. The original seat of her
worship was in Crete.
There, according to legend, she saved the new-born Zeus, her sixth child,
from being devoured by Kronos, by substituting a stone for the infant god
and entrusting him to the care of her attendants the Curetes.
These attendants afterwards became the bodyguard of Zeus and the priests
of Rhea, and performed ceremonies in her honour. In historic times, the
resemblances between Rhea and the Asiatic Great Mother, Phrygian Cybele,
were so noticeable that the Greeks accounted for them by regarding the
latter as only their own Rhea, who had deserted her original home in Crete
and fled to the mountain wilds of Asia
Minor to escape the persecution of Kronos (Strabo.
469, 12). The reverse view was also held (Virgil,
Aeneid iii), and it is probably true that cultural contacts with
the mainland brought to Crete the worship of the Asiatic Great Mother, who
became the Cretan Rhea.
In Greek
mythology, Rhea's symbol is the moon. However, in Roman
mythology, her symbol is known as the lunar (which would seem to
mean "Moon"). She has another symbol, the swan, because it
is a gentle animal. Also, her other symbol is two lions, supposedly the
ones that pull her chariot.
Festival
of Anna
Perenna, Goddess of the Circle of the Year, daughter of Belus,
ancient Rome
Anna
Perenna was an old Roman
deity of the circle or "ring" of the year, as the name (per
annum) clearly indicates. Her festival fell on the Ides
of March (March
15), which would have marked the first full moon in the year in the
old lunar Roman
calendar when March was reckoned as the first month of the year, and
was held at the grove of the goddess at the first milestone on the Via
Flaminia. It was much frequented by the city plebs.
Macrobius'
(Saturnalia 1.12.6) related that offerings were made to her ut
annare perannareque commode liccat, ie, "that the circle
of the year may be completed happily" and that people sacrificed to
her both publicly and privately. Johannes
Lydus (De Mensibus 4.49) says that public sacrifice and prayers
were offered to her to secure a healthy year. Ovid
in his
Fasti (3.523f) provides a vivid description of the revelry
and licentiousness of her outdoor festival where tents were pitched or
bowers built from branches, where lad lay beside lass, and people asked
that Anna bestow as many more years to them as they could drink cups of
wine at the festival.
Ovid then tells that Anna Perenna was the same
Anna who appears in Virgil's
Aeneid
as Dido's
sister and that after Dido's death, Carthage
was attacked by the Numidians
and Anna was forced to flee. Eventually Anna ended up in ship which
happened to be driven by a storm right to Aeneas's
settlement of Lavinium.
Aeneas invited her to stay, but his wife Lavinia
became jealous. But Anna, warned in a dream by Dido's spirit, escaped
whatever Lavinia was planning by rushing off into the night and falling
into the river
Numicus
and drowning. Aeneas and his folk were able to track Anna part way.
Eventually Anna's form appeared to them and Anna explained that she was
now a river nymph hidden in the "perennial stream" (amnis
perennis) of Numicus and her name was therefore now Anna Perenna. The
people immediately celebrated with outdoor revels. Ovid
then notes that some equate Anna Perenna with the Moon or with Themis
or with Io
or with Amaltheia,
but he turns to what he claims may be closer to the truth, that during the
Plebeian
revolt the rebels ran short on food and an old woman of Bovillae named
Anna baked cakes and brought them to the rebels every morning. The
Plebeians later set up an image to her and worshipped her as a goddess.
Next Ovid relates that soon after old Anna had
become a goddess, the god Mars
attempted to get Anna to persuade Minerva
to yield to him in love. Anna at last pretended that Minerva had agreed and
the wedding was on. But when Mars's supposed new wife was brought into his
chamber and Mars removed the veil, he found to his chagrin that it was not
Minerva but old Anna, which is why people told coarse jokes and sang
coarse songs at Anna Perenna's festivities. Since the festival of Anna
Perenna is in the month of Mars, it is reasonable that the Mars and Anna
Perenna should be associated, at least in some rites at that time, as cult
partners.
Two places of worship of Anna Perenna are
attested. One in
Buscemi,
Sicily,
where, in 1899,
some inscriptions to Anna and Apollo
were found, and in Rome, where a fountain devoted to Anna Perenna rites
was unearthened in 1999.
Source
The Romans
originally celebrated this goddess on the first full moon of their new
year. This was a picnic day, on which the Romans set up tents and camps
around the first milestone of the Via Flaminia.
"The Roman goddess of the new year.
Her festival was celebrated on March 15. The Romans gave various
explanations to the origin or her name, amnis perennis
("eternal stream"): she was a river nymph; her name was
derived from annis ("year"); she was a moon-goddess of
the running year; also, she was equated with Anna, the sister of Dido, who was
received in Latium by Aeneas, but
drowned herself in a river. In the class-struggle between the patricians
and plebeians she chose the side of the plebeians." Source
"Ovid in Fasti mentions the procession of Anna Perenna on this day, in which a drunken old woman known as the Petreia, is dragged along the streets by a drunken old man, who may represent Mamurius Veturis [see March 14]. Both of these figures seem to represent the old year, much like modern American depictions of Grandfather Time on New Year's Eve."
Source:
School of the Seasons
Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
Mamurius Veturis (Mamuralia)
Death
of Caesar
In the Roman
calendar, the Ides of March
Ides: "In the ancient Roman
calendar the 15th of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th
of all the other months; always eight days after the Nones."
Ivor
H Evans, Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988
"Traditionally,
river sprites or nymphs are acknowledged on the Ides of March."
Nigel
Pennick, The
Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA,
1992
"
the ides of March were selected for the sacrifice to the goddess
Anna Perenna, in whose name we have nothing more than the feminine form
of the word annus, which, whether written with one n or two,
whether in its simple form annus, or diminutive annulus, still always
signifies a circle. Hence, as the masculine form was easily
adopted to denote the period of the sun's course, so the feminine
in like manner might well be employed to signify, first the moon's
revolution, and then the moon herself." Source
"Beware the Ides of March"
This saying is given as a warning of impending danger. The allusion is to
the warning received by Julius Caesar before his assassination on March
15, 44 BCE.
Festival of Hilaria, in honour
of the Mother of
Gods, ancient Rome
A festival dedicated to Cybele and
Attis, pictured at left. Associations of women and men and the religious board of the
Quindecimviri took part. The rites began on March 15 with a procession of reed-bearers
(cannophori).
Cybele, omniscient Mother of Earth and mountains, mother of wild
beasts, rode with lions. Her lover was her grandson, Attis. When he
betrayed her she hunted him down and drove him mad. He tore off his
genitals which had been faithless to her, and perished.
Cybele was a
Phrygian goddess imported to Rome, and known as Magna Mater. This
festival was for her Spring rites, which celebrated Attis's death
(March 22)
and rebirth after three days (March 25). In this, it is cognate with
Easter, the
Christian Spring festival.
These traditions were Christianised into Mid-Lent Sunday -
Mothering Sunday the forerunner of Mothers' Day.
Cybele
bellatula:
a trilobite
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 Feast day of St
Longinus,
the centurion
converted at the Crucifixion
Readers
might have heard of the
Spear of
Destiny, a legendary magical weapon reputed to have been owned by Herod the Great,
Roman emperors Constantine
and Justinian,
Charlemagne,
Otto the
Great, Kaiser Wilhelm II of
Germany, the Habsburg Emperors,
Adolf Hitler,
and US General
George
Patton.
It is associated in Christian folklore with the
Holy Grail,
and its origins lie with this saint.
Biblical authors Matthew and
Mark both tell of
the Roman centurion who said "Truly this man was the son of
God", and tradition calls him Longinus. He was popular in
medieval legend, and said to have been blind. Presumably in medieval
times a blind centurion was believable. However, he didn't remain
blind forever. Pontius Pilate ordered
Longinus to spear
Jesus Christ in the
side according to the legend's version by
Jacobus de
Voragine (c.
1230 - '98) in
the Golden
Legend, the blood ran down his spear, into his eyes and restored
his sight:
"Some say that when he smote our Lord
with the spear in the side, the precious blood avaled by the
shaft of the spear upon his hands, and of adventure with his
hands he touched his eyes, and anon he that had been tofore
blind saw anon clearly, wherefore he refused all chivalry and
abode with the apostles, of whom he was taught and christened,
and after, he abandoned him to lead an holy life in doing alms
and in keeping the life of a monk about thirty-eight years in
Cζsarea and in Cappadocia, and by his words and his example many
men converted he to the faith of Christ."
Source: Golden Legend, translated by William Caxton
When Longinus
was 27, he was living at
Caesaria of Cappadocia, when news of his
zealous Christian witness made its way to the governor, Octavius,
who summoned him. After a religious discussion, Longinus was
commanded to worship the Roman idols, and eat of the sacrifice
offered to them. Tradition says that he refused, so his tongue and
teeth were removed.
After more
torture, he offered Octavius a deal; if he could destroy the idols,
Octavius must be converted. But if the pagan gods did him any
injury, Longinus would become a pagan. Presumably in medieval
times a tongueless man making a deal was believable as well.
Governor
Octavius smashed all the idols and demons fled from their stone
casings, but Longinus captured them and interrogated them. They said
that his god, Jehovah, was the greatest god and that they had set up
in the stone because it was a nice place to live and had not been
sanctified. These dreadful demons claimed, too, that they were also
dwelling in the pagan people. The demons begged not to be thrown
into the abyss.
When the
citizens heard this they shouted for joy and were converted. But
Octavius was afraid lest the emperor heard about this apostasy, and
cut off the head of the saint. Then he repented and became a
Christian. A bit bloody late. These things happened on the ides of
March.
The Spear of Destiny
 "A legend grew around the lance that whoever possessed it would be able to conquer the world. Napolean
[sic] attempted to obtain the lance after the battle of Austerlitz, but it had been smuggled out of the city prior to the start of the fight and he never got a hold of it. According to the legend, Charlemagne carried the spear through 47 successful battles, but died when he accidentally dropped it. Barbarossa met the same fate only a few minutes after it slipped out of his hands while he was crossing a stream.
"The spear finally wound up in the possession of the House of the Hapsburgs and by 1912 was part of the treasure collection stored in Hofburg Museum. According to Ravenscroft it was in September of that year, while living in Vienna and working as a watercolor painter, that a young Adolf Hitler visited the Museum and learned of the lance and its reputation. Dr. Walter Stein, who accompanied Hitler on that visit, remembered,
'when we first stood side by side in front of the Spear of Destiny it appeared to me that Hitler was in so deep a condition of trance that he was suffering almost complete sense-denudation and a total lack of self-consciousness.'
"Hitler later said, 'I stood there quietly gazing upon it for several minutes quite oblivious to the scene around me. It seemed to carry some hidden inner meaning which evaded me, a meaning which I felt I inwardly knew yet could not bring to consciousness ... I felt as though I myself had held it before in some earlier century of history. That I myself had once claimed it as my talisman of power and held the destiny of the world in my hands ...'
"Hitler saw the lance as his mystical connection with generations
of conquering Germanic leaders that had come before him. On
March 14, 1938, after he had risen to power as the chancellor of
Germany, Hitler annexed the state of Austria and ordered that
the spear, along with the rest of the Habsburg collection, be
sent to the city of Nuremberg, heart of the Nazi movement." Source
The Spear of Longinus, or Holy Lance, from Wikipedia
The Spear of
Destiny, sometimes known as the Spear of Longinus, is claimed to be the spear that pierced
the side of Jesus Christ when he was on the cross. It
is described in John 19:31-37 as being used by a Roman
soldier. Later Christian tradition would give the soldier's name as
Gaius Cassius, and he is later called Longinus. It should be
noted that there is a historical figure named Gaius
Cassius Longinus, one of the conspirators responsible for the
death of Gaius Julius Caesar (died March 15, 44
BC).
It is believed by some to have passed through the
hands of influential world leaders throughout the ages including Herod the Great, Constantine, Justinian,
Charlemagne, Otto the Great, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, the Habsburg
Emperors, and Adolf Hitler. The earliest reports of the
Spear were circa
570 CE, described as having been on display in the basilica
of Mount Zion
in Jerusalem adjacent to the Crown of Thorns. The point of the
spearhead was alleged to have been snapped following the Persian
conquest of Jerusalem in
615. The
point was set into an icon, and found its way to the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It was later transported
to France,
where it remained in the Sainte Chapelle until the 18th Century. The icon was briefly moved to
the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris
during the French Revolution, but it subsequently
disappeared. The lower section of the spearhead was allegedly
conveyed from Jerusalem to Constantinople sometime in the 8th
century. It was sent by Sultan Beyazid
II as a gift to Pope Innocent VIII in 1492;
Innocent had the relic placed in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It
still resides there. The Catholic Church makes no claim as to its
authenticity.
It is superstitiously believed that whosoever might
hold the Spear would have the power to conquer the world but losing
it would mean instant death. The legend states that since the Spear
had pierced the body of God (Jesus) that it became imbued with some kind of
magical power and therefore was a weapon capable of defeating any
opponent.
Hitler's interest in the relic probably originated
with his interest in the 1882 opera Parsifal
by Hitler's favorite composer,
Richard Wagner which concerned a
group of 9th century knights
and their quest for the Holy
Grail.
On March
12, 1938,
the day Hitler annexed Austria,
he arrived in Vienna a conquering hero. He made his way to the
Hofmuseum where he took possession of the Spear which he immediately
sent to St. Katherine's Church in Nuremberg,
the spiritual capital of Nazi Germany.
One legend maintains that the Spear came into the
possession of the United States of America on April
30, 1945;
specifically, under the control of the 3rd Army led by General George Patton. Later that day, supposedly
in fulfilment of the legend, Hitler committed suicide. Patton became
fascinated by the ancient weapon and had its authenticity verified.
Patton did not go on to use the Spear, as orders came down from
General Dwight Eisenhower that the complete Hapsburg
regalia including the Spear of Longinus were to be returned to the
Hofburg Treasure House, where it
remains today. This legend has recently been shown to be quite
false. The Spear was not recovered until roughly six months after
Hitler's suicide, and Patton never had possession of it.
The Spear is generally regarded by
experts as a fake. The earliest verifiable account of this Spear was
its use in a coronation ceremony in 1273.
Recent metallurgy indicates the Spear as having been made in the 7th
century CE
at the earliest, although it may contain an authentic Roman crucifixion nail; but that nail has
also been altered.
There are several other competing relics in
different locations. One such "Holy Lance" was allegedly
unearthed by a Crusader named Peter Bartholomew in Antioch
in 1098
while the Crusaders were under siege from the Seljuk Turks under Kerbogha.
Peter Bartholomew reported that he had had a vision in which St.
Andrew told him that the Holy Lance was buried in St. Peter's
Cathedral in Antioch. At the time some were skeptical, but others
were convinced. In any case, after much digging in the cathedral,
Peter Bartholomew took a hand and, in a few moments, discovered the
lance. For some of the Crusaders this was a marvelous discovery. At
the same time, dissension had begun in the ranks of the Muslim
army besieging the city. This combination of factors resulted in the
Christian army being able to rout the Moslems a few days later when
they joined battle, allowing the Crusaders to decisively capture
Antioch.
That Lance is now at Etschmiadzin in Armenia.
Scholars believe that it is not actually a Roman lance but the head
of a Roman standard. Another purported Holy Lance has been in Krakow
since the 1200s.
Catholic
Encyclopedia The Holy Lance The search for the
real Holy Lance
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June 10
1098, in the Book of Days
Farvardigan, The
Ten Days of the Dead,
ancient Persia,
Zoroastrianism
(Mar 10
- 20)
Elaphebolion
Noumenia, ancient
Greece (eve of Mar
14 - eve of Mar 15)
A festival honouring all the gods and goddesses.
"Flutes were played; prayers were said; offerings of barley,
olive oil, incense, and food were burned in an offering hearth; and
libations of water and wine were made." Source
Festivals in ancient Greece
Festival of the god Mars,
ancient Rome (Mar 1 - 19)
Feast day of St
Abraham (Lasting mercury,
Mercurialis
perennis, is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint), hermit of Mesopotamia, and
his niece, St Mary
Feast day of St Aristobulus
Feast day of St Artemide
Zatti
Feast day of St Clement
Mary Hofbauer
Feast day of St John
Adalbert Balicki
Feast day of St Leocrita (Leocritia) of
Cordova, virgin, martyr
Feast day of St Louise de
Marillac
Feast day of St Mancius
Feast day of St Matrona
Feast day of St Menignus
Feast day of St Monaldus of Ancona
Feast day of St Nicander
Feast day of St Speciosus
Feast day of St William Hart
Feast day of St Zachary,
pope
(Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfala, is also
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Thanksgiving
Day, Honduras
National holiday
in Hungary
celebrating the 1848
Revolution. (See also Public
holidays in Hungary)
Independence
Days, Paraguay (Mar 14 and 15)
 Tagata Honen-Sai, Tagata-jinja Shrine,
Inuyama, Japan
A 3-metre (approx. 10-ft) long wooden
phallus is carried out of the shrine of the god Izanagi ('the
male who invites'; a deity in Japanese
mythology and then Shintoism) at
Tagata-jinja, near Inuyama in central
Honshu, and
through the streets. A kind of insemination magic ritual is enacted
as the bearers of the phallus offer drinks to farmers, and infertile
couples touch the phallus for luck.
Tagata Shrine, with its emphasis on the penis, is
generally considered a men's shrine, but according to legend it was a
favourite of Tamahime-no-Mikoto, the guardian goddess of women.
The
nearby Ogata-jinja Shrine is dedicated to the female Shinto deity, Izanami ('the
female who invites';
sister-consort of Izanagi, with whom she made the world), and attracts women devotees who
are seeking marriage or childbirth.
Izanami through
Izanagi bore many islands, deities, and forefathers of Japan. When
Izanami died in childbirth, Izanagi tried (but failed) to retrieve
her from Yomi (a hades). In the
cleansing rite after his return, he
'gave birth to'
Amaterasu
(the sun
goddess) from his left eye, Tsukiyomi (the moon god)
from his right eye, and Susanowo (Susanoo no mikoto;
Susa-no-O; tempest or storm
god) from his nose.
Izanami was
created from chaos by the celestial deities, and with Izanagi, was
responsible for the creation of the eight Japanese islands and their
corresponding deities, saying: "We have now produced
the Great-Eight-Island country, with the mountains, rivers, herbs,
and trees. Why should we not produce some one who shall be the Lord
of the Universe?" Among others, they created Ku-ku-no-chi, the
ancestor of the trees, and next the ancestor of herbs, Kaya no hime.
Izanami's last creation was Kagu-tsuchi, the god of fire, who during
his birth severely burned Izanami, leading her to spawn several
additional gods from the expulsions caused by her death throes;
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