Editing Lupercalia (section)

==Name==
The festival was originally known as Februa ("Purifications" or "Purgings") after the ''{{lang|la|februum}}'' which was used on the day.<ref name=februum>{{citation |contribution-url= https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=februum |contribution= februum |last= Lewis |first= Charlton T. |author2=Charles Short |display-authors=1 |title= A Latin Dictionary Founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin Dictionary |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1879 }}.</ref> It was also known as ''{{lang|la|Februatus}}'' and gave its name variously, as epithet to [[Juno (goddess)|Juno]] Februalis, Februlis, or Februata in her role as patron deity of that month; to a supposed purification deity called [[Februus]];{{efn|The deity "Februus" is almost certainly a later invention.<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''[[Saturnalia]]'', 1, 13, 3.</ref>}} and to [[February (Roman month)|February]] (''{{lang|la|mensis Februarius}}''), the month during which the festival occurred.<ref name=februum/> [[Ovid]] connects ''{{lang|la|februare}}'' to an [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] word for "purging".<ref name="King2006">{{cite book| first= Richard |last= Jackson King |title= Desiring Rome: Male Subjectivity and Reading Ovid's Fasti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FChM3QiG5kC&pg=PA195|year=2006|publisher=Ohio State University Press|isbn=978-0-8142-1020-8|pages=195 ff }}</ref>

The name ''Lupercalia'' was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] festival of the [[Regions of ancient Greece#Arcadia|Arcadian]] [[Lykaia]], a wolf festival ({{langx|grc|λύκος}}, ''lýkos''; {{langx|la|lupus}}), and the worship of ''Lycaean [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]]'', assumed to be a Greek equivalent to [[Faunus]], as instituted by [[Evander of Pallene|Evander]].<ref>[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], ''Roman Antiquities'' 1.32.3&ndash;5, 1.80; [[Justin (historian)|Justin]], ''Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus'' 43.6ff; [[Livy]], ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab urbe condita]]'' 1.5; [[Ovid]], ''Fasti'' 2.423&ndash;42; [[Plutarch]], ''Life of Romulus'' 21.3, ''Life of Julius Caesar'', ''Roman Questions'' 68; [[Virgil]], ''Aeneid'' 8.342&ndash;344; [[Lydus]], ''De mensibus'' 4.25. See Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'', s.v. "Lupercus"</ref> [[Justin (historian)|Justin]] describes a [[cult image]] of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans [[Lubercus|Lupercus]]", as nude, save for a goatskin girdle.<ref>[[Justin (historian)|Justin]], ''Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus'' 43.1.7.</ref> 

The statue stood in the [[Lupercal]], the cave where tradition held that [[Romulus and Remus]] were suckled by the [[She-wolf (Roman mythology)|she-wolf]] ([[Lupa Capitolina|Lupa]]). The cave lay at the foot of the [[Palatine Hill]], on which [[Romulus]] was thought to have founded Rome.<ref>{{citation| url= http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkTwo.htm#_Toc69367692 |author= [[Ovid]]| title= Fasti| chapter= Lupercalia| year=| publisher= |translator= }}</ref> The name of the festival most likely derives from ''lupus'', "wolf", though both the etymology and its significance are obscure. The wolf appellation may have to do with the fact that an animal predator plays a key role in male rites of passage.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vuković |first1=Krešimir |title= Wolves of Rome: The Lupercalia from Roman and Comparative Perspectives |date=2023 |publisher=de Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9783110690118 |isbn= 9783110689341 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110690118/html}}</ref> Despite Justin's assertion, no deity named "Lupercus" has been identified.<ref name="Roman Republic 1981 p. 77">{{cite book| first= H. H.| last= Scullard| authorlink= H. H. Scullard| title= Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic| publisher= Cornell University Press| year= 1981| pages= 77–78}}</ref>