Jane,
I didn't know what you meant by "the ultimate horror", so I looked in my "Oxford Companion to Classical Literature", and found this:
"Saturnalia, in Roman religion, a festival celebrated from the 17th to 19th December (15th to 17th at the end of the republic according to Roscher), in honor of Saturnus (q.v.) and in celebration of the sowing of the crops. It was a period of general festivity, licence for slaves, giving of presents, lighting of candles, the prototype, if not the origin, of our Christmas festivities. It completely lost, probably under Greek influence, its primitive Italian character of an agricultural festival."
So it would seem, whatever the significance of 14 DAYS, or some "ultimate horror", that myths are still being generated in the present age.
Skipper |
