Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 60

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[60] Why, when there are two altars of Hercules, do women receive no share nor taste of the sacrifices offered on the larger altar?

Is it because the friends of Carmenta carne late for the rites, as did also the dan of the Pinarii? Wherefore, as they were excluded from the banquet while the rest were feasting, they acquired the name Pinarii (Starvelings).¹ Or is it because of the fable of Deianeira and the shirt?²

Quaestiones Romanae. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

The Roman Questions (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (2)

Αἴτια Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 60 focus

[60] διὰ τί, δυοῖν βωμῶν Ἡρακλέους ὄντων, οὐ μεταλαμβάνουσι γυναῖκες οὐδὲ γεύονται τῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ μείζονος θυομένων;

πότερον ὅτι τῶν ἱερῶν αἱ περὶ τὴν Καρμένταν 278f ὑστέρησαν, ὑστέρησε δὲ καὶ τὸ Πιναρίων γένος· ὅθεν εἰργόμενοι τῆς θοίνης ἑστιωμένων τῶν ἄλλων Πινάριοι προσηγορεύθησαν· ἢ διὰ τὰ μυθολογούμενα περὶ τοῦ χιτῶνος καὶ τῆς Δηιανείρας;

Κεφαλαίων καταγραφή Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙ. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 60 focus

[60] διὰ τί, δυεῖν βωμῶν Ἡρακλέους ὄντων, οὐ 20 μεταλαμβάνουσι γυναῖκες οὐδὲ γεύονται τῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ μείζονος θυομένων; πότερον ὅτι τῶν ἱερῶν αἱ περὶ τὴν Καρμένταν ὑστέρησαν, ὑστέρησε δὲ καὶ τὸ Πιναρίων 278f γένος· ὅθεν εἰργόμενοι τῆς θοίνης, ἑστιωμένων τῶν ἄλλων, Πινάριοι προσηγορεύθησαν· ἢ διὰ τὰ 25 μυθολογούμενα περὶ τοῦ χιτῶνος καὶ τῆς Δηιανείρας;

Translations (1)

Roman Questions Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Chauncy, Isaac translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 60 focus

[60]

Question 60.

What is the reason that, of Hercules’s two altars, the women do not partake or taste of the things offered on the greater?

Solution. Is it not because Carmenta’s women came too late for the sacrifices? The same thing happened also to the Pinarii; whence they were excluded from the sacrificial feast, and fasting while others were feasting, they were called Pinarii (from πεινάω). Or is it upon the account of that fabulous story of the coat and Dejaneira?

Notes on the current edition

The Roman Questions

1. An attempt to derive the word from Greek πεινῶ, be hungry: see further Livy, i. 7; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, i. 40.

2. The shirt anointed with the blood of Nessus which Deianeira supposed to be a love charm. She sent the shirt to Heracles and thereby brought about his death; hence Heracles may be supposed to hate all women; see Sophocles, Trachiniae, or Ovid, Heroides, ix.

Plutarch Quaestiones Romanae 60

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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Question 60.

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