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called Drepan...; on which feast Metrodorus says the south wind blows. And it was the custom for the populace, so the story goes, to refrain from bathing until the end, for the avoidance of disease. On the eighth day before the Ides of November, honors were performed by the women for Demeter and Eileithyia; Eileithyia is the guardian of women in childbirth ... as Plutarch says ... herself ... and they say that Artemis is such for pregnant women in their suffering. Artemis, according to the arithmetical principle, is she who casts out the generation that goes toward the even number and hastens to advance to this; for which reason it is also fabled that when Apollo was being born from Leto ... when he was shown, she, acting as midwife to her mother ... toward the same ... herself and Apollo ... ... 4.149 On the seventh day before the Ides of November ......... ten...............d......... of the ........ is said to be subjected ........ according to the Egyptian Hermes, who in the so-called Perfect Discourse says thus: “The souls that have transgressed the rule of piety, when they are released from the body, are handed over to the daemons and are carried through the air, being hurled about through the fiery and hail-bearing zones, which the poets call Pyriphlegethon and Tartarus.” And Hermes speaks only of the purification of souls, but Iamblichus in the first book of his treatise *On the Descent of the Soul* also mentions their restoration, assigning to Hades the region above the moon up to the sun, where he says the purified souls also stand, and that he himself is Pluto, and Persephone is the moon. So much for the philosophers; but the sacred rites of the festival were performed with blessings over the unquenchable fire of Hestia, about which Porphyry speaks thus: “By this sacrifice welcoming the visible celestial gods, and through the fire immortalizing the honors for them, they also kept for them an immortal fire in the sanctuaries, as being what is most like them.” From this day Eudoxus says it is winter. 4.150 On the following day is the commemoration of Remus and Romulus; when Amulius, having acted tyrannically toward Numitor, killed his son and ordered his daughter to serve as a priestess; and when she gave birth, as they say, from Mars, he, fearing, ordered the infants to be drowned; but when the guards exposed them on the banks of the Tiber, a she-wolf came and offered them her teats; and a shepherd, seeing this, took up the children and raised them as his own, who also founded Rome. The same is also found in Zopyrus of Byzantium ... 4.151 From the fifteenth of November through all of December, the Romans were idle, engaging only in feasting because of the shortness of the days. 4.152 On the seventh day before the Kalends of December, Democritus says the sun enters Sagittarius. It was the custom of the Romans to call the dish *faba*, from the zephyr, for when it begins to blow this sort of fruit is the first to sprout; and the zephyr is called *Fabonius* by them; whence March is also *Zephyritis*, just as January is *Monias* from the monad, and October is *Sementilius* from the seed, as antiquity has handed down. That the year established by Numa begins from January, but the one by Romulus from March. And the chronological beginning from Numa agrees directly with the beginning from Romulus; for Romulus took his beginning from the spring, but observed the month of Ares, and Numa, having closely watched for the sun to be in the middle of Capricorn, seems to agree with Romulus; for Capricorn is the exaltation of Ares. 4.153 December. December is so called as it is the tenth month from March

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λεγόμενος ∆ρεπαν...· καθ' ἣν ἑορτὴν ὁ Μητρόδωρος νότον φυσῆσαι λέγει. ἀλουτεῖν δὲ μέχρι πέρατος ἐδόκει τῷ πλήθει, ὡς λόγος, πρὸς ἀποφυγὴν νόσου. τῇ πρὸ ὀκτὼ εἰδῶν Νοεμβρίων τιμαὶ παρὰ τῶν γυναικῶν ἐπετελοῦντο ∆ήμητρος καὶ Εἰλειθυίας· Εἰλείθυια δέ ἐστιν ἡ τῶν τικτουσῶν ἔφορος ·πω....ν, ὥς φησι Πλούταρχος ..οίως ἑαυτὴν δ.....σειε· τοιαύτην δὲ ἐν τῷ πάθει καὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν ταῖς κυούσαις εἶναί φασιν. Ἄρτεμις δὲ κατὰ τὸν ἀριθμητικὸν λόγον ἐστὶν ἡ τὴν εἰς τὸ ἄρτιον ἰοῦσαν γένεσιν καὶ εἰς τοῦτο προβῆναι σπεύδουσαν ἐκβαλλομένη· διὸ δὴ καὶ μυθεύεται τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα παρὰ τῆς Λητοῦς τικτόμενον ..... δειχθέντος αὐτοῦ, αὕτη τὴν μητέρα μαιευομένη δει............. πρὸς τὸν αὐτὸν προκα............................. ἑαυτήν τε καὶ τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα ..................... .................ν μετε............................. 4.149 Τῇ πρὸ ἑπτὰ Εἰδῶν Νοεμβρίων ......... ................δεκα...............δ......... ...........................των κ..το......... .....................ιον λέγεται ὑποβάλλεσθαι κ...................σα κατὰ τὸν Αἰγύπτιον Ἑρμῆν, ὃς ἐν τῷ λεγομένῳ τελείῳ λόγῳ φησὶν οὕτως· «αἱ δὲ παραβᾶσαι ψυχαὶ τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας κανόνα, ἐπὰν ἀπαλλαγῶσι τοῦ σώματος, παραδίδονται τοῖς δαίμοσι καὶ φέρονται κατὰ τοῦ ἀέρος σφενδονούμεναι καὶ κατὰ τὰς πυρώδεις καὶ χαλαζώδεις ζώνας, ἃς οἱ ποιηταὶ Πυριφλεγέθοντα καὶ Τάρταρον καλοῦσιν.» καὶ ὁ μὲν Ἑρμῆς περὶ μόνου τοῦ καθαρμοῦ τῶν ψυχῶν, ὁ δὲ Ἰάμβλιχος ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ τῆς περὶ καθόδου ψυχῆς πραγματείας καὶ τῆς ἀποκαταστάσεως αὐτῶν μέμνηται, τὸν ὑπὲρ σελήνης ἄχρις ἡλίου χῶρον τῷ Ἅιδῃ διδούς, παρ' ᾧ φησι καὶ τὰς ἐκκεκαθαρμένας ἑστάναι ψυχάς, καὶ αὐτὸν μὲν εἶναι τὸν Πλούτωνα, Περσεφόνην δὲ τὴν σελήνην. ταῦτα μὲν οἱ φιλόσοφοι· τῆς δὲ ἑορτῆς τὰ ἱερὰ εὐλογίαις ἐπετελοῦντο ἐπὶ τῷ ἀσβέστῳ πυρὶ τῆς Ἑστίας, περὶ οὗ Πορφύριος οὕτως φησί· «ταύτῃ τοὺς φαινομένους οὐρανίους θεοὺς τῇ θυσίᾳ δεξιούμενοι, καὶ διὰ τοῦ πυρὸς αὐτοῖς ἀπαθανατίζοντες τὰς τιμὰς καὶ πῦρ ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἐφύλαττον αὐτοῖς ἀθάνατον, ὡς ὃν μάλιστα αὐτοῖς ὁμοιότατον.» ἐκ ταύτης τῆς ἡμέρας Εὔδοξος χειμῶνα λέγει. 4.150 Τῇ δὲ ἐπιούσῃ μνήμη Ῥέμου καὶ Ῥωμύλου· ὅτε Ἀμούλιος πρὸς Νομίτορα τυραννικῶς διακείμενος τὸν μὲν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἀνεῖλε, τὴν δὲ θυγατέρα ἱερατεύειν προσέταξε· τῆς δὲ τεκούσης, ὡς λέγουσιν, ἐξ Ἄρεος, δείσας αὐτὸς καταποντωθῆναι προσέταξε τὰ βρέφη· τῶν δὲ δορυφόρων παρὰ τὰς ὄχθας τοῦ Θύβριδος ἐκθεμένων αὐτά, λύκαινα προσελθοῦσα τὰς θηλὰς αὐτοῖς προσένειμε· ποιμὴν δὲ τοῦτο θεασάμενος ἀνέλαβε τοὺς παῖδας καὶ ὡς ἰδίους ἀνέθρεψεν, οἳ καὶ κτίζουσι τὴν Ῥώμην. ταὐτὸν καὶ παρὰ Ζωπύρῳ τῷ Βυζαντίῳ ... 4.151 Ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς πεντεκαιδεκάτης τοῦ Νοεμβρίου μέχρις ὅλου τοῦ ∆εκεμβρίου ἤργουν οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι, ἐν μόναις εὐωχίαις ἐνασχολούμενοι διὰ τὴν βραχύτητα τῶν ἡμερῶν. 4.152 Τῇ πρὸ ἑπτὰ Καλενδῶν ∆εκεμβρίων ὁ ∆ημόκριτος λέγει τὸν ἥλιον ἐν τοξότῃ γίνεσθαι. φάβα Ῥωμαίοις τὸ ἔτνος ἐδόκει καλεῖν, ἀπὸ τοῦ ζεφύρου, οὗ καταρχομένου πνεῖν πρῶτος πέφυκεν ὁ τοιοῦτος βλαστάνειν καρπός· φαβώνιος δὲ κατ' αὐτοὺς ὁ ζέφυρος καλεῖται· ὅθεν καὶ Ζεφυρίτης ὁ Μάρτιος, ὥσπερ Μονίας ὁ Ἰανουάριος ἀπὸ τῆς μονάδος, καὶ Σεμεντίλιος ὁ Ὀκτώβριος ἀπὸ τοῦ σπόρου, ὡς ἡ παλαιότης παραδέδωκεν. ὅτι ὁ παρὰ τοῦ Νουμᾶ τεθεὶς ἐνιαυτὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰανουαρίου ἄρχεται, ὁ δὲ παρὰ τοῦ Ῥωμύλου ἀπὸ τοῦ Μαρτίου. συμφωνεῖ δὲ ἡ παρὰ τοῦ Νουμᾶ χρονικὴ ἀρχὴ τῇ παρὰ τοῦ Ῥωμύλου ἄντικρυς ἀρχῇ· καὶ γὰρ ὁ Ῥωμύλος ἐκ τοῦ ἔαρος ἀρχὴν ἔλαβεν, ἀλλὰ τὸν Ἄρεος μῆνα παρεφύλαξε, καὶ Νουμᾶς δὲ ὅλως ἐπιτηρήσας ἥλιον μεσάζοντα τὸν αἰγόκερων δοκεῖ συμφέρεσθαι τῷ Ῥωμύλῳ· ὕψωμα γὰρ Ἄρεος ὁ αἰγόκερως. 4.153 ∆εκέμβριος. Ὁ ∆εκέμβριος ὡς δέκατος καὶ αὐτὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ Μαρτίου οὕτω