Things Said and Not Said in a Ritual Text: Iguvine Tables Ib 10–16 / VIb 48–53

Abstract

I concentrate here on a text, written in Umbrian, that is recorded in Iguvine Tables Ib 10–16 / VIb 48–53. This text prominently features two words, which I will designate short-hand by way of their attestations in classical Latin. These words are agō and ferō. For the moment, I take the liberty of using Latin here as a stand-in for its Italic cognate language, Umbrian. I propose to analyze here the Umbrian equivalents of these words agō and ferō, together with their derivatives, as they were used with reference to the rituals described and prescribed in the text of the Iguvine Tables. My analysis is part of a long-term project, still in progress, which aims to compare the ritualized uses of these Italic words agō and ferō with corresponding uses of the cognate Greek words agō (ἄγω) and pherō (φέρω). In the case of the Greek evidence, my ongoing project concentrates on a Mycenaean Greek text, the tablet Tn 316 from Pylos, which deals with a ritual of offering gifts to divinities in the context of sacrifices performed at sacred precincts. In the case of the Italic evidence, that same project concentrates on the Umbrian text of Iguvine Tables Ib 10–16 / VIb 48–53, which is the main subject of my study here. This Umbrian text, as we will see, likewise deals with a ritual of offering gifts to divinities—this time, in the specific context of carrying fire in the process of making a sacrifice. In two recent online publications, listed as Nagy 2015a and 2015b in the bibliography, I have attempted to update my own understanding of the two rituals that I have just mentioned, and the study that I offer here builds on those updatings. But I concentrate here on only one of those two rituals, the Italic one, involving the sacred action of carrying fire in the process of making a sacrifice. After I finish my argumentation, I will add an epilogue that deals with the second of those two rituals, the Greek one, involving the sacred action of carrying gifts to gods. My main purpose here is to show that a comparative study of the words agō and ferō in Italic can lead to a deeper understanding of the rituals that are being described and prescribed in the Italic texts. Of particular interest to me is one feature of these rituals. As we will see from the Italic evidence that I study here, there are constraints about what can and cannot be said. And the constraining {509|510} mentalities of ritualistic behavior, as we will also see, are strongly influenced by concerns about getting it right.