Lupercalia

Annual Roman festival of purification celebrated on 15 February. It has been associated with the Greek Lycaean Pan, god of flocks and herds (identified with the Roman Faunus), and the wolf (lupus) who supposedly suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome. Goats and dogs were sacrificed at the Lupercal at the foot of the Palatine Hill, near the cave of Lupercus, the wolf's lair.

The Luperci, officiating priests, touched the foreheads of two boys with sacrificial blood and wiped it away with wool dipped in milk, the youths being obliged to smile throughout. After the animal skins had been cut into long whips called februa (Latin februare ‘to purify’), the boys ran along the boundaries of the city, lashing anyone they met; their blows offered ritual purification and were believed to cure sterility in women.