The Bisextile Year

Today is a very unusual day: i.e. the “leap-day” of February 29th, which only happens once every four years. In my time as a devotee of Antinous, this day has only happened twice before, and this is thus the third time it has occurred since 2002.

Many ancient societies reckoned leap-year in their calendars. The Romans had an interesting way of reckoning it, which gives its name to the present blog entry. Because February was at the end of their year, and was the final month in their calendar, February got an additional day before the Kalends of March. However, it was not reckoned as “the 29th of February” for them. Instead, it was reckoned as a “Bisextile Year.” Now, I know what you’re thinking: what do bisexuals have to do with tile-work? Sure, lots of Romans were what we’d call “bisexual,” and I’m sure more than one Roman who made roofing tiles or tiles for baths was bisexual…but, that didn’t mean that they got leap-years off or any such thing!

The reason that the year was “bisextile” is because on a leap-year, instead of “adding” another day to February (which would throw the whole calendar off), instead they simply repeated one particular day twice: the day of VI Kal. Mart., or February 24th, which was the festival of the Regifugium. You might ask, “But, February 24th isn’t 6 days before the first of March!” Actually, in Roman counting–which used inclusive numbering–it was. February 28th would have been 2 before the Kalends of March (II Kal. Mart.), February 27th was 3 before, etc. So, February 24th is 6 before, and it was thus repeated twice–hence, “bisextile year.” As Regifugium was an important festival marking the end of tyranny in Rome and the beginning of the Roman republic with the exile of the king Tarquin the Proud, it deserved to be celebrated multiple times when the occasion allowed…

From what I understand, in the period before I was a part of the Neos Alexandria group–though this may only be legend (!?!)–I heard that it was suggested that the birth of Antinous be celebrated on the leap-year day that would exist in the calendar, whether that fell on February 29th or some other day (as the calendar is re-calculated each year). It is an intriguing suggestion, but since Egypt, Lanuvium, and (presumably) other places all celebrated Antinous’ birthday on November 27th, it isn’t really necessary to do that. Nonetheless, it’s an intriguing and creative manner to suggest that date for a particular thing, and particularly for the birth of a deity who is perpetually youthful…Using one’s creative and intuitive notions for creating new traditions like this, in absence of more definite and attested information, is only to be commended and applauded whenever it can take place, I think.

And, one place to experience such things is dreams, I’ve found. The following dream is one that happened to me earlier today–I am not necessarily going to put too much stock in it as something upon which to build further practice, but it is interesting all the same, and does touch on the topic of the emergence of new and previously unknown deities, syncretism, and the like.

In the dream, I was at PantheaCon (big surprise!). I was up in someone’s hotel room, and I was introducing various people to some new deities. One of them was a daughter or sister of Sobek, who–like Neith–was something like 2/3 female and 1/3 male, and she was also crocodilian. (I can’t remember her name at present, though…I think it had an “s” in it, and perhaps began with that letter…?!?) Then there was supposed to be a further male deity, but the other one that got introduced was a syncretistic goddess who had as the attribute on her head a hand with five fingers, and then at the end of each of the fingers was the usual attribute of an Egyptian goddess. (Which reminds me of Sabazios, personally…only, female…?!?) So, this goddess combined five goddesses, and those goddesses were (if I remember correctly): Ma’at, Hathor, Nephthys, Nekhbet, and Sothis/Sopdet. (The entries linked to there are all from Edward Butler’s excellent Goddesses and Gods of the Ancient Egyptians: A Theological Encyclopedia, which I cannot recommend highly enough!) I also recall there was some sort of symbol of this syncretistic goddess that was a round shield with a row of studs around the outside, that as I was looking at it seemed to suggest a breast or a nipple to me…

And, as this was all going on, I was quasi-aspecting Set, and was about to go further with introducing whomever the male deity was, but then someone said “I think we need a Set break for a moment,” whereupon I and a whole chorus of people out of nowhere starting to sing “Heartbreak Hotel,” only it was “Set-Break Hotel.”

Yeah, weird.

Strange…all of those goddesses, with the exception of Sothis/Sopdet, were involved in some way, whether directly or indirectly (i.e. by mentioning frequently or occasionally, etc.), with my experience at PantheaCon this year. Certainly, combining the attributes and associations of those various goddesses would make for an interesting and potent figure, I think. And the idea of a “female Sobek” is also not new to me and my own experience, but I don’t know if I have the right name for such a being yet. Hmm…However, as mentioned above, I don’t want to place too much emphasis on all of this as a new epiphany of a syncretistic deity or deities; it could have just been a “garbage disposal” dream that simply involved a lot of potent and intriguing divine figures, but it may not really mean anything. Hard to say…

I don’t know, what do all of you think?

As for yourselves, I wish you each the blessings of many gods and goddesses on this day, this strange not-quite-here-but-not-quite-there day, and I look forward to speaking further with you all in the “new year” when the Kalends of March arrives tomorrow! Ave Ave Antinoe!