ed, and the harvest is brought in. The season is marked by
two closely connected festivals on the 21st and 25th in honour of the
old divinity-pair, Consus (_condere_), the god of the storehouse and
Ops, the deity of the wealth of harvest. At the Consualia, an offering
is made by the _flamen Quirinalis_, assisted by the Vestal virgins, at
an underground altar in the Circus Maximus, specially uncovered for
the occasion: here we have probably not so much the notion of a
chthonic deity, as a relic of the simple practices of an early
agricultural age, when the crops were stored underground. The beasts
who had taken part in the harvest were released from their labours
during the day, and were decorated with flowers: the festival included
a race of mules, the regular Italian beasts of burden. Four days after
this general festivity occurred the second harvest-ceremony of the
Opiconsivia, held in the shrine (_sacrarium_) of the Regia, and
attended only by the _pontifex maximus_ and the Vestal virgins. This is
clearly the state-harvest of the regal period, the symbolic storing of
the state-crops in the sacred storehouse of the palace by the king and
his daughters. Both festivals are significant, and we shall meet with
Consus and Ops again in close connection in December. The _Portunalia_
of the 17th may have been another harvest-home, if we can believe the
old authorities, who tell us that Portunus was a 'god of doors'
(_portae_).

The _Vinalia Rustica_ of August 19 we cannot sufficiently interpret
through lack of information: it cannot, of course, have been the
festival of the vintage, for it is too early: it may have been a
propitiatory ceremony for the ripening grapes, in which case it was
probably connected with the _auspicatio vindemiae_, in which the
_flamen Dialis_ (note again the association of Iuppiter and the vine)
solemnly plucked the first grapes; or it may be a festival of wine, not
vines, in which case its main feature would most likely be the opening
of the last year's vintage.

September contains no great festival, and the harvest-season closes on
October 11 with the _Meditrinalia_--the nearest approach to a
thanksgiving for the vintage. On that day the first must of the new
vintage and the wine of the old were solemnly tasted, apparently as a
spell against disease, the worshipper using the strange formula, 'I
drink the new and the old wine, with new wine and old I heal (_medeor_)
disease.' This ceremony gave it