About this episode
This episode explores the Roman festival of Lupercalia, its significance, and its peculiar traditions.
If you were to go back in time to 15 February in Ancient Rome, you might see marauding packs of naked men surging through the streets. If you were particularly unlucky one of them might whip you with a piece of goat skin. This was the Roman festival of Lupercalia. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte ask: what on earth was all this about? What did Lupercalia mean to the Romans? And what was the real purpose of any festival to the Romans? Despite its mind-boggling oddness, Lupercalia is better documented than many other Roman festivals. This is partly because the Romans themselves didn’t know really what it was about. Lupercalia was something that seemed to have always been celebrated, but opinions varied - then as now - as to what it meant. The wolfiness of lupercalia, and the suggestion the ritual began in the cave where Romulus and Remus were believed to have been suckled, implies it may have been a way for the Romans to connect with their murky origins - an example of the city performing its own past. But even this is contested. One thing is clear: despite the date, Lupercalia had nothing to do with modern Valentine’s Day - unless, of course, your idea of romance is running…
People in this episode
Hosts: Mary, Charlotte
Topics covered
- Roman festivals
- Lupercalia
- Ancient Rome
- cultural origins
- rituals
Keywords
- Lupercalia
- Ancient Rome
- Roman festivals
- rituals
- cultural origins
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: The Lupercalia
Places: Ancient Rome
More episodes of Instant Classics
- USA 250: America’s Roman Revolution · June 11, 2026 · 52 min
- What did the Romans dream about? · June 4, 2026 · 55 min
- Cleopatra 5: Cleopatra on Screen · May 28, 2026 · 1h 1m
- Cleopatra 4: Cleopatra on the Page · May 21, 2026 · 54 min
- BONUS Mary & Charlotte on the latest trailer for Christopher Nolan's Odyssey · May 17, 2026 · 7 min
- Cleopatra 3: Life After Death · May 14, 2026 · 49 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Instant Classics podcast page.