Rites, ritualism and religious practices (continued)

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One of the signs announcing Emperor Otto's imminent death in 69 was this sacrifice to Dis Pater, during which the signs presented by the victim proved favorable. As Suetonius points out(Otto, 8, 6), "in such a sacrifice, a contrary fressure is of superior value". A particularly interesting observation. Long ago, in 1978 - the article was not published until 1984 - I highlighted a central practice in funerary rites which consists in reversing or displacing gestures or situations. One of the best-known examples of this is when weapons are worn upside down at funerals, or when senators or magistrates change their attire, taking on the appearance of knights or other magistrates. It's a rite that, on the one hand, highlights the otherness of those in mourning, who are somehow unrecognizable, and, on the other, the otherness of the deceased and the space of death. At the time, I hadn't seen the passage from Suetonius that confirms my observation. In divinatory sacrifices, exta in good condition signalled divine acquiescence or a favourable future, while exta with irregular signs or malformations indicated the opposite. But, according to Suetonius, this applies to the gods above, not to Dis pater, the god of the world below. In this context, that of death, which is the opposite of this world, it is the opposite of normality that is favorable. Othon should therefore have received a fressure with ominous signs, not a normal fressure. History proved that the sign was indeed unfavorable: he committed suicide shortly afterwards. The same inversion, or at least the same negative relationship, is found in an etiological myth of the Ludi Taurei, preserved by Festus and Paul Diacre (p. 278-279, ed. Lindsay). According to this account, the flesh of the bulls sacrificed to Dis Pater had been mistakenly sold to the people, as a result of which the women had become sterile. It was to rectify this error that the games known as the "Bull Games" were founded. So, while a meal shared with a deity is a positive event, bringing well-being and success, eating with Dis Pater from the parts of his victim is a negative act, which can only harm.

Let's return to Otto. We have no way of verifying whether this anecdote corresponds to established cultic rules, or whether it's an interpretation that has entered the small corpus of signs heralding the fall of Emperor Otto. In any case, this interpretation is certainly plausible. For, as a general rule, unfavorable signs at sacrifices regularly figure among the signs of the fall of princes. In the case of Otto, an unfavorable sign occurs during a sacrifice to the patron god of the underworld. This shows that the interpretation of the sacrifice offered to Dis Pater must be considered admissible: by encountering favorable omens, Othon was, so to speak, already entering Dis Pater's reign.