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OSCILLA

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 347 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OSCILLA , a word applied in Latin usage to small figures, most commonly masks or faces, which were hung up as offerings to various deities, either for propitiation or expiation, and in connexion with festivals and other ceremonies. It is usually taken as the plural of oscillum. (dimin. of os), a little See also:

face. As the oscilla swung in the See also:wind, oscillare came to mean to See also:swing, hencein See also:English " oscillation," the See also:act of swinging backwards and forwards, periodic See also:motion to and fro, hence any variation or fluctuation, actual or figurative. For the scientific problems connected with oscillation see See also:MECHANICS and See also:OSCILLOGRAPH. Many oscilla or masks, representing the See also:head of Bacchus or of different rustic deities, are still preserved. There is a See also:marble oscillum of Bacchus in the See also:British Museum. Others still in existence are made of earthenware, but it seems probable that See also:wax and See also:wood were the See also:ordinary materials. Small rudely shaped figures of See also:wool, known as pilae, were also hung up in the same way as the oscilla. The festivals at which the See also:hanging of oscilla took See also:place were: (I) The Sementivae Feriae, or See also:sowing festivals, and the Paganalia, the See also:country festivals of the tutelary deities of the pagi; both took place in See also:January. Here the oscilla were hung on trees, such as the See also:vine and the See also:olive, See also:oak and the See also:pine, and represented the faces of See also:Liber, Bacchus or other deity connected with the cultivation of the See also:soil (Virg. Georg. ii.

382-396). (2) The Feriae Latinae; in this See also:

case See also:games were played, among them swinging (oscillatio) ; cf. the See also:Greek festival of Aeora (see See also:ERIGONE). See also:Festus (s.v. Oscillum, ed. See also:Muller, p. 194) says that this swinging was called oscillatio because the swingers masked their faces (os celare) out of shame. (3) At the Compitalia, Festus says (See also:Paul. ex Fest. ed. Muller, p. 239) that pilae and See also:effigies viriles et muliebres made of wool were hung at the See also:cross-roads to the See also:Lares, the number of pilae equalling that of the slaves of the See also:family, the effigies that of the See also:children; the purpose being to induce the Lares to spare the living, and to be content with the pilae and images. This has led to the generally accepted conclusion that the See also:custom of hanging these oscilla represents an older practice of expiating human See also:sacrifice. There is also no doubt a connexion with See also:lustration by the purifying with See also:air.

End of Article: OSCILLA

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