Pompa revoris

General overview

The pompa revoris is part of the rich pool of Pompé that are common all over the Confederation of Tarrabaenia. The pompa revoris is an archaic Pompé tradition held in the capital Savína and is connected to the agraric origins of the Tarrabaenians. It is held by the Germantá arúré, a college of priests holding sacrifices to Créta and her daughters Farrinia and Geniména and tends to the Cassa.

Aetiology and history

The 'revoris' part of the name stems from the word 'revor', which was probably an old form of the modern Tarrabaenien word 'rús'. That would mean the pompa revoris is in name as well as in performance adressed at the earth itself. The goddess Créta, while not as intensely worshipped nowadays as she used to be, still takes a central role and is part of the inner Tarrabaenian pantheon with its thirteen deities.

There are no sources stating anything about how Pompé in general and the pompa revoris in particular came into being is unknown. What is clear, is the old age of the pompa revoris, as the incantations used in the Germantá arúré are for the most parts unintelligable to most Tarrabaenians due to their very archaic language. While the text is sacred, the secularised scholarship of Tarrabaenia discusses matters of all kinds regardless of their origins. While some objects of places are off limits to scholars, copies of all kinds of texts are not. Thus the 'carmina' - or in their older form 'casimena' - as the religious texts are called are subject of much scholarly debate.

Role in the present time

The pompa revoris is held in spring, on the fifth day of the fifth week of the Siderar week. At this time of the year the frost is gone and fields can be sewed and other crops be planted. The Germantá arúré performs a march with dance elements, accompanied by flute, horn and trumpet music. The priests also wear special shoes called hirpicia, which are studded with metal spikes and make loud noises with each step hitting the ground. The song sung for the pompa revoris is the casimen ardósio. It is written in a iambic metre.

On the day the pompa revoris is held, the main road of Savína, the Via Sútercollis is cleaned early in the morning and sprinkled with roasted spelt and fragrant wood shavings, which fills the area with a nutritious and earthy smell. At noon, when the sun is highest, the pompa is held. The Germantá arúré maches north, chanting and performing until they arrive at the Óla líti Savíné. Here a temporary altar is set up, where a gruel made of all kinds of seeds is prepared. The smoke from the fire and the fumes from the cauldron are chanted upon with another archaic song and deemed a sacrifice to the goddesses Créta, Farrinia and Geniména. The gruel is served to the participating people.

The day of the festival is also a time when the deeds of the college from the past pompa arúré to the present one are noted and displayed on the fáris sánciumque parétia as the so called Perfecta arúria.