Februus aka Februata, Februta, Februarius, Februatis
an ancient Italian divinity, to whom the month of February was sacred, for in the latter half of that month great and general purifications and lustrations were celebrated, which were at the same time considered to produce fertility among men as well as beasts. Hence the month of February was also sacred to Juno, the goddess of marriage, and she was therefore surnamed Februata, or Februtis. (Fest. s. v. Februarius; Arnob. iii. 30.)
The name Februus is connected with februare (to purify), and februae (purifications). (Varro, de L.L. vi. 13; Ov. Fast. ii. 31, etc.)
Another feature in the character of this, which is however intimately connected with the idea of purification, is, that he was also regarded as a god of the lower world, for the festival of the dead (Feralia) was likewise celebrated in February (Macrob. Sat. i. 4, 13; Fasti By Ovid); and Anysius (ap. J. Lydum, de Mens. i. p. 68) states, that Februus in Etruscan signified the god of the lower world. Hence Februus was identified with Pluto. When the expiatory sacrifices were burnt, the people threw the ashes backwards over their heads into the water. (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 43 ; Isidor. Orig. v. 33 ; Voss. in Virg. Eclog. viii. 101.) [L. S.]
From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and MythologyFrom Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans By Plutarch
The Sabines adopted the Roman months, of which whatever is remarkable is mentioned in the Life of Numa. Romulus, on the other hand, adopted their long shields, and changed his own armor and that of all the Romans, who before wore round targets of the Argive pattern. Feasts and sacrifices they partook of in common, not abolishing any which either nation observed before, and instituting several new ones; of which one was the Matronalia, instituted in honor of the women. for their extinction of the war; likewise the Carmentalia. This Carmenta some think a deity presiding over human birth; for which reason she is much honored by mothers. Others say she was the wife of Evander, the Arcadian, being a prophetess, and wont to deliver her oracles in verse, and from carmen, a verse, was called Carmenta; her proper name being Nicostrata. Others more probably derive Carmenta from carens mente, or insane, in allusion to her prophetic frenzies. Of the Feast of Palilia we have spoken before. The Lupercalia, by the time of its celebration, may seem to be a feast of purification, for it is solemnized on the dies nefasti, or non-court days, of the month February, which name signifies purification, and the very day of the feast was anciently called Februata; but its name is equivalent to the Greek Lycaea; and it seems thus to be of great antiquity, and brought in by the Arcadians who came with Evander. Yet this is but dubious, for it may come as well from the wolf that nursed Romulus; and we see the Luperci, the priests, begin their course from the place where they say Romulus was exposed. But the ceremonies performed in it render the origin of the thing more difficult to be guessed at; for there are goats killed, then, two young noblemen’s sons being brought, some are to stain their foreheads with the bloody knife, others presently to wipe it off with wool dipped in milk; then the young boys must laugh after their foreheads are wiped; that done, having cut the goats’ skins into thongs, they run about naked, only with something about their middle, lashing all they meet; and the young wives do not avoid their strokes, fancying they will help conception and child-birth. Another thing peculiar to this feast is for the Luperci to sacrifice a dog.
From Fasti By Ovid Book II: February 21: The Feralia
And the grave must be honoured. Appease your fathers'
Spirits, and bring little gifts to the tombs you built.
Their shades ask little, piety they prefer to costly
Offerings: no greedy deities haunt the Stygian depths.
A tile wreathed round with garlands offered is enough,
A scattering of meal, and a few grains of salt,
And bread soaked in wine, and loose violets:
Set them on a brick left in the middle of the path.
Not that I veto larger gifts, but these please the shades:
Add prayers and proper words to the fixed fires.
This custom was brought to your lands, just Latinus,
By Aeneas, a fitting promoter of piety.
He brought solemn gifts to his father's spirit:
From him the people learned the pious rites.
But once, waging a long war with fierce weapons,
They neglected the Parentalia, Festival of the Dead.
It did not go unpunished: they say from that ominous day
Rome grew hot from funeral fires near the City.
I scarcely believe it, but they say that ancestral spirits
Came moaning from their tombs in the still of night,
And misshapen spirits, a bodiless throng, howled
Through the City streets, and through the broad fields.
