Note 391 — MENSIS MAIUS.
Reading edition
Plut. Q. R. 20; Macrob. l. c.; Lactant. l. c. The myth has been explained as Greek (Wissowa, in Pauly, 688), but its peculiar feature, the whipping, could hardly have become attached to a Roman cult unless there were something in the cult to attach it to, or unless the cult itself were borrowed from the Greek. That the latter was the case it is impossible to prove; and I prefer to believe that both cult and myth were Roman.