ARGEI

The name of certain chapels at Rome, probably twenty-four in number, each of the four tribes of the city having six. To these chapels a procession was made on March 16 and 17, at which the wife of the Flamen Dialis walked with unkempt hair as a sign of mourning. On May 15 the Pontiffs, Vestal Virgins, Praetors, and all citizens who had a right to assist at sacrifices, marched to the wooden bridge over the Tiber (Pons Sublicius), and after sacrificing, threw into the river twenty-four men of straw, likewise named Argei, which had probably been hung up in the chapels at the first procession, and were fetched away at the second. The sacrifice was regarded as expiatory, and the puppets as substitutes for former human victims. The meaning of the name was unknown to the ancients, and so was the deity to whom the sacrifice was offered.