THE CLAVUS ANNALIS

Libri fatales probably explained the practice in certain sanctuaries of commemorating each year with the ritual hammering of a “year-nail”, the clavus annalis (Livy 7.3.7; Varro On the Latin Language 5.46). One such site was the temple of Nortia at Volsinii (Pfiffig 1975: 258-9; Turfa 2006a: 76). A fourth­century mirror in Berlin depicts Athrpa (Atropos) ostentatiously hammering a nail, rather than cutting the threads of the doomed mortal lives of Meleager and Adonis who appear with their lovers Atlenta and Turan (Bonfante & Bonfante 2002: 160; ETPe S.12; Pfiffig 1975: 61-3; Aigner Foresti 1979; L. Bonfante 1998).