Argei (dolls)

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Argei were doll-like figures meant to resemble bound human men, and used ceremonially during the ancient Roman Empire. Their ritual purpose was to be thrown from the Sublician bridge into the river Tiber by Vestal virgins on the Ides of May, May 15, of each year. The exact purpose of the ritual is somewhat unclear. Perhaps the most popular explanation, originating with Dionysius of Halicarnassus, is that the ritual is a continuation of one in which actual humans were regularly sacrificed to the Tiber, though there is little evidence to support this theory. Alternative interpretations from modern historians involve a pre-Imperial rite with the purpose of encouraging rain, or as an annual re-enactment of execution by drowning of twenty-seven captured Greeks.