Bona Dea
Encyclopedia
Bona Dea was a divinity in ancient Roman religion
. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state
and people. According to Roman literary sources, she was brought from Magna Graecia
at some time during the early or middle Republic
, and was given her own state cult on the Aventine Hill
.
Her rites allowed women the use of strong wine and blood-sacrifice, things otherwise forbidden them by Roman tradition
. Men were barred from her mysteries
and the possession of her true name. Given that male authors had limited knowledge of her rites and attributes, ancient speculations about her identity abound, among them that she was an aspect of Terra
, Ops
, the Magna Mater, or Ceres
, or a Latin
form of Damia
. Most often, she was identified as the wife, sister or daughter of the god Faunus
, thus an equivalent or aspect of the nature-goddess Fauna
, who could prophesy the fates of women.
The goddess had two annual festivals. One was held at her Aventine temple; the other was hosted by the wife of Rome's senior annual magistrate
, for an invited group of elite matrons and female attendants. The latter festival came to scandalous prominence in 62 BC, when the politician Clodius Pulcher was tried for his intrusion on the rites, allegedly bent on the seduction of Julius Caesar
's wife, whom Caesar later divorced because "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". The rites remained a subject of male curiosity and speculation, both religious and prurient.
Bona Dea's cults in the city of Rome were led by the Vestal Virgins, and her provincial
cults by virgin or matron priestesses. Surviving statuary shows her as a sedate Roman matron with a cornucopia
and a snake. Personal dedications to her are attested among all classes, especially plebeians
, freedmen and women
, and slaves
. Approximately one third of her dedications are from men, some of whom may have been lawfully involved in her cult.
Based on what little they knew of her rites and attributes, Roman historians speculated her true name and identity. Festus
describes her as identical with a "women's goddess" named Damia
, which Georges Dumézil
sees as an ancient misreading of Greek "Demeter
". In the late Imperial era, the neoplatonist author Macrobius identifies her as a universal earth-goddess, an aspect of Maia
, Ops
, Terra
, Magna Mater and Fatua, worshiped under the name of Fauna
. The Christian author Lactantius
, claiming the late Republican polymath Varro
as his source, describes her as Faunus
' wife and sister, named Fenta Fauna, or Fenta Fatua (Fenta "the prophetess" or Fenta "the foolish").
, especially the Thesmophoria
festival to Demeter. They included nocturnal rites conducted by predominantly or exclusively female intitiates and female priestesses, music, dance and wine, and sacrifice of a sow. During the Roman Republic
an era, two such cults to Bona Dea were held at different times and locations in the city of Rome
.
One was held on May 1 at Bona Dea's Aventine
temple. Its date connects her to Maia; its location connects her to Rome's plebeian
commoner class, whose tribune
s and emergent aristocracy resisted patrician claims to rightful religious and political dominance. The festival and temple's foundation year is uncertain – Ovid
credits it to Claudia Quinta
(c. late 3rd century BC). The rites are inferred as some form of mystery, concealed from the public gaze and, according to most later Roman literary sources, entirely forbidden to men. In the Republican era, Bona Dea's Aventine festivals were probably distinctly plebeian affairs, open to all classes of women and perhaps, in some limited fashion, to men. Control of her Aventine cult seems to have been contested at various times during the Mid Republican era; a dedication or rededication of the temple in 123 BC by the Vestal Virgin
Liciania, with the gift of an altar, shrine and couch, was immediately annulled as unlawful by the Roman Senate
. By the Late Republic era, Bona Dea's May festival and Aventine temple could have fallen into official disuse, or official disrepute.
The goddess also had a Winter festival, attested on only two occasions (63 and 62 BC) but thoroughly documented. It was held in December, at the home of the current senior annual Roman magistrate cum imperio
, whether consul
or praetor
, and was hosted by the magistrates wife and attended by respectable matrons of the Roman elite. This winter festival is not marked on any known religious calendar but was dedicated to the public interest and supervised by the Vestals, and therefore must be considered official. Shortly after 62 BC, Cicero presents it as one of very few lawful nocturnal festivals allowed to women, privileged to those of aristocratic class, and coeval with Rome's earliest history.
. In a context that excluded any reference to male persons or creatures, male lust or seduction, it underlined the pure and lawful sexual potency of virgins and matrons. According to Cicero, any man who caught even a glimpse of the rites could be punished by blinding. Later Roman writers assume that apart from their different dates and locations, Bona Dea's December and May 1 festivals were essentially the same..
, senior magistrate in residence and pontifex maximus
. Publius Clodius Pulcher
, a popularist
politician and ally of Caesar, was said to have intruded, dressed as a woman and intent on the hostess' seduction. As the rites had been vitiated, the Vestals were obliged to repeat them, and after further inquiry by the senate
and pontifices, Clodius was charged with desecration, which carried a death sentence. The case was prosecuted by Cicero
, whose wife Terentia had hosted the previous year's rites.
Caesar publicly distanced himself from the affair as much as possible – and certainly from Pompeia, whom he divorced because "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". He had been correctly absent from the rites but as a paterfamilias he was responsible for their piety. As pontifex maximus, he was responsible for the ritual purity and piety of public and private religion. He must act to ensure that the Vestals had acted correctly, then chair the inquiry into what were essentially his own household affairs. Worse, the place of the alleged offense was the state property loaned to every pontifex maximus for his tenure of office. It was a high profile, much commented case. The rites remained officially secret, but many details emerged during and after the trial, and remained permanently in the public domain. They fueled theological speculation, as in Plutarch and Macrobius: and they fed the prurient male imagination – given their innate moral weakness, what might women do when given wine and left to their own devices? Such anxieties were nothing new, and underpinned Rome's traditional strictures against female autonomy. In the political and social turmoil of the Late Republic, Rome's misfortunes were taken as signs of divine anger against the personal ambition, religious negligence and outright impiety of her leading politicians.
Clodius' prosecution was at least partly driven by politics. In an otherwise seemingly thorough account, Cicero makes no mention of Bona Dea's May festival, and claims the goddess' cult as an aristocratic privilege from the first; the impeccably patrician Clodius, Cicero's social superior by birth, is presented as an innately impious, low-class oaf, and his popularist policies as threats to Rome's moral and religious security. After two years of legal wrangling, Clodius was acquitted – which Cicero put down to jury-fixing and other backroom dealings – but his reputation was damaged. The scandalous revelations at the trial also undermined the sacred dignity and authority of the Vestals, the festival, the goddess, office of the pontifex maximus and, by association, Caesar and Rome itself. Some fifty years later, Caesar's heir Octavian, later the princeps
Augustus
, had to deal with its repercussions.
in Aquileia
honours an Augusta
Bona Dea Cereria
, probably in connection with the corn dole
. Other state cults to the goddess are found at Ostia
and Portus
. As the Vestals seldom went beyond Rome's city boundary, these cults would have been led by leading women of local elites, whether virgin or matron.
Livia's best efforts to restore Bona Dea's reputation had only moderate success in some circles, where scurrilous and titillating stories of the goddess' rites continued to circulate. Well over a century after the Clodius scandal, Juvenal describes Bona Dea's festival as an opportunity for women of all classes, most shamefully those of the upper class – and men in drag ("which altars do not have their Clodius these days?") – to get drunk and cavort indiscriminately in a sexual free-for-all.
From the late 2nd century, an increasing religious syncretism in Rome's traditional religions presents Bona Dea as one of many aspects of Virgo
Caelestis, the celestial Virgin, Great Mother of the gods, whom later Mariologists
identify as prototype for the Virgin Mary in Christian theology. Christian theologists present Bona Dea - or rather, Fauna, whom they clearly take her to be - as one of the innumerable Roman gods who supposedly show the immorality and absurdity at the heart of traditional Roman religion; according to them, no prophetess, merely "foolish Fenta", daughter and wife to her incestuous father, and "good" (bona) only at drinking too much wine.
, beneath the height known as Saxum, southeast of the Circus Maximus
. Its foundation year is unkown. According to Dumezil, Festus' identification of Bona Dea with Damia infers a foundation date in or shortly after 272 BC, after Rome's capture of Tarentum
; but Cicero
claimed the goddess' cult as coeval with Rome's foundation. In the middle Republican era, the temple may have fallen into disrepair, or its cult into official disfavour. In 123 BC the Vestal Licinia gave the temple an altar, small shrine
and couch for the goddess, but they were removed as unlawful by the pontifex maximus
P. Scaevola
. Its use and status at the time of the Bona Dea scandal are unknown. It was restored in the Imperial era, once by the empress Livia
, wife of Augustus, and perhaps again by Hadrian. It survived to at least the 4th century AD. Nothing is known of its architecture or appearance, save that unlike most Roman temples it was walled. It was an important centre of healing; harmless snakes roamed its precincts, and it held a store of various medicinal herbs that could be dispensed at need by its priestesses. Men were forbidden entry but could dedicate offerings to the goddess, or, according to Ovid, could enter the precincts "if bidden by the goddess".
Most provincial sanctuaries and temples to Bona Dea are too decayed, despoiled or fragmentary to offer firm evidence of structure and layout, but the remains of four confirm a layout consistent with the sparse descriptions of her Aventine temple. In each, a perimeter wall surrounds a dense compound of annexes, in which some rooms show possible use as dispensaries. The layout would allow the concealment of inner cults or mysteries from non-initiates. There is evidence that at least some remained in use to the 4th century AD as cultic healing centres.
. The greatest number of all are from freedmen and slaves. An estimated one-third of dedications to the goddess are from men. One, a provincial Greek, claims to be a priest of her cult. This is evidence of lawful variation – at least in the Roman provinces – from what almost all Roman literary sources present as an official and absolute rule of her cult. Inscriptions of the Imperial era show her appeal as a personal or saviour-goddess, extolled as Augusta and Domina; or as an all-goddess, titled as Regina Triumphalis (Triumphal Queen), or Terrae marisque Dominatrici (Mistress of sea and land). Private and public dedications associate her with agricultural deities such as Ceres
, Silvanus
, and the virgin goddess Diana
. She is also named in some dedications of public works, such as the restoration of the Claudian Aqueduct.
Most inscriptions to Bona Dea are simple and unadorned but some show serpents, often paired. Cumont (1932) remarks their similarity to the serpents featured in Pompeian lararia; serpents are associated with many earth-deities, and had protective, fertilising and regenerating functions, as in the cults of Aesculapius, Demeter
and Ceres
. Some Romans kept live, harmless snakes as household pets, and credited them with similarly beneficial functions.
Images of the goddess show her enthroned, clad in chiton
and mantle. On her left arm she holds a cornucopia
, a sign of her abundant generosity and fruitfulness. In her right hand, she holds a bowl, which feeds a serpent coiled around her right arm: a sign of her healing and regenerative powers. This combination of snake and cornucopia are unique to Bona Dea. The literary record offers at least one variation on this type; Macrobius describes her cult statue as overhung by a "spreading vine", and bearing a sceptre in her left hand.
's aristocratic foundation myth, and re-embroider the latter as a Roman moral fable. Several variants are known. Fauna is daughter, wife or sister of Faunus
, (also names Faunus Fatuus, meaning Faunus "the foolish", or seer). He is son of Picus
and first king of the Latins, empowered with the gift of prophecy: in Roman religion, a pastoral god, a protector of flocks, with a shrine and oracle on the Aventine, and sometimes identified with Inuus
and later, with Greek Pan. As his female counterpart, Fauna has similar gifts, domains and powers in relation to women. In Plutarch's version of the myth, the mortal Fauna secretly gets drunk on wine, which is forbidden her: and when Faunus finds out, he thrashes her with myrtle rods. In Lactantius
, he thrashes her to death, regrets the deed and deifies her. Servius derives the names Faunus and Fauna, collectively the Fatui, from fari (to prophesy): they "are also called Fatui because they utter divine prophecy in a state of stupor". Macrobius writes that she is "the same as Fauna, Ops
or Fatua... It is said too that she was the daughter of Faunus, and that she resisted the amorous advances of her father who had fallen in love with her, so that he even beat her with myrtle twigs because she did not yield to his desires though she had been made drunk by him on wine. It is believed that the father changed himself into a serpent, however, and under this guise had intercourse with his daughter."
Varro
explains the exclusion of men from Bona Dea's cult as a consequence of her great modesty; no man but her husband had ever seen her, or heard her name. For Servius, this makes her the paragon of chaste womanhood. Most likely, once Fauna's mythology seemed to offer an explanation
for Bona Dea's mysterious cult, the myth developed circumstantially, to fit what little was known of the practice. In turn, the cult practice may have changed to support the virtuous ideological message required of the myths, particularly during the Augustan religious reforms that identified Bona Dea with the empress Livia. Versnel (1992) notes the elements common to the Bona Dea festival, Fauna's myths, and Greek Demeter's Thesmophoria
, as "wine, myrtle, serpents and female modesty blemished".
and augur
s, and women could not lawfully perform rites at night, unless "offered for the people in proper form". While respectable Roman women of the late Republican and Imperial eras were allowed weak, sweetened, or diluted wine in moderation, Roman traditionalists believed that in former, more virtuous times, even this was forbidden them, "for fear that they might lapse into some disgraceful act. For it is only a step from the intemperance of Liber
pater to the forbidden things of Venus". Bona Dea's rites required the use of strong sacrificial-grade wine (temetum), and its formal, ritualistic renaming as lac (milk). Its container was called a mellarium (honey jar).
Some ancient sources infer that women were completely banned from offering blood-and-wine sacrifice in their own right, and were at one time even banned from handling such materials; both claims are questionable. For modern scholarship, the presence of a supervising Vestal, and the absence of anything male, gives this all-female gathering permission to use strong wine and blood sacrifice "for the benefit of the Roman people". Vestals were exceptional and revered persons, whose ritual obligations and religious integrity were central to the well being of the Roman state and all its citizens. They were virgins, but not subject to their fathers' authority; and they were matrons, but independent of any husband. Though female, they held forms of privilege and authority otherwise associated only with Roman men, and were answerable only to the Senior Vestal and the Pontifex Maximus
.
The euphemistic use of wine at the festival has been variously described as a substitution for milk and honey, relatively late in the cult's development; as a theologically absurdity; and as an ingenious justification for behaviour that would be unacceptable outside this specific religious sphere. In Graeco-Roman mythography, wine is an invention of Liber-Dionysus, who is present as the male principle in certain "soft fruits", including semen and grapes, both of which are potentially "dangerous" to women. In one myth of Fauna, her own secretive and willing wine-drinking transgresses Roman propriety; she is cleansed by mortal punishment, and immortalised as Bona Dea. In another, she virtuously resists her father's incestuous lust, so the signs of his maleness and sexual aggression must be removed her rites. Myrtle is both a sign of Venus
, who arouses male libido, and the physical instrument of Fauna's unjust punishment. It is therefore absent and unmentionable. The wine, now devoid of its male essence, can no longer be known or named as wine, and is renamed as "milk", an exclusively female product. Milk and honey are primitive foods, "markers par excellence of utopian golden times".
Likewise, the contents of any "honey jar" are made by bees, which are female in Roman lore; they represent domestic virtue, sexual abstinence, industry and obedience, and will quit an adulterous household. The vine-leaf bowers and the profusion of plants – any and all but the forbidden myrtle – convert a sophisticated, urban banqueting hall to a "primitive" dwelling and evoke the simple innocence of an ancestral golden age, in which women rule themselves without reference to men, drinking "milk and honey" under the divine authority of Bona Dea.
Roman mythographers offer differing reasons for the serpent's image at the rites. Macrobius connects it to Faunus, who transformed himself thus to have intercourse with his daughter Fauna, and to the live, fearless and harmless serpents who roam the precincts of the goddess' temple.
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state
State of Rome
State of Rome refers to Ancient Rome as a nation-state, that is, a country. As a result, a free-born person in Syria could be considered a Roman by virtue of his citizenship although he was born nowhere near the city of Rome. Furthermore, the capital of the Roman state was not always the city of...
and people. According to Roman literary sources, she was brought from Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia
Magna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...
at some time during the early or middle Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
, and was given her own state cult on the Aventine Hill
Aventine Hill
The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the twelfth rione, or ward, of Rome.-Location and boundaries:The Aventine hill is the southernmost of Rome's seven hills...
.
Her rites allowed women the use of strong wine and blood-sacrifice, things otherwise forbidden them by Roman tradition
Mos maiorum
The mos maiorum is the unwritten code from which the ancient Romans derived their social norms. It is the core concept of Roman traditionalism, distinguished from but in dynamic complement to written law. The mos maiorum The mos maiorum ("ancestral custom") is the unwritten code from which the...
. Men were barred from her mysteries
Mystery religion
Mystery religions, sacred Mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious cults of the Greco-Roman world, participation in which was reserved to initiates....
and the possession of her true name. Given that male authors had limited knowledge of her rites and attributes, ancient speculations about her identity abound, among them that she was an aspect of Terra
Terra (mythology)
Terra or Tellus was a goddess personifying the Earth in Roman mythology. The names Terra Mater and Tellus Mater both mean "Mother Earth" in Latin; Mater is an honorific title also bestowed on other goddesses...
, Ops
Ops
In ancient Roman religion, Ops or Opis, was a fertility deity and earth-goddess of Sabine origin.-Mythology:Her husband was Saturn, the bountiful monarch of the Golden Age. Just as Saturn was identified with the Greek deity Cronus, Opis was identified with Rhea, Cronus' wife...
, the Magna Mater, or Ceres
Ceres (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres"...
, or a Latin
Latins (Italic tribe)
The Latins were a people of ancient Italy who included the inhabitants of the early City of Rome. From ca. 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small part of the peninsula known to the Romans as Old Latium , that is, the region between the river Tiber and the promontory of Monte Circeo The Latins (or...
form of Damia
Damia
Damia may refer to:* Damia, a place in Jordan; see City of Adam and Damia Bridge*Damia , a Greek deity similar to Demeter and the Roman Bona Dea...
. Most often, she was identified as the wife, sister or daughter of the god Faunus
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan....
, thus an equivalent or aspect of the nature-goddess Fauna
Fauna (goddess)
In ancient Roman religion, Fauna is a goddess said in differing ancient sources to be the wife, sister, or daughter of Faunus. Varro regarded her as the female counterpart of Faunus, and said that the fauni all had prophetic powers...
, who could prophesy the fates of women.
The goddess had two annual festivals. One was held at her Aventine temple; the other was hosted by the wife of Rome's senior annual magistrate
Executive Magistrates of the Roman Republic
The Executive Magistrates of the Roman Republic were officials of the ancient Roman Republic , elected by the People of Rome...
, for an invited group of elite matrons and female attendants. The latter festival came to scandalous prominence in 62 BC, when the politician Clodius Pulcher was tried for his intrusion on the rites, allegedly bent on the seduction of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
's wife, whom Caesar later divorced because "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". The rites remained a subject of male curiosity and speculation, both religious and prurient.
Bona Dea's cults in the city of Rome were led by the Vestal Virgins, and her provincial
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
cults by virgin or matron priestesses. Surviving statuary shows her as a sedate Roman matron with a cornucopia
Cornucopia
The cornucopia or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or wealth in some form...
and a snake. Personal dedications to her are attested among all classes, especially plebeians
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
, freedmen and women
Freedman
A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....
, and slaves
Slavery in ancient Rome
The institution of slavery in ancient Rome played an important role in society and the Roman economy. Besides manual labor on farms and in mines, slaves performed many domestic services and a variety of other tasks, such as accounting...
. Approximately one third of her dedications are from men, some of whom may have been lawfully involved in her cult.
Titles, names and origins
Bona Dea is a goddess of "no definable type", with several origins and a range of different characteristics and functions. Bona Dea ("The Good Goddess") is both an honorific title and a respectful pseudonym; the goddess' true or cult name is unknown. Her other, less common pseudonyms include Feminea Dea ("The Women's Goddess"), Laudandae...Deae ("The Goddess...to be Praised")., and Sancta ("The Holy One").Based on what little they knew of her rites and attributes, Roman historians speculated her true name and identity. Festus
Festus (historian)
Festus was a Late Roman historian whose breviary was commissioned by the emperor Valens in preparation for war against Persia....
describes her as identical with a "women's goddess" named Damia
Damia
Damia may refer to:* Damia, a place in Jordan; see City of Adam and Damia Bridge*Damia , a Greek deity similar to Demeter and the Roman Bona Dea...
, which Georges Dumézil
Georges Dumézil
Georges Dumézil was a French comparative philologist best known for his analysis of sovereignty and power in Proto-Indo-European religion and society...
sees as an ancient misreading of Greek "Demeter
Demeter
In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
". In the late Imperial era, the neoplatonist author Macrobius identifies her as a universal earth-goddess, an aspect of Maia
Maia (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Maia is one of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes. The goddess known as Maia among the Romans may have originated independently, but attracted the myths of Greek Maia because the two figures shared the same name.-Birth:...
, Ops
Ops
In ancient Roman religion, Ops or Opis, was a fertility deity and earth-goddess of Sabine origin.-Mythology:Her husband was Saturn, the bountiful monarch of the Golden Age. Just as Saturn was identified with the Greek deity Cronus, Opis was identified with Rhea, Cronus' wife...
, Terra
Terra (mythology)
Terra or Tellus was a goddess personifying the Earth in Roman mythology. The names Terra Mater and Tellus Mater both mean "Mother Earth" in Latin; Mater is an honorific title also bestowed on other goddesses...
, Magna Mater and Fatua, worshiped under the name of Fauna
Fauna (goddess)
In ancient Roman religion, Fauna is a goddess said in differing ancient sources to be the wife, sister, or daughter of Faunus. Varro regarded her as the female counterpart of Faunus, and said that the fauni all had prophetic powers...
. The Christian author Lactantius
Lactantius
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and tutor to his son.-Biography:...
, claiming the late Republican polymath Varro
Varro
Varro was a Roman cognomen carried by:*Marcus Terentius Varro, sometimes known as Varro Reatinus, the scholar*Publius Terentius Varro or Varro Atacinus, the poet*Gaius Terentius Varro, the consul defeated at the battle of Cannae...
as his source, describes her as Faunus
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan....
' wife and sister, named Fenta Fauna, or Fenta Fatua (Fenta "the prophetess" or Fenta "the foolish").
Republican era
The known features of Bona Dea's cults recall those of various earth and fertility goddesses of the Graeco-Roman worldGreco-Roman world
The Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman culture, or the term Greco-Roman , when used as an adjective, as understood by modern scholars and writers, refers to those geographical regions and countries that culturally were directly, protractedly and intimately influenced by the language, culture,...
, especially the Thesmophoria
Thesmophoria
Thesmophoria was a festival held in Greek cities, in honor of the goddesses Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The name derives from thesmoi, or laws by which men must work the land. The Thesmophoria were the most widespread festivals and the main expression of the cult of Demeter, aside from the...
festival to Demeter. They included nocturnal rites conducted by predominantly or exclusively female intitiates and female priestesses, music, dance and wine, and sacrifice of a sow. During the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
an era, two such cults to Bona Dea were held at different times and locations in the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
One was held on May 1 at Bona Dea's Aventine
Aventine Hill
The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the twelfth rione, or ward, of Rome.-Location and boundaries:The Aventine hill is the southernmost of Rome's seven hills...
temple. Its date connects her to Maia; its location connects her to Rome's plebeian
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
commoner class, whose tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
s and emergent aristocracy resisted patrician claims to rightful religious and political dominance. The festival and temple's foundation year is uncertain – Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
credits it to Claudia Quinta
Claudia Quinta
Claudia Quinta was a Roman matron of legendary fame during the time of the Second Punic War when Scipio Africanus and Publius Sempronius were consuls....
(c. late 3rd century BC). The rites are inferred as some form of mystery, concealed from the public gaze and, according to most later Roman literary sources, entirely forbidden to men. In the Republican era, Bona Dea's Aventine festivals were probably distinctly plebeian affairs, open to all classes of women and perhaps, in some limited fashion, to men. Control of her Aventine cult seems to have been contested at various times during the Mid Republican era; a dedication or rededication of the temple in 123 BC by the Vestal Virgin
Vestal Virgin
In ancient Roman religion, the Vestals or Vestal Virgins , were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The College of the Vestals and its well-being was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome, as embodied by their cultivation of the sacred fire that could not be...
Liciania, with the gift of an altar, shrine and couch, was immediately annulled as unlawful by the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
. By the Late Republic era, Bona Dea's May festival and Aventine temple could have fallen into official disuse, or official disrepute.
The goddess also had a Winter festival, attested on only two occasions (63 and 62 BC) but thoroughly documented. It was held in December, at the home of the current senior annual Roman magistrate cum imperio
Roman Magistrates
The Roman Magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the principal executive magistrate. His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and the sole commander of the army...
, whether consul
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
or praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
, and was hosted by the magistrates wife and attended by respectable matrons of the Roman elite. This winter festival is not marked on any known religious calendar but was dedicated to the public interest and supervised by the Vestals, and therefore must be considered official. Shortly after 62 BC, Cicero presents it as one of very few lawful nocturnal festivals allowed to women, privileged to those of aristocratic class, and coeval with Rome's earliest history.
Festival rites
The Winter festival is known primarily through Cicero's account, supplemented by later Roman authors. First, the house was ritually cleansed of all male persons and presences, even male animals and male portraiture. Then the magistrate's wife and her assistants made bowers of vine-leaves, and decorated the house's banqueting hall with "all manner of growing and blooming plants" except for myrtle, whose presence and naming were expressly forbidden. A banquet table was prepared, with a couch (pulvinar) for the goddess and the image of a snake. The Vestals brought Bona Dea's cult image brought from her temple and laid it upon her couch, as an honoured guest. The goddess' meal was prepared: the entrails (exta) of a sow, sacrificed to her on behalf of the Roman people (pro populo Romano), and a libation of sacrificial wine. The festival continued through the night, a women-only banquet with female musicians, fun and games (ludere), and wine; the last was euphemistically referred to as "milk", and its container as a "honey jar". The festival sanctified the temporary removal of customary constraints imposed on Roman women of all classes by Roman traditionMos maiorum
The mos maiorum is the unwritten code from which the ancient Romans derived their social norms. It is the core concept of Roman traditionalism, distinguished from but in dynamic complement to written law. The mos maiorum The mos maiorum ("ancestral custom") is the unwritten code from which the...
. In a context that excluded any reference to male persons or creatures, male lust or seduction, it underlined the pure and lawful sexual potency of virgins and matrons. According to Cicero, any man who caught even a glimpse of the rites could be punished by blinding. Later Roman writers assume that apart from their different dates and locations, Bona Dea's December and May 1 festivals were essentially the same..
Clodius and the Bona Dea scandal
The Winter rites of 62 BC were hosted by Pompeia, wife of Julius CaesarJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, senior magistrate in residence and pontifex maximus
Pontifex Maximus
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
. Publius Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher was a Roman politician known for his popularist tactics...
, a popularist
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
politician and ally of Caesar, was said to have intruded, dressed as a woman and intent on the hostess' seduction. As the rites had been vitiated, the Vestals were obliged to repeat them, and after further inquiry by the senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
and pontifices, Clodius was charged with desecration, which carried a death sentence. The case was prosecuted by Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, whose wife Terentia had hosted the previous year's rites.
Caesar publicly distanced himself from the affair as much as possible – and certainly from Pompeia, whom he divorced because "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". He had been correctly absent from the rites but as a paterfamilias he was responsible for their piety. As pontifex maximus, he was responsible for the ritual purity and piety of public and private religion. He must act to ensure that the Vestals had acted correctly, then chair the inquiry into what were essentially his own household affairs. Worse, the place of the alleged offense was the state property loaned to every pontifex maximus for his tenure of office. It was a high profile, much commented case. The rites remained officially secret, but many details emerged during and after the trial, and remained permanently in the public domain. They fueled theological speculation, as in Plutarch and Macrobius: and they fed the prurient male imagination – given their innate moral weakness, what might women do when given wine and left to their own devices? Such anxieties were nothing new, and underpinned Rome's traditional strictures against female autonomy. In the political and social turmoil of the Late Republic, Rome's misfortunes were taken as signs of divine anger against the personal ambition, religious negligence and outright impiety of her leading politicians.
Clodius' prosecution was at least partly driven by politics. In an otherwise seemingly thorough account, Cicero makes no mention of Bona Dea's May festival, and claims the goddess' cult as an aristocratic privilege from the first; the impeccably patrician Clodius, Cicero's social superior by birth, is presented as an innately impious, low-class oaf, and his popularist policies as threats to Rome's moral and religious security. After two years of legal wrangling, Clodius was acquitted – which Cicero put down to jury-fixing and other backroom dealings – but his reputation was damaged. The scandalous revelations at the trial also undermined the sacred dignity and authority of the Vestals, the festival, the goddess, office of the pontifex maximus and, by association, Caesar and Rome itself. Some fifty years later, Caesar's heir Octavian, later the princeps
Princeps
Princeps is a Latin word meaning "first in time or order; the first, chief, the most eminent, distinguished, or noble; the first man, first person."...
Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
, had to deal with its repercussions.
Imperial Era
Octavian presented himself as restorer of Rome's Republic, and its traditional religion and social values, on behalf of the Roman senate and people. In 12 BC he became pontifex maximus, which gave him authority over Rome's religious affairs, and direct control of the Vestals; he conspicuously promoted their authority and presence in Roman life, and personally funded a series of religious restorations. His wife Livia was a distant relative of the long-dead but still notorious Clodius; but also related to the unfortunate Vestal Licinia, whose attempted dedication of Bona Dea's Aventine Temple had been thwarted by the Senate. Livia restored the temple and revived its May 1 festival, perhaps drawing attention away from her disreputable kinsman and the scandalous events of 62 BC. Thereafter, Bona Dea's December festival may have continued quietly, or could simply have lapsed, its reputation irreparably damaged. There is no evidence of its abolition. Livia's name did not and could not appear in the official religious calendars, but Ovid's Fasti associates her with May 1, and presents her as the ideal wife and "paragon of female Roman virtue". Most of Bona Dea's provincial and municipal sanctuaries were founded around this time, to propagate the new Imperial ideology. An Imperial cult centreImperial cult (ancient Rome)
The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State...
in Aquileia
Aquileia
Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso , the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times...
honours an Augusta
Augusta (honorific)
Augusta was the imperial honorific title of empresses. It was given to the women of the Roman and Byzantine imperial families. In the third century, Augustae could also receive the titles of Mater castrorum and Mater Patriae .The title implied the greatest prestige, with the Augustae able to...
Bona Dea Cereria
Ceres (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres"...
, probably in connection with the corn dole
Grain supply to the city of Rome
In classical antiquity, the grain supply to the city of Rome could not be met entirely from the surrounding countryside, which was taken up by the villas and parks of the aristocracy and which produced mainly fruit, vegetables and other perishable goods...
. Other state cults to the goddess are found at Ostia
Ostia
Ostia may refer to:*Ostia , a municipio of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast*Ostia Antica, a township and port of ancient Rome*Ostia Antica , a district of the commune of Rome...
and Portus
Portus
Porto or Portus was a town in Lazio or Latium, just south of Rome, Italy. It was an ancient harbour on the right bank of the mouth of the Tiber.-Claudian phase:Rome's original harbour was Ostia...
. As the Vestals seldom went beyond Rome's city boundary, these cults would have been led by leading women of local elites, whether virgin or matron.
Livia's best efforts to restore Bona Dea's reputation had only moderate success in some circles, where scurrilous and titillating stories of the goddess' rites continued to circulate. Well over a century after the Clodius scandal, Juvenal describes Bona Dea's festival as an opportunity for women of all classes, most shamefully those of the upper class – and men in drag ("which altars do not have their Clodius these days?") – to get drunk and cavort indiscriminately in a sexual free-for-all.
From the late 2nd century, an increasing religious syncretism in Rome's traditional religions presents Bona Dea as one of many aspects of Virgo
Virgo
-Astronomy:* Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo* Virgo , a constellation* Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy* Virgo Supercluster, a galactic supercluster-Surname:* Virgo...
Caelestis, the celestial Virgin, Great Mother of the gods, whom later Mariologists
Mariology
Roman Catholic Mariology is theology concerned with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ as developed by the Catholic Church. Roman Catholic teachings on the subject have been based on the belief that "The Blessed Virgin, because she is the Mother of God, is believed to hold a certain...
identify as prototype for the Virgin Mary in Christian theology. Christian theologists present Bona Dea - or rather, Fauna, whom they clearly take her to be - as one of the innumerable Roman gods who supposedly show the immorality and absurdity at the heart of traditional Roman religion; according to them, no prophetess, merely "foolish Fenta", daughter and wife to her incestuous father, and "good" (bona) only at drinking too much wine.
Temples
Bona Dea's Roman temple was situated on a lower slope of the northeastern Aventine HillAventine Hill
The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the twelfth rione, or ward, of Rome.-Location and boundaries:The Aventine hill is the southernmost of Rome's seven hills...
, beneath the height known as Saxum, southeast of the Circus Maximus
Circus Maximus
The Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue located in Rome, Italy. Situated in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire...
. Its foundation year is unkown. According to Dumezil, Festus' identification of Bona Dea with Damia infers a foundation date in or shortly after 272 BC, after Rome's capture of Tarentum
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
; but Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
claimed the goddess' cult as coeval with Rome's foundation. In the middle Republican era, the temple may have fallen into disrepair, or its cult into official disfavour. In 123 BC the Vestal Licinia gave the temple an altar, small shrine
Aedicula
In religion in ancient Rome, an aedicula is a small shrine. The word aedicula is the diminutive of the Latin aedes, a temple building or house....
and couch for the goddess, but they were removed as unlawful by the pontifex maximus
Pontifex Maximus
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
P. Scaevola
Publius Mucius Scaevola
Publius Mucius Scaevola was a prominent Roman politician and jurist. He was tribune in 141 BC, praetor in 136 BC, and consul in 133 BC....
. Its use and status at the time of the Bona Dea scandal are unknown. It was restored in the Imperial era, once by the empress Livia
Livia
Livia Drusilla, , after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14 also known as Julia Augusta, was a Roman empress as the third wife of the Emperor Augustus and his adviser...
, wife of Augustus, and perhaps again by Hadrian. It survived to at least the 4th century AD. Nothing is known of its architecture or appearance, save that unlike most Roman temples it was walled. It was an important centre of healing; harmless snakes roamed its precincts, and it held a store of various medicinal herbs that could be dispensed at need by its priestesses. Men were forbidden entry but could dedicate offerings to the goddess, or, according to Ovid, could enter the precincts "if bidden by the goddess".
Most provincial sanctuaries and temples to Bona Dea are too decayed, despoiled or fragmentary to offer firm evidence of structure and layout, but the remains of four confirm a layout consistent with the sparse descriptions of her Aventine temple. In each, a perimeter wall surrounds a dense compound of annexes, in which some rooms show possible use as dispensaries. The layout would allow the concealment of inner cults or mysteries from non-initiates. There is evidence that at least some remained in use to the 4th century AD as cultic healing centres.
Dedications and iconography
Despite her high status as a protecting deity of the Roman state, and the exclusively female, aristocratic connections of her winter festival at Rome, elite dedications to Bona Dea are outnumbered by the personal dedications of the Roman plebs, particularly the ingenuiIngenui
Ingenui or ingenuitas , was a legal term of ancient Rome indicating those freemen who were born free, as distinct from, for example, freedmen, who were freemen who had once been slaves....
. The greatest number of all are from freedmen and slaves. An estimated one-third of dedications to the goddess are from men. One, a provincial Greek, claims to be a priest of her cult. This is evidence of lawful variation – at least in the Roman provinces – from what almost all Roman literary sources present as an official and absolute rule of her cult. Inscriptions of the Imperial era show her appeal as a personal or saviour-goddess, extolled as Augusta and Domina; or as an all-goddess, titled as Regina Triumphalis (Triumphal Queen), or Terrae marisque Dominatrici (Mistress of sea and land). Private and public dedications associate her with agricultural deities such as Ceres
Ceres (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres"...
, Silvanus
Silvanus (mythology)
Silvanus was a Roman tutelary deity of woods and fields. As protector of forests , he especially presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild. He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen, protecting in particular the boundaries of fields...
, and the virgin goddess Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...
. She is also named in some dedications of public works, such as the restoration of the Claudian Aqueduct.
Most inscriptions to Bona Dea are simple and unadorned but some show serpents, often paired. Cumont (1932) remarks their similarity to the serpents featured in Pompeian lararia; serpents are associated with many earth-deities, and had protective, fertilising and regenerating functions, as in the cults of Aesculapius, Demeter
Demeter
In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
and Ceres
Ceres (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres"...
. Some Romans kept live, harmless snakes as household pets, and credited them with similarly beneficial functions.
Images of the goddess show her enthroned, clad in chiton
Chiton
Chitons are small to large, primitive marine molluscs in the class Polyplacophora.There are 900 to 1,000 extant species of chitons in the class, which was formerly known as Amphineura....
and mantle. On her left arm she holds a cornucopia
Cornucopia
The cornucopia or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or wealth in some form...
, a sign of her abundant generosity and fruitfulness. In her right hand, she holds a bowl, which feeds a serpent coiled around her right arm: a sign of her healing and regenerative powers. This combination of snake and cornucopia are unique to Bona Dea. The literary record offers at least one variation on this type; Macrobius describes her cult statue as overhung by a "spreading vine", and bearing a sceptre in her left hand.
Mythology
Cicero makes no reference to any myth of Bona Dea, nor to Latium's founder-legend and Fauna. Later connections between Fauna and Bona Dea attempt to explain what was known of Bona Dea's aristocratic December festival in terms of LatiumLatium
Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...
's aristocratic foundation myth, and re-embroider the latter as a Roman moral fable. Several variants are known. Fauna is daughter, wife or sister of Faunus
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan....
, (also names Faunus Fatuus, meaning Faunus "the foolish", or seer). He is son of Picus
Picus
In Roman mythology, Picus was the first king of Latium. He was known for his skill at augury and horsemanship. The witch Circe turned him into a woodpecker for scorning her love. Picus' wife was Canens, a nymph who killed herself after his transformation. They had one son, Faunus.According to...
and first king of the Latins, empowered with the gift of prophecy: in Roman religion, a pastoral god, a protector of flocks, with a shrine and oracle on the Aventine, and sometimes identified with Inuus
Inuus
In ancient Roman religion, Inuus was a god, or aspect of a god, who embodied copulation. The evidence for him as a distinct entity is scant. Servius says that Inuus is an epithet of Faunus , named from his habit of intercourse with animals, based on the etymology of ineundum, "a going in,...
and later, with Greek Pan. As his female counterpart, Fauna has similar gifts, domains and powers in relation to women. In Plutarch's version of the myth, the mortal Fauna secretly gets drunk on wine, which is forbidden her: and when Faunus finds out, he thrashes her with myrtle rods. In Lactantius
Lactantius
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and tutor to his son.-Biography:...
, he thrashes her to death, regrets the deed and deifies her. Servius derives the names Faunus and Fauna, collectively the Fatui, from fari (to prophesy): they "are also called Fatui because they utter divine prophecy in a state of stupor". Macrobius writes that she is "the same as Fauna, Ops
Ops
In ancient Roman religion, Ops or Opis, was a fertility deity and earth-goddess of Sabine origin.-Mythology:Her husband was Saturn, the bountiful monarch of the Golden Age. Just as Saturn was identified with the Greek deity Cronus, Opis was identified with Rhea, Cronus' wife...
or Fatua... It is said too that she was the daughter of Faunus, and that she resisted the amorous advances of her father who had fallen in love with her, so that he even beat her with myrtle twigs because she did not yield to his desires though she had been made drunk by him on wine. It is believed that the father changed himself into a serpent, however, and under this guise had intercourse with his daughter."
Varro
Varro
Varro was a Roman cognomen carried by:*Marcus Terentius Varro, sometimes known as Varro Reatinus, the scholar*Publius Terentius Varro or Varro Atacinus, the poet*Gaius Terentius Varro, the consul defeated at the battle of Cannae...
explains the exclusion of men from Bona Dea's cult as a consequence of her great modesty; no man but her husband had ever seen her, or heard her name. For Servius, this makes her the paragon of chaste womanhood. Most likely, once Fauna's mythology seemed to offer an explanation
Etiology
Etiology is the study of causation, or origination. The word is derived from the Greek , aitiologia, "giving a reason for" ....
for Bona Dea's mysterious cult, the myth developed circumstantially, to fit what little was known of the practice. In turn, the cult practice may have changed to support the virtuous ideological message required of the myths, particularly during the Augustan religious reforms that identified Bona Dea with the empress Livia. Versnel (1992) notes the elements common to the Bona Dea festival, Fauna's myths, and Greek Demeter's Thesmophoria
Thesmophoria
Thesmophoria was a festival held in Greek cities, in honor of the goddesses Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The name derives from thesmoi, or laws by which men must work the land. The Thesmophoria were the most widespread festivals and the main expression of the cult of Demeter, aside from the...
, as "wine, myrtle, serpents and female modesty blemished".
Cult themes
Bona Dea's cult has several remarkable features. Hers is the only known official festival in which an exclusively female, nocturnal gathering used and drank strong, sacrificial-grade wine and performed a blood sacrifice. Although women were present at most public ceremonies and festivals, the religious authorities in Roman society were the male pontiffsCollege of Pontiffs
The College of Pontiffs or Collegium Pontificum was a body of the ancient Roman state whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the polytheistic state religion. The college consisted of the Pontifex Maximus, the Vestal Virgins, the Rex Sacrorum, and the flamines...
and augur
Augur
The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds: whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of...
s, and women could not lawfully perform rites at night, unless "offered for the people in proper form". While respectable Roman women of the late Republican and Imperial eras were allowed weak, sweetened, or diluted wine in moderation, Roman traditionalists believed that in former, more virtuous times, even this was forbidden them, "for fear that they might lapse into some disgraceful act. For it is only a step from the intemperance of Liber
Liber
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber , also known as Liber Pater was a god of viticulture and wine, fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of their Aventine Triad. His festival of Liberalia became associated with free speech and the rights...
pater to the forbidden things of Venus". Bona Dea's rites required the use of strong sacrificial-grade wine (temetum), and its formal, ritualistic renaming as lac (milk). Its container was called a mellarium (honey jar).
Some ancient sources infer that women were completely banned from offering blood-and-wine sacrifice in their own right, and were at one time even banned from handling such materials; both claims are questionable. For modern scholarship, the presence of a supervising Vestal, and the absence of anything male, gives this all-female gathering permission to use strong wine and blood sacrifice "for the benefit of the Roman people". Vestals were exceptional and revered persons, whose ritual obligations and religious integrity were central to the well being of the Roman state and all its citizens. They were virgins, but not subject to their fathers' authority; and they were matrons, but independent of any husband. Though female, they held forms of privilege and authority otherwise associated only with Roman men, and were answerable only to the Senior Vestal and the Pontifex Maximus
Pontifex Maximus
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
.
The euphemistic use of wine at the festival has been variously described as a substitution for milk and honey, relatively late in the cult's development; as a theologically absurdity; and as an ingenious justification for behaviour that would be unacceptable outside this specific religious sphere. In Graeco-Roman mythography, wine is an invention of Liber-Dionysus, who is present as the male principle in certain "soft fruits", including semen and grapes, both of which are potentially "dangerous" to women. In one myth of Fauna, her own secretive and willing wine-drinking transgresses Roman propriety; she is cleansed by mortal punishment, and immortalised as Bona Dea. In another, she virtuously resists her father's incestuous lust, so the signs of his maleness and sexual aggression must be removed her rites. Myrtle is both a sign of Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
, who arouses male libido, and the physical instrument of Fauna's unjust punishment. It is therefore absent and unmentionable. The wine, now devoid of its male essence, can no longer be known or named as wine, and is renamed as "milk", an exclusively female product. Milk and honey are primitive foods, "markers par excellence of utopian golden times".
Likewise, the contents of any "honey jar" are made by bees, which are female in Roman lore; they represent domestic virtue, sexual abstinence, industry and obedience, and will quit an adulterous household. The vine-leaf bowers and the profusion of plants – any and all but the forbidden myrtle – convert a sophisticated, urban banqueting hall to a "primitive" dwelling and evoke the simple innocence of an ancestral golden age, in which women rule themselves without reference to men, drinking "milk and honey" under the divine authority of Bona Dea.
Roman mythographers offer differing reasons for the serpent's image at the rites. Macrobius connects it to Faunus, who transformed himself thus to have intercourse with his daughter Fauna, and to the live, fearless and harmless serpents who roam the precincts of the goddess' temple.