Bona Dea and the Cults of Roman Women 3515107525, 9783515107525

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Attilio Mastrocinque

Bona Dea and the Cults of Roman Women

Alte Geschichte Franz Steiner Verlag

Potsdamer Altertums­wissenschaftliche Beiträge 49

Attilio Mastrocinque Bona Dea and the Cults of Roman Women

POTSDAMER ALTERTUMSWISSENSCHAFTLICHE BEITRÄGE (PAWB) Herausgegeben von Pedro Barceló (Potsdam), Peter Riemer (Saarbrücken), Jörg Rüpke (Erfurt) und John Scheid (Paris) Band 49

Attilio Mastrocinque

Bona Dea and the Cults of Roman Women

Franz Steiner Verlag

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek: Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über abrufbar. Dieses Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist unzulässig und strafbar. © Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2014 Druck: Offsetdruck Bokor, Bad Tölz Gedruckt auf säurefreiem, alterungsbeständigem Papier. Printed in Germany. ISBN 978-3-515-10752-5 (Print) ISBN 978-3-515-10754-9 (E-Book)

To my mother, who wrote these verses: Il vino della sposa Profuma di mammole. Assaporato in silenzio a piccoli sorsi inebria, è il solo vero piacere della festa, è la grazia della sposa che si dona, il mistero del suo fiore che inebria. Iside Zecchini (1921–2011)

The wine of the bride It smells of violets. When savoured, sipped silently, it inebriates; it is the only delight of the wedding, it is the grace of the bride who gives herself, the mystery of her flower which inebriates.

CONTENTS I.

Preface...................................................................................................

11

II.

Introduction...........................................................................................

13

III.

Girls and pagan gods.............................................................................

15

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Method................................................................................................... Virginity without Hymen...................................................................... Gods and the ius primæ noctis according to St. Augustine................... Pagan gods and their ius primæ noctis.................................................. Symbolic acts......................................................................................... Lupercalia.............................................................................................. Whips and boxes: divine symbols of fertility........................................

15 16 18 21 23 24 25

IV.

Wedding invitation................................................................................

27

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

The myth of the disappointed Hercules................................................. Faunus, a disappointed god................................................................... Ceremonies at the home of the highest Roman magistrate................... The myth of Bona Dea.......................................................................... Characteristics of Bona Dea.................................................................. Bona Dea and Dionysiac marriage........................................................ Rulers who performed hierogamy rituals.............................................. Images of Dionysus and women on Roman sarcophagi........................ Hercules at Dionysus’ wedding............................................................. A Dionysism without Dionysus?........................................................... Men at the festival of Bona Dea............................................................ Plump Lyde’s box.................................................................................. A ritual for boys..................................................................................... The festival for men..............................................................................

27 29 30 34 35 36 37 39 44 50 52 56 62 66

V.

Initiations and political power...............................................................

70

1. 2. 3. 4.

Bacchic festivals and Roman women.................................................... How many ceremonies for Bona Dea? ................................................. Livia and Bona Dea............................................................................... The senaculum mulierum......................................................................

70 74 76 78

VI.

Omphale................................................................................................

82

8 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women

The Italic origins of the Roman Omphale............................................. Hercules Musarum................................................................................ The meaning of Clodius disguisement.................................................. The ritual of Juno Caprotina.................................................................. Roman girls raped by Hercules............................................................. Dreaming of the god.............................................................................. The marriage of Lavinia........................................................................ Omphale: a goddess of Magna Græcia.................................................. Omphale, a Lucanian and Japygian goddess......................................... Omphale within the Hellenistic cults.................................................... Omphale or Demeter?........................................................................... Demetrian features of Bona Dea’s festivals.......................................... Chronology............................................................................................ The goddess of womanhood..................................................................

82 88 94 98 105 107 110 114 117 119 122 123 125 128

VII. The reign of Bacchus............................................................................. 131 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Liber and Libera.................................................................................... Libera and Ariadne................................................................................ Oriental cults?........................................................................................ The Orphism of Bona Dea..................................................................... Orphic patterns......................................................................................

131 133 135 136 141

VIII. Divine daughters and wives................................................................... 145 1. 2. 3. 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 4. 5. 5.1 5.2 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

The rituals and mythology of Anna Perenna......................................... Social status and fertility rituals............................................................ The meaning of the rituals..................................................................... The girls enter a female association...................................................... The art of seduction............................................................................... A male god approaches, is rebuffed, and a rape ensues........................ The fecundating divine ancestor appears.............................................. The divine marriage.............................................................................. Śuri, an Etruscan and Faliscan god........................................................ Cavatha, an Etruscan queen of the netherworld.................................... Cavatha, the daughter............................................................................ Cavatha, the wife................................................................................... Śuri and Faunus in a Bacchic world...................................................... Pomonus and Vesuna............................................................................ Circe and Picus...................................................................................... Pomona and Vertumnus........................................................................ Marica and Mares.................................................................................. Minerva Tritonia and Triton in Lavinium.............................................

145 148 149 149 150 151 152 154 155 161 161 162 163 166 167 169 173 175

IX.

Opposition and complementarity..........................................................

180

Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Forest and garden.................................................................................. Wine...................................................................................................... Flora....................................................................................................... The calendar.......................................................................................... Initiations............................................................................................... Conclusion.............................................................................................

9 180 183 184 189 190 195

Abbreviations. ...................................................................................... 197 Bibliography.......................................................................................... 199 Index...................................................................................................... 201

I. PREFACE This book was written in Heidelberg, at the Seminar für alte Geschichte und Epigraphik, thanks to the support of the Alexander-von-Humboldt-Stiftung. Some aspects of this work, concerning Omphale, were presented at the IX congresso della Società europea di storia delle religioni: Religion in the History of European Culture (Messina, 13-17 September 2009), within the Panel “Religious Experience in the Roman World”, organized by Jörg Rüpke and myself.1 I thank my friends and colleagues of the University of Heidelberg, and especially Kai Trampedach. I thank the editor of the Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge, Jörg Rüpke for his suggestions and criticism. I am very grateful to Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museum, and to Kenneth Lapatin, curator of Antiquities in the Paul Getty Museum, for the permission of reproducing images of some monuments. I thank also Elsbeth Kneuper, with whom I have discussed some anthropological research, Antonio De Siena, who favoured my archaeological research in Lucania, Patricia Johnston, Simona Marchesini, and Celia Sperring, for some other suggestions. Attilio Mastrocinque

1

“Dionysos and Religious Experiences in Bona Dea Rituals”, in: Memory and Religious Experience in the Greco-Roman World, ed. by N.Cusumano, V.Gasperini, A.Mastrocinque, J.Rüpke, PawB 45, Stuttgart 2013. Other aspects of Omphale and Bona Dea have been presented in: “Religione e politica: il caso di Bona Dea”, in: Politiche religiose nel mondo antico e tardoantico. Poteri e indirizzi, forme di controllo, idee e prassi di tolleranza, Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Florence, 24–26 settembre 2009, ed. by G.Cecconi and Ch.Gabrielli, Bari 1911, 165–172; and in: “Orfismo nel culto romano di Bona Dea (OF 584)”, in: Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic Fragments in Honour of Alberto Bernabé, ed. by M.Herrero de Jáuregui et alii, Berlin - New York 2011, 259–268.

II. INTRODUCTION Between the modern, “European” concept of marriage and that of the Romans there is a profound difference. With Christianization, an entire world of mythology and pagan rituals was forgotten. This world of fantasy, beliefs, education, rituals and social relations aimed to prepare girls and boys for marriage. It was the intricate world of initiations. For Christians, nothing is required in order to get married. Other monotheistic religions require very little. Modern society does not require any form of ritual before marriage. Even religious forms of marriage are scarcely preceded by other rituals, and no mythology surrounds this fundamental passage in human life. There are exceptions, of course, but the comparison with the extremely rich and multifaceted compound of Græco-Roman mythology and rituals makes it clear that our ancestors discarded a certain amount of social factors and simplified (or even made banal) the passage from pre-marital to marital status. The basic reason is that pagan gods were sexually active, whereas the monotheistic god is asexual; he can love, but without sex. To Greeks and Romans it was obvious that Faunus, Mars or Hercules were looking for love and sex with women. It was also thought that several of the goddesses would look for human lovers. Eos-Aurora and Selene-Luna, for example, were famous for having human lovers. In asking how a god could have sex with a human being, the philosophers showed themselves to be much more sophisticated than the common people.1 On the other hand, Jews (1st book of Enoch) and Christians (Justin’s 2nd apology)2 merged the myth of the fallen angels (Genesis 6) with the Greek mythology. The pagan gods became thus angels who lusted after women and begot some wild children. This work will deal with a specific theme, namely premarital relations between the bride and gods. Greek and Roman girls had contact with male gods, who gave them fertility and blessed their earthly union.3 Forms of first fruits offerings were made to the gods, and young women were offered as well. As we will see, ritual and imaginary forms of sexual union or love affairs with a god were thought to be necessary and beneficial for the bride. We shall look at Rome first by focusing on one of the most important initiatory compounds: the Bona Dea, Faunus, and Bacchus rituals. Then we will select several cultic cycles in Latium, Etruria and other Italic areas, which show simi-

1 2 3

See for ex. Plut., Numa 4. I Enoch 7-8 (Hellenistic age), and Iustin, II Apol. 5 (2nd century AD). The philosophers of imperial age thought Dionysos as the lord of death and life; see L.Brisson, “Le corps dionysiaque”, in: Orphée et l’Orphisme dans l’antiquité gréco-romaine, Aldershot 1995, 488–9.

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Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women

larities with Roman cults. We shall turn to the Greek world when necessary for a better knowledge of Roman religion. Roman and Italic women were also accompanied by the gods in other important phases of their life, notably during pregnancy, childbirth and breast feeding. Sometimes the same gods who protected them during initiation into marital status were supposed to protect them during the subsequent phases of marriage. But the task of focusing on the initiation into marriage shall suffice for a single book. The difference between us and the Ancients makes us deaf or blind even in face of clear information. We are naturally inclined to think of ancient mythology, rituals and iconography as mere fanciful creation. They were actually another way, a complex one, of dealing with transitions in human life. A second factor which prevents our understanding is the secrecy that surrounded the ritual passage from virginity to adulthood. We find in the pagan authors allusions to rituals, and in the Christian authors other mentions for derogatory purposes. These rituals were for women only; male attendance was completely or almost completely4 excluded. Moreover, the pagan writers were often troubled and uneasy when faced with the sexual themes at the core of such rituals and beliefs. They are, therefore, often reticent about embarrassing realities or else merely allude to them.

4

For several exceptions: Ovid., Ars amat. III.633–8: “When Bona Dea bars the eyes of men from her temple, except such as she bids come there herself”.

III. GIRLS AND PAGAN GODS 1. METHOD The core of this work is formed by a series of passages concerning Bona Dea, dating from the end of the Republican age to the first century AD. Bona Dea, also called Fauna, is an important goddess of Roman women, who shared with Juno and Minerva the role of protecting, educating, and guiding young women towards their marital life. Many evident Dionysiac features and the functions of both Hercules and Faunus in Bona Dea’s festivals allow to expand our documentation. Bona Dea, Faunus and Hercules were in fact deeply involved in Dionysiac rituals. A passage of Ovid (Fasti IV.313–30) offers a precise link between a Roman festival of Faunus and the mythical eve of Bacchus’ festival. The celebration of this eve is reproduced also on some Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi, where a precise mythical feature occurs, namely Faunus which lusted after Hercules because he was dressed as Omphale. Ovid’s episode is precisely centered on the crossdressing of Hercules and Omphale. Transvestism is a recurrent feature in the cult of Bona Dea. The iconography of Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi does not represent a new form of Dionysism among the Romans, because they did not use carved sarcophagi in the previous centuries. Dionysism was old and only the carved sarcophagi were new. Moreover Dionysiac sarcophagi, the Ovidian myth, and many passages of Roman authors testify of a Lydian or Phrygian style in those Dionysiac rituals for Faunus, Fauna, and Hercules. Researches in those fields allow to describe a compound of rituals and beliefs concerning women and their relations with gods. A series of features recurs in those rituals and beliefs, and namely: 1) segregation of women from men; 2) transvestism, disguisement, metamorphose; 3) deception, disappointment or mockery of a sexually active male god; 4) symbols of fertility, such as the phallus, or supposed instruments for fertility, such as snakes and whips; 5) relation between father and daughter; 6) prohibition of wine for women; 7) wrong use of wine by men or women; 8) sexual appeal, rape; 9) role of Faunus and Hercules. All those features appear in Bona Dea’s cult and myth. Other important features appear besides, and namely: 1) relation between husband and wife; 2) Dionysism. It is ascertained that the cult of Bona Dea was neither the only one in Rome which women practised in order to obtain fertility nor the one in which groups of women met for ceremonies in Dionysiac style. Moreover it is obvious that in ancient Italy other cults were practised for similar purposes and with similar features, and that the cult of Bona Dea was not a Roman peculiarity. Therefore some cults and myths will be presented and put in comparison, but only those which present many features among those we have mentioned above. For the sake of clarity we will distinguish two forms of cults: those for girls and women, and

16

Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women

those for wives. Marriage was in fact a fundamental passage in the life of a woman and many ancient authors underline the role of cults before and after marriage. Juno Caprotina, Minerva, and Stimula will be studied thus because they concerned mostly girls before their marriage. Italic goddesses such as Cavatha, Vesuna, Pomona, and Marica share with Bona Dea several ritual or mythological features, and therefore they are worth mentioning. Those goddesses appear to be both unmarried girls, living with their father, and wives. Moreover they share with Bona Dea an evident Dionysiac aspect. Transvestism, disguisement, metamorphose are also recurring in the myths of those goddesses. Thanks to comparisons with those Italic goddesses it will be possible to recognize some features of cults to Faunus and Fauna in the 5th to 2nd centuries BC. Several phenomena which are described by Cicero or Plutarch seem to be more ancient than the 1st century BC, and namely the Dionysiac form of cults and mythology. Goddesses of women and their female worshippers appear to be similar to Greek Mænads. An opposition between goddesses of women and gods of men appears to be very ancient as well. The same can be said of the image of a primordial world, of primitive men and remote ancestors as an environment in which the myths took place. They will be presented as a comparison to Bona Dea/Fauna and Faunus. The above mentioned features, and not other ones, will be the criterion for comparisons. The meaning of this religious compound will be clarified thanks to a final comparison with female initiations among native peoples. The initiations are aimed at preparing young women to marriage. Those rituals are shaped with many features we have already met in ancient Italy, and namely: 1) segregation of women from men; 2) transvestism, disguisement; 3) deception, disappointment or mockery of sexually active boys; 4) symbols of fertility; 5) relation between parents and daughter; 6) sexual appeal; 7) use of inebriant substances. 2. VIRGINITY WITHOUT HYMEN The first topic we will deal with is the role of gods in the Roman marriage. In the Greek and Roman world tradition and laws forbade unmarried women from having sexual intercourse. For example, Solon’s laws prescribed that a father could sell his daughter if she had had sexual intercourse before marriage.1 A great difference between the modern and the ancient understanding of marriage is the concept of virginity. The Ancients seem not to care about it, even though they knew of physical female virginity. In 1984 Giulia Sissa published a seminal article2 in which she shows that the Greek and Roman idea of virginity was not dependent on the hymen. Her re1 2

Plut., Solon 23. G.Sissa, “Une virginité sans hymen. Le corps féminin en Grèce ancienne”, AnnalesESC 39, 1984, 1119–1139. She discusses the same questions also in her book Le corps virginal. La virginité féminine en Grèce ancienne, Paris 1987, but here she deals specifically with pagan mythology.

III. Girls and pagan gods

17

search focuses on Greek and patristic literature. Latin authors were less concerned with this topic, but even in Latin literature, passages concerning the loss of physical virginity are rarely encountered.3 Sissa stressed that the word parthenos was specifically (but not exclusively) used to refer to a “woman who was not yet married”. On the other hand, medical literature never speaks of the hymen as a membrane that is ruptured during the first intercourse.4 In classical literature, and particularly in comedies, there are no husbands who discover that their brides are not virgins; no passage from the ancient authors deals with checking the physical virginity of girls and brides. The Hymenæum was the traditional hymn for the bridal procession5 and a shared opinion held that it was named after a certain Hymenaios of Athens, a hero who rescued a group of girls and was permitted to marry one of them. In my opinion, this difference between the ancient and the modern concepts of virginity stems from the very different way in which the steps leading up to marriage are dealt with. More recently Leena Viitanlemi6 has underlined the religious value of parthenia, because several Greek ceremonies were devoted to those young girls, the parthenoi, or their participation was requested. The Ancients, and in particular the Romans believed that a girl had contact with a male god. This contact was an imaginary rape or some other form of sexual relation. Therefore, the role of husbands in the ancient world is not the same as nowadays. There is no doubt that the same things happened during the honeymoon in the Greek and Roman age as happen nowadays, but ancient husbands could not claim any right to be the first. The gods went before. In this book we will focus particularly on a meaningful goddess of the Romans, Bona Dea, also called Fauna. She was supposed to be a young woman who could not be seen by men and lived at home with her father Faunus, but experienced the coming of a violent male 3 4

5 6

Ausonius’ Cento nuptialis is a late exception. Aristote, in his Historia animalium, describes every sort of membranes, but no word of the female hymen; Galen, in his Anatomicae administrationes, deals with membranes, which should be respected by surgeons, but apparently ignores the existence of the special membrane of female anatomy. Soranus’ treatise on female medicine, Gynaikeia (I.16–17 Ilberg) maintains that defloration opened the folds which were squeezed by a vascular net, and caused a small bloody flow. According to him, the vagina was simply narrow, not obstructed by a membrane. He argues against the idea that every woman had a membrane in her vagina, and deals with membranes which obstructed the vagina as pathologies (IV.17). A slightly different approach to those medical texts is that of A.E.Hanson, “The medical writers’ Woman”, in: Before sexuality. The construction of erotic experience in the ancient Greek world, ed. by D.M.Halperin, J.J.Winkler & F.I.Zeitlin, Princeton 1990, 309–338, who admit that they knew of hymen and its relation to virginity. See K.H.Hersch, Roman Wedding. Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, Cambridge 2010, 239– 242. L.Vitanlemi, “Parthenia - Remarks on Virginity and its Meanings in the religious Context of ancient Greece”, in: Aspects of Women in Antiquity. Proceedings of the first Nordic Symposium on Women’s Lives in Antiquity, Göteborg 12–15 June 1997, ed. by L.Larsson Lovén and A.Strömberg, Jonsered 1998, 44–57.

18

Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women

god, Faunus himself, or Hercules. The encounter was shocking to her. Other Roman virgin goddesses experienced similar encounters, and were able to deceive powerful male gods, and even to scorn them. Faunus, Hercules, Mars, Mutinus Titinus and other gods played an important role in the preparation of girls to the marriage. Some passages of ancient authors are enough to show that the role played by these gods was not physical, but psychological. For example, a passage from Seneca the Elder7 portrays a certain Murredius who condemns a self-professed virgin who applied to become a priestess, and says: We know the kind of abstinence displayed by husbands who, even if they do not insist on the first night because the virgin is timid...

Here the rhetor is surely alluding to deflowering. The ritual of Fortuna Virilis, celebrated the 1st April, prescribed a drink with honey, milk, and poppy seeds, which was a calming potion for brides.8 Servius9 mentions an etymology for hymen, i.e. the membrane broken during marriage. The same author10 explains in different terms why nuts were thrown during Roman weddings, saying that it was because the noise of nuts being thrown made it difficult to hear (the woman crying).11 Ausonius, in his Cento nuptialis, describes in detail the honeymoon, but his account dates back to a time when Christianity was gaining the upper hand. St. Augustine and other Christian writers are the last witnesses of pagan beliefs concerning the passage from virginity to marital status. We will present their accounts in the next paragraph. 3. GODS AND THE IUS PRIMÆ NOCTIS ACCORDING TO ST. AUGUSTINE The first time that a woman had sexual intercourse concerned not only men but also the gods.

7 8

Sen., Controv. I.2.22. Ovid., Fasti IV.133-156; Fest., 35 L; Fasti Praenestini, Inscr.It. XIII.2, 17; Plut., Quaest. Rom. 74 = 281 E; de Fort.Rom. 10 = 323 a; Lyd., De mens. IV.65. R.Schilling, La religion romaine de Vénus, Paris 2nd ed. 1982, 392 ; J.André, L’alimentation et la cuisine à Rome, Paris 1961, 141; J.Champeaux, Fortuna, EFR 64, Rome 1982, 387; N.Boëls-Janssen, La vie religieuse des matrones dans la Rome archaïque, EFR 176, Rome 1993, chap. IV, part. 3267, 332. 9 Serv., in Aen. IV.99: est etiam alia ratio vocabuli: nam hymen quaedam membrana quasi virginalis puellae esse dicitur: qua rupta quia desinat esse virgo, hymenaei nuptiae dictae. 10 Serv., in Buc. VIII.29. 11 fiat strepitus, ne puellae vox virginitatem deponentis possit audiri. See K.H.Hersch, Roman Wedding. Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, Cambridge 2010, 156–158.

III. Girls and pagan gods

19

There is a clear statement of this pagan belief in St. Augustine’s critical account:12 When a male and a female are united, the god Jugatinus presides. Well, let this be borne with. But the married woman must be brought home: the god Domiducus also is invoked. That she may be in the house, the god Domitius is introduced. That she may remain with her husband, the goddess Manturna is used. What more is required? Let human modesty be spared. Let the lust of flesh and blood go on with the rest, the secret of shame being respected. Why is the bed-chamber filled with a crowd of deities, when even the groomsmen have departed? And, moreover, it is so filled, not that in consideration of their presence more regard may be paid to chastity, but that by their help the woman, naturally of the weaker sex, and trembling with the novelty of her situation, may the more readily yield her virginity. For there are the goddess Virginiensis, and the god-father Subigus, and the goddess-mother Prema, and the goddess Pertunda, and Venus, and Priapus. What is this? If it was absolutely necessary that a man, laboring at this work, should be helped by the gods, might not some one god or goddess have been sufficient? Was Venus not sufficient alone, who is even said to be named from this, that without her power a woman does not cease to be a virgin? If there is any shame in men which is not in the deities, is it not the case that, when the married couple believe that so many gods of either sex are present, and busy at this work, they are so much affected with shame, that the man is less moved, and the woman more reluctant? And certainly, if the goddess Virginiensis is present to loose the virgin’s zone, if the god Subigus is present that the virgin may be got under the man, if the goddess Prema is present that, having been got under him, she may be kept down, and may not move herself, what has the goddess Pertunda to do there? Let her blush; let her go forth. Let the husband himself do something. It is disgraceful that anyone but himself should do that from which she gets her name. But perhaps she is tolerated because she is said to be a goddess, and not a god. For if she were believed to be a male, and were called Pertundus, the husband would demand more help against him for the chastity of his wife than the newly-delivered woman against Silvanus. But why am I saying this, when Priapus, too, is there, a male to excess, upon whose immense and most unsightly member the newly-married bride is commanded to sit, according to the most honorable and most religious custom of matrons?

We are observing the birth of Christian civilisation and the end of paganism. Augustine chuckled at the ridiculous rituals of the pagans, which he knew by reading the works of pagan authors, and especially Varro. He was criticizing them because pagan rituals and beliefs were still living among the families. When he was young, Augustine himself attended to pagan rituals.13 One can be sure that in every family there was the latest woman who was educated in a pagan way. Her daughter, on the contrary, followed a Christian path. On the other hand, someone like Martianus Capella (4th–5th cent. AD), who was nostalgic for paganism, made Venus rebuke the wedding divinities, namely Voluptas, Cupidon, Flora, the Charites, Melpomene, Suada, and Stimula, who had abandoned their duties.14

12 De civ. Dei VI.9.25–26, transl. J.F.Shaw. On virginity in the early Christian thought see the recent work by Ch.Munier, Mariage et virginité dans l'Église ancienne (I–III siècles), Frankfurt 1987. 13 Augustin., De civ. Dei I.4. 14 Mart.Cap.VIII.887.

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Some of the gods mentioned were perhaps unfit for the purposes they were supposed to fulfil. Manturna was an Etruscan goddess of the underworld, not the goddess of the manere (to stay, to remain in a place); Stimula was the goddess who excited the Roman Mænads,15 even though she could have something to do with sexual stimulation.16 Augustine’s bias against the pagan gods, his possible inaccuracies, and his manipulation of works by Varro do not rob his account of its value. It shows that consummation of the marriage was prepared and accompanied by many pagan gods and rituals. In particular, the husband was not alone in his task. This can help to explain the absence of questions about the hymen in ancient pagan societies. Christian writers were greedy to unveil the secrets surrounding some mysterious pagan rituals to make them seem ridiculous or shameful. For certain aspects, Arnobius (3rd–4th cent. AD) is even more explicit than St. Augustine: Is there one Perfica of the crowd of deities, who causes those base and filthy delights to reach their end with uninterrupted pleasure? Is there also Pertunda, who presides over the couch when husbands penetrate into the virginal way? Is there also Tutunus, on whose huge member and horrent fascinum you think it auspicious, and desire, that your matrons should be borne as on horseback?17

Tertullian (3rd cent. AD) makes a similar criticism of marriage gods: Shall I speak of the time of marriage? Afferenda presides over the dowry. After her comes Mutunus, Tutunus, Pertunda, Subigus, Prema… Shameful gods, let me speak no more of them. At the end, the spouses are left to act themselves, and the people leave wishing them shameful things.18

Lactantius (3rd–4th cent. AD) confirms this and says: Tutinus, in whose shameful lap the brides sit, so that the god appears to have picked up at 19 first their chastity.

Here is what a pagan writer like Verrius Flaccus (Augustan age) writes on this phallic god: There was at Rome a small sacred place of Mutinus Titinus on the Velia, close to the Mustellinus wall, in a narrow way. There was at Rome a small sacred place of Mutinus Titinus. The matronæ, clothed with the 20 toga prætexta, offered sacrifices in his honour.

15 O.de Cazanove, “Lucus Stimulae. Les aiguillons des Bacchanales”, MEFRA 45, 1983, 55– 113. 16 de Cazanove, “Lucus Stimulae”, 69. 17 Arnob., Adv.nat. IV.7. 18 Tert., Ad nat. II.12. 19 Lact., Div.inst. I.20.36: Tutinus, in cuius sinu pudendo nubentes praesident, ut illarum pudicitiam prior deus delibasse videatur. 20 See Fest. and Pauli ep., 142–3 L. On this transvestitism: G.Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, Munich 1912, 243 and n.4 (they dedicated the clothes of childhood); on Mutinus Titi-

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Pagan women offered their virginity to the gods; Christian women offered it to their husbands. The pagan offering was mainly symbolic, but was enough to prevent husbands arguing over virginity. Maybe this sentence is risky, and ought to be based on solid documentary evidence, but it is useful to open our ears to accounts that appear to be odd, weird or impossible. Our culture evolved after the Roman Empire, became Christian and is very distant from the bridal customs of the ancient paganism. 4. PAGAN GODS AND THEIR IUS PRIMÆ NOCTIS The second topic we will discuss is that of relations between sexually active gods and women, in order to prove that several gods had rights concerning virginity of young women or brides. From the ancient authors it appears that no husband ever complained about his bride not being a virgin, but there were gods who did complain. Those complaints concern priestesses, who performed rituals on behalf of the community. Propertius21 reports the following: Lanuvium from of old, is guarded by an ancient serpent: the hour you spend on such a marvellous visit won’t be wasted; where the sacred way is dragged down through a dark abyss, where the hungry snake’s tribute penetrates (virgin, be wary of all such paths!), when he demands the annual offering of food, and twines, hissing, from the centre of the earth. Girls grow pale, sent down to such rites as these, when their hand is rashly entrusted to the serpent’s mouth. He seizes the tit-bits the virgins offer: the basket itself trembles in their hands. If they’ve remained chaste they return to their parents’ arms, and the farmers shout: ‘It will be a fertile year.’

The chastity of those priestesses was not a generic abstinence from sex before a ritual, but a condition on which the success of the ritual depended. They were young and not yet married, for their parents (not their husbands) congratulated them after passing the trial. Ælianus22 (end 2nd century AD – first decades of the 3rd) adds other elements to this story: In Lavinium there is a large and thick sacred grove, and close to it a temple of Hera Argolis. In the grove there is a big and deep cave, the den of a snake. On some certain days sacred virgins approach the grove carrying a barley-cake and having their eyes covered by bandages. A divine spirit takes them directly to the snake’s den. They march quietly step by step as if their eyes were not veiled. If they are virgin, the snake goes to the food as pure and suitable nus, the sodales Titii and the gens Titia: B.Combet-Farnoux, Mercure romain, Paris 1980, 121–2; on Mutinus and Roman wedding: Hersch, Roman Wedding, 269–272. 21 IV.8.3–14, transl. Kline. See A.E.Gordon, The Cults of Lanuvium, Berkeley 1938, 23–42. 22 Hist.anim. XI.16; instead of Lanuvium Ælianus (or his manuscript tradition) speeks of Lavinium, and the involved goddess is called Hera Argolis. See J.-M.Pailler, “La vierge et le serpent: de la trivalence à l'ambiguïté”, MEFRA 109, 1997, 513–575. One can not accuse Ælianus to be ignorant: he was born in Præneste, in Latium and he was a priest. Therefore the mistake probably depends on the manuscript tradition.

22

Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women for an animal cherished by the gods. If they are not, the snake does not touch it, knowing beforehand and forecasting their ruin. Ants break the cake left by the non-virgin to small pieces in order to bear them and take them out of the grove in order to purify it. What occurred is referred to the inhabitants, the guilty girls are incriminated, and she who brought shame to her virginity is submitted to the punishment according to the laws.

The image of the virgin and the snake is depicted on denarii of the gens Procilia,23 and Juno Sospita with her snake was celebrated on a sestertius of Commodus (fig. 1).24 She was indeed popular still in the age of Ælianus.

Fig. 1. Juno Sospita on a sestertius of Commodus.

Only a limited number of women was subjected to this test in Lanuvium, and we will see later that they were similar to the Vestal virgins25. We know also of an Ephesian ritual, which was less restrictive, but it may have been linked to the priestesses of Artemis. Achilles Tatius (ca. 2nd cent. AD), in his novel,26 tells the story of Pan, who was pursuing the beautiful girl Syrinx when she sank into a marsh and reeds sprouted from her body. The god fashioned his musical instrument out of those reeds and hid it in a cave in Ephesus. After that, he granted the cave to Artemis on condition that no woman descend inside. Tatius adds the following story: If a girl is accused of not being a virgin, the people take her to the doors of the cave and the syrinx decides the trial. She enters the cave alone, clothed in the prescribed garment, and someone closes the door of the cave. If she is a virgin, a divine melody is to be heard; in fact, either the site has a musical wind concealed in the syrinx, or Pan himself is playing the instrument. After that the door opens automatically, and the girl appears crowned with pine branches. However, if she was lying about her virginity, the syrinx remains silent, and instead of music, a lamentation comes from the cave. Then the people immediately leave,

23 M.H.Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge 1974 (henceforth abbreviated as RRC), no. 412. 24 RIC III, 266, no. 645. 25 See also infra, p. 86–88. 26 Clitophon et Leucippe VIII.6.9–11.

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abandoning the girl in the cave. On the third day a local sacred virgin finds the syrinx on the ground, but the girl will have disappeared.27

Later on we will see that in Greek cities the caves of Pan were visited by many girls, maybe by the majority of them, before their marriage. In any case, these two examples suffice to show that male gods were concerned with virginity. Faunus-Pan and the serpent were by no means personifications of chastity; they were phallic deities. The suspicion could arise that they had some rights concerning the virginity of these women or that they pretended to be their lovers. 5. SYMBOLIC ACTS In the majority of fertility rituals, the relation between woman and god was only symbolic. This does not change the relationship between the married couple and the gods: the relationship with the god came first and the female fertility came after. Juvenal (late 1st – early 2nd century AD) criticises women who performed real acts that were supposed to be symbolically alluded to during the festival of Bona Dea: There is no pretence as in a game; all is enacted to the life in a manner that would warm the cold blood of a Priam or a Nestor.28

The ritual deflowering was probably an exception, and in the forthcoming chapters we will see several possible scenarios. The deflowering usually occurred on the marriage night, but the brides were prepared by rituals such as those of Bona Dea. The rituals were secret, and only imprecise details emerge. There are two reasons that lead us to believe that the young women did not undergo physical acts during their symbolic relations with male gods, namely: 1) that ritual deflowering is quite rare in female tribal initiations,29 and 2) that, as we have seen, several passages in ancient literature make it clear that deflowering occurred during the wedding night. Admittedly, we have very limited information on this matter at our disposal, and we cannot generalise by extrapolating the documented behaviour to every period of Roman history, every social level, and every religious milieu. 27 Clitophon et Leucippe VIII.6.12–14. See Ph.Borgeaud, Recherches sur le dieu Pan, Rome 1974, 125–6. On these (and other, but without a god who is involved) ordeals: G.Sissa, “Maidenhood without Maidenhead: the female Body in ancient Greece”, in: Before sexuality: the Construction of erotic Experience in the ancient Greek World, ed. by D.M.Halperin, J.J.Winkler & I.Zeitlin Froma, Princeton 1990, 339–364, esp. 344–346. 28 Iuven.VI.324–5: nil ibi per ludum simulabitur, omnia fient ad uerum, quibus incendi iam frigidus aeuo Laomedontiades et Nestoris hirnea possit; transl. Ramsay. 29 D.Visca, “Le iniziazioni femminili: un problema da riconsiderare”, Religione e Civiltà 2, 1976, 250–1; 256–7.

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On the other hand, it is not crucial for us to know the real acts performed in the initiatory rituals; the beliefs which accompanied them are even more important. The brides were supposed to have love affairs or sex with male gods and receive fertility from them. Now we present two specific forms of encounter with a male god, which clarify the explicitness of the sexual relations and, at the same time, the symbolism which was substituted for actual sexual intercourse. 6. LUPERCALIA Another proof of the assumption that the gods had the ius primæ noctis and other rights over women comes from the mythology of Lupercalia. Ovid30 tells how the Sabine wives of Romulus and the ancient Romans were sterile, and an oracle of Juno told them: Italidas matres sacer hircus inito Let the sacred he-goat penetrate the Italian wives

The festival of Lupercalia was dedicated to Faunus,31 but Juno also had her part. In fact, the oracular instruction was performed by whipping the women with goatleather whips. These whips were called amicula Iunonis.32 The leather was taken from goats that had been sacrificed. In Falerii, too, goats were sacrificed to Juno Curitis by young men.33 In the case of Lupercalia, not only the girls, but every woman could obtain fertility from the ritual of 15 February.34 The ritual was performed by two groups of young men, the Luperci Fabiani and the Quinctiales. They ran naked around the Palatine walls, covered only by a loincloth of goat’s leather. According to

30 Fasti II.425–448. 31 For ex.: Ovid., Fasti II.361. For a recent discussion of the Lupercalia and a bibliography see A.Mastrocinque, Romolo (La fondazione di Roma tra storia e leggenda), Este 1993, 137–185. 32 Paul.Fest., 75 L.: februarius mensis dictus, quod tum, id est extremo mense anni, populus februaretur, id est lustraretur ac purgaretur, vel a Iunone Februata, quam alii Februalem, Romani Februlim vocant, quod ipsi eo mense sacra fiebant, eiusque feriae erant Lupercalia, quo die mulieres februabantur a Lupercis amiculo Iunonis, id est pelle caprina; quam ob causam is quoque dies februatus appellabatur. 33 Ovid., Amores III.13. Juno Curitis was a warlike goddess: Serv., in Aen. I.8 and 17; II.614. 34 A modern theory pretends that the goal of Lupercalia was only purification, and not fecundation (see Boëls-Janssen, La vie religieuse des matrones, 303–306, who hypothesizes that the story of Juno’s oracle was the product of Ovid’s fantasy) whereas the ancients knew of both these goals. We know that the Luperci eventually whipped all the people who attended the festival (Plut., Rom. 21), and also the ground (Ovid., Fasti II.31), and the wall of the Palatine hill (CIL I.1, 269). Purification was by no means opposed to fecundity, because impurity and religious faults were supposed to be the cause of sterility. The Lupercalia enacted the pax deorum especially with Faunus, the fecundator god. D.Porte, “Le devin, son bouc et Junon. (Ovide, Fastes II.425–452)”, REL 51, 1973, 185, supposes that this oracle was not related to the Lupercalia, but to the Nonæ Caprotinaæ.

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Ovid, this festival was instituted by Romulus and Remus at the very beginning of Roman history. The existence of this festival proves that ritual penetration was symbolic and that not only the first sexual intercourse, but also the sexual life of women had to be fertilised by gods. The Lupercalia were dedicated to Faunus, also called Lupercus.35 His cult was introduced by Romulus and Remus36 or by Evander,37 and was thought to be identical to the Greek cult of Pan (Lykaios). Even the future marriage of a prostitute could be foretold by an encounter with a god, Hercules to be precise. Acca Larentia in fact had intercourse with this god before finding a rich man who married her.38

7. WHIPS AND BOXES: DIVINE SYMBOLS OF FERTILITY The Lupercalia were a festival which promoted the fertility of each woman who attended it and of the whole Roman people. The rituals of Juno Sospita were meant to fertilize the Latin soil, and were crucial for all the Lanuvian people. Now we will deal with rituals of Bona Dea, which presented two aspects, that of fertilizing a single girl and that of giving fertility to the Roman people, for they were performed (as we will see) also at the home of consuls and prætors. The whips of the Luperci were a means to make Roman women fertile. Another means is mentioned by Juvenal, in one Satire which describes homosexual ceremonies for Bona Dea. The Roman satirist speaks of the impossibility of procreation in homosexual marriage: Nature has wisely denied their souls the power of changing the rules of bodies: they die childless, nor can plump Lyde with her concealed box promote conception, nor any help comes if 39 the palms of the hands are offered to strokes of light-footed Luperci.

A girl’s pyxis, i.e. her box, was indeed a container for a fertilising object. Cicero makes another allusion to this box. In his speech Pro Cælio, the orator40 was defending Cælius against the charge of having poisoned Clodia. Cicero 35 Ovid., Fasti II.267–8. 36 Origo gentis Rom. 22.1; Serv., in Aen. VIII.343; cf. Ovid., Fasti II.425–52. 37 Eratosth., in Schol. Plat., Phaedr. 244 B; Cincius and Cassius, in Serv., in Georg. I.10 (= Cincius, fr. 2 Peter = fr. 2 Chassignet; Cass.Hem., fr. 4 Peter = fr. 4 Chassignet); Verg., Aen. VIII.343–4; Ovid., Fasti II.279; V.99–100; Liv.I.5; Dion.Hal.I.32; Iustin.XLIII.1.7; Plut., Rom. 21; Origo gentis Rom. 5.2–3; Serv., in Aen. VIII. 282. 38 Plut., Rom. 5; Quaest.Rom. 35 = 272 E–273 B; Gell. VII.7.6; Macrob.I.10.12 e 15; Verr. Flacc., Fasti Praen. 23 dec. (Inscr.It. XIII.2, p.139); Lact., Div.inst. I.20.4–5; Tert., Ad nat. II.10; Augustin., de civ.Dei VI.7. 39 Iuven.II.139–142: sed melius, quod nil animis in corpora iuris / natura indulget: steriles moriuntur, et illis / turgida non prodest condita pyxide Lyde, / nec prodest agili palmas praebere luperco.

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dismantled the accusation that Cælius had provided the killers with a wooden box containing the poison. Cicero is also alluding to a joke that was told in Rome: I wonder if that dirty story going the rounds was a consequence of that imaginary box? Anything can happen to a woman like that. Everyone knows of it and talks of it. (You see, gentlemen, I have been talking for some time as I please, or rather as I don’t please.) Well, if the tale is based on fact, certainly Cælius had nothing to do with the fact. Why should he have bothered? Probably some young sport who has more wit than modesty is to blame. But if fiction, it is indelicate, I grant, but a pretty telling anecdote. Would we all be whispering and believing it so delightedly if anything so filthy didn’t, if I may say so, hit the fourpenny nail on the head?

Quintilian clarifies why Cicero did not need to be explicit to get a laugh: It is aroused by an act which passes the grounds of decency, as in the case of Cælius’ box, a 41 jest which was not fit for an orator or any respectable man to make.

Clodia, often accused by Cicero of being licentious and incestuosa, was the object of this mysterious joke, for which there is still no satisfactory explanation.42 The box contained something obscene that was supposed to be delivered to a woman. A phallus could be concealed inside and would be in keeping with such a joke. If the box is the same in Cicero and in Juvenal (II.139–142, above), it could not contain drugs, as the scholion to Juvenal suggests, because it is clear from Cicero that it was something obscene. Cicero and Juvenal give the impression that such an object was a common means of obtaining fertility, like the whips of the Luperci during the festival of Lupercalia. They were speaking of something which produced embarrassment, something which everybody knew but which was rarely spoken of. Later we will read a passage from Seneca the Elder which possibly alludes to this kind of box, and we will clarify in a further chapter who Lyde was and how her box may have been shaped. But it is already clear that Lupercalia was not the only ritual in which a god gave fertility to women.

40 Cic., Pro Cael. 29.69, transl. Johnson: Hic etiam miramur, si illam commenticiam pyxidem obscenissima sit fabula consecuta? Nihil est, quod in eius modi mulierem non cadere videatur. Audita et percelebrata sermonibus res est. Percipitis animis, iudices, iam dudum, quid velim vel potius quid nolim dicere. Quod etiamsi est factum, certe a Caelio non est factum (quid enim attinebat?); est enim ab aliquo adulescente fortasse non tam insulso quam non verecundo. Sin autem est fictum, non illud quidem modestum, sed tamen est non infacetum mendacium; quod profecto numquam hominum sermo atque opinio comprobasset, nisi omnia, quae cum turpitudine aliqua dicerentur, in istam quadrare apte viderentur. 41 Quintil. VI.3.25, transl. Butler. 42 R.G.Austin, ed., M.Tulli Ciceronis Pro M.Caelio Oratio, 3rd ed. Oxford 1960, 132; K.A.Geffcken, Comedy in the Pro Caelio, Leiden 1973, 42–43; On the character of Clodia and her sexual behaviour: M.B.Skinner, Clodia Metelli: the Tribune’s Sister, Oxford 2011; R.Günther, “Sexuelle Diffamierung und politische Intrigen in der Republik: P.Clodius Pulcher und Clodia”, in: Frauenwelten in der Antike. Geschlechterordnung und weibliche Lebenspraxis, ed. by Th.Späth, B.Wagner-Hasel, Stuttgart 2000, 227–241.

IV. WEDDING INVITATION 1. THE MYTH OF THE DISAPPOINTED HERCULES Some gods were exceedingly active in their sexual behaviour and several Roman myths describe how they were punished. Those myths had an evident educational value. First of all we will present the case of Hercules. In his allusion to Lyde’s mysterious box, Juvenal was describing a private homosexual festival to Bona Dea. Therefore, the time has come to take the cult of this goddess, who was, probably after Juno, the most important goddess for Roman girls, into account. Bona Dea was also called Fauna.1 Faunus was concerned with the Lupercalia and Fauna/Bona Dea with her festivals. Both Faunus and Fauna/Bona Dea provided instruments and help for fertility. Macrobius2 says that the temple of Bona Dea, also called Fauna, Ops, Fatua or Gynaikeia theòs (goddess of women), was consecrated on the Kalends of May. He adds that several authors claimed that she was identical with Juno, others that she was identical with Proserpina. According to him, there was a story that said that her father, Faunus, desired her, but was unable to persuade her to be his, even after he had beaten her with myrtle branches, and plied her with wine. He only succeeded after he had turned himself into a snake.3 For this reason, wine was used in Bona Dea rituals, under the name of milk; snakes were present and were tame. A sacred snake was living close to the goddess.4 After these myths, Macrobius relates the same story of Hercules and Bona Dea as that which appears in Propertius. Propertius alluded to the festival which occurred the 1st of May, the date of dedication of Bona Dea’s temple. The scenario is located on the slopes of the Aventine hill; it was already spring, for poplars shadowed the zone with their foliages and birds were singing. Hercules went to the Aventine, where Cacus was hidden in his cave. Propertius5 tells how the Greek hero became very thirsty after defeating this monster:

1 2 3 4 5

Serv., in Aen. VIII.314; Macrob.I.12.27; Arnob.I.36; V.18; Lact., Div.inst. I.22.11; Tert., Nat. II.9. I.12.21–29, he is depending on Cornelius Labeo (P.Mastandrea, Un neoplatonico latino. Cornelio Labeone, EPRO 77, Leiden 1979, 231–2, fr. 5). See also Plut., Quaest.Rom. 20 = 268 D-E; Id., Caes. 9. Plut., Caes. 9. IV.9.21–70, transl. Kline; cf. Macrob.I.12.28.

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Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women Far away he heard the laughter of cloistered girls, where a Sacred Grove formed a shaded circle, the secret site of the Goddess, and the women’s holy fountains, and the rites never revealed to men without punishment. Wreaths of purple veiled its solitary threshold, and a ruined hut was lit by perfumed fires. A poplar with spreading foliage adorned the shrine, and its dense shadows hid singing birds.6

He begged the women to bring him some water, and said: Even if you sacrificed to Juno, bitter against me, she herself would not have shut her waters from me. But if any of you are afraid of my face or the lion’s pelt, or my hair bleached by the Libyan sun, I am the same who has carried out the slave’s tasks, in a cloak of Sidon, and spun the day’s tally on a Lydian distaff. My shaggy chest was caught in a soft breast-band, and I 7 was fit to be a hard-handed girl.

An aged priestess answered on behalf of the women: the kindly priestess replied, her white hair tied with a purple ribbon: ‘Avert your eyes, stranger, and go from this sacred grove, go then, and, by leaving its threshold, flee in safety. The altar that is guarded in this secluded hut is prohibited to men, and avenged by fearsome law. Tiresias the seer gazed at Pallas to his cost, while she was bathing her strong limbs, laying aside her Gorgon breastplate. Let the gods grant you other fountains: this water flows only for women wandering its secret channel.’ So the aged priestess spoke: he burst the concealing doorway with his shoulders, and the closed gate could not bar his raging thirst.8

Hercules was furious at this answer and, after having broken through the door and drunk, cursed the women and declared that they were to be excluded from the male rituals of Ara Maxima9, in honour of himself. This myth is based on a Crotonian legend,10 according to which Herakles asked a local woman for something to drink, and she gave him water instead of wine. Because of this, he turned the wine jar into stone.

6

sicco torquet sitis ora palato, / terraque non ullas feta ministrat aquas. / sed procul inclusas audit ridere puellas, / lucus ubi umbroso fecerat orbe nemus, / femineae loca clausa deae fontesque piandos, / impune et nullis sacra retecta viris. / devia puniceae velabant limina vittae, / putris odorato luxerat igne casa, / populus et glaucis ornabat frondibus aedem, / multaque cantantis umbra tegebat aves. 7 quodsi Iunoni sacrum faceretis amarae, / non clausisset aquas ipsa noverca suas. / sin aliquem vultusque meus saetaeque leonis / terrent et Libyco sole perusta coma, / idem ego Sidonia feci servilia palla / officia et Lydo pensa diurna colo, / mollis et hirsutum cepit mihi fascia pectus, / et manibus duris apta puella fui. 8 at talibus alma sacerdos, / puniceo canas stamine vincta comas: / 'parce oculis, hospes, lucoque abscede verendo; / cede agedum et tuta limina linque fuga. / interdicta viris metuenda lege piatur / quae se summota vindicat ara casa. / magno Tiresias aspexit Pallada vates, / fortia dum posita Gorgone membra lavat. / di tibi dent alios fontes: haec lympha puellis / avia secreti limitis unda fluit.'/ sic anus: ille umeris postis concussit opacos, / nec tulit iratam ianua clausa sitim. 9 On the pseudo-etymology of ara from Greek ἀρά, “curse”: H.Chr.Günther, “The Fourth Book”, in: Brill’s Companion to Propertius, ed. by H.Chr.Günther, Leiden-Boston 2006, 353–395, part. 388. 10 Alcimus, FGH 560, F 2.

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2. FAUNUS, A DISAPPOINTED GOD We shall present now a myth about Faunus, as another disappointed god (the first is Hercules at Bona Dea’s grove) related to the naked Luperci who ran and whipped the women. Ovid11 explains why the Luperci ran naked around the Palatine, and says that Faunus was once deceived and scorned by Omphale, disguised as Hercules, and also by Hercules, disguised as Omphale. The fertility god of sheep and goats, nymphs and girls lusted after the beautiful queen of Lydia. Hercules and Omphale were preparing a festival to Dionysus and were sleeping in separate beds. Faunus then stole into what he supposed was Omphale’s bed. Suddenly, Hercules knocked him to the ground and Faunus was scorned by everybody. Hercules, Faunus, and Mars are the most famous lovers in ancient mythology; they begot founders of cities and of peoples, but they had to deal with warlike goddesses, who defended their virginity, and they were initially vanquished or deceived.12 Which is the meaning of such a myth?13 It is possible that it stems from the fact that the rituals were overseen by a mature woman disguised as a wild, primordial male god. The myth of the scorned god was typical of rituals to goddesses of young women; the most famous one is the myth of Athena, who rebuffed Hephæstus’ advances. This goddess of unmarried women also rebuffed the satyr Marsyas. Later we will analyse another myth of a disappointed god, which is summarised here. Ovid14 tells how Mars wanted to have a love affair with Minerva, but she could not yield to males. Therefore, Anna Perenna, an old woman, put on the armour of the virgin goddess, pretended to accept Mars’ advances, and thus deceived and shamed him. Anna Perenna was a Roman goddess who was worshipped with the Nymphs and was concerned with girls. Goddesses like Athena, Artemis, Juno Sospita, or Bona Dea were supposed to keep girls separated from men, and deception was a good way of reaching this goal. The male god lusting after the divine woman was indeed the fertility god. His attempts on the goddesses of virginity were not successful, but nevertheless he was the begetter of children, families, and entire peoples. He only lost the first round; he was more successful in the second. 11 Ovid., Fasti II.305–30. 12 They could be compared with the Amazons, who represented in the mythology the case of an all-female society in arms against men. Their defeat symbolized the establishment of traditional values among men and women: W.B.Tyrrell, Amazons: A Study in Athenian Mythmaking, Baltimore 1984, 125–128. 13 E.Fantham, “Sexual comedy in Ovid’s Fasti. Sources and motivation”, HSPh 87, 1983, 185– 216, mentions the case of the failed rape of the Nymph Lotis by Priapus in Ovid, Fasti I.410– 440, and studies the artistic treatment of such myths and their literary origins. 14 Ovid., Fasti III.677–696.

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These myths15 sent a clear message: no sex during women’s rituals. Men and women were secluded for this phase and acted separately. A rape occurred later on: Faunus’ rape of Fauna has been mentioned, and there was another famous one in antiquity, namely Hades’ rape of Kore. Hercules too was well known in this role. The rape was a breach in the segregation of the sexes and the source of fertility. After the first two steps (namely: 1: separation of groups according to the gender, and 2: rape), the third one was marriage. Dionysus was the image of the husband; the actual husband was superimposed on Dionysus. In the forthcoming chapters, we will deal with many features of the Roman cult of Bacchus. We shall pay particular attention to the Roman sarcophagi on which the human husband’s features were carved onto the face of Dionysus. The portrayal of Antony (and Silius) as a new Dionysus also proves that the Romans conceived of the divine husband as a Dionysus. A woman only entered his domain during the final phase of her initiation. 3. CEREMONIES AT THE HOME OF THE HIGHEST ROMAN MAGISTRATE We could now look at many other aspects. How many female collegia were known in Rome, and what differentiated them from each one? Is it possible to sketch a taxonomy of female cults? We know that some of the rituals were supposed to inaugurate a woman into sexual life, others to produce or enhance fertility, others were devoted to aunts; many of them were performed by both girls and mothers; rituals were supposed to give fertility to the Roman people as a whole, and other to single women. Which customs did noble, plebeian, or slave women follow? How were political leaders’ wives engaged in organising female cults? What was the situation among the Greeks? How far did Greek tradition influence the Roman rituals? Is it possible to outline the progression of Dionysiac influences on female cults in the Roman world? The most important offerings to the Greek Dionysus were the women. Does this change our ideas of Dionysus? In many cases, these questions have no answer. But in the case of highranking women, they can be fruitfully investigated. This applies to Bona Dea, thought to be the daughter (or wife) of Faunus, one of the most ancient kings of the Roman territory. Bona Dea is one of the most mysterious deities in the Roman pantheon, and her political role is an aspect of her persona that is rarely emphasised. We have very little information at our disposal, because her cult was restricted to women; men were excluded. This secrecy prevented Roman writers, i.e. male writers, from providing us with thorough descriptions. 15 Another one in in Ovid., Fasti VI.327.342: Faunus lusted after sleeping Vesta and did not recognized her, but an ass brayed and his attempt was discovered and he was disappointed.

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The most important all-female festivals to Bona Dea were held in the open air, under shelters, on the grass at the foot of the Aventine hill, and in the house of the highest magistrate. In this case Bona Dea’s political role is clear. There is a description of this festival in Plutarch’s biography of Caesar concerning Clodius’ profanation of the rituals in 62 BC: Clodius was in love with Pompeia the wife of Caesar, and she was not unwilling. But close watch was kept upon the women’s apartments, and Aurelia, Caesar’s mother, a woman of discretion, would never let the young wife out of her sight, and made it difficult and dangerous for the lovers to have an interview. Now, the Romans have a goddess whom they call Bona, corresponding to the Greek Gynæceia. The Phrygians claim this goddess as their own, and say that she was the mother of King Midas; the Romans say she was a Dryad nymph and the wife of Faunus; the Greeks that she was the unnameable one among the mothers of Dionysus. And this is the reason why the women cover their booths with vine-branches when they celebrate her festival, and why a sacred serpent is enthroned beside the goddess in conformity with the myth. It is not lawful for a man to attend the sacred ceremonies, nor even to be in the house when they are celebrated; but the women, apart by themselves, are said to perform many rites during their sacred service which are Orphic in their character. Accordingly, when the time for the festival is at hand, the consul or prætor at whose house it is to be held goes away, and every male with him, while his wife takes possession of the premises and puts them in due array. The most important rites are celebrated by night, when mirth attends the revels, and much music, too, is heard. At the time of which I speak, Pompeia was celebrating this festival, and Clodius, who was still beardless and on this account thought to pass unnoticed, assumed the dress and implements of a female harper and went to the house, looking like a young woman. He found the door open, and was brought in safely by the maid-servant there, who was in the secret; but after she had run on ahead to tell Pompeia and some time had elapsed, Clodius had not the patience to wait where he had been left, and so, as he was wandering about in the house (a large one) and trying to avoid the lights, an attendant of Aurelia came upon him and asked him to play with her, as one woman would another, and when he refused, she dragged him forward and asked who he was and whence he came. Clodius answered that he was waiting for Pompeia’s Habra (this was the very name by which the maid was called), and his voice betrayed him. The attendant of Aurelia at once sprang away with a scream to the lights and the throng, crying out that she had caught a man. The women were panic-stricken, and Aurelia put a stop to the mystic rites of the goddess and covered up the emblems. Then she ordered the doors to be closed and went about the house with torches, searching for Clodius. He was found where he had taken refuge, in the chamber of the girl who had let him into the house; and when they saw who he was, the women drove him out of doors. Then at once, and in the night, they went off and told the matter to their husbands, and when day came a report spread through the city that Clodius had committed sacrilege and owed satisfaction, not only to those whom he had insulted, but also to the city and to the gods. Accordingly, one of the tribunes of the people indicted Clodius for sacrilege.16

16 Plut., Caes. 9–10, transl. Perrin (with one change: Habra instead of Abra and female harper instead of lute-girl; in fact such a translation is misleading: see W.J.Tatum, The Patrician Tribune. Publius Clodius Pulcher, Chapell Hill – London 1999, 64, who writes “flute player”). On those events see, among a rich bibliography: J.V.P.D.Balsdon, “Fabula Clodiana”, Historia 15, 1966, 65–73; D.F.Epstein, “Cicero’s Testimony at the Bona Dea Trial”, CPh 81, 1986, 229–35; C.Gallini, “Politica religiosa di Clodio”, SMSR 33, 1962, 257–272;

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There is much to be said about this ritual, but let us present now the other major sources about Bona Dea.17 A derogatory description (or parody) of female excesses can be read in Juvenal’s 6th satire: Well known to all are the mysteries of the Good Goddess, when the flute stirs the loins and the Mænads of Priapus sweep along, frenzied alike by the horn-blowing and the wine, whirling their locks and howling. What foul longings burn within their breasts! What cries they utter as the passion palpitates within! How drenched their limbs in torrents of old wine! Saufeia challenges the slave-girls to a contest. Her agility wins the prize, but she has herself in turn to bow the knee to Medullina. And so the palm remains with the mistress, whose exploits match her birth! There is no pretence as in a game; all is enacted to the life in a manner that would warm the cold blood of a Priam or a Nestor. And now impatient nature can wait no longer: woman shows herself as she is, and the cry comes from every corner of the den, “Now we can act! Let in the men!” If one favoured youth is asleep, another is bidden to put on his cowl and hurry along; if better cannot be got, a run is made upon the slaves; if they too fail, the water-carrier will be paid to come in. . . . O would that our ancient practices, or at least our public rites, were not polluted by scenes like these! But every Moor and Indian knows who was the female harper who brought a yard bigger than the two Anticatos of Caesar into a place whence every buckmouse scuttles away conscious of his virility, and in which every picture of the male form must be veiled. Who ever sneered at the Gods in the days of old? Who would have dared to laugh at the earthen-ware bowls or black pots of Numa, or at the brittle plates made out of Vatican clay? But nowadays at what altar will you not find a Clodius?18

Juvenal tells us that in his time (i.e. the second half of the 1st and the beginning of 2nd century AD) homosexual clubs for men used to perform the female rituals to the goddess. He predicts what the noble lawyer Creticus will do after having worn a transparent garment: Some day you will venture on something more shameful than this dress; no one reaches the depths of turpitude all at once. By degrees you will be welcomed by those who in their homes put long fillets round their brows, swathe themselves with necklaces, and propitiate the Bona Dea with the stomach of a porker and a huge bowl of wine, though by an evil usage the Goddess warns off all women from entering the door; none but males may approach her altar. “Away with you! profane women” is the cry; “no booming horn, no she-minstrels here!” Such were the secret torchlight orgies with which the Baptæ wearied the Cecropian Cotytto. One prolongs his eyebrows with some damp soot staining the edge of a needle, and lifts up

T.P.Wiseman, Cinna the Poet and Other Roman Essays, Leicester 1974, 130–37; H.Benner, Die Politik des P.Clodius Pulcher, Historia Einz. 50, Stuttgart 1987, 38–40; T.W. Hillard, “P.Clodius Pulcher 62–58 BC: Pompeii adfinis et sodalis”, PBSR 50, 1982, 34–44; F.Pina Polo, “El escàndalo de la Bona Dea y la impudicitia de P.Clodius Pulcher”, in: Homenaje a José M Blazquez, III, ARYS 2, ed. by J.Mangas and J.Alvar, Madrid 1996, 265–85; P.Moreau, Clodiana religio. Un procès en 61 av. J.-C., Paris 1982; Tatum, The Patrician Tribune, 62– 86; R.Günther, “Sexuelle Diffamierung und politische Intrigen in der Republik: P.Clodius Pulcher und Clodia”, in: Frauenwelten in der Antike. Geschlechterordnung und weibliche Lebenspraxis, ed. by Th.Späth, B.Wagner-Hasel, Stuttgart 2000, 227–241, part. 231. 17 It is not intended to present all the passages of ancient authors concerning Bona Dea here; they can be read in C.H.H.J. Brouwer, Bona Dea, EPRO 110, Leiden 1989, 144–228. 18 Iuven. VI.314–345, transl. Ramsay (with a change: female harper instead of she-lutist).

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his blinking eyes to be painted; another drinks out of an obscenely-shaped glass, and ties up his long locks in a gilded net; he is clothed in blue checks, or smooth-faced green; the attendant swears by Juno like his master. Another holds in his hand a mirror like that carried by the effeminate Otho: a trophy of the Auruncan Actor, in which he gazed at his own image in full armour when he was just ready to give the order to advance – a thing notable and novel in the annals of our time, a mirror among the kit of Civil War! It needed, in truth, a mighty general to slay Galba, and keep his own skin sleek; it needed a citizen of highest courage to ape the splendours of the Palace on the field of Bedriacum, and plaster his face with dough! Never did the quiver-bearing Semiramis the like in her Assyrian realm, nor the despairing Cleopatra on board her ship at Actium. No decency of language is there here: no regard for the manners of the table. You will hear all the foul talk and squeaking tones of Cybele; a grey-haired frenzied old man presides over the rites; he is a rare and notable master of mighty gluttony, and should be hired to teach it. But why wait any longer when it were time in Phrygian fashion to lop off the superfluous flesh? Gracchus has presented to a cornet player – or perhaps it was a player on the straight horn – a dowry of four hundred thousand sesterces. The contract has been signed; the benedictions have been pronounced; a crowd of banqueters seated, the new made bride is reclining on the bosom of her husband.19

Juvenal reports Mars’ consternation at this homosexual marriage, and continues saying: Meanwhile these would-be brides have one great trouble: they can bear no children wherewith to keep the affection of their husbands; well has nature done in granting to their desires no power over their bodies. They die unfertile; naught avails them the medicine-chest of the bloated Lyde, or to hold out their hands to the blows of the swift-footed Luperci!20

This passage is very important, because it makes it clear that this festival displayed what was thought of as being particularly feminine. Bona Dea was the Gynaikeia Theòs, the goddess of women, and these transsexual men wanted to be transformed into women through this cult. They wore typically female accessories, such as ribbons, which correspond to Lydian mitræ,21 or mitellæ,22 necklaces and feminine clothing.23 The rituals were presided over by a grey-haired, frenzied old man who played the same role as the wife (or the mother) of the highest Roman magistrate in the normal festivals. After alluding to the masculine parody of the ritual, Juvenal introduces homosexual marriage and these homosexuals’ hopes of fertility. This could not be fulfilled through the two normal methods, i.e. to be whipped by the Luperci, and to receive Lyde’s box. The latter has not been understood by modern scholars, and even translations of Juvenal’s text are false. The pyxis he mentions is not a medicine chest, but a box containing a phallus. 19 20 21 22

Iuven.II.82–120, transl. Ramsay. Iuven.II.137–142, transl. Ramsay. See Sappho, 98 Lobel-Page. Suet., Nero 27 mentions some suppers of Nero, which were called mitellitæ, probably because men were clothed with small mitræ (i.e. mitellæ), in the same style of the homosexual Bona Dea festivals known to Juvenal; see J.M.Higgins, “Cena Rosaria, Cena Mitellita: A Note on Suetonius Nero 27.3”, AJPh 106, 1985, 116–118. 23 See the commentary by E.Courney, A Commentary on the Satires of Juvenal, London 1980, 138–139.

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However, it is not yet time to explain this because this would require too many other documents to be examined. 4. THE MYTH OF BONA DEA That is all we know about the rituals. Now we have to present the outlines of the myth of Bona Dea. The myth of Bona Dea is quite rich in details about her rape by Faunus. Macrobius relates: The author Cornelius Labeo states that a temple was dedicated to Maia, i.e. the earth, under the name of Bona Dea at the Kalends of May. He confirms that from the most secret rituals it is possible to affirm that Bona Dea is the earth. In the books of the pontifices she is called Bona, Fauna, Ops, and Fatua… Several authors affirm that she has the might of Juno and because of this has a royal sceptre in her left hand. Others identify her with Proserpina… Others with the Greek goddess Chthonia Hekate, whereas the Bœotians think she is the goddess Semele. Bona Dea is also said to be the daughter of Faunus. The story has it that his father was fond of her and lusted after her, but she resisted. He beat her with a myrtle branch because she did not cede to his wishes even when he urged her by plying her with wine. It is believed that the father transformed himself into a snake and had sexual intercourse with his daughter. In support of which, people can see the following clues: myrtle branches are not allowed to be brought into the sacred precinct, and a vine (by means of whose juice the father attempted to force her) spreads its branches over her head. Moreover, the custom has it that wine could not to be brought into the precinct under its true name, but the vase which conceals wine is called honey pot and wine is called milk. Snakes appear in her precinct, and they neither scare nor are scared. She is also thought to be Medea, because in her temple can be found every kind of herbs, which the priests use to prepare medicaments, and because men are not allowed to enter her temple. This fact was caused by the great offence she received from her ungrateful husband. She is called by the Greeks Theòs Gynaikeia. Varro states that she was so modest that she never went out of the residence for women and that her name was never heard in public places; men never saw her nor did she see any man, and for that reason no man entered her temple. Because of that, women cannot take part in Hercules’ ceremonies. In fact, Hercules was leading Geryon’s oxen through Italy, he was thirsty and a woman answered him that she could not give him water, for it was the day of ceremonies for the goddess of women, and no man could drink what was prepared. In consequence of this fact, Hercules promised to exclude the women from the rituals he was organizing and ordered Potitius and Pinarius, the presidents of these rituals, to exclude every woman.24

Plutarch confirms many of Macrobius’ statements: Why is it that the women, when they adorn in their houses a shrine to the women's goddess (Theòs Gynaikeia), whom they call Bona Dea, bring in no myrtle, although they are very eager to make use of all manner of growing and blooming plants? Was this goddess, as the mythologists relate, the wife of the seer Faunus; and was she secretly addicted to wine, but did not escape detection and was beaten by her husband with myrtle

24 Macrob. (after Varro) I.12.22.

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rods, and is this the reason why they do not bring in myrtle and, when they make libations of wine to her, call it milk? Or is it because they remain pure from many things, particularly from venery, when they perform this holy service? For they not only exclude their husbands, but they also drive everything male out of the house whenever they conduct the customary ceremonies in honour of the goddess. So, because the myrtle is sacred to Venus, they religiously exclude it. For she whom they now call Venus Murcia, in ancient days, it seems, they styled Myrtia.25

5. CHARACTERISTICS OF BONA DEA Although much research has been done on this goddess,26 there are still many details about her that could be clearer. First of all, her social rank. The ceremony which Clodius profaned was performed in the house of the highest magistrate. After the end of the monarchy, the consuls or, later, the prætors were the magistrati cum imperio. Cicero, dealing with the notorious Clodius scandal, writes: For what sacrifice is as old as this that we have inherited from the Kings together with this town? Or, what so secret as this that excludes not only prying eyes but also eyes that might see it by chance, and where not only shamelessness but also inadvertence are denied admittance. And most assuredly, throughout history no one disregarded it, no man ever ventured to behold it; a sacrifice that is made by the Vestal Virgins, is made for the Roman people, is made in the house of the highest magistrate, is made with extraordinary ceremonial, is made so that goddess whose name even must not be known by men, and whom this person therefore calls the “Good Goddess” because he thinks she has forgiven him so great a crime.27

This ceremony has many features in common with one of the most important rituals of the Athenian Anthesteria, a festival to Dionysus. In Athens too the successor of the ancient kings, namely the Archon Basileus, had to leave his house, where his wife celebrated the secret marriage of Dionysus. We know some aspects of this ritual from a speech in the corpus Demosthenicum, the Contra Neæra. Neæra had been charged with marrying an Athenian, Stephanus, while not being an Athenian citizen herself. Moreover, one of their daughters, who was not therefore a legitimate Athenian, had married the Archon Basileus, and performed the most secret and holiest ceremonies: This woman offered on the city’s behalf the sacrifices which none may name, and saw what it was not fitting for her to see, being an alien; and despite her character she entered where no other of the whole host of the Athenians enters save the wife of the king only; and she administered the oath to the venerable priestesses who preside over the sacrifices, and was given as

25 Plut., Quaest.Rom. 20 = 268 D-E, transl. Babbitt. 26 Above all: G.Piccaluga, “Bona Dea”, SMSR 35, 1964, 195–237; C.H.H.J.Brouwer, Bona Dea, EPRO 110, Leiden 1989. 27 Cic., De har.resp. 37, transl. Watt.

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Later on the Ps. Demosthenes29 writes: When Theseus established the democracy…the people nonetheless continued to elect the king as before… They established a law that his wife should be of Athenian birth, and that he should marry a virgin who had never known another man… Thus the people testified to their piety toward the god, and left it as a deposit for future generations, showing what type of woman we demand that she shall be who is to be given in marriage to the god, and is to perform the sacrifices. The venerable priestesses (gerarai) took the oath not to have commerce with men, and to celebrate the feast of wine god and the Iobacchic feast in honour of Dionysos.

There were thirteen of these priestesses and they assisted the King’s wife during the festival.30 Thebæ knew a similar ritual, or if not a true ritual, it was at least the same but in mythological form. In fact, Euripides, in his Bacchæ, portrays the wife of the supreme authority, the tyrant Pentheus; she led the female group of Mænads, and was, accidentally, Dionysus’ aunt, Agave. In the same way, the ceremony of Bona Dea took place in the house of the magistrate who had succeeded the ancient kings of Rome, while the magistrate himself was absent, so that his wife (or his mother) could preside over the rituals, assisted by the venerable Vestals. The Vestal virgins lived under the patria potestas of another successor to the kings, the Pontifex Maximus. Bona Dea has the qualities of a queen because she was the daughter or wife of Faunus, the first king of Latium, and is called Regina triumphalis in a Roman inscription.31

6. BONA DEA AND DIONYSIAC MARRIAGE Greek mythology contains a series of accounts in which a king offers his wife or daughters to Dionysus,32 and another series which tells of the disgraces suffered by kings or tyrants who did not allow their wives or daughters to celebrate the Dionysiac rituals. One may recall, for example, on one hand, the myths of Oineus and of Oinopion, the friends of the god, and on the other, the stories of Pentheus and Lykourgos, his enemies. Even the myth of Ariadne shares the same idea: Theseus’ fiancée was abandoned by her lover, and was met by Dionysus, who married her. Ariadne was disappointed in Theseus, and satisfied in the god of wine. A similar thing happened to Bona Dea, who was aggrieved at being raped, and disappointed like Medea. 28 29 30 31

Ps.Dem. LIX (Contra Neæram).73, transl. Murray. LIX.75–76. Hesych. and Etym.M., s.v. γεραραί; Pollux, Onom. VIII.108. CIL XI, 3243 = ILS 3509; Brouwer, 391–2, thinks that these adjectifs were referred to an identification with Juno Cælestis. 32 See M.Massenzio, Cultura e crisi permanente: la “xenia” dionisiaca, Rome 1970.

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Ariadne, Medea, and Bona Dea: they all had something in common. In addition, Macrobius mentions that Bona Dea was identified with Semele, Dionysus’ mother, and deals with the use of wine during her ceremonies and with a vine over her statue. Juvenal33 calls the women who attended Bona Dea’s festivals “Mænads”, and the ancient authors concur in describing these festivals as orgiastic. Furthermore, two inscriptions related to the cult of Bona Dea, call her cultic associations spiræ.34 Speira or spira was a typical noun used to refer to Dionysiac sodalities.35 A Liber Pater Bonadiensium (i.e. a Bacchus of a neighbourhood dedicated to Bona Dea) is also known.36 A series of cistophori issued by Caius Fannius in 49 BC probably represents the temple of Bona Dea and the image of the goddess herself between two coiling snakes.37 The iconography of cistophoric coinage is Dionysiac and the obverse side shows always the cista mystica with its snake and a ivy wreath all around. No author tells us what actually happened in the homes of Caesar and the other Roman leaders during Bona Dea’s festival. Could this festival be another form of Dionysus’ marriage? Is there a link between Bona Dea being raped by Faunus and the marriage of Dionysus? Was the bride really Bona Dea or was she one of the girls attending the festival? These are important questions that have never been asked before. 7. RULERS WHO PERFORMED HIEROGAMY RITUALS Faunus was the lover and the fecundator of Roman women. There was another important god involved too in the process of preparing women for a fertile and happy marriage. He was Bacchus, also called Liber pater. He was conceived of as the divine alter ego of the human husband. His marriage to Ariadne was replicated by Roman women, who experienced in a certain form the emotions of this mythical bride. There are, in fact, two episodes from Roman history that lead us to interpret the Bacchanalia of Republican Rome as a symbolic wedding of Dionysus. Two prominent couples elevated the symbolic acts into the taking on the roles of Dionysus and Ariadne or Aphrodite themselves. They were Antony and Cleopatra, and Silius and Messalina. Both couples were committing adultery in the eyes of

33 Iuven.VI.317. Several scholars recognized the Bacchic nature of Bona Dea’s festival; see for ex. A.Dieterich,“Die Gottin Mise”, Philologus 6, 1893, 1–12, part. 8; D.Mulroy, “The Early Career of P. Clodius Pulcher: A Re-Examination of the Charges of Mutiny and Sacrilege”, TAPhA 118, 1988, 170–171. 34 CIL VI, 76 = ILS 3515; Brouwer, 106–7, no. 101. 35 See A.F.Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos. Les associations dionysiaques ou la face cachée du Dionysisme, II, Zürich 2003, 296–7. 36 CIL XIV, 4328; Brouwer, Bona Dea, 72–76, no. 67. 37 L.Zollschan, “The Temple on the Cistophori of C. Fannius”, Klio 89, 2007, 125–136.

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Roman law, but they wanted to transform their love into a hierogamy, and this hierogamy was that of Dionysus.

Fig. 2. Cistophorus from Ephesus depicting Antony as Dionysos and Octavia, his wife, as Ariadne over a cista mystica.

Antony was identified with Dionysus (fig. 2) after the Battle of Philippi, especially at Ephesus.38 Cleopatra, disguised as Aphrodite, met him in Tarsus in 41 BC. Plutarch39 reports that she was borne by boat, accompanied by little boys disguised as Erotes and little girls dressed as Nereïds and Graces. She reclined beneath a gold-spangled canopy adorned like the goddess of love. After that, Plutarch adds an episode that we should focus on: “Antony sent, therefore, and invited her to supper; but she thought it meet that he should rather come to her.” This ceremony is explained by the myth and the ritual of Dionysus’ arrival.40 Dionysus, not Ariadne-Aphrodite, arrived and was kindly received. Cleopatra acted as if Antony’s representation of Dionysus were true, and offered herself as if she were the goddess cherished by the god. Tacitus,41 dealing with the events of 48 AD, says that the prostitute Calpurnia declared to the emperor Claudius that his wife Messalina had married Silius, and describes Messalina’s excesses in this form: Messalina’s extravagant behaviour was wilder than ever. Autumn was well advanced, and she was staging a tableau of grape-harvest throughout the house. Presses were in operation, vats were overflowing, and there were women dressed in animal skins leaping about like mænads sacrificing or driven into a frenzy. Messalina herself, her hair streaming, brandished 38 Plut., Ant. 24; and the cistophori representing Antony as Dionysos along with Octavia (fig. 2): H.A.Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum, III, London, 1910, 502, III, plate CXIV, nos 1–2; Roman Provincial Coinage. I, From the Death of Caesar to the Death of Vitellius (44 BC-AD 69), ed. by A.M.Burnett, M.Amandry, P.P. Ripollès, London, 1992, no. 2201. 39 Plut., Ant. 26. 40 On which: Massenzio, Cultura e crisi permanente; M.Detienne, “Dionysos en ses parousies: un dieu épidémique”, in: L’association dionysiaque dans les sociétés anciennes. Actes de la table ronde Rome 24–25 Mai 1984, Rome 1986, 53–83. The myth of Dionysus and Ariadne was alluded to on bronze medallions at the time of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina’s marriage; see. A.D.Nock, “Sarcophagi and Symbolism”, in: Essays on Religion and the ancient World, II, Oxford 1972, 606–641, esp. 636 (= AJA 50, 1946, 140–170, esp. 165). 41 Ann. XI.30–31.

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a thyrsus, and beside her was an ivy-garlanded Silius, wearing high boots and tossing his head, while all around them rose the din of a dissolute chorus. They say that, in fun, Vettius Valens struggled up a very tall tree, and when people asked him what he saw he replied that there was a terrible storm in the area of Ostia.42

This ceremony was designed to imitate Euripides’ Bacchæ, in which Pentheus, tyrant of Thebae, was gazing at the rituals of Bacchants from a pine tree, but they discovered and killed him. Vettius Valens was clearly imitating Pentheus on the pine tree.43 Tacitus also mentions marriage tablets, as though Silius and Messalina had celebrated a lawful marriage. It is therefore possible that the marriage itself was the Bacchic ceremony. In the following sections we shall see that a common girl could also take part in a ritual symbolic marriage to Dionysus. Antony and Silius, however, wanted really to become the god and took his place. 8. IMAGES OF DIONYSUS AND WOMEN ON ROMAN SARCOPHAGI Let us focus on several suggestions which come from another area of ancient tradition. As we will see in the § 9, the Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi show scenes which fit very well with what we know about Bona Dea’s rituals, and even the mysterious Lyde is shown.44 But we shall also see that the bride was not Bona Dea. Fauna-Bona Dea and Faunus belong to a very ancient phase of Roman civilization. Dionysiac features of Bona Dea cult are witnessed in the late republican and imperial times, but Satyrs and Mænads were popular in Latium already at the beginning of the 5th century BC and perhaps the Roman cult was influenced by Mænadism in an ancient phase. In fact, even after the repression of Bacchanals the festival of Bona Dea, as described by the sources, preserved some forms of Mænadism. Now we will see that the iconography of Dionysiac Roman sarcophagi shares many features with the cult of Faunus and Fauna. The idea of taking a step from late republican – early imperial cult of Bona Dea towards the 2nd – 3rd century sarcophagi seems perhaps a foolishness. But it could also be foolish to suppose that the Dionysiac mythology of Roman sacrophagi was conceived

42 Tac., Ann. XI.31, transl. Yardley. On the historical frame: F.Cenerini, “Messalina e il suo matrimonio con Silio”, in: Augustae. Machtbewusste Frauen am römischen Kaiserhof? Akten der Tagung 18.–20.9.2008, ed. by A.Kolb, Berlin 2010, 179–191; see also C.A.Williams, Roman Homosexuality, Oxford 2nd edition 2010, 216–217. 43 A.La Penna, “I Baccanali di Messalina e le Baccanti di Euripide (nota a Tacito, Ann. XI 31, 4–6)”, Maia n.s. 27.2, 1975, 121–3; on the account cf. also J.Colin, “Les vendanges dionysiaques et la légende de Messaline (48 ap. J.-C.)”, LEC 24, 1956, 25–39. 44 Henceforth I will present (with some changes) the topic I have dealt with during the Messina 2009 conference of the European Society of History of Religions.

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only in the 2nd – 3rd century and that it was not rooted in more ancient Roman beliefs. The Dionysian motifs on Roman sarcophagi cannot be taken as a direct evidence of Roman religion in the Republican age. Nevertheless, it is unthinkable that everything would have changed in the space of about a century. As a rule, Roman sarcophagi with Dionysiac imagery have been considered a triumph of fantasy from the realm of Greek mythology, which was a product of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Our task now is to discover reliable links between this Dionysiac imagery and Roman rituals. Before dealing with the archaeological evidence of Dionysiac sarcophagi, we want to underline that the word “imagery” seems to be appropriate to the number of Mænads, Satyrs, panthers, elephants, music, dances and other elements which appear on those monuments. Modern scholarship has been satisfied with this beautiful, but poor noun. The Roman festivals of Liber Pater – the Roman Dionysus – were few, in part serious, and in many cases popular. During the Liberalia of the 17th March, the peasants came to Rome for the ludi: simple and licentious games accompanied goat sacrifices. On this occasion, new citizens were presented by their fathers in the Forum after having dedicated their toys to the Lares.45 Such a scenario contrasts with the “Dionysiac imagery” of Roman sarcophagi: is it possible that the Romans only thought of Dionysus and his ceremonies but did not perform them? In fact, the scenes carved on those sarcophagi do not, by any means, reflect Liberalia as described by ancient authors. And why did the sculptors carve portraits of young Roman women onto the head of Ariadne, Dionysus’ wife? The invaluable studies by F. Matz46 and R. Turcan47 on Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi allow us to proceed on the solid basis of archaeological evidence. This kind of monuments flourished between the age of Trajan and the early Christian empire. Their style stems from Greek tradition and they were intended above all for the wealthy. The use of sarcophagi became customary in the middle of the Imperial Age; these sarcophagi cannot be said to prove that there was a tendency toward Dionysism at the end of the 1st century, because the Romans – as we have already said – did not generally use sarcophagi in the previous two centuries.

45 On Liber Pater and the Liberalia: A.Bruhl, Liber Pater. Origine et expansion du culte dionysiaque à Rome et dans le monde romain, Paris 1953; A.Mastrocinque, Lucio Giunio Bruto, Trento 1988, 254–262. On the possibility of calling this festival Romana mysteria (Cic., ad Att. V.21.14; VI.1.26): K.T.Rigsby, “Graecolatina”, ZPE 113, 1996, 249–252, part. 250. L.Richardson Jr., “Cicero “Att.” 5.21.14 and the Romana ‘Mysteria’”, Phoenix 55, 2001, 411–413, supposes that these mysteria (simply, and humorously, a mysterious thing) were the intercalation itself, Cicero was enquiring from Atticus about. 46 F.Matz, Die dionysischen Sarkophage. I–III, (Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs IV.1–3), Berlin 1968–1969. 47 R.Turcan, Les sarcophages romains à représentations dionysiaques, Paris 1966.

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Therefore, a comparison with the 1st century is impossible for lack of documentation. Something else should be taken into account: under Caesar, Roman Dionysism was somewhat re-shaped. Servius48 states that Caesar introduced the rituals of Liber into Rome. From this simple statement, though, it is impossible to assess what changes Caesar made. Robert Turcan49 has connected this passage with Vergil’s 5th Eclogue, in which Daphnis was deified as a Bacchic hero. At the time, Daphnis was recognised by ancient commentators as an image of the deified Caesar. After these reservations, let us now look at the monuments.

Fig. 3. Dionysiac sarcophagus in the Paul Getty Museum.

Our concern is now to study a series of details that could provide us with a key to enter the world of rituals and to leave the speculative world of mythology. In other words, we will try to demonstrate that the Dionysiac imagery of these sarcophagi was embedded in religious life. The majority of the Dionysiac sarcophagi from the middle of the Imperial Period represents Dionysus discovering Ariadne, or their wedding,50 with a parade of Mænads and Satyrs, music and dance. One can also notice a snake crawling out of a basket onto the ground. Another detail worth mentioning is that Ariadne is

48 Serv., in Buc. V.29: hoc aperte ad Caesarem pertinet, quem constat primum sacra Liberi patris transtulisse Romam. 49 R.Turcan, “César et Dionysos”, in: Hommage à la mémoire de Jérome Carcopino, Paris 1977, 317–325, esp. 323–5. 50 See C.Gasparri, “Dionysos/Bacchus”, in: LIMC III (1986), nos 193–207.

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not discovered by Dionysus, but by Pan, i.e. Faunus, to use his Roman name (fig. 3). Sometimes Eros is the one who discovers the girl.51

Fig. 4 Omphale on a Dionysiac sarcophagus. Vatican Museum.

However, in Greek mythology Ariadne was met by Dionysus, and not by Pan, even though the scene of Satyrs discovering her asleep is present in Greek iconography.52 Such a theme would have been very appropriate for a Satyr play,53 in the 51 On Pompeian frescoes: K.Lorenz, Bilder machen Räume, Berlin-New York 2008, 113. On Pan in a Dionysiac context: N.Marquardt, Pan in der hellenistischen und kaiserzeitlichen Plastik, Antiquitas 33, Bonn 1995, 258–280. 52 M.-L.Bernhard, “Ariadne”, in: LIMC III, Suppl. (1986), no. 112. See Pan and a Satyr discovering a sleeping Mænad on an Attic crater: J.Boardman, “Pan”, in: LIMC VIII (1997), no. 166. 53 On the hypotheses about Ovid’s models (satyr drama, the new comedy, a Laberian mime; Plautus, or Hellenistic wall painting): R.J.Littlewood, “Ovid’s Lupercalia (Fasti 2.267–452):

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manner of Æschylus’ Diktylkoi. But a Satyr discovering Ariadne appears very rarely on Roman sarcophagi,54 while Pan is omnipresent.

Fig. 5. Julia Domna as Omphale. Munich, Antikensammlung; copy from the original in the Vatican Museum.

Another important feature of Dionysiac sarcophagi is the role of Omphale. A sarcophagus from the Severan age in the Vatican Museum55 (fig. 4) represents the heroine dressed with the leontè (lion’s pelt).

a Study in the Artistry of the Fasti”, Latomus 34, 1975, 1060–72; E.Fantham, “Sexual Comedy in Ovid’s Fasti: Sources and Motivation”, HSCP 87, 1983, 185–216, esp. 196–201. On the theme of Satyrs rebuffed by Nymphs cf. G.M.Hedreen, “Silens, Nymphs, and Maenads” JHS 114, 1994, 47–69. 54 Matz, I, Beilage 2 (in Istanbul, from Saloniki).

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Robert Turcan56 compares this monument with a statue (fig. 5) of a noblewoman from the Severan age wearing the leontè, like Omphale.57 The role of Omphale in the Dionysiac mysteries is by no means emphasised in Greek mythology. But we have to admit that we do not know the texts of the two Satyr plays entitled Omphale, by Achæus and Ion.58 In any case, Omphale is linked to the Roman version of Dionysism. 9. HERCULES AT DIONYSUS’ WEDDING We would like to stress one more feature of these monuments: the role of Hercules in the Dionysiac imagery. The Greek hero may hold a cup of wine,59 or a wedding torch,60 or a kantharos and sometimes he has a rope with many knots hanging from his shoulder,61 or a necklace,62 or he is playing the lyre.63 It is notable that Hercules is often approached, touched or caressed by PanFaunus,64 (fig. 6) or embraced by a Satyr, (fig. 7)65 or else he is stopping the hand of a Satyr who is approaching him.66 The Oratio ad gentiles by the Pseudo-Justin (end of the 2nd cent. AD)67 describes Hercules’ misadventure at Omphale’s court in these words: Satyrs played cymbals with him as if he was stupid. He was conquered by the love of a woman, and was glad to be beaten on the buttocks by laughing Lyde.

55 It was once kept in the Cortile della pigna, and was discovered in the “coemeterium Balbinae” between via Appia and via Ardeatina. Matz, I, no. 41, pl. 40; R.Turcan, “Somnus et Omphale. Note sur un sarcophage mutilé”, Mélanges d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’École Française de Rome. Antiquité 74, 1962, 595–606. 56 Turcan, “Somnus et Omphale”. 57 Cf. P.Zanker, “Eine römische Matrone als Omphale”, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 106, 1999, 119–131 (= Un’arte per l’impero, ital. transl. Milan 2002, 198–211). 58 Achæus: Diog. Laert. II.134; Athen. VI.267 D; XI.466 E; 498 D = TGF I, 15 T 3; 20, F 32– 33; Ion: Strab.I.3.19; Athen.XI.258 F; Pollux V.101 = TGF I, 19 F 18; 21; 25; cf. the comedies Omphale by Aristophanes and by Cratinus the younger: CAF II, Fragment tit 4–5, and another Omphale quoted by Plut., Per. 24 = adesp. CAF III, 63. 59 Matz, I, no. 45, pl. 49, from Bolsena. 60 Matz, II, no. 98, pl. 121, from Rome, Palazzo Giustiniani; Matz, I, no. 99, pl. 124–5, from Clieveden. On the Roman wedding torchs: K.H.Hersch, Roman Wedding. Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, Cambridge 2010, 164–175. 61 Matz, II, no. 100, pl. 126, from Woburn Abbey. 62 Matz, II, no. 118, pl.138, in Naples. 63 Matz, II, no. 126, pl. 137, from Ostia; Matz, I, 54, pl. 53, from Ostia; Matz, I, no. 60, pl. 75, from Cadenet; Matz 1969, no. 222, pl. 234, from St. Médard-d’Eyran (Bordeaux). 64 Matz, I, no. 47, pl. 56, from Moscow; no. 45, pl. 46, from Benheim, Oxfordshire 65 Matz, II, no. 118, pl. 138, from Naples; no. 101, pl. 127, from Lyon; Matz, I, no. 46, pl. 50, from Bolsena. 66 Matz, II, no. 140, pl. 161, from Rome, Villa Doria Pamphili. 67 39 Morel.

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We know which myth fits this rich series of iconographies perfectly.68 It is narrated by Ovid in a passage explaining why the Luperci are naked during the Lupercalia. We have already met this passage when discussing Faunus’ disappointment.69 Now we can read the full text of Ovid’s Fasti IV.313–30: To this day the naked priests recall the memory of old customs, and testify to those ancient ways. But why Faunus, especially, shunned clothing, is handed down in an old tale full of laughter. By chance Tirynthian Hercules was walking with Omphale, his mistress, and Faunus saw them from a high ridge. He saw and burned. ‘Mountain spirits,’ he said: ‘No more of your company: she will be my passion.’ As the Mæonian girl went by her fragrant hair streamed over her shoulders, her breast was bright with gold: a gilded parasol protected her from warm sunlight, one Herculean hand, indeed, held over her. Now she came to Bacchus’ grove, and Tmolus’ vineyard, while dewwet Hesperus rode his dusky steed. She entered a cave roofed with tufa and natural rock, and there was a babbling stream at its entrance. While her attendants were preparing food and wine, she clothed Hercules in her own garments. She gave him thin vests dyed in Gætulian purple, gave him the elegant zone that had bound her waist. She took up his heavy club, and the lion’s pelt, and those lesser weapons lodged in their quiver. So dressed, they feasted, and gave themselves to sleep, resting on separate couches set next to one another, because they were preparing to celebrate the rites of the discoverer of the vine, with purity, at dawn. It was midnight. What will unruly love not dare? Faunus came through the dark to the dewy cave, and seeing the servants lost in drunken slumber, had hopes of their master also being fast asleep. Entering, as a reckless lover, he roamed around, following his cautious outstretched hands. He reached the couches spread as beds, by touch, and this first omen of the future was bright. When he felt the bristling tawny lion-skin, however, he drew back his hand in terror, and recoiled, frozen with fear, as a traveller, troubled, will draw back his foot on seeing a snake. Then he touched the soft coverings of the next couch, and its deceptive feel misled him. He climbed in, and reclined on the bed’s near side, and his swollen cock was harder than horn. But pulling up the lower hem of the tunic, the legs there were bristling with thick coarse hair. The Tirynthian hero fiercely repelled another attempt, and down fell Faunus from the heights of the couch.70

Henri Le Bonniec71 stressed the inconsistency of the link between the myth of Omphale and the rite of the Lupercalia, but he did discover something important that connected them: the race of the Luperci Fabiani during the Lupercalia was instituted by Romulus and his companions, the Fabii, who competed against Remus and his Luperci Quinctilii. According to the Roman legend, the Fabii were 68 On few Greek vase paintings Satyrs are shown either stealing the arms of the sleeping Herakles, or being pursued by him for so doing: O.Jahn, “Perseus, Herakles, Satyrn auf Vasenbildern und das Satyrdrama”, Philologus 27, 1868, 1–27; cf. W.N.Bates, “A Reminiscence of a Satyr Play”, AJA 20, 1916, 391–6. 69 It was probably also the plot of a satyric play: T.P.Wiseman, “Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica”, JRS 78, 1988, 1–13, part. 11. 70 Transl. A.S.Kline. 71 H.Le Bonniec, “Hercule et Omphale dans les Fastes d’Ovide”, in Hommage à A.Grenier, II, Brussels 1962, 974–80; cf. B.Harris, “Ovid and the Fabii: Fasti 2. 193–474”, CQ n.s. 41, 1991, 150–168, esp. 167–8.

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descended from a son of Hercules.72 Robert Turcan,73 on the other hand, thought that Ovid was describing the preliminary rituals of Dionysiac initiations.74 The Bacchic ritual took place in a cave: Omphale entered a cave roofed with tufa and natural rock, And there was a babbling stream at its entrance.75

Omphale and Hercules were expecting Bacchus’ arrival. In Naxos a sacred cave was a sanctuary to Dionysos,76 clearly because the meeting with Ariadne took place there. The sacred grove of Bona Dea had a spring, like the cave of Mount Tmolus.

Fig. 6. Detail of a Dionysiac sarcophagus in the Pushkin museum, Moscow.

Fig. 7. Detail of a Dionysiac sarcophagus in Naples, National Archaeological Museum.

The similarities between the Ovidian myth and the iconography on the sarcophagi are impressive, and every feature we have mentioned can be found in the ritual

72 Paul.Fest., 245 L.; Plut., Fab. 1; cf. Sil.It., Pun. VI.627–636. 73 R.Turcan, “À propos d’Ovide Fast. IV 313–330”, REL 37, 1959, 195–203. 74 Greek mythology knew of a link between Omphale and Pan and thought that she desired him: Scholia in Theocritum, Prolegomenon 14: φασὶ γάρ, ὅτι ἡ Ὀμφάλη ἡ Λυδὴ οἶστρον εἶχε περὶ τὸν Πᾶνα πολύν. 75 315–316: antra subit tofis laqueata et pumice vivo; / garrulus in primo limine rivus erat. 76 Porphyr., De antro 20.

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which Ovid describes. In particular, the sarcophagus in the Pushkin Museum at Moscow (fig. 6) is the best illustration of the Ovidian account. That Ovid was not telling a foreign myth is proved by frescoes in a Pompeian house in the Regio IX 5.14–16, on which we recognise Hercules, Omphale, Bacchus, Ariadne, and Faunus on them.77 Another Pompeian fresco shows Faunus disrobing a hermaphrodite, and leaving in disappointment.78 A cameo cast in Naples shows a sleeping Omphale in the same attitude as the sleeping hermaphrodite.79 On the Dionysiac sarcophagi, Hercules is not dressed as a woman,80 but his behaviour (he is a musician, he bears weddings torches, his body is decorated by ropes) is uncharacteristic. Faunus or the Satyrs are lusting after him as though he were a woman. The hero was following, in a very peculiar way, an ancient custom of Dionysiac rituals performed by women, according to which only crossdressed men could be admitted to the ceremonies. Euripides, in his Bacchæ,81 presents a dialogue between Dionysus and Pentheus in which the god explains that the tyrant had to be dressed as a woman if he wanted to gaze at the Mænads. He was to be clothed with “eastern linen”, “fix up a long hair piece on his head”, “a robe which dropped down to his feet and a headband”, “one thyrsus and a dappled fawn skin”. From Lucian82 we know that in Egypt, under Ptolemy XII, all the men took part in Dionysiac ceremonies clothed as women. Philostratus83, a third century writer, justified the practices, and noted: “In the revel it is permitted women to dress like men and men to put on a woman’s dress and walk like a woman.” Dionysos himself was clothed in the same manner, with a long girdled peplos (chiton poderes Lydias).84 This clothing can be seen in a number of ancient paintings.85

77 K.Lorenz, Bilder machen Räume, Berlin-New York 2008, 275. 78 L.Richardson Jr, “Pompeii: Tha Casa dei Dioscuri and its Painters”, MAAR 23, 1955, 124, pl. XXII; this theme on a Roman sarcophagus: R.Turcan, Messages d’outre-tombe. L’iconographie des sarcophages romains, Paris 1999, 102, fig.111. 79 G.Niebling, “Die schlafende Omphale”, Forschungen und Fortschritte 30, 1956, 57–60. 80 However two sarcophagi at Villa Doria Pamphili, and at Palazzo Giustiniani, at Rome (Matz, I, pl. 37.39 nos 98 and 39; Turcan, Les sarcophages romains, 262–3; Id., Messages d’outretombe. L’iconographie des sarchophages romains, Paris 1999, fig. 114) shows a naked Hercules and another similar bearded man, who could be again Hercules himself, clothed as a woman with a long chiton, girdled with a belt. A bearded old man, with satyr’s horns, wears similar garments on the sarcophagus in Cadenet: Matz, I, no. 60, pl. 75; Turcan, Les sarcophages romains, pl. 42. 81 Eur., Bacch. 821–833. See C.Gallini, “Il travestimento rituale di Penteo” SMSR 34, 1963,

211–228. 82 Lucian. Calum. 16. M.P.Nilsson, The Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic and Roman Age, Lund 1957, 10, pointed out that, whereas Dionysiac thiasoi were originally limited to women, they were gradually opened to males throughout the Hellenistic period. 83 Philostr., Imag. I.2.5; see also Philostr, Vita Apollonii IV.21. 84 Aeschyl., TGF, fr. 59 R; see also P.Sauzeau, “Le sexe de Dionysos”, in: Bacchanales. Actes des colloques DIONYSOS organisés à Montpellier 1996–1998, ed. by R.O’Hanlon, M.Bideaux,

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Euripides86 says that the Mænads danced on the seats of the Nymphs, where Pan played his panpipes. Similarly Faunus could be at home in the Dionysiac parade. I think, therefore, that there must be a link between Omphale’s ritual and the Roman Faunus. The Lupercalia were indeed a festival in which the naked ministers of the savage god were supposed to fertilise Roman women. A stronger link is to be found in the rituals of Faunus’ female counterpart, i.e. Fauna, also known as Bona Dea. In Faunus’ rituals the men were clearly recognisable, whereas in rituals to Fauna they were disguised. In any case however Faunus was looking only for women. This is the meaning of Ovid’s account. We should remember what Plutarch says about this goddess: Now, the Romans have a goddess whom they call Bona, corresponding to the Greek Gynaeceia. The Phrygians claim this goddess as their own, and say that she was the mother of King Midas; the Romans say she was a Dryad nymph and the wife of Faunus; the Greeks that she 87 was the unnameable one among the mothers of Dionysus.

The identification of Bona Dea with Midas’ mother fits in with the ritual use of ribbons, i.e. of Lydian mitræ, as we have seen in the homosexual parody mocked by Juvenal. Omphale was indeed an important Lydian queen, and the Bacchic mitra, used as a diadema, was also a symbol of royalty.88 The ribbons for mænadism could only be worn by Roman matrons, not by prostitutes. Servius, in his commentary to Vergil’s description of the Mænads, writes: crinales vittas quae solarum matronarum erant: nam meretricibus non dabantur.89 Hair ribbons were given only to matrons, and whores were excluded.

There are especially two scenes displayed on the Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi: the discovery of Ariadne and the wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne. The first scene is closely connected to Fauna’s rituals. This does not mean that every sarcophagus of this kind represents the rituals of Bona Dea. The scene represented takes place in the world of gods, not of men. Therefore we could suppose that both Bacchic ceremonies and iconography on sarcophagi were shaped after one virtual model.

85

86 87 88

89

P.Sauzeau, Montpellier, Cahier du GITA (Groupe Interdisciplinaire du Théâtre Antique) 13, 2000, 23–50, part. 39. See P.Boyancé, “Dionysiaca. A propos d’une étude récente sur l’initiation dionysiaque”, REA 68, 1966, 45–56; M.Di Marco, “Dioniso ed Orfeo nelle Bassaridi di Eschilo”, in: Orfeo e l’Orfismo. Atti del seminario nazionale Roma-Perugia 1985–1991, ed. by A.Masaracchia, Rome 1993, 112. Eur., Bacch. 951–2. Plut., Caes. 9, transl. B.Thayer. Turcan, ‘‘César et Dionysos’’, 324. Dionysos was called mitrephoros (clothed with a mitra) by the Orphic hymn to Dionysos LII, 4–12; see R.Turcan, “Dionysos dimorphos. Une illustration de la théologie de Bacchus dans l’art funéraire”, Mél. d’Arch. et d’Hist. 1958, 243–293, part. 275. Serv., in Aen. VII.403.

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Fig. 8. Faunus over cista mystica and snake. Detail of a Dionysiac sarcophagus in the National Museum at Baia.

A cinerary urn from Rome (now the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston) bears this inscription: D(is) M(anibus) L(uci) Cassi Coloni Coloniani eq(uitis) / R(omani) vixit ann(is) XXXV.90 The engraving shows Pentheus being punished in the presence of Dionysus. Pentheus was killed by the furious Mænads, who discovered him watching their secret rituals. On the cover of the urn two figures can be seen: a bearded man, with personal features, and a reclining semi-naked figure with long hair, probably a young woman. Two winged Erotes offer him a girdle similar to that of Dionysiac Hercules, and offer her a cup probably filled with wine. The message this eques wanted to convey was that he respected the rules of the Dionysiac sacred marriage, as Hercules did. We do not know how many Roman ceremonies were of the Bacchic type, but those of Bona Dea were definitely so. Admittedly, not all features are common to both the sarcophagi and Bona Dea’s festivals, but many are: women dancing and playing music like the Mænads, Faunus lusting after a girl, the snake crawling out 90 CIL VI, 41298: To the Dei Manes of Lucius Cassius Colonus Colonianus, Roman eques, who lived 35 years.

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close to Faunus’ sex (fig. 8), the Lydian queen (Bona Dea was Midas’ mother), Hercules reconciled with the female Bacchic community, and preparations for the wedding of Ariadne and Dionysus. 10. A DIONYSISM WITHOUT DIONYSUS? It is no wonder that Bacchic ceremonies were performed in the sacred place of Bona Dea, i.e. a divinity who was not Bacchus. It is probable that almost all the Bacchic ceremonies in Rome did not derive from religious festivals of Liber Pater.91 Livy’s account of the Bacchic scandal mentions only one sacred place where women celebrated Bacchic initiations: the lucus Stimulæ:92 quae in luco Stimulæ Bacchanalibus in sacro nocturno solent fieri (“the initiations which usually were performed during a nocturnal ritual in the sacred bush of Stimula”). Ovid93 was uncertain about the name of this goddess: lucus erat: dubium Semelæ Stimulæne vocetur (“there was a sacred bush; it is uncertain whether it vas called bush of Semele or bush of Stimula”). The location of this grove was famous for being where Ino (the Mater Matuta of the Latins), Dionysus’ aunt had arrived: it was the area of the Forum Boarium close to the temples of Hercules and also of Ceres, Liber and Libera.94 Ovid95 relates how Melikertes, Ino’s son, was kidnapped by the Ausoniæ Mænads, but Hercules rescued the child and forced the Mænads to run away. Evidently, the ceremonies in Stimula’s grove were related, mythically, to the first Greek Mænads: Semele and Ino (the daughters of Kadmos, whose third daughter was Agave). It is possible that many Roman festivals for women were shaped along Bacchic lines, and that, among them, the festival of Bona Dea had public value, i.e. it

91 In the past, many authors reasoned in this way: since the official cult of Liber was unaffected by the persecution in 186, Liber could not have been equated with Dionysus. See for ex. W.Warde Fowler, The religious Experience of the Roman People, London 1911, 344: “it is not likely that many Romans recognized the identity of Liber and Dionysus, and it is quite certain that the characteristic features of the Dionysiac ritual were entirely unknown at Rome for three centuries after the foundation of the temple”. According to K.Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte, Munich 1960, 271, the syncretism of Dionysus and Liber was due to poets who wrote after the persecution. More precisely Bruhl, Liber pater, 16–18, 41, supposed that Varro himself identified the two gods and transformed Liber into the god of wine. This method is completely incorrect. See the arguments by R.J.Rousselle, The Roman Persecution of the Bacchic Cult, Diss. State University of New York 1982, 98–100, who noticed that in Livius Andronicus and Naevius Liber is already equated to Dionysus and he is the god of wine. 92 Liv.XXXIX.13.4. See O.de Cazanove, “Lucus Stimulae. Les aiguillons des Bacchanales”, MEFRA 95, 1983, 55–113, esp. 56. 93 Ovid., Fasti VI.503. 94 de Cazanove, 66–67. 95 Ovid., Fasti VI.501–524. See de Cazanove, “Lucus Stimulae”, 82–85; F.Prescendi, “Matralia und Matronalia. Feste von Frauen in der römischen Religion”, in: Frauenwelten in der Antike, 123–131, part. 124–126.

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was part of the state religion.96 They were among the nocturnal ceremonies of which Cicero speaks: No sacrifices shall be performed by women at night except those offered for the people in proper form: nor shall anyone be initiated except into the Greek rites of Ceres, according to 97 the custom.

We notice another feature of the Roman sarcophagi: they show Bacchus still apart, and approaching Ariadne when she is discovered by Faunus. However, ancient authors who speak of Bona Dea mention neither Bacchus nor Liber Pater nor Dionysus, but only Dionysus’ mother. Is it possible that a Bacchic festival was performed without Bacchus? Juvenal speaks of Mænads attending these ceremonies, but does not mention Bacchus himself. Did Rome have a Dionysism without Dionysus?98 There is a similar question about Greek tragedy: “What has the tragedy to do with Dionysus?”99 We could also ask about the role of Hades and Dionysus within the Demetrian festivals; in fact, whereas the authors are quite reserved about their role, there is an abundance of votive images from Demetrian sanctuaries showing a crowned male god. We have to admit that no author clarifies if and how the myth of Bona Dea’s rape by Faunus was recalled or even enacted during the ceremonies. Macrobius says that Bona Dea, like Medea, had been deceived by men, but does not say if she was comforted by anyone. Ariadne was comforted by Dionysus, and the Roman sarcophagi reproduce this event. Moreover, we have to concede that our major sources on Bona Dea’s festivals (Ovid and Propertius) date back to the Augustan Age, an unexpected time for there to be an emphasis on the Dionysiac features of Roman religion. Antony, the new Dionysus, had recently been defeated, and Augustus was engaged in reshaping Roman customs in a moral and “traditional” form. A third admission is necessary: we do not know a great deal about those secret rituals, and it is impossible to make any sure statements on Bacchus’ role even though we do witness a form of Mænadism. Anne-Françoise Jaccottet100 recently tried to establish a taxonomy for Dionysiac clubs. In fact, it is incorrect to deal haphazardly with all forms of Dionysiac thiasoi or clubs, public or private, secret or open. This authoress correctly distinguished, among the manifold phenomenology, between male and female associations, and the promiscuous ones.101 Albert Henrichs102 had already distinguished

96 Public festivals were those which the state payed for: Fest., 245 L. The case of Forum Clodii suggests such a custom. 97 Cic., De leg. II.9.21. 98 See O.de Cazanove, “Le thiase et son double. Images, status, fonctions du cortège divin de Dionysos en Italie centrale”, in: L’association dionysiaque dans les sociétés anciennes, EFR 89, Rome 1986, 177–197, esp. 197. 99 See Sudas, s.v. Οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸν Διόνυσον, III, 579 Adler. 100 Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos. 101 I, 63–100.

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the mænadic female rituals from the male komoi (“parades”) and male ritual drinking of wine. It is possible to conceive of the cult of Dionysus as a do ut des in which men offered women to the god in exchange for wine. This is a way of understanding gender roles in this cult. In order to make further distinctions, Roman factors have to be studied in their specificity before they are compared to Greek cults. The opposition created by Bona Dea in the eyes of the male part of society correlates with the role of lover and consoling partner played by Bacchus, as opposed to the role of the Satyrs and Faunus. Moreover, this opposition was based on their relationship with the male Herculean society of Romans, as we will see later. For the moment, it is important not to confuse the Dionysism of Bona Dea with that of other Bacchic associations in Italy and elsewhere. 11. MEN AT THE FESTIVAL OF BONA DEA On the Roman sarcophagi representing Dionysus’ wedding no common man is to be seen. The male sex is represented by Hercules, who wears a necklace, or plays a lyre, by Pan, by Satyrs,103 by Centaurs, and possibly by several old men. We have seen that Juvenal argues against women who performed acts that had only to be alluded to, and says that the erotic performances of women had warmed up even the heart of Priam or Nestor.104 This begs the question as to whether some old men used to attend these festivals. On the Dionysiac sarcophagi, Hercules is not sexually active; he could even be the object of Faunus’ lust. This hero sometimes wears a knotted rope hanging from a shoulder,105 and knots were impediments to birth and fertility.106 But untied knots presaged procreation. Festus writes: The bride was girdled with a small belt (cingillum) which the man untied in bed. It was made of sheep’s wool. This belt was folded into balls and should be strictly joined by itself; in the same manner the husband was bound to his wife by a belt and a knot. This belt was tied with

102 A.Henrichs, “Greek Maenadism from Olympias to Messalina”, HSCP 82, 1978, 121–160, esp. 133, 156; Id., “Changing Dionysiac Identities”, in: Jewish and Christian self-definition, 3: Self-Definition in Graeco–roman World, ed. by B.F.Meyer and E.P.Sanders, London 1982, 137–160; 213–236, esp. 138–9, 147. 103 On the intrusion of Satyrs among female cultic groups: F.Lissarrague, “Intrusions au gynécée”, in: P.Veyne, F.Lissarrague, F.Frontisi Ducroux, Les mystères du gynécée, Paris 1998, 157–198, esp.179–198. 104 Iuven.VI.324–5. 105 Matz, II, pl. 126; for a comparison among Dionysiac sarcophagi: Matz, II, no. 141, pl.158; III, no. 171, pl. 192–3; no. 216, pl. 225–6. 106 See L.Deubner, Attische Feste, Berlin 1932, 58; M.Bettini, Nascere. Storie di donne, donnole, madri ed eroi, Turin 1998.

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the Hercules’ knot and the man untied it in order to be happy in having sons, imitating the great fortune of Hercules, who fathered 70 sons.107

The same author adds that Juno Cinxia was the goddess of this marital rite.108 Therefore, Hercules was wearing the belt of brides. This sort of cross-dressing Hercules is perfectly appropriate for Omphale’s ritual. The knotted rope made him similar to a bride. Hercules had been invited to attend by Omphale, the Lydian queen. Apparently the ceremonies of Bona Dea were supposed to exclude all men, but we actually know that they were not totally excluded. Ovid writes: Bona Dea bars the eyes of men from her temple, except such as she bids come there her109 self.

It is probable that these men were sexually inactive. Male gods, on the contrary, were particularly active; in fact, the ceremony alluded to on the sarcophagi was the eve of Ariadne and Dionysus’ wedding, when Faunus was sexually active. The cross-dressing Hercules on Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi represents the reconciliation between him and Bona Dea. According to Propertius, Hercules reminded the aged female president of Bona Dea’s festival that he had been disguised as a girl at Omphale’s court. This allusion may have been made because Propertius knew something of the role of the cross-dressing Hercules at Bona Dea’s festival. Hercules’ promise to bar women from the Ara Maxima festival did not represent an eternal rule, because an ancient author informs us that Appius Claudius Cæcus allowed women to enter,110 even though we do not know in what form. It would, therefore, be logical to assume that some men were also admitted to the festival of Bona Dea; the first guest had to be Hercules, who had been treated too harshly. In fact the Propertian account closes with some loose ends: the offence to Hercules, the destruction of the door (see above, p. 28), and the violation of religious rules required a subsequent arrangement or a suitable solution. The Roman poet writes: (Hercules)… burst the concealing doorway with his shoulders, and the closed gate could not bar his raging thirst. But after he had quenched the burning and drained the river, his lips scarcely dry, he gave out this harsh decree: ‘This corner of the world has accepted me, as I drag out my fate: weary, this land is scarcely open to me. The great Altar,’ he said ‘dedicated to the recovery of 107 Paul.Fest. 55 L. 108 Paul.Fest. 55 L. On these and other sources mentioning the cingulum and the nodus Herculaneus see Hersch, Roman Wedding, 109–112. 109 Ovid., Ars amat. 3, 633–8. 110 Origo gentis Romanae 8.5. For the reform of 312 BC concerning the Ara Maxima, see: Liv. IX.29.9; Val.Max.I.1.17; Interp.Serv. in Aen. VIII.269; Macr. 3,6,12; Aur.Vict. De vir. 34.3; Fest. 237 L.; cf. J.Bayet, Les origines de l’Hercule romain, Paris 1926, 248–74; M.Humm, Appius Claudius Caecus. La république accomplie, Rome 2005, 497–507. On the participation of Roman women in Hercules’ worship: C.E.Schultz, “Modern Prejudice and Ancient Praxis: Female Worship of Hercules at Rome”, ZPE 133, 2000, 291–297.

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Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women my herd, this greatest of altars made by my hands, will never be open to women’s worship, so that for eternity Hercules’s thirst will not go unavenged.’ Hail, Sacred Father, on whom austere Juno now smiles.111

The Herculean festival preserved its male character, and certainly did not become a women’s festival; in the same way, the women’s festival guarded its female character, even though only inoffensive men could be admitted. In both cases we do not know what the form of admission could have been. This could beg another question: is it pure coincidence that a Claudius, namely Publius Clodius,112 was dressed as a girl playing lyre at the festival of Bona Dea? His famous ancestor, Claudius, relaxed to an extent the exclusion of women from Herculean rituals.113 Pompeia invited him and he perhaps did not think that he would be rebuffed and incriminated as was to occur. We do not know how the men, who were allowed to attend, participated in the festival,114 but surely they had to be recognized, and they can not see the sacred objects. On the other hand, the scandal and the alarm described by Plutarch and other authors prove that Hercules’ participation in the festival was not previewed, at least as a participation of a man playing Hercules’ role. Clodius was accused by the college of the pontiffs, where Caesar was the pontifex maximus.115 One of the major charges against him was that of having gazed on the sacred objects.116 His behaviour was nefas117 and unprecedented.118 However, he was finally absolved. 111 Prop. IV.9.61–71, transl. Kline. 112 His name was still Claudius. He passed to the plebs in 59, in order to become a candidate to the tribunate. After becoming a plebeian, he adopted the name Clodius, which is used in our text only because he was famous as Clodius. 113 On such a question see already J.Gagé, Matronalia, Brussels 1963,141; C.E.Schultz, Women’s Religious Activity in the Roman Republic, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 2006, 67–69. 114 The admission of women to the Herculis sacra is unclear as well, and F.Boehm, “Hercules”, in: RE VIII (1913), 563, did not believe in it. 115 Cic., Ad Att. I.13.3; see P.Moreau, Clodiana religio. Un procès en 61 av. J.–C., Paris 1982, 61, 74–75, 78; L.Zollschan, “The Temple on the Cistophori of C.Fannius”, Klio 89, 2007, 125–136, part. 127–129. 116 Cic., De har.resp. 8. The 5th elegy of the 3rd book of the corpus Tibullianum, entitled Lygdamus, declares in many forms the writer’s innocence, among whom (verses 5–8): At mihi Persephone nigram denuntiat horam: / inmerito iuveni parce nocere, dea. / Non ego temptavi nulli temeranda virorum audax laudandae sacra docere deae… (But dread Persephone assigns to me the hour of gloom and fears. O Queen of death! be innocence my plea! Pity my youthful tears! I never have profaned that sacred shrine where none but women go). According to many scholars (the first had been Ch.G.Heyne, in his edition and commentary to Tibullus, Leipzig 1755, and fourth edition in 1817 by E.C.F.Wunderlich; see, more recently: M.Ponchont, Tibulle et les auteurs du Corpus Tibullianum, Paris 1968, 148; L.Herrmann, “Ovide, la Bona Dea et Livie”, AC 44, 1975, 126–140; F.Navarro Antolìn, Lygdamus. Corpus Tibullianum III.1–6 Lygdami Elegiarum Liber, Leiden-New York-Cologne 1996, 429) this were an allusion to Bona Dea and to the punishments against him who saw her mysteries. The poet was speaking of Persephone but he uses the expression laudanda dea, which could be another form of Bona Dea. However there is a problem: in Bona Dea’s rituals the major prohibition prevented men from seeing the cultic objects (cf. Cic., De har.resp.37: nemo vir

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There is another problem: Julius Caesar reformed the cult of Liber, as Servius tells us:119 constat primum sacra Liberi patris transtulisse Romam (“we know that Caesar introduced the ceremonies of Liber Pater to Rome”). We cannot exclude the possibility that the contradiction between Cicero and Ovid stems from the Caesarean reform. We should thus be very cautious in our judgements. In any case, Cicero’s claims of Clodius’s guilt are not above suspicion and cannot be taken uncritically as the truth. We cannot exclude the possibility that Cicero did not say everything about gender interdiction.120 In the fragmentary discourse In Clodium et Curionem,121 Cicero insists in mocking the cross-dressed Clodius and yelled: You, who bind your feet with ribbons, who wear a female hat, who tear your sleeved tunic to pieces, who gird your bosom carefully, in all this time did you never remember that you are a descendant of Appius Claudius?

Images of Hercules wearing female clothing are known.122 One of them shows him cross-dressed on the base for the mensa ponderaria in Tivoli.123 It is possible

117 118

119 120

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aspicere non horruit), whereas the verb docere is referred to giving information about rituals to profanes, as it is the case of rituals to Ceres-Demeter: Hor., Carm. III.2.26–27: qui Cereris sacrum volgarit arcanae; Ovid., Ars II.601–602: quis Cereris ritus ausit volgare profanis. Moreover, the adjective laudanda seems to be referred to Proserpina-Persephone, who is called in Greek ἐπαινή, rather than to Bona Dea. The only specific link with Bona Dea is the mention of men: virorum, instead of profanorum or another expression related to outsiders. On those problems see Appendix Tibulliana, herausgegeben und kommentiert von H.Tränkle, Berlin - New York 1990, 142. Cass. Dio XXXVII.46.1. Cic., De har.resp. 38. See J.Scheid, “Le délit religieux dans la Rome tardo-républicaine”, in: Le délit religieux dans la cité antique. Table ronde, Rome 1978, Rome 1981, 117–171, part. 130, 133; Zollschan, l.c. Serv., in Buc. V.29. J.V.P.D.Balsdon, “Fabula Clodiana”, Historia 15, 1966, 69, concluded his analysis of the scandal by maintaining that the charges were inflated by the hostile faction. See also A.W. Lintott, “P. Clodius-Felix Catilina?” G&R 14, 1967, 157– 69, part. 160. A rehabilitation of Clodius, in consideration of Cicero’s bias, is proposed by W.M.F.Rundell, “Cicero and Clodius: The Question of Credibility”, Historia 28, 1979, 301–28; and D.Mulroy, “The Early Career of P. Clodius Pulcher: A Re-Examination of the Charges of Mutiny and Sacrilege”, TAPhA 118, 1988, 155–178; see also Tatum, The Patrician Tribune, 65. M. Tulli Ciceronis Scripta Quae Manserunt Omnia. Vol. 8, ed. F. Schoell, 1918, oratio 14, fr. 24; cf. also fr. 22. See K.A.Geffcken, Comedy in the Pro Caelio, Leiden 1973, 72–77; M.B. Skinner, “Pretty Lesbius”, TAPhA 112, 1982, 197–208; C.A.Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, New York - Oxford 1999, 145; E.W. Leach, “Gendering Clodius”, CW 94, 2001, 335–59; J.L.Butrica, “Clodius the Pulcher”, CQ 52, 2002, 507–516, esp. 514–515. M.Verzar Bass, “L'ara di Lucius Munius a Rieti”, MEFRA 97, 1985, 295–323, where an altar is studied, which was dedicated by a man in occasion of the decima, i.e. the offering of the tenth part of the properties to the god. The monument is known thanks to an ancient drawing, and S.Ritter, Hercules in der römischen Kunst von den Anfängen bis Augustus, Heidelberg 1995, 48–49, disagrees with the interpretation of the image as a disguised Hercules. For other monuments representing Hercules and Omphale: Ritter, Hercules, 171–181.

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that all these images are either pure mythological decorations or allusions to effeminate men or to the Bacchic parade which could be related to Bona Dea. Only one passage from a Byzantine author speaks of cross-dressing men during a Roman festival in honour of Hercules Victor, namely that of the 3th April.124 At Cos, there was a festival in which the priest, in imitation of Herakles, was dressed in female clothing.125 Such a custom, however, is far from being attested at Rome, were the effeminate god is only at home within the context of the sacred marriage of Ariadne and the Bacchic parade. The meaning of Clodius’ apparition as an effeminate musician will be dealt with in another chapter, devoted to the Hercules Musarum.

12. PLUMP LYDE’S BOX The myth of Bona Dea is quite rich in details about her rape by Faunus. As we have already seen, Macrobius narrates: Bona Dea is also said to be the daughter of Faunus. The story has it that his father was fond of her and lusted after her, but she resisted. He beat her with a myrtle branch because she did not surrender to his wishes even when he urged her by making her drink wine. It is believed that the father transformed himself into a snake and had sexual intercourse with his daughter.126

Plutarch127 adds that a snake is placed close to the statue of Bona Dea in the house of the Roman magistrate. On the sarcophagi, the basket with the snake is often placed under Pan’s legs, and sometimes this animal leaps towards the god’s penis (fig. 8).128 It is possible thus to explain Faunus’ role on Dionysiac Roman sarcophagi by referring to the mythology and rituals of Fauna and Faunus. The snake was the symbol of Faunus’ fertility and the means by which the women became fertile. Contact with the fertility god happened by means of snakes. Faunus was the first to discover the abandoned princess. Dionysus was the second to meet her. It is possible that Faunus transferred his generative power to Ariadne before she married Dionysus. Juvenal’s parody of Bona Dea’s mysteries follows the same path: the ceremonies of Bona Dea precede the marriage. The homosexual marriage obviously 123 Ritter, Hercules, pl. 11.2. 124 Lyd., De mens. IV.67. According to the Historia Augusta, Commodus 9.6, Commodus wore the leonté and female garments (in veste muliebri et pelle leonina); cf. Herodian.I.14.8. A cross-dressed emperor like Heliogabalus issued coins on which he was represented with the club of Hercules: RIC IV.2, Heliogabalus, nos 51, 52, 88, 131–135, 177–179, 191, 200, cf. 44. 125 Plut., Quaest.Gr. 58 = 304 E. 126 Macrob. (after Varro) I.12.22. 127 Plut., Caes. 9. 128 Matz 1968a, no. 58, pl. 77.

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could not produce children, even if blessed by the Luperci and Lyde. The whip of the Luperci and Lyde’s box were supposed to grant women fertility. The husband should be helped, and preceded by the gods in his duty of begetting sons. This fact is attested in many Christian authors. Hercules came to Bona Dea’s grove and was met by the female president of the rituals: a priestess with white hair tied with a purple ribbon.

Creticus was to attend the parody of Bona Dea’s festival presided over by a grey-haired frenzied old man, a rare and notable master of mighty gluttony.

The festival in Caesar’s house was presided over by Pompeia, but the aged Aurelia controlled everything.129 Perhaps the president was Aurelia herself. The Lydian festival of Dionysus was organized and presided over by Queen Omphale. The president of the ritual entrusted a girl with a box, as alluded to by Cicero and Juvenal. Clodia’s and Lyde’s boxes could be a laughing matter. Therefore, they were not boxes for a drug given by a quack who was promising fertility. This explanation has been chosen by all the commentators of Juvenal,130 and so the translations are consequently false. The Labriolle and Villeneuve translation, for the Belles Lettres edition, has: “Lydé, avec sa boîte à onguents”. As we have seen, Ramsay’s translation for the Loeb collection has “the medicine chest”. Pyxis only means “box”. The modern explanation is embedded in a scholium to the satirist.131 Lyde is defined as turgida, and this adjective is explained in this manner: genus medicamenti, quod praegnantes facit et fecundas (“a kind of medicament, which makes women pregnant and fecund”). Pyxide Lyde receives this comment: de Lydia, unde Arachne fuit in araneam conversa. Haec inclusa in pyxide araneam texit, quae permixta potui fecundam mulierem de sterilitate facit turgida: adludens: crassa simpliciter intelligendum est aut praegnans (“from Lydia, where Arachne was transformed into a spider. She was closed in a box and wove her cobweb. A cobweb, mixed in a drink, transforms a woman from sterile into fecund and turgid. He makes allusions with this word and one shall understand ‘fat’ or ‘pregnant’”). Evidently the authors of these commentaries did not know why Lyde was plump, and thought that turgida referred to a drug and to pregnancy. Seneca the Elder, in one of his Controversiæ, probably alludes to the same kind of boxes when he writes: 129 According to the Schol. Bob. ad in Clodium et Curionem, 26 Hildebrandt, also Caesar’s sister, Iulia, was present. 130 See E.Courtney, A Commentary on the Satyres of Juvenal, London 1980, 145. Another explanation has been proposed: the box contained a depilatory substance: A.Richlin, “Maching up a Woman: the Face of Roman Gender”, in: Off with Her Head! The Denial of Women’s Identity in Myth, Religion and Culture, ed. by H.Eilberg-Schwartz and W.Doniger, London, 1995, 185–214, esp. 191. 131 Schol. in Iuven., p.27 Wessner.

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Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women Corvus, who ran a school in Rome, declaimed to Sosius, the conqueror of the Jews,132 a controversia about a woman who spoke among the matronæ by saying that children should be abandoned at birth. For this reason he was charged with an offence against the Roman Republic. In his controversia these words raised a laugh: “Among the boxes and medicaments for fragrant breath the turbaned assembly stood.”133

The turbaned assembly (mitrata contio) was an allusion to a Bacchic ritual, identified with that of Bona Dea thanks to Juvenal’s 2nd Satire. Corvus was speaking of childbirth, and this fact can be linked to the fertility mentioned by Juvenal. Laughter always seems to have been aroused by mention of the same boxes. In a forthcoming chapter, we shall see that the women who attended to Bona Dea’s festival were plied with sweet cakes and wine,134 and the president of the homosexual festival is depicted by Juvenal as a “master of mighty gluttony”. In this case, the greedy eater was playing the role of the Lydian Mænad. This can suffice to explaining Lyde’s turgiditas. She was plump, fat, similar to a pregnant woman, but was not pregnant. Antonomasia allowed Omphale to be called “Lyde”, i.e. “the Lydian”. An epigram by Diotimus135 has: Ὀμφάλη ἥ ποτε Λυδή. Omphale, who was the Lydian.

Pausanias136 describes the birth of Tyrrhenos in the following terms: Ἡρακλέους εἶναι καὶ γυναικὸς λέγουσι τῆς Λυδῆς they say he is son of Herakles and of a Lydian woman.

Eustathius, in his Commentary of the Odyssey,137 was deceived by the antonomasia and believed that Lyde was another woman whom Herakles served as a slave after he had served Omphale. Xenophilos, author of the Lydiaka, spoke of Lyde as the wife and sister of Alyattes, king of Lydia, and “ancestor” of Crœsus.138 Themistius,139 when allud132 We are in the age of Antony the triumvir. 133 Sen., Suasoriae 2.21: Hic est Corvus qui, cum temperaret scholam Romae, Sosio illi qui Iudaeos subegerat declamavit controversiam de ea quae apud matronas disserebat liberos non esse tollendos et ob hoc accusatur rei publicae laesae. In hac controversia Sententia eius haec ridebatur: ‘inter pyxides et redolentis animae medicamina constitit mitrata contio’. 134 See the inscription CIL XI, 3303 = ILS 154, which will be discussed in another chapter. 135 Anthol. Palatina VI.358; cf. S.Dow, “Two Epigrams by Diotimus”, CR n.s. 5, 1955, 238– 241. 136 Paus.II.21.3. 137 Eustath., in Hom.Od. XXI.24 (II, 247 Weigel). 138 FGH 767, F 1. It is difficult to deem how much Antimachus the Colophonian’s poem Lyde influencial was on the fame of these powerful Lydae. The remains of its are very scanty. We know that Lyde was a Lydian hetaera, who was loved by the poet on the banks of the Pactolus river. See V.J.Matthews, Antimachus of Colophon Text and Commentary, Leiden-New York-Cologne 1996, especially 27 and 30, and T 10, 11, 13. 139 II, In Constantium, I, 36 Schenkl, Downey.

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ing to Candaules’ wife, calls her generically “Lyde”. The Greek magical papyri140 mention Lyde as one of the names of the great nocturnal goddess Hekate, also known as Dione, Baubo, and with other names. Lyde was the name of a sort of Mænad. In fact, a Problem by the PseudoAlexander of Aphrodisia141 says: Appropriately, the myth has it that the Bacchant follows Dionysus for the dances after drinking wine, the Satyrs for their excellent agility, Lyde because someone has been set free by 143 Dionysus,142 the panther because of the mottled appearance of drunk people.

Lucianus of Samosata addresses a discourse to Crato, who risked seeming scarcely serious because of his passion for dances, telling him: Anyhow, keep an eye to the future and see to it that you do not surprise us by changing from 144 the man that you were of old to a Lyde or a Bacche.

Mimallones, Bassaræ and Lydæ, i.e. Macedonian, Thracian, and Lydian Mænads paraded at the great procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus,145 A Bacche, or Baccha, was a Bacchant, and a Lyde was another sort of Bacchant. The Roman sarcophagi provide us with artistic representations of the most famous Lyde, i.e. Omphale, among the Bacchants. Many centuries after the fall of the Lydian kingdom (546 BC), Lyde became a generic name for an important Lydian queen. She was the wife of the Phrygian Midas,146 of Candaules, of the Lydian Alyattes. Plutarch was probably speaking of the same generic queen, when he wrote: Phrygians claim this goddess (i.e. Bona Dea) as their own, and say that she was the mother of King Midas.

The plump Lyde who entrusts her box to the girl is Omphale, who presides over Dionysus’ mystic marriage. In the Roman ritual, Lyde was the Mænad who was in charge of the festival of Bona Dea; she was often the mistress of the household, wife or mother of the highest Roman magistrate. The role of the Lydian queen was taken by the first lady of Rome. Juvenal147 proves that private rituals of the same kind were also performed in private clubs. The sarcophagus in the Vatican Museum, as well as many other of this type, shows a basket containing a snake. This basket is labelled “mysteria” in a fresco

140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147

PGM IV, 2713. Ps.Alex., Probl. III.17. Probably the one who was set free was the Silenus, according to Ovid., Met. XI.99. The idea is that their clothes were stained with wine, thus giving them the mottled appearance of panthers. Lucian., de salt. 3. Athen. 198 E; F.Cumont, “La grande inscription bacchique du Metropolitan Museum. II, Commentaire religieux de l’inscription”, AJA 37, 1933, 232–263, part. 249. Clearch., fr. 43a Wehrli = Athen. XII.515E. II.82–120, on homosexual rituals for Bona Dea.

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from Ostia.148 Should we identify the boxes of Lyde and Clodia with this basket? And the bringer of fertility with the snake? This is difficult to answer, but any answer would have to be in the negative, because pyxis (“wooden or metal box”) would appear to be an unexpected word for a basket, which could rather be called cista (“wooden box”) or calathus (“wicker basket”) or talarus (“wicker basket for wool”).149 The passages from Cicero and Juvenal seem to allude to the pyxis being handed over to a woman, and Cicero notes that people laughed at the mention of one pyxis given to Clodia; Seneca noted the same thing about Corvus and the aforementioned boxes. A snake in a box could hardly make someone laugh. A phallus would be more likely to do this.

Fig. 9. Mosaic from Cuicul representing a matron with a cylindrical box

Martin Nilsson150 quoted eighteen monuments on which the Dionysiac liknon (a kind of winnowing fan) containing a phallus can be seen. The form of those likna is different from a true box. A mosaic from Cuicul (Djémila, Algeria),151 how148 See P.Boyancé, “Dionysiaca. A propos d’une étude récente sur l’initiation dionysiaque”, REA 68, 1966, 33–60, esp. 37 and pl. I.1. 149 Fest., 351 L.; in Rome Venus Verticordia was called Epitalarios (“she who stay over the talaros”); see. M.Torelli, Lavinio e Roma, Rome 1984, 78, 135–6 (who thinks that this basket contained a phallus; but the quoted literature proves that it contained a snake: F.Massa Pairault, in: F.Massa Pairault, J.-M.Pailler, La maison aux salles souterraines, Fouilles de Bolsena V.1, Rome 1979, 220). 150 M.P.Nilsson, The Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic and Roman Age, Skrifter utgivna av Svenka Institutet i Athen, 8.V, Lund 1957, 8. 151 L.Leschi, “Mosaïque à scènes Dionysiaques de Djemila-Cuicul (Algerie)”, Monuments et mémoires. Publiés par l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres. (Fondation Piot), 35, 1935/36, pls VIII and IX; Boyancé, “Dionysiaca”, 35 and pl. I.2. A 6th or 5th century antefixa from the Tiber, close to the Insula Sacra, represents a Mænad who bears a box: F.Bernabei, A.Cozza, “Conca”, NS 1896, 23–48, esp. 38, fig.13; A.Andrèn, Architectural Terracottas from Etrusco-Italic Temples, Lund-Leipzig 1940, 364, pl. 385; M.R.Di Mino, “Note sulla decorazione coroplastica a Roma dal VI al IV secolo a.C.”, in: Roma repubblica-

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ever, shows a woman uncovering and opening the liknon, from which she takes out a phallus; another young woman, barelegged, turns away from this sight and making a gesture of disgust; on the left-hand side of the scene, an older woman sits holding a cylindrical box (fig. 9). It is highly probable that this is Lyde’s mysterious box. In the Dionysiac inscription from Torre Nova (Tusculum), which describes a large promiscuous cultic association, three women were kistaphoroi (“basket bearers”), another three were liknaphoroi (“winnowing fan bearers”), and one was a phallophoros (“phallus bearer”).152 Pyxis was a Greek word, and its use implies that the Romans had no native words for this ritual object. From this, it is possible to infer a Greek influence on the ritual itself. There were two fertility symbols at Bona Dea’s festival: the snake and the phallus. A comparison with an Athenian myth and ritual acquaints us with the action of a virginal goddess entrusting a girl with a basket that concealed symbolic objects. Aglauros, one of the three daughters of king Kekrops, was entrusted with a basket by Athena, who forbade her to open it. Nevertheless, she and her sister Herse opened the basket and discovered the baby Erichthonios and one or two snakes inside.153 This sight had a powerful emotion effect and Aglauros, in a fit of panic, fell from the Acropolis. Likewise, during the Arrhephoria festival, the priestess of Athena gave the Arrhephoroi (girls who were secluded for a certain period of time on the Acropolis at the service of Athena) a basket that was taken into an underground passage leading to the sacred precinct of Aphrodite en kepois (“in the gardens”).154 This was an initiatory ritual that marked the passage from virginal status to marriage.155 Using the elements that we have presented, we can now attempt to reconstruct the ritual of Bona Dea in the following way: one or more snakes were taken from the grove of the goddess to the consul’s house and were placed by the statue of Bona Dea. The Mænads let the snake crawl from the basket and the mistress of ceremonies, who had taken on the role of a Lydian queen, entrusted the future bride with a box containing a phallus that was supposed to bring her fertility. Once this was done, the Bacchic community made preparations for the marriage of Dionysus and Ariadne. Nobody can say how this marriage was ritually performed, and who played the role of these characters. If the consul’s wife played the role of

152 153

154 155

na fra il 509 e il 270, ed. by I.Dondero and P.Pensabene, Rome 1982, 84. One can not know if this box was a “Lyde’s box”. Moretti, IGUR 160; Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos, II, 302–310, no. 188. Eur., Ion 21–3; 1427; Apollod.III.14; 6.5; Ovid., Met. II.561; Amelesagoras, FGH 330, F 1; Hesych., s.v. oikouros ophis; on this myth and its iconography: W.Burkert, “Kekropidensage und Arrhephoria”, Hermes 94, 1966, 1–25, esp. 11. Paus.I.27.3. See Burkert, as quoted.

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Omphale, it must have been another woman who played the role of Ariadne. No human being, apart from Antony, the triumvir, could play the role of Dionysus. In fact he took on the role of the god and his wife Octavia that of Ariadne; later on he was Dionysos-Osiris and Cleopatra Aphrodite-Isis. Nobody knows if the snake, the phallic symbol or anything else was used to consummate the mystical union with the god. It is possible that the marriage with Dionysus was only prepared, or only thought of. Indeed, many sarcophagi show the wine god apart and not yet in front of his future spouse. They rather show Faunus carrying out his duty of discovering the sleeping girl. The ceremony described by Ovid (Fasti IV.313–30) is the eve of a Dionysiac festival, and Faunus arrived during the night in a cave. In theory, Dionysus’ sacred marriage had to be celebrated one day after Bona Dea’s festival. Sacrifices and prayers were probably performed during the day, but the core of the Bacchic festival was in the evening, with the Mænads and their frenetic nocturnal rituals. The preparation and the eve were two main features of Bona Dea’s festival. Many modern feasts have the same character. For example, the run up to Christmas is more interesting than the feast itself. There is no contradiction between Hercules and Omphale sleeping and the frenzied dances of the Mænads because the Roman sarcophagi show a sleeping Ariadne, or a sleeping Hercules among dancing revellers. Dionysus’ bride had to be asleep.156 13. A RITUAL FOR BOYS Dionysism was a very important form of the Roman rite of passage. It was performed in different sacred spaces from Liber Pater’s, and we know of a grove sacred to another female deity where Bacchic ceremonies for women were enacted: Stimula’s grove. At the beginning of 2nd century BC, rituals for women were also open to men. This was a private experiment that failed tragically. The ancient authors say that these rituals were already old in Rome, but that they underwent a strong resurgence under the influence of Hellenistic, and especially Egyptian Dionysism. The Livian account of the Bacchanalia157 affair provides us with much information about the life of a female collegium in Republican Rome. Livy writes:158 Then Hispala set forth the origin of the mysteries. At first, she said, it was a ritual for women, and it was the custom that no man should be admitted to it. There had been three days appointed each year on which they held initiations into the Bacchic rites by day; it was the rule to choose the matrons in turn as priestesses. Paculla Annia, a Campanian, she said, when priestess, had changed all this as if by the advice of the gods; for she had been the first 156 See C.M.Wolf, Die schlafende Ariadne. Ein hellenistischer Statuentypus und seine Rezeption, Hamburg 2002. 157 Liv.XXXIX.8–22. 158 XXXIX.13.7–14, transl. Sage.

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to initiate men, her sons, Minius and Herennius Cerrinius; she had held the rites by night and not by day, and instead of a mere three days a year she had established five days of initiation in every month. From the time that the rites were performed in common, men mingling with women and the freedom of darkness added, no form of crime, no sort of wrongdoing, was left untried. There were more lustful practices among men with one another than among women. If any of them were disinclined to endure abuse or reluctant to commit crime, they were sacrificed as victims. To consider nothing wrong, she continued, was the highest form of religious devotion among them. Men, as if insane, with fanatical tossings of their bodies, would utter prophecies. Matrons in the dress of Bacchants, with dishevelled hair and carrying blazing torches, would run down to the Tiber, and plunging their torches in the water (because they contained live sulphur mixed with calcium) would bring them out still burning. Men were alleged to have been carried off by the gods who had been bound to a machine and borne away out of sight to hidden caves: they were those who had refused either to conspire or to join in the crimes or to suffer abuse. Their number, she said, was very great, almost constituting a second state; among them were certain men and women of high rank. Within the last two years it had been ordained that no one beyond the age of twenty years should be initiated: boys of such age were sought for as admitted both vice and corruption.

The suppression of Bacchanalia occurred in 186 BC. Both pagan and Christian writers agree in condemning this form of cult. However the scorn of Roman tradition159 does not affect the historical core of the account. The obscenities that Livy alludes to are barely related to the rituals of Italian Mænads. These Mænads were known to Ovid, according to whom they were those who kidnapped Melikertes. This baby had been brought from Greece by Ino. These Mænads were punished by Hercules.160 They were, in any case, bad Mænads, like those of the Bacchanalia. Livy is neither uncovering a class conflict that led the lower classes to perform rituals of liberation,161 nor is he postulating sophisticated Orphic and Pythagorean influences,162 or pointing to the exceedingly

159 See, among the abundant literature: J.-M.Pailler, Bacchanalia: la repression de 186 av.J.-C. à Rome et en Italie, Rome 1988 (his chapter II, 61–122, is devoted to the bibliography: “Un siècle de bibliographie”; another excellent review of the modern literature in J.-M.Pailler, “La spirale de l’interprétation: les Bacchanales”, Annales ESC 37, 1982, 929–952, who concludes by encouraging to be more confident in Livy); R.Turcan, Liturgies de l'initiation bacchique à l'époque romaine (Liber): Documentation littéraire, inscrite et figurée, Paris 2004. 160 Ovid., Fasti VI.501–524. See O.de Cazanove, “Lucus Stimulae”, MEFRA 95, 1983, 55–113. 161 C.Gallini, Protesta e integrazione nella Roma antica, Bari 1970; cf. also P.V.Cova, “Livio e la repressione dei Baccanali”, Athenaeum 52, 1974, 82–109. E.Montanari, Identità culturale e conflitti religiosi nella Roma repubblicana, Rome 1988, 124, underlines that the contemporary political and social mood of the 70s influenced these analyses towards an anachronistic focus. 162 See J.-P.Vernant, Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs, I, Paris 1965, 80–123; M.Détienne, Les Maîtres de Vérité dans la Grèce archaïque, Paris 1967, 2nd ed. 1981, 45–47; Id., “Les chemins de la déviance: Orphisme, dionysisme, pythagorisme”, in: Atti del XIV convegno sulla Magna Grecia, Taranto 1974, Naples 1975, 49–79; J.-M.Pailler, “La spirale de l’interprétation”, 937. Cf. already H.Janne, “Magiciens et religions nouvelles dans l'Ordre Romain”, Latomus 1, 1937, 37–56, according to whom the Bacchanalia were similar to cults of magicians, astrologists and different foreign sects.

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ecstatic and orgiastic character of the rituals.163 Nor does Livy present the persecution as a means to stop the Hellenization of Rome. Rousselle164 presents an important example which proves such an assumption false: Fulvius Nobilior, a champion of Hellenism in Rome, “suffered no harm to his career by his attraction to Greek culture. He felt strong enough to run for censor in 184, and to try again in 179, only two years after the persecution had ended. The election of a philhellene as censor would have been unthinkable had the persecution been an example of anti-Hellenic feelings in the Senate”. In fact, Livy remarks that nobles did attend these ceremonies, and he provides us with precise information about the scandal, created by boys being initiated into female rituals.165 Livy makes it clear that something scandalous did happen, but he does not say precisely what it was. It is highly probable, though, that these scandalous acts were sexual. Female rituals, as in the case of Clodia’s box, could not be explained in explicit terms, but only alluded to. Cicero could not be more explicit either, but he did not condemn the female custom. What was exceptionally scandalous was that the same rituals were being performed by men. The Roman Senate would probably not have suppressed the Bacchanalia if they had been restricted to women. As we shall see later, Bacchus was thought to be the lover of women, maybe of every young woman. The central Bacchic ceremony was the symbolic wedding of the god to a human girl. If, therefore, the Bacchanalia celebrated a marriage to the god, it was unacceptable for a boy to be initiated. Faunus was lusting after Roman girls and granted them fecundity. He had a bad experience when he tried to approach a man, even though by mistake. The Roman authorities reacted robustly and they suppressed the Bacchanalia implacably. It is therefore possible that the marriage to the male god was not merely a symbolic ritual, but that it was accompanied by physical performance. Nobody knows how symbolic or how concrete the sexual union between the initiate and the male god was. Livy used the typical word for sexual abuses: stuprum: plura virorum inter sese quam feminarum esse stupra (XXXIX.13.11)… qui stuprum pati noluerint…stupri patientes (13.14).

The Senate condemned:

163 This is the commonly accepted reason of the repression among the modern scholarship; see for ex. F.Altheim, A History of of Roman Religion, Engl. transl., London 1938, 316–7; Bruhl, Liber pater, 99, 115–6; G.Tarditi, “La questione dei baccanali a Roma nel 186 a.C.”, PP 37, 1954, 265–286; E.Montanari, Identità culturale e conflitti religiosi nella Roma repubblicana, Rome 1988, 119–122; E.S.Gruen, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy, Leiden-New York-Copenhagen-Cologne 1990, 49. 164 R.J.Rousselle, The Roman Persecutionof the Bacchic Cult, Diss.State University of NewYork 1982, 75. 165 R.A.Bauman, “The Suppression of the Bacchanals: Five Questions”, Historia 39, 1990, 334– 348, part. 335–6, deems the initation of boys into female mysteries to be a “venial lapse”, and that this small crime was only the result of Cato’s anti-feminism.

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qui…coniuraverint quo stuprum flagitiumve inferretur (14.8).

Livy is extremely clear and simple about the reason of the repression. However, the modern scholarship looks for every kind of reasons except that which is provided by the sources. Paculla Annia did something that public opinion found unacceptable to her young sons. It was normal and acceptable for the same thing to be done to girls. Evidently, male priests assumed the role of celebrating the symbolic union with gods such as Dionysus or Faunus. Obviously neither a man nor a woman could fulfil the role of the god completely, and no true homosexual practices could be supposed in the case of Bacchanalia. Only an almighty statesman such as Antony dared to take on the role of Dionysus. On the contrary, a priest could not pretend to be Dionysus. Every ancient Roman would have understood what impious and obscene enactments Livy was alluding to; we do not. But at least one thing is clear: symbolic sexual intercourse was being referred to. Giovanni Casadio166 has recently pointed out that Dionysius of Halicarnas167 sus describes the behaviour of Aristodemos Malachos, tyrant of Cumæ, in a way that recalls Roman boys: When a boy he was effeminate and allowed himself to be treated as a woman.

The Lupercalia were performed on the Sacra Via and everyone could see the Luperci whipping women. This was a symbolic fertilisation. The Bacchanalia rituals were performed at night somewhere secluded, and in this secrecy it was possible for something more physical to occur. But finally it is not very important to us to ascertain whether physical or symbolic acts were ritually performed: the Roman Senate condemned them in any case. The trial of Clodius makes it clear that a man could not even gaze on the sacred objects of female rituals.168 Male attendance, which is mentioned in Ovid’s Ars amatoria, was surely of another type, and it is possible that after the Senatusconsultum de Bacchanalibus, Bacchic ceremonies could no longer admit male participants, in either a sexually active or a sexually passive capacity. The Roman people was more hostile to paedophilia than the Greeks. Ritual pædophilia concerning Roman boys, especially offsprings of prominent families, was absolutely unacceptable and forbidden. Faunus, Liber Pater, Hercules, Juno, Bona Dea, and other Roman gods involved in the human marriages were definitely heterosexual.

166 G.Casadio, “Dionysos in Campania: Cumae”, in: Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, ed. by G.Casadio and P.A. Johnston, Austin 2009, 33–45, esp. 38–9. 167 Dion.Hal.VII.2.4. 168 Cic., De har.resp. 8.

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14. THE FESTIVAL FOR MEN Hercules did as he had promised, and instituted a festival at the Ara Maxima from which women were excluded. All that is known about this ritual has been thoroughly discussed in Jean Bayet’s book Les origines de l’Hercule romain,169 and there is nothing now to add to his analysis. I shall present only the most important sources describing it. Vergil tells the story of Evander hosting Æneas and inviting him to the festival of Ara Maxima: “Since you are come hither as friend, this yearly festival, which we may not defer, graciously solemnize with us, and even now become familiar with your comrades’ board.” This said, he orders the repast and cups, by now removed, to be replaced, and with his own hand ranges the guests on the grassy seat, and chief in honour he welcomes Æneas to the cushion of a shaggy lion’s hide, and invites him to a maple throne. Then chosen youths, and the priest of the altar, in emulous haste bring roast flesh of bulls, pile on baskets the gift of Ceres, fashioned well, and serve the wine of Bacchus. Æneas and with him the warriors of Troy feast on the long chine of an ox and the sacrificial meat.170

Evander explained to Æneas that Hercules had instituted this festival after he had defeated Cacus and recovered his cattle. At the end of his account, the Arcadian king said: “Come then, warriors, and, in honour of deeds so glorious, wreath your hair with leaves, and stretch forth the cup in your hands; call on our common god, and with a will pour forth the wine.” He had no sooner spoken than the variegated poplar veiled his hair with the shade dear to Hercules, hanging down with a festoon of leaves, and the sacred goblet charged his hand. Speedily all pour glad libation on the board, and offer prayer to the gods.171

The festival fell on 12th August, and women and slaves were excluded from it.172 It was the male counterpart of the festival of Bona Dea. However, it is also known that women were excluded from the cult of Silvanus.173 There were two sacred places set up in Rome where groups of both genders gathered separately on certain days. One rule was common to both festivals: anyone who gazed at the festivities without having the right to do so lost his sight;174 consequently, both Hercules and

169 170 171 172

J.Bayet, Les origines de l’Hercule romain, Paris 1926, esp. 248–274. Verg., Aen. VIII.172–183, transl. Rushton Fairclough. Verg., Aen. VIII.273–279. Women: Propert.V.9.69; Paul. Fest., 82 L.; Plut., Quaest.Rom. 60 = 278 F; Gell.XI.6.2; Macrob. I.12.28. Slaves: Serv., in Aen. VIII.179. 173 Cato, De agr. 83; Schol.Iuv. VI.447; CIL VI, 579. 174 Bona Dea: Cic., De dom. 40.105; De har.resp. 17; Prop.IV.9.57–60. See E.Narducci, “Cecità degli occhi e accecamento della mente: nota a Cicerone, de domo 105 (con un contributo su Ovidio, fast. 6, 437–454)”, RFIC 126, 1998, 279–289. Hercules: Origo gentis Rom. 8; Serv., in Aen. VIII.269.

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Bona Dea had the power to restore health to eyes.175 The same rule applied to men who saw the interior of the temple to Vesta.176 This form of opposition was typical of initiation rituals.177 They were, in other words, part of the educational path which leads to marriage and adulthood. The specific male counterpart of Fauna was Faunus, and his festival was the Lupercalia – another counterpart to Bona Dea’s festival, even if different in form. Juvenal confirms that the Luperci’s whips and Lyde’s box were two means by which a girl became fertile. Cicero describes the confraternities of the Luperci in this way: The genuine wolf-men were a sort of savage fraternity, quite rude and rustic, who banded together in that woodland pack of theirs before the time of civilization and laws.178

These savage men were theatrically representing the ancestors, who lived without laws and were compelled by their instincts. Faunus was impelled by his instincts to rape Fauna, and the Juno oracle ordered the sacred billy goat to fecundate the Roman wives. This was the mythological origin of using goat-leather whips, as we have already seen. We shall not examine this ritual in detail because it was meant more for married than for unmarried women. The myth of the genders having been kept apart and the festivals of Hercules and Bona Dea were at the origin of the legend of Romulus. He established an asylum, i.e. a sacred enclosure where everyone could escape and be safe. Those who arrived were Romulus’ first followers, i.e. the first Romans. They later realised that they were exclusively men and that they needed women. For this reason they raped the Sabine women. There followed a war ensued with the Sabine king Titus Tatius, and the women were able to persuade their fathers and male partners to live in peace after an agreement on the Roman Forum. The raped women were therefore transformed into lawful wives. This legend was originally about Latin – not Sabine – women, who had the ius conubii, i.e. the right of celebrating lawful marriages with Romans.179

175 Bona Dea: CIL VI, 68 = ILS 5313. See G.Piccaluga, “Bona Dea”, SMSR 35, 1964, 200, n. 21; Brouwer, 261, 264–5. Greek men who unduly saw the Bacchants and their secret sexual rituals can loose their sight: Plut., Alex. 2–3. 176 Cic., Scaur. 48; Liv., Epit. XIX; Plin., N.h. VII.141; Ovid., Fasti VI.437 ss.; Ampel.20.11; Sen., Contr. III.2; VII.2.7; Sen., Dial. I.5.2; Augustin., de civ. Dei III.18.2; Iuven.III.139; VI.265; Val.Max.I.4.5; Ps.Plut., Par.min. 17 = 309 F– 310 A. Cf. A.Brelich, “Il mito nella storia di Cecilio Metello”, SMSR 15, 1939, 30–41. 177 A.Brelich, “Osservazioni sulle ‘esclusioni rituali’”, SMSR 22, 1949–50, 1–21; Piccaluga, “Bona Dea”, 227. 178 Cic., Pro Cael. 26, transl. Gardner: fera quaedam sodalitas et plane pastoricia atque agrestis germanorum Lupercorum, quorum coitio illa silvestris ante est instituta quam humanitas atque leges. 179 A.Mastrocinque, “Sabini o Latini? A proposito di due episodi di storia romana arcaica”, in: Identità e civiltà dei Sabini. Atti del XVIII Conv. di Studi Etruschi e Italici. Rieti-Magliano Sabina 1993, Florence 1996, 41–47.

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The intrusion of founding legends into the myth of Latin rights (or vice versa) came about because of the desire to mould Roman origins in the same way that Roman youth was moulded, i.e. with segregation between men and women. Later, an agreement produced the complementarity and completeness of society, through marriage. The segregation of young men and women was thought of as a feature of a primæval age. It was one of the myths of the origins, in which gods or heroes of a wild world enacted this divide within the community. These gods were naked or covered only with animal skin, they did not know agriculture and foods or drinks which agriculture produces. They did not know marriage, for women were aggressive and hidden in the bush, while men were compelled either by misogyny or by libido. However, this divide was never complete and forms of transgression occurred. A male god was always intruding into the female group, and his activity was the first step towards the end of segregation. We have already said that women were excluded from the cult of Silvanus. Cato the Elder mentions a ritual for Mars Silvanus, to which women could not participate.180 A scholiast to Juvenal181 asserts that women can not sacrifice to Silvanus. He comments a passage by Juvenal in which the satirist criticizes a woman who offers a pig to this god. A Roman inscription182 reports Silvanus’ prohibition of women from entering a man’s pool. Silvanus is Faunus in totally human form, which is worsipped in many private rituals. He is another god whose concern was that of separating women from men, as the Roman inscription proves. Peter F.Dorcey183 has underlined that forty-nine epigraphical dedications to Silvanus are made by women and that this fact undermines the statements of the above mentioned passages. Thirty-one inscriptions were erected by women alone, eight by wives with their husbands, eight by women and men of unspecified relationship, one by a father and daughter, and one by a mother and son. In addition, other dedications to the god were erected for the health of women.184 In one case the dedication was made after a dream, in which evidently the god appeared to the woman.185 The Christian author of the Pseudo-Ambrosius’ Epistula II.12 mentions a woman who was invited by men to participate in a sacrifice to Silvanus, and some inscriptions mention several women involved with men in cultic activities for this god.186 180 181 182 183

Cato, De agr. 83. Schol. Iuven. VI.447. CIL VI, 579. P.F.Dorcey, “The Role of Women in the Cult of Silvanus”, Numen 36, 1989, 143–155. On Silvanus in the imperial age in the Danubian provinces (where he was sometimes represented along with Nymphs): M.L.Dészpa, Peripherie-Denken: Transformation und Adaption des Gottes Silvanus in den Donauprovinzen (1.–4. Jahrhundert n. Chr.), PawB 35, Stuttgart 2012. 184 Dorcey, 148. 185 AE 1971, 31. 186 Dorcey, 150.

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The exclusion of men or women from a cult is not absolute, but has its function in specific social contexts. Hercules had his festivals for men, but he was present in a peculiar way in festivals of women. He was expelled from Bona Dea’s sacred grove, but his arrival played probably a role in the cult itself. We will see in another chapter that an image of Hercules was discovered in a private cultic place for women at Salandra, near Metapontum. Hercules’ club was used as an amulet by women.187 Those examples suffice to show that exclusions were not absolute, but confined to specific rituals, or even parts of rituals. The divine male intruder into the female group was highly worshipped by women. He was the source of fecundity, the founder of civilization, the protector of the whole community. Women were at first hostile to him, but they knew how important his transgression was and therefore they worshipped him. This is the reason why the rules of exclusion were only apparent. These rules were made only in order to infringe them. The female counterpart was, she too, a source of fecundity, a founder of civilization, and a protector of the whole community. Her duty was that of defending the young women by conquering the divine male intruder, and to defend the community from foreign aggressors. But she was finally convinced to stop the segregation, she was appeased and gave up to the primæval behaviour. We are scarcely informed on the means by which this kind of goddess gave up to her hostility, but there is no doubt that she was convinced. We will discuss further this matter in a chapter devoted to Hercules Musarum. The final part of those myths and rituals was always the premise of marriages and civilization. On the other hand, initiations, segregation, and complementarity will be dealt with at the end of this work. In fact, material must first be collected, analysed and classified. An anthropological approach will follow at the end.

187 J.Werner, “Herkuleskeule und Donar-Amulett”, JRGZM 11, 1964, 176–188; R.Noll, “Zwei römerzeitliche Grabfunde aus Rumänien in der Wiener Antikensammlung”, JRGZM 31, 1974, 435–454.

V. INITIATIONS AND POLITICAL POWER 1. BACCHIC FESTIVALS AND ROMAN WOMEN To recapitulate, we stress that the Dionysiac sarcophagi represented the encounter between a noble girl and Dionysus. Faunus played an important role in this encounter: it was he who fecundated the girl, either directly or in the form of a snake. The encounter took place in a cave at night, as Ovid tells us and as the use of torches clearly proves. The house of the highest Roman magistrate was decorated as a woodland place during a wintry night, and his wife would invite some women to perform a secret ritual, exactly as Omphale had invited her faithful followers. She invited Hercules, in the same way as Pompeia had invited Clodius, who played the harp/cithara disguised as a girl (see above, p. 31). The Vestal virgins also attended. A sarcophagus from Vigna Casali, near Porta San Sebastiano, in Rome,1 and now in the Paul Getty Museum (fig. 3), proves that these myths and rituals were deeply rooted in the Romans’ personal beliefs. The imagery is the discovery of Ariadne, whose face is not represented because the features of the buried girl had to be reproduced. The same phenomenon occurs on a magnificent sarcophagus from St. Médard-d’Eyran (Bordeaux), in the Louvre Museum,2 and on many others. Sometimes the face of Dionysus’ bride was carved with the features of the deceased woman after the rest of the sarcophagus had been carved.3 The inscription on the Paul Getty monument is: D M / Maconianæ Severianæ / filiæ dulcissimæ / M. Sempronius Proculus / Faustinianus v. c. et / Præcilia Severina c.f. / parentes To the divinized soul of the deceased. For Maconiana Severiana, the sweetest daughter, Marcus Sempronius Faustinianus, vir clarissimus, and Præcilia Severiana, clarissima femina, her parents (had this made).

1 2

3

Matz, III, no. 47; see 384, no. 214 (previously in Hever Castle, Kent). Matz, III, no. 222, pl. 234, 239–240; this sarcophagus kept the bones of a woman and has been discovered close to another with the bones of a man, on which the myth of Endymion (the shepherd which was loved by Selene) was sculptured; see C.M.Wolf, Die schlafende Ariadne. Ein hellenistischer Statuentypus und seine Rezeption, Hamburg 2002, 200. On links between the myths of Endymion and of Ariadne on sarcophagi: M.Koortbojian, Myth, Meaning and Memory on Roman Sarcophagi, Berkeley 1995, 95–97. See Matz, III, 382–3, no. 212: a sarcophagus in the Ermitage Museum. See H.Wrede, Consecratio in formam deorum, Mainz am Rhein 1981, nos 44–45; Turcan, Les sarcophages, 531– 532; E.de Grummond, “Bacchic Imagery and Cult Practice in Roman Italy”, in: The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. Ancient Ritual - Modern Muse, ed. by E.K.Gazda, Ann Arbor 2000, 74–82; Wolf, Die schlafende Ariadne, 200.

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This girl was not married and her parents were of senatorial rank.4 They represented her as Dionysus’ bride, lusted after by Faunus as in the myths (and rituals) of Bona Dea. It is probable that Præcilia Severiana once celebrated at home the nocturnal ceremony of Bona Dea. Another wonderful Dionysiac sarcophagus with Ariadne asleep, now at the Walters Art Gallery, in Baltimore, dates from the early Severan period and comes from the cemetery of the Licinii, a prominent senatorial family in Rome.5 Dionysiac representation thus was deliberately chosen by aristocratic families for their young deceased women. On another sarcophagus (210-220 AD) at the National Archaeological Museum in Rome, 6 Ariadne is in Roman dress, while the Dionysus’ face has been left uncarved. This unfinished sarcophagus can be better understood thanks to a Greek funerary inscription on another Roman sarcophagus,7 which shows a boy in Dionysiac attire lying on a bed: My name is Saturninus. My mother and my father dedicated this image, in which from a boy I am transformed into Dionysus.

Sarcophagi like that in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow8 or that from St. Médardd’Eyran, in the Louvre, are so beautiful, big and precious that it is clear that they held the bodies of two very rich and important young women. Playing the role of Ariadne was, therefore, a status symbol. Playing the role of Omphale was another status symbol, but for mature women. Both Dionysus’ bride and the president of Dionysiac ceremonies had to be prominent women.9 The deceased who was placed in the Vatican sarcophagus with Omphale emphasised the character of the Lydian queen, who was the organizer of Bacchic 4 5

6 7 8 9

On those peoples: Turcan, Les sarcophages, 42. On a sarcophagus provided by a clarissima femina to his stepson: o.c., 46. K.Lehmann-Hartleben, E.C.Olsen, Dionysiac Sarcophagi in Baltimore, Baltimore 1942, 14– 16, figs. 9–10; Matz, III, 386–8, no. 216; D.Boschung, “Überlegungen zum Liciniergrab”, JdI 101, 1986, 257–287, esp.258, n. 7; P.Kragelund, “The Emperors, the Licinii Crassi and Pompey”, in: Images of Ancestors, ed. by J.M.Højte, Aarhus 2002, 185–222, esp. 214. In this book I prefer not to deal with the Villa dei Misteri in Pompei, and the villa della Farnesina in Rome, the residences of prominent people, where frescoes or stuccoes depict Dionysiac scenes, with cistae, likna and other initiatory instruments and symbols. A pupil of mine is going forth with researches in this field and I hope that she will be able to deal with this difficult topic. Matz IV.2, no. 76 = Wrede, 210, no. 48. Capitoline Museums in Rome: Moretti, IGUR I, 343; Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos, II, 301, no. 187. Matz, I, no. 47, pl. 56. On the other hand it is necessary to notice that Roman senators often preferred very serious sarcophagi, which represented their high qualities, such as clementia, pietas, concordia, virtus; see H.Wrede, Senatorische Sarkophage Roms, Monumenta Artis Romanae 29, Mainz am Rhein 2001.

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ceremonies. An allusion to the myth of Omphale is present as well on all the sarcophagi showing the effeminate Hercules; therefore, Omphale cannot be said to be scarcely connected to Bacchic festivals. It is impossible to ascertain if the Vatican sarcophagus held the body of a mature woman, who was depicted as Omphale. None of the bones have survived. It is impossible to think that the women who organised the Bacchic mysteries of Bona Dea were always clothed in lion pelt; the fact that it was so rare and uncomfortable would have made them prefer to be decked out in Lydian ribbons (mitræ, vittæ) to play the role of the Lydian leading Bacchant.10 On the other hand, women of the Imperial Age were certainly proud to be represented as Omphale. A famous statue in the Vatican Museum11 shows a noblewoman from the Severan age wearing the leontè, like Omphale (fig. 5). Her similarity to Julia Domna makes it clear that, even if she was not the empress herself, she was a leading woman who wanted to be compared to this great empress. According to Paul Zanker, the statue would have been placed on a tomb, but there are other possible hypotheses as well: for example, another suitable place would have been a curia matronarum. It is evident that the choice of Omphale was a distinction and a status symbol for noblewomen, and the link between Omphale and Dionysism explains the success of such iconography in the Severan age. In fact, two of Septimius Severus’ most respected gods were Bacchus and Hercules, both highly venerated in his native Libya. There are two statuary groups of Hercules and Omphale in which the queen has the physiognomy of a private woman, whereas the hero is idealised as a god.12 Indeed, while women were proud to become Omphale, i.e. to perform royal duties, men were more reluctant to be portrayed as the effeminate Hercules. The time for condemning Omphale, who had been thought to be a model for Cleopatra, was over. Honorific statues of the Lydian queen were more appropriate for all-female clubs rather than public places. Therefore the famous statue mentioned above could have been housed in this way, and it is possible that it represents Julia Domna herself.

10 In my opinion, the figure standing by the sleeping Hercules and Pan on the Moscow sarcophagus (Matz, I, 53–5, no 47) is not Dionysos, but Omphale. Her head is decorated by grapes hanging from a ribbon (like the Lydian Mænads at the procession of Ptolemy II: Athen. 198 E), he is wearing a tyrsos and a kantharos, and is clothed with a large robe and a lion’s skin. In fact, this figure shows a woman’s breast and a thin waist, all the contrary of the Dionysos on the opposite side. 11 Turcan, “Somnus et Omphale”, 595–606; F.Ghedini, Giulia Domna tra Oriente e Occidente, Roma1984, 156–157; P.Zanker, “Eine römische Matrone als Omphale”, MDAI(R) 106, 1999, 119–131; Id., Un’arte per l’impero, Ital.transl., Milano 2002, 198–211. 12 See Ghedini, 157; N.Kampen, “Omphale and the Instability of Gender”, in: Sexuality in ancient Art, ed. by N.Boymel Kampen, Cambridge 1996, 233–246, fig.98 and 100. See also the fresco from Pompei: J.Boardman, “Omphale”, in: LIMC VIII (1997), 45–53, part. 47, no. 14, and the contorniatum 51, no. 56, which shows Olympias, Alexander’s mother, disguised as Omphale.

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The roles of Ariadne and Omphale were played by important Roman women. In the Roman world, especially in the Imperial Age, each city organised its own festivals, probably including female Bacchic ceremonies in the house of the duovir or the quattuovir iure dicundo, i.e. the higher local authority. At the end of the Severan age (in 235 AD) a temple to Bona Dea Valetudo (corresponding to the Greek Hygeia) was dedicated by Lucius Cassius Restulus, former decurio and flamen perpetuus, and his wife Clodia Luciosa in Auzia, Mauretania Caesarensis,13 showing that in this African city a very important man and his wife were proud to oversee this cult in which women sought prestige. The Bacchic sarcophagi were not only an expression of Dionysiac imagery and hopes for a happy life in a Bacchic netherworld,14 but also an expression of pre-eminent social status. This is by no means contradicted by the discovery of men in Bacchic sarcophagi:15 they wanted to be identified with Dionysus himself or with someone in his cortège.16 A sarcophagus in Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 1972.650, has this inscription: M(arco) Vibio M(arci) f(ilio) Liberali Praet(ori) M(arcus) Vibius Agesilaus iunior nutricio suo fec(it) Marcus Vibius Agesilaus, junior, made (it) for Marcus Vibius Liberalis, son of Marcus, the praetor, his foster-father.

Agesilaus was probably adopted by Liberalis because he bears the same name Vibius. The sarcophagus shows the wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne, but not in the form of Ariadne being discovered. In fact Liberalis was identified with Dionysus, who was depicted standing on a chariot. On a sarcophagus in the National Archaeological Museum at Rome,17 Ariadne’s face is carved with features of a woman, while Dionysus’ remains uncarved. It was evidently intended to house the remains of a couple; the wife had her portrait carved; the husband, however, died before the sculptor could carve his. In life, even the most important politician had to give up his seat to Dionysus, but in the afterlife, Dionysus’ role could be taken on. A noun has been proposed for this form of deification: “eschatogamy” (marriage in the afterlife).18 We will deal with this in detail in a later chapter. 13 CIL VIII, 20747; Brouwer, Bona Dea, 142, no. 141. 14 For which see R.Turcan, Messages d’outre-tombe. L’iconographie des sarcophages romains, Paris 1999, 101–110. 15 See for ex. CIL X, 1295; VI, 1621. There is also the possibility of a marital couple in a Dionysiac sarcophagus: Turcan, Les sarcophages, 42; 44 (CIL XIV, 297). 16 See R.Turcan, Messages d’outre-tombe. L’iconographie des sarcophages romains, Paris 1999, 107. 17 Matz, 186–7, no. 76; pl. 89. 18 See E.Keuls, “Aspetti religiosi della Magna Grecia in età romana”, in: La Magna Grecia nell’età romana. Atti del XV conv. sulla Magna Grecia, Taranto 1975, Naples 1976, 439– 458, esp. 444; cf. G.Casadio, “Dionysos in Campania: Cumae”, in: Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, 40.

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Ariadne was a model that women of upper classes often chose. It is evident as well that a Dionysiac deification was sought also by female members of middle and lower classes. The Severiana inscription can be compared with a Greek inscription from Tusculum, on which one can read: Julia, daughter of the sweet father Quintilius Elpidephoros, a girl, almost 10 years old, who knows of her parents useless suffering; I am inhabiting my father’s final gift, which received many tears. Dionysos Bacchios, who loves him, introduced me into the sacred circles (thi19 asoi) as leader of the group (speira).

A Latin inscription from the late imperial age from Cekancevo (25 km South of Sofia) exhibiting a high degree of Romanization says: To the divinized soul of the deceased; I am lying here, unhappy; I am called Ilia Claudia, de20 clared servant of the Biacustian lord. In my 10th year I was consecrated at the Kalends of June. My parents indeed wanted me to get married so that all could be glorified. But I could not live until the time which was suitable. Twenty-three years after my consecration fate or the law of life made my parents miss me. Now I am pushed to go among the Bacchants as a servant of the Nysian god, accompanied by Filina, the “mother”. You shall live, dear sisters, as long as possible… Ferociana (had this monument built) with the flock that deserves all the best. Farewell, you who are passing.21

In those cases the deceased women supposed to become members of the Dionysiac cortège, even not Ariadne herself. 2. HOW MANY CEREMONIES FOR BONA DEA? Modern scholarship contents itself with stating that there are only two known festivals to Bona Dea: one at the home of one of the consuls and one in the Aventine grove. If this were all, we would have to assume that only a very small number of women celebrated the cult of Bona Dea. We shall see that this assumption is false. More is known about how the Bona Dea cult was organised in the Imperial Age than about how it was done during the Republic. Women would gather in private clubs, as can be seen in Brouwer’s complete epigraphical survey. Rome hosted many groups of worshippers and had many temples to Bona Dea; Ostia had at least two temples to her. Juvenal’s 2nd satire proves that even homosexual groups could create clubs to worship this goddess.22 We are therefore far from

19 L.Moretti, “Iscrizioni greche inedite di Roma”, BCAR 1963–64, 135–146, esp. 143–6, no. 7; Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos, II, 292–3, no. 180. The “father’s final gift” is the tomb. 20 Bacchus, as worshipped at Biacustum. 21 AE 1968, no. 455; Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos, II, 103–6, no. 51. 22 The invaluable book Bona Dea by Brouwer has showed that women of different classes practised the cult of Bona Dea; see recently M.Lipka, Roman Gods. A Conceptual Approach, RGRW 167, Leiden-Boston 2009, 183.

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sure that there were only two festivals to Bona Dea. There is a lot of evidence that leads us to think that these festivals were celebrated in many different places. From Cicero and other writers of the Late Republican Age, it appears that it was an honour for the wives of the consuls to preside at festivals to Bona Dea. It is unclear whether the wife of one or both consuls could celebrate the ceremony, and how the choice between them was actually made. Modern reconstructions of the ceremony at the home of the consul, though based on Cicero, are not above suspicion. In fact, it is possible that not only one but many ceremonies of this kind were performed. In fact, Cassius Dio23 writes: the rites which according to ancestral custom the Vestals carried out at the residences of consuls and praetors out of sight of the whole male population.

Cassius Dio uses the conjunction “and” by informing that ceremonies were performed in many houses. Plutarchus reports the same thing by using the conjunction “or”.24 The case of Caesar in 62 is interesting because he was a prætor; the consuls that year were Decimus Iunius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena.25 There was no foreign war and these consuls are only known for domestic activities.26 Moreover they had absented themselves from their homes; only the presence of their wives was required. Why should their wives not have celebrated the festival? An epigram by Martial27 perhaps gives further evidence. He criticises, at the end of the first century AD, a certain Proculeia, wife of a prætor, who wanted a divorce after she had held two expensive festivals using her husband’s money. One of these festivals was in honour of Magna Mater; the second was an unnamed populare sacrum, probably that in honour of Bona Dea, which was performed pro populo.28 This could potentially be another case of a prætor’s wife celebrating a festival that theoretically only the wives of consuls should have celebrated. Therefore, we suppose that all the wives of the highest Roman magistrates could perform this ceremony. Cicero29 says that also the mother of the supreme magistrate could organize the ceremony. By the same token, some emperors (Hadrian or Antoninus Pius, for example) did not remarry after their wives died and also their mothers were deceased. In this situation the wives of consuls and prætors were expected to celebrate the ritual. The festival was held at a variable date at the beginning of December; if it was held in many places, more than six, on the same night, the Vestal virgins 23 Cass.Dio XXXVII.45: τὴν ποίησιν τῶν ἱερῶν, ἅπερ αἱ ἀειπαρθένοι παρά τε τοῖς ὑπάτοις καὶ παρὰ τοῖς στρατηγοῖς ἄγνωστα ἐκ τῶν πατρίων ἐς πᾶν τὸ ἄρρεν ἐπετέλουν. Plut., Caes. 9 says: ὑπατεύοντος ἢ στρατηγοῦντος ἀνδρός. 24 Plut., Caes. 9: ὑπατεύοντος ἢ στρατηγοῦντος ἀνδρός. 25 T.R.S.Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, II, New York 1952, 172–3. 26 See F.Münzer, “Iunius”, in: RE X.1 (1905), 163, 1090–1091; Id., “Licinius”, in: RE XIII.1 (1910), 123, 446–449. 27 Mart.X.41; cf. Brouwer, 194–5; 269. 28 See Brouwer, l.c. 29 Plut., Cic. 19.

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would not be able to attend all of them. If there really were many nocturnal feasts, they would have to have been held on different nights.30 After bringing up this problem, we have to leave it because of the uncertainty of the possible answers. In fact, we do not know how many Vestal virgins were required for each ceremony. In any case, all the wives of consuls and prætors were potentially representatives of the Roman people in front of the gods. Each one of them who had presided over the ceremony became part of the elite group of Roman matronæ.31 Such a group is reminiscent of the consulares and prætorii among the men. There were clubs for prominent women in several cities of the Roman Empire. A curia matronarum is attested at Lanuvium, where a double epulum was organised at the public expense.32 At Neapolis, the oikos gynaikôn (“house for women”) hosted ceremonies and was presided over by a hiereia, i.e. a priestess. One of them, Tettia Casta, had a statue and other public honours after her death.33 A similar phenomenon can be found in Forum Clodii (near Bracciano), as we will see.

3. LIVIA AND BONA DEA An inscription from Forum Clodii34 informs us of the decisions taken in 18 AD by the local duumviri. Here is the text: Under the third consulship of Tiberius Caesar and the second consulship of Germanicus Caesar, under the duumvirate of Gnæus Acceius Rufus Lutatius, son of Gnæus, of the tribus Arnensis, and of Titus Petillius, son of Publius, of the tribus Quirina, the decree has been issued: This shrine and these statues, a sacrificial animal for the dedication. That two victims, such as always used to be sacrificed, be sacrificed on the birthday of Augustus, 24th September, on the altar consecrated to the Divinity of the imperial House, on 23rd and 24th September - - Furthermore, that on the birthday of the Emperor Tiberius the members of the municipal Senate – under the obligation to always do so – and the people’s banquet - - - Quintus Cascellius 30 Moreau, Clodiana religio, 15–20 was able to date the famous ceremony of 62 BC, at Caesar’s home, to the night between the 4th and the 5th. But the ceremony of 63 BC occurred the night between 3 and 4 December: Plut., Cic.19 and Cass.Dio XXXVII.35.4: L.Richardson, Jr., “Cicero ‘Att.’ 5.21.14 and the ‘Romana Mysteria’”, Phoenix 55, 2001, 411–413, part. 412. At this time the praetors were eight, in 47 BC their number became ten and subsequently they became 14 and then 16 (see for ex. W.Kierdorf, “Praetor”, in: Der neue Pauly, X (2001), 260–262, part. 261). 31 Cf. Brouwer, 268. 32 CIL XIV, 2120; A.Donati, “Sull'iscrizione Lanuvina della curia mulierum”, RSA 1, 1971, 235–237; A.Pasqualini, “CIL XIV 2120, la curia mulierum di Lanuvio e l’‘associazionismo’ delle donne romane”, in: A.Pasqualini, Latium vetus et adiectum. Ricerche di storia, e religione e antiquaria, Tivoli 2013, 269–288. 33 IG XIV, 760; on the women’s associations: N.Purcell, “Livia and the Womanhood of Rome”, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philol. Soc. 212, 1986, 78–105, part. 84–85. 34 CIL XI, 3303 = ILS 154.

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promises to incur the expense, and this forever, so that gratitude may be shown to his munificence - - - and that on that birthday annually a bull-calf be sacrificed, and that on the birthdays of the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, before the members of the municipal Senate sit down to dinner, the Tutelary Deities of the Emperor be invited, with incense and wine, to dine at the altar of the Divinity of the imperial House. At our own expense we have had the altar to the Divinity of the imperial House built; we have had the public games organized, at our own expense, from 13th August for six days; on the birthday of the Empress we have treated the women of the Bona Dea quarter to mead and cakes, at our expense; moreover: on the occasion of the dedication of the statues of the Emperors and the Empress, we have treated the members of the municipal Senate and the people to mead and cakes, at our own expense, and we have solemnly declared to do so for ever on the day of that dedication. So that that day annually might be celebrated by more people (?), we shall reserve 10 March, on which day the Emperor Tiberius most auspiciously was created High Pontiff.35

Forum Clodii thus instituted a whole series of dynastic festivals and erected statues of Augustus, Tiberius and Livia. Quite apart from the other festivals, there was to be a distribution of sweet wine and cakes on the day when the statues were dedicated. Since that would be at a time of year when there were fewer people in the town (and this latter was less frequented), they chose to move it to the date in early March when Tiberius had taken on the post of pontifex maximus. Cake and sweet wine were then made available to the women of the quarter or village dependent on Forum Clodii, and it was to be handed out at the temple of Bona Dea. As has been recently demonstrated, the nobility of Ostia was proud to follow the model of their Roman leaders. In Rome, Terentia received a message from Bona Dea during the ceremonies at the home of Cicero, her husband, during his consulship in 63 BC. The fire on the altar had been extinguished, but it suddenly sent forth a bright blaze from the ashes, and this was a premonition about the conspiracy of Catilina.36 In the following years, because of the Clodius scandal, Bona Dea was at the core of political arguments. In this period Octavia, an Ostian noblewoman who was probably born in Forum Clodii,37 offered to furnish and rebuild the temple to Bona Dea at the end of via degli Augustali in Ostia.38 The dedication makes it clear that Octavia was the wife of P. Lucilius Gamala, the most prominent man in the city at that time, who was known to Cicero and Atticus, and imitated Caesar’s munificence to the Roman people in about 44 BC.39

35 Transl. by Brouwer, Bona Dea, 104–105. 36 Plut., Cic. 20. 37 M.Cebeillac-Gervasoni, “La dedica a Bona Dea da parte di Ottavia, moglie di Gamala”, in: Ostia, Cicero, Gamala, feasts, & the economy: Papers in memory of John H. D’Arms, ed. by A.Gallina Zevi and J.H.Humphrey, JRA Suppl. 57, 2004, 75–82, part. 77–81. 38 On this temple: M.Floriani Squarciapino, “Un nuovo santuario della Bona Dea a Ostia”, RPAA 32, 1959–1960, 93–95; on Octavia’s inscription: M.Cebeillac, “Octavia, épouse de Gamala, et la Bona Dea”, MEFRA 85, 1973, 517–553. 39 F.Zevi, “P. Lucilio Gamala senior: un riepilogo trent’anni dopo”, in: Ostia, Cicero, Gamala, 47–67, part. 66–7.

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Caesar was deeply involved in the cults of Faunus and Fauna. The famous episode of the Lupercalia of 44 BC and the creation of the Luperci Iulii suffice to show the political role that Faunus’ festival played in Caesarian Rome. Fauna was also included in Caesar’s religion, even after the scandal of 62 BC. A denarius40 struck at the beginning of the Civil War shows a goddess crowned with oak leaves. A crown of the same leaves is depicted on two altars to Bona Dea at Arles and Glanum. Gilbert Picard notes that Caesar received a civic oak crown in 80 and again in 45 BC; the French author therefore connects this crown being placed on Bona Dea’s head with Caesar’s ideology and identifies the goddess on the coins as Bona Dea. A few years later Livia had the temple to Bona Dea on the Aventine hill restored, as Ovid tells us41 in his account of new cults for the Lares and Genius Augusti. At Ostia the noblewoman Terentia, who identified herself as Cluvius’ wife (exactly as Octavia had identified herself as Gamala’s wife), dedicated the stone of a pit in the same Ostian temple to Bona Dea. This dedication was made as part of the reconstructions in about 6 AD.42 She was following in the path of Livia’s piety towards this important goddess, in the same way that Octavia had followed in the path of Cicero’s wife. Frescoes from this restored temple show Mænads, masks, and Cupids.43 After the failure of Antony and his Dionysiac propaganda, a blossoming of Bacchic imagery was not to be expected; nevertheless, Terentia and other sponsors of the rebuilding preferred iconographic themes like these, albeit in a very sober form. 4. THE SENACULUM MULIERUM In an earlier chapter, we dealt with the statue of Julia Domna or of a noblewoman from the Severan age depicted as Omphale, and with Dionysiac sarcophagi portraying Omphale. It has been said that these forms of representation were an indicator of social prestige. Now we shall look at the passages in the Historia Augusta that deal with the Senate of the Women. 40 Crawford, RRC, no. 452. See G.Ch.Picard, “L’iconographie de Bona Dea”, in: Iconographie classique et identités régionales. Colloque internat. Paris 26 et 27 mai 1983, ed. by L.Kahil, C.Augé & P.Linant de Bellefonds, Paris 1986, 111–117. 41 Ovid., Fasti V.157–158. The old temple is probably represented on cistophori issued by Caius Fannius in Asia in 49 BC, and it was shaped as a round monopteros or as a hexastyle temple: L.Zollschan, “The Temple on the Cistophori of C.Fannius”, Klio 89, 2007, 125–136. On these coins: G.R.Strumpf, Numismatische Studien zur Chronologie der römischen Statthalter in Kleinasien (122 v.Chr. – 163 n.Chr.), Saarbrücken 1991, 17–40; B.Trell, Architectura numismatica, II. The Temples of Asia Minor, Diss. New York University 1942, 117. 42 On the date of the dedication and on the personality of Terentia: F.Zevi, “Culti ‘claudii’ a Ostia e a Roma: qualche osservazione”, ArchClass 49, 1997, 435–471, part. 448–9. 43 S.Falzone, “Le pitture del santuario della «Bona Dea» ad Ostia (V, X, 2)”, ArchClass N.S. 7, 2006, 405–445.

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The first is in the Life of Heliogabalus: He also made a senaculum, or women's senate, on the Quirinal hill. Before his time, in fact, a congress of matrons had met here, but only on certain festivals, or whenever a matron was presented with the insignia of a "consular marriage"–bestowed by the early emperors on their kinswomen, particularly on those whose husbands were not nobles, in order that they might not lose their noble rank. But now under the influence of Symiamira44 absurd decrees were enacted concerning rules to be applied to matrons, namely, what kind of clothing each might wear in public, who was to yield precedence and to whom, who was to advance to kiss another, who might ride in a chariot, on a horse, on a pack-animal, or on an ass, who might drive in a carriage drawn by mules or in one drawn by oxen, who might be carried in a litter, and whether the litter might be made of leather, or of bone, or covered with ivory or with silver, and lastly, who might wear gold or jewels on her shoes.45

The second is in the Life of Aurelianus; it gives a slightly different account, and concerning Aurelianus has this to say: He had planned to restore to the matrons their senate, or rather senaculum, with the provision that those should rank first therein who had attained to priesthoods with the senate’s approval.46

Modern scholarship has demonstrated the falsehood of these accounts.47 In the period when these biographies were written, St. Jerome48 mentions sororities for Christian women in his works; consequently, André Chastagnol49 assumed that the author of Heliogabalus’ life copied from the translator of the Bible. François Paschoud50 sees in the Historia Augusta a form of latent irony against Christian convents. Robert Turcan51, on the other hand, stresses that in the Severan age the noblest women were entitled to be called clarissimæ52 and several themes in the Historia Augusta’s pagan account have nothing to do with Jerome. Therefore, Turcan rightly affirms: “c’est le principe même des associations matronales à

44 I.e. Julia Soemia. Here the text is problematic: sed Symiamira facta sunt senatus consulta has been corrected by Damsté with sub Symiamira. 45 SHA Heliogabalus 4.3, transl. Cary (with one change at the beginning). 46 SHA Aurelianus 49.6, transl. Cary. 47 Above all see: J.Straub, “Senaculum, id ist mulierum senatus, in: Historia Augusta Colloquium, 1964–65, Bonn 1965, 221–240; M.Elefante, “A proposito del senaculum mulierum. S.H.A. Ant. Hel. 4,3–Aurel. 49,6”, RAAN 57, 1982, 91–107; R.Turcan, Histoire Auguste, III.1, Vies de Macrin, Diaduménien, Héliogabale, Paris 1993, 165–6. Senaculum is not a diminutive word for senatus, but the normal term for the emplacement or building of Senate meetings; see Elefante, 94–95; this author, 106–7, thinks that (according to the Historia Augusta) Aurelianus wanted to restore the religious character of the senatus matronarum. 48 Hieron., Adv.Iouin. 1.47 (PL 23, 276c) in conventu feminarum; Ep. 22.16: consortio matronarum; 43.3: matronarum senatus. 49 A.Chastagnol, Recherches sur l’Histoire Auguste, Bonn 1970, 15; 86. 50 F.Paschoud, Historia Augusta. V.1, Vies d’Aurélien, Tacite, Paris 1996, 222; see also Straub, as quoted. 51 Turcan, Histoire Auguste, III.1, 166. 52 Ulp., Dig. I.9.8; Cod.Iust. XII.1.1 A.Chastagnol, “Les femmes dans l’ordre sénatorial. Titulature et rang social à Rome”, RH 103, 1979, 3–28.

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vocation culturelle qui a dû faire germer dans son imagination cette idée d’un sénat féminin.” There is no reason to believe that a women’s senate existed, but there is likewise no reason not to believe that the cultic association of prominent Roman women could formulate rules on female conduct. Ulpianus, the famous jurist of the Severan Age, asserts: The women who got married with clarissimi had the title of clarissimae. The daughters of senators have no right to the title of clarissimae except if they get married with clarissimi husbands. The husbands indeed bestow the rank of clarissimae; the parents only until the daughters got married with a plebeian. In fact a woman will be clarissima in so far as she is married with a senator, or is divorced from him but not married with an inferior man.53

Hence, it was not enough to be the daughter of a senator to be styled clarissima; it was necessary to be married to a senator. Julia Mamæa married an eques as her second husband and it took an imperial decree from Caracalla to let her keep the title of clarissima.54 The same thing happened to Julia Sœmia, but in this case, her second husband was promoted to senator.55 This custom is also found in two passages of the Codex Iustinianeus.56 From these imperial statements, it is clear that a woman received her social status and the title of clarissima from her husband.57 We have thoroughly examined the evidence that the wives of consuls or prætors were involved in cultic leadership. During festivals in the cult of Bona Dea, the social order was reproduced in the world of women, where the wife of a consul became the organiser of the female festival. For a day and a night, she played the role of Queen Omphale. This privilege created an elite group of female leaders because every wife of a consul (or prætor) had the right to organise these rituals. Consuls and prætors entered the Senate as the highest ranked members, and it was natural that their wives conceived of themselves as being members of the highest class of women, 53 Ulp., Dig. I.9.8: Feminæ nuptæ clarissimis personis clarissimarum personarum appellatione continentur. clarissimarum feminarum nomine senatorum filiæ, nisi quæ viros clarissimos sortitæ sunt, non habentur: feminis enim dignitatem clarissimam mariti tribuunt, parentes vero, donec plebeii nuptiis fuerint copulatæ: tamdiu igitur clarissima femina erit, quamdiu senatori nupta est vel clarissimo aut separata ab eo alii inferioris dignitatis non nupsit.. 54 Ulp., Dig. I.9.12. 55 Cass.Dio LXXVIII.30. 56 Cod.Iust.XII.1.1: Imperator Alexander Severus: Si, ut proponitis, et avum consularem et patrem praetorium virum habuistis, et non privatae condicionis hominibus, sed clarissimis nupseritis, claritatem generis retinetis. Cod.Iust.V.4.10: Imperatores Diocletianus, Maximianus: Cum te non ex senatore patre procreatam ob matrimonium cum senatore contractum clarissimae feminae nomen adeptam dicas, claritas, quae beneficio mariti tibi parata est, si secundi ordinis virum postea sortita es redacta ad prioris dignitatis statum, deposita est 57 In the Severan age influencial men were persuading the imperial court to allow the clarissimae to maintain her rank even during their second less noble marriage; S.Mazzarino, La fine del mondo antico, Milan 1959, chap.8, underlined the new right the women obtained in this period and quotes Hippol., Haer. IX.12.24, according to which Pope Callistus (between 214 and 218 AD) supported the case of clarissimae who got married to a Christian.

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especially after they had conducted the rituals to Bona Dea. The Historia Augusta does mention a metaphorical senate. It was the assembly of prominent women, probably the clarissimæ, who met for rituals. Their seat could be called the curia matronarum. The rituals performed there were perhaps especially those in honour of Bona Dea, but nothing is known about the seat of this female cultic council on the Quirinal Hill.58

58 A.Pasqui, “Antico edificio riconosciuto per la sede del Senaculum Mulierum”, NS 1914, 141– 5, published two female statues discovered in a room on this hill, and proposed to identify this room with the senaculum mulierum; contra: Turcan, Histoire Auguste, III.1, 165. An opus spicatum floor was indeed poor for a seat of empresses and clarissimae feminae.

VI. OMPHALE 1. THE ITALIC ORIGINS OF THE ROMAN OMPHALE In this chapter we will focus on the relations between Bona Dea and two Greek models, namely Omphale and Demeter and Kore. In fact, she shared many features with those goddesses and could be identified with them, even if every identification was only an inadequate means to knowing her. Identification was necessary to Greeks who wanted to understand in a simple way what the nature of a foreign god was.1 Identification is necessary to us in another form. Roman and Italic gods were often shaped after Greek models and the choice by Romans or Italic peoples clarifies three realities: how they conceived their gods in order to chose a Greek parallel, what the Greeks thought of those gods, and how the Romans enriched or modified their gods after Greek models. The Lydian and the Eleusinian paths were both important and it is difficult to give a precise chronology to those influences. Even a relative chronology is difficult. We will deal with the evidences before dealing with the chronology. We begin with Omphale and the Lydian path. Omphale’s disguise is a perfect fit with the iconography of Hercules because she wears his clothes and carries his weapons. Omphale was the perfect female counterpart to Hercules. Contemporary scholarship has noted that Propertius’ account centres on the theme of a cross-dressed Hercules and alludes to his slavery to Omphale.2 This theme was by no means an invention of Propertius.3 Many

1 2

3

See E.J.Bickerman, “Origines gentium”, CPh 47, 1952, 65–81. See for ex. J.B.DeBrohun, “Redressing Elegy's Puella: Propertius IV and the Rhetoric of Fashion”, JRS 84, 1994, 41–63; S.H.Lindheim, “Hercules cross-Dressed, Hercules undressed: Unmasking the Construction of the Propertian "Amator" in Elegy 4.9”, AJPh 119, 1998, 43– 66. E.H.McParland, “Propertius 4.9”, TAPhA 101, 1970, 352, on the contrary, deems the mention of Hercules’ Lydian slavery to be a ridiculous boast. Recent works on Propertius’ elegy IV.9 looked for ideological arguments of the Augustan age concealed in his verses. Many of these works are based on two postulates: 1) the true myth of Hercules is that of Virgil: the fight with Cacus, 2) Propertius added a fictitious story for ideological, anti-Augustan (or eventually pro-Augustan) reasons. We mention several of these works, which deals with Hercules and Bona Dea’s myth as if it could be explained only in the frame of the late republican and Augustan ideology. This chronological limitation prevent us from understanding the complexity of the problem. Archaeology and history of religions allow us to expand the documentary basis and provide us with a different story. Let we mention several recent works: M.Janan, “Refashioning Hercules: Propertius 4.9”, Helios 25, 1998, 65–77, is convinced that the Augustan age poetry unsettled the hero’s place in Roman tradition and confounds the customary gender roles.

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Greek and Italic cults were centred on the figure of Omphale, but we shall deal with them later; for now we shall examine another very similar goddess who was clothed and behaved like Hercules: Juno Sospita. We will prove, in fact, that ItT.S.Welch, “Masculinity and Monuments in Propertius 4.9”, AJPh 125, 2004, 61–90, supposes Propertius’ underground arguments against Augustan ideology [see p. 69: “In elegy 4.9, Antonian, personal, luxurious Hercules arrives at Rome and founds the Ara Maxima, a monument Octavian linked to his own defeat of Antony at Actium. Hercules’ self-satisfied acceptance -even boast- of his Antonian past sneers at the Princeps by bringing to mind not only the Roman general vanquished in the battle of Actium but also the incompatibility of Antony’s “elegiac” values with the new Roman cityscape. Indeed, Hercules’ approach to the Bona Dea’s sacred spring - to drink it dry (exhausto flumine, 4.9.63) - is typically Antonian; Caesar’s friend was notorious for his excessive drinking. Antonian Hercules thus challenges and casts doubts on Augustan Hercules, and Octavian’s triumphal Ara Maxima becomes anything but: it becomes a monument that memorializes not the victor and his triumphant mores but rather the victim and his suppressed mores”]. The same authoress presents again her research in The Elegiac Cityscape: Propertius and the Meaning of Roman Monuments, Columbus, Ohio 2005, 112–132. Several scholars have indeed recognized an anti-Augustan ideological stream in Propertius: see, first of all, C.H.Platter, “Officium in Catullus and Propertius: a Foucauldian Reading”, CPh 90, 1995, 211–224, and H.-P.Stahl, Propertius: Love and War. Individual and State under Augustus, Berkeley 1985. Many scholars are absolutely convinced that the interpretation of Propertius IV.9 “rests upon the idea that contextual material can provide specific points of reference which substantially affect the meaning of the poem: Clodius, Livia, representations of Hercules within Augustus and Antony’s propaganda, Augustan moral reform”: M. Fox, “Propertius 4.9 and the Toils of Historicism”, MD 43, 1999, 157–76, part. 173–4. This author is convinced of a disruptive meaning of Hercules’ transvestism: 166: “the recollection both of Livia and of Clodius is part of the same strategy: to show Hercules acting as a point of resistance to the enforcement of a rigid socio-sexual order”; 169: “the reshaping of Hercules’ visit to Rome so as to highlight the idea of gender variation and make Hercules into a figure of resistance to moral conformity”. See as well Id. “Transvestite Hercules at Rome”, in: Invisibility: Gender and Representation in a European Context, ed. by R.Cleminson and M.Allison, Bradford 1998, 1–21. G.K.Galinsky, The Herakles Theme: the Adaptations of the Hero in Literature from Homer to the Twentieth Century, Oxford 1972, 155, suggests that Hercules’ transvestism in Propertius called to mind the scandal of Clodius in 62 BC (that is probably true). Other authors are convinced of the disruptiveness of Hercules’ transvestism: Lindheim, “Hercules cross-Dressed”, already quoted; D.Spencer, “Propertius, Hercules, and the Dynamics of Roman Mythic Space in Elegy 4.9”, Arethusa 34, 2001, 259–84. M.S.Cyrino, “Heroes in D(u)ress: Transvestism and Power in the Myths of Herakles and Achilles”, Arethusa 31, 1998, 207–241, supposes that Hercules’ transvestism was essentially a literary phenomenon of Augustan age, in which Ovid (the myth of Hercules, Omphale, and Faunus) acted with anti-Augustan arguments (on anti-Augustan elements in Ovid’s Fasti: A.Barchiesi, Il poeta e il principe : Ovidio e il discorso augusteo, Rome 1994, Engl. transl: The poet and the prince: Ovid and Augustan discourse, Berkeley 1997). She puts forward also the correct hypothesis that transvestism was limited to the myth and was aimed at asserting that it was a reversal of the correct behaviour. J.Warden, “Epic into Elegy: Propertius 4, 9, 70f”, Hermes 110, 1982, 228–242 recognizes literary rather than political motivation in the Propertian elegy. J.-P.Boucher, Études sur Properce. Ploblèmes d’inspiration et d’art, 2nd. ed. Paris 1980, 159, concludes his analyse of Propertius’ patriotism by saying: “l’augustéisme de Properce n’est pas celui d’un propagandiste, mais celui d’un témoin”.

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alic cults already knew warrior goddesses in a very ancient phase, and that those goddesses were wild and warlike, wore animal pelts and had arguments with Hercules. The iconography of Juno Sospita presents us with another female counterpart to Hercules. She is clothed in animal skins that cover her head, exactly like Hercules. Instead of a lion, another wild animal, a goat, provided the skin. She was warlike, brave, and undeterred even by the formidable Greek hero. It is highly possible that the quarrel between Hercules and the old priestess goes back to an ancient Etruscan and Latin myth. In fact, 6th century monuments show the hero fighting Juno Sospita, who has a group of girls close by. Hercules fought, therefore, with Juno, the goddess who was supposedly venerated in the grove of Bona Dea. We recall that Hercules told the priestess of Bona Dea: “Even if you sacrificed to Juno…”

Fig. 10. The fight of Hercules and Juno Sospita. Detail of an Etruscan amphora in the British Museum.

Two Etruscan vases from the 6th century BC4 (fig. 10) and five bronze appliques5 from the 5th show the duel between the Greek hero and Juno Sospita, whose head is covered with a goatskin, while Hercules wears his leontè. Several girls and snakes are in attendance. A bronze statuette in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence6 represents an Etruscan goddess wearing a goatskin on her head and striking forwards. She is a sort of female Hercules. Juno Sospita was the goddess of the sacred snake, which controlled the virginal status of Lanuvian girls. 4

5 6

One Cæretan hydria: M.A.Rizzo, “Una nuova hydria ceretana ed altri prodotti della ceramografia arcaica d’Etruria”, BdA 56–57, 1989, 1–16, fig.12–18; and one Pontic vase of the Paris’ painter: C.Hannestad, The Paris Painter, Copenhagen 1974, nr.11 and 17–18; cf. M.A.Rizzo, in: La ceramica degli Etruschi, ed. by M.Martelli, Novara 1987, no. 103. Cf. J.Bayet, Herclé, Paris 1926, 146–9; S.J.Schwarz, “Herakles/Hercle”, in: LIMC, V, nos 364–5. See also E.La Rocca, “Iuno”, in: LIMC, V.1, 820, no. 1. M.Cristofani, I bronzi degli Etruschi, Novara 1985, 198, no. 93.

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At this point, we can offer a justification for the link between Juno and Bona Dea: the image of Omphale was superimposed onto that of Fauna - Bona Dea because she was similar to Juno Sospita. Perhaps Juno herself was whorshipped in the sacred grove of Bona Dea. Juno Sospita was the goddess of Lanuvium and was worshipped or respected also by the Etruscans, who created her images. Juno Sospita and Omphale were powerful and warlike goddesses clothed with animal skins, goat or lion, and holding weapons: Juno, a spear and shield, Omphale, a club, arrows and a bow. Both were connected to Hercules and had something to do with girls. The archaeological evidence shows that Juno Sospita was a very ancient character (from the 6th century onward) and that the image of Omphale was introduced into several Italic cults in the 4th century BC. Juno Sospita was an important Latin goddess, but Rome shared her cult only in 338 BC, after her victory over the Latins and the reorganization of the Latin league.7 Her iconography, with goat skin, spear, and shield was always considered as peculiar to Lanuvium.8 The relation between Juno Sospita and Hercules is witnessed also by a late fourth century BC dedication to Herculi San[cto] et Iunoni Sispit[i] from the temple of Hercules at Lanuvium.9 A passage of Tertullian10 reports a Lanuvian belief which was shared by the Romans: the women could not eat the meat of sacrifices to Hercules: cur Herculeluctum mulieres Lanuviae non gustat, si non mulierum causa p? In this case, the reason of such an exclusion was the death of Hercules because of a woman: Deianira. The same reason is reported also by Plutarch: Why, when there are two altars of Hercules, do women receive no share nor taste of the sacrifices offered on the larger altar?

7

Liv.VIII.14.2: “Lanuvium received the full citizenship and the restitution of her sacred things, with the proviso that the temple and grove of Juno Sospita should belong in common to the Roman people and the citizens living at Lanuvium” (transl. Canon Roberts). 8 Cic., De nat.deor. I.82. 9 ILS 9246; on the temple: D.Vaglieri, “Lanuvium”, NS 1907, 124–5, 656–661; A.Galieti, “Memorie dell’heracleion lanuvio a Civita Lavinia”, Boll.AssociazioneArch.Rom. 1, 1911, 31–43; S.Carosi, Il santuario ed il culto di Ercole a Lanuvio, Quaderni del Museo Civico Lanuvino, 4, Rome 2011; cf. Bayet, Hercule romain, 387; A.E.Gordon, The Cults of Lanuvium, Berkeley 1938, 42, G.Tomassetti, Lanuvium, Rome 1983, 86. On the date to le latest three decades of the fourth century BC: G.Colonna, “Membra disiecta di altorilievi frontonali di IV secolo e III secolo”, in: La coroplastica templare etrusca fra il IV e il II secolo a.C. Atti XVI Conv. di Studi Etruschi e Italici. Orbetello 1988, Firenze 1992, 113–121, part. 118. See also a dedication to [Her]culi [[S]]o[[s]]pitali custodi from Ficulea (Guidonia, near Rome): AE 2001, 900. See D.Nonnis, F.Pompilio, “La dedica a Iuno Sispes Mater Regina dal territorio di Lanuvio. Un riesame”, in: Contributi all'epigrafia d'età augustea. Actes de la XIIIe Rencontre franco-italienne sur l'epigraphie du monde romain, Tivoli 2007, 455–498; A.Pasqualini, “Giunone Sospita ed Ercole a Lanuvio”, in: A.Pasqualini, Latium vetus et adiectum. Ricerche di storia, e religione e antiquaria, Tivoli 2013, 495–4521. 10 Nat. II.7.17; the text is corrupted and I present the edition by Borleff, Leiden 1929.

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Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women Is because the friends of Carmenta came late for the rites, as did also the clan of the Pinarii? Wherefore, as they were excluded from the banquet while the rest were feasting, they acquired the name Pinarii (Starvelings). Or is it because of the fable of Deianira and the shirt?11

In Rome Hercules excluded women also because of the episode of the spring water. If Tertullian’s text has been duly read, we obtain an excellent parallel between Rome, Lanuvium, and southern Etruria, where the vases and bronze statues were produced: Rome

Lanuvium and southern Etruria

Bona Dea vs. Hercules the high priestess fight against Hercules Hercules excludes women from sacrifices

Juno Sospita vs. Hercules Juno Sospita fight against Hercules Hercules excludes women from sacrifices

20th century research (as for instance, the work of Angelo Brelich and Walter Burkert) has shown that ritual and social functions precede myths. Social functions require rituals. The same function – marriage in this case – occurs down the centuries and in many different societies. Each society observed its ritual, which could vary in time. Myth and iconography varied even more over time and between social groups. In the Latin and Etruscan communities, there was a goddess who was supposed to control young women. These girls could not have love or sexual relations before marriage. At the same time, they had to be instructed and prepared for the encounter with the opposite sex. A male god lusted after them and desired to satisfy his lust, but he had to be rebuffed and ridiculed or even forcibly driven away. Moreover, this goddess protected girls from foreign aggressors: Hercules was in fact non only a man but also a foreigner. Local myths and beliefs shaped in different ways these social functions. Faunus, as well as many other famous lovers and progenitors, was disappointed. Both Juno Sospita and Bona Dea - Omphale were a perfect match for such a social role. Within Roman society, the same role was entrusted to the most important matrona: the wife of the consul. The arrival of the male god had a precise function: the girls had to know that young men were lusting after them, even if it was not yet the lawful moment for love. After this, the myths featured a transgression, and in a manner of speaking the girls underwent a rape as part of the ritual cycle. This traumatic ritual enactment required the intervention of a god such as Faunus or Hercules. We know that Romulus and the first Romans raped the Sabine women and later married them,12

11 Plut., Quaest.Rom. 60 = 278 E-F, transl. Babbitt. 12 And this fact was celebrated during the Matronalia of the 1st March: Ovid., Fasti III.195– 248.

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and Zephyrus did the same with Chloris-Flora.13 Ritual tools, such as a phallus, a living snake or a whip, produced the trauma and fertility that accredited to these gods. Consequently, the girls were ready to receive their husbands in the mythological form of Dionysus. In this phase, gods of primitive instincts, such as Faunus and Hercules, were to stop their excesses and be forcibly chaste. The role of Juno Sospita, Omphale, Damia and Bona Dea was fulfilled with these rituals and the girls were ready to get married. They passed under the protection of marital gods during the Liberalia on 17 March. They have got their talisman of fertility, kept in Lyde’s box. The young girls knew that in a forthcoming future they could give birth to a child. That is clearly presupposing an imminent marriage. To assume that there was an opposition between a patrician Bona Dea versus a plebeian Liber Pater is completely false. Bona Dea was a goddess for all Romans, and the plebeians were Roman citizens too; Ceres, Liber and Libera were likewise gods of marriage for all Romans.14 The most famous temple to Juno Sospita was the one in Lanuvium. Her cult became a Roman state cult in 338 BC even though its seat was kept at Lanuvium.15 Her first temple at Rome was dedicated shortly after 197 BC on the Palatine hill, close to the temple of the Magna Mater.16 Her festival was celebrated on the Kalends of February.17 13 Ovid., Fasti V.195–206. 14 See the critical discussion on Roman orders and modern theories in A.Mastrocinque, Lucio Giunio Bruto, Trento 1988. A solid connection between Ceres and the Roman plebs is supposed by B.S.Spaeth, The Roman Goddess Ceres, Austin 1996. I disagree with L.Magini, Le Feste di Venere: Fertilita femminile e configurazioni astrali nel calendario di Roma antica, Rome 1996, according to which the Veneralia of 1st April was the Roman festival of marriage and the Matralia of 11 June that of conception, and the Liberalia of 17 March that of delivery. 15 Liv.VIII.14.2; cf. Cic., Mur. 90. 16 Liv.XXXII.30.10 (who speaks of the vow of C. Cornelius Cethegus to Juno Sospita in 197 BC); XXXIV.53.3 (who speaks of Juno Matuta’s temple on the Forum Holitorium, dedicated in 194 BC). J.Rüpke, “Iuno Sospita oder Victoria Virgo? Zur Identifizierung des sogenannten Auguratoriums auf dem Palatin”, ZPE 108, 1995, 119–122, identifies the temple of Juno Sospita with the remains of the so-called auguratorium, because Ovid., Fasti II.55–67 describes Juno Sospita’s temple (which Augustus had rebuilt) as neighbouring that of the Magna Mater. M.Guarducci, “Enea e Vesta (due risposte al Dott. Hans-Georg Kolbe e considerazioni nuove)”, MDAI(R) 78, 1971, 112; F.Coarelli, Guida archeologica di Roma, Milan 2nd ed. 1975, 140 and G.Dury-Moyaers, “Réflections à propos de l’iconographie de Iuno Sospita”, in: Beiträge zur altitalischen Geistgeschichte. Festschrift G.Radke, Münster 1986, 90, supposed that this temple could be a small enclosure close to the temple of Magna Mater. R.E.A.Palmer, Roman Religion and Roman Empire: five Essays, Philadelphia 1974, 31, thinks that the Roman temple of Juno Sospita was very ancient. H.Le Bonniec, Commentaire aux Fastes, II, Paris 1969, 18 and Y.M.Duval, “Les Lupercales, Junon et le printemps”, Annales de Bretagne 83.2, 1976, 256, pretended to know more than Ovid and think he was placing for mistake the temple on the Palatine whereas it was on the Forum Holitorium. 17 Ovid., Fasti II.55–67.

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Cicero refers to her temple in Rome or in Lanuvium, when he reports that in 90 BC the daughter of Quintus Cæcilius Balearicus had a dream and subsequently demanded that the consul L. Julius rebuild it.18 Pseudo-Plutarch19 tells the story of Cæcilius Metellus,20 who wanted to sail to Syracuse, but could not depart because of the wind. Vesta was angry because he had not sacrificed to her. The Augur Caius Julius ordered that his daughter be sacrificed, but Vesta was took pity on her and sent her off to Lanuvium where she became a priestess of the snake.21 This Roman remake of Iphigenia in Aulis testifies to the close relationship between Vesta and Juno Sospita.22 The Liber coloniarum23 mentions the ager Solonius at Lanuvium, where the Vestal virgins had an estate. A poculum Vestæ of the 3rd century BC has been discovered in there.24 Ilia, also known as Rhea Silvia, was a priestess of Vesta, but PseudoPlutarch25 claims that she was one of Juno’s priestesses. The name Rhea is given by Vergil to the mother of the eponymous hero of the Aventine hill, and the poet adds that she was the priestess of an Aventine goddess, probably Bona Dea.26 Moreover, there are many similarities between the iconography of Vesta and Bona Dea.27 Juno Sospita and Bona Dea had many features in common, some of which were also shared by Vesta.

2. HERCULES MUSARUM Many Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi show Hercules playing the lyre, in an attitude typical of the Hercules Musarum (or Hercules Musagetes). The consul Fulvius Nobilior vowed the temple of Hercules and the Muses during the war with the Ætolians in 189 BC, brought the statues of the Hercules and the Muses from his 18 Cic., De div. I.4 and 99; cf. Iul.Obs.55. Cf. C.J.Classen, “Romulus in der römischen Republik”, Philologus 106, 1962, 192–5; J.Gagé, Matronalia, Brussels 1963, 151; C.E.Schultz, “Juno Sospita and Roman Insecurity in the Social War”, in: Religion in Republican Italy, ed. by C.E.Schultz and P.B.Harvey Jr., Cambridge 2006, 207–227. 19 Ps.Plut., Par.min.14 = 309 A-B (after Pythokles). 20 It was actually M.Claudius Marcellus who sailed, during the second Punic war. 21 Cf. A.E.Gordon, The Cults of Lanuvium, Berkeley 1938, 57. 22 Ps.Plut., Par.min. 14 = 309B: Metellus (mistake for M.Claudius Marcellus), before sailing against the Carthaginians in Sicily, had to propitiate Vesta by sacrificing her daughter in order to obtain favorable winds; the goddess was pityful with the girl, substituted a heifer on the altar, and took her to Lanuvium, where she became the priestess of the snake. 23 Gromatici veteres, 235 Lachmann. 24 Gordon, 55–6. 25 Par.min. 36 = 314F. 26 Aen. VII.655–669; cf. Lyd., De mag.I.34. Augustin, de civ. Dei XVIII.21, speaks of Romulus and Aventinus as having been both divinized. Cf. A.Merlin, L’Aventin dans l'antiquité, Paris 1906, 28–29; G.D’Anna, Anonimo, Origine del popolo romano, Milan 1992, 117–8. 27 Cf. G.Carrettoni, EAA, VII (1966), s.v. Vesta, 1149.

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Ambracian campaign in 186, and he had the temple built in the circus Flaminius while he was censor in 179.28 Lucius Marcius Philippus rebuilt the temple to the Muses and Hercules in 33 BC.29 In the opinion of modern scholars,30 Nobilior then imported a Greek cult into Rome. This Hercules was indeed worshipped among the Greeks.31

Fig. 11. Hercules Musarum on a denarius of Pomponius Musa.

Fig. 12. Hercules as a Satyr on an Etruscan vase. Heidelberg, University museum.

In the Greek world a lyre-playing Herakles was depicted on Attic black figures vases starting from the second half of the 6th century BC, and on southern Italian vase painting starting from the early Hellenistic age.32 Lyre or pipe-playing Herakles was featured on Greek vases and other monuments from about 500 BC

28 Eumen., de restaur.schol. 7 (Paneg.Lat. IX.7); Suet., Aug. 29, Plut., Quaest.Rom. 59 = 278 E; Macrob. I.12.16; See J.Rüpke, Kalender und Öffentlichkeit. Die Geschichte der Repräsentation und religiösen Qualifikation von Zeit in Rom, RVV 40, Berlin-New York 1995, 331–368, esp. 333; Id., Religion in Republican Rome: Rationalization and Ritual Change, Philadelphia 2012, 152–154. On the temple: A.Viscogliosi, “Hercules Musarum (aedes)”, LTUR III (1996), 17–19; J.Scheid, Römische Fragen, Texte zur Forschung 103, Darmstadt 2012, 152– 3. 29 Cic. Pro Arch. 27; Ovid. Fast. VI.812; cf. Ars am. III.168; Plut., Quaest.Rom. 59 = 278 E; Plin., N.h. XXXV.66; Serv.Auct., in Aen. I.8; Paneg.Lat. IX.7 and 9. 30 See P.Ovidius Naso. Die Fasten, ed. F.Bömer, Heidelberg 1958, 390. According to Wissowa, RKR, 224, Hercules had two forms of cult in Rome: the Latin, to Hercules Tiburtinus, on the Forum Boarium, and the Greek, on the circus Flaminius. 31 SIG3 578, line 57 (Teos); 959, line 6 (Chios); Paus.I.30.2 (Athens); IV.31.10 (Messene). According to a Greek myth, Herakles killed Linos (the teacher of Orpheus) with a lyre: Diod.III.67; Apollod.II.63; Tzetz., Chil. II.214; cf. Aelian., Var.hist. III.32. 32 J.Boardman, “Herakles”, in: LIMC VI (1988), 728–838, part. 810–814, nos 1438–1474.

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to the Roman period.33 Hercle (i.e. the Etruscan Herakles) as a Satyr playing the lyre was known by the Etruscans in the late archaic age (fig. 12).34 In a Pompeian fresco from about 30 BC Hercules is depicted with Orpheus and six Muses.35 A lyre-playing Hercules Musarum is depicted on the denarii (fig. 11) of Q. Pomponius Musa, issued in 66 BC, and on the Dionysiac sarcophagi. He is not wearing female clothes, but is dancing and playing music. This Hercules was typical of Dionysism, as proved by the myth of Dionysus himself, who took refuge among the Muses,36 and also was linked to the Lydian mythological traditions. Aristophanes makes it clear that Bacchus’ initiates performed ὄργια Μουσῶν, “sacred rituals of the Muses”,37 and other authors say the same.38 The gentle and cultivated Hercules was, therefore, a Dionysiac Hercules, the same one who took part in the Bacchic parades and dances. Alex Hardie,39 in an excellent article, has shown that music was a means to appease Juno’s wrath. I summarize here the most important features of Juno and Hercules that this authoress has singled out and clarified. Choric songs and dance were prominent in Juno’s propitiatory cult in the Greek world (Argos, Samos) and in Italy (Falerii).40 The Romans featured extraordinary musical and choric cultic performances for Juno Regina in some difficult circumstances.41 And she was then the only goddess to be worshipped in such a form. The restoration of harmony within her turbulent marriage with Zeus could find symbolic expression in music.42 An Alexandrian poet, Nicænetus, depicted himself lying by Hera’s temple on Samos and taking the lyre of the Muses to sing

33 Boardman, “Herakles”, 814, nos 1472–1478. 34 An image of a satyric Hercules (or Herculean Satyr) playing the lyre on an early 5th century Etruscan olpe: R.Hampe and E.Simon, in: R.Hampe und Mitarbeiter, Katalog der Sammlung antiker Kleinkunst des archäologischen Instituts der Universität Heidelberg. II: Neuerwerbungen 1957–1970, Mainz am Rh. 1971, 45, no. 72. (fig. 18). Here, Hercules wears his lion’s pelt, but instead of feet he has hooves; he has a Satyr’s ears and a horse’s tail. He is, therefore, a Satyr disguised as Hercules or a satyric Hercules; in any case, we have a Dionysiac Hercules in Etruria. A late 6th century image of Omphale with Hercules has been recognized on an Etruscan bronze buckle: J.Boardman, “Omphale”, in: LIMC VII (1994), 45–53, part. 47, no. 7. 35 Boardman, “Herakles”, 814, no. 1478 (from the house of Epidius Sabinus). 36 Plut., Quaest.conv. VIII.1 = 717 A. 37 Aristoph., Ranae 354–7. 38 Aristides Quintilianus, de musica, III.25; Nonn.XV.70–71. See A.Hardie, “Muses and Mysteries”, in: Music and the Muses. The Culture of ‘Mousike’ in the classical Athenian City, ed. by P.Murray & P.Wilson, Oxford 2004, 11–37, esp. 20–21. 39 A.Hardie, “Juno, Hercules, and the Muses at Rome”, AJPh 128, 2007, 551–592. 40 Falerii: Dion.Hal.I.21.2; cf. Ovid., Am. III.13.11–12; Argos: Eur., El. 171–4; 178–80; Pollux, Onom. IV.78; Ps.Plut., De fluv. 18. 41 See B.MacBain, Prodigy and Expiation: A Study in Religion and Politics in Republican Rome, Brussels1982, 127–35. 42 Hom., Il. I.603–4; Euseb., Praep. ev. 85 C–86 D.

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the famous bride of Zeus.43 Sappho - as Calliope - and her choros are said44 to hymn Hera at her temple. Unmarried girls were supposed to appease Hera with choros and flute melodies.45 Hardie underlines that music and dance were the means by which Hera/Juno was reconciled with Herakles/Hercules, who became her son-in-law.46 Juno’s reconciliation with the Romans is celebrated by Horace’s Carmen III.3. Hardie quotes some identifications between Juno and a Muse or specifically Calliope.47 Calliope prepared the marriage of Orpheus and invited Juno.48 This Muse was not born by Hera in order to bear Ares’ shield, i.e. to celebrate deeds of war.49 She was in fact peaceful. The Carthaginian Juno Cælestis was also called Muse.50 Livius Andronicus, in the 3rd century, wrote that the Muse, or Camena, was Moneta’s daughter;51 she was thus similar to Mnemosyne. Moneta was the surname of Juno as worshipped on the Arx, i.e. on the higher part of the Roman Capitol. Hyginus52 states that the Muses were daughters of Jupiter and Moneta. The Hercules Musarum was a symbol of concord and reconciliation. Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Marcus Æmilius Lepidus were political enemies, but they staged a public reconciliation when elected censors for 179, and their censorship was later cited as a model of concordia.53 Nobilior and his colleague went abreast in a building activity in the circus Flaminius which symbolized the mood of concord. In 187 Lepidus had vowed a temple to Juno Regina, which was under construction in the subsequent years.54 Therefore these two new temples stood close to each other. Hardie does not fail to underline the Pythagorean origin of the link between harmony and music, and the specific reference to Empedocles in the topic of musical harmony producing political concord.55 Ovid concludes his Fasti by celebrating the temple of Hercules Musarum, rebuilt by Lucius Marcius Philippus in 33 BC: Tomorrow the Kalends of July return:

43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

Nicænetus in Collectanea Alexandrina, ed. Powell, Oxford 1925, fr. 6. Anthol. Palatina IX.189. O.Kern, Die Inschriften von Magnesia am Mäander, Berlin 1900, no. 228. Ovid., Pont. IV.16.7–8. Hardie, “Juno, Hercules, and the Muses”, 555–556. Claudian. XXXI.19–34. Pap Flor. II.112.2–3. Apul., Fl. 20. Livius Andr., 12 Mariotti. Hygin., Fab. 27. Cic., de prov. 20; Liv.XL.45.6–46.16, 51.1; Val.Max.IV.2.1; Gell.XII.8.5–6. R.D.Weigel, “The Duplication of Temples of Juno Regina at Rome”, Ancient Society 13–14, 1982/83, 179–92. Ennius probably celebrated the reconciliation in his Annales: see O.Skutsch, Studia Enniana, London 1969, 19–20; Id., The Annals of Quintus Ennius, Oxford 1985, 572–74, 649. 55 Hardie, “Juno, Hercules, and the Muses”, 562–3, 568, 577–8.

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Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women Muses put the final touch to my work. Pierides, tell me, who placed you with Hercules Whose stepmother Juno unwillingly conceded it? So I spoke, and Clio replied: ‘Behold the monument To famous Philip, from whom chaste Marcia descends, Marcia whose name derives from sacrificial Ancus Marcius, And whose beauty equals her nobility. In her, form matches spirit: in her Lineage, beauty and intellect meet. Don’t think it shallow that I praise her form: We praise the great goddesses in that way. Caesar’s aunt was once married to that Philip: O ornament, O lady worthy of that sacred house!’ So Clio sang. Her learned sisters approved: And Hercules agreed, and sounded his lyre.56

Juno’s wrath was over, and Hercules could have his rest and play music with the Muses. The discourse passes to marriage and music. In the same way, the work of the poet was accomplished and he earned the due reward. In the Æneid too Juno’s wrath was finally appeased and she consented to Æneas to marry Lavinia, and Trojans to agree with Latins and live together in peace.57 The case of Hercules is typical: he was hated and persecuted by Juno, he had to face a number of enemies, endure labours and fights, and, after his triumph, the goddess was reconciled with him; she even wanted to adopt him, and gave him a beautiful girl to marry, namely Hebe - Juventas, the symbol of youth. Now we pass to the specific cases of Hercules and Juno Sospita, Hercules and Bona Dea, and Hercules and Omphale. We do not know the consequences of the fight between Juno Sospita and Hercules, which is witnessed only by archaeological evidence. This fight was probably not the end of the story. In fact a reconciliation between the Etruscan Uni and Hercle (i.e. Juno and Hercules) is known thanks to an Etruscan mirror. It shows the hero suckling at Juno’s breast and an inscription labels him as her son.58 The confrontation between Hercules and the priestess of Bona Dea and the curse against women was not the final act of the story. Propertius, in fact, concludes his 9th elegy of the 4th book with these words: sancte pater, salve, cui iam favet aspera Iuno: 59 Sance, velis libro dexter inesse meo. Hail, Sacred Father, on whom austere Juno now smiles. Sancus, sit favourably in my book.

56 Ovid., Fasti VI.797–812, transl. Kline. 57 Verg., Aen. XII.821–822: cum iam conubiis pacem felicibus (esto) component, cum iam leges et foedera iungent. 58 TLE, no. 399. 59 Propert.IV.9.71–72.

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Omphale is similar to Juno Sospita: a powerful goddess whose head is covered with the skin of a wild animal. Omphale’s character, on the other hand, presupposes Hercules’ submission and friendship rather than fight. Omphales’ myth seems to be appropriate for the final part of the story, that of reconciliation between the hero and the warlike and powerful goddess. The Ovidian myth of Omphale and Hercules did not enact a Dionysiac marriage, but only the preparation of Dionysus’ arrival. Hercules is sleeping and Faunus has not yet discovered Ariadne: his first assault was disappointing. The first elegy to Mæcenas, in the Appendix Vergiliana, proves that Hercules’ effeminacy at Omphale’s court was supposed to be the excess of his rest after the labours: impiger Alcide, multo defuncte labore, sic memorant curas te posuisse tuas, sic te cum tenera multum lusisse puella oblitum Nemeae iamque, Erymanthe, tui. ultra numquid erat? torsisti pollice fusos, lenisti morsu leuia fila parum; percussit crebros te propter Lydia nodos, te propter dura stamina rupta manu… O Hercules unwearied, after mighty toil performed, ‘twas even so, they relate, thou didst lay aside thy cares, and even didst hold joyous sport with tender damsel, forgetful of Nemea, forgetful now of Erymanthus. Could aught exceed this? - twirling spindles with the thumb, and biting the rough threads smooth with the mouth! Lydian Omphale beat thee for leaving too many knots or for breaking the threads with that hard hand.60

We are now able to define better the character of the two festivals of Bona Dea. That on the slopes of the Aventine hill is related to the fight between Hercules and the old priestess or even with the wild goddess, while the second festival, that in the house of the consul, is related to Lyde, i.e. Omphale, Hercules’ mistress. Macrobius’ account does not distinguish between these two festivals and apparently it is related only to the first, that in the sacred grove. In this grove, according to Propertius, the girls “ laughed”, whereas at home of the consul the women played music and sang. The situation in the sacred grove was featured as wilder than that in the house of the consul. It is probably possible to recognize a shift from nature to culture. The Aventinian grove was a place of seclusion for girls, where they had many water at disposal from the spring, whereas at home of the consul there was no spring, but wine instead of water. The spring of the Aventine was known also because Faunus once went to drink and Numa poured wine and honey into the spring. Faunus got drunk, was tamed by the king, and gave him some oracular responses.61 Macrobius’ passage seems to testify that the wine jar was kept also in the sacred grove, and rituals documented by inscriptions in Italy or Roman provinces 60 Elegiae in Maecenatem I.69–76, transl. Wight Duff & Duff (Minor Latin Poets). 61 Plut., Numa 15.

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give rarely information about links with either one or another festival. Sometimes they are related to a temple (namely in Ostia). The Roman temple was that on the Aventine hill, where the festival was celebrated on May. The festival in Forum Clodii had a fix location, whereas that in the house of a supreme magistrate was celebrated in different houses. The homosexual ceremony, as described by Juvenal, occurred in a house, probably in imitation of that which the consuls’ wives performed. In the domestic ceremony girls were able to play music and sing with the more experienced women, and Heracles was virtually among them as a pupil and protector of the Muses. Even if he could not attend (apart from the case of Clodius) the Lydian style of Mænads was remembering the peaceful relation between the leader of men and that of women. Concordia and harmony were reached, and finally the arrival of Dionysus-Liber Pater could be prepared. In other terms, a girl was ready to get married, and the goddesses of virginity (Juno Sospita or Bona Dea) allowed and blessed the marriage, Hercules played music and held torches; every opposition was over.

3. THE MEANING OF CLODIUS DISGUISEMENT Clodius probably intervened in the ritual of Bona Dea in order to be recognized and seen by Pompeia as a new Hercules Musarum. Clodius, in fact, could not have sex during such a festival. But he could be seen by Pompeia as a dancer62 like Hercules among the Mænads. Hercules’ effeminacy was presupposed by the surname of the leading woman: Lyde. The “Lyde” was then Aurelia or Pompeia herself. Clodius was performing, even if in secrecy, the role of Omphale/Lyde’s counterpart, i.e. Hercules. We have seen that Hercules’ music and dance were means to appease Juno, to recover harmony and concord. These performances occurred after the accomplishment of the twelve labours. In 62 BC there was a new Hercules who had accomplished his labours. He was Pompey. But hostility and envy of political enemies prevented him from triumphing and his acts from being recognized by the Roman Senate. Pompey was thought as similar to Hercules and this god was indeed his favorite. For example, Plutarchus opens his Life of Pompey by saying:

62 Wiseman, Cinna the Poet, 134, supposed that “all Clodius could had hoped gain was a view of the ritual with Pompeia watching it”; on the contrary, D.Mulroy, “The Early Career of P. Clodius Pulcher: A Re-Examination of the Charges of Mutiny and Sacrilege”, TAPhA 118, 1988, 166 and 169, thinks Clodius hoped make love with Pompeia, but the sexual encounter, supposed by some sources, is probably fictional. Balsdon, 66, and Mulroy, 167, are definitely right in asserting that “as a newly elected quaestor, Clodius was at least thirty”. And therefore “Plutarch's statement about Clodius' beardlessness has no historical value” (Mulroy).

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Towards Pompey the Roman people must have had, from the very beginning, the feeling which the Prometheus of Æschylus has towards Heracles.63

Before beginning the battle at Pharsalus the generals gave the watchword to the soldiers, which on Caesar’s side was “Venus the Victorious,” and on Pompey’s “Hercules the Invincible.”64

In 62 BC, after having wiped the pirats out, defeated Mithridates, and transformed the eastern Anatolia and the Near East into Roman provinces or vassal kingdoms, and having finally discharged his army, Pompey was deprived of honour and respect by the Senate, because of the hate and the jealousy of Lucullus and his political allies. At the end of 62 BC Caesar was married to Pompeia, the daughter of Quintus Pompeius Rufus and Cornelia, a daughter of Sulla the dictator. Pompey had recently divorced from Mucia.65 Authors hostile to Caesar accused Caesar himself to have caused this divorce.66 This divorce caused the resentment of the Metelli.67 The subsequent year, after the Clodian scandal, Caesar preferred to divorce from Pompeia, before Clodius’ trial, in which he did not testify in court.68 He protected in this way his dignitas of Pontifex Maximus. The young Clodius was finally acquitted in May 61. During the Mithridatic war, Clodius was Lucullus’ relative, for his sister Quinta Clodia was married to him. At the end of Lucullus’ campaign Clodia was accused of dissoluteness and Lucullus prepared the divorce. In the period between 67 and 62 many divorces occurred among prominent families of Rome, and therefore previous alliances were broken. Caesar and Clodius abandoned their wives, who were offsprings of Sullan partisans. In 62 the political situation was changing and new marriages were occurring in order to reinforce new alliances. Clodius caused a mob among the Lucullan army and the soldiers refused to fight any more under Lucullus. Plutarchus reports these facts in this way: He (scil. Clodius) was a brother of the wife of Lucullus, a woman of the most dissolute ways, whom he was actually accused of debauching… Clodius worked secretly upon the soldiers who had been commanded by Fimbria, and tried to incite them against Lucullus. the army of Lucullus was demoralised, and refused to follow him either against Tigranes, or against Mithridates … They made the winter their excuse for lingering in Gordyene, expect-

63 64 65 66 67 68

Plut., Pomp. 1. App., B.c. II.76. Cic., Ad Att. I.12.3 of 1st January 61. Namely Curio, from whom Suet. Caes. 50 derives. Cass.Dio XXXVII.49.3; for the divorce: Cic., ad Att. I.12.3; Plut., Pomp. 42. Cic., ad Att. I.I3.3; Plut., Caes. 10; Suet., Caes. 6,2; 74,2; App., B.c. II.52; Cass.Dio XXXVII. 45.

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Pompey, in fact, received in 67 the exceptional command of the piratic war and operated also in Cilicia. Lucullus was summoned to discharge soldiers who had served for 20 years, and to entrust the others to the consul Manius Acilius Glabrio.70 Clodius was friendly received by the proconsul of Cilicia and his brother-in-law Q. Marcius Rex.71 He was subsequently captured by the pirates and rescued thanks to the coming of Pompey’s fleet. He operated in the East in the frame of Pompey’s war against the pirates, and then went back to Rome, while many soldiers of Lucullus were passed under Pompey’s standards.72 After his divorce from Clodia, Lucullus married Servilia, a sister of Servilius Cæpio, Cato’s half brother.73 Pompey’s conquests were accomplished in 63 and he came back to Italy in 62. He entered Rome not earlier than December 62. Clodius acted then as a quite independent politician, as the contemporary scholarship has righly recognized.74 But it is highly probable that in this moment his sister Claudia Quinta got married to Cn.Pompey, the eldest son of Pompey.75 In 56 Cicero knew that Clodius was a relative of Pompey. In fact he writes: Publius Clodius came out as a popular character from saffron gowns and turbans, and woman's slippers, and purple bands, and stomachers, and singing, and iniquity, and adultery. If the women had not caught him in this dress, if he had not been allowed to escape by the indulgence of the maid servants, from a place which it was impious for him to enter, the Roman people would have lost their devoted friend, the republic would have been deprived of so energetic a citizen. It is in consequence of this insane conduct, amid our dissensions, for which we are by these recent prodigies admonished by the immortal gods, that one of the patricians has been taken from their number to be made a tribune of the people, in direct violation of the laws. That which, the year before, his brother Metellus and the senate, which even then was unanimous, had refused, and in the most rigorous manner rejected with one voice and one mind, Cnæus Pompeius being the first to declare his opinion; (so greatly, after the dissensions of the nobles of which we are now reminded, were circumstances disturbed and altered;) that which his brother when consul opposed being done, – which his kinsman and companion, a

69 Plut., Luc. 34, transl. Perrin. 70 Cic., de imp. Cn. Pomp. 10. 27; Sallust., Hist. V.13–14; App., Mithr. 90; Cass.Dio XXXVI. 14.4; 15.1 and 17.3. 71 Cass.Dio XXXVI.15.1 and 17.3. 72 On these facts see Tatum, The Patrician Tribune, 49–53. 73 Cic., de fin. III.8; Plut., Luc. 38. 74 E.S.Gruen, “P. Clodius: Instrument or Independent Agent?”, Phoenix 20, 1966, 120–130; A.W.Lintott, “P. Clodius-Felix Catilina?” G&R 14, 1967, 157– 69; H.Benner, Die Politik des P. Clodius Pulcher. Untersuchungen zur Denaturierung des Clientelwesens in der ausgehenden römischen Republik, Historia Einzelschriften 50, Stuttgart 1988. 75 See Cic., ad fam. III.4.2.10; 10; Cass.Dio XXXIX.60.3.

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most illustrious man, who had refused to speak in his favour when he was accused, had utterly prevented, – was now effected for him…76

The adfinis et sodalis clarissimus vir who prevented Clodius from passing into the plebs was Pompey, and his adfinitas was established by that marriage. His previous attempt occurred one year before, in 60, when he was already adfinis of Pompey. Therefore T.W. Hillard77 singled out the very probable historical frame in which Pompey and Clodius’ family approached and arranged the marriage: that of Pompey’s arrival to Rome, in need of breaking his political isolation. He won Clodius’ alliance after a failure in marital negotiation with the family circle of Cato.78 Pompey and Clodius were both political enemies to Lucullus. In this historical frame Clodius accomplished the ritual of Hercules Musarum, who produced harmony and concord. Concord was a recurring theme in contemporary politics, and especially in 62 BC, when the moneyer Lucius Æmilius Lepidus Paulus made struck denarii which represent Concordia on the obverse side.79 Lepidus was a political ally of Cicero, and therefore he was alluding to the the concordia ordinum, which was ardently sought by the great orator.80 The Hercules Musarum was as well popular in those years, for the moneyer Quintus Pomponius Musa issued his famous series with the Muses and Hercules Musarum in 66 BC, only four years before Clodius’ scandal.81 Such an explanation of Clodius’ performance clarifies the exceedingly strong reaction by Cicero and the conservative party. The recent rapprochement between Pompey and Clodius was disturbing. We do not know if Clodius had some political aims in approaching Pompeia. In any case the Hercules Musarum was fitting for new important marriages: first of all that of Claudia and Cn.Pompey. In 60 BC Pompey broke his political isolation and joined alliance with Caesar and Licinius Crassus by forming the first triumvirate. Finally Pompey’s settlement of the Near East was accepted, the Pompeian veterans obtained estates as a reward, and the opposition was forcibly silenced. The political accord was sealed by new marriages, as many authors report.82 Pompey namely got married to Julia, Caesar’s daughter, and Caesar got married to Calpurnia, a daughter of Piso. 76 Cic., de har.resp. 44–45; text provided by Perseus Digital Library, with funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities. 77 T.W.Hillard, “P. Clodius Pulcher 62–58 BC: Pompeii adfinis et sodalis”, PBSR 50, 1982, 34– 44. 78 Plut., Cato min. 30; Pomp. 44. The Schol.Bob. 85 Stangl, describes Clodius in 61 BC as a potentissimus homo; see Tatum, The Patrician Tribune, 68–69. 79 Crawford, RRC, nos 415 and 417. 80 See Crawford, RRC, no. 441. 81 Crawford, RRC, no. 410. 82 Plut., Caes.14: Moreover, Caesar tried to avail himself still more of the influence of Pompey. He had a daughter, Julia, who was betrothed to Servilius Cæpio. This daughter he betrothed to Pompey, and said he would give Pompey's daughter in marriage to Servilius, although she too was not unbetrothed, but had been promised to Faustus, the son of Sulla. And a little while afterwards Caesar took Calpurnia to wife, a daughter of Piso, and got Piso made consul

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The party of Lucullus and Cato loathed this concord and harmony between Caesar and Pompey,83 which destroyed their power, and Varro published a book entitled Tricaranus,84 i.e. The three-headed monster of the Herculean myth, in order to criticize this coalition. The marriage of Pompey and Julia was similar to the marriage of Hercules and Juventas, if truly Pompey was similar to Hercules. Love was not the fundament and premise of Roman marriage, but rather concord and interest were. For example, marriages of Æneas and Lavinia or of Antony and Octavia followed this path.

4. THE RITUAL OF JUNO CAPROTINA Now we can go further and focus on other goddesses, which shared some features of Bona-Dea’s cult. Juno Sospita was well known in Rome, but in archaic times she was a foreign deity. She became however a very important goddess of marriage for the Romans. Groups of Roman women celebrated the loss of their virginity in cults to a Juno similar to Juno Sospita: Juno Caprotina. The first wore goatskin; the second has a goat in her name. Female servants were particularly devoted to the cult of Juno Caprotina.85 In his De lingua Latina Varro86 writes: nonæ Caprotinæ, quod eo die in Latio Iunoni Caprotinæ mulieres sacrificantur et sub caprifico faciunt; e caprifico adhibent virgam. The Nonæ Caprotinæ are called so because on that day,87 in Latium, women sacrificed to Juno Caprotina and performed the ritual under the caprificus; they get the rod from this tree.

83 84 85

86

for the coming year, although here too Cato vehemently protested, and cried out that it was intolerable to have the supreme power prostituted by marriage alliances and to see men helping one another to powers and armies and provinces by means of women. Plut., Pomp. 47. App., B.c. II.9: As Caesar saw that he would be away from home a long time, and believed that envy would be in proportion to benefits conferred, he gave his daughter in marriage to Pompey, although she was betrothed to Cæpio, because he feared that even a friend might become envious of his great success. He promoted the boldest of his partisans to the principal offices for the ensuing year. He designated his friend Aulus Gabinius as consul, with Lucius Piso as his colleague, whose daughter, Calpurnia, Caesar married, although Cato cried out that the government was debauched by marriages. For tribunes he chose Vatinius and Clodius Pulcher. Plut., Pomp. 47. App., B.c. II.9. Plut., Cam.33; Macrob.I.11.36–40. The name of the goddess (Mephitis) Kaporoinna (corresponding to Caprotina) has been recognized in the Lucanian sanctuary of Rossano di Vaglio: M.Lejeune, in: D.Adamesteanu, M.Lejeune, Il santuario lucano di Macchia di Rossano di Vaglio, MAL VIII.16, 1971, 56–7; P.Poccetti, Nuovi documenti italici, Pisa 1979, no. 159. Varro, de lingua Lat. VI.18–19.

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Erkell88 has proposed an interesting interpretation of this passage; he noticed the following facts: 1) the caprificus, or wild fig tree, is considered to be the male fig tree, whose branches are bound to female fig trees so that they can become fruitful; 2) fig wood was used to carve statues of Priapus, the phallic god;89 3) a milky sap flows from cut twigs of the fig tree, and this was used during the festival of Juno Caprotina;90 4) this sap was sometimes used to curdle milk to obtain a sort of cheese; 5) in the ancient world it was believed that pregnancy was the result of coagulation, in which semen acted as rennet. Therefore this author interpreted this passage from Varro as evidence for a ritual in which women introduced a virga caprifici, i.e. a phallus, into their vaginas in order to become fertile. Danielle Porte91 proposed a similar interpretation of “e caprifico adhibent virgam”. The opposed interpretation of this ritual has been proposed by Jan Bremmer and Nicholas Horsfall:92 wild fig-tree did not symbolize fertility, because it does not bear fruit.93 They underline the meaning of clothing the handmaidens as if they were mistresses. The reversal is typical of festivals which reenacted a mythical primæval age, of carnival-like celebrations of reneval, and of festivals of the new year. Many arguments by these authors are relevant, but they are unable to explain the meaning of wild fig-trees. They were used for fertlity, not for sterility. These trees were similar to the billy goat, whose function is that of fertilizing. A general reaction to Mannhardt’s and Frazer’s theories, which were largely followed in the 19th century 94 and now condemned, must not imply that fertility was not sought in ancient rituals. Such a condemnation is also supported by the Fou-

87 7th Juli. 88 H.Erkell, “Varroniana. Topographisches und Religionsgeschichtliches zu Varro, De lingua Latina”, ORom 13, 1981, 35–39, part. 38–39. Further discussion of hypotheses similar to this by Boëls-Janssen, La vie religieuse des matrones, 193–195. 89 Hor., Sat. I.8.1–2. 90 Macrob.I.11.40: Nonis Iuliis diem festum esse ancillarum tam vulgo notum est, ut nec origo et causa celebritatis ignota sit. Iunoni enim Caprotinae die illo libero pariter ancillaeque sacrificant sub arbore caprifico in memoriam benignae virtutis quae in ancillarum animis pro conservatione publicae dignitatis apparuit… diemque ipsum Nonas Caprotinas (scil. Senatus) nuncupavit ab illa caprifico ex qua signum victoriae ceperunt, sacrificiumque statuit annua sollemnitate celebrandum, cui lac quod ex caprifico manat propter memoriam facti procedentis adhibetur. 91 D.Porte, “Le devin, son bouc et Junon. (Ovide, Fastes II,425–452)”, REL 51, 1973, 171–189. 92 J.N.Bremmer, N.M.Horsfall, Roman Myth and Mythography, BICS Suppl.52, London 1987, 76–88, part. 77. They suppose (p. 79, cf. R.Pfeilschifter, “Zum Termin von Poplifugia und Nonae Caprotinae”, Hermes 136, 2008, 30–37, part. 30) that the women constructed huts from the branches of fig-trees. 93 They maintain that the male fig tree was an arbor infelix, but Macrobius (III.20.3) says that the fig tree was among the arbores infelices if it bore black fruits (…ficum atram, quaeque bacam nigrosque fructus ferunt). The infelicitas depended thus on the colour of the fruits, not on the “gender” of the tree. 94 An interesting analysis of this sort of theories by S.C.Humphreys, The Strangeness of Gods. Historical Perspectives on the Interpretation of Athenian Religion, Oxford 2004, 197–222.

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caultian theory of gender as a social construction.95 The Roman society of the Republican age can not be compared with some contemporary societies concerned with overpopulation and knowing no threat of starvation. A modern historian should take into account the urging problems of an ancient society. For example, the Romans tought of hermaphroditism as a terrible menace to fecundity and to the survival of the society itself. Ancient rituals, such as that of the Nonæ Caprotinæ, had many aims, among which we can not exclude fertility and fecundity. Wissowa, Latte and all the authors96 who had supposed that the fig-tree was used because of its connections to fertility had indeed good reasons. In fact, James Frazer97 quoted many examples from African native cultures, among which the young women were ritually put into contact with wild fig-trees and the white sap of these plants, sometimes they clothed the women with a goat skin. Criticism against Frazer must take into account that fertilization was only one goal of this festival, in which other goals were sought as well. Also the search for the “original” meaning of a god or of a festival is often elusive and deceptive. The wild fig produces flowers that are essential for the cross-fertilisation of cultivated fig trees. Opportunities for cross-fertilisation are necessary. Small fig wasps (Blastophaga psenes) transport the pollen, and favourable winds help them if the trees are not close to each other. The fig tree was supposed to be the most ancient cultivated plant: the Greeks said that Demeter granted the fig tree to Phytalos (“he who plants”) before the cultivation of corn was known.98 This belief fits perfectly the features of the Nonæ Caprotinæ. The artificial fertilisation of cultivated fig trees, i.e. caprification, consisted in hanging clusters of wild fig flowers, which are similar to big figs, to the “female” plant99 so that wasps could 95 See M. Foucault, La volonté de savoir, Paris 1976, and infra, p. 190, footnote 95. 96 See the literature quoted by Bremmer, Horsfall, 76–77, and the discussion on the literature by Boëls-Janssen, La vie religieuse des matrones, 390–397. U.Pestalozza, “Iuno Caprotina” SMSR 9, 1933, 38–71, supposed that Juno Sospita was the female counterpart of Faunus, whose statue was covered with a goat skin: Iustin.XLIII.1.7: ipsum dei simulacrum nudum caprina pelle amictum est, quo habitu nunc Romae Lupercalibus decurritur (the image itself represents this god naked and covered with a goat skin, and in the same dress the Lupercalia are performed in Rome by running people). W.F.Otto, “Juno”, Philologus, 64, 1905, 161– 223; part. 183–92, underlined the link between the Nonæ Caprotinæ and the Poplifugium (which were celebrated in the same period of July), and noticed that the goat was supposed to have a peculiar feeling for metereology. 97 Publius Ovidius Naso, Fastorum libri sex, ed. with a transl. and commentary by J.G.Frazer, II, London 1929, 343–52. 98 Paus.I.37.2. 99 See Aristot., de gen.anim. 715 B; Hist.anim. 557 B; Theophr., Hist.plant. II.8.1–3; de caus. plant. II.9–15; Plut., de amore prolis 3 = 495 B; Quaest.conv. VII.2 = 700 F; Plin., N.h. XV.79–81; Pallad.IV.10.28; Colum.XI.2.56; Pollux, Onom. I.242; Aristophan., Historiae animalium, Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, suppl. I.1 ed. Reimer, 1.36; Pausanias, Ἀττικῶν ὀνομάτων συναγωγή, ed. Erbse, “Untersuchungen zu den attizistischen Lexika”, ADAW 1950, E 67; Geopon. III.6.4; X.5.1; Hesych., Lex. and Etym.genuinum, s.v. anêrinastos.

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pollinate them more easily. The ancients did not know the role played by the small wasps, and believed that the male plant fertilised the female plant directly. The 7 July, the Nonæ Caprotinæ, was an opportune day for caprification, rather than for a festival of the new year. Licia Luschi100 linked this procedure to the cult of some Italic goddesses, such as Vesuna Erinia, Juno Caprotina, and Mephitis Kaporoinna, and to their male counterparts, such as Faunus, Fatuus, and Favonius. Vesuna was called Erinia and venerated with Erine pater in Herdonia (now Ordona), in the territory of the ancient Marsi.101 This name is cognate with the Greek word ἐρινεός, “wild fig”.102 Wild fig-trees were associated with goats, as shown by the Latin name caprificus and by the Greek, and especially Messenian and Spartan name, τράγος, “billy goat”.103 The Erine pater would then have been similar to the Latin Faunus Ficarius.104 Plutarch105 says that Roman women sat feasting under wild tree branches on the Nonæ Caprotinæ. The ritual was probably supposed to produce fertility in women in the same way that the wild tree fertilised the cultivated fig trees. The act of fertilisation hypothesised by Erkell cannot be ruled out, but is not strictly necessary,106 because the proximity of wild tree flowers sufficed to render both trees and women fertile. The mythical origin of the Nonæ Caprotinæ107 is described by Plutarch, in his Life of Camillus: They were not yet done with these pressing tasks when a fresh war broke upon them. The Aequians, Volscians, and Latins burst into their territory all at once, and the Tuscans laid siege to Sutrium, a city allied with Rome. The military tribunes in command of the army, having encamped near Mount Marcius, were besieged by the Latins, and were in danger of losing

100 L.Luschi, “Vesuna Erinia”, in: Il Fucino e le aree limitrofe nell’antichità. Atti del conv. di Archeologia, Celano-Paludi 26–28 Nov. 1999, Avezzano 2001, 338–348 (where she hypothesized a link between Erinia and Erinys); Ead., “Vesuna e il fico”, in: La valle Roveto e il sacro: dal mondo antico al medioevo. Atti del II convegno di Archeologia, Civita d’Antino 14 Sett. 2002, Rome 2005, 161–185; Ead., “Mephitis Kaporroina”, in: Samnitice loqui. Studi in onore di A.L. Prosdocimi per il premio I Sanniti, ed. by D.Caiazza, I, Piedimonte Matese 2006, 259–285; Ead., “Il fico e il vento: divinità dell'arboricultura nell'Italia antica”, SMSR 32, 2008, 259–276. 101 CIL I2, 392; cf. C.Letta, “I culti di Vesuna e di Valetudo tra Umbria e Marsica”, in: Assisi e gli Umbri nell’antichità. Atti del convegno internaz. Assisi 18–21 Dic. 1991, Assisi 1997, 318–339; L.Luschi, “La ‘scoperta’ di Milonia e la provenienza dell’iscrizione CIL I2, 392”, in: Safinim. Studi in onore di A.La Regina per il premio I Sanniti, ed. by D.Caiazza, I, Piedimonte Matese 2004, 125–130. 102 Luschi, “Vesuna e il fico”, 17; Ead., “Il fico e il vento”, 260. 103 Paus.IV.20.2; Dion.Hal.XIX.1.3–4; cf. Diod.VIII, fr.21; see M.Lejeune, “Notes de linguistique latine”, REL 45, 1968, 194–202. 104 Isid. VIII.11.103. 105 Plut., Rom. 29. 106 See the arguments by Boëls-Janssen, La vie religieuse des matrones, 397–398 against the article by D.Porte. 107 The origins of the festival were probably narrated also in a Roman fabula praetexta: see T.P. Wiseman, Roman Drama and Roman History, Exeter 1998, chap. 1.

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Bona Dea and the cults of Roman women their camp. Wherefore they sent to Rome for aid, and Camillus was appointed dictator for the third time. Two stories are told about this war, and I will give the fabulous one first. They say that the Latins, either as a pretext for war, or because they really wished to revive the ancient affinity between the two peoples, sent and demanded from the Romans freeborn virgins in marriage. The Romans were in doubt what to do, for they dreaded war in their unsettled and unrestored condition, and yet they suspected that this demand for wives was really a call for hostages disguised under the specious name of intermarriage. In their perplexity, a serving-maid named Tutula, or, as some call her, Philotis, advised the magistrates to send her to the enemy with some maid-servants of the comeliest sort and most genteel appearance, all arrayed like free-born brides; she would attend to the rest. The magistrates yielded to her persuasions, chose out as many maid-servants as she thought meet for her purpose, arrayed them in fine raiment and gold, and handed them over to the Latins, who were encamped near the city. In the night, the rest of the maidens stole away the enemy's swords, while Tutula, or Philotis, climbed a wild fig-tree of great height, and after spreading out her cloak behind her, held out a lighted torch towards Rome, this being the signal agreed upon between her and the magistrates, though no other citizen knew of it. Hence it was that the soldiers sallied out of the city tumultuously, as the magistrates urged them on, calling out one another's names, and with much ado getting into rank and file. They stormed the entrenchments of the enemy, who were fast asleep and expecting nothing of the sort, captured their camp, and slew most of them. This happened on the Nones of what was then called Quintilis, now July, and the festival since held on that day is in remembrance of the exploit. For, to begin with, they run out of the city gate in throngs, calling out many local and common names, such as Gaius, Marcus, Lucius, and the like, in imitation of the way the soldiers once called aloud upon each other in their haste. Next, the maid-servants, in gay attire, run about jesting and joking with the men they met. They have a mock battle, too, with one another, implying that they once took a hand in the struggle with the Latins. And as they feast, they sit in the shade of a figtree’s branches. The day is called the “Capratine Nones,” from the wild fig-tree, as they suppose, from which the maid held forth her torch; this goes by the name of caprificus. But others say that most of what is said and done at this festival has reference to the fate of Romulus. For on this same day he vanished from sight, outside the city gates, in sudden darkness and tempest, and, as some think, during an eclipse of the sun. The day, they say, is called the “Capratine Nones” from the spot where he thus vanished. For the she-goat goes by the name of capra, and Romulus vanished from sight while haranguing an assembly of the people at the Goat’s Marsh, as has been stated in his Life.108

The historical episode can be dated short before the battle against the Volscians at Mæcium (389 BC), near Lanuvium. The Plutarchean Life of Romulus reports a similar account, related to the same story, and is very explicit in stating that the Latin enemies pretended a renewal of intermarriage accords with the Romans:109 After the Gauls had captured Rome and been driven out by Camillus, and when the city was still too weak to recover itself readily, an expedition was made against it by many of the Latins, under the command of Livius Postumius. This general stationed his army not far from Rome, and sent a herald with the message that the Latins wished to renew their ancient relationship and affinity with the Romans, by fresh intermarriages between the two peoples. If, therefore, the Romans would send them a goodly number of virgins and their widows, they should have peace and friendship, such as they had formerly made with the Sabines on like

108 Plut., Cam. 33–34, transl. Perrin. 109 Plut., Rom. 29, transl. Perrin.

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terms. On hearing this message, the Romans hesitated between going to war, which they feared, and the surrender of their women, which they thought no more desirable to have them captured. But while they were in this perplexity, a serving-maid called Philotis (or, as some say, Tutola) advised them to do neither, but by the use of a stratagem to escape alike the war and the giving of hostages. Now the stratagem was this, that they should send to the enemy Philotis herself, and with her other comely serving-maids arrayed like free-born women; then in the night Philotis was to display a signal-fire, at which the Romans were to come in arms and deal with their enemies while asleep. This was done, with the approval of the Latins, and Philotis displayed the signal-fire from a certain wild fig-tree, screening it behind with coverlets and draperies, so that its light was unseen by the enemy, but visible to the Romans. When, accordingly, they beheld it, they sallied forth at once in great haste, and because of their haste calling upon one another many times at the gates. They fell upon their enemies when they least expected it and mastered them, and now celebrate this festival in memory of their victory. And the Nones on which it falls are called Capratine from the wild fig-tree, the Roman name for which is “caprificus,” and they feast the women outside the city in booths made of fig-tree boughs. Then the serving-maids run about in companies and play, after which they strike and throw stones at one another, in token that on that earlier day they assisted the Romans and shared with them in their battle. These details are accepted by many historians, but their calling out one another's names in the day time, and their marching out to the Goat's Marsh as for sacrifice, seem to be more consonant with the former story, unless, to be sure, both actions happened to take place on the same day in different periods. Romulus is said to have been fifty-four years of age, and in the thirty-eighth year of his reign when he disappeared from among men.

Macrobius calls the heroine Tutela and adds that the Senate, remembering this deed, ordered that all the maiden were liberated, rewarded with a dowry at public expenses, and preserve and wear seriously the clothes in which they were disguised.110 In this story several features are worth noticing: the servants acted as brides, warlike and saviour brides. This myth is a sort of foundation of the liberatio vindicta, i.e. the exceptional intervention of magistrates who liberated a slave because of his great services to the Republic.111 The story ends with their marriage, thanks to the dowry. Their leader was called Philotis, which recalls the Greek name of love (φιλότης), and Tutula or Tutela, that is “Protectress”.112 110 Macrob.I.11.35–40: Qui cum repentina incursione superassent, memor beneficii senatus omnes ancillas manu iussit emitti dotemque his ex publico fecit et ornatum quo tunc erant usae gestare concessit, diemque ipsum Nonas Caprotinas nuncupavit ab illa caprifico ex qua signum victoriae ceperunt, sacrificiumque statuit annua sollemnitate celebrandum, cui lac quod ex caprifico manat propter memoriam facti procedentis adhibetur. 111 See the story of the first slave liberated in this way, Vindicius: Liv.II.5. 112 J.Locq, “Review of Dumezil, Fêtes Romaines”, Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 55, 1977, 524–7, expresses the view that Tutŭla, Tutĕla cannot be connected linguistically to the word and notion of tutēla. It is obscure the means by which he knew of the quantity of e in Tutela as mentioned by Macrobius. The etymology from tŭtŭlus (a high head-dress) is far from ascertained. All the words ending in -ela have an ē, and not an ĕ: mustela, mantela, custodela, suadela, corruptela, clientela. A similar concept of protection occurs in the surname Sospita: F.Coarelli, Il Campo Marzio dalle origini alla fine della repubblica, Rome 1997, 28; D.Sabbatucci, La religione romana antica: dal calendario festivo all’ordine cosmico, Milan 1988, 234.

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Tutela is the name of a goddess who was similar to the Greek Tyche, and was worshipped in the Roman empire.113 In a scarcely known booklet by Angelo Brelich114 the features of some Roman goddesses are described, who were supposed to warrant the safety of Rome. The divine protectors of Rome were sometimes male and female at the same time; they were often similar to genius and iuno. The Romans kept in secrecy the source of fecundity of their people. Tutela had apparently some of these features: she was a warlike bride, who protected and saved her city before getting married. Another warlike and protectress Juno was worshipped in Tibur, where prayers were uttered to her in this form: “Juno Curritis, protect the native members of my curia with your chariot and your shield!”.115 Bona Dea shared this feature and was a protrectress of the Roman people,116 and admitted transvestism. These goddesses were in action outside the city wall, in a wild landscape, as the slopes of Aventine were. They protected young women who were in a dangerous area, open to attacks of enemies and foreigners. The account on Juno Caprotina is related to intermarriage between Latins and Romans, whereas that on Juno Sospita is related to the peace of 338 between Latins and Romans. This form of Juno was thus typical of the intermarriage law, the ius conubii who was enacted among the cities which shared the Latin citizenship. Latin or Roman brides who were about to marry, thanks to the ius conubii Latinum, should resort to a goddess who was entitled to guide and educate them. This goddess had to be recognized by both Latin cities and Rome. Juno Sospita and Juno Caprotina were perfectly fitting for this role. Probably other similar Junones were worshipped among other Latin cities. In 90 BC, at the outbreak of the Social war, prodigies and dreams urged the Romans to propitiate Juno Sospita. Cicero writes in fact: In recent times, during the Marsian war, the temple of Juno Sospita was restored because of a dream of Cæcilia, the daughter of Quintus Cæcilius Metellus… and finally – the sign considered by the soothsayers the most ominous of all – the shields at Lanuvium were gnawed by mice.117

113 See for ex. AE 1904, 199; AE 1916, 123; AE 1952, 41; AE 1955, 33; AE 1971, 29; AE 2002, 966; AE 2003, 1164; CIL XIII.3,2, 10024, 27… The goddess Tutela was similar to TycheFortuna: she was clearly the tutela, i.e. the protection of a city: P.Calabria, “Una personificazione femminile romana: Tutela”, RIN 88, 1986, 77–87, Th.Ganschow, “Tutela”, in LIMC VIII.1 (1997), 112–113. 114 A.Brelich, Die geheime Schutzgottheit von Rom, Zürich 1949; on Tutela and protection of the city see now G.Ferri, Tutela urbis. Il significato e la concezione della divinità tutelare cittadina nella religione romana, PawB 32, Stuttgart 2010. 115 Serv., in Aen. I.17: Iuno Curritis, tuo curru clipeoque tuere meos curiae vernulas. 116 See in particular Zollschan, “The Temple on the Cistophori of C.Fannius”. 117 Cic., De div. I.99, transl. Falconer: Caeciliae Q. filiae somnio modo Marsico bello templum est a senatu Iunoni Sospitae restitutum... et Lanuvii clipeos, quod haruspicibus tristissumum visum esset, a muribus esse derosos. Cf. I.4; Iul.Obs. 55.

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Juno Sospita and Juno Caprotina were thought as the saviour goddesses, protectresses of the boundaries and of the territory, and international deities, who allowed, when appeased, lawfull marriages between Romans and other peoples. They were again prayed and propitiated in a war which opposed Romans and neighbouring peoples and former allies.

5. ROMAN GIRLS RAPED BY HERCULES We know of the myth of Bona Dea and Hercules thanks to Propertius and we have already said that the story could not end in that way. Hercules cursed the women and excluded them from his festival at the Ara Maxima. Such a conclusion did not represent the pax deorum and requires a subsequent reconciliation. But there is another feature of the story which appears unfamiliar to Hercules: he was among a group of beautiful girls and he had apparently neither desire nor love. Hercules, and his Greek model Herakles, were famous for their love affairs and the important sons who sprang from such unions. For central Italy Hercules fathered Tyrrhenus118 or Tuscus119 with Omphale; he became the forefather of the Etruscans. The female founder of Mantua, Manto, was his daughter.120 Polybius121 says that Hercules had a son, Pallas, whom the Palatine hill is named after; his mother was Launa, Evander’s daughter. Silenos,122 a Greek writer in Hannibal’s army, wrote that the Palatine hill was named after Palantho, a Hyperborean girl who was loved by Hercules. The birth of Latinus shows clearly how Hercules began to replace Faunus. Both were thought to have fathered him. Justinus,123 after Pompeius Trogus, tells how Hercules raped Faunus’ daughter and that Latinus was born of this union. A contemporary of Trogus, Verrius Flaccus,124 agrees in maintaining the Herculean paternity of Latinus. Another author of the Augustan age, Dionysius of Halicarnassus,125 ascribes two sons to the hero: Pallas, by Evander’s daughter Lavinia, and Latinus, by a Hyperborean girl who was married to Faunus. Consequently,

118 119 120 121 122

Dion.Hal.I.28; Paus.II.21.3; Hygin., Fab. 274. Fest., p.487 L.; Paul.Fest., 486 L. Serv., in Aen. X.198. VI.11a 1 = Dion.Hal.I.32.1; cf. Dion.Hal.I.43.1. FGH 175, F 8 (in Solin.I.15); Paul.Fest., 245 L. See T.P.Wiseman, “Domi nobiles and the Roman cultural élite”, in: Les «bourgeoisies» municipales italiennes aux IIe et Ier siècles av. J.-C., Coll. Naples 1981, Paris-Naples 1983, 299–307, esp. 303; D.Briquel, Le regard des autres. Les origines de Rome vues par ses ennemis (débout du Ive siècle / débout du Ier siècle av. J.-C.), Besançon 1997, 37–56. 123 XLIII.1.9. See G.Colonna, “I culti della Cannicella”, Annali Museo Fondazione Claudio Faina 3, 1987, 19. 124 Epitomised by Fest., 245 L. 125 I.43.1.

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Faunus was falsely believed to be the father of Latinus. Cassius Dio126 too agrees that Latinus was born from Hercules and Faunus’ wife. Vergil and the Origo gentis Romanæ,127 however, state that Latinus was the son of Faunus. Moreover, Hercules was also linked with Juventas, Juno’s daughter, identified with the Greek Hebe.128 Hercules is depicted ravishing a beautiful woman, called Mlachuch, on a 5th century Etruscan mirror.129 I have mentioned (p. 25, cf. also 109) the relationship between Hercules and Acca Larentia in an earlier chapter. In this case, the god appeared in his temple to the prostitute and had sex with her in a dream. Afterwards, he repaid her by allowing her to marry a very rich man. The scheme is always the same: a woman has a sexual relationship in a dream with the god who impregnates her, and then she can marry with the god’s blessing. When Hercules knocked on Bona Dea’s door, did he really only want water? Inside there were beautiful girls and some wine. Hercules’ prayer to the priestess of Bona Dea took the form of a paraclausithyron, a prayer in front of the closed door of an unwilling woman. The Greek hero was acting like the exclusi amatores.130 The result of Hercules’ action was the exclusion of women from the rituals of Ara Maxima. But such a result could only have been provisional because a 126 127 128 129

Cass.Dio, I, 2 Boissevain = Tzetzes, in Lycophr.1232. Verg., Aen. VII.47; Origo gentis Rom. 9.1. Liv.XXI.62.9; cf. Kroll, “Iuventas”, in: RE. XX (1919), 1359. This bronze mirror has been found at Atri, in Picenum, in a very rich female tomb. It is decorated by a relief, which represents Hercules (the inscription calls him herecele) taking on his arms a girl, who is called mlacuch by the inscription (Gerhard, ES, IV, tav.344). It is a work from Vulci, of the beginning of 5th century. This iconographical scheme is typical for a lover who ravishes. Mlac signifies bonus (L.Agostiniani, “Duenom duenas: καλος καλο: mlax mlakas”, SE 49, 1981, 95–111), and therefore Giovanni Colonna, “I culti della Cannicella”, 20–22, supposed that this goddess corresponded to Bona Dea. He noticed that the mirror was found in a tomb not far from the city of Cupra, where an temple of Hera-Juno stood (Strab.V.4.2 = 241; cf. D.Briquel, Les Pélasges en Italie, Rome 1984, 90–93) and that it is probable that the local name of that goddess was Cupra. She was a goddess of the Umbrian, Sabine, and Picenian areas, whose name corresponds to bona: Varro, de lingua Lat.V.159; Colonna, 22 and n. 40 where he gives references for the adjectif kupru- (= beautiful) in the South-Picenian and Etruscan areas. On the equivalence Cupra = Bona Dea cf. L.Preller, Römische Mythologie, I, Berlin, 3rd ed. 1881, 280, n. 3; F.Bücheler, Umbria, Bonn 1883, 173. Therefore Colonna maintains that Cupra, Mlachuch, and Juno were similar to the Roman Bona Dea. L.B.van der Meer, Interpretatio Etrusca. Greek Myths on Etruscan Mirrors, Amsterdam 1995, 45, explains the ending –uch as indicating a nomen agentis: “who makes beautiful”. In this case the woman was one among Hercules’ wifes and loved girls. 130 W.S.Anderson, “Hercules exclusus: Propertius IV.9”, AJPh 85, 1964, 1–12; H.E.Pillinger, “Callimachean Influences on Propertius”, HSCP 73, 1969, 189; E.H.McParland, “Propertius 4.9”, TAPhA 101, 1970, 349–355; P.Fedeli, “Ideologia augustea e poesia: il mito di Ercole e Caco in Properzio”, in: Macht und Kultur in Rom der Kaiserzeit, ed. by K.Rosen, Studium universale 16, Bonn 1994, 109–119; H.Chr.Günther, “The Fourth Book”, in: Brill’s Companion to Propertius, ed. by H.Chr.Günther, Leiden-Boston 2006, 353–395, part. 389.

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great lover and fertility figure such as Hercules only gave up sex and wine for Fauna’s festival. Similarly, he gave up sex during the Bacchic ceremony organised by Omphale. These examples prove that he had other opportunities to rape, love and impregnate the most important Roman girls. Hercules’ arrival at Rome was dated to before the rule of law, to the same primordial age as that of the Luperci, when marriage did not exist. Faunus and Hercules acted in the same way, driven by their lust. This is why they were not condemned for rape. However, the case of Bona Dea’s sacred grove was particular, for Hercules was surprisingly interested more in water than in girls. There was a reason why Hercules was thought in this way. The president of the female club did not know that Hercules was not a threat to the girls, and all the story had to come to a pleasant conclusion, when the hero and Juno found an agreement and he received a spouse from her. Hercules was a fecundator like Faunus, and was supposed to have raped even Faunus’ daughter, i.e. Fauna herself. But in the Propertian myth he was behaving in the most correct way: no sex with the girls, no aggression. Only, he was seen by the old priestess as a threat, as a possible raper, and she knew that every man had to be repelled. But the misunderstanding had to be finally clarified, and Hercules should be recognized as a protector and not an aggressor of women. 6. DREAMING OF THE GOD Rituals re-enacted those primæval erotic relations from which both Latins and Romans stemmed. Each woman sought fertility from the same source. Faunus and Hercules were the ancestors who blessed marriages once they had known the brides. We have already focussed on myths, and now we will look for what truly happened in rituals and life. An important form of contact with the male fertility god was the dream. And dream was a part of the rituals for Faunus, Fauna, and Hercules. On the Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi, and on many other ancient monuments, Ariadne is always asleep when Faunus unveils her. This form of representation is typical for people dreaming and having a vision of a god. For example, the love affair between Rhea Silvia and Mars was recounted as a dream that the girl had in the grove of Mars.131 131 Ovid., Fasti III.18–28; cf. Dion.Hal.I.77.1; Origo gentis Rom. 20. Cf. the numerous paintings and cut gems, especially of Augustan age: A.Alföldi, “Die Geburt der kaiserlichen Bildsymbolik”, Mus Helv. 7, 1950, 1–13; E.Simon, G.Bauchhenss, “Ares/Mars”, LIMC, II (1984), nos 390–407, 489–493; R.Cappelli, “Questioni di iconografia”, in: Roma. Romolo, Remo e la fondazione della città, catalogo della mostra, ed. by A.Carandini and R.Cappelli, Rome 2000, 151–183, esp.166–175. On representations of dreams on ancient sarcophagi: M.Koortbojian, Myth, Meaning and Memory on Roman Sarcophagi, Berkeley 1995, 100–113.

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Faunus, in particular, was thought of as a god who penetrated and appeared in dreams or nightmares. Servius comments on a line from Vergil in this way: ‘castrum Inui’, id est Panos, qui illic colitur. Inuus autem latine appellatur, graece Πάν: item Ἐφιάλτης graece, latine Incubo: idem Faunus, idem Fatuus, Fatuclus.132 ‘Castrum Inui’, i.e. of Pan, who is worshipped there. Inuus is his Latin name, Pan the Greek one; he is called Ephialtes as well in Greek and Incubo in Latin. He is Faunus, also known as Fatuus and Fatuclus.

The link between inire and incumbere is shown by the same author: dicitur autem Inuus ab ineundo passim cum omnibus animalibus, unde et Incubo dicitur133 Inuus is so called because he copulates with all animals, and is consequently also called Incubo.

Pliny the Elder writes: Natrix vocatur herba, cuius radix evulsa virus hirci redolet. Hac in Piceno feminis abigunt quos mira persuasione Fatuos vocant; ego species lymphantium hoc modo animorum esse crediderim, quæ tali medicamento iuventur. Natrix is the name of a plant the root of which, when pulled up, gives out the foul smell of hegoats. In Picenum they use this plant to drive away from women what are, with a strange credulity, called Fatui. I myself should believe that it is the hallucination of minds delirious in this way that is helped by such a drug.134

St. Augustine reports a similar story: Et quoniam creberrima fama est multique se expertos vel ab eis, qui experti essent, de quorum fide dubitandum non esset, audisse confirmant, Silvanos et Panes, quos vulgo incubos vocant, inprobos sæpe extitisse mulieribus et earum adpetisse ac peregisse concubitum; et quosdam dæmones, quos Dusios Galli nuncupant, adsidue hanc inmunditiam et tentare et efficere, plures talesque adseverant, ut hoc negare inpudentiæ videatur. There is, too, a very general rumor, which many have verified by their own experience, or which trustworthy persons who have heard the experience of others corroborate, that Sylvans and Fauns, who are commonly called ‘incubi’, had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied their lust upon them; and that certain devils, called Duses by the Gauls, are constantly attempting and effecting this impurity is so generally affirmed, that it were impudent 135 to deny it.

Isidorus repeats this account on Faunus and women and adds some features: Pilosi, qui Græce Panitæ, Latine Incubi appellantur, sive Inui ab ineundo passim cum animalibus. Unde et Incubi dicuntur ab incumbendo hoc est stuprando. Sæpe enim improbi existunt etiam mulieribus, et earum peragunt concubitum: quos dæmones Galli Dusios vo-

132 Serv., in Aen. VI.775; cf. Origo gentis Rom. 4.5: Faunum plerique eundem Silvanum a silvis, Inuum deum, quidam etiam Pana esse dixerunt 133 Serv., in Aen. VI.775. 134 Plin., N.h. XXVII.107, transl. Jones. 135 Augustin., De civ. Dei XV.23, transl. Shaw.

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cant, quia adsidue hanc peragunt inmunditiam. Quem autem vulgo Incubonem vocant, hunc Romani Faunum ficarium dicunt. The hairy beings who are called in Greek Panitæ and in Latin Incubi because they copulate indifferently with animals. Therefore they are called Incubi after lying (Latin incumbere), i.e. raping. Often they make wicked assaults upon women, and satisfy their lust upon them. The Gauls call those dæmons Dusii because they keep performing this filth. The people call In136 cubo him who the Romans call Faunus of the figs.

We should link these visions of Faunus to how he was traditionally represented in Roman iconography and to the sleeping girl that he discovered. This means that these visions were dreams. Hercules could be called Incubo as well, as Porphyrio points out137 when he deals with treasures discovered due to Hercules’ suggestions. Hercules had prophetic powers and was supposed to appear in dreams; consequently, he was also known as somnialis.138 The legend of Hercules and Acca Larentia was widespread in Rome. She was a prostitute who the custodian of Hercules’ temple bought for the god after losing a game of dice with him. She spent a night with the god, who rewarded her by allowing her to get married to a rich man. Plutarch states that the relations that she had with the god were different from human relations.139 St. Augustine explains that this non-human form of relations was a dream: in templo vidit in somniis Herculem sibi esse commixtum.140 In the temple she saw in a dream Hercules having sex with her.

A.W. Holleman141 opined that it was particularly during the festival of Faunus, from 13th to 15th February, that Faunus or the Fauni appeared to Roman women. Her hypothesis that there was a ritual connection may prove to be correct. The god only appeared to women because of the tales which were told to girls. Myths such as those of Faunus raping Fauna, transforming himself into a snake and having sexual intercourse with her, frequenting the beds of every female, were likely to cause such nightmares. In this form, the traumatic event told in the myths could be experienced by every girl. The roots eaten by Picenian women prove that this kind of dream still occurred after it was supposed to, i.e. after marriage, so women wanted to forget this horrible god. St. Augustine, in the passage142 discussed at the beginning of this book, states that Silvanus was dangerous for women who had just given birth, and 136 Isid.VIII.11.103. Anth.Lat. 358 Riese is a little poetry on a hairy philosopher, who at night had sex with girls, as he was an incubus. 137 Porphyr., in Hor., Sat. II.6.12. 138 CIL XI 1449; cf. L.Cesano, Dizionario epigrafico, II, s.v. Hercules, 714. 139 Plut., Quaest.Rom. 35 = 273 A: ἐντυχεῖν αὐτῇ τὸν θεὸν οὐκ ἀνθρωπίνως. 140 Augustin., de civ. Dei VI.7.2. Cf. F.Coarelli, Il Foro romano, I, Rome 2nd ed. 1986, 278. 141 A.W.J.Holleman, Pope Gelasius I and the Lupercalia, Amsterdam 1974, chap. 4, part. 93– 112. 142 Augustin., de civ. Dei VI.9.

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they were supposed to avoid him. Silvanus was a form of Faunus, especially in private cult.143 Pliny the Elder writes: This plant (i.e. the paeony) also prevents the mocking delusions that the Fauns bring on us in our sleep. They recommend us to uproot it at night-time, because the woodpecker of Mars, 144 should he see the act, will attack the eyes in its defence.

In another passage he adds: Natrix is the name of a plant the root of which, when pulled up, gives out the foul smell of hegoats. In Picenum they use this plant to drive away from women what are, with a strange credulity, called Fatui. I myself should believe that it is the hallucination of minds delirious in this way that is helped by such a drug.145

Ancient authors146 tell us that Roman women looked for divine omens (omina) before their marriage, and that they went to a certain sacred space (sacellum quodam) for this reason. These signs could reveal the identity of their future husband. This form of divination was not the same as what was to be expected from a sexual dream, because it concerned the identity of the future husband and could be performed by the aunt. Festus,147 speaking of the toga recta, which young Romans wore at their majority, says that girls wore it the night before marriage in order to receive omina. These omina were different from those revealing the identity of their future husband because the virgins already knew by then who they were going to marry. 7. THE MARRIAGE OF LAVINIA We go further now in order to focus on other features of marital rites in Rome and Latium, which were centered on Faunus, dreams, and Bacchic ceremonies. According to Lactantius, Faunus … consecrated his sister Fenta Fauna, who was also his wife, who, as Gavius Bassus relates, was called Fatua because she was used to foretell their fates to women, as Faunus did to men.148

143 A.Brelich, Tre variazioni romane sul tema delle origini, Rome 2nd ed. 1976, 66–67; P.Pouthier, P.Rouillard, “Faunus ou l’iconographie impossible”, in: Iconographie classique et identités régionales. Colloque internat. Paris 26 et 27 mai 1983, ed. by L.Kahil, C.Augé & P.Linant de Bellefonds, Paris 1986, 105–110; E.Fantham, Latin Poets and Italian Gods, Toronto 2009, chap.1. 144 Plin., N.h. XXV.29, transl. Jones. 145 Plin., N.h. XXVII.107, transl. Jones. 146 Cic., De div. I.104; Val.Max. I.5.4; cf. Gagé, Matronalia, 225–6. 147 Fest.364 L.: regillis tunicis…pridie nuptiarum diem virgines indutae cubitum ibant ominis causa. 148 Lact., Div.inst. I.22.9: Faunus…inter deos honoravit et sororem suam Fentam Faunam eandem coniugem consecravit; quam Gavius Bassus tradit “Fatuam nominatam, quod mulieri-

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Faunus’ prophetic activity was specifically restricted to revealing the future to men: this peculiarity is explained by Vergil. In the 7th book of Aeneid, in his account of Lavinia’s marriage, Vergil mentions almost all the gods and characters who we have presented so far, albeit differently. He tells that: King Latinus, now grown old, was peacefully ruling these pleasant cities and fields. He was the son of Faunus and of the nymph Marica from Laurentum. Faunus’ father was Picus, who claimed as his ancestor you, Saturnus. As the gods had decreed, he had no male progeny. Only a daughter, now ready for marriage, could preserve his home and his kingdom, for all 149 his sons had been snatched from life in their youth.

Her mother Amata promised Lavinia to the Rutulian prince Turnus, but her father was dissuaded from following her advice by a portent. Latinus consequently went to consult the oracle of Faunus: The king, in response to these troubling omens, visited Faunus, his oracular father, at the foot of the lofty waterfalls of Albunea. Loudy they roar, exuding a foul vapor. From there all Italic peoples and all the Œnotrian land were accustomed to seek answers when in doubt. The priest would bring gifts to this place and lie on the fleeces of slaughtered sheep in the silent night, trying to sleep, but he would see figures fitting around him in wondrous ways and hear multiple voices and even converse with the gods and Acheron in the deepest part of Avernus. Here, at that time, Father Latinus, seeking responses, had sacrificed one hundred woolbearing two-year-old sheep and reclined on their widespread fleeces. He suddendly heard a voice from the dephts of the grove warning: “O my descendant, wed not your daughter to a Latin. Trust not in wedding rites now prepared. Strangers will come to our people and with their blood will raise our name to the stars…”150

Faunus foretold the coming of Æneas, and his marriage to Lavinia was suggested to Latinus in a prophetic utterance. Later, the Trojans arrived on the Latin shore and were admitted to the court of Latinus, who recognized the son-in-law who had been predicted. Juno, however, was already angry with the Trojans and complained because they had survived so many misfortunes and difficulties. She admitted that the Fates were favourable to Æneas, but she stubbornly kept creating difficulties to delay the marriage. The war between the Rutulians and Trojans was the means she chose to postpone Æneas’ destiny in Latium.151 In order to accomplish her plans, Juno sent the Fury Allecto, with her venomous snakes, to the Laurentine court. She met Amata and: The goddess plucks from her hair and hurls at the queen a dark serpent, shooting it deep in the queen’s bosom near her heart so that, stirred by this monster, her rage will disrupt the entire household.152

Increasingly maddened by the snakes’ venom:

149 150 151 152

bus fata canere consuesset ut Faunus viris”; Lact., Epit. 17: Faunus… Fentam Faunam coniugem sororemque inter deos collocavit ac Bonam Deam nominavit. Verg., Aen. VII.46–53; transl. Johnston (from which all the following passages are taken). Verg., Aen. VII.81–99. Verg., Aen. VII.286–322. Verg., Aen. VII.346–8.

112

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The queen spins round and round like a top. Her madness is described as a simulated Bacchic possession: Nay, even in woodlands she pretends that Bacchus’ power is upon her, instigating a greater wrong and wilder frenzy as she rushes away and hides her daughter in overgrown mounains in order to stall the wedding torches and thereby undo the Teucrian marriage. “Evoe, Bacche!” she howls, and shouts, “You alone deserve the maiden; for you she takes up the waving wands, and she dances, and grows her hair long as an offering.” Rumor flies, and the same passion at once drives all the matrons, inflamed by madness, to seek new homes. Their previous homes are abandoned. They bare their necks and hair to the winds. Wearing fawn skins and brandishing vine-stems as spears, they fill the air with tremulous ululation. Rumor herself, raging in their midst, raises a blazing pine torch and feigns ritual chants for her daughter’s marriage to Turnus.154

After that she compels the furious mothers to come back to the royal court and force Latinus to change his mind. Latinus kept following Faunus’ instructions, so Allecto went to Turnus to incite him against the Trojans. It is very difficult to distinguish between Vergil’s inventions and actual cultic traditions, and then to identify which tradition they belong to. Albunea water is often identified with the Laurentine source of the Zolforata, close to Lavinium, where a dedication to the Fata (or Fatæ) has been discovered.155 Vergil speaks of a sacerdos, who could be a woman or a man. As far as we know, there were no oracles of Faunus anymore in the age of Vergil. But even so his verses are important: Faunus gave his advice about marriages. A passage of Ovid’s Fasti156 mentions Numa’s ritual dream within Faunus’ sacred grove, during which the god gave him his advice in order to secure fecundity of fields and cattle. In the area of Zolforata, at Lavinium, three 4th century inscriptions have been discovered; they bear dedications to Neuna Fata157 and Parca Maurtia.158 Aulus Gellius,159 referring to Varro and Cæsellius Vindex, mentions the tria Fata, three female goddesses of destiny, called Parca Nona, Parca Decima and Morta. They oversaw pregnancy and childbirth; the Nona and Decima represented the correct periods of gestation, while the third Fata represented the stillbirths. The inscriptions refer to Nona as Neuna and the Morta under the name of Maurtia.160 The sanctuary of Faunus in Lavinium thus presided over affairs related to marriage and reproduction. 153 Verg., Aen. VII.377–381. On this whirling: M.Bettini, Antropologia e cultura romana, Rome 1986, 107–9. 154 Verg., Aen. VII.385–398. 155 See Virgilio, Eneide, IV, comm. by E.Paratore, Milan 1981, 144. 156 Ovid., Fasti IV.641–672. 157 ILLRP 11–12. 158 ILLRP 10; see Torelli, Lavinio e Roma, 180–184. 159 Gell. II.16.9–11. 160 Torelli, Lavinio e Roma, 181.

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Normal Roman ceremonies that were Bacchic in form cannot account for Amata’s Mænadism because Vergil explicitly states that Amata was a simulated Bacchant. “Allecto is neither Bacchus himself, nor his subaltern, and Amata’s madness cannot therefore be full, genuine Bacchic possession.”161 Moreover, she declares that Bacchus only is worthy of her daughter, and later, forgetting the god, she sings the nuptial hymn of Lavinia and Turnus. The ancient literature presents both true Bacchants and false or black Mænads, who were those who did not recognise Dionysus’ authority and did not follow the rules of Dionysism.162 Nevertheless, Amata was the name the Pontifex Maximus gave to each girl he selected and promoted to the rank of Vestal virgin.163 Queen Amata was a devotee of Minerva Tritonia in Lavinium, another virginal and warlike goddess.164 On the other hand, “true” Bacchic and phallic ceremonies were performed at Lavinium by honest matronæ, as Varro reports.165 So, regular Bacchic worship did exist there. Vergil built his mythological account on the basis of real cults and real beliefs. In his account, we can isolate the following elements: – Faunus, the ancestor, plays an important role in a girl’s marriage and gives his mantic advice at night. – The king’s wife leads a group of Latin women acting as if they were Bacchants. – The king’s daughter was kept hidden in the forest. – Amata and, therefore, Juno prevented the girl from meeting Æneas and the Trojan men. – During the (false) Bacchic dances the Mænad-queen says that her daughter was worth marrying off to Bacchus. – After the (false) Bacchic ceremony and the events that followed, the girl was married to Æneas. As a heuristic exercise, we can try to present what Amata would have had to do if she had been a true Bacchant. As wife of the highest magistrate, she had to perform the ritual of Fauna-Bona Dea. Fauna had never contradicted Faunus’ advice and had made Lavinia organise a true Bacchic ceremony. In this ceremony, the girl was prepared as if she was going to meet Bacchus himself as her husband. If Æneas or any another man tried to enter the ceremonial space, he should be driven 161 N.Horsfall, Virgil, Aeneid 7. A Commentary, Leiden-Boston-Cologne 2000, 266. 162 See de Cazanove, “Lucus Stimulae”, 86–87. 163 Fabius Pictor, fr. 2 Peter = fr. 6 Chassignet = Gell. I.12.14: Sacerdotem Vestalem, quae sacra faciat, quae ius siet sacerdotem Vestalem facere pro populo Romano Quiritibus, uti quae optima lege fuit, ita te, Amata, capio (“I take tee, Amata, as one who has fullfilled all the legal requirements, to be priestess of Vesta, to perform the rites which it is lawful for a Vestal to perform for the Roman people, the Quirites”, transl. Rolfe). See J.P.Hallett, Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society, Princeton 1984, 83–84, where further bibliography can been found. 164 Verg., Aen. XI.477–85; cf. de Cazanove, “Lucus Stimulae”, 91. 165 Varro in Augustin, de civ. Dei VII.21 and 24: in Liberi sacris honesta matrona pudenda virilia coronabat spectante multitudine.

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away with Juno’s help. During the ceremony, the girl had to experience the might and the potency of Faunus. The ceremony prepared the girl for her own marriage, which took place afterwards, and the husband would be whoever Faunus suggested and the father chose. The Faunus’ role in the procreative process and his mantic activity are confirmed by another episode. Ovid166 in fact describes the ritual performed by king Numa in order to receive an oracle from Faunus in a dream. The god appeared and ordered a sacrifice (the Fordicidia), and this made the Roman herds fertile. This myth confirms Faunus’ role in bringing fertility and tells how he appeared.

Fig. 13. Antefixa from Tarentum, in the Civici Musei in Trieste, depicting Omphale or a Greek goddess similar to Omphale.

8. OMPHALE: A GODDESS OF MAGNA GRÆCIA We will discuss now of how and when Omphale appeared among some cults of southern Italy. This will help understand the relation between the two main aspects of Bona Dea: that of the warlike Omphale, similar to Juno Sospita, and that of the more peaceful Persephone and Demeter. We are able to focus on Magna Graecia and Italic cultures of southern Italy. In fact, developments of south Italic cults provide us with some features and ways of Omphale’s triumph among female cults.

166 Ovid., Fasti IV.642–72.

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Archaeologists, and scholars of literature or religion know well that there were many cults for women in ancient Italy167 and that there were sacred areas frequented only by women during certain festivals so that they could worship the goddesses of virginity and initiation into sex and marriage. It is a pity that there has rarely been true discussion and true collaboration between archaeologists and scholars of literature or religion. One interesting topic that should be dealt with by specialists of different disciplines is a Greek and Lucanian goddess who wears a leontè, i.e. the lion’s pelt of Hercules, on her head.

Fig. 14. Upper part of a statuette of the same goddess. Civici Musei in Trieste.

A series of fictile antefixes from the end of the 5th to the 4th century BC shows a female face topped with the leonté. Specimens have been discovered at Gela, Metapontum, Heracleia in Lucania, and Tarentum (fig. 13).168 Clay moulds have been found at Tarentum169 and Heracleia, which proves that they were produced there. An antefix is not proof of worship, as shown by a number of Satyrs, Mænads and “Iunones Sospitæ” on the clay roofs of 5th century Etruscan and

167 Cf. the recent book by C.E.Schultz, Women’s Religious Activity in the Roman Republic, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 2006. 168 L.Kahil, “Artemis”, in: LIMC II.1 (1884), 691–2, nos 926–34. 169 Kahil, no. 926; cf. R.A.Higgins, Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Dept. of Greek and Roman Antiquities. British Museum, I, London 1969, no. 1332. Other specimens are the nos 1331, 1333–4.

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Latin temples. Statuettes are a better indication of the existence of a goddess and her cult. This peculiar goddess was particularly worshipped in Lucania, as proved by a number of clay statuettes (fig. 14) mostly from the 4th century. She wears a conical hat, like the Scythians, and over it a leontè. Tarantine terracotta statuettes from Demetrian sanctuaries sometimes represent a god, probably Hades, rather than one of the deified dead, wearing the same hat surmounted with a lion’s pelt.170 The majority of the statuettes has been found in irregular excavations, but several have been found in Greek and Lucanian temples by professional archaeologists. At Tarentum, six examples have been discovered in the extra-urban sanctuary at Contrada Corti Vecchie, and two more in other sacred areas.171 Many specimens have been uncovered in the Madonna d’Altomare sanctuary, in the Tarantine region.172 Many specimens representing the goddess holding a little stag originating from the same mould are known.173 One Tarantine mould of this kind of terracotta is kept at the J. Paul Getty Museum174, a second in the Louvre,175 and a third one in the National Archaeological Museum at Tarantum.176 Votive statuettes of the same kind have been discovered at Heracleia,177 where they have been discovered in a sanctuary of Demeter.178 Several specimens from Metapontum have been discovered among a series of 111 fragments from the civic area of the sanctuaries, without a precise link to any of the excavated temples. The other votive terracottas of this discovery are related to a Demetrian cult.179

170 Universitätsstadt Tübingen, Italische Antiken. Ausstellung 1971, Tübingen 1971, 60–61, no. 172. 171 C.Iacobone, Le stipi votive di Taranto (scavi 1885–1934), Rome 1988, 21–23. 172 E.Lippolis, “La documentazione archeologica”, in E.Lippolis, M.Nafissi, Culti greci in Occidente. I. Taranto, Taranto 1995, 29–129, part. 88. 173 Iacobone, 22. 174 B.M.Kingsley, “Coroplastic Workshops at Taras: marked Moulds of the late classical Period”, The J Paul Getty Museum Journal 1981, 41–52, part. 44. 175 S.Besques, Musée national du Louvre. Catalogue raisonné des figurines et reliefs en terrecuite grecs, étrusques et romains. IV. Époque hellénistique et romaine. Italie méridionale Sicile - Sardeigne, Paris 1986, 102, no. D 3905, pl. 97d. 176 E.Lippolis, “Pratica rituale e coroplastica votiva a Taranto”, in: Lo spazio del rito. Santuari e culti in Italia meridionale tra indigeni e Greci, Atti della giornata di studio, Matera, 29th and 29th June 2002, ed. by M.L.Nava, M.Osanna, Bari 2005, 91–102, part. 95, fig.4. 177 Heracleia: F.G.Lo Porto, “Ricerche archeologiche in Heraclea di Lucania”, BA 46, 1961, 133–150, part. 138; Id., “Terrecotte pertinenti a culti di divinità ctonie”, NS 1966, 157–176, part. 144–5; B.Neutsch, “Archäologische Studien und Bodensondierung bei Policoro in den Jahren 1959–1964”, in Herakleiastudien, MDAI(R) 11. Erg.Heft, Heidelberg 1967, 167 ff.; E.Curti, “Il culto di Artemis Bendis”, in: Studi su Siris-Eraclea, ed. by M.Torelli, Rome 1989, 23–30; Metapontum: C.Letta, Piccola coroplastica metapontina nel Museo Provinciale di Potenza, Napoli 1971, 121. 178 Cf. B.Otto, “Il santuario sorgivo di Siris-Herakleia nell'odierno Comune di Policoro”, in Lo spazio del rito, 5–18, part. 16. 179 E.Calabria, “Coroplastica votiva dal santuario urbano di Metaponto: nuove attestazioni di culto di età classica ed ellenistica”, in: Lo spazio del rito, 69–82, part. 73–77.

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The little stag on her arm recalls the iconographical scheme of the Artemis of San Biagio, the late archaic temple in the Metapontine region,180 and leads us to think that she is not simply a woman making an offering,181 but a goddess similar to Artemis.182 Several statuettes show her holding a torch,183 which is a symbol of Demeter, and we shall see that this goddess with the lion's skin has many links with Demeter. Moreover, the common identification of this goddess with Bendis184 is not well founded because the Thracian Bendis wears a fox’ skin, not a lion’s skin.185

9. OMPHALE, A LUCANIAN AND JAPYGIAN GODDESS As Mario Torelli has pointed out,186 Greek women’s cults in Magna Graecia often spread to neighbouring peoples. In Lucania as well the indigenous women’s cults were particularly receptive to Greek influences. Many statuettes of the goddess with the lion’s pelt have been discovered in Japygian and Lucanian sanctuaries, namely Massafra,187 Timmari, San Chirico Nuovo,188 and Grumentum.189 These 180 G.Olbrich, Archaische Statuetten eines metapontiner Heiligtums, Rome 1979. 181 On the hypothesis of the female offering: C.Letta, “Le terrecotte di Artemis Bendis”, RAL 23, 1968, 305–314, part. 313, footnote 32; H.Herdejürgen, Götter, Menschen und Dämonen, Basel 1978, 40; K.Dowden, Death and the Maiden: girls’ initiation rites in Greek mythology, London 1989 = La vergine e la morte. L’iniziazione femminile nella mitologia greca, Genua 1991, 17–66; Iacobone, 23; Calabria, 77. A reason why to recognise in the statuettes a woman and not a goddess is that a Tarantine terracotta depicts a recling man with the same lion skin over his head: R.A.Lunsingh Schleurleer, Grieken in het kleiner 100 antieke terracotta's, Amsterdam 1986, 72. 182 R.Bartoccini, “Taranto. Rinvenimenti e scavi”, NS 1936, 151–232, part. 168; Letta, “Le terrecotte di Artemis Bendis”, 305–314. 183 Cf. Iacobone, p.23. 184 See recently A.Bergamasco, “Artemide-Bendis in Magna Grecia: iconografia e storia di una dea venuta dalla Tracia”, in Studi in onore di Elena Di Filippo Balestrazzi, Padova 2006, 135–152; a bibliography can be found in this work. 185 K.Schauenburg, “Bendis in Unter Italien”, JdI 89, 1974, 137–86 (who distinguishes these two goddesses); cf. E.Lippolis, “Culto e iconografie della coroplastica votiva”, MEFRA 113, 2001, 225–255, part. 245. 186 M.Torelli, “I culti di Locri”, in Atti XVI Convegno Studi Magna Grecia. Taranto-Locri 1976, Napoli 1981, 147–83; Id., “Greci e indigeni in Magna Grecia: ideologia religiosa e rapporti di classe”, in StudStor 18.4, 1977, 45–61. 187 E.M.De Juliis, “L'attività archeologica in Puglia”, in Atti XXI Convegno Studi Magna Grecia. Taranto 1981, Napoli 1983, 302. 188 M.Tagliente, “Il santuario di San Chirico Nuovo”, in Il sacro e l’acqua. Culti indigeni in Basilicata, Catalogo Sassari 1988–1999, Rome 1998, 27–34; Id., “Il santuario di San Chirico Nuovo”, in Le sacre acque. Sorgenti e luoghi del rito nella Basilicata antica, Cat. Mostra Potenza 2003–2004, (no city) 2003, 49–62, part. 58–61; Id., “Il santuario lucano di San Chirico Nuovo (PZ)”, in Lo spazio del rito, 115–123, part. 120–1. 189 P.Bottini, “Grumento Nova (Potenza)”, StEtr 52, 1984, 472–473; Ead., in Il museo archeologico nazionale dell'alta Val d'Agri, ed. by P.Bottini, Lavello 1997, 115–25; Ead., “Rivello e

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were influenced by the religion of Tarentum and Heracleia. Almost all of these temples have a spring or water supply. Evidence from Timmari190 shows that in one single sacred area at an early phase (the 6th to 4th century), objects of the Demetrian cult191 were used and that, in the late 4th century, statuettes of the goddess with the lion’s pelt and of Hercules appear. Close to this sanctuary, there is another one that presents statuettes of Aphrodite (her name also figures in an inscription on a vase), Eros, Pothos and doves along with women’s jewellery. In the 4th century sanctuary of San Chirico Nuovo, besides statuettes of the goddess, donors are represented with a patera or a pomegranate, a typical Demetrian fruit.192 Doves and Erotes are present, and a husband and wife group as well. In the sanctuary of Santa Maria d’Anglona (Tursi, Matera, north of Heracleia) statuettes of the local female cult include an earlier and later type of Demeter, with thirteen images of the goddess with the lion’s pelt, which are datable to the latest 20 years of the fourth century BC.193 A tendency for statuettes of Artemis to be found in Demeter’s sanctuaries has also been noted in Sicily.194 The same goddess, or one similar to her, is probably depicted on three Lucanian vases from tombs in Lavello.195 In this instance, she is a female figure driving a chariot, and her head is covered with a lion’s or leopard’s pelt. On a dish in the same style, in the Institute of Art at Chicago,196 attributed to the Baltimore Painter, this goddess is holding a crossed torch, a symbol peculiar to Kore and Demeter. This means that the goddess driving the chariot is a particular form of Kore. She is young, so Demeter can be ruled out. Therefore we can say that a Lucanian goddess was similar to both Kore/Persephone and Omphale. We say the same of Bona Dea, who was as wild

190

191 192 193 194

195

196

Grumentum: affinità e diversità tra due stipi della Basilicata meridionale”, in: Lo spazio del rito, 179–192, part. 190–191. A sanctuary in Chiaromonte (Lucania) is similar, but here no statuette of Omphale has been discovered; see S.Bianco, “Il santuario di Chiaromonte”, in Il sacro e l’acqua, 43–50. F.G.Lo Porto, Timmari. L’abitato, le necropoli, la stipe votiva, Rome 1991; Id., “Il santuario di Timmari”, in Il sacro e l’acqua, 17–26; Id., “Il santuario di Timmari”, in Le sacre acque, 35–48. Kore was called pai: “girl!”. Tagliente, “Il santuario di San Chirico Nuovo”, in Il sacro e l’acqua, 28. U.Rüdiger, “S.Maria d'Anglona”, NS 1967, 331–353 E.De Miro, Agrigento I. I santuari urbani. L'area sacra tra il tempio di Zeus e Porta V, Rome 2000, 110. On the practice of dedicating the same kind of images in santuaries of different divinities cf. Lippolis, “Culto e iconografie”, 235. Tomb 669 (two buried men of the middle and of the end of the 4th cent. BC), nos 40; 45; 47: A.Bottini and M.P.Fresa, in: Forentum, II. L’acropoli in età classica, ed. by A.Bottini and M.P.Fresa, Venosa 1991, 54 and colour pl. XI and pl. LXVII; 55, pl. VII; 55, pl. IX. Two similar vases (two lekanai or podanipteres by the “white sakkòs Painter”) are kept in the Arcaheological Museum in Naples: G.Schneider-Herrmann, Apulian Red-Figured Paterae with flat or knobbed Handles, BICS Suppl. 34, London 1977, 106 and pl. XVI.1; K.Schauenburg, “Tondokompositionen aus Grossgriechenland”, JdI 101, 1986, 176–177, and pl. 19–20. Unpublished; see http://www.artinstituteimages.org/searchresults.asp?image=00012070-01

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and warlike as Juno Sospita, as mighty as Omphale, and as misterious, fecund, and favorable to obscenity as Damia, Demeter and Persephone. Several scholars197 have noted that during Athenian initiatory rituals, young girls were linked to the divine figure of Artemis and that the girls wore bearskins or garments coloured yellow, like a bear’s coat. While this is true, the South Italian goddess has her own peculiarities. The Lucanian goddess is a female counterpart of Herakles and can be identified with Omphale,198 even though it is impossible to know if that was what she was truly called. Her image is, in any case, that of the Lydian queen, and she is a real Greek and Lucanian goddess. It is no wonder that we find a Lydian myth in southern Italy. A hydria allegedly from Teano, in Campania, dated to about 320 BC, shows the trial of Apollo and Marsyas,199 which is described by Ovid as having taken place in Lydia with Midas as judge. In the territory of Metapontum, at Salandra, Antonio De Siena has discovered a rural settlement, in which a room was left intact after the collapse of its roof, at the end of the 3rd century BC.200 This room was used by women, as many loom’s weights prove. Many terracotta statuettes of women and two Erotes were gathered there for ritual purposes. Also a statuette of Hercules with his club and some jewels of a girl have been discovered. Those remains are a good witness to domestic ceremonies of women, in which Hercules and Eros played an important role. It is impossible to say if this domestic cult excluded men and if it substituted, imitated or implemented cults which were performed in the santuaries. 10. OMPHALE WITHIN THE HELLENISTIC CULTS In about the 3rd and 4th centuries BC there were several Greek female cults in which Omphale was directly concerned with the female sex. We shall first present finds from the Imperial Age that clearly show the Lydian queen. In the eastern Hellenistic world, the image of the female counterpart of Herakles was introduced into rituals to protect the womb, and we know of votive images from ancient temples and modern collections that testify to this sort of 197 E.Bevan, Representations of Animals in Sanctuaries of Artemis and other Olympian Deities, Oxford 1986, 237; G.Abruzzese Calabrese, “La coroplastica votiva. Catalogo”, in: I Greci in Occidente. Arte e artigianato in Magna Grecia, Catalogo della mostra, ed. by E.Lippolis, Naples 1996, 188–97; E.Lippolis, “Culto e iconografie della coroplastica votiva”, MEFRA 113, 2001, 225–255, part. 245–6; Calabria (quoted supra, p. 116, footnote 179), 78–79. 198 Cf. A.Levi, Le terrecotte figurate del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Florence 1926, no. 123. 199 A.D.Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily, I, Oxford 1967, 560, no. 924; Universitätsstadt Tübingen, Italische Antiken. Ausstellung 1971, Tübingen 1971, 30, no. 66. 200 See M.Tagliente, “La Basilicata. Salandra, località Piana San Giovanni”, in: Velia. Atti del XLV convegno di studi sulla Magna Grecia. Taranto - Marina di Ascea 21–25 settembre 2005, Naples 2006, 741–742.

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cult. Two bronze statuettes show Omphale standing, spreading her legs and threatening her womb with a club.201 One of them comes from an Egyptian temple to Herakles in Herakleion, near Alexandria. Engraved on gems from the Imperial Age, we sometimes find Herakles’ image combined with a womb202 or a woman spreading her legs and threatening her womb with a club.203 This iconography can be combined with the image of an ass, i.e. an animal with a large male member.204 There is a specimen on red jasper (fig. 15) in the Seyrig collection at the Cabinet des Médailles (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris) showing the woman clothed in a lion’s pelt. Sometimes she seems to be pregnant, at other times, i.e. on other gems, she is clearly not. Other gems show Seth standing on the womb; at that time, this god was identified with Herakles and played the same role in forcing the womb not to produce diseases.205 One of these gems bears the following inscription: ϲτάλητι μήτρα μή ϲε Τυφῶν καταλάβη: “stay in your place, womb, lest Typhon seize upon you!”206 Two gems showing a woman standing with her legs spread or washing her sex bear the inscription “Omphale”.207

Fig. 15. Jasper gem in the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris, depicting Omphale. 201 E.Babelon, J.-A.Blanchet, Catalogue des bronzes antiques de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 1895, p.249, no. 597; J.Boardman, “Omphale”, in: LIMC VIII (1997), 45–53, part. 52, no. 81; V.Dasen, “Le secret d’Omphale”, RA 2008, 265–281; the statuette from Egypt is published in Trésors engloutis d'Égypte, Cat. Exhibition Paris 2006–2007, ed. by F.Goddio, Paris 2006, 311, no. 442. 202 S.Michel, Bunte Steine - Dunkle Bilder: “Magische Gemmen”, Freiburg 2001, no. 86. 203 S.Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, ed. by P. and H.Zazoff, London 2001, no. 389. 204 S.Michel, Die magischen Gemmen, Berlin 2004, 341, no. 54.9, pl. 78.2, where 14 gems are mentioned, on which the woman holds the club or is putting a liquid substance on her sex. According to Veronique Dasen, Omphale was averting the obnoxious influence of the phallic being from a pregnant woman. 205 J.G.Griffiths, A.Barb, “Seth or Anubis?”, JWCI 22, 1959, 367–71; R.K.Ritner, “A Uterine Amulet in the Oriental Institute Collection”, JNES 43, 1984, 209–221. 206 C.Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets chiefly Graeco-Egyptian, Ann Arbor - London 1950, 84 and fig. D 140. 207 Michel, Die magischen Gemmen, p.341; cf. G.Nachtergael, “Quelques inscriptions grecques sur les intailles magiques”, Aegyptus 83, 2003, 186; Dasen, “Le secret”, 268.

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These kinds of representations explicitly refer to Omphale and are related to a series of clay statuettes from Asia Minor and Egypt dating back to the Hellenistic or Roman period. This barely studied class of finds is labelled “Baubo”.208 One Orphic hymn209 mentions this Baubo, who played the same role as the Homeric maid Iambe210 and made the grieving Demeter laugh. Instead of telling obscene jokes, as Iambe did, Baubo exposed her sex and showed it to Demeter. Two fragments from a work alleged by Empedocles claim that she was Demeter’s nurse and that her name means κοιλία, “abdomen”,211 or rather “womb”.212 Baubo or Babo is attested by other authors and epigraphical texts213 that do not date back further than the Hellenistic age. Here in the fig. 17 are one specimens from Egypt that is kept at the Civic Archaeological Museum in Trieste. Baubo had a role in the Eleusinian mysteries, and her cult is attested by inscriptions in Naxos, Paros, Dion and Gaul.214 Baubo was female, and Baubon was male.215 For this reason, a series of statuettes has been labelled “Baubo” because they represent the lower part of a female body in which the sexual organs are replaced by a female head. Six specimens come from a temple to Demeter and Kore in Priene and two more in the same style are in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.216 They date back to the Hellenistic age. Another series of clay statuettes is usually labelled as “Baubo”; these represent a woman spreading her legs and showing her sex. Several statuettes represent her on a pig or boar.217 Apart from the specimens whose provenance is not known, some of them come from Clazomene, Elis, Cyprus and perhaps Troy.218 Among other specimens, some show her touching her sex; they come from Tarsus and mostly from Egypt. In 208 See Th.Karaghiorga-Stathacopoulou, “Baubo”, in: LIMC III.1 (1986), 87–90; on this goddess cf. the recent works: O.R. Arans, Iambe and Baubo. A Study in ritual Laughter, UrbanaChampaign 1988; M.Olender, “Aspects of Baubo: ancient Texts and Contexts”, in: Before sexuality: the Construction of erotic Experience in the ancient Greek World, ed. by D.M.Halperin, J.J.Winkler & I.Zeitlin Froma, Princeton 1990, 83–113; E.Warmenbol, “Un chat, un porc et les dieux. Les terres cuites du Fayoum au Musée Municipal de Lokeren”, in: Egyptian Religion. The last thousand Years. Studies dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur, OLA 84, Leuven 1998, 265–286, part. 275, pl. 3.2. Dasen, “Le secret”, has shown that the heading “Baubo” is unfitting. 209 Fr. 52 Kern = 394–395 Bernabé = Clem.Alex., Protr. II.20.1; Eus., Praep.ev. II.3.33. 210 Hom., Hymn.Dem. 202. 211 Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, ed. H.Diels, W.Kranz, Berlin 1951, fr. 153; cf. Hesych, s.v. Baubo. 212 See Hippocr., De mul.aff. 1.24; Joh., Ev. 3.4. 213 See Karaghiorga-Stathacopoulou, 87–88. 214 Karaghiorga-Stathacopoulou, 87–88. 215 Herondas, 6.19. 216 Karaghiorga-Stathacopoulou, no. 1. 217 J.Bergman, “Isis auf der Sau”, in: From the Gustavianum Collections, Boreas 6, Uppsala 1974, 81–109; Karaghiorga-Stathacopoulou, no. 2. 218 Karaghiorga-Stathacopoulou, nos 3–6; D.Michaelides, “Baubo and Priapus in Cyprus: a Note”, Mediterranean Archaeology 17, 2004, 307–309.

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some cases the woman is pregnant, in others she is supported by a Satyr or an ithyphallic man.219 This form of cultic gift was typical of Demetrian sanctuaries, but we have seen that they have been found in Hercules’ temples as well, and that this woman could be thought of as being Omphale. Specifically, the gems were a means to ward off diseases of the womb, and in this case the club and the ithyphallic ass were phallic symbols. Greek and Roman physicians often recommended sexual intercourse as a means to preserve women’s physical health or to ward off disease.220 Hippocrates221 recommended a phallus-shaped pessary (balanos). Therefore, phallic symbols were seen as threatened the womb as if it could be influenced by the phallus and phallic gods. It was slightly different for votive statuettes as they could have been dedicated during festivals. The intrusion of Omphale’s mythology into the cult of Demeter is, therefore, attested twice. In this second instance she was specifically present for coercive actions on the female reproductive organs, and her power had a Herculean character. 10. OMPHALE OR DEMETER? Women’s rituals among the South Italian peoples adopted Demetrian features at a very early stage, and later, within the Demetrian cults, they adopted the figures of Omphale and also Artemis as well. The rituals of several sanctuaries were, in consequence, reshaped. In Rome, Omphale did not influence the cult of Ceres, who was similar to Demeter, but she did influence the cult of Bona Dea. This influence represented a further development of a cult that was connected to Ceres in some form. The result was a complementarity between Fauna-Omphale and Ceres. The former represented the opposition between men and women; the latter represented the marital state. Both of them were necessary to guide young women from one phase of their life to the next.

219 Karaghiorga-Stathacopoulou, nos 7–11. See also F.Dunand, Religion populaire en Égypte romaine, EPRO 76, Leiden 1979, 206, no. 118; F.Dunand, “Une «pseudo-Baubô» du Musée de Besançon”, in: Hommages Lerat, ed. by H.Walter, I, Paris 1984, 263–268; Ead., Catalogue des terres cuites gréco-romaines d'Egypte, Paris 1990, 179 and nos 561–569; G.Nachtergael, “Un sacrifice en l’honneur de «Baubo»: scènes figurées sur une moule cubique de l’Égypte romaine”, in: Egyptian Religion: the last thousand Years: Studies dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur, ed. by W.Clarysse, A.Schoors & H.Willems, OLA 84, Leuven 1998, 159–177, and pl. 6.2; H.Szymanska, Terres cuites d'Athribis, Turnhout 2005, 177, no. 49 where one can find further bibliography; Götter, Gräber und Grotesken, Hamburg 1991, 34–35, fig. 111. 220 For ex. Hippocr., de mul. aff. I.17; Scribonius Largus 18; see A.E.Hanson, “The medical Writer’s Woman”, in: Before sexuality, 309–337, esp. 318–9. 221 Hippocr., de mul. aff. I.84.

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The Sabellic peoples of central Italy, satisfied with cults of Ceres with a Demetrian character, apparently did not adopt the Herculean goddess. The bronze table from Agnone222 is the most important piece of evidence for an Oscan sacred garden to Ceres. In particular, the adjective Kerrí- characterised a specific group of gods who were styled amma, “the mother”, futreí, “the daughter”, and euklo, “Hades”.223 Other gods were worshipped as well among whom Hercules and the Lymphæ (= Nymphæ) are perhaps the most interesting for a comparison with Rome. The spread of Ceres’ cults in a more or less Hellenised form among the Italic peoples goes however beyond the scope of this book.224

11. DEMETRIAN FEATURES OF BONA DEA’S FESTIVALS Cornelius Labeo, as we have seen, equated Bona Dea with Tellus, Maia and Ops, and other authors noted that she was likened to Juno, Proserpina, Hecate, and Semele.225 A dedication in Aquileia says: Augustæ Bonæ Deæ Cereri[a]e: “To Bona Dea Cereria”. It is obvious that Bona Dea could be identified with Ceres or Proserpina, i.e. with Demeter or Kore. Some reasons are clear: in the cults of both these goddesses, women celebrated fertility rituals separately from men.226 Macrobius’ account of Proserpina is perhaps not as apt as Festus’, which summarises a work by Verrius Flaccus, an Augustan author: Damium sacrificium quod fiebat in operto in honore Deæ Bonæ; dictum a contrarietate quod minime esset δαμόσιον, id est publicum. Dea quoque ipsa Damia et sacerdos eius damiatrix 227 appellabatur. The damium was a sacrifice which took place in secrecy in honour of Bona Dea; it was thus named because of its opposite meaning, as it was least of all δαμόσιον, i.e. public. Also the goddess herself was called Damia, and her priestess damiatrix.

As Brouwer228 mentions, “that the name of Damia was current in Rome is evident from the title of her priestess - with its typically Roman ending - damiatrix.” Therefore Damia, rather than Persephone, can provide another clue to understanding the nature of this goddess. Damia, together with Auxesia, was worshipped in many Peloponnesian cities. They were similar to the Eleusinian De222 On which see La tavola di Agnone nel contesto italico. Convegno di studio Agnone, 13–15 aprile 1994, ed. by L.Del Tutto Palma, Florence 1996. This document dates to about the middle of the 3rd century. 223 See A.L.Prosdocimi, “La tavola di Agnone. Una interpretazione”, in: La tavola di Agnone, 522–544. 224 For a survey see Prosdocimi, “La tavola di Agnone”, 547–550. 225 Macrob.I.12.22. 226 H.S.Versnel, “The Festival for Bona Dea and the Thesmophoria”, G&R 2nd series 39, 1992, 31–55. 227 Fest., s.v. Damium, 60 L. Paulus Diaconus’ Epitome of Festus, 60 Lindsay, and Placidus, Glossaria Latina, IV, 59 Pirie-Lindsay, report the same. 228 Brouwer, 238.

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meter and Kore.229 The most famous story about their cult in Epidaurus and Ægina is told by Herodotus,230 who says that the Epidaurians: sought their favour with sacrifices and choruses of mocking women, ten men being appointed providers of a chorus for each of the deities; and the choruses aimed their raillery not at any men but at the women of the country. The Epidaurians too had the same rites; and they have 231 certain secret rites as well.

The Epidaurians were able to assure that their fields were fertile thanks to the cult of those goddesses. Statues showed them kneeling.232 It is possible that the Romans accepted a comparison between their Bona Dea and the Greek Damia because of the raillery and the secret rituals. Although Damia and Auxesia were similar to Demeter and Kore, their specific characteristics made them more suitable to be compared to Bona Dea than to the more famous Eleusinian couple of Demeter and Kore. Besides, Demeter was already identified with the Roman Ceres from ancient times; therefore, someone else ought to be identified with Bona Dea. It was impossible to identify Bona Dea with Kore - Persephone, either, because Ceres had already a girl close to her, namely Libera, and because Persephone was already identified with Proserpina, the wife of Dispater. From Herodotus onward, the two Peloponnesian goddesses are always mentioned in the same order: Damia and Auxesia; this leads us to identify Damia with Demeter, i.e. the mother, and Auxesia with the daughter.233 But this is not certain. In Southern Italy, there was a process of identification that may have produced mutual influences. Damia and Auxesia were also worshipped in Tarentum234 and Trœzene,235 the motherland of Poseidonia, which became the Latin colony of Pæstum in 274/3. Tarentum was conquered by the Romans in 272. Therefore, one or perhaps two great South Italic cities practised the cult of Damia. In the period of the wars against Pyrrhus, Italy became a territory where only one law and only one religious authority was accepted.236 Therefore, the cults of the different cities and peoples became integrated. The Damia of Tarentum (hy-

229 230 231 232 233

Paus.II.20.4. Her.V.82–87. Her.V.83, transl. Godley. Her.V.86. This fact however is problematic. Sophocles (TGF IV, fr. 981); cf. Hesych., Suda, and Lex. Seguer., s.v. Azesia (in these passages Azesia is restored by the modern editors) identifies Auxesia with Demeter, whereas Plut., Apostol., and Zenob., in Paroem.Graec. I.1.41; I.36.4; and I.4.20 Leutsch-Schneidewin, and Suda, s.v. Amaia identify her with Kore. Cf. A.Arena, “Di un complesso mitico greco e dei suoi riflessi in area italica”, PP 24, 1969, 437–461, esp. 442–3 (who prefers the identification Auxesia = Demeter). 234 Hesych., s.v. Dameia. 235 Paus.II.32.2. 236 P.Catalano, “Appunti sopra il più antico concetto giuridico di Italia”, Atti Accademia Torino 96, 1961–62, 1–31.

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pothetically also that of Pæstum) was identified with the Roman Fauna-Bona Dea.237 12. CHRONOLOGY We have seen that influences of Greek Demetrian cults among Italic cultures were ancient and antedated the arrival of Omphale. On the other hand, we can not simply assert that the same development occurred in Latium as in southern Italy. Fortunately we have some archaeological clues which provide us with directions. For a heuristic and empirical approach to the problems it will be useful to distinguish between two main features of the goddesses we are dealing with, namely 1) their wild and warlike nature, and related Mæanadic rituals (Mænads were wild and dangerous), 2) their relation to crops, which made them similar to Demeter and Kore. A very ancient layer concerns Faunus and Fauna, and it is possible that Fauna was conceived of as being linked with she-goats and was similar to Juno Sospita and Juno Caprotina, just as Faunus was linked with he-goats (the Luperci were clothed with small goat’s skins). Both were linked to the fig tree: its wood was used in Juno Caprotina’s cult and Faunus was known as ficarius. Only Faunus, however, had a Greek homologue, Pan, whose iconography was definitely adopted in Rome. Juno was conceived as a goddess whose head was covered with a goatskin, whereas Bona Bea was thought - in a later phase - as similar to Omphale, whose head was covered with a lion’s pelt. Juno Sospita’s fight with Hercules dates back to the 6th or 5th centuries and is attested in South Etruria. The head of Juno Sospita was often chosen as a decoration for antefixa on 6th century Latin and south-Etruscan temples. Hercules’ rape of Mlachuch is documented in the 5th century. The Dionysism was strictly linked to warlike goddesses. Bona Dea - Omphale and Juno Sospita were confronted with or somehow related to Hercules, the sacred snake, and Faunus, and the girls of their cults performed Mænadic dances. Satyrs and Mænads were popular among terracotta decorations of temples in the early 5th century. Dionysos, Satyrs, Mænads and other characters of Greek Dionysism appear in other Etruscan and Latin artifacts from this period onward. Therefore it is highly probable that a 237 W.Johannowsky, J.Griffiths Pedley, M.Torelli, “Excavations at Paestum 1982”, AJA 87, 1983, 302 (with interesting observations, even if the temple which they were investigating was actually dedicated to Aphrodite, and not to Damia: J.Griffiths, M.Torelli et alii, The Sanctuary of Santa Venera at Paestum, Rome 1993). Some scholars (for ex. G.Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque, Paris 1966, 344; Latte, RR, 228–231) thought of Bona Dea as a true Greek goddess, who was accepted by the Romans as it occurred to Apollo or Hermes/Mercurius; see arguments against this theory by Boëls-Janssen, La vie religieuse des matrones, 439–442. Wissowa, RKR, 216–17; and H.H.Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, London 1981, 117, supposed that the Tarantine cult of Damia passed to Rome after 272 BC.

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series of gods of wilderness, such as Fauna, Faunus, and Juno Sospita was connected from a very ancient age with female Mænadic cults. A Roman cult, that of Juno Caprotina, was reformed after the war against Latins and Volscians in 389 BC. The cult of Juno Sospita became a state cult in Rome in 338 BC, after the Latin war, when the right of intermarriage between Latins ans Romans was reintroduced.238 These cults were related to marriages between Romans and Latins and therefore we should suppose that they were reshaped during the 4th century BC. However, one should suppose as well that they were older, for the ius conubii and the Latin league were as old as the fœdus Cassianum of 493,239 or even more ancient. In fact, we are told of a Latin league under the Tarquinii and Servius Tullius. One can not deny that some Demetrian features influenced not only the cult of Ceres but also that of Bona Dea. Also the cult of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium was concerned with agriculture and crops, as we have seen. During the phase of influence of Greek Dionysism, namely the first decades of the 5th century BC, Demetrian religiosity was influencing the cult of Ceres, Liber and Libera, whose temple was dedicated in 493 BC with evident Greek features (see infra). It is highly improbable that Demeter influenced Ceres and at the same time Damia influenced Bona Dea. If we accept that, the Demetrian influences on Bona Dea can be dated after the Herculean - Mænadic phase, which is quite ancient. Therefore the connection with the conquest of Tarentum could be seriously taken into account. The choice of Damia, instead of Kore or Demeter, was perhaps a means not to interfere with Ceres, who was the Roman Demeter. The Lydian fashion and the myth of Omphale probably came from the southern Italy as well. This new style is first witnessed by Propertius, with his allusion to Hercules and Omphale, but it was probably more ancient. The Hercules Musarum, consecrated as a Roman god in 179 BC, was possibly connected with the Lydian myth, as we will see. In the Augustan age Omphale was used by Propertius himself as a derogatory parallel to Cleopatra,240 and therefore the Propertian allusion to the effeminate Hercules was borrowed from an ancient tradition. Propertius was not discrediting Hercules. If the Lydian style was adopted, after Hellenic models, by Lucanians and other peoples of Magna Graecia in the 4th and 3th centuries, and Rome followed later the same path, Omphale’s and Damia’s arrival in Rome could be considered as roughly contemporary. The first decades of the 3th century were the period of integration of Roman Italy. From Latium to Messina, peoples and cities respected the Roman law and their religion was subject to Roman authorities. The application of the Senatuscunsultum de Bacchanalibus proves that. Damia and Omphale

238 Liv.VIII.14.10. 239 The tribune Caius Canuleius, in his famous discourse of 445 BC, said: conubium petimus, quod finitimis externisque dari solet: “we want to have intermarriage, which is customarily given to neighbouring foreign peoples” (Liv.IV.4.3). 240 Prop.III.11.

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were probably accepted by the Romans, and Roman women were proud to be called damiatrix or to wear Lydian ribbons and to be called Lyde. This was the period in which cultivated Greeks from Tarentum lived in Rome and taught some boys and girls of the nobility. We know only of one of them, a freedman of a Livius Salinator, namely Livius Andronicus, who translated Homer’s poems into Latin and composed in Rome the first dramatic plays after Greek models. In 207 he was summoned by the pontiffs to compose a hymn to appease the gods after the birth of a hermaphrodite. Livy, the historian, reports: The pontiffs also decreed that three bands of maidens, each consisting of nine, should go through the City singing a hymn. This hymn was composed by the poet Livius, and while they were practicing it in the temple of Jupiter Stator, the shrine of Juno Regina on the Aven241 tine hill was struck by lightning.

Obviously one can not say that Livius Andronicus made spread Tarentine features of female cults in Rome, even if one can not rule out this. It is highly probable, in any case, that Damia and Omphale became popular in Rome in the cultural mood of the 3rd century and some prominent women introduced features of those goddesses into the ceremonies and mythology of Bona Dea. In the 2nd century the Roman government realized how dangerous such an open-minded interaction was. The Bacchanalia were normally celebrated in sacred groves of Roman goddesses before 186 BC, when a Senatusconsultum claiming to re-instate ancient traditions forbade their excesses. The scandal of Bacchanalia occurred because of new Greek influences on female cults. Roman policy in this century was less engaged in Greece or Asia Minor, and more concerned with giving a stronger unity and identity to Italy. In this frame, according to Eric S. Gruen,242 the repression of Bacchanalia was enacted. The ceremonies of Bona Dea were probably already infected by the Lydian style, according to which Hercules was thought as an effeminate, refined and cross-dressed member of the female club. A few years before the repression of Bacchanalia (186 BC) Fulvius Nobilior conceived the idea (189 BC) of building the temple of Hercules Musarum, i.e. of a cultivated musician god, like that on Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi. This god was similar to the effeminate Hercules known to the Roman religion and mythology. Transvestism was typical of several female cults. Some groups of women, among which the worshippers of Stimula, took a step forwards and initiated to sex even boys as if they were girls. Male priests were engaged as well. Bona Dea was apparently unaffected by those reforms: wives or mothers of consuls and praetors were leaders of her festivals and could not allow religious and moral transgressions. The effeminate or transvestite Hercules was unaffected by the repression of 241 Liv.XXVII.37.7–8: decrevere item pontifices ut virgines ter novenae per urbem euntes carmen canerent. id cum in Iovis Statoris aede discerent conditum ab Livio poeta carmen, tacta de caelo aedis in Aventino Iunonis reginae. 242 E.S.Gruen, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy, Leiden-New York-CopenhagenCologne 1990, 65–75.

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Bacchanalia, and the temple of Hercules Musarum was dedicated by Nobilior in 179 BC. In the Severan age the Roman citizenship was granted by Caracalla to the whole Empire. We know of scarce reactions to this great changement. In this period one must notice the statue of Julia Domna as Omphale and the senaculum mulierum, which gave directions to women in this new phase on integration. 13. THE GODDESS OF WOMANHOOD The Hellenistic goddess corresponding to Baubo was the iconographical representation of womanhood, especially as a physical feature. According to Greek beliefs, she was the personification of the female sex. The Romans had a more complete divine figure who personified womanhood, namely Juno. She was not only a goddess and wife of Juppiter, but also the vital soul of each woman, exactly like the Genius, which was the male divine soul. The Romans worshipped in a humanised form the vital spirit that guaranteed continuity of offspring for both family and people. This ambiguous principle, both male and female, was often worshipped in secrecy because it was very precious and could not be shared with other communities.243 Fauna-Bona Dea, the secret goddess of the Romans, was interpreted and represented using Greek iconographies; she was also given Greek names. Her cult, moreover, was modelled on a Greek form. Plutarch, Macrobius and Festus (i.e. Verrius Flaccus) say that she was Persephone, Damia or the Gynaikeia theòs. These plain and simple identifications show that a personified Roman concept, “the goddess of women”, corresponded perfectly to the Greek one. The Gynaikeia theòs, the “goddess of womanhood”, was a pure concept. In a similar way Propertius244 calls her feminea dea. Baubo expressed this concept in physical terms, whereas Persephone-Kore and the Gynaikeia theòs expressed it as a more complete idea. The uncertainty and complementarity between mother and daughter often required the divine figures to be split into two similar deities. The Roman Juno was split into a number of divinities, among whom the Sospita, the Caprotina and the Puella represented the young woman, or were in charge of young women, while the Regina or the Capitolina were images of the wife and potentially the mother. Bona Dea retained a part of her uncertainty because she was both the daughter from the myth and the model of a leader of rituals as well, i.e. the consul’s wife. Plutarch, who was a great expert in religion, accurately chose from among the Greek pantheon and identified Bona Dea with the Gynaikeia theòs, who was the perfect representative of womanhood among the gods, and who could be both a mother and a daughter. 243 Cf. A.Brelich, Die geheime Schutzgottheit von Rom, Zürich 1949. 244 IV.9.25.

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Baubo, Omphale, Kore and the other goddesses from the Greek and Egyptian temples mentioned above could also be called Gynaikeiai theoi, but Plutarch was more general and did not chose between Demeter and Kore. A cult of a Gynaikeia theos has been identified among the Daunians on a votive bronze inscription from Ruvo, in Puglia.245 The text is in Messapic written in the Greek alphabet, and begins: αρτος ατοτιος ται θ(ε)οι ται γυνα(ι)κηαι. The “Gynaikeiai theoi” can be recognised quite plausibly in the last words. If this reading is correct, it would bring us to an odd conclusion: the Gynaikeia theos is attested in an Italic culture, but not among the Greeks.246 It is possible that Gynaikeia theos was a common and simple name that the Greeks gave to foreign goddesses fulfilling the function of Kore, Demeter, Damia or Auxesia, bearing different names but having the same function. This would mean that the Daunians had adopted this generic Greek name. The Greeks always had many names and iconographies for their gods, whereas other peoples were poorer in this respect. The lack of iconography and names for the Italic goddesses did not permit an unambiguous choice between a divine mother or daughter, between a Bacchic, a sober or a Demeter-like goddess. Even if some Romans believed that she had a secret name,247 Bona Dea had no true personal name;248 Fauna was the female counterpart of Faunus, but the iconographies of these two gods were totally different. Bona Dea’s iconography is perhaps the most generic249 of the entire Roman pantheon. Her other names were only erudite speculations and identifications with supposed Greek homologues. In order to explain this topic better, we can pose a double question: Who is Demeter? Who is Juno? The answers are: Demeter is the mother, while Juno is the mother and also the daughter. Bona Dea presented many features that made her a candidate for being a Demeter or a Kore, a Damia or a Lydian queen, a Semele or one of Dionysus’ nurses. Motherhood was not a generic concept, but one that was appropriate to a specific part of a woman’s life. Demeter was a mother when her daughter was ready for marriage. Fortuna was also a mother, a mother who bore her children on her arms and potentially breast-fed them. 245 A.Arena, “Di un complesso mitico greco e dei suoi riflessi in area italica”, PP 24, 1969, 437– 461, esp. 437–9. 246 A.Arena, “ΤΑΙ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕΣ ΑΙ ΤΑΝ ΘΕΟΝ ΦΑΝΤΙ ΕΞΕΛΑΝ”, PP 30, 1975, 217– 219, recognizes in the title of a mimus by Sophron a mention of the “theos of women”. 247 Serv., in Aen. VIII.314 (quod nomine dici prohibitum fuerat, Bonam Deam appellatam volunt); Macrob.I.12.27; Lact., Div.inst. I.22.10; cf. Plut., Caes. 9. 248 Arnob., adv.nat. I.36 and Lact., Div.inst. 17 give the name Fenta Fatua and, respectively, Fenta Fauna. It is difficult to establish whether they had been able to kwow the secret name of the goddess, or they simply quoted a public surname of hers. 249 See G.Ch.Picard, “L’iconographie de Bona Dea”, in: Iconographie classique et identités régionales. Colloque internat. Paris 26 et 27 mai 1983, ed. by L.Kahil, C.Augé & P.Linant de Bellefonds, Paris 1986, 111–117.

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The Roman pantheon was slightly different in form from the Greek pantheon. More so than Bona Dea, it was Ceres who was identified with Demeter, but Ceres was not a perfect Demeter250 because she was accompanied by the happy couple Liber and Libera: she was perhaps only a Demeter at the end of her dramatic story. Kore-Persephone was identified with Proserpina, the wife of Dispater, rather than with Libera. Proserpina was venerated in the Campus Martius during the ludi sæculares, while Libera was coupled with Liber Pater, who was quite different from Dis Pater.251 Dis Pater was Hades, and Liber Pater was Dionysus. The tables below will probably aid understanding. Roman marriage gods Ceres Liber Libera

Hypothetical Greek correspondence Demeter with a married daughter Dionysos Ariadne

Greek pre-marital goddesses Demeter with an unmarried daughter Kore: the unmarried daughter

Greek marital gods

Roman marital gods Proserpina ~ Dispater

Greek marital gods Persephone ~ Hades

Roman pre-marital gods

Hypothetical Greek correspondence Gynaikeia theòs; Omphale, Semele… Pan

Bona Dea Faunus

Demeter with a married daughter Hades ~ Persephone

250 K.Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte, Munich 1960, 22: “In Griechenland gehören Demeter und Kore zusammen, der dritte Partner führt einen wechselnden Namen; in Rom ordnen sich Liber und Libera zusammen und Ceres bleibt die Hauptgottheit des Tempels”; 162: “Bei den Griechen gehören Mutter und Tochter eng zusammen und der dritte kann verschieden heißen, bei den Römern müssen Liber und Libera zunächst ein Paar gebildet haben”. 251 See H.Le Bonniec, Le religion romaine de Cérès à Rome, Paris 1958, 295–6.

VII. THE REIGN OF BACCHUS 1. LIBER AND LIBERA From this series of links, a consequence is looming out, namely, that Bona Dea should have been linked to Liber Pater. The question is what this connection was. The temple and the cult of Ceres, Liber and Libera were created with a strong Greek character. Dionysius of Halicarnassus1 says that Aulus Postumius promoted the construction of the temple to Demeter, Dionysos, and Kore. Greek sculptors were engaged, namely Damophilos and Gorgasos,2 and the priestresses of Ceres were chosen in the Magna Græcia, at Neapolis and Heleia/Velia.3 Ceres came with a name derived from the verb cresco4 because she was able to make crops and sons grow. Liber comes from the root leudh- and the theme leudhes-, which means “he who provokes birth and growth”.5 Mythologically, Liber was not Ceres’ son, but a character who was young and growing up. Ovid calls him puer semper iuvenis,6 or puer æternus,7 and the god is represented over the Prænestine cista Ficoroni as a youth, with his bulla8 round his neck, between two Satyrs.9 Similarly Juppiter puer and Juno puella were venerated at Præneste along with Fortuna, a matron goddess.10 Juppiter Liber, on the other hand, was 1

Dion.Hal.VI.17.2: (Postumius) ναῶν κατασκευὰς ἐξεμίσθωσε Δήμητρι καὶ Διονύσῳ καὶ Κόρῃv κατ' εὐχήν (Postumius made pay for the construction of the temples to Demeter, Dionysos and Kore, after his vow). In Latin we found: Tac., Ann.II.49: Libero Liberaeque et Cereri iuxta circum maximum, quam A. Postumius dictator voverat. 2 Plin., N.h. XXXV.154: Plastae laudatissimi fuere Damophilus et Gorgasus, iidem pictores, qui Cereris aedem Romae ad circum maximum utroque genere artis suae excoluerant, versibus inscriptis Graece, quibus significarent ab dextra opera Damophili esse, ab laeva Gorgasi. ante hanc aedem Tuscanica omnia in aedibus fuisse auctor est Varro. 3 Cic., Pro Balbo 55 Sacra Cereris, iudices, summa maiores nostri religione confici caerimonia que voluerunt; quae cum essent adsumpta de Graecia, et per Graecas curata sunt semper sacerdotes et Graeca omnino nominata. Sed cum illam quae Graecum illud sacrum monstraret et faceret ex Graecia deligerent, tamen sacra pro civibus civem facere voluerunt, ut deos immortalis scientia peregrina et externa, mente domestica et civili precaretur. Has sacerdotes video fere aut Neapolitanas aut Veliensis fuisse, foederatarum sine dubio civitatum. Cf. Val.Max I.1.1. 4 See Prosdocimi, “La tavola di Agnone”, 557–9. 5 E.Benveniste, “Liber et liberi”, REL 14, 1936, 51–58. 6 Ovid., Fasti III.773. 7 Ovid., Met. IV.18. 8 A round amulet for children. 9 M.Verzar, in: Roma medio-repubblicana tra il 509 e il 270 a.C., ed. by I.Dondero and P.Pensabene, Rome 1983, 264–5, no. 413. 10 Cic., de div. II.85–6; CIL XIV, 2861; 2868.

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worshipped at Rome and in Italy;11 he was similar, but not identical, to Liber.12 The epithet Pater was not very ancient and older references of him speaks of Liber tout court.13 Even scholars who accept the correspondence between Libera and Kore notice the evident difference from Greek models, for Liber and Libera were a couple of similar gods of fecundity and youth.14 If Libera was Kore, her husband was not Hades, i.e. the Roman Dispater. In Rome Dispater was married to Proserpina, not to Libera. And finally, the Roman myth of Dispater raping Libera is totally unknown, and probably never existed. Ovid tells the myth of Bacchus-Liber, who cheated on his wife Ariadne because of an Indian princess. When Ariadne expressed her deep grief, Liber was secretely listening to. He understood the right claims of Ariadne and: He embraced her, and dried her tears with kisses, And said: “Together, let us seek the depths of the sky! You’ll share my name just as you’ve shared my bed, Since, transmuted, you will be called Libera”.15

Hyginus16 reports as well that Liber called Ariadne “Libera”. Pliny the Elder17 knew of a painting by Aristides of Thebæ, which represented Dionysus and Ariadne, kept in temple of Ceres at Rome. The marriage of Liber and Ariadne was the model of every marriage,18 and the deification of Ariadne as the costellation of the Crown was the model of deification for every woman. The Greek Demetrian rituals were centred round two goddesses, mother and daughter. Male gods, i.e. Hades, and also Iacchos or Dionysos were present, but marginally so. Roman religion, on the other hand, emphasised the couple Liber 11 R.S.Conway, Italic Dialects, Cambridge 1897, no. 318; CIL I, 1838; I2, 214; III, Suppl. 2, 14203; IX, 3513; 3786; Inscr.Délos, 1771; Res gestae divi Aug. 19. According to R.Schilling, La religion romaine de Vénus, Paris 2nd ed. 1982, 121–2, Juppiter Liber was more a Oscan deity than a Roman one. 12 As it was proposed by G.Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, München 1912, 126–8. 13 Bruhl, Liber pater, 14; G.Cresci Marrone, G.Mennella, Pisaurum, I, Pisa 1984, 148. Pater was an attribute of many gods. 14 See for ex., Wissowa, RKR, 243: “aedes Cereris Liberi Liberaeque, indem Demeter mit der alten Göttin des pflanzichen Wachstums Ceres gleichgesetzt wird, Dionysos und Kore aber mit Liber und Libera, einem zum ältesten Götterkreise gehörenden Paare schöpferischer Naturgottheiten”. 15 Ovid., Fasti III.509–512, transl. Kline. Occupat amplexu lacrimasque per oscula siccat, et “pariter caeli summa petamus” ait: “tu mihi iuncta toro mihi iuncta vocabula sumes, nam tibi mutatae Libera nomen erit. 16 Hyginus, Fab. 224: Ariadne Liber pater Liberam appellauit. 17 Plin., N.h. XXXV.99 (whose text is corrupted and the correction Ariadnen by Dilthey has been always accepted). 18 Cf. Serv., in Buc.VIII.30: in eodem monte Hesperus coli dicitur, qui Hymenaeum, speciosum puerum, amasse dicitur: qui Hymenaeus fertur in nuptiis Ariadnes et Liberi patris vocem perdidisse cantando: ex cuius nomine nuptiae dictae sunt.

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and Libera,19 who looked like male and female twins, even though they represented a marital couple. In the presence of Ceres, they took over the roles of sons: liberi, and Cicero says that Libera was thought as Ceres’ daughter.20 The emphasis on the Liberi couple proves that this cult was embedded in local traditions21 and independent of Demetrian religiosity. The iconography of Libera has nothing to do with that of Kore-Persephone, which is well known also in Rome. Libera is represented on a denarius of the gens Cassia22 as the female counterpart of Liber-Bacchus. He has a thyrsus beneath his head, while she wears leaves and grapes on hers. According to Henry Le Bonniec,23 Liber and Libera were not a married couple, just as Pomonus ~ Pomona, Faunus ~ Fauna and Cacus ~ Caca were not. This could be true, perhaps, in a very ancient phase, but in Republican and Imperial Rome, they were represented and conceived of as Dionysus and Ariadne, i.e. the hypostatised married couple. The Roman Dionysiac sarcophagi are proof of this. 2. LIBERA AND ARIADNE We have just remembered that Ovid24 tells the story of Liber and Ariadne’s encounter, and of her apotheosis, after which she was called Libera. Varro25 states that Libera was identified with Venus. In Latin and Etruscan cultural areas, Liber-Bacchus is represented together with Libera-Ariadne as a married couple; their Etruscan names were Fufluns and Areatha. This couple is carved on three pediments from Vulci.26 The pediment of the temple of Bacchus at Pompeii (dating to the end of the 3rd century BC)27 as well

19 J.Bayet, “Les ‘Cerealia’, altération d’un culte latin par le mythe grec”, in: J.Bayet, Croyances et rites dans la Rome antique, Paris 1971, 111–113, emphasizes the discrepancies between the Attic Demetriac pantheon and that of the Roman triad. 20 Cic., de nat.deor. II.24, 62. No matter if the Roman myths did not speak of how Ceres begot those children; cf. Le Bonniec, Le religion romaine de Cérès, 292. 21 Cf. Bruhl, Liber pater. On the excessive focus on the indigenous and primitive features of Liber pater by this author, see E.Montanari, “‘Figura’ e funzione di Liber Pater nell’età repubblicana”, SMSR 50, 1984, 248; Id., Identità culturale e conflitti religiosi nella Roma repubblicana, Rome 1988, 137-162. A recent discussion about modern opinions on the triad Ceres, Liber and Libera can be found in F.Calisti, “Cerere: la Demetra romana?”, SMSR 73, 2007, 245–270. 22 Crawford, no. 386. 23 Le Bonniec, Le culte de Cérès, 296–7. 24 Fasti III.512; cf. Hygin., Fab. 224. 25 Varro, in Augustin, De civ. Dei VII.3. 26 1) A.Andrèn, Architectural Terracottas from Etrusco-Italic Temples, Lund-Leipzig 1940, 217, fig. 275 (2nd–1st cent. BC), 2) U.Ferraguti, “Nuovi monumenti vulcenti”, SE 10, 1936, 57–58, pl. XVIII.1–2 (middle Hellenistic age); 3) R.A.Staccioli, in: Santuari d’Etruria, ed. by G.Colonna, Milan 1985, 27–28 (a miniature copy of a temple, 1st cent. BC). On these monuments: P.Zancani Montuoro, “Il faro di Cosa in ex-voto a Vulci?”, RIASA 3rd ser. 2, 1979,

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as the temple at Civitalba (dating to the first half of the 2nd century BC)28 show the same couple. The antiquity of this evidence shows that the identification of Libera with Ariadne was not a recent manifestation of Hellenisation. The famous Minotaur on a metopal terracotta in the Roman Regia (from the second quarter of the 6th century BC)29 makes it clear that the Greek story of Ariadne, Theseus and Minotaur was known at Rome from an archaic age. Ceres was, among her different roles, the goddess of marriage who protected each wive against unjustified divorce.30 Newlyweds would light the nuptial torches in the ædiles’ seat,31 probably in the temple of Ceres,32 Liber and Libera. The same magistrates persecuted women guilty of adultery.33 Ceres’ public festivals, the ludi Cereales, had a strongly Roman character and almost nothing to do with Greek Demetrian cults. Also the feriæ sementivæ were barely Greek in character. Only one feast was modelled after the Greek Thesmophoria, the sacrum anniversarium Cereris, celebrated by Roman women in August from at least the time of the Hannibalic war.34 The wife of Bacchus was therefore Libera in both Latin and Etruscan cities, where she bore other names. She was the daughter who gets married. The goddess representing a daughter who becomes a bride was not thought of as Ariadne anywhere in Italy. In other cultic complexes the “daughter” represented the girl before her marriage (daughter = girl who lived with her mother). On the Agnone table (A, l.4; B, l.5) the name of the “daughter” is futre-, which has the nominative form futír in another Oscan inscription.35 At Macchia di Valfortore, near Larinum, futír was worshipped with maatreís, the “mother”.36

27

28 29 30 31 32

33 34

35

5–29; O.de Cazanove, “Plastique votive et imagerie dionysiaque: à propos de deux ex-voto de Vulci”, MEFRA 98, 1986, 7–8. O.Elia, G.Pugliese Carratelli, “Il santuario dionisiaco di S.Abbondio a Pompei”, in: Orfismo in Magna Grecia. Atti XIV conv. sulla Magna Grecia. Taranto 1974, Naples 1975, 139–153; O.Elia, “Il santuario dionisiaco di Pompei”, PP 34, 1979, 442–471. M.Zuffa, “I frontoni e il fregio di Civitalba”, in: Miscellanea Paribeni-Calderini, III, Milan 1956, 267–288, esp. 287–8. S.B.Downey, Architectural Terracottas from the Regia, MAAR 30, Ann Arbor 1995, 20–23; fig.4 and 71. Plut., Rom. 22. Tellus as a goddess of marriage: Serv.auctus, in Aen. IV.166. Plut., Quaest.Rom. 2 = 263 F. Ceres on the Roman republican denarii already bears one or two torches; cf. J.Bayet, “Les ‘Cerealia’, altération d’un culte latin par le mythe grec”, in: Croyances et rites dans la Rome antique, Paris 1971, 89–129, esp. 105–6. Liv.XXV.2.9. Varro in Non., 44 L.; Liv.XXII.56.4; Fest., 86 L.; Val.Max.I.1.15; Arnob.II.73; see F.Graf, “Ceres”, in: Der Neue Pauly, II (1999), 1072. The couple of Ceres and Proserpina is depicted on a coin of Antoninus Pius: RIC III, 50, no. 199. E.Vetter, Handbuch der italischen Dialekte, Heidelberg 1953, no. 123c–d. See R.Thurneysen, “Oskisch futreír ‘Tochter’”, Glotta 21, 1932, 7–8; M.Lejeune, “‘Fils’ et ‘fille’

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Venetic culture also knew a goddess called “the daughter”. In fact a 4th century inscription from Valle di Cadore (a few km from Cortina d’Ampezzo) in the local script and language37 bears a dedication to Loudera Kanei, i.e. Libera “the daughter”.38 Bona Dea was a goddess who transformed Roman girls from daughters into brides, while Libera was the bride, and both were shaped with strong Bacchic features. The secret ceremonies of Bona Dea prepared for the arrival of the husband, and Faunus was supposed to bless the bride before she was handed over to the groom. Libera was the wife, and Liber her husband. This, therefore, could have been the relation between Bona Dea and Libera. There is nothing to prove that Liber and Libera represented the second phase of only one virginal cult, namely Bona Dea’s. It is in fact possible that there were many female cults in Rome that prepared girls for marriage and that more than one were related to Liber and Libera. Later in this book we shall analyse a similar cultic complex among the Etruscans, in which, however, one goddess played the roles of daughter of a god of the dead and wife of a Dionysiac god. It was possible therefore to entrust both phases of female life to one goddess who transformed herself. 3. ORIENTAL CULTS? Modern scholarship shows a great deal of uncertainty when it tries to classify the Roman Bacchic cult in relation to the “Oriental cults”. Significantly, Franz Cumont, in his book Les religions orientales dans l’empire romain, devoted an appendix to this cult, as if it was worth dealing with, but not in a chapter at the same level of Mithraism or the Isis cult. There are clear Greek influences, even from Hellenistic Egypt, among the Bacchic cults of Rome. The label “Oriental cult” is, however, inappropriate. Bacchic cults were in fact as Oriental as the cults of Mercurius, Hercules, Castor and so on. Jean-Marie Pailler39 rightly stressed that the Roman consuls and Senate did not have the foreknowledge of the forthcoming arrival of Egyptian, Jewish and Syrian cults in Rome.

36 37 38

39

dans les langues de l’Italie ancienne”, BSL 42, 1967–68, 67–86, esp. 72–74; Prosdocimi, “La tavola di Agnone”, 527. Vetter, no. 175. G.B.Pellegrini, A.L.Prosdocimi, La lingua venetica, I, Padua 1967, 465–8; II, 131–3; cf. A.Mastrocinque, Santuari e divinità dei Paleoveneti, Padua 1987, 37–38. For kanei = (probably) daughter: V.Pisani, Le lingue dell’Italia antica oltre il latino, Torino 1953, 252–3; see a recent work by A.A.Semioli, “Liber, Libera e *