December

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete

DECEMBER 3 .

On the night of 3/4 December 62 BCE, the women's sacrifice to Bona Dea was held in the house of praetor Gaius Julius Caesar (Plut. Cic. 19; Dio Cass. 37.35). The ceremonies were hosted by Caesar?s wife Pompeia and his mother Aurelia, and were then supposedly disrupted when it was discovered that Clodius was present in what was a rite reserved only for women. The incident caused a political scandal and it is from this incident that we learn what the women's rite to the Bona Dea involved.

The ceremony for the Bona Dea is not listed on any of the Roman calendars, and there was no fixed date for holding the ceremony (Cic. ad Att. 1.10 and 15.25). It was not performed in the Aventine Temple of the Bona Dea, and sacrifices to Her were not offered outdoors in the daylight as were customary in public rites. Instead it was held at night in the private home of one of the leading magistrates (Cicero de Harusp. resp. 17.37 fit in ea domo quae est in imperio). Presiding over the sacrifice was not one of the Roman magistrates or any priest, but rather a "Damiatrix" who was the wife of a praetor or consul in whose house the ceremony took place (Festus 601). One reason for this was that men were banned from seeing the rite. Present were also the Vestales Virgines. The rite was not performed on behalf of the state, rather it was made to benefit the Roman people (Cic. idem: fit per Virgines Vestales, fit pro populo Romano).

"What about the Bona Dea, banning men from Her temple (except for Her chosen adherents)?" (Ovid Ars Amatoria, 3.637). Macrobius echoes Ovid?s oculos exosa viriles by claiming that the rites performed in the Temple of the Bona Dea excluded men , and he links such urban rites to a rural tale told of Hercules (1.12.25-28). Hercules asks for water from some women performing a ritual to the Bona Dea before the Cave of Cacus. The women refuse his request, as men are not allowed to drink from their drinking-vessel (Macr. Sat. 1.12.28)

In Pompeia's house the ceremony took place in a room decorated with vines. The rite included the sacrifice of a pig and wine was offered to the Bona Dea (Macr. Sat. 1.e; Juvenal 2.86). Paulus said that the pig sacrifice was referred to as Damium (68: Damium sacrifiicium, quod fiebat in operto in honorem Bonae Deae). Wine could not be brought by name into the Temple of the Bona Dea. That is, the priestesses of Bona Dea referred to wine only as milk,, and this "milk" they carried in a mellarium, or honey-vase (Macr. 1. c; Plut. Quaest Rom. 20). The explanation for this was that the Bona Dea was identified as Fauna. Legend held that Fauna had been beaten by Her father Faunus with a rod of myrtle when she refused to drink His wine and succumb to His incestuous advances (Plut. Quaes Rom. 20; Macr. Sat. 1.c; Lact. 1.22.11; Arnob. 5.18). As with wine and men, myrtle was also banned from the rites of the Bona Dea. Reference to the sacred wine as milk is thought by modern historians to indicate the ancient nature of these rites. That is taken from Pliny, where he wrote, "Romulus poured libations of milk, not wine; proof of this lies in rites established by him that preserves this custom today" (Natural History 14.88). The idea is that rites prescribing milk predate the introduction of wine. However, what Pliny goes on to say may have been the stronger reason. He says, "At Rome women were not allowed to drink wine." He then cites examples of women being severely punished for doing so. Egnatius Maetennus is acquitted by Romulus in clubbing his wife to death for having drank wine. Fabius Pictor's Annales is cited for another case where a woman was starved to death by her family for merely breaking into the box where keys to the wine-store were kept (H. N. 14.89). Pliny also mentions here a proscription made by Numa that wine offered to the gods could not be made with grapes from an unpruned vine. That may relate to the vines decorating Pompeia's house in this particular incident. We might also note Cicero's recommendation that rites of women not be performed at night "except for those offered in proper form on behalf of the people (de Legibus II.21: Nocturna mulierum sacrificia ne sunto praeterolla, quae pro populi rite fiant). In many ways then, the rites of the Bona Dea seem to have been an exception to the usual practices of the Religio Romana.

The nature of the rite is given by Juvenal (Satires VI. 314 ff), "Notorius, too, are the ritual mysteries of the Bona Dea, when the music of flutes stir the loins and frenzied women, devotees of Priapus, sweep along in procession, howling, tossing their hair, wine-flown, horn-crazed, burning with desire to get themselves laid. Hark at the way they whinny in mounting lust, see that copious flow, the pure and vintage wine of passion, that splashes their thigh." When Clodius was discovered present at the women's rites, he was driven away by Caesar's mother, Aurelia. First, however, she covered the sacred objects used in the rite with a cloth. The objects were kept in a basket and there has been much speculation on what they could have been. One suggestion has been that, as with the wine brought into the rite but not suo nomen, a myrtle rod may have been among the symbola. Aurelia may have turned the rod against Clodius. It is suggested that Her rites may have involved a ritual beating. We need not consider that if such was involved that one of the women, or some slave girl, was brought in to be the victim. Another possibility is that the symbola included a phallic, and there are instances where it is the phallic that is whipped as a means to incur fertility. Juvenal description of the rite would indicate that a phallic of Priapus was present. There is always the possibility, too, that Clodius' presence was intended. While most men were excluded from entering the Temple of the Bona Dea, according to Ovid some men were allowed to enter, those chosen by the Bona Dea Herself. The political scandal that arose may have twisted the facts, with Clodius dressed as one of the female flute players to represent Fauna and then beaten with a myrtle rod by Aurelia before fleeing, reenacting Fauna's flight in a reversal of roles.

Whichever version of the incident may be true, Clodius' presence meant that another secret of the Bona Dea was revealed to a man, Her secret name. Lactantus (1.22) and Servius Honorius ( ad Aeneid 8.314). both said that the true name of the Bona Dea was unknown. Paulus however expressly stated that Bona Dea was Damia, and Festus calls the sacrificial victims to Bona Dea "Damium" and the presiding priestess "Damiatrix" after the local version of Tarentum (60L). Macrobius instead held, "Hanc eadem Bonam Deam Faunamque et Opem et Fatuam pontificum libris indigitari (Saturnalia 1.12.16). " The formula prayers (indigitamenta) by which Macrobius identifies the Bona Dea as Fauna were written down by Granius Flaccus in a book on the Ius Papirianum, that he dedicated to Julius Caesar (Cenobius de Die Natalis 1.3 p. 13). Possibly Macrobius' source for what was in the pontifical books was Granius' work. Elsewhere, among the Marruccini, another goddess with the same attributes as the Bona Dea is called Angitina Cererri. Fauna, called Fatua among some Oscan tribes, Angitina, and Messapic Damia are various local names for this daughter of Ceres whose providence was over medicinal herbs, especially herbs employed by women. Clodius claimed he was not at the rite, but 80 miles away. Cicero testified that he had seen Clodius in Rome on the day after the rite was performed, which was not possible if he had been so distant from the city. Cicero posed that Clodius had lied, and was acquitted only through bribery. A different way to look at the incident, assuming that Clodius was suppose to be present, was that he claimed to be distant from the city in order to safeguard the Bona Dea's secret name, and his acquittal rested with Aurelia rather than bribery.

The Kalends of May was recorded as the traditional day for the dedication of the Temple of the Bona Dea on the Avertine. The temple, it was said, was substratana and lay beneath a large sacred rock (Ovid: Fasti 5.147-9). This connects with Macrobius comment (see above) on the rites from which Herculres was barred being performed before a cave. Within the temple was an herbarium where medicinal herbs were stored, guarded by sacred serpents. On 1 May a procession of serpents was part of ceremonies performed for Angitina, who was also associated with medicinal herbs. The herbs were freely distributed to women. "Italy is full of herbs" (H.N. 25.11) has Pliny explain Italian medicine using simples of specific herbs, contrasted with Greek medicine of complex potions. Pliny records Cato?s warning against Greek medicine (29.14) to make the distinction. There is also found in Pliny what is called an "antidote for venomous bites" of snakes, taken from the Temple of Aesulapis (H. N. 20.264). It is an example of one of many Greek concoctions. What Pliny failed to recognize was that the formula was meant to ward off the "venomous bites" of allegorical snakes, since what it contains are several abortive herbs. The same is implied of the herbs that were freely distributed from the Temple of the Bona Dea. Juvenal records, "we have so many sure-fired drugs [medicamina] for inducing sterility [steriles facit] or killing anembryo child [homines in ventre necandos]; our skilled abortionists know all the answers (6.592-598)." While the herbs of the Bona Dea are mentioned as intended to maintain health, they are also specifically mentioned for use in "female problems". That is, to maintain monthly menstration through the use of abortive herbs. This aspect of the cultus Bonae Deae gives another dimension to the mysteries performed in December.

Di deaeque vos semper ament
Moravius Piscinus