Relg 211A: Final Project
12/7/01
The
Bona Dea was known as the “good goddess”.One
who could be sought after for such purposes as healing, fertility, refuge,
agricultural fruitfulness and protection.She
is a goddess who is inclined to favor love, joy and happiness.She
guards and cherishes her children in this life and in the next ( Raven
Grimassi, Way of the Strega:Italian Witchcraft:The Myth of the Descent
of the Goddess, www.ancienthistory.bonadea.com, pp.2). Through participation
and worship of the cult of Bona Dea, women focused on a female culture
of resistance and stepped out from under the rule of the traditional male
role, into a ceremonial world led by women.
Bona
Dea was a Roman goddess who presided over virginity, fertility andhealing.The
Cornucopia and snake were attributed to the goddess.She
is often pictured with a snake coiling around her right arm, drinking from
an offering bowl in her hand.Her
left arm cradles a cornucopia.Bona
Dea is the daughter of Fauna, who brutally beat and raped her.Fauna
found Bona Dea beautiful and wanted her, thus, he forced her to drink wine,
beat her with a myrtle stick and then raped her.Therefore,
wine and myrtle are physically and verbally forbidden in any ceremonial
practices.From this experience of
brutality, she is often looked upon as representing female oppression,
as symbolized in her battery and rape by her father.
Bona
Dea’s temple could be found on the Aventine Hill, possibly founded as late
as 272 BC.The Aventine Hill was
center to many Mystery religions located in the rural part of the city
of Rome.This Hill was home to numerous
cults, such as those of Carmenta, Mercury, Diana, Ceres, Liber, and Liberia.Even
though the Aventine became “the center of multicultural cross-pollination
of deities, rites and symbols”, it was the headquarters to Bona Dea(Bona
Dea, http//www. Ancienthistory.bonadea.com, December, 2001).Her
temple could be found on the northern part of the Hill with a garden of
herbs and snakes.The snakes were
consecrated and kept there for healing while the herbs were kept in the
garden intended to be used to heal the sick.Various
inscriptions were showered upon Bona Dea, which meant: holy, light-bringing,
well-disposed, aid-bringing, goddess of fields and seeds, and lady.Her
temple was still standing in the in the 4th Century, but there
is no trace to be found today.
During
May in preparation of a festival, the Roman matrons wore purple headbands
and decorated the temple in vine branches, flowers and various other plants
(not myrtle).Milk was servedto
the women as wine.A pregnant sow
was sacrificed and the bacon was offered in libations to Bona Dea.During
this celebration, the eldest woman present presided over the sacrifice
while the younger women played public games.Most
celebrations were performed at night with music. Worship was agricultural
in origin as well as possibly intended for purification means.Men
were strictly forbidden, according to a later source. Any male presence
was sacrilege.
Bona
Dea’s temple was not the only place of worship.Another
festival occurred in December in the home of the chef-magistrate.All
rites occurred in the home, conducted by the wife of the chef-magistrate,
who was assisted by the Vestal Virgins.Again,
this ceremony was exclusive of all men, but only open to women by invitation.On
this day of celebration, the men would leave and leave the wife in charge
of the home.She was left in charge
and left to decorate and prepare the home for the celebration.
During
one such December celebration, the rites of Bona Dea became desecrated.Through
this example, as well as how the cult is traditionally and ceremonially
conducted by women, one will discover a women led world in the context
of the worship of Bona Dea.The home
of Caesar was opened to the December celebration for Bona Dea, led by Caesar’s
wife, Pompeia.Caesar’s enemy, Publius
Clodius was in deep love with and the secret lover of Pompeia.Caesar
was suspicious, therefore Pompeia was heavily guarded and Caesar’s mother
followed Pompeia everywhere she went.Since
all men have to leave the home where the ceremonies are conducted, Clodius
knew that Caesar would not be home.Therefore,
Clodius dressed as a young woman and snuck into the home of Caesar and
Pompeia in hopes to steal some time with Pompeia.Clodius
wondered around the house, inpatient for Pompeia and was approached by
an attendant who desired to have sexual relations with her, when really
she was a he!He refused and was
draggedbefore the other women to
be questioned.His voice gave him
away and he fled looking for a way out of the home.The
women immediately halted all rites and hide all sacred objects, as they
left to for hunt Clodius.He was
found and thrown out of the house.Immediately
the women found out about the affair and fled to their husbands to share
what had happened.The story spread
throughout Rome, that Clodius had committed sacrilege and committed an
injustice against the women, as well as insulting Rome and the gods.
As
we analyze this story we discover women taking on various traditionally
male roles.First, women are left
in charge of the home when the males leave the home during preparation
for and during that celebrations for Bona Dea.Caesar
left his home, leaving Pompeia in charge of the home, as well as leaving
her in charge of preparing the home for the celebration and decorating
for the celebration.These festivals
and rites focused on female cultural resistance, as seen with Pompeia.Traditionally,
women would never be left home alone without some male presence.Pompeia
was left alone and in total charge of Caesar’s home.
Women
were empowered to select rites they would perform, how they would perform
those rites, as well as how to conduct these rites, based on their own
terms.Another radical privilege!Women
were left alone and in charge of their homes, now they were given the power
to select certain rite, but were able to perform anddecide
the appropriate way to demonstrate worship of Bona Dea.This
is demonstrated as Pompeia and other women prepare Caesar’s home with decorations
and other preparations.
Another
interesting factor in looking at women’s roles in the traditional view
of male roles, females in the cult of Bona Dea were able to conduct their
own sacrifices.The eldest woman
sacrificed the pregnant sow only with assistance from theVestal
Virgins.Bona Dea was a religion
for the common woman, shown here in the limited assistance from the Vestal
Virgins and in the exclusion of participation of men.Traditionally,
rarely were women allowed to be present during religious celebrations or
sacrifices.Women who performed these
sacrifices and rites were freed from traditional societal rules and were
clothed themselves in the male role of sacrifice.
Another
important ceremonial aspect of worship, were homosexual or lesbian relationships
among the women.Again, women were
taking on male roles as they propositioned sexual relations from other
women.In this act they were masculinized.They
were freed from traditional male and female relations and assumed male
roles in pursuit of sexual favors from other women participants.As
seen when Clodius was propositioned by the female attendant during the
December celebration.Clodius’ reaction
to the female attendant was a powerful statement.Clodius
was intimidated, frightened and oppressed in the mere act of her sexual
proposition.The attendant, in the
freedom of the ceremony, assumed the male role as Clodius assumed the oppressed
position as female.Clodius fled
the room when he was being questioned.Again,
there had to be no doubt that the participants of this cult were empowered
through the roles they assumed, while worshipping Bona Dea, if the women
were able to intimidate and send a male fleeing from the room in terror
and shame.
In
an ironic twist, Bona Dea represented the oppressed woman, but through
worship of this goddess, when were able to assume the ‘strong’ position
and oppress the males.This was
shown in their exclusion in participation of the actual ceremonies, as
well as their exclusion from the male ceremonial role during worship of
Bona Dea.Women assumed male leadership
and masculine roles during these ceremonies through sacrifices, rites,and
sexual orientation.Women resisted
her traditional society-labeled dress and assume the garb of male empowerment,
freedom and strength in her ceremonial worship of the good goddess, Bona
Dea.
Brouwer, Sources and Descriptions of the Cult, 1989, ppgs: 117,196,216,218,224,233,236,256-7,346,365,376,388-92,416,419.
Raven Grimassi, Way of the Strega:Italian Witchcraft:The Myth of the Descent of the Goddess,www.ancienthistory.bonadea.com, pp.2.
Hawley, Women in Antiquity, 1995, New York,New York.
Plutarch, Life of Cicero, 19.3, 20.1-2, 2nd cent. A.D.G.
Bona Dea, http//www. Ancienthistory.bonadea.com, December, 2001.
Bona
Dea, www.dragonphyre.nte/maryash/TheCraft/bos/goddess/bona_dea.html.
December 2001.
Bona
Dea, http://ancienthistory.about.com