Bona Dea

Errata

On page 52 we read:

First, we have a votive relief of pentelic marble (ca. 400 BC), found behind
the theatre of Piraeus, which could have been the location of the Asklepieion at
Piraeus.136 We see Asklepios bending over a lying woman, which is covered by a
skin. On the left, we see adorants with a child, possible relatives of the woman.
Leventi argues, that on the right, we see Hygieia resting on her left leg, although
this figure could also be identified as Epione or Iaso. Leventi identifies this scene
as an incubation scene.137 Renberg disagrees with Leventi, keeping this question
unanswered.138

This has to be:

First, we have a votive relief of pentelic marble (ca. 400 BC), found behind
the theatre of Piraeus, which could have been the location of the Asklepieion at
Piraeus.136 We see Asklepios bending over a lying woman, which is covered by a
skin. On the left, we see adorants with a child, possible relatives of the woman.
Leventi argues, that on the right, we see Hygieia resting on her left leg, although
this figure could also be identified as Panakeia or Iaso, according to Holtzmann. Leventi identifies this scene as an incubation scene.137 Renberg agrees with Leventi, describing her as Hygieia.138

Also, the footnotes are not correct concerning to reference to the pages. Please, mind the right annotation below.

137. R 13. Piraeus Museum 405 (Plate 15) in Leventi., Hygieia, 133-134.
138. Figure 29 Cat. No. Ask.-Peir.1 (Peiraeus Mus. 405) in Renberg, Where Dreams May
Come, 636.

The footnotes have been restored.

My sincere apologies.

El objetivo de este trabajo es profundizar, a través de las fuentes epigráficas, en el conocimiento del papel desempeñado por las sacerdotisas de Bona Dea denominadas magistrae y ministrae. Reunidas en collegia cultorum normalmente pertenecientes a un templum, estas mujeres participaban en la organización de los rituales en honor a la diosa. Se trata de un culto exclusivamente femenino, de origen prerromano, propiciatorio de la salud, la fecundidad femenina y la fertilidad de los cultivos. Se documenta en la península itálica entre el siglo I a.C y el III d.C. El corpus de veinte epígrafes donde se mencionan magistrae y ministrae Bonae Deae constituye la base de datos de nuestro estudio. Las inscripciones documentan que las sacerdotisas se ocupaban de la organización del culto y de la decoración del templum.

Copyright 2020-08-31 Régis Duval,Texte déposé, communiqué à Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (Paris)-The Roman family during the Republican period : Tellus-Farreus-Ceres and the other gods that presided over potestas and dominium exercize in Roman families, from the wedding day of parents to the day of civic autonomy of their children of both genders. Synopsis.  The present paper examines how the socio-theologians (Pontiffs) of ancient Rome applied to the juridico-religious matters of families the same general concepts we have highlighted in general terms in our work ''The factory for community gods of social entities of every type and size in archaic Etrusco-Tiberine Italy''. The said model argues on a general basis that the daily activities of any social group or community was patronized religiously by precise sets of divinities, tailored around the specifics of each community as a function of their socioeconomic characteristics, in such a way as to satisfy the needs for their smooth and seamless integration within the global society they partook of, and meeting harmoniously tuned terms to requirements of the divine sphere as were collectively anticipated/fancied, thus leveraging entirely distinct social problematics while relying on one unique structural scheme. The structures highlighted by our general model ensure : a) the management of any community's ''territory'', whether geographical, economical, judiciary, social… within which the said community is legitimate to exercize its authority, under the patronage of a ternary set of male divinities gifted each with specific, separate properties that modelize and allegorize ''territory'' as a ternary object (''boundaries'', ''expanse/range/scope'', ''core'' or ''home''), the well-known so-called archaic Roman triad Quirinus/Mars/Jupiter presenting in the main the set of properties that characterize such a triad*. This territorial ''object'', over which is exercized ownership, is managed, when it reads about socio-political matters, by the notion of imperium, as we have argued in our document ''Potestas and imperium : how the Executive power roles in Republican Rome based their legitimacy on the religious archetype of the territory-control and populus-protection triads''. The present additional analysis argues that private property, whether of real estate or movable property nature, this latter including family members themselves, spouse (mater familias), children (liberi), slaves (familiares), as well as cattle, was administered in an exactly similar way through the notions of dominium and of mancipium, under the patronage of the pater familias's Lares ; it is argued in addition that manus exercized over family women evolved flexible forms developed in order to meet the specific rationales relating to the position of females within society so as to maintain a link with their original bloodline group, a return-home warranty in case of first magnitude mishaps, thanks to the capability of remancipatio, a process made over time more stringently required by the increasing numbers of insufferable conditions created by ever more commonly encountered contexts of widowry, divorce, emancipation and adoption. b) the management of the development dynamics of each separate community, which we generically designate as a ''populus'', whether this relates to actual demography (family, super-families or gentes, village, town, population of a City, population of a State, group of related people…), social groups (military : legion, navy crew(s), foot or horse troops…. ; classes of citizenry : slaves servi/ancillae, full fledged Roman citizens [quirites, ingenui], Latin citizenry, freedpeople [libertini]… ; sub-structures within the citizenry leveraging different social and political rights : Patriciate, Plebs ; or political purposes: tribes, curiae, centuries…. ; outsiders as of different classes : peregrini, hostiles), economic entities (trade corporations), and even entirely conceptual categories (''travelers'', enemies on the battle field…), under the patronage of a ternary set of one male divinity and two female divinities gifted with symbolic properties with complementary roles on behalf of the community within the frame of a collective intervention, mimicking human reproduction, the well-known so-called Capitoline triad of Rome Minerva/Jupiter Optimus Maximus/Juno presenting in the main the set of properties that characterize such a triad* 1. These development dynamics of each community, on which rests its mainstream activity, are administered, when it reads about social executive power roles, through leveraging the notion of potestas, as argued in our previously released work ''Potestas and imperium : how the Executive power roles in Republican Rome based their legitimacy on the religious archetype of the territory-control and populus-protection triads''. The present additional analysis argues that private life drivers, based on the usage done of owned property, whether of real estate or movable property nature, this latter including family members themselves, spouse (mater familias), children (liberi), slaves (familiares), as well as cattle and other goods encompassed in the scope of boni sui were administered in an exactly similar way through the notion of potestas, under the patronage of the pater familias's populus triad, the which was frequently Tellus/Farreus/Ceres involved in the couple's creation at wedding, heavy with agrarian references, although probably variable with ethnic origins, Tellus swapping roles with Vesta, Flora, Fortuna or other intermediation goddesses, Jupiter with Janus, Priapus or other male priapic gods, and Ceres with Fornax, Juno, Venus, Feronia or other fosterhood mother-goddesses. How the purely genesic dimension of the pater familias/mater familias couple was patroned by a pair of Di Magni, nor how personal life events governed by fates were patroned by a female divinity with triple facets such as Mania or by a full fledged triad of female goddesses such as Parcae, nor related notions to both set of problematics are addressed here. In the course of this analysis, we refine the view we previously developed of Tellus as a female intermediation goddess and discuss her relationship to Terra, as well as the concurrent role of Flora. We discuss the case of Ceres as patron of family matters. We discuss the case of Lares as patrons of family matters. We analyse from a religious perspective the status of women in all their life situations, celibacy-wedlock-widowhood-remarriage. We discuss the religious problematics raised by the Plebs/Patriciate intermarriage issues versus auspicia and bloodline, and how the Pontiffs solved the issue so as to preserve the identity/purity of the Patriciate despite the day-today realities of dwindling families ever more connected to an ever growing mass of affluent Plebeians. Collaterally, we also provide a new view of Bona Dea, as of Etruscan, more precisely Veian, origin, associate of Medicus, presiding to females' social status as uxores sine manu for the women of the higher Roman social classes. We propose a new view of the vindicta as originally the instrument by which peregrini of the Asylum were anointed into Roman citizenship after a probation periode ascertaining they were not claimed as slaves by some party. We argue that libertas originally qualified the situation of people that were under potestas to no one. We additionally sketch how the Roman Republic was reshaped in depth by the political and religious reforms of Furius Camillus, making him effectively the 2 nd Romulus. We also reanalyse the terms of relationship between Cato the Younger and Marcia when she moves back in his domus after Hortensius's demise. We finally propose a scenario how Venus was introduced by the Fabii within a vast Etruscan inflow into Rome and then developed inside, and we propose a systemic interpretation of Tellus in relation to the Piacenza liver and we argue her identification with Tluscv (tiur part). 1 *We highlight in another work certain limits to the qualification of these precise two triads to a claim as reference models.

Discussion paper Hygieia at:  ‘Historicisation’ A summer course for PhD students arranged by the Nordic network for medical history (NordForsk) about "framing health".. The University of Bergen, 24-26 August, 2011.

Updated and corrected version: 28 juni 2021

El objetivo de este trabajo es profundizar, a través de las fuentes epigráficas, en el conocimiento del papel desempeñado por las sacerdotisas de Bona Dea denominadas magistrae y ministrae. Reunidas en collegia cultorum normalmente pertenecientes a un templum, estas mujeres participaban en la organización de los rituales en honor a la diosa. Se trata de un culto de origen prerromano, propiciatorio de la salud, la fecundidad femenina y la fertilidad de los cultivos. Se documenta en la península itálica entre el siglo I a.C y el III d.C. El corpus de veintiséis epígrafes donde se mencionan magistrae y ministrae Bonae Deae constituye la base de datos de nuestro estudio. Las inscripciones documentan que las sacerdotisas se ocupaban de la organización del culto y de la decoración del templum. Algunas financiaron intervenciones constructivas pecunia sua. Asimismo, las inscripciones aluden a dona a la diosa, como mensae, lucernae, specula, tunicae y palliola. Por lo que respecta al status de las magistrae y ministrae, los textos epigráficos atestiguan que las magistrae eran libertae, con excepción de Aurunceia Acte (EE, VIII 624), mientras que las ministrae eran casi todas esclavas, salvo algún caso de liberta. Un discurso aparte merece el caso de la ciudad de Aquileia, donde no se documentan sacerdotisas de condición servil y encontramos a Decidia Paulla (CIL V, 762b) ministra de condición ingenua. De las fuentes epigráficas se deduce que las ministrae ocupaban un nivel más bajo en la jerarquía del collegium, siendo auxiliares de las magistrae, sacerdotisas que ejecutaban tareas de carácter administrativo y ritual en el culto.
Keywords: Epigrafía, religión, Bona Dea, sacerdotisa, collegium, mujer romana

El objetivo de este trabajo es profundizar el conocimiento sobre la difusión del culto de las diosas madres en el área central de la península itálica. En particular, el enfoque será dirigido a dos diosas, la Bona Dea y la diosa Cupra; se intentará demostrar, a través de la arqueología y de la epigrafía, como el culto de estas diosas haya sido influenciado por la proximidad con lo de Venus. Por lo tanto se recogerán los testigos de lugares de culto sagrados a las tres diosas en cuestión,indicando las eventuales semejanzas y diferencias entre las estructuras templares, los lugares donde estos se encontraban y las sacerdotisas que se ocupaban del culto. El análisis de una muestra de inscripciones relativas al culto de Bona Dea y Cupra permitirá de definir las características de las dos diosas y, en el caso de la Bona Dea, de decir cual tipología de mujeres fuesen las elegidas por su sacerdocio. En fin, también a través de la recopilación de topónimos presentes en el marco de las regiones V y VI, se asumirán los posibles canales de difusión de dichos cultos, datando con la máxima precisión posible el arco temporal de existencia de los cultos en cuestión.

Cet article est consacré au culte de Bona Dea en Afrique et à ses agents cultuels. Sur la base d’un corpus documentaire de huit inscriptions, provenant de la plupart des provinces africaines, nous nous interrogerons sur le rôle et l’agentivité de ces dévots dans la diffusion, l’appropriation et la réélaboration du culte de la déesse italique dans ces provinces.

Résumé : Huit documents épigraphiques attestent le culte de Bona Dea dans les provinces romaines d’Afrique. L’analyse de ce corpus met en lumière l’identité des adeptes et permet de contextualiser leur action rituelle. Certaines particularités observées dans les dédicaces africaines invitent à une comparaison avec la documentation italique. Abstract: Eight epigraphic documents show the presence of Bona Dea’s cult in the provinces of Roman Africa. The analysis of this corpus shows the identity of the worshippers and allows a contextualization of their religious behaviour. Some peculiarities observed in the African dedications encourage comparison with the Italic documentation.

The veneration of San Domenico di Foligno is widespread across the central Italian territories in which he preached Christianity, largely conforming to an Italian Catholic visual canon, yet in the popular public processions of the Abruzzo Valley village of Cocullo, his image is additionally aligned with that of living snakes, part of a long standing folk tradition associating them with prosperity, fertility and healing. Medieval Christian processions such as that of the Festa dei Serpari are rooted in pre-Christian belief and ritual to a regional goddess, known to the Romans as Bona Dea, the "Good Goddess", or to the Italic Marsi tribes that preceded them as Angizia, the Goddess of Snakes.

Women’s religious participation in the Roman world varied according to social, sexual, and marital status. Different ritual roles were designed for married women (matrons, matronae), women in their first marriage (univirae), and girls (virgines). In Rome, in Italian towns, and in the Latin West, public festivals had been conferred to women to ensure the well-being of the civic community. These women’s festivals varied from one town to another. Meeting annually to perform public rituals was an occasion for upper-class matrons to offer public sacrifices (on behalf of the civic community as a whole) and to participate in banquets. Sacrificing, banqueting, and dancing were the main women’s ritual acts. Beside the public display of women’s religious competences, these festivals gave the opportunity to form and strengthen the female networks.
Usually, public priests and priestesses as well as magistrates presided over public sacrifices. The hierarchically minor role of killing the animal was a task of sacrificial slaughterers (popa, victimarius; Schultz, 2006, p. 135). Men and women of all social strata participated in banquets of semipublic cultic associations and in the private cults. In these cults the most important symbolic role of a sacrificiant, who represented the community in whose name the sacrifice was accomplished, was confined mostly to men. Nevertheless, in women-only public festivals, women assumed the powerful role of the sacrifice; sometimes they presided over animal sacrifice, often over bloodless offerings.