She is a goddess of "no definable type", with several origins and a range of different characteristics and functions. Dea ("The Goddess who must be Praised"), and Sancta ("The Holy One"). Her other, less common names or pseudonyms include Feminea Dea ("The Women's Goddess"), Laudanda. Approximately one third of her dedications are from men, some of whom can be identified as acolytes and priests of her cult.īona Dea ("The Good Goddess") is a name, an honorific title and a respectful pseudonym the goddess' true or cult name is unknown. Personal dedications to her are attested among all classes, especially plebeians, freedmen and women, and slaves. Surviving statuary shows her as a sedate Roman matron with a cornucopia and a snake. The festival rites remained a subject of male curiosity and speculation, both religious and prurient.īona Dea's cults in the city of Rome were led by the Vestal Virgins and the Sacerdos Bonae Deae, and her provincial cults by virgin or matron priestesses. For his support of the prosecution, Cicero earned Clodius' undying hatred. Clodius was found not guilty, but Caesar divorced Pompeia because " Caesar's wife must be above suspicion".
The latter festival came to scandalous prominence in 62 BC, when the politician Publius Clodius Pulcher was tried for his sacrilegious intrusion on the rites, allegedly bent on the seduction of Julius Caesar's wife, Pompeia. One was held at her Aventine temple, for the benefit of the Roman people the other was hosted by the wife of a Roman senior annual magistrate for an invited group of elite matrons and female attendants. Most often, she was identified as the wife, sister, or daughter of the god Faunus, thus an equivalent or aspect of the nature-goddess Fauna, who could prophesy the fates of women. Given that male authors had limited knowledge of her rites and attributes, ancient speculations about her identity abound, among them that she was an aspect of Terra, Ops, Cybele, or Ceres, or a Latin form of a Greek goddess, "Damia" (perhaps Demeter). Men were barred from her mysteries and the possession of her true name. Her rites allowed women the use of strong wine and blood-sacrifice, things otherwise forbidden them by Roman tradition. According to Roman literary sources, she was brought from Magna Graecia at some time during the early or middle Republic, and was given her own state cult on the Aventine Hill. She was associated with chastity and fertility in Roman women, healing, and the protection of the state and people of Rome. Bona Dea ( Latin: 'Good Goddess') was a goddess in ancient Roman religion.
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