Bona Dea- Roman GodDeity"The Good Goddess"

Fauna and the Myrtle

Her true name was too sacred to speak aloud, so the Romans called her simply Bona Dea, the Good Goddess. The older name was Fauna, and Macrobius preserves the myth behind it. Fauna was the daughter of Faunus, the wild god of woods. She drank wine in secret, and when Faunus discovered it he beat her with myrtle branches until she died. Stricken with remorse, he made her a goddess. In another version Lactantius records, Faunus desired his own daughter. She refused him. He turned himself into a serpent and violated her.

Both stories explained the same ritual facts: myrtle was forbidden at Bona Dea's rites, and wine, though poured freely, was never called by its name. The women called it milk. The vessel that held it they called a honey-pot.

The December Rites

Each December, the wife of Rome's senior magistrate opened her house for the ceremony. Every man left. Every male animal was removed. Portraits and statues of men were veiled or carried out. Then the Vestal Virgins arrived, and the rites began after dark.

What happened inside, no male author could say with certainty. They knew the women made offerings, poured the wine they would not name, and performed ceremonies through the night. Propertius mentions music and dancing. Beyond that, the mysteries held. The wife of the consul stood as host, the Vestals as priestesses, and no man held authority over any part of it.

Bona Dea's temple on the Aventine Hill kept a garden of medicinal herbs and housed sacred serpents. Sick women slept there overnight to seek cures. The serpents wound through the temple freely.

Clodius in Disguise

In December 62 BCE, the rites were held at the house of Julius Caesar, whose mother Aurelia oversaw the ceremony. That night, Publius Clodius Pulcher dressed as a female musician and slipped inside. Plutarch records that he was young enough to pass for a woman, but a servant of Aurelia's spoke to him and his voice betrayed him. The household raised the alarm. Aurelia stopped the rites and covered the sacred objects. Clodius was found hiding in a maid's room.

The violation shook Rome. Caesar divorced his wife Pompeia, though he did not accuse her directly. When asked why, he said Caesar's wife must be above suspicion. Clodius stood trial for sacrilege. Cicero destroyed his alibi on the witness stand, but the jury acquitted him anyway. Cicero believed they had been bribed. The affair poisoned relations between Cicero and Clodius for the rest of their lives.