Free From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion by Ariadne Staples Page A

removed, but covered up. 124 Those draped objects, present throughout the proceedings, could not have failed to serve as reminders of what lurked beneath the drapery — symbolic representations of men. Not only that, but in the house of a senior magistrate, portraits and busts of men would have included those of distinguished ancestors, and would thus have largely been represen- tative of those who had held positions of power in the state. Absent males, dead and alive, representing the continuous power of the Roman state, dominated with a symbolic presence a rite ostensibly restricted to females. 125
    What exactly did these women do all night? Cicero writes of elab- orate ceremonial (Sacrificium … fit incredibili caerimonia) . 126 Juve- nal paints a lurid picture of a drunken orgy. 127 Clodius disguised himself as a female musician in order to infiltrate the ceremony of 62 BC. 128 There may well have been music, even dancing, but Versnel ’ s hypothesis that the festival of Bona Dea provided a ritual setting for the licentious behaviour of women is not supported by the evi- dence. 129 Such a hypothesis could only have been based on Juvenal ’ s description, for nowhere else do we find a suggestion of debauchery in connection with the rites. But quite apart from the literary context
    — the infamous sixth satire — which in itself would be sufficient to challenge an uncritical acceptance of its contents as historical evi- dence, Juvenal makes it quite clear that what he is describing is not the prescribed practice of the rites but a deplorable lapse from the strict standards of the past. ‘ O would that our ancient practices, or at least our public rites were not polluted by scenes like these. ’ 130

    Who ever sneered at the gods in the days of old? Who would have dared to laugh at the earthenware bowls or black pots of Numa, or the brittle plates made out of Vatican clay? But nowadays at what altar will you not find a Clodius?
    (Juv., 6.342 – 345)
    The solemnity of the rites cannot be doubted. When Clodius was discovered, the women with great presence of mind evicted him and repeated the rites. This is not in keeping with a picture of a drunken orgy. In 63 BC the goddesses ’ will was signalled by a flame shooting out of a dead fire. I suggest that the fact that the fire had gone out may be taken to imply that the rites were at an end, when, if Juvenal ’ s description were to be taken seriously, the women would have been worn out by debauchery. Yet the sign was noted, inter- preted and promptly reported. In the time of the late Republic and early Principate at least, the rites of Bona Dea were a serious busi- ness, meticulously performed to ensure the well-being of the Roman people.
    The rites of Bona Dea were not merely part of the civic religion, they were a part thereof par excellence . When Roman writers referred to a rite performed pro populo or pro salute populi they were invariably referring to the rites of Bona Dea. 131 How these rites were believed to ensure the safety of the people is not clear to a mod- ern historian. It is a question never posed by our sources, not even by curious Greeks like Plutarch. My own thesis, which will be elabo- rated during the course of this book, is that the concept of boundary in general and sexually defined boundary in particular, was closely linked with the notion of the welfare of the state. It was expressed in its most extreme form in the priesthood of the Vestals as I shall argue in the final chapter. For the moment we need to look more closely at how the notion of boundary operated in the rite of the Bona Dea by examining more of the ritual features of the cult.

WINE, MILK AND HONEY

    Two details of the ritual that took place in December are particu- larly important in terms of this analysis. One is the exclusion of myrtle from the house where the festival was to be celebrated, the other is the use of wine at the festival. Plutarch surmised that the rea- son that