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

ing characteristics. It was arguably the earliest shrine of the civic religion. Propertius ’ account of the Hercules-Bona Dea story reminded his readers that Bona Dea ’ s cult, which was also believed to be very ancient, actually existed before the Ara Maxima was founded. In this section I argue that this chronological structure had profound implications for the way that the beginnings of Roman religion itself were perceived.
    Bayet observes that one reason that the popular tradition of Her- cules ’ sojourn in Italy is particularly important is that the story can be connected very precisely to specific topographical evidence (Bayet 1926:127). Considering the cult from the perspective of the writers of the period of the late Republic and early Principate, we might add that the cult was also precisely related to a specific chronological perception. Hercules ’ arrival in Italy was an impor- tant chronological marker. For the Romans it marked, as it were, pre-Roman Rome in terms of time as well as space. From a purely topographical perspective, Hercules ’ adventures took place in
    ‘ Rome ’ . Cacus was killed on the Aventine, and it was at the foot of that same hill, in a place that was to become the Forum Boarium, that the Ara Maxima was founded. 72 In addition, all these events were perceived to have occurred in dim and distant antiquity, before Romulus had founded the city, or indeed Aeneas arrived in Italy. The story is always placed within this chronological context. From a religious point of view, it all happened before the foundations of Roman religion were laid first by Romulus, and then, more impor- tantly, by Numa. 73 The Ara Maxima existed in Republican times, and was regarded as an ancient and venerable Roman shrine, but it was also a tangible link back in time to a period before Rome was Rome. 74
    What was it from a religious point of view that defined this period? How was it different from the time that Rome was unequiv- ocally Rome? And how, if at all, did this pre-Rome, or perhaps more accurately proto-Rome, help to define Rome? The enigmatic deity, Faunus, sometimes described as the father or brother of Bona Dea is a defining feature of this mythical period. Faunus was a mysterious and ambivalent figure in the Roman mythic ideology. He is difficult to interpret. The literary descriptions of him give an initial impres- sion of confusion. Was he man or god? For Dionysius of Halicarnas- sus he was king of the native inhabitants when Evander arrived in Italy. He was a prudent and energetic king who welcomed Evander with kindness and gave him as much land as he desired. 75 For Virgil, Faunus was the father of Latinus, but he was also a prophetic deity who appeared to supplicants in dreams during the rite of incuba- tion. 76 The theme of prophecy and incubation is found in Ovid too, where Numa, by the process of incubation, learns from Faunus that a current famine might be alleviated by the institution of the rite of the Fordicidia. 77 Was he singular or plural? In the examples cited he was certainly a single figure but Cicero talks of faunorum voces . 78 Was he beneficent or maleficent? In all the examples above Faunus was a beneficent deity whose help could be relied on in times of cri- sis, the good host of Evander, the wise father of Latinus, the kindly prophet. But Faunus was also the incestuous father of Bona Dea, who plied her with wine, beat her with rods of myrtle and changed himself into a serpent in order to satisfy his incestuous lust. 79 In a tale very different from the aetiological myth of the Fordicidia, where Faunus comes voluntarily to Numa in a dream, Ovid tells how Faunus — and Picus, who was associated with Faunus in this story 80 had to be made drunk with wine and forced to divulge the
    secret — of expiating Jupiter ’ s thunderbolts. They struggled to escape Numa ’ s shackles but failed and were forced to speak. 81 Plutarch, in his version of this story, makes Picus and Faunus