From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion by Ariadne Staples Page A
Authors: Ariadne Staples
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change shape in their vain effort to evade Numa ’ s grasp.
When captured they dropped their own forms and assumed many different shapes, presenting hideous and dreadful appearances. But when they perceived that they were fast caught and could not escape, they foretold to Numa many things that would come to pass.
(Plut., Num., 15.4)
Finally, Ovid connects Faunus and Hercules in what at first glance appears to be a trivial little story. Faunus conceives a desire for Omphale when he spies her one day out walking with Hercules. Hercules and Omphale sleep apart that night for they plan to cele- brate the rites of Bacchus in the morning. But they exchange clothes, he dressing himself in her gauzy garments while she dons his lion- skin. When the lovers are asleep Faunus creeps up on them hoping to seduce Omphale, but is confused by the garments, attempts to seduce Hercules instead, and comes to grief. Faced with this jumble of evidence one cannot but sympathize with the character of Cotta in Cicero ’ s De Natura Deorum: ‘ As for the utterances of a faun, I never heard one, but if you say you have I will take your word for it, although what on earth a faun may be I do not know. ’ 82
This, however is precisely the point: we do not know what Faunus was. The significance of Faunus was that it was impossible to pin him down. He was every thing at once — beneficent and maleficent, singular and plural, man and god. To interpret the evidence as con- fused is to miss the point. If the various accounts are accepted as a single body of evidence, patterns of perception become discernible. For one thing every account unequivocally projects Faunus back into a vague, amorphous past. Although he did receive cult in Rome in historical times 83 he belonged in a mythical past. 84 Ovid described that age thus:
Their life was like that of beasts, unprofitably spent; artless as yet and raw was the common herd. Leaves did they use for houses, herbs for corn: water scooped up in two hollows of the hand to them was nectar. No bull panted under the weight of the bent ploughshare: no land was under the dominion of the
husbandman: there was as yet no use for horses, every man carried his own weight: the sheep went clothed in its own wool. Under the open sky they lived and went about naked, inured to heavy showers and rainy winds.
(Ov., Fast., 2.292 – 300) 85
The ritual complement to Ovid ’ s description was that Faunus belonged to and represented an age which lacked the twin concepts of boundary and categorization. This is the second pattern con- tained in the evidence. In general terms this is how the multi-faceted nature of Faunus is most usefully interpreted. More specifically, the stories of Faunus and Bona Dea, Hercules and Omphale, and Plutarch ’ s version of the story of Faunus and Numa all form part of this same pattern. In the rapid change of shape, Picus and Faunus represent the ability to slide unceremoniously across boundaries, as if the concept itself did not exist. In the story of Hercules and Omphale, Faunus is made to betray sexual confusion: he could not tell male from female; again as though the concept of a boundary between the sexes did not exist. With Bona Dea, he attempts to cross a sexual boundary that can never be crossed, in any circumstances whatsoever: the sexual distance that must be maintained between father and daughter. 86 This, the inability to discern boundaries, rep- resented the significance of Faunus within the Roman religious system. The function of that inability was to define by contrast the religion that was acknowledged as Roman, the religion that had as its basis — as I hope this book will demonstrate — the concepts of boundary and categorization.
The significance of Hercules, and especially of his cult at the Ara Maxima, was that he was perceived as having laid the foundation of the religion that was considered Roman. The related concepts of boundary and categorization were first
When captured they dropped their own forms and assumed many different shapes, presenting hideous and dreadful appearances. But when they perceived that they were fast caught and could not escape, they foretold to Numa many things that would come to pass.
(Plut., Num., 15.4)
Finally, Ovid connects Faunus and Hercules in what at first glance appears to be a trivial little story. Faunus conceives a desire for Omphale when he spies her one day out walking with Hercules. Hercules and Omphale sleep apart that night for they plan to cele- brate the rites of Bacchus in the morning. But they exchange clothes, he dressing himself in her gauzy garments while she dons his lion- skin. When the lovers are asleep Faunus creeps up on them hoping to seduce Omphale, but is confused by the garments, attempts to seduce Hercules instead, and comes to grief. Faced with this jumble of evidence one cannot but sympathize with the character of Cotta in Cicero ’ s De Natura Deorum: ‘ As for the utterances of a faun, I never heard one, but if you say you have I will take your word for it, although what on earth a faun may be I do not know. ’ 82
This, however is precisely the point: we do not know what Faunus was. The significance of Faunus was that it was impossible to pin him down. He was every thing at once — beneficent and maleficent, singular and plural, man and god. To interpret the evidence as con- fused is to miss the point. If the various accounts are accepted as a single body of evidence, patterns of perception become discernible. For one thing every account unequivocally projects Faunus back into a vague, amorphous past. Although he did receive cult in Rome in historical times 83 he belonged in a mythical past. 84 Ovid described that age thus:
Their life was like that of beasts, unprofitably spent; artless as yet and raw was the common herd. Leaves did they use for houses, herbs for corn: water scooped up in two hollows of the hand to them was nectar. No bull panted under the weight of the bent ploughshare: no land was under the dominion of the
husbandman: there was as yet no use for horses, every man carried his own weight: the sheep went clothed in its own wool. Under the open sky they lived and went about naked, inured to heavy showers and rainy winds.
(Ov., Fast., 2.292 – 300) 85
The ritual complement to Ovid ’ s description was that Faunus belonged to and represented an age which lacked the twin concepts of boundary and categorization. This is the second pattern con- tained in the evidence. In general terms this is how the multi-faceted nature of Faunus is most usefully interpreted. More specifically, the stories of Faunus and Bona Dea, Hercules and Omphale, and Plutarch ’ s version of the story of Faunus and Numa all form part of this same pattern. In the rapid change of shape, Picus and Faunus represent the ability to slide unceremoniously across boundaries, as if the concept itself did not exist. In the story of Hercules and Omphale, Faunus is made to betray sexual confusion: he could not tell male from female; again as though the concept of a boundary between the sexes did not exist. With Bona Dea, he attempts to cross a sexual boundary that can never be crossed, in any circumstances whatsoever: the sexual distance that must be maintained between father and daughter. 86 This, the inability to discern boundaries, rep- resented the significance of Faunus within the Roman religious system. The function of that inability was to define by contrast the religion that was acknowledged as Roman, the religion that had as its basis — as I hope this book will demonstrate — the concepts of boundary and categorization.
The significance of Hercules, and especially of his cult at the Ara Maxima, was that he was perceived as having laid the foundation of the religion that was considered Roman. The related concepts of boundary and categorization were first
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