Editing Cardea (section)

==Carna and the Bean-Kalends==
[[Macrobius]]<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''Saturnalia'' 1.12.</ref> (5th century) says that the name ''Carna'' was derived from ''caro, carnis'', "flesh, meat, food" (compare English "[[wikt:carnal|carnal]]" and "[[carnivore]]"), and that she was the guardian of the heart and the vital parts of the human body. The power to avert vampiric ''[[striges]]'', which Ovid attributes to the conflated Cardea-Carna, probably belonged to Carna, while the charms fixed on doorposts are rightly Cardea's.<ref>Fowler, ''Festivals'', pp. 131–132.</ref>

Carna's feast day was marked as ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#nefastus|nefastus]]'' on the [[Roman calendar|calendar]]; that is, it was a public holiday when no assembly or court could convene. Mashed beans and lard – a dish perhaps to be compared to [[refried beans]] or [[Hoppin' John|hoppinjohn]]{{sfnp|McDonough|1997|p=315}} – were offered to her as ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#res divinae|res divinae]]'', and thus the day was known as the ''Kalendae fabariae'', the Bean-Kalends, since at this time the bean harvest matured. Beans had many [[magico-religious]] properties in ancient Greece and Rome in addition to their importance as a food crop.<ref>{{harvp|McDonough|1997}} pp. 328–329, 339–341.</ref>

[[William Warde Fowler]] took Carna to be an archaic goddess whose cult had not been revivified by religious innovation or reform and thus had lapsed into obscurity by the end of the [[Roman Republic|Republic]].<ref>Fowler, ''Festivals'', p. 130.</ref> [[:fr:Auguste Bouché-Leclercq|Auguste Bouché-Leclercq]] considered Carna a goddess of health.<ref>[[:fr:Auguste Bouché-Leclercq|Auguste Bouché-Leclercq]], ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité'' (Jérôme Millon, 2003, originally published 1879–82), p. 741.</ref> Her elusive nature is indicated by the wildly divergent scholarly conjectures she has prompted: "she was considered a [[chthonic]] divinity by [[Georg Wissowa|Wissowa]], a [[Lunar deity|lunar goddess]] by [[Raffaele Pettazzoni|Pettazzoni]], a bean-goddess by [[Kurt Latte|Latte]], and a patroness of digestion by [[Dumézil]]".{{sfnp|McDonough|1997|p=316}}