Editing Bona Dea (section)

===Republican era===
The known features of Bona Dea's cults recall those of various earth and fertility goddesses of the [[Greco-Roman world|Graeco-Roman world]], especially the [[Thesmophoria]] festival to Demeter. They included nocturnal rites conducted by predominantly or exclusively female initiates and female priestesses, music, dance and wine, and sacrifice of a sow.{{Sfn|Versnel|1992|pp=31–33}} During the [[Roman Republic]]an era, two such cults to Bona Dea were held at different times and locations in the city of [[Rome]].

One was held on [[Roman festivals#Maius|May 1]] at Bona Dea's [[Aventine Hill|Aventine]] temple. Its date connects her to [[Maia (mythology)#Roman Maia|Maia]]; its location connects her to Rome's [[Plebs|plebeian]] commoner class, whose [[tribune]]s and emergent aristocracy resisted [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] claims to rightful religious and political dominance. The festival and temple's foundation year is uncertain &ndash; [[Ovid]] credits it to [[Claudia Quinta]] (c. late 3rd century BC).<ref>Ovid, Fasti, 2, 35; he is the only source for this assertion.</ref> The rites are inferred as some form of mystery, concealed from the public gaze and, according to most later Roman literary sources, entirely forbidden to men. In the Republican era, Bona Dea's Aventine festivals were probably distinctly [[plebeian]] affairs, open to all classes of women and in some limited fashion, to men.<ref>{{harvnb|Brouwer|1989|p=398|ps=: "And considering the fact that the aristocracy were only a small percentage of the population, it is not surprising that most expressions of Bona Dea worship originate from the lower classes."}}</ref> Control of her Aventine cult seems to have been contested at various times during the Mid Republican era; a dedication or rededication of the temple in 123 BC by the [[Vestal Virgin]] Licinia, with the gift of an altar, shrine and couch, was immediately annulled as unlawful by the [[Roman Senate]]; Licinia herself was later charged with inchastity, and executed. By the Late Republic era, Bona Dea's May festival and Aventine temple could have fallen into official disuse, or official disrepute.<ref>{{harvnb|Wildfang|2006|pp=92–93}}, citing Cicero, ''De Domo Sua'', 53.136.</ref> 
 
The goddess also had a winter festival, attested on only two occasions (63 and 62 BC). It was held in December, at the home of a current senior annual [[Roman Magistrates|Roman magistrate ''cum imperio'']], whether [[Roman consul|consul]] or [[praetor]]. It was hosted by the magistrate's wife and attended by respectable matrons of the Roman elite. This festival is not marked on any known religious calendar, but was dedicated to the public interest and supervised by the Vestals, and therefore must be considered official. Shortly after 62 BC, Cicero describes it as one of very few lawful nocturnal festivals allowed to women, privileged to those of aristocratic class, and coeval with Rome's earliest history.{{Sfn|Brouwer|1989|p=398}}

==== Festival rites ====
The house was ritually cleansed of all unauthorized male persons. Then the magistrate's wife and her assistants<ref>Possibly, her own female servants.</ref> made bowers of vine-leaves, and decorated the house's banqueting hall with "all manner of growing and blooming plants" except for [[Myrtus|myrtle]], whose presence and naming were expressly forbidden. A banquet table was prepared, with a couch (''pulvinar'') for the goddess and the image of a snake. The Vestals brought Bona Dea's cult image from her temple<ref>Presumably her Aventine Temple.</ref> and laid it upon her couch, as an honoured guest. The goddess' meal was prepared: the entrails ([[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#exta|''exta'']]) of a sow, sacrificed to her on behalf of the [[Roman people]] (''pro populo Romano''), and a [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#libatio|libation]] of sacrificial wine.<ref>The sacrifice could have been offered by the Vestals or, according to Plutarch, by the hostess; see [[Bona Dea#Cult themes|Cult themes]] in this article.</ref> The festival continued through the night, a banquet with female musicians, fun and games (''ludere''), and wine; the last was euphemistically referred to as "milk", and its container as a "honey jar".<ref>Winter festival summary based on Brouwer (1989) as summarised in {{harvnb|Versnel|1992|p=32}}, and {{harvnb|Wildfang|2006|p=31}}. For Roman sources, cf. Plutarch, Lives: Life of Caesar, ix (711E), Life of Cicero, xix (870B); Juvenal, vi.339 (a satirical treatment); and Plutarch, Roman Questions, (Loeb), 20–35, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Roman_Questions*/A.html available via link to Bill Thayer's website]</ref> The rites sanctified the temporary removal of customary constraints imposed on Roman women of all classes by [[Mos maiorum|Roman tradition]], and underlined the pure and lawful sexual potency of virgins and matrons in a context that focused on female lust, instead of the lust of men.{{Sfn|Versnel|1992|p=44}} According to Cicero, any unauthorized man who caught even a glimpse of the rites could be punished by blinding, but he offers no example of this.<ref>Cicero, ''De Haruspicum Responsis'' XVII.37 – XVIII.38; cited in Brouwer, pp. 165–166.</ref> Later Roman writers assume that apart from their different dates and locations, Bona Dea's December and May 1 festivals were essentially the same.<ref>See W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the period of the Republic, MacMillan (New York, 1899): pp. 102–106. [https://www.questia.com/read/23313966?title=The%20Roman%20Festivals%20of%20the%20Period%20of%20the%20Republic%3a%20An%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Study%20of%20the%20Religion%20of%20the%20Romans] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624005758/http://www.questia.com/read/23313966?title=The%20Roman%20Festivals%20of%20the%20Period%20of%20the%20Republic%3A%20An%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Study%20of%20the%20Religion%20of%20the%20Romans|date=2012-06-24}}</ref>