Editing Mater Matuta (section)

== Matralia ==
At Rome, Mater Matuta's festival was the [[Matralia]], celebrated on June 11 at [[Temple of Mater Matuta|her temple]] in the [[Forum Boarium]].<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Mater Matuta |volume=17 |page=878}}</ref> The festival was only for single women or women in their first marriage (univirae), who offered prayers for their nephews and nieces. The crowning of garlands on the deity's image was for these revelers. Another aspect of the festival was eating specially prepared cakes. Notably, a singular female slave participated in a ritual whereupon the woman was beaten and driven from the area by the freeborn women.<ref>{{cite book |author=Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus |author-link=Plutarch |section=Quaestiones Romanae [<nowiki/>[[Roman Questions]]<nowiki/>] |title=Moralia |title-link=Moralia |at=16 }}</ref>

In book VI (June) of the ''Fasti'', [[Ovid]] describes the ancient festival in some detail:

<blockquote>"Go, good mothers (the Matralia is your festival), and offer to the Theban goddess the yellow cakes that are her due. Adjoining the bridges and the great Circus is an open space of far renown, which takes its name from the statue of an ox there, on this day, it is said, Servius consecrated with his own sceptered hands a temple of Mother Matuta. Who the goddess is, why she excludes (for exclude she does) female slaves from the threshold of her temple, and why she calls for toasted cakes."<ref name=":3">{{cite book |author=Publius Ovidius Naso |author-link=Ovid |date=31 January 2015  |section=Book&nbsp;VI |title=Fasti |title-link=Fasti (Ovid) |pages=299–357 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9781316180273.007 |isbn=978-1-108-08246-4 <!-- URL redundant -- duplicates DOI=... --- |section-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316180273.007 |access-date=2023-12-05  --> }}</ref></blockquote>