From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion (17 page)

groups. Lawful sexual intercourse was invariably presented in terms of a mediating factor. We have already seen that violence was one such factor. In the cult of the triad, Ceres, the figure connected with the marriage ceremony, mediated between the sexuality of Liber and Libera. By contrast a man
’
s relations with a prostitute needed no mediation. This I shall show by comparing the cults of Ceres and Flora. I shall also show that the female categories of
‘
wife
’
and
‘
pros- titute
’
were defined in terms of each other. They were seen as opposed but complementary aspects of a common female sexuality.

The cult of Liber-Libera formally acknowledged a man
’
s sexual role within marriage. But in terms of the marriage ceremony, Ceres, as symbolically represented by the torch of
spina alba,
appears to have been concerned with the woman only. The three examples I gave of the metaphorical representation of the wedding in terms of a torch all refer to marriage from a woman
’
s point of view.
126
Nor, to the best of my knowledge, is there an example of a man referring to his marriage in these terms. Also Romulean law appears to have connected Ceres specifically with the wife; a man who divorced his wife without just cause forfeited half his property to his wronged wife and the other half to Ceres.
127
Within the cult of Ceres, Liber and Libera, although Liber received cult as the discoverer of wine, no wine was allowed in the rites of Ceres.
128
This served to create a negative association of Ceres with the male element in marriage, thereby emphasizing her association with the female.

Ceres
’
connection with
matronae
is most clearly demonstrated in the rite of the
sacrum anniversarium Cereris
. In 216 BC following the Roman defeat at Cannae, the senate limited the period of mourn- ing to thirty days so that the
matronae
might observe the
sacrum anniversarium Cereris
.
129
We have very little information about this rite,
130
but enough to be able to place it very plausibly within the pattern that has emerged of the role of Ceres within marriage. It too was concerned with the sexuality of the
matronae
as a ritual cate- gory. Its rites were performed exclusively by
matronae
. Although the cult of Ceres, Liber and Libera presented the concept of sexual- ity within marriage from the perspective of both male and female, the
sacrum anniversarium Cereris
distanced the sexes from each other. Not only were men not present at the rite, but the women had to abstain from sexual intercourse with their husbands for nine days prior to and during the rite itself.
131
The distance between husband and wife was emphasized by the fact that the husband was not required to be celibate during his wife
’
s absence at the rites. His sex-

uality was not ritually confined in any way.
132
There was thus no parallelism between the sexuality of husband and wife, such as was expressed by the cult of Ceres, Liber and Libera. The
sacrum anniversarium Cereris
might also usefully be contrasted with the festival of Bona Dea. Bona Dea
’
s festival categorized women only according to their gender: women as opposed to men. The rites were not limited to any one particular female sexual category. Although men were ostentatiously removed from the scene of the festival, their presence was symbolically acknowledged. At the
sacrum anniversarium Cereris,
by contrast, men were excluded at every level, actual and symbolic. The exclusion is particularly pointed because the men so excluded were the husbands from whom the par- ticipants derived their status as
matronae
.

From a ritual perspective, the most striking consequence that mar- riage as an institution had for women was that it divided them. The married woman was selected out from the category of the female that the festival of Bona Dea presented. Marriage redefined her. She was henceforth defined not by her gender alone, but by the curbing of her sexuality. Her sexuality and its potential, her ability to bear children, were at the disposal of a single man, her husband. His sex- uality, however, was not similarly constrained. Marital chastity was not a requirement for the married man. Marriage did not divide men into two sexually distinct groups.

At the opposite pole to the ritual category of the
matrona
was the category of the prostitute. The cults of Ceres and Flora together pro- vided the ritual representation of this opposition. To begin with, the temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera and the temple of Flora stood side by side, constituting a visual expression of the relationship of the two cults.
Libero Liberaeque et Cereri iuxta Circum Maximum
…
eodemque in loco
aedem Florae
—‘
The temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera stood next to the Circus Maximus
…
in the very same place
stood the temple of Flora.
’
133
Chronologically the cults were related to each other by a symmetry of opposition. The Cerialia constituted the beginning, the Floralia the end of a consecutive series of festivals all avowedly dedicated to the success of agricultural enterprise.
134
They were both the responsibility of the plebeian aediles. Thus Cicero as aedile elect:

I am now an aedile elect; and I understand the position in which the nation
’
s will has placed me. With the utmost dili- gence and solemnity I am to celebrate the holy festival of

Ceres, Liber and Libera. By holding the solemn festival of our Lady Flora I am to secure her favour for the people and com- mons of Rome.

(Cic., 2
Verr.,
5.14.36)

The parallel features of the cults of Ceres and Flora serve to empha- size the sharp contrast in the nature of their respective rites. The
ludi scaenici,
one of the ritual features of the Floralia,
135
was marked by excessive drunkenness, ribaldry and licentiousness.
136
Although the actors on stage were prostitutes, the Floralia was not a festival of prostitutes as much as a celebration of the idea of prostitution itself. The ritual actors were not simply the prostitutes whose lewdness on stage provoked the moral outrage of writers such as the younger Seneca, St Augustine and Tertullian, they were the prostitutes and their audience together. The salacious jokes, the drunkenness, the general ribaldry that emanated from the audience were as much a part of the rite, as the suggestive miming of the prostitutes.
137
That it was not just general obscenity, but prostitution that was the issue here is suggested by Tertullian:

The very prostitutes, the victims of public lust are produced on the stage,
…
they are paraded before the faces of every rank and age; proclamation is made of their abode, their price, their record, even before those who do not need the detail.

(Tert.,
De Spect.,
17)

The distinction here between prostitutes and prostitution is subtle but significant. Prostitutes presented as a female sexual category undoubtedly played an important role. But the focus of the rite was the ritual presentation of the idea of prostitution, which necessarily included the way in which men related to prostitutes.

The categories of
matrona
and prostitute formed dual but opposed aspects of a common female sexuality. Both derived their status from a single male category: men were both husbands to
matronae
and clients to prostitutes. However, the
sacrum anniversarium Cereris
and the Floralia reveal the difference in the way that the two relationships operated. The ritual distance between husband and wife, in a relationship ritually mediated, was exaggerated by the absence of men at the rite of Ceres. Similarly the exaggerated obscenity at the Floralia at which men and women par- ticipated together on equal terms, showed by contrast the expres-

sion of a relationship unfettered by notions of ritual distance and mediation.

The Floralia also provided a vivid visual contrast to the festival of the Cerialia which took place a few days earlier. Ovid remarks on the different appearance of the women at each festival.
‘
Why is it that whereas white robes are worn at the festival of Ceres, Flora is neatly clad in attire of many colours?
’
138
Ovid is referring here to the Cerialia, but white appeared to have been worn at the
sacrum anniversarium Cereris
too.
139
The lighting at each festival provided added visual contrast. The Floralia was extravagantly lit. Cassius Dio mentions an occasion where at least five thousand torches were used to provide light at the Floralia.
140
Torches were a necessary component of any nocturnal activity, including the Cerialia. But ordinary torchlight, enough to see by but not deliberately excessive, has the effect of deepening the surrounding darkness, giving an overall impression of lightlessness rather than light. The brilliant lighting at the Floralia was not only an expression of the exuberant nature of the rites, it formed a further point of contrast with the recently celebrated festival of the Cerialia. Finally, the drunkenness at the Floralia also provided a contrast to the rites of Ceres, at which wine was not even offered as a libation.

Thus the cults of Ceres and Flora were related by a symmetry of opposition. They ritually articulated the explicit polarization of the categories of
matrona
and prostitute in religious ideology. The atti- tude to wives that found expression in the literary, legal and mytho- logical traditions was acted out in ritual. In the rites of Ceres and Flora, both men and women acted out and experienced the ideologi- cal division of women into sexual categories.

95

INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER 3

The ritual participants in the cults of Ceres, Flora and Bona Dea were segregated according to categories defined by gender and sexu- ality. Categorization of ritual participants was a fundamental fea- ture of Roman religion. The categories were multifarious and varied from cult to cult and from ritual to ritual. Female participants were always defined in terms of their sexuality. Female ritual categories were not limited to those I examine in this book, however. For example, one category that is beyond the scope of this book but is none the less extremely important is the category of mothers. Where women were concerned, religion was exclusively preoccupied with their sexuality and its implications. By contrast the religious repre- sentation of men reflected their varied social and political roles. They were hardly ever defined exclusively by gender or sexuality. For example, at the festival of Bona Dea men constituted a symbolic sexual and political presence. Both roles were acknowledged and woven into the fabric of the rite. Military power and military domi- nation were also themes in Roman cult and were represented in rit- ual by men. We will see this phenomenon in the cults of Venus that I examine in this chapter.

The rituals connected with the cults of Ceres and Flora and of Bona Dea were similar in that they all treated ritual categories as separate, self-contained and ritually distanced from one another. The defining feature of these category-specific rituals was their exclusiveness. Prostitutes were not allowed to participate in the
sacrum anniversarium Cereris,
for example, and matrons
qua
matrons had no ritual role at the Floralia. The festival of Bona Dea was celebrated as a festival for women only. But exclusiveness was not the only way in which categorization was made ritually mani-

97

fest. In contrast to the deliberate exclusiveness of cults such as Bona Dea
’
s we also see cults which easily accommodated different ritual groups in a single festival, and sometimes even in a single rite. This tendency is most apparent in the cults of Venus where we see the integration of disparate categories under the aegis of a single ritual. In the cult of Venus Verticordia, for example, wives and prostitutes
qua
wives and prostitutes appear to have participated together in a single ritual designed to celebrate a common sexuality. The separate categories were recognized, but no ritual barrier was erected between them. Venus represented an ideology best described as one of inclusiveness or of integration. This ideology extended beyond the female categories represented in the cult of Verticordia. In other cults of Venus
—
the two examined here are the cults of Venus Obse- quens and Venus Erycina
—
sexually defined categories operated together with male centred representations of military power and dominance. There is no apparent difficulty in the assimilation, no attempt that we know of to explain or justify the phenomenon. The cults of Venus appear to have been merely a competing model for the treatment of ritual categories.

3

VENUS

Why is it that the women, when they adorn in their houses a shrine to the women
’
s goddess, whom they call Bona Dea, bring in no myrtle, although they are very eager to make use of all manner of growing and blooming plants?

(Plut.,
Quaest. Rom.,
20)

Plutarch
’
s question was a hoary old chestnut in the ancient world. Many writers attempted to account for what they saw as a great puz- zle.
1
Roman religion is full of ritual features that seem bizarre to us today, but that never aroused curiosity or comment among contem- porary writers beyond a simple documentation of them. Therefore so much attention devoted to an apparently trivial feature in a single cult is striking. But at second glance the association
—
even a nega- tive one
—
between myrtle and Bona Dea turns out to be not so triv- ial after all. Myrtle was Venus
’
plant. The intimate association between Venus and myrtle is widely attested in literature.
2
Myrtle also took on, by association with Venus, all the connotations of sex- ual love that she evoked.
3
But it never had independent symbolic value. Its presence in myth and ritual always evoked Venus.