BONA DEA. - Originally an epithet of a goddess who protected pastures and woods, she was identified, after the conquest of Taranto (271 B.C.), with Damia, a Greek divinity whose cult was reserved for women only (Macrobius, Sat., I, 12, 27; Plutarch, Quaest. rom., 20).

The festival of B. D. was celebrated at night (only women being admitted) at the beginning of December; her priestess was called Damiatrix (Festus, s. v.; De har. resp., 8, 37). A sow was offered to her, along with a libation of wine which, however, was called milk. The date of the founding of the temple, supposed to have stood on the Aventine, is unknown, but it was not later than the 4th century B.C. In the 4th century A.D. it was still standing.

B. D. also had, like Damia, healing prerogatives; in fact, a pharmacy for the use of women was attached to her temple, as various inscriptions attest.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: G. Wissowa, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyc., III, col. 686 ff.; id., Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Munich 1912, p. 216 ff.; R. Peter, s. v. in Roscher, Lexikon, I, col. 789 ff.; B. Vaglieri, s. v. in E. De Ruggiero, Div. Epier., I, p. 1012 ff.

Alberto Galleti

@incollection{ec2_bona_dea, author = {Galieti, Alberto}, title = {Bona Dea}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1827--1828}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/bona-dea} }

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