MATER MATUTA and MATRALIA. - Mater Matuta is an ancient goddess of central Italic and Roman religion. One of her important sanctuaries was at Satricum (Conca), where many votive statuettes representing women holding children in their arms have remained. At Rome, her temple was in the Forum Boarium, adjoining that of Fortuna, with the same dedication day: 11 June, which in the most ancient calendar appears as the feast of the goddess, the Matralia.
The ancients identified the goddess with the Greek Ino Leukothea, nurse of Dioniso. They associated her both with motherhood and with the dawn, also on the basis of her double name. Her cult preserved various and singular archaic features, difficult to interpret. Only unicirare women (not remarried) could enter her temple. On the day of her feast, nevertheless, a slave woman was led into the temple, but only to maltreat her and drive her out. The women prayed to the goddess not
MATER MATUTA and MATRALIA - The seated goddess with two children on her knees, protectress of fertility, Capua, Museo Campano.
391 MATER MATUTA AND MATRALIA - THE SPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD OF MARIA S.MA 392
for their own children, but for the children of their sisters (cf. the myth of Ino, sister of the mother of Dioniso).