10 Facts About Bona Dea

Bona Dea's was associated with chastity and fertility in Roman women, healing, and the protection of the state and people of Rome.

Bona Dea is a name, an honorific title and a respectful pseudonym; the goddess' true or cult name is unknown.

Bona Dea's is a goddess of "no definable type", with several origins and a range of different characteristics and functions.

Bona Dea had been correctly absent from the rites but as a paterfamilias he was responsible for their piety.

Bona Dea had the responsibility to ensure that the Vestals had acted correctly, then chair the inquiry into what were essentially his own household affairs.

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Bona Dea's wife Livia was a distant relative of the long-dead but still notorious Clodius; but related to the unfortunate Vestal Licinia, whose attempted dedication of Bona Dea's Aventine Temple had been thwarted by the Senate.

Livia's best efforts to restore Bona Dea's reputation had only moderate success in some circles, where scurrilous and titillating stories of the goddess' rites continued to circulate.

Bona Dea's is named in some dedications of public works, such as the restoration of the Claudian Aqueduct.

Bona Dea's is the only known festival in which women could gather at night, drink strong, sacrificial-grade wine and perform a blood sacrifice.

Nevertheless, the strong, sacrificial grade wine used in the rites to Bona Dea was normally reserved for Roman gods, and Roman men.