The gate of the year

The Matralia

Statue in tuff, from the temple of Mater Matuta discovered near the ancient city of Capua, dating to the VI century B.C. and now in the Provincial Museum (Museo Provinciale Campano), Capua, Italy.
In this locality have been discovered several statues of mother holding numerous babies in their arms, probably votive offerings by women as a thanksgiving to the goddess for the gift of childbirth. A female statue, holding in her hands a pomegranate and a dove has been identified as the representation of Mater Matuta.
This was an ancient Italic divinity of the dawn (matuta was the term on which has been created the adjective matutinus “morning”), and, for analogy, of childbirth. On June 11 were celebrated in honor of the goddess the Matralia, a feast which was held in the Forum Boarium, in Rome, during which the matronae (“married women”) invoked her to protect their children and their families (Dumézil 1974, p. 66-71). In this occasion, a female slave was ritually beaten and chased away from the temple. This episode could be interpreted as the driving away of the old semester, the part of the year which ended with the June solstice.
The month of June began, in fact, with the feast devoted to Carna, a Nymph who had a relationship with Janus, and who has been called by Ovid “the goddess of the hinge” (dea cardinis) (Fasti, VI, 101). Carna could be interpreted, thus, as the hinge on which the gate of the year turns. With June, the Roman year ended the first period of six months, which was marked in the calendar by a difference with respect to the other half. From January to June, the months took their names from divinities or from ritual practices, while from July (which was anciently termed Quintilis) to December, the months were numbered according to their distance from March. The latter marked indeed, for the Romans, the very beginning of the new year, preceded by a transition period which took the start on the Calends of January.
The month of June took its name from the goddess Juno (Iuno) and was regarded as particularly favorable to weddings. The goddess Juno was considered the personification of the generative power and of femininity and her intervention was invoked particularly by women in childbirth, with the epithet of Iuno Lucina (“She who brings into light”). She was honored with the feast of the Matronalia, on March 1, a ceremony very similar to that of Mater Matuta. Her other epithet of Moneta (“Adviser”) is interpreted by Sabbatucci (1988, p.191) as deriving from an Indo-European root, meaning “moon” or “lunar month”. The moon was the fundament of time reckoning, which was based on the observation of the moon phases to establish the beginning of the month, the Calends, on the new moon, the period in which usually were held the ceremonies in honor of Juno. But the moon was also more broadly associated with menstruation and to the feminine world.

[Image: http://www.materparade.it/mater-matuta/]




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The Matralia Statue in tuff, from the temple of Mater Matuta discovered near the ancient city of Capua, dating to the VI century B.C. and now in the Provincial Museum (Museo Provinciale Campano), Capua, Italy. In this locality have been discovered several statues of mother holding numerous babies in their arms, probably votive offerings by women as a thanksgiving to the goddess for the gift of childbirth. A female statue, holding in her hands a pomegranate and a dove has been identified as the representation of Mater Matuta. This was an ancient Italic divinity of the dawn (matuta was the term on which has been created the adjective matutinus “morning”), and, for analogy, of childbirth. On June 11 were celebrated in honor of the goddess the Matralia, a feast which was held in the Forum Boarium, in Rome, during which the matronae (“married women”) invoked her to protect their children and their families (Dumézil 1974, p. 66-71). In this occasion, a female slave was ritually beaten and chased away from the temple. This episode could be interpreted as the driving away of the old semester, the part of the year which ended with the June solstice. The month of June began, in fact, with the feast devoted to Carna, a Nymph who had a relationship with Janus, and who has been called by Ovid “the goddess of the hinge” (dea cardinis) (Fasti, VI, 101). Carna could be interpreted, thus, as the hinge on which the gate of the year turns. With June, the Roman year ended the first period of six months, which was marked in the calendar by a difference with respect to the other half. From January to June, the months took their names from divinities or from ritual practices, while from July (which was anciently termed Quintilis) to December, the months were numbered according to their distance from March. The latter marked indeed, for the Romans, the very beginning of the new year, preceded by a transition period which took the start on the Calends of January. The month of June took its name from the goddess Juno (Iuno) and was regarded as particularly favorable to weddings. The goddess Juno was considered the personification of the generative power and of femininity and her intervention was invoked particularly by women in childbirth, with the epithet of Iuno Lucina (“She who brings into light”). She was honored with the feast of the Matronalia, on March 1, a ceremony very similar to that of Mater Matuta. Her other epithet of Moneta (“Adviser”) is interpreted by Sabbatucci (1988, p.191) as deriving from an Indo-European root, meaning “moon” or “lunar month”. The moon was the fundament of time reckoning, which was based on the observation of the moon phases to establish the beginning of the month, the Calends, on the new moon, the period in which usually were held the ceremonies in honor of Juno. But the moon was also more broadly associated with menstruation and to the feminine world. [Image: http://www.materparade.it/mater-matuta/]