Italiano: Collections of the Museo nazionale etrusco di Villa Giulia
Mater Matuta, Italiano: Collections of the Museo nazionale etrusco di Villa Giulia

Mater Matuta was an indigenous Latin goddess, whom the Romans eventually made equivalent to the dawn goddess Aurora, and the Greek goddess Eos.[1] She was the goddess of female maturation and later also of the dawn.[2] Her cult is attested to in several places in Latium; her most famous temple was located at Satricum. In Rome, she had a temple on the north side of the Forum Boarium, allegedly built by Servius Tullius, destroyed in 506 B.C., and rebuilt by Marcus Furius Camillus in 396 B.C.,[3] and she was also associated with the sea harbors and ports, where there were other temples to her.

Statue of Mater Matuta.

Another remarkable place of worship was located in Campania, outside modern Capua. Dozens of votive statues representing matres matutae were found in the so-called "Fondo Patturelli" (a private estate) during excavations in the 19th century.[4] An extensive collection of these votives is housed in the Museo Campano in Capua.[5]

At her temple at Satricum many anatomical votives were excavated; terracotta models associated with female fertility and childbirth offered as ex-voto.[6]

Mater Matuta
deity of the dawn, ripening grain, associated with sea harbors/ports and female maturation also protector in childbirth.
Major cult centreSatricum
DayJune 11, Matralia festival
GenderFemale
RegionLatium
TemplesTemple on the North side of the Forum Boarium, also Campania
Equivalents
Greek equivalentEos
Roman equivalentAurora

Etymology

Mater derives from the Latin for mother. Matuta is connected to Latin, mane, matutinus, "morning".[6]

Identities

Mater Matuta is one of the most enigmatic female deities in the Etrusco-Italic pantheon. Even though snippets of information are preserved in various Roman texts, it is prudent to remember that all of the primary sources for Mater Matuta are of late Republican and Imperial date, and some of them are ‘a fraught reflection’ on a cult that, by that time, was no longer entirely understood or perhaps had ceased to be practiced as it might have been in the past. Earlier written testimonies are absent. Cicero also equated Leukothea with Matuta and in Ovid's Fasti (6.545–6) we learn further that Ino was ‘called Leukothea by the Greeks and Matuta by our people’. Ino was the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes; her sister Semele, having been impregnated by Zeus and given birth to Dionysos, was driven mad by Hera, jealous wife of Zeus. The child Dionysos was rescued by Ino who fled to the sea and was washed ashore in Italy where she was welcomed into the company of marine gods and renamed Leukothea, ‘white goddess’ (Ovid, Fast. 6.485–550. This blending of the Greek goddess Ino/Leukothea and the Latin deity Matuta, however, may be a late phenomenon, possibly of the second or first century BC. Also, a late inference is the association of Mater Matuta with the sea or seafaring, perhaps on account of the maritime flight of Leukothea. Because the translation of divine names was based on distinct attributes of the gods/goddesses, ‘once a translation of divine names was established and commonly accepted, a deity might attract meanings or characteristics of his/her counterpart. Mater Matuta was an indigenous Italic deity, and a flight from Thebes cannot have been part of her ‘story’, but some common elements of Mater Matuta and Leukothea, perhaps the connection to motherhood and the protection of children, allowed the two to be translated and equated.[7]

Matralia

At Rome her festival was the Matralia, celebrated on June 11 at her temple in the Forum Boarium.[8] The festival was only for single women or women in their first marriage(univirae), who offered prayers for their nephews and nieces. This was a female only endeavor. The crowning of garlands on the deity's image was for these revelers. Other aspects of the festival besides praying for nieces and nephews was eating specially prepared cakes. Notably a singular female slave participated in a ritual whereupon the woman was beaten and driven from the area by the freeborn women.[9]

Ovid

In book VI (June) of Ovid's Fasti he describes in detail the specifics of the ancient festival.

" Go, good mothers (the Matralia is your festival), and offer to the Theban goddess the yellow cakes that are her due. Adjoining the bridges and the great Circus is an open space of far renown, which takes its name from the statue of an ox there, on this day, it is said, Servius consecrated with his own sceptered hands a temple of Mother Matuta. Who the goddess is, why she excludes (for exclude she does) female slaves from the threshold of her temple, and why she calls for toasted cakes..."[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Natura Deorum, II, 48.
  2. ↑ Forsythe, Gary (2005). A critical history of early Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-520-94029-1. OCLC 70728478.
  3. ↑ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, V, 19.
  4. ↑ George Kazantzidis and Dimos Spatharas (2018). Ancient Emotions I. Hope in Ancient Literature, History, and Art. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110598254. p. 311.
  5. ↑ The Mothers (Rooms V-VI-VII-VIII-IX) Archived 2018-11-07 at the Wayback Machine, Museo Campano Capua. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  6. 1 2 Mantzilas, Dimitris (2018). "Mater Matuta: An Overview of her Cult". Carpe Diem Publications. pp. 487–540.
  7. ↑ Carroll, Maureen (2019). "MATER MATUTA, 'FERTILITY CULTS' AND THE INTEGRATION OF WOMEN IN RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ITALY IN THE FOURTH TO FIRST CENTURIES BC". Papers of the British School at Rome. 87: 1–45. doi:10.1017/S0068246218000399. ISSN 0068-2462.
  8. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mater Matuta" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 878.
  9. ↑ Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 16.
  10. ↑ "BOOK VI", Fastorum libri sex, Cambridge University Press, pp. 299–357, 2015-01-31, retrieved 2023-12-05

Further reading

  • Desport, Marie. "Matuta, l'Aurore chez Évandre". In: Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 49, 1947, n°1-2. pp. 111-129. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/rea.1947.3366] ; [www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1947_num_49_1_3366]
  • Flacelière, R. Deux rites du culte de « Mater Matuta », Plutarque, Camille, 5, 2.. In: Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 52, 1950, n°1-2. pp. 18-27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/rea.1950.3415; www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1950_num_52_1_3415
  • Kaizer, Ted. Leucothea as Mater Matuta at Colonia Berytus. A note on local mythology in the Levant and the Hellenisation of a Phoenician city. In: Syria. Tome 82, 2005. pp. 199-206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/syria.2005.8691 ; www.persee.fr/doc/syria_0039-7946_2005_num_82_1_8691
  • Mantzilas, Dimitri’s, “Mater Matuta: An Overview of her Cult”,(Mythology-Religion-Magic). 30 Articles and Essays, loannina:Carpe Diem Publications, 2018, pp.487-540. Www.academia.edu/36854802/Mater_Matuta_An_Overview_of_her_Cult
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