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Chapter 7 - Who Is the Damiatrix?

Roman Women, the Political Negotiation of Psychotropic Experiences, and the Cults of Bona Dea

from Part III - Gender

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

By
Leonardo Ambasciano
Edited by
Esther Eidinow ,
Armin W. Geertz  and
John North
Esther Eidinow
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Armin W. Geertz
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
John North
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

The present contribution offers a neurosociological and socio-cognitive re-analysis of the two festivities dedicated to the ancient Roman goddess known as Bona Dea, both managed and attended by women only. Additionally, the main variants of Bona Dea’s mythography are assessed as a violent reminder of gendered behavioural norms and as a coercive mate-guarding strategy supported by religious storytelling. The two festivities are assessed as different expressions of class stratification and socio-political negotiation within the Roman agnatic patriarchy. The patrician December festival is identified as a special agent ritual with distinctly imagistic features. The poorly known May celebration is tentatively reconstructed as a predominantly doctrinal, non-patrician special patient ritual, mainly attended by freedwomen, and led by a priestess known as the damiatrix. The supposedly orgiastic Greek roots of the cult are questioned on linguistic, historiographical, and archaeological grounds. The conclusions highlight the need to establish a cross-disciplinary cognitive historiography of sex and gender in antiquity to overcome the limitations behind the study of ancient women’s religious experiences.

Keywords

Bona Deadamiatrixcognitive historiographysex and gender studiesancient history
Type
Chapter
Information
Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience , pp. 167 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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