Matralia

The feria of the Matralia was celebrated III Idus Iun. (June 11th) at the temple of the goddess Mater Matuta, the goddess Aurora in the Forum Boiarum. It was celebrated by Roman matrons, matrones and , a univir a woman married only once had the privilege of crowning the cult statue of Mater Matuta.

Slaves were forbidden from entering the temple or participating in the ceremonies. For the Matralia a slave, was made to enter the sanctuary and then ritually slapped and expelled by a matron. The Roman matrons bore their sisters children into the temple, made offerings of cakes baked in earthenware pots, rocked the infants and asked the goddess' blessing for the child's welfare. The cult statue was then crowned with a garland by a 'univir'.

Archelogical activity at a temple of Mater Matuta outside of Rome, uncovered votives of the goddess holding an infant, or nursing it, confirming her relation to infants.

Non tamen hanc pro stirpe sua pia mater adoret: :Ipsa(=Leucothoea) parum felix visa fuisse parens. Alterius prolem melius mandabatis illi: : Utilior Baccho quam fuit illa suis. Ovid Fasti 6,559-61)

References

Nicole Boels-Janssen "La Vie Religieuse Des Matrones Dans La Rome Archaique"

Varro, De Lingua Latina V, p.31

Ovid, Fasti

Plutarch, Camillus 5, 2; Roman Questions 17