Womens' Mysteries

[Lost_Warrior]

OK, I know there were plenty of men's mystery cults (Mithraism springs immediately to mind) but what about the women? Were there any womens' mystery cults? If not, why not?

 

I would expect that women would not be as "free" to have mystery cults as the men would...due to their position in society. But did it happen all the same?

[Gaius Octavius]

I think that women were celebrating something at Caesar's house the night (?) before he was murdered. Men were excluded from the celebration. And the Vestal Virgins. Ring any bells?

Edited December 29, 2007 by Gaius Octavius

[Ursus]

Yeah, Bona Dea: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/b/bona_dea.html

[Lost_Warrior]

GO somehow I managed to forget about the Vestals...I'm not sure HOW, mind you, it should have been obvious, lol.

 

I don't think the Vestals were really a "mystery cult" though...they were part of the "state religion" weren't they? And it seems as if they were pretty "out in the open".

 

Ursus I had not known about Bona Dea. Rather, I had heard of it, but not much else. Is there any more information available about this particular cult?

[Kosmo]

In Edward Champlin's "Nero" the author mentions an old article by Jean Colin about men dressing as women and getting merried with other men as part of initiation to the mysteries of Bona Dea. That would explain many things from Clodius to Nero himself, but the author sees Nero's case as saturnalia mocking rather then serious religious act, if we can call transvesting a serious religious act.

Bona Dea it's associeted with the better known to us Cybele cult.

[Ursus]

The Vestals were an honored part of State religion, not a Mystery cult. There was little secret about what they did.

 

Unfortunately, the rites of Bona Dea were secretive, so I am afraid I can't find much more info. What we do know is an interesting bit in the history of the late Republic that GO alluded to:

 

http://www.dl.ket.org/latin3/mores/religion/bonadea.htm