THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CULT OF SILVANUS

PETER F. DORCEY

Silvanus, the Roman god of agriculture, woods and boundaries, enjoyed a wide popularity during the first few centuries of the Prin- cipate, to judge from the over eleven hundred inscriptions and hun- dreds of statues, reliefs and other objects vowed to him.' Scholars, however, have viewed Silvanus' appeal as limited exclusively to men.2 I will argue that the divinity certainly appealed to women, even though they were not as visible and active in his cult as men. Underrepresentation of women in itself is hardly unusual and does not necessarily imply the existence of any sort of sexual taboo. There are few clear examples of sexual restriction for reason of religious scruple in Roman religion. The Mithraic mysteries were closed to women perhaps because of the club-like structure of the cult rather than for any ritualistic requirement.3 Religious collegia, including those of goddesses, rarely had female members.4 Pseudo- Lucian (Erotes 42) vaguely alludes to all-female mysteries. Perhaps he had in mind who excluded men from at least some of her rites, certainly from her December festival, notoriously desecrated by P. Clodius in 62 B.C. A large number of dedications from men to this most staunchly feminine of all 's goddesses suggests, however, that total sexual prohibition was rarely enforced 5 completely.5 Few other Roman cults were dominated entirely by one sex or the other, although some deities forbade the participation of men or women at particular times or in certain places, or had aspects appealing to masculine or feminine taste. For example, women could not sacrifice to Hercules at the Ara Maxima in Rome, and men (including the ) were denied access to the inner sanctuary of the temple of in the Roman Forum and the shrine of on the Vicus Patricius in Rome.6 From the Greek world we know of the exclusion of men or women from cults in cer- tain locations, but not others.' For this reason it has been suggested that exclusionary practice was attached not to the divinity, but to the site of veneration. 8 144

The two sexes, of course, had different spiritual needs. Genii and ,Junones watched over men and women respectively. Mothers invoked Primigenia to ensure the fertility of their offspr- ing ; soldiers looked to for success in warfare. Women in par- . ticular were devoted to certain goddesses, such as Fortuna (especially under the epithets Virginalis and Muliebris), Verticordia, and Mater Matuta (except female slaves). These cults did not exclude one sex so much as they attracted the other. They involve the selectivity of the dedicant, not of the deity. There are two generally conflicting bodies of evidence regarding female participation in the cult of Silvanus. A few Roman authors suggest some restriction against women, while inscriptions show that the god had many female adherents. A disparity between literary and cpigraphic sources also confounds our understanding of sexual exclusion in the worship of Bona Dca.9 In regard to Silvanus, inscriptions are the more reliable source, not to minimize the importance of literature. They are often closer to real life-and thus more representative of the humble individuals who venerated the god-and in sheer numbers dwarf the casual references to the divinity in ancient authors.10 At any rate, literary texts are not so clear about Silvanus' attitude toward women and may merely indicate that only particular rites were limited to men. The earliest indication of an interdiction against women in Silvanus' cult appears in the early second century B.C., when the Elder Cato ( 83) referred to the exclusion of women in a sacrifice made to both Mars and Silvanus for the protection of cattle on the farm: 11

Votum pro bubus, uti valeant sic facito. Marti Silvano in silva interdius in capita singula boum facito. Farris L. III et lardi P IIII S et pulpac P IIII S, vini S III, id in unum vas liccto coicere et vinum item in unum vas liceto coicere. Eam rem divinam vel servus vel licebit faciat. Ubi res divina facta erit, statim ibidem consumito. Mulier ad eam rem divinam ne adsit neveUideat quo modo,fiat.Hoc votum in annos singulos, si voles, licebit vovere.

Although there is no reason to doubt Cato's words or question the reading of the passage, the text does not imply that women were prevented from sacrificing to Mars-Silvanus on all occasions, only in this particular instance when the two deities were invoked together "pro bubus." The reason for the prohibition of women