In this blog post, we will discuss the Roman Goddess Minerva and the
Quinquatria.
 |
| Bronze statuette of Minerva, Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art, Luxembourg (Luxembourg) |
The Goddess Minerva
The Roman Minerva inherited much of Her appearance and many of Her myths
from the Greek Goddess Pallas Athēna (ΠΑΛΛΑΣ ΑΘΗΝΑ) and the Etruscan Goddess (𐌀𐌅𐌓𐌍𐌄𐌌)
Menrva [I].
Minerva was born out of the head of Her Father Iuppiter [II] and so She
became the Goddess of Wisdom. Therefore, She was often worshipped by teachers, scholars and others that
were seeking wisdom. [III] An
owl is often depicted alongside Minerva as a symbol of Her wisdom.
As we can tell from Her epithet
Minerva Medica, She was also associated with healing. [III] Like
other Deities associated with healing like Aesculapius or Salus, She wassometimes depicted with a snake. This is because in Antiquity,
snakes were associated with healing [IV], and even today pharmacies around the
world often use snakes in their signs.
Minerva was also the patroness
of art and crafts so She was venerated by many ranging from painters, singers
and stone carvers to housewives weaving at home. [III][V].
 |
| Pallas Athēna on Attic pottery (circa 360 BCE), Getty Museum, Los Angeles (USA). |
As Her Corinthian helmet,
breastplate, Hoplite shield and spear reveal, Minerva also concerns Herself
with military matters. However, She is a Goddess of war strategy and justified
wars, rather than war for the sake of war and brute force. [VI]
Together with Iuppiter and His
wife Iuno, Minerva was part of the Trias Capitolina, the triad that was
worshipped on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. [VII]
It should be noted that Minerva
is a Virgin Goddess [VIII] so unlike the Goddess of love Venus, She was never
depicted naked by the ancients, not even with a single bare breast.
Artists from the Renaissanceperiod onwards were less concerned about preserving Her modesty, but such images
would have undoubtedly seemed inappropriate to many ancients, maybe even dangerous.
After all, virgin Goddesses have been known to severely punish those that
attempt to see Them naked (Actaeon was turned into a stag and torn apart by his
own hounds for running into the Virgin Goddess of the Hunt Diana while She was
taking a bath [IX]).
The Quinquatria
The Quinquatria were celebrations around the spring equinox and they
lasted for 5 days from the 19th of March until the 23rd
of March. (AD・XIV・APR・KAL ～ AD・X・APR・KAL) [X]
The month of March, or rather “the month of Mars”, the War God was seen
as the commencement of the campaigning season [XI], so it is certainly not a
coincidence that Minerva also gets special attention during this month.
19 March → The Birth
of Minerva was remembered. Bloodless / gladiator fights not allowed.
20 March → Gladiator fights to please
the Goddess.
21 March → Gladiator fights to please
the Goddess.
22 March → Gladiator fights to please
the Goddess.
23 March → Gladiator fights to please the Goddess.
[III]
At one point during the Quinquatria, there may have been a procession
during which a cult statue of Minerva was carried around the city [XII]. In
modern-day Europe, we can still see cult statues of a Virgin being carriedaround.
Other interesting facts concerning this festival include the following:
- Teachers and scientists were expected not to work. A teacher may have
received a present called a Minerval from his students. [XIII]
 |
| Funerary relief depicting a teacher and his students, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Germany). |
- In one scene from “The Swaggering Soldier” by Plautus, the happily
unmarried character Periplectomenus says the following, doing an impression of
what wives typically say to their husbands according to him:
[XIV]
This seems to suggest that it was customary for women to visit these
types of individuals during the Quinquatria.
Sources.
[I] Thomson de Grummond, Nancy (2006) Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and
Legend. UPenn Museum of Archaeology: p 19.]
[II] Lucanus. Liber IX: 350
[III] Ovidius.
Fasti: Liber III (March 19).
[IV] Kitchell Jr., Kenneth F. (2014) Animals in the Ancient World from A
to Z. Routledge: p 1.
[V] Audoenus
(Saint Ouen of Rouen): Vita S. Eligius (The Life of Saint Eligius) Liber II: 16.
[VI] Friman, Johanna (2017) Revisiting the Concept of Defence in the Jus
ad Bellum: The Dual Face of Defence. Bloomsbury Publishing: p 1.
[VII] Orlin, Eric (2019) Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean
Religions. Routledge: p 165.
[VIII] Ovidius, Metamorphoseon
Libri. Liber V: 375.
[IX] Ovidius, Metamorphoseon Libri.
Liber III:131.
[X] Treyvelyan, R.C. (1941) Translations from Horace, Juvenal and
Montaigne. Cambridge University Press: p 93.
[XI] Erdkamp, Paul (2013) The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome. Cambridge University Press: p 487.
[XII] Clarke, John R. (2006) Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual
Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 315. University of
California Press: p 86.
[XIII] Maurice, Lisa (2016) The Teacher in Ancient Rome: The Magister and
His World. Lexington Books: p 151.
[XIV] Plautus. Miles Gloriosus:
Actus II: VI 691-692.
