Deity of the Day Bellona

RomanGoddess of War

Bellona was an Ancient Roman goddess of war. She was called the sister ofMars, and in some sources, his wife or an associate of his female cult partnerNerio. Bellona’s main attribute is the military helmet worn on her head, andshe often holds a sword, a shield, or other weapons of battle.

Politically, all Roman Senate meetings relating to foreign war wereconducted in the Templum Bellonæ (Templeof Bellona) on the Collis Capitolinusoutside the pomerium, near the Temple of Apollo Sosianus. Thefetiales, a group of priest advisors, conducted ceremonies to proclaim war andpeace, and announce foreign treaties at the columna bellica, in front of hertemple.

The name Bellona is transparently derived from the Latin word bellum“war”—the older form Duellona demonstrates its antiquity, showing the samesound change as duellum.

In art, she is portrayed with a helmet on her head, usually wearing abreastplate or plate armour, bearing a sword, spear, shield, or other weaponry,sometimes holding a flaming torch or sounding the Horn of Victory and Defeat.In heraldic crests, she may be shown as a goddess with spread feathered wingsbearing a helmet or coronet.

Ammianus Marcellinus, in describing the Roman defeat at the Battle of Adrianoplerefers to “Bellona, blowing her mournful trumpet, was raging more fiercely thanusual, to inflict disaster on the Romans”.

Near the beginning of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (I.ii.54), Macbeth is introduced as a violentand brave warrior when the Thane of Ross calls him “Bellona’s bridegroom” (i.e.Mars). In Henry IV, Part I, Hotspur describes her as “the fire-eyed maid ofsmoky war” (IV.i.119). And in The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613), set in pre-Roman Athens, the sister of Hippolyta will solicit her divineaid for Theseus against Thebes(I.iii.13).

The goddess has also proved popular in post-Renaissance art as a femaleembodiment of military virtue, and an excellent opportunity to portray thefeminine form in armour and helmet.

The composer Francesco Bianchi and the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte togethercreated a Cantata first performed in London on 11 March 1797 & called Lenozze del Tamigi e Bellona, (The Wedding of the Thames and Bellona), to markthe British naval victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St Vincent.

Also, the “Temple of Bellona” was a popular choice of name for the smallmock-temples that were a popular feature of 18th- and 19th-century Englishlandscaped gardens (e.g. William Chambers’s 1760 Templeof Bellona for Kew Gardens,a small Doric temple with a four-column facade to contain plaques honouringthose who served in the Seven Years’ War of 1756–64).

First World War poet Edgell Rickwood wrote a poem “The Traveller” where hemarches toward the front line in company of Art, the God Pan and the works ofessayist Walter Pater. As they approach the active war, they meet Bellona. Oneby one the pleasurable companions are forced to flee by the violence of war,until Bellona rejoices in having him to herself.

Samuel R. Delany’s 1975 novel Dhalgren is set in the city of Bellona.

The detective novel The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy LSayers is set at a fictional Londonclub whose membership is composed of active or retired military officers, andis named after the goddess.

Source:
Wikipedia