Reconsidering the Matronalia and Women’s Rites

Scholars have long contended that the Matronalia was a “women’s festival,” dominated by matrons’ rites to Juno Lucina at her temple on the Esquiline hill. This paper challenges standard interpretations and argues that the Matronalia was much more comprehensive. A reexamination of evidence for the festival’s participants and distinct components reveals its significance as a family observance that contributed to the welfare of the domus as a whole. The Matronalia brought together the household’s diverse members in a ritual that had the potential to promote unity and collective identity, while reaffirming core social values regarding gender and juridical status in particular.