Bellona (goddess)

Bellona (from Latin bellum "war", old form Duellona from early Latin duellum "war") was a war goddess in Roman religion. She was equated with the war goddess Enyo from Greek mythology and the Anatolian mother and war goddess Ma from the end of the Republic. As such, she appeared to Sulla in a vision and urged him to ruthlessly destroy his enemies.

In later Roman mythology, Bellona was considered the sister, daughter or wife of Mars, the god of war, sometimes his charioteer or muse. Her attributes are helmet, lance, sword. Her feast day was June 3.

In imperial times, her image often adorned the denarius.

In Rome, on the Field of Mars outside the city near the Altar of Mars, there had been a temple in honor of Bellona since 296 BC. Appius Claudius Caecus had vowed and erected it. His gens, the Claudians, later renovated the temple again and again and took care of its preservation. Inside it was decorated with battle images showing Appius Claudius Caecus as a general.

The Roman Senate received here foreign legations, generals before their triumphal procession as well as persons who were not allowed to enter the city. Directly in front of the temple stood the so-called columna bellica, which served as a symbolic declaration of war by the Fetials. From there a lance dipped in blood was thrown into a symbolically declared enemy territory near the Circus Flaminius. This was done for the first time during the war against Pyrrhus.

The cult of Bellona seems to have both fascinated and repelled by the frenzy of its followers (fanatici), who inflicted wounds on themselves with double axes. The cult was even said to have performed human sacrifices, with vessels of human flesh said to have been found in 48 BC during the accidental destruction of a shrine to Bellona. After all, there was at least one temple with a grove within the city.

The asteroid (28) Bellona is named after her.