Mater Matuta

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Mater Matuta, seated in a wicker chair and nursing an infant, from Roman Britain, 2nd century AD

Mater Matuta was an indigenous Latin goddess, whom the Romans eventually made equivalent to the dawn goddess Aurora, and the Greek goddess Eos. Her cult is attested several places in Latium, her most famous temple was located at Satricum. In Rome she had a temple on the north side of the Forum Boarium, allegedly built by Servius Tullius and rebuilt by Marcus Furius Camillus, and she was also associated with the sea harbors and ports, where there were other temples to her.

At Rome her festival was the Matralia, celebrated on June 11 in her temple at the Forum Boarium. The festival was only for single women or women in their first marriage, who offered prayers for their nieces and nephews, and then drove a slave out of the temple.

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