Bellona (goddess)

See Enyo for the Greek counterpart, and Bellona for other meanings of this word.

Bellona was an Ancient Roman goddess of war, similar to the Ancient Greek Enyo. Bellona's attribute is a sword and she is depicted wearing a helmet and armed with a spear and a torch.

Politically, all Senate meetings relating to foreign war were conducted in the Templum Bellonae (Temple of Bellona) on the Collis Capitolinus outside the pomerium.

Bellona's festival was celebrated on June 3.

Etymology

The name "War" derived from the Latin word for bellum, and is directly related to the modern English word "belligerent" (lit., "war-waging"). In earlier times she was called Duellona, the name being derived from a more ancient word for "battle".

Attributes

In art, she is portrayed with a helmet, sword, spear, and torch.

Ammianus Marcellinus, in describing the Roman defeat at the Battle of Adrianople refers to "Bellona, blowing her mournful trumpet, was raging more fiercely than usual, to inflict disaster on the Romans".

In later culture

Near the beginning of Shakespeare's Macbeth (I.ii.54), Macbeth is introduced as a violent and 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 of smoky war" (IV.i.119). The goddess has also proved popular in post-Renaissance art as a female embodiment of military virtue, and an excellent opportunity to portray the feminine form in armour and helmet.

Bellona appears in the prologue of Rameau's opera, Les Indes Galantes.

Also, the "Temple of Bellona" was a popular choice of name for the small mock-temples that were a popular feature of eighteenth and nineteenth century English landscaped gardens (e.g. William Chambers's 1760 Temple of Bellona for Kew Gardens, a small Doric temple with a four-column facade to contain plaques honouring those who served in the Seven Years War of 1756–64).

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

The detective novel The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club takes place at a (fictional) London club whose membership is composed of active or retired military officers, named after the goddess.

In the book The Son of Neptune Bellona is the mother of Camp Jupiter praetor Reyna and Hylla a former employee at Circe's Island.

Salis family (origin Grisons) crest, late nineteenth century version on an album cover.
Bronze sculpture of Bellona, 17th century, Royal Castle in Warsaw.
Salis crest, an English version on silver entree dish cover, 1865.