The ancients saw the woman mainly as the mother of the family protecting the house and children while the men were doing their men's work. Reproduction of the genus was crucial, as the survival of the community depended on the children in the future, so that traditions reinforced a great deal of respect for women as mothers and guardians of peace and order. As a result, many of the female deities we meet in archaic cultures are derived in varying degrees from the image of the mother goddess.
One of the oldest female deities of the Romans was Tellurium, the embodiment of the mother earth: the earth at the time was literally represented as a woman taking in her bosom seeds and giving birth at the end of her term. Tellurie was sacrificed for pregnant pigs and cows, who had their unborn babies cut out of their wombs and burned. They believed that the bred power of the animals could have a magical effect on the sown field. Interestingly, Tellurie was also sacrificed for the atoning sacrifices of those who did not pay due respect to the dead during the year. Tellurium, as a mother earth, not only carried the crops, but also took in the dead.
The cult of Ceres, the goddess of the harvest, is closely connected to the cult of Tellurium. But if Tellurium was a direct embodiment of fertile soil, the mother of bread, then Ceresera protected the ripening in the fields of bread. The embodiment of the spirit of the harvest in the guise of a woman, perhaps, is not accidental: in primitive agriculture, the work of a man is associated with heavy physical labor, but most of the labor-intensive operations are carried out by women. Like the Greek Demeter, with which they merged into a single image, Ceres was revered mainly by the villagers.
In ancient times the world with all its space, occupations and duties was divided into male and female to a greater extent than now. There was a lot of women's affairs, which was not appropriate for a man, and among them, for example, homework. The embodiment of all the specific female functions, including, of course, the birth of children, was Juno, the patroness of marriage.
Her cult was widespread throughout Central Italy. In Rome, she was separately honored under the name of Juno Luchin, whose sanctuary was located on Esquiline. In this hypostasis, Juno was patronized by the permission from the burden, and she, as the embodiment of childbearing, sacrificed one of the most fertile animals - the goat. In general, Juno was patronizing not only married women, but also girls who were ripe for marriage.
As the Roman state grew, Juno was considered the wife of Jupiter, and her cult was watched by Jupiter's flaminic wife (priestess), Flaminic. As the wife of the father of the gods, Juno became the patroness of the Roman community, along with Jupiter and Minerva, forming the so-called capitolic triad of the most revered celestials, which eventually replaced the former, more militant archaic triad.
The goddess Minerva has an ancient Italian, apparently Etruscan, origin. At least the Etruscans have long respected her as the patroness of crafts and arts, as well as all sorts of peaceful activities for the benefit of the family and society. In this capacity, Minerva also established herself in the Roman pantheon, occupying the niche of the goddess of craftswomen and handicraftsmen, which is not typical of Juno. With the spread of Greek influence, Minerva merged with Athena, probably borrowing from the latter line of the goddess of wisdom and war.
To Jupiter, Juno and Minerva as defenders of the state was erected a joint Capitol Temple, a kind of religious center of Rome, the construction of which began under King Tarkvinia Gorde, and ended in the first year of the Roman Republic. Named after the temple and hill of the Capitol on which it was erected, these gods are called the Capitoline Triad.
The connection with the mother goddess can be traced even to the virgin Diana, the hunting goddess, who united with the Greek Artemis. Late authors depicted her in a short chiton, hunting with a retinue in the dense forests and cruelly punishing men who dared to raise their eyes on the warlike goddess. In ancient times, however, Diana was revered as a goddess of the forest, combined with a sacred marriage with the forest king, the spirit of trees and plants, who died and was reborn year by year. Diana was perceived as the patroness of all forest animals and vegetation as such.
Diana was also believed to be the goddess of the moon. According to the ancient Romans, the phases of the moon directly influenced the functions of the female body. From a night luminary, as Romans believed, depended not only female monthly cycles, but also conception of the child, therefore the Roman women brought victims to Diana as the assistant in affairs of child-bearing.
The list of the main Roman goddesses we would like to finish with Venus though actually goddesses in a pantheon much more. Being initially the goddess of spring and gardens, Venus later assumed the functions of the Greek Aphrodite, the cult of which probably came to Italy quite early from the Greek colonies in Sicily. So she became a goddess of beauty and the embodiment of everything,