Her identity – first stage of our guided itineraries

The white goddess, the goddess of dawn and the beginning, of the naked sheet that still has not been written, is the first page of the travel journal or logbook. She’s the beginning and the end that speaks of its origin and story, source of knowledge, and historical report. That’s why to her it’s dedicated to the land at the mouth of the Tiber River. Her stories go back to the prehistoric period when a matriarchal society lived on Italian ground before Latin culture took over.

Her foremothers – building a fairy dimension to an itinerary

Her character was so rich that seems to have originated from numerous goddesses like Cardea, the goddess of health, pivot hinges, and Roman gates, whose name comes from the Latin cardo, cardinis, i.e., Hinge; like Venus, born from the seafoam and justifying with her quality the sexual appetite and consequential prolificacy; or among others like Aurora, the sunrise goddess, that would rise every day from a river flooding the world with light, associated in ancient times to the birth of humankind.

Roman name – getting the connections with history and places

Her Roman name was Mater Matuta and the second term could have originated from the Latin word matutinum, matutini, i.e., morning. She would protect the births of humans and things. Her first temple, we know of, was erected in the 6^th century B.C. by the Etruscan king, Servius Tullius, together with the temple of Fortune, close to the River port in Rome. Discovered only in 1937, it has not been fully excavated since it’s under the Church of Sant’Omobono. Terracottas depicting Hercules, two leopards, and a deity wearing a helmet have been found.

Greek influence – getting deep to build a great adventure

With the massive influence on the Roman culture of Greek art and mythology, the legend of Leucotea was absorbed by Mater Matuta becoming one unique deity. Originally she was a mortal, called Ino, wife of the Greek king Athamas and sister of Semele, the mother of Dionysus. Semele had an affair with Jupiter and the jealous Juno was able to convince her to ask for proof from the mighty god of his identity. Jupiter accepted to please her to realize any wish she might have but the woman asked to see him in his divine form and she was fulminated by the view of it. Jupiter sewed the fetus of Dionysus in his thigh and afterward Ino, his aunt, nursed him.

The tragedy – adventure needs suspence

The anger of Juno came immediately making Athamas and Ino crazy: the first killed their oldest son, and she threw the youngest in the boiling water, then took him and jumped into the sea. Venus was supposed to have intervened then in her support by Neptune who transformed her into seafoam and into a deity protecting sailors and shipwreck survivors while her son became the god of ports. In Roman society, he was known as Portunus, and in the eternal city, the oldest temple out of marble in Rome was dedicated to him, not far away from the one dedicated to his mother in the 6^th century B.C. and mentioned above. Between the Aventine hill, dominating these temples area, and the mouth of the Tiber River there was, according to Ovid, a grove dedicated to Stimula, the Roman name of Semele, her sister, and Jupiter’s lover. The site was, according to Livius, one of the Dionysus scandals that led to the official limitation of his cult in the 2^nd century B.C.

Leucotea and the Tiber River – closer connections

Another version of the story is told by Ovid: Ino, being saved by Nereides nymphs, arrived at the mouth of the Tiber River where she had to face another danger. Juno made the local Maenads, the followers of Dionysus’ rituals, furious against her. They tried to tear her body apart: Hercules rushed to her aid and they found shelter by the nymph Carmenta, protecting childbirth, prophecy, and inventor of the Latin alphabet. The nymph predicted her and her son’s divine future. Eventually, she became Leucotea and learned to read the future. In the 4^th century started being associated with the Tiburtine Sibyl, a reference point for the Romans in legendary prophecies.

Leucotea as savior – positive vibe

Homer tells us that Ulysses was donated rich clothes and a raft to go back home by Calypsos. Then, as soon as he sailed, Neptune destroyed the raft and his clothing was sinking him. Thanks to his proverbial strength he was able to free himself and reemerge. Leucotea appeared and donated him a magic white fleece to swim safely away from the wreck. She also became the goddess of the morning star that leads the sailors home.

Her archeological traces – following the thread

Probably she was a very widespread deity in those times, especially along rivers and in harbors. One temple was identified in the south of the region in the territories of the winery Casal del Giglio where there was the ancient city of Satricum. The area was worshipped already in the 8^th century B.C. and the temple was erected around 500 B.C. Another sanctuary dated 5^th century B.C. was found in Tuscany with a beautiful statue of the goddess seated on a throne sustained by sphinxes. Satricum was destroyed by Marcus Furius Camillus, the general that defeated the first enemy of Rome, the Etruscan neighbor city of Veio. He also reconstructed and renovated in 396 B.C. the temple area of Mater Matuta and Fortune in Rome. In Capua, the ancient Roman city on the sea cost, connected directly to the capital by the Ancient Appian road from the 4^th century B.C., a sanctuary was been found at the end of the 19^th century giving birth to one of the most curious ancient collections of Europe: statues of mothers depicted with one or many children in their laps going from 6^th century to 2^nd century B.C. Only one of all those statues was represented without children but with a pomegranate in one hand and a dove in the other, probably the cult statue.

Leucotea at the mouth of the Tiber River – call for imagination

In the archeological site of Portus, we still didn’t find the residential quarter nor the sanctuaries and in the one of Ostia Antica we found evidence of the Dionysus cult and a few paintings, today disappeared, that seemed to have depicted Leucotea. Anyway, also in Ostia Antica, the area still unexcavated is huge. A specific question arises easily looking at the religious cults of Ancient Roman society: the relation between Mater Matuta and Magna Mater. The question is not easy to answer and probably there is no one answer since the development of cults under foreign influences in ancient Roman history is so extreme that it erased in many cases the previous versions, in others overlapped in others make for us the symbolism and rituals similar. Somehow the new imported cult of Magna Mater-Cybele and Attis (see below) seems to have replaced the one of Mater Matuta-Leucotea and Dionysus.

Magna Mater – chosing the right path

The first temple of Magna Mater on Roman ground was erected on the Palatine hill at the beginning of the 2^nd century B.C. importing the cult from Anatolia assuming that the Romans were descendants of a Trojan refugee: Enea, who escaped from Anatolia before his hometown got destroyed. It was known as Cybele, the Great Mother Goddess.  From the cut phallus of the hermaphrodite generated by a tentative rape of her by Jupiter, the beautiful Attis was born and the legend wants that as he tried to marry was driven crazy and evirated himself dying. He was then reborn because of the love of the Great Mother and symbolized by a pine tree. At her annual spring festival, the death and resurrection of her beloved Attis were celebrated. She was usually represented either riding a chariot drawn by lions or seated on a throne flanked by two lions.

Leucotea logbook – let’s start the experience

Going back to prehistoric times when a matriarchal society lived on Italian ground we can re-conduct all these female deities to a mighty one, but simplifying it’s always wrong. The many contradicting aspects of nature probably were already played by different goddesses with different names and characteristics. That’s why the land at the mouth of the Tiber River is specifically dedicated to the white goddess, Leucotea, the beginning and the end, the origin and destiny, the source of knowledge and historical record but at the same time the naked sheet that still has not been written, the empty logbook of our travel named Thybris River Experience.