The Flamen and Flaminica Dialis
The Flamen and Flaminica Dialis
This chapter shows that the flamen and flaminica Dialis served the gods together as priest and priestess of Jupiter. Until fairly recently, however, modern scholars have either denied or heavily qualified the official priestly status of the flaminica Dialis, describing her instead as the Roman equivalent of the pastor's wife. This analogy is inappropriate in light of the ancient evidence for her status and religious activities. The chapter then reconstructs the flaminica's ritual activities and establishes a new framework for understanding them. The ancient evidence, though often intractable, demonstrates that the flaminica Dialis was a religious official in her own right with her own role, both in separate rituals that she was responsible for independently and in rituals that she shared with her husband, the flamen.
Keywords: flamen, flaminica Dialis, priest, priestess, Jupiter, ritual activities, religious activities, religious official
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