Maia Maiestas
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The Greek Maia was identified in Roman mythology with Maia Maiestas (also called Fauna, Bona Dea (the 'Good Goddess') and Ops), a goddess who may be equivalent to an old Italic goddess of spring. The month of May was named for her; the 1st and 15th of May were sacred to her. Maia was associated with Vulcan, and on the first of May the flamen of that god sacrificed to her a pregnant sow, an appropriate sacrifice also for an earth goddess such as Bona Dea: a sow-shaped wafer might be substituted. The goddess was accessible only to women; men were excluded from her precincts.
Reference
- Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911.it:Maia (mitologia romana)