Ante diem VI Idus Iunonias (8 June) Nefas

"Give a sound mind, a fair name," such prayers a man utters aloud in earshot of strangers, the rest he mutters beneath his breath (Persius Satura II. 8-9).


Temple of Mens Bona (Prudence and Intelligence) vowed by T. Otacilius, praetor, after the Battle of Trasmimenus (217) and dedicated then by him on the Capitoline Hill in 215 BCE (Livy 23.31; 23.32). T. Otacilius also vowed, and as one of the duumvir aediles dedicandis, along with Q. Fabius Maximus, who dedicated the Temple of Venus Erycina in the same year and on the same location (Livy 22.9; 23.30). Servius made mention of a Venus Meminia while commenting on a passage from Virgil's Aeneid, where Aeneas heeded his Acidalian Mother (Ad Aen. 1.720). Thus it has been argued that Mens Bona is another form of Venus. If this was originally true, by the Late Republic the connection of Mens with Venus had long been forgotten.

In De Legibus Cicero recommended "those qualities through which men and women may themselves aspire to ascend into the heavens ? Intellect (Mens), Virtue, Piety, Faithfulness. In their praise may shrines be established, but none for the vices." In contrast, in De Natura Deorum (II.61) Cicero has the Stoic Balbus say that the deification of Desire, Pleasure, and Sexual Joy are "vicious and unnatural forces, even if Velleius thinks otherwise, for these very vices rage too fiercely, and banish our natural instincts." Deification of Fever and Mala Fortuna he says was depraved (vitiosum). Then as the Platonist Cotta (Nat Deor. III.39-64), Cicero speaks of the "ignorance of the naive herd. Those simple souls (with the) beliefs of the ignorant" who deify practically anything. "Mind (Mens), Faith, Hope, Virtue, Honour, Victory, Safety, Concord, and other concepts of the same kind we must envision as in essence abstractions, not as gods; for they are either qualities that reside within us, or they are aims to which we aspire." They are "beneficial qualities," but not "divine powers." The same attitude towards the abstract gods was expressed by Pliny the Elder. "To believe in either an infinite number of deities corresponding to the vices of men, as well as their virtues, like the goddesses of Chastity, Concord, Intelligence (Mens), Hope, Honour, Mercy, Faith, or like Democritus in only two, namely Punishment and Reward, plumbs an even greater depth of foolishness" (Pliny Hist. Nat. 2.14-16). However Cicero then justified the deification of the abstract gods for their political utility.

"(This law) makes it clear that while the souls of men are immortal, those of good and brave men are divine. It is a good thing also that?in Rome temples have been dedicated by the State to all these qualities, the purpose being that those who possess them, and all good men do, should believe that the gods themselves are established within their own souls (DEOS IPSOS IN ANIMIS SUIS CONLOCATOS PUTENT)?And since the mind is encouraged by anticipation of good things, Calatinus was right in deifying Hope also (De Legibus II.xi, 27-8. See Tacitus Annales II.49 for the Temple of Hope dedicated by Aulus Atilius Calatinus)."

While the abstract gods are "beneficial qualities" and not "divine powers" (numina) in themselves, Cicero saw them as emanating from the divine part contained within a human soul. The divine aspect in humans Cicero regarded as Mind (Mens), "plucked from the Divine Mind that governs the Universe." It is this authentic essence in men and women that then "aspire to ascend into the heavens." Indirectly that leads us back to Venus. By the Late Republic there developed the idea that separate from the Shades that might inhabit Hades, which could be seen as souls being purged of their impurities before being returned into Nature, the authentic essence of a person continued on to the Blessed Isles. Depictions of the blessed dead show their travel across the Western Sea to these isles that were thought to be a Garden of Venus. The blessed dead are therefore seen as little Cupids or putti, the children of Venus living in an eternal spring.