[626]. Liv. 6. 33. 4; Wissowa, Lex. 2462.
[627]. Diod. Sic. 15. 14, p. 337, and Wesseling’s note. The temple at Pyrgi was an important one, and rich enough to be plundered by Dionysius I of Syracuse. But it must be admitted that the identification of the deity of Pyrgi with Mater Matuta is not absolutely certain. Strabo, l. c., calls her Eileithyia, Aristotle (Oecon. 1349 b) Leucothea; and it is thought that Mater Matuta alone combines the characteristics of these two. If, however, the goddess of Pyrgi was the deity of the oracle, she might almost as well have been a Fortuna, like those of Antium and Praeneste.
[628]. Tertullian, de Monogam. 17.
[629]. Ovid, Fasti, 6. 481, with Plut. Q. R. 16; Camill. 5.
[630]. Varro, L. L. 5. 106. Ovid (482) writes of liba tosta, i. e. cakes cooked in pans rather than baked, like the mola salsa. See above, p. [149]; and cp. Ovid, 532 ‘in subito cocta foco.’
[631]. Plut. ll. cc.; Ovid, 559 foll.
[632]. See below on [Jan. 11]. I cannot explain the rule that a woman prayed for nephews and nieces before her own children, which is peculiar to this cult.
[633]. Preller, i. 322; Wissowa in Lex.
[634]. R. H. (Eng. trans.) i. 162.
[635]. Lucr. 5. 654.