In Ovid’s Fasti, Tacita Muta takes center stage in a ritual where women cast a silencing spell. Yet the ritual’s meaning and goals do not align with the foundation of her cult, traditionally attributed to Numa, or with its aition. Both rest on dominant values: the notion that women are naturally talkative and the expectation that they should stay silent. This paper contends that Tacita Muta’s silencing role in the ritual arises from the way a subaltern group—here, women—reworks the oppressive Nu…
Read moreIn Ovid’s Fasti, Tacita Muta takes center stage in a ritual where women cast a silencing spell. Yet the ritual’s meaning and goals do not align with the foundation of her cult, traditionally attributed to Numa, or with its aition. Both rest on dominant values: the notion that women are naturally talkative and the expectation that they should stay silent. This paper contends that Tacita Muta’s silencing role in the ritual arises from the way a subaltern group—here, women—reworks the oppressive Numan cult and its myth into a folk magic practice. Through this, the female participants push back against male-dominated systems that shut them out of linguistic agency. By blending close textual analysis with insights from social history and anthropology, the paper aims to uncover underlying tensions in the text. Thus, it sheds light on the construction of mythical meaning and reveals competing viewpoints among different social groups.
