The Molae are

goddesses A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all reality, is ...

who appear in an ancient Roman prayer formula in connection with

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. The list of invocations given by

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

pairs a god's name (given in the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

case) with a

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...

noun that personifies a quality or power of the god ''(Moles Martis,'' "Moles of Mars"). These pairings are often taken as "marriages" in the anthropomorphic mythological tradition. An inscription records a ''

supplicatio In ancient Roman religion, a ''supplicatio'' is a day of public prayer during times of crisis or a thanksgiving for receipt of aid. During days of public prayer, Roman men, women, and children traveled in procession to religious sites around the ...

Molibus Martis'', supplication for the Moles of Mars. The name ''Mola'' (plural ''Molae'') would refer to a goddess of the mill, as in ''

mola salsa In Religion in ancient Rome, ancient Roman religion, ''mola salsa'' ("salted flour") was a mixture of Granularity, coarse-ground, toasted emmer flour and salt prepared by the Vestal Virgins and used in every official sacrifice. It was sprinkled on ...

'', the ritual substance prepared by the Vestals from flour and salt, but the connection with war or Mars would be unclear, though perhaps conceptually related to ''Iuppiter Pistor,'' "Jupiter the Miller". W.H. Roscher includes ''Mola'' among the ''

indigitamenta In ancient Roman religion, the ''indigitamenta'' were lists of deities kept by the College of Pontiffs to assure that the correct divine names were invoked for public prayers. These lists or books probably described the nature of the various deit ...

'', the list of deities maintained by Roman priests to assure that the correct divinity was invoked for rituals. W.H. Roscher, ''Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie'' (Leipzig: Teubner, 1890–94), vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 204.

References

{{AncientRome-myth-stub Roman goddesses