Also called Carna (conflated by Ovid).
Their story
Ovid tells how the nymph Crane tricked would-be lovers until Janus caught her and gave her power over hinges, making her Cardea. When the infant Proca was attacked by striges, she touched the doorposts with arbutus, sprinkled water, offered the entrails of a young pig and set a hawthorn branch at the window, and the child recovered. Ovid mixes her with Carna, a goddess of the vital organs honoured on 1 June with beans and bacon. Augustine names her with Forculus and Limentinus as guardians of the door.
Best times to give to them
- Kalends of June, 1 June
- After a birth
What they like being given
- A hawthorn sprig
- Bean and barley porridge
- Incense
How to honour them
- Hang a sprig of hawthorn by the nursery door.
- Eat bean and spelt porridge on 1 June, as Ovid describes.
- Bless the doors of the home.
How they can help you
- Protection of babies
- Warding the home
- Health
Symbols
- hawthorn branch
- hinge
- arbutus
Cardea and Carna were probably separate goddesses whom Ovid merged.
Sources
- Ovid, Fasti 6
- Augustine, De Civitate Dei 4.8
- Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12.31-33
More Roman goddesses
- Juno Queen of heaven and protector of women
- Minerva Patron of craftworkers, teachers and healers
- Venus Mother of the Roman people and goddess of love
- Diana Lady of the woodland grove and the moon
- Vesta The living flame at the heart of home and Rome
- Ceres Mother of the grain and friend of the common people
- Luna The moon, shining through the night
- Libera Partner of Liber in the Aventine triad