Gods, Goddesses, and Ancient Legends
Ancient sources couldn’t agree on whether Fauna was Faunus’s wife, his daughter, or simply another name for Bona Dea. The confusion is itself informative — she was old enough that the traditions had blurred.
Her real name was considered too sacred to speak. Men were not permitted to know it. In 62 BCE, a man broke into her most sacred ceremony — and it nearly destroyed Julius Caesar’s marriage, ended Cicero’s political career, and destabilized the late Republic.