Her priests offered their own blood and she has not changed
Resonance
Those declaring a war they mean
Symbols
SpearColumnHelmetTorchShield
Mythology Summary
Bellona is the Roman goddess of war and of the declaration of war: her temple in the Campus Martius stood outside the sacred boundary, where the senate received generals and foreign envoys, and in front of it the fetial priest hurled a spear into soil declared enemy ground to open a war. She is called the sister of Mars, and sometimes his consort, and she absorbed the old Sabine goddess Nerio. Her priests, the Bellonarii, cut their own arms in her service, and her day of blood fell in March.
Modern Practice
Bellona is called on at the start of a conflict that has to be named out loud, and before any act that cannot be taken back. Her practice is formal and blunt: say what the war is, and mean it.