Incubation - Pregnancy Every year the ancient Romans held a festival in honor of Fornax, goddess of the hearth. This festival, called Fornicalia, was to ensure that the year’s grain is properly baked. The constellation Fornax was named after a more contemporary version of the furnace in 1752 but still holds the same symbolic connotations. Ancient alchemists regarded the oven as a place of transformation and incubation, and it is hard to ignore that the word “fornicate” bears a striking resemblance to ‘Fornicalia.’ The phrase “bun in the oven” originated around this time as well.“