Vestal Virgins in Roman Culture and Religion
A Sacred Sisterhood Serving the Hearth Goddess Vesta
The temple of Vesta was located in the Roman Forum, circular because fire burns at the center of the earth, and the priestesses or Vestal Virgins were principally charged with maintaining what Cicero called the “unextingished fire.” Vesta was the hearth goddess and associated with some of the earliest religious practices of Rome. According to Livy and Ovid, Rhea Silvia was a Vestal who gave birth to Romulus. Throughout the history of Rome, the Vestals played an important role in the religious traditions and, frequently, politics.
The Cult of the Vestal Virgins
Vesta and her priestesses figured prominently “in family cult…symbolizing the solidarity of the home as well as the nation,” according to Michael Grant. In the early Republican years, the high priest or Pontifex Maximus, whose own residence adjoined the temple of the Vestal Virgins, filled vacancies by selecting from a group of twenty girls aged 6-10. Each of these girls represented a noble Patrician family. Making his selection, the high priest pointed to a girl and announced, “Te Amato, capio” (“Darling, I seize thee). At some point this changed: Suetonius writes that Vestals during the time of Augustus were chosen by lot.
Vestal Virgins tended the temple until the age of thirty, following a strict vow of chastity. They guarded the sacred objects in the temple and washed the altar and the sacred utensils. Rhea Silvia had gone to the Tiber to wash sacred temple utensils when, while asleep, she was impregnated by the god Mars. In her dream she witnessed a vision concerning her offspring, Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers later nursed by a female wolf. Returning to the temple, Rhea Silvia exclaimed, “may my vision prove true.”
Vestal Virgins could pardon condemned prisoners as they were being carried in their litters, confronting the execution party. They were caretakers of important documents; both Julius Caesar and Augustus gave the Chief Vestal their final wills for safekeeping. At the gladiatorial games, Vestal Virgins were the only women permitted to sit in seats of prominence facing the arena.
In the city of Nemi the Temple of Diana served as another incarnation of Vesta. It was not uncommon to mingle the ancient gods. Vesta was herself a Latin version of the Greek Hestia. As in Rome, the Nemi Temple was round and served by priestesses that maintained a sacred fire.
Punishing Vestal Virgins that Broke Their Vows
Vestal Virgins breaking their vows of chastity were buried alive for it was unlawful to spill the blood of a Vestal. In some cases, the Vestal was not to blame: the Emperor Nero, according to Suetonius, raped the Vestal Virgin Rubria.
Taken to the earthen work beside the Colline Gate, Vestals were placed in a room which was then covered by dirt. Norma Goodrich quotes Plutarch (X) as saying, “no other sight makes everyone in Rome shudder as this one does; nor can any other day make people so downcast as this day can.”
Protecting Rome from Evil
Sir James Frazer refers to an annual event in May when the high priest and the Vestals tossed puppets into the Tiber River to “purge the city of demonic influences.” According to Frazer, this action diverted “the attention of demons from human beings to the puppets.” It should be understood that the term “demon” does not directly relate to the Christian theological understanding of the term. Rather, it probably referred to roaming “unclean spirits,” ghosts of a sort that could cause evil actions. (For a good clarification on this, see Daniel Ogden’s Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford University Press, 2002).
Established by King Pompilius (715-672 BC) in Rome’s earliest period, the sacred sisterhood played an important role in the everyday life of Rome. The festival of Vestalia occurred every June 9th, and reminded Romans of the mystical powers of Vesta.
Sources:
James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (New York: Macmillan Company, 1966) p 572.
Norma Lorre Goodrich, Priestesses (Harper-Perennial, 1989) p 276.
Michael Grant, History of Rome New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978) p 20.
Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Books, 1984).
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