Misplaced Pages

#597402

162-411: The festival was originally known as Februa ("Purifications" or "Purgings") after the februum which was used on the day. It was also known as Februatus and gave its name variously, as epithet to Juno Februalis, Februlis, or Februata in her role as patron deity of that month; to a supposed purification deity called Februus ; and to February ( mensis Februarius ), the month during which

324-521: A Gaulish man and woman, possibly to avert divine outrage at the ritual killing of the Vestal priestesses involved. According to Erdkamp, this may have also been intended to restore divine support for Rome's success on the battlefield, evidenced by later successful auguries. The initial charges against the Vestals concerned were almost certainly trumped up, and may have been politically motivated. Pliny

486-731: A cult image of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans Lupercus ", as nude, save for a goatskin girdle. The statue stood in the Lupercal , the cave where tradition held that Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf ( Lupa ). The cave lay at the foot of the Palatine Hill , on which Romulus was thought to have founded Rome. The name of the festival most likely derives from lupus , "wolf", though both

648-533: A grotto discovered in 2007, 50 feet (15 m) below the remains of Augustus' residence; according to scholarly consensus, the grotto is a nymphaeum , not the Lupercal. The Lupercalia festival is marked on a calendar of 354 alongside traditional and Christian festivals. Despite the banning in 391 of all non-Christian cults and festivals, the Lupercalia was celebrated by the nominally Christian populace on

810-471: A prodigy , a warning that the pax deorum ("peace of the gods") was disrupted by some undetected impropriety, unnatural phenomenon or religious offence. Romans had a duty to report any suspected prodigies to the Senate, who in turn consulted the pontifex maximus , the pontifices and the haruspices to determine whether the matter must be tried or dismissed. Expiation of prodigies usually involved

972-556: A Vestal Virgin, and was chained and imprisoned when she gave birth. Dionysius also writes that the Roman king Tarquinius Priscus instituted live burial as a punishment for Vestal unchastity, and inflicted it on the Vestal Pinaria; and that whipping with rods sometimes preceded the immuration , and that this was done to Urbinia in 471 BCE, in a time of pestilence and plebeian unrest. Postumia, though innocent according to Livy,

1134-409: A Vestal in 85 and remained a Vestal until 61. The Vestals Arruntia, Perpennia M. f., and Popillia attended the inauguration of Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Niger as Flamen Martialis in 69. Licinia, Crassus' relative, was also present. Inscriptions record the existence of Vestals in other locations than the centre of Rome. The Vestals were used as models of female virtue in allegorizing portraiture of

1296-497: A Vestal put to death in 471. Livy names a Vestal Postumia, tried for inchastity in 420, but acquitted with a warning to take her position more seriously: Minucia was put to death for inchastity in 337: and Sextilia, put to death for adultery in 273. Some Vestals are said to have committed suicide when accused; Caparronia did so in 266: essential trial details are often lacking. Livy states that two Vestals, Floronia and Opimia, were convicted of unchastity in 216. One committed suicide,

1458-433: A Vestal, and then ultimately even from the daughters of freedmen for the same reason. The choosing ceremony was known as a captio (capture). Once a girl was chosen to be a Vestal, the pontifex pointed to her and led her away from her parents with the words, "I take you, amata (beloved), to be a Vestal priestess, who will carry out sacred rites which it is the law for a Vestal priestess to perform on behalf of

1620-439: A broken oath. It was permanent, irreversible; no piaculum or expiation could restore it or compensate for its loss. A Vestal who committed incestum breached Rome's contract with the gods; she was a contradiction, a visible religious embarrassment. By ancient tradition, she must die, but she must seem to do so willingly, and her blood could not be spilled . The city could not seem responsible for her death, and burial of

1782-536: A certain Plotius. Now Licinia was the owner of a pleasant villa in the suburbs which Crassus wished to get at a low price, and it was for this reason that he was forever hovering about the woman and paying his court to her until he fell under the abominable suspicion. And in a way, it was his avarice that absolved him from the charge of corrupting the Vestal, and he was acquitted by the judges. But he did not let Licinia go until he had acquired her property." Licinia became

SECTION 10

#1732765653598

1944-478: A collegiate priesthood. He then added a second pair. Rome's sixth king, Servius Tullius , who was also said to have been miraculously fathered by the fire-god Vulcan or the household Lar on a captive Vestal, increased the number of Vestals to six; in the Imperial era, as attested by Plutarch, the college had six vestals at any given time. Claims by Ambrose and others that the college comprised seven vestals in

2106-422: A couch, a lamp, and a table with a little food. The pontifex maximus , having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered a secret prayer, opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placing her on the steps of the ladder which gave access to the subterranean cell, delivered her over to the common executioner and his assistants, who conducted her down, drew up the ladder, and having filled the pit with earth until

2268-532: A daughter of a free-born resident of Rome. From at least the mid-Republican era, the pontifex maximus chose Vestals by lot from a group of twenty high-born candidates at a gathering of their families and other Roman citizens. Under the Papian Law of the 3rd century BC, candidates for Vestal priesthoods had to be of patrician birth. Membership was opened to plebeians as it became difficult to find patricians willing to commit their daughters to 30 years as

2430-427: A dowry at public expenses. Dumézil in his Archaic Roman Religion had been unable to interpret the myth underlying this legendary event, later though he accepted the interpretation given by P. Drossart and published it in his Fêtes romaines d'été et d'automne, suivi par dix questions romaines in 1975 as Question IX . In folklore the wild fig tree is universally associated with sex because of its fertilising power,

2592-417: A female presence in her cult through the centuries down to the lectisternium of 217 BC, when the matronae collected money for the service, and to the times of Augustus during the ludi saeculares in the sacrifices to Capitoline Juno are proof of the resilience of this foreign tradition. Gagé and D'Albret remark an accentuation of the matronal aspect of Juno Regina that led her to be the most matronal of

2754-590: A goatskin, or a goatskin shield, called the Aegis . Juno was also shown wearing a diadem. The name Juno was once popularly thought to be connected to Iove (Jove), originally as Diuno and Diove from *Diovona . Although this etymology still receives some support, a derivation was later proposed from iuven- (as in Latin iuvenis , "youth"), through a syncopated form iūn- (as in iūnix , "heifer", and iūnior , "younger"). This etymology became widely accepted after it

2916-481: A goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn and Ops , she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars , Vulcan , Bellona , Lucina and Juventas . Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock . Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni , and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire , Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and

3078-545: A new acquisition introduced to Rome after her evocatio from Veii. Palmer thinks she is to be identified with Juno Populona of later inscriptions, a political and military poliadic (guardian) deity who had in fact a place in the Capitoline temple and was intended to represent the Regina of the king. The date of her introduction, though ancient, would be uncertain; she should perhaps be identified with Hera Basilea or as

3240-550: A particular time of the year, that of the so-called caprificatio when branches of wild fig trees were fastened to cultivated ones to promote insemination. The historical episode narrated by ancient sources concerns the siege of Rome by the Latin peoples that followed the Gallic sack. The dictator of the Latins Livius Postumius from Fidenae would have requested the Roman senate that the matronae and daughters of

3402-455: A popular subject for artists in the 18th century and the 19th century. The French painter Hector Leroux , who lived and worked in Italy for seventeen years, became famous for meticulously researched images of Vestals in all aspects of their daily life and worship, making some thirty paintings of Vestals between 1863 and 1899. Procol Harum 's famous hit " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967) contains

SECTION 20

#1732765653598

3564-426: A prey to repentance and dejection for the rest of their lives, thereby inspiring the rest with superstitious fears, so that until old age and death they remained steadfast in their virginity". Some Vestals preferred to renew their vows. Occia was vestal for 57 years between 38 BC and 19 AD. To obtain entry into the order, a girl had to be free of physical, moral, and mental 'defects', have two living parents, and be

3726-475: A regular basis into the reign of the emperor Anastasius . Pope Gelasius I (494–96) claimed that only the "vile rabble" were involved in the festival and sought its forceful abolition; the Roman Senate protested that the Lupercalia was essential to Rome's safety and well-being. This prompted Gelasius' scornful suggestion that "If you assert that this rite has salutary force, celebrate it yourselves in

3888-562: A ritual that can prove the trifunctional nature of Juno. Other scholars limit their interpretation of Caprotina to the sexual implications of the goat, the caprificus and the obscene words and plays of the festival. Under this epithet Juno is attested in many places, notably at Falerii and Tibur . Dumézil remarked that Juno Curitis "is represented and invoked at Rome under conditions very close to those we know about for Juno Seispes of Lanuvium ". Martianus Capella states she must be invoked by those who are involved in war. The hunt of

4050-474: A sacred spring; preparing substances used in public rites, presiding at the Vestalia and attending other festivals. Vesta's temple was essentially the temple of all Rome and its citizens; it was open all day, by night it was closed but only to men. The Vestals regularly swept and cleansed Vesta's shrine, functioning as surrogate housekeepers, in a religious sense, for all of Rome, and maintaining and controlling

4212-462: A sanctuary of Rumina , goddess of breastfeeding; and the wild fig-tree ( Ficus Ruminalis ) to which Romulus and Remus were brought by the divine intervention of the river-god Tiberinus ; some Roman sources name the wild fig tree caprificus , literally "goat fig". Like the cultivated fig, its fruit is pendulous, and the tree exudes a milky sap if cut, which makes it a good candidate for a cult of breastfeeding. The Lupercalia had its own priesthood ,

4374-669: A senior vestal but chosen and governed by Rome's leading male priest, the Pontifex maximus ; in the Imperial era, this meant the emperor. Vesta's acolytes vowed to serve her for at least thirty years, study and practise her rites in service of the Roman State, and maintain their chastity throughout. In addition to their obligations on behalf of Rome, Vestals had extraordinary rights and privileges, some of which were granted to no others, male or female. The Vestals took turns to supervise Vesta's sacred hearth so that at least one Vestal

4536-495: A shared link to various public, and possibly some private cults. The Fordicidia was a characteristically rustic, agricultural festival, in which a pregnant cow was sacrificed to the Earth-goddess Tellus , and its unborn calf was reduced to ashes by the senior Vestal. The ashes were mixed with various substances, most notably the dried blood of the previous year's October horse , sacrificed to Mars . The mixture

4698-445: A special sacrifice ( piaculum ) and the destruction of the "unnatural" object that had caused divine offence. Extinction of Vesta's sacred fire through Vestal negligence could be expiated by the scourging or beating of the offender, carried out "in the dark and through a curtain to preserve their modesty". The sacred fire could then be relit, using the correct rituals and the purest materials. Loss of chastity, however, represented

4860-407: A state pension in their late 30s to early 40s and thereafter were free to marry. The pontifex maximus , acting as the father of the bride, might arrange a marriage with a suitable Roman nobleman on behalf of the retired Vestal, but no literary accounts of such marriages have survived; Plutarch repeats a claim that "few have welcomed the indulgence, and that those who did so were not happy, but were

5022-458: A table to Juno in every curia, that Dionysius still saw. Modern scholars have proposed the town of Currium or Curria, Quirinus , *quir(i)s or *quiru , the Sabine word for spear and curia . The *quiru- would design the sacred spear that gave the name to the primitive curiae. The discovery at Sulmona of a sanctuary of Hercules Curinus lends support to a Sabine origin of the epithet and of

Lupercalia - Misplaced Pages Continue

5184-408: A treasonous Vestal Virgin. Most Vestals named in Roman historical accounts are presented as examples of wrongdoing, threats to the well-being of the state, and punishment. While Tarpeia's status as a virgin is common to most accounts, her status as a vestal was likely the mythographer's invention, to cast her lust, greed and treason in the worst possible light. Dionysius of Halicarnasus names Orbinia,

5346-452: A tutelary deity of the sovereignty of peoples; in women capable of bearing children, from puberty on she oversees childbirth and marriage. Thence she would be a poliad goddess related to politics, power and war. Others think her military and poliadic qualities arise from her being a fertility goddess who through her function of increasing the numbers of the community became also associated to political and military functions. The rites of

5508-498: A virgin daughter of the king, forced by her usurper uncle to become a Vestal, miraculously gave birth to twin boys, Romulus and Remus . The twins were fathered by Mars ; they survived their uncle's attempts to kill them through exposure or drowning, and Romulus went on to found Rome. In the most widely accepted versions of Rome's beginnings the city's legendary second king, Numa Pompilius , built its first Temple of Vesta , appointed its first pair of Vestals and subsidised them as

5670-562: A war with the Galli Insubri ); in it the goddess was honoured in military garb. The flamen or special priest belonging to Juno Seispes continued to be a Lanuvian, specially nominated by the town to take care of the goddess even though she was housed in her temple at Rome (in the Forum Holitorium). At the time of Cicero , Milo , who served as the city's dictator and highest magistrate in 52 BC (Cic. Mil. 27), and of course

5832-463: A will of their own volition, and dispose of their property without the sanction of a male guardian. They could give their property to women, something forbidden even to men, under Roman law. As they embodied the Roman state, Vestals could give evidence in trials without first taking the customary oath to the State. They had custody of important wills and state documents, which were presumably locked away in

5994-420: Is Coelia Concordia, a Virgo Vestalis Maxima who in 385 AD erected a statue to the deceased pontiff Vettius Agorius Praetextatus . Zosimos claims that when Theodosius I visited Rome in 394 AD, his niece Serena insulted an aged Vestal, said to be the last of her kind. It is unclear from Zosimos's narrative whether Vesta's cult was still functioning, maintained by that single Vestal, or moribund. Cameron

6156-409: Is a decisive factor in ensuring the safety of the community and the growth of crops. The role of Iuno is at the crossing point of civil and natural life, expressing their interdependence. At Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno and was honoured as such ritually at the kalendae of each month from March to December, i.e. the months of the pre-Numan ten-month year, a fact which is a testimony to

6318-522: Is also the tutelary goddess of the curiae and of the new brides, whose hair was combed with the spear called caelibataris hasta as in Rome. In her annual rites at Falerii youths and maiden clad in white bore in procession gifts to the goddess whose image was escorted by her priestesses. The idea of purity and virginity is stressed in Ovid's description. A she goat is sacrificed to her after a ritual hunting. She

6480-476: Is attested and in accord with Roe D'Albret stresses that at Rome no presence of a Juno Regina is mentioned before Marcus Furius Camillus , while she is attested in many Etruscan and Latin towns. Before that time her Roman equivalent was Juno Moneta. Marcel Renard for his part considers her an ancient Roman figure since the title of the Veian Juno expresses a cultic reality that is close to and indeed presupposes

6642-409: Is connected to regality: the existence and welfare of the community was protected by virgin goddesses or the virgin attendants of a goddess. This theme shows a connexion with the fundamental theological character of Iuno, that of incarnating vital force: virginity is the condition of unspoilt, unspent vital energy that can ensure communion with nature and its rhythm, symbolised in the fire of Vesta . It

Lupercalia - Misplaced Pages Continue

6804-576: Is no sure document of its existence elsewhere either in Latium or Etruria. A direct Greek influence is possible but it would be also plausible to consider it a local creation. Dumézil advanced the hypothesis it could be an ideological construction of the Tarquins to oppose new Latin nationalism, as it included the three gods that in the Iliad are enemies of Troy . It is probable Latins had already accepted

6966-500: Is one of the most complex and disputed issues in Roman religion. Even more than other major Roman deities, Juno held a large number of significant and diverse epithets , names and titles representing various aspects and roles of the goddess. In accordance with her central role as a goddess of marriage, these included Pronuba and Cinxia ("she who looses the bride's girdle"). However, other epithets of Juno have wider implications and are less thematically linked. While her connection with

7128-408: Is skeptical of the entire tale, noting that Theodosius did not visit Rome in 394. The Vestals were committed to the priesthood before puberty (when 6–10 years old) and sworn to celibacy for a minimum period of 30 years. A thirty-year commitment was divided into three-decade-long periods during which Vestals were respectively students, servants, and teachers. Vestals typically retired with

7290-429: Is then the patroness of the young soldiers and of brides. At Lanuvium the goddess is known under the epithet Seispes Mater Regina. The titles themselves are a theological definition: she was a sovereign goddess, a martial goddess and a fertility goddess. Hence her flamen was chosen by the highest local magistrate, the dictator, and since 388 BC the Roman consuls were required to offer sacrifices to her. Her sanctuary

7452-416: Is unity between fertility, regality and purification. This unity is underlined by the role of Faunus in the aetiologic story told by Ovid and the symbolic relevance of the Lupercal : asked by the Roman couples at her lucus how to overcome the sterility that ensued the abduction of the Sabine women, Juno answered through a murmuring of leaves " Italidas matres sacer hircus inito " "That a sacred ram cover

7614-480: The penus . Their person was sacrosanct ; anyone who assaulted a Vestal was, in effect, assaulting an embodiment of Rome and its gods, and could be killed with impunity. As no magistrate held power over the Vestals, the lictors of magistrates who encountered a Vestal had to lower their fasces in deference. The Vestals had unique, exclusive rights to use a carpentum , an enclosed, two-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage; some Roman sources remark on its likeness to

7776-577: The Libri Lintei , monere would thence have the meaning of recording: Livius Andronicus identifies her as Mnemosyne . Her dies natalis was on the kalendae of June. Her Temple on the summit of the Capitol was dedicated only in 348 BC by dictator L. Furius Camillus, presumably a son of the great Furius. Livy states he vowed the temple during a war against the Aurunci . Modern scholars agree that

7938-583: The gens Quinctia) and the Fabiani (named after the gens Fabia ). Each college was headed by a magister . In 44 BC, a third college, the Juliani , was instituted in honor of Julius Caesar ; its first magister was Mark Antony . The college of Juliani disbanded or lapsed following the Assassination of Julius Caesar , and was not re-established in the reforms of his successor, Augustus . In

8100-578: The Luperci ("brothers of the wolf"), whose institution and rites were attributed either to the Arcadian culture-hero Evander , or to Romulus and Remus, erstwhile shepherds who had each established a group of followers. The Luperci were young men ( iuvenes ), usually between the ages of 20 and 40. They formed two religious collegia (associations) based on ancestry; the Quinctiliani (named after

8262-513: The Palatine Hill within the Pomerium . This was located near or under the site of the 6th century church of San Teodoro , which has an unusual circular shape similar to that of the nymphaeum later misnamed the Temple of Minerva Medica . In his early 1st-century poem Fasti , Ovid states that by his time this temple had become so dilapidated that it was no longer discernible "because of

SECTION 50

#1732765653598

8424-567: The porticus Pompeiana on the west end of circus Flaminius. The Carthaginian goddess Tanit was evoked at the defeat of Carthage in 146 BC, and romanized as Juno Caelestis (Heavenly Juno). One of her symbols was of the crescent moon. She did not receive a temple in Rome: presumably her image was deposited in another temple of Juno (Moneta or Regina) and later transferred to the Colonia Junonia founded by Caius Gracchus . The goddess

8586-590: The prodigia (supernatural or unearthly phenomena) which happened in her temple were referred to Rome and accordingly expiated there. Many occurred during the presence of Hannibal in Italy. Perhaps the Romans were not completely satisfied with this solution as in 194 BC consul C. Cornelius Cethegus erected a temple to the Juno Sospita of Lanuvium in the Forum Holitorium (vowed three years earlier in

8748-464: The Christian emperor Gratian confiscated the public revenues assigned to the cult of Vesta in Rome. Soon after, the Vestals vanished from the historical record. Priesthoods with similar functions to the Vestals of Rome had an ancient and deeply embedded religious role in various surrounding Latin communities. According to Livy, the Vestals had pre-Roman origins at Alba Longa , where Rhea Silvia ,

8910-592: The Elder tacitly accepted these powers as fact: At the present day, too, it is a general belief, that our Vestal virgins have the power, by uttering a certain prayer, to arrest the flight of runaway slaves, and to rivet them to the spot, provided they have not gone beyond the precincts of the City. If then these opinions be once received as truth, and if it be admitted that the gods do listen to certain prayers, or are influenced by set forms of words, we are bound to conclude in

9072-600: The Hirpi Sorani ("wolves of Soranus", from Sabine hirpus "wolf"), who practiced at Mt. Soracte , 45 km (28 mi) north of Rome, had elements in common with the Roman Lupercalia. Descriptions of the Lupercalia festival of 44 BC attest to its continuity. During the festival, Julius Caesar publicly refused a golden crown offered to him by Mark Antony . The Lupercal cave was restored or rebuilt by Augustus , and has been speculated to be identical with

9234-540: The Imperial era, membership of the two traditional collegia was opened to iuvenes of equestrian status. At the Lupercal altar, a male goat (or goats) and a dog were sacrificed by one or another of the Luperci , under the supervision of the Flamen dialis , Jupiter 's chief priest. An offering was also made of salted mealcakes, prepared by the Vestal Virgins . After the blood sacrifice, two Luperci approached

9396-615: The Imperial era. The Vestals guarded various sacred objects kept in Vesta's penus , including the Palladium – a statue of Pallas Athene which had supposedly been brought from Troy – and a large, presumably wooden phallus, used in fertility rites and at least one triumphal procession, perhaps slung beneath the triumphal general's chariot. Vesta's chief festival was the Vestalia, held in her temple from June 7 to June 15, and attended by matrons and bakers. Servius claims that during

9558-506: The Indoeuropean trifunctional ideology: as Regina and Moneta she is a sovereign deity, as Sespeis, Curitis (spear holder) and Moneta (again) she is an armed protectress, as Mater and Curitis (again) she is a goddess of the fertility and wealth of the community in her association with the curiae . The epithet Lucina is particularly revealing since it reflects two interrelated aspects of the function of Juno: cyclical renewal of time in

9720-583: The Italic mothers". Februlis oversees the secundament of the placenta and is strictly associated to Fluvonia, Fluonia , goddess who retains the blood inside the body during pregnancy. While the protection of pregnancy is stressed by Duval, Palmer sees in Fluonia only the Juno of lustration in river water. Ovid devotes an excursus to the lustrative function of river water in the same place in which he explains

9882-449: The Juno of Falerii: this though seems probable. Other epithets of hers that were in use at Rome include Moneta and Caprotina, Tutula, Fluonia or Fluviona, Februalis, the last ones associated with the rites of purification and fertility of February. Her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions that in the view of Georges Dumézil and Vsevolod Basanoff (author of Les dieux Romains ) can be traced back to

SECTION 60

#1732765653598

10044-466: The Latin camp. There they seduced the Latins into fooling and drinking: after they had fallen asleep, they stole their swords. Then Tutela gave the convened signal to the Romans brandishing an ignited branch after climbing on the wild fig ( caprificus ) and hiding the fire with her mantle. The Romans then irrupted into the Latin camp killing the enemies in their sleep. The women were rewarded with freedom and

10206-521: The Latin term for both the place where coins were made, but also for the currency itself (and the Latin word ultimately yielded in English both mint and money ). Juno Regina is perhaps the epithet most fraught with questions. While some scholars maintain she was known as such at Rome since the most ancient times as paredra (consort) of Jupiter in the Capitoline Triad others think she is

10368-464: The Lupercalia. The festival or its associated rituals gave its name to the Roman month of February ( mensis Februarius ) and thence to the modern month. The Roman god Februus personified both the month and purification, but seems to postdate both. William Shakespeare 's play Julius Caesar begins during the Lupercalia. Mark Antony is instructed by Caesar to strike his wife Calpurnia , in

10530-432: The Roman free and slave women picnicked and had fun together near the site of the wild fig ( caprificus ): the custom implied runs, mock battles with fists and stones, obscene language and finally the sacrifice of a male goat to Juno Caprotina under a wildfig tree and with the using of its lymph. This festival had a legendary aetiology in a particularly delicate episode of Roman history and also recurs at (or shortly after)

10692-598: The Roman goddesses by the time of the end of the republic. This fact raises the question of understanding why she was able of attracting the devotion of the matronae . Gagé traces back the phenomenon to the nature of the cult rendered to the Juno Regina of the Aventine in which Camillus played a role in person. The original devotion of the matronae was directed to Fortuna. Camillus was devout to her and to Matuta, both matronal deities. When he brought Juno Regina from Veii

10854-542: The Roman monarchy and the beginnings of the Republic involved extreme social tensions between Rome and her neighbours, and competition for power and influence between Rome's aristocrats and the commoner majority. In 483 BC, during a period of social conflict between patricians and plebeians, the Vestal Oppia , perhaps the earliest of several historic Vestals of plebeian family, was executed for incestum merely on

11016-546: The Roman people, on the same terms as her who was a Vestal 'on the best terms ' " (thus, with all the entitlements of a Vestal). As soon as she entered the atrium of Vesta's temple, she was under the goddess's service and protection. If a Vestal died before her contracted term ended, potential replacements would be presented in the quarters of the chief Vestal to select the most virtuous. Unlike normal inductees, these candidates did not have to be prepubescent, nor even virgins; they could be young widows or even divorcees, though that

11178-466: The Roman women were already acquainted with many Junos, while the ancient rites of Fortuna were falling off. Camillus would have then made a political use of the cult of Juno Regina to subdue the social conflicts of his times by attributing to her the role of primordial mother. Juno Regina had two temples ( aedes ) in Rome. The one dedicated by Furius Camillus in 392 BC stood on the Aventine : it lodged

11340-478: The Vestalia, the Lupercalia and on September 13, the three youngest Vestals reaped unripened far ( spelt wheat, or possibly emmer wheat). The three senior Vestals parched the grain to make it edible, and mixed it with salt, to make the mola salsa used by priests and priestesses to consecrate (dedicate to the gods) the animal victims offered in public sacrifices. The Vestals' activities thus provided

11502-440: The Vestals for 57 years, according to Tacitus . The Flaminica Dialis and the regina sacrorum also held unique responsibility for certain religious rites, but each held office by virtue of their standing as the spouse of a male priest. Vestal tasks included the maintenance of their chastity, tending Vesta's sacred fire, guarding her sacred penus (store-room) and its contents; collecting ritually pure water from

11664-466: The Vestals") oversaw the work and morals of the Vestals and was a member of the College of Pontiffs . The chief Vestal was probably the most influential and independent of Rome's high priestesses, committed to maintaining several different cults, maintaining personal connections to her birth family, and cultivating the society of her equals among the Roman elite. The Vestalis Maxima Occia presided over

11826-526: The Younger believed that Cornelia, a Virgo Maxima buried alive on the orders of emperor Domitian , may have been an innocent victim. He describes how she sought to keep her dignity intact when she descended into the chamber: As they were leading her to the place of execution, she called upon Vesta, and the rest of the gods, to attest her innocence; and, amongst other exclamations, frequently cried out, "Is it possible that Cæsar can think me polluted, under

11988-407: The affirmative upon the whole question. The 4th-century AD urban prefect Symmachus , who sought to maintain traditional Roman religion during the rise of Christianity, wrote: The laws of our ancestors provided for the Vestal virgins and the ministers of the gods a moderate maintenance and just privileges. This gift was preserved inviolate till the time of the degenerate moneychangers, who diverted

12150-463: The altar. Their foreheads were anointed with blood from the sacrificial knife, then wiped clean with wool soaked in milk , after which they were expected to laugh. The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs (known as februa ) from the flayed skin of the animal, and ran with these, naked or near-naked, along the old Palatine boundary, in an anticlockwise direction around

12312-689: The ancestral fashion; run nude yourselves that you may properly carry out the mockery". There is no contemporary evidence to support the popular notions that Gelasius abolished the Lupercalia, or that he, or any other prelate, replaced it with the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary . A literary association between the Lupercalia and the romantic elements of Saint Valentine's Day dates back to Chaucer and poetic traditions of courtly love . Horace 's Ode III, 18 alludes to

12474-403: The annalistic tradition. However Renard considers Macrobius's authority reliable in his long list of evocationes on the grounds of an archaeological find at Isaura . Roe D'Albret underlines the role played by Camillus and sees a personal link between the deity and her magistrate. Similarly Dumézil has remarked the link of Camillus with Mater Matuta . In his relationship to the goddess he takes

12636-609: The antiquity of the custom. A Greek influence in their cults looks probable. It is noteworthy though that Cicero remarked the existence of a stark difference between the Latin Iuno Seispes and the Argolic Hera (as well the Roman Iuno) in his work De natura deorum . Claudius Helianus later wrote "...she has much new of Hera Argolis" The iconography of Argive Hera, matronal and regal, looks quite far away from

12798-510: The association of the three gods with the birth of Herakles and the siege of Troy, in which Minerva plays a decisive role as a goddess of destiny along with the sovereign couple Uni Tinia. The cults of the Italic Junos reflected remarkable theological complexes: regality, military protection and fertility. In Latium are relatively well known the instances of Tibur, Falerii, Laurentum and Lanuvium. At Tibur and Falerii their sacerdos

12960-615: The authority of the pontifex maximus , head of his priestly college. His influence and status grew during the Republican era, and the religious post became an important, lifetime adjunct to the political power of the annually elected consulship. When Augustus became pontifex maximus , and thus supervisor of all religion, he donated his house to the Vestals. Their sacred fire became his household fire, and his domestic gods ( Lares and Penates ) became their responsibility. This arrangement between Vestals and Emperor persisted throughout

13122-462: The barren to pregnancy. The Luperci completed their circuit of the Palatine, then returned to the Lupercal cave. The Februa was of ancient and possibly Sabine origin. After February was added to the Roman calendar , Februa occurred on its fifteenth day ( a.d. XV Kal. Mart. ). Of its various rituals, the most important came to be those of the Lupercalia. The Romans themselves attributed

13284-536: The basis of various portents, and allegations that she neglected her Vestal duties. In 337 BC, Minucia, another possible first plebeian Vestal, was tried, found guilty of unchastity and buried alive on the strength of her excessive and inappropriate love of dress, and the evidence of a slave. In 123 BC the gift of an altar, shrine and couch to the Bona Dea's Aventine temple by the Vestal Licinia "without

13446-513: The chariots used by Roman generals in triumphs . Otherwise, the Vestals seem to have travelled in a one-seat, curtained litter , or possibly on foot. In every case, they were preceded by a lictor , who was empowered to enforce the Vestal's right-of-way; anyone who passed beneath the litter, or otherwise interfered with its passage, could be lawfully killed on the spot. Vestals could also free or pardon condemned persons en route to execution by touching them, or merely being seen by them, as long as

13608-469: The connections between Rome's public and private religion. So long as their bodies remained unpenetrated, the walls of Rome would remain intact. Their flesh belonged to Rome, and when they died, whatever the cause of their death, their bodies remained within the city's boundary. The Vestals acknowledged one of their number as senior authority, the Vestalis Maxima , but all were ultimately under

13770-466: The cult of Juno in the curiae. The spear could also be the celibataris hasta (bridal spear) that in the marriage ceremonies was used to comb the bridegroom's hair as a good omen. Palmer views the rituals of the curiae devoted to her as a reminiscence of the origin of the curiae themselves in rites of evocatio , a practice the Romans continued to use for Juno or her equivalent at later times as for Falerii, Veii and Carthage . Juno Curitis would then be

13932-437: The curiae are consecrated to Juno Curitis to justify the false etymology of Curitis from curiae: the tables would assure the presence of the tutelary numen of the king as an adviser within each curia, as the epithet itself implies. It can be assumed thence that Juno Moneta intervenes under warlike circumstances as associated to the sacral power of the king. Since coins were later made near her temple, her epithet, moneta became

14094-587: The dead was anyway forbidden within the city's ritual boundary, so she was immured alive in an underground chamber within the city's ritual boundary ( pomerium ) in the Campus Sceleratus ("Evil Field") near the Colline Gate . That Vesta did not intervene to save her former protege was taken as further divine confirmation of guilt. When condemned by the college of pontifices, [the Vestal]

14256-457: The dedication and of her festival was September 1. Another temple stood near the circus Flaminius , vowed by consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 187 BC during the war against the Ligures and dedicated by himself as censor in 179 on December 23. It was connected by a porch with a temple of Fortuna, perhaps that of Fortuna Equestris. Its probable site according to Platner is just south of

14418-521: The deity evoked after her admission into the curiae. Juno Curitis had a temple on the Campus Martius . Excavations in Largo di Torre Argentina have revealed four temple structures, one of whom (temple D or A) could be the temple of Juno Curitis. She shared her anniversary day with Juppiter Fulgur, who had an altar nearby. This Juno is placed by ancient sources in a warring context. Dumézil thinks

14580-438: The divine structure is supported by many scholars, as M. Renard and J. Poucet. His theory purports that while male gods incarnated one single function, there are female goddesses who make up a synthesis of the three functions, as a reflection of the ideal of woman's role in society. Even though such a deity has a peculiar affinity for one function, generally fertility, i. e. the third, she is nevertheless equally competent in each of

14742-440: The encounter had not been pre-arranged. Vestals were permitted to see things forbidden to all other upper-class Roman women; from the time of Augustus on, they had reserved ring-side seating at public games, including gladiator contests, and stage-side seats at theatrical performances. If Vesta's fire went out, Rome was no longer protected. Spontaneous extinction of the sacred flame for no apparent reason might be understood as

14904-456: The epithet Covella , when from the curia Calabra he announced the date of the nonae . On the same day the regina sacrorum sacrificed to Juno a white sow or lamb in the Regia . She is closely associated with Janus , the god of passages and beginnings who after her is often named Iunonius . Some scholars view this concentration of multiple functions as a typical and structural feature of

15066-460: The etymology and its significance are obscure. The wolf appellation may have to do with the fact that an animal predator plays a key role in male rites of passage. Despite Justin's assertion, no deity named "Lupercus" has been identified. The rites were confined to the Lupercal cave, the Palatine Hill , and the Forum, all of which were central locations in Rome's foundation myth . Near the cave stood

15228-528: The etymology of February. A temple ( aedes ) of Juno Lucina was built in 375 BC in the grove sacred to the goddess from early times. It stood precisely on the Cispius near the sixth shrine of the Argei . probably not far west of the church of S. Prassede, where inscriptions relating to her cult have been found. The grove should have extended down the slope south of the temple. As Servius Tullius ordered

15390-415: The existence at Rome of an analogous character: as a rule it is the presence of an original local figure that may allow the introduction of the new one through evocatio. He agrees with Dumézil that we ignore whether the translation of the epithet is exhaustive and what Etruscan notion corresponded to the name Regina which itself is certainly an Italic title. This is the only instance of evocatio recorded by

15552-546: The feminine physiological functions, menstrual cycle and pregnancy: as a rule all lunar deities are deities of childbirth. These aspects of Juno mark the heavenly and worldly sides of her function. She is thus associated to all beginnings and hers are the kalendae of every month: at Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno (Juno of the Kalends ). At Rome on the Kalends of every month the pontifex minor invoked her, under

15714-564: The festival occurred. Ovid connects februare to an Etruscan word for "purging". The name Lupercalia was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lykaia , a wolf festival ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : λύκος , lýkos ; Latin : lupus ), and the worship of Lycaean Pan , assumed to be a Greek equivalent to Faunus , as instituted by Evander . Justin describes

15876-529: The final verdicts. Of the three Vestals executed for incestum between the first Punic War (216) and the end of the Republic (113–111), each was followed by a nameless, bloodless form of human sacrifice seemingly reserved for times of extreme crisis, supposedly at the recommendation of the Sibylline Books ; the living burial or immurement in the Forum Boarium of a Greek man and woman, and

16038-425: The formal dress of high-status Roman matrons (married citizen-women). Vestals and matrons wore a long linen palla over a white woollen stola , a rectangular female citizen's wrap, equivalent to the male citizen's semi-circular toga . A Vestal's hair was bound into a white, priestly infula (head-covering or fillet) with red and white ribbons, usually tied together behind the head and hanging loosely over

16200-460: The gifts for the newborn to be placed in the treasury of the temple though it looks that another shrine stood there before 375 BC. In 190 BC the temple was struck by lightning, its gable and doors injured. The annual festival of the Matronalia was celebrated here on March 1, day of the dedication of the temple. One temple of Juno Sospita was located near the Temple of Cybele northwest of

16362-533: The goat by stonethrowing at Falerii is described in Ovid Amores III 13, 16 ff. In fact the Juno Curritis of Falerii shows a complex articulated structure closely allied to the threefold Juno Seispes of Lanuvium. Ancient etymologies associated the epithet with Cures , with the Sabine word for spear curis , with currus cart, with Quirites , with the curiae , as king Titus Tatius dedicated

16524-409: The goddess, considering it as primary: the other ones would then be the natural and even necessary development of the first. Palmer and Harmon consider it to be the natural vital force of youthfulness, Latte women's fecundity. These original characters would have led to the formation of the complex theology of Juno as a sovereign and an armed tutelary deity. Georges Dumézil on the other hand proposed

16686-428: The goddess, inherent to her being an expression of the nature of femininity. Others though prefer to dismiss her aspects of femininity and fertility and stress only her quality of being the spirit of youthfulness, liveliness and strength, regardless of sexual connexions, which would then change according to circumstances: thus in men she incarnates the iuvenes , a word often used to designate soldiers, hence resulting in

16848-420: The goddess: the request of the Latin dictator would mask an attempted evocatio of the tutelary goddess of Rome. Tutela indeed shows regal, military and protective traits, apart from the sexual ones. Moreover, according to Basanoff these too (breasts, milky juice, genitalia , present or symbolised in the fig and the goat) in general, and here in particular, have an inherently apotropaic value directly related to

17010-445: The hill. In Plutarch 's description of the Lupercalia, written during the early Roman Empire , ...many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery , and

17172-510: The hope that she will be able to conceive. Research published in 2019 suggests that the word Leprechaun derives from Lupercus . Juno (goddess) Juno ( English: / ˈ dʒ uː n oʊ / JOO -noh ; Latin Iūnō [ˈjuːnoː] ) was an ancient Roman goddess , the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera , queen of the gods in Greek mythology and

17334-413: The idea of vital force, the fullness of vital energy, and eternal youthfulness is now generally acknowledged, the multiplicity and complexity of her personality have given rise to various and sometimes irreconcilable interpretations among modern scholars. Juno is certainly the divine protectress of the community, who shows both a sovereign and a fertility character, often associated with a military one. She

17496-443: The influence of whose sacred functions he has conquered and triumphed?" Whether she said this in flattery or derision; whether it proceeded from a consciousness of her innocence or contempt of the emperor, is uncertain; but she continued exclaiming in this manner, til she came to the place of execution, to which she was led, whether innocent or guilty I cannot say, at all events with every appearance and demonstration of innocence. As she

17658-477: The injuries of time". A later Temple of Juno Sospita was vowed by the consul G. Cornelius Cethegus in 197 BC and consecrated and opened in 194 BC. This temple was located at the Roman vegetable market ( Forum Olitorium ) beside Temples of Hope and Piety and near the Carmental Gate . It was apparently this temple that was later reported as having fallen into disrepute by 90 BC , when it

17820-556: The instigation of the Lupercalia to Evander , a culture hero from Arcadia who was credited with bringing the Olympic pantheon, Greek laws and alphabet to Italy, where he founded the city of Pallantium on the future site of Rome, 60 years before the Trojan War . Lupercalia was celebrated in parts of Italy; Luperci are attested by inscriptions at Velitrae , Praeneste , Nemausus (modern Nîmes) and elsewhere. The ancient cult of

17982-461: The institution of the Vestal priesthood to its abolition, an unknown number of Vestals held office. Some are named in Roman myth and history and some are of unknown date. The 1st-century BC author Varro , names the first four, probably legendary Vestals as Gegania, Veneneia, Canuleia, and Tarpeia . Varro and others also portray Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius in the Sabine-Roman war, as

18144-589: The late 4th-century rest on "very unsatisfactory evidence". The Vestals were a powerful and influential priesthood. Towards the end of the Republican era, when Sulla included the young Julius Caesar in his proscriptions , the Vestals interceded on Caesar's behalf and gained him pardon. Caesar's adopted heir, Augustus , promoted the Vestals' moral reputation and presence at public functions, and restored several of their customary privileges that had fallen into abeyance. They were held in awe and attributed certain mysterious and supernatural powers and abilities. Pliny

18306-763: The later West. Elizabeth I of England was portrayed holding a sieve to evoke Tuccia, the Vestal who proved her virtue by carrying water in a sieve. Tuccia herself had been a subject for artists such as Jacopo del Sellaio ( d. 1493) and Joannes Stradanus , and women who were arts patrons started having themselves painted as Vestals. In the libertine environment of 18th century France, portraits of women as Vestals seem intended as fantasies of virtue infused with ironic eroticism. Later, Vestals became an image of republican virtue, as in Jacques-Louis David 's The Vestal Virgin . Excavations in Rome and Pompeii, as well as translation of Latin sources, made Vestals

18468-546: The legend of Aeneas as their ancestor. Among ancient sources indeed Servius states that according to the Etrusca Disciplina towns should have the three temples of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva at the end of three roads leading to three gates. Vitruvius writes that the temples of these three gods should be located on the most elevated site, isolated from the other. To his Etruscan founders the meaning of this triad might have been related to peculiarly Etruscan ideas on

18630-551: The maintenance of sacred chastity into a fund for the payment of base porters. A public famine ensued on this act, and a bad harvest disappointed the hopes of all the provinces   [...] it was sacrilege which rendered the year barren, for it was necessary that all should lose that which they had denied to religion. Dissolution of the Vestal College would have followed soon after the emperor Gratian confiscated its revenues in 382 AD. The last epigraphically attested Vestal

18792-482: The month of February and the Nonae Caprotinae of July 5 offer a depiction of Juno's roles in the spheres of fertility, war, and regality. In the Roman calendar, February is a month of universal purification, and begins the new year. In book II of his Fasti , Ovid derives the month's name from februae (expiations); lustrations designed to remove spiritual contamination or ritual pollution accumulated in

18954-489: The most prominent families be surrendered to the Latins as hostages. While the senate was debating the issue a slave girl, whose Greek name was Philotis and Latin Tutela or Tutula proposed that she together with other slave girls would render herself up to the enemy camp pretending to be the wives and daughters of the Roman families. Upon agreement of the senate, the women dressed up elegantly and wearing golden jewellery reached

19116-422: The nature of Juno. The occasion of the feria , shortly after the poplifugia , i.e. when the community is in its direst straits, needs the intervention of a divine tutelary goddess, a divine queen, since the king (divine or human) has failed to appear or has fled. Hence the customary battles under the wild figs, the scurrilous language that bring together the second and third function. This festival would thus show

19278-531: The origins of the cult and of the temple were much more ancient. M. Guarducci considers her cult very ancient, identifying her with Mnemosyne as the Warner because of her presence near the auguraculum , her oracular character, her announcement of perils: she considers her as an introduction into Rome of the Hera of Cuma dating to the 8th century. L. A. Mac Kay considers the goddess more ancient than her etymology on

19440-449: The other instances of her modesty, "She took great care to fall with decency." [The quotation is from Euripides , Hecuba .] Dionysius of Halicarnassus claims that long before Rome's foundation, Vestals at ancient Alba Longa were whipped and "put to death" for breaking their vows of celibacy, and that their offspring were to be thrown into the river. According to Livy, Rhea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus, had been forced to become

19602-468: The other was buried alive - he does not say which. Vestals could exploit their familial and social connections, as well as their unique, untouchable status and privileges, taking the role of patron and protector. Cicero describes how the Vestal Claudia, daughter of Appius Claudius Pulcher , walked beside her father in his triumphal procession, to repulse a tribune of the plebs, who wanted to veto

19764-413: The people's approval" was refused by the Roman Senate . In 114 Licinia and two of her colleagues, Vestals Aemilia and Marcia , were accused of multiple acts of incestum . The final accusations were justified by the death, in 114 BC, of Helvia, a virgin girl of equestrian family, killed by lightning while on horseback. The manner of her death was interpreted as a prodigy , proof of inchastity by

19926-513: The place of the king of Veii. Camillus's devotion to female deities Mater Matuta and Fortuna and his contemporary vow of a new temple to both Matuta and Iuno Regina hint to a degree of identity between them: this assumption has by chance been supported by the discovery at Pyrgi of a bronze lamella which mentions together Uni and Thesan , the Etruscan Juno and Aurora, i.e. Mater Matuta. One can then suppose Camillus's simultaneous vow of

20088-413: The previous year. On the 1st of the month, a black ox was sacrificed to Helernus , a minor underworld deity whom Dumézil takes as a god of vegetation related to the cult of Carna /Crane, a nymph who may be an image of Juno Sospita. On the same day, Juno's dies natalis ("birthday") as Juno Sospita was celebrated at her Palatine temple. On February 15 the Lupercalia festival was held, in which Juno

20250-506: The queen of Jupiter Rex. The actual epithet Regina could though come from Veii. At Rome this epithet may have been applied to a Juno other than that of the temple on the Aventine built to lodge the evocated Veian Juno as the rex sacrorum and his wife-queen were to offer a monthly sacrifice to Juno in the Regia. This might imply that the prerepublican Juno was royal. J. Gagé dismisses these assumptions as groundless speculations as no Jupiter Rex

20412-437: The shape of its fruits and the white viscous juice of the tree. Basanoff has argued that the legend not only alludes to sex and fertility in its association with wildfig and goat but is in fact a summary of sort of all the qualities of Juno. As Juno Sespeis of Lanuvium Juno Caprotina is a warrior, a fertiliser and a sovereign protectress. In fact, the legend presents a heroine, Tutela, who is a slightly disguised representation of

20574-609: The shoulders. The red ribbons of the Vestal infula were said to represent Vesta's fire; and the white, virginity, or sexual purity. The stola is associated with Roman citizen-matrons and Vestals, not with brides. This covering of the body by way of the gown and veils "signals the prohibitions that governed [the Vestals] sexuality". The stola communicates the message of "hands off" and asserts their virginity. The prescribed everyday hairstyle for Vestals, and for brides only on their wedding day, comprised six or seven braids; this

20736-779: The surface was level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of all the tributes of respect usually paid to the spirits of the departed. If discovered, the paramour of a guilty Vestal was publicly beaten to death by the pontifex maximus , in the Forum Boarium or on the Comitium . Trials for Vestal incestum are "extremely rare"; most took place during military or religious crises. Some Vestals were probably used as scapegoats; their political alliances and alleged failure to observe oaths and duties were held to account for civil disturbances, wars, famines, plagues and other signs of divine displeasure. The end of

20898-402: The temple as well as the presence of the snake show she was the tutelary goddess of the city, as Athena at Athens and Hera at Argos. The motif of the snake of the palace as guardian goddess of the city is shared by Iuno Seispes with Athena, as well as its periodic feeding. This religious pattern moreover includes armour, goatskin dress, sacred birds and a concern with virginity in cult. Virginity

21060-449: The temples of the two goddesses should be seen in the light of their intrinsic association. Octavianus will repeat the same translation with the statue of the Juno of Perusia in consequence of a dream That a goddess evoked in war and for political reasons receive the homage of women and that women continue to have a role in her cult is explained by Palmer as a foreign cult of feminine sexuality of Etruscan derivation. The persistence of

21222-467: The testimony of Valerius Maximus who states she was the Juno of Veii. The sacred geese of the Capitol were lodged in her temple: as they are recorded in the episode of the Gallic siege (ca. 396-390 BC) by Livy, the temple should have existed before Furius's dedication. Basanoff considers her to go back to the regal period: she would be the Sabine Juno who arrived at Rome through Cures . At Cures she

21384-500: The theory of the irreducibility and interdependence of the three aspects (sovereignty, war, fertility) in goddesses that he interprets as an original, irreducible structure as hypothesised in his hypothesis of the trifunctional ideology of the Indoeuropeans . While Dumézil's refusal of seeing a Greek influence in Italic Junos looks difficult to maintain in the light of the contributions of archaeology, his comparative analysis of

21546-486: The third, military, aspect of Juno is reflected in Juno Curitis and Moneta. Palmer too sees in her a military aspect. As for the etymology, Cicero gives the verb monēre warn, hence the Warner . Palmer accepts Cicero's etymology as a possibility while adding mons mount, hill, verb e-mineo and noun monile referred to the Capitol, place of her cult. Also perhaps a cultic term or even, as in her temple were kept

21708-429: The three accused. Aemilia, who had supposedly incited the two others to follow her example, was condemned outright and put to death. Marcia, who was accused of only one offence, and Licinia, who was accused of many, were at first acquitted by the pontifices , but were retried by Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla (consul 127), and condemned to death in 113. The prosecution offered two Sibylline prophecies in support of

21870-565: The three. Vestal Virgin In ancient Rome , the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( Latin : Vestālēs , singular Vestālis [wɛsˈtaːlɪs] ) were priestesses of Vesta , virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty from several suitable candidates, freed from any legal ties and obligations to their birth family, and enrolled in Vesta's priestly college of six priestesses. They were supervised by

22032-459: The triumph. Cicero also records a Vestal Fonteia, present during the trial of her brother in 69. Fabia , admitted to the order in 80 and made chief Vestal around 50, was half-sister of Terentia (Cicero's first wife), and full sister of Fabia the wife of Dolabella who later married her niece Tullia ; she was probably mother of the later consul of that name. In 73 she was acquitted of incestum with Lucius Sergius Catilina . The case

22194-409: The waning and waxing of the moon and protection of delivery and birth (as she who brings to light the newborn as vigour, vital force). The ancient called her Covella in her function of helper in the labours of the new moon. The view that she was also a Moon goddess though is no longer accepted by scholars, as such a role belongs to Diana Lucifera : through her association with the moon she governed

22356-584: The warlike and savage character of Iuno Seispes, especially considering that it is uncertain whether the former was an armed Hera. After the definitive subjugation of the Latin League in 338 BC the Romans required as a condition of peace the condominium of the Roman people on the sanctuary and the sacred grove of Juno Seispes in Lanuvium, while bestowing Roman citizenry on the Lanuvians. Consequently,

22518-506: The wife of Rome's senior magistrate; the magistrate himself was supposed to stay elsewhere for the occasion. On May 15, Vestals and pontiffs collected ritual straw figures called Argei from stations along Rome's city boundary and cast them into the Tiber , to purify the city. Vestals were lawfully personae sui iuris – "sovereign over themselves", answerable only to the pontifex maximus . Unlike any other Roman women, they could make

22680-476: The wooden statue of the Juno transvected from Veii. It is mentioned several times by Livy in connexion with sacrifices offered in atonement of prodigia . It was restored by Augustus. Two inscriptions found near the church of S. Sabina indicate the approximate site of the temple, which corresponds with its place in the lustral procession of 207 BC, near the upper end of the Clivus Publicius. The day of

22842-598: Was Populona (she who increase the number of the people or, in K. Latte's understanding of the iuvenes , the army), in Umbria at Pisaurum Lucina, at Terventum in Samnium Regina, at Pisarum Regina Matrona, at Aesernia in Samnium Regina Populona. In Rome she was since the most ancient times named Lucina, Mater and Regina. It is debated whether she was also known as Curitis before the evocatio of

23004-442: Was a male, called pontifex sacrarius , a fact that has been seen as a proof of the relevance of the goddess to the whole society. In both towns she was known as Curitis , the spearholder, an armed protectress. The martial aspect of these Junos is conspicuous, quite as much as that of fecundity and regality: the first two look strictly interconnected: fertility guaranteed the survival of the community, peaceful and armed. Iuno Curitis

23166-515: Was a member of the Capitoline Triad ( Juno Capitolina ), centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva , goddess of wisdom. Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She was often shown armed and wearing a goatskin cloak. The traditional depiction of this warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena , who bore

23328-479: Was acquitted. The House of the Vestals was the residence of the vestal priestesses in Rome. Located behind the Temple of Vesta (which housed the sacred fire), the Atrium Vestiae was a three-storey building at the foot of the Palatine Hill , "very large and exceptionally magnificent both in decoration and material". Vestal costume had elements in common with high-status Roman bridal dress , and with

23490-409: Was also a Roman citizen (he had been tribune of the plebs in 57 BC), resided in Rome. When he fatally met Clodius near Bovillae (Milo's slaves killed Clodius in that encounter), he was on his way to Lanuvium in order to nominate the flamen of Juno Seispes. The complexity of the figure of Juno has caused much uncertainty and debate among modern scholars. Some emphasize one aspect or character of

23652-419: Was being lowered down into the subterranean vault, her robe happening to catch upon something in the descent, she turned round and disengaged it, when, the executioner offering his assistance, she drew herself back with horror, refusing to be so much as touched by him, as though it were a defilement to her pure and unspotted chastity: still preserving the appearance of sanctity up to the last moment; and, among all

23814-475: Was called suffimen . During the Parilia festival, April 21, it was sprinkled on bonfires to purify shepherds and their flocks, and probably to ensure human and animal fertility in the Roman community. On May 1, Vestals officiated at Bona Dea 's public-private, women-only rites at her Aventine temple. They were also present, in some capacity, at the Bona Dea's overnight, women-only December festival, hosted by

23976-443: Was celebrated as the birthday of Rome's founder and first king, Romulus , and the peaceful union of Romans and Sabine peoples through treaty and marriage after their war , which was ended by the intervention of women. After Wissowa many scholars have remarked the similarity between the Juno of the Lupercalia and the Juno of Lanuvium Seispes Mater Regina as both are associated with the goat, symbol of fertility. But in essence there

24138-439: Was endorsed by Georg Wissowa . Iuuen- is related to Latin aevum and Greek aion (αἰών) through a common Indo-European root referring to a concept of vital energy or "fertile time". The iuvenis is he who has the fullness of vital force. In some inscriptions Jupiter himself is called Iuuntus , and one of the epithets of Jupiter is Ioviste , a superlative form of iuuen- meaning "the youngest". Iuventas , "Youth",

24300-403: Was famous, rich and powerful. Her cult included the annual feeding of a sacred snake with barley cakes by virgin maidens. The snake dwelt in a deep cave within the precinct of the temple, on the arx of the city: the maidens approached the lair blindfolded. The snake was supposed to feed only on the cakes offered by chaste girls. The rite was aimed at ensuring agricultural fertility. The site of

24462-487: Was frowned upon and thought unlucky. Tacitus recounts how Gaius Fonteius Agrippa and Domitius Pollio offered their daughters as Vestal candidates in 19 AD to fill such a vacant position. Equally matched, Pollio's daughter was chosen only because Agrippa had been recently divorced. The pontifex maximus ( Tiberius ) "consoled" the failed candidate with a dowry of 1 million sesterces . The chief Vestal ( Virgo Vestalis Maxima or Vestalium Maxima , "greatest of

24624-479: Was involved as Juno Lucina . This is usually understood to be a rite of purification and fertility. A goat was sacrificed and its hide cut into strips, used to make whips known as februum and amiculus Iunonis , wielded by the Luperci . The Juno of this day bears the epithet of Februalis , Februata , Februa . On the last day of the month, leading into March 1, she was celebrated as protectress of matrons and marriages. The new year began on March 1. The same

24786-680: Was once again transferred to Rome by emperor Elagabalus . A surviving temple to Juno Caelestis was built between 222 and 235 AD in the town of Dougga . The first mention of a Capitoline triad refers to the Capitolium Vetus . The only ancient source who refers to the presence of this divine triad in Greece is Pausanias X 5, 1–2, who mentions its existence in describing the Φωκικόν in Phocis . The Capitoline triad poses difficult interpretative problems. It looks peculiarly Roman, since there

24948-485: Was one of two deities who "refused" to leave the Capitol when the building of the new Temple of Capitoline Jove required the exauguration of deities who already occupied the site. Ancient etymologies associated Juno's name with iuvare , "to aid, benefit", and iuvenescere , "rejuvenate", sometimes connecting it to the renewal of the new and waxing moon, perhaps implying the idea of a moon goddess. Juno's theology

25110-477: Was present in many towns of ancient Italy: at Lanuvium as Sespeis Mater Regina, Laurentum , Tibur , Falerii , Veii as Regina, at Tibur and Falerii as Regina and Curitis, Tusculum and Norba as Lucina . She is also attested at Praeneste , Aricia , Ardea , Gabii . In five Latin towns a month was named after Juno (Aricia, Lanuvium, Laurentum, Praeneste, Tibur). Outside Latium in Campania at Teanum she

25272-401: Was prosecuted by Cicero . The 1st century Vestal Licinia was supposedly courted by her kinsman, the so-called " triumvir " Marcus Licinius Crassus – who in fact wanted her property. This relationship gave rise to rumours. Plutarch says: "And yet when he was further on in years, he was accused of criminal intimacy with Licinia, one of the Vestal virgins and Licinia was formally prosecuted by

25434-399: Was stained by episodes of prostitution and a bitch delivered her puppies beneath the temple's statue of the goddess. The consul L. Julius Caesar secured its restoration with a Senatorial decree and relics from the temple remain today. The alliance of the three aspects of Juno finds a strictly related parallel to the Lupercalia in the festival of the Nonae Caprotinae . On that day

25596-524: Was stationed there at all times. Vestals who allowed the sacred fire to go out were punished with whipping. Vestals who lost their chastity were guilty of incestum , and were sentenced to living burial , a bloodless death that must seem voluntary. Their sexual partners, if known, were publicly beaten to death. These were infrequent events; most vestals retired with a generous pension and universal respect. They were then free to marry, though few of them did. Some appear to have renewed their vows. In 382 AD,

25758-468: Was stripped of her vittae and other badges of office, was scourged, was attired like a corpse, placed in a close litter, and borne through the forum attended by her weeping kindred, with all the ceremonies of a real funeral, to a rising ground called the Campus Sceleratus just within the city walls, close to the Colline gate. There a small vault underground had been previously prepared, containing

25920-492: Was suspected and tried for unchastity on grounds of her immodest attire and over-familiar manner. Some Vestals were acquitted. Some cleared themselves through ordeals or miraculous deeds; in a celebrated case during the mid-Republic, the Vestal Tuccia , accused of unchastity, carried water in a sieve to prove her innocence; Livy's epitomator (Per. 20) claims that she was condemned nevertheless but in all other sources she

26082-463: Was the tutelary deity of the military chief: as such she is never to be found among Latins. This new quality is apparent in the location of her fanum , her name, her role: 1. her altar is located in the regia of Titus Tatius; 2. Moneta is, from monere , the Adviser : like Egeria with Numa (Tatius's son in law) she is associated to a Sabine king; 3. In Dionysius of Halicarnassus the altar-tables of

26244-695: Was thought to date back to the most ancient of times. In 2013 Janet Stephens recreated the hairstyle of the vestals on a modern person. High-status brides were veiled in the same saffron-yellow flammeum as the Flamenica Dialis , priestess of Jupiter and wife to his high priest. Vestals wore a white, purple-bordered suffibulum (veil) when travelling outdoors, performing public rites or offering sacrifices. Respectable matrons were also expected to wear veils in public. One who appeared in public without her veil could be thought to have repudiated her marriage, making herself "available". From

#597402