The Vestal Virgins Achieved Power Most Women Were Denied – But at Great Cost
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="schema:primaryImageOfPage og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/The-House-of-the-Vestal-Virgins.jpg?itok=i_dkjs3p"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/The-House-of-the-Vestal-Virgins.jpg?itok=i_dkjs3p" width="610" height="358" alt="The House of the Vestal Virgins, Rome. Source: Bradley Weber /CC BY 2.0" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="schema:description content:encoded"><p>
Lily Moore/The Conversation</p>
<p>You might have heard of a group of women in Ancient Rome known as the “Vestal Virgins”. These female virginal guardians of the sacred flame of Rome could be buried alive for breaking their vows of chastity. Sure, this is a terrible way to go. But…They had power, prestige, privilege, popularity! So, who were these women, and how did they get such cachet?</p>
<p>Known to the ancient Romans as the?
virgines Vestales, the
Vestal Virgins were a religious?
collegium? (priesthood) made up at any one time of six females. These women took vows of virginity for 30 years in order to serve in the cult of Vesta, ancient goddess of the hearth. Following their 30 years of service, they were allowed to leave the priesthood and marry, although most would remain.</p>
<p>Living in the vast complex of the?
atrium Vestae? located in the prime real estate of the
Roman Forum, these priestesses guarded and systematically tended the sacred fire of Vesta in the adjoining temple.</p>
<p>The
Romans believed the Vestals guaranteed the wellbeing of the state through their preservation of the eternal flame, understood in early Rome as an embodiment of the goddess Vesta and symbolic of the hearth of the Roman home.</p>
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