VESTA, the Roman hearth-goddess. The name is etymologi cally identical with Hestia (q.v.), but the Roman cult is nearer the primitive conditions. In an early community fire was hard to make, and therefore it was desirable that at least one fire should be kept always burning. This duty would naturally de volve upon the chief or king, and the actual maintenance of the fire would usually fall to his young daughters, since slaves, if he had any, would hardly be trusted with a duty considered holy, he and his sons would be out most of the day, and his wife would be busy with housework. Much of the actual prepara tion of food would also fall upon the daughters, as soon as they were old enough, for a Roman housewife in early days might not grind corn or cook food for her husband (Plutarch, quaest. Rom., 85). Hence we get, in early historical times, besides the private cult of Vesta and the di penates (q.v.) in every household, a public cult of a sacred royal hearth, never allowed to go out, tended by girls (Virgines Vestales) whose service begins when they are from six to ten years old (Gellius, i. 12, 1), and lasts originally for five years (Dion. Hal., i. 76, 3), i.e., till they are old enough for marriage, or at least bethrothal. The earliest cult of this kind was supposed to be that at Lavinium ; the most famous was at Rome.
In Republican times, the pontifex maximus took the place of the king for many sacred purposes. The Vestals, whose number was six, and whose term of service had now been lengthened to 3o years, were in his charge, being freed from the potestas of their own fathers. They must, when chosen, be of the required age, free-born of free-born and respectable parents (although later, daughters of freedmen were eligible), having both parents alive (patrimae et matrimae), and free from physical and men tal defects. The pontifex took the candidate by the hand, pro nouncing a formula of admission to the sacred office ; her hair was cut and the cuttings hung on a certain tree ; she was dressed in an ancient costume, identical with that of a bride. From this it does not follow that she was the wife of either fire-god or king (Klausen, Frazer, Wissowa), but rather that the bride's dress was that of a virgin. If a Vestal let the fire go out she was beaten. On such occasions, and also apparently once a year, when it was solemnly extinguished and re-lighted at the New Year (March 1), the fire was re-kindled by friction of wood (the use of a burning-glass, Plut., Numa. 9, if Roman at all, is cer tainly a late innovation). If found guilty of unchastity, she was subjected to an ordeal which amounted to a horrible form of capital punishment; she was shut up with a little food in an underground cell, which was covered over with earth. The
Vestals' duties, besides the tending of the fire, comprised the fetching of water from a sacred spring (Vesta would have no water from the city mains), the preparation of sacred food-stuffs (muries, or brine, and mold salsa, coarse meal mixed with salt) for ritual purposes; also the custody of various holy objects, said to include the Palladium (q.v.) in the genus Vestae or store chamber of the shrine of Vesta, which was so holy that no one but a Vestal might enter it. They took part in ceremonies of various kinds, besides Vesta's own elaborate daily ritual. Fur ther, the privileges accorded to the Vestals, and especially those which were extended to their senior, the Virgo Maxima, were those of princesses.
The shrine of Vesta stood in the Forum, near the Regia, or palace of the kings. It was not technically a temp/um but a round structure, a stone imitation of the primitive hut. When Augustus became pontifex maximus, he built a sec ond shrine of Vesta on the Palatine and handed over the Regia to the Vestals. They also had for their quarters the splendid Atrium Vestae, between the shrine and the Velia. Their cult continued in great honour throughout the empire, until the abo lition of pagan worship by the Christian emperors. Gratian con fiscated the Atrium Vestae in 382. Considerable ruins of both it and the shrine are still to be seen ; the former contains numerous statues (all late) of Vestals. The shrine contained no statue, the eternal fire serving instead. Images of Vesta of any kind are rare ; when shown in art she is represented as a woman fully draped, sometimes accompanied by an ass.
Her festival, the Vestalia, was on June 9 ; thereafter, until June 15, the shrine was closed for the annual ceremonial cleans ing. This period was deemed highly unlucky.
Allied deities were the very old pair of fire-gods, Cacus and Caca, probably belonging to the Palatine settlement, and the later Fornax, spirit of the baker's oven (hence Vesta's associa tion with the ass, which turns the mill; bakers in early Rome were also millers).