Vesta

Vesta (Romanian ./Hestia (gr.) is the goddess of the hearth. She is the symbol of fidelity.

It is important, not to confuse the antique Vesta (i.e. Titéia or the Ground), woman of Uranus, with the Vesta virgin, goddess of fire (or fire even), because the Greeks named it Hestia , word which indicates " hearth of the maison". However, among poets, very often these two divinities appear to be confused.

Worship

The vestals are virgin women who practice the worship of the Vesta goddess.

Origin

Vesta, goddess of fire and the hearth, had a worship which, in Asia and Greece, went back to highest antiquity. It was honoured with Troy, a long time before the ruin of this city, and it was Énée which, believes one, brought in Italy its worship and its symbol: it had it among its gods Pénate S.

Ritual

The Greeks began and finished all their sacrifices by honouring Hestia (Vesta), and called upon it the first, before all the other gods. There was with Corinthe a temple of Hestia, but without any statue; one saw only in the middle of this temple a furnace bridge for the sacrifices which were done with the goddess. She had also furnace bridges in several temples devoted to other gods, as Delphes, Athens, Ténédos, Argos, Milet, Éphèse, etc

Its worship mainly consisted in maintaining the fire which was devoted to him and taking guard which it did not die out.

With Rome, Numa Pompilius made build in Vesta a temple of round form, with the image of the round Earth. It is in the middle of this temple which one maintained the fire crowned with all the more vigilance that it was looked at reflection of the central fire of the Earth. If this fire had suddenly died out, one was to relight it only with the rays of the sun, by means of a kind of mirror. Even without fire dying out, it was renewed every year, the first day of March.

Representations

In Rome, like at the Greeks, Vesta, the virgin, had of another image or another symbol only crowned fire. One in the manners of representing it was out of dress of Matrone, vêtue of the Stola, holding of the right hand a torch or a lamp, or a Patère, vase with two handles, called capeduncula , sometimes also a Palladium or small a Victoire. Sometimes, instead of the patère, it holds a haste, javelin without iron, or a horn of plenty. On the medals and the monuments, the titles that one gives him are Vesta the holy one, the eternal one, the happy one, the old one, Vesta the mother, etc

Religions

Among Romans, the crowned fire of Vesta was kept and maintained by young virgins, the Vestales. These young girls were selected in more the big families of Rome, at the age from six to ten years. They remained with the service of the goddess throughout one twenty to thirty years. They returned then within the Roman company, with the permission to contract marriage. But, during their priesthood, the Vestals who left fire to die out severely and were even cruelly punished: that which violated its wishes of virginity was put at death, sometimes immured (One locked up it in a tomb, then one built a wall on it).

In compensation of all these rigors, the Vestals were the object of a universal respect: like the dignitaries, they were preceded by a Licteur, depended only on the Pontifex maximus; they were often called to alleviate the dissensions in the families: one entrusted the secrecies of the private individuals to them and sometimes those of the State. It is between their hands that the Testament S. were deposited.

They had the girded head of white wool strips, which fell down to them gracefully on the shoulders and on each side of the chest. Their clothing was of a great simplicity, but not deprived of elegance. Over a white dress they carried a kind of ratchet of the same color. Their coat, which was of crimson, hid a shoulder to them and left the other half-naked one. Originally they cut the hair, but later they carried all their hair. When the luxury had been spread in Rome, one saw them walking in sumptuous litter, even in a splendid tank, with a many succession of women and slaves.

To be able

It is the protective goddess of the domestic hearth, the families, the cities, the colonies and religious serenity.

Family ties

Vesta is the oldest daughter of Saturn and Cybèle. She is the sister of Jupiter, Neptune, Pluton, Junon and Cérès.

See too

  • ancient Rome

  • Roman Mythology
  • Roman Gods
  • Roman Religion
  • the Asteroid 4 Vesta.
  • Representations of Vesta and its temple on the currencies of the Roman empire
  • Vesta in Mythology and Art

Simple: Vesta (mythology)

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