| Vestalia | |
|---|---|
Vestal virgin hanging an ivy wreath. | |
| Observed by | Romans |
| Type | Classical Roman religion |
| Date | June 7 - 15 |
Vestalia was a Roman religious festival in honor of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and the burning continuation of the sacred fire of Rome. It was held from 7-15 June, and was reserved as a women's-only event.
Domestic and family life in general were represented by the festival of the goddess of the house and of the spirits of the storechamber — Vesta and the Penates — on Vestalia. [1] On the first day of festivities the penus Vestae ( sanctum sanctorum of the temple of Vesta which was usually curtained off) was opened, for the only time during the year, at which women offered sacrifices. [2] As long as the curtain remained open, mothers could come, barefoot and disheveled, to leave offerings to the goddess in exchange for a blessing to them and their family. [3]
The animal consecrated to Vesta, the donkey, was crowned with garlands of flowers and bits of bread on 9 June. Ovid says that donkeys were adorned with necklaces of bread-bits in memory of the myth where Vesta is nearly violated by Priapus. In that myth, it is the untimely bray of a donkey that startles Priapus and causes him to flee. Before that, he says donkeys were honored on 9 June in thanks for the services they provided in the bakeries. [4] [5] [6]
The final day, 15 June, was Quando Stercum Delatum Fas ["when dung may be removed lawfully"]. The penus Vestae was solemnly closed, the Flaminica Dialis observed mourning, and the temple was subjected to a purification called stercoratio: the filth was swept from the temple and carried next by the route called clivus Capitolinus and then into the Tiber. [2]
The military Feriale Duranum of AD 224 records the first day of Vestalia as Vesta apperit[ur] and the last day as Vesta cluditur. [7]
See also
- Roman festivals
- Carmentalia
- Floralia
- Cerealia
- Fornacalia
- Opiconsivia
- Divalia
- Furrinalia
- Matralia
- Lemuria (festival)
- Matronalia
- Liberalia
- Parilia
- Rosalia, a festival of roses celebrated throughout the Roman Empire
- May Queen
References
- ^ Mommsen 1894, p. 164
- ^ a b Marouzeau 2006, p. 39
- ^ Brulé 1987, p. 112
- ^ Littlewood 2006, p. 103
- ^ Ovid, Fasti VI. 319-48
- ^ Fraschetti 2001, p. 29
- ^ Bowerstock, Brown & Grabar 1999, p. 449
Modern sources
- Bowerstock, Glenn Warren; Brown, Peter; Grabar, Oleg (1999), Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-51173-5
- Brulé, Pierre (1987), La Fille d'Athènes : la religion des filles à l'époque classique : mythes, cultes et société (in French), Paris: Belles lettres, ISBN 978-2-25160-363-6
- Fraschetti, Augusto (2001), Roman Women, translated by Linda Lappin, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226260938
- Littlewood, R. Joy (2006), A Commentary on Ovid: Fasti book VI, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19927-134-4
-
Mommsen, Theodor (1894),
The History of Rome, vol. I
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain. - Newlands, Carole Elizabeth (1995), Playing with Time: Ovid and the Fasti, Volume 55, Cornell University Press, ISBN 0-8014-3080-1