Source Verification: Vesta
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Are Hestia and Vesta the same?
Roman writers treated them as the same goddess under two names. Cicero says the name Vesta comes from the Greek Hestia and that her province is altars and hearths (De Natura Deorum 2.67). The cults differed. Hesiod makes Hestia the first child of Cronus and Rhea (Theogony 453-458), while Ovid makes Vesta the third daughter of Saturn and Ops (Fasti 6.285-286). Rome also gave Vesta a state priesthood of virgins, while Plutarch says Greek perpetual fires at Delphi and Athens were tended by widows (Life of Numa 9.5).
Source: Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.67
Is the flame of Vesta still burning?
No. The fire in Rome's temple went out when the cult ended. Zosimus tells of the last Vestal cursing Serena, but he does not date the fire's end (New History 5.38). Modern historians place the closing of the temple in the early 390s under Theodosius I, and usually give 394. Plutarch says the fire could be relit only from the sun's rays, using concave mirrors (Life of Numa 9.6-7). No ancient source I found describes any flame that has burned since. The ruins of the Atrium Vestae stand in the Roman Forum.
Source: Ovid, Fasti 3.135-144
Why is Vesta so important?
Vesta was the goddess of the hearth, and Rome treated its public hearth as the pledge of the city's safety. Her flame stood for the household of the whole state. Virgil has Hector hand Aeneas Vesta and her eternal fire as Troy falls (Aeneid 2.296-297). Ovid says her worship has a place in every prayer and that the pledges of fate were kept under her watch (Fasti 6.303-304; 6.435-436). Livy says King Numa paid her priestesses from public funds so they could give their whole time to the temple (Ab Urbe Condita 1.20.3).
Source: Virgil, Aeneid 2.296-297
What did Vestal Virgins do?
The Vestal Virgins kept Vesta's fire burning and lived under a vow of chastity. Livy says Numa gave them a public stipend and made their persons sacred (Ab Urbe Condita 1.20.3). Plutarch says they served for thirty years, learning for ten, serving for ten and teaching for ten (Life of Numa 10.1). They could also spare a condemned criminal they met on the road (Life of Numa 10.3). A Vestal who broke her vow was buried alive (Life of Numa 10.4-7). Some held that they guarded hidden sacred objects as well as the fire (Life of Numa 9.8).
Source: Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1.20.3
What does Vesta mean?
The ancient sources give two answers. Cicero says the name is the Greek Hestia carried into Latin (De Natura Deorum 2.67). Ovid offers a word play. The earth stands by its own force (vi stat), and Vesta is named from standing by force, perhaps for the same reason as the Greek name (Fasti 6.299-300). Ovid also links focus, the hearth, to fire that warms everything, and suggests vestibulum is named for her (Fasti 6.301-304). These are ancient guesses, and the sources do not settle the word's origin.
Source: Ovid, Fasti 6.299-300
Where Accounts Differ
- who founded the Vestal cult
- whether Vesta had a statue
- why the temple is round
- whether Vesta or Hestia is the elder sister
- why the Vestals were virgins
- whether prayers begin or end with Vesta
- who carried the Palladium from Troy
- when the Vestal fire went out
- The sources disagree on who founded the Vestal cult. Livy gives Numa credit and says the order began in Alba (Ab Urbe Condita 1.20.3). His own account of Rhea Silvia, made a Vestal by Amulius before Numa, already assumes the order existed (Ab Urbe Condita 1.3.11). Plutarch ascribes the consecration of the Vestals to Numa in one Life (Numa 9.5) and reports in another that some say Romulus first appointed them (Romulus 22.1).
- Ovid contradicts himself on whether Vesta had statues. In Book 3 the statues of Vesta cover their eyes at Silvia's labour (Fasti 3.45-46). In Book 6 he says he long believed in images of Vesta, then learned that no image stands under the dome (Fasti 6.295-298). Zosimus writes of a statue of Vesta whose necklace Serena took (New History 5.38). Translations differ on which goddess the statue shows, so this passage is not used here to settle the question.
- The temple's round shape has two explanations. Ovid says it copies the globe of the earth, which he equates with Vesta (Fasti 6.267-282). Plutarch says Numa did not mean the shape of the earth but of the whole universe, with fire at the Pythagorean centre (Life of Numa 11.1).
- Vesta's birth order differs between Greek and Roman accounts. Hesiod makes Hestia the first of Cronus's children (Theogony 453-458). Ovid makes Vesta the third, after Juno and Ceres, all children of Saturn and Ops (Fasti 6.285-286).
- Why the Vestals were virgins has three ancient answers. Ovid says Vesta alone of the three sisters refused marriage (Fasti 6.287-290), and that a flame bears no bodies (Fasti 6.291-294). Plutarch says Numa thought fire pure and uncorrupted, or barren and so akin to virginity (Life of Numa 9.5).
- Cicero says prayers and sacrifices end in Vesta's name (De Natura Deorum 2.67). Ovid says prayers begin with her, because she holds the first places (Fasti 6.303-304).
- Ovid does not say who took the Palladium from Troy. He lists Adrastus's son-in-law Diomedes, Ulysses and Aeneas as the candidates, and says only that Vesta now guards it (Fasti 6.433-436).
- The end of the flame is not recorded in the sources checked here. Zosimus tells only of the last Vestal's curse on Serena (New History 5.38). The closing under Theodosius I, usually dated to 394, comes from modern reconstruction, not from a passage I could check.
Sources
- Ovid, Fasti 3.11-48
- Ovid, Fasti 3.135-144
- Ovid, Fasti 6.249-304
- Ovid, Fasti 6.311-348
- Ovid, Fasti 6.421-460
- Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1.3.11
- Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1.4.2
- Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1.20.3
- Virgil, Aeneid 2.293-297
- Plutarch, Life of Romulus 22.1
- Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.67
- Hesiod, Theogony 453-458