In addition to the Matralia festival, which has already been discussed in this series, there was another very prominent festival in the Roman calendar of holidays in June. From June 7 to 15, the Romans celebrated the Vestalia, a festival in honor of the goddess Vesta, over the course of several days. Vesta, one of the oldest Roman goddesses, was responsible for protecting the sacred flame, the flammae custos, and thus held great significance in the public state cult: as long as this sacred flame burned, so the belief went, Rome would endure and flourish. The goddess Vesta and her priestesses (the six virgin Vestal Virgins) were thus the symbolic guarantors of Rome’s continued existence.
This important role within the state cult as a public goddess par excellence likely evolved from Vesta’s original function of ensuring the protection of the domestic hearth fire.
Although the actual festival falls on June 9, the doors of the Temple of Vesta (aedes vestae) located in the Roman Forum were opened as early as June 7 and remained open until June 15. During this period, it was possible to enter the penus Vestae (the temple sanctuary), which was otherwise restricted to all persons except the Vestal Virgins and shielded by a curtain. This exception, however, applied exclusively to Roman matrons, who were required to be barefoot and with disheveled hair. Thus, many women made a pilgrimage to the Temple of Vesta during this period to pay homage within the goddess’s penus with small food offerings and to ask for both blessings and protection for themselves and their families.
On June 9, the main day of the festivities, Vesta was also honored by millers and bakers for her role as the goddess of the hearth fire. After all, the hearth fire was a central component of bread baking. On this day, no work was done, and the donkeys normally used in the grain mills were paraded through the city adorned with wreaths of bread crumbs. In the temple itself, the Vestal Virgins processed special wheat (spelt), which had been prepared as early as the beginning of May, into what was known as mola salsa (a mixture of spelt groats and a salt slurry) and ceremonially partook of it. The mola salsa was an important component of public sacrifices, as the sacrificial animal was ritually sprinkled with mola salsa before the sacrifice to prepare it for the offering. After the preparation and consumption of the mola salsa, the entire Temple of Vesta was thoroughly cleaned on the last day of the Vestalia (June 15), and the resulting waste (stercus) was subsequently disposed of in the Tiber. With the subsequent closing of the penus Vestae, the Vestalia then came to an end.
Patrick Kösters
Bibliography:
Cancik-Lindemaier, Hildegard: Vestalin, in: DNP 12/2 (2002), col. 130–131.
Frateantonio, Christa: Mola salsa, in: DNP 8 (2000), col. 345.
Hooker, Edna M.: The Significance of Numa’s Religious Reforms, in: Numen 10/2 (1963), pp. 87–132.
Philipps, C. Robert: Vesta, in: DNP 12/2 (2002), pp. 131–132.
Simon, Erika: The Gods of the Romans, Munich 1982, pp. 229–240.
Image credit:
Side of a marble base depicting the seated goddess Vesta and a donkey, mid-1st century CE, Naples, Mus.Naz. Inv. 147827, photo taken from: Simon, Erika: The Gods of the Romans, Munich 1982, p. 236.
