From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion (23 page)

Ritual and legal rules combined to create an artificial entity called

129

a Vestal Virgin
—
virgo vestalis
—
from a little girl who was ten years old at most. The most important and most conspicuous of the ritual rules was the injunction to observe uncompromising chastity. In a society where procreation was of fundamental importance, this injunction alone served to set these women apart from their fellows. But it was complemented by legal rules which were unique to the Vestals and had the effect of setting them apart not only from female citizens, as the injunction to virginity did, but from male Roman citizens too. In this chapter I examine the way in which ritual and law operated in tandem to set the Vestals apart from every other rit- ual category and to render them unique.

Finally an analysis of the most important of the Vestals
’
ritual duties suggests a reason for this complex construction of the Vestal and shows why she was supremely qualified to be a signifier of polit- ical stability. My thesis is that because the Vestals were set apart from the collectivity and could not represent any single ritual cate- gory, they were able to represent the whole. In a ritual sense the Vestals
were
Rome.

4

THE USES OF VIRGINITY

The Vestals and Rome

She that hath broken her vow of chastity is buried alive near the Colline gate. Here a little ridge of earth extends for some distance along the inside of the city wall;
…
Under it a small chamber is constructed, with steps leading down from above. In this are placed a couch with its coverings, a lighted lamp, and very small portions of the necessities of life, such as bread, a bowl of water, milk, and oil, as though they would thereby absolve themselves of the charge of destroying by hunger a life which had been consecrated to the highest services of religion. Then the culprit herself is placed on a litter, over which cover- ings are thrown and fastened down with cords so that not even a cry can be heard from within, and carried through the forum. All the people there silently make way for the litter, and follow it without uttering a sound in a terrible depression of soul. No other spectacle is more appalling nor does any other day bring more gloom to the city than this. When the lit- ter reaches its destination, the attendants unfasten the cords of the coverings. Then the high priest, after stretching his arms towards heaven and uttering certain mysterious prayers, brings forth the culprit, who is closely veiled, and places her on the steps leading down into the chamber. After this he turns away his face as do the rest of the priests, and when she has gone down, the steps are taken up, and great quantities of earth are thrown into the entrance of the chamber, hiding it away, and making the place level with the rest of the mound.

(Plut.,
Num.,
10) Public, often gory, often lingering death, in battles, executions, or in

131

the arena was by no means an unfamiliar spectacle in ancient Rome. Therefore Plutarch
’
s description of the execution of a Vestal Virgin convicted of losing her virginity is, to say the least, unexpected. What surprises is the evocation of an atmosphere of sombreness sur- rounding the meticulous ritual of execution. Particularly poignant is the description of the heavy silence, born of overwhelming emotion, which must have been in such marked contrast to the everyday bus- tle and din of the city.

The Vestals were different; different from any other phenomenon of Roman life or ritual. They were six women ranging in age from early childhood
—
a new Vestal had to be between six and ten years old
—
to middle age and beyond. They were defined by their virgin- ity. Indeed they could be described as virginity personified. There was no such thing as a non-virgin Vestal. Such a phenomenon was a dangerous anomaly and was made to disappear from the Roman state in the fashion Plutarch so vividly describes. The most striking aspect of the implications of a Vestal
’
s virginity, however, is that it was largely taken for granted. Ancient writers scratched their heads over why myrtle was excluded from the cult of Bona Dea, but nobody asked why it was just these six women and no others who were so cruelly put to death if they were suspected of losing their virginity. Nobody asked, because everybody knew the answer: the Vestals were different.

But how were they different and why were they different? The Vestal Virgins have been the object of a great deal of careful schol- arly scrutiny in modern times. But modern scholars, like their ancient counterparts, also largely take for granted the injunction that the unchaste Vestal must be buried alive, as well as the circum- stances of the burial. But this is not only the most striking aspect of the priesthood, it is extraordinary even in the context of the Roman religious system itself. In no other instance that we know of was the transgression of a ritual injunction ever punishable by death. The lack of collective emotion on ritual occasions was until fairly recently considered good enough reason to deny Roman ritual the status of religion. The burial of the unchaste Vestal, as Plutarch rep- resents it at any rate, appears to violate both norms. What was the special significance of the virginity of the Vestals and why did the loss of it provoke so extraordinary a reaction?

The starting point of such an inquiry must be the ritual of inter- ment. This is the most salient feature of the Vestal phenomenon, and the one most frequently alluded to in the ancient literature. Histori-

cal accounts are peppered with references to Vestals put to death on suspicion of unchastity. Moreover the ritual never changed. For a Vestal Virgin the consequences of a determination that she was no longer a virgin were always the same: live interment.

The first thing to note is the complexity of the ritual. The ritualis- tic nature of the punishment of the Vestal is all the more striking when compared with the way her alleged lover was punished. He was publicly flogged to death, without ceremony as far as we can tell.
1
The manner of the Vestal
’
s punishment was in fact used to con- struct an elaborate fiction
—
the fiction that the unchaste Vestal, who was killed for her loss of virginity, was not really killed at all. The underground chamber into which she descended was provided
‘
with very small portions
’—
i.e. symbolic quantities
—
of what is nec- essary to sustain life. There was clearly no realistic assumption that these would keep the woman alive for any length of time, yet by a ritual fiction she was not actually put to death. She went down the steps ostensibly of her own accord, into a
—
symbolically
—
habitable room. The pontiffs averted their gaze and did not see her descend. Finally, all traces of the chamber were erased.
2

What was the ritual nature of an unchaste Vestal? Wissowa
’
s sug- gestion, which has gained wide acceptance, was that she was regarded as a
prodigium,
‘
like a two-headed child or any of the other indications given to the Roman people of unhealthy relations with heaven
’
.
3
But others have pointed out that there are fundamental differences between the nature of
prodigia
and unchaste Vestals.
4
Most significant from the perspective of the present discussion are the differences in procedure that were used to respond to the prob- lem of
prodigia
and the problem of the unchaste Vestal. First,
prodi- gia
were usually dealt with by the
decemvii
and the
haruspices
.
5
There are instances where some of the expiatory rites were recom- mended by the pontiffs, but these were rare. However, it was the pontifical college alone that tried and condemned a suspected Vestal. This is of fundamental importance. Of the
haruspices
’
involvement in expiation of prodigies, MacBain writes,
‘
In no other society, ancient or modern, has a priesthood of foreign nationality been permitted to enjoy such an intimate relationship to the religious

—
and sometimes political
—
life of the people.
’
6
We shall see shortly why it would have been inappropriate to have
‘
foreign
’
religious functionaries involved with the regulation of the Vestals. The sec- ond point is the manner in which an unchaste Vestal was disposed of. Unfortunates born with marked physical deformities such as so-

called two-headed children, or children without eyes or noses, or androgynes, were from time to time labelled
prodigia
and destroyed. However, the manner of their disposal contrasted markedly with the manner of the disposal of an unchaste Vestal. Androgynes, for example, whose status as
prodigia
was based on their ambivalent sexual status, were cast out of the city. Most of the cases recorded by Obsequens were sewn up in sacks and thrown into the sea.
7
The unchaste Vestal, however, was buried within the city. This is all the more remarkable because there was a rule going back to the XII Tables that nobody
’
s remains must lie within the boundaries of the city.
8
The Vestals were the only category in whose case the exception to the rule was the norm. Apparently, the Vestal who had transgressed and thereby put the state in the gravest jeop- ardy nevertheless retained the privileges granted to her colleagues, who by guarding their virginity guaranteed the state
’
s peace and prosperity. Finally, according to Plutarch, priests
—
hiereis
—
made offerings to the dead Vestals
—
the ones who had been buried alive, that is
—
at the spot where they were buried.
9
The interpretation of an unchaste Vestal as a
prodigium
raises more problems than it solves.

Significantly
—
and this is perhaps the most important factor relat- ing to the punishment of a Vestal
—
the burials typically took place during times of severe political crisis. Tim Cornell observes that we have only two recorded instances of Vestals being punished for unchastity during the period between the first Punic war and the end of the Republic.
10
The two instances occurred in 216 and 114 BC. Both took place against the background of intense emotional upheaval following news, on each occasion, of the annihilation of the Roman army. It is striking that not only are these the only two known examples of execution of Vestals for this period, but that they also coincide with two of the three known instances of human sacrifice ever recorded in Rome.
11
On each occasion two Greeks and two Gauls were buried alive in the Forum Boarium. This was a source of embarrassment to Livy at least, who described it as some- thing uncharacteristic of Roman ritual.
12
From a modern perspec- tive there might appear to be an analogy between the burial of the unchaste Vestal and the burial of the victim of human sacrifice. All were victims of the current crisis and ensuing panic. But it is impor- tant that Livy appears to see no such analogy. The burial of unchaste Vestals was a necessary, even vital part of Roman ritual, but the

burial of the Greeks and the Gauls was an embarrassing lapse from the Roman ideal.

The virginity of a Vestal was a powerful force. It was qualitatively different from the chastity of a matron or from general injunctions for sexual continence. A Vestal
’
s virginity represented life and death, stability and chaos for the Roman state. This cannot be over- stated.
13
It is important to remind ourselves that virginity
per se
was not of great importance in Roman society.
14
Not all erring virgins were punished in this way. This is critically important. The virginity of a Vestal was more than mere physical virginity. Physical virginity was of course a necessary part of the ritual persona of the priestess. But it was only a signifier of a much more complex, abstract, and politically charged ideal of virginity that was peculiar to the Vestals.
15
By losing her physical virginity, the Vestal more impor- tantly betrayed the ideology of her unique status. To put it another way, not only did she cease to be a virgin, but more importantly, much more importantly, she ceased to be a Vestal. That was what the ritual of her punishment acknowledged. This ideological virgin- ity, as I shall call it, is the crux of the problem of the Vestal Virgins. On the foundations of physical virginity was constructed an ideol- ogy of a unique religious function. To understand it we have to understand the nature of that construction. We need to recover the complex of meanings with which the physical virginity of the Vestals was invested.

A Vestal
’
s virginity was indispensable for the political well-being of Rome. But
—
and herein lies a paradox
—
the loss of her virginity was equally indispensable for the political well-being of Rome. A single lapse by a single priestess threatened the very existence of the state. In such an event the only way to restore the
status quo
was to rid the state of the offending Vestal in the manner described by Plutarch. The flip-side of this was that when the political stability of the state was under threat the possibility that a Vestal might have been unchaste provided a convenient mechanism for averting the threat. Virginity was an indispensable requirement for a Vestal because the potential loss of that virginity was every bit as vital for the welfare of the polity as virginity itself.

If the loss of a Vestal
’
s virginity portended such dire consequences

for the state, why were no measures ever taken to protect the women from the temptation and the opportunity of transgressing? A Vestal was not in any sense secluded. On the contrary, not only did her rit- ual duties regularly take her away from the
Atrium Vestae,
where she lived with her five colleagues, but her social life does not appear to have differed materially from that of the average upper-class Roman woman. For example, we know that Vestals could attend dinner parties. Dio Cassius records an instance of a Vestal being insulted while returning from a dinner party because she had not been recognized as a Vestal.
16
Superficially there appears to have been a sharp disjunction between the extreme form of the punish- ment of an unchaste Vestal and the lack of measures taken to protect her chastity.