From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion by Ariadne Staples Page B
Authors: Ariadne Staples
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Lucretia, from the perspective of attitudes towards women in general and wives in particular.
The myth of the birth of Romulus reveals much about the way the Romans separated women into sexual categories and about the ways those categories were defined in relation to men. The story concerns three sexually defined categories of women — virgins, wives and prostitutes. Romulus ’ mother was a virgin; the Vestal, Rhea Silvia. The most prominent part in the story was given to a prostitute, Romulus ’ nurse and foster mother, Acca Larentia, who
was also an object of cult in Rome. The figure of the matrona is con- spicuous by its absence. Of female sexual categories the matrona was arguably the most important since, as I shall show, it was only by a matrona that a male Roman citizen could have children that were legally his own. The absence of the matrona from the founda- tion myth is therefore significant, as is the usurpation of her position by the prostitute.
The story is well known, and I shall here delineate only those fea- tures that are of particular interest to this discussion. The Vestal Virgin, Rhea Silvia — Ilia in some versions — gave birth to twin boys, Romulus and Remus. The babies were exposed by order of their mother ’ s wicked uncle, the king, but were saved and suckled by a wolf. Later they were found by the shepherd Faustulus, who took them home to be nursed and reared by his wife, Acca Larentia, who was a prostitute, and therefore called Lupa — she-wolf — a name commonly given to prostitutes. 10
In historical times the Vestal Virgins were strictly bound by an obligation to observe the most uncompromising chastity. 11 The very survival of the state depended on their unequivocal sexual purity. Theoretically a Vestal could not hope to conceal a lapse from this rigid ideal, because the gods themselves would reveal it by means of prodigies. The offending Vestal and her lover would be sought out and punished; she by being buried alive, he by being flogged to death. Significantly, the fate of a potential child is never mentioned; presumably because it was not thought possible that the woman ’ s transgression could be hidden long enough for her to bear a child. Nevertheless, Romulus ’ mother was a Vestal Virgin. The myth cir- cumvented this difficulty in all sorts of ways. 12 The most widely accepted tradition was that Mars was the father of the twins and that he had seduced their mother in a dream. 13 By this device the story kept the Vestal ’ s virtue unblemished. She was not made to suf- fer the traditional punishment, and her pregnancy, far from presag- ing disaster, resulted in the birth of the founder of the Roman state. 14 Romulus ’ birth, as it was interpreted by ancient writers, was paradoxical, indeed impossible, and hence wondrous. The rest of the myth of Romulus, from his being suckled by a wolf, to his myste- rious disappearance and subsequent apotheosis, was in keeping with the miraculous nature of his birth. 15 But his mother is given no further share in the story. She simply fades out of the picture. She is in fact the only significant character in the myth of the birth of the twins that plays no further part in their story. 16 It is tempting from a
modern perspective to compare Rhea Silvia with the Virgin Mary, whose performance of a similar feat turned her into an object of ven- eration in her own right, a symbol of chaste and blessed woman- hood, set apart by the miracle from the rest of her sex. But where Christianity flaunted the concept of the virgin mother, the Romans, having expended much imaginative energy setting it up, proceeded from that point on to ignore it.
The explanation, I suggest, is that a Vestal Virgin who was a mother was in ritual terms an anomaly. She could not be placed con- veniently in any ritual category. She was neither virgin nor wife. This was why she did not feature either in the subsequent adven- tures of her sons or in Roman cult. Roman
The myth of the birth of Romulus reveals much about the way the Romans separated women into sexual categories and about the ways those categories were defined in relation to men. The story concerns three sexually defined categories of women — virgins, wives and prostitutes. Romulus ’ mother was a virgin; the Vestal, Rhea Silvia. The most prominent part in the story was given to a prostitute, Romulus ’ nurse and foster mother, Acca Larentia, who
was also an object of cult in Rome. The figure of the matrona is con- spicuous by its absence. Of female sexual categories the matrona was arguably the most important since, as I shall show, it was only by a matrona that a male Roman citizen could have children that were legally his own. The absence of the matrona from the founda- tion myth is therefore significant, as is the usurpation of her position by the prostitute.
The story is well known, and I shall here delineate only those fea- tures that are of particular interest to this discussion. The Vestal Virgin, Rhea Silvia — Ilia in some versions — gave birth to twin boys, Romulus and Remus. The babies were exposed by order of their mother ’ s wicked uncle, the king, but were saved and suckled by a wolf. Later they were found by the shepherd Faustulus, who took them home to be nursed and reared by his wife, Acca Larentia, who was a prostitute, and therefore called Lupa — she-wolf — a name commonly given to prostitutes. 10
In historical times the Vestal Virgins were strictly bound by an obligation to observe the most uncompromising chastity. 11 The very survival of the state depended on their unequivocal sexual purity. Theoretically a Vestal could not hope to conceal a lapse from this rigid ideal, because the gods themselves would reveal it by means of prodigies. The offending Vestal and her lover would be sought out and punished; she by being buried alive, he by being flogged to death. Significantly, the fate of a potential child is never mentioned; presumably because it was not thought possible that the woman ’ s transgression could be hidden long enough for her to bear a child. Nevertheless, Romulus ’ mother was a Vestal Virgin. The myth cir- cumvented this difficulty in all sorts of ways. 12 The most widely accepted tradition was that Mars was the father of the twins and that he had seduced their mother in a dream. 13 By this device the story kept the Vestal ’ s virtue unblemished. She was not made to suf- fer the traditional punishment, and her pregnancy, far from presag- ing disaster, resulted in the birth of the founder of the Roman state. 14 Romulus ’ birth, as it was interpreted by ancient writers, was paradoxical, indeed impossible, and hence wondrous. The rest of the myth of Romulus, from his being suckled by a wolf, to his myste- rious disappearance and subsequent apotheosis, was in keeping with the miraculous nature of his birth. 15 But his mother is given no further share in the story. She simply fades out of the picture. She is in fact the only significant character in the myth of the birth of the twins that plays no further part in their story. 16 It is tempting from a
modern perspective to compare Rhea Silvia with the Virgin Mary, whose performance of a similar feat turned her into an object of ven- eration in her own right, a symbol of chaste and blessed woman- hood, set apart by the miracle from the rest of her sex. But where Christianity flaunted the concept of the virgin mother, the Romans, having expended much imaginative energy setting it up, proceeded from that point on to ignore it.
The explanation, I suggest, is that a Vestal Virgin who was a mother was in ritual terms an anomaly. She could not be placed con- veniently in any ritual category. She was neither virgin nor wife. This was why she did not feature either in the subsequent adven- tures of her sons or in Roman cult. Roman
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