Vesta

Vesta, ae, f. [Sanscr. root vas, to burn; vasaras, day; whence also Gr. Ἑστία].

• Another name for Ops, Cybele, Terra, the wife of Caelus and mother of Saturn, Cic. N. D. 2, 27, 67; Ov. F. 6, 267.—
• II Her granddaughter, daughter of Saturn, the goddess of flocks and herds, and of the household in general, Cic. N. D. 2, 27, 67; id. Leg. 2, 12, 29; id. Div. 1, 45, 101; id. Fam. 14, 2, 2; id. de Or. 3, 3, 10; in her temple the holy fire burned perpetually, attended by the Vestal virgins, id. Leg. 2, 8, 20; id. Cat. 4, 9, 18; Liv. 28, 11; 4, 52: Vestae sacerdos, i. e. the Pontifex maximus, of Caesar, Ov. F. 5, 573; id. M. 15, 778.—
• • B Poet., transf.
  • • 1 The temple of Vesta: quo tempore Vesta Arsit Ov. F. 6, 437; cf. id. ib. 6, 234; 6, 713.—
    • 2 Fire: ter liquido ardentem perfudit nectare Vestam, Verg. G. 4, 384; Sil. 6, 76.— Hence, Vestālis, e, adj., of or belonging to Vesta, Vestal: festi, Ov. F. 6, 395: ara, Luc. 1, 549: foci, id. 1, 199: virgines, priestesses of Vesta, Vestal virgins, Vestals, Cic. Leg. 2, 8, 20; id. Rep. 2, 14, 26; 3, 10, 17; Liv. 4, 44 fin.—Sing., Gell. 1, 12, 9: sacerdos, id. 1, 12, 14 al.—
  • B Substt.
  • • 1 Vestālis, is, f. (virgo), a priestess of Vesta, a Vestal, Liv. 1, 3 sq.; Plin. 28, 4, 7, § 39; Ov. F. 2, 383 al.—Hence, as adj.: Vestales oculi, of the Vestals, Ov. Tr. 2, 311.—
    • 2 Ve-stālĭa, ĭum, n., the festival of Vesta, Varr. L. L. 6, 3, 17.

Vesta, ae, f. (Ἑστία), Tochter des Saturnus u. der Ops, die Göttin des Herdes u. Herdfeuers, dah. auch der Häuslichkeit u. des häuslichen Segens, Cic. de nat. deor. 2, 67; de legg. 2, 29. Verg. Aen. 5, 744. Macr. sat. 3, 4, 11: ad Vestae (sc. aedem), Hor. sat. 1, 9, 35: a Vestae (sc. aede), Cic. ep. 14, 2, 2. – In ihrem Tempel (dessen Gestalt rund war, dessen Wände in ältester Zeit bloß aus Flechtwerk bestanden u. dessen Dach mit Rohr, später mit korinthischer Bronze gedeckt war, s. Ov. fast. 6, 261 u. 281. Plin. 34, 13), brannte das heilige Feuer, Cic. Cat. 4, 18, dessen Verlöschen als das schlimmste Zeichen für den Staat angesehen wurde, Liv. 28, 11, 6: ihrem Dienste waren die vestalischen Jungfrauen geweiht, Liv. 5, 52, 14, über die der pontifex maximus die Aufsicht hatte; dah. Vestae sacerdos = pontifex maximus, von Cäsar, Ov. fast. 5, 573; met. 15, 778. – Weil, der Sage nach, Äneas ihren Dienst mit von Troja nach Italien gebracht haben soll, Vesta Iliaca gen., Ov. fast. 6, 227. – Später mit anderen mythischen Gottheiten, bes. mit der Terra (= Cybele, Rhea) identifiziert, Ov. fast. 6, 267. Serv. Verg. Aen. 2, 296. – Meton.: a) = Tempel der Vesta, Castor vicinus Vestae, Mart. 1, 70, 3: Vesta arsit, Ov. fast. 6, 437; vgl. 263. – b) der Herd, das Feuer, Verg. georg. 4, 384. Sil. 6, 76.

1 Vesta [CL], the Roman goddess of the domestic hearth. b (transf.) hearth, fire. Daria, quae dudum servabat numina Vestae Aldh. VirgV 1172; focus ~e virginibus consecratus J. Sal. Pol. 542A.  b Asbestus lapis est qui Vesta judice nescit / extingui Neckam DS VI 271; Vesta stupet, queritur Lemnius, Ethna gemit (Neckam) CC cont. med. CCXXI 22; sic oleaster erit generose fetus olive, / Vesta parit fumum (Neckam) Ib. CCXXI 123.

Vesta, (10) æ, f. ( Ἑστία), Vesta Ops, ou Cybèle, ou la Terre [femme de Cælus et mère de Saturne] : Cic. Nat. 2, 67 ; Ov. F. 6, 267 || Vesta [fille de Saturne et dʼOps, petite-fille de la précédente, déesse du feu] : Cic. Leg. 2, 29 ; Div. 1, 101 ; ad Vestæ [s.-ent. ædem ou templum ] Hor. S. 1, 9, 35, auprès du temple de Vesta [où les Vestales entretenaient le feu sacré] ; Vestæ sacerdos Ov. F. 5, 573, le grand pontife [en parl. de César] || [poét.] a) le temple de Vesta : Ov. F. 6, 437 ; b) le feu : Virg. G. 4, 384 || Vestālis, e, de Vesta : Vestalis virgo et abs^t Vestalis Cic. Leg. 2, 20 ; Liv. 1, 3, Vestale, prêtresse de Vesta || [dʼoù] Vestalis, e, de Vestale : Vestales oculi Ov. Tr. 2, 1, 311, yeux chastes.

vesta, ae. f.
宗女神名。火。

Suggest a Translation
See an image

Vesta

one of the great Roman divinities, identical with the Greek Hestia both in name and import. She was the goddess of the hearth, and therefore inseparably connected with the Penates, for Aeneas was believed to have brought the eternal fire of Vesta from Troy, along with the images of the Penates; and the praetors, consuls, and dictators, before entering upon their official functions, sacrificed not only to the Penates, but also to Vesta at Lavinium. (Verg. A. 2.296, &c., 10.259, 5.744; Macr. 3.4.) In the ancient Roman house, the hearth was the central part, and around it all the inmates daily assembled for their common meal (coena, κοινή), and every meal thus taken was a fresh bond of union and affection among the members of a family, and at the same time an act of worship of Vesta combined with a sacrifice to her and the Penates. (Ov. Fast. 6.305; Verg. G. 4.384; Serv. ad Aen. 1.734.) Every dwelling house therefore was, in some sense, a temple of Vesta (August. De Civ. Dei, 4.11), but a public sanctuary united all the citizens of the state into one large family. This sanctuary stood in the Forum, between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, and not far from the temple of the Penates. (Dionys. A. R. 2.65.) That temple was round with a vaulted roof, like the impluvium of private houses, so that there is no reason to regard that form as an imitation of the vault of heaven (Ov. Fast. 6.269, &c., 282; Plut. Num. 11.) The goddess was not represented in her temple by a statue, but the eternal fire burning on the hearth or altar was her living symbol, and was kept up and attended to by the Vestals, her virgin priestesses. As each house, and the city itself, so also the country had its own Vesta, and the latter was worshipped at Lavinium, the metropolis of the Latins, where she was worshipped and received the regular sacrifices at the hands of the highest magistrates. The goddess herself was regarded as chaste and pure like her symbol, the fire, and the Vestals, who kept up the sacred fire, were likewise pure maidens. Respecting their duties and obligations, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Vestales. As regards her worship, it is stated, that every year, on the 1st of March her sacred fire, and the laurel tree which shaded her hearth, were renewed (Macr. 1.12; Ov. Fast. 3.143), and that on the 15th of June her temple was cleaned and purified. The dirt was carried into an angiportus behind the temple, which was locked by a gate that no one might enter it. (Ov. Fast. 6.227, &c.; Fest. 1.344, ed. Müller.) The day on which this took place was a dies nefastus, the first half of which was thought to be so inauspicious, that the priestess of Juno was not allowed to comb her hair, to cut her nails, or to approach her husband, while the second half was very favourable to contracting a marriage or ente ring upon other important undertakings. A few days before that solemnity, on the 9th of June, the Vestalia was celebrated in honour of the goddess, on which occasion none but women walked to the temple, and that with bare feet. On one of these occasions an altar had been dedicated to Jupiter Pistor. (Ov. Fast. 6.3. 50; comp. Hartung, Die Relig. der Röm. vol. ii. p. Ill, &c.) [L.S]

Vesta ae, f

• 1 VAS-, daughter of Saturn and Ops, goddess of flocks and herds, and of the household; in her temple the Vestal virgins maintained a perpetual fire, C., L., V., H., O.: quo tempore Vesta Arsit, i. e. the temple of Vesta, O.: perfudit nectare Vestam, i. e. the fire, V.

Vesta

An Italian goddess of the hearth, and more especially of the fire on the hearth, both in name and in nature akin to the Greek Hestia (q.v.), but worshipped by the Italian nations, particularly by the Latins, from ancient times independently of any connection with Greece. It has been shown that the worship of Vesta had its origin in the difficulty and the necessity of obtaining fire in primitive times. Hence, as even in the present time among savage tribes, arose the custom of keeping a fire always alight somewhere for the use of the community and of carrying fire thence for any new settlement. This custom was preserved by the conservatism of religion among civilized Greeks and Romans, after the necessity had ceased to exist, and the State-hearth was preserved in each Latin State, just as in Greece in the Prytanea; and in like fashion an outgoing settlement carried its sacred fire from the parent city. It was natural that from these observances the sacred flame itself should become personified as a goddess (Ovid, Fast. vi. 291) who presided over the hearth of each house, and in the State-hearth or sanctuary of Vesta over the whole commonwealth. Vesta was thus intimately connected with the Penates as deities of the household and of the State (see Penates); and the fact that the sacred fire was brought from the parent city made the Romans trace back the origin of the cult to the more ancient Latin settlements, first to Lanuvium and Alba, and, after the idea of a Trojan origin prevailed, to Troy itself, whence it was supposed the sacred fire of Vesta as well as the Penates had come (Verg. Aen. ii. 296). To this cause belongs the ancient custom at Rome that praetors, consuls, and dictators, before they began their functions, sacrificed at Lanuvium, that town having been an ancient religious centre of the Latins. At Rome, as in other Latin cities, the sacred fire was tended and the service of Vesta maintained by a body of virgin priestesses, who lived together in a house (Atrium Vestae) to the southeast of the Forum, and under the northwest side of the Palatine, abutting on the Via Nova. This house, as rebuilt under Hadrian, was excavated in 1883, and from its character and the inscriptions (as late as the beginning of the fourth century A.D.) and sculptures found in it much additional light has been thrown on the Vestal service. See Jordan, Das Tempel der Vesta und d. Haus der Vestalinnen (Berlin, 1886); and Lanciani, in his Ancient Rome, ch. vi. (Boston, 1888).

It is no doubt right to assume that the Vestals represented the daughters of the chief in the primitive tribe, who maintained the State-fire in their father's hut. When Vesta was recognized as a personal deity it became necessary that the priestesses should dwell in a sort of nunnery, and that the goddess should have a separate temple; but this Aedes Vestae preserved the shape of the primitive chief's hut, and was a round building (see illustration under Roma). The public worship of Vesta was maintained in this temple: her private worship belonged to every domestic hearth —in the earliest Roman houses in the atrium. In her aspect as a benign goddess of fire Vesta seems to have been akin to or identical with Stata Mater (q. v.). See Preuner, Hestia-Vesta (Tübingen, 1864); Maes, Vesta e Vestali (Rome, 1883); the discussion by Frazer in the (English) Journal of Philology, vol. xiv., and the articles Lares, Penates, and Vestales, in this Dictionary.