Word Finder - vestals

definition

A virgin consecrated to Vesta, and to the service of watching the sacred fire, which was to be perpetually kept burning upon her altar; a vestal virgin.

definition

A female virgin; a woman who has never had sexual relations.

definition

A nun.

The Code deals with a class of persons devoted to the service .of a god, as vestals or hierodules.

The vestals were vowed to, chastity, lived together in a great nunnery, were forbidden to open or enter a tavern, and together with other votaries had many privileges.

Vestals frequently adopted daughters, usually other vestals, to care for their old age.

But vestals, hierodules, certain palace officials and slaves had no rights over their children and could raise no obstacle.

He was criticised by the vestals of constitutional tradition for having declared war without consulting Parliament and for not having summoned it until several months later.

There was also probably a road to Caere in early times, inasmuch as we hear of the flight of the Vestals thither in 389 B.C. The origin of the rest of the roads is no doubt to be connected with the gradual establishment of the Latin league.

Fasces were given to the Flamen Dialis and (after 42 B.C.) even to the Vestals.

The best known, of course, are the Roman Vestals; though here even the great honours and privileges accorded to these maidens were often insufficient to keep the ranks filled.

The Flamen Dialis, each of the Vestals, the magister vicorum (overseer of the sections into which the city was divided) were also accompanied by lictors.

On the former date, the flamen Quirinalis, assisted by the vestals, offered sacrifice, and the pontifices presided at horse and chariot races in the circus.

We may name, besides those already specified - in the Naples Museum, " St Euphemia," a fine early work; in Casa Melzi, Milan, the " Madonna and Child with Chanting Angels " (1461); in the Tribune of the Uffizi, Florence, three pictures remarkable for scrupulous finish; in the Berlin Museum, the " Dead Christ with two Angels "; in the Louvre, the two celebrated pictures of mythic allegory- " Parnassus " and " Minerva Triumphing over the Vices "; in the National Gallery, London, the " Agony in the Garden," the " Virgin and Child Enthroned, with the Baptist and the Magdalen," a late example; the monochrome of " Vestals," brought from Hamilton Palace; the " Triumph of Scipio " (or Phrygian Mother of the Gods received by the Roman Commonwealth), a tempera in chiaroscuro, painted only a few months before the master's death; in the Brera, Milan, the " Dead Christ, with the two Maries weeping," a remarkable tour de force in the way of foreshortening, which, though it has a stunted appearance, is in correct technical perspective as seen from all points of view.