Vesta
Vesta is the Roman goddess of family, hearth and home, and though she is sometimes considered to be the “Roman version of Hestia”, or at least the Equivalent of Hestia, Vesta is in fact, not. Or at least according to some texts on the subject. Some sources also claim that Vesta was much more important to the Romans, than Hestia was to the Greeks. Very little was known about Vesta, in comparison to most of the other Roman gods and goddesses. She had no specific personality, or character, and appears in none of the Roman myths. Vesta’s presence was confirmed and presented only by the fire in the hearth that was sacred to her, as well as the fires that burned in her temples. Each year, the priestesses who guarded Vesta’s fire, the Vestales, renewed the flame on March first. In the Roman religion, the Vestales were one of the very few full time clergy positions. The priestesses were drawn from the patrician class; one of the highest classes in the Roman society, after a while even nobility were included. The Vestales were required to be completely chaste for thirty years; they were called the Vestal virgins.
Each Vestale priestess was taken from the patrician class, and after she had become one, she would be legally emancipated from the authority of her father. This was a big step for a young Roman woman at the time; a father was known to have absolute and total power of his possessions and daughters were one of these primary possessions, to be married out of the family, taken advantage of, or sold even to the highest bidder to pay off a debt. After she was emancipated, she would then give her vow of chastity. The Vestale priestesses were given much more freedom than other women at the time, however, the vow of chastity is extremely rigid. If a priestess were to break the vow, she would be buried alive in the Campus Sceleris, or “The Field Of Wickedness.” Rhea Silvia was also a mythological legend who was a Vestal Virgin; her father’s brother Amulius forced her to be a priestess, and killed her brother to protect against someone usurping his throne. However, when Rhea Silvia was in the woods, Mars, –the Roman god of war, –came upon her and raped her. When Amulius found out, Rhea Silvia was ordered to be buried alive, and the servant who was ordered to kill her twins, instead mercifully set them adrift in the river Tiber. The god of the river, Tiberius gave the twins over to she-wolf to be suckled. Tiberius then rescued, and married Rhea Silvia; her twins, Remus and Romulus went on to be the founders of Rome, and eventually overthrew Amulius, rightfully restoring the throne to their grandfather Numitor.