Attempting to find evidence of the inner workings of Religious cults in ancient times is incredibly difficult as there isn’t much evidence about their rules or rituals. However, it is a subject that has been explored in depth by numerous different academics as it is a huge source of interest due to the mystery around the subject as well as how vastly it differs to our own religious practises today. With in the lecture on this subject, my initial angle for this blog post was going to focus on the sexual rituals of religious cults such as the cult of Bacchus, however, the mention of the Vestal Virgins and Mary Beard’s 1989 article sparked and renewed my fascination with the priestesses of Vesta. I had previously read Mary Beards article on the Vestal Virgins and it was a subject matter that I really connected with as the contrast between the conversation about their sexual status, alongside their obvious religious role, really got me thinking about the complexities of social verses religious duties. The Vestal Virgins were a group of young women brought together for a purpose and kept ‘pure’. There are so many mysteries surrounding the Vestal Virgins such as why were they kept Virgins? What is their purpose? In the lecture, this was the discussion that developed and it was pointed out that there is one person that you can’t overlook when exploring the Vestal virgins, and this is Mary Beard. Not only did she write an extensive article on the Vestal Virgins and their sexuality, or lack thereof, but a decade or so later she went back to her work and revised what she had written now with ten years more knowledge. Vesta is the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Her Greek ‘equivalent’ would be Hestia. This therefore has an interesting connection to my last blog post on Gender and the virgin goddesses. The cult of vesta therefore must have developed in Roman religion to extend to its Priestesses taking the same oath of abstinence of their patron goddess. In connection to my previous blog post, I feel that I should point out that the oath taken up by Hestia was of her own choice, can the same be said for her Priestesses? The idea of the Vestal Virgins is one that has fascinated many people, not just in academia but also in the world of film and television in which the Vestal Virgins are often depicted as trapped in their oath as a source of their power and are subsequently ‘corrupted’ by a man with whom they fall in love such as Conan the barbarian (1982) Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as film that stick to the specifics but change the roundabout story such as films like James Bond’s Live and let die starring Roger Moore. The women in these films have a connection to the gods and as a result possess abilities to see the future of the men, they are sort by. Within these films they are rescued from imprisonment by the hero with whom they subsequently fall in love with, and sleep with resulting in the loss of their power. This is a very similar idea t how the Romans saw the role of the Vestal Virgins, that their virginity allowed them a stronger connection to their patron deity and allowed them communication with her, therefore their chastity had to remain intact. The interesting narrative that Mary Beard takes in her article on the sexual status of the Vestal Virgins is whether or not their role within the cult is as wife or daughter. The Cult of Vesta originated in the Royal household in connection to the king. The reason for this controversy is down to the contradicting elements of their conduct and festivals, such as tending to the hearth and the fertility element of various festivals that suggested a matron role. In order to back up the theory of wife scholars have suggested that theory virginal element is vague area and instead of literal abstinence it has been suggested that their virginity actually equates to the sole commitment to one man- the King in the royal household. However, as Mary Beard points out ‘Throughout all the ancient sources which deal with the priesthood great stress is laid on the physical virginity of the women and their total abstinence from sexual intercourse during their thirty or more years in the college’. Interestingly Mary Beard interprets the fertility element of the cult of vesta to show that the priestesses hold the potential to be fertile, yet stay chaste in order to maintain their connection to the divine, not only does this replicate the choice Vesta or Hestia made to stay abstinent but it also reflects popular opinion at the time, ‘For it is well known that the popular belief that sexual activity was polluting and thus disqualified a person from close contact with the deity’; a theory that not only applied to that of priests and priestesses but to the general public also. Interestingly the Cult of Aphrodite juxtaposes the nature of the Cult of Vesta completely. The nature of Aphrodite is the direct opposite of Vesta for a start, the one goddess being patron of the hearth promising to maintain her chastity; and the other being the patron goddess of Love and sexual relations. Just as Vesta’s priestesses were expected to make the same vows as their patron goddess it would make sense that the cult of Aphrodite would be more liberal. L. R. Farnell in his book ‘The Cults of the Greek states: Volume 2’ explains the origins of the worship of Aphrodite, in this chapter explains how the diverse geographical locations of her worship vary her role. However, he does claim that ‘her rites in Babylon, Byblos, and Bambyce were notorious for the Temple prostitution practised there’ as well as pointing out other rituals that focus on sexual elements such as mutilation and the idea of Aphrodite being an androgynous deity. Although there is no hard evidence to confirm the sexual role of the Priestesses L. R. Farnell tells us that Solon recalls the ‘organisation of Prostitution at Athens collected money from this class of women and raised a temple to Aphrodite Pandemos’. Therefore, if the priestesses of Aphrodite themselves didn’t engage in prostitution the institution of Prostitution across Greece definitely influenced the success and actions of the cult itself.