sisterhood, it was filled up by the Pontifex Maximus, to whose jurisdiction they were subject.

Their principal occupations were to sprinkle the temple each morning with water, to guard the relics which it contained, and, above all, to tend the holy fire, with watchful diligence, both day and night. If, through carelessness, it was extinguished, the culprit was punished with stripes by the Pontifex. But a more terrible fate was reserved for the unhappy priestess who violated her vow of chastity; she was buried alive in the Campus Sceleratus, a spot within the city walls, hard by the Colline gate.

If the rules of the order were severe and rigidly enforced, so the privileges enjoyed were such as to make ample amends for all restrictions. A Vestal Virgin, from the moment of her election, became the servant of the goddess, and of the goddess only; her hair was shorn off, to mark that all worldly ties were severed, that she was released from all the bonds by which other women were confined, emancipated from the perpetual slavery to fathers and husbands, which they were compelled to endure. In public she was treated with the most marked distinction; she might go from place to place in a chariot, and a lictor was ever in attendance to clear the way before her; a seat of honour was reserved for her at the public shows; did she meet a criminal on his way to execution, he was forthwith reprieved; did she encounter a Praetor or a Consul, the fasces were instantly lowered to do her

reverence.

Both in name and attributes Vesta is identical with the Grecian 'Eoría; and since, in this case, we cannot suppose that the one nation borrowed from the other, we must conclude that she was an ancient Pelasgian Deity, whose worship was introduced into both countries, independently, by that widely diffused tribe. The distinction between Vesta and Vulcanus, both intimately connected with fire, seems to be accurately stated by Augustin, De Civ. Dei. 7. 16 'Vestam quoque ipsam propterea dearum maximam putaverunt, quod ipsa sit Terra; quamvis ignem mundi leviorem qui pertinet ad usus hominum faciles, non violentiorem qualis Vulcani est, ei deputandum esse crediderunt.'

Vesta being considered the same as Terra, who was worshipped under the name of Ops, and Ops being confounded with the Grecian Rhea, the wife of Kronos, who again was identified with Phrygian Cybele-we have Vesta, Ops, Rhea, and Cybele mingled in wild confusion. According to Hesiod, Vesta was the firstborn of Kronos and Rhea, and hence the

elder sister of Demeter (Ceres), Hera (Juno), Pluto, Poseidon (Neptunus), and Zeus (Jupiter). This genealogy is adopted by Ovid, Fast. 6. 285

'Ex Ope Iunonem memorant Cereremque creatas Semine Saturni: tertia Vesta fuit;'

although it is completely at variance with the rest of his theory.

Nor does the embarrassment end here; the Italian antiquaries1 believed Terra or Ops to be the same with Bona Dea, and with Maia, or Stata Mater, the wife of Vulcan, from whom the month of May was named; and thus Vesta, or the personification of mild, gentle fire, would be the consort of Vulcanus, the personification for fierce, consuming fire, and identical with Maia, and Bona Dea.

Mention is frequently made in the classics of this Bona Dea, or Good-Goddess, but we possess very little information respecting her, except that all male creatures were jealously excluded from her rites; and so sacred was the rule, that Clodius, in the height of his popularity, was well nigh ruined by violating it 2.

The festival of Vesta, the 'Vestalia,' was held VI. Id. Jun. (8th June), on which day solemn sacrifice was offered by the Vestals; the mill-stones were wreathed with garlands, and the mill-asses adorned with flowers and necklaces made of loaves, because Vesta presided over the fire by which the flour was rendered available for the wants of man 3.

On the Kalends of March, the laurels which decorated the shrine were renewed, and the sacred fire renovated,

'Vesta quoque ut folio niteat velata recenti,
Cedit ab Iliacis laurea cana focis.

Adde, quod arcana fieri novus ignis in aede
Dicitur; et vires flamma refecta capit,'

and on XVII. Kal. Jul. (15th June), the sweepings and other filth which had accumulated in the temple were carried forth and solemnly thrown into the Tiber. Fast. 6. 711

'Haec est Illa dies, qua tu purgamina Vestae,
Tibri, per Etruscas in mare mittis aquas.'

1 See Macrob. S. 1. 12.

2 See Plutarch Vit. Caes. 9, which is the locus classicus' with regard

It was thought unlucky to marry in June, until this ceremony was over. Ovid, Fast. 6. 223.

27. Pignora...fatalia. Dionysius and Plutarch express themselves with much caution and reserve on this subject. They tell us that some persons were of opinion that the sanctuary of Vesta contained nothing but the sacred fire; that, according to others, it concealed the gods carried over by Dardanus from Samothrace to Troy, and brought from Troy to Italy by Aeneas-the current belief being that the Palladium was there deposited. Both authors agree in thinking that relics of some kind were preserved by the Vestals, but that that they were hidden with such jealous care from every eye, that no one could pretend to any certain knowledge of their nature.

37. Sub Caesare. The Vestals, as we remarked above, were subject to the control of the Pontifex Maximus. Lepidus succeeded to this office upon the murder of Julius Caesar, and after the death of Lepidus, 12 B.C., it was assumed by Augustus 1. The day marked in the Calendars, as hallowed by this auspicious event, was Prid. Non. Mart. (6th March.) Ovid announces the event, Fast. 3. 415.

32.

BACCHVS.

FAS. III. 713.

THE 'Liberalia,' the festival of 'Liber Pater,' whom the Latins identified with the Grecian Dionysus, was celebrated on XVI. Kal. Mai. (17th March.) It would be impossible, in a work like the present, to enter upon an examination of the complicated mythology of Bacchus, its wild legends, and the various extravagant and enthusiastic ceremonies by which the worship of that god was characterised. Some of these have been noticed above (p. 147, et seqq.). We may repeat the observation already made, that the more unseemly and frantic excesses were in all probability derived from the rites of some Eastern divinity, whose worship was incorporated by the Greeks with that of their own native god of wine. An attempt

1 Dion. 54. 15, Sueton. Octav. 31.

was made to introduce the orgiastic nocturnal festivals, which were attended with all sorts of profligacy, into Rome, but they were considered so deleterious to public morals, that they were repressed by a decree of the senate. The following narrative of the history and adventures of the Grecian or Theban Bacchus will enable us to understand all the allusions to foreign legends contained in the Extract before us:-—

Semele, daughter of Harmonia and the Theban Cadmus, was beloved of Jove, who promised to grant whatever boon she might ask. Beguiled by the treacherous advice of jealous Juno, she requested the god to appear before her in the same guise as when he wooed the queen of heaven. Jupiter, unable to refuse, entered her chamber in a chariot, amidst thunder and lightning, and launched a flaming bolt. Semele having fallen a sacrifice to her terror, he snatched from the flames the babe, not yet mature for the birth, and sewed it up in his thigh. When the appointed season arrived, the threads were unloosed, and Jupiter produced Dionysus, who was delivered over to Hermes, who conveyed him to his aunt Ino, and her husband Athamas, and persuaded them to raise him as a girl. Athamas and Ino were driven mad by the indignant Juno, and Jupiter then changed Dionysus into a kid, and Hermes bore him concealed under this shape to the Nymphs dwelling in Asiatic Nysa, whom Jupiter afterwards transformed into stars, with the name of Hyades. Dionysus having discovered the vine, was driven mad by Juno, and wandered over Egypt and Syria. First of all, Proteus, king of Egypt, received him, but forthwith he passed over to Cybela, in Phrygia, and being there purified by Rhea, and initiated in her mysteries, he received from her an army, and marched with it through Thrace against the Indians. But Lycurgus, son of Dryas, king of the Edoni, who dwelt beside the river Strymon, insulted him and drove him forth. Dionysus fled to the sea to Thetis, daughter of Nereus, but the Bacchae and his attendant crowd of Satyrs were taken prisoners. The Bacchae instantly became free, and Dionysus drove Lycurgus mad, who in his frenzy, smote with a hatchet

his son Dryas, fancying that he was cutting a vine branch, slew him, and having hewn off his limbs, then recovered his senses. The land became barren, and the Oracle declared that it would yield fruit if Lycurgus were slain. The Edoni having heard this, bore him away to the mountain Pangaeus, and bound him there, where, according to the will of Dionysus, he perished, being torn to pieces by horses.

Dionysus having passed through Thrace and the whole of India, and set up pillars to commemorate his victories, came to Thebes, and compelled the women to leave their houses, and to hold Bacchanalian revels on Cithaeron. But Pentheus, son of Echion and Agave, who had succeeded Cadmus on the throne, forbade these things to be. He proceeded to Cithaeron to watch the Bacchae, and was torn limb from limb by his mother Agave, who, in her frenzy, took him for a wild beast.

Having thus made his divinity manifest to the Thebans, he came to Argos, and there too, not receiving due honours, he drove the women mad, and in the mountains they fed upon the flesh of the babes who hung at their breasts. Desiring to be conveyed from Icaria to Naxus, he hired a piratical trireme belonging to the Tyrrhenians, who having taken him on board, sailed past Naxus, and hastened towards Asia to sell him for a slave. But the god turned the mast and the oars into serpents, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes, while the mariners, becoming frantic, plunged into the sea through terror, and were changed into dolphins. And thus men, having learned that he was a god, paid him honour. He then led up his mother from the realms of Hades, and giving her the title of Thyone, ascended with her to heaven. Apollod. 3. 4, 2, 3; 3. 5, I, 2.

See

The story of the Bacchae is detailed by Ov. Met. 3. 273, the legend of Pentheus, Met. 3. 511, of Lycurgus, Met. 4. 22, and of the Tyrrhenian mariners, Met. 3. 597.

3, 4. Commentators have failed in extracting a sense from the words 'parvus inermis eras,' which will in any degree correspond with the former part of the couplet. Neither the