Roman Priestesses: A Woman's Best Wedding Planner

1 HIRUNDO 2016 Roman Priestesses: A Woman’s Best Wedding Planner EDWARD ROSS The Roman marriage ceremony of the early Roman Empire was heavy with symbolism. The ceremony was focused on the bride, and each aspect was an attempt to impart onto her the ideals of a Roman aristocratic woman. These symbols, such as the sex crines and the lammeum, were taken from various Roman priestesses, who were used as symbols of Roman marriage and represented the ideals of aristocratic Roman women. “Aristocratic girls, at least, were expected to bring to their husbands enough education to lend sparkle and desirability as a spouse, maidenly chastity and inally the dual charms of wifely idelity and fertility.”1 This essay will discuss the standard Roman aristocratic marriage and how the diverse symbolism within the ritual depicted the ideal Roman aristocratic married woman. Because several of these symbols are directly taken from different orders of Roman priestesses, this essay will look at case studies of three orders in the time of the early Empire. Each priestess represented an aspect of what the ideal Roman aristocratic married woman should be. The Vestal Virgins represented chastity, the Flaminicae represented the importance of modesty and idelity, and the priestesses of Ceres represented the ideal of motherhood and fertility. The ideal aristocratic woman would be a combination of all of three orders of priestesses. Before the concept of Roman aristocratic marriage can be discussed, it is beneicial to deine what made an aristocratic woman in Rome. A Roman aristocratic woman would commonly belong to an upper-class family and as a result be fairly wealthy. An unmarried woman would live in her father’s household belonging to his manus, while a married woman would live in her husband’s manus.2 The aristocratic woman was associated with traditional values such as modesty, chastity, gracefulness, austerity, and domesticity, and considered to be passive in political and social situations.3 Despite being prevented from an active political life, the aristocratic women were expected to maintain political connections and take control of their husband’s duties while he was out at war.4 The rank of her husband usually superseded the rank of her own family, and marriage was a way for a Roman aristocratic woman to raise, or lower, their 1 Karen Klaiber Hersch, “Introduction to the Roman Wedding: Two Case Studies,” The Classical Journal 109, no. 2 (2013): 229. 2 M. I. Finley, “The Silent Women of Rome,” in Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World, ed. Laura McClure, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2002), 149. 3 Emily Hemelrijk, Matrona Docta: Educated Women in the Roman Elite from Cornelia to Julia Domna, (London: Routledge, 1999), 7. 4 Hemelrijk, Matrona Docta, 10. Edward Ross Roman Priestesses 2 social standing.5 A Roman marriage could refer to many different things because of the many layers of requirements called for in a legal marriage. A legal marriage would result in legitimate children which was exceedingly important for the continuation of the aristocratic family.6 A legal marriage in the early Empire required that both parties be Roman citizens, of suficient age and physical maturity, lack a close blood relationship, and be of similar social standing.7 These types of marriages were infrequent, but when all the requirements were met, the ceremony of confarreatio could be performed. Pliny describes the ceremony of confarreatio, saying that “among religious rites none was invested with more sanctity” (Plin. H. N. 18.10).8 Though the speciic aspects of the ceremony changed greatly over time, the confarreatio ceremony signiied the movement of the bride from the manus of her father to the manus of her husband as well as her wedding to her husband.9 The confarreatio ceremony was considered one of the oldest marriage ceremonies in Rome, but, while the meaning remained the same, the symbolism and actions associated with the ceremony changed throughout Roman history.10 The Roman aristocratic wedding ceremony itself during the early Empire is heavily symbolized, and its modern understanding of is based on the writings of several Roman authors, including Festus, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.11 While the weddings described by Roman authors varied, many held references to speciic aspects that were part of the ceremony as a shorthand description of a wedding, which included the lammeum, the torches, and the wedding bed.12 The ceremony itself differed between authors, though there seemed to have been a common narrative. Brides would begin by being dressed in their marriage attire with the help of their female relatives. Festus writes that the bridal attire included a yellow veil called the lammeum, which covered a crown made of lowers called a corolla, and that her hairstyle 5 Hemelrijk, Matrona Docta, 11. 6 S. Treggiari, Roman Marriage, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 13. 7 Karen Klaiber Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 20-21. 8 Pliny, Natural History, Volume V: Books 17-19, trans. W. H. S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library 371, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950). 9 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 24. 10 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 26. 11 Festus, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus are the only ancient sources to describe the signiicance of the speciic ritual aspects of the marriage ceremony. Festus discusses the signiicance of the sex crines and lammeum. Pliny the Elder mentions the colours of several of the brides accoutrements. Plutarch is the only source to mention the speaking of “Ubi tu Gaius ego Gaia.” Dionysius of Halicarnassus deines the situations of different types of marriages and their differences. 12 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 18. 3 HIRUNDO 2016 would consist of six-tresses called the sex crines.13 Pliny the Elder writes that the bride would wear a straight tunic called the tunica recta.14 Festus also writes that the bride would have worn a knotted belt called the cingulum which could be representative of a chastity belt.15 The speciic use of the sex crines and the lammeum connected the brides to the Vestal Virgins and Flaminicae respectively, which held signiicant religious roles in the time of the early Roman Empire, indicating that this speciic costume might have been in use as a whole during that period.16 Once the bride was fully dressed in her wedding attire, Festus writes that, at his time, she was ritually torn away from the embrace of her mother, and then led in a procession towards the house of her husband.17 Catullus also describes several stylized instances of the bride’s abduction in his poems which, as Festus writes, were meant to point back to Romulus’s abduction of a Sabine woman as his wife.18 The procession was said to be led by children and included the baring of torches, the shouting of cheers and fescennies (bawdy verses), and the throwing of nuts.19 According to Festus, the three children that would lead the bride in the procession were known as patrimi et matrimi, “one, who carries before (the bride/the procession) the torch made of spina alba (whitethorn), for they used to wed at night; two, who hold the (hands of?) bride.” (Fest. 282, 283 L).20 As seen in the writings of Pliny the Elder, Festus, and Catullus, the throwing of nuts and the shouting of cheers and fescennies were meant to grant good fortune to the bride and groom.21 Once she arrived at the house, the bride would anoint the doorposts with the fat of a pig or wolf, then she would carefully walk over the threshold and was presented with ire and water as she spoke the words, “Ubi tu Gaius ego Gaia.”22 The bride and husband would grasp each other’s hands as a sign of consent, and the guests would feast with the royal couple until the time the bridal couple departed to their bed chamber.23 The actions of anointing the doorpost and avoiding the threshold and the presentation of ire and water are mentioned by several Roman authors as part of the marriage ceremony, but the speaking 13 Fest. 56 L; Fest. 79.23 L; Fest. 454.3 L. 14 Plin. H. N. 8.194. 15 Fest. 55 L. 16 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 113. 17 Fest. 364, 365 L. 18 Catull. 62. 15-31; Fest. 364, 365 L; Hersch, Roman Wedding, 145. 19 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 148-158. 20 Fest. 282, 283 L; Hersch, Roman Wedding, 160. These children attended at all sacriices, aided the Vestals, and were born from a marriage that was formed through confarreatio. Only a few children could hold this role during the early Empire. 21 Fest. 179 L; Plin. H. N. 15.86; Catull. 61.114-139. 22 Hersch, “Introduction to Wedding,” 225. 23 Hersch, “Introduction to Wedding”, 223. Edward Ross Roman Priestesses 4 of the phrase “Ubi tu Gaius ego Gaia” is only mentioned by Plutarch.24 The further actions of clasping each other’s hands and the departure to the bed chamber can be considered a metaphysical cementation of their marriage.25 Some authors, including Pliny and Festus, mention the sharing of far, a bread made of spelt, between the bride and groom, although its’ ritual signiicance is debated.26 Each part of the marriage ritual had a symbolic signiicance and represented an ideal that was meant to be imparted onto the bride. Several of these symbols and actions are said to be taken directly from the Roman priestesses. For example, the sex crines was the hairstyle of the Vestal Virgins, the lammeum was worn by the Flaminicae during sacriice and ritual, and the act of tearing the bride from the arms of her mother along with the carrying of torches was representative of the cult of Ceres.27 The next portion of this essay will discuss the Vestal Virgins, the Flaminicae, and the priestesses of the cult of Ceres focusing on who they worshipped, who they were, what they wore, and how they were perceived by Roman authors during the early Empire. The Vestal Virgins were the virgin priestesses of Vesta, the virginal Roman goddess of the hearth ire and a physical representation of the continuation of the Roman state. She represented the domestic hearth ire of Rome that burned in the aedes Vestae, and as long as this ire survived, so would Rome.28 Associated with ire, Vesta is directly compared to virginity by Plutach, who says: “because ire, which offers uncontaminated and undeiled bodies, is pure and uncorrupted or because ire, which is barren and unfruitful, is like virginity” (Plu. Num. 9).29 Seeing this, it is understandable that the most common epithet of Vesta is virgo, yet in Ovid’s Fasti she is given the epithet mater which oddly describes her as a matronly goddess.30 Mater represents Roman aristocratic married women, speciically the matrona, the idealized matron wife.31 This can mean that Vesta did not just represent virginal citizen women but also matron citizen women in some way.32 Vesta is also described as, and compared to, the earth by ancient sources.33 Dionysius of Halicarnassus muses that 24 Catull. 61.159-161; Pl. Cas. 816-817; Plin. H. N. 28.157; Plut. Q. R. 29, 30; Serv. Ecl. 8.29; Varr. R. R. 2.4.9. 25 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 205. 26 Plin. H. N. 18.10; Hersch, Roman Wedding, 26. 27 Sarah Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, 2nd ed, (New York: Schocken Books Inc., 1995), 85. 28 Robin Lorsch Wildfang, Rome’s Vestal Virgins: A study of Rome’s Vestal priestesses in the Late Republic and early Empire. (London: Routledge, 2006), 6. 29 Plutarch, Lives, Volume I: Theseus and Romulus, Lycurgus and Numa. Solon and Publicola, Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb Classical Library 46, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914). 30 Ovid. Fast, 4.828 31 TLL 8. 435-447 32 Wildfang, Rome’s Vestal Virgins, 7. 33 Ov. Fast. 6.267-268 5 HIRUNDO 2016 “Vesta is the earth” (D. H. 2.66.3)34 which can mean that Vesta was considered a chthonic goddess, and therefore linked with puriication and purity.35 Vesta’s essence represented not only virginity but also purity, and it was connected to both types of Roman citizen women, virgines and the matronae. The Vestal Virgins themselves, according to Plutach, consisted of six maidens selected as children to serve thirty years as the priestesses of Vesta.36 Seneca writes that for the irst ten years of their service they would learn their duties, during the next ten years they would perform their duties, and during the inal ten years they would teach the novices their duties.37 Throughout their time as Vestal Virgins, the priestesses had to maintain a solemn vow of chastity to the state.38 Their chastity was representative of the virtue of the city of Rome, and if it was broken, it would cause ruin to the state. A Vestal who committed the crimen incesti would be tried in a judicial process, and, if found guilty, would be dressed in funeral garments, and buried alive in a room.39 A Vestal’s chastity/ virginity was the most important aspect that she had to uphold as it played a signiicant role in her ritual duties and social perception. The Vestal Virgins’ central responsibility, as described by Roman authors, was to tend the central hearth ire of Rome in the aedes Vestae that was located in the Roman forum.40 If the Roman hearth ire were to be quenched, the existence of Rome would have been threatened.41 On top of this central responsibility, the Vestal Virgins performed puriication rituals, maintained the storehouse of the aedes Vestae, and participated in various public rites.42 As priestesses, the Vestals held central roles in the public puriication rituals such as the Argei, where the Vestals would participate in a procession. Dionysius of Hallicarnassus writes that the ritual would conclude with the Vestals throwing “from the sacred bridge into the river Tiber thirty efigies made in the likeness of men, which they call Argei” (D. H. 1.38.3).43 This ritual, along with many others involving the Vestal Virgins, has been suggested to act as symbolic puriication of the city of Rome.44 Through their 34 Ernest Cary, trans. “Dionysius of Halicarnassus” in Loeb Classical Library, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1937). 35 Wildfang, Rome’s Vestal Virgins, 6. 36 Plu. Num. 10. 37 Senec. de Vit. Beat. 29; William Ramsay, “Vestales,” A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities eds. William Smith, William Wayte and GE Marindin, (London: John Murray, 1875), 1189. 38 Ramsay, “Vestales,” 1189. 39 Fest. p. 277 L. 40 Cic. de Leg. 2.8.12; Liv. 28.11. 41 Wildfang, Rome’s Vestal Virgins, 1. 42 Wildfang, Rome’s Vestal Virgins, 7-18. 43 Wildfang, Rome’s Vestal Virgins, 27. These processions included the Pontiices, the Praetors, and other citizens who were legally allowed to participate which were most likely all men. 44 D. Harmon, “The Public Festivals of Rome,” ANRW, 2.16.2: 1455. Edward Ross Roman Priestesses 6 chaste and virgin nature, the Vestal Virgins were able to complete puriicatory rituals. The Vestal Virgins maintained a dress code that symbolized virginity and chastity. Their dress was simple as fancy ornaments and accessories outside of their vestments were viewed with suspicion of corruption.45 Pliny writes that they normally wore a stola made of linen over the upper part of their bodies.46 Festus states that during sacriices they would wear a white and red twisted wreath made of wool called an infula, a white woollen vitta, and an oblong head-dress called a sufibulum, consisting of a piece of white cloth bordered with purple and secured by a clasp.47 Their hair was usually held in a style known as the sex crines, which consisted of three to six braids, and represented their powers of chastity.48 The Vestals powers of virginity and purity were exuded from these speciic items of dress.49 Looking at the Vestal Virgins, it can be seen that the sex crines is representative of the importance of virginity and purity in the Roman context. When the bride wears this hairstyle on her wedding day, it seems to impart the morals of the Vestal Virgins onto them. Festus writes: “brides are adorned with the sex crines because it is the most ancient style for them. Certain others because the Vestal Virgins were adorned with it, whose chastity promised to their men...by others” (Fest. 454.3 L).50 This seems to indicate that the ideal virgines, who is both virginal and pure, is depicted through the sex crines and that the bride is embodying that aspect in the ceremony. Seeing as the values associated with the Vestal Virgins inluenced the hairstyle of the bride, the ritual inluence of the Flaminicae on the ceremony must be examined. The Flaminicae were female priestesses of the imperial cult. They worshiped the emperors, empresses, and the Roman state as deities.51 The imperial cult was created by Augustus whose reign began in 27 BCE, and it extended to the late Roman Empire with Constantine in 306 CE.52 Its creation was a way to align divinity with the Roman state, and it elevated Augustus’ family and bloodline to the same level as the major Roman deities.53 After the death of an emperor or empress, he/she would be elevated to the status of a deity by the Senate, and temples would be built in his/her honour around the empire.54 In these 45 Plin. Ep. 4.11; Ramsay, “Vestales,” 1191. 46 Plin. Ep. 4.11. 47 Ramsay, “Vestales,” 1191. 48 Festus, p.454 L. 49 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 285. 50 L La Follette, “The Costume of the Roman Bride,” in The World of Roman Costume, eds. Judith Lynn Sebesta and Larissa Bonfante (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), 56. 51 Duncan Fishwick, “Dio an Maecenas: The Emperor and the Ruler Cult,” Phoenix 44, no. 3 (1990): 247. 52 Katherine Crawford, The Foundation of the Roman Imperial Cult (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011), 1. 53 Crawford, Foundation Imperial Cult, 5. 54 Zsolt Magyar, “Imperial Cult and Christianity: How and to What Extent Were the Imperial Cult and Emperor 7 HIRUNDO 2016 temples, cults would be created with priests and priestesses who would lead sacriicial rites and rituals for the city of Rome in the emperor or empress’s name. The essence of the imperial cult was to maintain the importance of the imperial bloodline of Rome and uphold the state. The Flaminicae themselves were priestesses in the imperial cult, who, according to inscriptions, were mainly civic priestesses elected to their positions.55 The Flaminicae in Rome were known to be married during their time as priestesses.56 They were sometimes married to other lamens, priests of the imperial cult, and took part in rituals alongside them, though this was not always the case. Some Flaminicae were married to priests of other orders, and they did not have any ritual association.57 It both cases, Flaminicae were married during the time of their priesthood, and the death of one’s husband would end her period of service, just as her death would end her husband’s period of service.58 Although the age of the Flaminicae varied as the election of the priestess required public favour, there are very few examples of young priestesses, while there are numerous examples of older priestesses.59 Since these priestesses were usually part of wealthy Roman families, their children would regularly take up the priesthood, thus creating a lineage for a speciic emperor or empress.60 The Flaminicae were considered the ideal matronae by Tertullian, and their ritual roles were signiicantly based on their marital status.61 The Flaminicae’s duties consisted of performing common priestly duties, such as praying to the deity, welcoming visitors to the temple, overseeing the maintenance of the temple, organizing religious festivities, and presiding over sacriices of wolves and other animals.62 Several epigraphic examples in Rome have described the Flaminicae as having Worship Thought to Preserve Stability in the Roman World?,” Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 60 (2009): 386. 55 Emily Hemelrijk, Hidden Lives, Public Personae: Women and Civic Life in the Roman West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 83; CIL 8, 211. 56 Hemelrijk, Hidden Lives, 73. 57 CIL 12.1363 Catia Servata served as a laminica during the 1st century AD, and was married to a Sevir Augustalis, which was a title given to freed merchants, physicians, and traders. That being said, Catia Servata served as a priestess while not being married to a lamen. 58 Hemelrijk, Hidden Lives, 73. 59 Hemelrijk, Hidden Lives, 83; CIL 6.2177 Flavia Vera died at age 6 years 11 months, but since she was so young she did not perform many religious duties. Since she was so young, she was most likely elected to the position to appease the aristocratic families of Rome; CIL 8. 23333 Ulpia Secunda died at age 85 after serving for several years as a priestess. Like most laminicae, she was most likely elected to the position of priestess and perpetually re-elected until she died. 60 Emily Hemelrijk, “Priestesses of the Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Benefaction and Public Honour,” L’Antiquite Classique 75 (2006): 88. 61 Tert. Mon. 17.4 62 Hemelrijk, Hidden Lives, 88. Wolves were the sacred animal of Rome as a reference back to Lupa who brought up Romulus and Remus to be the founders of Rome. Edward Ross Roman Priestesses 8 maintained a symbolism as a sort of matronly igure of the temple as the ideal faithful wife, and their role was mainly ceremonial and representative.63 The Flaminicae’s costume varied depending on the speciic imperial igure they worshiped, but they are regularly depicted wearing a conical headdress called a tutulus, a white or purple band around the head called a vittae, and a mantle fastened by broaches called a palla.64 Festus writes: “the garment known as the lammeum is worn by the Flaminica Dialis, that is the wife of the Flamen Dialis” (Fest. 82.6 L). This vestment was worn by most Flaminicae and was a symbol of their ritual role as the wife of a lamen, or a sign of their modesty.65 Both Festus and Pliny describe the lammeum to be the colour of a lame or an egg yolk.66 All of these pieces of clothing were representative of the Flaminicae and the ideals of modesty and idelity which they upheld. When looking at the Flaminicae, we can understand that the lammeum used in the marriage ceremony was representative as a symbol of modesty in a ritual context that was worn by the ideal matrona. Festus writes: “the bride is wrapped in the lammeum as a good omen, because the Flaminica, the wife of the Flamen Dialis, to whom divorce was not permitted, used to wear it constantly” (Fest. 79.23 L). The inclusion of this vestment in the wedding attire of a Roman bride insinuates that the ideal Roman aristocratic wife would have to uphold the ideal of being modest and remain faithful to her husband in order to maintain the order of the Roman familia, just like that of a matronae. After seeing that the bride is wrapped in the lammeum to associate her with the Flaminica, the inluence of the cult of Ceres on the ceremony must be examined. Ceres was a Roman goddess who was associated with fertility and liminality, meaning transition.67 As a fertility goddess, she is tied to agriculture and brides seeking sexual fertility.68 She is most commonly identiied with the Greek goddess Demeter and the myth of the rape of Demeter’s daughter Persephone.69 Proserpina, Persephone’s Roman equivalent, was taken from Ceres by the god of the Underworld and made his wife. As her mother, “Ceres sought through all the earth with lit torches for Proserpina” (Serv. on Verg. Aen. 4.609). This event shows the separation between the two important roles in a woman’s life: the virgines and the matrona.70 Ceres, acting as the matrona, is very protective of the 63 Kelly Olson, Dress and the Roman Woman: Self-Presentation and Society (New York: Routledge, 2008), 113; CIL 2.5.69, 2.5.89. 64 Olson, Dress Roman Woman, 113. 65 Sebasta, J. L., “Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman” in The World of Roman Costume, eds. by Judith Lynn Sebesta and Larissa Bonfante (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), 48. 66 Fest. 82 L; Plin. H. N. 21.46. 67 Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman Goddess Ceres (Austin: Texas University Press, 1996), 24. 68 Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, 214. 69 Spaeth, Ceres, 104. 70 Spaeth, Ceres, 108. 9 HIRUNDO 2016 virgines and, for this reason, is described by Plutarch to be protective of brides.71 Despite being separated, there seems to be a promise of reconciliation and reuniication between the virgines and the matrona after this period of transition.72 This myth played an important role in the rituals performed by the priestesses of the cult of Ceres.73 The cult of Ceres itself during the early Empire was brought to Rome from Greece, and was maintained by female priestesses.74 Cicero tells us that the rites of the cult were always celebrated by Greek priestesses, meaning that only women could have held the priesthood.75 The priestesses, much like the Flamenicae, were public priestesses elected by civic vote.76 These positions were desired by Roman aristocratic married woman; Plutarch found it to be a role that matronae could aspire to attain.77 It is quite probable that the priestesses of this cult were usually Roman aristocratic women because the roles of matronae and virgines, held by aristocratic women, played a signiicant role in the rituals performed by the cult. Festus, Valerius Maximus, and Propertius allude that the rituals of the cult of Ceres followed the myth of Ceres and Proserpina. Since the cult of Ceres included an aspect of Mysteries, there is little literature that explicitly describes the rituals, but there are descriptions of the need of matronae and virgines to be present for the rituals to occur.78 The matronae could have played the role of Ceres, and the virgines could have played the role of Proserpina. Ovid even relates the rituals to “when your daughter has been found,” (Ovid. Am. 3.45) which recalls the inding of Proserpina.79 It is likely that the cult of Ceres held the myth of Ceres and Proserpina in high esteem which represented a sort of transition period of virgines into matronae. Also, the priestesses of the Cult of Ceres, unlike other cults, performed ritual sacriices of pigs and other animals in the name of Ceres.80 An inscription associated the sacriice of a pig with a symbol of fertility related to Ceres’ aspect of agricultural and sexual fertility.81 Through these rituals, the cult of Ceres held the transition from virgines into matronae and Ceres’ fertility aspect in high esteem. Within the wedding ceremony, the action of ritually tearing the bride from her 71 Plu. Romulus. 22.3. 72 Spaeth, Ceres, 108. 73 Pomeroy, Goddesses, 217. 74 Fest. 97 L. 75 Cic. Leg. 2.36-37. 76 Spaeth, Ceres, 105; Cic. Balb. 55. 77 Spaeth, Ceres, 105; Plu. De Mul. Vir. 26. 78 Fest. 97 L; Val. Max. 1.1.15; Prop. 4.8.3-14; Spaeth, Ceres, 216. 79 Spaeth, Ceres, 110. 80 Hemelrijk, Hidden Lives, 91. 81 CIL 10.5073. Edward Ross Roman Priestesses 10 mother and leading her to the house of her husband with torches is a symbolic representation of the story of Ceres and Proserpina. The action of tearing a bride away from her mother symbolizes the bride as the virgines and her mother as the matronae. Festus writes that “at weddings the torch was carried in honour of Ceres,” (Fest. p. 77 L) which likely refers to the torch that Ceres carried while searching for Proserpina.82 This action within the ceremony can represent a transition period as the bride begins the ritual as a symbolic virgo and is transformed into the matrona.83 This period of transition is very representative of Ceres, insinuating that the bride has now become a matrona who will uphold the ideal of motherhood that was representative of Ceres.84 By looking at these examples of Roman priestesses, it is possible to see a fuzzy image of what an ideal Roman aristocratic married woman in the early Empire would have been. She would have been a chaste, modest, and matronly igure that would follow her husband. This is seen through the standard marriage ritual of a Roman woman which was deeply steeped in symbolism. The hairstyle of the bride, the sex crines, was taken from the Vestal Virgins, and it represented the importance of chastity as a symbolic virgo. The lame coloured veil, the lammeum, was taken from the Flaminicae and represented the modesty of the ideal matrona. The ritual actions of taking the bride from the hands of her mother and leading her to her husband’s house by torch was taken from the cult of Ceres and represented the transition from being a virgo to a matrona, as well as the importance of motherhood. The bride, by wearing these vestments and performing these actions would be exhibiting the ideals of chastity, idelity, and motherhood. These aspects show the inluence of these major priestesses on a Roman aristocratic bride, but there is one more example which is much more striking. When the bride anointed the door frame of her husband’s house, she did three very important things: by anointing the door with the fat of a wolf, the sacred animal of Rome, she can be related with the Flaminicae; by anointing the door with pig’s fat, an animal sacred to Ceres, she can be considered to have performed a ritual like a priestess of the cult of Ceres; and by avoiding the threshold, which Servus describes as a sacred object of Vesta, she is demonstrating her chastity like the Vestal Virgins.85 In the Roman wedding ceremony during the early Empire, the bride is not only honouring the priestesses of each cult by wearing parts of their ritual dress and embodying their ideals but also symbolically becoming a priestess of Vesta, Rome, and Ceres herself. 82 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 171. 83 Hersch, Roman Wedding, 285. 84 Spaeth, Ceres, 109. 85 Plin. H. N. 28.135, 28.142; Serv. Ecl. 8.29. 11 HIRUNDO 2016 Bibliography Primary Sources: Catullus. -------. Cicero. 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