Rome’s Vestal Virgins 1st Edition by Robin Lorsch Wildfang (PDF)

Description

Comprehensive and thoroughly up-to-date, this volume offers a brand new analysis of the Vestal Virgins’ ritual function in Roman religion. Undertaking a detailed and careful analysis of ancient literary sources, Wildfang argues that the Vestals’ virginity must be understood on a variety of different levels and provides a solution to the problem of the Vestals’ peculiar legal status in ancient Rome.Addressing the one official state priesthood open to women at Rome, this volume explores and analyzes a range of topics including:the rituals enacted by priestesses (both the public rituals performed in connection with official state rites and festivals and the private rites associated only with the order itself)the division and interface between religion, state and family structurethe Vestals’ participation in rights that were outside the sphere of traditional female activity. New and insightful, this investigation of one of the most important state cults in ancient Rome is an essential addition to the bookshelves of all those interested in Roman religion, history and culture.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author Robin Lorsch Wildfang is Project coordinator for Studenterkurset i Sønderjylland.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Stunning monograph on the Vestal Virgins. Wildfang uses all of the resources available (written, epigraphic, etc.) to analyze the origins of the Vestal Virgins, how they are chosen, their daily lives, and how their lives changed from Rome’s beginning to the first century C.E. Her analysis is very well thought out, and she arrives at well-founded conclusions. There is an enormous amount of information within, and anyone who is interested in ancient Rome or the Vestal Virgins must read this.

⭐A first-rate monograph! Wildfang expounds on the variety of the Vestals’ daily life, from its minutiae to the grand public appearances. She brings the ritual, which includes everyday tasks to the coiffure and costume, in exquisite form to the reader. She discusses their interaction with the higher and lower Roman administration and Rome’s cultural aspects. She helps to clarify the Roman festival calendar as it regards the Vestals, something I wish more monographs on Rome would do. A rewarding read for anyone interested in ancient Rome and also in women’s history.

⭐This is perhaps the most in-depth study written on Rome’s state institution of the cult of the Vestals. The author devoted three years of study, compiled primary sources, and made research trips to Rome to present a new and comprehensive view of the function of the Vestals of ancient Rome. All aspects of Vestal life are covered – from selection and initiation to areas of Roman civic life which were not normally the purview of women. An outstanding reference source.

⭐I discovered this book while researching the Vestals for a work of fiction and found it invaluable. Erudite, rigorous and insightful, it reveals and examines a world that existed at the centre of the male-dominated Forum yet is only glanced at by other histories.

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