7 – Women Could Be Murdered for Losing Their Virginity
Priestesses of the Roman Goddess Vesta, also known as Vestal Virgins, were treated like celebrities in ancient Rome. If you ever travel to the city, you have to make your way to the Roman Forum and check out the Temple of Vesta. Unfortunately, it is not the same temple used by the Virgins because it has been burned at least twice. During the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, it was destroyed along with much of the city. Another fire, this time in 1549, ruined it again but it was reconstructed in the 1930s.
The House of the Vestal Virgins was located nearby and the duty of the chosen women was to ensure the fire kept burning in the Temple. According to Roman tradition, the city would stand as long as the fire kept burning. These women were not chosen at random; they were handpicked by the High Priest who selected girls aged between 6 and 10. They were forced to remain virgins and could only get married after 30 years of chastity. Few of the Vestal Virgins got married later in life as they deemed it bad luck.
If a Virgin broke her 30-year vow, the punishment was terrible. After enduring a severe beating, the women would be buried alive and, in some cases, molten lead was poured down their throats. On the flipside, being a Vestal Virgin was arguably the greatest honor a woman in ancient Rome could achieve. Those who remained loyal received an incredible number of privileges by the standards of the time. For example, they were allowed to attend the gladiator games and political meetings, an impossibility for ‘regular’ Roman women.
Over in Samoa, a bride’s virginity was taken extremely seriously. Not only did they thoroughly check the women, but they also did so in public so that everyone knew! During Samoan weddings, the tribal chief would rupture the bride’s hymen with his fingers in front of a crowd to prove her ‘purity’. Meanwhile, women in ancient Israel suffered the same fate as Vestal Virgins if they lost their virginity before marriage. Unlike their Roman equivalent however, Israeli women received no special privileges.