THE WORLD OF RELIGION

Isis or her priestess, ivory plaque, 1st century CE

The religious participation of Roman women was divided between sacra publica, state worship, and sacra privata, rituals held for the family or gens. Women's religious roles in the home included rites focused on Vesta, the goddess of the hearth fire, the lar familiaris, the guardian of the household, the di Penates, the gods of the pantry, and the genius or guardian spirit of the paterfamilias. Women had responsibilities for prayer to heal family members and to ensure their own fertility and safe pregnancy; they participated in rites at the birth of a child and at funerals. On the state level, however, religious power was a male prerogative; while women were present at civic religious rituals, communal feasts, and festivals and played important roles in religious cults that were central to the state religion, they had no voice in activities where religion touched on public policy. The most prominent priesthood held by women was that of the Vestal Virgins, a sisterhood of six priestesses (the eldest of whom was the chief Vestal), legendarily created by King Numa to tend the flame of the state hearth in the circular marble temple (reconstruction; coin of Vespasian) of the goddess Vesta beside their residence (reconstruction drawing) in the Roman Forum. Other pre-imperial priestesses were the flaminica Dialis and the Regina Sacrorum; almost nothing is known of their roles and duties, together with those of the wives of the flamines, the college of priests in charge of the major state divinities, who were given the title flaminicae. Some cults, such as that of Pudicitia, Juno Caprotina, Venus Verticordia, and Bona Dea were open only to women. During the Republic, in times of dire threat from war or plague, the Senate turned to the matronae or the virgines to make special offerings to the gods on behalf of the state. In the Imperial period women's participation in religious life increased, following the example set by Livia, who became head of the cult of the deified Augustus, and by later empresses who often chose to have themselves represented in marble variously as priestesses or goddesses. Inscriptions bear witness that women all over the empire held office as priestesses in local cults of the emperor, in the cult of Magna Mater, and in other imported religions, most notably the cult of Isis.
For further information on this topic, see the Companion bibliography and Images of Religion below.

IMAGES of RELIGION

Priestess of Demeter: stele relief of the priestess accompanied by two tiny assistants, a woman holding a tall flaming torch and a young girl holding a ritual object. Found in Smyrna, 2nd half 2nd century BCE. Berlin, Pergamon Museum.

Priestess: statue of a woman holding a round container with draped hands, found in the Villa Adriana, Tivoli. From a 2nd century BCE original. Rome, Palazzo Nuovo.

Relief of the myth of Alcestis and Admetis from the sarcophagus of Metilia Acte, priestess of Magna Mater in Ostia and her husband C. Junius Euhodus. 2nd century CE. Rome, Vatican Museum.

Sosibia depicted on a grave stele as a devotee or priestess of Isis, holding a sistrum and bucket; Greek inscription: "Sosibia [daughter of] Euboios of Kephissia." Roman, from Attica, 160-170 CE. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.

Isis Worshipper: terracotta fragment of a female devotee of Isis shaking the sistrum, the sacred rattle. Roman, made in Egypt, c. 50 BCE - 50 CE. London, British Museum.

Young Priestess: the rolled ribbon on this portrait head indicates that she was a priestess, despite her young age. Roman, from Greece (probably Corinth), 100-140 CE. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.

Woman in a Headdress: this statue of an elderly Roman, woman shows her performing a sacrifice; she may have been a priestess. c. 135-140 CE. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.

Marble Relief: a priestess touches the head of a suckling infant; the temple pediment in the background suggests a religious rite. Rome, Vatican Museum.

Altar Relief: dedicated by the priestess Claudia Syntyche, the altar relief depicts Claudia Quinta (see Ovid, Fasti 4.247-348), using an infula ( sacred band) tied to the ship's prow to pull the ship Salvia carrying the statue of the Magna Mater (Cybele) which came from Phrygia in Asia Minor. Detail of the inscription. 1st century CE. Rome, Montemartini Museum.

Eumachia: replica of her statue in the building erected by Eumachia in the Forum at Pompeii and found there. The inscription reads: “The fullers [dedicated this statue] to Eumachia, daughter of Lucius, public priestess.” 1st century CE.

Funeral Procession: fresco of a procession toward the tomb of medicus found at the Porta Capena, Rome; on the right, priestesses carry funerary implements, on the left are his wife, daughter, and other family members. Last half of 1st century BCE. Paris, Louvre Museum.

Isis Plaque: the goddess or a priestess of her cult is engraved on a bone decoration from a casket or piece of furniture of the 1st century CE. London, British Museum

Portrait Statue in marble of a priestess heavily draped in a stola and palla, wearing a laurel wreath, based on images of Livia, wife of Augustus and mother of Tiberius, c. 20-50 CE. London, British Museum.

Isis: marble statue of the Egyptian goddess holding a sistrum. Found in Tivoli, 117-138 CE. Side view, Head Detail. Rome, Palazzo Nuovo.

Isis Statuette: bronze, Roman, 50-100 CE. London, British Museum.

Isis Statuette: silver with syncretic religious symbolism: attributes of Isis (uraeus--cobra--headdress, small bucket on arm) and Fortuna (ship's rudder). Roman, 1st century CE. Naples, National Archaeological Museum.

Syncretic Statuette of a goddess in bronze showing attributes of Isis, Minerva, and Fortuna. From Cyprus (?). Roman, 2nd century CE. London, British Museum.

Dionysian Mysteries: in this detail of a room fresco depicting the mysteries associated with Dionysus, an older woman holding a rolled scroll looks down at a young girl reading a ritual text. Roman, 1st century CE. Pompeii, House of the Mysteries.

Sistrum of bronze with the head of Hathor (a nineteenth-century copy of an ancient sistrum in the Hague). The sistrum was a rattle used in the worshop of Egyptian goddesses, especially Isis and Hathor. Amsterdam, Allard Pierson Museum.

Maenad mask of bronze, possibly a furniture decoration. Roman, 1st CE. London. British Museum.

Matronae in prayer: a bronze coin showing Domitian standing before a temple, dictating to the Roman matrons a prayer to the goddess Juno. Rome, issue celebrating the Secular Games, 88 CE. London, British Museum.

Pudicitia: personification of female modesty, seated, her left hand holding a scepter, her right hand modestly covering her breast; the reverse of a denarius of Julia Domna. Rome, 207-209 CE. Berlin, Pergamon Museum.

Vesta, goddess of the hearth, stands beside an altar with a burning flame, holding in her right hand a simpulum (ladle for pouring wine at sacrifices), on her left shoulder the Palladium Aeneas brought from Troy to Rome and deposited in the Temple of Vesta. It is the reverse of a sestertius of Lucilla, daughter of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger. Mint of Rome, 164-166 CE. Berlin, Pergamon Museum.

Barberini Juno: a Roman copy of a Greek cult statue; the goddess holds a scepter and a patera for pouring libations. Rome, Vatican Museum.

Relief of Vestals: a plaster reproduction of the marble interior altar fragment from the Ara Pacis showing the six Vestal Virgins in procession to the altar. Rome and EUR, 13-9 BCE.

Bronze Hygeia figurine. Sacrificing, the goddess of health wears a headdress with fillets; she holds a snake on her right arm and in her left hand a libation dish. Roman, 1st century CE. London. British Museum.

Bronze Priestess A votive statuette of a priestess wearing a headdress and pouring a libation from a phiale. Found near Sanctuary of Diana Nemi. Etrusco-Latin, 200-100 BCE. London. British Museum.

Fortuna: a silver statuette of the goddess crowned, with gilt traces; she holds a cornucopia in her left hand, her right arm is lost. Roman, 200-225 CE. London. British Museum.

Ara Pacis: marble relief from the southern side of the altar of a veiled female member of the imperial family standing behind Agrippa and participating in the procession on the day of consecration (4 July 13 BCE). Campus Martius, Rome, dedicated by the Senate on 30 January 9 BCE.

Italia/Tellus with Romulus and Remus (?): marble relief from the Ara Pacis showing symbols of fertility, human, vegetal, and animal in an environment favored by the gods. Rear panel of the altar. Campus Martius, Rome, dedicated by the Senate in honor of Augustus' safe return from campaign on 30 January 9 BCE.

Hades stealing Persephone fragment of a terracotta votive relief. South Italian, Locrian, 470-60 BCE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Isis-Aprodite: painted terracotta votive figure, crowned and nude, a syncretic icon of Egyptian Greco-Roman worship, 2nd century CE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Apotheosis of Sabina marble relief of the emperor Hadrian assisting at the funeral pyre as his wife ascends to heaven on the shoulders of a Nike. From Arco di Portogallo. 2nd century CE. Rome, Palazzo dei Conservatori.

Livia Cameo: holding a bust of the deified Augustus, Livia is depicted on this onyx cameo with the attributes of several goddesses: her mural crown suggests Fortuna/Tyche, the poppies and wheat in her hand suggest Ceres, the shield or tympanum, decorated with a lion, and her seated pose suggest the Great Mother Cybele, the gown slipping off her shoulder suggests Venus Genetrix. In his will Augustus adopted Livia into his family as Julia Augusta and made her the priestess of his cult. Roman, after 14 CE. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Cybele enthroned, a marble statue of a Roman matrona posed as the Great Mother. Mid-1st century CE. Santa Monica, Getty Museum.

Terracotta Relief: a garlanded priest makes a sacrifice before a statue of Cybele. From Isola Sacra Cemetary, 3rd century CE. Ostia Museum.

Marble Altar dedicated to Jupiter, Sun, Serapis. Relief 1 Priestess annoints bull for sacrifice. Relief 2 Soldier on bull rides toward goddess Italia (?), walled precinct in background. Relief 3 Victory hails goddess Roma beside tropaeum. Found on Via Appia. Rome, Capitoline Museum (Nuovo). 3rd century CE.

Bronze Sistrum (rattle) of Isis. Egyptian. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Altar: small votive model in terracotta. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Votive Bronze Plaque containing an inscription by Hedone, Greek maid of M. Crassus, dedicating it to the goddess Feronia, worshipped particularly by freedpersons: HEDONE/ M. CRASSI ANCILLA/ FERONIAE V[otum]S[olvit] L[ibens] M[erito]. Roman, 2nd century CE. London, British Museum.

Medallion showing the goddess Aphrodite at her toilette, assisted by her son Eros and a young serving girl. In gilded silver relief, it is incised around the rim with various symbols associated with love and beauty, such as a fan, a flower, a butterfly, a bird, grasshopper, and lyre. Taranto, 300-200 BCE London, British Museum.

Bronze Fountain Sculpture: Cybele in chariot drawn by lions. Side view. Detail. Roman, 2nd half 2nd century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Gold aureus with veiled head of Vesta, minted by Caesar; inscription: C CAESAR COS TER (consul for the third time). Rome, 46 BCE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Romano-Celtic mother goddesses relief of three matronae with large headresses holding baskets of fruit and bread; family of dedicator, Q. Vettius Severus, in background. Roman Bonn, mid-2-3rd Century CE. Rheinisches Landesmuseum.

All images are courtesy of the VRoma Project's Image Archive.