Vestal

Tender of the Flame

The Vestal Virgin was a priestess of Vesta in ancient Rome, sworn to thirty years of chastity and charged with keeping the sacred eternal flame in the goddess's temple, for if it went out the city was thought doomed. Drawn from noble families as girls, the six Vestals held privileges no other Roman women possessed, could free condemned prisoners, and were honored above all, yet faced burial alive should they break their vow.