Image: Wikimedia Commons

Vesta

Goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion

Also known as Veſta

Instance of: Roman deity
Part of: Dii Consentes

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Vesta is the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. She was rarely depicted in human form, and was more often represented by the fire of her temple in the Forum Romanum. Entry to her temple was permitted only to her priestesses, the Vestal Virgins. Their virginity was deemed essential to Rome's survival; if found guilty of inchastity, they were buried or entombed alive. As Vesta was considered a guardian of the Roman people, her festival, the Vestalia, was regarded as one of the most important Roman holidays. During the Vestalia privileged matrons walked barefoot through the city to the temple, where they presented food offerings. Such was Vesta's importance to Roman religion that following the rise of Christianity, hers was one of the last non-Christian cults still active, until it was forcibly disbanded by the Christian emperor Theodosius I in AD 391.

Overview

All data

63 statements · 11% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Father: Saturn
Mother: Ops
Worshipped by: ancient Roman religion statement is subject of: Vestalia, Vestal Virgin
Said to be the same as: Hestia
Anuket
Sex or gender: female
1
Sources
1.Stated in Czech National Authority DatabaseRetrieved 2025-08-29
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Domain of saint or deity: kitchen stove
home
family
Residence: Roman Forum
Iconographic symbol: kitchen stove
conflagration
virginity
Sibling: Jupiter
Neptune
Pluto
Juno
Ceres
Different from: Vesta
Nickname: Saturnia
1
Sources
1.Stated in Q45202911
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Work location: Ancient Rome
1
Sources
1.Stated in Czech National Authority DatabaseRetrieved 2023-01-29
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Depicted by: Worship of Vesta

On other databases

38 identifiers linking Vesta across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

11%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 16, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). Vesta (Q178710). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/vesta-Q178710