The vestal virgin and the prostitute

Abstract

According to Roman stories, the Vestal virgin Gaia Taracia and the prostitute Acca Larentina bequeathed their properties to the people of Rome and so earned special rewards: one was adorated as a goddess and was celebrated at the Larentalia rites on 23 December, and the other the right to testify, a statue in her honour and various privileges for the Vestal virgins. Since Gelius is the only author to mention them (VH 7), the problem arises whether they are related and how. Namely, the Roman legends knew of another Acca Larentina, also a prostitute, who breast-fed Romulus and Remus who were bom of the Vestal virgin Ilia or Rea Silvia. That there was a story in Rome of a common action for the benefit of Rome of a vestal and a prostitute is proved by Livy's account of a forced return of Capua into the Roman system in 210 B. C. A delegation had come on that occasion to the Senate to plead for the cessation of reprisals against the citizens of Capua, but it was found in Rome that only two women remained faithful to Rome of all the inhabitants of Capua - the Vestal Oppia and the prostitute Faucula Cluvia who had brought food to the Roman prisoners. Since Livy's account is credible in everything else but in this detail, the author of the article sees in it the reflection of the above-mentioned motif. The article concludes with a short review of the questions linked with the theme of the virgin and the prostitute: of its “Indo-Uuropean" origin as suggested by its parallels in Irish and Welsh stories.