Vesta
A Roman goddess who presided over the fire in the domestic hearth. Like the Greek Hestia, she belonged to the group of the 12 great gods. Her cult was controlled directly by the chief high priest assisted by the Vestal Virgins. The culta of Vesta was introduced to Rome, according to most authors, by Romulus, even though her temple (round in shape, like the earliest huts of LAtium) stood not inside the Palatine city but on the edge of it, in the Roman forum, and consequently outside the boundaries of the city attributed to Romulus. On the day of the Vestalia in mid-June, young asses were garlanded with flowers and did not work. A legend of Hellenistic origin describes how the goddess, chaste above all others, was protected by a donkey from the amorous designs of Priapus. (Grimal, 1990)