Caia Caecilia is a Roman Goddess of the Hearth and Fire. I've have been very drawn to the element of fire; I am an Aries after all! To me, fire has so many different sides to it; it can be soothing, illuminating or fierce and terrible. There are many deities associated with fire, but here is one I stumbled across during my research of hearth deities. There isn't much info on her (again) which made her very hard to identify; when I first met her in meditation, I had just been doing a general meditation to meet a deity, not a specific one, and so it took quite a bit of research before I found out who she was and what her story was.
Other Names: Gaia Caecilia, Gaia Taracia, Gaia Fufetia, Tanaquil, Thanxvil
Caia Caecilia is a Roman Goddess of fire, the hearth, healing and women, although the lack of information on her leads me to believe that she is not one of the well-known Roman deities.
Caia Caecilia started off her life as mortal as the famous Queen Tanaquil, wife of Tarquinius Priscus who is said to have ruled from 616-578BCE. The Etruscan name ‘Tanaquil’ means ‘gift of grace’. The Queen was born of a noble family and was an ambitious and intelligent woman, well educated in medicine, mathematics, and the Etruscan arts of augury and prophecy. Whilst she was the daughter of a powerful Etruscan family from Tarquinii in Etruria, her husband was the son of an immigrant and would so not be able to gain power where they lived.
Other Names: Gaia Caecilia, Gaia Taracia, Gaia Fufetia, Tanaquil, Thanxvil
Caia Caecilia is a Roman Goddess of fire, the hearth, healing and women, although the lack of information on her leads me to believe that she is not one of the well-known Roman deities.
Caia Caecilia started off her life as mortal as the famous Queen Tanaquil, wife of Tarquinius Priscus who is said to have ruled from 616-578BCE. The Etruscan name ‘Tanaquil’ means ‘gift of grace’. The Queen was born of a noble family and was an ambitious and intelligent woman, well educated in medicine, mathematics, and the Etruscan arts of augury and prophecy. Whilst she was the daughter of a powerful Etruscan family from Tarquinii in Etruria, her husband was the son of an immigrant and would so not be able to gain power where they lived.
As wife to the king, she interpreted omens relating to kingship, not only for her husband but the king who would follow him. As Tanaquil and Tarquinius were riding to Rome, a great eagle swooped down and grabbed Tarquinius’s hat from his head. After flying very high the eagle brought the hat back to Tarquinius, and from this Tanaquil predicted that her husband would achieve great things in Rome. Sure enough, Tarquinius befriended King Ancus Marcias who appointed Tarquinius guardian over his children. The king died before his children were old enough to succeed him Tarquinius used his popularity to convince the Comitia to elect him the fifth King of Rome.
But when her husband was murdered by a rival faction, Tanaquil acted fast to fulfil the role and keep a hand on power. Tanaquil claimed that her husband had just been wounded, rather than killed, so that his successor Servius could take up the role of interim ruler. By the time it was officially announced that the king was dead, some time after his actual demise, Servius had been accepted by the senate as king.
Not only did Tanaquil help Servius claim the throne but she also predicted his coronation. It is said that one day her servant woman Ocrisia was offering cakes to the Lares at the hearth, when in the flames she saw a vision of a God. She told the Queen, who then told her to dress as a bride and shut herself in that room. That night Ocrisia was visted by a God, whom some believe to be Vulcan, the God of fire, and some sources believe to be one of the Lares, and she became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy, a boy who was once seen to have flames around his head as he slept. Tanaquil recognized this as an omen and predicted that he was a future king; and so with Tanaquils help he went on to be Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. Tanaquil had two daughters and two sons, and it was one of these daughters, Tarquinia, who went on to become Servius’s wife, thus strengthening Tanaquils power over the throne.
After her death, Tanaquil was deified, and some sources reckon assimilated to an earlier Goddess, Caia. Although the deification of a mortal was mocked in the time of the Empire, religiously it was not seen as anything particularly enormous; for a long time the dead had been given divine offers as they were thought to be immortal, and the Lares find their own roots in the spirits of the dead.
Etruscan women were known for being confident and strong, qualities which seem to lie at the heart of Caia Caecilia. It was said that Servius had two daughters, one who was ambitious, and one whom was not and therefore lacked ‘the daring proper to a woman’. Another example of Caia Caecilia's strength comes from her name; generally Roman women only had one name which was the feminine form of her father’s name, (for example, both Servius Tulius’s daughters were named Tulia). Sometimes, although not frequently, a woman would acquire a first name upon marriage which would then be the feminine form of her husband’s name, but Queen Tanaquil took neither, a fact which is thought to have meant she was more famous and more powerful than her husband the King. Both parts of the name ‘Caia Caecillia’ come from the Estruscan root ‘cae’ or ‘cai’, meaning ‘happy’. It shares its root with the name of Caeculus, who was the son of the fire God Vulcan who was believed to have founded the city of Praeneste. The story of his birth is very similar to the birth of Servius; a shepherd woman was sitting by the hearth when a spark jumped out of the fire and landed in her lap, and she became pregnant. A few years later, as a young man, her son Caeculus asked for a sign of his divinity and his father Vulcan answered by surrounding him with a ring of flames, similar to the omen that Tanaquil saw in the version concerning Servius. Some scholars believe that the similarities in the stories are because Caeculus’s story, although thought to be oldet than that of Servius, was adapted and appropriated by Rome to try and glorify their earlier history.
As the Goddess of women, Caia is often figured in part at Roman wedding ceremonies. Roman weddings were said to include the bride and the groom exchanging similar vows, the bride’s being ‘ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia’ which translates as ‘where you are Gaius, I am Gaia’. Although it could also be translated as ‘when you are happy, I am happy’, and it was thought that invoking Caia during a marriage ceremony would bring good luck to a marriage. Caia/Tanaquil was honoured by Roman’s for her domestic skills, as fit their ideal of a woman. It is said that in one of the many, many temples to Fortuna is a toga that she had woven for Servius, and in the Temple of Semo Sancus her spindle and distaff could be found, along with a bronze statue of Caia Caecilia. The filings from this statue’s sash were believed to have healing powers. After the bride was married but before she had officially entered her new home, if she was asked her name then it was traditional for her to answer, ‘my name is Caia’. The most important piece of a bride's wedding apparel was her veil, called a flammeum, so-named because it was the colour of fire.
Caia Caecilia has also been connected to the God Tinerius, God of the Tiber River which runs through Rome. There is an island in the middle of the Tiber to which she is also linked with, which may have had a small shrine dedicated to her and Tiberius where offerings were left on the eigth of December. The Island was said to have been created when the Tarquins were finally run out of Rome; when Rome transitioned to the Republic, the people in anger at the old Kings took all the grain from the fields that had once been owned by the Tarquins and dumped it into the Tiber, thus creating the island. Of course, one of the early Tarquins had been Tanaquils husband.
Caia Caecilia is associated with the Lares, the hearth-fire, Queenship and prophecy. In every story associated with her there is a strong fire theme. Her family is involved in a legend about creating land, which means that she is likely a Goddess of the territory of Rome and a patroness to the peoples of Rome; and as the Queen who represents the land, she foresees and grants the divine right of rule through her gifts of prophecy, and acts as mother or godmother to Kings.
But when her husband was murdered by a rival faction, Tanaquil acted fast to fulfil the role and keep a hand on power. Tanaquil claimed that her husband had just been wounded, rather than killed, so that his successor Servius could take up the role of interim ruler. By the time it was officially announced that the king was dead, some time after his actual demise, Servius had been accepted by the senate as king.
Not only did Tanaquil help Servius claim the throne but she also predicted his coronation. It is said that one day her servant woman Ocrisia was offering cakes to the Lares at the hearth, when in the flames she saw a vision of a God. She told the Queen, who then told her to dress as a bride and shut herself in that room. That night Ocrisia was visted by a God, whom some believe to be Vulcan, the God of fire, and some sources believe to be one of the Lares, and she became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy, a boy who was once seen to have flames around his head as he slept. Tanaquil recognized this as an omen and predicted that he was a future king; and so with Tanaquils help he went on to be Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. Tanaquil had two daughters and two sons, and it was one of these daughters, Tarquinia, who went on to become Servius’s wife, thus strengthening Tanaquils power over the throne.
After her death, Tanaquil was deified, and some sources reckon assimilated to an earlier Goddess, Caia. Although the deification of a mortal was mocked in the time of the Empire, religiously it was not seen as anything particularly enormous; for a long time the dead had been given divine offers as they were thought to be immortal, and the Lares find their own roots in the spirits of the dead.
Etruscan women were known for being confident and strong, qualities which seem to lie at the heart of Caia Caecilia. It was said that Servius had two daughters, one who was ambitious, and one whom was not and therefore lacked ‘the daring proper to a woman’. Another example of Caia Caecilia's strength comes from her name; generally Roman women only had one name which was the feminine form of her father’s name, (for example, both Servius Tulius’s daughters were named Tulia). Sometimes, although not frequently, a woman would acquire a first name upon marriage which would then be the feminine form of her husband’s name, but Queen Tanaquil took neither, a fact which is thought to have meant she was more famous and more powerful than her husband the King. Both parts of the name ‘Caia Caecillia’ come from the Estruscan root ‘cae’ or ‘cai’, meaning ‘happy’. It shares its root with the name of Caeculus, who was the son of the fire God Vulcan who was believed to have founded the city of Praeneste. The story of his birth is very similar to the birth of Servius; a shepherd woman was sitting by the hearth when a spark jumped out of the fire and landed in her lap, and she became pregnant. A few years later, as a young man, her son Caeculus asked for a sign of his divinity and his father Vulcan answered by surrounding him with a ring of flames, similar to the omen that Tanaquil saw in the version concerning Servius. Some scholars believe that the similarities in the stories are because Caeculus’s story, although thought to be oldet than that of Servius, was adapted and appropriated by Rome to try and glorify their earlier history.
As the Goddess of women, Caia is often figured in part at Roman wedding ceremonies. Roman weddings were said to include the bride and the groom exchanging similar vows, the bride’s being ‘ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia’ which translates as ‘where you are Gaius, I am Gaia’. Although it could also be translated as ‘when you are happy, I am happy’, and it was thought that invoking Caia during a marriage ceremony would bring good luck to a marriage. Caia/Tanaquil was honoured by Roman’s for her domestic skills, as fit their ideal of a woman. It is said that in one of the many, many temples to Fortuna is a toga that she had woven for Servius, and in the Temple of Semo Sancus her spindle and distaff could be found, along with a bronze statue of Caia Caecilia. The filings from this statue’s sash were believed to have healing powers. After the bride was married but before she had officially entered her new home, if she was asked her name then it was traditional for her to answer, ‘my name is Caia’. The most important piece of a bride's wedding apparel was her veil, called a flammeum, so-named because it was the colour of fire.
Caia Caecilia has also been connected to the God Tinerius, God of the Tiber River which runs through Rome. There is an island in the middle of the Tiber to which she is also linked with, which may have had a small shrine dedicated to her and Tiberius where offerings were left on the eigth of December. The Island was said to have been created when the Tarquins were finally run out of Rome; when Rome transitioned to the Republic, the people in anger at the old Kings took all the grain from the fields that had once been owned by the Tarquins and dumped it into the Tiber, thus creating the island. Of course, one of the early Tarquins had been Tanaquils husband.
Caia Caecilia is associated with the Lares, the hearth-fire, Queenship and prophecy. In every story associated with her there is a strong fire theme. Her family is involved in a legend about creating land, which means that she is likely a Goddess of the territory of Rome and a patroness to the peoples of Rome; and as the Queen who represents the land, she foresees and grants the divine right of rule through her gifts of prophecy, and acts as mother or godmother to Kings.