Tuccia

The Vestal Virgin Tuccia with a sieve by Andrea Mantegna, ca. 1495-1506

Tuccia was a Vestal Virgin whose chastity was questioned by a spurious accusation. When the piety of holy men and women was doubted by sceptics, the gods could perform miracles to justify them.

Tuccia's decision to prove her innocence is recounted:

O Vesta, if I have always brought pure hands to your secret services, make it so now that with this sieve I shall be able to draw water from the Tiber and bring it to Your temple (Vestal Virgin Tuccia in Valerius Maximus 8.1.5 absol).

Tuccia proved her innocence by carrying a full of water from the Tiber to the Temple of Vesta [Augustine, De Civitate Dei, X, 16, in Worsfold, 69].

The Vestal Tuccia was celebrated in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (28: 12) and Petrarch's Triumph of Chastity. However in Juvenal's Satire VI (famously renamed 'Against Women') he references her as one of many lascivious women.

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