Editing Vesta (mythology) (section)

===Birth of Romulus and Remus===
{{main|Romulus and Remus}}
Plutarch, in his ''Life of Romulus'', told a variation of [[Romulus|Romulus']] birth citing a compilation of Italian history by a Promathion. In this version, while Tarchetius was [[kings of Alba Longa|king of Alba Longa]], a phantom phallus appeared in his hearth. The king visited an oracle of Tethys in Etrusca, who told him that a virgin must have intercourse with this phallus. Tarchetius instructed one of his daughters to do so, but she refused sending a handmaiden in her place. Angered, the king contemplated her execution; however, Vesta appeared to him in his sleep and forbade it. When the handmaid gave birth to twins by the phantom, Tarchetius handed them over to his subordinate, Teratius, with orders to destroy them. Teratius instead carried them to the shore of the river Tiber and laid them there. Then a she-wolf came to them and breastfed them, birds brought them food and fed them, before an amazed cow-herder came and took the children home with him. Thus they were saved, and when they were grown up, they set upon Tarchetius and overcame him.<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Romulus*.html Life of Romulus]'', 2.3–6</ref>{{sfn|Deroux|2008|p=41}} Plutarch concludes with a contrast between Promathion's version of Romulus' birth and that of the more credible [[Fabius Pictor]] which he describes in a detailed narrative and lends support to.{{sfn|Wiseman|1995|p=57}}