Vesta

Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth. She first appeared in Rock and a Hard Place. She used chastity groups as a means to find virgins to sacrifice to her hearth.

Background
Some time when the Roman pantheon was still in power, Vesta received six virgin sacrifices every year. The sacrifices had to have been virgins for thirty years, otherwise, they would be killed by being buried alive, in return Rome got a good harvest. The goddess claimed that people begged to be offered up to her. During the rise of Jesus, and subsequently, Christianity, Vesta lost many of her followers. Since then, she has adapted to the dominant religion, using purity as a front to lure and locate virgins within the Christian faith.

Season 9
During the events of Rock and a Hard Place, Vesta had moved to Hartford, South Dakota, which was around Sioux Falls, in her search for her virgin sacrifices. Her activities caught the attention of Jody Mills, who then called the Winchesters to aid her solve the case of the missing members of the Abstinence Purifies Us (APU) group. She ate one of the victim's liver when he was near death and kept the rest in an old fallout shelter till they were near dead from starvation and thirst.

Sam and Dean sign a pledge of purity to join the group and find out more about the victims. Dean went home with the group councilor, whom Dean insists he knew somewhere before, to borrow some books, while Sam went to their motel room to work with Jody. When Dean and the counselor had sex, Vesta kidnapped them and locked them in the fallout shelter with the rest of her victims.

Eventually Sam and Jody figured out what she was and where the victims were. As they found the group, Vesta knocked out Sam and attacked Jody who taunted her with her knowledge of Vesta's true nature and how what she was doing was pathetic. Vesta started tying Jody down, explaining what she was doing and why, intending to eat her liver next, but caught Jody's arm when Jody tried to kill her with a stake that she vulnerable to. Vesta tried to kill Jody with the stake, but was stopped by Sam though she did manage to non-fatally wound Jody. Vesta tried to eat Sam's liver but stopped, shocked, because his body was in bad shape and she couldn't consume it. As she spoke to Sam, Jody stabbed her from behind with the stake, causing her to emit fire from her face and killing her.

Powers & Abilities
Vesta had similar strength seen from other deities. However, she possessed unique abilities of her own.
 * Immortality - Vesta was thousands of years old and retained the appearance of a young woman. She was much older than Jesus, making her well over 2,013 years old at the time of her death.
 * Super Strength - She could easily lift pickup trucks over head with her bare hands and casually overpower grown men. Dean compared her strength to that of an angel.
 * Pyrokinesis - As the goddess of the hearth, she could create and control blue flames. These flames could knock people unconscious and could be used with extreme concussive force. Vesta could alter the intensity of the flames to varying effect, ranging from maiming to killing people. When she died, flames burst from her face.
 * Biology Perception - With a touch, she could somewhat sense the presence of Gadreel in Sam, or at least she could see the damage that the Three Trials had done to his body and that his physiology was such that he couldn't be alive.
 * Blessings - In return for the virgin sacrifices, much like the Vanir, Vesta gave Rome a better harvest. She apparently dropped this part of the ritual, once she lost her worshipers.

Vulnerabilities

 * Virgin Blood-Stained Oak Stake - Vesta was killed by an oak stake stained in the blood of a virgin.

Trivia

 * Whether or not the Greek and Roman names of the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses are interchangeable in the Supernatural universe has yet to be clarified; if they are, she is the older sister of Zeus.
 * Vesta said she ate the livers of her sacrifices because it was the only organ that continued to cleanse or purify the corrupted body. However, other organs have similar filtering and cleaning functions, such as the spleen.
 * Ironically, the stake used to kill Chronos was created by the Vestal Virgins, who functioned as priestesses of Vesta in Rome.

Appearances

 * Season 9
 * Rock and a Hard Place
 * Holy Terror (Mentioned only)