Who is that stern-faced, bare-breasted woman on the Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia?
She is Virtus, the goddess of virtue, and in her role as the principal figure on the seal, she is now 249 years old.
According to Encyclopedia Virginia, George Wythe designed the seal in 1776. This Founding Father was a lawyer and patriot, and the first member of Virginia’s delegation to sign the Declaration of Independence.
It could be construed that the female warrior is standing upon a fallen King George III. We have read one interpretation that the fallen figure represents King George in the person of Lord Dunmore, the governor that he appointed to lead the colony … and who left Virginia (huzzah) about the time the seal was designed.
In any event, the state motto, Sic Semper Tyrannis, or Thus Always to Tyrants, conveys the message that Virginia was tired of being ruled from afar. The Old Dominion had entered the Revolutionary fray with enthusiasm.
The seal also has a reverse side picturing thr...