Hestia

Hestia, the virgin goddess of the hearth and home, was the firstborn child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea and one of the Twelve Olympians. She was devoured by her father Cronus as an infant due to fear of being overthrown by one of his offspring. Hestia was freed when her youngest brother Zeus forced their father to disgorge the children he had eaten. Hestia became one of the Olympian gods and the new rulers of the cosmos. After the establishment of the new order, Hestia withdraws from prominence in mythology, with few appearances in tales. Like Athena and Artemis, Hestia chose not to marry and became the first Vestal Virgin, tending to the hearth of Olympus. Despite her limited mythology, Hestia remained important in ancient Greek society, receiving the first offering at every household sacrifice and serving as her official sanctuary in the public domain.
Hestia, meaning "hearth, fireplace, altar," is derived from the PIE root *wes, meaning "burn" or "dwell, pass the night, stay." It refers to the oikos, which refers to domestic life, home, household, house, or family. Early temples, such as those at Dreros and Prinias on Crete, had a central hearth, as did the Mycenaean great hall and later Greek prytaneum. Hestia's name personifies the hearth and its fire, symbolizing society, family, authority, and kingship.
== Background ==
Hestia is a goddess of the first Olympian generation, the eldest daughter of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Demeter, Hades, Hera, Poseidon, and Zeus. After their birth, Cronus swallowed all his children except for Zeus, who was saved by Rhea. Instead, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge his siblings and led them into a war against their father and the other Titans. Hestia is both the eldest and youngest daughter, as she is both the first to be devoured and the last to be yielded up again.
Zeus assigned Hestia a duty to feed and maintain the fires of the Olympian hearth with the fatty, combustible portions of animal sacrifices to the gods. She had her share of honor in all the temples of the gods, and among all mortals, she was chief of the goddesses. The gods Poseidon and Apollo fell in love with Hestia and vied for her hand in marriage. However, Hestia would have neither and went to Zeus instead, swearing a great oath that she would remain a virgin for all time and never marry.
In ancient Athens, there was a discrepancy in the list of the Twelve Chief Gods, as to whether Hestia or Dionysus was included with the other eleven. However, the hearth was immovable, and there is no story of Hestia ever having been removed from her fixed abode.
Hestia's mythographic status as firstborn of Rhea and Cronus seems to justify the tradition in which a small offering is made to her before any sacrifice ("Hestia comes first"), though this was not universal among the Greeks. In Odyssey 14, 432–436, the loyal swineherd Eumaeus begins the feast for his master Odysseus by plucking tufts from a boar's head and throwing them into the fire with a prayer addressed to all the powers.
Hestia is identified with the hearth as a physical object and the abstractions of community and domesticity, in contrast to the fire of the forge employed in blacksmithing and metalworking, the province of the god Hephaestus. Portrayals of her are rare and seldom secure.
Her Roman equivalent is Vesta, which has similar functions as a divine personification of Rome's "public", domestic, and colonial hearths, binding Romans together within a form of extended family. The relationship between Hestia and Vesta is misleading, as borrowings from a third language must also be involved.
Category:Greek Pantheon
Category:Goddess
Category:Religion