Hestia
In the Ancient Greek religion, Hestia (; , "hearth" or "fireside") is the virgin goddess of the hearth, the right ordering of domesticity, the family, the home, and the state. In Greek mythology, she is the firstborn child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Customarily, in Greek culture, Hestia received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain, the hearth of the "prytaneum" functioned as her official sanctuary, and, when a new colony was established, a flame from Hestia's public hearth in the mother city would be carried to the new settlement. The goddess Vesta  is her Roman equivalent. Etymology. Hestia's name means "hearth, fireplace, altar", This stems from the PIE root "*wes", "burn" (ult. from "*h₂wes-" "dwell, pass the night, stay"). It thus refers to the "oikos:" the domestic, home, household, house, or family. "An early form of the temple is the hearth house; the early temples at Dreros and Prinias on Crete are of this type as indeed is the temple of Apollo at Delphi which always had its inner "hestia"". The Mycenaean great hall ("megaron"), like Homer's hall of Odysseus at Ithaca, had a central hearth. Likewise, the hearth of  the later Greek "prytaneum" was the community and government's ritual and secular focus. Worship. The worship of Hestia was centered around the hearth. The hearth was essential for warmth, food preparation, and the completion of sacrificial offerings to deities. It was a common practice that she was respected by being offered the first and last libations of wine at feasts. Pausanias writes that the Eleans sacrifice first to Hestia and then to other gods. Xenophon in Cyropaedia wrote that Cyrus the Great sacrificed first to Hestia, then to sovereign Zeus, and then to any other god that the magi  suggested. The accidental or negligent extinction of a domestic hearth-fire represented a failure of domestic and religious care for the family; failure to maintain Hestia's public fire in her temple or shrine was a breach of duty to the broad community. A hearth fire might be deliberately, ritually extinguished at need, and its lighting or relighting should be accompanied by rituals of completion, purification, and renewal, comparable with the rituals and connotations of an eternal flame and of sanctuary lamps. At the level of the "polis", the hearths of Greek colonies and their mother cities were allied and  sanctified through Hestia's cult. Athenaeus, in the Deipnosophistae, writes that in Naucratis the people dined in the Prytaneion on the natal day of Hestia Prytanitis (). Responsibility for Hestia's domestic cult usually fell to the leading woman of the household, although sometimes to a man. Hestia's rites at the hearths of public buildings were usually led by holders of civil office; Dionysius of Halicarnassus testifies that the "prytaneum" of a Greek state or community was sacred to Hestia, who was served by the most powerful state officials. However, evidence of her priesthood is extremely rare. Most stems from  the early Roman Imperial era, when Sparta offers several examples of women with the priestly title "Hestia"; Chalcis offers one, a daughter of the local elite. Existing civic cults to Hestia probably served as stock for the grafting of Greek ruler-cult to the Roman emperor, the Imperial family, and Rome itself. In Athens, a small seating section at the Theatre of Dionysus was reserved for priesthoods of "Hestia on the Acropolis, Livia, and Julia", and of "Hestia Romain" ("Roman Hestia", thus "The Roman Hearth" or Vesta). At Delos, a priest served "Hestia the Athenian Demos" (the people or state ) "and Roma". An eminent citizen of Carian Stratoniceia described himself as a priest of Hestia and several other deities, as well as holding several civic offices. Hestia's political and civic functions are further evidenced by her very numerous privately funded dedications at civic sites, and the administrative rather than religious titles used by the lay-officials involved in her civic cults. Temples. Every private and public hearth or "prytaneum" was regarded as a sanctuary of the goddess, and a portion of the sacrifices, to whatever divinity they were offered, belonged to her. The hearth of the Prytaneum was regarded  as the common hearth of the state and a statue of Hestia was there and in the senate-house there was an altar of the goddess. A statue of her reportedly existed in the Athenian Prytaneum: Diodorus Siculus, wrote that Theramenes leaped up to the altar of Hestia at the Council Chamber, yelling: However, there were very few temples dedicated to Hestia. Pausanias mention only two, in Ermioni and in Sparta: Xenophon at Hellenica mention a temple of Hestia at the Olympia: There was a temple of the goddess in Andros. There was a temple of Hestia Boulaea in Ephesus . Hymns, odes and oaths. Homeric Hymn 24, "To Hestia", is a brief invocation of five lines: Homeric Hymn 29, "To Hestia", is another invocation for the goddess and to Hermes: Bacchylides Ode 14b, "For Aristoteles of Larisa": There is also an Orphic Hymn dedicated to Hestia. And, the 11th Nemean ode of Pindar writes about Hestia. Dedication with military oaths, found at Acharnai, from the Sanctuary of Ares and Athena Areia, dated 350-325 BC. In one of these oaths, the Hestia is mentioned. Hestia tapestry. The Hestia tapestry is a Byzantine tapestry, made in Egypt during the 6th century  AD. It is a late representation of the goddess, whom it identifies in Greek as "Hestia Polyolbos"; ( "Hestia full of Blessings"). Its history and symbolism are discussed in Friedlander (1945). Mythology. Life. Hestia is a goddess of the first Olympian generation. She is the eldest daughter of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Demeter, Hades, Hera, Poseidon, and Zeus. Immediately after their birth, Cronus swallowed all his children (Hestia was the first who was swallowed) except the last and youngest, Zeus. Instead, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge his siblings and led them in a war against their father  and the other Titans. As "first to be devoured . . . and the last to be yielded up again", Hestia is thus both the eldest and youngest daughter; this mythic inversion is found in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (700 BC). Virgin goddess. The gods Poseidon and Apollo both (her brother and nephew respectively) fell in love with Hestia and vied for her hand in marriage. But Hestia would have neither of them, and went to Zeus instead, and swore a great oath, that she would remain a virgin for all time and never marry. In the "Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite," Aphrodite  is described as having "no power" over Hestia. Duty. 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. Wherever food was cooked, or an offering was burnt, she thus had her share of honor; also, in all the temples of the gods, she has a share of honor. "Among all mortals she was chief of the goddesses". Priapus. Hestia, along with many other goddesses, nymphs and satyrs were invited to Cybele's feast. After much feasting and wine, Hestia lay down and took  a quiet nap. Priapus then spotted her, and approached her, walking on tiptoe, with the aim to rape her. But then a donkey, belonging to Silenus, let out a bray. Hestia was startled, and the whole crowd flew to her defense. Priapus then fled. Status and attributes. At Athens, "in Plato's time," notes Kenneth Dorter "there was a discrepancy in the list of the twelve chief gods, as to whether Hestia or Dionysus was included with the other eleven. The altar to them at the agora, for example, included Hestia, but the east frieze of the Parthenon had Dionysus  instead." Hestia's omission from some lists of the Twelve Olympians is sometimes taken as an illustration of her passive, non-confrontational nature – by giving her Olympian seat to the more forceful Dionysus she prevents heavenly conflict – but no ancient source or myth describes such a surrender or removal. "Since the hearth is immovable Hestia is unable to take part even in the procession of the gods, let alone the other antics of the Olympians", Burkert remarks. Her mythographic status as firstborn of Rhea and Cronus seems to justify the tradition in which a small offering is made to Hestia  before any sacrifice ("Hestia comes first"). There was a tradition where Hestia received a small offering before any sacrifice, however 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, then carved the meat into seven equal portions: "one he set aside, lifting up a prayer to the forest nymphs and Hermes, Maia's son." Hestia is identified with the hearth as a physical object, and  the abstractions of community and domesticity, but portrayals of her are rare and seldom secure. In classical Greek art, she is occasionally depicted as a woman, simply and modestly cloaked in a head veil. At times, it shows her with a staff in hand or by a large fire. She sits on a plain wooden throne with a white woolen cushion and did not trouble to choose an emblem for herself. Her associated sacrificial animal was a domestic pig. Equivalency. Her Roman equivalent is Vesta; Vesta 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 similarity of names between Hestia and Vesta is, however, misleading: "The relationship "hestia-histie-Vesta" cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European linguistics; borrowings from a third language must also be involved," according to Walter Burkert. Other mythology and religion show similar goddesses or figures. Herodotus equates the Scythian Tabiti with Hestia. And, the Zoroastrian holy fire ("atar") of the Sasanians in Adhur Gushnasp was also equated with Hestia by Procopius.