In Greek mythology, newborn Hestia, along with four of her five siblings, was devoured by her father Cronus, who feared being overthrown by one of his offspring.Zeus, the youngest child, escaped with his mother's help, and made his father disgorge all his siblings. Cronus was supplanted by this new generation of deities; and Hestia thus became one of the Olympian gods, the new rulers of the cosmos, alongside her brothers and sisters. In spite of her status, she has little prominence in Greek mythology. LikeAthena andArtemis, Hestia elected never to marry and remained an eternalvirgin goddess instead, forever tending to the hearth of Olympus.
As the goddess of sacrificial fire, Hestia received the first offering at every domestic sacrifice. In the public domain, the hearth of theprytaneum functioned as her official sanctuary. Whenever a new colony was established, a flame from Hestia's public hearth in the mother city would be carried to the newsettlement. The goddessVesta is herRoman equivalent.
Hestia's name means "hearth, fireplace, altar".[1] This stems from thePIE root*wes, "burn" (ultimately from*h₂wes- "dwell, pass the night, stay").[2][3][4] It thus refers to theoikos: domestic life, home, household, house, or family. Burkert states that an "early form of the temple is the hearth house; the early temples atDreros andPrinias on Crete are of this type as indeed is the temple ofApollo atDelphi which always had its innerhestia".[5] The Mycenaean great hall (megaron), likeHomer's hall ofOdysseus atIthaca, had a central hearth. Likewise, the hearth of the later Greekprytaneum was the community and government's ritual and secular focus.[6] Hestia's naming thus makes her a personification of the hearth and its fire, a symbol of society and family, also denoting authority and kingship.[7]
Hestia is a goddess of the first Olympian generation. She is the eldest daughter of theTitansRhea andCronus, and sister toDemeter,Hades,Hera,Poseidon, andZeus. Immediately after their birth, starting with Hestia, Cronus swallowed each of them, but their mother deceived Cronus and helpedZeus escape. Zeus forcedCronus to disgorge his siblings and led them in a war against their father and the other Titans.[8]
Karl Kerenyi interprets the lines from theHomeric Hymn to Aphrodite (composed around the eighth or seventh century BC) that Hestia is simultaneously the eldest and youngest Cronid to mean that because she was the first to be devoured and (presumably) the last to be yielded up again, Hestia thus counts as both the eldest and youngest daughter of her parents.[9] It is more likely that the anonymous author of the hymn was trying to reconcile the two conflicting birth orders given byHesiod andHomer; while in theTheogony the firstborn is Hestia, in theIliad Hera states that she is the eldest child.[10]
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.[11] 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".[12]
The godsPoseidon andApollo (her brother and nephew respectively) both fell in love with Hestia and vied for her hand in marriage. But Hestia would have neither of them, and went toZeus instead, and swore a great oath, that she would remain a virgin for all time and never marry. In theHomeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aphrodite (goddess of sex and love) has "no power" over Hestia.[13]
At Athens, "in Plato's time", notes Kenneth Dorter[14] "there was a discrepancy in the list of thetwelve chief gods, as to whether Hestia orDionysus 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." However, the hearth was immovable, and "there is no story of Hestia's "ever having been removed from her fixed abode".[15] Burkert remarks that "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".[16]
Traditionally, Hestia is absent from ancient depictions of theGigantomachy as she is the one who must keep the home fires burning when the other gods are away.[17] Nevertheless, her possible participation in the fight against the Giants is evidenced from an inscription on the northern frieze of theSiphnian Treasury inDelphi; Brinkmann (1985) suggests that the letter tracings of one of the two goddesses right next toHephaestus be restored as "Hestia", although other possible candidates include Demeter andPersephone, or two of the threeFates.[18][19]
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"), though this was not universal among the Greeks. InOdyssey14, 432–436, the loyal swineherdEumaeus 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 forestnymphs andHermes,Maia's son."[20]
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.[21] In classical Greek art, she is occasionally depicted as a woman simply and modestly cloaked in a head veil. At times, she is shown with a staff in hand or by a large fire. She sits on a plain wooden throne with a white woolen cushion. Her associated sacrificial animal was a domestic pig.[22]
Fragment of aHellenisticrelief (1st century BC – 1st century AD) depicting the twelve Olympians carrying their attributes in procession; Hestia with scepter to the left, from theWalters Art Museum[23]
Her Roman equivalent isVesta;[24] 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 relationshiphestia-histie-Vesta cannot be explained in terms ofIndo-European linguistics; borrowings from a third language must also be involved", according toWalter Burkert.[25]Herodotus equates Hestia with the high rankingScythian deityTabiti.[26]Procopius equates her with theZoroastrian holy fire (atar) of theSasanians inAdhur Gushnasp.[27]
To Vesta is attributed one more story not found in Greek tradition by the Roman poetOvid in his poemFasti, where during a feast of the gods the resting Vesta is nearly raped in her sleep by the godPriapus, and only avoids this fate whenSilenus' donkey abruptly cries out, alerting Vesta and prompting the other gods to attack Priapus in defense of the goddess.[28] This story is an almost word-for-word repeat of the myth of Priapus andLotis, recounted earlier in the same book, with the difference that Lotis had to transform into a lotus tree to escape Priapus, making some scholars suggest the account where Vesta supplants Lotis only exists in order to create some cult drama.[29]
Part of a marble altar with inscription ESTIAS ISTHMIAS, 5th–4th century BC. The altar was dedicated to the goddess Hestia with the epithet Isthmia ("of theisthmus".Archaeological Museum of Paros.
The worship of Hestia was centered around the hearth, both domestic and civic. The hearth was essential for warmth, food preparation, and the completion of sacrificial offerings to deities. At feasts, Hestia was offered the first and last libations of wine.[30]Pausanias writes that theEleans sacrifice first to Hestia and then to other gods.[31]Xenophon inCyropaedia wrote thatCyrus the Great sacrificed first to Hestia, then to sovereign Zeus, and then to any other god that themagi suggested.[32]
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; but its lighting should be accompanied by rituals of completion, purification, and renewal, comparable with the rituals and connotations of aneternal flame and ofsanctuary lamps. At the level of thepolis, the hearths of Greekcolonies and their mother cities were allied and sanctified through Hestia's cult.Athenaeus, in theDeipnosophistae, writes that inNaucratis the people dined in thePrytaneion on the birthday of Hestia Prytanitis.[33]
Dedication of an altar to Hestia in Karneades, Taormina (undated). The inscription states: "Beside these walls of Serapis the warden of the temple Karneades of Barke, son of Eukritos, O foreigner, and his spouse Pythias and his daughter Eraso placed to Hestia a pure altar, as a reward for this, O you that governs the marvelous dwellings of Zeus, grant to them a lovely auspiciousness of life."
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 theprytaneum of a Greek state or community was sacred to Hestia, who was served by the most powerful state officials.[34] However, evidence of her dedicant priesthood is extremely rare. Most stems from the early Roman Imperial era, whenSparta 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 Greekruler-cult to the Roman emperor, the Imperial family, and Rome itself. In Athens, a small seating section at theTheatre of Dionysus was reserved for priesthoods of "Hestia on theAcropolis,Livia, andJulia", and of "Hestia Romain" ("Roman Hestia", thus "The Roman Hearth" or Vesta). AtDelos, a priest served "Hestia the AthenianDemos" (the people or state) "andRoma". An eminent citizen ofCarianStratoniceia 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.[35]
Every private and public hearth was regarded as a sanctuary of the goddess, and a portion of the sacrifices, to whatever divinity they were offered, belonged to her.Aeschines,On the Embassy, declares that "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."[36] A temple atEphesus was dedicated to Hestia Boulaea – Hestia "of the senate", orboule. Pausanias reports a figurative statue of Hestia in the Athenian Prytaneum, together with one of the goddessEirene ("Peace").[37] Hestia offered sanctuary from persecution to those who showed her respect and would punish those who offended her.Diodorus Siculus writes thatTheramenes sought asylum directly from Hestia at the Council Chamber, leaping onto her hearth not to save himself, but in the hope that his slayers would demonstrate their impiety by killing him there".[38]
Very few free-standing temples were dedicated to Hestia. Pausanias mentions one inHermione and one inSparta, the latter having an altar but no image.[39]Xenophon'sHellenica mentions fighting around and withinOlympia's temple of Hestia, a building separate from the city's council hall and adjoining theatre.[40] A temple to Hestia was inAndros.[41]
Prospective founders of city-states and colonies sought approval and guidance not only of their "mother city" (represented by Hestia) but ofApollo, through one or another of his various oracles. He acted as consultingarchegetes (founder) atDelphi. Among his various functions, he was patron god of colonies, architecture, constitutions and city planning. Additionalpatron deities might also be persuaded to support the new settlement, but without Hestia, her sacred hearth, anagora and prytaneum there could be nopolis.[42]
Homeric Hymn 24,To Hestia, is an invocation of five lines, alluding to her role as an attendant to Apollo:
Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodlyPytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise: draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song.[43]
Homeric Hymn 29,To Hestia invokes Hestia and Hermes:
Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honor: glorious is your portion and your right. For without you mortals hold no banquet, – where one does not duly pour sweet wine in offering to Hestia both first and last. And you, slayer of Argus (an epithet of Hermes), Son of Zeus and Maia, the messenger of the blessed gods, bearer of the goldenrod, the giver of good, be favorable and help us, you and Hestia, the worshipful and dear. Come and dwell in this glorious house in friendship together; for you two, well knowing the noble actions of men, aid on their wisdom and their strength. Hail, Daughter of Cronos, and you also, Hermes, bearer of the goldenrod! Now I will remember you and another song also.[44]
Hestia full of Blessings, Egypt, 6th century tapestry (Dumbarton Oaks Collection)
Golden-throned Hestia (Ἐστία χρυσόθρον᾽), you who increase the great prosperity of the rich Agathocleadae, seated in the midst of city streets near the fragrantriver Peneius in the valleys of sheep-nurturingThessaly. From there Aristoteles came to flourishingCirrha, and was twice crowned, for the glory of horse-masteringLarisa ... (The rest of the ode is lost)[45]
In one military oath found atAcharnai, from the Sanctuary ofAres andAthena Areia, dated 350–325 BC, Hestia is called, among many others, to bear witness.[48][49]
The Hestia tapestry is aByzantinetapestry, made in Egypt during the 6th century AD. It is a late and very rare representation of the goddess, whom it identifies inGreek asHestia Polyolbos; (Greek:Ἑστία Πολύολβος "Hestia full of Blessings"). Its history and symbolism are discussed in Friedlander (1945).[50]
^Herman-Hansen, Mogens and Tobias Fischer-Hansen. 1994. "Monumental Political Architecture in Archaic and Classical Greek Poleis. Evidence and Historical Significance." In D. Whitehead, ed., Historia Einzel-Schriften 87:From Political Architecture to Stephanus Byzantinus: Sources for the Ancient Greek Polis. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 30-37ISBN9783515065726
^Sulimirski, T. (1985). "The Scyths". In Fisher, W. B. (ed.).The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 158–159.ISBN0-521-20091-1. citing Herodotus, Book IV
^topostext, 2.1 "Witnesses the gods Aglauros, Hestia, Enyo, Enyalios, Ares and Athena Areia, Zeus, Thallo, Auxo, Hegemone, Herakles, and the boundaries of my fatherland, wheat, barley, vines, olives, figs."
^According toHesiod,Theogony927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
^According toHesiod'sTheogony886–890, of Zeus's children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena "from his head", see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84.
^According toHesiod,Theogony183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus's severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
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