In Greek mythology, virginal Hestia,(Roman name, Vesta) daughter of Cronus and Rhea, (ancient Greek Ἑστία) is the goddess of the hearth, of the right ordering of domesticity and the family, who received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum functioned as her official sanctuary. With the establishment of a new colony, flame from Hestia's public hearth would be carried to the new settlement. The ancient Greeks proposed many different ideas about the primordial gods in their mythology. ... This article is about the race of Titans in Greek mythology. ... The ancient Greeks had a very small number of see gods. ... For other uses, see Chthon (disambiguation). ... For the rock band, see Muse (band). ... Asclepius (Greek , transliterated AsklÄ“piós; Latin Aesculapius) is the demigod of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology. ... The Twelve Olympians by Monsiau, circa late 18th century. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Hera (disambiguation). ... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ... For other uses, see Hermes (disambiguation). ... This article is about the grain goddess Demeter. ... The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485 For other uses, see Aphrodite (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Athena (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Artemis (disambiguation). ... This article is about the ancient Greek god; for other uses, see Ares (disambiguation). ... Hephaestus (pronounced or ; Greek HÄ“phaistos) was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan; he was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals and metallurgy, and fire. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... Greek ( IPA: or simply IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single natural language in the Indo-European language family. ... For the 1934 film, see The Goddess (1934 film). ... In common historic and modern usage, a hearth (Har-th) is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven used for cooking and/or heating. ... The prytaneis (literally presidents) of ancient Athens were members of the boule chosen to perform executive tasks during their term (a prytany), which lasted about one month and then was rotated to other members of the boule. ...

In Roman mythology her more civic approximate equivalent was Vesta, who personified the public hearth, and whose cult round the ever-burning hearth bound Romans together in the form of an extended family. The similarity of names, apparently, is misleading: "The relationship hestia-histie – Vesta cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European linguistics; borrowings from a third language must also be involved," Walter Burkert has written^[1] At a very deep level her name means "home and hearth": the household and its inhabitants. "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" (Burkert p 61). It will be recalled that among classical Greeks the altar was always in the open air with no roof but the sky, and that the oracle at Delphi was the shrine of the Goddess before it was assumed by Apollo. The Mycenaean great hall, such as the hall of Odysseus at Ithaca was a megaron, with a central hearthfire. A head of Minerva found in the ruins of the Roman baths in Bath Roman mythology, the mythological beliefs of the people of Ancient Rome, can be considered as having two parts. ... Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman mythology. ... Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics, dealing with the Indo-European languages. ... Walter Burkert (born Neuendettelsau (Bavaria), February 2, 1931), the most eminent living scholar of Greek myth and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland who has also taught in the United Kingdom and the United States. ... Dreros (modern Driros) near Neapolis in the district of Lassithi, Crete, is a post-Minoan archaeological site, 16 km. ... Prinias (ancient Rizinia), Crete, 35 kilometres southwest of Iraklion, about halfway between Gortyn and Knossos, is an archaeological site that revealed a seventh-century BCE temple with striking similarities to Egyptian architecture, and an Egyptianizing seated goddess. ... For other uses, see Delphi (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Odysseus (disambiguation). ... The megaron is the great hall of Minoan-Mycenaean culture, a rectangular hall, fronted by an open, two-columned porch and a more or less central hearth traditional in Greece since Mycenaean times. ...

The hearth fire of a Greek or a Roman household was not allowed to go out, unless it was ritually extinguished and ritually renewed, accompanied by impressive rituals of completion, purification and renewal. Compare the rituals and connotations of an eternal flame and of sanctuary lamps. Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... The eternal flame at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Sofia, Bulgaria Eternal Flame is also a song originally performed by The Bangles. ... A sanctuary lamp in a Roman Catholic Church A sanctuary lamp is a red light which is hung or displayed in the Churches of those Christian faiths who believe in transubstantiation. ...

At the more developed level of the polis, Hestia symbolizes the alliance between the colonies and their mother cities. A polis (πόλις, pronunciation pol-is) plural: poleis (πόλεις) is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens. ...

As an Olympian

Hestia is one of the three Great Goddesses of the first Olympian generation: Hestia, Demeter and Hera. She was described as both the oldest and youngest^[2] of the three daughters of Rhea and Cronus, the sisters to three brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Originally listed as one of the Twelve Olympians, Hestia gave up her seat in favour of newcomer Dionysus to tend to the sacred fire on Mt. Olympus.^{[citation needed]} Every family hearth was her altar. This article is about the grain goddess Demeter. ... For other uses, see Hera (disambiguation). ... Rhea (or Ria meaning she who flows) was the Titaness daughter of Uranus and of Gaia. ... Cronus is not to be confused with Chronos, the personification of time. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ... Hades, Greek god of the underworld, enthroned, with his bird-headed staff, on a red-figure Apulian vase made in the 4th century BC. For other uses, see Hades (disambiguation). ... The Twelve Olympians by Monsiau, circa late 18th century. ... This article is about the ancient deity. ... Mount Olympus (Greek: ; also transliterated as Mount Ólympos, and on modern maps, Óros Ólimbos) is the highest mountain in Greece at 2,919 meters high (9,576 feet)[1]. Since its base is located at sea level, it is one of the highest mountains in Europe, in real absolute altitude...

Out of all of the Olympian gods, almost none of them have as few surviving stories about their divine exploits as Hestia: "since the hearth is immovable Hestia is unable to take parteven in the procession of the gods, let alone the other antics of the Olympians," Burkert remarks.^[3] Sometimes this is assumed to be due to her passive, non-confrontational nature.^{[citation needed]} This nature is illustrated by her giving up her seat in the Olympian twelve to prevent conflict.^{[citation needed]} But closer analysis shows strong hints that Hestia was a religious force of tremendous and ancient import. She is considered to be the first-born of Rhea and Cronus; this is evidenced by the fact that in Greek (and later Roman) culture ritual offerings to all gods began with a small offering to Hestia; the phrase "Hestia comes first" from ancient Greek culture denotes this.

The Giustiniani Hestia in O. Seyffert, Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1894

Immediately after their birth, Cronus swallowed Hestia and her siblings except for the last and youngest, Zeus, who later rescued them and led them in a war against Cronus and the other Titans. Hestia, the eldest daughter "became their youngest child, since she was the first to be devoured by their father and the last to be yielded up again" (Kereny 1951:91) — the clearest possible example of mythic inversion, a paradox that is noted in the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite (ca 700 BCE): Image File history File links Hestia-meyers. ... Image File history File links Hestia-meyers. ... The Giustiniani Hestia in O. Seyffert, Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1894 The Giustiniani Hestia is a finely-executed marble sculpture, a perhaps Hadrianic Roman copy of a Greek bronze of about 470 BCE, now in the Torlonia collection, Rome, but named for its early owner, marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani. ... This article is about the race of Titans in Greek mythology. ... Look up paradox in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The anonymous Homeric Hymns are a collection of ancient Greek hymns. ...

"She was the first-born child of wily Cronos — and youngest too."

It is also recalled in the hymn that Poseidon, and Apollo of the younger generation, each aspired to court Hestia, but the goddess was unmoved by Aphrodite's works and swore on the head of Zeus to retain her virginity. The Homeric hymns, like all early Greek literature, are concerned to reinforce the supremacy of Zeus, and Hestia's oath taken upon the head of Zeus is an example of surety. A measure of the goddess's ancient primacy—"queenly maid...among all mortal men she is chief of the goddesses", in the words of the Homeric hymn— is that she was owed the first as well as the last sacrifice at every ceremonial assembly of Hellenes, a pious duty related by the mythographers as the gift of Zeus, as if it had been his to bestow: another mythic inversion if, as is likely, the ritual was too deep-seated and essential for the Olympian reordering to overturn. There are theories (by modern neopagans among others) that Hestia, as goddess of "home and hearth", was one of the most ancient of all gods later worshipped as Olympians; as a maternal goddess of humans finding safety/homes in caves around a fire, worship of Hestia, by other names, may literally be hundreds of thousands of years old and has continued through Classical Greek times to the present day. Virgin redirects here. ...

The "great hall" of Minoan-Mycenaean culture as well as the type of earliest enclosed site built for worship on the Greek mainland is the megaron: the name of the Goddess who was venerated in the Helladic megara is not recorded, but at the center of each holy site laid bare by archaeologists was normally a hearth. The megaron is the great hall of Minoan-Mycenaean culture, a rectangular hall, fronted by an open, two-columned porch and a more or less central hearth traditional in Greece since Mycenaean times. ... The Helladic is a period of ancient Greek Civilization. ...

In his account of the Fasti of the Roman year, Ovid twice recounted an anecdote of Priapus's foiled attempt on a sleeping nymph: once he told it of the nymph Lotis^[4] and then again, calling it a "very playful little tale", he retold it of Vesta, the Roman equivalent of Hestia.^[5] In the anecdote, after a great feast, when the immortals were all either passed out drunk or asleep, Priapus — who had grotesquely large genitalia — spied Lotis/Vesta and was filled with lust for her. He quietly approached the nymph, but the braying of an ass awoke her just in time. She screamed at the sight and Priapus immediately ran away. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Fresco of Priapus, House of the Vettii, Pompeii. ... In Greek mythology, Lotis was a nymph, daughter of Poseidon or Nereus. ...

In mythology

"Hestia full of Blessings", Egypt, 6th century tapestry (Dumbarton Oaks Collection)

Hestia figures in few myths: she did not roam or have any adventures. The Homeric hymn To Hestia is consequently brief, simply an invocation of five lines, a prelude: Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (796x625, 75 KB) The Hestia Tapestry Hestia full of Blessings 44 x 53 inches Egypt, 6th century Scan from 1945 book Documents of Dying Paganism Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Washington D.C. The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (796x625, 75 KB) The Hestia Tapestry Hestia full of Blessings 44 x 53 inches Egypt, 6th century Scan from 1945 book Documents of Dying Paganism Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Washington D.C. The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image... The 6th century is the period from 501 - 600 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... Dumbarton Oaks is a nineteenth-century mansion located in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC. It houses the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, a leading center for scholarship in Byzantine studies, Pre-Columbian studies and the history of landscape architecture. ... For other uses, see Mythology (disambiguation). ...

Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, 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.

In the hymn, Hestia is located in ancient Delphi (rather than at the hearth of Zeus on Mount Olympus), which was considered the central hearth of all the Hellenes. For other uses, see Delphi (disambiguation). ...

In classical Greek art Hestia was depicted as a woman modestly cloaked in a head veil.

Notes

References

• Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard University Press)
• Kerenyi, Karl, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks
• Stephenson, Hamish, 1985 "The Gods of the Romans and Greeks" (NYT Writer)

Walter Burkert (born Neuendettelsau (Bavaria), February 2, 1931), the most eminent living scholar of Greek myth and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland who has also taught in the United Kingdom and the United States. ... One of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, Karl (Carl, Károly) Kerényi (January 19, 1897 - April 14, 1973) was born in Hungary but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1943. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Hestia

• Carlos Parada, "Hestia"
• Theoi Project, "Hestia"
• Homeric hymns To Aphrodite and To Hestia
• Ovid, Fasti (Vesta)