Hestia: Difference between revisions

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	{{Greek myth (Olympian)}}
	In ], virginal '''Hestia''' (] '''{{Polytonic\|Ἑστία}}''') is the ] of the ], 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 ] or town hall 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. In ] her more civic approximate equivalent was ], 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 ] linguistics; borrowings from a third language must also be involved," ] has written (1985, III.3.1 note 2). 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 ] and ] on Crete are of this type as indeed is the temple of Apollo at ] 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 fane of the Goddess before it was assumed by Apollo. The Mycenaean great hall, such as the hall of ] at Ithaca was a ], with a central hearthfire.

	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 ] and of ]s.

	At the more developed level of the '']'' Hestia symbolizes the alliance between the colonies and their mother-cities.

	Hestia is one of the three Great Goddesses of the first Olympian generation: Hestia, ] and ]. She is the oldest of the three daughters of ] and ], the sisters to three brothers ], ], and ]. Originally listed as one of the ], Hestia gave up her seat in favour of new-comer ] to tend to the sacred fire on ]. Her altars included every family hearth.

	] tapestry in the ] Collection]]
	]
	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 ]. 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 p 91)— the clearest possible example of ], a ] that is noted in the ] to Aphrodite (ca 700 BCE):
	:"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 Hestia, but the goddess was unmoved by Aphrodite's works and swore to retain her ]. The Homeric hymns, like all early Greek literature, are concerned to reinforce the supremacy of Zeus, and Hestia's oath is taken upon the head of Zeus, as 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.

	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 '']'': the name of the Goddess who was venerated in the ] ''megara'' is not recorded, but at the center of each holy site laid bare by archaeologists was normally a ''hearth''.

	Hestia figure in few ]s: she did not roam or have any adventures. The Homeric hymn ''To Hestia'' is consequently brief, simply an invocation of five lines, a prelude:
	:Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodly ], 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.

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

	==Other media==
	* Hestia is one of the gods worshipped in the ] magazine '']''. She is the one responsible for providing Diana with the power of truth and the ] ] with protected homes.
	* Hestia is the name given to the "tenth planet" in the comic series ].

	==External links==
	{{Commonscat\|Hestia}}
	*
	*
	*
	* (Vesta)

	==References==
	*], 1985. ''Greek Religion'' (Harvard University Press)
	*], 1951. ''The Gods of the Greeks''

	{{Greek myth (Olympian)2}}

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Revision as of 01:39, 26 September 2006