In the 

Ancient Greek religion, Hestia (/ˈhɛstiə, ˈhɛstʃə/; Greek: Ἑστία, "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.[1]
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.

Contents

 1Etymology
 2Worship
o 2.1Temples
o 2.2Hymns, Odes and Oaths
o 2.3Hestia Tapestry
 3Mythology
o 3.1Life
o 3.2Duty
o 3.3Status and Attributes
o 3.4Equivalency
 4Genealogy
 5See also
 6Notes
 7References
 8External links

Etymology[edit]
Hestia's name means "hearth, fireplace, altar",[2] This stems from the PIE root *wes, "burn" (ult. from *h₂wes- "dwell, pass the
night, stay").[3][4][5] 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".[6] 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.[citation needed]

Worship[edit]
Hestia's name and functions show the hearth's importance in the social, religious, and political life of ancient Greece. The
hearth was essential for warmth, food preparation, and the completion of sacrificial offerings to deities. She was also offered
the first and last libations of wine at feasts.[7] Her own sacrificial animal was a domestic pig.[8] Pausanias writes that
the Eleans sacrifice first to Hestia and then to other gods.[9] 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.[10]
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 (Ancient Greek: Ἑστίας Πρυτανίτιδος).[11]
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.[12] 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. [13]

Temples[edit]
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. A statue of her reportedly existed in the Athenian Prytaneum:
"Hard by is the Prytaneon (Prytaneum) [the town-hall of Athens] . . . and figures are placed off the
goddesses Eirene and Hestia."[14]
However, there were very few temples dedicated to Hestia. Pausanias mention only two, in Ermioni and in Sparta:
"[At Hermione in Argolis :] Passing into the sanctuary of Hestia, we see no image, but only an altar and they
sacrifice to Hestia upon it.[15] [...] The Lacedaemonians (Lacedaemonians) also have a sanctuary of Hestia [at
Sparta]."[16]
Xenophon at Hellenica mention a temple of Hestia at the Olympia:
"When, however, they had pursued the enemy to the space between the senate-house and the temple of
Hestia and the theatre which adjoins these buildings, although they fought no less stoutly and kept pushing the
enemy towards the altar, still, since they were pelted from the roofs of the porticoes, the senate-house, and
the great temple, and were themselves fighting on the ground-level, some of the Eleans were killed, among them
Stratolas himself, the leader of the Three Hundred." [17]

Hymns, Odes and Oaths[edit]

Homeric Hymn 24, To Hestia, is a brief invocation of five lines:
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.[18]

Homeric Hymn 29, To Hestia, is another invocation for the goddess and to 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 (Hermes's epithet), 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.[19]

There is also an Orphic Hymn dedicated to Hestia.[20] And, the 11th Nemean ode of Pindar writes about
Hestia.[21][22]
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. [23][24]

Hestia Tapestry[edit]
Main article: Hestia Tapestry
 Hestia full of Blessings, Egypt, 6th century tapestry (Dumbarton Oaks Collection)

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; (Greek: Ἑστία
Πολύολβος "Hestia full of Blessings"). Its history and symbolism are discussed in Friedlander (1945). [25]

Mythology[edit]

Statue of Hestia (Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA)

Life[edit]
Hestia is a goddess of the first Olympian generation. She is the eldest daughter of
the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Chiron, 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.[26] 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).[27] Throughout mythology, Hestia rejected the marriage suits of Poseidon and Apollo, and
swore herself to perpetual virginity. She thus rejected Aphrodite's values and becomes, to some extent, her
chaste, domestic complementary, or antithesis, since Aphrodite could not bend or ensnare her heart.[28]

Duty[edit]
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.[29] 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".[28]

Status and Attributes[edit]

Hestia's Olympian status is equivocal to her status among men. However, at Athens, "in Plato's time," notes
Kenneth Dorter[30] "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.[31] "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. [32] 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").
This is not so for every Greek in every generation. 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."[33]
The ambiguities in Hestia's mythology match her indeterminate attributes, character, and iconography. She 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. [34] 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.[1]

Equivalency[edit]
Her Roman equivalent is Vesta;[35] 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.[36] 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.[37]

Genealogy[edit]
hideHestia's family tree [38]

Uranus Gaia

Uranus' genitals Cronus Rhea

 Zeus Hera Poseidon Hades Demeter HESTIA

    a [39]

     b [40]

Ares Hephaestus

Metis

Athena [41]

Leto

Apollo
Artemis

Maia

Hermes

Semele

Dionysus

Dione

    a [42]
     b [43]

Aphrodite
See also[edit]
 Sacred fire of Vesta
 Vitex agnus-castus

Notes[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b Graves, Robert. "The Palace of Olympus". Greek Gods and Heroes.
2. ^ R. S. P. Beekes. Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 471.
3. ^ Calvert Watkins, "wes-", in: The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, Boston 1985 (web archive).
4. ^ Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q. (2006-08-24). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-
Indo-European World. OUP Oxford. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-19-928791-8.
5. ^ West, M. L. (2007-05-24). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. OUP Oxford. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.
6. ^ Burkert, p. 61.
7. ^ Homeric Hymn 29, tr. Evelyn-White, Hugh G.
8. ^ , Bremmer, Jan. N., in Ogden, D. (Ed). (2010). A Companion to Greek Religion, Wiley-Blackwell, Google
Books preview, p. 134, ISBN 978-1-4443-3417-3.
9. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.14.4
10. ^ Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 7.5.57
11. ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 4.149
12. ^ Kajava, p. 5.
13. ^ Kajava, pp. 1, 3, 5.
14. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 18. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.)
15. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 35. 1
16. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 11. 11
17. ^ Xenophon, Hellenika, 7.4.31
18. ^ Hymn  24 to Hestia.

19. ^ Homeric Hymn to Hestia 29.1   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public
domain.
20. ^ THE ORPHIC HYMN TO HESTIA
21. ^ Pindar, Nemean Odes, 11.1, EN
22. ^ Pindar, Nemean Odes, 11.1, GR
23. ^ 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."
24. ^ Attic Inscriptions Online, 17
25. ^ Friedlander, Paul. (1945). Documents of Dying Paganism. University of California Press.
26. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 453 ff.
27. ^ Kereny, p. 91
28. ^ Jump up to:a b "Homeric Hymns, To Aphrodite".
29. ^ Kajava, pp. 1–2.
30. ^ Dorter, K. (1971). Imagery and Philosophy in Plato's Phaedrus. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 9 (3),
279–288 (July 1971).
31. ^ Kereny, p. 92: "There is no story of Hestia's ever having taken a husband or ever having been removed from
her fixed abode."
32. ^ Burkert, p. 170.
33. ^ Robert Fagles' translation
 34. ^ Kajava, p. 2.
35. ^ Hughes, James. (1995). Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, p. 215. Larousse/The Book People.
36. ^ Burkert, p. 415, 3.3.1 n. 2.
37. ^ Procopius, History of the Wars, Book II, XXIV
38. ^ This chart is based upon Hesiod's Theogony, unless otherwise noted.
39. ^ According to Homer, Iliad 1.570–579, 14.338, Odyssey8.312, Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera
and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.
40. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see
Gantz, p. 74.
41. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 886–890, of Zeus' 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.
42. ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp.
99–100.
43. ^ According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione
(Iliad5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–100.

References[edit]
 Burkert, Walter. (1985). Greek Religion. Harvard University Press.
 Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
 Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G.
Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd.
1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
 Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge,
Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at
the Perseus Digital Library.
 Homer; The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge,
Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at
the Perseus Digital Library.
 Kajava, Mika. "Hestia Hearth, Goddess, and Cult", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 102 (2004):
1–20.
 Kerenyi, Karl. (1951). The Gods of the Greeks.
 Stephenson, Hamish. (1985). The Gods of the Romans and Greeks. NYT Writer.
 Friedlander, Paul. (1945). Documents of Dying Paganism. University of California Press.

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons

has media related

to Hestia.

 Carlos Parada, "Hestia"

 Socrates to Hermogenes about Hestia - Estia - Esti (Eesti) - Osia
 Hestia "Polyolbos" Dumbarton Oaks site.
 HESTIA: THE EPITHETS