In 2020 , as the world sheltered in billet , many of us suddenly find ourselves obsessed with kitchen life . From sourdough starter tobaking experiment , our oven were solve extra time as we all adjusted to to the full homebound living . But before Martha Stewart and Ina Garten became the domesticated goddesses so many of us look to for inspiration , there was an actual domestic goddess presiding over the heart of the home base : Hestia .
" Hestia superintend the single most important part of any pre - modern house — the hearth , the germ of heat for warmth and fire for preparation , " saysRichard P. Martin , the Antony and Isabelle Raubitschek prof in classic at Stanford University , in an email interview . " In the example of ancient Greek business firm , the open fireplace was also the place for domestic sacrifices ( which then become meals — cooking and forfeit are totally wrapped up together in Greek religion ) . And the open fireplace is a place where you would pelt libations of wine-colored or milk or honey , as a way of paying homage to the gods , especially before and after meals . "
Born toparents Kronus ( sometimes spell Cronus ) and Rhea , Hestia was the sister ofZeus , Poseidon , Hades , Demeter and Hera . TheGreek goddessof architecture , family , and the state , in addition to the hearth , menage and class , Hestiapresided overbread baking and meal preparation , but , as Martin mentions , she also supervise the sacrificial fire and received a share of every sacrifice to the gods . " You would call on her at the top of the list of recipient divinity whenever sacrifices were being made , and even ' give ' her the first part of the meat or other oblation , " he says . " So she was regulating or secure proper ritual behaviour — if you remembered her , and made the correct offering , you were doing things proper and maintaining Holy Order in the large earth . "
Considered a defender of the family and political community , Hestia played an integral persona in both private and public personal matters and she continue to be celebrate as a poof of cordial reception . Here are five facts to eff about the courteous goddess :
1. Hestia’s Domain - the Hearth - Was the Ultimate Safe Space
The fireside was a self-aggrandising deal in the Greek home , represent the center of the householdand symbolizing its heart and soulfulness . In gain to cooking , the fireside was the setting for birth and death ceremonies , and the position to introduce unexampled brides . It was considered such a sanctuary , even authorities could n’t cross it .
" The hearth — her special realm — was where people on the ladder , peradventure for crimes they committed elsewhere , or people who were innocent andlooking for asylum , perhaps for political cause , would come to seek asylum , " Martin says . " It was considered sacrilegious to haul anyone from an altar , and the fireplace essentially was goddess , hearth and altar all in one . It was the ultimate dependable space . "
An excerpt from Homer ’s " The Odyssey " illustrates the holiness of the hearth . " There is a view where the sub , in a new strange land , on the island of the Phaeacians , after years of wander the sea , go in the castle of the local magnate and go right to the central fireside , " Martin says . " He sits down in the dusty ash tree and from there begs the royal crime syndicate to station him home to Ithaca . Ritually , obtain down in the ash tree of the hearth is a way of signaling your lowered condition in the situation , your pure need , and your dependency as an outsider on the category who possess the hearth . And it also plays on the idea that by introduce Hestia ’s realm , you are going straight to the symbolic center of the whole community . They really ca n’t turn away you , without pay the price in angering the goddess . "
2. She Was in Charge of Kicking Off New Colonies
Any prison term a novel Greek colony was established , residents took flack from the hearth in the prytaneion ( otherwise love as the township hallway ) and brought the fire back to their new locations .
" When an run over population result people to move outward from key Greece around the 8th to sixth centuries B.C.E. and to establish new settlements all over the Mediterranean ( even as far due west as Marseilles ) , the raw settlers accept the fire from their home city - state ( the " tube - polis " — literally " female parent city " ) , carefully guarded the glowing ember , and light the fires of their new home base from the original fireplace back where they came from , " Martin says . " There can hardly be a just image of the persistence they were aiming for — the daughter - city was like a light from the mother ’s hearth . "
allot to Martin , in all 800 or so ancient Grecian city - state , there was a central , civic " hearth " which attend as a shrine to Hestia and help make " the entire community basically into one big family . "
3. She’s One of Three Virgin Goddesses
Along withAthenaand Artemis , Hestia is a pure goddess . She remained continent throughout her life-time , despite the " amorous care " of gods like Apollo , Poseidon and the fertility god himself , Priapus .
" An ancient verse form called the ' Hymn to Aphrodite ' tells it best , " Martin says . " When the rival gods Poseidon and Apollo were both seek to we d Hestia , she pig-headedly refused . She stir the headspring of Zeus ( her pal , but also the headspring of the ' sept ' of Olympian gods ) and swear an oath to remain a Virgo all her life . Again , we are dealing with a powerful exercise set of symbolic representation : Hestia is completely devoted to patriarchal power . In any civilization where the new Saint Bride comes to live with the married man ’s family ( ' patrilocal ' as the anthropologists say ) , Hestia represents the rootedness of the ancestral husband ’s home . "
According to ancient Greek practices , vernal Bride get out their original dwelling ( where they were under their father ’s guardianship ) to move to their married man ’s home and " pass into his control and guardianship . " Martin explains that because of Hestia ’s central role as the heart of the home , she could n’t go away quite so easily , so she was unable to get married at all . " We take heed tale about all the other gods and goddesses leave Zeus ' palace temporarily , for instance , to go catch events in the Trojan War or to assist or harm soul on world , " he says . " But Hestia always stays home . "
4. Her Father Swallowed Her
Hestia ’s dad , Kronos , had something of a strange composite about his legacy : He feared his children would dethrone them , so , well , he eat on them . But do n’t worry — as far as grim Greek myth go , this one has some semblance of a glad ending ( for the children at least ) .
" Hestia was the first - born child of Kronos and Rhea — parent of the Olympian graven image — but her father swallowed her ( as he did all the respite ) because he was afraid a child would come to reverse him , " Martin enounce . " Then his wife Rhea play tricks Kronos , feed him a John Rock to eat alternatively of the late nestling — Zeus . Kronos swallowed the stone and vomited up all the other child he had consume in reverse sequence — first in , last out . Therefore , Hestia , the ' honest-to-god ' ( carry first ) was also the youngest ( ejected last from Kronos ' oesophagus and thus re - born ) . "
5. Hestia’s Roman Counterpart Is Vesta, Which Makes Perfect Sense
Hestia ’s popish equivalent is Vesta , which according to Martin , makes perfect sense . " The ' Vestal Virgins ' in Rome were priestess of Vesta , who was the Romanist goddess of the hearth , " he tell . " In fact , the names Vesta and Hestia come from the same ancient antecedent , dating back to a clock time when Greek and Latin were more or less dialects of the same now - lost female parent language ( which we call’Indo - European’today ) . The Vestals ' job was to see to the hallowed fire in a shrine in the middle of the Roman Forum , keeping the flaming alive ( which they managed to do even up to the quaternary century C.E. ) . "
According to Martin , the grandness of virginity in ancient meter is vitreous silica clear in the font of the Vestals . " With the papistical priestesses , you see the importance of being a virgin ( which in the case of Hestia seems to be mainly a matter of myth ) played out in real societal terminal figure , " he say . " They were chosen from high - abide families , between the age of 6 and 10 , and then they had to stay chaste for 30 years , after which they could marry . "
Rumor had it that not abiding by those societal expectations mean facing devastating consequences . " The Romans told stories about the few Vestal Virgins who failed to keep their vow — how they would be bury alive or at least put into an isolated room , after being caught , and set aside to starve to death , " Martin state . " Most likely these were myth mean to scare people into abide by with the principle and at the same time aimed at impressing everyone with the seriousness of the symbolic virginity of the office Vestal . "
