Hestia

Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth and of the household fire, the eldest child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea and the sister of Zeus. She is one of the six children of Cronus and Rhea in Hesiod’s Theogony. Few myths are told about her, but in cult she received the first and last share of every sacrifice and feast.

Hestia’s Role

Hestia’s Name

Hestia’s name is the Greek word for “hearth”, the fireplace at the centre of the house. The goddess and the hearth were not separate things: the hearth in each home and the common hearth of each city were her place. Her Roman counterpart is Vesta. Diodorus Siculus says that Hestia was credited with discovering how to build houses, which is why people set up her shrine in every home (Diodorus 5.68.1).

Hestia’s Portrayal and Symbolism

Ancient writers describe very few images of Hestia. At Hermione, Pausanias saw a sanctuary of Hestia with no statue, only an altar on which the people sacrificed (Pausanias 2.35.1). In the Prytaneion at Athens he saw figures of Peace and Hestia (Pausanias 1.18.3), and at Olympia she is among the gods carved on the base of the statue of Zeus (Pausanias 5.11.8). Ovid says that the temple of Vesta at Rome held no statue either, only a fire that was never allowed to go out (Ovid, Fasti 6.295–298).

Hestia’s Epithets

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite calls her “revered” and “lady” (Hymn 5.21–24). The Homeric Hymn to Hestia and Hermes says that she received an “everlasting seat” and an honour of the eldest in the high houses of all gods and of men who walk on the earth (Hymn 29.1–4). Pindar addresses her as the goddess who holds the prytaneia, the halls of the city where the public fire burned (Pindar, Nemean 11.1).

Hestia’s Family

Parents and Siblings

Hestia was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Hesiod lists their children as Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus, naming her first (Hesiod, Theogony 453–458). Her sisters are Demeter and Hera, her brothers Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Apollodorus calls her the firstborn, whom Cronus swallowed before Demeter, Hera, Pluto and Poseidon (Apollodorus, Library 1.1.5). The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite says that Cronus begot her first and, by the will of Zeus, youngest again (Hymn 5.22–23), which is why she is sometimes called both the eldest and the youngest. Chiron, whom Cronus fathered by Philyra, is a half-brother (Apollodorus, Library 1.2.4).

Consorts and Children

Hestia had no husband and no children. The sources that mention her marriage say that she refused it.

Hestia’s Virginity, Peacefulness, and Domesticity

The Vow of Chastity

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite says that the works of Aphrodite give no pleasure to the revered Hestia. Poseidon and Apollo both wished to marry her, but she refused firmly and swore a great oath, touching the head of her father Zeus, that she would remain a virgin for ever. In place of marriage Zeus gave her a fine honour: she sits in the middle of the house and takes the richest portion of the offerings, and she is honoured in all the temples of the gods and is the most venerable of the gods among all mortals (Hymn 5.21–32).

Hestia, Priapus, and the Donkey

Ovid tells a story in which Hestia’s counterpart Vesta is almost assaulted. During a feast of the gods held by Cybele on Mount Ida, Vesta falls asleep on the grass. The garden god Priapus creeps up to her, but the donkey of Silenus brays at the wrong moment, the goddess wakes, and the crowd chases Priapus away. Ovid gives this as the reason why donkeys are crowned with loaves of bread at Vesta’s festival (Ovid, Fasti 6.311–348). It is a Roman story told about Vesta. No Greek source we checked tells it of Hestia.

Hestia at Home

In Plato’s Phaedrus, Zeus drives the winged chariot at the head of a host of gods and spirits arranged in eleven companies, and “Hestia alone remains in the house of the gods” (Plato, Phaedrus 247a). This is the nearest ancient statement of why she takes so little part in the stories of the other gods. The Homeric Hymn to Hestia (Hymn 24) places her in the house of Apollo at Pytho, with soft oil dripping from her hair, and asks her to come into the house with Zeus (Hymn 24.1–5).

Hestia: Cult and Worship

The Public Hearth

Each Greek city kept a common hearth in its town hall, the Prytaneion, and Pindar calls Hestia the goddess who holds these halls. His eleventh Nemean ode, written for Aristagoras of Tenedos when he took office as a prytanis, opens with a prayer to her (Pindar, Nemean 11.1–7). At Olympia the town hall had a hearth of ashes on which fire burned every day and every night (Pausanias 5.15.9).

First and Last Offerings

The Homeric Hymn to Hestia and Hermes says that no feast of mortals is held without her, because at every banquet the first and the last libation of sweet wine is poured to Hestia (Hymn 29.4–6). At Olympia, the Eleans sacrificed to Hestia first, before Olympian Zeus (Pausanias 5.14.4).

Hestia and Vesta

The Romans knew the goddess as Vesta, and at Rome her fire was tended by the Vestal Virgins. Ovid identifies Vesta with the living flame and says that the temple held a fire that was never put out (Ovid, Fasti 6.291–298). He also names Vesta as the third daughter of Saturn and Ops, after Juno and Ceres, and the only one of the three who did not marry (Fasti 6.285–288).

Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 453–458; Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite 21–32; Homeric Hymn 24 to Hestia; Homeric Hymn 29 to Hestia and Hermes; Pindar, Nemean 11.1–7; Plato, Phaedrus 247a; Apollodorus, Library 1.1.5 and 1.2.4; Diodorus Siculus 5.68.1; Pausanias 1.18.3, 2.35.1, 5.11.8, 5.14.4 and 5.15.9; Ovid, Fasti 6.285–298 and 6.311–348.

See Also: Cronus, Rhea, Demeter, Hera, Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Aphrodite