Hestia

Hestia is a virgin Greek goddess of the hearth, home and fire. It was believed all hearths were her altars. She also symbolized the alliance between colonies and their mother cities. Her sacred animal is the pig.

Hestia
Goddess of the hearth, sacrificical fire and flame, home, domesticity, family, protection, architecture and the state
Personal information
Parents	Cronus and Rhea
Siblings	Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Chiron
Roman equivalent	Vesta

Family

Hestia is the older sister of Demeter and Hera, and is also the sister of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Her parents are Titans Rhea and Kronos.

Myths

Hestia was originally one of the Twelve Olympians. Her throne was described as plain, being made of wood with a woolen white cushion. She did not choose an emblem for herself.

Hestia was the first to be swallowed by her father Kronos when he ate the Twelve Olympians, and the last to be disgorged.

Zeus assigned Hestia to tend the sacred fire on Mount Olympus. Because she could not leave the hearth, Hestia did not have many stories centered around her.

In ancient tales, Hestia refused the marriage offers of Apollo (her nephew) and Poseidon (her brother). She vowed on the River Styx to forever be a virgin goddess.

Worship

Hestia was always the first to receive offerings at every sacrifice in a household. Any hearth of a household was forbidden to go out unless the fire was ritually extinguished and ritually revived. The hearth of the prytaneum was Hestia's official sanctuary. When a new colony was formed, a flame from Hestia's public hearth in the mother city would be carried to the new settlement.

Hestia Media

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  Intérieur du musée archéologique de Delphes, Delphes.

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  Fragment of a Hellenistic relief (1st century BC – 1st century AD) depicting the twelve Olympians carrying their attributes in procession; Hestia with scepter to the left, from the Walters Art Museum

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  Part of a marble altar with inscription ESTIAS ISTHMIAS, 5th–4th century BC. The altar was dedicated to the goddess Hestia with the epithet Isthmia ("of the isthmus". Archaeological Museum of Paros.

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  Dedication of an altar to Hestia in Karneades, Taormina (undated). The inscription states: "Beside these walls of Serapis the warden of the temple Karneades of Barke, son of Eukritos, O foreigner, and his spouse Pythias and his daughter Eraso placed to Hestia a pure altar, as a reward for this, O you that governs the marvelous dwellings of Zeus, grant to them a lovely auspiciousness of life."

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  Hestia from the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, mid-fifth century BC, British Museum

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

Related pages

• Vesta (mythology), a Roman version of Hestia.