Hestia: Hearth and Home

Hey guys! I hope you’re all doing well. I’ve got a short post today, ’cause it’s my dad’s birthday and I want to spend time with him.

This post is about a Greek goddess: Hestia. Hestia is a very interesting character in Greek mythology. She rules over the hearth, the home, and is a goddess of family and architecture.

 

(Hestia is often associated with fire.  This is because she rules over the hearth.  Do you guys have a fireplace, or know someone who does?  Those stones in front of it are called hearthstones - the fireplace itself is known as the hearth.)

Comparing her to some of the other Greek gods, you might think she isn’t too special - after all, what good is the home when Apollo commands something as powerful as the sun, or Poseidon the sea?

The answer: very.

Hestia was one of the first gods to be born. Her siblings include Zeus (ruler of the sky), Poseidon, Hades (god of the dead), Hera (queen of the gods), and Demeter (commands plants). All of these are pretty powerful gods. Hestia? She was the firstborn of them.

I always loved that the Greeks thought of Hestia as being more important than the later gods. She came before war, before love, before the sun...that tells you that the Greeks thought very highly of home.

You don’t see very much of Hestia in Greek mythology. She was tied to her hearthstone - Mount Olympus - and so rarely featured in the myths. What little we do see of her shows a goddess who wasn’t afraid of any of the gods. Poseidon and later Apollo both try to marry her; Hestia turns them down. Any human who rejected the suit of a god generally got raped or turned into something horrible - but Hestia gets away with it. She is known as one of the virgin goddesses because she, like Athena and Artemis, took an oath of virginity - thus declaring herself no servant of Aphrodite, goddess of love.

That’s about the extent you see of Hestia in the myths, save for a few references to her. Records of ancient Greek life tell more of her story. Sacrifices were routinely offered to the gods by the Greeks, often accompanied by prayers for that god’s favors. When in a house, the first sacrifice always went to Hestia - she came before more powerful gods such as Zeus!

My favorite part about the Percy Jackson book series was always Hestia’s role in events. I love that she was overlooked, almost forgotten - but, in the end, she was the most powerful of all of the gods.

There’s a line from World of Warcraft that I’d like to end today’s post with; it seemed appropriate. The game features a race called Pandaren who are very mellow and easy-going. They have a line that seems to describe Hestia’s role in the pantheon pretty well:

“Friends. Family. These are what matter most.”

I’ll see you guys next week.