![]() 65.) If ever the fire of her hearth became extinct, it was not allowed to be lighted again with ordinary fire, but either by fire produced by friction, or by burning glasses drawing fire from the sun. When a colony was sent out, the emigrants took the fire which was to burn on the hearth of their new home from that of the mother town. As this public hearth was the sacred asylum in every town, the state usually received its guests and foreign ambassadors there, and the prytanes had to act the part of hosts. There the prytanes offered sacrifices to her, on entering upon their office, and there, as at a private hearth, Hestia protected the suppliants. This public hearth usually existed in the prytaneium of a town, where the goddess had her especial sanctuary (thalamos), under the name of Prutanitis, with a statue and the sacred hearth. 1579.) A town or city is only an extended family, and therefore had likewise its sacred hearth, the symbol of an harmonious community of citizens and of a common worship. aph hestias archomenos.) Solemn oaths were sworn by the goddess of the hearth, and the hearth itself was the sacred asylum where suppliants implored the protection of the inhabitants of the house. 31.) Hence when sacrifices were offered, she was invoked first, and the first part of the sacrifice was offered to her. § 3.) As the hearth of a house is at the same time the altar on which sacrifices are offered to the domestic gods (hestiouchoi or ephestioi), Hestia was looked upon as presiding at all sacrifices, and, as the goddess of the sacred fire of the altar, she had a share in the sacrifices in all the temples of the gods. 735.) In this respect she appears often together with Hermes, who was likewise a deus penetralis, as protecting the works of man. 129), and to have invented the art of building houses. 2.) As the hearth was looked upon as the sacred centre of domestic life, so Hestia was the goddess of domestic life and the giver of all domestic happiness and blessings, and as such she was believed to dwell in the inner part of every house (Hom. The connection between Hestia and Apollo and Poseidon, which is thus alluded to in the legend, appears also in the temple of Delphi, where the three divinities were worshipped in common, and Hestia and Poseidon appeared together also at Olympia. 24, &c.), and in this character it was that her sacrifices consisted of cows which were only one year old. § 5.) She was, like Artemis and Athena, a maiden divinity, and when Apollo and Poseidon sued for her hand, she swore by the head of Zeus to remain a virgin for ever (Hom. According to the common tradition, she was the first-born daughter of Rhea, and was therefore the first of the children that was swallowed by Cronus. Histiê), the goddess of the hearth, or rather the fire burning on the hearth, was regarded as one of the twelve great gods, and accordingly as a daughter of Cronus and Rhea. KRONOS & RHEA (Hesiod Theogony 453, Apollodorus 1.4, Diodorus Sicululs 1.4. In classical sculpture she was also veiled, with a kettle as her attribute. Hestia was depicted in Athenian vase painting as a modestly veiled woman sometimes holding a flowered branch (perhaps a chaste-tree). He agreed and she took her place at his royal hearth. When the gods Apollon and Poseidon sought for her hand in marriage, Hestia refused and asked Zeus to let her remain an eternal virgin. As the first to be swallowed she was also the last to be disgorged, and so was named as both the eldest and youngest of the six Kronides. Zeus later forced the old Titan to disgorge Hestia and her siblings. In myth Hestia was the first born child of Kronos (Cronus) and Rhea who was swallowed by her father at birth. The cooking of the communal feast of sacrificial meat was naturally a part of her domain. Hestia was also the goddess of the sacrificial flame and received a share of every sacrifice to the gods. As the goddess of the family hearth she also presided over the cooking of bread and the preparation of the family meal. ![]() ![]() ![]() HESTIA was the virgin goddess of the hearth (both private and municipal) and the home. Hearth ( hestia) Hestia, Athenian red-figure kylix C5th B.C., National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia
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