Vesta / Hestia. In Ancient Greek religion, Hestia is the virgin goddess of the hearth, the right ordering of domesticity, the family, the home, and the state.
In Greek mythology, she is the daughter and firstborn child of Kronos and Rhea. Hestia received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household.
In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum functioned as her official sanctuary. With the establishment of a new colony, flame from Hestia's public hearth in the mother city would be carried to the new settlement.
Her Roman equivalent is Vesta; Herodotus equates the Scythian Tabiti with her. The Zoroastrian holy fire of the Sasanians in Adhur Gushnasp was also equated with Hestia by Procopius.
Hestia's name means hearth, fireplace, altar, stemming from the same root as the English verbal form was. It thus refers to the oikos, the domestic, home, household, house, or family. An early form of the temple is the hearth house; the early temples at Dreros and Prinias on Crete are of this type as indeed is the temple of Apollo at Delphi which always had its inner hestia. The Mycenaean great hall, like Homer's hall of Odysseus at Ithaca, had a central hearth. Likewise, the hearth of the later Greek prytaneum was the community and government's ritual and secular focus. Hestia's name and functions show the hearth's importance in the social, religious, and political life of ancient Greece. Th
In Greek mythology, she is the daughter and firstborn child of Kronos and Rhea. Hestia received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household.
In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum functioned as her official sanctuary. With the establishment of a new colony, flame from Hestia's public hearth in the mother city would be carried to the new settlement.
Her Roman equivalent is Vesta; Herodotus equates the Scythian Tabiti with her. The Zoroastrian holy fire of the Sasanians in Adhur Gushnasp was also equated with Hestia by Procopius.
Hestia's name means hearth, fireplace, altar, stemming from the same root as the English verbal form was. It thus refers to the oikos, the domestic, home, household, house, or family. An early form of the temple is the hearth house; the early temples at Dreros and Prinias on Crete are of this type as indeed is the temple of Apollo at Delphi which always had its inner hestia. The Mycenaean great hall, like Homer's hall of Odysseus at Ithaca, had a central hearth. Likewise, the hearth of the later Greek prytaneum was the community and government's ritual and secular focus. Hestia's name and functions show the hearth's importance in the social, religious, and political life of ancient Greece. Th
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