Ancient goddess spotlight: Hestia

April 20, 8:16 PMWomen's Issues ExaminerJuliette Fretté

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Goddess of the Hearth ~ Protectress of Fire

Hestia (pronounced Hess-tee-yah) is an ancient Greek goddess of the hearth and home. Associated with fireplaces, fire, food, and domestic life, she was considered the central divine figure presiding over the Greek home, and by extension, the entire community. A sacred personification of the ancient housewife, Hestia was integral to creating a functioning society, beginning with individual households.

Similar to hearth goddesses of other world cultures of antiquity, Hestia was required to remain a perpetual virgin. A "pure" guardian of fire, her Roman counterpart Vesta had a famous cult of followers, including her attendant priestesses known as the "Vestal Virgins." Eternal virgins like their patron goddess, the Vestals were required to remain abstinent lest they deplete their "energy" on a mortal man or suffer a worse consequence from the ancient patriarchy: live inhumation. Indeed, Vestal priestesses who dared transgress the boundary of sex were buried alive -- not at the hands of Vesta herself, but by men who punished wayward women in the ironic name of sacred femininity.

Aside from her association with fire, fierce virginity, and domesticity, Hestia herself was painted as a nurturing and generous figure to both humans and immortals.  According to myth, Hestia voluntarily left her "seat" among the deities of the Greek pantheon so that Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy, would be included among the Olympians.

Sources:
The Goddess Oracle by Amy Sophia Marashinsky (2002)
Whence the Goddesses: A Source Book by Miriam Robbins Dexter (1990)

Other articles of interest:

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Painting "Opfer für die Göttin Vesta" by Sebastiano Ricci (1723)

Juliette Frette