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HESTIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 414 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HESTIA , in See also:

Greek See also:mythology, the " See also:fire-goddess," daughter of Cronus and See also:Rhea, the goddess of See also:hearth and See also:home. She is not mentioned in See also:Homer, although the hearth is recognized as a See also:place of See also:refuge for suppliants; this seems to show that her See also:worship was not universally acknowledged at the See also:time of the Homeric poems. In See also:post-Homeric See also:religion she is one of the twelve Olympian deities, but, as the abiding goddess of the See also:household, she never leaves See also:Olympus. When See also:Apollo and See also:Poseidon became suitors for her See also:hand, she swore to remain a See also:maiden for ever; whereupon See also:Zeus bestowed upon her the See also:honour of presiding over all sacrifices. To her the opening See also:sacrifice was offered; to her at the sacrificial See also:meal the first and last libations were poured. The fire of Hestia was always kept burning, and, if by any See also:accident it became See also:extinct, only. sacred fire produced by See also:friction, or by burning glasses See also:drawing fire from the See also:sun, might be used to rekindle it. Hestia is the goddess of the See also:family See also:union, the personification of the See also:idea of home; and as the See also:city union is only the family union on a large See also:scale, she was regarded as the goddess of the See also:state. In this See also:character her See also:special See also:sanctuary was in the See also:prytaneum, where the See also:common hearth-fire See also:round which the magistrates meet is ever burning, and where the sacred See also:rites that sanctify the See also:concord of city See also:life are performed. From this fire, as the representative of the life of the city, intending colonists took the fire which was to be kindled on the hearth of the new See also:colony. Hestia was closely connected with Zeus, the See also:god of the family both in its See also:external relation of hospitality and its See also:internal unity round its own hearth; in the Odyssey a See also:form of See also:oath is by Zeus, the table and the hearth. Again, Hestia is often associated with See also:Hermes, the two representing home and domestic life on the one hand, and business and outdoor life on the other; or, according to others, the association is See also:local—that of the god of boundaries with the goddess of the See also:house. In later See also:philosophy Hestia became the hearth of the universe—the personification of the See also:earth as the centre of the universe, identified with See also:Cybele and See also:Demeter.

As Hestia had her home in the prytaneum, special temples dedicated to her are of rare occurrence. She is seldom represented in See also:

works of See also:art, and plays no important See also:part in See also:legend. It is not certain that any really Greek statues of Hestia are in existence, although the See also:Giustiniani See also:Vesta in the Torlonia Museum is usually accepted as such. In this she is represented See also:standing upright, simply robed, a See also:hood over her See also:head, the See also:left hand raised and pointing upwards. The See also:Roman deity corresponding to the Greek Hestia is VESTA (q.v.). See A. Preuner, Hestia-Vesta (1864), the See also:standard See also:treatise on the subject, and his See also:article in See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; J. G. Frazer, " The Prytaneum," &c., in See also:Journal of See also:Philology, xiv. (1885) ; G. Hagemann, De Graecorum prytaneis (1881), with bibliography and notes; Homeric See also:Hymns, See also:xxix., ed. T.

W. See also:

Allen and E. E. Sikes (1904); Farnell, Cults, the Greek States, v. (1909).

End of Article: HESTIA

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