Hestia

In Greek mythology, virginal Hestia is the goddess of the hearth, of the right ordering of domesticity and the family, who received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household, but had no public cult. In Roman mythology her approximate equivalent was Vesta, who personified the public hearth, and whose cult round the ever-burning hearth bound Romans together in the form of an extended family.

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Her name means "home and hearth": the household and its inhabitants. Hestia symbolizes the alliance between the colonies and their mother-cities and is the oldest daughter of Rhea and Cronus, sister to Zeus, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Demeter. Originally listed as one of the Twelve Olympians, Hestia was later removed in favour of Dionysus. Afterwards, she tended the sacred fire on Mt. Olympus. Her altars included every family hearth.

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Immediately after their birth, Cronus swallowed Hestia and her siblings except for Zeus, who later rescued them and led them in a war against Cronus and the other Titans. Hestia vowed to forever remain a virgin and refused Poseidon and Apollo when they came calling. She was once almost raped by Priapus, a lesser fertility god, but was saved by the braying of a donkey.

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Greek mythology: Greek mythology comprises the collected narratives of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. Our surviving sources of mythology are literary reworkings of this oral tradition, supplemented by interpretations of iconic imagery, some...

Goddess: A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a "god". A great many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger that includes both of the conventional genders and in some cases even hermaphroditic (or gender neutral) deities....

Hearth: In common historic and modern usage, a hearth is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven used for cooking and/or heating. Because of its nature, in historic times the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature. This concept has been generalized t...