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 Hestia
(Vesta) Goddess of the Hearth and Home
She
was Zeus's elder sister who never married.
In the system of goddess symbols,
she represents the principle of spiritual focus and of
devotion to following one's calling. She corresponds
to the Self.
In mythology she became the protectress
of the hearth and the sacred altar flame. The archetypal
Temple Priestess, she is a virgin in the original sense
of being whole and complete in oneself.
"There were never statues of this most
ancient Greek goddess, for she took no human form. Hestia
was seen only in the fire of the hearth, living in the
center of every home, an honored guest and helpful to her
hosts.
As the hearth goddess, Hestia symbolized
family unity; by extension, as goddess of the public hearth,
she embodied the social contract. At this ever-burning
public hearth, the prytaneion, she bore the name of Prytantis;
there first fruits, water, oil, wine and year-old cows
were sacrified to her.
According to Greek legend, Hestia
was the firstborn of the Olympian goddesses. Her antiquity
is attested by the Greek proverb "Start with Hestia," meaning "Begin
things at the beginning."
In the beginning of her worship,
matrilineal succession seems to have been the rule, and
traces of it survived in the custom of classical Greece
whereby a new home was not considered established until
a woman brought fire from her mother's hearth to light
her own. In the same way, Greek colonists brought fire
from the mother city's public hearth to assure the cohesion
of their new communities."
From 'Goddesses
and Heroines' by Patricia Monaghan (Used by permission.
This text is NOT included in the Goddess Oracle) www.patricia-monaghan.com
Illustration from The Goddess Oracle Copyright Hrana Janto, used by permission
of the artist.
www.goddessoracle.com www.hranajanto.com
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