What are some attributes of the greek goddess Hestia?

Question

I'm curious about some of her symbols and what all she represented to those that worshiped her.

Answer 1

Hestia (or Vesta in roman) was modest, eldest daughter of Cronus and Rea, sister of Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, Zeus and Pluto. She was respected by all gods, even Zeus. She was pure, peace loving and kept free from disputes. She is considered to represent personal security, happiness and is the most placid of all goddesses. She was a virgin and turned down both Poseidon and Apollo's proposal of marriage. She gave up her seat to Dionysus and then tended the fire of mount Olympus.

Answer 2

Hestia's symbols were hearth and fire. I think she was also kinda greasy since she just sat around a grimy fireplace all day. Well, it's true.

Hestia had to be invited to every party on Mt. Olympus--she was kind of a drag and never really caroused, but since she tended the fire, she had to be there. Hestia was an important goddess but stayed out of the limelight. The hearth is the spirit of the home--warmth, light, heat, cooking fire. Hestia's blessing meant a happy home with all its essentials. Without inviting her, you have a cold home, dark, miserable, no food. Nobody dared to not invite her. You invoked her every time you poked the coals and stoked the fire. She was so essential that she wasn't really described--everybody knew what a hearth was and what her characteristics were.

Romans were a little more publicly appreciative of Vesta, their version of Hestia. But Greeks loved and appreciated Hestia, the Cinderella of the ancient world. Hestia didn't hate her role, though--she knew she was important and never left her post.

Answer 3

In Greek mythology, virginal Hestia (ancient Greek Ἑστία) 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 more civic 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. The similarity of names, apparently, is misleading: "The relationship hestia-histie – Vesta cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European linguistics; borrowings from a third language must also be involved," Walter Burkert has written (1985, III.3.1 note 2). At a very deep level her name means "home and hearth": the household and its inhabitants. "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" (Burkert p 61). It will be recalled that among classical Greeks the altar was always in the open air with no roof but the sky, and that the oracle at Delphi was the fane of the Goddess before it was assumed by Apollo. The Mycenaean great hall, such as the hall of Odysseus at Ithaca was a megaron, with a central hearthfire.

The hearth fire of a Greek or a Roman household was not allowed to go out, unless it was ritually extinguished and ritually renewed, accompanied by impressive rituals of completion, purification and renewal. Compare the rituals and connotations of an eternal flame and of sanctuary lamps.

At the more developed level of the poleis Hestia symbolizes the alliance between the colonies and their mother-cities.

Hestia is one of the three Great Goddesses of the first Olympian generation: Hestia, Demeter and Hera. She is the oldest of the three daughters of Rhea and Cronus, the sisters to three brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Originally listed as one of the Twelve Olympians, Hestia gave up her seat in favour of new-comer Dionysus to tend to the sacred fire on Mt. Olympus. Her altars included every family hearth.

Answer 4

The only true symbol of Hestia is the hearth. She was first born of gods and goddesses. The virgin goddess of home and hearth she symolized family ties. She gave up her seat in Olympus to care for the hearth at Delphi. All hearths of both Greeks and Romans were kept constantly going, except for ritual extinguishing and relighting, accompanied by elaborate rituals.