Facts about Hestia

In both cases, the cult of Hestia can be seen as a ritual system whose primary purpose was the creation or maintenance of boundaries (i.e., public/private, secular/sacred, kin/stranger).

The Athenian state, which was in essence a large extended family into which its citizens were born, had a state cult of Hestia in the Prytaneion, the state dining room.

Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honour: glorious is your portion and your right.

The state Hestia of the Prytaneion is the Hestia of all the individual families writ large.

Immediately following this miraculous rebirth, the members of the new pantheon (including Hestia) rebelled against the older generation of deities in a massive, internecine battle known as the Titanomachy, from which they eventually emerged victorious.

Of all of the Olympian gods, almost none are described in as few surviving tales as Hestia.

The antiquity of belief in Hestia (suggested above) is attested to by the construction of the earliest Hellenic temples.

Given Hestia's nature as a personification of the sacred hearth (hestia), exploring her role in private familial rituals first requires the one extrapolates upon the Ancient Greek understanding of the hearth.

Over and above any anthropomorphic religious beliefs or mythological references, Hestia was understood to be quite literally be the related hearths of home and state.

Hestia is seen as one of the elder Olympians, a sibling of Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, and Zeus.

Hestia was always, as I have mentioned, invoked first, no matter which god or goddess was the main object of the ceremonial.

Describing this practice, he states that "Hestia is the hearth of the city-state, maintained with a perpetual fire in the Prytaneion, the state's official dining building.

Hesiod, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Euripedes, and Plato are unanimous in indicating that every meal and every ritual should begin with a prayer or a sacrifice to Hestia.

The first Homeric Hymn to Hestia says that without her it would be impossible to have feasts or festivals, because they could neither be started nor brought to a close.