Hestia was the eldest child of Cronus and Rhea. She was Zeus' sister, and like Athena and Artemis a virgin goddess. Her Roman counterpart, Vesta, was worshipped in Rome as the mother of the city. At festivals she was invoked first of all the gods. She was the Goddess of the Hearth, the symbol of the home, around which the newborn child must be carried before it could be received into the family. Every meal began and ended with an offering to her.

       Each city too had a public hearth sacred to Hestia, where the fire was never allowed to go out. If a colony was to be founded, the colonist carried with them coals from the hearth of the mother city with which to kindle the fire on the new city's hearth.

       In Rome her fire was cared for by six virgin priestesses, called Vestal Virgins. These women devoted themselves to the service of Vesta and who consequently took an oath of chastity. They wore robes of white, with a fillet around the hair, and a veil. It was necessary that the girls selected by the Pontifex Maximus to be between six and ten years of age. Their training took ten years. Then they spend ten years carrying out their sacred duties watching the sacred fire on the altar of Vesta, keeping it perpetually burning; bringing fresh water daily from the fountain Egerai; and serving as custodian of the sacred Palladium, a small wooden statue of Minerva, from Troy. They spent their last ten years instructing the new Vestales. After thirty years they were free to retire, marry, or if they wished to serve the other Vestales.

       In their processions through the streets of Rome they were preceded by lictors. These officers carried with them the fasces, a bundle of rods (twigs) tied together, out of which an axe projected as a symbol of sovereign power, an honor which, besides them, only the consuls or highest magistrates of Rome were entitled to use. They were given the place of honor at public games and festivals. If a Vestal met a criminal on the way to execution, she had the perrogative of ordering him to be set free. To insult a Vestal was a capital crime.

ACTIVITIES:
Hestia activity

KEY TEST WORDS: (Know the material behind these items.)
Hestia, Vesta, Vestal Virgins, fasces.

The Olympians

The Lesser Deities

FOOTNOTES:
At first there were only two Vestales, this number being afterwards increased to four and again by King Servius to six. They were chosen from the noblest families of Rome. Rhea Sylvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, was a Vestal.

SOURCES:
Jane Smith
Edith Hamilton's Mythology
Bulfinch's Mythology
Manual of Mythology, by Alexander S. Murray