Editing Hestia (section)

=== Status and attributes ===
[[File:Intérieur Musée Archéologique Delphes - Delphes (GR44) - 2022-03-23 - 22.jpg|Hestia (?) on the northern frieze of the [[Siphnian Treasury]], 6th century BC, [[Delphi Archaeological Museum]], [[Greece]]|thumb|left|upright=1.15]]

At Athens, "in Plato's time", notes Kenneth Dorter<ref>Dorter, K. (1971). "Imagery and Philosophy in Plato's Phaedrus". ''Journal of the History of Philosophy'', ''9''&nbsp;(3), 279–288 (July 1971).</ref> "there was a discrepancy in the list of the [[Twelve Olympians|twelve chief gods]], as to whether Hestia or [[Dionysus]] was included with the other eleven. The altar to them at the agora, for example, included Hestia, but the east frieze of the Parthenon had Dionysus instead." However, the hearth was immovable, and "there is no story of Hestia's "ever having been removed from her fixed abode".<ref>Kerenyi, [https://archive.org/details/godsofgreeks00kerrich/page/92/mode/2up?view=theater p.&nbsp;92]</ref> Burkert remarks that "Since the hearth is immovable Hestia is unable to take part even in the procession of the gods, let alone the other antics of the Olympians".<ref>Burkert, [https://archive.org/details/greekreligion0000burk/page/170/mode/2up?view=theater p.&nbsp;170].</ref>

Traditionally, Hestia is absent from ancient depictions of the [[Giants (Greek mythology)|Gigantomachy]] as she is the one who must keep the home fires burning when the other gods are away.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Tyler Jo |author-link=Tyler Jo Smith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1FVDwAAQBAJ |title=A Companion to Greek Art |last2=Plantzos |first2=Dimitris |year= 2018 |publisher=[[Wiley Blackwell]] |isbn=978-1-4051-8604-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1FVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA409 409]}}</ref> Nevertheless, her possible participation in the fight against the Giants is evidenced from an inscription on the northern frieze of the [[Siphnian Treasury]] in [[Delphi]]; Brinkmann (1985) suggests that the letter tracings of one of the two goddesses right next to [[Hephaestus]] be restored as "Hestia", although other possible candidates include Demeter and [[Persephone]], or two of the three [[Moirai|Fates]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact;jsessionid=5559FC6C86C9AB95D17FE6D7ACF0D4C6?name=Delphi%2C+Siphnian+Treasury+Frieze--North&object=Sculpture | title = Delphi, Siphnian Treasury Frieze--North (Sculpture) | access-date = December 25, 2022 | website = www.perseus.tufts.edu | publisher = [[Tufts University]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Gods and Heroes in Late Archaic Greek Art | first1 = Karl | last1 =  Schefold | first2 = Luca | last2 = Giulianipage | translator = Alan Griffiths | page =  [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2DA_Aze7F0C&pg=PA59 59] | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | date =  1992 | isbn = 0-521-32718-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=p2DA_Aze7F0C}}</ref>

Her mythographic status as firstborn of Rhea and Cronus seems to justify the tradition in which a small offering is made to Hestia before any sacrifice ("Hestia comes first"), though this was not universal among the Greeks. In ''Odyssey''&nbsp;''14'', 432–436, the loyal swineherd [[Eumaeus]] begins the feast for his master Odysseus by plucking tufts from a boar's head and throwing them into the fire with a prayer addressed to all the powers, then carved the meat into seven equal portions: "one he set aside, lifting up a prayer to the forest [[nymph]]s and [[Hermes]], [[Maia]]'s son."<ref>Robert Fagles' translation</ref>

Hestia is identified with the hearth as a physical object, and the abstractions of community and domesticity, in contrast to the fire of the forge employed in blacksmithing and metalworking, the province of the god Hephaestus. Portrayals of her are rare and seldom secure.<ref>Kajava, p.&nbsp;2.</ref> In classical Greek art, she is occasionally depicted as a woman simply and modestly cloaked in a head veil. At times, she is shown with a staff in hand or by a large fire. She sits on a plain wooden throne with a white woolen cushion. Her associated sacrificial animal was a domestic pig.<ref>Bremmer, Jan. N., in Ogden, D. (ed.). (2010). ''A Companion to Greek Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yOQtHNJJU9UC&pg=PA134 p. 134]. {{ISBN|978-1-4443-3417-3}}.</ref>