Hestia, goddess of the hearth
In the collections of the Dumbarton Oaks estate near Washington, D.C., a very rare sixth-century Byzantine wool tapestry depicts the Greek goddess Hestia Polyolbus (Giver of Many Blessings), sister of Zeus and guardian of hearth and community.
She sits enthroned, distributing gifts into the hands of six robust-looking winged genii who are, helpfully, named for us: Euphrosyne (mirth), Euochia (good cheer), Prokope (prosperity), Ploutos (wealth), Eulogia (blessing), and Arete (virtue). Framing the arched panel on either side are two more female figures: Phos (light) and another whose name cannot be read because of damage to the cloth. Hestia wears an ankle-length tunic with matching beaded cuffs and collar, her laced sandals just peeking out at the bottom. Her dark hair is full, possibly ringleted and, like the woman in the Fayum portrait described earlier in this chapter,** her topknot is held in place by a tight braid above the forehead. A pomegranate headdress, or diadem, and pearl drop earrings complete the look.Hestia – Vesta in the Roman pantheon – was to be found at the centre of many rituals. Traditionally she received both the first and last libations in temple rituals. The hearth,†† whose fire must never be allowed to die out and which Hestia had traditionally fed with the fats of animal sacrifices, represents the ties that bind both family and community together and one thinks, in this context, of St Brigit’s eternal flame, kept alive by her community at Kildare.
In an Orphic hymn,‡‡ the sense that Hestia fixes the orbits of the other deities around her, that she endures and personifies the stability of the dwelling, is neatly captured.
Daughter of Saturn, venerable dame,
The seat containing of unweary’d flame;
In sacred rites these ministers are thine,
Mystics much-blessed, holy and divine
In thee, the Gods have fix’d place,
Strong, stable, basis of the mortal race:
Eternal, much-form’d ever-florid queen,
Laughing and blessed, and of lovely mien;
Accept these rites, accord each just desire,
And gentle health, and needful good inspire.8
If Hestia was still being depicted in sixth-century Christian Byzantium, it suggests that her powerful evocation of family and communal fortunes had not, by then, been entirely displaced by the virtues of the Virgin Mary; that, for women at least, the more earthly guardian and focus of the home retained her potency.