a-place-by-the-hearth

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Hey, stop scrolling for a minute. How are you doing? You okay? Come and sit down with me in the kitchen for a bit. It’s a warm day, the radio is playing all the oldies, the door is open and we can hear the birds. I’ll stick the kettle on. Do you take milk? Sugar? I’m baking some bread today, do you want to help? Or you can just sit and keep me company if you like. You can tell me everything that’s been going on. Or you could info dump about your favourite thing or tv show, I’d love to hear about the things you like. Or you can just sit at the table if you want, you could paint or draw or play animal crossing whilst I go about the kitchen and we can pass the time of day in contended quietness. Because you’re safe here. You can stay as long as you like and you can always come back. Everything will be okay, darling, you’ll see.

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

I absolutely adore all of your art and animatics! you’re a really big inspiration to my strenuous journey on animation. I was curious enough to ask if you had a Hestia design?

I do actually, posted it last year

#art

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Hestia

Hestia is one of the closest Theoi to humanity out of all of the Olympians. I think Hermes may be up there as well, but Hestia is literally within our Oikoi (I believe that’s the plural form, correct me if I’m wrong). 

I feel like I hardly worshiped Hestia when I first began practicing my religion. I didn’t think I needed to, and told myself she wasn’t someone I really had to focus on because there wasn’t much information on her. 

I now know that the last reason actually makes her more important to worship, not only because she deserves worship and my own study, but also because having no information about something tends to mean it was such a regular and widely practiced thing in ancient Hellas that no one thought that it was necessary to record. This caught my attention and I decided to try to dig a bit further.

Hesita is the goddess of the hearth and home, two things nearly everyone in ancient Hellas had. The hearth was a place where food was cooked and offerings were given, and was the central part of everyday life. The home was where many people spent a vast majority of their lives, especially women and children, due to their rank in society. 

Despite our modern social rules (not as much sexism, thankfully) and our innovations, most people still have home lives. We sleep here, eat here, and usually find solace in being home. This is not the case for everyone, of course, but for the most part, it’s how our society works. 

Hestia had her spot near the hearth, her flame. Some people choose to name their fireplace as the domain of Hestia if they have one, or to keep a candle burning in her honour. Both of these things are lovely ways to pay tribute to and worship Hestia, but there are more. 

Electric fireplaces or candles are a go-to for many people, including myself. I use a fake candle to represent her flame when a real one isn’t burning, both for safety reasons and for secrecy. There is also the impracticality that I can’t be burning logs in July, however beautiful and heart-warming they are. Luckily, flame-less candles don’t produce heat, which helps modern worshipers. 

I have a close friend who plays a video of a real fireplace on her computer when doing rituals, and it works just fine. There are apps you can download for free as well, and I believe it is more a symbolic thing than a physical one, and that Hestia appreciates what we can do, and understands that we are protecting our oikoi from harm, which is fairly important. 

But worshiping Hestia isn’t just about keeping some sort of flame representation going. It’s really using your time at your home or with your family (or friends, if you think of them as closer and more intimate than your family) as a time to connect and share comfort and love. I often dedicate time I spend cooking or baking to Hestia, and it really makes me appreciate what time I have with the people I care about. 

At each meal, I dedicate the first and last bite to Hestia. She was the first Olympian to be born, was swallowed by her father first, and disgorged last. She is the first and last, and so I give the first and last bite of my meal to her. 

I think of Hestia as a motherly/parental figure, and often pray to her when I need comfort, or am struggling with acceptance from my family. It feels like she’s always within my home, dwelling somewhere, whether encouraging my mother not to stress over a small spill, or urging my father to pick up the house before he leaves. She’s the kindness we all deserve, and I really love her. 

Hestia is home to me, and she’s an Olympian I hate to see left out. 

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

“They always talk about home As if it is a place As if a hearthfire is actually a house. Hestia I call to you, For you are here when I am alone in a desert Or with friends in the back of an RV. An oikos is where you feel safe and secure, It is a cup of tea with just a bit more for you than the giver g Offers themselves, It is light and darkness and throw blankets wrapped across our shoulders. Hestia of the wide open roads, I call to you and pray for your resonate warmth.”

—

@templeswreathedinlaurel

“Prayer to Hestia”

(via templeswreathedinlaurel)

#prayer

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Your Hestia looks beautiful!

Thank you so much ! Hestia means so much to me and I’m so glad that people like my depiction of her ! Since I love her so much, here’s a little doodle of her !

#art

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Greek Gods 101: Hestia

Hestia is a goddess of the hearth and home. Excluding the universal offerings, some common offerings include:

Depictions of Fireplaces/Hearts

Tea

Kettles

Depictions of Pigs

Depictions of Fire

Baking Supplies

Cooking Supplies

Spices and Herbs

Homemade Food

For devotional acts, some activities that can be done for her include:

Cooking

Cleaning

Lighting a Fire

Keeping Up Family Traditions (Or Starting a New One)

Doing Home Repairs

Doing Home Renovations

Taking Care of Others

Practicing Simple or Slow Living

She is celebrated in multiple Athenian holidays:

Noumenia

Apatouria

Plerosia, maybe

Hekate’s Deipnon, maybe

Kallynteria and Plynteria, maybe

#informations

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

“Hestia I write for you and your fire, Guarded by your quick hand and slim veil! The hearth is yours and ours together. No blessed flames are not shared with you, For you make them sprout like warm flowers under a lighter. Praise be to you, Great Hestia!”

—

@temples-wreathed-in-laurel

“Hymn to Hestia”

(via temples-wreathed-in-laurel)

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Hestia dwells inside my heart, In the veins that bring heat through my body, The heat that keeps my love warm When we embrace.

Hestia is home, She is in the honey-sweet tea I sip for her, I pray for her care and touch And tender understanding.

Though her flames no longer Lick the stones circling each bustling oikos, Hestia lives and she still holds The chilled and sick Who long for light and heat.

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Hestia by JanainaArt

#art

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

“The center of which Hestia is the patron represents for the domestic group the spot of earth that enables terrestrial space to be stabilized, demarcated, and fixed. But it also represents the passageway par excellence, the channel of communication between separate and isolated cosmic levels. For the members of the oikos, the hearth, the center of the house, also marks the path of exchange with the gods below and the gods above, the axis through which all parts of the universe are joined together.”

— Jean-Pierre Vernant, “Hestia - Hermes: The Religious Expression of Space and Movement in Ancient Greece” in Myth and Thought Among the Greeks

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Be quiet dear one. Stay still. Burrow farther into your cozy bed and listen to the rain outside. You are going to be okay.

Notice the little things in life. The sparks of hope, the glimpses of beauty. They’re everywhere if you know how to look.

Watch the steam rise lazily from your mug. It’s just you, the warmth in your hands, and the scent wafting from the mug.

Notice the candle flame flicker and wane. The slight shifts in color as the wax melts and pools.

Be gentle on yourself. You are the beauty that is everywhere. If you don’t see it, learn how to look for the little things.

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and Home.

This may have been one of the few pieces I didn’t submit for art AP, but I still really love the way the fire turned out!

#art

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

I have such strong, personal associations of honey for Hestia.

Something about worker bees flying long hours, all day every day, industrious little creatures collecting nourishing pollen for their home, creating that ambrosia-like sweet sweet honey for the children and queen of the hive. Storing enough honey for winter, the dark months.

Mortals collecting honey in their hives, cutting that perfectly formed honeycomb or squishing it with their fingers in joy, slathering honey on bread or crumpets or making it into a decadent dessert.

Honey is of the home to me. Honey is for Hestia.

#I'm this close to putting a tiny jar of honey on her altar as a permanent offering #but I'm worried about longevity

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Things to put on your altar for hestia

-things that remind you of home/make you feel safe inside (ex: for me it’s vanilla, it reminds me of baking cookies, and is a very calming scent for me)

-candles (any really, find some you like. If no candles are avalible, electric ones or something that mimics the vibe if fire like a salt lamp will do)

-pigs (figurines, small plushies, a hand draw/carved one)

-offerings (even if you can’t burn them, fresh fruits/veggies, wine, or sparkling juice, food that tastes like home, what so you remember being home from your childhood, or if you didn’t have a good childhood just comfort foods)

-anything you like/ think SHE will like

#altar #offering

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Hello, I’m making a series of phone shrines/backgrounds for the Theoi. Feel free to use.

Starting with Hestia! this looks ok on my computer but really bright on my phone, so feel free to fiddle around in an editing app if you need to (it was enough to turn down the saturation a tiny bit for me)

EDIT i added a more subdued version, i know they’re almost the same *shrug?* just in case the first one is too “in your face” for you guys too

#art #edit #background

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

To the fire-crackling mornings, the whisper of wind on dead leaves.

Ginger tea, lace and curly hair.

My dear, you come home smelling of spices and used bookstores.

Do not be wistful for days lost, you can find them in the quiet solitude of togetherness.

Light a candle in hope; feed it with laughter and love.

Rest easy, until sunlight peeks from behind the curtains.

11•25•17 [For Hestia]

#poem

[a-place-by-the-hearth]

Looking for alternatives to a hearth recently, and struck on the idea of using a mini dollhouse fireplace, and found this adorable one that lights up!

The glow is really similar to a tealight, so it blends nicely with my usual set up as well.

#other's altar #the little fireplace is lovely #and a great alternative