This Month's Featured Article

In Greek mythology, Hestia (Ancient Greek: Ἑστία meaning "hearth" or "fireside") is the eldest child of Kronos and Rhea. She is the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, the right ordering of domesticity, architecture, and the family. She received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household.

Hestia was the first born child of the Titans Kronos and Rhea. She was the goddess of the hearth and home, and every household in Greece had a sacrificial flame in her honor. Like Hades, Poseidon, and the rest of their siblings, she was swallowed by Kronos, and spent her childhood inside his stomach, until her brother, Zeus, came and rescued her and her siblings. Because she was the first to be born and swallowed and the last to be thrown up by Kronos, she is called both the oldest and the youngest of Kronos' and Rhea's children.

Hestia is first mentioned by Chiron to Percy while discussing the arguments between Zeus and Poseidon, and how she, along with their sisters, Demeter and Hera, could possibly calm them down.

In the final book of the series, it is revealed that the little girl tending the hearth when Percy first arrived at Camp Half-Blood was, in fact, the goddess Hestia. This makes her the first of the Olympian gods that Percy actually encountered but the last to have her identity revealed.(more...)