Daily Deities #5: Hestia/Vesta

     Hestia is the greek virgin goddess of the hearth, the household, and domesticity. I decided to write about her because I was feeling very comfortable and cozy in my home. I also reread the Dark Phoenix Saga. Together, they gave me a Hestia vibe (I don't know). My brother and I are X-Men comic fans and we love Dark Phoenix, so whenever we think of a "fire-related person", we tend to think of "badass-phoenix-powerhouse". So, when I told him about Hestia, he completely ignored the domestic, household part of Hestia and only focused on the fireplace aspect. He thinks she is some kind of Dark Phoenix-like fire goddess, and it's hilarious.

    Hestia is the oldest child of the Titan Kronos and his wife Rhea and the first deity in the Olympian pantheon. Her name has Proto-Indo-European origins and literally means "fireplace", or "hearth". She was the first child to be eaten by Kronos and also the last to be vomited. Hence, she is the oldest AND the youngest. When the Olympian gods defeated the Titans and set up shop on Mt. Olympus, Hestia's role was tending the sacred flame. She was a peaceful, benevolent deity, and never meddled in the crazy affairs and bickering of the other gods. When the god Dionysus came to Olympus, Hestia gave her position as the 12th Olympian to Dionysus, arguing that her place was at the fireplace (This story is actually more modern, but it never actually happened. When people list the twelve Olympians, they'll either include Hestia OR Dionysus. As Dionysus became more popular with time, people kind of assume he "took her place", but there are no primary sources for this story).

    One thing Hestia is known for is her virginity. Apollo and Poseidon both fell in love with Hestia and asked for her hand in marriage. But Hestia wanted to be unmarried for life. So, she went to Zeus and swore an oath to be unmarried and a virgin for all life. Because of this, Hestia is one of three goddesses whom Aphrodite has no power over. Once, the mother goddess Cybele was hosting a feast where gods, goddesses, satyrs ad nymphs were all invited. Hestia attended the feast, but Priapus (a minor fertility and wilderness god) saw her and became attracted to her. While she slept, he attempted to assault her, but Silenus's donkey started braying. Everyone woke up and rushed to defend Hestia and Priapus was chased away.

    One thing to note is that there is a small difference between Hestia and Vesta (her Roman counterpart). When people learn about the Greek and Roman gods, they tend to think they're the same gods, just with different names. That is only 70% true. The thing with the Roman deities is that they already existed before the Romans met the Greeks. The Roman deities evolved from various Italian tribal gods and from a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European Mythology (where the Greek gods also came from). The Roman gods had fewer stories about them but were still worshipped. When the Romans met the Greeks, they adopted a lot of their stories about their gods, and the two cultures heavily influenced each other. Hence, there is a difference between the gods.

    The difference between Hestia and Vesta is that Hestia isn't important in the Greek pantheon, but has a few stories about her. Vesta, meanwhile, is one of the most important Roman goddesses, but there are no stories about her (Vesta was more of an abstract goddess). Scholars can't seem to agree on where her name came from and what it means. Vesta wasn't depicted in human form and was represented by the sacred flame in her temple. The only people allowed in her temple were her priestesses, who were called Vestal Virgins. Their jobs were tending to the sacred flame. Assaulting them was seen as the worst crime in all of Rome. Vesta had almost no stories about her other than Vestal Virgins getting pregnant thanks to fire from a hearth (don't ask how).

    Vesta was the purest and good-mannered of the gods and was also seen as a fertility goddess and a mother goddess. She was represented by a fire stick in some fertility cults and was also a goddess of impregnation (ok? weird). Hence, in some versions, she played a role in the birth of Romulus and Remus (the mythical/historical founders of Rome). Because the fireplace and the earth both played an important part in the household (and because Vesta is a fertility goddess), Vesta has been linked to Terra, the goddess of the earth, by many scholars and poets. Thresholds were also sacred to Vesta. Hence, brides usually stepped over the threshold for good luck by not disrespecting Vesta. Both Vesta and Janus (the god of doorways) were present at all weddings and sacrifices and neither was fully depicted in human form.

    Vesta has always been one of the most important goddesses to the Romans and her worship goes as far back as the beginning of Rome itself, with her origins being even older. She was believed to be one of several Trojan gods whose worship was brought to Italy by Aeneas (ancestral Trojan founder of Rome). Her household worship expanded into a full-blown cult that was popular throughout Rome and regarded as the most important. All emperors were priests of Vesta from the title alone. But when Christianity began to rise in popularity, Vesta's popularity went down and was one of the last Roman cults to be deleted from existence.

    I like how Hestia is so calm and composed and that the Romans worshipped Vesta so much. Do you agree with my brother's Dark Phoenix representation? What do YOU like about Hestia/Vesta? DO you like Hestia/Vesta? Why or why not? Comment below! (Please comment responsibly. Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Daily Deities #3: Ariadne

My little brother drew and colored a picture of what he thought Ariadne looked like. :)

     Basically, Zeus had a son with the mortal princess Europa named Minos, Europa married Asterion, the current king of Crete at the time. Asterion raised Minos as his son, and Minos became the king after Asterion died. Because of him, even in real life, the civilization on Crete, which is the oldest civilization in Greece, was called "Minoan". Minos married Pasiphae, the sorceress daughter of Helios, the sun god. Ariadne was their daughter. One day, Minos prayed to Poseidon, the god of the ocean, to send him a bull that he promises to sacrifice to the gods. So, Poseidon sent a huge bull from the sea. It became known as the Cretan Bull. But, Minos only did this to prove to his brothers that the gods wanted him to be the king of Crete. He became the king, but then he kept the bull for himself and sacrificed a different bull. Poseidon was angry at this and so got Aphrodite to make Pasiphae fall in love with the bull (EWW!). Pasiphae asked Daedalus to make her a bull costume so she can get near the bull. It works and soon enough, she is pregnant with the bull's son (EWW!). She soon gave birth to the Minotaur, who was half-man and half-bull. But, he also ate humans, and so Minos had a labyrinth built under Crete, where the Minotaur was kept. Ariadne was the Mistress of the Labyrinth

    Soon, Minos would win in a battle against the city of Athens as revenge for the death of his son, and Minos decreed that every 9 years, Athens would have to send 7 boys and 7 girls to Crete to be sent in the Labyrinth to be eaten by the Minotaur. If this sounds a lot like the Hunger Games, well it should, because this story was a partial inspiration for the Hunger Games. Theseus, an Athenian demigod, soon came to Crete to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and agreed to help him on the condition that he would make her his wife when he returned to Athens. She then gave him an ball of string to unwind as he enters the labyrinth so that he wouldn't get lost. Theseus ended up killing the Minotaur and sailed away from Crete with Ariadne and her sister Phaedra, who had also fallen in love with Theseus. But when sailing past Naxos, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos while she was sleeping and only married Phaedra. Athenians retconned this story to say that a god, either Athena or Dionysus told Theseus to abandon Ariadne, because they didn't want to believe that their hero Theseus would abandon his wife like that.

    Ariadne was sad at first, but then Dionysus came to her and she married Dionysus instead. They lived happily on Naxos had had many children. Dionysus also gave her a special crown on their wedding, and when she died, Dionysus was very sad, but he placed her crown in the sky as a constellation. He then went into the underworld to get her and his mortal mother Semele up to Olympus to live with him forever.

    One interesting thing I just learned about Ariadne is how she could have been worshipped on Crete as one of the oldest ancient Greek goddesses. We know that the Minoan civilization is the oldest civilization in Greece and scholars have theorized that due to her many connections with thread, string, and weaving, that she may have been a goddess of weaving. Some even think that she might be the person represented by snake goddess statues that archaeologists have found in Crete. The theory that she might have been a very important Minoan goddess is strengthened by the fact that the Minoan women had very prominent roles in Minoan Crete and due to the fact that Ariadne's epithet "Mistress of the Labyrinth", seems very much like a epithet given to a great goddess of the Minoan civilization. And in an early version of the story from the Iliad, it's said that Daedalus made the Labyrinth for Ariadne, before the Minotaur, as a dancing path.

    I was researching Dionysus earlier and decided to learn more about Ariadne out of curiosity, and the fact that she may have been a Minoan mother goddess is so rad and cool, and so I wanted to share what I learned to you.

    Did YOU know that the Hunger Games were partially based off the story of Theseus? Do you think Theseus abandoned Ariadne on his own, or by the instructions of a god? Do you think Ariadne might have been Minoan Goddess? Should I make more posts about these subjects? Please comment down bellow and tell me! And, don't be afraid to ask questions, because I love answering people's questions. Your questions let me know what people are interested in knowing and learning about.

Daily Deities #1: Hades and Persephone

     Happy Valentines Day! This is Dev. This will be the first of a longish series of Daily Deities, where I take a moment to talk about a certain god or concept or something from mythology that I've been thinking about that day and why. I know that it's called "Daily" Deities, but I won't always have time to make one of these posts every day, since I have a limited amount of computer time a day, even on weekends. During weekdays, I have schoolwork to do and so I may not always write one of these every day, but I will try. I also might not write one of these if my head is still stuck on the previous topic.

    With that out of the way, let's talk about Hades and Persephone, who have both caught my attention recently, and both of whom I've been thinking about lately. Recently, Valentines Day happened and it made me think about love stories in mythology. My mind moved to Greece, since they have their fair share of love stories, most of which, unfortunately, end terribly. So, a question came to mind: "what are some really good love stories in Greece that have a happy ending and are actually functional?" I've only been able to determine two couples: Eros and Psyche, and Hades and Persephone. If you find any more, please comment down below.

    Eros is the god of love in Greek mythology and he shoots arrows to make people fall in love. Psyche was his beautiful wife, whom his mother Aphrodite was jealous of and did her absolute best to keep them separate. Eventually she gave up and Eros and Psyche were happily married, and unlike most Greek gods, Eros remained totally faithful to his wife.

    Hades and Persephone, instead, got off to a rough start. Demeter, the goddess of the harvest was very overprotective of her daughter Persephone, who was also Zeus's daughter. So, when Hades fell in love with her, knowing that Demeter would refuse, he asked Zeus for permission to marry Persephone, and Zeus specifically told him to kidnap her, which he did. In reality, this wasn't some terrifying assault, but instead, an arranged marriage. Demeter didn't respond happily to the disappearance of her daughter and refused to let anything grow on the earth unless she got her daughter back. Zeus sent Hermes to go get Hades to release Persephone. Hades and Persephone had actually gotten along well and when Hades heard what Demeter was doing, he actually told Persephone to return to her mother to sort things out. But he promises her that she will be his queen and that he will try to be the best husband for her. Persephone returned to earth, and then admitted to her parents that she had eaten some food in the underworld and so she had to stay there for one third of the year, while she spent the rest of the year with her mother. When Persephone was with Hades, Demeter would become sad again and it would become winter, and when Persephone was with Demeter, she would be happy and spring and summer would occur.

    What I find which I thought was pretty nice, was that Persephone did end up loving Hades, and Hades did keep his word. Him and Persephone never cheated on each other, and Persephone was in the rare position of getting to share equal power in the underworld with her husband. This was not standard in Ancient Greece, because Greece considered women to be very unimportant and less than men. So, knowing that Persephone was being treated equally by her husband makes me feel good inside, because that's how relationships should be like, and it's good know that Hades isn't a bad guy at all. When people think of Hades, they either make him a default Satan analog, or you think of the Hades interpretation in Disney's Hercules movie. These versions are both inaccurate, since Hades has never done anything cruel ever. He is a good person who does his job and loves his wife. So, I really hope that somewhere along the line, we will get a modern interpretation of Hades that matches his good original characterization, which is the characterization that I like. My current favorite adaptation of the story is Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus Webcomic. I'm a huge, hardcore fan.

    I hope you enjoyed my first Daily Deity, and I'll try to write more of these as the time goes by. I hope this has reshaped how you think about Hades and Persephone and I hope you are all safe at home during this pandemic. Please wear your masks and socially distance where necessary. We'll get through this together!

Eurynome and the Universal Egg

  Once upon a time, when nothing existed, there came the first of all goddesses: Eurynome (pronounced your-enemy) and her little sister Epimetheus. Not much is known about their looks and features, but we do know that they might have been a part-demon, though I bet they probably didn't look like it.

  Eurynome's very form separated the earth and the sky for life to grow. Afterward, she danced naked in the oceanic waters in order to create the wind. With this wind, she rubbed it in the palms of her hands in order to create the first serpent, Ophion, who became her husband. Ophion was a kind of ocean god, as he was in the form of a great sea serpent of universal size. Despite being a snake, he could still speak the human language.

   If he would have had friends at that time, then it probably would have been weird telling them "Hey!, I'm married to Eurynome! (your-enemy, get it?).
  In time, Eurynome became pregnant. Before she was going to give birth however, she transformed herself into a dove and flew away. Soon, she laid an egg, which the serpent Ophion guarded very carefully.

  It wasn't long before the egg hatched. Out of the egg came Chronos and Ananke, who got married.
 Chronos was the god of time (also known as Old Father Time/ or Old Grandfather Time, depending on which one you prefer). Don't get him confused with another Cronus, who we will talk about later.
  Ananke was the queen/goddess of destiny, beyond space and time. She was associated with the Fates, who thread destiny, who are sometimes said to be her daughters.

  Chronos and Ananke, together, used their powers and created their son Phanes from some primordial mixture that came out of the egg. Phanes became the god of light and creation. He is depicted as a marvelous, mixed-gender diety, wrapped in the coils of a snake.

  All the universe came from that very egg, which was produced by Eurynome and Ophion. They began to argue about who truly was the creator of the universe. Talk about an unhappy couple!
  Ophion claimed that it was he, who was the creator, and this angered Eurynome to no end, forcing her to banish Ophion into oblivion. Why couldn't they just get a divorce? Oh right! divorce didn't exist yet!!!

  Once again, there was nothing that existed in the universe except, Eurynome and Chaos, The primordial void of nothing.

(pic credit link )