HESTIA AT DELPHI

This article maps the presence of the Greek goddess Hestia at Delphi, focusing on three kinds of sources: literature, inscriptions, and architectural sculpture. While the sacred hearth of Delphi burning inside Apollo’s temple comes up frequently in scholarship, Hestia as a personified goddess is rarely mentioned and her presence at Delphi has not been analyzed until now. This silence is due to Hestia’s ambiguous nature, which fluctuates between the thing after which she is named (the hearth) and the anthropomorphic goddess. Even at Delphi, where Hestia’s aniconic role as the hearth is strong, she also appears in anthropomorphic form.