A Study Of Hestia’s Cult From The Perspective Of Family Religion

Hestia was the ancient Greek god of the Hearth,one of the twelve main gods of Olympus.Hestia occupies an extremely important position in the family of ancient Greece.Heating food,marriage and childbirth,sacrificing ancestors and praying are all closely associated with the goddess.But the academic attention to Hestia is not proportional to its importance in daily life.In this context,this paper will study Hestia cult from the perspective of family religion,in order to provide some new thinking for the academic study of Hestia.The study of Hestia cult in this paper will be carried out from three levels.The first level is that of religious practice.This part will summarize the sacrifice and taboo behavior of the ancient Greeks to Hestia in the family religion from an empirical point of view.In Daily sacrifice The ancient Greeks would place the daily meal on the hearth as a sign of sacrifice.Such sacrifices are routine and random.In the ritual sacrifices of birth,wedding and adoption,the sacrifice of Hestia shows its close connection with the ancestral concept.The core of Hestia worship taboo behavior is to avoid the pollution of sacred space,concentrated in the prohibition of blood vendetta.The second level is the image concept level.This part will study the social idea of ancient Greeks reflected by the cult of Hestia through the collation and analysis of the image of Hestia.Hestia images can be roughly divided into three categories: the first category is the image of the mother god who nurtures life.Such images reflect the importance of the ancient Greeks to the idea of life and reproduction.The second category is the silent in the lineage of the gods.Such images reflect the importance the Greeks attached to the idea of order and stability.The third category is the patron figure of the family.Such images reflect the importance the ancient Greeks attached to the idea of blood inheritance.The third is the level of social relations.From the perspective of family role,this paper studies and analyzes the gender relationship behind Hestia’s image.The goddess Hestia was in a passive position in her interaction with the male deities.This passive position includes not only the suppression of Hestia by the male gods,but also Hestia’s resistance to the male gods.This revolt rests on the right of women to be chaste and to determine the purity of their blood.The relationship between male and female gods in Hestia mythology reflects the conflict and reconciliation between the sexes in ancient Greece.