Divine Might - Goddesses in Greek Myth

by Natalie Haynes

Hermes is the perfect complement for Hestia.17 He is always travelling. He crosses boundaries between life and death (as we have seen, he can easily make a trip down to Hades and back), and he crosses the boundaries between mortal and immortal. A god who is always in motion is the opposite of Hestia, who is forever still at the centre of the house. And yet – as with so much in Hestia’s slight but beautiful story – this meeting of opposites doesn’t cause friction, like it does when Aphrodite clashes with Artemis, for example, over the fate of poor Hippolytus. Instead, we have the delightful image of a house-share sitcom, where opposites attract, but not in a sexual way. You feel they are only moments away from solving cosy crimes together, or doing a crossword. I have been racking my brains to think of another instance of male-female friendship like this anywhere in Greek myth. It’s a real struggle to think of even one.