Refusing offers of marriage from the other gods, Hestia devoted herself to perpetual maidenhood. Placid, contented, kind, hospitable, and domestic, she tended to stay away from the everyday power struggles and political machinations of the other gods.39 A modest divinity, Hestia is usually depicted in a plain gown offering up flame in a bowl or sitting on a coarse woollen cushion on a simple wooden throne. It was the custom in Greece to say a grace to her before every meal. The Romans, whose name for her was VESTA, considered her so important that they had a school of priestesses devoted to
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