in herself that she uses when she ventures out into the world,
through which she can be assertive and articulate. The animus also
does sentry duty, assertively guarding her privacy and keeping out
unwanted intrusions. With a Hermes animus, she can be quite effect-
ive and canny, able to take care of herself in competitive situations.
However, when the animus is responsible for a woman’s assertive-
ness, it (“he”) is not always present and available. For example, she
might answer the phone, anticipating a friend, and instead may hear
an aggressive salesperson who asks intrusive questions or an insist-
ent do-gooder who expects her to volunteer her time. Then her an-
imus is caught off guard, and she muddles about ineffectively.
Susan Griffin, Emmy-award-winning playwright, poet, and author
of Woman and Nature, finds that the Hermes-Hestia alliance explains
two very disparate sides of her. At home, she is a soft presence, a
Hestia puttering around her kitchen, who makes her house a haven.
This very private Susan Griffin contrasts with the sharply articulate,
quick-minded, politically savvy ex-Ramparts editor, who in the
public aspect can be “mercurial”—clever as well as volatile.
HOLDING ONTO ONE’S CENTER: STAYING TRUE TO HESTIA
Apollo and Poseidon both tried to take Hestia’s virginity, her one-
in-herself intactness. Rather than succumbing to their desires, how-
ever, she swore an oath of eternal chastity. What Hestia resisted by
rejecting Apollo and Poseidon is metaphorically significant, corres-
ponding to the intellectual and emotional forces that can pull a wo-
man away from her center.
Hestia represents the Self, an intuitively known spiritual center
of a woman’s personality that gives meaning to her life. This Hestian
centeredness may be invalidated if she “gives in to Apollo.” Apollo
was God of the Sun, and Apollonian has become equated with logos,
the intellectual life, the primacy of logic and reasoning. If Apollo
persuades a woman to give up her Hestian virginity, she will subject
her inner, intuitively felt experience to the scrutiny of scientific in-
quiry. What she feels but cannot express in words is thus invalidated;
what she knows as an inner wise woman is thus discounted unless
it is supported by hard evidence. When “male” scientific skepti-
Goddesses in Everywoman