of herself in the world. The goddess Hestia did not jostle for power
or compete for golden apples. She stayed out of relationships,
avoided Mt. Olympus, was not in the background of the Trojan War,
and did not sponsor, rescue, punish, or come to the aid of any mor-
tals. Unlike the goddess, a Hestia woman is a person among people,
who must venture outside the walls of house or temple, and who is
ill prepared for the experience, unless other parts of her psyche can
help her to be active, expressive, and assertive. Artemis and Athena,
the active feminine archetypes, can provide access to these abilities,
as can the woman’s animus, or masculine part of her personality.
Artemis and Athena qualities may have developed if the Hestia
woman participated in competitive activities, summer camps, wo-
men’s groups, outdoor sports, or did well in school. A girl who is
archetypally Hestia finds early in life that she must adapt to being
in the midst of people and meet extraverted expectations. In the
process, she may evoke and cultivate other archetypes. As a result,
she can incorporate Artemis or Athena qualities into her personality.
A Hestia woman may feel that the core of her being—feminine,
homebody, quiet inward Hestia—remains unaffected by her outer
experiences. She may feel, instead, that in the process of adapting
to a competitive and social world she develops a masculine attitude
or animus. A well-developed animus is like an inner male whom
she can summon to speak for her when she needs to be articulate or
assertive. However competent he is, though, he feels “foreign” (or
“not I”) to her.
A Hestia woman’s relationship to her animus is often like an inner
Hestia-Hermes relationship, paralleling their significance and
placement in Greek households. Hestia was represented by the round
hearth at the center of the home, while the “herm” or pillar that
represented Hermes stood outside the door. Hermes was the protect-
ive god at the threshold as well as the god who accompanied travel-
ers. When both Hestia and Hermes are inner aspects of a woman,
Hestia can provide an inner private way of being, and her Hermes
animus provides an outer way of dealing effectively with the world.
A woman who feels that a Hermes animus in her is interceding
with the world has a sense of having a masculine aspect
Hestia: I Goddess of the Hearth and Temple, Wise Woman and