Hestia- The eldest of the 12 Olympian gods and the eldest daughter of Rhea and Cronus. When she began her role as a goddess, she had a throne of her own in Olympus, but when Dionysus grew into Godhood she willingly gave up her throne to him, choosing the hearth as an alternative. She is the Goddess of Hearth and she is also one of the three Virgin Goddesses. Her symbol was kept in every house and whenever a child was born the parents had to carry the child around the symbol before he or she could be accepted in the family. Of all the gods, Hestia was the mildest and most tender and loving and the most forgiving. She was the kind of the anti-hubris. One of the cool things about her is that she was the fist and the last born of Cronus. You see, as the first-born she was his youngest child. There is a wonderful passage about her in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. There she is described as a queenly maid who both Poseidon and Apollo sought to wed. But she was wholly, unwilling, and stubbornly refused; and touching the head of father Zeus who holds the Aegis, she that fair goddess, swore a great oath which has in truth been fulfilled, that she would be a maiden all her days. So Zeus the father gave her a high honor instead of marriage, and she has her place in the midst of the house and has the richest potion. In the all the temples of the gods she has a shake of honor, and among all mortal men she is chief of the goddesses. Once, Apollo and Poseidon came forward as rivals looking for her hand. Now, that had the potential to turn into something pretty ugly, and Hestia knew it. So she turned to Zeus and said that she would remain a virgin forever. Zeus understood her actions and was very grateful, so great that they awarded her the first victim of every public sacrifice for keeping the peace on Olympus.