Fire goddess

Tapati is a Hindu goddess, a  daughter of the sun god Surya. Her name means the "warming", "the hot one", "burning one".  The name comes from PIE root "tp-" meaning warmth, shine. 

Herodotus tells us that Scythians respected one goddess more than any other and called her the queen of gods: Tabiti. This is most likely Tapati...

Herodotus also tells us that Tabiti is actually Hestia, the Greek goddess of the hearth, actually of the hearth fire. Which fits in with the meaning of the Tapati's (Tabiti's) name: warm one, burning one, bright one...

The hearth fire was believed to be directly linked to the sun fire. This can be seen from the Yule log ritual preserved in the Balkans. In it the Yule log (Serbian: Badnjak) was specifically kept burning through "the longest night" so that the fire of the sun doesn't get extinguished...You can read more about this in my post "Badnjak".

Remember originally only Sky god (Sun + Thunder) knew how to make fire. Sun, created Thunder (Lighting) which created fire. By the way this link sun-thunder-fire has been scientifically proven recently. You can read more about it in my post "Sun thunder fire".

This "sacred fire" kindled by Sky God, once found in nature, was brought to the hearth and had to be perpetually kept burning... This ancient memory was preserved in the rituals of eternal flame. Which is what Hestia was. The eternal flame which had to be kept burning...

The tradition of keeping the house hearth fire burning at all times was still one of the main duties of the mistress of the house in Serbian villages in the early 20th century.

Just like in Ancient Greece, accidental or negligent extinction of a domestic hearth-fire represented a failure of domestic and religious care for the family.

Hestia's name means "hearth, altar". And in Serbian houses the hearth was the original altar around which the most important religious ceremonies were performed, officiated by the mistress of the house, the high priestess of the domestic cult, the keeper of the sacred fire.

In Serbia when a family moved house, the new hearth fire was kindled with the flame brought from the old hearth. When a sons built his own house, he kindled the first fire in his new house with the flame brought from his parent's hearth. I wrote about house building rituals in my post "New house".

In Ancient Greece: "...with the establishment of a new colony, flame from Hestia's public hearth in the mother city would be carried to the new settlement...". Do we have the same custom in Ancient Greece with regards to family fire, like in Serbia?

Serbian expression "his hearth was extinguished" is identical to "his line has ended, his family died out"

The hearth fire is here clearly equated with the family. Hence the responsibility for the propagation of both, the hearth fire and the family lied on the mistress of the house...

While keeping the fire burning inside of the hearth, the mistress of the house has to keep fire burning inside of her womb too. As without either of these fires, the house will go dead and cold...

This link between the generative power of the hearth fire and the generative power of the womb fire can be seen in the fact that in some parts of Serbia a bread oven, like this one, is called "Baba" (Mother, Grandmother, Birth giver). 

You can read more about it in my post "Baba - Earthen bread oven".

Only the fire burning inside the woman's womb can transform man's seed into living child. Only the fire burning inside the oven can transform dough into bread. Only the fire burning inside the earth can transform Sun light into Life... Interesting, right?

O and only a female fire burning inside the crucible can transform ore, that a male smith puts into it, into metal. Is this the reason why Irish "hearth fire goddess" Brigid was also the patron of smiths?

This magic transformative power of "female fire" burning inside of the house hearth is what turned difficult to digest raw carcasses into nutritious broths and roasts allowing our ancestors to grow bigger stronger and smarter...

This magic transformative power of "female fire" burning inside of the house hearth is what turned inedible acorns full of poisonous tannins, through leaching and roasting, into nutritious gruels, broths and breads... You can read more about this in my post "Eating acorns". 

This magic transformative power of "female fire" burning inside of the house hearth is what turned inedible grains into porridge and bread...

This magic transformative power of "female fire" burning inside of the house hearth is what turned leaves, root and bark into medicines...

House hearth was the first alchemical laboratory and the house mistress was the first alchemist, preserving and enriching the accumulated knowledge of generations of women who tended the "sacred fire" and used it to make food and medicine...

Is this where the image of an old witch bent over a bubbling cauldron hanged over a house hearth making magic potions comes from? And is it possible that this image was not originally a negative one?

You can read more about this in my post "The skilful one".