Having one mind with Zeus

"Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo...come now into this house...having one mind with Zeus the all-wise..." from the "Homeric Hymn To Hestia"...

What does this mean?

Maybe the same thing as this: In Hindu mythology, Agni (fire) was believed to have three manifestations: Sun, Lightning, Fire...Which is why he had three heads...I talked about Agni and why he likes riding on a ram in my post "The ram of Agni"...

Just like Slavic Supreme god Triglav (Three headed)..."Because it is a great secret how Svarog (heavenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder) and Svetovid (Sun)"...I talked about Triglav in my posts "Triglav Trojan Trinity Trimurti Agni" and "Lugus or Triglav"...

Interesting right? Cause before people learned how to make fire, fire descended from the sun through lightning...

By the way, modern science seem to confirm that it is indeed Sun (Surya) which gives power to Indra (lightning) which becomes Agni (fire)...I talked about this in my post "Sun thunder fire"...

Or, Sun (Apollo, Helios) through Lightning (Zeus) gives birth to Fire (Hestia)...Hence "one mind", one essence...

Basically, sun gives birth to fire through lightning...Which is why Surya, the sun god, had a daughter, Tapati, whose name literally means "warming", "the hot one", "burning one"...Who was apparently the same as Scythian Tabiti...And Herodotus claimed that Tabiti was the same as Hestia...

And it is because the hearth fire is the same fire burning inside of the sun, that people make sure the hearth fire burns through the winter solstice (Christmas) night, the longest night, "so the sun's fire doesn't get extinguished"...I talked about this in my posts "Badnjak", "La buche de noel" and "Yule log in English tradition"

This fire which descended from the sky, was imagined as a firebird which came down from the sky to earth to nest. It had to be found, caught and brought home...Hence legends about "the hunt for the firebird whose one feather can light up the whole room"...I talked about this in my post "Firebird"...

How old are these legends? Well they most likely predate the moment when "Prometheus stole the fire from the gods" (thunder god to be more precise)...I talked about this in my post "Prometheus"...

Or, before people accidentally discovered fire making while drilling...I talked about this in my post "Fire-drill"...

And how long ago did people become masters of fire, considering that "fire-drill" was still worshiped as deity in Mesopotamia...I talked about this in my post "Holy fire-drill"...

How long ago did people become masters of fire, considering that fire making or fire stealing or fire catching was still the stuff of legends during classical times?

How long ago did people become masters of fire, considering that hearth was the center of the house cult, the house altar in so many Eurasian cultures until recently? 

And considering that making sure that hearth fire never died was so important to Eurasian people until very very recently? 

And considering that "live fire pulled out of wood" (kindled using fire drill) was believed to have magic properties by may Eurasian people until very very very recently? 

Like among the Serbs...I talked about this in my posts "Fire goddess", "Bride and hearth", "Verige", "Live fire"...

I am not saying that people have not been using fire for a very very long time...But I am pretty sure that the making of fire was a pretty recent invention...Neolithic...Mesolithic at the earliest...Which makes legends about the the time when people had to find or steel fire, before they learned how to make it, very very very old indeed... 

BTW, Hestia, (the etymology unknown, believed to be Pre-Greek) has only one cognate, Slavic word jesteja (yesteya) meaning "hearth, paved area around or in front of a hearth used for cooking food" which comes from "jesti" (yestee) meaning to eat...

Which would make Jesteja (Yesteya) the place where food was cooked...Which is exactly what hestia was...Not any fire...Domestic fire...The fire where food was cooked...

I talked about this in my post "Hestia"...

Yule log in English tradition

Have you cut your Yule log yet?

"The ancient fire-festival of the winter solstice...has survived...in the custom of the Yule log...[once]...widespread in Europe, it seems to have flourished especially in England, France, and among the South Slavs"...From "The Golden Bough"... 

I wrote about South Slavic Yule log customs in my posts "Badnjak" and "First footer"...

I wrote about old French Yule log customs in my post "La buche de noel"...

In this post I will write about Yule log customs from England:

Robert Chambers, in his 1864 work, "Book of Days" notes that "one of popular observances belonging to Christmas is more especially derived from the worship of our pagan ancestors: the burning of the Yule log."

Clement A. Miles in Christmas in "Ritual and Tradition" published in 1912, says: 

"...within the memory of many [Yule log] was a very essential element in the [Christmas] celebration...not just for warmth, but as possessing...magical properties..."

"In some remote corners of England it probably lingers yet. English customs, they can hardly be better introduced than in Robert Herrick's words:  

"We may note especially that the [Yule log] must be kindled with last year's brand; here there is a distinct suggestion that the lighting of the log at Christmas is a shrunken remnant of the keeping up of a perpetual fire..."

Another tradition and its origin are thus described by Sir Laurence Gomme in "Folk Lore Relics of Early Village Life"...

"From there being an ever-burning fire, it has come to be that the fire must not be allowed to be extinguished on the last day of the old year, so that the old year's fire may last into the new year"...

"In Lanarkshire it is considered unlucky to give out a light to any one on the morning of the new year, and...if the house-fire has been allowed to become extinguished recourse must be had to the embers of the village fire [on New Year's Eve a great public bonfire is made]"...

J. Ashton, in "A righte Merrie Christmasse!!" says: "In the north of England...[over Christmas] it was useless to ask a neighbour for light, so frightfully unlucky was it to allow any light to leave the house between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day"...

Georgina F. Jackson say in "Shropshire Folk-Lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings": 

"In Shropshire the idea is extended even to ashes, which must not be thrown out of the house on Christmas Day, 'for fear of throwing them in Our Saviour's face'"...

"Perhaps such superstitions may originally have had to do with dread that the 'luck' of the family, the house spirit...might be carried away with the gift of fire from the hearth"...

"In the 1880s there were still many West Shropshire people who could remember seeing the Christmas Brand drawn by horses to the farmhouse door, and placed at the back of the wide open hearth, where the flame was made up in front of it"...

"The embers, says one informant, were raked up to it every night, and it was carefully tended that it might not go out during  the whole season, during which time no light might either be struck, given, or borrowed"...

"At Cleobury Mortimer in the south-east of the county the silence of the bells during 'the Christmas' points to a time when fires might not be extinguished during that season"...

In 1849 "Notes and Queries" George Bell says: "The place of the Yule log in Devonshire is taken by the "ashen faggot" (sticks of ash fastened together by ashen bands), still burnt in many a farm on Christmas Eve...

In 1740 "Observations on Popular Antiquities", Henry Bourne writes: "Our Fore-Fathers lit up Candles of an uncommon Size, which were called Christmas-Candles, and layed a Log of Wood upon the Fire, which they termed a Yule-Clog, or Christmas-Block"...

"The Yule-Clog therefore...seems to have been used, as an Emblem of the return of the Sun, and the lengthening of the Days. For as both December and January were called Guili or Yule, upon Account of the Sun's Returning, and the Increase of the Days"...

"So, I am apt to believe, the Log has had the Name of the Yule-Log, from its being burnt as an Emblem of the returning Sun, and the Increase of its Light and Heat"...

H. J Rose says in 1923 "Folklore Scraps": "In the last generation the Yule log was still burned, and a piece of it saved to light the next year's log"...

In the 1790 "The Gentleman's Magazine", we can read that: "In England the Yule log was often supplemented or replaced by a great candle"...

"At Ripon in the eighteenth century the chandlers sent their customers large candles on Christmas Eve, and the coopers, logs of wood"...

And finally: In 1841 "Medii Aevi Kalendarium", Hampson says: "Candle that is lighted on Christmas Day must be so large as to burn from the time of its ignition to the close of the day, otherwise it will portend evil to the family for the ensuing year"...

So basically Christmas candle is just a Yule log in disguise...

Anyway, may your fire burn bright...

Merry Christmas eve to all who celebrate Christmas tomorrow...

Having one mind with Zeus

"Hestia, you who tends the holy house of the lord Apollo...come now into this house...having one mind with Zeus the all-wise..." From "Homeric Hymn To Hestia"...

What does this mean?

In Hindu mythology, Agni (fire) was believed to have three manifestations: Sun, Lightning, Fire...Which is why he had three heads...

Just like Slavic Triglav (Three headed)..."Because it is a great secret how Svarog (heavenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder) and Svetovid (Sun)"...

I talked about this in my post "Triglav Trimurti Agni"

Interesting right? Cause before people learned how to make fire, fire descended from the sun through lightning...Basically sun makes fire using its "heavenly fire drill", lightning...

By the way, modern science seem to confirm that it is indeed Sun (Surya) which gives power to Indra (lightning) which becomes Agni (fire)...I talked abut this in my post "Sun thunder fire"...

Basically, sun gives birth to fire...Which is why Surya, the sun god, had a daughter, Tapati, whose name literally means the "warming", "the hot one", "burning one"...

And it is because the hearth fire is the same fire burning inside of the sun, that people make sure the hearth fire burns through the winter solstice (Christmas) night, the longest night, "so the sun's fire doesn't get extinguished"...

And it is because the fire in the hearth is the fire that descended from the sun through lightning, that in Serbia, Yule log, the magic log that has to burn through the longest night of the winter solstice, "so sun's fire would not get extinguished" was traditionally a log from an oak tree, the holly tree of Perun, the thunder god...Pic: Kissing Yule log before placing in on fire...

I talked about this in my posts "Badnjak" and "La buche de Noel"...

This fire which descended from the sun, was imagined as a fire bird which comes down from the sky to earth to nest...

It then had to be found and "caught" and brought home...Which is why we have legends about "the hunt for the firebird whose one feather can light up the whole room"...I talked about this in my post "Firebird"...

How old are these legends? Well they most likely predate the moment when "Prometheus stole the fire from the gods"...I talked about this in my post "Prometheus"...

What does stealing fire from the gods mean? Did Prometheus steal knowledge of making fire from the gods? Or did people accidentally discover fire making while drilling?  I talked about this in my post "Drill"...

And how long ago did people become masters of fire? 

Considering that "fire-drill" was still worshiped as deity in Mesopotamia...I talked about this in my post "Holy fire-drill"...

And considering that fire making or fire stealing or fire catching was still the stuff of legends during classical times?

And considering that hearth was the centre of the house cult, the house altar in so many Eurasian cultures. And considering that making sure that hearth fire never died was so important to Eurasian people until very recently? Like among Serbs...

I talked about this in my posts "Fire goddess", "Bride and the hearth", "Verige" 

And considering that rekindling new fire was one of the most important annual ceremonies all over Eurasia until recently...Like in Slovenia for instance where all the fires in the village are ritually rekindled once a year from a communal fire...I talked about this in my post "Blessed fire from the fire fungus"...

But I am digressing...

The important thing here is that originally fire descended from the sun to earth through lightning...Which is why Hestia "tends the holy house of the lord Apollo" and "has one mind with Zeus"...

BTW, Hestia, (the etymology unknown, believed to be Pre-Greek) has only one cognate, Slavic word jesteja (yesteya) meaning "hearth, paved area around or in front of a hearth used for cooking food" which comes from "jesti" (yestee) meaning to eat. 

Which would make Jesteja (Yesteya) the place where food was cooked...Which is exactly what hestia was...Not any fire...Domestic fire...The fire where food was cooked...

Which is why in the "Homeric Hymn 29 to Hestia" we read:

"Hestia...without you mortals hold no banquet..."

I talked about this in my post "Jestija"...

Firebird

Ancient Greek: Ἰατραγόρας (Iatragóras, “a Scythian given name”, literally “fire-searcher?”) 

Legend about the time before people learned how to make fire...In Slavic folklore, the Firebird (Russian: жар-пти́ца, Serbian Žar Ptica...) is a magical glowing bird from a faraway land, which is both a blessing and a bringer of doom to its captor...

The Firebird is described as a large bird with majestic plumage that glows brightly emitting red, orange, and yellow light, like a bonfire that is just past the turbulent flame...

The feathers do not cease glowing if removed, and one feather can light a large room if not concealed. In later iconography, the form of the Firebird is usually that of a smallish fire-colored peacock, complete with a crest on its head and tail feathers with glowing "eyes"...

Firebird is found in fairy tales as an object of a difficult quest. The quest is usually initiated by finding a lost tail feather, at which point the hero sets out to find and capture the live bird, sometimes of his own accord, but usually on the bidding of a father or king...

I believe that the fire bird story is an amazing description of the man's quest for fire before people invented the way to produce it themselves...

Fire bird represents the fire in the sky, the fire in the clouds, the electricity, the lighting that flickers and flashes in the clouds during storms...

Sometimes the fire bird flies down from the clouds to nest. This is a lightning striking the ground. The nesting fire bird is a burning bush of a tree struck by a lightning...

What is left after the fire bird ascends back to heaven are a few or just one of her feathers, magic feathers which can light up the whole room. These are smouldering branches left after the tree or bush has burnt down...

Our hero would then go in search for the fire bird, the next place where lightning would strike the ground and set a tree or a bush on fire. You can imagine how difficult that quest was...

This story is present in every Slavic nation, but similar stories, with almost identical plot, managed to crop up in Germany, Sweden, Belgium and Ireland...

How old are these stories? Well depends when you think fire making was invented...

By the way, the sacred bird of Perun, the Slavic thunder god, was a "fire cockerel" 

Mistress of the house

Early Neolithic figurines from Macedonia depicting anthropomorphised house and bread oven...They are symbolically equating Woman, Mistress of the house, with the house and the bread oven...

This symbolism is still found in Balkan Slavic folklore where both the house and bread oven are exclusive domains of the Mistress of the house, the oldest woman in the house...

In Serbia we have two very interesting proverbs equating the woman with the house (home):

"Ne stoji kuća na zemlji nego na ženi" - The house doesn't stand on the ground but on the woman

"Gde nije žene tu nije ni kuće" - where there is no woman, there is no house

Original primitive shelters were made by leaning single supporting beam against a tree and then creating a roof by piling twigs, branches and fallen leaves against it. You can see that the most important part of this construction is the main roof supporting beam...

This shelter eventually became house roof, when horizontal walls were added to create more space in the shelter. But the roof is still the most important part of the house, because it turns enclosure into a shelter...This is artist depiction of a neolithic house...

In Slavic houses this horizontal beam that supports the roof sides, is called "Baba" (Grandmother,)...Basically without this beam there is not house...The vertical beam which supports it, which was originally a tree trunk in primitive shelters, is called "Djed" (Grandfather)...

You can read more about this symbolic link between the house and the woman (mistress) of the house in  my post "Baba, the main beam that supports the house"... 

The symbolic link between the woman and the bread oven is also preserved in Balkan Slavic folklore. This is the traditional earthen bread oven from Serbia. The design hasn't changed since Neolithic and it is in Serbia called "Baba" (Grandmother). More in my post "Baba, earthen bread oven"...

The woman of the house is also by Balkan Slavs seen as the mistress of the fire hearth. 

She is "Hestia" and "Vesta" and "The Witch which stirs the cauldron"...You can read more about this in my post "Fire goddess"...

Among Balkan Slavs, the arrival of a daughter in law (new woman in the house) to her husband's house (her new house), was accompanied by special rituals in which her husband's mother (the woman of the house) gave her access to the house and the hearth...

You can read more about this in my post "Bride and the hearth"

But this is the best thing: 

This is a Neolithic talisman (?) in a shape of a woman giving birth from Ruse, Bulgaria, 5th millennium BC

And some Neolithic house altars

They equate woman, the birth giver, with the house, the family...

You can read more about this in my post "Birth giver"

Interestingly, until recently, in Makedonija, there was a ritual in which bride and groom entered the groom's house for the first time between the legs of his mother, the mistress of the house, who stood on two chairs...This equated the Mother (Baba means grandmother, mother, birth giver) with the House and the Family...

8000 years of cultural continuity preserved by illiterate Balkan (Slavic) peasants?