The other day, when I was wandering around the internet...

[rowana.livejournal.com]

Minding my own business, trudging through homework, I came across a description of Hestia, a Greek goddess:

 

"Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth fire, hence presiding over domestic life. She is the eldest sister of Zeus and the oldest daughter of Rhea and Cronus.

She was a virgin-goddess, and when wooed by Poseidon and Apollo, swore by the head of Zeus to remain a virgin. She had no throne, but tended the sacred fire in the hall on the Olympus and every hearth on Earth was her altar. She is the gentlest of all the Olympians.

 

Hestia also symbolized the alliance of the Metropolis ("mother-city") with the smaller settlements which were founded in the colonies. The colonists took fire from the hearth in the prytaneion and kept it burning in their new towns. The Romans called her Vesta, and build a temple for her in the Forum."

 

I love the parallels MWT manages to draw between real myth and her own fanatasy.  Her position though does, in some ways, put Eugenides in the position of Zeus, who ruled over the Gods.  It's interesting that MWT reversed this in her book, making Hephestia the Queen.

 

I'm sure no one else will get as excited over this as I am, but I had to share.