Worship of Persephone and/or Hestia

[Cinnamon1991]

Hi,
I just wanted to ask if there are any sites out there who discuss the worship of Hestia and/or Persephone in Ancient Greece.
I visited quite a lot of sites, like Persephones tes Hagnes, Hellenion, Sannion's Sanctuary, but most sites only say Hestia was honored at home and every first and got every first and last offering, but that's quite unclear, I think.
The only thing I could find about Persephone was She was mostly worshipped next to Her mother, but I'm sure I read something about a temple to Her at Locri.

Maybe I'm not searching hard enough, but is there anyone who know some good sites or book recommendations?

[Fiamma]

Hi,
I just wanted to ask if there are any sites out there who discuss the worship of Hestia and/or Persephone in Ancient Greece.
I visited quite a lot of sites, like Persephones tes Hagnes, Hellenion, Sannion's Sanctuary, but most sites only say Hestia was honored at home and every first and got every first and last offering, but that's quite unclear, I think.
The only thing I could find about Persephone was She was mostly worshipped next to Her mother, but I'm sure I read something about a temple to Her at Locri.

Maybe I'm not searching hard enough, but is there anyone who know some good sites or book recommendations?


I am wandering home to sleep for the day, but will speak some more to this later, if no one else gets to it before I do tonight when i'm back at work.

Also, since it's deity specific, i'm going to ask for it to be moved into gods & goddesses.

[patch]

Try www.theoi.com (http://www.theoi.com)

It's the best greek mythology website on the net, and it has an area for each deity which talks about how they were worshipped.

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Hestia.html Scroll down and you'll find the cult section :)
http://www.theoi.com/Cult/DemeterCult.html#General

[RavensEye]

I also suggest looking at Theoi.com to and about.com under their Mythology section.

[Fiamma]

Hi,
I just wanted to ask if there are any sites out there who discuss the worship of Hestia and/or Persephone in Ancient Greece.
I visited quite a lot of sites, like Persephones tes Hagnes, Hellenion, Sannion's Sanctuary, but most sites only say Hestia was honored at home and every first and got every first and last offering, but that's quite unclear, I think.
The only thing I could find about Persephone was She was mostly worshipped next to Her mother, but I'm sure I read something about a temple to Her at Locri.

Maybe I'm not searching hard enough, but is there anyone who know some good sites or book recommendations?

Patch gave some good info- theoi.com is definitely a great site.

Hestia did not have her own independent cult. She was honored as the sacrificial fire in the rituals of other gods, and as the hearth fire in the home. First and last offerings of meals and of ritual sacrifices went to Hestia.

You may find it interesting to compare her to the Roman Vesta, who
did have a very active public cult- no doubt you've heard of her priestesses, the Vestal Virgins.

Alexei Kondratiev wrote a bit about Hestia and Vesta in his section of the book Devoted To You: Honoring Deity in Wiccan Practice by Judy Harrow (His section was actually on Brigid, but he included a decent bit on Hestia and Vesta. Oh, and the book isn't actually specifically Wiccan, the title is a little misleading)

There's not a whole lot written about Hestia in contemporary books either. She is barely mentioned in Walter Burkert's Greek Religion or Kerenyi's Gods of The Greeks.

I don't know as much about Persephone...

[Cinnamon1991]

Thanks you all, I visited the Theoi site earlier a couple of times and I didn't even think of searching there for information this time
What I wanted to know about Hestia is about the first/last offering because I'm a bit confused.
If you're offering a deity something (not in ritual or festival) are you supposed to give the first and last offering/libation to Hestia too?

[Theres]

... is there anyone who know some good sites or book recommendations?
not a topic-specific recommendation, but this is an excellent site for finding Hellenic material, modern and original...

http://www.mythosagora.com/classics-scholia.html

[Twinkle]

Persephone was worshipped as Kore, along with her spouse Pluton (Hades). This is probably why you're finding limited information on Persephone.

The aspect of Persephone of Queen of the Underworld is important, but her greatest worship was as bringing abundance from the earth along with Pluton. They had quite a bit of cult worship together.