Hestia is asteroid #46 and was discovered in 1857. Hestia is an asteroid of the Asteroid Main Belt, where she can be found in the Hestia-gap, which is named after her. Besides this doesn’t she seem to be special astronomically.

Hestia is the Greek counterpart of the Roman goddess Vesta. While the Romans didn’t show Vesta different from being pure fire, the ancient Greeks left paintings of Hestia in human shape. Hestia is difficult to identify on such paintings because she doesn’t have special attributes besides being always serious, always completely covered in her clothes, and sometimes having wings, which are usually the attribute of Iris because of her task as a divine messenger. So the roles are somehow exchanged between the Roman and the Greek versions. Hestia was much more important to the ancient Greeks than Vesta to the Romans. The first and the last sacrifice in a religious ritual was owed to Hestia. This was reflected in mythology, where Hestia was the first of the children, who were eaten by her father Kronos, and the last of the children, who were freed from the belly of Kronos. Hestia was one of few deities, who were not subject of Aphrodite’s power. Hence Hestia was a virgin goddess (youngster version of Hera and Demeter) like Artemis (youngster version of Selene and Hekate) and Athene. Hestia was a keeper of peace and probably from this task was she very important in the ancient Greek religion. For the sake of peace was it also that she gave up her place among the Olympian gods, so that this place could be given to Dionysus.

Astrologically relevant should be Hestia’s role of a keeper of peace mainly because this seems to have been already the reason for Hestia’s importance in the religious rituals of the ancient Greeks. The main difference between the Roman Vesta and the Greek Hestia seems to be that the ancient Greeks had more to tell about Hestia, but this seems to be the case for many characters, that appear in different versions in the two mythologies. Vesta as an ex-planet should have more relevance if status is of any relevance, but Hestia could still have a greater diversity of meanings. Of course it can never be denied that astrology doesn’t need the asteroids because astrology had even greater successes before any asteroids were known. Asteroids serve only to add more interesting details. For this purpose could it be necessary that some asteroids are more flexible in their meanings than others.