Episode 11: The Kitchen: Hestia & Sacrifice

Robert Sudha Hamilton's Podcast

The kitchen is a place of warmth and potential danger. It is packed with sharp implements, in most cases, and home to fire. Our kitchens are all about fuel, with fuel for the body and fuel for the oven and cooktop coming to the fore. Modern kitchens can disguise their function through artifice and interior design but at their heart they are fiery places. What voice is most at home in the kitchen? An imperative one barking instructions is oft required in the heat of the moment and under the duress of cooking up a storm.
“Happiness is a sharp knife.”
Here in the kitchen you will meet the no bullshit You. The part of you that needs to get the job done, the family fed, and keep the pantry full of food. The subpersonality which monitors and maintains the state of your refrigerator. The You that keeps a tidy kitchen. The Captain in charge of the sink and ensuring the washing up gets done. You may delegate these roles to underlings but keeping everything ship shape is the role of the Captain on deck. Kitchens like ships demand order and constant vigilance, lest they fall into chaotic disrepair.
Interestingly, Hestia was a virginal goddess and refused the suits of both Apollo and Poseidon. Perhaps this is where we get the separation of the sexual roles of the wife and mother in the home and the focus on providing nurture and hospitality instead. Hestia was seen as the giver of all domestic happiness and good fortune in the home and she was believed to dwell in the inner parts of every home. She was also the first god mentioned at every sacrifice, as she represented the hearth where sacrifices took place – this is the direct link to our kitchens today and the idea of the sacred chef. There are very few temples of Hestia extant and this is thought to be because every home was her temple in the Hellenistic world. I think we can draw some intuition from this in our view of our homes being places of divine inspiration.