ames were held.

THEMIS.

Themis, who has already been alluded to as the wife of Zeus, was the
daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and personified those divine laws of justice
and order by means of which the well-being and morality of communities are
regulated. She presided over the assemblies of the people and the laws of
hospitality. To her was intrusted the office of convoking the assembly of
the gods, and she was also mistress of ritual and ceremony. On account of
her great wisdom Zeus himself frequently sought her counsel and acted upon
her advice. Themis was a prophetic divinity, and had an oracle near the
river Cephissus in Boeotia.

She is usually represented as being in the full maturity of womanhood, of
fair aspect, and wearing a flowing garment, which drapes her noble,
majestic form; in her right hand she holds the sword of justice, and in her
left the scales, which indicate the impartiality with which every cause is
carefully weighed by her, her eyes being bandaged so that the personality
of the individual should carry no weight with respect to the verdict.

This divinity is sometimes identified with Tyche, sometimes with Ananke.

Themis, like so many other Greek divinities, takes the place of a more
ancient deity of the same name who was a daughter of Uranus and Gaea. This
elder Themis inherited from her mother the gift of prophecy, and when she
became merged into her younger representative she transmitted to her this
prophetic power.

HESTIA (Vesta).

Hestia was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She was the goddess of Fire in
its first application to the wants of mankind, hence she was essentially
the presiding deity {49} of the domestic hearth and the guardian spirit of
man, and it was her pure and benign influence which was supposed to protect
the sanctity of domestic life.

Now in these early ages the hearth was regarded as the most important and
most sacred portion of the dwelling, probably because the protection of the
fire was an important consideration, for if once permitted to become
extinct, re-ignition was attended with extreme difficulty. In fact, the
hearth was held so sacred that it constituted the sanctum of the family,
for which reason it was always erected in the centre of every house. It was
a few feet in height and was built of stone; the fire was placed on the top
of it, and served the double purpose of preparing the daily meals, and
consuming the family sacrifices. Round this domestic h