Hestia is the goddess of the hearth, the home, and the domestic flame — the eldest of the first-born children of Cronus and Rhea [S1][S5]. She is a serene, non-combative deity, and in one famous account she renounced her place among the twelve Olympians, yielding her seat so that the world could be divided (or so that Dionysus could take it) [S5]. Her cult was the first sacrifice offered at the opening of any public gathering, and the hearth (hearth-fire) was the center of the Greek home and the city [S6]. She is a figure of domestic stability and continuity rather than dramatic myth.