Dr. Dowdy’s presentation is called “Homily to Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth-Heart Space”
Homer tells us that the goddess Hestia has a seat in the homes of all gods and men. All feasts begin and end with a honey-wine toast to Hestia (“Hestia I,” Homeric Hymns). Her presence is as ubiquitous as the hearth fire she personifies, yet the myths of ancient Greece say little about her.
This mythography proposes a brief socio-cultural exploration of Hestia’s archetypal spirit as an essential hearth-heart center that beckons the individual to gather around the warmth of family and community.
About Dr. Dowdy
Darlene Maggie Dowdy received her PhD in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2016. Her dissertation, Harbingers of Change: Images and Archetypes of Imminent Transformation, explores the co-creative relationship between psyche, soma, and an ever-changing environment. A variation of her dissertation, “Birds as Nature’s Harbingers,” was presented at the 2018 conference for the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. She co-presented on a panel concerning gender identity at the first Mythologium conference in 2019 with her essay “Metamorphoses of Gender and Identity in Ancient and Modern Myth,” and again in 2021 with “Demeter’s Way: The journey through grief towards healing in Homer’s Hymn to Demeter.” Although Maggie’s day job as vice-president of an independently owned industrial rubber company has little to do with myth as literature, she is constantly reminded of how the archetypal energy of the gods informs our everyday experiences.