Content Warning: The source text and this section of the guide include discussions of violence and emotional abuse. 

Like her mother, Hestia is quiet and beautiful, but unlike Rhea, she wants nothing to do with having children after seeing how Kronos and Zeus treat their wives and kids. Instead, she spends her days sitting by the central hearth in the Mount Olympus throne room, where she tends to domestic duties and offers company to any who join her. Poseidon and Apollo both express an interest in Hestia, and Zeus tells her to pick one of them. Instead, she throws herself on his mercy, offering to forever tend the hearth if Zeus promises she’ll never have to get married. Poseidon and Apollo rescind their offers in support of what she wants.

Using conjecture, Percy illustrates his belief that Hestia played a role in human evolution. One day, Prometheus (the god who created humans) was watching Hestia at the hearth and concluded that fire was the single most important part of the gods’ lives and home. Most of the stories hold that Prometheus steals fire after Zeus forbids him from giving it to humans, but Percy believes that Hestia helped Prometheus.