Socrates, Hestia, and the Hearth of the City

This chapter examines the household and domesticity as a basis for political thought in the Socratic tradition. Whereas contemporary practices in classical Athens made politics the realm of men and confined women to the household, a prominent strain of Socratic thought seeks to incorporate the domestic, including women, into public spheres. To demonstrate the importance of the household and domesticity, this chapter begins with the figure of Hestia, the Olympian goddess of the hearth. I argue that, when Hestia is invoked in Plato’s texts, her appearance serves as an image of household functions as a starting point for political thought. Hestia, as a divinity, physical location, and abstraction of the household, represents centrality, primacy, and stability, all qualities that serve philosophic ends in Socratic thought. Examining Hestia as a divinity and symbol of the household brings to the surface aspects of Socrates’ feminine persona that supplement his claim to be a midwife. To elaborate the full significance of this Hestian aspect of Socratic thought, I supplement my study of Plato’s texts with corroborating passages from Xenophon. This collection of evidence underpins a reading of Socratic thought in which nurturing and stability are starting points of philosophic inquiry and which incorporates traditionally feminine roles and attributes into Socrates’ public philosophic mission.