Call for submissions: 'First and Last: A Devotional for Hestia'

Bibliotheca Alexandrina is seeking submissions for a devotional anthology to honor the least and greatest of Olympians, in a volume entitled 'First and Last: A Devotional for Hestia'. Firstborn of Her mother Rhea, and last to be disgorged from the gullet of Her father Kronos, Hestia receives first and last offerings from many Hellenic polytheists, but does not play the kind of public role associated with Her siblings. In antiquity, Her cult was mostly of the household rather than of festivals and temples, and She was not as prominent in the myths of the day. Nevertheless, as accepter of sacrifices Hestia receives Her due, what is sometimes called the least and greatest of offerings. She is the hearth of the Hellenic home, the keeper of the sacred flame of the Gods, guardian of hospitality, and keeper of oaths.

Appropriate submissions will discuss aspects of Hestia in antiquity and/or modern practice, including but not limited to:
- Her role as a virgin Goddess, and the significance of her rejecting two divine offers of marriage from Apollon and Poseidon;
- Her connection with other deities, including
- Hellenic Theoi, especially Hephaestus, Hermes and Hekate; and
- relationships with and syncretic forms with non-Hellenic Gods, such as Taweret, Bes, Frigg, and Brighid;
- and comparisons/contrasts with the Roman Goddess Vesta, and Vesta’s links with the lares and penates;
- explorations and reimaginings of the tales and myths Hestia features in;
- accounts of personal devotional practices such as veiling, maintaining a hearth/flame, offerings, et cetera;
- research into Her cult and sacred sites in antiquity;
- ancient and modern rituals;
- ancient and modern hymns;
- artwork; and
- recipes inspired by or used as offerings to Hestia.

Academic and artistic submissions will also be considered, be it poetry or prose.

All works must be original. Please submit no plagiarized or public domain material. Scholarly articles must provide proper citation for all sources in the form of a bibliography and in-text citations. Previously published submissions are acceptable, as long as the author retains all rights. After publication, the author will continue to retain all rights to any submissions accepted for this anthology. Upon acceptance, the author must complete a permission to publish form, and include a brief author biography to be included in the anthology.

Please send any and all submissions and queries either in the body of the email or as .txt/.doc/.rtf attachments to Terence P Ward at tpw@protonmail.ch.

The editor reserves the right to make minor changes to formatting, spelling, and grammar, if necessary; he also reserves the right to request modifications, or to reject submissions entirely.
No monetary compensation will be provided. Instead, each contributor will be provided with a coupon code which will allow them to purchase three copies at cost. Each contributor will also receive a .pdf copy of the devotional for personal use. Proceeds from all sales will be divided between charitable donations in honour of Hestia and production costs for future publications from Bibliotheca Alexandria.

Acceptable length is anywhere from 100-10,000 words, with the exception of poetry. Any artwork submitted should be scanned in or created at 300 dpi and sent as a .jpg or .tif file.

Submissions open 1 January 2016 and close 1 June 2016, with a projected release date of Summer 2016.