Interestingly enough this is one of the most complex ones this month as it is about the music that I most connect with Hestia. For me, it’s everything from the soundtracks from Fiddler on the Roof and Mary Poppins to modern rock in the form of the bands STYX and Metallica and INCLUDES the music specifically used for the Modern Olympic Games. It is because of this wide range that finding which one is the one that most closely links me to her is difficult.

However, the song “Anatevka” from Fiddler on the Roof is one of the ones that really pulls on me because it speaks of how the little things that people will miss when they will no longer have them. It is especially poignant for me because I am a Hurricane Katrina survivor who DID lose a sense of “place” after the storm for a while. And seeing what is happening in the state that my spouse calls home is bringing the feelings of “Anatevka” home to me again.

Also, in regards to the music used for the Modern Olympic Games, I find it interesting that the games are held DURING a period where a cauldron (aka hearth) is burning. This cauldron is lit with a torch that has bin lit in relay form and has its fire originally from a lighting ceremony on the site of the ancient Olympics done by actresses in the place of the original priestesses. I cannot help but remember the bringing sacred fire from the municipal hearth of the “parent” city to a colony city in ancient times. The Olympic Hymn ends with the following words:

Oh flame, eternal in your firmament so bright

Illuminate us with your everlasting light

That grace and beauty and magnificence

Shine like the sun

Blazing above

Bestow on us your honor, truth and love

This music is some that in the modern day contains an echo of the hymn devoted to Hestia included in the Orphic Hymns. And I cannot help but feel saddened that the values embodied in it cannot continue past the ending of the games. Olympic Hymn being sung