Hearth, focus, foyer, and Hestia – fire at the heart of home

Last autumn, when the evenings began to draw in, I took this photo by our own fire. In Old English ‘heorð’ was the hearth itself, and by the 13th century people were already speaking of ‘hearth and home’. Latin used ‘focus’ for the same idea, which later became French ‘foyer’, still meaning both fire and household. In Greek, ‘Hestia’ was not only the hearth but the goddess who guarded it. Across languages, the hearth marks the meeting of warmth and belonging — the place where fire and family still gather.