ΔΙΘΥΡΑΜΒΟΣ
Hair offerings: historical context, purpose and uses
Offerings of hair, locks of hair or ritual hair-cutting is quite a regular occurrence in ancient sources and textbooks discussing various religious customs of the ancient Greek world. It also seems to be a fairly forgotten offering in a modern context, which is why I wanted to delve back in and write this post. I…
The Adeia – a modern festival to Demeter
Historically, it’s often during times of hardships and crisis that new cults would be established and religious innovations would appear. This one is no different. It’s through discussion with @iliosflower that the idea of creating a new festival, one that would more accurately respond to modern problematics, came to fruition. This is what we’d like…
Foods of religious importance in my practice
(Disclaimer: This is a repost from an ask I got on Tumblr, which ended up being more detailed than anticipated. The question asked was: “Do you have any food or drink recipe that is spirituality important?”) I do. Very much so. I feel like I need to split the answer in two parts, starting with…
Actual ancient lapidaries or “the ancient Greeks and Romans probably didn’t use crystals the way you think they did”
The Internet being of cyclic nature, I feel like talks about the use of crystals come back to view at least twice a year. I usually don’t pay much attention to those discussions, since they tend to be unfruitful and, to be quite frank, boring. However, the topic of the historicity of linking certain stones…
Making a festival from scratch: the Priapeia
Whoever worships “minor deities” knows the struggle: historical information is scarce, tends to be fragmentary and/or scattered across centuries and locations, and just overall badly documented. Priapus is one of those, who, having joined the pantheon later than most (not before the 3rd century BC) and having had several different forms of worship, albeit all…
Aphrodite Epitragia: beyond Aphrodite Pandemos
Often, when one finds this epithet of Aphrodite, it is in reference to the many iconographical depictions of her riding a goat. Such depictions seem to appear towards the end of the Classical era and refer to her role as Pandemos, especially in Athens, which Plutarch explains in Theseus, 18: “When the lot was cast,…
Local Cultus 3: Dionysus without grapes
Same disclaimer as my previous post on local cultus: This will not be informative unless you’re interested in how I approach the issues I’m trying to solve. Note that obviously this is stuffed with UPG. The grapevine (vitis vinifera) doesn’t naturally grow in this northern part of the world. While there is some wine production…
Yet another list of historically attested offerings
This is a list of botanical burnt remains found in several temples including: Sanctuary of Apollo and Artemis, Kalapodi, 10th-9th c. B.C. “Pilier des Rhodies”, Delphi, 8th-7th c. B.C. Samian Heraion, 7th c. B.C. Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, 5th c. B.C. Roman Palaimonion, Pit A A.D. 50-100 Palaimonion, Pit C, late 2nd-early 3rd c.…
Local cultus 2: problem-solving personal practice
Back in 2017 I wrote about my personal local cultus, which was mainly centered around sea gods. It’s been 4 years and that post is now completely outdated, since I’m now in a completely different country, not to mention that my practice has also changed a lot. This will not be informative unless you’re interested…
Festivals we know (almost) nothing about – Part 2
This is the second part of this post. Please refer to its introduction for details if you haven’t read it yet. As stated in the disclaimer last time: this list is in no way exhaustive, as I have taken out deme-specific festivals, festivals relating to hero-worship or political events/commemorations. Again, all information comes from Parker…
Attempting to set up a “holiday decoration” box
For hellenic reconstructionists, the question of “what do the festivals mean and how did people celebrate?” is very real, especially when the information is fragmentary and doesn’t do justice to the religious diversity of the Ancient World. One of the things that make holidays feel like holidays is symbolic decor. There’s a reason why, when…
Festivals we know (almost) nothing about – Part 1
Once in a while, it’s good to remember that none of our calendars are complete. This is much more obvious with non-Attic/Athenian calendars, and anyone who decides to jump into attempting to reconstruct the cultic calendar of Delphi, Delos, Sparta, Argos etc. will know exactly what I mean, as they are painfully fragmentary (not to…
Apollo Delphinios in the Ionian city of Miletos
The Delphinia is just around the corner, and while we really do lack sources on this festival in the Athenian context, we can still take a cheeky look at the cult of Apollo Delphinios elsewhere. This epithet is especially important in the Ionian city of Miletos, where it was the main state cult from the…
Children in Ancient (Athenian) Festivals
Religion was an integral part of ancient Greek life, and certainly was not kept away from children. If anything, children were important participants in city, household and mystery cult. The introduction of children in city cult also contributed to their integration in the life of the polis. Meanwhile, private cult seems to have been one…
The protective function of ancient Greek sanctuaries
It is very tempting to look at the kind of protection sanctuaries granted to people and call it “asylum”. To some extent, it would be correct, but not quite. The ancient world had an institution called asylia, which literally translates as “prohibition against stealing” and guaranteed the safe conduct of the people who went outside of…
Hera the Blossoming
For the last post of this Hera series, I will be focusing on her Antheia epithet. This will be a rather short post, as information is limited, but I hope to cover the bases. Antheia means “blooming” or “blossoming” and is a word obviously closely linked to vegetation, and flowers in particular. While, as an…
An updated list of Silenus epithet
Remember when I was bitching about Priapus having only 5 epithets on theoi.com? Well, Silenus has got one (1). This is honestly even more surprising since Silenus does have a known hymn, at least from the Orphic side. Taking this into account, I made up a few epithets for him, some are inspired by the…
Hera Henioche, the charioteer
This will be a short deep dive into the curious epithet of “Henioche”, which translates to “charioteer”. This name is only found in Lebadaea in Boetia and is linked to the oracle Trophonius. In the context of this sanctuary, Hera Henioche received offerings alongside Zeus Basileus (“King”), implying that she was indeed worshipped in close…
Hera and her ship models
When I wrote the post about the Samos Heraion, I quickly mentioned this impressive dedication of a boat in the sanctuary, but left out other ship and navigation related offerings that have been discovered there. The conservation state in Samos was expectional (allowing wooden objects to have survived!), which is why it is an important…
Hera in Samos
Why Samos? Samos is an island located on the coasts of Asia Minor (of the coast of Turkey) which became, over time, one of the most important location of Hera cult. Her sanctuary gained in importance most likely thanks to trade. Despite this, the sanctuary has always been a local one and never became pan-hellenic,…
Throwing barley
I’m again a bit too short on time for a complete post, so I’ve decided to fall back on an article summary (+ some thoughts). Today we will be discussing the ancient custom of throwing barley during sacrifice through an article written by Stéphanie Paul and titled “Les grains du sacrifice: le lancer d’orges dans…
Spiritual protection in the Greco-Roman world
This was this week’s hot topic, so I’m using the opportunity to make some things clear from a purely hellenic and historical perspective. Needless to say I am tired of seeing modern magical concepts being slapped on ancient beliefs and I am not writing this post unbiased. AmuletsEtymologically, the word amulet probably means “something that…
Why personal devotion matters
This week’s post is a commentary of K. A Rask’s article titled “Devotionalism, Material Culture, and the Personal in Greek Religion” published in Kernos, 29 in 2016 (you read the whole thing here). This 15-page article explores the notion of personal devotion in Ancient Greece and highlights the issues of academia on the matter. Yet, this article…
Dionysus, this winter god
Having been a hellenic polytheist for several years has completely changed my way of considering the year. Because the Attic calendar’s New Year typically falls somewhere in July/August, I naturally consider the first Dionysian event of the year to be the Oschophoria, which I celebrated last month. I’ve often seen people be surprised by the…
Healing shrines and incubation in Asclepian cult
Someone recently mentionned how cool it’d be to bring back sleeping in temples for healing purposes, which created a “hell yeah, let’s talk about incubation” reaction in me. So yeah, let’s talk about incubation as a practice. However, as always with topics that are linked to health and healthcare, I feel a disclaimer is needed:…
Rethinking the Anthesteria
I know it seems awfully early to talk about this festival, since, at least on my calendar, it won’t be before late February. The Anthesteria also happens to be one of my favorite festivals, and as much as I don’t want to change it, there’s a major issue about how to celebrate it in a…
Prometheus and his cult in Athens
Prometheus is another of those forgotten deities (titan, to be exact). It’s true that his worship doesn’t seem to have been widely spread across the Ancient world, but Athens stands as an exception. A small disclaimer: this post is going to be mainly a selected summary of the second part of Prometheus by Carol Dougherty.…
The Werewolves of Arcadia
This is my contribution to adrilechat ‘s Halloween “Haunting Pagan Lore” event. As you can see from the title, I’ve chosen a classic of horror and folklore tales for which many have forgotten the ancient origins. This will be long, so let’s get into it. The myth of King Lycaon While the earliest known example…
Priapus hymns
He’s got none. That’s the whole issue. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with that fact. So far, I’ve honoured him with small prayers that I’d write or make up on the spot. It’s satisfactory but not ideal, as I’m someone who enjoys the formality of reciting/reading an…
An updated list of Priapus epithets
Because the list on theoi.com is sad af. Let’s start with those actually. On the theoi.com page for Priapus are listed 5 epithets: Ανδροσαθων, Androsathon “man-pricked” Ιθυφαλλος, Ithyphallos “Erect-phallus” Τυχων, Tykhon “Fortune” Θριαμβος, Thriambos “Thriamb” Διθυραμβος, Dithyrambos “Dithyramb” And they’re fine, Ithyphallos and Tykhon are two important ones and I’m glad they’re there. However, it’s…
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