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

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

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

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

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