Question Collections post 43

I get a lot of questions from readers, and most of the time, the answers are fairly short. When I feel the question or the reply would be valuable to others as well, I make a post with a collection of them and post them in one go. Today is one of those posts.

"Another Hades/Plouton ask: why is it kind of taboo to actively worship/invoke Hades? I understand His association with death, but He is not the god of death in the way Thanatos is, nor did he choose to be lord of the dear. I've always been very interested in Him both as Hades and as Plouton. I suppose my question is, why is this not really encouraged? Have I interpreted Him all long? Does He prefer not to be invoked by us?"

As king of the Underworld, the ancient texts tell us Hades became quite cut off from the world above. It were only the oaths and curses of men that reached His ears, as they reached those of the Erinyes. This is why when people invoked Him, they dug a pit to sacrifice in and struck the earth with their hands to get His attention. Black male sheep were offered to Him and the person who offered the sacrifice had to turn away his face.

Pausanias wrote in his 'Description of Greece' about the one temple (at Elis) where Hades was worshipped as Lord of the Dead:

"The sacred enclosure of Hades and its temple (for the Eleans have these among their possessions) are opened once every year, but not even on this occasion is anybody permitted to enter except the priest. The following is the reason why the Eleans worship Hades; they are the only men we know of so to do. It is said that, when Heracles was leading an expedition against Pylus in Elis, Athena was one of his allies. Now among those who came to fight on the side of the Pylians was Hades, who was the foe of Heracles but was worshipped at Pylus.

 

Homer is quoted in support of the story, who says in the Iliad:–
And among them huge Hades suffered a wound from a swift arrow,
When the same man, the son of aegis-bearing Zeus,
Hit him in Pylus among the dead, and gave him over to pains. Hom. Il. 5.395-397

 

If in the expedition of Agamemnon and Menelaus against Troy Poseidon was according to Homer an ally of the Greeks, it cannot be unnatural for the same poet to hold that Hades helped the Pylians. At any rate it was in the belief that the god was their friend but the enemy of Heracles that the Eleans made the sanctuary for him. The reason why they are wont to open it only once each year is, I suppose, because men too go down only once to Hades. " [6.25.2]

The only other time Hades as Lord of the Underworld was part of religious services seems to have been at funerals.

Hades was worshipped throughout ancient Hellas, but mostly in His epithet of Plouton; 'Wealth-giver', who was mostly connected to the fruitful earth, not the dead. He had a temple in Elis, near Mount Menthe, at Olympia, and was worshipped at Athens in the grove of the Erinnyes. In ancient Hellenic religion and myth, Ploutōn represents a more positive concept of the God who presides over the afterlife. The name Ploutōn came into widespread usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which Ploutōn was venerated as a stern ruler but the loving husband of Persephone.

Ploutōn and Hades came to differ in character, but they are not distinct figures and share their  mythology. Ploutōn as the name of the ruler of the underworld first appears in Hellenic literature of the Classical period, in the works of the Athenian playwrights and of the philosopher Plato, who is the major Hellenic source on its significance. Under the name Ploutōn, the God appears in other myths in a secondary role, mostly as the possessor of a quest-object, and especially in the descent of Orpheus or other heroes to the underworld.

In general, Khthonic--Underworld--deities have Ouranic epithets that make them less scary and more helpful to humanity. It were these epithets that received worship, not the Kthonic ones. Worhipping Hades in His role as Lord of the Dead is a modern concept. Not wrong, per se, but modern.

~~~

"My husband and I are started looking into Hellenismos recently and we had a question pertaining to the Percy Jackson books. Percy uses a hand gesture described as a claw over the heart being pushed out to ward off evil. We were wondering if this is a real hand gesture and if so what are its origins? And are there any gestures in the Hellenistic religion that we should know about?"

This hand gesture is unknown to me, based on ancient sources. There are a few others I know of:

- During Ouranic sacrifice, the palms of both hands are turned upwards and the arms raised. During Khthonic sacrifices, this is reversed (palms down, arms down).
- Libations for Ouranic deities are poured out from a bowl in the right hand, libations to Khthonic deities are poured out from a bowl in the left hand.
- The 'fig sign', a gesture made with the hand and fingers curled and the thumb thrust between the middle and index fingers was a fertility and good luck charm designed to ward off evil in ancient Hellas, but is often seen as obscene now.
- The 'Mountza sign' was and is a traditional Greek insilt. It's made by extending and spreading all five fingers and presenting the palm or palms toward the person being insulted.
- When you swear an oath to the Theoi, hold up your right hand, bend your pinkie and ringfinger down to your palm and extend all other fingers up.

~~~

"Do you believe that you can consider yourself a practitioner of Traditional Hellenismos if you practice mindfulness, which has its origins in Buddhism? I have issues with anxiety and depression, and I find the techniques of mindfulness immensely helpful."

Yes, I do. The ancient Hellenes were big on meditation and practiced many other self-awareness and tempering techniques as they believed (rightfully so) that it sharpened their minds. Go for it, especially if it helps you! I truly believe that nothing should ever come between you and your mental health, even if it was frowned upon in ancient Hellas.

~~~

"What do you think will happen with your soul when you die? In a Hellenic Polytheistic way."

The ancient Hellenes believed that the moment a person died, their psyche--spirit--left the body in a puff or like a breath of wind. Proper burial was incredibly important to the ancient Hellenes, and to not give a loved one a fully ritualized funeral was unthinkable. It was, however, used as punishment of dead enemies, but only rarely. Funerary rites were performed solely to get the deceased into the afterlife, and everyone who passed away was prepared for burial according to time-honored rituals.

Orphic ideas of the soul and afterlife are most often defined by explicit contrast with the Homeric view of the afterlife, which is taken as the standard view for ancient Hellenic culture. The Homeric afterlife is that of a grim, joyless and tedious existence in the Underworld. The Underworld of Homeros exists solely--at least for the now departed mortal--of the Asphodel meadows. The dead drink from the river Lethe and forget who they were. Sacrifical (animal) blood returns a sense of life to the shades and they recover their memories for a short time. In this tradition, life is lived while you are alive. One you die, you are dead. You might cling to life, but you will never truly be part of it again.

The Orphics were an ancient mystical cult with affinities to Indian religious systems. They believed in reincarnation and the possibility of liberation. Orpheus, the movement's legendary founder, is said to have taught that soul and body are locked together during life; the soul is divine, immortal and aspires to freedom, and during life, the body acts as a prison to the soul. Death releases the soul for a short while, but is then captured by another body until that, too, dies, and so the soul moves from body to body--both human and animal--until it can attain the highest good: liberation. In order to reach liberation, the Orphic way teaches to turn to God by ascetic piety of life and self-purification: the purer the life lived, the higher will be the next reincarnation, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever as God from whom it comes.

The ancient Hellenes called this process 'Metempsychosis' (μετεμψύχωσις). It is a philosophical term which refers to the transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. The notion that the human soul enters another body upon death, though unfamiliar in Hellenic religion, was widespread in Hellenic philosophy. The doctrine of transmigration is first associated with the Pythagoreans and Orphics and was later taught by Plato and Pindar. For the former groups, the soul retained its identity throughout its reincarnations; Plato indicated that souls do not remember their previous experiences. Although Herodotus claims that the Hellenes learned this idea from Egypt, most scholars do not believe it came either from Egypt or from India, but developed independently.
 
My personal believes of life after death have shifted over the years. I transitioned into Hellenismos from Eclectic Religious Witchcraft and in my former Tradition, reincarnation was the primary belief. Since the ancient Hellenes had a version of it in metepsychosis, I simply went with that. Now, the older I get and the better my understanding becomes of the ancient Hellenic culture and religion, the more I pull to a more Homeric version of the afterlife. A bit later, perhaps, where Elysium is an option for those who live the highest, purest, of lives. I long for the meadows now. I don't strive for Elysium; I don't think it's for the common folk like me. Give me the meadows and the water of the river Lethe. Let me live life to the fullest. Let me live its up and downs. Give me the completion of my goals and my challenges, and then let me forget and wander in contentment, remembered sometimes--hopefully fondly--by those I leave behind.

• Thursday, November 11, 2021
  death Hades Khthonic Ouranic Pausanias personal Plato Question Collections Post requested post

Question Collections post 31

 I get a lot of questions from readers, and most of the time, the answers are fairly short. When I feel the question or the reply would be valuable to others as well, I make a post with a collection of them and post them in one go. Today is one of those posts.

"I don't read or speak Greek and want to get some ancient texts in book form. Should I get the English versions or the one in my native language? I have looked at those in my native language and most seem greatly influenced by Christianity. "

In general, it helps getting a version translated from the Greek, not the English, if you go for one in your native language. I have a few translations of various books and I have found that those based upon English translations usually base them on order ones--which are greatly influenced by Christian thinking. In general, if you are okay with English, I would go for an English translation.

 

***

 "I wonder, as God of War may involve the main character killing off Olympic gods, if you might find that game blasphemous?"

You know what, I think about things like that a lot, actually. I wonder about it when watching some TV show which does something horrid with the Theoi or play a game or whatever. Is this blasphemous?  And then I read some of the ancient plays and remember that even the ancient Hellenes had no issue at all with using representations of the Gods for their amusement. And the Gods never seemed to mind. There is a difference between the Gods and the characters in these games, movies, and series. Those characters are not my Gods. I think, in general, that distinction is very important to remember.

***

"Is there a certain ceremony I should do to devote myself to Apollon or should I just speak with him and tell him my wishes?"

Oh boy, am I ever not the right person to ask about the Neo-Pagan side of Hellenic Polytheism! Okay, what you ask sounds like personal patronage to me and I feel like that has no place in Hellenismos. Not in the Recon version I practice, anyway. Hellenism has its own beautiful system of kharis, and because of that, there is no need to bring in a modern concept like patrons. Modern patronage is a beautiful thing but unfortunately, I can't answer any questions about it because it's foreign to the ancient Hellenic religion. Sorry.

***

"Should I use diluted or undiluted wine (I only have red is that fine?) in my libation? And if diluted how much should my water to wine ratio be?"

That depends, are you worshipping 'Ouranic' or 'Khthonic' Gods? 'Ouranic' is a term that applies to Theoi and practices who reside or that are associated with Mount Olympos, home of many of the Theoi. As such, Ouranic deities are also referred to as 'Olympians'. Ouranic deities tended to receive wine libations that were mixed with water. 'Kthonic' refers to deities or spirits of the Underworld or the earth, and the rituals associated with Them. Khthonic deities received either wineless libations (water, milk, and honey, usually), or wine libations of unmixed wine.

It's unclear how diluted the wine was for Ouranic libations. Sources state that for a Symposium--a (non-religious) assembly--the best mix (depending on the wine, of course) was one part wine to about three or four parts water, but a dilution of 1/20 appears in the writings of Hómēros. Personally, from experience, I would say that a mixture of one part water to two or three parts water is best. This way the libation doesn't murder your fire.

***

"I've heard some say among our tradition that after death we either become Gods ourselves (Orphic Hellenismos) like Heracles, while others say we pass on to Elysium. I was wondering because you are very much a spiritual leader what you believe on the subject and any details you may provide."

Let me start off by saying I am not an expert in Orphism. I don't follow a Mystery Tradition in my own practice, after all. That having been said, let me give this a try.

 

Orphic ideas of the soul and afterlife are most often defined by explicit contrast with the Homeric view of the afterlife, which is taken as the standard view for ancient Hellenic culture. The Homeric afterlife is that of a grim, joyless and tedious existence in the Underworld. The Underworld of Homeros exists solely--at least for the now departed mortal--of the Asphodel meadows. The dead drink from the river Lethe and forget who they were. Sacrifical (animal) blood returns a sense of life to the shades and they recover their memories for a short time. In this tradition, life is lived while you are alive. One you die, you are dead. You might cling to life, but you will never truly be part of it again.

 

The Orphics were an ancient mystical cult with affinities to Indian religious systems. They believed in reincarnation and the possibility of liberation. Orpheus, the movement's legendary founder, is said to have taught that soul and body are locked together during life; the soul is divine, immortal and aspires to freedom, and during life, the body acts as a prison to the soul. Death releases the soul for a short while, but is then captured by another body until that, too, dies, and so the soul moves from body to body--both human and animal--until it can attain the highest good: liberation. In order to reach liberation, the Orphic way teaches to turn to God by ascetic piety of life and self-purification: the purer the life lived, the higher will be the next reincarnation, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever as God from whom it comes.

 

The ancient Hellenes called this process 'Metempsychosis' (μετεμψύχωσις). It is a philosophical term which refers to the transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. The notion that the human soul enters another body upon death, though unfamiliar in Hellenic religion, was widespread in Hellenic philosophy. The doctrine of transmigration is first associated with the Pythagoreans and Orphics and was later taught by Plato and Pindar. For the former groups, the soul retained its identity throughout its reincarnations; Plato indicated that souls do not remember their previous experiences. Although Herodotus claims that the Hellenes learned this idea from Egypt, most scholars do not believe it came either from Egypt or from India, but developed independently.
 

My personal believes of life after death have shifted over the years. I transitioned into Hellenismos from Eclectic Religious Witchcraft and in my former Tradition, reincarnation was the primary belief. Since the ancient Hellenes had a version of it in metepsychosis, I simply went with that. Now, the older I get and the better my understanding becomes of the ancient Hellenic culture and religion, the more I pull to a more Homeric version of the afterlife. A bit later, perhaps, where Elysium is an option for those who live the highest, purest, of lives. I long for the meadows now. I don't strive for Elysium; I don't think it's for the common folk like me. Give me the meadows and the water of the river Lethe. Let me live life to the fullest. Let me live its up and downs. Give me the completion of my goals and my challenges, and then let me forget and wander in contentment, remembered sometimes--hopefully fondly--by those I leave behind.

• Tuesday, August 3, 2021
  ancient Hellenic culture death Hellenismos 101 Khthonic Orpheus Ouranic personal Question Collections Post requested post

Repost: Hestia and Khthonic Sacrifices

"Just a random question - do you happen to know if a portion of chthonic sacrifices was offered first to Hestia?  I had always heard that She received the first and last portion of all sacrifices, but given the difference between Olympian and Chthonic sacrifices, I have to wonder.  Any light you can shed on the question would be appreciated!"

There are records that at least in some parts of ancient Hellas, Hestia was always sacrificed to first and last in state festivals, and I have adopted that for my household worship as well; many modern Hellenists have. That said, there is a difference between rituals held for the Ouranic deities and the Khthonic; most notably for this question, in the altar used.

In ancient Hellas, an altar was called a 'bômos' (βωμός)--properly signifying any elevation--with an 'epipuron' (ἐπίπυρον)--a movable pan or brazier--used on top of the bômos so it could serve as an altar for burnt-offerings. The household hearth was used to make sacrifices as well, and thus served as an altar of sorts. It was named after the Theia of the home and hearth: 'hestía' (ἑστία). Some state-owned altars--especially when they were simply large fires--were named 'hestía' as well.

These altars were used for sacrifices to the Ouranic Theoi, but were rarely--if ever--used for sacrifices for the Khthonic Theoi. For Khthonic Theoi, an offering pit--'bothros' (βόθρος) in Greek texts--was used. Bothroi were usually dug when the occasion called for it, and closed up afterwards. As written previously, the Khthonic Theoi received special nighttime offerings of black animals, unmixed wine and special libations of milk and honey. Animal sacrifice was always done in a holókaustos--a sacrifice where the entire animal was burned and none of the meat was saved for human consumptions.

State festivals were almost always held for Ouranic deities, and they included a feast, consisting of the meat of the sacrificed animal. This wasn't possible with sacrifices to the Khthonic deities; there was no meat to feast on--and no occasion to feast. This matters, because our primary evidence on the topic is one of the Homeric Hymns to Hestia:

"Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honour: glorious is your portion and your right. For without you mortals hold no banquet, -- where one does not duly pour sweet wine in offering to Hestia both first and last." [XXIX]

It is my personal opinion that Hestia was not honoured (first, last or at all) in Khthonic rites. In fact, I think as few as possible Gods were called in these rites, and all of them had a Khthonic character. I think this is tied to the practice of miasma--after all, contact with the Underworld (and thus the Khthonic Gods) was a major source of it.

Within Hellenic practice, miasma describes the lingering aura of uncleanliness in regards to a person or space through which contact is made with the Gods. Next to piety, being ritually clean is one of the most important things to adhere to within Hellenismos. Miasma occurs whenever the space or person comes into contact with death, sickness, birth, sex, excessive negative emotions and bodily fluids. It also comes from a lack of contact with the Hellenic Gods. As a note, I should say that not the actual acts of dying, sex and birth cause miasma but the opening up of the way to the Underworld (with births and deaths) as well as contact with sweat, blood, semen, menstrual blood and urine.

Our Gods are immortal and are sometimes called the Deathless Ones. It's our duty to uphold this sacred name by making sure no Gods but psychopomps (guides of the dead) come in contact with death even if it's through us. If we can not respect Their purity, They might be inclined to withhold Their gifts from us. As such, I cannot even phantom inviting Hestia into a ritual with a Khthonic character.

• Tuesday, October 20, 2020
  ancient Hellenic culture Hellenismos 101 Hestia Homeric Hymns household worship Khthonic requested post

Selected minor Gods and Goddesses (I through Z)

Face it, we all know the names, spheres of ifluence and family lines of the major Hellenic Gods, but there are many full or half Gods and Goddesses we know by name only, if that. I'd like to list some of the many, many, many minor divinities within our pantheon today as a reminder of the wealth of immortal beings watching over our world and our very lives. Today, those whose names start with an I through those who start with Z. Note: I am leaving out divinities bound to landmarks like hills and rivers for now, but it's safe to assume all major rivers, mountais and the like have divine guardians. For the minor deiries from A through H, go here.


Ikhnaea (Ιχναία): tracking
Ioke (Ἰωκή): battles
Iynx (Ιύνξ): love charms
Kakia (Kακία): bad habits and bad morals
Kalokagathia (Καλοκαγαθία): nobility
Kaeros (Καιρός): opportunity
Keraon (Κεραων): of mixing wine
Keto (Κῆτώ): dangers of the ocean and of sea monsters
Khloris (Χλωρίς): flowers
Khrysos (Χρύσος): gold
Koalemos (Κοάλεμος): stupidity
Komos (Κόμος): celebrating and partying
Koros (Κόρος): over-indulgence
Korymbus (Κόρυμβος): of the fruit of the ivy
Kratos (Κράτος): strength and power
Kydoimos (Κυδοιμός): confusion and the noise of battle
Leukothea (Λευκοθέα): helps sailors in trouble
Limos (Λιμός): hunger and starvation
The Litae (Λιταί): prayer
Lyssa (Λύσσα): rage
The Machai (Μάχαι): fighting and combat
Mania (Μανία): of spirits of insanity
Matton (Μάττων): kneading dough
Momus (Μῶμος): mockery, blame and criticism
Moros (Μόρος): doom
The Neikea (τὰ Νείκη): feuds and arguments
Nereus (Νηρέας): fish
Nomos (Νόμος): law
Oizys (Ὀϊζύς): sadness
Palaestra (Παλαίστρα): wrestling
Palioxis (Παλίωξις): retreat from battle
Peitharchia (Πειθαρχία): obeying
Peitho (Πειθώ): persuasion and seduction
Penia (Πενία): poverty and need
Penthus (Πένθος): mourning
Pepromene (Πεπρωμένη): fate of the universe
Pheme (Φήμη): rumours and gossip
Philomelos (Φιλόμελος): agriculture; wagon and the plough
Philophrosyne (Φιλοφροσύνη): kindness
Philotes (Φιλότης): friendship, affection and sex
Phobos (Φόβος): panic and fear
The Phonoi (Φόνοι): murder and killing
Phorkys (Φόρκυς): hidden dangers of the sea
Phrike (Φρίκη): horror
Phthonus (Φθόνος): envy and jealousy
Pistis (Πίστις): trust
Poine (Ποίνη): punishment and penalty for the crime of murder
Polemos (Πόλεμος): war
Ponos (Πόνος): hard labour
Poros (Πόρος): being able to accomplish something
Pontos (Πόντος): the sea itself, father of fish and other sea creatures
Praxidike (Πραξιδίκη): getting justice
Proioxis (Προίωξις): pursuit on the battlefield
Prophasis (Πρόφασις): excuses
Psamathe (Πσαμάθη): sandy beaches
Tekhne (Τέχνη): art and skill
Tethys (Τηθύς): rivers, fountains and clouds
Thanatos (Θάνατος): death and mortality
Thaumas (Θαῦμας): wonders of the sea
Thoosa (Θόοσα): strong currents
Thrasos (Θράσος): boldness
Tyche (Τύχη): luck, chance and fate
Zelos (Ζῆλος): rivalry, devotion, emulation and envy

• Tuesday, January 24, 2017
  Hellenismos 101 Khthonic Mythology 101 Olympic Gods

Selected minor Gods and Goddesses (A through H)

Face it, we all know the names, spheres of ifluence and family lines of the major Hellenic Gods, but there are many full or half Gods and Goddesses we know by name only, if that. I'd like to list some of the many, many, many minor divinities within our pantheon today as a reminder of the wealth of immortal beings watching over our world and our very lives. Today, those whose names start with an A through those who start with H. Note: I am leaving out divinities bound to landmarks like hills and rivers for now, but it's safe to assume all major rivers, mountais and the like have divine guardians.


Aegaeon (Αιγαίων): god of sea storms
Adephagia (Ἀδηφαγία): greed
Adikia (Ἀδικία): injustice and doing the wrong thing
Adonis (Άδωνις): life, death and rebirth
Aergia (Ἀεργία): laziness
Agdistis (Ἄγδιστις): nature; has both male and female sexual organs
Agon (Ἀγών): contest
Aidos (Αἰδώς): modesty and respect
Aisa (Αἴσα): fate
Akhelois (Ἀχελωΐς): moon
Akhlys (Ἀχλύς): misery and sadness; or the never-ending night
Akhos (Ἄχος), trouble or distress (one of the Algea (Ἄλγεα))
Akratopotes (Ἀκρατοπότης): of unmixed wine and the lack of self-control
Alala (Ἀλαλά): of the war cry
Alastor (Ἀλάστωρ): blood feuds and vengeance
Alektrona (Αλεκτρονα): the dawn or waking up
Aletheia (Ἀλήθεια): truth
Alke (Ἀλκή): ability and courage
Amekhania (Ἀμηχανία): helplessness
The Amphilogiai (Ἀμφιλογίαι): disputes and debates
Anaideia (Ἀναίδεια): ruthlessness and unforgiving (one of the Amphilogiai (Ἀμφιλογίαι))
The Androktasiai (Ἀνδροκτασίαι): of killing in the battles
Angelia (Ἀγγελία): messages and announcements
Amphiktyonis (Αμφικτυονίς): wine and friendship between nations
Ania (Ἀνία): ache or anguish (one of the Algea (Ἄλγεα))
Apate (Ἀπάτη): deceit
Aphaea (Αφαία): agriculture and fertility
Apheleia (Ἀφέλεια): simplicity
Aporia (Ἀπορία): difficulty
The Arae (Ἀραί): curses
Arete (Ἀρετή): virtue and goodness
Aristaeus (Ἀρισταῖος): bee-keeping, cheesemaking, herding, growing olives, and hunting
Arke (Άρκη): messenger of the Titans; twin sister of Iris
Astraea (Αστραία): justice
Atë (Ἄτη): mischief, delusion, and ruin
Attis (Άττις): vegetation, fruits of the earth and rebirth; consort of Cybele
Aura (Αὖρα): of the breeze and the air of early morning
Bia (Βία): force, power and strength
Britomartis (Βριτόμαρτις): hunting and fishing nets
Brizo (Βριζώ): sailors and prophetic dreams
Deimos (Δεῖμος): fear
Deipneus (Δειπνεύς): breadmaking
Dikaiosyne (Δικαιοσύνη): justice
Dolos (Δόλος): tricks and deception
Dysnomia (Δυσνομία): anarchy and lawlessness
Dyssebeia (Δυσσέβεια): disrespecting the gods
Eileithyia (Εἰλείθυια): childbirth
Eirene (Εἰρήνη): peace
Eiresione (Ειρεσιώνη): of the olive branch
Ekecheiria (Ἐκεχειρία): truce, and stopping fights; honoured at the Olympic Games
Eleos (Ἔλεος): mercy, pity, and compassion
Elpis (Ἐλπίς): hope
Enyalius (Ενυάλιος): war
Enyo (Ἐνυώ): destructive war
Epione (Ἠπιόνη): stopping of pain
Epiphron (Ἐπίφρων): careful thought
Eunostus (Εύνοστος): of the flour mill
Eukleia (Εὔκλεια):glory
Eulabeia (Εὐλάβεια): discretion and caution
Eunomia (Εὐνομία): good law and order
Eupheme (Εὐφήμη): praise, applause, and shouts of triumph
Eupraxia (Eὐπραξία): well-being
Eusebeia (Eὐσέβεια): loyalty, duty and respect
Euthenia (Εὐθενία): wealth
Gelos (Γέλως): laughter
Geras (Γῆρας): old age
Glaucus (Γλαῦκος): fishermen and sailors
Harmonia (Ἁρμονία): harmony
Harpocrates (Ἁρποκράτης): silence
Hebe (Ήβη): youth
Hedone (Ἡδονή): pleasure and fun
Hedylogos (Ἡδύλογος): flattery and flirting
Heimarmene (Εἵμαρμένη): of the fate of the universe
Hekaterus (Ηεκατερος): of the hekateris, a dance involving moving the hands quickly
Himeros (Ἵμερος): sexual desire
Homados (Ὅμαδος): of the noise of battle
Homonoia (Ὁμόνοια): agreements
Horkos (Ὅρκος): oaths
Horme (Ὁρμή): energetic activity, impulse or effort
Hybris (Ὕβρις): sadistic behaviour
Hydros (Ὑδρος): of waters
Hymenaios (Ὑμέναιος): marriage and marriage feasts
The Hysminai (Ὑσμῖναι): fighting and combat

• Monday, January 23, 2017
  Hellenismos 101 Khthonic Mythology 101 Olympic Gods

Question Collections post 49

I get a lot of questions from readers, and most of the time, the answers are fairly short. When I feel the question or the reply would be valuable to others as well, I make a post with a collection of them and post them in one go. Today is one of those posts.

"I love the outlines you posted on your morning and evening prayer, but you say that at the end of your evening prayer you drink the rest of your libation. Aren't the Gods and Goddesses your honoring (Nyx, Hypnos, Hekate, etc) Cthonic and receive all of the wine libation? Sorry, just trying to sort out my own practice."

That would be this outline. I get where the confusion comes from. As a short recap, my evening rituals include sacrifices to Nyx, Selene, Hypnos, Morpheus and Hekate. None of these are actually Kthonic, at least not in the epithets I sacrifice to Them in.

'Khthonic' literally means 'subterranean' and usually refers to deities of the earth or underworld. It is a very narrow subset of Gods that this refers to and most have Ouranic epithets as well. Khthonic deities recieve holocaustal sacrifice, yes--sacrifice given whole--but these rites are purely ouranic and such the libation can be shared.

Most of the Theoi honoured in my evening rites are pre-Olympians. Contrary to the Olympians, the pre-Olympians are actually of the world; They, together, form the tapistry of earth and life. They literally make up our universe. The Protogenoi (Πρωτογενοι) are the First Born Deities of the Hellenic Kosmos. They are the building blocks of the universe, primordial Deities. Nyx and Hypnos are included in this list. Then came the Titanes Gods which includes Morpheus and another generation down are other Titanes like Hekatê and Selênê.

All of the Theoi I worship are ouranic in nature--nighttime Gods, yes, but presiding over domains related to mortal life, not the dead and not the fertile earth. Nyx and Selene personify the night sky, Hypnos and Morpheus preside over sleep and (pleasant, I hope) dreams, and Hekate--while a liminal Goddess and one often assumed to be Khthonic--was most often worshipped as an ouranic household Goddess who presided over the bourders of the property on which the house stood. Basically, she keeps bad things out and during the night while I am asleep, that is exactly when I want Her blessing most.

So no, They should not recieve a holocaustal libation during my evening sacrifices, but because of the nighttime element, I get where you are coming from. It's important to note that 'nighttime' does not automatically mean 'khthonic', just like daytime does not automatically means 'ouranic'. Varios Theoi and events call for specific rites, times and practices and the process is involved. the distinction between ouranic and khthonic can shift with almost all Theoi and so does Their cult worship in these cases. If you are just starting out, this may seem confusing but I promise you it will start making sense. you will start to feel it when something slips away from being ouranic. Until then, keep asking questions!

~~~

"It is correct that for the men's version of the doric chiton, it only comes to the knees?"

I have talked before about ancient Hellenic clothing before, including a video of how to put it on. The chiton (khitōn, χιτών) came in two forms: the Doric chiton and the later Ionic chiton. The Doric style was open on one side, sleeveless and didn't have the apoptygma the peplos had, while the Ionic chiton was pinned or sewn from top to bottom, was made with a much wider piece of fabric, and had sleeves. A woman's chiton would always be worn at ankle length. Men wore the long chiton during the Archaic period, but later wore it at knee length, except for certain occupations such as priests and charioteers, and also the elderly. They wore it long even later on.

~~~

"I'm kind of trying to reconstruct the culture of Hellas as well as the religion - would it be imperative that I read ancient Hellenic books? P.S. do we Hellenics have an anthem? I've tried writing one and drawing a flag, but they probably won't work..."

As you probably know, I feel that reconstructionist faiths work on a basic premise: those who practiced it first, practiced it best. If we want to worship these Gods, we should do it in a way which the Gods are used to and expect of us. Yet, society has changed. Other religions have come and gone. People have changed. Some practices have no place in current society but... how do we decide which practices should or should not be revived? And is it really up to us to decide this?

When you say 'reconstruct the culture of Hellas', are you referring to the ancient culture of it or are you describing nationalist thought about the current state of Greece? I'm not in favour of either, to be honest. I have written about that in length here but it boils down to the following: we live in the now and culture, while influenced by the Gods, does not dictate religion. My preference is to bring as much of the ancient religion into modern culture as we can while being respectful to both.

As for reading ancient Hellenic books, I am always going to advice you do that. Read modern academic texts, read various translations of the classics, read the classics in ancient Greek if you can. It's absolutely imperative to me, yes.

Do we have an anthem? No, I suppose not, nor a flag. Why? And more accurately: why do I feel we don't need one? National anthems rose to prominence in Europe during the 19th century AD. The tradition of having national flags started in Denmark in the early 1200's. Back in ancient Hellas flags were everywhere and every city-state had at least one to carry into battle. Again, I believe we are reconstructing a religion, not a country. Carry your own national flag (and/or the glag of Greece if you feel so inclined, but remember that ancient Hellas stretched far beyond the bourders of modern Greece) into ceremony. That's pretty much what the ancient Hellenes did.

~~~

"Do you know anything about doing divination by looking at a fire or at a laurel leef burning up?"

Let's see... divinition by looking into a fire is called causimancy or pyromancy and it's been used since, well, pretty much since we figured out how to control fire. We've read the flames (lampadomancy), read the smoke (capnomancy), read the burning coals (anthracomancy), read the ashes (spodomancy), and yes, by tossing plant material into it and seeing how it burns. That last one is called 'botanomancy'.

Divination came in two forms in ancient Hellas--or more accurately, through two channels. Oracles given directly, like at Delphi, were rare and called chesmomancy. All other forms of divination practiced in ancient Hellas were performed by seers, not oracles. The biggest difference between oracles and seers was that oracles gave long answers which usually needed some for of interpretation while seers usually answered yes-or-no questions.

Divination of any kind was rarely turned to, to predict the future. To desire knowledge of the future was considered hubris. Instead, oracles and seers were petitioned to help answer questions about the present or to advice on a decision which had to be made in the very near future. Divination played a fairly large role in Hellenic every day life and any and all means of divination were used by seers to 'help' the common folk. I am certain pyromancy and botanomancy were used as well.

• Thursday, June 2, 2016
  ancient Hellenic culture Hellenismos 101 Khthonic Oracles Ouranic Question Collections Post requested post

Question Collections post 45

I get a lot of questions from readers, and most of the time, the answers are fairly short. When I feel the question or the reply would be valuable to others as well, I make a post with a collection of them and post them in one go. Today is one of those posts.

"I've noticed on the Elaion ritual outlines that Okeanos is invoked at the beginning of almost all rituals as part of the creation of Khernips. Why is this? Where does this practice come from? Is there archaeological or literary backing for the practice?"

No, not archaeological evidence as such. It is something that I have done since the very beginning and that Robert has adopted first into his personal practice and which then also found its way into the PAT rituals. Okeanos is the source of all of the earth's fresh-water, from the rivers and springs which were fed by subterranean aquifers, to the clouds, which dipped below the horizon to collect moisture from its stream. His waters connect literally everything in the world. When you read the hymn, this becomes doubly clear:

"Okeanos whose nature ever flows, from whom at first both Gods and men arose; sire incorruptible, whose waves surround, and earth’s all-terminating circle bound: hence every river, hence the spreading sea, and earth’s pure bubbling fountains spring from thee. Hear, mighty sire, for boundless bliss is thine, greatest cathartic of the powers divine: earth’s friendly limit, fountain of the pole, whose waves wide spreading and circumfluent roll. Approach benevolent, with placid mind, and be forever to thy mystics kind."

When you read it, two other things might jump out at you: that Okeanos is the source of both men AND Gods and that His waters are cathartic, purifying. In order for the Gods to be of Him as well, His waters need to have been completely pure, the purest source.

We have adopted the practice of including a hymn to Okeanos over the water we use to make khernips because of those two reasons: by invoking Him, we remind ourselves of our connection to everything around us, including the Gods and we ensure that our khernips are, indeed, His water and thus pure and suitable to bring us back to a place where we can interact with the Theoi without suffering miasma or tainting Them.

We don't know if the ancients ever did this, but it is a way to at least keep their believes alive, which is our greatest good at Elaion. I hope this answers your question.

~~~

"Even after practicing Hellenism for a long while, I still can't figure out what is the best way to handle daily practice. Where do I start?"

Household worship can include any Theoi that you wish to establish kharis with. Ancient fishermen would undoubtedly have included aquatic Gods, merchants Gods connected to trade and travel. Perhaps you have UPG experiences with any God that makes you want to include them, perhaps you want to honour the Gods mythically connected to night and day as we perform these rites at the cusp of when Their time starts. There is no manual for it, just go with your heart.

~~~

"Hello, may I ask, do you honour Eris? Why is her worship such a taboo subject in Hellenismos? She is after all a Goddess. Homer said she (as Enyo) was the daughter of Zeus and Hera as well as the sister and lover of Ares. Just want to know your opinion on this particular Goddess :)"

Within Traditional Hellenismos we believe that the Gods you invite into your home will impact your life. Period.  'Stable' Gods bring a stable life, 'chaotic' Gods bring a chaotic life, especially in the case of devotional practices to a singular deity. I'm putting it very black-and-white here but you get the point.

Within this view, it makes a lot of sense not to willingly invite Eris into your home because She will bring chaos into it. Eris is the personification of (marital) strife, discord, contention and rivalry. She inspires that in us. In the case of Eris, She is appeased regularly especially to prevent Her upsetting your life and to remove Her continued influence from it. Hesiod even warns about Her:

"Beware of all the fifth days [of the month]; for they are harsh and angry; it was on the fifth, they say, that the Erinyes assisted at the bearing of Horkos (Oath), whom Eris (Strife) bore, to be a plague on those who take false oath." [Works and Days, 804]

Delphic Maxim 80 even tells us to 'despise strife'.

Strife is the 'very angry or violent disagreement between two or more people or groups', or alternatively: 'exertion or contention for superiority'. There is no honour in strife--and honour was a great good to the ancient Hellenes. Stife leads to drunken brawls and sloppy slashes that will get your head cut off in battle. Strife contains foolish pride and bluster. Strife is to be avoided and as such, in Traditional Hellenismos, Eris is only to be appeased, not invited.

~~~

"I've recently decided to pursue my worship of Hellenic deities in a more traditional sort of way. As traditional as I can get, much like you, in these modern times. My worship is mainly to those of the Kthonic deities and I just don't know where to start. Might I ask for some help?"

I'm going to try to give you tools to start a more reconstructive practice, but I must tell you upfront that what you are attempting to do is impossible, historically speaking. Worship of the Underworld Khthonic deities was reserved for special occasions--mostly vengeance, death, and purification surrounding both. If the Underworld Khthonic Gods were worshipped in a state festival, They were generally worshipped in their Ouranic epithets.

The ancient Hellenes practiced Khthonic rituals of appeasement during certain festival days and when in dire need, but Khthonic deities were not worshipped in the same manner as Ouranic deities were. they would not have been included in household worship, for example, or given regular praise and sacrifice to. Khthonic deities were, at Their very core, to be feared and to be held at bay. they were sent away from the oikos, the house, if anything. So what you are asking me to tell you is a practice that did not exist.

 

If you do wish to pursue your worship and you want to include traditional elements, I can tell you how the Khthonic Gods were appeased and perhaps you can make a daily practice out of that. It wouldn't be Traditional, but it would at least have the traditional elements of ancient Hellenic worship.
 

The ancient Hellenes shaped a 'negative' (part of a) ritual for Khthonic rites by a reversal of normal practices. As normal practices dictated the practitioner stand before an altar with their hands raised, it's quite logical that they performed ritual to the Khthonic deities with their hands down the soil or with their left hand only raised. At the start of the rites, they might have beat down on the ground to draw the attention of the deities residing below. Where women wore their hair up or covered for standard ritual, they wore their hair down in Khthonic ritual.
 

For Khthonic Theoi, an offering pit--'bothros' (βόθρος) in Greek texts--was used. Bothroi were usually dug when the occasion called for it and closed up afterwards. Khthonic Theoi received special nighttime offerings of black animals, unmixed wine and special libations of milk and honey. Animal sacrifice was always done in a holókaustos--a sacrifice where the entire animal was burned and none of the meat was saved for human consumptions. It's also possible to simply bury the offering without building a fire as fire was a vessel for Ouranic sacrifice (rising up to the Theoi).

• Friday, April 22, 2016
  Elaion Eris Hellenismos 101 household worship Khthonic Mythology 101 Okeanos Ouranic PAT Question Collections Post requested post

Question Collections post 44

I get a lot of questions from readers, and most of the time, the answers are fairly short. When I feel the question or the reply would be valuable to others as well, I make a post with a collection of them and post them in one go. Today is one of those posts.

"I would have a question about ancestor worship. As ancestors are chthonic beings, must they be sacrificed to outdoors by being poured libations onto the ground directly, or can they be worshipped  on an indoor altar and may the libations be poured into a libation vessel? If so, would it be appropriate to use the same one I use when I honor the ouranic theoi on my household altar?"

Ancestor worship was performed in Khthonic state festivals and as hero worship when at home. That is a generalization, of course, but it seems to mostly hold true.

 

There were regular state festivals organized for the dead (nekysia) and for the forefathers (genesia). On such days, graves were adorned, offerings of barley broth, milk, honey, unmixed wine, oil, water and the blood of animal sacrifices were given in the form of khoai--fully poured out libations. Graves often had bottomless amphorae placed on it on hollow columns. The libation was poured into this and seeped down into the dirt to 'feed the dead'.
 

The Genesia seems to have been a festival of the dead--especially of dead parents. It was celebrated on the fifth of the month of Boudromion in Athens, but that is all we know for sure. There is reason to believe that the Genesia was panhellenic--although we do not know if all city-states performed the rites on the same day. We are also unsure if the Genesia was a set day for all children to visit their parents' grave and perform sacrifices there, or if there was a public commemoration of all parents. The day is also sacred to Gaea, who housed the remains of the dead, and brought fertility and wealth to the living.
 

These rites were to commemorate specific people. It was also possible to honour the family line and it was actually a part of the celbration of Agathós Daímōn, the third day of the month. The goal was not to honour the people in the family line but to express pride in your blood and bring about good fortune as stemming from the family line. This type of worship was closer to hero worship and was performed at a separate shrine or at an offering pit outside. These sarcifices were generally wholely given as well and could either be an animal or, more commenly, unmixed wine.

 

~~~

"I am fortunate enough to live on a fairly large piece of property and while we have gardened in the past, this year we are making an effort to expand our gardening efforts quite a bit. I was wondering if it would be appropriate to make some sort of offering, possibly to Demeter, at the start of our planting season to ask for a plentiful harvest. Any suggestions you might have on how to go about this and which Theoi I should include would be greatly appreciated."

It is always appropriate to make offerings to the Theoi, at any time and for any reason. In fact, I greatly encourage it as this kharis will undoubtedly help with the growth and protection of your crops. The ancient Hellenic festival calendars always included and followed the cycle of achriculture. There were festivals for specific crops, like barley, but als grander festivals like those of the Eleusinian Mysteries that were celebrated to ensure a good harvest. The cycle started with the pre-ploughing festival Proerosia, continued into the Thesmophoria, then the Haloa. In general, fertility rituals were the domain of women and women only.

 

I assume every family practiced some sort of agricultural and fertility rite before plouging but we don't know exactly hat happened and who was sacrificed to. But, as always, we have clues because we know that what happened in state festivals usually also happened in private household worship, just at a smaller scale.

 

From this we can conclude that Gaea, Demeter, Kore and Dionysos were most likely the Theoi sacrificed to primarily. Gaea, as the earth, and Demeter as Goddess of the harvest make sense. Kore is the Goddess of growth, especially of new plants. Dionysos is also an agrarian deity as he is in charge of the growth of the grapevine. Then there are a few deities that come to me that I would definitely give sacrifice to before planting: the Hoirae as rulers of the seasons and weather, Helios as the Lord of the Sun (because you want enough of it but not too much) and Zeus Ombrios as Lord of the rain (because, again, you want enough of it but not too much).

 

Judging by the rites in the Eleusinian cycle, a pre-ploughing ritual may have had a symbolic (hand) ploughing of a portion of the soil. Onto this, barley groats would have been tossed as purification and sacrifice and copious libations of milk, honey and water would have been poured out in their entirety to the above mentioned Gods. Hymns and prayers would have been called up to the sky and prayers would have been said to ask for good growth, good weather and protection from crop diseases. In ancient times, an animal sacrifice might also have been a part of the rites.

 

~~~

"One more question about honoring the ancestors--even though ancestor worship in a domestic setting is like hero worship in manner, one does still kneel to the ancestors when at home, is that right?"

There is very little evidence that the ancient Hellenes prayed on their knees at all but if they did, it were almost always women and the situation was incredibly dire. Kneeling was percieved as a ritual act of last resort, pursued by those in victim positions, who fall down on their knees in desperation. Kneeling is above all a sign of hiketeia, submission, appropriate for girls and women, inappropriate in most cases for free men. It's not odd, then that kneeling was almost solely connected to the rites around mourning and death where women were charged with the loud wailing and obvious signs of anguish to honour the departed. This is evident in, for example, the Iliad:

"Meleager lay there, nursing his anger, embittered by his mother’s curse. For he had killed an uncle, her brother, and she had knelt and beat on the fertile earth with her fists, and drowned her breast with tears, and called on Hades and dread Persephone to destroy her son. And the Fury that walks in the darkness of Erebus heard her, she of the pitiless heart." [Bk IX:565]

There is a difference between kneeling in prayer and gestures connected to the Khthonic rites to the Gods. Or, perhaps more accurately, between the rites to the dead and the rites to the Khthonic deities. Those are very much not the same thing. The ancient Hellenes, when praying, stood upright with both hands raised above the head, palms facing upward and forward. Plato asserts that if you preferred to raise only one hand in prayer, you would raise the right to pray to the Olympians and the left to pray to the Khthonians. Kneeling was connected to the recently deceased, not the Khthonic Gods or the rites to the ancestors.

Now, I do not know exactly if you would raise your palms up or turn them down for rites to the ancestors. I'm nto even sure about sacrifice to the heroes. But I can make an educated guess. I assume that for both, the palms would be turned upwards. Many heroes were raised to the status of Gods and rites to the family line were performed to express pride in your blood and bring about good fortune as stemming from the family line. This is decidedly Ouranic in nature and thus the palms would be turned upwards.

~~~

"On the website of Labrys, which I'm certain you've heard of, I read that altars cannot be moved after dedication. However, as I have had a toddler in my house for three years now, I've been moving my statues, candles and other altar pieces to a safe location somewhere else simply for safety. Would you say that is alright?"

Yeah, I read that too. The short answer: that only held true for temple altars and I assume mostly for practical reasons: the altar was aligned to the temple, so unless the temple moved, there was no reason to move the altar and if you moved the altar, well, you had to move the entire temple. Not practical. What happened when worship was moved to a temple in another location was often that a new altar was built. It was just more practical.

Residential altars established for family worship or the altars at state buildings could be moved without issue. Remember, the altar is not a holy place in and of itself. A pile of stones or a heap of dirt could be an altar. Anything raised from the ground could serve as an altar. It's the rites performed on it that are sacred and that does not change if the altar is moved.

• Sunday, April 10, 2016
  ancient Hellenic culture death Demeter Eleusinian mysteries Gaea Genesia Hellenismos 101 Heroes household worship Khthonic Ouranic Question Collections Post requested post

Question Collections post 43

I get a lot of questions from readers, and most of the time, the answers are fairly short. When I feel the question or the reply would be valuable to others as well, I make a post with a collection of them and post them in one go. Today is one of those posts.

"Another Hades/Plouton ask: why is it kind of taboo to actively worship/invoke Hades? I understand His association with death, but He is not the god of death in the way Thanatos is, nor did he choose to be lord of the dear. I've always been very interested in Him both as Hades and as Plouton. I suppose my question is, why is this not really encouraged? Have I interpreted Him all long? Does He prefer not to be invoked by us?"

As king of the Underworld, the ancient texts tell us Hades became quite cut off from the world above. It were only the oaths and curses of men that reached His ears, as they reached those of the Erinyes. This is why when people invoked Him, they dug a pit to sacrifice in and struck the earth with their hands to get His attention. Black male sheep were offered to Him and the person who offered the sacrifice had to turn away his face.

Pausanias wrote in his 'Description of Greece' about the one temple (at Elis) where Hades was worshipped as Lord of the Dead:

"The sacred enclosure of Hades and its temple (for the Eleans have these among their possessions) are opened once every year, but not even on this occasion is anybody permitted to enter except the priest. The following is the reason why the Eleans worship Hades; they are the only men we know of so to do. It is said that, when Heracles was leading an expedition against Pylus in Elis, Athena was one of his allies. Now among those who came to fight on the side of the Pylians was Hades, who was the foe of Heracles but was worshipped at Pylus.

 

Homer is quoted in support of the story, who says in the Iliad:–
And among them huge Hades suffered a wound from a swift arrow,
When the same man, the son of aegis-bearing Zeus,
Hit him in Pylus among the dead, and gave him over to pains. Hom. Il. 5.395-397

 

If in the expedition of Agamemnon and Menelaus against Troy Poseidon was according to Homer an ally of the Greeks, it cannot be unnatural for the same poet to hold that Hades helped the Pylians. At any rate it was in the belief that the god was their friend but the enemy of Heracles that the Eleans made the sanctuary for him. The reason why they are wont to open it only once each year is, I suppose, because men too go down only once to Hades. " [6.25.2]

The only other time Hades as Lord of the Underworld was part of religious services seems to have been at funerals.

Hades was worshipped throughout ancient Hellas, but mostly in His epithet of Plouton; 'Wealth-giver', who was mostly connected to the fruitful earth, not the dead. He had a temple in Elis, near Mount Menthe, at Olympia, and was worshipped at Athens in the grove of the Erinnyes. In ancient Hellenic religion and myth, Ploutōn represents a more positive concept of the God who presides over the afterlife. The name Ploutōn came into widespread usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which Ploutōn was venerated as a stern ruler but the loving husband of Persephone.

Ploutōn and Hades came to differ in character, but they are not distinct figures and share their  mythology. Ploutōn as the name of the ruler of the underworld first appears in Hellenic literature of the Classical period, in the works of the Athenian playwrights and of the philosopher Plato, who is the major Hellenic source on its significance. Under the name Ploutōn, the God appears in other myths in a secondary role, mostly as the possessor of a quest-object, and especially in the descent of Orpheus or other heroes to the underworld.

In general, Khthonic--Underworld--deities have Ouranic epithets that make them less scary and more helpful to humanity. It were these epithets that received worship, not the Kthonic ones. Worhipping Hades in His role as Lord of the Dead is a modern concept. Not wrong, per se, but modern.

~~~

"My husband and I are started looking into Hellenismos recently and we had a question pertaining to the Percy Jackson books. Percy uses a hand gesture described as a claw over the heart being pushed out to ward off evil. We were wondering if this is a real hand gesture and if so what are its origins? And are there any gestures in the Hellenistic religion that we should know about?"

This hand gesture is unknown to me, based on ancient sources. There are a few others I know of:

- During Ouranic sacrifice, the palms of both hands are turned upwards and the arms raised. During Khthonic sacrifices, this is reversed (palms down, arms down).
- Libations for Ouranic deities are poured out from a bowl in the right hand, libations to Khthonic deities are poured out from a bowl in the left hand.
- The 'fig sign', a gesture made with the hand and fingers curled and the thumb thrust between the middle and index fingers was a fertility and good luck charm designed to ward off evil in ancient Hellas, but is often seen as obscene now.
- The 'Mountza sign' was and is a traditional Greek insilt. It's made by extending and spreading all five fingers and presenting the palm or palms toward the person being insulted.
- When you swear an oath to the Theoi, hold up your right hand, bend your pinkie and ringfinger down to your palm and extend all other fingers up.

~~~

"Do you believe that you can consider yourself a practitioner of Traditional Hellenismos if you practice mindfulness, which has its origins in Buddhism? I have issues with anxiety and depression, and I find the techniques of mindfulness immensely helpful."

Yes, I do. The ancient Hellenes were big on meditation and practiced many other self-awareness and tempering techniques as they believed (rightfully so) that it sharpened their minds. Go for it, especially if it helps you! I truly believe that nothing should ever come between you and your mental health, even if it was frowned upon in ancient Hellas.

~~~

"What do you think will happen with your soul when you die? In a Hellenic Polytheistic way."

The ancient Hellenes believed that the moment a person died, their psyche--spirit--left the body in a puff or like a breath of wind. Proper burial was incredibly important to the ancient Hellenes, and to not give a loved one a fully ritualized funeral was unthinkable. It was, however, used as punishment of dead enemies, but only rarely. Funerary rites were performed solely to get the deceased into the afterlife, and everyone who passed away was prepared for burial according to time-honored rituals.

Orphic ideas of the soul and afterlife are most often defined by explicit contrast with the Homeric view of the afterlife, which is taken as the standard view for ancient Hellenic culture. The Homeric afterlife is that of a grim, joyless and tedious existence in the Underworld. The Underworld of Homeros exists solely--at least for the now departed mortal--of the Asphodel meadows. The dead drink from the river Lethe and forget who they were. Sacrifical (animal) blood returns a sense of life to the shades and they recover their memories for a short time. In this tradition, life is lived while you are alive. One you die, you are dead. You might cling to life, but you will never truly be part of it again.

The Orphics were an ancient mystical cult with affinities to Indian religious systems. They believed in reincarnation and the possibility of liberation. Orpheus, the movement's legendary founder, is said to have taught that soul and body are locked together during life; the soul is divine, immortal and aspires to freedom, and during life, the body acts as a prison to the soul. Death releases the soul for a short while, but is then captured by another body until that, too, dies, and so the soul moves from body to body--both human and animal--until it can attain the highest good: liberation. In order to reach liberation, the Orphic way teaches to turn to God by ascetic piety of life and self-purification: the purer the life lived, the higher will be the next reincarnation, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever as God from whom it comes.

The ancient Hellenes called this process 'Metempsychosis' (μετεμψύχωσις). It is a philosophical term which refers to the transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. The notion that the human soul enters another body upon death, though unfamiliar in Hellenic religion, was widespread in Hellenic philosophy. The doctrine of transmigration is first associated with the Pythagoreans and Orphics and was later taught by Plato and Pindar. For the former groups, the soul retained its identity throughout its reincarnations; Plato indicated that souls do not remember their previous experiences. Although Herodotus claims that the Hellenes learned this idea from Egypt, most scholars do not believe it came either from Egypt or from India, but developed independently.
 
My personal believes of life after death have shifted over the years. I transitioned into Hellenismos from Eclectic Religious Witchcraft and in my former Tradition, reincarnation was the primary belief. Since the ancient Hellenes had a version of it in metepsychosis, I simply went with that. Now, the older I get and the better my understanding becomes of the ancient Hellenic culture and religion, the more I pull to a more Homeric version of the afterlife. A bit later, perhaps, where Elysium is an option for those who live the highest, purest, of lives. I long for the meadows now. I don't strive for Elysium; I don't think it's for the common folk like me. Give me the meadows and the water of the river Lethe. Let me live life to the fullest. Let me live its up and downs. Give me the completion of my goals and my challenges, and then let me forget and wander in contentment, remembered sometimes--hopefully fondly--by those I leave behind.

• Monday, April 4, 2016
  death Hades Khthonic Ouranic Pausanias personal Plato Question Collections Post requested post

Question Collections post 34

I get a lot of questions from readers, and most of the time, the answers are fairly short. When I feel the question or the reply would be valuable to others as well, I make a post with a collection of them and post them in one go. Today is one of those posts.

"Do you know of any invocations or hymns to Amphitrite?"

No, sorry. As far as I am aware there have either been none made or none have survived. The one quote I like to use when I honour Her is a bit younger, from the 4th century AD. It was written down by Quintus Smyrnaeus, in his 'Fall of Troy':

'A ruining storm maddens along the wide gulfs of the deep, and moans Amphitrite with her anguished waves which sweep from every hand, uptowering like precipiced mountains, while the bitter squall, ceaselessly veering, shrieks across the sea.' [8.62]

This could be adapted to:

'A ruining storm maddens along the wide gulfs of the deep, and [thus] moans Amphitrite with her anguished waves which sweep from every hand, uptowering like precipiced mountains, while the bitter squall, ceaselessly veering, shrieks across the sea. Blessed Goddess Amphitrite...'

 

---

 

"As someone who lives in a very large apartment complex that can't very well go outside and dig a pit in the ground without causing a stir with their neighbours and landlord, what is the best way to properly sacrifice to cthonic deities?"

 

A pot. I'm serious. Most likely your best bet except for going out and practicing 'in the wild' is to use a standard pot you would put a garden plant in. One you'd put on your balcony, for example. Fill it with soil and maybe some weeds that will survive being dug up every once in a while and getting doused in wine. Is it ideal? Is it exactly Recon? No, but what matters is that you get to dig a (tiny) hole, that you can bury the sacrifice. That it's covered up and gone. Perhaps, once a month (at the Deipnon, for example), smuggle the dirt out somehow and fill the pot anew to start the month cleansed and renewed. That would be my advice.

 

---

 

"I was going through and reading some of your answers to other's questions, and you mentioned that people who want to practice hellenismos need to understand that the theoi come as a one package deal. As a beginner, is it acceptable to start slow and work on introducing yourself to the gods sort of one at a time so as not to get particularly overwhelmed? or is it more like a jump in head first and good luck sort of deal?"

 

It's the mindset that matters, really. How you go about it is up to you. Say I am just starting out and I want to make a ritual that honours Apollon. What I am trying to convey to people is that when you sit down and you have written down to libate to Apollon and have picked out a hymn to Him, you then think 'how else can I honour Apollon' and make the mental jump to: 'I should include hymns to the Gods who matter most to Him!'. And you'd include a hymn and libation to His sister Artemis, and His mother Leto, and His father Zeus. And depending on the festival, you might include a sacrifice to one or more of His lovers or another God that works within the same domain as the side of Apollon you wish to honour. Asklēpiós, for example, for healing. Or Dionysos in His role as Lightbringer.

 

What I am trying to convey is that all the Gods are connected in some way and sacrificing to the Gods in the periphery of the main God you wish to worship establishes kharis and is simply good form. I'm not asking you to jump in and celebrate every festival, sacrifice twice daily, and build a dozen shrines overnight. Some never do any of that and that is quite alright. Because, as you have just seen, you will honour all Gods in some way through the handful of rituals you do perform. It's the mindset of it I am trying to get across, not the practicality of it. I hope this explains it!

 

---

 

"How does one apologize to the gods? Like, I used to be a huge believer in them when I was younger, and as I got older I stopped believing. But know I'm starting to believe in them again , and I just want to say sorry for not believing and saying rude things about them but I just don't know how to apologize. Is there a certain ritual or?"

 

At the risk of alienating anyone--I don't believe you have to. I also don't believe you have to introduce yourself to the Theoi when you start worshipping Them or do anything but give sacrifice, perform rites, and believe. If you had angered The Gods, you would have known beyond the shadow of a doubt. We are talking about the beings who level cities out of scorn and murder every single child of a mother who has shown Them disrespect. I am not saying the Theoi would ruin your life, or that They are vengeful, but I am saying that you would have noticed.

 

You did nothing wrong by not believing. We are not in ancient Hellas where you would have been raised with faith in the Theoi and you had a rebel period where you decided to raise your middle finger to the sky and every priest you saw pass, shouting at the top of your lungs the Theoi are imaginary. What happened is that you live in a society that--as a whole--does not believe in the ancient Hellenic Gods. You live in a society that has relegated the Theoi to the realm of fantasy and fairytale. You may have said things that you now consider rude--and perhaps they were--but you have since come to realize the Theoi are quite real, and worthy of honouring.

 

So honour Them. Words are cheap. I believe that the best way to make up for past mistakes is to stop making them in the future. So speak only good things of the Theoi (or at least truthful), show respect and honour, perform the rites, learn of Them and Their lives, and practice the ethical rules They have imparted on us. You don't need a ritual, you need a lifestyle--a faith--and to start living it. The past is in the past, I fear, so look ahead and find the very best ways to honour the Theoi.

• Thursday, January 28, 2016
  Amphitrite ancient Hellenic culture Apollon Asklēpiós Hekate's Deipnon Hellenic Reconstruction Hellenismos 101 Khthonic Mythology 101 personal Quintus Smyrnaeus

Question Collections post 31

I get a lot of questions from readers, and most of the time, the answers are fairly short. When I feel the question or the reply would be valuable to others as well, I make a post with a collection of them and post them in one go. Today is one of those posts.

"I don't read or speak Greek and want to get some ancient texts in book form. Should I get the English versions or the one in my native language? I have looked at those in my native language and most seem greatly influenced by Christianity. "

In general, it helps getting a version translated from the Greek, not the English, if you go for one in your native language. I have a few translations of various books and I have found that those based upon English translations usually base them on order ones--which are greatly influenced by Christian thinking. In general, if you are okay with English, I would go for an English translation.

 

***

 "I wonder, as God of War may involve the main character killing off Olympic gods, if you might find that game blasphemous?"

You know what, I think about things like that a lot, actually. I wonder about it when watching some TV show which does something horrid with the Theoi or play a game or whatever. Is this blasphemous?  And then I read some of the ancient plays and remember that even the ancient Hellenes had no issue at all with using representations of the Gods for their amusement. And the Gods never seemed to mind. There is a difference between the Gods and the characters in these games, movies, and series. Those characters are not my Gods. I think, in general, that distinction is very important to remember.

***

"Is there a certain ceremony I should do to devote myself to Apollon or should I just speak with him and tell him my wishes?"

Oh boy, am I ever not the right person to ask about the Neo-Pagan side of Hellenic Polytheism! Okay, what you ask sounds like personal patronage to me and I feel like that has no place in Hellenismos. Not in the Recon version I practice, anyway. Hellenism has its own beautiful system of kharis, and because of that, there is no need to bring in a modern concept like patrons. Modern patronage is a beautiful thing but unfortunately, I can't answer any questions about it because it's foreign to the ancient Hellenic religion. Sorry.

***

"Should I use diluted or undiluted wine (I only have red is that fine?) in my libation? And if diluted how much should my water to wine ratio be?"

That depends, are you worshipping 'Ouranic' or 'Khthonic' Gods? 'Ouranic' is a term that applies to Theoi and practices who reside or that are associated with Mount Olympos, home of many of the Theoi. As such, Ouranic deities are also referred to as 'Olympians'. Ouranic deities tended to receive wine libations that were mixed with water. 'Kthonic' refers to deities or spirits of the Underworld or the earth, and the rituals associated with Them. Khthonic deities received either wineless libations (water, milk, and honey, usually), or wine libations of unmixed wine.

It's unclear how diluted the wine was for Ouranic libations. Sources state that for a Symposium--a (non-religious) assembly--the best mix (depending on the wine, of course) was one part wine to about three or four parts water, but a dilution of 1/20 appears in the writings of Hómēros. Personally, from experience, I would say that a mixture of one part water to two or three parts water is best. This way the libation doesn't murder your fire.

***

"I've heard some say among our tradition that after death we either become Gods ourselves (Orphic Hellenismos) like Heracles, while others say we pass on to Elysium. I was wondering because you are very much a spiritual leader what you believe on the subject and any details you may provide."

Let me start off by saying I am not an expert in Orphism. I don't follow a Mystery Tradition in my own practice, after all. That having been said, let me give this a try.

 

Orphic ideas of the soul and afterlife are most often defined by explicit contrast with the Homeric view of the afterlife, which is taken as the standard view for ancient Hellenic culture. The Homeric afterlife is that of a grim, joyless and tedious existence in the Underworld. The Underworld of Homeros exists solely--at least for the now departed mortal--of the Asphodel meadows. The dead drink from the river Lethe and forget who they were. Sacrifical (animal) blood returns a sense of life to the shades and they recover their memories for a short time. In this tradition, life is lived while you are alive. One you die, you are dead. You might cling to life, but you will never truly be part of it again.

 

The Orphics were an ancient mystical cult with affinities to Indian religious systems. They believed in reincarnation and the possibility of liberation. Orpheus, the movement's legendary founder, is said to have taught that soul and body are locked together during life; the soul is divine, immortal and aspires to freedom, and during life, the body acts as a prison to the soul. Death releases the soul for a short while, but is then captured by another body until that, too, dies, and so the soul moves from body to body--both human and animal--until it can attain the highest good: liberation. In order to reach liberation, the Orphic way teaches to turn to God by ascetic piety of life and self-purification: the purer the life lived, the higher will be the next reincarnation, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever as God from whom it comes.

 

The ancient Hellenes called this process 'Metempsychosis' (μετεμψύχωσις). It is a philosophical term which refers to the transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. The notion that the human soul enters another body upon death, though unfamiliar in Hellenic religion, was widespread in Hellenic philosophy. The doctrine of transmigration is first associated with the Pythagoreans and Orphics and was later taught by Plato and Pindar. For the former groups, the soul retained its identity throughout its reincarnations; Plato indicated that souls do not remember their previous experiences. Although Herodotus claims that the Hellenes learned this idea from Egypt, most scholars do not believe it came either from Egypt or from India, but developed independently.
 

My personal believes of life after death have shifted over the years. I transitioned into Hellenismos from Eclectic Religious Witchcraft and in my former Tradition, reincarnation was the primary belief. Since the ancient Hellenes had a version of it in metepsychosis, I simply went with that. Now, the older I get and the better my understanding becomes of the ancient Hellenic culture and religion, the more I pull to a more Homeric version of the afterlife. A bit later, perhaps, where Elysium is an option for those who live the highest, purest, of lives. I long for the meadows now. I don't strive for Elysium; I don't think it's for the common folk like me. Give me the meadows and the water of the river Lethe. Let me live life to the fullest. Let me live its up and downs. Give me the completion of my goals and my challenges, and then let me forget and wander in contentment, remembered sometimes--hopefully fondly--by those I leave behind.

• Wednesday, November 25, 2015
  ancient Hellenic culture death Hellenismos 101 Khthonic Orpheus Ouranic personal Question Collections Post requested post

The Beginner's guide to Hellenismos: Ouranic versus Khthonic

Today, I would like to talking a little about the process of reconstruction and the way we view the Theoi in Hellenimsos. This post is part of the beginner's guide to Hellenismos.

Modern worshippers of the Theoi--myself included--often try to compartmentalize Their worship. This, because we aren't raised in a culture where the Theoi are worshipped in grand festivals and we have to reinvent the wheel as we try to find ways to worship Them in a way that resembles the ways of the ancient Hellenes. To have some hard rules for this worship helps us greatly; it allows us to look at the parts of the rites we do know and infer the rest--at least in broad lines. The biggest boxes we use are 'Ouranic' and 'Khthonic', and we often think the two are entirely separate--they are not.

'Ouranic' is a term that applies to Theoi and practices who reside or that are associated with Mount Olympos, home of many of the Theoi. As such, Ouranic deities are also referred to as 'Olympians'. In ancient Hellas, an altar for the Ouranic Theoi was called a 'bômos' (βωμός). Most bômoi were isolated cubes, around one meter (three feet) high, but there were altars which were far larger. The sacrificial altars were either square or round, and many held an 'epipuron' (ἐπίπυρον)--a movable pan or brazier, used on top of the bômos so it could serve as an altar for burnt-offerings. Impromptu altars for the Ouranic deities were made of earth, turf, or stones collected on the spot. What mattered was that the offering was sacrificed (high) off of the ground.

Ouranic deities tended to receive wine libations that were mixed with water. Food offerings were usually divided between the Theoi and the worshippers where only a ceremonial part of the sacrifice was given to the Theoi. In general, Ouranic-themed festivals were light in tone and included a measure of festivity. They were also conducted at temples, often within the city limits. Sacrifice to the Ouranic deities was given with hands raised high, up towards the sky, with the palms flat and up. Worshippers stood for the sacrifice, and they were given during the daylight hours of the festival day.

'Kthonic', on the other hand, refers to deities or spirits of the Underworld or the earth, and the rituals associated with Them. An 'eschára' (ἐσχάρα) is the term for a low-lying altar used in burnt-offerings  for the Khthonic Theoi. An offering pit--'bothros' (βόθρος) in Greek texts--also sufficed. Khthonic deities received either wineless libations (water, milk, and honey, usually), or wine libations of unmixed wine. These rituals often took place outside of the city walls, or started within the city walls ad ended outside of it. Their tone was usually sombre or grim, and there was far more fear of the Theoi invoked. Truly Khthonic sacrifices involved kneeling, and/or lowering or striking the flat palms either on or towards the ground. They were held at night and the sacrifices were given whole; it was a holókaustos (ὁλόκαυστος), and the matching libation a khoe (χοαί). The whole offering was either burned or buried and no one partook of any of the food or drink that was given to the Khthonic Theoi. This because contact with the underworld carried miasma.

Miasma (Μίασμα) literally means 'pollution', and it describes the lingering aura of uncleanliness in regards to a person or space through which contact is made with the Gods. Next to piety, being ritually clean is one of the most important things to adhere to within Hellenismos. Miasma occurs whenever the space or person comes into contact with death, sickness, birth, sex, excessive negative emotions and bodily fluids (amongst a few others). Especially death and birth, because these acts open up of the way to the Underworld. When a Khthonic deity is invoked, this passageway is opened as well.

Ouranic deities cannot and will not come into contact with the Underworld. They must remain pure, untainted. If a worshiper is tainted with miasma, he or she must first clean themselves of it through katharmos ((Καθαρμός). The most well-known of these is through applying khernips (Χἐρνιψ). Khernips is created by dropping smoldering incense or herb leaves into (fresh and/or salt) water (preferably sacred spring water or sea water). Both hands and face are washed with khernips.

There are, however, entities that exist between the strict divide between Ouranic and Khthonic, and the rites that honour them are mixed as well. Heroes were often worshipped at the eschára, for example, and certain Gods walk the fine line; Hekate, for example, who walks freely between the upper world and the Underworld, or Persephone, who spends part of the year in the Underworld and the rest on Olympos with her mother and father. And then there are Theoi like Zeus and Hermes, who have certain epithets that can make the journey down, and Hades who has an epithet who can make the journey up.

An epithet is an attachment to the name of a God or Goddess, used to indicate either a specific domain of the Deity, a specific origin myth or region from which the Deity came, or an entirely different entity, through either domain or origin. Epithets serve(d) either a ritualistic function or a literary on; hymns and chants are used in both aspects of Hellenismos and in both, destinctions are made between the various epithets of the Gods. 

 

Within ritual, epithets are used out of respect, devotion and out of practicality. It's seen as respectful to address the Gods by their various names. It shows you are aware of the names of the Gods as well as the domains They influence. As for the practical; well, some Gods rule over a variety of domains. Zeus, for example guards travelers in His epithet of Zeus Xenios but is seen as the bringer of storm-clouds in his epithet of Zeus Ombrios. It's rather obvious, but getting rained upon is probably not what you were after when asking Zeus for aid on your journey.

 

In general, Khthonic deities have epithets that make them less scary and more helpful to humanity, and then there are Ouranic deities who have darker epithets. Ploutōn (Πλουτων), as an epithet for Hades, was venerated as a stern ruler but the loving husband of Persephone. The couple received souls in the afterlife, and are invoked together in religious inscriptions. Hades by contrast had few temples and religious practices associated with Him, and was portrayed as the dark and violent abductor of Persephone. Ploutōn was viewed as a harvest God, and prayed to for prosperity. The other way around, Hermes has his epithet 'Khthonios', in which he guides the souls of the dead down to the Underworld. Zeus has his epithet of 'Meilichios', and it was one of His most popular ones.

 

Meilichios (Μειλίχιος), meaning 'Kindly One', is a Khthonic epithet of Zeus, who generally receives nighttime sacrifices, and only by way of a holókaustos. Zeus seems to have adopted the Meilichios epithet from an older Khthonic serpent daímōn or Theos. He is considered a purifier. In fact, during the Diasia--a festival held at the end of winter, a time where many festivals linked to ritual purification were held--the members of the household would touch a sacrificial animal before it was sacrificed, believing the miasma they carried would be transferred into it and then burned away. Old practices for Hekate's Deipnon included the same to be done with a dog.

 

Theoi that mixed Khthonic with Ouranic markers (or the other way around) also tended to have mixed rites performed in Their name. The aforementioned Diasia, for example was held during the daylight hours of the festival day. The sacrifice was given on a raised altar made of stone found in the area, but it was performed outside of the city walls. It was a holókaustos sacrifice, but there was a big picnic-type feast held afterwards with other foodstuffs that people brought. The sacrifice itself was sombre and gloomy, but the day ended with good food and gifts for kids, making it a favourite amongst huge amounts of people. Its function was to lift the burden of miasma from the worshippers, but in doing so, a way to the Underworld had to be opened; a mixed bag for sure.

 

As much as we, as Hellenists, would like to create boxes and labels for the Theoi and Their worship, there will always be instances where the lines are blurred and it's important to realize that for the ancient Hellenes, these lines would not have existed--and if they did, they evolved with every generation. Our religion is far more flexible than we would perhaps like it to be, but therein lies its beauty: the ancient Hellenes found ways to include the most powerful and most beloved Theoi in the rites that mattered most to them. They created loopholes and reasons within the framework of their religion to do what they perhaps felt to be the right thing. This flexibility is hugely important to remember for modern practitioners lest we get bogged down in rules that never existed, and the dichotomy between Ouranic and Khthonic is one of them.

• Saturday, March 14, 2015
  ancient Hellenic culture beginners guide Diasia Hades Hekate Hekate's Deipnon Hellenismos 101 Khthonic Ouranic Plouton Zeus Zeus Meilichios

Hestia and Khthonic Sacrifices

Another reader question today, concerning Hestia and the sacrifices we give Her. The question is as follows:

"Just a random question - do you happen to know if a portion of chthonic sacrifices was offered first to Hestia?  I had always heard that She received the first and last portion of all sacrifices, but given the difference between Olympian and Chthonic sacrifices, I have to wonder.  Any light you can shed on the question would be appreciated!"

There are records that at least in some parts of ancient Hellas, Hestia was always sacrificed to first and last in state festivals, and I have adopted that for my household worship as well; many modern Hellenists have. That said, there is a difference between rituals held for the Ouranic deities and the Khthonic; most notably for this question, in the altar used.

In ancient Hellas, an altar was called a 'bômos' (βωμός)--properly signifying any elevation--with an 'epipuron' (ἐπίπυρον)--a movable pan or brazier--used on top of the bômos so it could serve as an altar for burnt-offerings. The household hearth was used to make sacrifices as well, and thus served as an altar of sorts. It was named after the Theia of the home and hearth: 'hestía' (ἑστία). Some state-owned altars--especially when they were simply large fires--were named 'hestía' as well.

These altars were used for sacrifices to the Ouranic Theoi, but were rarely--if ever--used for sacrifices for the Khthonic Theoi. For Khthonic Theoi, an offering pit--'bothros' (βόθρος) in Greek texts--was used. Bothroi were usually dug when the occasion called for it, and closed up afterwards. As written previously, the Khthonic Theoi received special nighttime offerings of black animals, unmixed wine and special libations of milk and honey. Animal sacrifice was always done in a holókaustos--a sacrifice where the entire animal was burned and none of the meat was saved for human consumptions.

State festivals were almost always held for Ouranic deities, and they included a feast, consisting of the meat of the sacrificed animal. This wasn't possible with sacrifices to the Khthonic deities; there was no meat to feast on--and no occasion to feast. This matters, because our primary evidence on the topic is one of the Homeric Hymns to Hestia:

"Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honour: glorious is your portion and your right. For without you mortals hold no banquet, -- where one does not duly pour sweet wine in offering to Hestia both first and last." [XXIX]

It is my personal opinion that Hestia was not honoured (first, last or at all) in Khthonic rites. In fact, I think as few as possible Gods were called in these rites, and all of them had a Khthonic character. I think this is tied to the practice of miasma--after all, contact with the Underworld (and thus the Khthonic Gods) was a major source of it.

Within Hellenic practice, miasma describes the lingering aura of uncleanliness in regards to a person or space through which contact is made with the Gods. Next to piety, being ritually clean is one of the most important things to adhere to within Hellenismos. Miasma occurs whenever the space or person comes into contact with death, sickness, birth, sex, excessive negative emotions and bodily fluids. It also comes from a lack of contact with the Hellenic Gods. As a note, I should say that not the actual acts of dying, sex and birth cause miasma but the opening up of the way to the Underworld (with births and deaths) as well as contact with sweat, blood, semen, menstrual blood and urine.

Our Gods are immortal and are sometimes called the Deathless Ones. It's our duty to uphold this sacred name by making sure no Gods but psychopomps (guides of the dead) come in contact with death even if it's through us. If we can not respect Their purity, They might be inclined to withhold Their gifts from us. As such, I cannot even phantom inviting Hestia into a ritual with a Khthonic character.

• Thursday, November 13, 2014
  ancient Hellenic culture Hellenismos 101 Hestia Homeric Hymns household worship Khthonic requested post

PBP: Bômos and bothros; the ritual altars of the ancient Hellenes

An altar is one of those basic necessities within Hellenismos, and it differs from a shrine. Where an altar is a 'work space', dedicated not so much to a specific deity, but used to do the bulk of the (daily) rituals, a shrine is a devotional area where an altar might be located. In ancient Hellas, the shrine was usually a temple, the altar an actual altar, standing outside of it. Household worship took place at a multitude of shrines.

Labeling something a shrine, does not mean you can't sacrifice at these spots in your home; every Hene Kai Nea and Noumenia, I offer libations of mixed wine and incense at my shrine to Apollon, Hermes and Hekate, every Noumenia, I offer mixed wine and incense to Zeus Kthesios at His shrine in my kitchen, and ever Agathós Daímōn, I make a libation of unmixed wine at His shrine. As explained previously, I don't have an outdoor altar; I have one indoors, and it also houses my continual flame to Hestia. It's at this shrine I do the bulk of my worship--it's my hearth. It has my offering bowl, and is very deity-neutral, just to make sure everyone I give sacrifice to might feel at home at it. It's located in my bedroom shrine--the actual space, decorated and kept clean for the Theoi.

My altar is not the altar the ancient Hellenes would have used. For one, it's not outside--something I'm grateful for as it's snowing outside at the moment--and for another, it's not made of stone. I don't make a fire on top of it--a good thing, seeing as it's made of wood--but have to use a bowl to do so. In ancient Hellas, an altar was called a 'bômos' (βωμός)--properly signifying any elevation--with an 'epipuron' (ἐπίπυρον)--a movable pan or brazier--used on top of the bômos so it could serve as an altar for burnt-offerings. The household hearth was used to make sacrifices as well, and thus served as an altar of sorts. It was named after the Theia of the home and hearth: 'hestía' (ἑστία). Some state-owned altars--especially when they were simply large fires--were named 'hestía' as well.

These altars were used for sacrifices to the Ouranic Theoi, but were rarely--if ever--used for sacrifices for the Khthonic Theoi. An 'eschára' (ἐσχάρα) is the term for a low-lying altar used in burnt-offerings for heroes, demi-Gods and (nature) spirits. It was sometimes located under the bômos, and was sometimes used for sacrifices for the Khthonic Theoi. For Khthonic Theoi, an offering pit--'bothros' (βόθρος) in Greek texts--also sufficed. The term 'eschára' is sometimes used to indicate the corresponding projection at the top of a bômos that held its own fire--so where no epipuron was used. Becasue of this, the term 'eschára' is controversial but still correct in relation to the previous.

Lets look at these altars in a bit more detail; first the bômos.

In ancient Hellas, and always in sudden emergencies, altars were made of earth, turf, or stones collected on the spot. In the Archaic and Classical periods (600–323 BC) most altars were made of stone, either monoliths or built of cut blocks, thus was usually the case for stationary altars built at temples. The sides were sometimes decorated--and if they were decorated, the decoration was usually pretty impressive--but the altars were usually plain, apart from an inscription naming the deity the altar was dedicated to.

Most bômoi were isolated cubes, around one meter (three feet) high, but there were altars which were far larger. When I went to Germany, I visited the Pergamon museum and got to see the second century BC altar they house there for myself. Its foundation is approximately 36 by 34 meters (118 by 112 feet) at the base, more than 6 meters (20 feet) high, and decorated with an elaborate frieze, about 120 meters (394 feet) long, showing the Titanomancy. The upper area, accessed by a wide staircase, was framed by a colonnade and here the actual sacrificial installation was placed. Needless to say, this type of huge altar was most often exception than rule.

The sacrificial altars were either square or round, sometimes with an indentation on the top for a fire, or sometimes with a hole, leading down to an eschára. An altar for libations or blood sacrifice could have a drain for the liquid. The indentation--or even the hole--could be used to steady an epipuron. The materials used were often limestone or marble, stones not very resistant to heat, and thus, an epipuron was used to protect the bômos below. Even with that, the sacrifices would render the altars black from soot on the top and spotted by the blood on the front, and from time to time they had to be touched up with stucco or lime.

The epipuron was usually a brazier, often with either one or three feet, and made of precious metals which could withstand the heat of a fire or the coals used to burn incense. In household worship, epipuron seem to have been used as altars, without the bômos to put it on. This meant that these portable altars made of metal, stone, or terracotta were used in household worship instead of, or in conjunction with, the hearth of a house; hestía. Whether these domestic altars were used for full-scale animal sacrifice is uncertain and the offerings made here were probably cakes (especially at Noumenia), incense, libations, and perhaps cooked food. In houses where there was no fireplace, an epipuron could serve as a heat source.

The altars themselves were used to burn the meat from animal sacrifices, incense, or bloodless offerings like cakes, fruits and breads. Pieces of meat were sometimes placed on top of a fireless altar as a gift for the Theoi, and were taken by the priests or priestesses later that day for their own consumption or to burry. On some altars, blood sacrifice was forbidden; the bômos of Apollon Genetôr ( 'the Begetter') at Delos, for example. In all cases, the sacredness of the altar was fundamental. Anyone seeking refuge at an altar was promised protection of the Theos that altar and shrine were dedicated to. To take a fugitive from the altar by force was sure to cause the wrath of the Theoi on those who took him or her. Killing a person near an altar caused severe miasma and would lead to purification rites. Most likely, the altar would be out of commission for a period of time.

As said, altars were located in front of the temple, not inside it. If a temple did have an indoor altar, it was almost always used for bloodless sacrifices. The bômos almost always faced east, in front of the temple. If a temple was replaced by another, the altar usually remained in place. In some cases, this led to a misalignment of temple and altar. The altar of Athena Polias and the Erechtheum on the Athenian Acropolis is a great example of this. It was doubtful this was seen as a huge problem, though.

Bothroi--offering pits--were usually dug when the occasion called for it, and closed up afterwards. It seems that in some instances an epipuron was also an acceptable altar for the Khthonic Theoi. As written previously, the Khthonic Theoi received special nighttime offerings of black animals, unmixed wine and special libations of milk and honey. Animal sacrifice was always done in a holókaustos--a sacrifice where the entire animal was burned and none of the meat was saved for human consumptions. It makes sense this type of sacrifice was done in an enclosed space; the temperature would have gotten high enough to burn most (if not all) of the animal.

Another term for a Hellenic altar one might find is 'thusiastérion' (θυσιαστήριον). It is used mostly in context to later, Christian, texts where the thusiastérion described illicit pagan altars to the Theoi, as offset by the 'proper' altars to God. Needless to say, I won't be using it much, simply because the ancient Hellenes did not.

The above list is non-exhaustive, but gives a decent overview of the terms and types of altars used by the ancient Hellenes. There was, of course, variation in actual practice, and a good few altars broke this mold. For modern Hellenists, it's a good starting point for the construction of an (outdoor) bômos.

• Friday, January 18, 2013
  Agathós Daímōn ancient Hellenic culture Apollon Athens Hekate Hekate's Deipnon Hellenismos 101 Hermes Hestia holókaustos household worship Khthonic Ouranic Pagan Blog Project Shrine Zeus Kthesios