On the gatekeepers of Olympos

I have a fascination with Gods we don't know much about, with Gods whose mythology is limited to  a single snippet that sparks the imagination enough to form a complete image of the deity in question, regardless. Two of those deities for me are Aniketos (Ανικητος) and Alexiares (Αλεξιαρης).

Aniketo and Alexiares are the sons of Hebe and Hēraklēs. Together, They guard the Gates of Olympos and presided over the defense of fortified towns and citadels. Their names mean respectively 'the unconquerable one' and 'he who wards off war'.  Little else is known about them. In fact, pseudo-Apollodorus, in his 'Bibliotheca' is the only one who makes sure mention of Them as far as I am aware:

"[Herakles] achieved immortality, and when Hera's enmity changed to friendship, he married her daughter Hebe, who bore him sons Alexiares and Aniketos. [2. 158]

Modern scholars mention Aniketos and Alexiares were probably the same as two boy-God sons of Herakles worshipped in Thebes (and Rhodes). I question this. I believe there might be confusion between Alexiares and Aniketos, and the Alkaidai--the sons/children of Alkaios/Alkeides. Herakles, from 'Hera' and kleos, 'glory', was born as Alkaios (Ἀλκαῖος) or Alkeidēs (Ἀλκείδης).

Due to Hera's jealousy this young Herakles was stricken mad and killed the five sons he had by his wife Megara. When he was released from his madness by a hellebore potion--provided by Antikyreus--and realized what he had done, he cried out in anguish, and went on a long journey to cleanse himself of the miasma caused by these killings. This resulted in his Twelve Labours. It also resulted in his name change. These sons were entombed and later worshipped with sacrifices as heroes at Thebes, under the name Alkaidai.

There is a very strenuous link that encourages the idea that at least Aniketos had a child--and grandchild. Clement of Alexandria, in his 'Recognitions' writes in a list of Zeus' adulteries:

"Hippodamia, the daughter of Anicetus (Aniketos)." [Chapter XXI]

No other mention is made of this Hippodameia, or her parentage, or whether or not she bore Zeus any offspring but, if her father Aniketos is the same as the son of Herakles and Hebe, it means that Zeus consorted with his own great-granddaughter, whose grandparents Hebe and Herakles were also his children. This makes the whole family tree very complicated, indeed, but not very surprising.

Aniketo and Alexiares are perfect examples of the tapestry that makes up the Hellenic pantheon. The major displays woven into it are undoubtedly of Zeus and Hera, of Their brothers and sisters, of their parents and well-known children like Apollon and Artemis. Aniketo and Alexiares are the embodiment of my firm belief that it's impossible to practice Hellenism and only worship one or a handful of Gods. One must invest in at least the pursuit of knowledge about every single God or Goddess in our pantheon to fully grasp the parts you thought you already understood. The fringes of the tapestry are just as colorful as the main display--and without these minor mythologies, the tapestry would not only be plain, it would be threadbare.

• Friday, April 7, 2017
  Alexiares Aniketos Hellenismos 101 Mythology 101 olympus personal

PAT ritual announcement: the Mounikhia

The Mounikhia (Μουνιχιας), the festival after which the month was named, is celebrated on the sixteenth of Mounichion. On this day of the full moon, Artemis Mounikhia (Αρτεμις Μουνυχια) was honored at the hill of Munikhia, for granting the Hellenes victory in the Battle of Salamis (Ναυμαχία τῆς Σαλαμῖνος).

During the festival, young girls walked in procession to the temple on top of the hill carrying green boughs, while the rest of the celebrants followed, carrying special cakes called 'amphiphontes' ('shining all round’). These round white cakes were adorned with dadia (little torches)--lit candle--and were supposed to represent the full moon. A she-goat is also attested as a sacrifice.

During this festival, an amphiphon was sacrificed to Artemis. It was a cheese pie on which candles were lit. Most likely, the amphiphon was a type of popanon; this is a large, round, flat cake with one or more, upright, protruding, knobs made from flour and cheese. The flat version of the cake, the popanon kathemenon was offered to Artemis, amongst others, as well as one with twelve knobs. We've seen this before for the Delphinia.

If you want to learn more about the festival and its history, please read this blog post.

To honour Artemis on this day, Elaion is organizing a PAT ritual. Will you be celebrating the Mounikhia with us? There will be two times: just after your dusk on12 April, or at our regular 10 a.m. EDT on 13 April. As always, we hope you will join us at your oikos to honour Artemis, our eternal protector. You can join the community page here and find the ritual here.

• Thursday, April 6, 2017
  Artemis Artemis Mounikhia current affairs Elaion festivals mounikhia PAT

Neos Alexandra publishes anthology in honor of Hestia

Neos Alexandria, a community for Greco-Egyptians, Hellenics, Kemetics, Romans, Neopagans and others interested in learning about the Gods, their ancient and contemporary forms of worship, and the Greco-Egyptian culture, has published a new anthology. This time it is about Hestia, and yours truly was roped into contributing:

"Goddess of Little Renown, But Lasting Prominence"

by Elani Temperance (page 154)

Edited by Terence P. Ward
Price: $12.99
Publication Date: 4 April 2017
Place of Publication: Asheville, North Carolina
ISBN: 978-1544055886
Pages: 218 pp
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 5″ x 8″

"She is the First, and She is the Last. Eldest and Youngest Child of heaven and Earth. The Hearth at the Center of Creation. Few myths and rites for Hestia survive from the classical world. A Goddess primarily of the domestic sphere, She was so central to ancient beliefs and practices that the Greeks actually wrote down very little about Her. She simply Was. And Is."

And so we come to the purpose of this anthology: not just to present ancient material about the Goddess, but, more importantly, to fill in the gaps in belief, practice, and understanding which were not handed down through the intervening millennia. Within these pages, Her devotees recreate Her worship, craft new devotional practices, write new hymns and songs and even myths, develop new recipes, and create new artwork in Her honor.

Hestia remains highly revered and respected, and new devotees are finding their way to Her. As in ancient days, she receives both the least and greatest of offerings. May she never be forgotten.

First and Last can be purchased in paperback format from their online store, and will be available shortly through Amazon, and through Barnes and Noble. If possible, they would ask you to purchase it through Createspace since that will give Bibliotheca Alexandrina a higher portion of the royalties without changing the price for you. Why does that matter? Because all of the proceeds from First and Last – as well as many of the other volumes in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina series – will be used to help promote the revival of the worship of the Greek and Egyptian Gods, with a portion of the proceeds given to a worthy charitable organization in their name.  So, not only will you be getting a wonderful book about the modern worship of Hestia – but your money will be going to do good work and help the revival of ancient polytheistic religions.

ATTENTION Librarians, Teachers and Retailers: First and Last is also available at reduced cost for academic institutions, lending libraries (public and private) and retailers. Check their online store, or email baeditor@gmail.com with any questions.

• Wednesday, April 5, 2017
  current affairs Hestia Neos Alexandria personal

Greece or Hellas?

A question I get quite a lot is the question why I use 'Hellas' and not 'Greece' to describe the country of origin of my Gods. Even today the country is known abroad as Greece, while the Greeks call themselves 'Ellines' and their country Ellada or Hellas in English. The official name of the country is Hellenic Republic as it is written on Greek passports, however the ethnicity on the same documents is described as 'Greek'.

Greek Reporter interviewed Katerina Zacharia, a professor of Classics and Archaeology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA to find out how the term Greece came to be the country’s international name as well as the semantics of the different names of the country throughout its long history. Watch the videos below:

Dr. Zacharia is a renowned speaker on the subject of Hellenism as well as the editor and major contributor for the book “Hellenisms: Culture, Identity and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity (Ashgate Variorum 2008).” She is also the author of “Converging Truths: Euripides’ Ion and the Athenian Quest for Self-Definition (Brill 2003)” is a Professor of Classics at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. She holds a B.A. degree in Psychology and Philosophy and minor in Pedagogy, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics from University College London.

For clarity: I use 'Hellas' or 'ancient Hellas' to indicate ancient Greece and everything connected to it, and 'Greece' or 'Modern Greece' for anything concerning the present. That said, 'Hellas' is the preferred term for both, and I know that. It's simply clearer to use the terms like this on this blog because it differentiates so beautifully.

• Tuesday, April 4, 2017
  ancient Hellenic culture current affairs modern Greece

A woman to know: Erinna of Talos

The ancient Hellenic writers were dedicated historians, but they often neglected to mention the achievements of ancient Hellenic women. Now it so happens that I am a woman and I quite like having a few female heroes to look up to, so I want to introduce you to them. Today: Erinna of Talos.

Erinna (Ἤριννα) of Talos was a Hellenic poet, possibly a contemporary and friend of Sappho, though scholars now tend to believe that Erinna was an early Hellenistic poet. She was either a native of Rhodes or the adjacent island of Telos or even possibly Tenos, which flourished about 600 BC. Little ancient evidence about Erinna's life survives, and the testimony which does is often contradictory. It is likely that Erinna was born into a wealthy family, and would have been taught to read and write poetry – Teos, one of Erinna's possible birthplaces, is one of the few places in the ancient Hellenic world where epigraphical evidence that girls were educated survives.

Three epigrams preserved in the Greek Anthology suggest that Erinna died young--according to Asclepiades aged 19, though the earliest source to explicitly fix her date of death at age 19 is the Suda. Often this is linked to the poem, the Distaff, which is about a 19 year old girl. It's argued though, that though the character of Erinna in the Distaff was 19, it is not necessarily the case that she did compose the poem when she was that age.

Erinna was perhaps the most famous female Hellenic poet in the ancient world after Sappho. In the Palatine anthology Asclepiades, Leonidas, and an anonymous poet, sing her praises. Meleager honored her with a place in his "'Garland’ of poets", likening her work to a "sweet, maidenly colored crocus". Antipater of Sidon says that, "although she wrote few verses, her work was inspired by the muses, and she would always be remembered" (7.713). Her work is compared favorably both with Homeros and Sappho, introducing a link between Erinna and more famous poets.She wrote in a mixture of Aeolic and Doric Greek. Three epigrams ascribed to her probably belong to a later date, though some debate on the first epigram exists.

Her most famous poem is undoubtedly The Distaff, which has not survived unharmed, but remains in large part. For centuries, all that was known about Erinna’s poem was that it was three-hundred lines long and, according to one commentator, ‘more powerful than those of so many others’. A few of the poet’s epigrams, laments for Erinna’s childhood friend, Baucis, had survived in the Greek Anthology, alongside a couple of short, two-line extracts of her poetry quoted in later commentators.

And then in 1928, as if by a miracle, Italian archaeologists excavating at Oxyrhynchus discovered a tattered piece of papyrus which contained a new, 54 line fragment of Erinna’s epic. To everyone’s great surprise it transpired that this work, too, like Erinna’s extant epigrams, was another lament for her friend Baucis. However, in places the text was so damaged that scholars could not always agree how it should read. The most truthful version I have been able to find is the following, by Josephine Balmer:

… the rising moon …
                         … falling leaves …
                                             … waves spinning on a mottled shore …
                                         …and those game, Baucis, remember?
Two white horses, four frenzied feet – and one Tortoise
to your hare: ‘Caught you,’ I cried, ‘You’re Mrs Tortoise now.’
But when your turn came at last to catch the catcher
you raced on far beyond us, out from the great shell
of our smoke-filled yard…
                  … Baucis, these tears are your embers
and my memorial, traces glowing in my heart,
now all that we once shared has turned to ash …
                                                                        … as girls
we played weddings with our dolls, brides in our soft beds,
or sometimes I was ‘mother’ allotting dawn wool
to the women, calling for you to help spin out
the thread …
                       …and our terror (remember?) of Mormo
the monster – big ears, long tongue, forever flapping,
her frenzy on all fours, those changing shapes – a trap
for girls who had lost their way …
                                           … But when you set sail
for a man’s bed, Baucis, you let it slip away,
forgot the lessons you had learnt from your ‘mother’
in those far-off days – no, never forgot; that thief
Desire stole all memory away…
                                                          … My lost friend,
here is my lament: I can’t bear that dark death-bed,
can’t bring myself to step outside my door, won’t look
on your stone face, won’t cry or cut my hair for shame …
But Baucis this crimson grief
                                                          is tearing me in two …


The tortoise refers to the game described by Pollux ix. 125 : one girl (called the Tortoise) sat among others and spoke with them in alternate lines. At the end of the last line the Tortoise leapt up and tried to catch, or touch, one of the others - who would then take her turn as Tortoise. The last two lines are given by Pollux as : (Girls) "What was your son doing when he died?" (Tortoise) "From white horses into the sea he leapt" (on the last word the Tortoise leaps up) : hence the first line here.

• Monday, April 3, 2017
  a woman to know series ancient Hellenic culture

Pichi & Avo: IconoMythology

Since first collaborating in 2007, Spanish street art duo Pichi & Avo (previously) have created an intriguing blend of traditional graffiti and renderings of mythological figures influenced by ancient Hellenic sculpture. The precision, shading, and use of color is all that more impressive considering each piece is painted only with spray paint. Pichi & Avo opened their first exhibition in Italy titled Urban IconoMythology in 2015 at Basement Project Room and they are still active! You can see more of their work here.

• Sunday, April 2, 2017
  archeology current affairs Mythology 101

MSU: "Digital Dig: A new discovery from Ancient Greece"

I think every reader knows by now I am a huge proponent of technological innovation in the field of archaeology. I truly believe that technology is key for taking the next step in discovering, researching, and interpreting ancient cultures like ancient Hellas. As such, I very much enjoyed reading an article published by Michigan State University on the next step in technological archaeological advances. Michigan State University Archaeologist Jon Frey and his team are leading a digital dig at the ancient excavation site of Isthmia, Greece. Using drones and GPS technology, the team will create a 3-D interactive model, which will be shared online so scholars around the world have access to new knowledge from the ancient world.

Through the careful study of excavation records dating back some 40 years, Michigan State University’s Jon Frey has discovered an ancient gymnasium at the archaeological site of Isthmia, Greece. Frey and his team are performing a 'digital dig' of sorts. Rather than using shovels and tools to excavate the site, the researchers are studying a backlog of evidence housed in remote storage.

“The neat part is there are many moments when we discover things that the original excavators missed,” says Frey, assistant professor of classical studies in the College of Arts and Letters. “So it’s kind of like our research has shifted from digging to detective work. We’re essentially re-excavating the archives.”

Working through old notes, photographs, field books and descriptions of artifacts, the MATRIX Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at MSU and Frey’s team are digitizing the archives and posting the material online for all scholars to see. And using a three-year, $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Frey has built a web service that provides people access to the records. None of that is standard practice in the field of archaeology, he says.

Located within the Sanctuary of Poseidon, which sits on the isthmus of Greece, the gymnasium probably stood 180 meters by 70 meters, on par with the much more famous site of Olympia, home of the Olympic games, Frey says. Most likely, it featured gardens, walkways and places for observers to watch athletes exercise. Frey thinks this space was connected to a Roman bathhouse, where people would’ve enjoyed a post-workout hot soak or massage.

“In general, Isthmia hasn’t been as popular a destination for visitors as the more famous sites of Athens, Corinth and Olympia, but perhaps that’s due to a lack of familiarity with what the place meant to Greeks and Romans in classical antiquity. There’s a good story to be told here about ancient Greece and we’re trying to share that story with others.”

It’s a story that’s not been told often. Isthmia, which connected Athens and Corinth in the Ancient World, was an important place that served as the setting of choice for Greeks at several important moments in time, such as when hard decisions had to be made or big news needed to be announced to the masses. So, Frey says, Isthmia is an interesting source of evidence for how people negotiated large-scale social and political change. At the same time, the discovery of the gymnasium shows how sports were as important to Greeks and Romans as they are to people today, he says. People came from all over Greece to compete and watch, which carried the allure of playing in a major ballpark or stadium today.

Frey started the Isthmia excavation project in 1993 as a student studying abroad at Ohio State University and has been back to the site every summer since 2004. In 2008, Frey began bringing his MSU students to Isthmia. OSU’s Timothy Gregory, who taught Frey, is the director of the dig and collaborator on this project. While the field of archeology is becoming increasingly digital, sites such as Isthmia—where researchers began digging before the advent of technology— present a challenge, Frey says.

How do archeologists connect a paper-based system with a digital system, without distracting from the wealth of evidence and knowledge that has already been recorded? They could use a drone and GPS, like Frey did. In October, he and his team went to Isthmia to capture drone footage of the site to create a 3-D model and map of Isthmia, both of which will be available this summer. Until now, there hasn’t been a complete map of Isthmia, only images and maps of different buildings. Frey’s been trying different ways to make sense of all the maps since 2009, but it’s only now that technology has caught up.

Putting the pieces together and creating a map helps paint a picture of the ancient athletic stomping ground—giving researchers a rare big-picture view of the important site and a better sense of how the entire sanctuary functioned, Frey says.

“We’re trying to find a way to use modern technology to improve upon, but not replace, these records from the past, trying to create a virtual archeology so that someone 20 or 50 years from now can get inside our heads and almost see the dig through our eyes. This is hands down the most accurate representation of the site we’ve ever produced. And with only a few examples of gymnasia ever excavated, it’s significant that with our work we might have a new example against which to compare the written evidence.”

• Saturday, April 1, 2017
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs modern Greece