Agnes

Call me Agnes;

Hey welcome to my blog!

I’m very new to tumblr but I saw a lot of people have this so I wish to partake in the tradition and make my own.

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Hey! You can call me Agnes, I’m a trans, African, Amazigh woman. (So please keep that in mind while interacting with my page).

I’m 17 years old, and enjoy practicing astrology, Hellenic polytheism and I like going on rambles about all sorts of stuff.

If you wish to know more about Hellenic polytheism, or astrology you can always ask me anonymously!

Do not interact:

If you’re a Zionist, a transphobe, a homophobe, a racist, an ableist. All of the phobias/hateful person.

If you’re a neopagan or just someone unwilling to learn from academical, historically sourced information.

If you don’t like what I say just scroll, block or move along don’t flood my DMs.

I will sometimes be making posts about the Hellenic polytheist religion to inform people for fun because I love participating with the community.

I might disappear randomly once in a while because of school and life stuff!

As to for the people interested in my practice here’s some info:

I label myself as reconstructionist not because I believe the labels serve any purpose but within the community people got used to them so I define myself this way because it’s closest to what it represents me the way the community understands it.

I may use the tag pagan I don’t define myself that way but it’s a way to get my content to people that may be apart of the helpol community

I worship marginally all of the Olympians including Hestia, but mainly Artemis Philomeirax and Aphrodite Ourania. (I do not worship Ares, neither do I worship cthonian deities).

If you wish to get my sources for things just ask I’m not a gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss. I love to share!!!

Anyways this is it!

Thank you and sorry if you've already answered something similar!!

Hey anon!!!

First of all I would like to correct a common mishap that I see a lot in the community, you should probably avoid the use of the term "Hellenism" when discussing Hellenic polytheism, I’ve seen a lot of Greek people take offense to it, because it’s quite literally saying "greek-ism", so just for added knowledge, I would recommend not using it but if used make sure it’s in reference to Greek culture.

As to your questions!

I actually already responded that there is no such thing as daily prayers to the gods, unless you’re requesting something every day (which can also be a request of Kharis, or strengthening of bonds).

As to things you can perform, we have a wide range of acts that were done in honor to the gods, to build reciprocity with them, you can sing hymns to them, dance for them (I would recommend the book: Singing for the gods Performance of myth and ritual in archaic and classical Greece).

You also can make votives of times your prayers request was answered, basically recreating you praying and the deity in question receiving the sacrifice.

Or you can leave votives too, no need to necessarily be the maker of them, such as statues or else on their shrine.

Make sure you keep the shrine and the votive you left clean because that is the deities property and they take offense to putting down shrines or letting the space be polluted.

You also can do devotional acts, I guess this is the closest to "daily ritual", because cleaning the gods shrines, or making sure the nymphai’s garden (if you have one) is clean, is a devotional act. According to K.A Rask, devotional acts are characterized by the devotion of one’s labor (and results), or resources to the gods.

She [K.A Rask] defines all of that I said above as "devotionalism", the close relationship we build with the gods without a necessity of public performance in their honor. And said "devotionalism" is characterized by its material devotional acts, such as the gifting of votives, burning of offerings and upkeep of shrines.

I talked a lot because it seemed like you wanted a more in depth answer so I hope this satisfies you!!!

Préface

Before writing this essay I must preface this by saying, the term priest is a term charged with Christian theocracy and does not correctly ascribe the wide range of acts, roles and understandings that were held under ἱerᾶteia. For reasons such as the need to simplify to the wider audience, I will be using the term priest, priesthood, or any form of this noun to simplify the notion in the readers mind, but please understand that it is not a necessarily correct term and in reality is a proof of how scholar work still holds western biases in their research and view on pagan, polytheistic and cultural practices.

What is priesthood?

A priest is understood across most scholarly work as "someone who takes care of what is hiera (sacred)", but, what does such thing mean in the context of Ancient Greek religion? The average practitioner is able to conduct sacrifices on their own, and does not need a so called "intermediary" between them in order to interact with a deity. Herodotus himself found it quite strange that Persians would require the presence of a priest for every sacrifice.

What is a priest’s role then?

A priest’s role is mainly to care for the cult’s sanctity. The priest would take care of the offering at the altar, clean the effigies, conduct the sacrifices. We must add to that, there was not only a singular priest that would take care of such things, but they were actually divided into multiple tasks that were assigned to cult members through all ages that held specific cultic roles assigned to their identity.

All of this was held under the state cults supervision, which identifies that to be a priest was to be a civic office holder. Contrary to what western biases might tell us, Greek polis was not secular and held cult laws (although differentiated between regions and cities) and "general" laws under the same umbrella. This, however, does not mean that there was such thing as a priestly caste quite the opposite. Priests were not like the Christian priests, they did not take up on the matter of the people’s faith, or "religious laws", not at all.

Who could be a priest, and how could you be one?

Only men could be priests of gods, and only women could be priestesses of goddesses. Added to this two main requirements, Physical and socio-economic status.

Physical requirements:

Priests are required to be in great health, serious birth defects could rule out anyone wishing to hold office.

Some cases would ask of the worshippers to prove their sexual abstinence, or to not do so for a couple of days before entering temples.

They were also required to fit the "wholeness" of the gods, they had to be beautiful, similar to how Homer describes the priestess Theano as "fair cheeked".

Class and financial status:

A priest was required (especially in cases of inherited priesthoods) to hold a pedigree, certain offices were held only to specific tribes or families that could trace themselves over at least four generations. As well as some prestigious priesthoods were only available to those who followed the principal of genos.

Financial status was also required. Old families that came with impressive economic resources that used to finance festivals and cults, said wealth eventually waned and that is mainly how the sales of priesthoods came along. This allowed for those who lacked the pedigree could then hold office thanks to their wealth.

Priesthoods could be acquired in one of four ways:

Inheritance:

The most prestigious of priesthoods were held within very restricted clans, that managed to hold inheritance to this office despite the political changes in the region.

In certain cases families would claim lineage to the hero founding cult, which was one of the strongest claims to priesthood.

Allotment:

Allotment was a development that sometimes would introduced itself into preexisting cults. The choice by lot was based on the idea of luck of draw was in reality a way to allow the gods to choose the winner. (This might be a fifth century development that I give too much importance to!)

Election and appointment:

We do not have enough information on how these elections were constituted, but, we do know that elections were done for priesthoods with more importance or to elect low level offices.

Purchase:

Sales of priesthoods generally came with a life tenure, they could be sold before death or bequeathed to a child.

This clearly shows that there was no such thing as "self appointed" priests!

What is a priest’s relation with the gods

Priests acted as the servant of the gods, they were there to tend to the sanctity of the deities property, and were there to conduct rituals and festivals in their honors.

What were the privileges that were acquired with priesthood

Priesthood had its multitude of privileges, which were granted thanks to their being as servant of the gods, and thus their proximity to them.

This included, being granted access to holy precincts and to the cult statues, having their images held within the temple, and residency within the sanctuary. Added to that, cash payments and the sacrificial victim’s meat and skins.

Conclusion

We have seen throughout this essay what the role of a priest is and how can said title be acquired. Hellenic polytheist priesthood is in no way, shape, or form close to what Christian theocratic doctrine is, it is not a title that is especially closed to a specific gender and it is not a role of religious leader but divine servant.

Priesthood is as of today impossible to reconstruct, due to the complexity of cults, the very specific cultural nature of certain cults that were closed to specific tribes and clans, and its significance as a civic office of the Greek polis.

The only way where one could acquire the role of priest would be temporarily when conducting a festival!

Sources: Portrait of a Priestess women and ritual in Ancient Greece by Joan Breton Connelly; Practitioners of the Divine: Greek priests and religious official from Homer to Heliodorus; Ancient Greek Religion by Jon D. Mikalson.

HEY ANON!!!

This is actually super sweet love that you’re enjoying my posts!!!!

Let us get into business!

First things first, we need to define prayer in the Greek religious tradition. To pray is to request. Thus, there’s no such thing as "daily prayer", unless you need something from them constantly, and have the means to offer or pour libations in their honor, then so be it, you don’t have to pray daily.

This is a common misconception that I find a lot in religious places, they layer their preconceived religious knowledge onto the Greek religion, when they are a lot of the times very different.

However, if you wish to build Kharis with a deity, and you feel like you want to pray to them daily and all that jazz, you can always ask for Kharis in return (it can theoretically work), just make sure to follow the correct prayer etiquette.

Here’s a quick something I cooked up to serve as an example

“To Lord of the silver bow, Delos born Apollon, son of all high above, Zeus! And gentle Leto. Hear my pleas, Oh Apollon, let my voice reach you similar to your never missing arrows, twisting the hearts of the wicked and delighting us in joy! Receive from me these gifts and let the bond between us grow ever stronger.”

I’m making them a little ambiguous on purpose….

Definition of myth:

According to Geoffrey Stephen Kirk, he defines it as a "traditional tales" that recognizes a subdivision of "scared myths" whilst firmly rejecting that myth and religion are two facets of the same coin. He also affirms that the role of myth can change from generation to generation, and what makes it "traditional" is the fact that it can appeal to generation after generation, the way it is applied however can differ, from problem exploring and problem palliating, emotional and mental relief and support. No definition of myth can properly carry all of these elements of usage.

Greek myth and its role in ritual practice:

Greek myth within Hellenic polytheism did not hold much weight within religious context, unlike other religions which hold a set record of widely accepted "priestly" sacred books, Greek religion does not. This doesn’t mean that myth within Hellenic polytheism did not share point of contact in ritual context, but such obligations to be aware of all myth, or to learn them, was of no particular relevance. Even when Greek myths and rituals had specific ties on which priests could expound on these connections, it did not carry any true dogmatic weight.

Although the Greeks did hold some myths as true, for example defining characteristics of gods (e.g Immortality, supernatural abilities, dominion over aspects), they accepted as true which compelled them without necessarily trying to fully understand it (this is what Jennifer Larson defines as Symbolic thinking in her Understanding Greek religion). Consequently we may call some myth "religious", but it does not mean that it is "sacred" or paired with rituals.

Many myths were a product of reflective inferences, if we take the myth of Apollo going from Delphi in spring and summer to Hyperborean lands in the winter, it is mainly out of the belief that Apollo needed to be summoned in order to perform his oracle duties, in other words, it was intuitively understood that he had to be present for the oracle to do their work.

Greek rituals relied heavily on intuitive inferences on how to approach the gods, as well as reflective elements, of course, but they did not bother reminiscing on relevant myths at the same time. Simple narratives would have been favored, they often operated on general conceptual frameworks of gods by local and Panhellenic myth, unless said ritual incorporated a myth in prominent fashion.

Other times myth and ritual would fuse, the ancient Greeks would sing hymns, which were not only of praise but also held a narrative in mind, they would dance, sing, engage in complex festivities which held a detailed narrative in mind about a deity, Or they would inaugurate tragedies and dramas during the festival of Dionysos, which the Greeks themselves admitted had "nothing to do with Dionysus". Thus, myth and ritual were sometimes fused and other times separate.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, myth and ritual varied in their degree of fusion, sometimes they were more than prevalent and involved, for example during the Eleusinian Mysteries, although simplified reenactment of said myth, but their mental presence in the minds of practitioners was of great degree. Other times it was almost absent from the mind of the practitioners, like the myth of Zeus and Prometheus which explained why the sacrificial meat is consumed by the people present at the ritual, whilst the bones were burned. Those were called etiologies set to explain where certain aspects of ritual came to be, but they were taught separately or not present during ritual. Regardless, the Greek religion does not demand of us to believe in every single myth, for the Greeks themselves did not.

SOURCES FOR THIS POST:

Understanding Greek Religion by Jennifer Larson, Myth its meaning and function in ancient and other cultures by Geoffrey Stephen Kirk, A companion to Greek religion edited by Daniel Ogden.

(Main source is Aphrodite Avagianou, in her book: Sacred marriage in the rituals of Greek Religion)

Sacred marriage: a definitional summary and understanding:

We must start this essay with a preliminary understanding of what a sacred marriage within the Ancient Greek religion is and give a conceptual understanding of the ritual.

Hieros gamos, or sacred marriage, is first and foremost "sacred", the sacred is the opposite of the profane, the sacred irrevocably belonging to the divine, it embodies multiple laws and restrictions. Thus, the partners involved in this marriage must be immortals, in the case of one of them being mortals, we must exclude it’s sacrality. It must also follow proper formal wedding modeled after the human marriage rite.

In this essay my main concern is not to give a list of all of the rites that would follow this rite in particular but to dismiss lies and misconceptions about so called "marriage between mortals and gods". If you so wish to find them here is a link to the book!

Sacred marriage is a ritual of initiation, it holds on pillars of a passage rite following a tripartite model by rites of separation, margin and incorporation.

Often times sacred marriages borrows all formalities of a wedding rite and, thus, human marriage is sanctified and ensured by sacred marriage.

Added to that, sacred marriage follows specific fundamentals such as: the immortality of both partners, the performance of a wedding rite as if it were human, and permanent union. Consequently, if one of these principles are reversed or absent, we cannot qualify it as hieros gamos.

Dionysys-Basilinna: scapegoats of the "crime":

The ritual of Dionysus and Basilinna is often used by people who claim "godspousal" holds any sorts of historical significance, we must clear the grounds immediately in this segment.

Firstly, literary sources give us little to no insight on how to reconstruct said ritual, we know only vaguely of a "queen" who rose to said status and gave the unspeakable sacrifice on behalf of the city, in which she enters a place that may not be entered and then administered an oath, and was "given" to Dionysus. We know that this enactment happened on Anthesteria, and according to A.A’s point of view the Archon Basilleus would take the role of the bridegroom god and the masked herm of the god would be placed in the bridal chamber, as symbolic representation of the gods presence during the consumption of the marriage. We also must add that this union is a reflection of the myth between Ariadne and Dionysus.

Secondly, this ritual belongs to the unspeakable rites that would be performed by the Basilinna. Thus, the silence of literary sources on this rite is not as surprising. Added to that the ancient authors would not qualify this union as a "sacred marriage" because they would not hold to the same sanctity to those like Zeus-Hera or Kore-Hades, especially in the case of Zeus and Hera. This union is a tie between divine and human which was realized through actual intercourse between the representative of the god and the Basilinna, and was legitimized through the formal ceremony of gamos.

Lastly, this rite was not meant to last, Dionysus was the "one night husband", it was not an indefinite rite and only lasted one night, consequently we cannot use it as example for "godspousing" or define it as hieros gamos.

Godspousal: a simple definition:

Many people define godspousal as, the (permanent) union either erotic or not, of a "devotee" and a god. This union can be either of educational, romantic, platonic or sexual in nature.

This obviously not only blurs all understanding of reciprocity within the Greek religion, erases core aspects of the culture and ignores the concept of orthopraxy, but, it also factually does not exist within the Hellenic religion.

Argument: why godspousal is a fabrication:

We have seen throughout this lengthy read that hieros gamos, the rites of the Basilinna and Dionysus at Athens, and godspousal, shares in practice what a liquid shares with a solid. Nothing.

We cannot accept the idea of "Godspousal" within Hellenic polytheism because it is an absolute mockery of the religion, and the culture.

You cannot fabricate a practice and try to make it conform to ancient rituals that are not in any way shape or form close to what you’re trying to make them out to be.

Anyways hope this was great and a good read for people, I was thinking of adding examples of hieros gamos that were understood to be ones, like Zeus and Hera or Kore and Pluton which the latter is a commentary on the social implications of marriage within Ancient Greece or the mixis of Demeter and Poseidon or Demeter and Iason. I realized it would only be more details that would not bring insight on the main topic which is the (false) practice of godspousal.

Hey anon!!!

Great question I actually was planning on making a posted detailed on myths and mythic literalism!

Myth within Ancient Greece was not the primary source of worship, some believe in all the myths, others didn’t and all, and some believe in specific myths.

This does not mean that myth within Ancient Greece didn’t shape cults, or didn’t influence the ancient Greeks view of the gods. For example the Adonia, in order to celebrate it you will have to believe in its myth. Or in the case of the cult of Orpheus or Demeter.

Some myths were also thought to be essential to the religion, like the hymn to Demeter, that shaped their understanding of the creation story.

In the case of the hymn to Ares, we have zero proof that any cult was shaped around a so called "gentle" or "educational" Ares. Most proof we have of cults of his in major cities are all in relations to war and how he pertains to war and soldiers.

I hope this helped you understand a little better everything about this!

I find it appalling how they could be so rude and abject towards me, but yet still find a way to paint themselves as victims of bullying. They said it placed myself in adult spaces but they’re the ones that came to a minors blog and started name calling me??? White fragility is so great!

This whole situation started when a person reblogged my post debating my claim by providing no proof. Which I then proceeded to respond maybe a little rudely but I still held my ground, I was more so mad at the fact they were using Palestinian suffering as a means to defend their claims that we can worship Ares.

Screen shots provided.

They proceeded to dismiss my claims and say that I’m not educated because I’m a minor.

You know I don’t even care about that, yeah I did mock them in the end because they were rude so what? They shouldn’t have interacted with my blog if I’m a "minor". My intro specifically states that I’m a minor and that this is a recon blog.

But what did piss me off is them claiming I’m uneducated when they have yet to bring a single source discrediting me. Then proceeded to deny my marginalized identity and say that I’ve never experienced discrimination.

You know yeah, an African trans person living in a precarious situation has never experienced discrimination the same level an American person has. So fair!

Then comes this absolute random that I have never once addressed and proceeds to say all of this.

So yeah love to see Americans proving once again they’re not only illiterate but also racist!

And btw yeah I did answer in a very bad manner to them, I won’t tolerate racism or someone saying stuff like this while KEEP IN MIND, they say I put myself in "adult spaces" when they’re on MY blog, all of this happened on MY blog. That is very CLEARLY a MINORS blog.