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english:

The horizon is etched against a misty moonlight, with bronze clouds serving as a mantle. Mother Selene—silver and eternal—emerges into the air: the silent torch, the silvery eye of Night.

In a cave, you lean over your beloved—a young shepherd, eversleep. You delight in watching dreams coil around him. You witness love —your own, and so many others.

You nourish herbs and fruits with dew; You light up the world for the children yet to come. Clad in ambrosial robes, you withdraw into the distance. Plunging into the hours, into the dark ocean.

Hail to you, O All-Seeing Selene! Bringer of graces, soaring and joyful. Here, Goddess, I ask most gently: may your gaze protect me from all adversity.

português:

O horizonte trisca-se em um luar nevoento. O nublado brônzeo servindo-lhe de manto. Mãe Selene, prata e eterna, emerge no ar. A tocha silente, o olho argênteo da Noite.

Em uma caverna te debruças diante do amado. Um pastor jovem e dorminhoco. Tu te delicias assistindo sonhos nele se enroscando. Tu assistes amores, seus e outros tantos.

Nutres do orvalho as ervas e frutos, para os bebês por vir iluminas o mundo. De veste ambrosina, te pões distante. Mergulhando nas horas, no escuro oceano.

"The Queen Hera was instantly furious, and she said to the immortal gods who were gathered together: "Hear me, all you Goddesses and Gods, how Zeus (...) already begins to dishonour me after he had made me his true-hearted wife. (...) How dare you give birth to bright-eyed Athena all on your own Wouldn't I have given you a child - I, who was at least called your wife among the deathless gods who hold wide heaven? (...) So I will not come to your bed, I'll go and stay with the immortal gods, far away from you."

"And from that time on, for a whole year, she never came to the best of cunning Zeus, she did not even sit on her richly carved chair, as she had done before, offering him good counsel. Instead, she stayed in her temples where many people come to pray, and she delighted in their offerings, the lady Hera with her cow-eyes."

"The truth is, she (Aphrodite) beguiled his discreet heart whenever she pleased, uniting him easily with mortal women and making him utterly forget Hera, his sister and wife, the most beautiful among the deathless Goddesses. She is the most glorious of goddesses whom crafty Kronos and mother Rhea bore, and Zeus, (...) made her his respected wife in all her wisdom."

Hymn to Hera Hera, I sing on her golden throne. Her mother was Rhea. She is queen of the immortal gods, she is pre-eminent in beauty, (...) She is the glorious one. All the blessed gods on vast Olympos are in awe of her.

Hera and Iris

“The statue of Hera is seated on a throne; it is huge, made of gold and ivory, and is a work of Polycleitus. She is wearing a crown with Graces and Seasons worked upon it, and in one hand she carries a pomegranate and in the other a sceptre. About the pomegranate I must say nothing, for its story is somewhat of a holy mystery. The presence of a cuckoo seated on the sceptre they explain by the story that when Zeus was in love with Hera in her maidenhood he changed himself into this bird, and she caught it to be her pet. This tale and similar legends about the gods I relate without believing them, but I relate them nevertheless.”

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 17. 4

“So she (Iris) spake and seated her beside the golden throne, even as a hunting hound of Artemis which, when it hath ceased from the swift chase, sitteth by her feet, and its ears are erect, ever ready to receive the call of the goddess. Like thereto the daughter of Thaumas sat beside her throne. And she never forgetteth her seat, not even when sleep lays upon her his forgetful wing, but here by the edge of the great throne with head a little bent aslant she sleeps. Never does she unloose her girdle or her swift hunting-boots lest her mistress give her some sudden command.”

High-handled kantharos in the form of two heads, Attic black-figure ceramic, attributed to the London Class, c. 510–480 BCE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Panagyurishte treasure depicting concentric circles of African Heads, Thracian, late 4th-early 3rd cent. BCE. Modern day Bulgeria. Getty Musuem.

Caricatured Odysseus and Kirke. Kabirion kantharos, Boeotian BF, London, British Museum. 450-375 BC. Photograph Alexandre G. Mitchel

Skyphos depicting Odysseus at sea and with Circe, Boeotian black-figure ceramic, attributed to the Cabirion Group, c. fourth century BCE. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

During the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., the Greeks renewed contacts with the northern periphery of Africa. They established settlements and trading posts along the Nile River and at Cyrene on the northern coast of Africa. Already at Naukratis, the earliest and most important of the trading posts in Africa, Greeks were certainly in contact with Africans. All black Africans were known as Ethiopians to the ancient Greeks, as the fifth-century B.C. historian Herodotus tells us, and their iconography was narrowly defined by Greek artists in the Archaic (ca. 700–480 B.C.) and Classical (ca. 480–323 B.C.) periods, black skin color being the primary identifying physical characteristic. It is recorded that Ethiopians were among King Xerxes’ troops when Persia invaded Greece in 480 B.C. Thus, the Greeks would have come into contact with large numbers of Africans at this time. Nonetheless, most ancient Greeks had only a vague understanding of African geography. They believed that the land of the Ethiopians was located south of Egypt. In Greek mythology, the pygmies were the African race that lived furthest south on the fringes of the known world, where they engaged in mythic battles with cranes. Ethiopians were considered exotic to the ancient Greeks and their features contrasted markedly with the Greeks’ own well-established perception of themselves. The black glaze central to Athenian vase painting was ideally suited for representing black skin, a consistent feature used to describe Ethiopians in ancient Greek literature as well. Ethiopians were featured in the tragic plays of Aeschylus, Sophokles, and Euripides; and preserved comic masks, as well as a number of vase paintings from this period, indicate that Ethiopians were also often cast in Greek comedies. Well into the fourth century B.C., Ethiopians were regularly featured in Greek vase painting, especially on the highly decorative red-figure vases produced by the Greek colonies in southern Italy.

This pretty Etruscan oinochoe with a head/face of a young African from the 4th century BCE. Photo credit: 🏺

Or my absolute favorite ancient bust of Memnon, a pupil of a Roman statesman! It dates back to the 2nd century CE. Photo credit: 🏺 🏺

Classics and Race: A Historical Reader, edited by Sarah Derbew, Daniel Orrells and Phiroze Vasunia (2025)

The Cambridge Companion to Classics and Race, edited by Rosa Andújar, Elena Giusti and Jackie Murray (2026)

“The Roman Roots of Racial Capitalism: What an Ancient Empire Can Teach Us about Diversity,” The Berlin Journal, Vol. 34, 2020-21: 16-20 by one of my heroes, Nandini Pandey!

This beautiful clay figurine of Hekate was shared on Instagram by Carla Ionescu (@artemisexpert). I only wanted to show this horse faced depiction of the goddess, found on the Sanctuary of the Meter Theon (Mother of the Gods) at Demetrias. It dates to Hellenistic Age (3rd–2nd century BCE according to Carla), and currently it is kept at the Volos Archaeological Museum (Magnesia, Greece). You can see some of the most characteristic attributes of Hekate like the torch and the polos crown, but also the drum or tympanum maybe depicted here because of the relationship with Kybele.

When taking into consideration this interpretation of Kybele, her being the source of all material existence, of all gods and men, a syncretzation between her and Isis naturally falls together. I’ve talked about viewing the divine, the names and rituals human cultures build, as simply being our way of dividing and labeling a greater cosmic force for our better understanding. I believe there is a strong case that Isis and Kybele are of the same cosmic force; that Kybele and Isis have been refined into seperate autonomous and interactive spirits by humanity’s interaction with and interpetation of the same, ultimately undefinable cosmic force— the force that spurs Creation, Generation, Earth, and the natural world. (Don’t even get me started on the similarities between Kybele and Parvati/Durga!)

I decided to research to see if this syncretization was historically attested. I found someone who conducted their thesis on the subject, specifically in reference to the two goddesses sharing a physical worship cite at Pompeii. This specific theory is very speculative, which the author is the first to admit. But! The essay itself contains fantastic arguments and evidence supporting a well-spread historical syncretization of Kybele and Isis. It was a treat to read, and I decided to pull some of my favorite passages to share with you all. I encourage you to read the original text, linked below.

Mothers of the Gods: A Case for Syncretism in the Cybele and Isis Cults at Pompeii by Robert Caudill

Just a moment of further ado: Please let me know what you think of the passages, of the theory, of my interpretation of Kybele-Isis, or any experiences you have with those goddesses, synchronized or individual! This is an eager invitation for discussion, so sound off however makes you comfortable. Your voice is worth hearing and can enrich those around you, you just gotta use it! Now, the excerpts: