To Honor and Praise

The dichotomy between mythology (totally just ancient fanfic) and cultus (the Actual Truth™ about Hellenic polytheism) doesn’t exist. Myths were part of cultus and people absolutely believed in them. A lot of people just can’t fathom something being both religiously informative and not literal gospel truth at the same time. Also, many people try to distance themselves from Ancient Greek misogyny, slavery, abuse (etc) by discrediting mythology; a far healthier approach, in my opinion, would be to recognise that myths hold both religious value and deeply flawed and harmful beliefs inherent to Ancient Greek society. It’s possible to appreciate the former while condemning the latter.

Similarly, the polarisation of views about Ancient Greece (and ancient civilisations in general) between “they were all horrible and irredeemable” and “some people were horrible but actually the religion was matriarchal and peaceful and racism didn’t exist and imperialism was invented by the Romans” is just as incorrect as it is harmful. We can acknowledge the flaws in a society without focusing only on them, or glossing over them. This is particularly important when studying ancient history. Painting an entire society as irredeemable, or claiming it was utopian, both imply there is nothing worth studying and learning from it.

The actual dichotomy, in my opinion, should be between religion and philosophy. Platonism isn’t Hellenic polytheism; it’s the beliefs of one specific Athenian man and his followers. That doesn’t mean philosophy wasn’t heavily influenced by religion (it was), nor does it mean you can’t follow a certain philosophy if it suits you, but reading The Symposium won’t provide you with the Actual Truth™ about the Gods as most Ancient Greeks viewed them.

Speaking of which, there is no Actual Truth™ about the Gods.

Just because you don’t like Homer and just because his epics have been over-studied doesn’t mean there isn’t value in them. Especially for recons whose practise isn’t rooted in 5th century Athens.

Revivalists need to understand that reconstructionism isn’t about inflexibly copying everything the Ancient Greeks did and nothing else. It’s about seeking historical precedent first and foremost, doing one’s best to understand the context behind ancient practises, then adapting it all to the modern world and filling in the gaps with innovation/UPG. What makes the difference between recons and revivalists is prioritisation: both groups use ancient sources and modern innovation, but recons prioritise ancient sources whereas revivalists prioritise modern innovation.

It shouldn’t be okay to insult deities. Disagree with their portrayal by certain authors, sure (hello, Ovid). Point out that certain myths are the product of bigoted and harmful societal views, absolutely. But if you genuinely think that Zeus, Hera or Poseidon is villainous, you shouldn’t be a Hellenic polytheist.

Believing that the Gods are neither perfect nor all-powerful does not equal believing that they are villainous.

Hera Ataurote • Hera the pure/virginal or unmarried (unbulled)

Hera Gamelia • Hera of marriage

Hera Khera • Hera the widow/separated woman

Hera Nympheuomene • Hera the betrothed bride

Hera Pais • Hera the girl

Hera Parthenia • Hera the maiden (or river Parthenius)

Hera Teleia • Hera the grown/adult woman

Hera Zygia • Hera of marriage (yoked)

@adri-le-chat​ has very kindly passed on an ask to me for an informative post taking about some misconceptions of Zeus and some epithets that counter them. I’m very excited for this opportunity to talk/rant about how great Zeus is and how he doesn’t deserve the bad rep he gets, so here goes! I’ll just be listing the misconceptions and explaining the epithets/general things that counter them below

      1. He’s an absolute jerk. I would like to first point out Zeus’s epithet Panellenios (of all the Greeks) to counteract the jerk part in a way - he’s a very “accessible” god, contrary to popular belief. He’s not elitist, you don’t need to have specific qualifications/traits or anything to worship or work with him - you just need dedication! He is also called Zeus Pater (father), god of fatherhood/parenthood as well. How could I counteract this misconception without also talking about Zeus Xenios (of hospitality) and Zeus Phyxios (of refuge). How could a god of hospitality and of refuge be a jerk? He was the one that punished the jerks for being jerks and being mean to guests/refugees and such. 

      2. He will get angry at you easily. I saw someone on one of the discord servers I’m in talk about someone that said Zeus will sic demons on you if you misbehave and… what? Zeus Melikhios can translate to “merciful” and not just “mild” - his wrath could be appeased even if you incurred it. He isn’t an unnecessarily rage-y god, he is fair and just and if you got the punishment he doled out…. honestly you might have deserved it! He’s divine justice you’re not gonna be stuck down by Zeus for making a small mistake. He’s called Zeus Palamnios (punisher of m-rderers) not Zeus “punisher of you who forgot to give offerings that one time”.

      3. Zeus is always a bearded old man This one is a more harmless misconception of course, but the thing that disproves it is quite interesting so I’m going to talk about it anyways. Zeus was worshipped as a giant snake and a child. Yes, you heard me correctly, a giant snake and a child.

Even if in one perspective Zeus Meilichios was simply one aspect of Zeus, in another he had to be treated as an independent figure. He was often portrayed differently too, as a gigantic snake. - p.91 of On Greek Religion by Robert Parker

Meilichios/Melikhios is a Chthonic epithet of Zeus, and it can also counteract the notion that Zeus is only an Ouranic god. In actuality, quite a few Ouranic gods had Chthonic aspects! Hermes, Demeter, and Persephone are “mixed” gods as well in that they have both Chthonic and Ouranic aspects.

There are at Aegium (in Achaia) other images made of bronze, Zeus as a boy and Heracles as a beardless youth, the work of Ageladas of Argos. Priests are elected for them every year, and each of the two images remains at the house of the priest. (Descriptions 7.24.4) - p. 38 of Priesthood by Leopold Sabourin

So, not only was Zeus worshipped as a boy, he had a whole priest for his worship as a child!

      4. He sleeps around a lot.

This is probably the most common misconception that people have about him, so let’s get down to it! As Zeus is a very powerful god and the king of all, kings and warriors alike would claim him as their father. Alexander the Great claimed that he was the son of Zeus-Ammon. As Ken Dowden puts it in “Zeus”:

If someone wishes proudly to claim that some hero or tribe is descended from Zeus, another adultery will usually be added to his list. This is how family trees (‘genealogies’) work

Quite a few of his supposed adulteries simply stem from men who didn’t know their fathers and wanted to lay claim to importance through their heritage. People who also wanted explanations of how a place or thing came to be would do the same. Additionally, even when looking at the myths, Zeus doesn’t have a sh-t-ton of children at once, they take place over time, here’s an explaination that I found on labrandeus’s blog:

I’m not stating anything new when I say that in popular culture people like to portray Zeus as this horny guy who just can’t keep it in his pants. But what is new I think is when I say that the myths actually don’t support this. Yes, you heard me right. If you look at the myths carefully, it turns out that Zeus isn’t the hopeless womanizer many people think it is. The key factor here is time. When we think of the Greek myths, we often don’t have a clear time frame so we imagine them all taking place at the same time. But that’s not the case. The myths take place over a long period of time. I’ll give you an example to make it more clear: The Iliad names two living mortal children of Zeus: Sarpedon and Helen. Heracles lived one generation before them, he is already dead at the time the Iliad is taking place but one of his sons is fighting in the Trojan war. So, Alcmene, Heracles’ mother, is said to be the granddaughter of Perseus, son of Zeus and Danaë. Danaë again is a descendant of Epaphus, son of Zeus and Io. Epaphus and Sarpedon lived about 480 years apart (the Wikipedia page of Epaphus also has a nice illustration). That’s a long ass time.

 and…

this

is

so

wholesome???

Recently, a website called the Xenia Declaration has been floating around. This website declares that marginalized groups are welcome in the faith and has a section where individuals and groups can sign in agreement, and try to run their organizations towards the  Hellenic value of Xenia, or hospitality, towards those oppressed by society.

Within 24 hours of the website being up and running, a prominent blogger by the name of Sannion accused Xenia Declaration of harboring pedophiles by allowing a pedophile apologist to sign. Once evidence of this person indeed being a pedophile apologist was found, this persons signature was removed from the Xenia Declaration.

Unfortunately, Sannion’s signature also had to be removed. This is because various photos of Sannion have surfaced of him wearing a Nazi black sun pendant and doing the White Power OK hand gesture, and allowing such a person’s signature to stay on the Declaration is contrary to it’s spirit.

Because of all this:

1) Various extreme right wing people have gone the predictable route of conflating LGBT acceptance and pedophilia being allowed.

2) Various people have become hostile to Sannions accusers of Nazism, even with clear photographic evidence of Nazi symbolism, pendants, shirts, and hand gesture.

3) People have insisted that since Sannion is Blackfoot, everyone sounding the alarm about these photos are just evil social justice warriors trying to destroy him. It should be noted that the source of these photos, who runs the link above, *is jewish*.

4) Some vague conspiracy talk of people trying to appropriate and ruin the “““Ethnic Greek Religion”““ by including “““references to Genitals”““ upheld by the now removed pedophile apologist signature. It should be noted that this person is not as well known in the greater Pagan community as Sannion is and they’ve been associated with a pedophile scandal active since *1964*, before the makers of the Xenia Declaration were even born.

So: Pedophilia is bad, obviously. The Signature of the pedophile apologist was removed as soon as the claims were corroborated with evidence.

Nazism is also obviously bad and so is being buddy buddy with them, buying their merch, and posing using their hand gestures. Sannions signature was also not allowed to stay on the website because why would an anti hate declaration allow it on considering the photographs?

In conclusion: No, the LGBT community isn’t not out to turn Hellenism into a pedophile thing with this declaration. Yes, Sannion probably harbors some shitty views in private. Neither signature is being reinstated, and *listen to Jews if they’re telling you someone is a Nazi or a sympathizer of Nazis*

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

The link above has the Nazi Photos, and no I’m not the author of that page so you will need to contact them for more info.

Here is the Xenia Declaration: http://www.xeniadeclaration.com/

Some pictures of this years last full moon, setting behind a mountain range, shortly before sunrise on the mountain tops