#olympeia

Olympeia Festival to Zeus Olympios ⚡️

I was super excited to be celebrating a festival to Zeus for the first time (yes, really!). I had my playlist going from the start and had fun boogeying around my kitchen as I prepared the feast.

Today’s menu (heh) included Turkish bread with tzatziki, a fresh fruit platter, and a delicious moussaka recipe by none other than @thegrapeandthefig! Please do me a huge favour and check out her book, Cooking the Athenian Calendar: A Festival Cookbook, full of amazing recipes and popular Athenian festival descriptions.

 The Olympeia festival is an amazing one that you can read about right here. It is celebrated on the nineteenth day of Mounykhion on the Attic Calendar in honour of Zeus Olympios. On this day, we hail the King of the Gods on his most venerable aspects, reminding the ancient games that were held in His honour in one of His the most famous temples.

 As I don’t have any bulls to prepare a nice barbecue in honour of the Gods as an offering, I did a standard ouranic ritual on some simple steps:

 Lighting up my Hestia candle and chanting Her hymn. Grabbed a bit of olive leaves and set them on fire, placing them on water right after to make lustral water (khernips).

 Purified the place and myself with the lustral water.

 Chanted an hymn to Hestia and made the first offering.

 Placed olive leaves on my altar and sang the Homeric Hymn to Zeus, calling in prayer for His presence and adressing the King of the Gods as Basileus (King), Olympios (of Olympia) and Hypatos (Most High).

 Poured the libations of honey and water to Hestia and then to Zeus.

 Offered a standard offering of milk-bread with honey and olive leaves, and also honey incense.

 Thanked Him for the blessings received and prayed for other important things. Then I said my thanks for the presence of the Theoi and finished it by pouring a last libation to Zeus and the very last for Hestia.

 That’s honestly my go-to formula for almost every ritual, but I always like to do additional stuff for a festival. Like chanting poems related to the festival, dancing and having a good meal after the celebration. As people would do horse races and competitions on this day in His honour, we could bring some of this aspects by doing exercises, friendly games and having fun in a Theoi-Honouring way today! :]

 Happy Olympeia to us all! May Zeus’ blessings find us and guide us all towards wisdom, virtue and happiness!

 Khaire Zeus!

it’s   certainly   in   harry’s   best   interest   to   AVOID   been   seen   lately.   although   he   spends   most   of   his   time   cooped   up   in   the   Gryffindor   common   room,   he   still   can’t   dodge   the   odd   glances   and   quiet   whispers   from   those   that   still   believe   he’s   a   right   lunatic,   trying   to   take   down   the   ministry.   this   is   why   it’s   so   unfortunate   that   the   book   he   needs   from   the   library   for   class   CAN’T   be   checked   out,   due   to   popularity.   he’s   got   to   grab   the   book   and   sit   amongst   the   general   population,   subject   to   not-so-subtle   comments   and   snide   remarks   wherever   he   goes.

she’s  been  quiet  today.   looking  down  at  her  hands,  it  occurs  to  her  how  unattached  they’ve  felt  this  whole  time.   phantom  fingers,  moving  all  on  their  own  —  only  returning  to  their  vessel  as  olympia’s  voice  snaps  her  back.   there’s  a  moment  of  prolonged  silence,  all  grey - clouded,  before  she  can  move  willingly  again.   here  i  am,  back  in  my  body  as  i’m  intended  to  be.  

“  oh.  i’m  sorry.  ”   ellie  opens  her  mouth,  expecting  a  sound  much  more  distinct  than  her  voice  turns  out  to  be.   the  words  crawl  out  raspy,  scratching  her  throat  along  the  way.