#peitho goddess

( based on Frank Dicksee's painting of Romeo & Juliet )

Made a painting for Lord Hermes & his wife Lady Peitho ( the goddess of Persuasion & Seduction , daughter of Ate ) , I've been thinking about them quite a bit lately and I wanted to give them something in return of sorts .

( Also sidenote I know the greenery looks really bad and the clothing folds are most likely very inaccurate but I tried and I hope that they like it :'] I did a good job with the wing I think )

( me & the five other people who know Lady Peitho are cheering rn /j/lh )

~ 4-7 Hekatombaion ~

In celebration of Aphrodite Pandemos (Aphrodite common to all people) not much is known about Aphrodisia. The festival itself was celebrated largely in Delos, Cythera, Thebes, Elis, Sparta, Corinth, Athens and most towns in Cyprus. It is important with the coming of this day that the modern Hellenic Polytheist examine which festivals they reside with most. Celebrate the gods in the way that suits you best, even if the festival is absent of the calendar you most closely draw from.

The festival was said to be instituted by Theseus, as a way to represent the unified people of Athens under her epithet. Many modern Polytheist prefer the idea of celebration of every person drawn to the Goddess. Aphrodite carefully crafted each and every body, therefore we are all inherently beautiful. Common to all people, our Lady is. Many rather celebrate her as a divine mother, caretaker, friend and most importantly Goddess, on this day.

Aphrodisia begun with a sacrifice of a dove to her altar. The blood from the dove cleansed the temple. No other blood sacrifices were to be made the rest of the festival, as it would dirty the blood of the dove. Afterwards, people would carry imagery of Aphrodite and Peitho to be washed in the sea, a common epithet and image of Aphrodite. The festival itself celebrated both goddess.

Many people would offer an array of different symbols, the most popular being that of a live white he-goat.

Aphrodisia is a wildly popular festival today. Many other worshippers have their own posts! Go check them out and give love! Worshipper to worshipper <3

Traditional Offerings:

Fire

Flowers

Incense

Baked Goods/Bread

Sea Water

Aphrodisiacs

Traditional Acts:

Cleansing Statues

Cleansing your body

Offerings to Aphrodite

Offerings to Peitho

Peitho, goddess of persuasion and seduction (60/?)

A drawing of Lady Peitho & Lord Hermes, based on Franseco Hayez's " The Kiss " . I've been meaning to draw them for a while, really hope I could do them justice.

For those who maybe don't know, Lady Peitho , the goddess of Charming Speech, Persuasion & Seduction is sometimes considered the wife of Lord Hermes, an interpretation I'm really fond of . After all , Persuasion & Eloquence go hand in hand, right ? :3

I unfortunately had to sacrifice quite a bit of detail in this drawing, for example Lady Peitho's jewelry would usually be a lot more ornate and Lord Hermes would have constellations like Lepus on his cloak and there'd be more patterns on his hat , but I had already spent so much time on this & almost gave up on it twice so I really wanted to finish it , still very sorry about that though :') I'm not too happy with it but people were being really nice and supportive , so here you go <3

( funfact the dove ornament that's holding up the light blue drapery around Lady Peitho's waist is almost an exact recreation of a dove found on pottery art depicting her . And I gave Lord Hermes these little bandages around his fingers since I think a crafty god like him that's so involved in inventions and innovation pricks his hands a lot haha )

The dark blue cloak Lord Hermes is wearing is 1) inspired by night skies and his ties to astronomy 2) supposed to be a nod towards his mother Maia , who's one of the Pleiades , goddesses associated with the stars and rain & 3) heavily influenced by a painting by Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl called " Souls on the Banks of the Archeron " , which shows him wearing a very similar cloak . His wings are supposed to be those of a Peregrine Falcon, the fastest animal on earth.

For Lady Peitho I went with mostly cool tones & silver accents . Nonnus described her as being clad in silver, so I wanted to include it somehow, especially since it's one of the very few mentions of her. I feel like it contrasts nicely with her red hair , which I gave her as a nod to Lady Aphrodite. Peitho is usually considered her handmaiden, but sometimes she's an aspect of hers or quite literally the same goddess, so I thought it'd be cool to have them look somewhat similar. I've decided to also give her wings on her head , those of a dove :>