The World Is Quiet Here

Henry Siddons Mowbray - Muses of Electricity, Agriculture, and Painting

Reconstruction of bronze Riace Warrior A. Made from bronze cast, copper, stones, silver, gold, and asphalt, it was created by Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann.

ok really just an excuse to post this siren whose background i painstakingly removed for no reason in particular, no magical powers included. I just really enjoy this painting on a bowl and isolating it was relaxing to do. I also only really saw just how odd her feet were while i was trying to get the fuzzy select tool to pick up on the shape of her claws.

e-offering for Lady Artemis and Lord Apollo 🌙🌞🏛️🌿

July Fragment of a mosaic with the months of the year. First half third century CE. Discovered in the city of Thysdrus, Roman province of Byzacena, (modern El Djem, Tunisia).  Collection of the Archaeological Museum of Sousse.  Photo: ©Ad Meskens, 2012 via Wikimedia Commons (X). License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 

In many ways, the question comes back to the discourse around the orthopraxy of hellenic polytheism in contrast with orthodoxy.

It is alien in the sense that, unlike Christianity, there never was a formal profession of faith in ancient Greek religion and the fragmented nature of modern reconstructions don't allow for one anyway.

This will sound farfetched but I think that, when approaching this question, we need to consider the purpose of the Nicene Creed for Christians. The concept of faith (and of statement of faith) in Christianity is one that served to solve a theological conflict (cf. Arianism). The purpose was unification under a single belief: an orthodoxy.

Whereas the Greeks recognized their religion through practice. The dissonances in theology didn't matter that much. Which can very easily be seen through the many versions of myth or the different parentages gods can have from a place to another. The Greeks seem to have been very accepting of theological diversity. Pausanias is a great example of that, he will sometimes express surprise at local beliefs that he encountered but he won't consider them to be outside of the realm of "greek religion" because the rites are ones he recognizes.

I feel that maybe, we, as moderns, have simplified the term "faith" in such a way that the theological question is set aside. I think this is mostly a protestant thing, where the statement of faith is "we believe in God" (regardless of denomiation) and, unconsciously, for greek pagans: "we believe in the Theoi". Under this definition, then yes, surely there is an element of faith, in that there is a common red thread, or a trial at a sense of togetherness in an otherwise very fragmented and diverse community.

But this also begs the question of how orthopraxic is modern greek paganism, really? I don't know if I recognize my practice in the practice of someone who is, for example, a wiccan witch who worships Aphrodite. We just haven't defined anything, both in practice and in faith.

So I’ve been in Rome the last few days …

Not planned at all but, here is Demeter🌾 I hope you like my version of her 😊🌼.

She’s in a good mood now, you know why 🌸.