Zeus’ Altar of Ashes Rediscovered

News from the Archaeological Institute of America’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
By Bruce Bower January 30th, 2010; Vol.177 #3 (p. 14)

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Excavations at the Sanctuary of Zeus atop Greece’s Mount Lykaion have revealed that ritual activities occurred there for roughly 1,500 years, from the height of classic Greek civilization around 3,400 years ago until just before Roman conquest in 146.

“We may have the first documented mountaintop shrine from the ancient Greek world,” says project director David Romano of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Brit Hume Proselytizes Christianity

I don’t think that faith [Buddhism] offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. – Brit Hume on Fox News

At first I tried to shrug this off. But it kept eating at me.

Miasma and the Mentally Ill

Miasma: ritual pollution or defilement.

Is mental illness, and disease in general, inflicted by the gods as punishment for hubris and other “sins”? Are we punished for approaching the gods when afflicted by Miasma (ritual impurity), or simply ignored? Or, is Miasma the result of physical and mental illness, which when afflicts us, bars us from approaching the theoi? If so, what can we do to seek Their help when we most need it (when ill) and yet do so with respect?

How did the ancients approach this issue?

Hi. My Name is Alexandra, and I’m a Perfectionist.

We all have times when we are overwhelmed. I know I’ve been swallowed up by many events and issues lately not related to my religion at all, and I’ve had a hard time since Thanksgiving keeping up with just those.

Religion? Well…I got half-way through my first full house-cleansing for Hekate’s Deipnon, and I became too exhausted and swept up with the civic holidays to make an offering to Her, Hestia, or even make a Kathiskos as I’d planned. I’d also planned on posting a “how to” on this blog for how to pull off Hekate’s Deipnon and Noumenia. Well, ‘The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men’…

Let’s just say I have some perfectionist tendencies and it can be hard to accept that I can’t do and control everything.

My mom said something like this when she and my dad performed my wedding ceremony, and I think it rings true on a personal level as well as on the level of marriage (the context she’d explained this in): when riding in an airplane and encountering turbulence, you’re told to place the oxygen mask on yourself before attending to others. That’s because you’ll be better equipped to help them if you have what you need. It’s the same thing in life – when you run into turbulence, take care of yourself before you take care of the people around you.

So this is my goal, call it a New Year’s Resolution: Honor your household gods, tend the hestia and ktesios jar, and take care of myself. Then tend to the rest.

New Resource Link for Classical Greek Correspondence in E-mail

I’m not dead yet!

There has been a lot piling up of late. Big internal transitions in Hellenion, renewals for current members, ten new members (each with a customized membership kit to prepare), the civic holidays with family visiting, a seminar to coordinate for work, and because I’m getting the lay-off I’m looking for new work as well. Never the less, I have been working on some draft posts. Below is a quick update:

I’ve updated the links in the sidebar and on the links page to include a well-researched reference on how to adapt classical Greek (and Roman) salutations and closings for letters to modern day email.

I’ve used this to update official correspondence as Hellenion’s Grammatues:

(recipient-dat) para {PARA\} (sender-gen) = To (recipient) from (sender).
Tois Joe para Alexandra = To Joe from Alexandra

and

erromenon se hoi theoi diaphulattoien = May the Gods guard your well-being.

Today, I’ll close with this:

Ta d’ alla, seautou epimelou hin hugiaineis. For the rest, take care to stay well.

Thanksgiving in Hellenismos?

Sean posted this on Hellenion_Chat and I thought it was an excellent way to reflect on the modern custom of celebrating Thanksgiving:

So, even though Thanksgiving in modern times is an American and
Canadian holiday, the spirit of the holiday is present in many other
cultures. I have only found one in Hellenic faith that seems to fit
(below)… does anyone have any others?

—

Apaturia (Greek: ὰπατούρια) were Ancient Greek festivals held annually
by all the Ionian towns, except Ephesus and Colophon (Herodotus i.
147). At Athens it took place on the 11th, 12th and 13th days of the
month Pyanepsion (mid-October to mid-November), on which occasion the
various phratries, or clans, of Attica met to discuss their affairs.
The name is a slightly modified form of ὰπατόρια = ὰμαπατόρια,
ὁμοπατόρια, the festival of “common relationship”. The ancient
etymology associated it with ἀπάτη (“deceit”), a legend claiming that
the festival originated in 1100 B.C. as a commemoration of a single
combat between a certain Melanthus, representing King Thymoetes of
Attica, and King Xanthus of Boeotia, in which Melanthus successfully
threw his adversary off his guard by crying that a man in a black goat
skin (identified with Dionysus) was helping him (Schol. Aristophanes,
Acharnians, 146). On the first day of the festival, called Dorpia or
Dorpeia (Δορπεία), banquets were held towards evening at the
meeting-place of the phratries or in the private houses of members. On
the second, Anarrhysis (from ὰναρρύειν, “to draw back the victim’s
head”), a sacrifice of oxen was offered at the public cost to Zeus
Phratrius and Athena. On the third day, Kureōtis (κουρεῶτις), children
born since the last festival were presented by their fathers or
guardians to the assembled phratores, and, after an oath had been
taken as to their legitimacy and the sacrifice of a goat or a sheep,
their names were inscribed in the register. The name κουρεῶτις is
derived either from κοῦρος, “young man”, i.e., the day of the young,
or less probably from κείρω, “to shear”, because on this occasion
young people cut their hair and offered it to the gods. The
sacrificial animal was called μείον. The children who entered puberty
also made offerings of wine to Hercules. On this day also it was the
custom for boys still at school to declaim pieces of poetry, and to
receive prizes (Plato, Timaeus, 21 B). According to Hesychius, these
three days of the festival were followed by a fourth, called ἐπίβδα,
but this is merely a general term for the day after any festival.

Source:
Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the
public domain

Now, what I’m wondering, is how one can integrate these ancient traditions into the modern practice of celebrating Thanksgiving. Would this mean holding Thanksgiving no later than the second week of November for example?

The general consensus seems to be that since Apaturia took place at any given time over a month, that pushing the celebration to the modern date of Thanksgiving would not be in conflict.

I also liked the idea, which I heard from the Hellenion_Chat list, that there are patron gods over Thanksgiving and it is an appropriate time to sacrifice the first portion of the feast to Them, and aknowledge their blessings with thanks. These would be: Hestia for the warmth of her hearth, Artemis for the sacrifice of the meat, Demeter for the bounty of her grains, and lastly Hestia once more for the fires that make possible the small sacrifice I give as first-portion to the gods.

Fundamentalist Atheists

Addendum: There have been some lively comments in response to the post below, but there seem to be misapprehensions that 1) I am calling all Atheists fundamentalists, and that 2) I am defending Abrahamic faiths, or that this blog is about Abrahamic faiths.

This is not so.

First, I am talking specifically about intolerance – when it appears among Atheists. Extremists (who are often marked by intolerance) are found in every group, and Atheists are no exception.

If you are Atheist and tolerant of other people’s religious and spiritual beliefs, then this article is NOT about you.

If you feel it could be about you, well, then try to take home the message of the golden rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have done to you’.

Second, please read “About the Author” And “About Helleneste kai Grammateus” before posting.

Thank you. Now for the post…

I read a new term today: “Fundamentalist Atheists” referenced in KCRW’s The New Atheists.

The label is meant for those who don’t believe in any deity (soft or hard) and view the influence of any religion or spirituality as a threat to reason and science and fight back. They believe that religion inherently fosters ignorance and war and fight aggressively against beliefs in anything spiritual. Theirs is called the New Atheism movement.

I would agree that one can be Atheist and be Fundamentalist about it. One doesn’t have to believe in spirituality in order to be so adamant about that belief (or non-belief if you prefer) to proselytize and show intolerance.

Hunger and Poverty

Have you thought of giving to charity as an offering in the name of Zeus Sôtêr “the Savior” and Epidôtês “Giver of Good”?*

You can do it remotely from the computer, and without spending anything!

I’ve added the option to my sidebar for folks visiting Helleneste kai Grammateus to donate to charity.  How?  By clicking on the icon for Hunger and Poverty, the sponsor(s) will donate towards this charity, and feed the impoverished.  The sponsors will change, but the cause was my choice:  Hunger and Poverty.  My goal is to raise 400 points.

You may be asked to participate in an “event”.  The one I just did rated an advertisement video by PowerBar (fitting, hu?).  When I spent my time on this, I earned points for the charity, which works to feed those who need it most.

Consider a donation of your time to the charity as an offering.  Say a prayer to Zeus,the Savior and Giver of Good when you do so! : )

 http://www.socialvibe.com/?r=706516

Reference
*  SOTER (Sôtêr), i. e. “the Saviour” (Lat. Servator or Sospes), occurs as the surname of several divinities:– 1. of Zeus in Argos (Paus. ii. 20. § 5), at Troezene (ii. 31. § 14), in Laconia (iii. 23. § 6), at Messene (iv. 31. § 5), at Mantineia (viii. 9. § l), at Megalopolis (viii. 30. § 5; comp. Aristoph. Ran. 1433 ; Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8). The sacrifices offered to him were called sôtêria. (Plut. Arat. 53.) 2. Of Helios (Paus. viii. 31. § 4), and 3. of Bacchus. (Lycoph. 206.)
 Theoi.com

Vatican Celebrates Galileo

The church denounced Galileo’s theory as dangerous to the faith. Tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, later changed to house arrest.

The ruling helped fuel accusations that the church was hostile to science — a reputation the Vatican has been trying to shed ever since.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from “tragic mutual incomprehension.”

The exhibit, and other Vatican initiatives to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy, is part of the Vatican’s continuing rehabilitation effort.

From here.

Agora (2009) To Open

I learned of the release of Agora at Kallisti in Spain on October 6th, 2009. I hope it’ll come out in the US soon.