Hermes is a god of many domains and epithets that span across multiple cultures and history. Some of these associations have even held over into the modern century. For this series, I’ll be writing about specific epithets for him, along with the associated cult worship, history, and connected associations.
It would be remiss of me to not discuss one his most well known and widespread associations ; a messenger of the gods. We can see this association repeated over and over again in multiple myths, whether that be him assisting the gods, heroes, or mortals. First I’ll be discussing his connecting epithets and surnames, followed by cult worship, and lastly his connecting mythos. All three of these play an intertwining and intrinsic part to his worship as a messenger god.
E p i t h e t s ༄
Epithets are one the key ways we’re able to fully understand how the gods were viewed and what their associations were. Epithets were often tied into local worship and mythos, along with personal rituals for said epithet of the god. Something not necessarily unique, but not that common either, was that Hermes did not have a state wide cult worshipped across Greece. He didn’t really even have temples outside a few select ones, such as his temple at Mount Kyllene in Arkadia, the origins of his birth place, as his worship was done out in the everyday lives of the common man. He was worshipped on roads, at gymnasiums, and was a patron of heralds and farmers.
Below you’ll find a list of his epithets relating directly to his aspect as a messenger and guide. First in Greek, followed by the Latin translation, and lastly the English meaning.
C u l t W o r s h i p ༄
As for his cult worship, one of the biggest indicators of his worship as a guide are the hermae, or boundary stones. These stones would be placed on roads as mile markers, and were also associated with ensuring fertility to the local stock and providing luck for the passerby.
“Socrates…proceeded, with the design of educating those of the countryside, to set up figures of Hermes (Hermai) for them along the roads in the midst of the city and every district town .”
One of the most interesting things about these stones was their physical depiction. The stones stood tall on long rectangular blocks with a sculpture of Hermes’ head at the top and then towards the middle part was a depiction of a phallus that would be protruding from the stone. As of right now there isn’t any clear indication as to why this is a feature on the stone, other than the possible connection to his aspect as a god of fertility.
The origins of these stones can be found with the Pelesigians, who instructed the Athenians in how to go about creating these markers. This is shown in the quote below from Herodutus, Histories:
“The ithyphallic images of Hermes [i.e. the Hermai]; the production of these came from the Pelasgians [of Arkadia and Thessalia], from whom the Athenians were the first Greeks to take it, and then handed it on to others. For the Athenians were then already counted as Greeks when the Pelasgians came to live in the land with them and thereby began to be considered as Greeks. Whoever has been initiated into the rites of the Kabeiroi, which the Samothrakians learned from the Pelasgians and now practice, understands what my meaning is [the Kabeiroi gods were the keepers of a sacred phallus]. Samothrake was formerly inhabited by those Pelasgians who came to live among the Athenians, and it is from them that the Samothrakians take their rites. The Athenians, then, were the first Greeks to make ithyphallic images of Hermes, and they did this because the Pelasgians taught them. The Pelasgians told a certain sacred tale about this, which is set forth in the Samothrakian mysteries.”
There’s also evidence in there possibly being various styles as per the quote below from Pausanias:
“At the Arkadian gate [of Ithome, Messenia] leading to Megalopolis is a Herma of Attic style; for the square form of Herma is Athenian, and the rest adopted it thence.”
These statues were the most popular among the Athenians, who had them placed all over the city of Athens and were venerated in honor of Hermes. They would be anointed with olive oil and decorated with laurel leaves, a symbol of great importance amongst the Greeks.
One epithet for him that relates directly to these stones is Hermes Trikephalos, or Hermes the Three Headed. This was a specific hermai that had three heads of hermes pointing to each direction at the crossroads with an inscription of said roads. We also have evidence showing that the nose of the statues were typically rubbed down and polished, most likely due to people rubbing it for good luck and because of Hermes’ connection to fertility.
From this we have a clear indication of how Hermes was viewed in everyday life in ancient Greece. He was a part of their walk to work, to the neighbors, and to neighboring towns, directly contradicting the idea that the gods were separate and held only in lofty temples. Hermes was out on the dirt roads with every class of man, woman, and child - he truly was the common man’s god.
Outside of the hermai, Hermes statues were traditionally depicted with shoes with wings, a herald’s wand, and travelers hat also depicted with wings on each side of it. The wings are a key component to his attributes as they are the main way he’s able to travel and deliver messages for the gods. Lets not forget another one of his most iconic symbols that is used widely throughout the modern world today - the caudecus, or herald’s staff. This staff was not only used by Hermes, but by all heralds throughout Greece, who Hermes was a patron of. This staff was derived from the old cattle-herders crock and could possibly be tied back to Hermes’ myth about stealing Apollo’s sacred cows.
“Herald : And the gods gathered here, I greet them all; him, too, my own patron, Hermes, beloved herald, of heralds all revered.”
Aeschylus, Agamemnon 513 ff
Outside of the heralds, Hermes is a god of birds of omen and the god of dreams, both of which were used to send messages. In relation to his connection with birds of omen, it was said that the birds themselves were dispatched by Apollo and only those who were under his patronage and a seer would be able to distinguish the prophetic messages from those of the regular “idle chatter” of birds.
“Whosoever shall come guided by the call and flight of birds of sure omen, that man shall have advantage through my voice, and I will not deceive him. But whoso shall trust to idly-chattering birds and shall seek to invoke my prophetic art contrary to my will, and to understand more than the eternal gods, I declare that he shall come on an idle journey; yet his gifts I would take …’
And from heaven father Zeus himself gave confirmation to his words, and commanded that glorious Hermes should be lord over all birds of omen.“
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 7
We now look to another one of his more popular ways of reaching out and connections - prophecy via dream. While Hypnos was the god of dreams, it was Hermes who delivered these dreams to mortals. Dreams of omen were seen as messages from the gods and ghosts of the dead. It was also heavily debated amongst ancient scholars what counted as a dream of omen, and where in prophetic hierarchy these dreams fell. It was eventually decided that outside of speaking to Oracles themselves, who were known to have a direct connection to the god they served under, dreams where a “natural” form of divination that required no tools compares to other forms of divination, such as pulling lots or using dice, to divine messages.
M y t h o l o g y ༄
Now we’ll focus on looking into various myths that were written by the Greeks depicting Hermes as a messenger. Well start off with one of the most well known writings of Greek mythology ; the Odyssey.
In the Odyssey we first come across Hermes assisting Odysseus on Circe’s island after his men have been turned into pigs. He disguises himself as a tenant of the island and directs Odysseus in how to turn himself immune to Circe’s potion used to turn men into animals. We also see Hermes again later after Odysseus is left abandoned on an island with Calypso for seven years until Hermes appears to him and advises him to sail to Ithaca to start his next journey. From both these instances we see Hermes fit his role as a guide in advising Odysseus during his journey when he was in peril and distraught.
"Zeus who masses the clouds made answer … turned to his dear son Hermes : ‘Hermes, you are always our messenger.’”
Homer, Odyssey 5. 4 ff
Another classic resource is his role in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. While Ovid was a Roman writer, his writings’ on the Greek gods have played a major impact on Greek mythology and how the gods are even viewed today. In this piece he’s often described as a messenger of Zeus, or Jupiter, and sent on various errands for the god. In other myths we have him fetching gods to attend weddings, delivering messages to heroes, and escorting the dead. However his role as a psychopomp will be explored in a separate blog that will go into much more detail with his role as a god of boundaries and the afterlife.
Outside of his myths specifically depicting him as a messenger and guide, we can also look to his offspring and their roles as gods. Often more times than not, offspring of the gods, specifically the Olympians, were connected to direct roles that said gods ruled over. A few of his divine children included: Palaistra the goddess of wrestling and Angelia the goddess of messages.
C o n c l u s i o n ༄
In conclusion, Hermes’ role as a messenger god spread from the heights of Olympus to the common man on the roads of ancient Greece. We can see his worship in the local hermai that were decorated in laurel leaves and anointed with olive oil, their noses rubbed down till the shined from people hoping to obtain just a little bit of luck for their journey.This is further built up in his various myths where he is sent by Zeus to direct and assist various heroes, and make sure everyone has RSVP accordingly for any important gathering or event. I would argue that his connection as a messenger and guide are exactly why he’s still so apparent within modern culture - he’s a symbol that every person can connect with.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is the first in a series of blogs dedicated to Hermes and his worship. In the following blogs I’ll be discussing roles such as him being a psychopomp, his connection to divination, and his role as trickster god.
i keep thinking about an event or something for polytheists focused on writingmyth retellings.
if its something specific itd be like a “MythReWriMo” (along the lines of a “Myth-Retelling Writing Month” or anything with less of a silly name fkdkdkd)
and maybe even something more non-specific? like not a month-long thing, but a more general event for coming up with retellings.
or better yet !! modern myths!!narratives or poetry
(with monthly or weekly prompts perhaps, maybe focusing on different deities depending on the time?)
i just feel like itd be so cool to have a little community interacting with our own versions of the known stories, and also with modern mythos, new stories, with the gods interacting with new domains that are a part of modern worship and cultus….
The most powerful symbol of Hestia is the hearth itself, but she did have some common attributes as well as animals which may have been sacred to her (based on various plays and myths). The image below is a popular modern symbol of the hearth.
My first exposure to Hestia would’ve been in my childhood Greek mythology books. Unfortunately, Hestia doesn’t appear often in myths, so the books often only mentioned her in passing or skipped her completely, and many books replaced her with Dionysos as the twelfth Olympian.
All of this is to say that the first time I properly took notice of Hestia is in fifth grade when I read the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. This isn’t to say Riordan’s portrayal of the gods is entirely accurate (he is very obviously opposed to the idea of worshipping them because he takes the myths very literally). However, Riordan’s portrayal of Hestia stuck with me for a very long time. Even though she only appears in one or two scenes, or perhaps because of this, I think her portrayal is one of the most beautiful and respectful–even though it hinges on the fake abdication myth.
I’m not going to explain the portrayal here, but if you’re the type of Hellenic Polytheist who can enjoy more problematic portrayals of the gods, I highly recommend reading it if only for Lady Hestia. To be completely honest, this portrayal is what drew me to Her in the first place, and I often imagine her in a very similar way to her description in the book.
government (as Hestia Boulaia and Hestia Prytaneia)
As goddess of the hearth and home, Hestia is central to household worship. She is the patron of cooking and received a portion of each meal as well as the first and last offering in all household rituals.
The public hearth was also an extremely important domain of Hestia. Just as in the home, it is likely that Hestia received the first and last sacrifice in public rituals and festivals. Hestia’s two epithets (Boulaia and Prytaneia) are both connected to government because her role as goddess of the public hearth was central to state affairs.
Hestia’s hearth is said to be at the center of the cosmos, representative of her central position in hellenic worship. Her hearth is what connects us to the gods and to each other.
For a more in depth introduction to Hestia, see this post.
In Greek mythology, there are various personified spirits called daimones.Eventually this word evolved into what we now know as “demon” (a word with negative connotations), but daimones weren’t necessarily “evil” spirits. Most of these daimones are the children of Nyx, Eris, or Zeus. In general, the daimon children of Zeus are personifications of morally good concepts, while the children of Nyx and Eris represent the malevolent forces which plague humans. Some daimones (like Hebe, the goddess of youth, or even Eris herself) were full fledged gods, while others were mere personifications with no mythology or cult.
Children of Zeus
Moirai:perhaps better known as the Fates, these three goddesses are the daughters of Zeus and Themis. Sometimes the Moirai were instead called children of Nyx.
Horai:goddesses of the seasons, these three goddesses (Dike,Eunomia, and Eirene) also represent the concepts of justice, lawful conduct, and peace respectively. They are the daughters of Zeus and the titan Themis.
Elder Kharites: goddesses of grace and beauty, these three goddesses (Algaia,Euphrosyne, and Thalia) were the daughters of Zeus and the Okeanis Eurynome. They represented glory, merriment, and festivity respectively. I have an in-depth post about the Elder and Younger Kharites here.
Litai: the personified spirits of prayers were the daughters and ministers of Zeus, and their opposite was Ate, the spirit of delusion. Homer calls them kouraior maidens rather than the daughters of Zeus, but it is likely they were thought of as his daughters seeing as he was the honorary father of all the theoi.
Hebe: the daughter of Zeus and Hera, Hebe is the goddess of youth as well as Hera’s cupbearer and the wife of Herakles.
Aletheia: the personification of truth was also, according to some, a daughter of Zeus. According to Aesop’s fables, she was created by Prometheus.
Kairos:the spirit of opportunity, Kairos is the youngest of Zeus’ divine sons. He was often represented with a long lock of hair hanging from his forehead, suggesting opportunity could be grasped only as it approached.
Likely Children of Zeus
Pistis:trust, honesty, and faith. She was one of the good spirits who escaped from Pandora’s box, abandoning humankind.
Eusebeia: piety, wife of Nomos.
Nomos:law, husband of Eusebeia. Dikewas sometimes called their daughter, although Nomos was usually just an aspect of Zeus.
Dikaiosyne:righteousness, closely related to Dike
Kalokagathia:nobility and goodness, associated with Arete
Epidotes:ritual purification, assuages the wrath of Zeus Hikesios (god of suppliants). He was an attendant of Apollon at Delphi, but also appeared as an epithet of Hypnos.
Hormes:effort, impulse, and eagerness, especially in battle. He was worshipped at Athens as the virtue of industrious effort.
Ekekheiria:truce, cessation of hostilities, closely related to Eirene. She was worshipped at Olympia when a general armistice was declared across Greece for the Olympic games.
Agon:contest and struggle, worshipped at Olympia. It is possible he is the same as Zelos (rivalry).
Praxidike:exacting justice, one of the Praxidikai along with her daughters Homonia (unanimity) and Arete (virtue). She is also the mother of Ktesios (spirit-protector of the household), although he is more often an epithet of Zeus.
Peitharkhia:obedience and following commands. She is the mother of Eupraxia (good conduct).
Soter & Sotera: male and female personifications of safety. These titles are more often used as epithets of gods like Zeus and Dionysos.
The Kharites are the goddesses of kharis (grace), personal beauty and adornment, and pleasures such as feasting, relaxation, and joy. They are also the goddesses of charming speech and song as well as festive dance and song. They are the attendants of Aphrodite and Hera.
“They are mostly described as being in the service or attendance of other divinities, as real joy exists only in circles where the individual gives up his own self and makes it his main object to afford pleasure to others. The less beauty is ambitious to rule, the greater is its victory; and the less homage it demands, the more freely is it paid. These seem to be the ideas embodied in the Kharites. They lend their grace and beauty to everything that delights and elevates gods and men.” (theoi.com)
This idea of the Kharites giving their grace to others makes sense when you remember the meaning of kharis: a reciprocal relationship with the gods in which mortals make offerings to the theoi.
The Kharites, especially Algaia as the wife of Hephaistos, also represented artistic beauty. Like the Mousai, they were said to have inspired and favored certain artists, and the gracefulness and charm associated with Hermes (words), Peitho (persuasion), Aphrodite and Eros (love), and even Athena (wisdom) is said to come from them. The Kharites were often depicted as companions of Apollon and the Mousai and were said to live with the Mousai on Olympus. Poetry was thought to be their favorite of the arts.
“Poets are inspired by the Muses, but the application of their songs to the embellishment of life and the festivals of the gods are the work of the Kharites.” (theoi.com)
So i received this anon some days ago and i laughed for a good 2 hours and then I was like oh shit… when was the last time i uploaded something….
You can imagine me shutting down with the windows sound in the background. So here i am giving my life update because I don’t want people thinking I died or something bad happened to me.
Right now my life is full of MUN committees which have been taking a lot of my time, I also do roundsquare and other activities, the most fun being zoom calls with 8th-9th graders in Boston (if you have ever been in a zoom with 4 people from Colombia one of them being an individual with a pearl necklace, long brown hair who said they liked bts and taylor swift…. you met me!), track, prefects, and always keeping up with my average. So I have been buuuusy! By this I do not mean I want to completely shut down my blog but I do mean I do not have as much free time as I wished.
I have been reconnecting with my deities this last few weeks because I have left them behind because of my busy schedule, and hopefully in a closer future I’ll be reconnecting with this blog too! Hope all of you lovelies are fine and let’s all pray i find a gf (spring got me in the romance mood).
Why people hating on Zeus equals to hating on a whole ancient society and… it’s kinda dumb
If you have been in the part of social media that discusses ancient religions or ancient mythology you might know Zeus is hated badly. If you worship Zeus like I do I’m pretty sure you are aware of how many people actually waste times of their live doing bad jokes of how every woman on ancient Greece was pregnant with Zeus’s kid or another type of bullshit, and I’m tired of that. There are already like 100 posts on other Zeus worshippers giving their take on this topic but you know what? I want to be the 101 so here I am. I’f you hate Zeus I ask you nicely to grab your coffee, water, tea, whatever, sit and read this post.
this post is written with a target audience of people who do not have much knowledge aside from the myths and what social media say, I’ll be including the very basic theological and cultural aspects of Ancient Greece in this post so let’s consider this a baby course into epithets and the human kind changing their ethic code through time.
Before we officially start I’m sure some Zeus haters already have arguments to throw at me as soon as they finish reading this post so let me tell you, as a MUN delegate who’s obsessed with debate, some argument starters I won’t even read if you start a sentence with them:
“I believe or I think” I’m sorry but I don’t care about your personal biases I want facts.
“X media thing portrays” x media or x author is not a reliable source of information, unless it’s a historian with good background resources or reliable sources I won’t even take it in mind
“In other religions…” this is hellenism not other religions
“But in x myth” myths are not literal
“But x deity” all deities are different
Anyways, let’s start with what’s a myth, the merriam webster dictionary says a myth is “a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural”. My religion teacher back on catholic school also added to this definition a “moral code or cultural reflection religions implied into their followers”, and it’s accurate.
In baby words, myths explain things our society can’t explain while also reflecting our culture and behaviours.
Clear? Clear.
History has shown us that many religions don’t take their myths completely literally, most times they take them as metaphors or teachings to follow or simply they use them as propaganda to increase certains individual power, and this includes Ancient Greeks. If a king wanted to increase his power to scare people that may want to rebel he could easily say he was the child of Zeus, which is an explanation to why so many kings and heroes were kids of the all-mighty deity. Ancient Greeks also had to find a way to explain different phenomenons, and as many cultures before and after them, myths were a perfect way of doing so. To finish with myths and their uses, as many religions did and still do, the ancient Greeks needed a way to spread lessons to their people without the need of sitting them down and literally teaching them. Instead of doing this they preferred giving examples of things not to do. What makes Hellenism so different to actual modern religions is that the practice was and is more important that the actually texts, that can be a base but at the end of the day they are not the structure of the religion.
Now, a huge mistake many people commit is thinking the myths we nowadays read are the original myths. That’s a mistake. Ingrid Holmberg says in her essay titled as The Creation of the Ancient Greek Epic Cycle “Their research (addressing Milman Parry and Albert Lord.) and the research of their followers has revealed that the Greek epic oral tradition formed a huge, interconnected, and variegated web of legendary and mythical narratives that comprised the corpus of the epic cycle(…).” Harvard university also addresses this topic by saying “Basically, the “question” came down to this: were the Homeric poems composed with or without the aid of writing? Parry’s project, the comparing of Homeric poetry with the living oral traditions of South Slavic heroic poetry, led him to conclude that the Homeric texts were indeed the products of oral composition.”
So tell me, years of investigation affirms that the myths were told from mouth to mouth, the poets did not write their original work down but after many years later someone did… the version written is a version passed generation from generation by someone who heard them from their parents who heard them from their grandparents that might have edited and changed the original version for hundreds of years. Knowing all this areyou’re still going to judge a culture and a religion through myths? Really? Because that’s plainly dumb.
Let me give you an example, I write you a message and then pass it through google translator 20 times, and send it. And actually did! The message I’ll translate 20 times is “Hello dear readers of the internet, this is an experiment with google translator to explain how dumb is to literally judge a myth that has been changed hundreds of times. Not only that, a myth that reflected a society with different a ethic code, in some hundreds of years if society still exists they are going to judge some things we do… so em don’t waste your time on that”. After passing that message through 20 different languages in google translator this is how it ended up: Hello, dear internet reader, you will be judged not only by this, but also by some of the hundreds of years that we have done with the growth of social networks … so don’t waste time. Don’t waste.
I’m not trying to say that historians and their translations are as bad as google translator, I know this people have studied years to do what they do, I’m just saying that the original stories were told so many times that we have hundreds of adaptations and changes. Here’s an example, if you read a copy of the iliad written by x guy and then grab another copy written by another guy… you’ll find many differences in the translation.
Now that we got the translation clear thing you’ll probably still say “yeah anyways still myths say Zeus is a pr3d4tor who cheated on his wife muuultiple times”. And to that I’ll laugh ten minutes because yeah but no. Look at my beautiful hazel and eyes and tell me, do you think Ancient Greek men cared about women? And how they were treated? and how they were portrayed in the moment of explaining things?
If you say yes I beg you to go study some history.
If you say no, bingo.
A year a go I went down the rabbit whole of homosexuality in the ancient world, wrote an essay on it, and I found out men repeled women and they saw them as baby machines (i mean, some still do) so some societies had this idea that the closest relationship to love you could have with someone was with another man. So, understand that the ancient world didn’t give a damn about women. Most myths shows them as trophies, that’s no surprise for anyone at this point. So of course, they saw women as baby machines and as myths are reflections of society, do you really expect the Ancient Greeks to portray them as something else aside baby creators? Nooo!!!! Ofc they were not going to do that, they needed mothers to give an explanation to the hundreds of kings saying they were Zeus’s kids, and they found them.
Okay now, some of you may ask why did he “cheat” on Hera… more cultural aspects being reflected. Here’s what Jennifer Larson the writer of Ancient Greek cults has to say:
Now that we closed the marriage ethic issue The Zeus has many child joke or insult is even dumber because kids were so important for the social status in that era that they stablished the social status. During all Human’s story, money establishes your place in the social status: the more you have the higher you are. This also applied in the Ancient Greece. By having more kids it meant you had more to offer and to sustain your family, basically more kids = more money = more power = higher rank.
Studying children and childhood is of great importance because it provides insight into social norms and social life in ancient Greece. Children were important for the parents, the home, and city. Not having children led to inability to pass on the property and wealth of the father.
If Zeus, the KING of the gods and mortals, father of humanity, doesn't have a lot of children then what do you think it would do to how Ancient Greeks perceived him huh. If they measured by kids ofc their higher deity had to have a lot because that gave him power, please, it’s pure logic. The fact that he has multiple kids is a perfect reflection of how the Ancient Greece society acted, do you really want to sit down and complain about it? Why don’t you instead start thinking of a way of changing that capitalist mindset that still rules our society instead of bullying an old civilization and their cults.
—End of the cultural rant—
Okay cultural part has finished, let’s dive into my favorite topic ever: epithets. And I actually did like 3 polls on this, both on my twitter and my instagram, asking if my followers knew what an epithet was. I always had this thought that one of the reasons many people hate on deities is because they only see one side of their multiple-side self… and ofc the answer was no, they did not:
And epithets are soooo important to understand a deity, So assuming some people might not know what epithets are here is a brief summary extracted from a previous post of mine addressing epithets and their importance: Literal definition of epithet: an adjective or phrase expressing a quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.Let me give you an example: A friend of yours loves reading, they love it so freaking much, so one of your teachers is like “oh pepito the reader”, it’s obvious that pepito is a reader.Now examples with deities. Demeter Chthonia (of the Earth). WHAT DO WE ASSUME KIDS?! That Demeter is an Earth deity. Duh. And like that with all the deities.
Epithets basically tell us how deities were perceived when worshipped, and many of the people who love judging Zeus have ignoring epithets as their favorite hobby so here I am, giving you a list of my favorite ones to take in mind:
AGO′NIUS (Agônios), a surname or epithet of several gods. Aeschylus (Agam. 513) and Sophocles (Trach. 26) use it of Apollo and Zeus, and apparently in the sense of helpers in struggles and contests.
AGORAEUS and AGORAEA (Agoraia and Agoraios), are epithets given to several divinities who were considered as the protectors of the assemblies of the people in the agora, such as Zeus
ALASTOR (Alastôr). an epithet of Zeus, describing him as the avenger of evil deeds.
EVA′NEMUS (Euanemos), the giver of favourable wind
HETAEREIUS (Hetaireios), the protector of companies or associations of friends
HY′PATUS (Hupatos), the most high
LECHEA′TES (Lecheatês) i.e. the protector of childbed
NOMOS (Nomos), a personification of law, described as the ruler of gods and men.
PANHELLE′NIUS (Panellênios), i.e. the god common to, or worshipped by all the Hellenes or Greeks
PHY′XIUS (Phuzios), i. e., the god who protects fugitives
POLIEUS (Polieus), “the protector of the city;”
SOTER (Sôtêr), i. e. “the Saviour”
Theos Agathos - The Good God
MEILIKHIOS (Milichius) Gracious, Merciful
After reading all this epithets I want to ask one last time, do you still think Zeus is a jerk? When he has the literal epithet of being a Good God? A merciful one? A protector? THE PERSONIFICATION OF LAW?
A fact aspect I want to mention is how people love to completely erase the good sides of Zeus portrayed in many myths. In the Iliad Zeus loves one of his most loved sons, he wants to go and revenge him because he’s an amazing dad but he knows that if he does that he would be impartial and injustice to the other deities who have lost children but haven’t been able to do anything about it. Instead he mourns in silence just to refrain from making other deities feel less privileged, this happens in the freaking Iliad and I’m sorry but I think that is a perfect example of how good Zeus is even if myths are not literal.
IZeus is more than the character modern media converted him into, he’s way more than that. He’s a deity, with multiple aspects and multiple stories that have adapted to fit into into ancient societies idea of what was a higher deity. All the arguments people have against him show that they do not understand how myths work and they do not understand that ancient times came with ancient ideals.
So please, research and form your own criteria before hating on something you don’t actually know about. Give yourself the opportunity to listen all sides of the story and then after that you can say whatever you want. Most importantly, give yourself the opportunity to learn.
Hopefully this is my last post regarding this matter, if I quite changed your mind in any type of way then that’s great, if I didn’t that’s on you. That’s all I have to say and thank you for reading the post complete!
I got covid at christmas dinner with my fam, how’s that. Anyways, because of it i have connected more with Apollo because of his health aspect and after researching a bit for adding to my grimoire I read many posts saying how they couldn’t worship their deities properly because they saw everyone doing it in a certain way so that made them compare themselves with that certain everyone and made them insecure about their practice…
Which is a mood tbh.
And I feel I have said so many times the same thing on my posts but I will dedicate one just for this, do what it feels right for you and remember social media is fake. So, first, with the social media thing, some of your favorite bloggers or whatever you follow regarding your worship most of the times won’t tell you when they fuck up. I personally don’t sit everyday and say “oh this last month I didn’t move a finger for my worship because of x and x reason” because I don’t feel the need of sharing it, and I know many others who feel the same.
Imagine this hypothetical scenario. Your mom asks you how you’re doing at school, work, college, whatever and you’re doing really bad because of x reason. The probability you will open up and be honest is very low, we all probably want to say “i’m doing great, achieving all my goals, etc” so when we are not we just rather avoid it. The same happens with worship. There will be exceptions of posts in which we say we fucked up in certains ways, but that wont be constant because the human race has been known for not accepting their mistakes, who would be proud of them tbh.
This leads me to my next point which is don’t be scared to fuck up, the fact that you don’t see everyone messing up doesn’t mean it’s not common to do so… I’m pretty sure everyone has had their downs when it comes to worshipping, the important part is to be able to recover and do something about it. Find a way of worship you feel comfortable with, not a way of worship someone else feels comfortable with.
If there’s something I really like about Hellenism and Paganism in general is how personal the practice can be, there is not a book full of rules to follow, they are just some ground rules and from that you can create your own beautiful practice that fits into your lifestyle and way of living your religious aspect of life.
So please, don’t compare yourself to people on social media and the way they practice, that’s their personal way that fits into their lifestyle not yours.
Really short post but im sick so i would rather go to sleep, goodnight and trust your gut.
every time I open myself up to Dionysus, I realize just in how many areas of my life I can feel his presence, how many times he was guiding me and putting me in situations for a reason.
✵Oh, great liberator! You are a patron, a protector, a healer for all of those kids who fall out of frames, who feel like they don’t belong anywhere.
✵You welcome them into your open arms, guiding them through their trauma, guiding their shadows and fragmented parts back to the center of their souls!
Barefoot you amble through wilds Well-crowned with mists of the evergreen. Flowers raise their petals in joy as you pass. Beasts bow their heads in humility. “Our Lady has come!” Announce the birds chirping proudly. “She’s come!” Accompany the whispers of the treetops And the rustle of the woods chants your holy name.
Hello it’s me again with a post I was meant to put online three weeks ago! I’ve done several of these: Artemis-Demeter - I also made one for Hermes during my 30 days challenge but I’ve just realized it’s quite short so I will be making a new one again at some point in the future.
What are devotional acts?
Devotional acts, or devotional activities/practices are things one can do in order to honor a deity, just like one would do with physical offerings or prayer. In short, instead of giving, say, wine, you will offer time and energy (the mundane one). You would typically look at a deity’s domains and pick some things related to them.
So here is a list of things you might do, in the hope that it would spark some ideas. Of course the list in non-exhaustive !
☀️Study academic fields (sciences or humanities) - dedicating your studies to him can be one of the easiest devotional act you can do. Can be for school/uni/work or simply your research related to the hellenic path. He’s all about the pursuit of knowledge so no matter the field, you can dedicate this time to him. It’s a side of him that is a bit forgotten as people will think of Athena first, but it is completely in line with his domains as a god of Knowledge and Education.
☀️ Art and Music making and appreciation - he is the god of music and all the fine arts so you can dedicate the practice of these things to him and call upon his aid to develop your skills and sensibilities. The mastery of Arts requires the combination of technical skills, emotional sensibility, the capacity to break down things mentally, and the creativity to bring out solutions, things that are his domains as a god of Reason and Expression. If you don’t make art, you can simply dedicate some time to your appreciation of those fields by going to an exhibition or a concert.
☀️Honoring the Muses - his epithet Musagetesmeans leader of the muses and is meant to connect him to the Arts, as previously mentioned. However, you could also take that more litteraly and devote your time forming a relationship with the Muses to him.
☀️Write and appreciate poetry - made this a separate entry for how important this was to the Ancients. Without judging yourself, write your thoughts and feelings freely and see it as an expression of your mind and soul. Alternatively, lose yourself into the writings of others.
☀️ Working around health - Apollo is the god who inflicts but also relieves plagues, and the father of Asclepios. He is thus linked to the medical field and any practice related to that would be a great idea. One of his epithets, Acestor, means healer.
☀️Philosophy- Apollo is the patron of those who seek truth and wisdom, so not only would studying philosophies and religions be a neat idea, the most important would be to adopt that mindset and make sure you reflect on your values, the meaning of your life, your place in society, etc… The delphic maxims can be a good place to start, not to use them as dogmas but rather to stimulate your own thoughts and spark questions. When I think of Apollo I think of a god who wants us to keep questioning the world and ourself and push us to a better understanding of things and to build our own sense of ethics.
☀️Introspection - As an extension of that, practising a form of introspection as a way to shed light on the most unknown parts of yourself and seeking understanding of your whole self. Keep an journal to write down your introspection sessions can be a great devotional act and would draw his good influence upon you.
☀️Pursue the best version of yourself (with kindness) - to some extent all gods want to see you become the best version of yourself, but I don’t know why, maybe it’s a bit of an UPG, but I see Apollo as the one who thrives for perfection the most and works hard for that. Just be careful that this doesn’t become unhealthy and that you are always doing this with kindness and love for yourself.
☀️Celebrate the blessings the light and the warmth of the sun gives us - he isn’t the Sun himself (that is Helios) but he is undeniably linked to the Sun and its light so he is the one I go to when I want to celebrate the bright season and its blessings. Personally I intend to celebrate the summer solstice with him.
☀️Practice methods of divination - he is the god of prophecy and oracles and one you can go to to improve your ability to divine. He isn’t the only god whose domain is of one form of divination (Hermes has ornithomancy and astragyromancy, and Zeus had oracles), but he was the one who spoke through the Pythia so you can dedicate the development of your psychic senses to him. Also, Tarot is a relatively modern invention but I link it to him due to the fact that it’s an elaborated system through which spontaneous insight arises.
☀️Teaching- giving a drawing or music class, or just anything really. The idea of transferring your knowledge and allowing someone else to become more skilled at something. Especially great with the youth since Apollo is one of its protectors.
☀️Crafting things for your altar - maybe you want to make a laurel wreath (his sacred plant) to DIY your altar, or what about a scented candle containing solar plants, you could also use clay to shape little elements that you will paint later as a decoration. The possibilities are endless!
☀️Note on donations: an alternative to practising the activities I previously mentioned, you could also give your money to those causes and domains. For example: by supporting local artists or health-workers.
honestly even if you are a “stereotypical” worshipper of a god, you’re still doing great. You’re a Dionysian that likes to get drunk? Good, just be safe! You’re a chaotic bisexual Apollonian? That’s okay! You’re an Ace or lesbian Artemisian who wants to chill in the woods? That’s okay! You’re doing great! You’re an Aphrodite worshipper who’s really into pink, self love, and sea aesthetics? You’re doing lovely!
Your worship isn’t lesser even if it’s what people expect. Your relationship can still be deep and interpersonal. You’re doing amazing — don’t doubt yourself.
God son of the terrible Kronides our great king and Leto the graceful titaness, Apollon of the golden lyre.
You who send forth honey-filled words in delightful song to us mortals, the miserable race of sufferers, hoping we can taste a little bit of the heavens.
Oh god, I praise and thank you for all the words of wisdom you’ve sent us since the ancient times, helping us to evolve by translating the flowing speech of Zeus, showing us what is true justice.
May you always be acknowledged and praised as you deserve, sweet Phoebus Apollon.
Hey all, I went to the doctor today and my medical situation is a lot more complicated than expected so I’m taking a Social Media breakto deal with that and college at the same time. I’ll be back this summerwhen the semester ends. I’ll see you all then!
i don’t know whether i was drawn to lord apollon because of my love for academia or my devotion to music or my fondness of just sitting outside letting the light caress my face or my passion for learning history or my excitement towards art. but honestly, i don’t think it matters. i was captivated by him all the same.
