So my Bithynian Adversary observed:

There have been other things written about Wiccanate privilege meanwhile on Patheos.com (go look and you’ll find them easily), and the “scare quotes” around the term still indicate to me that people are not accepting it as reality, which is very unfortunate…there’s nothing that says “privilege” more than someone denying that it exists while having it. Oh well…I suspect this will be the last I say on the subject for a while (at least in substantive pieces; comments on other pieces is another question, but I’m not inclined to comment over there at present because it’s clear there is nowhere for the conversation to go), which leaves that much more time to spend on other things.

And he’s right. They haven’t listened to a thing any of us said. They’re not even willing to consider the existence of a problem (with no one having to admit wrongdoing) simply for the sake of solving it. How can you have a civil, meaningful conversation when one side won’t even acknowledge the other? At least they’ve given up all pretense of having said dialogue. Now they’re digging their heels in, getting angry and defensive and have started spinning this as sour grapes and repeating that tired old line about how polytheists shouldn’t complain if we aren’t willing to show up.

Straight out of Ars Rhetorica.

Only problem is that we do.

We show up at pagan pride day events, CUUPS meetings and pan-pagan conventions all the time; some of us have even shown up at the courts to fight an unjust ban on fortune telling, or shown up at the United Nations to give an opening prayer, or shown up to work for the restoration of their people’s ancestral traditions under Soviet oppression and some of us have been tirelessly engaged in social activism and the interfaith movement.

And yet they keep saying that we don’t show up.

Intended or otherwise (and since we have brought this up to them numerous times before, I think it’s pretty clear which it is) this is an attempted erasure of presence no different from their attempted erasure of our history.

These people are pushing a particular narrative not only so that they can influence the development of the community but also so that they can shape its perception by outsiders.

When a group begins behaving in such a manner it’s usually prudent to ask cui bono?

I can tell you one thing – it’s not to the benefit of polytheists.

We’ve got to start looking out for own.

And that’s why I’m encouraging everyone who’s fed up with this shit to turn that frustration into something positive.

Instead of engaging with these people whose minds you’re never going to change, write something about your gods and your tradition.

To balance out the vitriol write something nice about someone who’s doing something cool in your community.

If you see someone having a hard time or you were struck by something they said – drop them a line.

If someone is asking for volunteers for a project they’re working on or a ritual they’re hosting or a devotional anthology they’re putting together and you can help, do so.

And if people are running fundraisers and you’ve got a little extra cash on you consider giving something, even if it’s a small amount. Every little bit helps and this is how you create the community so many hunger for. And if you aren’t in a financial position to give, help boost the signal on your blog or at Facebook or hell even send them a supportive e-mail because it’s hard to ask your fellows for money, particularly with all the weird hang-ups our culture has about such things. Sometimes vision and commitment require us to forgo pride, and we should support those with strong enough wills to do that.

The following people are all doing fundraisers at the moment so consider this somewhere to start if you’re in a philanthropic mood and are able to:

* Julian Betkowski
* Aine Llewellyn
* Oracle
* Ruadhán McElroy

And … a couple more I’m sure I’m spacing on at the moment. If you comment below I’ll add your link to the list.

They’ve made it clear we’re not welcome. Let’s use their inhospitableness as a goad to spur us on to create a better and more productive community.

All it takes is for people to show up.

Back on Liberalia I wrote:

Another idea I had on my walk was for the thiasos to come up with some group prayers. In addition to prayers by individual authors I’d like to do a series similar to the hymn of the kōmastaí for each of the gods and spirits of our pantheon, where people can contribute a section and once it’s stitched together we’ll have a collaboratively created liturgy that we can all use in our daily devotions.

Here’s the master list:

Dionysos
Persephone
Ariadne
Aphrodite
Hermes
Hekate
The Heroes
The Heroines
The Nymphs
The Satyrs

In the comments to those posts you may contribute your section of the prayer, ranging from four to eight lines in length.

I’ll let this go until the 1st of April, at which point I’ll put everything together, do some minor cosmetic edits and post them for us to use.

I’ve decided that for the sake of ease and simplicity we’ll do our first group chat through Google’s chat program. Though it’s officially starting at 10:00pm Eastern Daylight Time I’ll turn mine on at 9:45 and you just message me and I’ll invite you in.

Apparently breastfeeding is sufficient to make one a shero these days. (And, just for clarification female heroes are heroines, not sheroes.)

Before I have the mommy brigade up in arms let me just say that while there’s nothing wrong if you can’t, I think it’s optimal for mothers to breastfeed as this not only provides the child with nutrition, minimizes its exposure to harmful chemicals but also provides the pair with some truly essential bonding at that early stage.

So I applaud this woman’s desire to breastfeed regardless of the pain and obstacles involved. That demonstrates strength of character and commitment, which are virtues all of us should strive to cultivate.

Likewise I agree with her comparison of giving birth to war, which is straight out of the ancient Greek epigraphic tradition. Epigraphic as in what’s inscribed on tombstones – giving birth was a tremendously dangerous enterprise back then, with a staggering mortality rate for both mother and child. Anyone who walks away from such an intimate brush with death is a badass in my book. Perhaps not a warrior, per se, since one of the defining characteristics of a warrior is that they are a person who not only can but has taken human life and I detest how this word has gotten watered down to the point where anything that requires discipline, fortitude, bravery, etc. is described as a “warrior’s path” – but you know, pushing something that large out of such a small orifice is indeed a praise-worthy accomplishment. (I should know – I was rather constipated last week.)

So, mad respect to mothers and all but come on – nor does letting a baby suckle from your tit automatically make you a hero. By definition there is something extraordinary about heroes and doing a thing that the majority of women throughout history have done and which is furthermore common to all mammals isn’t very extra ordinary. In fact it’s kind of the antithesis of that.

And if we’re going by the ancient Greek understanding of the ἥρως it’s even more inappropriate since in order to receive hero cultus you pretty much had to be dead first. (Alexander the Great tried to get his men to pay him heroic honors while still respiring and they found an efficient solution to that little theological dilemma.) Death alone, however, does not make one a hero.

As my recent posts on the divinities of Tarentum made clear, heroes did things such as found cities, slay monsters, or have divine parentage or favor as well as associations with fertility, protection and the underworld. More important than what this person may or may not have done in life, however, was their ability to act posthumously. I summarized the Hellenic conception in my piece on hero cultus for Jim Morrison in the following way:

For the ancients a hero was predominantly a dead person who continued to influence things on earth from beyond the grave in stark contrast to the majority of the deceased who resided as impotent and ignorant shades of their former selves in the underworld. Without first being fed on the blood of sacrificial victims, Teiresias informs Odysseus in the Homeric Nekyia, they cannot even recognize their fellows let alone what transpires in the world above. The hero, on the other hand, was one of the mighty dead who sent disease, blighted the crops, destroyed livestock and afflicted their families and members of the community with other violent punishments if neglected. Conversely if a proper shrine was built and tended for them with sacrifices, games and similar appropriate honors regularly bequeathed to them then the hero could be a powerful ally to the community, promoting fertility and health and offering prophetic guidance and protection from outsiders. In fact the assistance of the heroic dead was considered so vital to the wellbeing of a community that wars were fought over possession of the hero’s remains and the rights to conduct his or her festivals.

Information on these beings and their veneration is easily attainable. For instance you can read the complete text of Flavius Philostratus’ Heroikos, Sarah Hitch’s Hero Cult in Apollonius Rhodius, Todd M. Compton’s Victim of the Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth and History and Gregory Nagy’s The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours all from Harvard’s Center of Hellenic Studies. For free. So really, there’s no excuse for not knowing who and what these beings are. And if one doesn’t want to be limited by the standard understanding why employ the terminology at all? Trying to appropriate the cachet of this word without fulfilling any of the requirements is just going to cast one in a poor light. I mean what would you think of me if I started describing myself as a mother because I crapped out a log last week?

One of the most important sources of information on Tarentine religion and mythology are the coins minted by this powerful port city, especially since it left little in the way of ruins compared to the other poleis of Magna Graecia, some of which still possess nearly intact temples and sanctuaries. Currency was a way of propagating identity in the ancient world, with strong political, historical and religious messages encoded in its symbolism. Coins traveled far and fast, especially in the purses of seafaring merchants, and though everyone may not have been able to read their inscriptions people understood the pictures they contained.

It’s a little harder for us to decode them today since they often rely on localized traditions that either conflict with or never made it into the literary record that’s come down to us. The tantalizingly fragmentary glimpses we get of this variant mythology leave us hungering for more stories and images and the threads of a living culture to bind it all together in our hearts.

Consider the coins that frequently pair the Dioskouroi with Iakchos and his special iconography observed nowhere else. And yet this is a motif that extends beyond coinage – Dionysos is also represented with a distaff on Apulian pottery, so clearly this was a locally important feature.

One wonders if there is Orphic influence at work here. After all weaving and nets are a prominent feature of Orphism. Orpheus, according to the Suidas, authored a book entitled Diktuon or ‘The Net’ which likely discussed the generative weaving of Persephone. Epigenes in his work On Orpheus offered an interpretation of some of the language in this poem, suggesting that “shuttles with bent carriages” meant ploughs, “warp-threads” were furrows, “thread” was seed, “Fates clothed in white” were the phases of the Moon, “Workless” was an epithet of Night, “Gorgonian” an epithet of the Moon because of the face on it and Aphrodite meant “time for seed-sowing.” There are plenty more – including a reference to Orpheus hunting with a net like Zagreus and of course the prescription to wear linen instead of wool because of the latter’s chthonic associations, but I’ll save all of that for a future post.

What I’d like to tease out tonight is the thread between Dionysos and the Dioskouroi – an appropriate metaphor since one of the animals linked to these sons of Zeus is the spider. Through Helen they are also connected to a golden apple, one of the toys (along with a tuft of wool) used by the Titans to lure the tragic infant to his demise according to Clement of Alexandria.

The passage quoted in that link continues on suggestively:

If you wish to inspect the orgies of the Corybantes, then know that, having killed their third brother, they covered the head of the dead body with a purple cloth, crowned it, and carrying it on the point of a spear, buried it under the roots of Olympus. These mysteries are, in short, murders and funerals. And the priests of these rites, who are called kings of the sacred rites by those whose business it is to name them, give additional strangeness to the tragic occurrence, by forbidding parsley with the roots from being placed on the table, for they think that parsley grew from the Corybantic blood that flowed forth; just as the women, in celebrating the Thesmophoria, abstain from eating the seeds of the pomegranate which have fallen on the ground, from the idea that pomegranates sprang from the drops of the blood of Dionysos. Those Corybantes also they call Cabiric; and the ceremony itself they announce as the Cabiric mystery. For those two identical fratricides, having abstracted the box in which the phallos of Bacchus was deposited, took it to Etruria–dealers in honourable wares truly. They lived there as exiles, employing themselves in communicating the precious teaching of their superstition, and presenting phallic symbols and the box for the Tyrrhenians to worship. And some will have it, not improbably, that for this reason Dionysos was called Attis, because he was mutilated. And what is surprising at the Tyrrhenians, who were barbarians, being thus initiated into these foul indignities, when among the Athenians, and in the whole of Greece–I blush to say it–the shameful legend about Demeter holds its ground?

This is interesting for a number of reasons. First it states that Dionysos’ penis was transported to Italy, which may explain the country’s super-abundant fertility (one of the reasons that the rape of Kore was located here) and why his cult is so deeply rooted in this place.

Secondly, it makes Dionysos one of the Samothracian Kabeiroi which is significant for two reasons. One, the Tarentine coins give Persephone’s Samothracian name Axiokersa in conjunction with Iakchos and secondly the Kabeiroi were often identified with the Dioskouroi since they were both sibling deities who had lost a brother. Interestingly, in the case of the Dioskouroi the pattern is somewhat switched since it is Polydeukes who is immortal. (Polydeukes’ name is thought to be derived from polu “much” gleukos “sweet new wine.”)

Personally, however, I tend to view the Kabeiroi and Dioskouroi as distinct on account of this story related by Diodoros Sikeliotes:

There came on a great storm and the chieftains had given up hope of being saved when Orpheus, they say, who was the only one on ship-board who had ever been initiated in the Mysteries of the deities of Samothrace, offered to them prayers for their salvation. And immediately the wind died down and two stars fell over the heads of the Dioskouroi, and the whole company was amazed at the marvel which had taken place and concluded that they had been rescued from their perils by an act of providence of the gods. For this reason, the story of this reversal of fortune for the Argonauts has been handed down to succeeding generations, and sailors when caught in storms always direct their prayers to the deities of Samothrace and attribute the appearance of the two stars to the epiphany of the Dioskouroi. (Library of History 4.43.1)

Despite their syncretic fusion at the end it is notable that Orpheus called the Kabeiroi forth to still the violent winds and did not simply turn to his companions on the Argo, suggesting that Kastor and Polydeukes are not the Theoi Megaloi of Samothrace.

However if one were inclined to see them that way, this passage from the Roman Cicero positing that there were three Dioskouroi comparable to the three Kabeiroi brothers stands out for its intriguing implications, especially since it counts Dionysos among their number (twice if you accept the Orphic assignment of Eubouleos as an epithet of Dionysos in his chthonic and mediating aspect) and also brings them into connection with the Tritopatores:

The Dioscuri similarly are known amongst the Greeks by a variety of names; there are, firstly, the three who are called at Athens Anactes or Kings, the offspring of the most ancient of the Royal Jupiters and of Proserpine: Tritopatreus, Eubuleus, and Dionysus. (De Natura Deorum 3.21)

Note that the mother of these sons of Zeus is Persephone.

The Tritopatores are the “Fathers of the Third Generation” (among other derivations of the name) who are either the ancestors, wind-spirits or giant monsters with a hundred hands – and quite possibly all three in one:

Demon in the Atthis says that the Tritopatores are Winds, Philochoros that the Tritopatores were born first of all. For the men of that time, he says, understood as their parents the Earth and the Sun, whom then they called Apollon. Phanodemos in book 6 maintains that only the Athenians pray and sacrifice to them when they are about to marry for the conception of children. In the Physikos of Orpheus the Tritopatores are named Amalkeides and Protokles and Protokleon, being doorkeepers and guardians of the Winds. But the author of Explanation claims that they are the offspring of Ouranos and Gaia and that their names are Kottos, Briareos and Gyges. (Suidas s.v. Tritiopatores)

The association of these daimonic winds with conception is further elucidated by a verse of Orpheus’ discussed by Aristotle:

This problem affects the doctrine in the so-called Orphic poems as well; for he says that the soul, being carried by the winds, enters from the universe into living creatures when they inhale. (De Anima 410b)

Now, are you ready for shit to get really weird?

Iakchos is usually regarded as the form that Dionysos takes on at Eleusis, where he lead the initiates in torch-lit revels:

Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysos, Apollon, Hekate, the Mousai, and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bacchic or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations; and they give the name Iakchos to Dionysos as the leader-in-chief of the mysteries and the daimon attendant of Demeter. And branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common elements in the worship of these gods. (Strabo, Geography 10.3.10)

Swinging your firebrand in your hand – light in the darkness of night – you arrived in your enthusiastic frenzy in the flower-covered vale of Eleusis – euhoi, o io Bakchos, o ie Paian! There the entire Greek nation, surrounding the indigenous witnesses of the holy Mysteries, invokes you as Iakchos: you have opened for mankind a haven, relief from suffering. – Ie Paian, come o Saviour, and kindly keep this city in happy prosperity. (Philodamos, Paian to Dionysos III)

I call upon law-giving Dionysos who carries the fennel stalk,
unforgettable and many-named seed of Eubouleus,
and upon holy, sacred and ineffable queen Mise,
whose two-fold nature is male and female.
As redeeming Iacchos, I summon you lord,
whether you delight in your fragrant temple at Eleusis,
or with the Mother you partake of mystic rites in Phrygia,
or you rejoice in Cyprus with fair-wreathed Kythereia,
or yet you exult in hallowed wheat-bearing fields along Egypt’s river,
with your divine mother, the august black-robed Isis,
and your triad of nurses. (Orphic Hymn 42)

Or as Aristophanes had his chorus sing in The Frogs:

Iakchos, much-loved resident of these quarters,
- Iakchos, O Iakchos! -
come to this field for the dance
with your holy followers,
setting in motion the crown
which sits on your head, thick
with myrtle-berries, boldly stamping the beat
with your foot in the unrestrained
fun-loving celebration -
the dance overflowing with grace,
dance sacred to the holy initiates!

Wake the fiery torches which you brandish in your hands,
- Iakchos, O Iakchos! -
brilliant star of the all-night celebration!
The meadow is aflame with light;
old men’s knees cavort!
They shake off the pain
of long years in old age
in their holy excitement.
Hold your light aloft
and lead the youthful chorus, Lord,
to the lush flowers of the sacred ground!

However, Iakchos is sometimes represented as the child of Dionysos, with Persephone or Demeter most often given as the mother.

Except in the Dionysiaka, where we find a very interesting and relevant variant tradition.

Nonnos has the god beget Iakchos through Aura (the Titaness of cool, early morning breezes) by putting on the form of a Wind and furthermore the epic poet makes Iakchos the immortal sibling of a mortal twin, precisely like the Dioskouroi:

A babe came quickly into the light; for even as Artemis yet spoke the word that shot out the delivery, the womb of Aura was loosened, and twin children came forth of themselves; therefore from these twins (didymoi) the highpeaked mountain of Rheia was called Dindymon. Seeing how fair the children were, the goddess Artemis again spoke in a changed voice: ‘Wetnurse, lonely ranger, twinmother, bride of a forced bridal, give your untaught breast to your sons, virgin mother. Your boy calls daddy, asking for his father; tell your children the name of your secret lover. Artemis knows nothing of marriage, she has not nursed a son at her breast. These mountains were your bed, and the spotted skins of fawns are swaddling-clothes for your babies, instead of the usual robe.’

She spoke, and swiftshoe plunged into the shady wood. Then Dionysos called Nikaia, his own Kybeleid Nymph, and smiling pointed to Aura still unbraiding her childbed; proud of his late union with the lonely girl, he said, ‘I beseech you, hasten to lift up my son, that my desperate Aura may not destroy him with daring hands–for I know she will kill one of the two baby boys in her intolerable frenzy, but do you help Iakchos: guard the better boy, that your daughter Telete may be the servant of son and father both.’

And in deep distress beside the rock where they had been born, Aura in childbed held up the two boys and cried aloud–‘From the sky came this marriage–I will throw my offspring into the sky! I was wooed by the breezes, and I saw no mortal bed. Breezes (aurai) my namesakes came down to the marriage of Aura, then let the breezes take the offspring from my womb. Away with you, children accursed of a treacherous father, you are none of mine–what have I to do with the sorrows of women? Show yourselves now, lions, come freely to forage in the woods; have no fear, for Aura is your enemy no more.’

She took the babes and laid them in the den of a lioness for her dinner. But a panther with understanding mind licked their bodies with her ravening lips, and nursed the beautiful boys of Dionysos with intelligent breast; wondering serpents with poisonspitting mouth surrounded the birthplace, for Aura’s bridegroom had made even the ravening beasts gentle to guard his newborn children.

Then Lelantos’s daughter sprang up with wandering foot in the wild temper of a shaggycrested lioness, tore one child from the wild beast’s jaws and hurled it like a flash into the stormy air: the newborn child fell from the air headlong into the whirling dust upon the ground, and she caught him up and gave him a tomb in her own maw–a family dinner indeed! The maiden Archeress Artemis was terrified at this heartless mother, and seized the other child of Aura, then she hastened away through the wood; holding the boy, an unfamiliar burden in her nursing arm … She went about the forest seeking for traces of Lyaios in his beloved mountains, while she held Aura’s newborn babe, carrying in her arms another’s burden, until shamefast she delivered his boy to Dionysos her brother.

The father gave charge of his son to Nikaia the nymph as a nurse. She took him, and fed the boy, pressing out the lifegiving juice of her childnursing breasts from her teat, until he grew up. While the boy was yet young, Bakchos took into his car babe and presented him to Attic Athena amid her mysteries, babbling ‘Euoi’. Goddess Pallas in her temple received him into her maiden bosom, which had welcome for a god; she gave the boy that pap which only Erechtheus had sucked, and let the alien milk trickle of itself from her unripe breast. The goddess gave him in trust to the Bakchantes of Eleusis; the wives of Marathon wearing ivy tript around the boy Iakchos, and lifted the Attic torch in the nightly dances of the deity lately born. They honoured him as a god next after the son of Persephoneia, and after Semele’s son; they established sacrifices for Dionysos lateborn and Dionysos first born, and third they chanted a new hymn for Iakchos. In these three celebrations Athens held high revel; in the dance lately made, the Athenians beat the step in honour of Zagreus and Bromios and Iakchos all together. (Dionysiaka 48.860 ff)

All of which is really making me wonder if something like that was behind the Tarentine coins with the Dioskouroi on one side and a distaff-wielding Iakchos on the other.

I also wonder whatever became of Iakchos’ dead brother?

So why do I care if someone else thinks that giving birth and breastfeeding qualify them for heroic status? Because doing so muddies the waters and if that’s permitted to happen people won’t be able to recognize heroes any longer and thus will be deprived of engagement with them – and that can have potentially serious consequences.

Polytheism, for me, isn’t just about the veneration of multiple deities. Gods are great and I’m all about the restoration of their worship in the modern era but even in their vast plenitude they are only a portion of what constitutes the category of “divinities.” Using the standard Hellenic model as an example, preceding the gods are immense cosmological powers and alongside them are other races or families, such as the titans, giants, cyclopes, etc. Then you’ve got nymphs and other spirits associated with the heavens, the earth and bodies of water. Then you’ve got daimones and heroes and ancestors and tons of other entities ranging in power and influence. Even things like winds, dreams, money and virtues are possessed of intelligence and agency in a properly polytheistic worldview.

And yet a lot of people who come into polytheism tend to focus on the gods to the exclusion of all other types of beings. Which I’m not knocking entirely because hey, that puts them ahead of the majority of neopagans – but by doing so they are missing out on some really vital elements of religion.

You see, one of the things that makes the gods so great is their bigness. Take Dionysos, for instance. He’s been bopping around the globe more or less without interruption since the second millennium BCE, even well after Christian domination brought an end to the worship of the Olympian gods on the state level. He’s got epithets in the triple digits, each with their own set of associations, attributes, functions, myths, etc. Indeed some of these are so complex and contradictory that it almost feels at times as if you’re dealing with an entire pantheon of Dionysoses. Today there are thousands of people across the globe who are having intimate and unique experiences with him – sometimes simultaneously with others. Because Dionysos tore me apart and put me back together again, he knows me in ways that no other entity can and yet after twenty years I still don’t know even the tiniest fraction of who he is. I especially don’t know who he is or what he reveals of himself when he’s off dancing with other Dionysians. And because of his bigness when he looks at the world or even at me he cannot help but see the big picture. No matter how dear to him I may be (and he has taken very good care of me) I cannot be his primary focus or concern. He’s got all of his other Bakchai and Bakchoi to look after, as well as his role in maintaining natural order and the obligations he has to the other gods and spirits – not to mention the fact that he’s an innate schemer and so he’s no doubt pursuing a multitude of interests and agendas of his own. So even if he might want to do me a solid he may not be able to because of conflicting loyalties or duties.

Smaller, less powerful beings often do not have as many of these limitations. Their sphere of influence is diminished accordingly but on the other hand if you’re the only one paying them cultus they’ll likely have the time, motivation and freedom to reciprocate. Plus I think a mature polytheism necessitates engagement with these beings as an extension of hospitality.

Using Dionysos as an example – when we bring him into ritual with us he is essentially our guest. After all, his homes are on Mount Parnassos, Mount Olympos, Mount Nysa and in the underworld as well as all of the temples that have been consecrated to him over the centuries. Even when we give over space in our homes to him by setting up shrines we are still, by default, the owners and maintainers of that property. Setting up a fully functioning temple is an entirely different matter as I’m sure my Thracian Adversary can attest. (And I owe this whole analogy I’m making to a conversation we had a couple days ago amid copious amounts of alcohol so if I’m butchering it hopefully he will chime in.) Therefore as host it is proper that we should demonstrate generosity and devotion as we feast and celebrate him.

But with ancestors and land-spirits the situation is reversed – we are coming into their territory as suppliants. In the case of the ancestors we have our whole existence through them – we owe them for the flesh that adorns our bones, the blood that flows through our veins, the traits and culture, the fortune and luck that has been handed down through their line. In the case of the land-spirits they are the place where we build our homes, the soil that produces the food we eat, the water that nourishes and cleanses us and when we go out to the woods or down by the shore of the river or deep beneath the earth in a cave – in these particular places that are unlike any other place on earth – it is them that we are visiting, and we should ever remain mindful of that. As suppliants we should treat our hosts properly and request of them what we desire instead of just greedily taking it. And I think it is proper for a guest to ask a favor of their host for that enhances their stature and gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their power. And when applied to spirits, approaching them in such a fashion keeps us mindful of the pervasiveness of their dominion.

So when want is created in our lives we should look to who presides over that area and approach them for assistance. Accepting such then produces debt and obligation on our part and as we go about repaying that we are bound to them in a more intimate relationship. This, of course, applies to gods as well as the various types of spirits but since we owe our existence more directly to the ancestors and spirits we should probably start with them first and work our way up the chain of divinity.

As an example, consider this story about the second prophet of the Bacchic Orphic tradition, Melampos:

Bias wooed Pero, daughter of Neleus. But as there were many suitors for his daughter’s hand, Neleus said that he would give her to him who should bring him the kine of Phylakos. These were in Phylake, and they were guarded by a dog which neither man nor beast could come near. Unable to steal these kine, Bias invited his brother to help him. Melampos promised to do so, and foretold that he should be detected in the act of stealing them, and that he should get the kine after being kept in bondage for a year. After making this promise he repaired to Phylake and, just as he had foretold, he was detected in the theft and kept a prisoner in a cell. When the year was nearly up, he heard the worms in the hidden part of the roof, one of them asking how much of the beam had been already gnawed through, and others answering that very little of it was left. At once he bade them transfer him to another cell, and not long after that had been done the cell fell in. Phylakos marvelled, and perceiving that he was an excellent soothsayer, he released him and invited him to say how his son Iphiklos might get children. Melampos promised to tell him, provided he got the kine. And having sacrificed two bulls and cut them in pieces he summoned the birds; and when a vulture came, he learned from it that once, when Phylakos was gelding rams, he laid down the knife, still bloody, beside Iphiklos, and that when the child was frightened and ran away, he stuck the knife on the sacred oak, and the bark encompassed the knife and hid it. He said, therefore, that if the knife were found, and he scraped off the rust, and gave it to Iphiklos to drink for ten days, he would beget a son. Having learned these things from the vulture, Melampos found the knife, scraped the rust, and gave it to Iphiklos for ten days to drink, and a son Podarces was born to him. But he drove the kine to Pylos, and having received the daughter of Neleus he gave her to his brother. For a time he continued to dwell in Messene, but when Dionysos drove the women of Argos mad, he healed them on condition of receiving part of the kingdom, and settled down there with Bias. (Apollodoros, Bibliotheka 1.9.12)

Why would you go to Zeus the cosmic king, ruler of all gods and men when it’s the tree itself that was harmed and required placation?

Of course, this brings up another area where I think contemporary polytheist practice tends to be deficient – it’s not just the over-emphasis on the gods but devotion as the default ritual setting.

Look, there’s nothing wrong with honoring and celebrating the gods and spirits – far, far, far, far, far from it!

It’s just not the only category of ritual.

The Greeks and Romans had tons of rituals that touched on practically every area of their lives. We can get a sense of the diversity of these ritual actions from this sketch of deisidaimonia by Theophrastos:

He is one who will wash his hands and sprinkle himself at the Sacred Fountain, and put a bit of laurel leaf in his mouth, to prepare himself for each day. If a marten should cross his path, he will not continue until someone else has gone by, or he has thrown three stones across the road. And if he should see a snake in his house, he will call up a prayer to Sabazios if it is one of the red ones; if it is one of the sacred variety, he will immediately construct a shrine on the spot. Nor will he go by the smooth stones at a crossroads without anointing them with oil from his flask, and he will not leave without falling on his knees in reverence to them. If a mouse should chew through his bag of grain, he will seek advice on what should be done from the official diviner of omens; but if the answer is, ‘Give it to the shoemaker to have it sewn up,’ he will pay no attention, but rather go away and free himself of the omen through sacrifice. He is also likely to be purifying his house continually, claiming that terrible Hecate has been mysteriously brought into it. And if an owl should hoot while he is outside, he becomes terribly agitated, and will not continue before crying out, ‘O! Mighty Athena!’ Never will he step on a tomb, nor get near a dead body, nor a woman in childbirth: he says he must keep on his guard against being polluted. On the unlucky days of the month– the fourth and seventh– he will order his servants to heat wine. Then he will go out and buy myrtle-wreaths, frankincense, and holy pictures; upon returning home, he spends the entire day arranging the wreaths on statues of the Hermaphrodites. Also, when he has a dream, he will go to the dream interpreters, the fortune-tellers, and the readers of bird-omens, to ask what god or goddess he should pray to. When he is to be initiated into the Orphic mysteries, he visits the priests every month, taking his wife with him; or, if she can’t make it, the nursemaid and children will suffice. It is also apparent that he is one of those people who go to great lengths to sprinkle themselves with sea-water. And if he sees someone eating Hecate’s garlic at the crossroads, he must go home and wash his head; and then he calls upon the priestesses to carry a squill or a puppy around him for purification. If he sees a madman or epileptic, he shudders and spits into his lap.

Few of these could be described as devotional in any kind of meaningful sense and many blur the line between magic and religion – and yet in their totality they constituted a full and dynamic engagement with the holy powers through mindfulness and ritual. As it should be.

So, to bring it back around – if you don’t even know what a hero is how are you going to be able to figure out how to honor them properly? And if you can’t you’re either going to neglect or offend them which will end up compromising your quality of life.

Personally I feel Areios Didymos goes a little too far, but only a little when he writes:

It is the Stoic view that every wrong act is an impious act. For to do something against the wish of a god is proof of impiety. As the gods have an affinity with virtue and its deeds, but are alienated from vice and those things which are produced by it, and as a wrong act is an activation in accord with vice, every wrong act is revealed as displeasing to the gods. Furthermore enmity is disharmony and discord in matters of life, just as friendship is harmony and concord. But the worthless are in disharmony with the gods in matters of life. Hence, every stupid person is an enemy of the gods. Furthermore if all believe that those opposed to them are their enemies, and the worthless person is hostile to the worthwhile, and god is worthwhile, then the worthless person is an enemy of the gods. (Epitome of Stoic Ethics 3.684)

We’ll be doing it through Google chat so contact me at sannion@gmail.com and I’ll invite you into the room. Though it’s mostly going to be focused on Starry Bull thiasos matters anyone is welcome to attend.

There’s a really interesting conversation going on in the comments to a recent post by my Bithynian Adversary.

Some of it has been very insightful, such as Lon Sarver’s comparison of how prominent neopagans like Gus diZerega and Peg Aloi routinely treat polytheists to geek culture:

I wonder if there’s a bit of the Geek Social Fallacies going on here. Mistaking erasure of difference for making common cause, and reacting so stridently when difference stubbornly refuses to go away, seems to be a reaction against ostracization for being different. Folks who felt like lonely freaks until they found modern Paganism may find an insistence that their big tent isn’t big enough to imply a threat of the place they finally felt at home falling apart.

And some of it was quite disturbing to read, such as the account of the moderator of the Wiccanate privilege panel at Pantheacon telling P. Sufenas that identifying as a polytheist was tantamount to not being a complete man and the room then proceeding to dictate which identifying labels polytheists can or cannot use for themselves.

I was also intrigued by DeoMercurio’s attempt to come up with common ground between polytheists and neopagans.

Let’s imagine a panel of Wiccans and polytheists who make a pitch on their joint behalf to the wider public. Here are some worthwhile themes I think we might all agree to hit on

Unfortunately I’m not sure that I, as an adherent of the Bacchic Orphic tradition, could be part of this panel. First off, I just don’t care what the wider culture thinks about us, provided they leave us alone to do our own thing. And secondly, and more importantly, almost none of the points put forth apply to my tradition. I’m not disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing – I think this was a good faith effort but it’s really hard to look outside your personal paradigm and accept that some people are just fundamentally different from you. Which is why I think we have to start with those differences when collaborating with others instead of grasping after the illusion of unity. So much of this friction would be resolved if we saw each other as neighbors instead of family. Just that shift alone would allow us to go on to having the serious and constructive conversations we need to be having instead of these endless disputes over the politics of identity.

So I’m going to explain why the principles proposed by DeoMercurio don’t really apply to my tradition in the interests of showing the diversity of polytheism – not because I think they are wrong and am trashing them for it. This is a very good start and through dialogue I think it could even be refined into something that was actually useful.

Freedom of cult. You don’t have to fall into a single “orthodox” mode of doing religion. Wiccanate pagans may emphasize how you can worship in whatever way works best for you, because the archetypes are all there in your head anyway. Polytheists may emphasize the range of deities and traditions within the historical record, and also the fact that new gods can emerge. (We may also like to add that the deities choose the worshipper as much as the other way around; the fact remains, however, that there is choice involved in how and when we offer cult, which pantheon we focus on, etc.). We may not be saying the same thing here, but the message seems complementary.

While in theory I agree with this, I am also an Orpheoteleste:

But the most astounding of all these arguments concerns what they have to say about the gods and virtue. They say that the gods, too, assign misfortune and a bad life to many good people, and the opposite fate to their opposites. Begging priests and prophets frequent the doors of the rich and persuade them that they possess a god-given power founded on sacrifices and incantations. If the rich person or any of his ancestors has committed an injustice, they can fix it with pleasant things and feasts. Moreover, if he wishes to injure some enemy, then, at little expense, he’ll be able to harm just and unjust alike, for by means of spells and enchantments they can persuade the gods to serve them. And they present a hubbub of books by Musaeus and Orpheus, offspring as they say of Selene and the Muses, according to which they arrange their rites, convincing not only individuals but also cities that liberation and purification from injustice is possible, both during life and after death, by means of sacrifices and enjoyable games to the deceased which free us from the evils of the beyond, whereas something horrible awaits those who have not celebrated sacrifices. (Plato, Republic 2.364a–365b)

The power of Orpheotelestai came from their knowledge, experience and discernment in matters of religion and was further predicated on a natural hierarchy – if the average person could solve their own physical or psychological maladies they naturally wouldn’t have any need for such specialists. The Orpheoteleste, on the other hand, was able to diagnose their client’s problems and assign the proper prayers, taboos, ritual procedures, etc. that would bring about purification and release, often by pacifying furious spirits through music, dance and feasting. The more that they could impress their clients with their mastery of arcane lore, ability to discern the will of the divinities and get results with their theatrics the higher the price they could command for their services. Failures didn’t remain in the profession long and rarely escaped with their lives.

So, in other words, my whole tradition is predicated on there being a right and a wrong way to do religion. Circumstances call for specific powers to be engaged with in a specific way in order to get specific results and if any of those details are wrong or left out there can be pretty serious consequences – and not just for the one overseeing the rites. For instance a common feature in the Bacchic and Orphic cults was a form of exorcism where the patient was put in a trance state and then exposed to music, colors and objects that would induce frenzied motion in the body resulting in cathartic ecstasy. The principle of sympathia governed these rites so that each of its elements were carefully chosen in order to bring the person into alignment with the proper power. Dissonance could cause the power in them to become agitated, angry and violent resulting in harm being done to the patient.

That said, I fully support a person’s right to be wrong, particularly in this age of massive overpopulation.

Freedom of conscience. Both of these flavours of paganism are non-creedal. There is no notion of “salvation by faith”, no confounding belief with virtue and unbelief with sin. Our gods are not patrolling our minds, taking note of every wavering doubt. Wiccans and their allies can make this point even more forcefully; if the divine is purely within, there is no external authority people could be reported to in the first place.

Well, actually, one of the things that distinguished Orphikoi from the general population of ancient Greece was that theirs was a text-based religion with a strong emphasis on memorizing and internalizing hieroi logoi or holy words. Indeed, this association was so strong that anyone inordinately fond of books was immediately suspected of having Orphic sympathies. Of course since this was a tradition of ecstatic possession and there was no universal Orphic church to exercise control over doctrinal matters a lot of different groups and individuals developed the Orphic tradition in novel ways, sometimes to the point where the only commonality between a pair of texts is that they claim some connection to the figure of Orpheus. While Orphics may not all have agreed on the contents of their master’s teachings, all felt that they were deeply important, to the point that many inscribed their texts on sheets of gold which they carried on their persons like protective amulets and had them buried with them when they went beneath the earth. These texts were meant to help the Orphic call to mind the initiations they had received, giving them foreknowledge of what awaited them in the underworld and how to overcome the adversaries and lords of judgment they would encounter there. It further reminded them of who they were, what their relationship to Dionysos was and the song to sing to release the poinê of Persephone.

Without faith in your Guide it’s very easy to get lost in the labyrinth.

Ethnic and social diversity. Here I think polytheists have some advantage over Wiccanate pagans. In some ways, Wicca still retains the imprint of its early 20th-century middle-class occult mystique, while polytheism speaks in every language and represents every ethnic and social stratum of the globe. Within the framework of Roman Gaul, I know deities who are Celtic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Hittite; who are the friends of slaves, of freed people, of aristocrats, of merchants, of free yeomen; who represent individual rebels as well as social order; and so on and so forth.

There is no land that has not felt the dancing feet of Dionysos’ maddened thiasos; anyone who thinks they’re worthy may run with the hunt. Some few will even prove themselves so.

Which I guess makes our tradition simultaneously all-inclusive and elitist.

Affirmation of women, transgendered people, and those with non-heteronormative sexualities. Wiccans can point to their worship of the Goddess (in often wonderfully creative ways) and at least ostensibly friendly attitude to queer people. Polytheists can point out a litany of goddesses; transgendered, androgynous or gender-bending deities; gods with male lovers; and so forth. (Curiously, offhand, I can’t think of a goddess with a female lover—although one is of course suspicious of Diana, and it occurs to me that the Graces look pretty happy together.) The point is that non-male, non-heterosexual, and non-cisgendered realities are already part of our religious picture.

Dionysos got Prometheus drunk and the Titan put a bunch of genitals on wrong when he was making clay-people so that means our god is responsible for queer folk and Orpheus invented buggery so I think we’ve got that covered pretty well.

But since we’re not bigots our tradition also has room for expressing the heteronormative and asexual experience as well.

Affirmation of life and the here-and-now. Other religions ground their appeal on unlikely promises about the afterlife, trafficking in the fear of death. This is not religio, however, but superstitio. Practically any flavour of paganism has a more positive view of the here-and-now, affirming for example that the whole world is full of gods; that Earth and Nature are among the deities; and that people should focus more on living virtuously here than worrying about the afterlife. As might be expected, every variety of opinion about the afterlife is represented somewhere within paganism, and nobody’s compelled to ascribe to any creed about it.

For the Bacchic Orphic the telos is everything. We look forward to an eternity of fucking and feasting and frenzy with our god and his furious host and everything we do here is to prepare us for that. So while there is no negation of this world and carnal existence – indeed we’re to soak up as much of it as we can in order to bring its vitality over there with us - at the same time priority is definitely given to the otherworldly in our tradition.  Our pantheon pretty much consists of chthonic gods, nymphai, daimones, heroes and the ancestors so if you are afraid of death this is definitely not the religion for you.

Of course, the ancient Orphics believed that anyone who wasn’t initiated into the mysteries would spend their posthumous existence buried in shit, endlessly remembering the worst and most shameful moments of their life.

Everyone is confronted with a choice below – do you drink from the spring of Memory or Forgetfulness? The mysteries teach you to live life well, so you regret nothing, so that you’re not afraid to remember who you are. It’s those who are seeking escape that are forced to relive their lives. You’re only free when you stop running from yourself.  That’s why you say to the door-keepers, “My name is Asterios.”

I am okay if my beliefs and practices mean that I don’t fit in with the majority of polytheists and pagans – these are good traditions that have been handed down to us through the line of prophets, poets and maniacs of Dionysos. I know who I want to party with.

Wow. Just about everything that’s wrong with contemporary paganism is on display in the comments to this post by Peg Aloi on folk musician slash Blue Star initiate slash Llewellyn author Kenny Klein who was recently arrested and confessed to having child pornography on his computer.

You’ve got people who are more concerned about how this is going to affect public perception of paganism than they are in taking a stand against pedophilia – including people going so far as to suggest a cover up and whitewash campaign; people bringing up irrelevant gossip and old feuds; people derailing the conversation into arguments over trad vs eclectic and the prevalence of nudity in the festival scene as well as the de rigueur gender, race and class issues; people using this as an opportunity to take a swipe at Christianity and “Jew” was even thrown about as a slur.

All that remains is for Gus diZerega to come stumbling in and start belligerently yelling about how the whole thing is the fault of people describing themselves as polytheists without a qualifier. Oh and Z. Budapest ranting about transies. Then it will be a perfect encapsulation of the community.

I can’t wait to see what the comments are like when this story finally hits the Wild Hunt.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina is seeking submissions for a devotional anthology in honor of Ares, God of War and his Roman counterpart Mars, Father of Rome. Submissions will open February 1, 2014 and close August 1, 2014, with an expected release date of November 1, 2014. This anthology is being edited by P.T. Helms.

A variety of material is appropriate for inclusion in the anthology. Examples include, but are not limited to prayers, rituals, hymns, essays, visual artwork, and short stories or plays.

Areas worth exploring include Ares’ and Mars’ cults, both ancient and reconstructed, comparing and contrasting the Greek and Roman gods, exploring the relationships of the gods to others in their respective pantheons, exploring the gods’ realms beyond the battlefield, analyses of Ares and Mars in myth and poetry, representations of either god in popular culture, exploration of syncretic practices, and historical essays.

Multiple submissions by the same author are acceptable, and all contributors will retain original copyright to their work. Previously published material is also acceptable, provided the author retains the original copyright. All contributors must complete a publication release prior to the publication date or their work will not be included in the anthology.

Absolutely NO plagiarism. All work must be the original work of the author or include proper citations where necessary; the preferred citation styles for this anthology are MLA or APA. Title pages and abstracts are not necessary. Any work that has been plagiarized will be excluded from the finished anthology. The editor reserves the right to make minor changes to formatting, spelling, and grammar if necessary. The editor also reserves the right to request modifications of submissions or to reject submissions as necessary.

Artwork must be at least 300dpi. Send all submissions in the body of the email or as .doc/.rtf, or .jpg, attachments. Please send all questions or submissions to the editor at aspisofares@gmail.com. All contributors will receive a coupon code which will allow them to purchase up to three (3) copies at cost. No monetary compensation will be provided. Proceeds from all sales will be divided between charitable donations in honor of the Deities and production costs for future publications from Bibliotheca Alexandrina.