Because of the vagaries of our religious calendar Dver and I will be celebrating both the Thalusia and the Oread Nymphaia tomorrow.
We’re going to rise at an utterly obscene hour and climb Skinner’s Butte to make offerings to the mountain-nymphs.
Then we’ll come down to the farmer’s market to gather things for the harvest-feast in honor of Demeter and Dionysos. After working in Dver’s garden for a while, we’ll share a meal with our gods and I’ll recite this hymn:
Thalusia Hymn
Welcome to our plentiful feast O august Deo,
grandmother of the vine and wet-nurse of mountain-fostered Bakcheios,
you who love the season of autumn when the golden wheat is threshed
and the leaves on the fair trees burn brightest before they fall
and the last of the produce is brought to market by the industrious farmers,
those holy toilers in the fields who keep your traditions alive with their tireless labor
feeding the city of the well-born ones in this fertile valley
nourished by the pure waters of the Willamette and McKenzie rivers.
O frenzied Chloê, accept this offering we gathered for you
and carried home in the liknon-basket, all the best fruits, grains and vegetables we could find.
May the fragrance of fresh-baked bread be pleasing to you O mistress Demeter,
you who first taught man to cultivate the earth and make food from plants
instead of the flesh of beasts; you who caused us to put aside our savage ways
and embrace just laws and the harmonious existence of civilized city-life.
You with eyes like blue camas flowers and hair green as hops, crowned with poppies,
you who hold barley in your hands to remind us of that wonderful beverage, dear to your heart,
that you first quenched your thirst with when you searched for your beautiful daughter over the whole earth.
Rejoice O bountiful Ceres in our celebration,
as we rejoice in all that you have graciously bestowed upon us
and we will remember you again next year!
Our Thalusia is loosely modeled on the ancient festival celebrated by the Greeks in Sicily:
Concerning the Thalusia: At one time there were troubles at Syracuse which it was deemed were caused by Artemis. So the farmers brought gifts and sang a joyful hymn to the goddess and later on this became a customary event. As the rustics sang they would carry loaves of bread with figures of wild beasts on them, purses full of every type of seed, and a goat-skin with wine; they poured out libations for all those they met, wore a garland and deer antlers, and carried a shepherd’s rabbit-prod in their hands. The winner of the competition receives the bread of the defeated. They also sing other songs of a playful, funny nature, first saying in reverent tones, Receive good fortune, receive good health, which we bring from the goddess, by which she gave her command.
- Prolegomena to Theokritos, Bucolicorum Graecorum 2.5
Tagged: demeter, dionysos, eugene, festivals, greece, hellenismos, italy, local focus polytheism, oregon, religious practice, spirits, willamette
