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On the Festivals of Dionysos
King Demophon stood, hushed his guests, and removed his festal floral crown as the guards brought the haggard stranger forward. The man’s trembling head was downcast and he shuffled his feet, sore from...
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Dictionary of invective
Boubo the boukolos bent over, farted in his friend’s face, and got a boot to the balls for his troubles. He staggered away, howling laughter, then collapsed to the earth and vomited up blood of the...
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helpful and skilled in words, you assist in work
We’re about halfway through converting Galina’s old library into my new dedicated ritual space and study, so a lot of thought has been going into the shrines I need to set up and the types of cultus I...
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Maiden Songs
when the world is crazy, his madness is sanity the only still spot in the whirlwind of fire, the rolling earthquake that tears apart the heavens, taste of copper and the hair standing up on the back of...
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The Distaff
You face the monster in the Labyrinth – and the monster is you. Theseus thought he had throttled the therianthrope’s thick neck but instead the hulking brute shambled forth into daylight dragging his...
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The Mixing Bowl
Oh Iakchos, son of Semele and giver of plenty, give me steady feet and the power to resist laryngeal spasms so I can make it home before puking up all that wine I drank. The crowds are thicker this...
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Incantation-songs for the dead
The thirsty ones slumber beneath the mounds, until the scent of flowers and young wine lures them up through the jars and into the streets, shades of the dearly departed returned to crown their...
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The Robe
The college of Venerable Women assisted the Basilinna with her toilette after helping her rise from the bath of milk and flower petals she had been soaking in. They arranged her hair artfully and...
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Things Remembered
the ancestral winds whip and race outside my window as the furious host revel during the long, dark night of pithoigia, the sound of trumpets and clashing cymbals, the timbrels and trilling flutes, all...
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On the Luxury of the Ancients
Mark Antony watched the city erupt in revelry from his balcony and longed to be among the drunken throng, either appearing as himself or disguised as one of the common rabble. He drank straight from...
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On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies
The cyclic poets say that the noble son of Zeus, mighty Alkides who won his fame through Hera, came to Athens in the reign of Theseus, he who had been driven by the gadfly’s maddening sting to commit...
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A trip through the Toys with Riff Cohen
Astragaloi = J’AIME https://youtu.be/g7-dMffS6Us Krotala = TZAMA NAFSHI https://youtu.be/NkYFqKW5PHA Mela = A PARIS https://youtu.be/CeMtEa5QhcA Sphaira = QUE DU BONHEUR https://youtu.be/AGpX5IKcR94...
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Concerning Orpheus and his Rites
Philip the vagabond ritual specialist came to Sparta, peddling initiation ceremonies, spells to bind and unbind, divination by sacrifices and was met with utter contempt by King Leotychidas, who was...
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Solutions for problematic myths
Down the soft curve of the maidenly cheek of the stony Karyatid – what a heavy burden she bears – rolls a single damp tear. Though quiet as the tomb her heart pounds in her chest with longing to dance...
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Descent to Haides
Down the bone-white maiden’s arm reaches, to snatch the enchanting toy, a gleaming daffodil that appeared all of a sudden in the fields of flower-rich Nysa where the Girl and her companions – the...
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On the Discoverers of Things
“Take her down, boys, this fruit is getting over ripe.” The Attic cowherds chuckled, and proceeded to cut Erigone’s corpse down from the tree where it hung like a broken puppet or an orb-weaving spider...
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Elements of Harmony
Downward the spiralling trail led, growing gradually steeper and slicker with mud from the surrounding swamp that was filled with a chorus of toads. There was a handrail that went all the way to the...
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Writings on Bacchic Rites
Down stooped Dionysos Spoudaiogeloion, reaching his hand out to the little lost girl. He made some flowers appear for her out of thin air and gave her a black and white ball to play with, stitched...
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Cures from the Temple in Thirty Two Books
Down through the leafy branches fell the rain – Drip. Drop. Drip. Drip. Drop. Monotonously and soothingly, like a drummer winding down after a frenzied celebration, came the rain as we waited out the...
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The Rites of Deliverance
The twin boys, dressed like matching Hermeses, took Ampelos underground to consult the venerable oracle of Trophonios, dark counterpart of Asklepios who loves wasps and raven feathers and beads of...
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