Blessed Stepteria

Following the birth of Apollon during the Delphic Polythousia (or the Theban Prostateria) that occurs on the 7th day of the Delphic month Bysios (derived from Pythios) or the Theban month Prostaterios (Anthesteria to people who are only familiar with the Attic calendar lol) in the this month following (reminding you all that I am a  month ahead of most people by my calendar since I celebrated Poseidon II last year) this month (Attic Elaphebolia) honors the slaying of the dragoness Python and the narration of the myth of the return of Apollon next month.

For those who are not familiar with the myth, Apollon following his birth, arrived at Delphi. There are two variations of this myth. One in which he has come as a grown man, and another in which he and Artemis are carried to Delphi by their mother. There he encounters to the guardian of the stream Castilla. In the Homeric hymn to Pythian Apollon we find a description of Delphyne as a great bane of a creature who is a plague bringer and devourer of flocks. Apollon slays her either with his golden sword or with his bow, either alone or with the aid of his sister (as all of these versions exist). He (or they in the case of Artemis as well) departs Delphi in sorrow, weeping in his exile. Myth has it that as he leaves for Hyperborea that his tears fall as amber on the earth.

However in the Stepteria we have the program of the slaying of Delphyne acted out in which the youth, standing in for Apollon, slays the dragon. It has been suggested by scholars that this may have either been by throwing a live serpent or effigy of a snake into a structure to burn to death as Delphyne was consumed. So doing, he would flee immediately, taking no part of food or comfort. There he would be at the mercy of strangers as he traveled from town to town with his attendants, acting the role of an outcast in exile before finally arriving at the Tempe Valley. There he would be purified by entering the laurel grove and would cut branches from the sacred laurel at the side of the river Peneios to return with them to temple around the time of the spring equinox to the temple with great celebration.

For this ritual, unless you have a sacred river and laurel trees to act out the exile on a small scale (or the means for roughly a month of camping) the best way I have found to celebrate this ritual is to praise Apollon, the slayer of the serpent, to invite him of the golden sword to liberate and free, to destroy the miasma that infects our homes and cities and regions. Invite the shooter from afar to pour out his arrows as he begins the season of his return. From paper make a small serpent (or out of any other flammable substance) and set this in a fire safe bowl upon your altar, as you do so lighting it on fire as you praise Apollon as purifier and averter of evil, praising him for being Pythios, who causes things to rot and pass away to release all things for new rebirth. You are welcoming here too the dawn of spring as you destroy the fortifying wintry dragon. I then follow this with grieving for the exiled lord Apollon, and grieving for the death of the dragoness as was carried out in Delphi. I pour offerings upon the earth for her even as Apollon does to appease her spirit as he flees.

The ritual should be finished with a simple meal, the fair of exiles without friend or shelter, relying on what little they could manage. A humble meal  should follow. Tonight we are having some chicken and roasted potatoes. Simple fare without extras or indulgences. For seven days then I pray to Apollon for his return. On the 21st day of the month that is sacred to him I enact my own ritual that I call the Daphneaia which is about his entrance into the holy grove and his purification by the river Peneios and Daphne. Until then it is a time of reflection, awaiting purifications of the Daphneaia.

Post Ritual Update:

This year I did something a bit different. I had burned the paper serpent in a brass incense burner bowl and watched her dissolve into dust from the flames even as I prayed to Apollon. I had forgotten to mention above that it is appropriate to read from the Homeric Hymn to Pythios, which I did reading the segment of her destruction. Following her destruction I pray to Apollon that that which is miasmatic, that which breeds evil is not in and of itself evil in all entirety and that he cleanses and purifies all things to release us from the bonds. I lamented for Delphyne and lauded her place that she gained as guardian spirit of Delphi as upon her bones the precinct rested. I poured the libation, not directly on the earth this time, but upon her ashes (which will be disposed of upon the earth at some point this evening), lamenting her death as I did so. I then followed as my usual lamentation for his exile that he shall not be among friends, that he departed for the far lands and left all bereft of his presence as he attends to his blessed cleansing.

I then played my wooden flute for Delphyne. In Delphi the youth representing Apollon would as Apollon play the flute for Delphyne as Apollon was said to have done. Its long mournful tones singing to her passing and mourning too his banishment from the company of men.

In the end there are many ways you may come up with to celebrate this festival that will all be spiritually fulfilling and meaningful.

 

Prostateria, born among lambs

First, you just gotta love how dysfunctional Hellenic calendar systems are. I am celebrating this month what is usually called by the Hellenic name Anthesterion but I call by the Boeotian name Prostaterias, whereas others celebrated Poseidon II this year and are a month behind in Gamelion. So perhaps this post (and subsequent post I may make tomorrow) can be of some use then for others who come along into that month.

It is hard to imagine, where here it is cold and icy, that in other parts of the world this is the lambing season. That Dionysos’ grand festival, the Anthesteria, takes place amid this very early spring atmosphere as winter is ending and the activities of spring are coming in. Yet, as widely known as the Anthesteria celebration is, Plutarch also reminds us that Delphi and Sparta recognized and agreed with the Boeotian birth of Apollon at the Theban Delos (a natural island created between two rivers named Olive and Palm) that also occurs this month. In fact it occurs at sundown tonight.

Unlike the Thargelia which takes certain distinction in the role of Apollon in the ripening grain that gives his birth in May, this early spring birthday of Apollon seems quite appropriate for the herding lord that he is in a sense being born among lambs. Those that see a certain continuity between the cults of Poseidon and Apollon can probably see how this may symbolically echo alternative myths of Poseidon in which he was not swallowed by his father but, as an infant, hidden among lambs.  Although there is nothing known of anything dealing with herding beasts in the Boeotian birth of Apollon (really little is known about it other than this information shared by Plutarch) it is easy to grasp upon these theme, especially given the shepherd feasts to Apollon at the end of summer as the god who is born at the time of lambing is the appropriate god to deliver sacrifices to when the spring lamb has been well fed and reared.

Certainly the sacredness of white wool as an emblem of purity would be an interesting association to Apollon as the herder. The same white wool that adorns doorways at the birth of girls in honor of Artemis, Apollon wears in the locks of his hair. Why not, wherein at the Ionian Delos, Leto departs of Lycia to purify her babe that instead his swaddling that the Homeric hymn makes brief mention of was made out of the pure white wool from which he leapt made in full vigor whereas the Ionian myths of Lycia has him a helpless babe until arriving there  (contradicting other myths in which the babe at just a few days old went to construct his temple at Delphi. This takes us to two threads regarding Delphi. The Ionian thread in which Apollon, after returning from Lycia grown arrives at Delphi as an adult. And another in which Apollon and Artemis arrive at Delphi as small children/babes with her mother which would reasonably align more with the Boeotian birth of Apollon and the events of the Stepteria at Delphi in the following month in which Apollon slew Delphyne which was celebrated with a child acting as Apollon both in slaying Delphyne and in acting out the exile). It is possible that the Homeric Hymn blends these two elements of his births in its narration of the birth of Apollon making it relatable regardless of the audience. It never mentions the whens are other specifics really. But that is just my personal thought on that.

Still in the question is, what possible relationship did the lambing season and Apollon’s birth have? This is about the time of the year where the moose and reindeer are preparing to drop their calves, so this is not entirely insignificant for me. Up here, long before there are flowers we see the return of migratory critters and the dropping of calves. Here may lay a distinction in view of a migratory god such as Apollon who is associated with such creatures, and vegetation gods who dye yearly and are reborn with the spring (of course Dionysos is an interesting difference here because he is born in the winter still when the ivy grows abundantly which gives him a somewhat distinctive difference from other vegetation deities who adjourn for the winter in the underworld). Remember too that Apollon, as serving as a slave to Admetus, was said to have blessed the herds with bearing twins. This certainly points to an importance of Apollon in the calving/lambing season, that he was conceived as being born among them as one who is caretaker and herder, overseer of the lambing season and the rutting season in the autumn before he himself adjourns away.

So at sundown today and into tomorrow until sundown, I will honor Apollon Prostaterios, lord before the doors, lord of the renewal of life, herder god. I will honor him who was born between the rivers.

 

Lenaia 2014 part 2

Today I celebrated Dionysos with his upright image, wrapped in ivy from his shrine. Unlike the feelings from the previous day of stretching, and awakening, today was quite different of an experience. It was probably one of the more attention catching intense for me than any festivals that I have had in recent history for Dionysos.

Formulaically, there doesn’t seem to be much difference in the way I conducted the ritual. In fact, several of the hymns I read were the same as those from yesterday. Again I read those hymns for Zeus and Hera, and Hephaistos and Hestia who rule this Orphic month. And whereas I ended yesterday with the hymn to Semele, today I began with that hymn before proceeding to the hymns for Dionysos. The hymns I read for Dionysos were the following:

1) Hymn to Bacchus
2) Hymn to Liknitus
3) Hymn to Lysius Lenaeus
4) Hymn to Amphietus Bacchus

Things got interesting though following the reading of these hymns, and the offering of portions of wine and incense at each hymn read for the gods. It was then that I picked up the small finger drum that was on the shrine. This was a tiny drum that I brought with me from Morocco on my second trip there. It was on this drum that I tapped my fingers at increasing speed, and as I was doing I found myself swaying to the beat and as the rhythm increased my blood sparking and firing. At one point I started to shake hard enough that I slammed the small drum down on the altar in finale, followed by another generous portion of wine offered spontaneously to Dionysos with a cry to Dionysos. It was then that I swallowed down some wine, greedily gulping it down as is not my custom when drinking wine. The cold liquid ran down my throat but did nothing to quench the fire burning inside of me. Such fire I have only experienced in prayer to Apollon regularly, and on only one occasion in prayer to Zeus.

After bringing a glass of wine from the altar to my boyfriend with a prayer to Dionysos, I then reclined in the couch swimming for many moments in a cloud of euphoria while I watched a recording of a comedy routine. This lasted for about a half hour following the ritual.

Lenaia 2014 part 1

While I know that Lenaia is celebrated technically over several days I had decided to reduce it to a two day affair this year. This is better than other years where I have just celebrated it on one day. I am still in the processing of figuring my way around Lenaia. From vase paintings it seems that the celebrations of Lenaia included two important stages, for which reason I decided to do it over two days with a day devoted to each stage. One stage in the basket, and the other stage erect on a pole or column.

Therefore the first stage honors the newly born Dionysos, son of Semele. He is represented as a mask within a basket. Offerings are presented to him in this fashion honoring him as the baby Dionysos. I didn’t have a basket small enough that I could find, so I ended up perching the small statuette had I made some years ago, wrapped in green cloth to represent the coming of spring, and the coming of new life of the vine.
On this first day I decided to forgo offering wine, and instead made an offering that is commonly offered to nymphs and other earthly daimons, milk mixed with honey. Tomorrow shall be the occasion to break out the wine. Rather than a rigorous festival, there was sweet anticipation in the air, and a sense of pushing forward. Even the babe within my womb stretched herself out during the prayers as if she too were affected by it. The sensation of new life springing forward in a rush.

For this ritual I said the following prayers. Aside from the prayers given to Hestia and Hephaistos (for the Orphic month, and also because Hestia is always honored first anyway), and those given to Zeus and Hera (who are honored at every ritual) I read the following hymns:

1) Hymn to Silenus, Satyrus and the priestesses of Bacchus
2) Hymn to Lysius Lenaeus
3) Hymn to Lyknitus Bacchus
4) Hymn to Ippa (who the hymn seems to identify with the mother of the gods)
5) Hymn to Semele.

It seemed that finishing with the hymn to Semele was the way to go, and was profoundly moving particularly in reading that last hymn. I then spent some time playing my wooden flute in honor of Dionysos before closing the ritual. Something playful and flirty, but also containing some longer drawn out notes to pay tribute to the tragedies that were composed for the winter performances during the Lenaea competitions.

On a side note, following the ritual even the ivy plant that I had temporarily set on the altar for the festivities was perkier when I had returned it to Dionysos’ shrine!

Giving Thanks

Today I had encountered a question that caught my attention. Someone wanted to know how to give offerings of gratitude to a goddess who had recently assisted them. While I had no specific recommendations for the deity in question, it did make me pause to consider what I normally do when I want to show specific gratitude for the overcoming of some particular difficulty…and there have been many instances of this too, or even a sudden blessing that appears in my life?

The simple solution which many folks seemed to jump on the quickest was to make a gift of something sacred to the deity, some image, icon, feather or other sacred associations. I think that this foremost comes to mind because it is the easiest to conceptualize. I want to thank the god or goddess and I want it to be something tangible that will stay there on the shrine for ever and ever and ever. And I do think that this is appropriate every now and then too. I do agree for really big things I would love to get some new icon, as it was often the custom among Hellenes to thank the gods for favor shown to them by dedicating images of the gods. The problem with this of course is that in the modern context we have limited space, whereas anciently this was done at temples, and often at great cost (therefore typically dedicated from the wealthy members). And while statuary is easier to come by now I think, we still run into the problems of just running out of room. When it comes to matters of practicality there is only so long that we can amass stuff that is permanently lasting before we are overwhelmed by it. If you think of it even temples had this problem! At the temple of Leto at Xanthus there was a votive pit near the temple where icons and offerings were buried to make room in the storage so to speak. Therefore unless it something *huge* that we are thanking for, more often than not permanent offerings are not the way to go, unless you have a very sparse set up for the deity in question. For instance I would probably be reluctant to get more statues to put on my shrine to Apollon for thanksgiving, but there are numerous gods that I either need images for or that could use another image in my mind for whatever reason, especially if it is one of the important gods in my household.

This is not to say that there aren’t long lasting gifts that don’t roughly fit into this category that could be appropriate. Replacing an offering plate with something new and special could be nice, or any other tool of worship such as a small pitcher for libations especially dedicated for that god or goddess in question. A small box to keep sacred items in, or a small box for keeping incense used only for that deity in. Vases, incense burners etc can all potentially fit in that category and are ultimately can be either permanent or replaceable as situations come down the road.

In any case, when it comes to practicality, we have to consider what we can give the gods that will be pleasing, that is not something we give them every day. For instance if you offer frankincense regularly to said god or goddess, while an extra portion would probably be a plus I would probably not limit it to this if I was feeling particularly very thankful for blessings and aid given. However that doesn’t mean that incense can’t be a lovely gift, especially if it is something that one goes through the extra cost to procure especially for that deity and kept set aside as a gift only for that deity. For instance, I have a vial of rose oil that I only use for anointing my statue of Aphrodite as it was a gift for her. Her statue gets weekly anointed and fumigated with incense (which I have a nice little selection for). Such items are regularly in use and do have to be replenished at which time of replenishing you can offer it once again in thanks for said momentous blessings that were given in the past.

Perhaps one of the simplest gifts though, and one which I think is highly appreciated by the gods, is a bouquet of flowers. These are nature’s own natural perfume, and often flowers have been used ceremonially for special offerings. Apollon was offered crocus flowers in the winter, and his altar during the Hyakinthia was laden with different blossoms. In the play Hippolytus we also find the young hero returning home from his hunt with flowers gathered for Artemis from a virgin field. In some ways I think that flowers are even a more special offering just because the length of time they last is outweighed by the effort. If you have the ability to gather wildflowers this cost would be considerable less, or if you have blossoming plants in your house or garden, but there will be times that these are not available. Here in Alaska with how short our growing season is the only way to really procure fresh flowers is at a local florist or market 8 months of the year. Therefore, spending around 20 dollars or more on a bouquet of flowers that will only last for about a week becomes symbolic of great affection and devotion, that the pleasure of the gift received becomes well worth it, even knowing that it can only be enjoyed a short time. Perhaps that makes it even the sweeter.

This does not negate how worth while offerings of special food items are. Honeyed cakes, sweets, etc require the cost and effort of making, and have a very short life, but can be of great source of pleasure to the gods. Cakes were often used as a bloodless offering appreciated by the gods. Therefore the importance of offering a small tray of cakes and sweet pastries to be shared with the deity in question can be very rewarding both as an offering and in one’s relationship with the deity, as sharing food with the gods tends to be. Especially if one takes the time in crafting said sweets with keeping in mind those things which the particular god or goddess enjoys (for instance making cakes shaped like deer or goats for Artemis and Apollon, or making candied rose petals for Aphrodite).

There are of course non-tangible offerings such as the playing of a music instrument for the god, the composition (or having someone else compose) a poem for said god/dess that acknowledges the favor given, singing, dancing, and other mediums that can bring a brief instant enjoyment to the god/dess you are honoring is all acceptable gifts for them and are very workable. In the end what is appropriate is what speaks to you and what you feel is a good way to give thanks. These are but some ideas.

Giving Worship to Leto

As this is something that has come into practice more and more in my life, established more so during the last few months when I did not have access to a working computer, I thought it was about time that I should give a brief summary of my worship practices for Leto. I confess that some of what may have triggered, or perhaps encourages is a better word, to further explore into my worship of her, was becoming pregnant again after so long after the birth of my first child 13 years ago. Leto seems to be an important goddess to particularly revere by mothers, just as important as Hera who provides legitimate heirs, Eilytheia who midwives the new birth, and Artemis and Apollon who succor and protect the new babes. Leto is a goddess, great among mothers, the most blessed of mothers for bringing forth twin births (something her son Apollon also seemed to have encouraged in his time as a mortal shepherd, perhaps an influence from being the son of Leto who herself brought forth twins as he himself is numbered one among those twins).

Leto herself is a complicated goddess. Even as her son was associated with tombs in many places, in Asia Minor she seemed to have associations with the underworld herself, and her portrayals lend to her a certain mystique as a heavily veiled goddess, the “lady”, one who may have been as dark as a void, as a starless night, even as her sister Asteria was a bright starry one. Leto sometimes seems as the dark womb that births forth light which may have been a recognized part of her nature anciently and gave rise to her associations with the underworld, and her mythic association with frogs who descend into the gloomy depths of ponds and into the underworld. As such I took much consideration into crafting her image.

For home worship images of Leto are not particularly forth coming on the market, and so I satisfied myself with making a bust of the goddess which I draped with a lavender veil which, aside from indigo blue, I have associated with the twilight sky. The heavens giving birth to light of the morning. I have painted her before wearing a gray veil before too. Any color that seems to spark the imagination as a color of darkness bringing forth light seems to me to be quite appropriate for Leto. For those who are not inclined to make their own image of Leto, a statue or bust of a woman wrapped in a veil would be an adequate substitute…conveying the mystique and obscurity of Leto’s nature. Included on or near the image can be symbols associated with the goddess.

When I made my bust I chose tigers eye stones for her eyes to convey her protective nature, just as I chose garnets for her crown. The royal jade is set within her crown and upon her shoulders in imitation of clasps. Her crown I have adorned with frogs which I consider perhaps one of her foremost important symbols from myth. Other appropriate symbols would be wolves foremost, as those who guided her, as to a slightly lesser extant storks and other birds and beasts associated with the arrival of offspring. One bird, however, that is very much connected to her which would be ideal to adorn her image or altar with feathers from or imagery of, is the quail. This would be highly appropriate and ideal to include for her shrine (something of which I still need to add to my own!) Two in fact, as she is called the mother of the quails, and in this manner her twin offspring are also likened to quails for which it would be appropriate and ideal to include such representations.

When it comes to offerings, for libation I find cool clean water to be ideal. Best if you can get it from a natural fountain or stream, but as long as it is cool and clean it would probably be good. To keep the water cool during the ritual consider containing it in a dark ceramic pitcher if you have one available. This preference in my own worship is based from the myth of the Lycian frogs in which Leto, desiring access to the cool waters from which to partake, was driven away by the villagers. In my mind such an offering symbolically demonstrates that we are giving of such to her, that the sacred waters always overflow into her cup. For incense it is good to stick with common frankincense, but I have found blends of Night Queen to be quite pleasing, as well as any sweet clean scents like sandalwood, jasmine or lavender, or even the more pungent scents of pine and cedar. With these things I proceed with ritual in the typical Hellenic manner.

My worship of Leto seems to take form in terms of offerings and address to the goddess in a manner which is modest and simple, which seems appropriate for the character of the goddess herself who never seems to have asked for much from her worshipers. She has few temples in the ancient world in fact which were specifically built for her. One in Delos that I know of, and the great Letoon in Asia Minor near the river Xanthus. Otherwise her worship seems to have been instituted in the local cults of her children and her imagery adjoining theirs. As there are also no known surviving festivals or feast days attributed to the goddess, it is therefore it is logical that most common practice be to honor her with her children in one’s household worship (as I have her shrine in place with those of Artemis and Apollon and give to her offerings when I address offerings to them daily). In fact for those who may not have noticed, with the exception of lavender and Night Queen, most of the incenses I give her are ones I commonly give her children already, as they seem equally pleasing to her as to them. One can of course begin new festivals, and I have been considering seriously what date to set the my modern spring festival Feast of Frogs to honor her as a mother goddess and goddess of children and the portal of life and death through which all things cyclically pass even as frogs pass to and fro from the cold dark depths.

 

Blessed Day of the Sun

Hail to Helios, the kingly one, o inferno of the heavens. Hail Helios shining star of life, conqueror of night. Hail Helios, o victorious one, may your light infinitely, nourish all life and illuminate our minds and hearts.

Today is the solstice, and prayers to Helios are on my lips for the longest day of the year. Here in Alaska where our summers have such long interrupted periods of light, Helios is as king, shedding his light to feed all life here. Our winters may be dark and long but the reign of Helios in the summer is a beautiful sight to behold! Therefore it is with happy heart that I celebrate the Helioguennia, and honor the beautiful Helios in his cart of radiant white flaming mares. For the past two days I have celebrated the winding down of spring by celebrating the Hyakinthia. For the second day of Hyakinthia I selected a picture to go on my shrine of a youth being embraced by Apollon, as Muses grasped his horses and all about being flew. To me, this represented the arrival of Hyakinthos among the host of Apollon (for more about this read Plato’s Phaedrus in which he is discussing the “armies” of the gods of collected divine being, spirits and souls).  It turned out that the picture was actually an illustration of the petition of Phaeton to Apollon to drive the chariot of the sun. It did not strike a very strong chord with me as representing Phaeton, and was unrecognizable to me as such, nominally because of the context of the scene altogether. But also because I do not consider Helios (the actual mythic father of Phaeton) and Apollon to be the *same* god. I do think that they can be linked together as Apollon-Helios to honor their cooperative natures operating harmonic together, but I do not consider Apollon literally the sun anymore than I consider Artemis to be Selene. There are strong associations and very deep working relationships between Apollon and Helios, and Artemis and Selene to be sure, but these relationships are also quite fluid as Apollon and Artemis are generally the twins of light, and by their unified nature don’t tend to fall along absolute distinctions. Therefore Artemis has often been associated too with the sun (and on this day of Helioguennia there are people who celebrate the day with context given to the chariot of Helios standing still in the sky as he observed the dancing of Artemis and her nymphs), and Apollon has very clear associations with the moon (not only as Noumenios but also considering that his Doric festivals tended to culminate on the full moon). This fluidity may also be responsible not only for the worship of Apollon-Hyakinthos, but also of Artemis Hyakinthia (in which the goddess apparently is depicted bearded). With this in mind today during the Helioguennia I will be honor both Apollon and Artemis with Helios, and then later on this weekend on the 23rd I will be honoring them both with Selene on the full moon which shall be a super moon.

Sadly in a great show that the gods have a sense of humor, after weeks of beautiful sunshine today is overcast and chilly. All the same, I shall raise prayers to the gods and give offerings in celebration of Helioguennia. I hope that everyone has a beautiful solstice however they may be celebrating it!

Ceremony day 2

Today was the main day for the ceremony. Unfortunately whereas it had been sunny for the last week, today the clouds moved in. There is an expectation of rain this week. So it was a bit overcast, but that didn’t dampen my spirits for this main ceremony. I have been waiting for quite some time for this day. And so I took my time getting ready as I adorned myself. Again I am not going to give details for this ceremony, but am sharing some of photos from my memories of it.

At the start of the ceremony I went first to Aphrodite’s shrine. There I sacrificed the offering of incense and libated to her.

I then proceeded to Apollon’s shrine for the main portion of the ritual.

Back to Aphrodite again for a moment

Then again to Apollon

Then to Honor Hera

 

And again to Apollon to finish

And the photos are now concluded. It was a beautiful ceremony.

ceremony day 1

While I am not going to go into many details about the ceremony, it is a two day affair and today I did the first part. This involved mostly purification and other self preparation for tomorrow. (PS in the following pictures please forgive the mess in the entry way and artists corner…it is the most cluttery part of the house)

I began by setting out before me a bowl of clean water and incense, specifically called Fire. With these before me I prayed, calling on the blessings of Mother Leto, Artemis, Apollon and Father Zeus. I then proceeded to waft the purifying incense towards me as I prayed. After praying to Father Zeus I took the water up and anointed my head with the water.

This was then followed by the ritual to Artemis. There was one unfortunate part to this, the battery in the camera died when my daughter was taking photos so you don’t see the very end of the ritual were I cut a lock for my hair. Once the batteries charged up a bit I got a picture of the shrine with the lock of hair (knotted in three places) placed on the altar.

 

After the ritual was finished I did the final part of the ceremony. This was applying henna to my hands. Now most folks hire a henna artist to do it. But since I have used henna before and enjoy it, I felt up to the challenge of doing it myself. I painted my left hand first and then when that was dry I painted my right hand. It is very helpful in such cases to be ambidextrous as I am. Though you can tell that my left hand isn’t quite as developed in fine motor control as my right hand. I had my playlist going on as I applied the paint to my hand and then waited for it to dry.

Tomorrow now is the big ceremony. I need to run to the store in the morning to get some groceries, but I will also be picking up a little bit of fresh flowers and a cake. So while today’s ritual for Artemis was rather low key, tomorrow will be a different matter entirely!

Delia/Thargelia and the myth of the birth of Apollon

So with Delia (also known as Thargelia in Athens) swiftly approaching I decided to take a moment to discuss this festival celebrating the birth of Apollon. Some of this is cribbed directly from my book Crowned with Nine Rays (please do not order a copy, I feel I should say this, because I am redoing it in a series booklets where I will have more room to expound on things.)

Every year we celebrate the birth of Apollon and Artemis on what is the seventh of the Attica month Thargelion. This festival was something of a big to-do among the Ionians and the Ionian League came together to celebrate on Delos for this auspicious occasion. The city states would send their finest chorus of youths and maidens in great ships to perform in celebration of the birth of the god called Patroos by Athens (who also considered themselves via their descent from Ion, the son of Apollon and the Athenian princess Cruesa, to be the head of the league by default of this myth). Before embarking to Delos Athenians looked to their Delian prophet to watch for the signs, a particular lightning display, that would signify the beginning of the procession to Delos. Upon arriving the choruses would adorn themselves in robes and wreaths and approach the temple singing from the harbor. For twelve days, in honor of the twelve days that Leto wandered the earth, accompanied by Athena in some variations. In the procession large cymbals, called krembala, were played,

The number seven, represented as the birthday of Apollon, is of an interesting nature. It is one of three numbers that are specifically ascribed to his worship, the other two being five in regard to his relationship with Helios, and nine. Whereas five is connected to the principle of solar light, and nine to that of renewal, seven may be connected more to the idea of sustenance. This is suggested because there was a belief that premature deaths of infants occurred within the first seven days after their birth. Therefore, the seventh day was likely regarded as the day in which the infant’s life was seen as having been sustained, and the naming of the child thus carried out on that or the tenth day, just as Apollon’s birth came after the seventh song of the swans according to Kallimachus. Likewise, Apollon fitted his lyre with seven strings to represent those seven songs, and these are the strings of life which summons about the seasons according to the Orphic hymn. A case can then be made that Apollon, as a god born on the seventh day, is that he is a protector god of the young from this point in their infancy as is natural for him and his twin as a kind of warden of the earth and therefore all the helpless young born by her work. Perhaps a thanksgiving to him, that a destroying god that the children survived the precarious days during which nature could easily bring about their deaths in those tender first few days. Thus successful the survivals of children was celebrated by the hanging of fillets of wool before the doorway; but this was typically done for girls as boys were greeted with olive boughs, the symbol of Athena as a protective goddess and sustainer of heroes. This decoration was likely also carried out on the birthday of the god, upon the doors of his temple since there is no waiting days of potential mortality, and it appears to be born out as there was dancing before the doors of the temple by Delian women in accompaniment to their paians to Apollon.

The birth of Apollon and Artemis, while being a major occasion for Ionians (and for the Boeotians in their earlier celebration of their own local birth of Apollon, which seems to have been supported by Delphi and the Spartans, and the Cretans give their birth as being at Paximadia) seems to get little literary note. Hesiod in his Theogony just barely glosses over the birth of the twins in a brief sentence, and yet we can’t say that there isn’t a certain significance as we know that the cult of Leto, given the myth of Niobe which associates the worship of Leto as being carried out by mothers largely, had a certain importance, and there is evidence that she enjoyed a large and quite prestigious temple on Delos. Of course I can’t help but to observe that the twins are called collectively after her (Letoides), which is not something we see very common among the gods outside of the children of Kronos and Ouranos who are called by a variation of their father’s name as a kind of title. This seems to be true of the children of heroes too, now I may be wrong but the only other instance where I can think of children being titled after their mother are the Niobids, the children of Niobe, but this may be particular to her offset of Leto and the conflict between them that carries down through the actions of Leto’s children upon those of Niobe. That Leto is depicted crowned in a queenly fashion is suggestive that she may have been at one time a very important deity, and in the Ionian cults in Asia Minor she seemed to have been liked to Cybele in some respects as well as being called a goddess of the underworld.

In the myth however she takes the part of an obscure goddess, a love, perhaps wife in a sense similar to that of Thetis and Mnemosyne prior to Hera, of Zeus. We are given the impression that upon the marriage of Zeus and Hera that Leto was already pregnant rather than being a later liason. In some myths Hera sends the serpent Python to chase Leto, who at some point gives and holes up somewhere, and in others she has Helios cast his great eye so that nowhere that Leto rests is untouched by the sun to give her refuge as per the curse of Hera. Of course no city is going to openly defy Hera, and Leto is turned away from everywhere. The river Peneus is the only one who even tempts her wrath by offering refuge to Hera, but out of her compassion for the river god, (who becomes a very important deity in the cult of Apollon at Delpi as it is to the river that the boy acting as Apollon descends to collect from the sacred laurel of his daughter Daphne, the pre-birth interaction is perhaps very significant that Peneus later acts as such a purifier) and Apollon’s urging for her to continue from within her womb that she declines his generous offer.

So Leto arrives at the island of Delos, who we know from myth is in fact her sister Asteria (her name meaning “starry”), which seems to be of great coincidence, and likewise a fairly big coincidence is the close relationship following of Artemis with Hekate, the two torches of Hekate, and the poetic description of the twins like two lights shining upon their birth. I haven’t really established any firm interpretation in my mind in regards to this but it seems to weigh on me with some significance I can’t ignore. There is a certain interconnection between the sisters Leto and Asteria as well as we find that in the myth of Asteria that she took the form of a quail to evade Zeus and in this form plunged into the sea, and we have Leto as the mother of quails and herself in some versions of her own taking the form of a quail to fly to the unrooted island. Of course as mother of quails, this can also apply that her young are also seen as quails, a solarish bird that was believed to sing to the moon, the speckled breast of quail could be viewed as likened to the starry skies if we take into consideration the significance of Asteria as the quail. There are some who say that Leto was led to Delos by wolves, but I believe that they are confusing this with the wolves leading her to the river Xanthus in Lycia…and it would be kind of hard for wolves to lead her to an island floating in the middle of the sea anyway. Taking the form of a winged creature seems by far more reasonable and creates a unified relationship between Leto and Asteria, one has the mother and the other as a nurse of Apollon, although Kallimachus has Themis serve as his nurse, but as Themis is connected to Ge she probably shares a similar kind of relationship with Asteria in Kallimachus’ telling of the myth as the goddess feeds the infant god ambrosia. That Themis, in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, is related as the first goddess of the oracle of Delphi, it seems that his nursing by the goddess given here is meant to be precursor of his inheritance of the oracle.

According to myth, the foremost of the goddesses, excepting Hera, attended the birthing labors of Leto which again indicates some level of great importance as she is attended not only by Themis, but also by Rhea (who is also identified with Cybele in Ionia), Dione (whose prominance is best known as the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus at Dodona in the Peloponnese), and Poseidon’s wife Amphitrite. Historically women tend to be attended in childbirth by the closest women of their family, essentially their peers. Here we have Leto among her peers, establishing her position among the goddesses as one near equal standing with them, and their attendance to the birth of Apollon making a remark on the importance of Artemis and the babe who would also be called King. The nine days and nights of his labor (whereas 12 is a number associated with the completion of a heroic journey such as the in the 12 labors of Herakles, 9 is a transitional number that is linked particularly to the concepts of the divine year and thus renewal upon its culmination for which the original Delphic Pythian games were held every nine years before they were reorganized into 4 year periods like the Olympic) were greeted at their conclusion with the singing of seven swans in the tradition given to us by Kallimachus. According to myth this birth only came about because Eileithyia was tempted away from Hera’s side (where she was restrained by her mother Hera from offering aid to Leto) with the promise of necklace. Thus beguiled she hastened and at her presence labor seized Leto, who grabbed upon the palm which thus afterward became sacred to the Letoides, and is mentioned poetically by Kallimachus as shaking at the approach of Apollon probably echoing the tremors of the palm at the first appearance of Apollon at his birth that resounds at his return.

Thus far we can see the importance of honoring, and may well have been honored, of the goddesses attending the birth of Apollon, including the late arriving Eilethyia especially who had her own prominent altar at Delos where maidens offered locks of their hair in memory of the Hyperborean maidens who accompanied Apollon on his first return, quite probably during the Delia if we consider that there may have been a strong paralleling relationship with the festival of the return of Apollon from Hyperborea during the spring equinox, and the shortly following festival at Delia. However, another important goddess of the festival is Aphrodite. This may appear a bit more elusive unless you consider that the work of Aphrodite comes before the step of birth. Therefore Aphrodite represents the power which brings successful conclusion to your struggles. It is for this reason that Theseus was advised by Apollon to make Aphrodite his guide when he began his journey to Krete, and why her statue, a gift from Ariadne, was dedicated to the god upon his arrival to Delos from his success in the labyrinth. It follows that Aphrodite and Apollon worked cooperatively, as love and the procreative process that leads to fertilization are that which is necessary before birth. This combined element was represented by the twining of myrtle, which had a sacred relationship to the worship of Apollon Agyieus and at Delphi, with laurel about the altar of Apollon. Theseus wouldn’t have succeeded in his heroic journey without Ariadne, and the birth of Apollon would not have come without the divine love between Zeus and Leto. And the symbol of the labyrinth was preserved in the Crane Dance of Delos which Theseus introduced to the island; a dance which simulated the windings and turnings of the labyrinth. By torchlight the Delian youths would perform this dance around the goat-horn altar, or, as according to the Francois Vase, around the central image of Aphrodite on the island. This vase depicted a long line of seven youths and seven maidens, probably directed by a rope laid out in the pattern, advancing to the right led by Theseus who danced as he played the lyre. It is of great probability that this dance was performed for Apollon at the Delia, and later in July for the Aphrodisia in honor of Aphrodite.

The labyrinth is significant symbolism because it reflects the inward and outward journey. Though we don’t know exactly how the crane dance was performed it is possible that the dancers would, while holding hands, spiral in an inward dance, and then dancing out again. This is dancing to the source, or epicenter, of transformation as well as having distinctive wandering connotations as the dancers fail to remain in a given space. There you are transformed and can be reborn into a higher state of being. Apollon is a god who continually transforms and rejuvenates himself, a god who is born of the light, and this transformation is accessible to those who come to him. The easiest way to adapt this Crane Dance for a modern ritual is to lay a rope marking out the dance path in a spiral. If there is someone in the group with a musical instrument they should be at the fore like Theseus, or more so like Apollon leading with his lyre in his high step dance that is attributed to him in the Homeric Hymn as he led the Cretan sailors. This musician then would take his place leading inward, both symbolically to the “Minotaur” as Theseus and to Delos as Leto. There through triumphing over your obstacle by love’s ability to balance forces, you are given the tools of transformation to be transformed by Apollon and the dance unwinds again to the left. This is just as possible if you are dancing alone, tracing the steps to music as you make your inward and outward journeys.

Just as the sacred dance was delivered by Theseus, so too did he institute the Delian games and was the first to award the Delian palm to victors in celebration of the god’s birth. The same palm was also given all victors in the prominent Hellenic games. So it is in a general sense Pausanias relates that crowns of palm were given in most games throughout Hellas and that everywhere victors held a palm in their right hands. Thus is a sacred symbol not only of the games since the palm was the tree to which Leto was said to have clung, but also the conqueror of the greatest game. This palm has retained its springtime connection to birth in its reincarnation in the Christian mythos of Easter and the resurrection, but is relevance to Thargelia should be reclaimed. However, we are blessed in a fashion because this also tends to make palm fronds easy to acquire in the spring season with which we can adorn the ritual space and present to participants within this prominent festival. Certainly in ancient times this festival was one of great importance which drew envoys of youths and maidens from Athens every year to participate. Of such importance was the occasion that a state of purity was remained within Athens during which no deaths could occur until after the envoy returned. The island even boasted an early Doric connection through the symbolic presence of Thera by their style of cloak as this city was said to have been the second that Apollon founded after building his temple at Delos.

The day preceding the Thargelia many modern worshippers hold to a tradition in which they create a pharmakos to represent those paupers which were ejected from the city of Athens to their death. As Artemis is said to be born on the sixth day there are those who also ascribe this day to her worship, and these practices as part of her function as a goddess of purification. This seems unlikely though since the seventh day is celebrated on behalf of both the twins and there is no mention of Artemis in any specific religious or mythic connection with the ritualistic purification and purging going on during the sixth day of Thargelion. In fact, given the taboo on blood-letting during the absence of the envoy to Delos, if this ritual was in fact ever done it may have actually been a part of the purification rituals of the previous month on the sixth of Mounykion in preparation for Thargelia rather than occurring as part of the actual Thargelia ritual. It is possible that there was some confusion between the preThargelia celebrations on the sixth which may have had more to do with fertility than purification that has become confused with the purification processes of Delphinia. The flogging of the pharmakoi as represented of Pharmakos, who was said to have been beaten for stealing the bowls of Apollon bears a great resemblance to the Orthia of Sparta in which boys stole cheese from the goddess. Therein the “stealing” from the god is something related to the individual going within the domain of the deity and returning bearing the essence of that deity with them. For this reason the pharmakoi, representative of the males and females of the community, were hung with figs and carried emblems of prosperity in the form of cheese, figs and cakes. Like the Epheboi of Sparta these were beaten, in this case with rods of fig-wood. In any case the basic nature of Thargelia, rather than being of purification, is a celebration of the richness of the earth that accompanies the arrival of Apollon and the spiritual fruits that he offers the world, signified by the first green fruits of spring.

However, there is a historic festival which occurred on the sixth day of Thargelion in Athens which is less at odds with the nature of Thargelia. This is the flower festival of Demeter Chloë called Chloia, or Chloeia at her temple on the Acropolis. This is the aspect of Demeter who is called “Green” and was honored in a common sanctuary with Ge the Nurse of Youth in Troezen. All that is really known of this festival is that it celebrated the blooming of spring flowers and involved the sacrifice of a ram amid much celebration. This does keep with some mythic resemblance of Artemis appropriate for the season. For in some versions of the myth of Persephone, the youthful maiden appears in play in the flower-filled meadows among the virgin goddesses Athena and Artemis weaving a robe of flowers for their father. As such this festival likely corresponded to other celebrations of Artemis such as the Artemisia among other Ionian states.  As Artemis was also interpreted as a daughter of Demeter by the Athenian it is quite natural that the sixth day which is attributed to Artemis is directly tied into the festival. Therefore the first day as Chloia could appropriately be considered the festival of youth and spring which fits with the nature of the following Thargelia. Whereas the first inklings of spring were celebrated with Persephone’s arrival to the world at the Eleusinia, with this festival it is truly the beautiful blooming season in which plant life flourishes and the young growth slowly begins to ripen.

These first fruits of spring is a significant part of Thargelia, as well as for Delphi as the offering of first fruits were given to Apollon by the maidens of Parnassus as a gift that celebrated the death of Python. The making of a first fruits sacrifice is a little awkward by today’s standards because through our commercial market, and the use of greenhouses, we are more likely to get any kind of food we can desire any time of the year. The association between seasons and foodstuff has become almost nonexistent today and only touches most of us by an adjustment in consumer prices. Still we can honor the concept of the sacrifice through making the traditional thargelos, or thargos as it is also called. Just about everyone who celebrates this festival makes this food as a first fruits offering to Apollon. The first fruits of the traditional thargelos consisted of young grain as the first fruits of the crops, but it can be tweaked to your locality and tastes. There are those who do not eat the Thargelos, but instead offer it entirely to Apollon. This seems to be contrary though when compared to most feasts in Hellenic literature that involved sacrifices to the god. In fact it seems it would be more insulting to not partake of it, rather like a host refusing to eat with his guest, and contrary to the spirit of xeneia.

The sharing of the thargelos should be at the heart of your ritual after inviting the select gods who are attending. As usual you should invite Hestia, Zeus and Hera. As the guests of honor you would invite Apollon, Artemis, Leto, Themis, Eileithyia, and Aphrodite. And the body of the ritual can contain poems you find or make to the holy twins and their mother. There is actually a fair amount out there both ancient and contemporary for this trio so you shouldn’t have any difficult with that. Music, like most of Apollon’s festivals, is an important contribution. A charming addition to the ritual for those with families or friends to participate would be to put on a small scale “torch race” in the evening where participants can race with harmless, but merry colored, sparklers in the yard. While this is not an exact copy of the torch races of Delos, I think it is a fun alternative, particularly when children are involved in the games. This is as a fun way to celebrate the festival all leading to the culmination with the labyrinth-inspired Crane Dance around the altar, and the closing of the ritual.