Greek Pagan - Blog Posts

Temple of Apollo Palatinus.

The greatness of Apollo in Rome was not just about arts, but politics and military, since he was tutelary deity of Republican Court.

When, in 36 bC, Octavian August won against Sexus Pompey's troops, he thanked Apollo for his providential action and so built a temple on Palatine Hill. The choice of the place upon which was guided by a divine manifastion, e.g in the same place where a lightning fell inside an August's property on Palatine Hill.

Inside the temple (it says that it had ivory doors and magnificent bas-reliefs) there was a sculptural group, object of worship: Apollo, his sister Diana and their mother Leto.

There were kept Sibylline Books, because Apollo was also God of Divination.

‹‹ Ό φίλος άλλος έαυτός ››

‹‹ The friend is another me. ›› said Phytagoras, showing a relationship of deep harmony between two persons, an unbreakable love and woven between the souls that melt inevitably.

Ancient greek world and its language descrive three different faces of love, all of them classifications that, according to Greeks, happen in human world: Ἔρως, Άγάπη, Φιλία (Eros, Agapee, Philia).

Eros means physical and passionable love, where it shows the desire to possess the other one and bases on a continuous give and receive.

Agape is, instead, celestial love, pure, bright that raises humans. A cosmic love that drive to desire the good for others before ours, that pushes to love every person beyond the fact that he/her/h* can deserve our love. It is, then, a love that sublimes, that makes you fly high, that asks for nothing in change because, as Kahlil Gibran said: "Love is enough for love" A disinterested love, trascendent and far from all selfishness. Near to charity, in fact, agape becomes God's love for the men, and from the men to God. It's a model of a relationship lighted by reciprocity, understood as overcoming of selfishness.

At the end, there's Philia, the friendship, brotherly love. A human love made of pure affection, attraction and sympathy, characterised by a feeling of joy that you can feel staying with the other. A love knows how to lull, confort and protect.

Greeks were very wise to distinguish every kind of love in a maniacal way.

here down different types for saying "I love you" in ancient greece.

Ψυχὴ καί Θανατος (psyche kai thanatos) would whisper uninhibited greek women during sex. The translation loses his meaning (You're my soul and my death), but along with aspirates and assonances, they made it a powerful aphrodisiac.

Διαπετομαι, "fly" or, as we say today, "cum". "To make love" can be translated with κατεύδειν.

Σοι φλήγω, "glow of love for you". It's a clue of strong passion, generally led by Eros. Then the fault is Eros': Ἔρως επὴ μοι κατεθεχατο τοχα καί ιὺς, for "Eros sharpened me with arches and arrows), but these are better for poetry than in the bed.

Τιτροσκώ συ πὸθω means "I'm pierced by desire for you". It means the moment of excitement before love.

Ση πειρώ, in military words can mean being pierced from side to side with a sword, then it specialized also in erotc sense, with the meaning of "I'm pierced of love for you".

The Theocritus Χος ιδον ος εμανην "As I saw you, I god mad" like the formula for "since I first saw you".

Μαινόμαι επή σὸι, "I'm crazy for you".

Σιουναρπαζεις, e.g "You stole my soul" express the strenght and the speed of amorous ignition that in an all-encompassing way hit the loved one.

But fortunately Love is not only pain and absolute passion: ιανεις καρδιαν , means "You warm my heart".

Σ'ηρώ is exactly our "I love you": commonly, less recent, more polyvalent: if instead of common feelings, you can say Σ'αγαπώ; in more carnal and heroic way (only Homer and Archilochus used it) you can say Σ'ηραμαι.

Σοι τερπομαι, means "I'm happy when I'm with you", to a friend, a son or a dear, you can name them with Σε φιλώ, e.g "I love you".

‹‹ Καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθός ››

‹‹ beautiful and good ››

In Ancient Greece kindness and beauty go hand in hand. Valorous Heroes and Powerful Gods are always described with a particular beauty and their brightness is one of the most important characteristic.

In Homer's Greek, eyes are sparkling, the skin is bright and etc, those aspects are translated as "blue eyes", "milky white skin", "golden hair". Lexicon of the colours in ancient greek is also pretty problematic, more than the real shades of eyes and hair, in those texts what matters is properly the level of brightness, because Deities are associated to light, so that Gods and Demi-gods shine.

Also in the next eras the binomial "good and beautiful" benefits of great success: in the greek arts, where beauty canons require beautiful and regular lineaments, also in portraiture of real persons, who appear all uniformly beautiful, similar and without defects (wrinkles, moles, receding hairline...)

Pretty different is, however, Roman portraiture, that goes to realism and made it its main goal.

In Homeric Poems, ugliness and deformity are associated to the viles, untrustworthy, envious. Later, the discourse is modified, because ugliness becomes an allegory and is applied to monsters fought by heroes.

"The strenght of the good is refugee in the nature of the Beautiful", wrote Platon. The beauty of physique corresponds to the moral perfection, according ancient greeks.

ΓΕΝΕΣΙΑ

- Towards to Autumn Equinox, when military campaigns ended, in Athens there were Genesias (a.k.a. Nemesia): funeral festivals where they honored their ancestors, specially the ones dead in battle.

- During the day, they offered sacrifices to Gea with public worship, while in private they went to family graves to clean them and tell about the ones who there was not anymore. At the end, to their own ancestors, they offered vases full of (olive) oil.

- This festival is well suited to the feeling that permeated ancestors worship: when Nature started its own descent in Underworld, social and spiritual actions would reflected it too.

... Ἥρη δὲ κραιπνῶς προσεβήσετο Γάργαρον ἄκρον Ἴδης ὑψηλῆς· ἴδε δὲ νεφεληγερέτα Ζεύς. ὡς δ' ἴδεν, ὥς μιν ἔρως πυκινὰς φρένας ἀμφεκάλυψεν, οἷον ὅτε πρῶτόν περ ἐμισγέσθην φιλότητι εἰς εὐνὴν φοιτῶντε, φίλους λήθοντε τοκῆας.....

---Hera reached quickly the top of Mount Gargano on the high Ida, and she saw Zeus gathering the clouds, and when he saw, passion (ἔρως) invaded his wise soul, as when for the first time they bonded in love and went to the bed, unknown to his parents----

(Illiad -  XIV, 293-295)

Once Zeus took his power, decided to take to wife and noticed the beauty, worthy to became the Gods' Queen, in his sister Hera, who lived isolated in Eubea's Island, along with her nurse Makris, in the house of Thetis. Since it was very difficult getting close to her, because she watched assiduously over the nurse 'cause of her early age, in a cold winter day, when Hera were by chance alone and lost in a country roead, Zeus used a strategy and in the form of a cuckoo numb and shaking from cold, he leaned of her shoulder. The Goddess took pity and warmed him up with her robe, starting to caressing him. The cuckoo transformed himself in an handsome and attractive boy who made himself known as Zeus, who declared his love to the Goddess and asked her hand. Heca accepted, so the wedding were celebrated on the Olympus at all Gods presence. The wedding between Zeus and Hera is ofter told as an happy marriage even if Zeus had lot of nymphs and mortal women as lovers, whom in the end these unions were symbolics, for example to indicate what the Earth needed  rains to be fecundated, or the Moon runs through the vault of heaven from east to west. These adventures sparked the jealousy of Hera and lot of poets attributed this kind of jealousy to heaven events, even it is told that the king and the queen of heaven, with their fights determinated rough hurricanes and cold winters. Despite everything, the divine lovers continued to be perhaps the only durable in the Olympus and from the marriage of Zeus and Hera were born four children: Hebe, Eileithyia, Ares and Hephestus

Hekatombaia

Hekatombaia were festivities in honor of Apollo, God of Sun, in which were executed an enormous sacrifice of 100 bulls (here the name hekatombaia, in Italian "ecatombe"). Along with the bulls, also sheep and poultry were sacrificed and offered to people for feasting in God's bless. During the day also were performed musicals and poetics competitions.

Adonie

Yesterday (19/20) was in July the second celebration of God Adonis, the first was in March.

During this day one untied the procession in which sacred pictures of God Adonis and Goddess Aphrodite were magnified through the streets of the city. All were surrounded by flowers and fruits; plus, “Adonis’ Gardens” were carried during the processions, i.e. terracotta vases with little plants to thrown overboard as offering. 

July parties, as opposed to funerals in March, celebrated the Passional Love between Goddess Aphrodite and God Adonis.

ρθροφοιτοσυκοφαντοδικοπαλαίπωροι, τρόποι

The unhappy habit to get up in the early morning to attend tribunals dealing with (stupid) judgments and convictions

In the beginning there were Chaos and Nyx and the black Erebus and the wide Tartarus, but there were not Earth, nor Air, nor Sky; and in the wide hole of Erebus, first of all Nyx of black wings created an egg raised by the wind, from where in the cyrcle returning seasons bloomed Eros the Desirable, with his refulgent back from two golden wings, similar to speedy whirlwinds. And he at night blending with winged Chaos, in the wide Tartarus, hatched our people, and firstly brought to the light. Until then there were not immortal seed, before Eros mixed everything; but being mixed each other, birthed Uranus and Oceanus, and Earth and seed without destruction of all blessed Gods.

Aristophanes, The Birds -  693-702

Pluto [Plouton], magnanimous, whose realms profound are fix'd beneath the firm and solid ground, In the Tartarian plains remote from fight, and wrapt forever in the depths of night; Terrestrial Jove [Zeus Khthonios], thy sacred ear incline, and, pleas'd, accept thy mystic's hymn divine. Earth's keys to thee, illustrious king belong, its secret gates unlocking, deep and strong. 'Tis thine, abundant annual fruits to bear, for needy mortals are thy constant care. To thee, great king, Avernus is assign'd, the seat of Gods, and basis of mankind. Thy throne is fix'd in Hade's dismal plains, distant, unknown to rest, where darkness reigns; Where, destitute of breath, pale spectres dwell, in endless, dire, inexorable hell; And in dread Acheron, whose depths obscure, earth's stable roots eternally secure. O mighty dæmon, whose decision dread, the future fate determines of the dead, With captive Proserpine [Kore], thro' grassy plains, drawn in a four-yok'd car with loosen'd reins, Rapt o'er the deep, impell'd by love, you flew 'till Eleusina's city rose to view; There, in a wond'rous cave obscure and deep, the sacred maid secure from search you keep, The cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display an entrance to the kingdoms void of day. Of unapparent works, thou art alone the dispensator, visible and known. O pow'r all-ruling, holy, honor'd light, thee sacred poets and their hymns delight: Propitious to thy mystic's works incline, rejoicing come, for holy rites are thine.  

click here for the Ancient Greek version