Kanathia Festival

Every year there was a procession from Argos to Nauplia. Priestesses of Hera and attendants would escort the statue of Hera to the spring Kanathos where they would bathe her image according to the sacred purification rites. It is said when the statue emerged from the water Hera Teleia became a maiden once more, Hera Parthenos, pure and virginal.

It is assumed this purification ritual is to prepare Hera for her marriage to Zeus. In modern day it is believed the spring is the one that runs through a nunnery, Agia Moni.

Please note: a name for this ritual is not currently known. I chose Kanathia among other suggestions for this ritual as a nod to its namesake, the Kanathos spring. This is a festival specific to the Argolid. Pausanias 2.38.2-3

Meditating on the Gods

Currently while I meditate I cannot do so without having a focus - my breath, a word or phrase, or a distant point.

I would like to further my meditation practice now, and have chosen a few sources of words or phrases to say, relating to Hellenic Polytheism, that I would like to share with you.

Delphic Maxims

There are 147 maxims to choose from, so no shortage of inspiration here. Particular favourites of mine that I'm looking forward to using are:

Philosophy

I am currently rereading Marcus Aurelius' Meditations (yes, really) and am slowly gathering lines from his collection to use, including:

Additionally there are many other philosophical ideals or schools of thought that you could pursue. You may have heard some of these under the term "pillars of hellenismos," which is nonsense and a term originally coined by authors of no worth. But the virtues and ideals themselves are worthy of investigation. My favourites include:

The Gods

Finally, the gods themselves. Repeating a gods name or an epithet I wish to connect to sounds like the perfect way to direct my thoughts in their favour.

There is also the option of Theoi or Agathoi Theoi to encompass the pantheon as a whole.

These are just a few of my ideas so far. meditation is just one method of bringing calm, focus, to clear your mind, and a tool to help develop ideas. I hope these help you, and if you have more to add of your own feel free!

- Dimitri Sourias, In Search of Eileithyia and Aphrodite Pandemos, in: Kulte und Heiligtümer in Griechenland Neue Funde und Forschungen, 2017

Mary Barnard

People who boast that their practice is freer or more personal, overwhelming, all encompassing etc. than others do just as much damage with their holier-than-thou attitude than the people they think they are competing against.

Because it’s not a competition. It’s religion. You’ve lost sight of what’s important. You do you. Let me do me, or them do them, and focus on the joy it brings you instead.

Dralion • Ballare

💐 May Apollo look kindly upon you and yours

May Asklepios oversee treatment with a watchful eye

May the healing be swift and may life bloom in colourful abundance

Sappho, Fragment 21 [tr. Anne Carson]

Arneis Festival of Argos

Arneios, the lamb-month, is so named for a myth unique to the Argolid.

Apollon and Psamathe, who was either a nymph or a mortal princess, had a son named Linos Αίνος. Psamathe attempted to hide her indiscretion from her father by concealing the baby boy amongst the new lambs. The baby, left cold and exposed, was attacked and consumed by sheepdogs. Psamathe’s grief at the discovery was so great she gave away her secret and her father had her killed.

Apollon was enraged at the deaths and sent a plague to Argos, targeting the very young. His oracle, presumably the Pythia upon the Larissa, declared to the city that the only way to rid themselves of the cursed plague was to propitiate Psamathe and Linos with sacrifices and lamentations, thus creating the lamb-festival Arneis or Arnis Ἀρνίς. The Argives also vowed to kill any dog that entered the agora during the three solemn days dedicated to their memory, nicknaming the festival Kynophotis Κυνοφόντις (dog-killing).

Personal Worship

To honour Linos and Psamathe in the Argive month of Arneios I abstain from eating any meat from sheep, and refrain from red meat whenever possible. As I have a pet dog, I have fashioned a braided white wool collar for him to wear during the three days of Arneis. White wool was commonly used in purity rituals. This is along with typical offerings, libations, and songs sung in memory of the two deaths and others caused by the plague, as well as prayers for the living.

Theogamia

Hear me, wing-footed Iris, and rejoice!

Today we celebrate millennia of love in this cherished union.

This heiros gamos, this sacred marriage

Shines with hope and lasting cheer

Beloved Hera and Zeus, our King and Queen

Delight in their abiding alliance

I pray you fly fast, sweet messenger,

and sing of my felicitations

On this joyous day

I know this is overquoted but I can't get over it I just can't.

Herakles Alexikakos, averter of evils, hear my prayer:

Orphic Hymn 11, partial

Today, 8th of Gamos (Argos) I pray to Poseidon Prosklystios to spare us his wrath.

The epic Poet painted you a demon

Giving you shadows that stretched millennia

Tormenting and following you like no other

But he did not utter lies when he called your rage

Ceaseless, unending, spilling over from your chest

The very cage of your lungs not enough to contain

The incurable, all-devouring power burning within you

And forever after were you associated

With the raw-eating lion, not just the docile cattle

As like a beast you descended upon Troy