Something which has concerned me as of late is the rather strenuous expectations the Hellenic community as a whole has about miasma, khernips and katharmos - namely, it seems like the expectation is that lustral water needs to be used EVERY time someone conducts household worship. Could you shed some light on this?
Oh boy, this is a big can of worms youāre handing me - but one Iāll open up with pleasure, because Iāve been thinking about it a lot lately.
Before I begin, I should clarify a couple of things:
as we all know, Ancient Greek religious practise varied from region to region and city to city, and the information we have about many places (especially rural) is limited. For all weāre aware, villagers in Euboea may just have purified themselves by throwing salt at each other. Thracian farmers mightāve done it via an equivalent of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Who knows? Iām exaggerating a bit, but the bottom line is that just because it isnāt attested doesnāt mean it didnāt happen somewhere.
in my opinion, if something works for you and isnāt disrespectful to the Gods, it isnāt a bad thing. Iād rather see happy, genuine, non-historical worship than no worship at all.
I myself am a reconstructionist. Historical continuity matters to me. While Iām aware that we canāt know everything, and that our understanding is constantly evolving alongside academic research, I want my practise to be well-rooted in the past wherever possible. As such, I consider it very important that people with beliefs similar to mine understand Ancient Greek practise as best we can, before we adapt it to suit our modern world.
Iām still learning about this subject. Iām fairly sure the information below is accurate, but if I make any mistakes, please let me know!
That said, letās move on to the fact that many Hellenic polytheistsā interpretation of pollution and purification is, historically, pretty wrong.
We do know that purification before prayer or ritual is important. Ancient texts are clear on this: the Iliad and Odyssey, among many other works, repeatedly show people washing their hands before approaching the Gods (Il. 9.171-172, 16.227-230). It seems that this was most basic and essential act for any type of ritual. At its bones, it was a way of keeping clean before something important, like washing our hands before dinner - in fact, hand-washing before dinner was done in exactly the same way as for ritual (Od. 1.146). The most common description, ĻĪµįæĻĪ±Ļ Ī½ĪÆĻĪµĪ¹Ī½, simply means āto wash oneās handsā.
But something modern Hellenic polytheism seems to have lost is the large variety of religious terms used to describe pollution and purification. Not all kinds of purification were the same. Some were done with simple running water, like the examples above. Others feature what modern Hellenic polytheists call lustral water, or khernips (ĻĪĻĪ½Ī¹Ļ) - fire extinguished in pure water. (Yet others include torches, barley groats and other purifying agents, which weāll leave aside for the purpose of this post.) The point is: all of this is lustral water, but not all of it is khernips, and not all of it was necessary for everyday worship.
Letās take a side-step through the question of miasma and katharmos. These are two highly specific religious terms which are unfortunately often narrowed down to ādirtyā and ācleanā. Miasma (Ī¼ĪÆĪ±ĻĪ¼Ī±), in fact, refers to a metaphorical stain caused by impious behaviour: that is, murder, incest, adultery, sacrilege, and other severe crimes. Jean Rudhardt describes it as āa bloodstain, a defilement attached to the hands of those who did dirty workā and āthe fears of a guilty conscienceā. Miasma affects its surroundings, which is why criminals were exiled and banned from communal rites. Specific purification rites were required, and in fact, this often included the criminalās exclusion from lustral water until their crime was expiated.
Miasma is a bad thing. Average people did not and do not have it. Let me say this again: you do not have miasma. If you do have miasma, please turn yourself into your local police station today.
What you probably do have is lyma (Ī»įæ¦Ī¼Ī±), literally āthe thing you wash awayā. This is pollution caused by common occurrences like birth, death, and sex. You incur it through your everyday life, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not - like by walking past places where people have recently died, or by coming into contact with people who have recently had sex. Lyma is also caused by rightful death, like the execution of a criminal, or killing people on a battlefield. Lyma is not a bad thing.
This is what you wash away with clean, running water before interacting with the Gods. Īy doing this, and by being hosios (į½ ĻĪ¹ĪæĻ, another specific religious term for following the right order of things, conform to the laws which regulate acceptable behaviour towards other humans and Gods), you become katharos (ĪŗĪ±ĪøĪ±ĻĻĻ, pure). This is your natural, human purity.
Did you hear that? Religiously, humans are naturally pure. We need cleansing because of what we do and what happens around us, not because weāre inherently ādirtyā in the Godsā eyes.
Back to purification. By now Iāve established that thereās two types - expiatory rites for miasma, which often prevent you from taking part in religious ceremonies, and clean, running lustral water to wash away your everyday lyma. However, thereās a third type, and this type is khernips.
Khernips literally means āhandwashā. You can still see this meaning in use in the Odyssey, in the often reused lines ĻĪĻĪ½Ī¹Ī²Ī± Ī“ā į¼Ī¼ĻĪÆĻĪæĪ»ĪæĻ ĻĻĪæĻĻįæ³ į¼ĻĪĻĪµĻ Īµ ĻĪĻĪæĻ ĻĪ± / ĪŗĪ±Ī»įæ ĻĻĻ ĻĪµĪÆįæ į½Ļį½²Ļ į¼ĻĪ³Ļ ĻĪĪæĪ¹Īæ Ī»ĪĪ²Ī·ĻĪæĻ / Ī½ĪÆĻĪ±ĻĪøĪ±Ī¹: āthen a handmaid brought khernips in a beautiful golden pitcher and poured it over a basin, so he could washā (Od. 1.136-138, 4.52-54, 7.172-174, etc). But its meaning in Classical Greek religion is very specific: it refers to lustral water in which a burning brand is extinguished, sprinkled on the altar and participants before a major communal sacrifice (ĪøĻ ĻĪÆĪ±, thusia). This water was sacred, and unclean people were not permitted to touch it. According to Jean Rudhardt, this is because khernips was not simply meant to purify you. It was meant to consecrate you - to bring you into that sacred state necessary for important rites.
The bottom line of all this? There are different types of lustral water, just like there are different types of pollution, and not all apply to everyday household worship. While I firmly believe that purification before prayer and ritual is vital, I donāt think we need to do much more than wash our hands. Like I said at the beginning, if the whole extinguishing-fire-in-water thing works well for you, great - and for all we know, maybe it was common in some parts of Ancient Greece! Ancient Greek religion and religious terms are a very complex subject (despite the length of this post, I actually had to gloss over a number of finer points Iām not qualified to discuss) and itās absolutely possible that weāre missing out on something. But as of now, this is what we know, and as a reconstructionist, itās what I choose to draw from.
Lastly, if youāre interested in reading more about the subject, I recommend Jean Rudhardtās Notions fondamentales de la pensĆ©e religieuse et actes constitutifs du culte dans la GrĆØce classique (unfortunately, Iām not sure if you can find it in English?), as well as Robert Parkerās Miasma: Pollution and Purification in early Greek Religion. Lesley Maditinou, a Hellenic reconstructionist, also wrote a thorough and accurate article about the subject here.
I will now close this can of worms, but I hope I was successful in sorting through some of it :)
