[irisrainbowplumed]

rosa 🩷 she/he/it

queer, disabled, greek american, minor

follower of the theoi, i also venerate heroes and christian saints (as well as the virgin mary)

my blog is religious. others can interact but be respectful.

🧿 terfs, zionists and other bigots (racists, homo/transphobes) will be blocked immediately. 🧿

(x / x)

[nardialrose]

Black People in Ancient Antiquity Art

High-handled kantharos in the form of two heads, Attic black-figure ceramic, attributed to the London Class, c. 510–480 BCE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Panagyurishte treasure depicting concentric circles of African Heads, Thracian, late 4th-early 3rd cent. BCE. Modern day Bulgeria. Getty Musuem.

Caricatured Odysseus and Kirke. Kabirion kantharos, Boeotian BF, London, British Museum. 450-375 BC. Photograph Alexandre G. Mitchel

Skyphos depicting Odysseus at sea and with Circe, Boeotian black-figure ceramic, attributed to the Cabirion Group, c. fourth century BCE. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

During the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., the Greeks renewed contacts with the northern periphery of Africa. They established settlements and trading posts along the Nile River and at Cyrene on the northern coast of Africa. Already at Naukratis, the earliest and most important of the trading posts in Africa, Greeks were certainly in contact with Africans. All black Africans were known as Ethiopians to the ancient Greeks, as the fifth-century B.C. historian Herodotus tells us, and their iconography was narrowly defined by Greek artists in the Archaic (ca. 700–480 B.C.) and Classical (ca. 480–323 B.C.) periods, black skin color being the primary identifying physical characteristic. It is recorded that Ethiopians were among King Xerxes’ troops when Persia invaded Greece in 480 B.C. Thus, the Greeks would have come into contact with large numbers of Africans at this time. Nonetheless, most ancient Greeks had only a vague understanding of African geography. They believed that the land of the Ethiopians was located south of Egypt. In Greek mythology, the pygmies were the African race that lived furthest south on the fringes of the known world, where they engaged in mythic battles with cranes. Ethiopians were considered exotic to the ancient Greeks and their features contrasted markedly with the Greeks’ own well-established perception of themselves. The black glaze central to Athenian vase painting was ideally suited for representing black skin, a consistent feature used to describe Ethiopians in ancient Greek literature as well. Ethiopians were featured in the tragic plays of Aeschylus, Sophokles, and Euripides; and preserved comic masks, as well as a number of vase paintings from this period, indicate that Ethiopians were also often cast in Greek comedies. Well into the fourth century B.C., Ethiopians were regularly featured in Greek vase painting, especially on the highly decorative red-figure vases produced by the Greek colonies in southern Italy.

-Hemingway, S. and Hemingway, C.. (2008). Africans in Ancient Greek Art. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/afrg/hd_afrg.htm. More art examples founded on the website.

[evilios]

Do you mind if I add some bits from my own archives?

This pretty Etruscan oinochoe with a head/face of a young African from the 4th century BCE. Photo credit: 🏺

Or my absolute favorite ancient bust of Memnon, a pupil of a Roman statesman! It dates back to the 2nd century CE. Photo credit: 🏺 🏺

Or maybe this book I personally entirely enjoyed written by Frank M. Snowden Jr., "Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman experience". He also wrote "Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks" which I have not yet read but most definitely want to!

[bodysnatch3r]

Some more sources on Blackness/Race in Classical antiquity:

Classics and Race: A Historical Reader, edited by Sarah Derbew, Daniel Orrells and Phiroze Vasunia (2025)

The Cambridge Companion to Classics and Race, edited by Rosa Andújar, Elena Giusti and Jackie Murray (2026)

“The Roman Roots of Racial Capitalism: What an Ancient Empire Can Teach Us about Diversity,” The Berlin Journal, Vol. 34, 2020-21: 16-20 by one of my heroes, Nandini Pandey!

And the absolutely seminal, groundbreaking book Classicisms and Other Phobias by Dan-el Padilla Peralta (2025)

[kika-ila]

Iris!🌈

[thesunnahthebetter]

the trees told me all sorts of secrets this fall

[thecollectibles]

Virgo by Artem Chebokha

[ponzonyera]

This beautiful clay figurine of Hekate was shared on Instagram by Carla Ionescu (@artemisexpert). I only wanted to show this horse faced depiction of the goddess, found on the Sanctuary of the Meter Theon (Mother of the Gods) at Demetrias. It dates to Hellenistic Age (3rd–2nd century BCE according to Carla), and currently it is kept at the Volos Archaeological Museum (Magnesia, Greece). You can see some of the most characteristic attributes of Hekate like the torch and the polos crown, but also the drum or tympanum maybe depicted here because of the relationship with Kybele.

(If you have an Instagram account I totally encourage to follow Carla, having the opportunity to know ancient temples and other archaeological artifacts shown with academic rigor.)

[bodhi-devotee]

While reading a hymn to the originally Egyptian, now worldly goddess Isis, I found the words applied to interpretations of Kybele/Cybele as well. Comparing their stories and domains only affirmed this. My view of Kybele includes her taking on the offices of Gaia, Rhea, and Hera, in the same way Zeus takes on the role of His forefathers and becomes the "beginning, the middle, and the end of all things". I believe this is a cosmology shared by Emperor Julian, but that's beginning to veer towards off topic.

When taking into consideration this interpretation of Kybele, her being the source of all material existence, of all gods and men, a syncretzation between her and Isis naturally falls together. I’ve talked about viewing the divine, the names and rituals human cultures build, as simply being our way of dividing and labeling a greater cosmic force for our better understanding. I believe there is a strong case that Isis and Kybele are of the same cosmic force; that Kybele and Isis have been refined into seperate autonomous and interactive spirits by humanity’s interaction with and interpetation of the same, ultimately undefinable cosmic force— the force that spurs Creation, Generation, Earth, and the natural world. (Don’t even get me started on the similarities between Kybele and Parvati/Durga!)

I decided to research to see if this syncretization was historically attested. I found someone who conducted their thesis on the subject, specifically in reference to the two goddesses sharing a physical worship cite at Pompeii. This specific theory is very speculative, which the author is the first to admit. But! The essay itself contains fantastic arguments and evidence supporting a well-spread historical syncretization of Kybele and Isis. It was a treat to read, and I decided to pull some of my favorite passages to share with you all. I encourage you to read the original text, linked below.

Mothers of the Gods: A Case for Syncretism in the Cybele and Isis Cults at Pompeii by Robert Caudill

Just a moment of further ado: Please let me know what you think of the passages, of the theory, of my interpretation of Kybele-Isis, or any experiences you have with those goddesses, synchronized or individual! This is an eager invitation for discussion, so sound off however makes you comfortable. Your voice is worth hearing and can enrich those around you, you just gotta use it! Now, the excerpts:

"An inscription marking the rebuilding of a temple at Malcesine notes a dedication to both Cybele (Matri Deum) and Isis for the temple. In this instance, there appears to have been a single temple to both the goddesses, and that they were sharing a ritual space in some capacity. The date for this inscription is unknown, so where the inscription falls in the timeline is unclear, but would seem to provide an example of the cults of Isis and Cybele interacting in a convergent manner. […] Vermaseren further notes a temple of Isis at Eritria that housed and shared space with Cybele."

“Both Cybele and Isis share the epithet of being mother gods. Cybele’s other Latin names by which she is referred, Magna Mater and Mater Deum, literally mean “Great Mother” and “Mother of the Gods.” Isis is occasionally found to have such titles attached to her as well, with an Alexandrian priest of “Isis the Great Mother of the Gods” being attested in the second century BCE, and a dedication at Delos to “Isis, Mother of the Gods, Astarte. In Book XI of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, the narrator Lucius has a vision of Isis, who tells him of all the other names she is known by, including the “Mother of gods at Pessinus” to the Phrygians, a reference to her and Cybele being one and the same. With Apuleius writing in the century following the destruction of Pompeii, and possibly being an initiate of the cult, this could indicate at least some association between the goddesses within the cult of Isis by that point.”

“The mythological backgrounds concerning Cybele and Isis also offer some points of convergence to consider. The story of Cybele and her consort Attis involves the latter going mad and castrating himself, resulting in his death. Cybele then repents her actions, which caused Attis’ madness, and asks Zeus to grant that Attis’ body “should neither rot nor decay.” The idea of Attis surviving, though not necessarily being resurrected, is an idea that carried on into the Roman adaptation of the cult; that Attis is “saved from dissolution” and that “his disappearance is neither total nor final.” When the Romans adopted Cybele, a “strong emphasis” was put on fertility... Attis, though not necessarily deified, also has some impact on the idea of fertility in the cult of Cybele, as his cycle of sleep and reawakening in the mythological context is likened to seasonal changes as they pertain to agriculture. A strong similarity is present with the cult of Isis, as her husband Osiris is killed and then dismembered by his brother Set. Isis eventually restores his dismembered body, except for the phallus, and he is restored to life by the gods. Like Attis, Osiris’ restoration from death brings about the equation with seasonal fertility cycles.”

“A variety of different iconographic examples of Cybele and lions, in particular Cybele riding or being pulled in a chariot by a lion or lions, can be found throughout the Mediterranean world. Within the riding type, there are specifically the images of Cybele riding a lion in a side-saddle pose as the lion is shown bounding towards the right of the image. This type of iconography appears commonly within the Roman context. [...] While these examples are all from the second century CE or later, there is evidence to suggest that this iconographic image was used in conjunction with Cybele even earlier, with Cybele/Rhea being identified as the goddess riding a lion in a similar pose on the Pergammon Altar, constructed in the second century BCE. This intersects with Isis during the reign of Vespasian, when a coin was produced that included an image of the Iseum Campense on the reverse of the coin. On the pediment is an image that bears a striking resemblance to the images of Cybele riding a lion, but is identified by Turcan as being Isis riding the dog Sothis. Fourth century vota publica coins also bear the images of Isis seated on Sothis in a similar manner, this time clearly holding a cornucopia as well, which brings it even more in line with many of the Cybele images of this type. The significance, if any, of this parallel in imagery is not readily apparent, but it does provide what would appear to be an additional point of convergence in the cults, even if that convergence is just on a superficial level. The incomplete and fragmentary nature of the archaeological record makes it difficult to determine the exact time when each of these cults begins using this type of image, but would seem to stretch back to at least around the time of her importation to Rome with Cybele...”

"Also at Rhamnous, two votive inscriptions to Agdistis and Isis dating to the second and third centuries CE have been found. The legacy of shared space may go back even further, as a Hellenistic shrine to Cybele and Attis at Amphipolis, in Macedonia, was found to contain votive figures and a relief of Cybele, as well as a dedicatory inscription to Isis, Serapis, and Adonis. Again, the documentation provided for the Amphipolis example gives little contextual detail, and so only provides tentative evidence, but still lends some possible credence to the idea of convergence between the cults in this manner."

"In excavations between 1999 and 2001 in the commercial center of Mainz (formerly Mogontiacum), Germany, a portion of a sacred area was discovered which contained a sanctuary to Isis and Cybele... a complex of structures enclosed by a large wall was found, and is identified as sacred space to Isis and Cybele by way of the votive deposits and dedicatory inscriptions to the two goddess found there. [...] If the practice of sharing a cult center between Isis and Cybele had reached a city on the edge of the empire by the end of the reign of Vespasian in 79 CE, then the sharing of ritual space between these two particular goddesses may not have been a completely unknown practice much closer to Rome, in Pompeii, by that time."

[deliriumclub]

photography from abalone shells exhibition

[prairiebeetle]

while it's really wonderful that Hellenic polytheism has developed such an active and vibrant community, its popularity (& the fact that it is by far the largest group within pagan/polytheist spaces) is obviously related to our cultural obsession with the supposed foundations of 'western civilization' and the ubiquity of classics education - which is still considered a basic necessity in much of the english-speaking world due in large part to its role in 19th c. english society & (by extension) the british imperial enterprise.

and that's not inherently bad, insofar as we can't control where our cultural quirks come from, but far too many in this religion are ignorant of the negative repercussions of that legacy; how classics scholarship, archaeology, and conceptions of antiquity have been used to rhetorically justify colonial violence & expansionism; how classical art & imagery influenced the aesthetics of science and contributed to medical racism, misogyny, and transphobia; how cultural chauvinism and orientalism continues to shape so much of our world; how classics education has acted as a status marker for most of recent history and implicitly tied to wealth, value, 'intelligence', &c.

it's extremely important for practitioners to have an understanding of this history and to spend some time deconstructing their own perceptions and assumptions. knowledge production and preservation have always been deeply political processes, and it's so easy to inadvertently perpetuate misinformation or harmful ideology when you're ignorant of the contemporary context that created a source or an interpretation thereof (particularly within a scholarly tradition that's nearly as old as the source material itself!).

to be clear, these things are not the fault of the religion per se, but it's important to be aware of the intellectual alignment of the sources you engage with and people you associate with when constructing your practice, and to affirm your own stance in an informed way. our communities may be smaller and less organized than those of some other religions, but we are not immune to reiterating the harms they cause or the problems they experience.

[prairiebeetle]

for those interested in learning more about this subject, the following articles are a great place to start:

Katerina Apokatanidis, "When Greece is not Ancient: Colonialism, Eurocentrism, and Classics," Everyday Orientalism, 2021, https://everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2021/04/27/when-greece-is-not-ancient-colonialism-eurocentrism-and-classics/.

Dani Bostick, "The Classical Roots of White Supremacy," Southern Poverty Law Center, 2021, https://www.splcenter.org/resources/stories/the-classical-roots-of-white-supremacy/.

Nima Shirazi & Adam Johnson, "'Western Civilization' and White Supremacy," Citations Needed [podcast], 2019, https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-82-western-civilization-and-white-supremacy-the-right-wing-co-option-of-antiquity.

Jamie Mackay, "The whitewashing of Rome," aeon, 2021, https://aeon.co/essays/colonialism-is-built-on-the-rubble-of-a-false-idea-of-ancient-rome.

Justine McConnell, "An Introduction to Postcolonialism and Classics," APGRD (University of Oxford), 2011, https://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/learning/introductions-to/postcolonialism-and-classics.

Steven Mintz, "Through the Lens of Classical Antiquity," Inside Higher Ed., 2024, https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/higher-ed-gamma/2024/09/23/enduring-influence-classical-greece-and-rome.

I also strongly recommend both Pharos (especially "Ancient Orientalism in Modern White Ethnonationalism," "Greco-Roman Antiquity, the Basis of White Identity," and "Report: White Supremacy and the Past and Future of Classics Roundtable") and Eidolon (including "Western Imperialism in the Classics Classroom," "Confronting Classics' Complicity in White Supremacy," and "The Racist Application of DNA Science to Classical Antiquity."

for further reading (if you have institutional or other access), consider:

Katherine Blouin & Ben Akrigg (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Classics, Colonialism, and Postcolonial Theory, Routledge, 2025.

Mark Bradley (ed.), Classics and Imperialism in the British Empire, Oxford University Press, 2010.

Christopher Hagerman, Britain's Imperial Muse: The Classics, Imperialism, and the Indian Empire, 1784-1914, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Ashton Kingdon, "Hooked on Classics: The Far Right's Appropriation of Ancient Greece and Rome," The World White Web, 2024.

Phiroze Vasunia, The Classics and Colonial India, Oxford University Press, 2013.

(not out yet but looks promising) Helen Roche & Denise Eileen McCoskey (eds.), Abusing Antiquity?: Classics and the Contemporary Far Right, Bloomsbury, 2026.

it wouldn't hurt to check out the Multiculturalism, Race & Ethnicity in Classics Consortium's list of suggested resources, either.

[yanelyaguilarart]

Happy Pride Month!! 💜💙💚💛🧡♥️

Here’s my take on Iris, Greek goddess of the rainbow 🌈

So happy with how she turned out 🩷

[cervine-arctophile]

angelica maria zorrilla

[princess-critter]

flower rings 1, 2, 3

[kebriones]

A young princess of Thebes, doesn't know she's pregnant yet. She's incredibly optimistic and happy about life. She likes spending time outdoors (much to everyone's chagrin) and dreams of finding the courage to ask Zeus to just take her away from her miserable family and let her live with nymphs on some island far away. (Dionysus looks A LOT like his mom.)

[expressions-of-nature]

by Donna McL

[medusaspeach]

just a few sketches - a river god with a couple of his daughters.

[j-k-i-ng]

“Sacred Valley“ by | Lijah Hanley

[vitterdotter]

I truly believe being able to name the world around you is integral to animism. learn the names of plants and flowers. learn how the rocks and soil you walk over daily form. sit with the streams and rivers, learn where they flow to and from. learn the names others have given, and give them your own as well. animism is interconnectedness, and one simple step is learning the names of your neighbors

[ellam4r1a]

What kind of relationship do the species in your local forest have with each other? What type of forest is it and what kind of plants like to grow there? Do the plants whose names you're learning like to grow in moist or dry spots? When do they bloom? Is your local forest in its natural state or has it been handled by humans? How can you tell?

My journey in forest mapping has brought up a lot of these questions. It's not just learning the names of plants, it's also learning about their growth environments and what makes them different. Some plants are indicators of a specific forest type. It's learning about the relationships between different species; some of them like to grow together. I have to look at the history of the forest and the structural features of it... etc.

It has been very cool to notice how my appreciation for different types of forests has changed. It's nice that I can tell the difference between a really really beautiful and "valuable" forest and less nicer ones. Species mapping has truly been amazing for my practice. It has opened up whole new layers of love for nature beyond just "oh wow what a pretty flower."

[ulfheoinn-screaming-well]

"that is a plant and it matters to me, i want to learn about it because plant business is my business" - genuinely a life changing quote from Simon Barnes. His books aren't spiritual or talk about animism really directly but they talk about making it so nature matters to you. And are fillrd with practical tips on how to start with botany or bird watching or really any hobby in which you're observing nature. which can seem overwhelming there's so much to see and experence in nature. His books make it seem manageable and give great jumping off points. I recommend rewild yourself and how to be a bad botanist!