can you tell me more about historical practices in lesbos? i want to get into recon stuff and i feel drawn to lesbos
Ooh, of course! I know a bit.
Okay so in Lesbos they spoke the Aeolic dialect instead of the Attic. So in Lesbos it wasn’t Helios, it was Áēlios. I’d recommend looking into Aeolic Ancient Greek sometime.
Secondly, look into Sappho. The Adonia, a festival for Adonis, a mortal lover of Aphrodite, was celebrated in Lesbos as stated by this fragment:
Girls:
Delicate Adonis is dying, Aphrodite – what should we do?
Aphrodite:
Beat your breasts, daughters, and rend your dresses.
— SAPPHO: A New Translation of the Complete Works
Diane Raylor
I also do know that Dionysus was honoured on lesbos, as stated here:
The vintage was an event of joyful and seasonally determined communality as well as of economic significance, and the evidence for it being accom- panied by Dionysiac celebration is found throughout antiquity. In the pastoral romance Daphnis and Chloe by Longus (c. AD 200), erotic desire at a vintage festival on Lesbos is said to be appropriate to ‘a festival of Dionysos and the birth of wine’ (2.2.1). — Gods and Heroes: Dionysus
Tips for Getting into Region Specific Recon
Study who exactly was worshipped in each region. Take notes of the cultic practices in Lesbos, such as the Adonia (but tbh most research about Adonis is absolute trash so it’s more trouble than it’s worth.)
Try to find out books about the local calendar, festivals, etc. You’re going to want to try to reconstruct a calendar.
Read & learn about local mythology! For example, Sappho’s fragment 17 in Diane Raylor’s SAPPHO: A translation of the complete works
We know substantially more about the content of this fragment from a recent papyrus discovery (Burris, Fish and Obbink 2014). We follow their text. It represents a cultic hymn, which apparently was performed by a mixed chorus of young women and adult women (lines 13–14). The song refers to a story, preserved in Odyssey (3.169–75), according to which Menelaos and some of the other heroes who fought at Troy stopped at the island of Lesbos on their way back to ask the gods for direction. The women celebrate a festival in commemoration of the one organized by these heroes. The song was probably performed at the shrine of Hera, Zeus, and Dionysos in the middle of the island (see lines 9–10). The women’s chorus (and Sappho) privilege the female deity, Hera, in their song over the two male gods also venerated at the shrine.
The Lesbians worshipped Zeus, Hera, and Dionysos (Semele’s son) together in a temple which has been situated at Mesa north of Pyrrha in the middle of the island (Pfrommer 1986).
— SAPPHO: A New Translation of the Complete Works
Diane Raylor
Just make sure that the sources & material you get is good, as there has been plenty of bad scholarship.
I hope your day is lovely and that your recon will be easy! Remember to go at your own place and take care of yourself.