I mean I want to respect people's religions but tbh as a greek I don't think I can ever take hellenic polytheists on tumblr seriously. I'm sorry but it just feels so foreign to me, like they have just read a bunch of books of the subject. They might be "fans" of ancient greece but what they supposedly worship lacks the soul of what our ancestors religion has. There is just nothing "greek" about it. (I hope I don't sound too much like an nationalist there, I hate nationalism)
No, look, I understand. Obviously you and I are for freedom of religion and expression. But not all religions have to make sense to you in order to support them or the people in them. Also, this particular religion is part of our heritage so I believe we can speak on it a little bit. It’s understandable to see a part of your heritage being used by foreigners in ways you don’t recognize. And it’s a strange feeling indeed because the religion originated and sculpted by the Greeks (with influences of course!).
I suppose that you, as I, agree that anyone can have any religion. Nothing stops me from becoming a Buddhist and nothing stops a person from the US to become a Hellenic Polytheist. However, I cannot just declare I am a Buddhist and have a prayers and a statue and be done with it. It goes deeper than that. It’s a new philosophy and a way of life I must accept, a way of recognizing the divine differently than before. I have to study and I have to study how Buddhism came to be and what cultures shaped it and follow on their footsteps. Maybe I should also learn a little bit of their language to understand the deeper meaning of hymns and worship.
I see of the worshipers studying a lot to immitate that sense of Greek culture but also keep their own culture (which is good!). Many of the modern worshipers call themselves reconstructionists because they don’t practise the ancient religion (because we don’t have enough info and because it’s the 21st century) but they try to get close to it by studying.
I can say it’s a personal pet peeve of mine as a Greek that they focus only on the ancient Greece and therefore they “miss” the last 1.500-2.000 years of our cultural development. I understand they cannot study everything about Greece. A person cannot know everything. However, personally, I am a little bothered that there are Hellenic Polytheists who can recite classic texts and analyze them for hours but if you ask them ANYTHING about Greek culture after 100 AD they won’t know a single thing about it. There are worshipers who know every single minor Greek deity yet they have never seen a picture of Greek people and they have no idea about our cultural identity, how we view life and how we have evolved the language and the customs of our ancestors.
No wonder you feel the modern practices foreign, even when you are a Greek. It’s because even the most well-read Hellenic Polytheists base their religion solely on a veeeery distant part of our culture. And, in the meantime, the Greek spirit of the ancient faith is kinda lost.
Even Greek Hellenic Polytheists will never fully worship the way their ancestors did. It’s because we are in a different point in history and our society raises us with certain values, which differ from those of our ancients.
But I can get behind Hellenic Polytheists who put in the work to actually study a foreign religion and try to bring it back to life as accuratelly as possible. I may have pet peeves but that doesn’t mean I condemn the way they worship. Plus even in the Hellenic Polytheism community different worshipers have different opinions on the matter of worship. I understand that those people do the best for their faith.
On the other hand, on Tumblr many people are not in a good cultural level yet. They take the religion very superficially. I have seen some Hellenic Polytheist blogs where the owners call some gods EVIL and bash Zeus, the FATHER of the gods!! There is probably lots of reading that needs to be done on their part to understand the basic concepts. Some even try to shape the religion (!!!) after 1.500 years after its “death” (aka its super dramatic decline) by making posts about “secret” myths that predate the Greek ones and try to pass them as canon. Can we forget the time Tumblr created a Greek goddess (Mesperyan)?? Of course you won’t find the smallest mention of Greek customs in these blogs.
Thankfully, I have seen a few blogs that at least talk about the customs of our antiquity and help Hellenic Polytheists learn new customs. I hope the community on this site takes examples from them and continues to mature.
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It’s a huge answer because I felt the subject needed analysis. Let me repeat, we don’t gatekeep anyone from the faith and we don’t accuse the Hellenic Polytheist community of anything! We just discuss how an important part of our ancient culture is revived and what it means to us. How we feel connected and not connected to it. I am sorry if that was hurtful to anyone but, as Greeks, we need to talk about these issues. If we don’t discuss them who will?
Feel free to discuss and add opinions. Please read the whole post before commenting!
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