ARĒTĒR: THE PRIEST WHO PRAYS A deep-dive into "arētēr" as a path of priesthood. Long post ahead.
You may be reading this because you're interested in priesthood in the context of hellenic polytheism, as informed by Ancient Greek history. We are fortunate to have books written on this topic (such as Portrait of a Priestess by Joan Breton Connelly), as well as scholarly articles plus the blogs of our modern community members doing their deep-dives.
Some enjoy researching these topics for academic reasons, and some in order to reconstruct and revive paths of hellenic polytheist priesthood in modern day.
This post isn't about a well-documented title of a priest, if it even was regarded socially and politically as a title of temple clergy alongside hiereis (not an exact translation of "priest" as we know it, but the closest — written like this as opposed to hiereus or hiereia as a gender neutral term) or adjacent titles like manteis in the first place.
If you're looking for historically informed writings on hellenic polytheist priesthood titles/paths, then please see the next section.
💫 PRIESTHOOD IN ANCIENT GREECE
For the surrounding context of priesthood in hellenic polytheism, in Ancient Greece, I'd like to refer you to this post by @wayfind-er which goes into what we know of priesthood back then. They also have this post about Seers.
And as recommended by @wayfind-er as well, it can help to read @star-of-zeus's series of priesthood posts.
📜 ARĒTĒR: THE ONCE MENTIONED TITLE
I first came across the word "arētēr" in the paper "Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Officials from Homer to Heliodorus" which says:
But what is it that differentiates a hiereus from a hieropoios, hierothutēs, arētēr, theopropos, or, most importantly, a mantis?
Hiereis and manteis (sometimes referred to as "oracle") are the most commonly referenced titles in Ancient Greek priesthood. They are seen as the ritual expert and the oracle expert respectively (and rather simply. I do recommend reading the posts I linked in the previous section to gain a better understanding).
If you've never heard of arētēr like I hadn't before this paper, I can reasonably assume this is because we find only one mention of this title in historical literature.
Further discussion found of this word reference this single mention, or are in the context of etymology or definition.
📖 WHERE CAN WE FIND THE ARĒTĒR?
In the Iliad, the title of the priest who knows how to manipulate such words of prayer is areter: it is Chryses who brings the plague on the Achaean army with his prayer and who later brings the plague to an end.
— Greek Religion by Walter Burkert
It is the Iliad that uses this title to refer to Chryses, who is otherwise referred to as a priest (of Apollon), with his actions within the story speaking more to his role in translations than the use of a different title. He prays to/supplicates Apollon for the plague, and is able to pray once again to stop it. His role denotes power behind his words when it comes to the deity he is a priest of.
A variety of other sources reference this mention. While they tell us the same thing, different wording and sentences can help us understand how the word arētēr is viewed in this context.
We know far less of Chryses, who is not mentioned in the Iliad outside our episode. He is introduced in 1.11 as a priest (arētēr), who arrives in the Achaean camp bearing, as an emblem of Apollo, a golden staff with the god’s fillets attached to it.
— Arjuna–Odysseus: Shared Heritage in Indian and Greek Epic by N.J Allen
There, as in the case of the priest (arētēr) Chryses in Iliad 1, the singer was not personally involved, but instead a victim of circumstances. [...] In Homer’s cultural outlook, priests and singers are a special group worthy of respect. While an arētēr is unsurprisingly not mentioned in the Odyssey’s list of traveling professionals (17:383–386), priests’ importance equally places them with the mantis in a professional religious class deserving of special status and respect
— The Characterization of Agamemnon in the Iliad by Andrew Porter
the priest himself is called areter (ἀρητήρ), in contrast to the usual designation of a priest in other passages (hiereus, ἱερεύς).
— Speech and gesture in Ritual. The Rituals of Supplication and Prayer in Homer, By Françoise Letoublon
The language (ētīmēsen arētēra) here specifies that Agamemnon slighted the tīmē of Chryses in his role as arētēr 'one who prays/curses'.
— Leonard Muellner commentary on Iliad
Here in Muellner's commentary, we start to touch on the definition of the title.
📝 DEFINING ARĒTĒR
Arētēra "priest": from ara "prayer", aratēs, with the Ionic change of [a] into [ē]. The word aratēr comes from araō "to pray", future arasō, hence arētēr, or from airō "to lift"", or from areskein "to please" God.
Arētēr is the “priest" (hiereus), called thus from the fact that he makes prayers (eukhas) on behalf of those who sacrifice. And this is the origine of the word arōmata "aromas", meaning "fumigations" (epithumiamata)
— Etymologies Grecques Antiques et Médiévales Ancient and Medieval Greek Etymologies (1) (2)
Ara (άρά) – Positive meaning of a prayer or vow; negative meaning is that of a curse: the success and glory of one implies the humiliation and defeat of another, and reflects the disposition of a deity. […] Areter ( άρητήρ )- priest with skill to manipulate prayer, to bring about the desired aspect of ara. Chryses is such a priest who both incurs and ends a plague on the Achaean army in order to regain his daughter taken by Agamemnon.
— Dictionary of Ancient Greek Religion by J. Greg Deane
Aritír - (areter; Gr. ἀρητήρ, ΑΡΗΤΗΡ. Noun.) suppliant, one who prays, a priest.
— Glossary of Prayer in Ancient Greek Religion by Kallímakhos
As all of these dictionaries or articles say, arētēr is defined as a priest who prays.
Assuming you have read about hellenic polytheist priesthood prior to this post (or checked out the posts linked at the start), we can look at this definition in parallel to hiereis.
A hiereis is often defined as a ritual-expert stationed at a temple. In hellenic polytheism, you don't require a title or vocation in priesthood to host rituals. Everyday worshippers would host or partake in rituals in the household daily. It was common, however, for hiereis to host communal rituals or festivals. They upheld tradition and had deeper knowledge on rituals.
If an arētēr is defined as a prayer-expert in parallel, given that in hellenic polytheism you don't need a title to pray to your deities, we can reconstruct (reference what we do have of historical sources) and revive (adapt the path to modern times) the title similarly.
An arētēr may have deeper knowledge on prayer in this religion. An arētēr may be called upon in communal worship, at festivals, at their designated temple to conduct, or advise on, prayer alongside a hiereis (or even being a hiereis if one were to be a hiereis and arētēr together, with hiereis sometimes being seen as an umbrella term for priesthood paths. This would involve being an expert of ritual and prayer. These aspects often go hand-in-hand in hellenic polytheism).
💭 ASSUMPTIONS
These are important to keep in mind when engaging with this information.
We can assume:
That we don't truly know what an arētēr was in historical times. This title could've been created for the context of the Iliad. It might not have been an actual station held at a temple.
A neologism is a term without existing usage but coined by the poet himself; some words seem to be of this kind, e.g. ernuges for kerata [“horns”] and arētēr for hiereus [“priest”].
— Aristotle, Poetics
That, if it were a role, it may not have been parallel to hiereis. Some priesthood roles are stationed at a temple and some are travelling or not held to one temple/sanctuary.
That we don't particularly need an arētēr in these times, with all the books, journal articles and blogs we can access in our digital age to learn about prayer ourselves.
That an arētēr can still be useful. Those who specialise in certain aspects of hellenic polytheism can assist others in a manner that doesn't encourage power dynamics, but educates and contributes to our growing community/religion.
That prayer can be a duty of a hiereis as well, without the title of arētēr because prayer is so intertwined with libations and offerings, which are often used to support prayer/a petition.
That, because we don't know its historical context, we don't know what is required to be an arētēr.
🏛️ PERSONAL CONTEXT IN REGARDS TO MODERN PRIESTHOOD
I am an oathsworn devotee of Hekate who is studying to be her priest. I am a candidate of a hiereis study program, mentored by a consecrated priestess, and I also do independent study and contemplation as I walk this path of training.
I include this as context because of future posts I want to write on the role of arētēr.
I know that modern priesthood, especially in hellenic polytheism (because we cannot reconstruct historical priesthood, which was intertwined with a historical society and political landscape), is controversial. In a decentralised religion that doesn't require clergy for us to conduct worship, many question the purpose of a path like this.
This post and my devotion isn't about defining the purpose of priesthood paths in our religion, but I do want to say that I believe well-intended, well-educated and well-surrounded individuals who are called to the path and choose the path can benefit the communities they are within, whether in-person or online, whether in a localised tradition or globally, whether or not they are the ones leading these communities or are participants.
There are individual "versions" of priesthood, unique to the practitioner and their devotional relationships. Those who are on the path of priesthood with their deities, define their paths with their deities, and it is up to them to conduct themselves in an unharmful way.
I intend to go deeper into what priesthood is for my practice in a separate post at a later time, as well as potential modern applications of the arētēr title.
I put together this deep-dive of arētēr because I was drawn to the idea of it when I came across it, and drawn to the path upon learning more. I believe that being an arētēr is a possibility for me.
Thank you for reading this huge post and I hope you got something out of it!
📚 SOURCES
Allen, NJ 2019, Arjuna–Odysseus, Taylor & Francis.
Aristotle 1995, ‘Poetics’, in DA Russell (ed.), Digital Loeb Classical Library.
Burkert, W 2012, Greek religion archaic and classical, Malden, Mass. Blackwell.
Deane, JG 2025, Dictionary of Ancient Greek Religion, Blogspot.com, viewed 6 March 2025, <https://greekreligiondictionary.blogspot.com/2011/01/dictionary-of-greek-religion-including.html>.
Feuvre, L 2025a, ἀρά, Etygram, viewed 6 March 2025, <http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram/node/322>.
― 2025b, ἀρέσκω, Etygram, viewed 6 March 2025, <http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram/node/321>.
Françoise Letoublon 2013, Speech and gesture in Ritual. The Rituals of Supplication and Prayer in Homer, Ritual Dynamics in the Ancient Mediterranean: Agency, Emotion, Gender, Reception, Angelos Chaniotis ed., Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag,: 291-311., viewed 8 March 2025, <https://www.academia.edu/5566018/Speech_and_gesture_in_Ritual_The_Rituals_of_Supplication_and_Prayer_in_Homer>.
Henrichs, A 2008, Introduction. What Is a Greek Priest?, The Center for Hellenic Studies, viewed 11 February 2025, <https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/introduction-what-is-a-greek-priest-albert-henrichs/>.
Joan Breton Connelly 2009, Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Kallímakhos 2025, Glossary of Prayer in Ancient Hellenic Religion, Hellenicgods.org, viewed 6 March 2025, <https://www.hellenicgods.org/glossary-of-prayer-in-ancient-hellenic-religion>.
Muellner, L 2024, Commentary on the Iliad, Perseus.org.
Porter, A 2019, 4. The Characterization of Agamemnon in the Iliad, The Center for Hellenic Studies, viewed 1 March 2025, <https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/4-the-characterization-of-agamemnon-in-the-iliad/>.
star-of-zeus 2021, Star’s Blog Masterpost, Tumblr, viewed 12 February 2025, <https://www.tumblr.com/star-of-zeus/645593181430366208/stars-blog-masterpost?source=share>.
wayfind-er 2024, ‘Priesthood’ in Ancient Greece, Tumblr, viewed 11 February 2025, <https://wayfind-er.tumblr.com/post/771204296242003968/priesthood-in-ancient-greece>.
divider credits -> @enchanthings-a and @strangergraphics-archive
