Iām Mells and I use they/them pronouns! Iām aroace and 19, and have been a Hellenic Polytheist since 2022. Iām also a classicist who just finished my A-Levels! My main blog is @navy-nyoom, I follow from there.
At the moment, I am devoted to Athena. I worship Ares, Aphrodite, Hestia, and Melinoƫ, as well as the heroes Odysseus, Penelope, Helen and Tiresias.
In the past I have worshipped Nemesis and Philotes. Of course it goes without saying that I respect and honour all the other Gods.
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There are many resource posts under the cut!
Beginnerās Guide to Helpol (start here)
Guide to Hero Worship
Resources for Hellenic Polytheism
The Correct Terms For the Religion (important!!)
Why the Myths ARE Literal
My Structure for Prayer Writing
How to do food offerings
Mixing other holidays with Helpol
Also, 31 days of helpol is an event that I do in December! Feel free to join in
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If none of these are helpful, Iām happy to answer questions. Iām not an expert, but you can ask me anything. My favourite topics are these:
Any of the deities/heroes I worship
Any deity/hero I DONāT worship
Beginner questions
Myth interpretation
The Iliad, The Odyssey, or the Oresteia
My UPG and personal practices
My opinions on any retellings
Ancient Greece in general
My classical civilisation course
You can also just say hi or tell me about your experiences! Feel free to sign your ask off with emojis or a name if youāre on anonymous. Current taken emojis under the cut, along with my resource posts ā please at least read the beginnerās guide and checking the titles of the others in case they match your question before asking something!
ohhh my god I just fact-checked, Nolan actually DID cut the "Nobody" scene from his Odyssey movie. Mfer that is like cutting the Father reveal from Star Wars. Let me speak in a language you understand this is like not dressing Batman up in his suit. "It was not possible to work it in" the TikTok musical with a budget of $4 and a scratched Hamilton CD managed to work it in in SONG form, step up your FUCKING GAME
Part of Hekate's appeal is that She reflects our own liminality, our own fluidity. Even when we define ourselves by polarities, we don't always adhere strictly to them in our daily lives. Those of us whose hearts are full of light may find ourselves drawn to darkness, just as those whose jobs and interests involve birthāliteral or figurativeāalso involve death. A nurturing parent can become vicious if a situation calls for it, and oftentimes, our personal safety requires a firm or violent hand.
āExcerpt from public essay on Patreon: "Hekate: The Liminal Third"
So Zephyr coming from Zephyrus would be okay? Or iffy since it's two letters off? I really hope i don't sound rude or anything /^\ I really am just trying to figure out if I should stop using the name entirely
-āØļø
I think youāre fine. Iām pretty sure one of them is Roman and the other Greek out of the two ways to refer to Zephyr, but I never remember which way around it is
I was just thinking about this. What are the rules for lack of better term around chosen names and then coming from deities? I don't mainly go by it anymore (which is why I was just thinking about this now) but I used to mainly go by Zephyr but I dont know how acceptable that is?
-āØļø
I donāt think thereās anything to say you canāt, but to be safe I tend to say you can have an inspired name but not a direct deity name since the deities hear us when we say their names
And we see this in Ancient Greece with names like Hephaestion coming from Hephaestus or Apollodorus from Apollo
Oh that makes so much more sense thank you (āāā)
My thought process is usually images/feelings so the most i have is things like "helpol? witchcraft? related at all?" which isnt very helpful when trying to seek information
i guess the question is if theyre related at all. this was a couple/few years ago but i remembering doing a bit of research into witchcraft and seeing a lot about greek gods while doing that (i dont remember any of it saying anything about helpol)
i was also wondering if you knew any deities (and i definitely think im going to get the terminology wrong for this) related to stars? always always been drawn to stars but i dont know if that really means anything?
-āØļø
For deities related to stars:
Nyx (goddess of the night)
Urania (muse of astronomy)
Zeus (god of the sky)
Hera (goddess of constellations/the Milky Way)
You could also look at the various sun and moon gods. There are also various myths tied to specific constellations which might be worth looking into. Sometimes mortals are transformed into stars/moons/constellations by their immortal lovers if you want to go down the hero worship route too
Iād recommend the star myths page on theoi.com!
As for relation of Helpol to witchcraft, first of all we do have a goddess of witchcraft in Greek mythology, called Hecate, so you can look into her if youāre interested!
I actually also found Helpol through witchcraft first, and considered myself pagan for three years before becoming Helpol in 2022. Essentially, witchcraft is a practice that can be tied to pretty much any religion or none at all, and so different witches will worship different pantheons (or they wonāt worship deities at all, like I did at the time). I think because the Greek gods are so well-known compared to other polytheistic pantheons (at least in the western world) witches definitely gravitate to it so youāll see a lot of witches working with Greek Gods
That is, from what Iāve seen, the major difference between Hellenic polytheists and witches ā a lot of witches do deity work. I talk a bit about the difference in the beginnerās guide but essentially the practices and beliefs about the gods are different depending on if youāre worshipping them or doing deity work, and from what I can tell, deity work is pretty intrinsically tied to witchcraft because itās about requesting the deityās help with spells or with reaching specific goals etc. You donāt need to do deity work to be a witch, but you need to be a witch to do deity work, almost?
Iām not really in witchcraft spaces anymore and havenāt been for a while so Iād recommend looking for Hecate worshippers for more about the overlap between helpol and witchcraft as theyāll probably be more likely to practice both.
I have just started looking into hellenic polytheism and found your beginners guide which was amazing thank you so much !
I have a lot of questions but none that I can actually put into words because of how vague they are. I was wondering a bit about patrons? Your beginners guide says it has to do with part of your identity, but the post you have linked in your resources mentions that your patron is connected to your career/occupation. I don't know I'm just overthinking this or not- but yeah!
Oh! And if you want, do you have any advice/tips for someone that is just learning about this and doesn't know where to start? Especially with figuring out which deity/deities/hero(s) to worship (I feel like I'm not using terms correctly or wording things the way I mean them sorry-)
-āØ
Sorry for the confusion on the patron thing, let me try to explain that now.
Itās kind of like you will have different patron deities for different parts of your identity? So, you can have a professional patron for your career like the list in the resource post discusses (example: a doctorās professional patron would be Apollo or Asclepius) but then youād have a different patron for a different part of your identity, like Artemis is the patron of young girls. If you say āI am a ___ā, whatever you fill im the blank for, itās very likely thereād be a deity who oversees that concept, and theyād be a patron of it.
In antiquity, Greece also had patron deities for each city-state (like Athena for Athens), though this isnāt useful outside of Greece and Iām not even sure modern Greek helpols still consider it that way? (If any Greek helpols happen to see this Iād love to hear your thoughts)
If youāve got vague questions Iād be happy to try to answer them anyway, even if itās just sort of like ācan you talk more about xā.
Hereās my advice for people starting out
Donāt believe everything you read online or see on tiktok (even mine! While I try to be as accurate as possible Iām still learning too!)
Donāt be scared of not knowing everything. In my experience you wonāt get punished for things you didnāt know and I very firmly believe weāll never really know everything about the religion so waiting until you āknow enoughā before you start will just lead to never starting
Offerings donāt have to be super fancy and you donāt need altars immediately, I think I took like two years before getting mine.
I cant give a lot of advice on choosing a deity to start with because I find that to be really personal, but Iād suggest just thinking about your own values or goals and if they align with any deity. Or pick from your patrons. If youāre drawn to a deity then start with them.
When it comes to how to start, Iād make an offering, do some research into that specific deity, try praying, and maybe do a devotional act if you have the time. Something that I really enjoy is making devotional playlists for my deities, so that could be an idea if you enjoy music.
Wow, you were so speedy with answering - thanks! The ask being so long is kind of embarrassing, sorry about that. I feel better and like I know a little more about what I'm doing now. š«
First classics paper today!!!! Good luck to anyone taking classics with OCR who has the paper today also! I will be drawing Odysseus being torn about in a Bacchic frenzy later today for hatred reasons. Only after the paper tho.
I love you OCR classics paper 1 <3. It was all about the way women are presented and I got to talk about how much I love Turnus and Amata and how Aeneas isn't shit and doesn't deserve Lavinia at all. Also how Penelope is modest even in her show of emotion. So awesome so awesome
Oooo someone who does Odyssey! I feel like the ten mark comparison question was way more suited to you guys than us Iliad folk lol. I loved the Turnus question! What was your 30 marker for Odyssey?
Entire paper being pretty much about women was beautiful.
I didn't do the odyssey 30 marker, I did Aeneid, but the Odyssey one was like "Odysseus is not a consistent character, how far do you agree" I think. Also the Iliad 30 marker I saw made me giggle "self, self, self"
Yesss, it was a good one to talk about Augustus and his propaganda on. Like oh, there's a woman causing problems by telling this other guy to war against our "beloved hero"? Crazy. Wonder where that could've happened before coughcough battle of Actium
First classics paper today!!!! Good luck to anyone taking classics with OCR who has the paper today also! I will be drawing Odysseus being torn about in a Bacchic frenzy later today for hatred reasons. Only after the paper tho.
I love you OCR classics paper 1 <3. It was all about the way women are presented and I got to talk about how much I love Turnus and Amata and how Aeneas isn't shit and doesn't deserve Lavinia at all. Also how Penelope is modest even in her show of emotion. So awesome so awesome
Oooo someone who does Odyssey! I feel like the ten mark comparison question was way more suited to you guys than us Iliad folk lol. I loved the Turnus question! What was your 30 marker for Odyssey?
Entire paper being pretty much about women was beautiful.
I didn't do the odyssey 30 marker, I did Aeneid, but the Odyssey one was like "Odysseus is not a consistent character, how far do you agree" I think. Also the Iliad 30 marker I saw made me giggle "self, self, self"
First classics paper today!!!! Good luck to anyone taking classics with OCR who has the paper today also! I will be drawing Odysseus being torn about in a Bacchic frenzy later today for hatred reasons. Only after the paper tho.
I love you OCR classics paper 1 <3. It was all about the way women are presented and I got to talk about how much I love Turnus and Amata and how Aeneas isn't shit and doesn't deserve Lavinia at all. Also how Penelope is modest even in her show of emotion. So awesome so awesome
Oooo someone who does Odyssey! I feel like the ten mark comparison question was way more suited to you guys than us Iliad folk lol. I loved the Turnus question! What was your 30 marker for Odyssey?
Entire paper being pretty much about women was beautiful.
Hiii fellow classics student here!!! How did you find the world of the hero? :D
Omg hiii! I really enjoyed it!
We do Iliad and Aeneid, I felt like the 10 mark comparison question on admirable women was more suited to the Odyssey than the Iliad? More to say on Penelope being admirable than Andromache I think, but either way that question sucked for the Aeneid. I had to argue that Lavinia isnāt admirable to modern audiences because she has no personal qualities, but her not speaking might have made her admirable to men in Ancient Romeā¦
But overall, I canāt complain! Basically a whole paper on women with a 30 mark question about Achilles? I was truly blessed by the gods and the examiners!
For the Iliad 20 marker on importance of wives in Iliadic society I talked about how wives have important roles in Troy as they handle domestic stuff, but that they have no importance in the Greek camp because theyāre entirely absent, and slaves take their roles there. I also argued that sometimes they donāt need women at all because the men get on perfectly fine with things like lamentation. I think I said Achilles mourns Patroclus as if he were a wife. Lmao!
The Aeneid 20 marker was also really fun! Gotta love getting to slander Aeneas. I talked about his awful track record with women, how he succumbs to furor whereas Turnus can be more reasonable, and that Lavinia actually knows and has a relationship with Turnus whereas Aeneas is just a stranger who invaded her home.
As mentioned I picked the Iliad 30 marker. Managed to get my scholars in which was good, I talked about instances throughout where he doesnāt seem to care about anyone, a specific paragraph on him asking Patrcolus to win glory for him instead of Patroclus getting glory for himself, and how he doesnāt seem to care much for Briseisās feelings and is only concerned for her as his prize.
But then I talked about the care he shows Phoenix during the embassy and the fact he called the assembly in Book 1 as instances that he does show concern for things. I also did a paragraph on his obvious concern for Patroclus after his death through avenging him, the mourning and the funeral games, and said that Aeneas stops having any concern for himself at that point.
So basically, I liked it! I also actually did like the extracts for the 10 markers, I found both of them pretty easy though I think I was losing the plot trying to word my thoughts for the Aeneid one.
Iād love to hear how you did! Did you do Iliad or Odyssey?
Hi! I love your helpful posts - it's helped a lot on easing my journey into being helpol.
I have a question, I hope it hasn't been asked before (I couldn't find anything) - but how do you actually feel right when doing any practices/rituals?
When I try to pray or make an offering, I feel like I'm a little kid roleplaying with myself and copying a scene I saw on TV.
I can't remember the epithets, I don't always know how to praise, I don't know how to say thank you properly, and I don't know how to end / exit the prayer. I also don't know when to make the offering vs when I can eat the offering after.
Sometimes I pull up a page on theoi to recite a prayer, but it feels so wrong to just... stand there with my hands to the sky and my eyes glued on a screen and reading. And interrupting my stance because I have to scroll.
It just feels so awkward.
I've been trying to convert for a while (from atheism) but at first I was just so lost, I settled for consuming content from others as a way of interacting (not necessarily learning!) with the religion. But now I'm so swamped I don't even have the time to read their myths!
I was travelling the other day, and when I got home I realised I had quite a bit of luck on my journey. I was also travelling with my cat who was really well-behaved and didn't give me any trouble. I began to wonder if Lord Hermes had been protecting me as I have a lot of anxiety flying alone and tend to get lost in airports and such, so I quickly read up on some of his epithets and what people usually offer to Him.
I did try a prayer to say thank you, and offered up a glass of milk and some blueberries.
What feels even more awkward is that I went back to do something else, and when I felt like having milk, I went back to the altar drink it. I know we can eat our offerings, but are there any additional rules around it? It felt kind of wrong to just drink the milk randomly like an hour after pouring it as a libation. Should I always, always, always, wash/cleanse and praise the God/dess who received the offering before I consume it? And what about returning to the altar to clean up?
This must be such a newbie question and the answers may be obvious but I just need some sort of confirmation, I really want it to feel meaningful and special, instead of awkward and like I'm playing pretend.
I still have His blueberries sitting on the altar. If it were you, how would you approach it now if you wanted to eat some?
Thank you <3
Thank you for the kind words! Iām glad my blog is helpful. I canāt give a super detailed answer to this (itās my exam season!) but I wanted to get to it quickly so Iām going to do my best to answer as quickly as possible!
I have a pinned post which goes over my prayer structure. To end a prayer, I say āhear me as I sing your praises, I honour youā for a god and āhear me as I sing your praises, you are inspiringā for heroes. I use theoi.com to find basic epithets and keep a list of them.
Food offerings/libations can always be eaten if the deity is not an underworld deity. Chthonic (underworld) deities are the only cases where food offerings cannot be consumed. If Iām going to eat an offering, I will usually say that as Iām offering it. My mini prayer for food offerings is āWith the first and last to Lady Hestia and a portion to Father Zeus, <epithet + deity name>, I offer this to you. Take your fill and Iāll eat the restā.
Due to the reasons you mentioned (it being awkward to consume things youāve put on an alter and not knowing when to clean them away), I typically just donāt leave food/libations at the altar, because I make those offerings when Iām eating. In antiquity, food and drink wouldnāt be left on altar, the offered part would be burned at the altar and the person making the offering would eat what was left. But if you donāt have the means to do that (like me) just donāt put them on the altar at all and offer them via prayer as youāre eating.
I personally donāt cleanse before I make offerings and have never run into problems. Obviously Iām not dirty either but I donāt specifically cleanse to offer. This is bad practice but it also hasnāt impacted me negatively.
Hope that helps. Also this reminded me I do want to make an in-depth post about food offerings when I have the time because I learned a lot about those from my Greek Religion unit in Classics.
Fun devotional act to Hestia: building/decorating a house in the sims! Having your sims who share a household develop good relationships with each other!! Play the sims with Hestia
