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@wordsandwheat
Hi friends, my name is Ren, I'm 20 and I use they/them pronouns mostly but feel free to ask for my neos!
I'm a Hellenic pollytheist and I primarily worship Hermes, Demeter and Apollon. I'm fairly new to actually practicing my religion but I have been researching on and of for a few years.
I'm also autistic so might post about that from time to time
On Miasma
Miasma (μίασμα) is one of the things I see getting confused and discussed regularly in this community (on Tumblr and otherwise)
The two main streams of thought seem to be either μίασμα is something you can acquire from everyday life and thus needs to be cleansed before coming into contact with the Gods or μίασμα is unnatural and can only be acquired through severe acts like murder or desecration of a temple and the thing that does need to be cleansed is Lyma (λῦμα) which is essentially physical dirt.
These two ideas on what μίασμα is are very clearly contradictory so I wanted to make a post to clear the misconception up with sources to hopefully encourage further research on the topic. (I would encourage you to do so, and to correct me if I've misinterpreted something.)
The first source I looked at was the “Purity regulations at Cyrene” a fourth century BC inscription
which lays out some very clear rules on what does and doesn’t constitute μίασμα.
An example of these rules would be:
“[ἁ λ]εχὼι ὄροφομ μιανεῖ· τὸμ μ[ὲν ὑπώροφον μιανεῖ, τὸν]
[δ᾽ ἐ]ξόφορον οὐ μιανεῖ, αἴ κα μὴ ὑπένθηι· ὁ δ᾽ ἄ[νθρ]-
[ω]πος, ὅ κα ἔνδοι ἦι, α⟨ὐ⟩τὸς μὲν μιαρὸς τέντα[ι ἁμ]-
[έρα]ς τρῖς, ἄλλον δὲ οὐ μιανεῖ οὐδὲ ὅπυι κα ἔνθ[ηι ο]-
ὗτος20 ὁ ἄνθρωπος.”
(Translation)
“[The woman] in childbirth will pollute the roof (i.e. the house): [she will pollute] one [who is under the roof, but] not the one outside the roof, unless he goes in. Any human being who is inside (the house) will himself be polluted for three days, but will not pollute another (person), wherever (20) that human being may go.”
In this extract the verb μιανεῖ (to stain) is used which the word μίασμα derives from (I did want to get a source on this since i’ve only started learning ancient greek relatively recently but I couldn’t find anything concrete to link but even without a source I think this can be assumed given the similarity of the two words.) So from this we can tell that μίασμα is something that can be gained from more everyday or morally neutral activities for example childbirth can cause μίασμα but also that μίασμα is also contagious.
I then looked at a few similar inscriptions on this website (Collection of greek ritual norms - http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be) which I highly recommend. It includes both English and the Greek and has a wide array of sources to do with ancient Greek ritual.
Most of these inscriptions had very similar rules set out.
Another fourth century BC inscription “Regulation concerning purity and supplication from Metropolis” forbids people from entering the sanctuary for a number of days after either attending a funeral or having sex.
“One is [pure] from a [funeral after twelve] days, from a woman, if it is (5) [one's own], after two days, from a prostitute after three. One should not drag [a suppliant] away while he stands [by an altar], (10) nor [do] him any injustice. To the one who commits an injustice, may Meter Gallesia not be kindly to him.”
A 1st century BC inscription concerning the sanctuary of Artemis Kithone at Miletos which dictates two full days until you may enter the sanctuary after a funeral, childbirth or the birth of puppies and for other unnamed sources of contamination just washing is deemed to be ok.
“[Enter pure] into the temple of Artemis Kithone: from a funeral and from a woman giving birth and from a bitch that has given birth, on the third day having washed; from the rest, on the same day having washed.”
A second century BC inscription from a sanctuary to Syrian deities in Delos. These deities where likely Hellenized during this period. It includes the usual death and childbirth as things that can cause μίασμα but it also lists fish, swine and menstruation.
“With good fortune. Enter (into the sanctuary), being pure from fish, on the third day; from swine, having washed (on the same day); from a woman, on the third day; from a woman who has given birth, on the seventh day; from miscarriage (or: abortion), on the fortieth day; from female matters (i.e. menstruation), on the ninth day.”
I won’t go on to list all inscriptions I read but the one thing I found across the board is that there is absolutely not one set of rules that applied to every sanctuary in the ancient Greek world; each one would have its own different set of regulations.
But death and childbirth are both very common causes.
Now it’s all well and good knowing that μίασμα wasn't reserved for murder or extreme acts and that what constituted as μίασμα varied by sanctuary but where does that leave us as people in the modern day who don’t have access to sanctuaries? How much did μίασμα affect daily praxis?
The short answer is as far as I can see, we don’t really know. I definitely don’t think we as Hellenic polytheists need to concern ourselves with abstaining from prayer while menstruating or after having eaten fish since they seem to have been more niche rules for specific sanctuaries.
But I also don’t think we as worshipers should abstain from praying after someone within our house has gone through childbirth or the period after someone has died, unless that feels right to your practice.
But whatever you decide feels right it is very important that you wash before prayer.
“Never omit to wash your hands before you pour to Zeus and to the other Gods the morning offering of sparkling wine; they will not hear your prayers but spit them back.”
Hesiod 'Works and Days', lines 722-725
Ultimately μίασμα should not be something to be overly worried about (see Theophrastus’s the superstitious man) just wash your hands before you pray and you’ll be fine.
Witches need to stop throwing the words "delusional" and "spiritual psychosis" around when you see a practice or opinion you disagree with.
It's ableist and shitty.
It can also be very racist too. After reading "Crazy Like Us" I slowly began to realize that the way the US and Western European countries see "mental health" is very different from how many other places in the world do. I'd been sold this idea that things like schizophrenia and psychosis and hallucinations and depression are all the same everywhere and that the DSM was infallible when it very much is not.
A lot of witches very much need to decolonize not only their practice but their world views on many things if they think someone posting about "hearing their spirits" makes them crazy.
before you ask "are the gods mad at me?" THINK:
have you...
1. killed or maimed someone
2. killed or maimed an animal for purposes other than consuming/processing it
3. knowingly and purposefully hurled vile obscenities or insults at any god or gods
4. made it a life goal to be a terrible person
5. been a terf
IF YOU SAID NO TO ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS then girl you're fine go have a dr. pepper
Books are expensive, Hermes thinks learning about your religion should be free.
They're just the basics and only a few, but feel free to ask me to add anything and I'll try my best!
i absolutely love this review
I finally have a statue of Lord Hermes for my altar and everytime I look at him I just smile. He has been with me through a lot and having the physical reminder that he is there gives me a wonderfully warm feeling.
Happy Dionysia!
This is so random, but you know those games people play where they type a phrase and let autocorrect fill out the rest? I want to do that with typing "Hellenic Polytheism" and then just letting autocorrect due it's thing. Here we go:
Hellenic Polytheism are you doing okay today and tomorrow morning your mom?
Lmao love that it ended with "your mom" XD
Hellenic pollytheism can I get to know about the new one of the year?
No clue what that's supposed to mean but oh well
Is Dionysus considered an oracular deity? I've seen that he's associated with divine madness and reincarnation, and in theory did have oracles, but I'm not sure.
If anyone knows, help me out!
Yep!
When Apollon would depart from the Oracle at Delphi every year is was Dionysus that took over from him
tes THDPSSSSPS 💜
Dionysus devotees, how does it feel to still be angering the Christians 1000 years later? We love it.
I just KNOW he’s getting such a kick out of this. Did everyone forget why the Olympics are called… the Olympics???
I have had to tell a surprising amount of people recently that the Olympics originated from ancient Greece
I really thought it was common knowledge but I guess not
With the ides of march fast approaching we must be prepared
Choose your weapon
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Please reblog to make sure everyone is equipped!
Knives! Get your Knives here for no particular reason!
🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
Get em while they're cold, get em while they're sharp!
Special discount if your name is Brutus for no reason in particular!
I'm remembering this one time, back when I had TikTok in about 2021, I followed this Hellenic Polytheism based creator who was the same age (18 or 19 at the time). She constantly ranted about how Achilles was supposedly a "homicidal teenager" in The Iliad and didn't deserve to be respected or worshipped as a hero because he was just a moody teen taking it out on everyone else. Since I was insanely new to the religion and didn't really understand anything, I just agreed with her at the time, but then I actually started reading The Iliad and was like, "What the fuck lol." It's very silly because this person claimed to have read The Iliad many times over, so I find it interesting that she'd still, not only believe this argument but also actively boast about her hatred of Achilles, as if it were something to be super proud of. One of the (many) pitfalls of this argument is that Achilles' age is never confirmed in The Iliad. She, like another much older creator she followed, was making assumptions based on the age that young boys were thought to have been enrolled in the military in ancient Greece. This must be some kind of fallacy, in all honesty, because A LOT of this argument is based on these kinds of assumptions. It's such a strange hill to die on, too; like, how did Achilles hurt you, bro? Were you one of the soldiers he killed during his rage in another life or something ? I just don't understand hating Achilles so viscerally. XD I look back on this, and I wonder why these people had such a hate-boner for Achilles (and Patroclus, but mostly Achilles). Like, if you don't want to worship him, you don't have to; it's ok to just walk away lol, instead of trying to convince a bunch of teenagers and young adults that Achilles is some kind of evil Disney villain or something. Probably one of the weirdest takes I've seen on The Iliad, tbh.
This is so freaking funny!!! 🤣
Also the thought of being someone Achilles killed in a previous life and is now hell-bent on hating him and making it their mission to get others to also hate him is so funny.
Ikr? XD This is my personal conspiracy about this person that I think I'm just gonna choose to believe because it's very silly XD
This is the sacred duck he got an important message:
The "Dionysian fresco,"
Dubbed the "house of Thiasos" by archaeologists, was unearthed from a banquet hall amid excavations to Insula 10 Regio IX in Pompeii.
All images courtesy Parco Archeologico di Pompei
