cloverwitch

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i'm engaging in the ancient tradition of pretending there's an ancient tradition to engage in

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Sorry to keep you talking about the pillars 😭 I’m just curious what “right practice” would be without them? I’ve been told that it’s an orthopraxy so we focus on what we do rather that what we believe, and I took that as “ok so rinse before you pray, follow the pillars” that sort of thing, yk? I was aware that it was a very recent idea (the pillars) and didn’t have a specific name in Ancient Greece, but I was always under the impression that they were sort of an agreed upon way to bring ancient values into modern day without being.. yk. Terrible. So with that assumption out the window, I’m wondering what “right practice” is. Maybe just building kharis and not approaching the gods nasty? I’m not sure

No need to apologize! I love combating misinformation like the "pillars," lol.

When people say that ancient Greek religion operated on orthopraxy (“same practice”) and not orthodoxy (“same thought/belief”), we are talking solely about actionable worship!

More than half of the so-called “pillars” aren’t actionable; they’re ideological, so they don’t count towards the orthopraxy of ancient Greek religion. Instead, the things included in orthopraxy were: cleansing, praying, animal sacrifices, incense offerings, libations, first fruit offerings, votive offerings (which could be just about anything made or bought), devotional acts like dancing or singing, athletic contests, dramatic contests, music contests, and the like! These all count as actionable worship practiced throughout the ancient Greek world.

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Okay, so Hewlett juxtaposes Medea not only to her sister who is portrayed as emotionally sensitive and weak, prone to being easily hurt, but also to her mother who is presented as crying when experiencing abuse of the father of the family. Fellas is it feminist to put two female characters down for traits that have been associated with femininity and put down by centuries of misogynistic prose.

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My belief in astrology is largely dependent on how funny it is in a given situation.

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minos was such a pussy. if my wife gave birth to an epic minotaur baby i wouldn't have locked him in a labyrinth. i would have taken him to the mcdonalds play place (athens) every day and let him eat as many stray mcnuggets (athenians) off the floor as he wanted. i love you hungry son

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absolutely incredible that this fragment is the only evidence we have of a play of aeschylus about iphigenia.

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"Blorbo from my shows" no. Blorbo from my BA. Blorbo from my major. Blorbo from my primary source document.

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Temple of Hephaestus, 449 BCE Ancient agora of Athens, Greece

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FTM Newsletter #24 (1993)

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Deity tip: Dedicate jewelry to your deity.

I have a necklace dedicated to the Morrigan and as of late I haven't been able to practice my craft as much as I would like and I haven't been able to dedicate much time to my deities. So what I've been doing is putting on that necklace when I go out and inviting her to accompany me on my ventures.

Sometimes I feel like she's there, others not so much. Either way, the invitation is extended and she knows I'm still thinking of her every day.

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Art by Ethan Davies

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One thing I need foreigners to understand about Hellenic polytheism is you cannot categorise the Divine into neat little boxes like they're laboratory samples you're putting in quarantine. The Gods interact with each other and with the world, their domains mingle the same way our lives and the people in them connect like the links of a chain.

This is why you see us Greeks advocating for foreigners to do research into our culture if they want to approach Hellenic polytheism, and this is why you don't cherry-pick the Gods that "fit your vibes/aesthetic" and exclude the rest. You can't ignore aspects of existence and you can't ignore the Gods.

Do you need to work heavily with every single deity? No, of course not. But you do need to show them respect, even if it's from a distance.