#delphic calendar

[apollophanes]

Happy new year to all those who use the Attic or Delphic calendars!

We are now in the 3rd year of the 700th Olympiad, if you follow the Attic calendar.

Or, the 1st year of the 652nd or 653rd Pythiad, if you follow the Delphic calendar.

May the Theoi bless us all ♡

[hyakinthou-naos]

Ilaios 2025

The Month of June - Honoring Hyacinthus

According to the Delphic Calendar as presented on Pytho.Notion - Ilaios is the month that most closely aligns with the month of June. During this month we honor Prince Hyacinthus, consort of Lord Apollo and the namesake of our Temple.

The history or meaning of 'Ilaios' as the name of this month is not fully known, but it is possibly an allusion to ílios, an ancient Greek word meaning 'Sun' or 'sunlight'. If true, the name was probably used in honor of Lord Apollo or Lord Helios - as they were both associated with the Sun and sunlight.​ - Source: Wiktionary

Heraios Holy Days

Ilaios 7: Oracle Consultation

Ilaios 11: The Firefly Moon

Ilaios 20: Kalokaíri

Ilaios23: Septerion

Ilaios 25: Triakas Ilaios

Ilaios 26: Noumenia Ilaios

At The Temple of Hyacinthus, has chosen to align our Ritual Months and Solar Festivals with the modern, Gregorian, calendar. While many Hellenic Polytheistic groups adhere to the ancient ways of a lunar month, we have chosen to modernize our calendar. Neither path is more "correct" than another - it is simply a natural variation of our diverse and multifaceted faith.

[sanguinevineyard]

Every year, when I've found myself straying from the gods and getting caught up in the mundane, I unknowingly return to devotion just as the festivals for my closest deities begin. One day I will stop being surprised when it happens, probably because I will have finally memorized just when those celebrations happen, but that day is not today.

I've settled on mainly following the Delphic calendar for the foreseeable future, borrowing from the Attic calendar for festivals like Anthesteria and both Dionysias.

Tomorrow is Theophania, Apollon's birthday and return from Hyperborea, and next week is Anthesteria. Despite being extremely last minute I'll do my best to celebrate, and I feel so grateful that every year my deities make sure that I return in time to celebrate their festivals with them if I've been otherwise caught up in the mundane. I might even get to celebrate with a fellow pagan friend this weekend!

Happy celebrations to everyone who's taking part in holidays or festivals at this time!

[loverofdoves]

Heyy im new to Hellenic polytheism and I was wondering, what are some things I should research about I’ve researched stuff like , Key Concepts, Prayer and how to pray , the 8 pillars , divination ,and some of the rules but I’m not really sure what other things I’d need to research before I start worshiping the gods any suggestions? :,)

Hi friend! Thanks for asking this because I was thinking about making a post on this because I realized it’s officially 8 years since I started my worship! If you are looking for more resources after this, my #resources tag has some stuff! Also I try to tag everything so if you’re looking for epithets, I use #epithets, prayers are in #prayers, etc.

The first thing I would recommend is looking into reconstructionism vs revivalism. This can be a big thing on moving forward in exactly how you’re going to structure your practice. Revivalism and Reconstructionism are basically whether you are building a new, modern practice based on the old ideas, or trying to rebuild the practice of the past.

You mentioned prayers, and I think you’re on the right path with figuring out how to pray. One thing I would add in this section would be epithets and areas of influence. This helps makes prayer more specific to your needs and calls upon specific aspects of the gods. It also is great for getting an understanding of the whole scope of the gods you’re praying to. Like I am an Aphrodite devotee so praying to her Aphrodite Areia epithet is normally accompanied by a different request than say Aphrodite Pandemos.

For building personal practice, finding out about festivals, the lunar calendar, and holy days. For example, Hekate’s Deipnon and Noumenia happen at the new moon and the days following are sacred to different gods (Aphrodite is day 4 if you were wondering!) You don’t have to follow the lunar calendar if you choose, I just use it because I follow the lunar cycle for my witchcraft practice anyway. Festivals are also just fun to have, and the most common ones are the Athenian festivals, and I’m a sucker for a good celebration I will say.

For personal one on one worship and devotion, I recommend looking into historical offerings. Before you develop your own UPG and personal associations, the historical offerings can be a great place to start without worrying about whether they’ll like it or not. I also stand by the idea that research is worship, so seeing that you put time into looking into their past can be a great bonding moment.

Also I would say there’s not really any strict rules. The biggest thing for me is not eating/drinking offerings to the Chthonic gods (also look into what being Chthonic means) and maybe I would consider the Delphic Maxims to be rules, but there’s really no strict book of rules to be followed. If you’re respecting the gods, the culture, and the history, it’s pretty much a learn as you go kinda thing.

I think you’re on the right path though! If you have any questions after this, just send them in and I’ll do my best to answer! I have so much I could talk about but this post is getting so long, so I’ll just leave it here.

Thanks again for the ask <3

[waddleonmywaywardducks]

helpol and modern times

I'm back from the dead (and right on time too, happy October witches)! I wanted to come on here and talk about Hellenism and our world today. Hellenism has been something I hold very dear to me, I like to think I'm greatly researched on it but I swear there's always something for me to learn, always something else to research, always something. it can be a lot of keep up with and a lot to take in, especially when you are new to helpol. I'm here to offer my own advice and how I incorporate helpol customs into my craft/practice.

miasma, cleanliness, why?

first off, before we get into this, sin does not exist in this culture, we are not "sinners", impurity is natural. back in the Hellenistic period, Greeks had to clean themselves by bathing before presenting themselves to the gods, obviously we are a lot cleaner then the Greeks and don't nearly have as much to worry about then them. to clean miasma I simply wash my hands. now for rituals, I take showers and focus on washing away any negative mentality and thoroughly wash my body. if you are presenting yourself to the gods after woohoo then I do suggest showering the same way you would do for rituals (this is just also good advice in general). I mean, we could talk all day about what gets you clean and what doesn't, some ppl don't shower, some people don't intake any drugs or alcohol before presenting themselves to gods, some dont, it's really up to you.

festivals, holidays, celebrations, how do we keep up?

gunna be completely honest, In my practice, I only celebrate spring equinox, summer solstice, and winter solstice, with the except of a few celebrations. the Greeks LOVED to party, so obviously they had festivals for almost every god, but they also had a wayyyy different calendar then we did and honestly I spent like two weeks trying to figure it out until I was like "ok I'll just do my own thing." AND THAT'S COMPLETELY OK!!! if you want to add some Hellenistic culture into it, do the research. whether it's a celebration for dinoysus, or spring equinox in the name of persophone, try to find festivals where these gods were the forefront of the celebration and take some aspects from that. i try to do this as much as I can, and it's worked out for the best. I still feel like I'm honoring the gods the same way they were honored wayyyy back when. and Im even starting to figure out ways to incorporate gods that aren't in my practice into my celebrations like a winter party with friends for Hestia and Demeter, a spring time picnic for and persophone, a summer rager for dinoysus. and so many more I can add as many gods as I want with this calendar I have set up for my practice. again, either you can research the Greek calendar or celebrate this way, both honor the gods in a very special way.

Delphic maxims

another BIG part of this is following the maxims while doing all of this. if you want to honor the gods and feel more connected to this religion, then write down the maxims. following these (easy) rules made me feel so good as a worshipper. I feel like people starting out with helpol don't normally get told to look at the maxims (atleast from what I've seen).

chaos closing...

this way of changing Hellenism to fit into our modern world has helped me so much and as much as I want to get wasted for the next seven days, life just doesn't allow that and that's completely ok. we don't need to do all the big fancy things the Greeks did, we can do all the smaller things and that'd be just fine. and again, I'm not telling anyone how to live their faith, this is just how I've incorporated Hellenism into my daily life and I love it so much :) have fun with it!!

[thunder-pants]

okay so I'm trying to figure out when artemis's birthday is

If Apollo was born on the 7th day of the 7th month and Artemis was born 9 days before him. Would that make her birthday June 29th?

There were many ancient greek calendars, but if we go by the Delphic calendar (where he was probably worshipped the most) Apollo would've been born on Busios!

However if we're going by the Athenian calendar, which was more commonly used at the time, then he would've been born in the month of Gamelion! This means Artemis would've been born in the month of Poseideon. The days are largely the same, ranging from 29-30 days per month so they're shouldn't be any complications there.

Ancient Greek calendars come in lots of varieties, but they're largely lunisolar which means they're very different from our calendar, the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar calendar! Hope this helps!

[titan-gods]

Sources in my big binder

I have some pronunciation and purification spells. I set it up as a binder with a notebook and paper protectors/paper.

[apollondelios]

Today is 7th, in the month of Βοαθοος in delphic calendar. That's, Apollo's monthly birthday.

I'm so glad to celebrate your birthday this month too. I am always grateful for your help. You're my light.

ΕΙΚΑΛΟΣΠΟΛΥΣ

[aethereallynephilim]

day twenty-six: do you celebrate any festivals? which ones or why not?

i know there are so so many festivals in both the attic and delphic calendars! i currently try my best to celebrate or at least be aware of what celebrations are going on. the only celebrations i go all out on would be the solstices and the equinoxes, though i know my summer solstice and winter solstice celebrations are now split between celebrating the seasons changing as well as celebrating birthdays that fall on those days!

it honestly depends on what is going on in my life as to whether i can celebrate a certain festival.

for instance: tomorrow (according to my calendar) is theogamia (aka the wedding anniversary of zeus and hera), i won't neccesarily be able to do a ritual but i will try my best to celebrate in a way of honouring my relationship.

but honestly i try to be gentle with myself because i know that there are a lot of festivals. it's not realistic to be able to celebrate them all right off the bat. (we're not going to think about how i've been a hellenic polytheist for a while...)

31 Days of Hellenic Polytheism

Anyone can participate regardless of how long you’ve been a Hellenic polytheist! My hope is to use these questions to reflect on the year, and repeat next year to see what has changed, and hopefully to continue doing that every year!

Answer in as much or as little detail as you see fit. You are allowed to skip any questions that you are uncomfortable answering. These questions can also apply to heroes, not just deities. You can pick specific deities to answer each one, or answer the questions with all the deities you worship. This might apply to other Pantheons and I’m happy for it to be used as such. Feel free to tweak some of the questions to fit those pantheons if you’d like!

Please link this list on your posts with your answers so that it is easy for others to find if they want to participate too after seeing your answers.

THIS IS TO BE DONE DURING DECEMBER, I’M JUST POSTING THE LIST NOW SO PEOPLE CAN FIND IT!

Have fun!

DAY ONE: Who was the first deity you began worshipping? Do you still worship them now? If this has been answered before: how has your worship changed since last year?

DAY TWO: Which deity did you most recently start worshipping? Were you called to them or did you reach out first? Do you think there were specific reasons behind why you were drawn to them?

DAY THREE: How long ago did you start Hellenic Polytheism?

DAY FOUR: Are there any deities you don’t currently worship but want to learn about?

DAY FIVE: How much have you bonded with your deities?

DAY SIX: What’s one way you incorporate Hellenic Polytheism into your routine (daily, weekly, monthly, etc?)

DAY SEVEN: Are you openly a Hellenic Polytheist offline? How does being open/not being open effect your worship?

DAY EIGHT: Do you have altar(s)? If you do, how do you use it? If you don’t have one, do you want one? Why/why not?

DAY NINE: Is there a practice that’s common among other Hellenic Polytheists that you’re skeptical about?

DAY TEN: What’s something you’ve learned about Hellenic Polytheism that you wish you knew sooner?

DAY ELEVEN: What is the clearest sign you’ve received from a deity?

DAY TWELVE: Do you do food offerings or libations? What do you do with the food/drink after you’ve offered it?

DAY THIRTEEN: Do you write your own prayers?

DAY FOURTEEN: Do you have any hobbies that fit any of your deities’ domains?

DAY FIFTEEN: How has your worship changed you?

DAY SIXTEEN: If you could give one piece of advice to someone who’s just starting in Helpol, what would it be?

DAY SEVENTEEN: Send out some love! Are there any Helpol blogs here on tumblr that you follow and really like?

DAY EIGHTEEN: How can you best describe your relationship with each of your deities?

DAY NINETEEN: If you had to assign one song to each of the deities you worship, what songs would you choose?

DAY TWENTY: Do you have a favourite aspect of Hellenic Polytheism?

DAY TWENTY-ONE: Are there any retellings/adaptations of greek mythology that you LIKE? Why/why not?

DAY TWENTY-TWO: Is there an aspect of Hellenic polytheism you haven’t yet gotten to try but hope to in the future? Do you have any other Helpol-related goals for next year?

DAY TWENTY-THREE: What’s a bit of UPG you have with your deities?

DAY TWENTY-FOUR: What’s an offering you’ve made that you’re really proud of?

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: What was the most surprising thing you’ve learnt about Hellenic Polytheism or your deities?

DAY TWENTY-SIX: Do you celebrate any festivals? Which ones or why not?

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Share a fun fact about one or more of your deities which you think is underrated or not well-known

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: What is your favourite myth?

DAY TWENTY-NINE: What is an aspect of your deities you really appreciate?

DAY THIRTY: Do you have a visual interpretation of your deities? Is this different from usual depictions you see of them?

DAY THIRTY-ONE: Share a positive experience you’ve had this month/year with one or more of your deities

[hyakinthou-naos]

Hi! Did you know when 6th and 7th od Thargelion came this year? Last years were among 15th but a page with the attic calendar said is this weekend and i'm a bit confused...

Khaire Anon,

Thank you for your ask! I consulted several different sources to check as to when Thargelion did/will occur in the Gregorian year of 2025. I found that all three sources I consulted agree that, if following the lunar Attic Calendar, Thargelion begins at sunset on April 28th, 2025 and Thargelia begins at sunset on May the 3rd and concludes at sunset on May the 4th.

Sources & specifics below the fold!

As a small aside, The Temple does not observe the Attic calendar and instead observes a modified version of the Delphic calendar. More information about this can be found here on our website.

Source 1: Satyrs.eu The dates used by this site are calibrated for the North of England, and may be inaccurate for other regions (especially in the Southern Hemisphere).

Thargelion starts at sunset on April 28th, 2025

The 6th day of Thargelion stars at sunset on May 3rd, 2025.

The 7th day of Thargelion begins at sunset on May 4th, 2025

The Thargelia festival begins at sunset on May the 3rd and concludes as sunset on May the 4th.

Source 2: Hellenion.org According to Hellenion "Remember that, among the ancient Greeks, the day begins at sundown of the previous day."

Thargelion starts at sunset on April 28th, 2025

The 6th day of Thargelion stars at sunset on May 3rd, 2025.

The 7th day of Thargelion begins at sunset on May 4th, 2025

The Thargelia festival begins at sunset on May the 3rd and concludes as sunset on May the 4th.

Souce 3: AtticCalendar.com According to AtticCalendar "The start of a new month begins when a new moon is more than 20 hours before sunset. In other words, if the new moon was more than 20 hours before sunset, the sunset would start a new month, but if the new moon was less than 20 hours, the moon would be considered to not yet be visible to the naked eye and therefore the month would start the following day."

Thargelion starts at sunset on April 28th, 2025

The 6th day of Thargelion stars at sunset on May 3rd, 2025.

The 7th day of Thargelion begins at sunset on May 4th, 2025

The Thargelia festival begins at sunset on May the 3rd and concludes as sunset on May the 4th.

[matriarca-inodora]

Celebrating 7th of Bysos

I´m planning on celebrating Apollo´s birthday at the 7th of Bysos* this year, which is the date it was celebrated in Delphi. From what I could gather thus far, this should be equivalent to the 7th of Attic month Anthesterion, roughly 19th of February, but keep in mind that there might be other astronomical factors beyond moon phase in play here. 

My main point, though, is not to go crazy over this sort of detail (as frankly at some point it boils down to supposition) but rather to celebrate my first Delphic festival, so yay! Not sure how I will structure yet (I accept suggestions) but since this is the first major date I could actually gather from Delphic sources I don´t plan on missing on it. If anyone wants to join me on celebrating, you´re more than welcome! 

* I plan on writing about the Delphic calendar soon, but I want to gather more information first

[hyacinthine-hair]

WIP Delphic Calendar

12 Calendar months for Delphic Calendar

Apellaios: mid-July —> mid-August

Boucatios (Boucation): mid-August —> mid-September [Pythian games may have began on the 7th of Boucatios]

Boathos: mid-September —> mid-October

Heraois: mid-October —> mid-November

Daidophoro: mid-November —> mid-December

Poitropious: mid-December —> mid-January

Amalios: mid-January —> mid-February

Bysios: mid-February —> mid-March [7th of Bysios is Apollo's birthday!]

Theoxenios: mid-March —> mid-April

Endispoitropios: mid-April —> mid-May

Heracleios: mid-May —> mid-June

Illaios: mid-June —> mid-July

There may be a thirteenth month every three years, either before Bysios or after Bysios.

This project of reconstructing this calendar has been so fun/frustrating/fascinating (all the Fs)

Michael Scott's Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World has helped out a lot as well as Robert Hannah's Ancient Greek Calendars

*I'd like to add that reconstructing this calendar will most likely always remain a wip and im mostly going to be using seasonal cues and astronomical cues for festivals, but if a festival is on a given date it might be necessary to have a list like this

[thegrapeandthefig]

Hey, I hope I'm not bothering you. I've been following you for a while and I don't know who else to ask. Do you have any good resources for the Delphic calendar? Right now I feel like I'm chasing my own tail XP I hope you have a good day!

As a general reference about calendars I'd say:

Alan M. Samuel, Greek & Roman Chronology: Calendars and Years in Classical Antiquity The only thing with this book is that it was written in the 70s but when it comes to Delphic months the info isn't outdated.

For a deeper dive into the link between Apollonian cult, the Delphic calendar, and astronomy:

Tomislav Bilić, The Land of the Solstices: myth, geography & astronomy in ancient Greece This can get complex really fast and won't bring you much indication of the religious calendar on a practical level, but will give you deep knowledge of the mechanism behind the timing. This one will still give you information about the little we know of Delphic festivals. But honestly, what we know of the festivals is quite scarce so personally, I would extend the research to the Athenian festivals that were linked to Delphi and to Phokis, with which the Delphic calendar shares a lot.

@matriarca-inodora you might have more stuff than I do here?

[apollondelios]

According to the Delphic calendar, New Year's Eve is in the summer, but for modern people as me, it's possible to have two New Years;) Happy New Year 2024!

By the way, I got the book of the legend of the great serpent slaying when Apollo entered Delphi. I will study it!

[theladyoflove]

Hi, I’m the anon from a while ago who asked if you had to be “chosen.” Thank you for answering. You helped a lot. I’ve prayed to Hecate since I was 12 and recently have started worshipping more Gods and I’m building altars for them. Besides prayer and offerings what more can I do as a Hellenic Polutheist/Pagan? I’ve tried looking at Theoi but I don’t find what others do there. Thank you so much.

Hello again, it’s nice to hear from you!! And wow Hekate gets so much love, it’s great to see! :D I’ll be giving advice for things you can do outside of worship to deepen your religion, none of these are particularly advanced save maybe the calendar!

Observe the Athenian calendar

Click here for a link to my post about the calendar. This will help you get more comfortable with how the Greeks viewed time and worship, as well as getting to know the themes of each month of the year, so you can focus on those during your worship!

Here is a link to a calendar I made

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Look into the Delphic Maxims and find which Maxims suit your life

Think of them as a loose cousin to the 10 Commandments, there are a lot that don’t fit with our modern ideas of what is right and wrong, so feel free to leave some out or find new meanings!

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Start giving first-fruit / votive offerings

First-fruit offerings: These are the first of anything, and I mean anything:

🌙 First food you open after going shopping

🌙 First drink you have in the morning

🌙 First time you cut your hair

🌙 First harvests from your local shop / own garden

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Votive offerings: Offerings you give that symbolise a blessing the God has given you (very commonly used with Asklepios and Dionysus):

⭐ A painting

⭐ A sculpture

⭐ A poem / other form of writing

⭐ A prayer you wrote yourself

⭐ etc.

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Engage more with divination / ancient Greek divination

An amazing post about rune divination

A really good post talking about Ornithomancy (divination with birds)

There are a lot of resources on Tumblr and beyond talking about more general and widely used forms of divination like tarot, pendulum, bibliomancy, crystal balls, tea leaves, etc.

Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, Helios and Selene, Hades, Persephone and Poseidon are all either Gods of divination, or associated with a form of divination. Here is a great post explaining these connections.

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Learn how rituals were performed / hand placements during prayer / order of prayer / etc.

For this one you’ll probably need to rely on books since Tumblr doesn’t have a lot of information on it as far as I know.

A post about rituals

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Typically for hand placements:

⛅ Ouranic (sky) God - arms raised to at least shoulder height, open palms facing upwards

🏞️ Earth / Water God - arms stretched out, open palms facing idol and/or natural terrain associated with the God

💀 Chthonic (underworld) God - arms and hands down, palms facing the floor and/or touching the ground

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I’ll explain the order I do prayers in for my daily offerings and rituals.

Invocation of Hestia

Deity of the month

Deities of the day

Deity(ies) the festival is for

Closing invocation of Hestia

Here is a link to my google drive that has a good number of book pdfs!

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If you wanted to expand your pool of worship:

🌺 worship local nymphs

⚱️ ancestor veneration (if you’re comfortable with that)

🎓 patron / patroness deities

📆 do daily offerings to the deities of the day / month (deities given in the calendar post)

I really hope this is helpful! This isn’t so much for Hekate or prayer specifically so I apologise if it wasn’t what you were looking for! Again, none of this stuff is advanced worship at all, it’s just for people who want to get into the ancient Greek reconstructionism stuff more. ♥ Hope it helped!! ALSO I’M SO SORRY THE FORMATTING IS WEIRD TUMBLR IS AWFUL

[aimee-maroux]

VII Martius, 7 March, was thought to be Apollo's birthday in ancient Rome. The date is possibly based on his birthday celebration in Delphi on 7 Bysios when he was said to return from his winter vacation in Hyperborea and the oracle reopened. The Delphic calendar cannot be reconstructed completely but Bysios is thought to correspond to February and March. In Athens, Apollon’s birthday was celebrated on 7 Thargelion, this year falling on 30 April 2020.

So Apollon got to celebrate his birthday at least twice a year: first in Delphi and then in Athens.

Pictured: Apollon riding a winged tripod across the sea with dolphins leaping below. He plays his lyre while wearing a bow and quiver slung over his shoulder. Red figure vase painting from Attika, ca. 5th - 4th century BCE