#semnai theai

[hellenic-reconstructionism]

The Erinyes - Ερινυες

Image source

Summary

The Erinyes, also known as the Potniai, Ablabiai, Melainai, Eumenides or the Semnai Theai, are the famed ruthless goddesses of revenge, punishing many a mythological protagonist. The acts they took most issue with were murder, betrayal of one’s family members, murder of one’s family members, offenses against the gods, oath-breaking, harming supplicants and perjury. They can bring fertility - agricultural or otherwise - or death. The number of Erinyes ranges from one to more than three -- when singular, she is referred to as Erinys; the most well-known triad consists of Alekto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. Due to their role in bestowing agricultural blessings, their offerings tend to be either bloodless flower and honey offerings, or wholly burnt animals. In this particular aspect, they are similiar to Demeter, who possesses the epithet Demeter Erinys. Sacrifices to the Erinyes were made at nighttime. They were sometimes depicted winged.

Symbols

Vipers

Sacred animals

White turtledoves

Screech-owl

Sacred plants

Yew tree

Narcissus

Holm oaks

Pomegranate (perhaps avoid offering to them)

Wild fig (perhaps avoid offering to them)

Offerings

Black sheep images; pregnant sheep images

Piglet images

Nephalia (drink made of honey and water)

Honey

Honey cakes

Water or milk libations (no wine)

Gruel

Epithets

Eumenides (Gracious)

Semnai (Revered, Holy)

Meilikhioi (Gentle, Mild)

Praxidikai (Exacters of Justice)

Aei Parthenous (Eternal Virgins)

Telephousia or Tilphoussa (The Bringers-Forth of Dues)

Kynes Enkotoi (Hounds of Wrath)

Holy Days

The 5th day of every lunar month is sacred to the Erinyes.

Prayers

Orphic Hymn 69 to the Eumenides:

To the Erinyes, Fumigation from Aromatics. Vociferous wild Erinyes hear! Ye I invoke, dread powers, whom all revere; nightly, profound, in secret who retire, Tisiphone, Alekto, and Megaira dire : deep in a cavern merged, involved in night, near where Styx flows impervious to sight. To mankind's impious counsels ever nigh, fateful, and fierce to punish these you fly. Revenge and sorrows dire to you belong, hid in a savage vest, severe and strong. Terrific virgins, who for ever dwell, endued with various forms, in deepest hell; aerial, and unseen by human kind, and swiftly coursing, rapid as the mind. In vain the sun with winged effulgence bright, in vain the moon far darting milder light, wisdom and virtue may attempt in vain, and pleasing art, our transport to obtain; unless with these you readily conspire, and far avert your all-destructive ire. The boundless tribe of mortals you descry, and justly rule with Dike's impartial eye. Come, snaky-haired, Moirai many-formed, divine, suppress you rage, and to our rites incline.

Orphic Hymn 70 to the Eumenides:

To the Eumenides, Fumigation from Aromatics. Hear me, illustrious Eumenides, mighty named, terrific powers, for prudent counsel famed; holy and pure, from Zeus Khthonios born, and Phersephone, whom lovely locks adorn: whose piercing sight with vision unconfined surveys the deeds of all the impious kind. On fate attendant, punishing the race with wrath severe, of deeds unjust and base. Dark-coloured queens, whose glittering eyes are bright with dreadful, radiant, life-destroying light: eternal rulers, terrible and strong, to whom revenge and tortures dire belong; fateful, and horrid to the human sight, with snaky tresses, wandering in the night: hither approach, and in these rites rejoice, for ye I call with holy suppliant voice.

Sources

https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Erinyes.html

Death, Fate, and the Gods: The Development of a Religious Idea in Greek Popular Belief and in Homer by Bernard C. Dietrich

[hermeneutas]

Deuses Ctônicos e Seus Epítetos - As Eumênides

Continuando nossa série de posts sobre os epítetos dos Deuses Ctônicos, os Divinos que habitam o profundo mundo do Além, focamos nossa postagem de hoje nas chamadas eufemisticamente de Benevolentes ou Eumênides, do grego antigo - também conhecidas como as temíveis Erínias ou Fúrias.

Consideradas como filhas de Urano (nascidas de seu sangue), de Nix (A Noite) ou dos Reis do Mundo Inferior, as Eumênides são um trio de Deusas responsável pela punição de crimes hediondos como patricídio, húbris, vingança e ofensas diretas aos Deuses. Elas são retratadas como jovens moças (frequentemente aladas) em trajes de caça, portando tochas e ornadas em serpentes.

Conhecidas por serem implacáveis, as Benevolentes eram temidas figuras que, segundo Hesíodo, serviram de parteiras para Éris, a Discórdia, no nascimento de Horkos - o Juramento. Faltar com uma promessa, especialmente no seu dia (O quinto dia de um ciclo lunar, portanto: 5, 15 e 25 do calendário helênico) era considerado pouco auspicioso.

Seus nomes refletem sua natureza muito bem: Alectó (Irrefreável), Megera (Rancor) e Tisífone (Pune-assassinatos).

Em termos de culto, as Benevolentes eram cultuadas na região da Ática (A região de Atenas) e em outras localidades mais ao sul da Grécia, como Megalópolis, a Lacedemônia e Colono.

Agora, verifiquemos alguns de seus epítetos:

NOMES ALTERNATIVOS

Erínias (Ερινυες) - Do grego antigo, "Sombrias", era o temível nome coletivo das Deusas da punição. Frequentemente evitado por ser mau agouro falá-lo levianamente.

Semnai Theai (Σεμναι Θεάι) - "Deusas Sagradas".

Meilikhioi (Μειλιχιοι) - "Gentis/Afáveis"

Eumenides (Ευμενιδες) - "Benevolentes"

Praxidikai (Πραξιδικαι) - "Justiceiras"

Os nomes aqui usados para designar as Eumênides são títulos de caráter eufemista, ou seja, desejam não atrair a fúria implacável das Deusas da punição. Na história Eumênides, de Eurípides, vemos o estabelecimento do culto às Deusas por ordens de Atena, que intercede pelo herói Orestes, frequentemente atormentado pelas Deusas da punição.

TÍTULOS POÉTICOS E DE CULTO

Poinai/Arai/Maniai (Ποιναι/Μανιαι/Αραι) - Do grego antigo, respectivamente, "Vinganças/Maldições/Loucuras". As temíveis Deusas eram conhecidas por inflingir maldições terríveis e loucura em quem fosse seu alvo.

Daspletai/Kynês Enkoti (Δασπληται / Κυνης Εγκοτοι) - "Horrendas"/"Cães da Fúria", representam seu aspecto assustador e temível para quem as Deusas perseguem. Em algumas histórias romanas, as Deusas são capazes de tomar formas de animais de mau agouro, como corujas estrigídeas.

Aei Parthenous (Αει Παρθενους) - "Virgens Eternas", este epíteto descreve sua eterna castidade.

Telphussia/Tilphussia (Τελφουσια/Τιλφουσσα) - "[Que] trazem as dívidas [à tona]", mais um epíteto que retrata sua qualidade como Deusas da punição.

Poderosas Deusas justiceiras, as Eumênides representam os poderes sagrados que coordenam forças como punições, tanto em vida como no Além. Seus mitos retratam sua perseguição de crimes de derramamento de sangue inter-familiar, injustiças e perjúrio. Algumas de suas vítimas mais famosas foram Orestes, Héracles, Dionísio e Meleagro. Sua fúria não era facilmente aplacável, com um assassino ou agressor tendo que fazer ritos de purificação mais profundos caso desejasse apaziguá-las.

Descritas como irrefreáveis e a serviço dos Deuses imortais, desde Plutão e Perséfone, até mesmo Zeus. As Deusas agem dentro dos desígnios dos Imortais e são frequentemente associadas às Parcas (Deusas do Destino), executando o que lhes é demandado.

No fim da peça Eumênides de Eurípides, as Deusas são cultuadas como trazedoras de boas-graças e justiça para quem age de maneira honrosa.

Que as Benevolentes olhem justamente para nós e que possamos contar com sua justiça certeira quando confrontados com a temível injustiça!

Encerramos o post com seus Hinos Órficos:

[ivy-kissobryos]

On the Erinyes

That Zeus himself could be called Alastor or Palamnaios suggests, moreover, that concern with avenging the dead extended all the way up the divine ladder and was not always carried out only by nondescript, rather anonymous agents . . . But it was Erinys and the Erinyes whom tragedy adopted as the avenging agents of the dead par excellence. In part this was probably because they had a well established mythological genealogy and thus were more vivid than the vaguer alastores or palamnaioi.

In Homer, the Erinyes are already firmly associated with the Underworld, from which they rise up and in which, therefore, they apparently dwell. Tragedy takes this further, portraying them as chasing or dragging their prey into the Underworld and dwelling in its unlit gloom, and by calling them "black-robed," "children of the Night," and "bacchantes of Hades." The Erinyes are never equated with the dead, however, and from earliest times until latest, Erinys can be called a goddess, thea.

In the beginning, as far as we can tell from the Homeric poems and related sources, even the violently dead, like the unburied, were compelled to work through the agency of divinities such as the Erinyes because they themselves were weak and insubstantial. By the classical period, they are portrayed as wrecking their own vengeance on occasion, and yet even then they remained strangely insubstantial: they work by infecting their victims with fear and madness rather than by physically attacking them. This feature reflects the inability of the Greeks to ever completely separate the body from the soul—the state of one influenced the other—and yet in a way, their lack of physicality must have made them more horrible precisely because they worked in these hidden ways. Like the Erinyes who "wandered through the mist," the dead might be lurking anywhere.

In two linear B tablets found in Knossos, the name Erinu—an early form of Erinys—appears along with early forms of the names Zeus, Athena, Enyalios, Paion, and Poseidon. That Erinu is a divinity of approximately equal stature to these others is hard to deny: not only is her name included alongside theirs without any apparent distinction, but on one tablet she is to receive an offering of oil, just like them . . . Greek religion knows of no divinity who is completely negative, completely punitive, completely injurious.

Mormo is literally the "Fearsome One"; Empousa is "She Who Impedes." . . . In fact, there are several terms for divine or supernatural creatures that do convey such ideas: alastor ("avenger"), palamnaios ("long-remembering [of a crime]"), Praxidikai ("Workers of Justice").

In six of the twelve Homeric passages in which Erinys or the Erinyes are mentioned, the common denominator is a crime or insult that occurs between blood kin: The Erinyes take action when a son steals his father's concubine, a son kills his father and marries his mother, two brothers argue, a son angers his mother, a man kills his mother's brother, or a son chases his mother out of her home.

. . . where the Erinyes were approached by mortals under that very name, rather than another more auspicious one, precisely because they would be more useful as "Erinyes" than as "Eumenides."

We might guess that the Semnai Theai served not only as champions of the dead who helped to avenge them when necessary, but also, more broadly, as divinities who buffered the ongoing relationship between living and dead in both directions, providing a recourse for the living who believed that they were being attacked by the dead, as well as for the dead who had been treated badly by the living.

– Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece by Sarah Iles Johnston

[effulgentpoet]

mythology aesthetics

ORESTES

In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, and a member of the doomed house of Atreus which is descended from Tantalus. The young Orestes was saved by his sister Electra, who conveyed him out of the country when Clytemnestra wished to kill him, and thus not present for Agamemnon's murder by Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. In his twentieth year, Orestes was urged by Electra to return home and avenge his father's death. He returned home along with his friend Pylades, and murdered Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Orestes goes mad after the deed and is pursued by the Erinyes. He takes refuge in the temple at Delphi; but, even though Apollo had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect Orestes from the consequences. At last Athena receives him on the acropolis of Athens and arranges a formal trial of the case before twelve judges, including herself. The Erinyes demand their victim; he pleads the orders of Apollo. Athena votes last announcing that she is for acquittal; then the votes are counted and the result is an acquittal. The Erinyes are propitiated by a new ritual, in which they are worshipped as "Semnai Theai", "Venerable Goddesses", and Orestes dedicates an altar to Athena. After his return to Greece, Orestes took possession of his father's kingdom of Mycenae. He was said to have died of a snakebite, and his body was conveyed to Sparta for burial.

[hearthfirehandworks]

Goddess Groups: The Furies

While the Greeks typically regarded and approached their gods as individuals, there were some who could also be addressed in the aggregate–as a group. One such group was the Furies.

The Furies were goddesses of justice and retribution who concerned themselves in particular with those who had escaped justice and punishment for their crimes. Although they seem generally to have been called on as a group, they were also said to number three: Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera.

It was not unusual for the ancients to refer to dangerous or capricious deities–gods whose power could be turned on the petitioner if not properly approached or propitiated–by euphemistic names, and the Furies were no exception. As goddesses of retribution and wrath, they were honored with great care, and known by several different names.

In myth the goddesses are most often known as the Erinyes or Furies, where they are called on to punish those who have committed the most dreadful crimes. Their anger was directed especially toward murderers, and most especially toward those who had murdered their parents; they were also known for punishing perjurers and oath-breakers.

The goddesses were also known as the Eumenides or Kindly Ones. In Euripides’ Orestes, this was done in order to keep the goddesses (who were of course alert for any mention of their name) from noticing the speaker, but it would also have been a wise and politic move for those who asked their favor in delivering justice to those who had wronged them.

Finally, in both myth and cult, the goddesses were known as the Semnai Theai or Honored Goddesses; their mythic journey to this new status is described in Aeschylus’ Oresteia. There was in fact a temple to the Semnai in Athens.

The goddesses received offerings appropriate to their status as chthonic deities, such as honeyed water or honey-cakes; similarly, offerings of meat were burnt in their entirety.

[hearthfirehandworksshop]

Pocket Prayer Beads for the Furies (Semnai Theai, Eumenides, Erinyes): Greek Goddesses of Retribution and Righteous Vengeance