#xenoi

[margaretkart]

what do you feel us foreigners get wrong about Greek mythology or your culture?

Where do I begin 😭:

The Gods’ Personalities

- people now often make the Greek gods as all-powerful, but often cruel, manipulative, uncaring.

- Reality: The Greek gods were deeply flawed, displaying human traits such as jealousy, anger, and deceit. They were not moral role models but forces of nature with complex personalities.

Depiction of Heroes

- that Greek heroes are all bad, sexist, misogynistic, where in reality they were often tragic figures with flaws that led to their downfall. Herakles, for example, was known for his temper and moments of madness.

The Concept of Hades

- False: Hades is often thought of as the equivalent of the Christian Hell.

- Reality: Hades is simply the realm of the dead, not a place of torment. While parts of it like Tartarus were associated with punishment, Hades itself was more neutral.

The Trojan War

- Misconception: The Trojan War was purely a historical event as depicted in the "Iliad."

- Reality: The "Iliad" and other related myths mix history and myth. The war may have a historical basis, but many details, including divine intervention, are mythical.

Simplified Depictions of the Parthenon

- Misconception: The Parthenon is often viewed as a temple for religious worship.

- Reality: While dedicated to Athena, the Parthenon was also a symbol of political power and housed the treasury of Athens.

Greek Language Misunderstanding

- Misconception: Modern Greek is the same as Ancient Greek.

- Reality: Modern Greek has evolved significantly from its ancient form, just as modern English differs from Old English.

Philosophy in ancient Greece

- Misconception: Ancient Greeks were all philosophers or deeply concerned with intellectual pursuits.

- Reality: While philosophy was important, most Greeks led everyday lives focused on practical concerns like farming, trade, and family life.

Cultural Overemphasis on Mythology

- Misconception: Greek culture is often reduced to mythology and ancient history.

- Reality: Greece has a rich modern culture, history, and traditions that go far beyond the ancient myths, including significant contributions to modern art, literature, and politics.

Overly Romanticizing Greek Architecture

- Misconception: Ancient Greek architecture, especially temples, is often seen as white marble perfection.

- Reality: Many Greek buildings were brightly painted, and they decayed over time. The pristine white image is largely a modern interpretation.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

In "KAOS" nothing is anything, and everything is wrong

Two disclaimers: I am no stranger to modern art, and I have no issue with queerness in shows, or in my own mythology (I'm Greek). I am also aware that KAOS is a comedy. It's in the gutter of British comedy, but still part of the genre. At least I laughed every time they said "Oh God!". I don't believe this is the same person who wrote the great and amusing "End of the F**king World"! The premise of "The gods in our modern world" appeals to me a lot, so that wasn't my problem either. My general issue with KAOS is its horrible delivery, bad writing, and piss-poor Greek representation.

This is gonna be long and full of stupid gifs, so sit comfortably, grab a coffee or some popcorn and... pame!

The "ILoveGreekMythology" Kid

Art without context is just a pretty thing to look at. Most of the time, this context can be found within the art piece itself, as the artist has taken care to weave it in. KAOS refuses to connect itself to any context besides the names and a few vague powers. It aims to exist outside of those "boring old stories of the Greek myth" and be entirely "fresh and modern". Something impossible when the entire show and the meanings are based on ancient recorded material. In other words, KAOS is so meta that it ends up being nothing. KAOS cannot stand on its own because you need more than the viewers being familiar with the Greek myth basics to pull such a show off.

KAOS tells us "See? I know all the names of the gods, and what they did, and I know all the locations, so I am qualified to tackle this". More or less like any Western kid who takes all their knowledge from PJO and Marvel and proceeds to unironically hate ancient deities and make a girlboss out of Medusa.

Here's a Greek word for you guys, ημιμάθεια, meaning "half-knowledge". Α Greek saying very well declares "Half-knowledge is worse than no knowledge". The confidence of thinking you know enough often leads you to grave mistakes whereas the humility of not knowing prevents you from touching shit that you shouldn't. When you have no idea what the original myth is trying to say and spit on its meaning, knowing a few names and locations is just smoke and mirrors. I don't believe the audience fell for that.

And don't get me started on the "subversions". A good subversion is intriguing and thought-provoking. In KAOS, every twist was hollow - Greek myth related or otherwise.

"What if Euridice doesn't love Orpheus?" I don't know, babe. What if??? What was the point of that? What did you show us? That women's stories are dominated by men and men don't listen to women, perhaps? And you chose to twist... the love story of Orpheus and Euridice to show this?? One of the best and most tragic love stories Greek mythology has to offer?? You just mocked the myth, you didn't make anything profound out of it.

The Greek Stuff (Nothing salvageable)

I was surprised to see they had a Consulting Producer (Georgia Christou) and an Assistant Script Editor (Isabella Yianni) who happen to be Greek. And I stress that because those people probably weren't hired or utilized for being Greek. We are not sure they were involved in cultural decisions because we have no evidence and because shows with no Greek elements can have more Greeks than that on their staff.

Okay, perhaps they took 5 seconds to ask Isabella about a greeting - which they proceeded to say in a wrong intonation 🙄🤌It's where Poseidon says "ya sás" in the Fates, by the way. How he said it sounds more like "for you (pl.)" than "health to you (pl.)".

Surprise! The only Greek actor present (Peter Polycarpou) has less than 5 minutes of screen time and plays the caricature of an immigrant with a thick (and inaccurate Greek) accent. He has a canteen, selling falafel which is not Greek, and Dionysus buys from him an unidentified tortilla wrap (which... is also not Greek, if you haven't caught up).

For the show they brought in actors of Maori, Nigerian and Sierra Leonean, Pakistani, Black American, Latvian-Jewish, Iranian, Egyptian, Indo-Fijian and Malay descent and you tell me it was impossible for them to seek and find an English-speaking, skilled actor of Greek descent in a show regarding Greek heritage. Sometimes I wonder, do y'all hate us so much?

They considered Greeks only to give us a simple (and wrong) greeting and a stereotype. Crumbs, we are supposed to be happy with. By the way, there are over 70.000 Greek immigrants just in the UK, usually in the urban centers, many of them students or fairly young employees in the corporate workforce. Not the largest minority but not hard to spot either.

Another plague of Anglophone shows: Almost everyone's Greek name is shortened. Yes, we know their full names but we are told that we will use the short ones. Greeks and their "long and difficult" names am I right fellas? Because saying "Ariadne" apparently requires 5 years of Greek language training, and no English word ever has more than two syllables.

Coincidentally, short names are cool in Anglophone imaginary universes and the "long" names are not. it's so strange Anglophones never make universes where it's cool for Greek names to be spoken in full hmmm... They don't even want to practice saying a whole Greek name for just 2 minutes in preparation for a show full of Greek names. And don't give me that "Greek is hard" shit when we only talk about a few syllables. If Greek kids can learn English since first grade and people here can sing English songs and spell English names, you have no excuse.

They also said the name "Fotis" means light, which is close enough but... ugh.. It's like saying Sebastian means "respect". I am not sure if they asked anyone or what their research was here. If I had the writers in front of me, I'd be like:

(This character from an all-time favorite Greek show is called Fotis)

They also made the flag of "Krete" an alteration of the Greek flag and the local Cretan flag. Which is the stupidest move, because they had to remove the religious symbol of the cross to make the flag fit the universe. These are flags created based on 1) Christianity 2) the Greek Revolution of 1821.

National Greek flag to the left, local Cretan flag to the right:

Flag of the KAOS' "Krete":

The only time they seriously took into account anything Greek, was the time when they decided to remove the religious symbol of our ethnoreligion AND (from what I could observe) keep the nine stripes?? The nine stripes of our national flag represent the syllables in "Freedom or Death". The colors are from the white foustanela of the mainland attire and the dark blue vraka of the island attire, the clothing of the Revolution fighters. (That's more of a meta explanation but the characteristics of the flag were decided during and nearly after the Revolution.)

I think I don't have to explain it more but it's not a homage to put the nine stripes in an ancient era where they have no meaning, and to replace a cross??? Let's... not replace religious symbols on national flags, okay? Thank you.

Another cultural element they changed was making everyone have a dedicated coin to pay Charon. Orpheus has Euridice's coin, "her coin", and he's meant to put it on her before she got buried. In Greek culture, any coin would do. Sorry that our culture restricts your script, dear writers. I guess you had to bend this too, in order to create a cohesive plot with a semblance of a twist.

Finally, the many "Kerberus" dogs were cute and I can understand the creative decision behind that. However, in a show full of inaccuracies, this made me roll my eyes a little. I think the showrunners know that Kerveros is not a breed of dog, and there can only be one of him because he doesn't have any other "Kerveros" to breed with. On the other hand, as demonstrated from art/writing on the internet, quite a lot of Westerners are not exactly aware of how our monsters work, so forgive my uncertainty 😅

Nothing is Anything

Every element KAOS played with ended up meaningless. In the words of a Lifo article:

“Zeus is a paranoid authoritarian dictator in mid-life crisis who fears losing his power and murders his aides to vent. Hera is a promiscuous goddess who repeatedly betrays Zeus and has mutilated mute priestesses for protection. Dionysos is a spoiled and immature zoomer who, apart from pranks, indulges in orgies with all genders. Poseidon a sadistic god of the sea, who tortures the crew on his ship for fun. Prometheus is gay and killed his lover so he could overthrow Zeus. Orpheus is a famous pop singer and Eurydice does not love him. Theseus is black and gay. The Erinyes are tough-as-nails mechs that look like they stepped out of ‘Sons of Anarchy’. The Fates resemble a three-member jury in a talent show. The Trojans are a terrorist group that acts against the gods. Crete is more reminiscent of California than the Mediterranean.”

The "River Styx" is a sea, the "River Lethe" is a lake, the gods are nothing more than spoiled humans, the Moirai are drag queens, the Cave is a club where you have to take a quiz to enter the underworld, and generally everything is modern, flat, mundane and anticlimactic. The producers aimed to achieve a work so meta that a "river" is now a concept, a metaphor, whatever you have in your heart. And those who want to see a river when we speak of a river are probably uncultured swines and don't understand postmodernism. Never mind that rivers are rivers in Greek mythology for a reason. That's not culturally interesting enough to explore compared to the new, cool approach of not assigning meaning to anything. That totally shows love for the original rich and meaningful material...

And the reason behind all this subversion? Probably the shock factor. They brought the characters to a point where they said "We have to save the world from Zeus" - Zeus! The father of gods, heroes and humans! - just because they could. It gives off a certain type of smugness that I personally don't like. I mean, I would like the smugness and cheekiness of KAOS if it wasn't a vapid and practically meaningless show. As nothing symbolizes anything anymore, we are just led from hollow plot point to hollow plot point.

If you cut it out of any cultural influence and see it as a story then it's... okay, I guess. But when you consider that it's meant to derive from certain material and it fails spectacularly, it's not a good story. It forgets its bases and doesn't play with the ancient elements at all. Disney's Hercules did it better, FFS!

Bad Writing (pt.1)

KAOS is not without recognizable themes but their demonstration is so juvenile and heavy-handed that it fails to influence a viewer of average intelligence. For instance, "Riddy" says to her religious mother "You dedicated your whole life to Hera, what about me?" Okay, KAOS, we get it. At the same time, this theme nulls itself because it turns out that Ridy's mother was right to do what she did, as she had a greater goal in mind. (And this, kiddos, is called Bad Writing, because your themes and scenes contradict each other)

The biggest theme I spotted was a criticism of religion and religious people who say "Do as I say, not as I do" and create exceptions for themselves. Only, it's not a criticism of anything real, in this case. It's a fact that some people in the clergy tend to preach peace and love and then they do harm, but we don't know, for example, that The Goddess of Marriage is a cheater and yet she pressures everyone into strict marriages. By focusing their wrath on divine beings who are not known for their hypocrisy, the creators missed the mark.

I can give KAOS props for how it handled Trojans to reflect real issues regarding how immigrants and war refugees are mistreated and blamed. I'd argue it was the only (nearly) well-done theme in the whole show because it had the least on-the-nose delivery and some genuine/serious scenes. But that's it.

More Bad Writing!

Jeff Goldblum's Zeus is shit. He'd crap his pants in an argument with a stern Greek dad/uncle his age. Is this character supposed to be intimidating? (Laughs in Mediterranean) That's not to say that Goldblum is not a good actor, but this role wasn't for him. The same can be said for the other actors, too. They are competent but they only give off the air of "The Greek gods if they lived in London, from the minds of people who think beards and body hair are an affliction". In addition to being misplaced, the actors cannot show their talent when following a script that resembles a children's book.

Why does THE GOD Dionysus have the maturity of a 15-year-old? I repeat, The God Dionysus. He's a freaking deity, and a very old one at that. He is not a teenager neither in appearance nor in experience. In our culture, he is mystical, mighty, wise. Why did they downgrade him so? Just for the plot? This is not Dionysus just because you named him so.

The dialogue rarely takes itself seriously to the point it has you wondering at times "Do people talk and behave like that?". In a comedy where everything is meant to be already extreme and parodied. Even in comedies, something must occasionally be serious so there is a healthy fluctuation in tone and the funny moments can hit you. In KAOS very few scenes treated their impactful dialogue as it should be treated.

The queerness and diversity (good elements, in general) were worse off for being in KAOS. Like, I want these elements to be there. I'm just sad about the whole situation. It's not enough that the show is shit, now you also give an additional reason for conservatives to shit on diverse and queer characters because they are part of a stupid narrative.

I'm the type of person who doesn't mind the queerness of Astyanax and Theseus being lovers in the context of this specific show but they're still the oddest pairing to me because they're from the most irrelevant myths and eras. Also, Astyanax in my mind is a baby who died tragically, for little reason if we are honest, so to bring him back and make him a love interest is... ekh.

In addition, isn't Astyanax supposed to be crippled after a fall from the city walls when he was a baby? Sorry to change subjects but the show is so convoluted and with so many issues that it's extremely difficult to stay on track with what's wrong.

To the person who thought this show was a good idea:

Whatever. Bye. I'm fucking done.

[june-sunsets]

[lessthanthreelalli]

just so all of my 12 followers know i prefer the name yunanistan to greece very strongly. that is how you say ionian girls youre so right <3

[alatismeni-theitsa]

It belongs there for sure! I'm the last person to expect a foreigner to know about the Odyssey. But it's surely weird how many people have never heard of what The Odyssey is when their nations (like the UK and the US) have made it their mission to cosplay as "the rightful heirs of ancient Greek civilization". The people who wonder about it are certainly not pretentious. The Odyssey is close to the Bible in popularity in the West.

We didn't read a single Shakespeare play in Greek school either but I still know he's not a USAmerican writer. And I believe the majority or Greeks know this as well. Sure there are a few Greeks who may have no idea of Shakespeare's ethnicity. In cases such as these it would be great to admit "hey I didn't pay enough attention to cultural events all these years" and google that shit before writing something profoundly stupid online.

I think it's fine for people to wonder "how did you not know what the Odyssey is" because that means you didn't pay attention to cartoons, children's books, movies, plays, reenactments, retellings, ancient Greek museum exhibitions, documentary about Greek antiquity, bookstore sales on Greek mythology books etc etc.

The media on this Epic is so many that people rightfully wonder why someone hasn't heard of it. I'm not saying it's a crime not to have heard of it but let's not pretend this ignorance is the norm.

And before you come at me, the first two times I, a Greek in Greece, saw anything Odyssey-related was via a USAmerican movie and a French cartoon. We're talking about media with a wide reach on this side of the world, which are difficult to miss.

So before being so proud as to declare "I don't know what that shit is / don't expect everyone to know about it" take a minute and google it 🤷‍♀️ And don't hit me with the shit "they didn't teach us that in school". School is over, kiddo, and it's your sole responsibility to learn useful information about things your country considers important.

(edit: In case this isn't obvious, I'm mostly speaking about western countries here. It wouldn't be as a shocker if someone from - for example - Myanmar, went "Hey what's this Odyssey about?" People understand that the distance and history of one's nation play a role in what books they're exposed to)

I’m living for The Odyssey discourse on Twitter right now because some people are like, “You’ve never heard of the odyssey” and other people are like, “some people don’t speak English and haven’t read your little American book.”

[kapoorsalesindia]

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[alatismeni-theitsa]

https://youtu.be/x_zIRxLp_-4?si=3SyLgW3McxByUSGo

What's your opinion on this video about the "endless reinvention of Greek mythology"?

I would call this an essential video to see if you follow this blog. Put it in the background and do something else, but please listen to it. It is absolutely worth it. There are many Greeks in the comments agreeing with the video, and for a good reason. Please read their insightful comments as well!

Feast your eyes at some:

Ironically, the voices and perspectives of Greeks would not have been heard if it wasn't for this... Anglophone woman 😂 This is not her fault, however. It's just how things are, unfortunately. I am sure she is self-aware enough to recognize this. In fact, she is one of the few Anglophone women who actually gives Greeks a voice and enables us to be heard more.

Still, this is not to minimize her great video. She goes into depth of the cultural appropriation of Greek culture by Northwest Europeans (And Americans, later) for centuries. She also discusses the harm that was done to Greece by that "love" of those Great Powers that looted Greece dry (even before Elgin). She finds faults at Americans and other Westerners considering themselves the straight inheritors of Greek culture, and she explains it with facts.

As Kate Alexandra says in the 5th part: "When these myths have a vague universality, it's very deliberate. The 19th century Classicists made sure that antiquity sat outside of History."

These people were the ones to write, as seen in the video, "Not even the names have remained the same" - meanwhile the Greek people and places, still having Greek names.... (I have seen records of villages, many many places and people still had Greek names you could find in antiquity) It really shows how surface-level of Greek language and Greek history was.

Another very important section is the one referring to how the study of the Classics by Western nations is done in such a way that uplifted ideals linked to white supremacy, colonization and genocide. (I promise I don't say this to be edgy. Just watch the video). That's why you will see me and other Greeks very suspicious of Western classicists. We know the white supremacist and imperialist, colonist lens through which their professors filter the material.

Greeks know that rhetoric very well, and we know how it has been used to harm us again and again. The German Nazis are just an example. Our ancestors hid our ancient artifacts so the conquerors wouldn't steal them like their predecessors did.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

When westerners use "Hellenic" grammatically as if it's not a real ethnicity... Also, another red flag: If you say you "work" with the Greek gods you have no idea of the Hellenic ( = Greek) rules of religion and how we see our gods. So I would give this "Hellenic Witch" 1/10 credibility based on this comment alone

I'm going to binge The Witch season 2 now brb

i think some of you pepole need to think about what you are saying

[lessthanthreelalli]

waow new splatoon lore..

[kapoorsalesindia]

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[alatismeni-theitsa]

Yes to all of this! Orientalism plays a big part, since Western Europe has been characterizing Greeks as savage literally before the fall of the Byzantine empire. The Byzantines (large part of them were Greeks) were seen as these excessive, disrespectful and wild people after Charlemagne took over and the Schism happened. This story is oooold af. Let me also add that it was because of the Greek intellectuals who carried then send texts with them to NW Europe that NW suddenly remembered our culture again and hasn't shut up since

People will tag fucking anything related to Greece as mythology. They'll literally see pictures of pillars and be like "#Greek Mythology" malaka I promise the pillars are from real life

[alatismeni-theitsa]

is she me? 😂 Look, TSOA is not exactly a bad book but it was written from the Anglo White-Feminism style of woman who didn't understand too well the culture she studied. And this needs to be said. Greeks should be able to bitch and moan when someone is profiting off their culture and think they have to "correct" it.

What's more, the comments are full of other Anglos who repeat disgusting phrases like "the Iliad and the Odyssey are just fanfics, chill girl", "they are all fake stories anyways". Surely they are the same people who "respect and preserve other cultures UWU" when it suits them, but not when Greeks criticise their favourite White author.

[classic-vintage-bmw]

1991 BMW Z1 Coupe Concept

In 1991, BMW unveiled the Z1 Coupe Concept, a bold prototype crafted by BMW Technik GmbH, the company’s experimental division founded in 1985. Building on the Z1 Roadster’s innovative sliding doors and plastic body panels, the Z1 Coupe Concept reimagined the platform as a sleek shooting brake. Its elongated roofline and spacious rear hatch contrasted the roadster’s open-top design, while retaining the iconic vertically sliding doors—a feature that posed practical challenges for the taller coupe body. The prototype, primarily constructed from clay, wood, and plastic for its exterior, used a minimal steel framework to replicate the roadster’s galvanized chassis, ensuring structural alignment with the Z1 platform. Displayed as a full-size, non-functional model, the Z1 Coupe never progressed to production, yet its quirky silhouette hinted at BMW’s future experiments with unconventional coupes like the Z3 Coupe.

The Z1 Coupe was a testament to BMW Technik’s mission to push platform versatility and explore derivative models. The Z1’s architecture, with its steel chassis, flat aerodynamic undertray, and removable Xenoy thermoplastic panels, was designed for flexibility, enabling variations like the coupe and even theoretical all-wheel-drive configurations. Designated internally as the “Z2,” the concept, shaped under Harm Lagaay’s design leadership, blended E30 3 Series cues with unique features like roof bars, dual exhausts, and mirror-integrated spotlights. The prototype’s construction, combining a steel skeletal base with clay and plastic bodywork, allowed rapid design iteration while maintaining ties to the roadster’s engineering. Though high costs and niche appeal halted production, the Z1 Coupe’s platform-sharing vision influenced BMW’s development of the Z3 and Z4, showcasing the potential for scalable vehicle architectures.

Aerodynamics and engineering innovation defined the Z1 Coupe, mirroring the roadster’s advanced design. The Z1 platform featured a drag-optimized underbody shaped like an inverted wing, delivering 1g of lateral grip on standard tires. The coupe prototype, while non-functional, was built to reflect these principles, with its steel chassis core ensuring compatibility with the roadster’s transverse-mounted silencer and aerodynamic features. The concept retained the 2.5-liter inline-six engine in theory, offering 168 horsepower and 164 lb-ft of torque, though speculative plans for a 1.5-liter turbo engine, inspired by Formula 1 and aimed at Pikes Peak, surfaced in BMW’s archives, as noted in BMW’s Hidden Gems. These ambitious ideas underscored BMW Technik’s boundary-pushing ethos. The Z1’s engineering DNA, rooted in its steel and plastic construction, informed the structural rigidity of later Z-series models.

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[ralofofriverwoods]

Closed, all are sold. If you wish to reserve one in the future please let me know

Anyone want some goth hearts?

The imp is reserved for me friend(hiii xenoi). Otherwise jus make an offer!

[theoxenia]

Zeus guarantees all bonds of friendship as Zeus Philios and, above all, these inter-state bonds, as a sort of religious Red Cross. Nausicaa knows that ‘All xenoi and beggars are from Zeus’, a line which Odysseus himself picks up at 14.251 and which, a millennium later, was a favourite line of the pagan emperor Julian when he hammered home the point that pagans should not leave Christians a monopoly on charity. Xenia is the relationship of reciprocal hospitality between persons of different states, and both parties are known as a xenos, regardless of who is the host and who the guest on any particular occasion. To ask which is the guest is like asking which of two friends is the recipient of a good turn. Zeus Xenios, then, enforces respect for these relationships. This is why Nausicaa’s statement is tinged with the worry that the xenos may be a god in disguise, inspecting the earth, precisely as we see at Odyssey 17.485–7 when there is talk of ‘gods in the form of foreign xenoi’.

Zeus by Ken Dowden, from Routledge's Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World series

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Reading through Bremmer’s work devoted to initiation of the mysteries of antiquity. According to Bremmer, in the chapter on Eleusis, no one will ever truly know what happened behind the walls of the Telesterion, as initiation rites were a secret (oral) tradition guarded fiercely, with only scant Christian apologists giving portions of the ceremony in the third century CE. Now, as to why Eleusis held such a prestigious place in Mediterranean antiquity, the first point is geared to its international character by a design centralized on its geographical location. The Eleusinian mysteries were held in the telesterion in Eleusis, and people came from far to take place in them. Although mostly citizenship was reserved for only a few citizens, the Mysteries, according to Herodotus, were open to all with the exception of those guilty of “blood crimes” (eg, murder) and those who did not speak Greek. The Eleusinian mysteries were unique in this regard. Xenoi and slsves with advocates of Greek stature were even allowed so long as they paid the fee — which was about one full day of work. But why travel to become initiated? This brings us to the second reason. The mysteries of Eleusis were known — along with Dionysian/ Bacchic cults and Orphism — for eschatological and soteriological concerns. One must remember this was pre-Christianity and an afterlife that promised more than meandering in the darkness a la Homer was a welcome comfort. Finally, initiation would have a cathartic release valve revolving around social and economic categories. Eg, on the bridge to the sacred the day before the Mysteries proper, Aristophanes says one can witness slaves hurl insults at the wealthy, flashes of nudity by women etc. Again, this was a cathartic “blood-letting” before the ceremony. One washed themselves in the sea afterwards as well. When we look at the myteries and and religion in general in Ancient Greece, we see a culture must different from today. Religion, daily life, and politics were integrated seamlessly from emperors to beggars. In the end, the mysteries were important as religious cultural structure to the Greeks and the Romans who later borrowed it from them. In short, it was the eschatological, social cathartic, and cultural structural stability the Eleusinian cult gave the Mediterranean world until its fall that made it so important.

First of all, I apologize for the very long delay in my reply. The cause of this delay is that a very important and very unhappy event happened lately in my family, with as result that I was not able to focus on your ask.

Now, the truth is that I have not read Bremmer's book on the mysteries of Antiquity. But I know that it is an excellent work and I agree with most of what you write about the different functions of the mysteries of Eleusis and about our lack of knowledge and understanding of their main rite (although information about important aspects of the Eleusinian mysteries has been preserved and has come to us).

Just one disagreement: the information about the conditions for the access to the mysteries of Eleusis to which you refer, namely that the mysteries "were open to all with the exception of those guilty of “blood crimes” (eg, murder) and those who did not speak Greek" is not found in this form in Herodotus' Histories. Herodotus in fact describes how, during the invasion and occupation of Attica by Xerxes, an Athenian exile and collaborator of the Persians, Dikaios, explained to Demaratos, the deposed king of Sparta who had become advisor of the Great King in his campaign for the conquest of Greece, that (8.65,4 as translated by Andrea Purvis in The Landmark Herodotus edition of Histories) "the Athenians celebrate a festival each and every year in honor of the Mother and Kore, and any of the Athenians and the other Hellenes who want to are initiated. The sound you hear is the Iakhos hymn they sing at the festival" (in fact that year there had been no celebration of the mysteries of Eleusis exactly because of the Persian invasion and destruction of Attica and the dust and sound from Eleusis seen and heard by Dikaios and Demaratos were in this story -as narrated by Dikaios and recorded later by Herodotus- divine signs for the imminent disastrous defeat of Xerxes' fleet at Salamis).

According to Walter Burkert (in his classic book Greek Religion), each year the Hierophantes inaugurated the period of the celebration of the mysteries with the prorresis, with which he imposed to stay afar from them "those who did not have clean hands or speak an unintelligible language". According to Burkert, the general consensus was that in this way were excluded from the mysteries of Eleusis the murderers and the barbarians (but what about the barbarians who spoke also Greek?). The sources for the text of the prorresis to which Burkert refers (an anonymous commentator of Aristophanes' The Frogs, Isocrates, Origenes, Theon of Smyrna, Suetonius, Libanius) do not include Herodotus. Burkert makes also in the same passage the important remark that it is characteristic of the archaic formulation of the prorresis that nothing is said in it about the cleanliness of the heart.