Heat and Daily Practices

I know that I haven't been on for two months so I want to talk about something that I face every year. The blasted heat! It's a week before summer begins and the heat has come back and making it hard to even do anything. So what does someone do about the heat? Well if you live in a house that has a AC running cool air then you might have to worry about some dancing candles. However if you have a AC in the window, blasting the air, then you might end up with a mess.

The biggest piece of advice that I give is to have those LED candles that you can turn on. They produce no heat and they won't cause a fire. Incense burning might be a problem but just pray to them and give them a liquid offering. The gods understand more than we give them credit for. Don't allow others to tell you that you just have to do something a certain way. This is your religion, not theirs!

The Hellenic month of Mounukhion Begins

Tonight, at sundown, will be the beginning of the Hellenic month of Mounukhion. This is the last Hellenic month before we get to the most important of Hellenic rituals and that's the washing of Athena's statue. This month lasts from the 8th of this month until the 6th of May. I hope that you all have a good one and may the gods bless you. I would also like to note that, unlike last month, I will not be posting holy days of the different gods.

Just festivals and libations.

Hena Kai Nea (New Moon, April 2016)

 




Tonight, when the sun goes down, I will be honoring Hecate as this Hellenic month comes to a close. It's been a great month and I'm really happy to see it come to a close and honor Hecate once again. Once again the same things apply as it did last month. Have a good one and be blessed.

Hellenic Holiday: Pandia

Tonight is Pandia, which is a Hellenic holiday that centers around Zeus. This is also the last Hellenic holiday of the month of Elaphebolion. I got this info from Wikipedia, which I don't really recommend using but it was the only place that I could find the info.

he Pandia was an ancient state festival attested as having been held annually at Athens as early as the time of Demosthenes.^[1] Although little that is known of the Pandia is certain,^[2] it was probably a festival for Zeus,^[3] and was celebrated in the spring after the City Dionysia in the middle of the month of Elaphebolion (late March and early April).

Dates

The exact date of the Pandia has been much discussed.^[4] Demosthenes, speech Against Midias (21.8) has a meeting, during which the conduct of the City Dionysia was reviewed, being held after the Pandia. This places the Pandia, at least during the time of Demosthenes, after the City Dionysia. Some have seen an association between the Pandia and the full-moon, placing the celebration on 14 Elaphebolion.^[5] But according to Pickard-Cambridge, Gould and Lewis, the association with the full-moon "can neither be affirmed nor rejected",^[6] and modern scholarship appears to favor the later dates of 16 or 17 Elaphebolion.

Rites

The derivation of the festival's name and exactly whom the festival may have honored have been the subject of considerable discussion.^[8] Zeus, the goddess Selene, Pandia, a daughter of Zeus and Selene, and Pandion, a mythical king, have all been seen as being possibly connected with the festival.

The name "Pandia" is associated with the goddess Selene, the Greek personification of the moon. Originally Pandia may have been an epithet of Selene,^[9] but by at least the time of the Homeric Hymn to Selene,^[10] Pandia ("all brightness")^[11] had become a daughter of Selene and Zeus, and Pandia Selene or Selene's daughter Pandia, have been offered as possible origins for the name of the festival.

Another mythological figure whose name has been suggested as a possible source for the name of the festival is Pandion, a legendary king of Athens who, as part of the tribal reforms of Cleisthenes at the end of the sixth century BC, became the eponymous hero of the Athenian tribe Pandionis. However some scholars think it is more likely that the hero derived his name from the festival as its legendary founder.^[12] An inscription^[13] dating from c. 386 BC, which refers to a decree of the tribe Pandionis, commending a "priest of Pandion" for services performed at the Pandia, supports the notion of a link between Pandion and the festival.^[14]

While mentioning both Selene and Pandion in connection with the festival's name, Photius states that the festival was held for Zeus,^[15] and although according to Robert Parker this association with Zeus may only be "a probably correct etymological guess",^[16] many scholars are content to assign the festival to Zeus.^[17] It is also possible that more than one of these mythological figures were associated with the festival, and who the festival honored may have changed over time.

Sacrifices to Kronos/Full Moon

Tonight, when the sun goes down, we pour libation to Kronos and also celebrate the Full Moon. During the Full Moon we honor Selene, Artemis, and Hecate. These goddess are the three goddess that New Age pagans believe are the faces of Hecate. Kronos, though I don't honor him, is the father of the Olympians like Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. I do hope that you have a good one and that the gods bless you.

Also, have a good Full Moon.

Return of Spring

To those that practice the religion of Wicca, which I use to, today is the first day of Spring or Ostara. For us Hellenists the first day of spring means the return of Persephone from the underworld. The god Hermes, is pictured in this painting, as returning her back to her mother. Hecate, of course, plays a roll in this as well. The ritual that I do for this time of the year is in honor of Demeter, Persephone, Hermes, and Hecate. I ask Demeter to make the crops grow, I thank Hermes and Hecate for helping Persephone come back, and I thank Persephone for the budding flowers that have now grown.
This day is filled with spring imagery and I'm really glad that she's back. I was getting sick and tired of the cold weather.

City Dionysia

Tonight, at sundown, is City Dionysia. This is a Hellenic festival that I do not observe. I'm really not close to Dionysus. I will give him his libation when it's his mother and sometimes honor him if he's connected to Demeter, but that's it. Below is some information about this Hellenic festival. I got this from ancienthistory.about.com

The City Dionysia was a major state-sponsored festival, in ancient Athens, featuring dramatic competitions. In addition to the major City Dionysia, there was also a rural Dionysia.
The City Dionysia was held during the Athenian month of Elaphebolion (March-April) in honor of the god Dionysus Eleuthereus (god of freedom), in an area (temenos) sacred to Dionysus.

Theatrical Genres

Dramatic competitions were held in the genres of

• dithyrambs,
• comedies, and
• tragedies.

The tragedy competition was for 4 plays per author: a trilogy or 3 unrelated plays, and a satyr play.

Procedure

Before the start of the festival, there were 2 processions, the first, carrying the statue of Dionysus to and from, and the second where various groups proceeded through the city to the theater, arrayed in groups distinguishable by color or other articles of dress, according to Rabinowitz. The ceremonies started at dawn in the outdoor theater, with purification and lustrations, followed by a dithyramb, and then the plays.
When Cleisthenes reformed Athens to make it more democratic, it is thought that he included competition between the groups of citizens in the form of dramatic, performing dithyrambic choruses.

Taxes - A Civic Obligation

Well in advance of the Elaphebolion (an Athenian month that ran from late March to early April) event, the city magistrate selected 3 patrons of the arts (choregoi) to finance the performances. It was an onerous form of taxation (liturgy) the wealthy were required to perform -- but not every year. And the wealthy had a choice: they could supply Athens with a performance or a battleship. This [URL depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/athnlife/politics.htm] obligation included:

• housing and feeding the chorus and actors,
• selecting chorus members (young men about to enter the military),
• hiring a chorus director (didaskalos) who trained the 12-15 non-professional dancers (choreuts), for a year, to perform, sing, and dance in the chorus,
• providing a place to train, and
• paying for a dedication to Dionysus if he won.

Actors - Professionals and Amateurs in the Cast

While the chorus was composed of (well-trained) non-professionals, the playwright and actors had, as Didaskalia puts it, "leisure with a passion for the theater." Some of the actors became such polished celebrities their participation would give an unfair advantage, so the lead actor, protagonist, was assigned by lot to a playwright who was expected to compose a tetralogy, direct, choreograph, and act in his own plays. A tetralogy consisted of three tragedies and a satyr play -- like a dessert at the end of the heavy, serious drama. Partly humorous or farcical, satyr-plays featured the half-human, half-animal creatures known as satyrs.

Visual Aids for the Audience

By convention, the actors in tragedy appeared larger than life. Since there were about 17,000 open-air seats in the theater of Dionysus (on the south slope of the Acropolis), going more than half way round the circular dance floor (orchestra), this exaggeration must have made the actors more recognizable. They wore long, colorful robes, high head dresses, cothurnoi (shoes), and masks with large mouth holes to facilitate ease of speech. Men played all the parts. One actor might play more than one role, since there were only 3 actors, even by Euripides' (c. 484-407/406) day. A century earlier, in the 6th century, when the first dramatic competition was held, there was only 1 actor whose role was to interact with the chorus. The semi-legendary playwright of the first play with an actor was Thespis (from whose name comes our word "thespian").

Stage Effects

In addition to the actors' accoutrements, there were elaborate devices for special effects. For instance, cranes could whisk gods or people on and off stage. These cranes were called mechane or machina in Latin; hence, our term deus ex machina.
The skene (from which, scene) a building or tent at the back of the stage that was used from the time of Aeschylus (c. 525-456), could be painted to provide scenery. The skene was at the edge of the circular orchestra (dance floor of the chorus). The skene also provided a flat roof for action, a backstage for the actors' preparation, and a door. The ekkyklema was a contraption for rolling scenes or people onto the stage.

City Dionysia

At the City Dionysia, the tragedians each presented a tetralogy (four plays, consisting of three tragedies and a satyr play). The theater was in the temenos (sacred precinct) of Dionysus Eleuthereus.

Theater Seats

The priest was seated in the center of the first row of the theatron. It may be that there were originally 10 wedges (kekrides) of seats to correspond with the 10 tribes of Attica, but the number was 13 by the 4th century B.C.

Related Resources

Terminology for Drama
Required Parts of Tragedy
Other Features on Drama

Elsewhere on the Web

Roger Dunkle's Introduction to Tragedy
Also see "The Entrances and Exits of Actors and Chorus in Greek Plays," by Margarete Bieber. American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Oct., 1954), pp. 277-284.
Tragedy Concepts
Hamartia - the downfall of the tragic hero is caused by hamartia. This isn't a willful act in violation of the laws of the gods, but a mistake or excess.
Hubris - Excessive pride can lead to the downfall of the tragic hero.
Peripeteia - a sudden reversal of fortune.
Catharis - ritual cleansing and emotional cleansing by the end of the tragedy.
For more, see Tragedy terminology and Aristotle Poetics 1452b.
Tragic Irony happens when the audience knows what is going to happen but the actor is still ignorant. [See Socratic Irony.]