We're coming upon a few women-only festivals, which always brings up the question: "Why did the ancient Hellenes have women-only festivals?" and then: "Why didn't they have men-only festivals?" Well, I have an idea.

Ploughing festivals, especially connected to the Eleusinian Mysteries, were tied to fertility. They celebrated the bond between mother and daughter, and the one thing for which all women were respected and honored: the ability to produce children--and sons especially. For the women, these rites gave them a rare opportunity to assert their independence and escape from the restrictions of their household.

That said, many women-only festivals had special rites for the men as well. There was a male and female encampment at the Thesmophoria, for example, and the division was clearly set; no men were allowed in the female encampment, and no women in the male encampment. Sex was not allowed. What the women did is fairly well preserved, but what the men did is less clear. What we do know is that Eleusinian festivals honored many other deities which were also tied to the harvest and the success of the nation in some way, especially in Athens from where most of the surviving material originated. There, Athena Skiras, Poseidon Pater, and Dionysos also had a huge role to play.


Many Eleusinian festivals had a special rite reserved for Poseidon and/or Dionysos, especially, and during the Haloa, for example, these rites were reserved for men only. We don't have evidence for this at the Thesmophoria, for example, but there is a good chance the men performed a rite like this.

Women-only festivals were the Stenia, the Thesmophoria, the Skiraphoria, the Haloa, the Theogamia, the Adonia, the Tauropolia, and the Brauronia. Male-only festivals were the Theseia, the Dipolieia, the Olympieia, and the Demokratia.

As you can read, we don't know much about men-only festivals, but we do know they existed. So why don't we know much about men-only festivals but quite a bit about women-only festivals? I'll wager another guess. The ancient Hellenic writers whose work has survived were almost exclusively male and their audience was mostly male as well. They both knew what happened at these festival celebrations and they respected them enough not to write about what happened. Women-only festivals, however, well, those must have been a constant source of wonder and curiosity. Of course they wrote about them, both in speculation and with whatever detail they'd managed to gather.
The Thesmophoria was another harvest festival tied to the Eleusinian Mysteries and the mythology surrounding Demeter and Persephone. This is another female only festival. Will you join us for it from 2-4 October, all at 10 am EDT?








The colossal Temple of Olympian Zeus or 'Olympeion' in central Athens, one of the signature monuments of the Greek capital, is to undergo a complete structural repair and restoration. The go-ahead for the plans was given by Greece's Central Archaeological Council in a recent session.

The head of the Athens Antiquities Ephorate Eleni Banou told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Tuesday:

"The monument has several structural restoration problems. There had been no progress on the issue until now because it had to be inducted into some sort of National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) programme. [The restoration had to be attempted] because as I said to the CAC, if we don't we will be answerable to history."

There is currently extensive structural damage to the colossal monument, she pointed out, especially to the columns, which make it urgent to mount a "rescue operation" to stop the causes for its continued wear and to reinforce its structural stability. The proposed plans envisage the repair of damaged architectural elements and work to maintain the marble surfaces.

The last recorded major damage to the monument was in 1944, during the Greek civil war, where the marks of the bullets were still visible on the columns, Banou said. Prior to that, the bulk of the damage was done in the Byzantine era when most of its 104 pillars were ground down to make first-class lime or looted for use as building materials.

Currently, only 16 pillars of the massive temple still survive and were re-erected in their present form in 1835, while the last work to structurally support the monument was done in the late 1960s.

On September 30th, we'll host a PAT ritual for the Stenia. The Stenia is connected to the Eleusinian Mysteries, Demeter, and Persephone.






The Stenia is a female only festival, sorry guys! We can't really provide you with laughter and jokes, so here is my suggestion: get all your friends together and have a girl's night. Find Magic Mike on Netflix and break out the wine and popcorn. The ritual will focus on the religious part. You can find the ritual here and chat amongst yourselves here.
The Theseia was an ancient festival held in Athens in the honor of Theseus--as there were many others this month. The focus of this one is actually on his bones and lasting memory; it's a memorial rite. Will you join us in honoring Theseus? In remembering his deeds and the lessons he taught us? Join us on the 29th of September at the usual 10 am EDT.


The Theseia (Θησεῖα) was not instituted till BC. 469, when Athenian statesman and strategos Cimon brought the (alledged) remains of Theseus from Scyros to Athens. After the Persian wars, around 476/5 BC, Athenian Archon Phaedo was prompted by a Pythian priestess at Delphi to return the bones of Theseus to their city. Cimon, upon hearing the oracle, sailed to Skyros to retrieve them. Plutarch, in 'Theseus' tells the story of discovery, collection and retrieval as follows:


The Athenians were delighted with the return and the bones that either were or were not Theseus' were laid to rest where they became an intrical part of Athenian life:

"Upon which the Athenians, greatly delighted, went out to meet and receive the relics with splendid processions and sacrifices, as if it were Theseus himself returning alive to the city. He lies interred in the middle of the city, near the present gymnasium. His tomb is a sanctuary and refuge for slaves, and all those of mean condition that fly from the persecution of men in power, in memory that Theseus while he lived was an assister and protector of the distressed, and never refused the petitions of the afflicted that fled to him."

The festival of the Theseia was held on the eighth of every month, but the eighth of Pyanepsion was especially important because the ancient Athenians considered this the day that Theseus returned from Krete:


The festival was celebrated with donations of bread and meat, which were given to the poor people so they could 'fancy themselves equal to the wealthiest citizens'. This happened on the evening portion of the eigth of the month (the ancient Hellenes started the new day at sundown). I suspect the offerings that went along with the shared banquet had a slightly Khthonic character. Heroes and heroines have a special place in Hellenismos, as they had in ancient Hellas. These were humans--most with at least a part divine heritage--who were considered so brave, so skillful, so extraordinary in their lifetime that they became revered. Hero worship was very specific and it's a concept that translates with more difficulty than straight-up deity worship.


Contests were also part of the festival, during the daylight hours, but we don't know much about these contests; we don't know what sort of contests they were, for example. All we know is that they were 'gymnastic contests'.

We hope you will join us for the event! If you feel like doing so, the ritual can be found here and you can join the community here.
A Swiss-led team of archaeologists in Greece has made a spectacular find: the temple of Artemis, a famous open-air sanctuary of antiquity. Researchers have been looking for the sanctuary for more than a century. The site was found at the foot of the Paleoekklisies hill near the small fishing town of Amarynthos on the Greek island of Euboea. It’s about 10km from the place where the temple was wrongly thought to be located.

Since 2007, the search for the sanctuary has been led by Karl Reber, a professor at the Universty of Lausanne and director of the Swiss School of Archaeology in Athens.


They held a festival in honour of Artemis, who was worshipped as the patron Goddess of Amarynthos, which takes its name from an Eretrean man who was besotted by Artemis.

For many images of the temple remains, visit The Archaeological New Network.
As you may have noticed, it's a new month and thus many festivals are taking place in the coming days. Two today: the Pyanepsia and the Oskhophoria. They are both for the 28th of September, at ten and 11 am EDT.

The Pyanepsia

On the 28h of September, 7 Pyanepsion, we start with the Pyanepsia. The Pyanepsia (Πυανέψια) was one of the many harvest festivals of the season, but instead of focussing on the actual harvest, the Pyanepsia focusses almost completely on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Theseus (Θησεύς) was fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, whom had both slept with his mother Aethra, and was thus destined to become a hero. In order to claim his rightful place as ruler over Athens, he had to uncover his father's sandals and sword from under a stone in his mother's birth land where Theseus grew up, and bring it to his mortal father. He did, taking the long and dangerous route over land, and fought many Khthonic creatures and mortal bandits in the process. This was long before he would vow to bring down the Minotaur and thus, set in motion the events that led up to the strange festival of Pyanepsia.

Theseus' father, Aegeus, had taken Medea as his new wife. Afraid hat Theseus would claim the throne and take her position of power from her, Medea pressed Theseus to capture the Marathonian Bull. This, he did, but upon returning, Medea tried to poison him. Aegeus recognized his son just in time and Medea fled while father and son reunited. Theseus then heard about the Minotaur of Crete, and the nine-yearly sacrifices to it. These sacrifices were a punishment by King Minos of Crete for the death of his son Androgeus, at the hands of Athenian assassins.

Theseus offered to be one of the youths who sailed for Crete. Once there, Ariadne, daughter of the king, fell for him and offered him a ball of yarn so he would be able to find his way out off the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur the youths would be sacrificed to. Theseus defeated the Minotaur and took Ariadne and her sister Phaedra from their home in thanks for their help. That night, they slept on the beach but Athena woke up Theseus and told him to sail out now, and to leave Ariadne and Phaedra behind. He did, although it pained him greatly. In his dismay, he forgot to sail with the white sails he had promised his father to sail with if he was alive. As he reached the main land, Aegeus saw the black sails and figured his son dead. He then cast himself off of the cliffs overlooking the sea, and drowned.

Theseus blamed himself for his father's death, but was very relieved to be home none the less. He wished to thank Apollon for his safe journey and his victory over the Minotaur and thus, he ordered his men to gather all the foodstuffs that remained. This was mostly beans and grains, and he ordered the food to be cooked up for a feast and a sacrifice.

In celebration, Theseus then put together an eiresiône (εἰρεσιώνη), a branch of olive or laurel bound with purple or white wool. It was decorated with fruits of the season, pastries, and small jars of honey, oil and wine. The eiresiône was also called a 'supplicant branch', as it was intended as a thank-offering for blessings received, and at the same time as a prayer for similar blessings and protection against evil in future. He walked through the streets of Athens with his eiresiône, to signal his victory and the end of scarcity.

In ancient Hellas, and especially Athens, both observances were conglomerated into the Pyanepsia, and boys tended to carry their home made eiresiône through the streets in a Halloween-esque manner. They knocked on the doors of every house and sang a song. In return, they expected a gift. The eiresiône song from Plutarch, Life of Theseus, 22.5, goes as follows:

'eiresiône suka pherei kai pionas artous
kai meli en kotulêi kai elaion apopsêsasthai
kai kulik' euzôron, hôs an methuousa katheudêi.'

Modern Greek pronunciation:
(Capitalized syllables are emphasized according to the poetic meter)
'EE-re-si-ON-NE SEE-ka fe-RE KE PEE-on-as AR-tous
KE me-lee EN ko-tee-LEE ke e-LE-on a-POP-SEE-SAS-the
KE kee-lik EF-ZO-RON, OS AN me-thee-OU-sa ka-THEV-dee.'

Plutarch has the song:
“Eiresione for us brings figs and bread of the richest,
Strong wine too in a cup, that one may go to bed mellow.”
A special eiresiône was brought to the temple of Apollon by a boy whose parents were both alive. He was encouraged to recite the song during the procession. By the Classical Period an eiresione was hung over almost every door in Athens and remained here a full year before being replaced by a new one.

The sacrifice to Apollon was upheld for a long while as well. The ship Theseus used on his return from Crete to Athens was kept in the Athenian harbor as a memorial for several centuries. It was maintained and kept in proper shape. Often, this meant replacing parts of the ship, a practice which led to the question if the ship could still ethically be called the ship of Theseus after so much of it had been replaced. This dilemma became known as the 'Ship of Theseus paradox'. 

At any rate, the ship was sailed out to the island of Delos--which housed a sanctuary of Apollon--yearly after Theseus' return. To ensure the sanctity of the sacrifice, executions were not allowed to take place during the weeks it took to sail to Delos and back.

You can join us for this event on Facebook. The ritual for it can be found here. We would love for you to share your experiences and images of your eiresiône.

The Oskhophoria

The Oskhophoria (ὀσχοφόρια), or Oschophoria when Latinized, was an ancient Hellenic festival dedicated to Dionysos, Ariadne, Athena Skiras, and Apollon. This month, festivals are either related to the Eleusinian Mysteries or the mythology surrounding Theseus. This festival is one of the latter. It was a vintage festival and we would like to invite you to join us for it at 10:00 am EDT on September 28th.

The Oskhophoria falls during the vintage season in Attica. The principal feature of this festival, the procession, featured ripe grapevines. As such, we can assume that this festival was a thanksgiving for the grape harvest. In fact, branches of vines with fresh grapes were carried in a great procession from the temple of Dionysos in Athens, to the ancient temple of Athena Skiras in Phalerus. This was the main feature of the festival. After Theseus, hero and king, the festival was augmented to include the recounting of his many exploits with accommodation to earlier traditions. It seems that this recounting was done at the banqueting after the ritual and there would be much recounting indeed. Because the festival adopted features from mythology, Apollon also became one of the Theoi sacrificed to, as He is closely tied to the mythology of Theseus.

Many sources have snippits of information about the Oskhophoria and most disagree, as we have come to expect. We can be fairly certain the ancient Hellenes attributed the mythical foundation of the festival to Theseus, however, and many details of the festival relate back to his journey to Krete:
  • the procession featured two youthful men in female attire, said to recall the trick of Theseus in which he substituted two of the seven female tributes with young male fighters
  • mothers carrying dinner baskets also featured, representing the mothers of the fourteen tributes who made a last meal for their children before they sailed
  • the Oskophoria was an ocassion for storytelling, as the youths sailing to Krete would have needed their spirits raised
Plutarch's account, in 'Theseus', recounts the origins of the festival as follows, obviously trying to make a coherent whole out of contradictory evidence:


In the myth of Theseus and the minotaur, Theseus, looking to become king of Athens, hears about the Minotaur of Krete, and the nine-yearly sacrifices to it. These sacrifices were a punishment by King Minos of krete for the death of his son Androgeus, at the hands of Athenian assassins. Theseus offered to be one of the youths who sailed for Krete. Once there, Ariadne, daughter of the king, fell for him and offered him a ball of yarn so he would be able to find his way out off the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur the youths would be sacrificed to. Theseus defeated the Minotaur and took Ariadne and her sister Phaedra from their home in thanks for their help. That night, they slept on the beach but Athena woke up Theseus and told him to sail out now, and to leave Ariadne and Phaedra behind. He did, although it pained him greatly. It was here, Dionysos found Ariadne and fell in love with her. He would later end up marrying her and she became his immortal wife.

Because the Oskophoria is in many ways two festivals in one, it is a hard one to pin down in terms of modern worship. The Oschophoria was essentially a banquet celebration in honor of Theseus and the rescue of youths and maidens and even more so, an older celebration of the vintage combining traditions of Salamis and Athens. Well into the fourth century BC, two branches of the Salaminians were involved in preparation, were Deipnophoroi, and received equal portions of the meat. The vintage rituals of the Salamic Goddess Skiras became associated with Athena Skiras and naturally Dionysos. The various Theseus mythos was explained through the numerous recounting which we have added to the ritual.

We hope you join us in celebrating this festival. You can join the Facebook community here and find the ritual here.
We are proud to announce that Pandora's Kharis members have come through for the restaurant Guerilla Gourmet and its owner James Canter. Together, they have raised $ 75,- to help support this very worthy cause. Thank you very much!

When Hurricane Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 storm, it left thousands of Crossroads residents without water or power. James Canter started cooking and he hasn't stopped. He owns the Guerrilla Gourmet restaurant located on the first floor of the Victoria Advocate. He has cooked food for more than 30 years.

Canter, 45, wasted no time getting his staff together to begin serving free meals to anyone who showed up at the restaurant. All he asked is that the customers pay what they could or wanted to, with the donations going to the cause. In a five-day span, Canter and his staff fed more than 4,000 people in the Crossroads.

Canter encourages those who are hungry or without food to stop by the restaurant at 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. According to Canter:

"Food is our common thread as a race. Food brings people together. Just seeing the smiles of what a simple bowl of soup can bring is incredible. As long as there are people who need food and comfort, we're going to give it to them. We're in it for the long haul."

The raised funds go towards providing meals to ground crews and anyone that needs a hot meal in hurricane-stricken Victoria.

From this moment on, the Pandora's Kharis Facebook page is open to pitches. If you do not have Facebook, feel free to pitch your cause in the comments. We will relay the message to the community. Please pitch your cause before September 30th. On to another month of pitching, voting, and giving!
In the daylight hours of the 27th of September, on 6 Pyanepsion, we will celebrate and host a ritual for the Proerosia which, in Attica, honoured Demeter and Apollon first and foremost as Goddess of the harvest and oracular deity who insured bountiful harvest. It seems that in Myrrhinus, the primary recipient of worship during the Proerosia was Zeus. Will you join us at 10 AM EDT?






Changes to the blog:
  • I have been insanely busy, but next month's project is the ever-recurring issue of weeding out nonsense tags. How do these things keep coming out of my fingers?! 
PAT rituals for Pyanepsion:
  • 6 Pyanepsion - 27 September 2017 - Proerosia - agricultural festival for Demeter held at Eleusis
  • 7 Pyanepsion - 28 September 2017 - Pyanepsia - festival in honor of Apollon and Theseus
  • 7 Pyanepsion - 28 September 2017 - Oskhophoria - festival of the vintage (grapes)
  • 8 Pyanepsion - 29 September 2017 - Theseia - festival in honor of Theseus
  • 9 Pyanepsion - 30 September 2017 - Stenia - women's festival in honor of Demeter and Persephone
  • 11-13 Pyanepsion - 2-4 October 2017 - Thesmophoria - festival in honor of Demeter
  • 14 Pyanepsion - 5 October 2017 - Sacrifice to The Heroines at Erkhia
  • 30 Pyanepsion - 20 October 2017 - The Khalkeia - festival in honor of Athena and Hephaestus.

Anything else?
There are a lot of terrible things happening all around the globe, but Pandora's Kharis has decided to donate to the situation in Texas this month. Terrible floods have wreaked havoc there and we like grass root initiatives to help make things a little better. This month it's the restaurant Guerilla Gourmet and its owner James Canter.

The deadline to donate is today, September 21, 2017. You can do so by using the PayPal option to the side of the Pandora's Kharis website or by donating directly to baring.the.aegis@gmail.com. Thank you in advance!

Remember my novel "Survival Instincts," that will be published in March? It now has a cover! There is nothing Hellenic in it, but it would really help me a lot if you supported me on social media, either by following or interacting. You can find my website here, and of course social media: Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. Thank you!







Archeologists have unearthed a fortress in Russia’s Krasnodar Region, which was supposedly founded by Hellenic colonists in the fifth century BC. This reports The Greek Reporter.

Head of the expeditions department at the Research Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation Ivan Tupalov told TASS that the citadel had been found in the area where an energy bridge to Crimea is under construction.

"Security work was underway in connection with the construction of the energy bridge between Rostov and Taman [the part of the energy bridge that would incorporate Crimea in Russia’s energy grid, ensuring uninterrupted power supply to the peninsula – TASS]. During excavations, an ancient fortress was unearthed. Judging by its fortifications, it was a Greek citadel founded by colonists, who came to settle the Black Sea coast… Such discoveries are not made every day."

According to him, the fortress is estimated to date back 2,500 years, as it is believed to have been built approximately in the fifth century BC. Its walls were made of mud bricks, which is why they did not last until today, but some traces can be seen in places where the ditch was and where towers once stood. The citadel had an area of around eight hectares. In the seventh and eighth centuries AD, the earth ramparts left over from its walls were turned into a burial ground, while in the past decades, the area was partly occupied by fields.

Tupalov said that scientists have yet to find answers to a lot of questions. The number of the citadel’s residents is still unknown (it can be estimated based on the number of the uncovered ceramic shreds). Another puzzling question is whether during ancient times, the Kuban River was connected to the sea by a firth or did the Helenes build their fortress on the seashore, or did they move deep inland, something which was uncommon for them. In addition, Archeologists have found a number of noteworthy artifacts.

"For instance, a bowl has been excavated which has an interesting picture of figures engaged in a dance resembling the ‘sirtaki’ dance. Besides, there are various small incense burners as the Greeks were very fond of fragrances, there are also pieces of jewelry and ceramic shards."

Swamped! So swamped! I'm sorry, have a video on philosophy. It's the best I can do today. More tomorrow!

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky lived from 29 July 1817 to 2 May 1900. He was a Russian Romantic painter and is considered to be one of the greatest masters of marine art. Aivazovsky was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there. In 1845, Aivazovsky traveled to the Aegean Sea with Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich and visited the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, and the Greek islands of Patmos and Rhodes, gaining inspiration for his art. During his almost 60-year career, he created around 6,000 paintings, making him one of the most prolific artists of his time. Today, I'd like to share some of his (ancient) Hellas themed art.

The Acropolis of Athens [1883]

The wedding of the poet in ancient Greece [1886]

Travel of Poseidon by sea [1894]

Crete [1897]
I was re-reading The Odysseia, as I am prone to do when life gets hectic. It's a gentle refuge for my mind. I grasp at it in the hopes of clutching calm, and gaining a soothed mind. The Odyssey (Ὀδύσσεια) is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homeros. The Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BC and focuses mainly on the hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years of perilous journeying to reach his beloved Ithaca again.

In the Odysseia, Homeros describes the intense longing to be with someone who has departed, in this case Odysseus tells the story of how he spoke to the ghost of his mother and lamented that he wished to hold her. It rang true for me yesterday, at least the part about longing. That's why I'm sharing it with you today.

“So she spoke but as I pondered this in my thoughts,
I wanted to clutch the soul of my departed mother.
Three times I reached out as my heart urged me to embrace her,
And three times she drifted from my hands like a shadow
Ora dream. The grief in my heart only grew sharper
And I spoke to her, uttering winged words.
“Mother, why don’t you wait as I come to hold you,
So we may even in Hades throw our arms around another
And have our fill together of cruel grief?
Or is it that dread Persephone sends only this ghost to me
So I may groan, grieving still more?”
So I spoke and my lady mother responded right away:
“Oh, my child, most ill-fated of all men,
Zeus’ daughter Persephone does not allow you things,
This is the law of mortals whenever they die.
We possess no tendons, flesh or bones—
Those things the strong force of burning fire
Consumed, and when the spirit first leaves its white bones,
The soul flits about and flies like a dream.”
[Odyssey 11.204-222]

The ancient Hellenes believed in ghosts; they were the people who could not find the entrance to the Underworld or who didn't have the money to pay Kharon for their passage. Those who were not properly buried were also doomed to wander the Earth for a hundred years. Interestingly enough, Hellenic heroes were also considered ghosts and were honored in the same type of rites as other types of ghosts. These ghosts, like Odysseus' mother, were summoned from the underworld with libations of animal blood, milk and honey, undiluted red wine, and water.

It's a scary world we live in today, isn't it? I long for quiet and safety, for reassurance, like Odysseus longs for his mother. Reading Homeros gave me a little respite from reality and for that I will always be grateful.







Conservation, restoration and integration works have been initiated for the Hellenistic towers in the ancient city of Perge in the southern province of Antalya in Turkey. The work was carried out by the Antalya Directorate of Surveying and Monuments.

Perge (Perga in Greek) was once a very important city in the region of Pamphylia and the ancient ruins of Perge are located about 18 km east of Antalya near the town of Aksu, Turkey. It was an important city originally settled by the Hittites around 1500 B.C. Perge is located near the Kestros River and was originally a port city on a major trade route. Perga was a wealthy Greek city during the Hellenistic period, however, when the whole bay area silted up, that ended Perga’s port city status and sea trade.

The Hellenistic towers, Perge’s most significant structure, is one of the remaining pre-Roman structures at the site. It dates back to the 3rd century BC, this gate, consisting of two towers with a horse-shoe shaped court behind them, was clearly designed according to the defensive strategy of the day.

Restoration of the gigantic towers began in 2002 by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Within the scope of the restoration project, Prota provided damage assessment, seismic assessment, in-situ drawings, restitution and restoration and retrofitting designs for the Hellenistic Towers in Perge antique site. The towers were taken under protection in 2007 with the steel construction method, in order to prevent the stones from falling, or a possible collapse.

Antalya Surveying and Monuments Director Cemil Karabayram states that the tender has been finished for the restoration of the towers. The restoration project has a budget of 2.5 million Turkish Liras.

"Nearly 2,000 stones in the tower were classified. Now the proper stones will be used again in the restoration. The restoration will be complete in mid-2019. After the restoration, the steel frames will be removed from the towers. The stones were examined one by one and the project was approved by the relevant preservation board. At the moment, it is evident where most of the stones will go. When the work is complete, we will be able to open 70-80 percent of the Hellenistic towers for tourism. The project will be carried out under the consultancy of academics and scientists."






The world is nuts, ladies and gentlemen, and sometimes I need a little ancient wisdom to help me through the crazy. Epictetus (Ἐπίκτητος) was a Greek-speaking Stoic philosopher who lived from 55 – 135 AD. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia (present day Pamukkale, Turkey), and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in north-western Greece for the rest of his life. His teachings were written down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses and Enchiridion.

Epictetus' primary philosophical lesson was that philosophy is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline. To Epictetus, all external events are beyond our control; we should accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. In short: a true Stoic. In 'Discourses' Epictetus' views come to light best, and I would like to share some of his wise words about power today.

"Of the things which are in our Power, and not in our Power











"Are there any sources for Greek holidays? Did they celebrate Sabbats and Equinoxes like other pagans of their time? I've found a few but they're mostly Roman and I'm looking for specifically Greek if that's possible. Thank you in advance."

A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year (around 21 June and 21 December) as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. An equinox occurs twice a year as well (around 20 March and 22 September), when the plane of the Earth's equator passes the center of the Sun. At this time the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun. In essence, during an equinox, the period of time the sun is down (night time) and the sun is up (daytime) is roughly the same. The ancient Hellenes observed these four points in the year, and because of that, the ancient Hellenic calendar is partly solar: the solstices and equinoxes are anchor points for the otherwise lunar calendar.

Depending on the city-state, one of these four points was picked for the start of the new year. Athens and Delphi had the summer solstice, Boeotia had the winter solstice, and Milet started out with the autumnal equinox, but moved the new year to the spring equinox around the end of the 4th century BC. This anchor point was the most important; the rest were used to check the accuracy of the calculations.

Is it reconstructionistic to honor specific Gods on the solstices and equinoxes? That depends on which Gods you honor on the equinoxes and solstices. We know there were festivals celebrated on or around the time of these anchor points:

The Galaxia was closely associated with the Spring/Vernal Equinox.
The Kronia was closely associated with the Summer Solstice.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated around the autumnal Equinox.
The Poseidea was closely associated with the Winter Solstice.


"You're doing the Eleusinian Mysteries! I want to take part but I am still practicing and I missed a few days, is that bad? I see the first few are about purification, can I spend extra focus on my usual purification and catch up that way? How about the others I missed?"

You can totally still jump in with the Mysteries! You were right, you can conflate the purification rites with your standard practice (maybe focus on it a bit more) and either leave out or do one after the other the other rituals you've missed. May I suggest you don't consider this a practice period? You will never be faulted for mistakes you make unknowingly. What you are doing is honoring the Theoi, and you either honor Them or you don't. There is no "practice" or "in-between". You either do, or you don't, and you do! That's wonderful! Take pride and joy in that.


"What advice do you have for someone who is just getting into Hellenismos and also going to be attending college this fall."

That depends on what you're worried about, I suppose. Will you be lacking privacy? Are there rules that you have to stick to in order to continue living where you will be living, be it a dorm or an off-campus site? Perhaps this will help: a list of what you need to practice and the substitutes allowed anywhere and which you can hide.

An altar to sacrifice at = use your desk or clear a table
A sacrificial bowl (x2, one to sacrifice into, one for khernips) = deep plates or soup bowls
Candles = electric candles or unlit ones
Incense = perfume (keep away from fire!)
Wine = grape juice
A garden to pour out libations / bury sacrifices = a potted plant

That's all you need, really. Usually you can light a match even in a dorm room, so you should be able to make khernips by dropping a match into water. Most likely you won't be able to have a fire burning to burn sacrifices in. Sadly, that's just how it'll have to be until you get out. Practicing without a fire is a reality for many people until they have a home where it's possible to safely and legally practice that way. Some never will, and that's all right too. I hope this helps and good luck at college!

Created by the inhabitants of the ancient city of Athens and its surrounding region, Attica, stone inscriptions are the most numerous surviving written documents of a city that has made a lasting impact on Western civilization. All the stone inscriptions from ancient Athens in UK collections are to be made public in English translations for the first time, thanks to a new project led by Cardiff University.


Among the inscriptions is the well-known stele of Jason held in the British Museum. The 2nd century AD monument is a dedication to the healing god Asklepios by the doctor, Jason, and his family, and depicts a doctor examining an anxious patient. Another is a fascinating 2nd century BC decree of the Athenian Assembly in Petworth House honoring a long list of Athenian girls who helped weave the peplos, a garment ritually draped over the ancient wooden statue of Athena on the acropolis.

Attic Inscriptions in UK collections, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, will publish all 250 inscriptions from ancient Athens and Attica held in UK collections, in collaboration with museums across the UK. Spanning nearly a millennium of history from the 6th century BC to 3rd century AD, the inscriptions will be published in open access on the website Attic Inscriptions Online created by, Dr Stephen Lambert of Cardiff University’s School of History, Archaeology and Religion.





The polis (πόλις) literally means "city" in Greek. The plural is "poleis" (πόλεις). It's almost synonymous with "city-state": a sovereign state, also described as a type of small independent country, that usually consists of a single city and its dependent territories. Athens was one, for example, as was Sparta.

In the ancient world, the polis was a nucleus, the central urban area that could also have controlled the surrounding countryside, which were usually part of the polis. These outskirts were called usually called "Khôra" (χώρα). There were around 1500 archaic and classical Hellenic poleis. Many of them are listed here. The region formed by a cluster of poleis, bound geographically and ethnically, was an ethnos (ἔθνος, nation). Its plural is "ethne."

The Ancient Hellenic city-state developed during the Archaic period as the ancestor of city, state, and citizenship and persisted (though with decreasing influence) well into Roman times. The term polis, which in archaic Greece meant "city", changed with the development of the governance center in the city to signify "state" (which included its surrounding villages). Finally, with the emergence of a notion of citizenship among landowners, it came to describe the entire body of citizens. The ancient Hellenes did not always refer to Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and other poleis as such; they often spoke instead of the Athenians, Lacedaemonians, Thebans and so on. The body of citizens came to be the most important meaning of the term polis in ancient Hellas.


Τhe Archaeology Sector at the Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology of the University of Thessaly announces the results of regular excavations at the ancient city of Kythnos (today’s Vryokastro) earlier this year (26/5-5/8). The excavations have yielded particularly significant findings.
Significant new findings on Greek island of Kythnos
Head of a bearded figure (Asklepios or Serapis) 

The excavation of two Classical-Hellenistic monument buildings that had started in 2016 has been completed. The southern Building 1, measuring 17.40 x 11.50 meters, which was also used in the Roman period, is divided into two rooms sharing a single portico (NW) with a Doric colonnade (this year, an entire column capital made of shelly stone was found at the bottom of the adjacent ancient cistern, probably from this gallery).

At the northern part of Room A, a pebbled floor is preserved, as well as part of the elevated circular stripe for placing daybeds. As a small researching incision at the north-western corner of the site indicated the initial floor here was about 1 meter lower but we do not know yet whether it was also pebbled. Also, many fragments of a second floor found in the cistern, decorated with black pebbles forming geometric shapes, cannot be attributed to the later floor at which only white pebbles were used.

There is of course a possibility that this unidentified decorated pebbled floor comes from Room C, bordering to the south. Indeed, the upper floor of Room C has been corroded and is not preserved. Yet, at the rear part of it the solid rectangular sub-foundation of a pedestal has been uncovered, measuring 1.20x0.80 metres, probably aiming to host a cult statue. This pedestal is associated to the 2nd (Roman) phase of the site, when the prostyle single gallery of the building was no longer standing and at the southern half of the portico an informal hall was created with an entrance at the south. It seems that at that time a new threshold was placed to access Room C, about a metre higher than the initial floor of the area, off-centred to the central axis of the room but right across the pedestal of the cult statue.

At the south-eastern corner of Building 1 there is an attached pear-shaped cistern, cut into the existing rock. This year, with the contribution of volunteering speleologists from the SPELEO and HEIRON associations the inside of the cistern was thoroughly investigated; it is over 7.50 meters deep and 6.80 meters wide at the broadest part of its floor.

It included large quantities of sizeable stones, mixed with a bit of soil, as well as numerous mobile findings, mainly stelae and sculptures made of marble. The findings inside the cistern comprise, among other things, ceramic figurines of female and child figures, multi nozzle oil lamps, a fragment of a kernos from Eleusis and the following marble sculptures from the late Classical-Hellenistic years: two heads of girls, two torsos of naked boys, the head of a bearded figure (Asclepius or Serapis), and a small Hekataion.

These findings certify that the building is associated to the worshiping of Asclepius, as we had suggested last year, on the grounds of the finding inside the cistern of a Roman inscribed cippus with the name of the god. Parts of marble votive stelae were also found inside the cistern this year, some bearing inscriptions. One of them is about an offering to Aphrodite Derceto (Atargatis).

The worshipping of Aphrodite at the particular site had been previously assumed, mainly due to the presence here of a marble statue, previously attributed by P. Themelis to Damophon, the sculptor from Messene. The theory was confirmed by the aforementioned inscription, as well as by a headless marble Hellenistic figurine of a semi-nude Aphrodite found this year at the destruction layer at the base of the western protecting wall of this building.

Based therefore on this year’s findings, Building 1 should be associated with the worshipping of Asclepius as well as Aphrodite. Inscriptions testifying the worshipping of Gods from Samothrace have also been found in the area. Last but not least, inside the cistern, towards the deeper strata of the land filling that has been excavated, two human femoral bones have been found, their dating remaining unclear so far.

To the east of the façade of Building 1, the area of the altar has been investigated anew (preserved length 6.20 meters, width 2.85 meters). The altar seems to have been restricted within the limits of the northern half of the building, although we assume it also served the worshipping of other deities at the temple.

Building 2, to the north (fig. 2 on the left, fig. 15), measuring 20.20x8 meters, has four square rooms opening to a long narrowing corridor. The building must have had at least two entries from the east. At a second phase, however, the inside of the portico was also accessed from the north as well as the south through built-in tiers.

Unfortunately the floors of use in the building have been totally corroded; however, investigation of the breccia landfill beneath them has yielded significant findings this year, ranging from the Geometric to the Hellenistic years, confirming that Building 2 was constructed in the Hellenistic times.

Another important discovery is that the abutment starting at the north-eastern corner of the building ends at Abutment 4 and the sanctuary of Apollo and Artemis, dozens of meters to the north (fig. 16 in the background), confirming that it is a massive building project of monuments along the sea-front, with sacred and public spaces of the Ano Polis in this period.

The exact use of Building 2, though, cannot be clarified until the mobile findings associated with its use have been conserved and studied (including ceramic figurines, lead weights, trade amphorae and many fragments of relief skyphoi).

Research at a 4-metre wide stripe between the two buildings uncovered the terraced slope to the plateau of the sanctuaries, which leads to a simple propylon. The area underwent an important intervention in the Roman years, when burning soil, with many animal bones and ceramics (mainly oil lamps from the Hellenistic-Roman years), probably from the area of the altar, were accumulated there and access was created with the tiers at the north-western corner of Building 2. Similar terraced accesses to the plateau were uncovered along the southern side of Building 1 as well as the northern side of Building 1.

Finally, within a few meters to the east of Building 2, during a trial research of two squares, a part of an older abutment wall was uncovered, built with unprocessed stones, running along Building 2, which is probably associated to the older phase of the site, in the Geometric-Classical years.

To conclude, consolidation and conservation of the excavated monuments of the ancient city has begun, starting from the temple of Apollo and Artemis (excavation 2002-2006), in close collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades.

With the research at the particular site of the Ano Polis on Kythnos island the two areas are now spatially connected to some of the most significant sanctuaries of the island. It should be reminded that a few meters to the north in the period 2002-2006 a particularly important temple was excavated, which would operate from the 7th century BC to the 1st century BC – 1st century AD, with an unlooted sanctum containing numerous valuable votive offerings. It was probably a sanctuary for Apollo and Artemis.

To the south of the Asklepieion and the Afroditieion stretches the Acropolis with its sanctuaries waiting to be uncovered; the sanctuary of Demeter, identified through surface findings, seems to have held a preeminent place among the Acropolis sanctuaries. We hope that these zones are finally expropriated and become an archaeological site open to the public, in combination to the displays at the new archaeological museum of the island, which last year became part of the NSRF and is being constructed by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades.

The excavation on Kythnos was conducted by the Archaeology Sector of the University of Thessaly, under the direction of the professor of Classical Archaeology Alexandros Mazarakis Ainian, in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades. Apart from the aforementioned institutions, research was financially supported by the Secretariat General for the Aegean and Island Policy of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Islands and Fisheries; the Southern Aegean Region; the Municipality of Kythnos; and mainly by the generous sponsor Mr Athanasios Martinos.

For many, many, many more pictures of these finds, visit the Archaeological News Network.