Hestia
Hestia
Most Recent Update Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Table of Contents
Click on Any Underlined Title to be Taken to it Immediately
The Hellenismos Shop at Cafe Press
Updated on 1 February 2007
The World's Greatest Athlete: and What That Means
3 September 2004
The Complete Bylaws of Thiasos Olympikos
Calendar of
Events for Thiasos Olympikos Year
19
Updated 29 April 2008
About Hellenic Calendars: A brief article by Maureen Reddington-Wilde
Posted 1 July 2003
Our Next Dromena 
Updated 29 April 2008
(Rituals Not Part of Our Yearly Liturgical Calendar)
Hellenic Habilliments: Basics of Ritual Clothing
(Theater, Film, Wine, and All Things Dionysian)
Updated 20 April 2007
Reviews from the Realm of Dionysos
(Theater Reviews and ?)
Updated 14 April 2003
(This is the first "Greek Tragedies on Video" Page on the Net)
Updated 8 September 2002
(Reviews of Music Possibly Suitable to Hellenic Dromena)
(Reviews of Music Inspired by Ancient Hellas)
Updated November 18th, 2005 - Broken Link Fixed 23 November 2005
Liturgical Compilation On Line
(Texts of Most of Our Current Dromena)
Our Newsletter, The Serpentine Leopard
(How to Subscribe, and Why)
Koinonia: The Archieros' Journal
Updated 5 April 2001
Books of Possible Interest to Hellenic Hearts
Updated 10 April 2006
Updated 19 April 2005
Links to Other Sites We Find of Value & Interest
Updated 19 April 2005
Sadly, A New Entry Below
A Page of Memorial Writings in Honor of Our Friends and Loved Ones Who Have Gone Before
Please Sign Our Guestbook & Leave a Message So That We Can Visit You!
The Guestbook for Both /Either Thiasos Olympikos & The Rhinoceros Lodge
This is the section devoted to Ancient Greek
Religion, as we are practicing it today. The easiest way to give you
an introduction to what we are doing is to quote Article Two of our
Bylaws, which quote you will find below. But first a little
background may be useful. We got started on this as an outgrowth of
work with Men's Mysteries, which we began in 1972. After years of
doing the Men's Mysteries we got some feedback that it was time to do
a little more, so for the last twelve years we have been
re-connecting to our cultural ancestors and practicing Ancient Greek
Religion. In the last couple of years things started to come unglued
a bit resulting in the group splitting; and the group which I founded
adopting a set of Bylaws defining what we are, as opposed to what we
are not. The members of the other, offshoot group indicated a desire
for a less formal approach: as they have ceased to communicate, I do
not know exactly what that means, but they are good folk and I wish
them well in their version of the work we began together.
Article Two of the Bylaws of Thiasos Olympikos
Thiasos Olympikos is a Religious Association
organized for the purposes of facilitating: the honoring of the
Hellenic Deities; specifically the Twelve of Olympus, but not limited
to Them and specifically including Others: the study and practice of
Hellenic and Neo-Hellenic mysticism, and the gnosis derived from that
study and practice: the culture surrounding and growing from and
related to such.
To these ends Thiasos Olympikos shall engage in
both activities and communications, establish and maintain such
institutions as may be necessary to its purposes, and acquire and
maintain such properties as may aid in the accomplishment of its
goals.
End of Excerpt from our Bylaws.
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Our Bylaws ae ridiculously more long and complicated than they need to be: but they were written in response to very real problems, and they are meant to last a long, long time, so that the job doesn't have to be done again. They are intended for our use, and to allow us to interface with the modern world a little more smoothly than we might without them. They are not meant as any kind of authority for anybody but us. Given that you understand that, and that you might like to read them, we here put them on a page of their own for your perusal.
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At this point you may be wondering what the rituals (or, more properly called Dromena) listed on our calendar are all about. If all that you have experienced so far are rituals based on the Wiccan format, you will probably find our Dromena in some ways familiar, and in some ways quite different. We have been working hard to return to forms as close to those of our Cultural Ancestors as may be both reasonable and practical. To give a clear view of our ritual logic, we are including an article on ritual structure, which, like our Bylaws, we are placing on a separate page. To view it, just proceed along the following link.
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Our Next Dromena
If you follow this link, you will arrive at a copy of the text of our next scheduled Dromena. If you have read the above article on ritual structure, you will understand how it works and be able to accomplish it for yourself. Of course, the Agon which you insert at the appropriate point is likely to vary greatly from the one which we will be accomplishing here; that is kind of the point of having some sort of contest in honor of the Gods. People and conditions vary, person to person, location to location.
By the time we have all the Dromena uploaded, you should have a nearly complete file of the outlines of the Dromena which we practice. --But remember, as we practice the Dromena we continue to learn, and small things change, or may be added, as we learn. In the future we will no doubt add more, so don't assume after a year that you have them all or that they will remain static. Come back and check occassionally. And there are a few Mysteries that we just don't write down. We have most recently added Hephaestos to our liturgical year, and there are more Gods than we have yet honored, to say the least.
If you choose to do so, you may wish to coordinate your celebrations with ours by the simple procedure of referring to our calendar.
If you choose to perform our rituals, either at the same time or some other time, we would enjoy hearing about your experiences with them. New things always happen, and we love to hear about it! Please send us either e-mail or hard copy mail!
We continue to appreciate your interest.
Thargelia:The Purification of the Tribe
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As this year goes on we will be moving the Dromena listed above to storage, where you may access them at you leisure and need. It will likely not be a complete compilation, as there are things you just can't write down. (Ever try to notate choreography? Music is difficult enough!) But it may prove a useful library for those who wish to conduct the available ceremonies.
A Festival in Honor of the Goddess Athena
The First Festival of Our Liturgical Year
A Celebration of the Twelve of Olympos
(In Honor of Demeter)
Pyanepsia: First Fruits of Autumn
(In Honor of Apollon)
(In Honor of Hephaestos & Athena)
(In Honor of Zeus & Hermes)
(In Honor of Dionysos)
Lenaea: A Comedic Festival of Dionysos
(In Honor of Dionysos)
Anthesteria: A Festival in Honor of Dionysos & Hermes & the Dead
(The Arrival of Spring and the Opening of the Seas for Sailing)
Thargelia:The Purification of the Tribe
A Hero Festival, with A Sacrifice to Asklepios, God of Health & Healing
The Closing Ritual of Our Liturgical Year
The Serpentine Leopard, the newsletter of Thiasos Olympikos, has been back in production for several years now. The Leopard is how we notify members of the locations of Festivals, and it contains reports on Festivals that have recently happened. We also try to include articles which may be of interest to our members. We do not put most of this information on the Web because, quite frankly, we are conducting serious religious observations and we do not want a bunch of nut cult Dominionists showing up with no other intention than disruption. If they want to do that sort of thing, they will have to pay for production and postage like anybody else. (Grins, like a satyr!) Despite the emphasis on local news, folks in other parts of the world seem to enjoy reading The Serpentine Leopard. Our events and community have provided a useful role model for groups getting started in other places, and there seems to be some genuine value to the solitary individual in knowing what is possible. Our difficulties and mistakes also seem to be of value, giving fair warning of the possible pitfalls and pratfalls to which we mortals are always prey.
It is quarterly, costs $10
a year, ($15 foreign) and cheques should be made payable to R. S.
Firethorn. The Address is Thiasos Olympikos, c/o Rhinoceros Lodge,
Post Office Box 1140, Cobb, CA., 95426-1140, USA. Issue 79 is coming
up next.
E-mail Me! 
RhinocerosLodge@pon.net
The Worlds Greatest Athelete: And What That Means
Readers from the United States of America who do not happen to be followers of sports (beyond the commercial presentation of team sports played by millionaires for the main purpose of airing commericial messages) are likely to be puzzled when they see the (honorary) title "The World's Greatest Athlete," and after it the name of someone of whom they have never heard. This puzzle may readily be solved with the information that in most of the world the complex of sports known in the United States as 'Track and Field' is called, simply, 'Athletics.'
The ultimate Athletic event is the decathlon, a grueling contest in which the individual must compete in ten separate events. In the Ancient Olympics the predecessor of this contest was the pentathlon, a contest of five events; among them the discus and javelin, which still figure in the modern competition.
The winner of the Olympic decathlon, having proved himself in ten sports and garnered scores which provide him with points, which are totalled to determine the overall winner, is thus called "The World's Greatest Athlete."
Below therefore please find pictures of Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic, the Winner of the Decathlon at Athens in 2004, and now the World's Greatest Athlete. The picture to the left is his portrait before the competition. The center picture is of his competition in the javelin, which took him clearly ahead of his competitors. To the right is his victory portrait.
Roman Sebrle is currently the only athelete to have scored 9000 points, although his Olympic score was slightly lower; but still a record.
May Zeus watch over him in his competitions until once again the world's athletes gather to restore the Olympic Peace with honorable contest.
Note: in this year, 2004, the United Nations called for a resolution of Olympic Peace. Sadly, the nations which were at war did not bother to heed the resolution. Our prayers go up to Zeus that someday the Olympic movement will have the force and power to exclude nations which war during this Sacred Time, and that nations will take seriously such an exclusion. The athletes who competed from opposing sides in various wars showed courage and good sense in treating each other well and respectfully during this time of honorable competition. May the heads of their nations take notice.
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About Hellenic Calendars
by Maureen Reddington-Wilde
A thirteenth lunar month occurs on a pretty regular basis, approximately every seven out of eighteen years. One every three years is typical, and once in a while they happen every other year. That is the actual cycle of the moon, which of course has very little impact on the way Athenian Arkhons regulated the calendar of their city.
The Archon was responsable for adjusting the calendar by adding or subtracting days from months and deciding when to add a thirteenth month. If these practices ever lined up with the actual lunar cycle, it was a complete accident or perhaps done deliberately by an exceedingly eccentric Arkhon. Nominally, days should be added or subtracted from each month so that the next month begins on the new crescent moon. In practice, the changes were made for political reasons (being able to hasten or postpone a council meeting could help achieve any number of ends) or practical ones: if preparations for the Greater Dionusia which must happen on the tenth of Elaphebolion aren't quite ready, the Arkhon could insert numerous extra days of the 9th until the 10th could happen right on schedule; and probably for a number of inscrutable reasons as well. There are also instances where the Arkhon inserted a thirteenth month three years in a row. I hope Selene has a good sense of humour about all this.
Since we only have surviving detailed information on Athens' calendar, we can only guess as to whether or not other Hellenes were as unconcerned with calendrical accuracy. Given the absence of any commentary that the Athenians were unusual, I suspect their practices were typical.
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