El, Father Of The Gods, And The King Of Ugarit

Illustrations of Epic of Gilgamesh by Marek Żuławski (unfortunately censored)

Jeweled medici dagger, ca. 1840

Mushroom monday 🍄 by pixiiwo

endearments in letters to véra

polish psych ward diaries

Domari people (middle eastern romani) of Palestine

(1) A domari tent in Jerusalem near the Damascus Gate, 1920s

(2) A domari street circus in Jerusalem, 1905

(3) Domari dancer and musician in Mandatory Palestine, 1930s

(4) Domari settlement at the north of the Damascus Gate, 1914

(5) Domari musician and dancers in Galilee, 1920s

(6) Domari women and children in a domari settlement in Mandatory Palestine, 1920s

7) Domari woman with seashells in the hand to tell fortune, near the sea of Galilee in Palestine, 1930s

Staff Pick of the Week

A few weeks ago I read the Epic of Gilgamesh for the first time, and despite the fact that the origins of the story are probably from the mid-3rd millennium BCE, and the earliest cuneiform tablets we know the story from date from the late 2nd millennium BCE, the narrative’s emotional frame, and the frank depictions of sex, violence, fear, longing, and friendship, all felt remarkably contemporary to me. Just last week, Gilgamesh came up again in a discussion during a session of my course on the History of Books and Printing. Since Gilgamesh has had a recurring presence in my life this past month, I’ve decided to highlight some images and text from our copy of the Limited Editions Club production of Gilgamesh, translated by William Ellery Leonard and printed in 1974 at The Stinehour Press in Lunenberg, Vermont, in an edition of 2,000 copies.

The book includes nine bold three-color woodcuts and seven black-and-white woodcuts and linocuts by the American visual artist Irving Amen (1918-2011), who also signed the entire edition. The text is printed in the Club’s proprietary eighteen-point Janson type, with thirty-six-point Trump Gravure wedge-serif capitals for the titles. The woodcuts beautifully capture every significant scene in the epic. Click on the images to view the captions.

View more posts on the Limited Editions Club.

View more posts with woodcuts.

View more of our Staff Picks.

– MAX, Head, Special Collections

Dahlov Ipcar

Masterpost: Resources for Hellenic & Roman Polytheism

This post was made by request for those having difficulty accessing it on my main page.

It was placed on my main page because Tumblr doesn't seem to like all the links.

Please check my main page for updates: honorthegods dot tumblr dot com / masterpost

═════════════════════════════════════════════

🏺📜   🏺📜   🏺📜   🏺📜   🏺📜   🏺📜   🏺📜   🏺📜   

The Basics for Hellenic and Roman Polytheists

Theoi Greek Mythology (https://www.theoi.com/) is a very good resource for classical mythology, historic cult information, the Homeric Hymns, the Orphic Hymns, the Delphic Maxims and other primary texts, including:

The Orphic Hymns: http://www.theoi.com/Text/OrphicHymns1.html

The Homeric Hymns: http://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns1.html)

The Perseus Digital Library offers a wide range of complete primary and secondary sources for the study of ancient Greece and Rome:  http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collections

Hercules:Greece’s Greatest Hero  http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/index.html

Athanassakis,Apostolos N. The Homeric Hymns: https://archive.org/details/homerichymns0 0home https://archive.org/details/homerichymns00atha

🏺 📜  Books and articles

Athanassakis,Apostolos N. The Orphic Hymns. Not currently available online.

Burkert, Walter. Ancient Mystery Cults. https://archive.org/details/AncientMysteryCultsWalterBurkert1987/page/n2/mode/2up

Meyer, Marvin.The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook: Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World  https://archive.org/details/ancientmysteries0000unse_p7i2

Morford, Mark, P.O., Lenardon, Robert J. and Sham, Michael. The Student Companion to Classical Mythology, Tenth Edition: https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199997329/

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities John Murray, London, 1875. Articles on Roman (and Greek) religion, including divination, festivals, funerals, magic, priestly officers, and rituals:  https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA/Religion/home.html

The University of Washington. Interpretations of Myths: A free online course:  https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/862997

The Monster Compilation of Free Online Resources for Classical Studies: a compilation of links to free academic sources about archaeology, language, literature, culture, history, magic, philosophy, religion, and more in the ancient Mediterranean world:   https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/186537661706/the-monster-compilation-of-free-online-resources

Adult Home Study for Hellenic and Roman Polytheists: ideas for self-study to enrich understanding and aid in interpretation of mythology:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/162142268516/adult-home-study-for-hellenic-and-roman

Altars - the basics:

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/620197080304123904/hi-do-you-have-any-bookpdf-recommendations-on

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/152645127251/what-is-a-good-place-to-buy-idols-any-great

Worship - the basics:

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/190346773596/ive-got-a-question-i-hope-you-can-answer-how-do

https://bayoread.tumblr.com/post/108556815372/how-to-make-a-libation-super-simple-picture

Bloodless sacrifice reading list:

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/169120886091/hearthglow-honorthegods-an-offering-of

Divination and Magic Resources:

Popular divination methods in ancient Greece:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/163293305101/popular-divination-methods-in-ancient-greece

Astragalomancy (dice):  https://spiritusarcanum.tumblr.com/post/29278618720/astragalomancy-divination-with-dice

Cartomancy: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UhYvvS9bsYAJ:https://newworldwitchery.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/the-new-world-witchery-guide-to-cartomancy.pdf+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Homeric Oracle: https://aur-ochs.tumblr.com/post/185994910629/the-homeric-oracle-comprehensive-edition

Academic article about the Homeric Oracle: http://www.chs-fellows.org/2014/03/28/using-homer-for-divination-homeromanteia-in-context/

Divination and magic reading list:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/170457576371/so-i-know-that-minerva-was-the-roman-equivalent-to

═════════════════════════════════════════════

🏺◦🏺◦🏺◦🏺◦🏺◦🏺◦🏺◦🏺◦🏺◦🏺

Hellenic Polytheism Resources

Hellenic polytheism, at the most basic, is the modern worship of the ancient Greek pantheon. Hellenic polytheists may also honor the nymphs and other nature spirits, and personified virtues, and practice some form of ancestor cult, sometimes combined with hero cult.

Hellenic polytheism is also known as Hellenic paganism, Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism, Hellenismos, Hellenic paganism, Olympianism and Dodecatheism or Dodekatheism.

It’s occasionally called Hellenistic Polytheism, though it should be noted that the term “Hellenistic” refers specifically to the time period from the death of Alexander the Great to the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Antony by Octavian in 31 BCE.

The term “Hellenism” was used to describe traditional Greco-Roman religion by the Emperor Julian and is still being used by modern reconstructionist and revivalist groups, especially those in Greece. There has been controversy over the use of “Hellenism” over the past two years, though Hellenic polytheist groups in Greece have issued statements permitting non-Greeks who worship the Theoi to use the term.

“Hellene” is a word used to describe Greeks and people of Greek heritage; it is therefor incorrect to use it as a synonym for practitioners of Hellenic polytheism.

The main tag to search for information of interest to beginners is #Hellenic Polytheism 101.

🏺  Building A Knowledge Base: Books, Articles and Websites

Hellenic Polytheism - free (and reliable!) resources Updated 28 August 2020:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/612595707697840128/hellenic-polytheism-free-and-reliable

Masterpost of Followers of Hellenic Deities:   https://thepastelpriestess.tumblr.com/post/184326359865/masterpost-of-followers-of-hellenic-deities

Evaluating the reliability of sources:   https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/185112455671/hellenic-polytheism-how-to-sources

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/184538461866/how-can-i-know-if-a-book-on-hellenic-polytheism-is

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/184254209886/how-to-determine-if-a-book-on-mythology-is-legit

Resources for epithets of the Theoi:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/184436720456/resources-for-cult-epithets-of-the-greek-gods

About the Eleusinian Mysteries:   https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/150632102731/hey-im-new-to-all-this-what-are-we-supposed-to

About the “Pillars of Hellenisimos”:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/173258771786/pillars-of-hellenismos

The Delphic Maxims: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphic_maxims

Beliefs about the afterlife:   https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/188387856416/did-ancient-greeks-believe-in-reincarnation

Funerary customs:

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/624550327095607296/also-does-anyone-have-any-book-or-article

Hades and Persephone reading list:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/174794576611/honorthegods-hades-and-persephone-side-a

Chthonic deities reading list:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/179703232746/are-there-any-reasonably-priced-books-or-scholarly

Antinous reading list:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/188654586206/the-cult-of-antinous-free-online-resources

Dionysus reading list: https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/183521520461/monsterbychoice-does-anyone-have-good-sources

Heroes and hero-cult reading list: https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/106530516261/heroes-and-hero-cult-in-classical-antiquity-a

🏺 Prayer and Worship

Modern prayers to the Theoi:

Hearthstone http://hellenicdevotions.com/ 

winebrightruby https://winebrightruby.tumblr.com/devotional

Note: downloads of Hearthstone’s four books of Hellenic prayers may be purchased at  https://www.etsy.com/shop/HearthfireHandworks for $5 US each.

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/176587866746/ive-never-prayed-before-and-not-entirely-sure-how

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/180306585886/hey-ive-been-trying-to-incorporate-prayer-more

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/174545555546/as-someone-whos-just-thinking-about-starting

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/163612768156/what-kinds-of-things-can-i-sacrifice-to-the-gods

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/190346773596/ive-got-a-question-i-hope-you-can-answer-how-do

https://bayoread.tumblr.com/post/108556815372/how-to-make-a-libation-super-simple-picture

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/160481841661/what-am-i-to-do-with-left-over-food-offerings-that

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/157714542371/the-gods-do-not-need-sacrifices-so-what-should

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/177522616751/any-advice-for-someone-who-is-piled-with-constant

🏺 Festival Calendars and When to Worship

HMEPA Hellenic Month Established Per Athens Version 1.0.: the Athenian calendar, updated to be a calendar for the modern world and a Compiled List of Festivals and Sacrifices in Athens: http://www.numachi.com/~ccount/hmepa/

http://www.hellenion.org/calendar/

http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/hymns/index.php?page=calendar

https://theia0mania.tumblr.com/post/620301786979418112/id-like-to-know-the-routine-of-a-hellenic-pagan

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/189974963276/hello-do-you-have-a-schedule-for-your-worship-or

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/185820921256/what-holidays-do-hellenic-polytheist-people

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/143171897776/how-do-you-know-the-dates-of-festivals

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/174665458836/so-i-understand-that-you-arent-hellenic

🏺 Weddings

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/183749333001/how-can-the-gods-be-honored-in-a-wedding-ive

https://winebrightruby.tumblr.com/post/151719592260/binding-goddess-of-love-and-happiness-i-call

https://winebrightruby.tumblr.com/post/151262049285/hymeneal-i

═════════════════════════════════════════════

📜◦📜◦📜◦📜◦📜◦📜◦📜◦📜◦📜◦📜

Roman Polytheism Resources

Roman polytheism is the modern worship of the ancient Roman pantheon. Roman polytheists may also honor the nymphs and other nature spirits, genii locorum, Lares, Penates, and practice some form of ancestor cult, sometimes combined with hero cult and Imperial cult.

Roman polytheism is also known as Roman Polytheistic Reconstructionism, Roman paganism, Religio Romana, Cultus Deorum, and Cultus Deorum Romanorum.

The main tag to search for information of interest to beginners is #Roman Polytheism 101

📜 Building A Knowledge Base: Books, Articles and Websites

Roman Polythesim: free (and reliable!) resources! Updated 22 December 2020: https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/612756976981671936/roman-polytheism-free-and-reliable-resources

Roman and Graeco-Roman Polytheists Masterpost:                         https://amor-augusti.tumblr.com/post/618731689875750912/roman-and-greco-roman-polytheists-masterpost

Getting started with Roman Polytheism:

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/188126659106/i-know-that-it-may-be-a-very-general-question-but

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/160383390436/i-know-this-isnt-greek-but-im-only-just-getting

Ancient Roman Virtues:

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/173298432346/the-virtues-of-ancient-rome

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/170662119466/charities-and-philanthropies-in-the-roman-empire

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/188260977191/revere-the-gods-watch-over-human-beings-our

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/168825525321/the-honour-that-is-paid-to-the-gods-lies-not-in

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/173304213321/how-can-anyone-who-while-worshiping-zeus-the-god

Resources about the worship of Antinous:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/188654586206/the-cult-of-antinous-free-online-resources

Resources about the Mithraic Mysteries:  https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/619125563802746880/free-and-reliable-sources-for-the-mysteries-of

The Lararium and Household Worship

Religio Romana Handbook: A Guide for the Modern Practitioner by L. Vitellius Triarius:  https://archive.org/details/ReligioRomanaHandbook   I don’t like or usually recommend Polytheist 101 handbooks, but this one is pretty good for those anxious to dive into worship.

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/180463260661/lararium-replicas-first-row-wood-lararium-kit-20

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/190932464563/lararia-of-pompeii-by-italian-painter

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/188068225581/so-i-have-been-wanting-to-do-more-research-on-the

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/152392762011/modern-lararium-on-the-kalends-ides-and-nones

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/154484437866/book-review-sofroniew-alexandra-household-gods

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/168573120761/book-review-household-and-family-religion-in

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/178978387851/roman-fresco-from-the-lararium-of-the-house-of

Resources about Augury:

Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay G.  Roman Republican Augury: Freedom and Control. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  https://theeye.unblockit.id/public/Books/Bibliotik/R/Roman%20Republican%20Augury_%20Freedo%20-%20LINDSAY%20G.%20DRIEDIGER-MURPHY.pdf

Linderski, Jerzy. “The Augural Law: ANRW II 16.3. 1986.  https://www.academia.edu/18884007/J.Linderski_Watching_the_Birds_Cicero_the_Augur_and_the_Augural_Templa_CP_81_1986_330-40_RQ_1995_485-95_Addenda_668_Addenda_altera_RQ_II_2007_633

Linderski, Jerzy. “Watching the Birds: Cicero the Augur and the Augural Templa.“  https://www.academia.edu/18884007/J.Linderski_Watching_the_Birds_Cicero_the_Augur_and_the_Augural_Templa_CP_81_1986_330-40_RQ_1995_485-95_Addenda_668_Addenda_altera_RQ_II_2007_633

Imperial Cult:

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/188765426281/this-is-probably-a-dumb-question-but-do-people

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/612228400138092545/hi-i-love-your-blog-and-the-research-you-put-into

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/162349342106/do-you-pray-to-caligula

Festival Calendars:

http://www.epistemeacademy.org/calendars/ Convert today or any date to Roman (kingdom and Republic) or Julian calendar date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_festivals

http://www.musesrealm.net/rome/festivals.html

http://people.ucls.uchicago.edu/~fspaltr/Roman%20Festivals.pdf

http://www.novaroma.org/calendar/index.html

http://romanpagan.blogspot.com/2014/01/roman-calendar.html

Festival Calendar of Antinous: https://naosantinoou.org/all-festivals-and-observances/

📜 Weddings

https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/190182930321/hello-ive-always-been-interested-in-classical

═════════════════════════════════════════════

Top image info: Woman with phiale (libation bowl) at altar. Terracotta kylix, circa 460 BCE, attributed to the Painter of London. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: Wikimedia Commons (X). Image License:  Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication