Weekly Deity: Calliope

Calliope is the Greek goddess of epic poetry and one of the nine Muses.  Her name is pronounced “kha-lie-oh-pee” and in Greek: καλλιοπε.  She is considered to be the Muse of Homer when he wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad.

Attributes

This goddess is typical shown as a young, beautiful woman.  She is fully-clothed in robes.  Often she carries a writing tablet and may be shown with a scroll or book in hand instead.  Sometimes she wears a golden tiara.

Usually the nine Muses are shown together, but one or two are important enough for are prominent enough in various myths that at times they are shown on an individual basis.  Calliope is one of those who may be shown without her sisters because of her prominence in numerous myths.

Mythology

Calliope is the eldest of the nine Muses, and while the Muses are nonuplets (nine siblings at once), they aren’t generally said to look alike.  Her sisters are: Clio, Erato, Urania, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Melpomene, Thalia, and Polyhymnia.  Their parents are said to be Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory.

Calliope is perhaps the most active of the Muses in terms of mythology without her sisters.  She was a lover of Ares and bore him four sons: Biston, Mygdon, Odomantus, and Edonus.  All four grew up to become the founders of Thracian tribes that bore their names.  Later, she bore two more sons, Orpheus and Linus, to either Apollo (more likely) or the Thracian king Oeagrus.  Calliope does eventually marry Oeagrus, but her sons are more likely sons of Apollo given their talents with music.  Linus is known in mythology to be a great musician and he taught Orpheus and Heracles music.  Orpheus learned poetry from his mother and combined what he learned from her with the music he learned from Linus and became a great singer–so great that he moved Hades and Persephone to tears with his song when he went into the realm of Hades to fetch his wife back to the living.

Calliope is also said to mediate an argument over Adonis between Persephone and Aphrodite.  The two goddesses were so taken with Adonis’ beauty that they fought over who would be able to keep him.  So Calliope mediated on Zeus’ behalf and decided that Adonis should spend one-third of the year with each goddess and the remainder of the year in any place he chose.

Light and Dark Sides

The Muses are gentle, wise, and benevolent mistresses of their respective domains, and Calliope is no exception.  She is considered the wisest and most assertive of the Muses.

Calliope would be good to call on for aid in papers or projects, especially those projects that deal with writing, books, or poetry in some form.  Basically any task that requires patience, planning, and time could fall under her purview.  Epic poetry isn’t written in a day, which makes her a goddess of perseverance and patience as well as creativity and imagination.  She is particularly good for authors and musicians to call upon.

On her Dark side, she is perhaps a little too entrenched in her work.  It’s possible that she could be so involved in the project that other tasks get pushed aside to the point of neglect.  This is pure speculation, of course, since there are no myths about her actual work, only her relationships–but it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that this is a possibility.

Overall, Calliope, like her sisters, is a benevolent goddess who is willing to give aid when called upon for help with certain projects.

For more about the Muses as a whole, see my earlier post on the ladies.

Weekly Deity: The Erinyes

The Erinyes, also known as the Furies, the Eumenides, and the Dirae, are Greek goddesses of vengeance.  “Erinyes” means “the angry ones”, while Eumenides means “Kindly Ones” or “Gracious Ones”.  The Erinyes are commonly said to chase down perjurers, oath-breakers, those who commit crimes against the gods, and kin-slayers.

Attributes

There is no definite number of Erinyes, so any number could be pictured.  In art, the Furies tend to be shown with wings of some kind and snakes in their hair and around their arms and waist.  Otherwise the Furies are entirely human women.  They dressed either as hunter-maidens in short tunics and boots or in the long black robes of mourners.  One source says their eyes dripped blood.

Mythology

Original Greek mythology did not name specific Erinyes.  It was not until Vergil that three Erinyes were recognized with names: Tisiphone (“avenging murder”), Alekto (“unceasing”), and Megaera (“ungrudging”).

The Erinyes are cthonic (meaning of the earth, therefore from Gaia) deities, born from the blood of Ouranos’ castrated genitalia.  Another source also says the Erinyes were born from the primordial deity Nyx, meaning they also are primordial.  Either way, these goddesses are older than the Olympians.

Ancient people feared to call the Erinyes by their proper name, so they used a euphemism, the Eumenides.  This euphemism eased their fear and also was supposed to sooth the Erinyes and keep from drawing their attention.

The most powerful invocation of the Erinyes was that of a parent upon a child, because the Furies were born from a violent act of a child attacking the parent.  The Erinyes could also be called down on a criminal by the victim in order to seek justice.  The punishments of the Furies varied, from disease and illness to withered crops and dearth.  The most severe punishment from the goddesses was a tormenting madness, but this was usually reserved for patricide/matricide.  As servants of Hades and Persephone, the Erinyes lived in the underworld and would torture the souls of criminals in the lands of the damned.

In a play by Aeschelus, the Erinyes chased Orestes after he killed his mother Clytemnestra.

The only way to shake the Furies off your trail is to complete a ritual purification and an assigned task of atonement.

Light Side

The only positive side I can think of for these goddesses is that of justice.  The Furies enact justice for crimes even if human justice can’t be accomplished.  In addition, the Furies tend to only punish people for actions that are almost universally acknowledged to be crimes, such as murder and oath-breaking.  In that sense, they are somewhat like divine policemen.  However, there isn’t much else about them that can be said to be good.

Dark Sides

The goddesses were fairly thoroughly Dark.  Although not all deities associated with the underworld are Dark gods, these live up to the association between Darkness and underworld.  They torment not only humans’ bodies, but their souls after death as well, making these goddesses especially fearful.

The Meaning of the Pentagram: Part One

This is the first post in a three-post series about the meaning of the pentagram.

PART ONE: ANCIENT TIMES

A pentagram is a five-pointed star, while a pentacle is the same star enclosed in a circle.  Often the two terms are used interchangeably, though many also treat them as distinct.

Ancient Times

Since very ancient times, the most basic meaning of a pentagram was that of a star.  This meaning continues today, and has permeated much of culture throughout history.  Even today when people draw a star they draw a pentagram, with little to no thought for any religious connotations.

Although the following meanings of the pentagram have largely been lost in popular lore, the ancient meanings are still applicable in some situations.  I also believe that knowing the history and previous lore of an object can never be harmful, and can only help further the understanding of an object’s meaning.  Ancient connotations can even be added to modern meanings to supplement the current meanings or add historical value.

In ancient Sumer, the pentagram was religious as well as mundane.  The symbol once was a word meaning a nook or corner.  In the Babylonian region, astrological meanings of five planets were assigned to the points of the star: Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Venus (which was the top point and represented the goddess Ishtar).

Hugieia pentagram (wikipedia)

Ancient Greeks, and specifically Pythagoreans, called the pentagram “hugieia”, or “health”, and thus it was technically assigned to the goddess Hygieia, the goddess of health.  To them, the pentagram represented mathematical perfection.

ReligiousTolerance.org goes on at length to say that the pentagram is representative of Kore, yet they have their deities wrong when they list the goddesses associated with the name.  “Kore” is an ancient Greek word meaning “young girl” or “girl”, and referred to the goddess Persephone as one of her epithets.  Yet ReligiousTolerance assigns the name Kore to harvest goddesses such as Ceres, so I hesitate to add this representation of the pentagram to the list.  They also say that Kore’s sacred fruit was the apple, but I am not sure of that either.  I thought Persephone/Kore’s sacred fruit was the pomegranate, though I could be missing the information about her association with the apple.  Still, while I mention this disparity, I hesitate to add this information definitively to the lore of the pentagram.

In old Judaism, the pentagram at times referred to the five books of the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch.

Part Two: Medieval/Renaissance Times and Christianity
Part Three: Current Times COMING SOON!

Sources

• Signs and Symbols by DK Publishing
• Religious Tolerance: http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_pent.htm
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagram
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentacle

Weekly Deity: Hades

Hades is the Greek god of the dead and the underworld.  His Roman counterpart is actually Dis, not Pluto, though over time the two Roman gods became associated with each other and soon Dis was lost in favor of Pluto, who took over his attributes and responsibilities.  Hades’s name means “the unseen.”  Another name for Hades is Polydegmon, which means “receiver of many guests”, for the number of souls he received in the Underworld.  The name Hades refers to both the god and to the Underworld itself.  His Roman name, Pluto, is associated with another Greek name for him, “Plouton”, which means “giver of wealth”.

Attributes

A middle aged man who look a great deal like Zeus, Hades was often shown as a muscular god with a full beard.  He tended to be a very grim-looking god.  Sometimes he was depicted with Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld, at his side.  He carried a staff and drove a chariot with four horses.  Being a god of things beneath the earth, the Greeks, like the Romans with Dis and Pluto, associated Hades with wealth, and he was sometimes shown wearing fine garments or eating fine food, or surrounded by treasures.

Mythology

Hades was the brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, and third most powerful god in the pantheon (below Zeus and Poseidon).  He was the son of Cronos and Rhea.

Probably his most famous myth is that of his marriage to Persephone.  There are likely many versions of this story, but the most prevalent one is that Persephone, the goddess of Spring and daughter of Demeter and Zeus, was picking narcissus flowers (a flower associated with Hades) in a field.  Hades saw her and wanted her for his own.

He quickly got his chariot and broke through the surface of the earth and kidnapped Persephone.  Demeter, of course, protested the abduction of her daughter.  Zeus dragged his heels, reluctant to intervene since in his mind Hades was acting in an acceptable manner.  Demeter threw a fit and refused to grow things.  This went on for long enough that humans and animals began to starve, and the gods weren’t getting their sacrifices at all, which left them in a poor mood.  Finally, Zeus sent Hermes, the messenger god, to Hades telling him he had to give Persephone back.  By that time, Persephone had been with Hades for a number of months and had been tricked into eating of the food of the dead.  She had eaten pomegranate, and because of this Persephone had to return to the underworld for a third of the year.  Demeter was upset but had to relent.  Thus, Hades got a wife for a third of the year.

However, it is believed this version of the myth was intentionally twisted to be an abduction and rape.  An earlier version records similar events but implies that Persephone went of her own free will, and was not abducted or raped by Hades, which places both of these deities in a very different light.

Hades taking Persephone away in his chariot

Another myth, though short, involves how Hades gained his kingdom in the first place.  After Zeus had defeated his father and the Titans and become ruler of the gods, he and his brothers agreed to split the world into domains for each.  They agreed to draw lots.  Zeus got the sky as his realm, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld.

Herakles (aka Hercules) was also involved in a Hades myth.  As part of his Twelve Labors, Herakles needed to capture Cerberus.  The versions vary, but the widely accepted one is that Herakles went to Hades to ask him if he could take Cerberus for a while.  Hades agreed on the proviso that Herakles not harm Cerberus at all, and return him.  Herakles agreed and took Cerberus and eventually returned him at the completion of this Twelfth Labor.

Hades is known to be a grim and unforgiving god.  However, in one instance, he did show mercy.  When Orpheus journeyed to the Underworld in search of his wife, Eurydice (pronounced “your-id-ih-key”), the famous musician who was able to make even stones weep with the skill of his playing played his music for Hades and asked him for a second chance for Eurydice.  Hades, moved to feel by the emotion of Orpheus’s music, allowed Eurydice’s soul to return with Orpheus.  But he added the condition that Orpheus must not look back at Eurydice to see if she was there until both had reached the sunlight again.  Orpheus almost made it, but looked back when he had almost reached the top, and Eurydice returned to Hades.

A final myth is that of Minthe.  Hades, usually a devoted husband to Persephone, ended up chasing a nymph called Minthe.  He had almost won her when Persephone found out about it and turned the nymphe into a mint plant.

Light Side

Hades is the king of the dead but he is not death itself.  He does not cause people to die, he only watched over their souls and makes sure none return to life and that all are given their punishment of reward as they deserve (meaning whether they go to the Elysian fields or if they suffer a punishment like Tantalus or Sisyphus).  Hades is lord of all beneath the earth, and so is a god of wealth as well as death.  He actually seems to be more of a neutral god than anything else–he doesn’t help much, but he doesn’t actively work against anyone either.  He can be moved to feel emotion, but only in one exceptional circumstance–still, that speaks well of him, for he could have refused Orpheus even after hearing his song, yet he didn’t (which could also point to a slightly romantic side of him, especially if the original version of the abduction of Persephone is taken into account).

Dark Side

Hades only gets his bad reputation because he and his stories had been twisted around to put him in a bad light by those trying to suppress the old beliefs.  Yes, he is a grim god, but it is necessary to him to be so.  If he were more light-hearted and easy-going, he would be more susceptible to giving in to souls who wanted to return to life.  Other than his dour nature, he isn’t a bad guy at all.  On the contrary, when stories of his personality are actually studied closely, he seems like the quiet kid in the back of the classroom who doesn’t really do anything wrong but people don’t like him because he keeps to himself most of the time.  Also, it is more likely that he did not abduct or rape Persephone if the original version is counted as having more weight than the altered version, which, if it is, Hades loses the traits of being a rapist and kidnapper.  Which definitely puts him in a more positive light.  I suppose his only “dark” side is that he deals with the dead and lives in darkness, since most of the Underworld is likely dark, and many people are afraid of death and the dead.  Sounds more like a grave misunderstanding of Hades to me, though…I think he’s more a neutral god than Light or Dark.

Weekly Deity: Hekate

I promise I will eventually get to some of the more unusual and less well-known deities.  But I’m doing Hekate right now because I have to do a report on her for my Classics Greek Religion class.  So, here we go:

Hekate (also spelled Hecate but pronounced as “heh-kuh-tee” and not “heh-kayt) is a lesser goddess of the Greek pantheon.  She has changed a great deal over time, from a fertility and earth goddess, protector of the young, and a luck goddess, to a deity of the night, of magic and witchcraft and the underworld.  In later historical periods (the ages of Christendom) she became something of a reviled deity, the goddess of witches and other bad things.  She transformed from a light divinity to a dark divinity.

Attributes

In the few portrayals of this goddess she is gowned in the usual Greek fashion.  The only thing that really distinguishes her from other young female figures is the fact that normally she is shown carrying two torches in her hands.

Myths and History

Hekate really has no myths of her own.  Instead, she shows up in various other myths, such as the rape of Persephone and in Hesiod’s Theogony.  In the oldest version of the rape of Persephone, Hekate aids Demeter in finding her daughter.  Hekate also lights the way with her torches back from the Underworld for Hermes and Persephone.

In Hesiod’s Theogony, more about Hekate is made known.  Hesiod wrote this oldest written account of the mythological structure of the pantheon very early in Greek’s written history.  Thus it can be assumed that this version of the goddess is the oldest version that we know of, and the oldest version of her worship as well.

Hekate is supposed to be a descendant of the Titans, but her background doesn’t dissuade Zeus from treating her kindly.  In fact, Hekate is beloved above all others by Zeus, and given special honors, including a piece of the earth to call her own and a section of the starry heavens that is her own purview.  Honors like these were given to few gods unless they were truly beloved of the king.  Hekate was worshiped as a goddess of luck, able to assist in correct judgments, in victorious battle, in gathering food and animals and livestock for sale or consumption.  She was somewhat whimsical in handing out her luck, though–Hesiod says that she gave these favors only as her heart desired, and only to those who gave her proper worship.  Her worship included nothing more fancy that offerings left at crossroads.  Nowhere in this earliest account of the goddess is she portrayed as an underworld or demonic figure.  In fact, she seems quite benign, if whimsical.

It was only until later on that Hekate became a goddess to fear.  In the myth of Jason and Medea, which was written originally just after Hesiod wrote the Theogony, Hekate is transformed into a goddess of witchcraft.  Medea is supposed to be an enchantress or a priestess of Hekate, and is often said to be a witch by more recent scholars.  In any case, Medea calls on Hekate to aid her in her magic, which she then casts against her ex-husband Jason.  This version of the goddess is the one that has been used through history to describe the goddess, and slowly she became a figure of the night, of the Underworld, and of witches.

More recently, if anyone has watched the movie “Practical Magic,” pay attention to the scene where the sisters are trying to revive Jimmy from the dead.  Their spell includes the line, “Black as night, Mighty Hecate make it right.”  Even now Hekate is seen as the dark goddess of the dead and of witches.

Light Side

Her light side comes more from her earlier depiction as a goddess of luck.  She handed out the favors to those who gave her offerings and whom she felt deserved the good will she would bestow upon them.  There was little of the darkness about her then.  A goddess of light magic, so to speak, of the kind that creates and brings into being the better things in life.

Dark Side

Even as a goddess of the Underworld her image has been so distorted by propaganda and misunderstanding that it is harder to see how her dark side is not so dark.  As a goddess of the Underworld, she is more like the torch-bearer in the rape of Persephone than she is a goddess of death and destruction.  Her aid to Medea was probably misconstrued as well by later readers, as on her Light Side she is a giver of good fortune.  She could have been aiding Medea not by strengthening her magic or granting her magic, but by granting the woman what she desired because she sacrified to the goddess.  Gods are fickle like that.  That whimsical nature to her could also be a part of her Dark Side as well–that she has no real constant yardstick for her gift giving, but is entirely based on her heart’s desire.