http://wiki.hellenistai.com/index.php?title=Thespiae
This took me three days and more fact-checking than I ever thought was possible without the actual books sitting in front of me.
I’m now off to go make my dinner, feed these ungrateful cats, and watch another bad film for the Hellenistai Media Project. After that will be a review of a campy but overall pretty well-executed film, and then a review of a good film. And I’m going to squeeze in a couple book and music reviews, as well.
I tend to turn on music (radio, CD, mp3 player) before I go to bed. Either I or my mother has done this for as long as I can remember. Last night (or, more accurately, yesterday at 5am or something), I started to go to bed and turned on the radio — then this neat, albeit creepy little song came on:
…and for the duration, until it slipped into Geneva Jacuzzi, I was taken out of my room, all other sensations were relieved of me but Eros’s touch, hands, breath, all possible sights set to focus on His familiar face, hair, wings….
After it finished, I got up to find out what it was (bless you WCBN) and then this led me to their MySpace. That song has since ear-wormed me for a significant portion of the last twenty-four.
1) Do you believe in the concept of “sin?”
I don’t believe “armatia”, in the ancient, polytheistic context is on the same level as the Christian concept of “sin”, even if a few modern Hellenic polytheists translate it that way. “Armatia” is often defined as “missing the mark”, not “transgression of Divine law”. “Hubris” is “excessive pride in one’s abilities [typically claiming one's skills exceed that of a Deity] and [in Attic law] shaming another publicly”, not “transgression of Divine law” (further on hubris, etymonline.com cites an ancient definition of “presumption toward the Gods”, again, not the same thing as “transgression of Divine law”).
2) What non-pagan person influenced your religious identity?
Derek Jarman
3) How do you keep religion an active part of your daily life?
I do.
4) Who knows you’re pagan, and who doesn’t?
Most of my friends know explicitly. I can’t think of anybody off the top of my head who’s an important part of my life and doesn’t know.
5) When did you first identify as Pagan?
Age twelve, though from ages 18-22, I was all “I’m spooky, hail Satan”.
Aristophanes said the birds wee born of Eros, and the associations between birds and Eros and Aphrodite apparently pre-dates that.
My friends know me as a cat-lover, and it’s hard for me not to love them — most of the cat’s I’ve known have been very affectionate (even if they appear to have no logic behind whom they’re affectionate toward — which seems an Eros-like quality, if you ask me), they’re usually pretty huggable, and if there’s any better way to warm your lap than to plant a kitty there, I haven’t discovered it.
…but I also love birds, it’s a seemingly inexplicable attraction, and the only time I attempted keeping a bird, I was about seven or eight and it was a female budgie who died from a drafty window — regardless, between the ages of seven and ten, I read every book about parrots and pigeons I could find, and my “favourite bird” seemed to change every year from the age of six (cardinals) to the age of fifteen (peafowl — and in-between that: 7 = rock doves [yes, I was that specific, and I could tell you most species of doves and pigeons at that age just by looking at pictures], 8 = rainbow lorikeets; 9 = hyacinth macaws; 10 = grey parrots [I have no fucking clue what I found so fucking awesome about parrots for three years]; 11 = Dodo / Victoria Crowned Pigeon [tie]; 12 = Victoria Crowned Pigeon; 13 = lyrebirds; 14 = flamingos / swans). For the most part, I don’t understand the attraction of keeping birds, as it seems far more cruel to keep a bird in a cage than, say, a hamster or a ferret or to keep a fish in a bowl — but at the same time, I’ve been hearing a siren song toward keeping Diamond Doves, which I don’t see working out too well, with three cats in the household. My impulse buys (and the worst sort of impulse buys — things that you may not immediately need, but which are useful to have, half the time you really can’t reason yourself out of not buying it) tend to have little abstract or stylised images of birds on them somehow. And a lot of my favourite software has a little bird icon on my Start Menu — hell, I’d probably even change my primary desktop browser to Flock, if it had a compatible FTP client extension (or at least if the browser FTP option for my servers wasn’t so annoying — and yes, I know about FileZilla, and I don’t like it that much).
I was always the little kid in the neighbourhood who rescued birds from the local cats, and always collecting feathers when the class went to the local nature reserves — and always very insistent that we weren’t done in the bird-watching room at the park, or the aviary at the zoo, even when the other children were bored stiff.
I frequently remind myself that this could all just be coincidence, but when I feel Eros, or His Essence, or whatever you like to call it; when I hear his voice distinctly and get clear images of His face and body, I can’t help but think that these predelictions were planted into my consciousness by the Moirai, who He remains closer to than all other singular deities.
by: Anacreon (570-488 B.C.)
translated by Thomas Stanley
As lately I a garland bound,
‘Mongst roses I there Cupid found;
I took him, put him in my cup,
And drunk with wine, I drank him up.
Hence then it is that my poor breast
Could never since find any rest.
[source]
This little poem has really resonnated with me the last couple of days, even when I’m not re-reading it, I’m frequently reciting it in my mind. I really wanted to think of something more substantial to post, but this is all I’m coming up with.
Think of what an urban Dionysos might be like, but with a couple extra points on his Sanity roll.
Think of the taste of milk chocolate and amaretto and give it the sound of a love song by Richard Hell.
Your favourite 60s garage-punk anthem sung by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue.
“Love Is Blue”, vocal version, in the original French — and the feeling of knowing that there’s a vocal version.
A lap warmed by a kitty and a mouth cooled by mint cigarettes.
Ouzo cake.
The original cover of Diamond Dogs held up by the tiny feet of Australian diamond doves.
The first time you ever made love and the first time you had some good ol’ dirty fucking — re-lived simultaneously, over and over.
Feeling a chill when the sun is out, and high heat after it has set.
A lover’s nibbles on your ear hours after you’ve parted for the day.
Many birds are naturally Erotic, the males are lush and wildly colourful, and the females seem almost drab. Many others are serial monogamists, a few even mate for life. Some are even renowned for their same-sex pairings (despite the Abrahamic mythos that it’s “so unnatural even the birds and beasts won’t dare”). Most are extremely social. He’s like a bird.
Of Thespiae is Stephen Fry proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache