Research, Research, Research

Well folks, I have to say that so far, getting this book written is coming together better than I thought. With the unfortunate exception of my partner having to drop out, things are sailing along quite smoothly. With the addition of a Lesser Aresia, I’ve found at least two more festivals to reconstruct for my book: The Areia, an Athenian festival near the end of Metageitnion/beginning of Boedromion (about mid August) celebrates Ares and Athene Areia, possibly as founder gods and supporters of the Ephebes, and probably involves choral contests, among others; the second is the Enyalia, a celebration re-enacting the victory of the Athenians over Salamis, and involves a running procession to a promontory. I haven’t quite tracked down a date for this, but a review of the history books should suffice. But hey, awesomeness, right?

On another note, I’ve also been reading up on ancient battlefield religion, and how closely tied Ares, Apollon, and Artemis are in those respects. You can expect a few simple rites and prayers to come out honoring those three and others, too. More and more, this book is becoming liturgical more than philosophical, which appeases my inner “priestly” side greatly. It’s one thing to understand Ares through droll discussion and supposition, but it’s greater to follow behind him in practice, prayer, and ritual in my not-so-unbiased opinion.

Thank you all who have helped, are helping, and will help in this endeavor. I received an oracle from Sannion and Dionysos that the effort is well appreciated, which is very motivating. While I may not be blogging as frequently right now, I am thinking about you all! Hail Ares!

Updates and Musing

Well, I’m sorry I don’t have much more for you  today other than promises of better articles to come. I noticed I got a lot of traffic for the post on Hekate and Ares, so you can expect more like those; I’ve already begun drawing up notes for comparisons with Apollon and Dionysos. Folks seemed to like the Vet profiles, but so far I’ve only gotten two. I may have had more, but it seems my Aspis of Ares email is buggy, because I haven’t seen anything come across it yet.

A bit of big news, however, is that I’m almost done reconstructing an ancient festival for Ares based on the binding rituals that took place in several cities across Greece thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, the records I have don’t offer a name for the festival or it’s place on the calendar. I’d like to note that my copy of Matthew Gonzales’ dissertation about the cults of Ares and Enyalios (the most extensive survey of data to date on the subject) is my saving grace here, and even contains the inscription recorded from an oracle directing the establishment of the festival. If anyone wants to help out naming the ritual (I was thinking something like Binding Festival in ancient Hellenic) or placing it on the calendar, please leave a comment with suggestions.

Because this will be my first written ritual, I will be asking a friend to take a look at it to verify its structure and to consider whether it may be a good add to the various fora out there on the interwebs. Needless to say, this won’t be the last ritual/festival I plan on writing. The miasma ritual is still in the works, as well as plans for dedicating weapons (for soldiers, police, and even hunters), victory thanksgivings, and perhaps even stand-up and stand-down rituals for those entering/leaving military service.  I will need some female collaboration at some point, because I wish to include at least one single-sex ritual for each sex as an echo of historic rituals; I’m thinking along the lines of brotherhood/sisterhood things, nothing fancy and certainly nothing meant to put either sex or any gender down. If I’m ever to write a book, it’s important to me to provide a diverse range of ritual material, not just poetry.

That’s all I have for right now. It’s been a stressful week and I’m looking forward to wrapping things up and doing show-and-tell before relaxing for the weekend. Hope everyone enjoys their own! Hail Ares.

 

I Had a Dream

I had a dream. A very odd dream.

This morning I woke up at 1am. I was not happy. Unfortunately, I was feeling wide awake, so I decided I’d do some studying. The night was spent combing the Sacred Texts website for any mention of Ares. I scanned Hellenic, Roman, and even Christian texts. Cool story, one Christian apocryphal text mentions Ares as an angel who was a general of spirits in a war between Canaanite gods… crazy stuff, right? Anyway, I also read a great essay, The Oracle and Cult of Ares in Asia Minor, by Dr. Matthew Gonzales. Oh, and get this –Gonzales’ doctoral dissertation? It’s a 600+ page survey of Ares and Enyalios in Hellenic religion. I nearly died; needless to say, I’ve contacted Dr. Gonzales to try to obtain a copy of said dissertation. I also went on Amazon after playing citation detective and bought The Cults of the Greek States, Vol 5 by Lewis Richard Farnell, because chapter ten is all about Ares. Anyway, it was a long night. I helped my sister get ready for school, did her homework with her, and about 8:30 was exhausted enough to fall asleep.

Now, my dream wasn’t very vivid. My sleep was fitful at best, but I did have some pretty clear images at points. First was the fact that I had authored my own book on Ares, which in and of itself would be cool enough for me. Second, I had a bad-ass mug for my coffee with hat I assumed was a print of my book cover; I don’t remember the title in its entirety, but Enyalios was in the title and not Ares to my recollection. Third, and most significant, I reading a paper in which was either announcing or reviewing the recent revival of a festival honoring Ares, Hermes, and Dike from Anatolia. It was awesome!

Now, I’m not what you’d call a proponent of mysticism, I don’t believe in visions or oracles really, and to be frank, while I believe in the gods as real beings, I have my doubts to how active They are in the mortal world. My dream, obviously colored by what I was reading prior to going to sleep, nonetheless really motivates me to reconstruct the festival. I think reading the actual oracular statement was the most inspiring portion; it really gives a sense of urgency and compulsion. In fact, read it for yourself. It comes from Gonzales’ essay on Asia Minor:

Pamphylians of Syedra, who inhabit a rich land of mixed men in
shared fields, plant a statue of bloody, man-slaying Ares in the
middle of the city and beside (him) perform sacrifices as you
bind him with the iron bonds of Hermes, and on the other side
let Justice administer the law and judge him; let him resemble a
suppliant. Thus will he become a peaceful deity for you, once he
has driven the enemy horde far from your country, and he will
give rise to prosperity much prayed for. And you, at the same
time, take great pain, either chasing them or placing them in unbreakable
bonds, and do not, out of fear of the pirates, pay their
terrible penalty. For thus will you escape from all degradation.

Pretty cool stuff, huh? It is interesting to note the prevalence of Ares depicted as bound. I recently found a scrap sheet of marble, and you can bet I’ll be putting my carving skill, and my new dremel, to the test carving a relief of fettered Ares. Perhaps that can be my offering for the inception of the festival. Unfortunately, no time-frame seems given, so I’ll have to place that as seems best. As I said, I’m not big on Oracles or believe that I myself received an oracular dream, but we’ll see what happens. ‘Til then, Hail Ares!