💖 Venus : Roman Epithets 🕊️

Do you know where to find out about ancient roman festivals?

Depends on what kind of info you're looking for but for general information, any book on ancient roman religion and even the wikipedia page on ancient roman festivals will get you started.

If you're looking for references, the most straight forward book to refer you to would be H.H. Scullard's Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, which goes through each month of the religious calendar.

I'd also suggest taking a look at:

Jörg Rüpke, A Companion to Roman Religion: this is a thorough introduction to roman religion at large, but you'll find plenty of passages on festivals.

Rasmus Brandt, & Jon Iddeng, Greek and Roman Festivals: Content, Meaning, and Practice: more focused on the greco-roman aspects but some chapters of interest for you.

Harriet I. Flower, The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden Religion at the Roman Street Corner: This is about household religion rather than big, publicly-funded festivals but important to understand as the foundation upon which everything else is built.

Jörg Rüpke, On Roman Religion : Lived Religion and the Individual in Ancient Rome: good complementary read to understand the more personal religious experience.

In term of relevant blogs, take a look at @asklepiean's religio romana tag, and check out the many resources gathered by @honorthegods

Dionysos Kolotes

Early in January, when I was in the deepest throes of my hyperfixation on researching everything about Dionysos, I found this post by @bacchant-of-dionysus with a nice, neat list of epithets of Dionysos, with their Greek spelling (much appreciated), meanings (even more appreciated), and small prayers you could say with the epithets (I was about to weep tears of joy). As I was reading through it, I saw the epithet of "Dionysos Kolotes", Kolotes meaning "spotted gecko", which gave me serious pause. It almost seemed comedical - where in Dionysos' mythology were geckoes of any kind even mentioned, especially spotted ones? And why the specification?

When I came back around to this epithet while working on my series of prayers, I decided to take to the internet to see if I could dig up any more information on why Kolotes was an epithet of Dionysos. After a few searches, I came across this page on Theoi.com about Asklabos, who had been turned into a spotted gecko. I'll copy it down below, it's not very long:

"Askalabos was the son of a peasant-woman named Mimse who the goddess Demeter visited upon first arriving in Attika during her long search for Persephone. The woman offered her a drink of barley-groats, and the goddess hurriedly quaffed it down to relieve her thirst. The boy rudely mocked her as a glutton and in her anger she cast the drink at him, transforming him into a spotted gecko."

This is interesting, because, while Dionysos was mentioned nowhere here, the story of Demeter looking for Persephone was in fact a part of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which He does have some connections to. But that still begs the question - why is it Dionysos who is given the epithet of Kolotes, rather than Demeter, who it would seemingly be more fitting to?

In my own opinion, this epithet is one that seems to connect to Dionysos' habit of being, in some ways, a God of hospitality. Frequently, when He appears in myths, He is seen judging people on their hospitality (usually lack of). For example, in the Bacchae, one of Pentheus' greatest evils was his lack of hospitality towards the maenads, and he was ripped apart. Lykurgous, too, attacked Dionysos and His maenads, and was punished with madness. And the Tyrrhenian pirates, who kidnapped Dionysos to sell him to slavery, found themselves turned into dolphins. In all of these examples, Dionysos is the one who carries out the punishment of those who have violated Xenia. The spotted gecko, meanwhile, was once a boy who mocked a Goddess as she quenched her thirst after frantically searched for Her missing daughter.

So in my opinion, Dionysos holds the epithet of Kolotes not because He is someone who would also mock Demeter on Her worst days, but because He reminds others not to do the same, as a God who seems to oversee Xenia. Just as we see dolphins not as an inspiration to go out and kidnap someone, but rather as a reminder to not take advantage of others, the spotted gecko is a reminder to always be courteous to other people, even when their actions seem strange or desperate to us. We do not know what they have undergone.

sometimes you just gotta sit in your room and watch ghibli movies as you feel your heart overflowing with love for the little but overwhelmingly beautiful things this life can give us

Treating Jupiter & Zeus kindly and respectfully despite what some old myths not brought into votive acts claim of the God(s) is actually a very important step towards dismantling misogyny within certain parts of the polytheistic community or communities that worship Jupiter & Zeus.

Not letting toxic people believe that the main God(s) of the Greco-Roman Pantheon(s) would ever support criminal treatment of others is a very important step towards barring the worshipping community from people as such. It is especially prominent with Pater Jupiter & Father Zeus as embodiments of Justice, but it’s sort of like that with all bigoted beliefs when they affect Gods:

Artemis & Diana and/or Athena & Minerva would never hate men, Gods are not hateful nor hate-driven. Hating an individual for their birth-given or chosen identity is against the rules of hospitality; your identity does not bring you Their ire. Thus, we do not wish for hateful individuals within the community.

Aphrodite & Venus would never hate trans, nonbinary, intersex individuals, and those who fall out of the gender binary in other ways than that - nor would They ever support bioessentialism. Thus, we do not wish for bioessentialists within the community.

Ares & Mars would never support oppression of the mistreated or violent aggression towards others, unless it’s a fight for self-protection. The Gods are not anyone’s way to deify and excuse oppression. Thus, we do not wish for militarists and warheads within the community.

Jupiter & Zeus would never support nor promote ideas of sexual assault in any form or any non-consensual limiting of one’s self-autonomy. The Gods are not a punishing power but rather They are loving hosts accepting of us as guests. Thus, we do not with for harassers, agressors, and/or assaulters within the community.

To agree with the harmful and slandering rhetoric is to give opressors power. Jupiter & Zeus deserve better.

the real reason mikey way used to be so quiet and stoic was because his jeans were too tight for anything to fit in his pockets, so he held it all in his mouth

Zeus and Hera

I’ve seen several posts defending Zeus lately and honestly I love it. Entire cultures called Zeus father; he’s a protector of the home, foreigners, and sacred hospitality, among many other things.

For me, at first he felt scary and unapproachable even as the good king of the gods. I eventually incorporated Zeus Erkeios and Ktesios into my household prayers, but not much else.

Little by little, our kharis has grown, and Hera, patient mother that she is, has guided her daughter on the path of devotion to her husband. I am still learning, but now, Zeus feels fatherly and kind.

It’s difficult to explain, but I surprised myself today by praying to “Father Zeus” extemporaneously and just sharing my feelings with him. I’m not close with my own dad, so to be able to do that means a lot.

I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t understand the negative perception of either Hera or Zeus, because in worshipping them, I feel as though I’ve found a family. I love my gods, but I’m always overwhelmed and blown away by how much they love me in return.

Tide Pool (1980) by Jeremy Miranda

“This is Apollo, the soul’s darkness and the soul’s clarity. His essence is such that he can be darkness and clarity at the same time.”

— Karl Kerenyi, Apollo: The Wind, The Spirit, and the God

Carmen <3