Alexander666
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Thank you, SG, for your professional articles about our beloved Gods. Everyone should read them to deprogram from Abrahamic narratives and connect more deeply with our deities.
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Novice Priest Karnonnos
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Janus is known as the mysterious two-headed God of the Roman people, starting with his ancient origin in the reign of the King Numa Pompilius. He was known as a God of beginnings, gates, time, breakthroughs, doorways, transitions, ages, the seasons, liminality, diplomacy and endings.
He was known as the “Two-Faced of War and Peace” whose dictates were closely followed when the Roman state pursued diplomacy or warfare with other states, but his oracle was also consulted when it came to starting any major religious, civic, architectural or legal endeavor in the Roman kingdom.
Temple of Janus, coin of Nero
It was said by Livy and Dionysius that the King Numa introduced the rites of Janus to the Roman people to tame their bellicose nature, to make them deeply respect religion in solemnity and to civilize them with proper rigor; the doors were kept shut as Numa waged no wars. He built a passage or bridge with a double gate, which came to be known as the first temple of Janus. The Gates of Janus were famously held closed during times of peace and conversely open during times of war, a tradition that Romans obediently followed into the sixth century:
The Temple was described as modest and of being a square burnished with bronze, only five cubits high. Another Temple to Janus with a clearly occult design was built by the consul Gaius Duilius, who also had a statue of Janus installed with one hand showing the number 300 and the other hand 65, with twelve altars.
The existence of Janus always closely correlated with the presence of civilization and law. In fact, Plutarch designated Janus as the one God who lifted humanity as a whole out of bestiality and confusion, despite the Hellenistic view that Janus originated with the Roman people. The Romans themselves considered the dual God to be the first ancient king of Latium, and, in a roundabout way, the ancestor of all peoples within the area.
Roman phrase
The God was typically involved in blessing procedures of city gates and walls for the most auspicious beginning possible, but he also was consulted in regards to major projects in Rome, including amenities for civilians and great architectural structures. Servius in the Aeneid claimed that it was ‘proper’ to invoke Janus on any start to any effort.
He also represented border-zones, but unlike Set, represented the sort of ambiguity of such a zone rather than its rigid wall. Many of the liminal zones between the Romans, Etruscans, Samnites and other peoples of Italy bear increased evidence of Janus’ presence with their place name markers. The most notable instance is the expanse of the Ianiculum which separated Rome from Etruria proper.
King Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, instated a complex set of practices linked to Janus when declaring war on other states, observed by the class of diplomat-priests known as the fetials. The procedure involved sending holy envoys to warn foreign powers of Roman distress, declaring a succession of oaths if the issue was not resolved.
Thirty-three days had to pass before an escalation occurred under oath to both Jupiter and Janus, and the matter was returned to Rome for the king and patricians to make a final decision. If war was declared, a spear was thrown into the territory of the enemy.
Rites to Janus were conducted by the rex sacrorum, the kingly priest office inaugurated by King Numa.
Janus also maintained a deeply mystical aspect related to the home and hearth, where he functioned as a deity that kept watch over any kind of boundary zone, which is why passages were called ‘iani’ and doors ‘ianua’. His cult was immensely popular with the Roman people for its apotropaic and protective qualities against thieves, natural disasters, diseases and other dangers. In this he shared a practical function with Vesta, who functioned as a similar deity closing off the home and tomb.
The triad of Jupiter, Juno and Janus were often invoked to keep the initiate safe and prosperous.
SYMBOLISM OF JANUS
Janus is known as a two-faced God, a concept from which the word ‘Bifrons’ comes. The two or ‘twin’ faces of Janus were nonetheless often represented distinctively with subtle differences. Occasionally the differences were dramatic, such as one head as a bearded citizen and the other as a younger man, sometimes as an old man and a relatively younger one, although both faces were always male. In the Roman context, it was also said to represent the transitional differences between Mars and Quirinus.
The duality represented war and peace, life and death, past and future, love and hate, the beginning and the end, youth and senility, day and night, civilization and nature, matter and intellect, and many other oppositional sets of meanings that were interpreted as forming a cohesive whole.
Even the etymology of Janus has a distinctive set of symbols behind it:
Therefore, Janus rules over rites such as the Dedication of the Soul. We can read about what is behind the door we are about to embark, we can make estimations, and we can certainly ask a Master that has went through or we can visualize what might be the reality after the door. Yet, unless we walk through the door, we can never know what lies beyond the threshold.
HPS Pythia has written very graphically about the Truth of Zevism. There is a door behind you that slams closed when you enter it, a new world that opens up after this, one cannot go back. If we pay attention to this statement, the closing of the door behind us, is symbolic of the ability to choose. While certain choices can be taken back, others cannot; not because we cannot cancel them, but because what one will see can never be unseen.
As the Christian apologist Augustine explained, the Romans viewed the mouth of Janus with its two ‘doors’ as being between the two heads. The mouth cavity in this context was seen as being symbolic of the sky, the universe and symbolically represented the airy powers of magical vibration. The beginning cause was always held to be a prerogative of Janus, through which Jupiter accomplished all things. Other than Jupiter, he had no direct mythological relation to any of the Roman or Hellenic Gods.
The ‘twin Janus’ (Janus Geminus) spoken of by Romans also had four heads in two sets (Janus Quadrifons), symbolic of the four corners of the earth. Janus’ body was equated with the visible and material soul of the world through which all magic manifested.
Some Romans interpreted his name as being formed from ‘ire’ (the verb ‘to go’). Roads, paths and waterways in general were considered to be his domain because every way implies a way to go forward and backwards.
The key was a major symbol of the dual God and represented his capacity to unlock new things, including the use of such powers in the initiate before a major magical working or desired mental shift. The symbolism of the key was deeply interwoven into the holy doors being opened and shut, and it was seen as a symbol of friendly foreigners such as merchants having access to Rome’s cities during times of peace. It also signified the divinely-endowed prerogative of the priest to lock any temple door.
Doors also symbolized Janus in himself, and the Romans remarked among themselves that every door in existence has two sides. The door was also linked to the shrine of the Roman household where one side would be visible to the people outside the sanctuary, and the other side would only have the divine ones in silence staring at the door.
Naturally, the dual heads and doors, much like the gates of Cerberus, the door of Hestia and other transitional symbols, also allegorically represented the rite of dedication in a holy initiate. The door to the old life full of impiety and death was shut forever, with the new life looking towards holiness. They also represent the brain and its two hemispheres; the functions of both sides must be united and nurtured for someone to advance in power.
Janus was also closely associated with the morning and shared in the symbolism of Eosforos, the morning star. Horace called him ‘the Father of the Morning’, and this aspect of Janus represented the morning as signifying the new day where resets could occur, and new obstacles could always be broken.
Just as with the start of the day, Janus through the policies of Numa inaugurated the new-style year beginning in January , a month which continues to bear his name across the world and which marked the death of the ‘old sun’ and beginning of the new, alongside the aftermath of the Saturnalia and the beginning of the traditional time to start the Magnum Opus. The old new year in March was used to drum up the military campaign season, but this date was chosen so ne torpor infectet annum ex auspicio (lest the sloth of auspiciousness infect the whole year), and is linked to the industrious sign of Capricorn:
Precatio Consulis Designati Pridie Kalendas Ianuarias Fascibus Sumptis, Ausonius
Janus thus held open the eternal Gates of Capricorn and Cancer through which souls passed. Romans gave offerings to Janus of a symbolic variety at the beginning of the year, typically things of a sweet variety such as figs and cakes, but even money itself. Ovid’s representation of Janus in the Fasti explains that this was to ensure the resolution began in the first part of the year remained as sweet as it was when pledged.
The 365 days of the year were also equated with him heavily in the sources of Antiquity. In this, Janus shared symbolism with Hermes and Abrasax.
Janus was also referred to as the ‘porter of the heavenly court’ and stands as the major gatekeeper of the doors of heaven. However, it is not just heaven that he has the right to lock and unlock, but the effects of the heavenly powers on earth as a whole, which partially explains the metaphor of his body:
The Major Arcana card of Janus is the Hierophant, known as ‘the Pope’ for much of Tarot’s development. This card in Rider Waite imagery shows a mixture of proper Zevist and enemy imagery in confusion. The Hierophant stands between two men and two pillars, holding his staff up level to the pineal gland. Between him stand two keys, one golden and one silver, conventionally used as a symbol of the church, but actually symbolic of Janus’ powers in representing the conscious and subconscious mind. The red robe is symbolic of the breaking power of Ganesh; the papal tiara itself is shaped like the brain witnessed from a sky view.
This card harkens to tradition and to do things in a tried and tested way rather than pursuing dangerous and unorthodox methods. Often it beseeches the querent to build a proper spiritual routine and to draw on the powers of wisdom in a situation that requires it. It can also signify the incoming presence of a teacher or a guide. Since the Hierophant occupies an office that is changeable, his teachings may someday aid his two disciples.
The Six of Cups is the Minor Arcana card associated with Janus. The card represents the past and shows two children, a boy and a girl, with the boy passing a cup full of lilies to her. In the background is an adult guard with a pike and many old buildings, while one of the cups stands on top of a plinth with a saltire emblem.
For the querent, the emphasis is to be inspired by the past, to allow innocence and joy to inform current choices. Sometimes, it serves as a rebuke not to be childish. In any case, the Six of Cups always represents something that ceased existing, or is yet to exist.
Aspects of Janus were stolen to create the mythology of ‘St. Peter’ and the founding of the church. The association of the Papacy itself with the dual keys shows the erection of the great synagogue above Rome, as Nietzsche infamously called it. To make this less abstract, the installation of the Pope as the intermediary of God on earth is highly symbolic, and in theory it was the command of the ‘First Priest’ that decided most important decisions in the Age of Ignorance. To defy the Pope and his most odious institution meant calamity.
Certain ‘theologians’ of the enemy wrote tracts devoted to attacking the functions of Janus. Since he is a major custodian of empires, this was not merely some theological dispute, but this was a vitriolic attempt to undermine the Roman state by appealing to the stupidity of the masses.
As the Age of Ignorance began in earnest, the Goetic ‘identity’ of Janus became the demon Bifrons, a name which simply means ‘two-faced’. It is said he assumes an extremely monstrous form before shifting to a human one on the command of the conjuror, another way of letting slip the dual identity of Janus. Unfortunately, certain ‘experts’ are unable to understand the connection here, even though it is one of the blatantly obvious cases. The same goes for the proper understanding that Janus and Ganesh do represent the same God.
Bifrons teaches astrology, geometry, and other arts and sciences, as well as the virtues of precious stones and woods. In the early 20th century, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s investigations into this demon claimed that Bifrons could be summoned for the purposes of astral travel and intellectual mastery of a subject, which at least shows some cursory early awareness of Janus’ proper attributes.
Certain portents of Janus were eerily interwoven into Roman history and should serve as a warning about the Gods’ eternal rulership of civilization. The first king of Rome and the last ruler of Western Rome were named Romulus. The first Christian ruler of Eastern Rome who made Christianity the state religion and the last Christian ruler in 1453, who fell in battle to the Turks, were both named Constantine. An empire is much like a year.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
History of Rome, Livy
History of Rome, Dionysus of Halicarnassus
City of God against the Pagans, Augustine
Precatio Consulis Designati Pridie Kalendas Ianuarias Fascibus Sumptis, Ausonius
Fasti, Ovid
He was known as the “Two-Faced of War and Peace” whose dictates were closely followed when the Roman state pursued diplomacy or warfare with other states, but his oracle was also consulted when it came to starting any major religious, civic, architectural or legal endeavor in the Roman kingdom.
Temple of Janus, coin of Nero
It was said by Livy and Dionysius that the King Numa introduced the rites of Janus to the Roman people to tame their bellicose nature, to make them deeply respect religion in solemnity and to civilize them with proper rigor; the doors were kept shut as Numa waged no wars. He built a passage or bridge with a double gate, which came to be known as the first temple of Janus. The Gates of Janus were famously held closed during times of peace and conversely open during times of war, a tradition that Romans obediently followed into the sixth century:
Book 1, History of Rome, Livy
The Temple was described as modest and of being a square burnished with bronze, only five cubits high. Another Temple to Janus with a clearly occult design was built by the consul Gaius Duilius, who also had a statue of Janus installed with one hand showing the number 300 and the other hand 65, with twelve altars.
The existence of Janus always closely correlated with the presence of civilization and law. In fact, Plutarch designated Janus as the one God who lifted humanity as a whole out of bestiality and confusion, despite the Hellenistic view that Janus originated with the Roman people. The Romans themselves considered the dual God to be the first ancient king of Latium, and, in a roundabout way, the ancestor of all peoples within the area.
Roman phrase
The God was typically involved in blessing procedures of city gates and walls for the most auspicious beginning possible, but he also was consulted in regards to major projects in Rome, including amenities for civilians and great architectural structures. Servius in the Aeneid claimed that it was ‘proper’ to invoke Janus on any start to any effort.
He also represented border-zones, but unlike Set, represented the sort of ambiguity of such a zone rather than its rigid wall. Many of the liminal zones between the Romans, Etruscans, Samnites and other peoples of Italy bear increased evidence of Janus’ presence with their place name markers. The most notable instance is the expanse of the Ianiculum which separated Rome from Etruria proper.
King Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, instated a complex set of practices linked to Janus when declaring war on other states, observed by the class of diplomat-priests known as the fetials. The procedure involved sending holy envoys to warn foreign powers of Roman distress, declaring a succession of oaths if the issue was not resolved.
Thirty-three days had to pass before an escalation occurred under oath to both Jupiter and Janus, and the matter was returned to Rome for the king and patricians to make a final decision. If war was declared, a spear was thrown into the territory of the enemy.
Rites to Janus were conducted by the rex sacrorum, the kingly priest office inaugurated by King Numa.
Janus also maintained a deeply mystical aspect related to the home and hearth, where he functioned as a deity that kept watch over any kind of boundary zone, which is why passages were called ‘iani’ and doors ‘ianua’. His cult was immensely popular with the Roman people for its apotropaic and protective qualities against thieves, natural disasters, diseases and other dangers. In this he shared a practical function with Vesta, who functioned as a similar deity closing off the home and tomb.
The triad of Jupiter, Juno and Janus were often invoked to keep the initiate safe and prosperous.
SYMBOLISM OF JANUS
Janus is known as a two-faced God, a concept from which the word ‘Bifrons’ comes. The two or ‘twin’ faces of Janus were nonetheless often represented distinctively with subtle differences. Occasionally the differences were dramatic, such as one head as a bearded citizen and the other as a younger man, sometimes as an old man and a relatively younger one, although both faces were always male. In the Roman context, it was also said to represent the transitional differences between Mars and Quirinus.
The duality represented war and peace, life and death, past and future, love and hate, the beginning and the end, youth and senility, day and night, civilization and nature, matter and intellect, and many other oppositional sets of meanings that were interpreted as forming a cohesive whole.
Even the etymology of Janus has a distinctive set of symbols behind it:
Free ToZ Donor Article: The Month Of January: The Message of Janus, High Priest Zevios Metathronos
Therefore, Janus rules over rites such as the Dedication of the Soul. We can read about what is behind the door we are about to embark, we can make estimations, and we can certainly ask a Master that has went through or we can visualize what might be the reality after the door. Yet, unless we walk through the door, we can never know what lies beyond the threshold.
HPS Pythia has written very graphically about the Truth of Zevism. There is a door behind you that slams closed when you enter it, a new world that opens up after this, one cannot go back. If we pay attention to this statement, the closing of the door behind us, is symbolic of the ability to choose. While certain choices can be taken back, others cannot; not because we cannot cancel them, but because what one will see can never be unseen.
As the Christian apologist Augustine explained, the Romans viewed the mouth of Janus with its two ‘doors’ as being between the two heads. The mouth cavity in this context was seen as being symbolic of the sky, the universe and symbolically represented the airy powers of magical vibration. The beginning cause was always held to be a prerogative of Janus, through which Jupiter accomplished all things. Other than Jupiter, he had no direct mythological relation to any of the Roman or Hellenic Gods.
The ‘twin Janus’ (Janus Geminus) spoken of by Romans also had four heads in two sets (Janus Quadrifons), symbolic of the four corners of the earth. Janus’ body was equated with the visible and material soul of the world through which all magic manifested.
Some Romans interpreted his name as being formed from ‘ire’ (the verb ‘to go’). Roads, paths and waterways in general were considered to be his domain because every way implies a way to go forward and backwards.
The key was a major symbol of the dual God and represented his capacity to unlock new things, including the use of such powers in the initiate before a major magical working or desired mental shift. The symbolism of the key was deeply interwoven into the holy doors being opened and shut, and it was seen as a symbol of friendly foreigners such as merchants having access to Rome’s cities during times of peace. It also signified the divinely-endowed prerogative of the priest to lock any temple door.
Doors also symbolized Janus in himself, and the Romans remarked among themselves that every door in existence has two sides. The door was also linked to the shrine of the Roman household where one side would be visible to the people outside the sanctuary, and the other side would only have the divine ones in silence staring at the door.
Naturally, the dual heads and doors, much like the gates of Cerberus, the door of Hestia and other transitional symbols, also allegorically represented the rite of dedication in a holy initiate. The door to the old life full of impiety and death was shut forever, with the new life looking towards holiness. They also represent the brain and its two hemispheres; the functions of both sides must be united and nurtured for someone to advance in power.
Janus was also closely associated with the morning and shared in the symbolism of Eosforos, the morning star. Horace called him ‘the Father of the Morning’, and this aspect of Janus represented the morning as signifying the new day where resets could occur, and new obstacles could always be broken.
Just as with the start of the day, Janus through the policies of Numa inaugurated the new-style year beginning in January , a month which continues to bear his name across the world and which marked the death of the ‘old sun’ and beginning of the new, alongside the aftermath of the Saturnalia and the beginning of the traditional time to start the Magnum Opus. The old new year in March was used to drum up the military campaign season, but this date was chosen so ne torpor infectet annum ex auspicio (lest the sloth of auspiciousness infect the whole year), and is linked to the industrious sign of Capricorn:
Precatio Consulis Designati Pridie Kalendas Ianuarias Fascibus Sumptis, Ausonius
Janus thus held open the eternal Gates of Capricorn and Cancer through which souls passed. Romans gave offerings to Janus of a symbolic variety at the beginning of the year, typically things of a sweet variety such as figs and cakes, but even money itself. Ovid’s representation of Janus in the Fasti explains that this was to ensure the resolution began in the first part of the year remained as sweet as it was when pledged.
The 365 days of the year were also equated with him heavily in the sources of Antiquity. In this, Janus shared symbolism with Hermes and Abrasax.
Janus was also referred to as the ‘porter of the heavenly court’ and stands as the major gatekeeper of the doors of heaven. However, it is not just heaven that he has the right to lock and unlock, but the effects of the heavenly powers on earth as a whole, which partially explains the metaphor of his body:
Fasti, Ovid
The Major Arcana card of Janus is the Hierophant, known as ‘the Pope’ for much of Tarot’s development. This card in Rider Waite imagery shows a mixture of proper Zevist and enemy imagery in confusion. The Hierophant stands between two men and two pillars, holding his staff up level to the pineal gland. Between him stand two keys, one golden and one silver, conventionally used as a symbol of the church, but actually symbolic of Janus’ powers in representing the conscious and subconscious mind. The red robe is symbolic of the breaking power of Ganesh; the papal tiara itself is shaped like the brain witnessed from a sky view.
This card harkens to tradition and to do things in a tried and tested way rather than pursuing dangerous and unorthodox methods. Often it beseeches the querent to build a proper spiritual routine and to draw on the powers of wisdom in a situation that requires it. It can also signify the incoming presence of a teacher or a guide. Since the Hierophant occupies an office that is changeable, his teachings may someday aid his two disciples.
The Six of Cups is the Minor Arcana card associated with Janus. The card represents the past and shows two children, a boy and a girl, with the boy passing a cup full of lilies to her. In the background is an adult guard with a pike and many old buildings, while one of the cups stands on top of a plinth with a saltire emblem.
For the querent, the emphasis is to be inspired by the past, to allow innocence and joy to inform current choices. Sometimes, it serves as a rebuke not to be childish. In any case, the Six of Cups always represents something that ceased existing, or is yet to exist.
JANUS AND THE ENEMY
Matthew 16:19
Aspects of Janus were stolen to create the mythology of ‘St. Peter’ and the founding of the church. The association of the Papacy itself with the dual keys shows the erection of the great synagogue above Rome, as Nietzsche infamously called it. To make this less abstract, the installation of the Pope as the intermediary of God on earth is highly symbolic, and in theory it was the command of the ‘First Priest’ that decided most important decisions in the Age of Ignorance. To defy the Pope and his most odious institution meant calamity.
Certain ‘theologians’ of the enemy wrote tracts devoted to attacking the functions of Janus. Since he is a major custodian of empires, this was not merely some theological dispute, but this was a vitriolic attempt to undermine the Roman state by appealing to the stupidity of the masses.
As the Age of Ignorance began in earnest, the Goetic ‘identity’ of Janus became the demon Bifrons, a name which simply means ‘two-faced’. It is said he assumes an extremely monstrous form before shifting to a human one on the command of the conjuror, another way of letting slip the dual identity of Janus. Unfortunately, certain ‘experts’ are unable to understand the connection here, even though it is one of the blatantly obvious cases. The same goes for the proper understanding that Janus and Ganesh do represent the same God.
Bifrons teaches astrology, geometry, and other arts and sciences, as well as the virtues of precious stones and woods. In the early 20th century, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s investigations into this demon claimed that Bifrons could be summoned for the purposes of astral travel and intellectual mastery of a subject, which at least shows some cursory early awareness of Janus’ proper attributes.
Certain portents of Janus were eerily interwoven into Roman history and should serve as a warning about the Gods’ eternal rulership of civilization. The first king of Rome and the last ruler of Western Rome were named Romulus. The first Christian ruler of Eastern Rome who made Christianity the state religion and the last Christian ruler in 1453, who fell in battle to the Turks, were both named Constantine. An empire is much like a year.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
History of Rome, Livy
History of Rome, Dionysus of Halicarnassus
City of God against the Pagans, Augustine
Precatio Consulis Designati Pridie Kalendas Ianuarias Fascibus Sumptis, Ausonius
Fasti, Ovid
Kouros Aionios
Member
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This last part really struck a chord with me; it shows the tremendous power the Gods wield over our fates. Outstanding article, as always, SG. Thank you very much.
High Priestess Lydia Coventina
High Priestess
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- Sep 20, 2017
- Messages
- 5,918
Excellent article, SG Karnonnos. Very enlightening as to what Lord Janus rules.
Novice Priest Karnonnos
Temple of Zeus Guardian
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- Messages
- 789
Eos, the Goddess of the dawn, occupies a unique and luminous position in mythology. Her daily emergence heralds the arrival of the sun, symbolizing both renewal and the relentless passage of time. The presence of the dawn Goddess in myth is not merely a poetic device to explain the coming of day, it is a figure imbued with profound occult attributes.
Her genealogy places her among the earliest and most powerful of the Greek deities. In the traditional Theogony of Hesiod, she is described as the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Hyperion, the personification of the sun, and Theia, associated with sight and the shining light of the clear blue sky, together produce a trio of luminous children: Helios (the sun), Selene (the moon), and Eos (the dawn). This familial grouping represents the cyclical passage of time, with Eos’s role as the bringer of dawn serving as a bridge between the night and the day.
Eos, Evelyn de Morgan
Such interconnectedness of their domains underlines the Greeks’ understanding of the cosmos as an ordered, rational system. Eos herself is sometimes depicted as the eldest of the siblings, her arrival each morning preceding the chariot-driven ascent of Helios across the sky. The Titanic lineage of Eos also places her among a generation of Gods who, though eventually supplanted by the Olympians, retain a primordial status within the mythic hierarchy.
Eos is unusually animated for a Goddess, and she is represented as being rather mirthful, brazen and capricious. Nonetheless, she also had a pervasive dislike of bringing in the dawn each day.
One of the most famous myths involving Eos is her love affair with Tithonus, a mortal prince of Troy. Enamored with his beauty, the dawn Goddess asks Zeus to grant Tithonus immortality so they can be together forever. However, she neglects to ask for eternal youth, and as a result, Tithonus ages endlessly and frightens her away from their marital bed with his graying visage, eventually becoming so withered that he is transformed into a cicada. This myth poignantly illustrates the bittersweet nature of Eos’s love and the dangers of unchecked desire… and it also serves as a specific warning to make sure the affirmations you use are good ones.
Eos and Tithonus
Her romantic entanglements are numerous. She is said to have abducted several handsome mortals, including Cephalus, Orion, and Cleitus. These stories often follow a similar pattern of Eos being driven by desire. In some versions like those of Pseudo-Apollodorus, her affairs are explained as a punishment from Aphrodite, who curses the dawn Goddess with insatiable desire after Eos is caught in her own affair with Ares, the God of War. Parthenius of Nicaea claimed that Phileas spoke of the son of Eos and Cephalus being the first ruler of the world.
In the great Odyssey, she is shown driving her Chariot across the sky, with her horses ‘Firebright’ and ‘Daybright’ pulling her carriage. In the heroic cycles inspired by the Iliad she takes precedence as the mother of the warrior Memnon, who is impaled by the spear of Achilles. Eos begs for Nyx (Night) to come quicker in order to steal his body and conduct his funeral rites. With the help of Thanatos and Hypnos, she transported his body back to Aethiopia. The tears of Eos, which left the light of Helios to dim, drove Zeus to grant him immortality.
She occupied no known places of worship; in Ovid’s Metamorphses she exclaims, in the Latinized form of Aurora, that her shrines and temples are so few and far between as to be almost nonexistent. As far as worship is concerned, her role was highly symbolic.
Eos in her four horse-drawn chariot, terracotta red-figure lekanis vase, late 300s BCE, Canosa, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Eos’ presence in ancient art is well documented compared to the obscurity of her cult. She appears on numerous vase paintings, often depicted in the act of driving her chariot across the sky. In sculpture and relief, she is shown as a beautiful but determined figure clad in saffron, embodying the beauty and transience of dawn.
In the end, it was said that Eos married the Titan named Astraeus and in addition to Memnon, gave birth to the wind Gods (the Anemoi) named Zephyrus, Boreas, Notus and Eurus, and the starry Goddess related to the sign of Virgo, Astraea.
SYMBOLISM OF EOS
Eos is frequently described with rosy fingers and as having golden arms that personify the radiant beauty of dawn itself. Ancient poets such as Sappho describe her golden attributes, while the Homeric Hymns refer to her as ‘rosy-armed’ and ‘rosy-fingered’ (Ἠὼς Ῥοδοδάκτυλος). Since she opens the vault of heaven for the sun to ascend, vivid descriptions like this emphasize her delicate renewal of each and every day. Homer claims that her robe is of safron, being embroidered with endless flowers. She is also often adorned with a halo.
Typically she is represented on Greek vases as wearing a diadem and being as beautiful as could be. Like the Anemoi, she sometimes has large white wings. Likewise, her description in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite called her ‘golden throned’, and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes named her as the ‘early-born’, while Mesomedes of Crete called her χιονοβλέφαρος, "she who has snow-white eyelids".
The 77th Orphic Hymn is dedicated to Eos, deliberately placed symbolically behind the 8th Hymn of the Sun.
As the Hymn alludes to, much of Eos’ symbolism entails the beginnings of intent during workings, and how to properly activate magick as the hazy dawn of understanding begins to emerge in the operator. She also deals with the soul’s cursory journey towards light and how to blossom correctly during those first steps towards proper personhood, which is part of why she is represented mythologically as a Titaness who is lustful and indecisive in her wonder at the world.
As she deals with these first steps, she also represents the throwing away of ignorance that can occur each new day as a cycle. Her determined skyward rides on her Chariot represent the maintenance of the Great Work, showing that evolution requires daily consistency that must occupy the mind of the initiate from dawn to dusk. Part of Eos’ frenzied single-mindedness does represent the necessity of keeping the mind fixated on evolution at any cost, even though the tales involving her also warn not to overlook subtle details in such enthusiasm.
The Gates of Dawn, Herbert James Draper
Eos rules over the animating force that allows humanity to continually function. Her attributes in this regard are also meant to convey the benefits of pursuing certain kinds of meditation during the dawn and morning period, which we know to be times of power that keep the individual well-ordered enough to pursue other things during the day. In enemy religions such as Islam, these facets are keenly understood, while they have been wrested from the minds of modern secular people and Christians.
She is important as a symbolic Goddess of womanhood as a whole. Her nurturing dawn power is symbolic of the power to create the new life of a child, the role of women in maintaining society and the wisdom required to continue to nurture some of the most subtle aspects that keep civilizations running. She represents many of the aspects of wisdom shared among women in particular, from the oldest and wisest to the youngest girls.
In general, she represents the power of Venus in trailing or being ahead of the Sun, which is never far away from it in aspect. This itself is often visible during the morning hours. Her name, which involves a certain code, also relates to the ears (οὖς) in Greek and the mouth (os) in Latin, both involved in the perception of vibration. Her role is often incited in ritual purity, such as the pyre of Hector in the Iliad:
In addition, Eos rules over powerful protective functions. Her role as a Goddess of the First Light is said to drive away all evil and filthy entities, dispelling delusional and dangerous behaviors in the faithful that could attract the presence of fiends. She dispels all forms of chaos as the morning light illuminates the solemn darkness each day. Just as Aphrodite is the great uniter, Eos represents the first pivotal step in the process towards the soul becoming light.
Her card is the Star reversed, which represents Eos’ own mythological hesitance to usher in the dawn each day and echoes the hopelessness of some of her doomed affairs. The naked figure is drawing water upside down, a paradoxical situation. The eight stars move towards the bottom of the card, as if dawn itself is breaking.
This card signifies the necessity of getting out of a rut and to find inspiration, to move forward from everything holding the querent back. It also signifies that something may happen quite unexpectedly and unusually, just as day begins to break in an abrupt fashion.
Her Minor Arcana card is the Three of Pentacles upright, which is perhaps emblematic of her relationship with Helios and Selene, or even the cycle of dawn, noon and dusk. Three figures meet in a cathedral-like building beneath an aisle with its stone pillar; one holds a chisel, the other a scroll of plans, and the other is listening intently. The three pentacles themselves are carved into the stony embellishment of the arch pillar. One of the figures stands atop a table with an increasingly lit background, while the other two are proximate to the darkness – the hierarchy is somewhat inverted as it is the chisel holder who explains everything. Much has been done before to create the beauty of the building, and much will have to happen again in a new plan for expansion.
Since the figures allegorically stand in a house of God, the illustration shows the beginning stages of a plan that must be executed carefully and properly. It indicates the need to learn from those different to oneself and that even if things have started, they must be finished. The card also represents the power of teamwork in getting things done, and to carefully look into details to get it done.
This card is also symbolic of Freemasonry; as the Goddess of the Dawn, Eos was involved in instructing groups to overcome the terror of the Dark Ages. In the image, three classes of the craftsman wearing a golden apron, the wealthy burgher and the monk are shown. The card can also simply signify building something.
EOS AND THE ENEMY
Since the Nazarene lay claim to being the ‘morning star’, part of this symbolism was an attack on the powers of Eos, along with her father, Zeus Phosphoros.
In the grim, fallacious tomes of the enemy, Eos was reformulated as the male demon named Ose, also known as Oso or Voso. Once again, the purpose of this demon was to make the querent ‘cunning’ in the liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, logic and other disciplines.
Clearly, the power of Eos enduring for ‘an hour’ is a reference to the dawn itself. Other writings specify he cannot be summoned at twilight, a reference to Eos’ control of the matutine hours. The appearance of Ose is said to be like that of an agile and sinister leopard, a visual shorthand in antiquity for the stars.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Metamorphoses, Ovid
Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite
Homeric Hymn to Hermes
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Orphic Hymn to Eos, trans. Thomas Taylor
Hymn to the Sun, Mesomedes
Poetic Fragments, Parthenius of Nicaea
Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, Johann Weyer
Her genealogy places her among the earliest and most powerful of the Greek deities. In the traditional Theogony of Hesiod, she is described as the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Hyperion, the personification of the sun, and Theia, associated with sight and the shining light of the clear blue sky, together produce a trio of luminous children: Helios (the sun), Selene (the moon), and Eos (the dawn). This familial grouping represents the cyclical passage of time, with Eos’s role as the bringer of dawn serving as a bridge between the night and the day.
Eos, Evelyn de Morgan
Such interconnectedness of their domains underlines the Greeks’ understanding of the cosmos as an ordered, rational system. Eos herself is sometimes depicted as the eldest of the siblings, her arrival each morning preceding the chariot-driven ascent of Helios across the sky. The Titanic lineage of Eos also places her among a generation of Gods who, though eventually supplanted by the Olympians, retain a primordial status within the mythic hierarchy.
Eos is unusually animated for a Goddess, and she is represented as being rather mirthful, brazen and capricious. Nonetheless, she also had a pervasive dislike of bringing in the dawn each day.
One of the most famous myths involving Eos is her love affair with Tithonus, a mortal prince of Troy. Enamored with his beauty, the dawn Goddess asks Zeus to grant Tithonus immortality so they can be together forever. However, she neglects to ask for eternal youth, and as a result, Tithonus ages endlessly and frightens her away from their marital bed with his graying visage, eventually becoming so withered that he is transformed into a cicada. This myth poignantly illustrates the bittersweet nature of Eos’s love and the dangers of unchecked desire… and it also serves as a specific warning to make sure the affirmations you use are good ones.
Eos and Tithonus
Her romantic entanglements are numerous. She is said to have abducted several handsome mortals, including Cephalus, Orion, and Cleitus. These stories often follow a similar pattern of Eos being driven by desire. In some versions like those of Pseudo-Apollodorus, her affairs are explained as a punishment from Aphrodite, who curses the dawn Goddess with insatiable desire after Eos is caught in her own affair with Ares, the God of War. Parthenius of Nicaea claimed that Phileas spoke of the son of Eos and Cephalus being the first ruler of the world.
In the great Odyssey, she is shown driving her Chariot across the sky, with her horses ‘Firebright’ and ‘Daybright’ pulling her carriage. In the heroic cycles inspired by the Iliad she takes precedence as the mother of the warrior Memnon, who is impaled by the spear of Achilles. Eos begs for Nyx (Night) to come quicker in order to steal his body and conduct his funeral rites. With the help of Thanatos and Hypnos, she transported his body back to Aethiopia. The tears of Eos, which left the light of Helios to dim, drove Zeus to grant him immortality.
She occupied no known places of worship; in Ovid’s Metamorphses she exclaims, in the Latinized form of Aurora, that her shrines and temples are so few and far between as to be almost nonexistent. As far as worship is concerned, her role was highly symbolic.
Eos in her four horse-drawn chariot, terracotta red-figure lekanis vase, late 300s BCE, Canosa, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Eos’ presence in ancient art is well documented compared to the obscurity of her cult. She appears on numerous vase paintings, often depicted in the act of driving her chariot across the sky. In sculpture and relief, she is shown as a beautiful but determined figure clad in saffron, embodying the beauty and transience of dawn.
In the end, it was said that Eos married the Titan named Astraeus and in addition to Memnon, gave birth to the wind Gods (the Anemoi) named Zephyrus, Boreas, Notus and Eurus, and the starry Goddess related to the sign of Virgo, Astraea.
SYMBOLISM OF EOS
Eos is frequently described with rosy fingers and as having golden arms that personify the radiant beauty of dawn itself. Ancient poets such as Sappho describe her golden attributes, while the Homeric Hymns refer to her as ‘rosy-armed’ and ‘rosy-fingered’ (Ἠὼς Ῥοδοδάκτυλος). Since she opens the vault of heaven for the sun to ascend, vivid descriptions like this emphasize her delicate renewal of each and every day. Homer claims that her robe is of safron, being embroidered with endless flowers. She is also often adorned with a halo.
Typically she is represented on Greek vases as wearing a diadem and being as beautiful as could be. Like the Anemoi, she sometimes has large white wings. Likewise, her description in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite called her ‘golden throned’, and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes named her as the ‘early-born’, while Mesomedes of Crete called her χιονοβλέφαρος, "she who has snow-white eyelids".
The 77th Orphic Hymn is dedicated to Eos, deliberately placed symbolically behind the 8th Hymn of the Sun.
Orphic Hymn to Eos, translated by Thomas Taylor
As the Hymn alludes to, much of Eos’ symbolism entails the beginnings of intent during workings, and how to properly activate magick as the hazy dawn of understanding begins to emerge in the operator. She also deals with the soul’s cursory journey towards light and how to blossom correctly during those first steps towards proper personhood, which is part of why she is represented mythologically as a Titaness who is lustful and indecisive in her wonder at the world.
As she deals with these first steps, she also represents the throwing away of ignorance that can occur each new day as a cycle. Her determined skyward rides on her Chariot represent the maintenance of the Great Work, showing that evolution requires daily consistency that must occupy the mind of the initiate from dawn to dusk. Part of Eos’ frenzied single-mindedness does represent the necessity of keeping the mind fixated on evolution at any cost, even though the tales involving her also warn not to overlook subtle details in such enthusiasm.
The Gates of Dawn, Herbert James Draper
Eos rules over the animating force that allows humanity to continually function. Her attributes in this regard are also meant to convey the benefits of pursuing certain kinds of meditation during the dawn and morning period, which we know to be times of power that keep the individual well-ordered enough to pursue other things during the day. In enemy religions such as Islam, these facets are keenly understood, while they have been wrested from the minds of modern secular people and Christians.
She is important as a symbolic Goddess of womanhood as a whole. Her nurturing dawn power is symbolic of the power to create the new life of a child, the role of women in maintaining society and the wisdom required to continue to nurture some of the most subtle aspects that keep civilizations running. She represents many of the aspects of wisdom shared among women in particular, from the oldest and wisest to the youngest girls.
In general, she represents the power of Venus in trailing or being ahead of the Sun, which is never far away from it in aspect. This itself is often visible during the morning hours. Her name, which involves a certain code, also relates to the ears (οὖς) in Greek and the mouth (os) in Latin, both involved in the perception of vibration. Her role is often incited in ritual purity, such as the pyre of Hector in the Iliad:
The Iliad
In addition, Eos rules over powerful protective functions. Her role as a Goddess of the First Light is said to drive away all evil and filthy entities, dispelling delusional and dangerous behaviors in the faithful that could attract the presence of fiends. She dispels all forms of chaos as the morning light illuminates the solemn darkness each day. Just as Aphrodite is the great uniter, Eos represents the first pivotal step in the process towards the soul becoming light.
Her card is the Star reversed, which represents Eos’ own mythological hesitance to usher in the dawn each day and echoes the hopelessness of some of her doomed affairs. The naked figure is drawing water upside down, a paradoxical situation. The eight stars move towards the bottom of the card, as if dawn itself is breaking.
This card signifies the necessity of getting out of a rut and to find inspiration, to move forward from everything holding the querent back. It also signifies that something may happen quite unexpectedly and unusually, just as day begins to break in an abrupt fashion.
Her Minor Arcana card is the Three of Pentacles upright, which is perhaps emblematic of her relationship with Helios and Selene, or even the cycle of dawn, noon and dusk. Three figures meet in a cathedral-like building beneath an aisle with its stone pillar; one holds a chisel, the other a scroll of plans, and the other is listening intently. The three pentacles themselves are carved into the stony embellishment of the arch pillar. One of the figures stands atop a table with an increasingly lit background, while the other two are proximate to the darkness – the hierarchy is somewhat inverted as it is the chisel holder who explains everything. Much has been done before to create the beauty of the building, and much will have to happen again in a new plan for expansion.
Since the figures allegorically stand in a house of God, the illustration shows the beginning stages of a plan that must be executed carefully and properly. It indicates the need to learn from those different to oneself and that even if things have started, they must be finished. The card also represents the power of teamwork in getting things done, and to carefully look into details to get it done.
This card is also symbolic of Freemasonry; as the Goddess of the Dawn, Eos was involved in instructing groups to overcome the terror of the Dark Ages. In the image, three classes of the craftsman wearing a golden apron, the wealthy burgher and the monk are shown. The card can also simply signify building something.
EOS AND THE ENEMY
Since the Nazarene lay claim to being the ‘morning star’, part of this symbolism was an attack on the powers of Eos, along with her father, Zeus Phosphoros.
In the grim, fallacious tomes of the enemy, Eos was reformulated as the male demon named Ose, also known as Oso or Voso. Once again, the purpose of this demon was to make the querent ‘cunning’ in the liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, logic and other disciplines.
Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, Johann Weyer
Clearly, the power of Eos enduring for ‘an hour’ is a reference to the dawn itself. Other writings specify he cannot be summoned at twilight, a reference to Eos’ control of the matutine hours. The appearance of Ose is said to be like that of an agile and sinister leopard, a visual shorthand in antiquity for the stars.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Metamorphoses, Ovid
Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite
Homeric Hymn to Hermes
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Orphic Hymn to Eos, trans. Thomas Taylor
Hymn to the Sun, Mesomedes
Poetic Fragments, Parthenius of Nicaea
Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, Johann Weyer
Thank you so much SG Karnonnos! 
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These exceptional spiritual articles are to be seen as religious material and items of study, real study!
monomotapa
New member
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Apologies but does that mean that these qualities are acceptable in nature and one who has these is most likely to be in greater closeness to this goddess
DiscipleofEshmun
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Will repost my reply here as it was lost in the forum update...
Excellent articles SG Karnonnos. Your article on Asmodeus led me to establishing a relationship with Him. I was troubled by some money issues and shuffled my tarot cards, which got me the Eight of Pentacles and Chariot, both upright. Then I was immediately hit with an urge to look up Asmodeus on the forums.
This thread was pinned and stuck out to me, as at the time it had Asmodeus on the title. I was surprised to find these two cards are His and I also really enjoyed learning about Him and His ancient positions in various pantheons such as Shalim and Eshmun. I pray to Him regularly and I hope I always have a good and close relationship with Him.
I actually just read that Jerusalem was stolen from Shalim, including the Hebrew word "Shalom".
Thank you for your work and may the Gods bless you eternally.
Excellent articles SG Karnonnos. Your article on Asmodeus led me to establishing a relationship with Him. I was troubled by some money issues and shuffled my tarot cards, which got me the Eight of Pentacles and Chariot, both upright. Then I was immediately hit with an urge to look up Asmodeus on the forums.
This thread was pinned and stuck out to me, as at the time it had Asmodeus on the title. I was surprised to find these two cards are His and I also really enjoyed learning about Him and His ancient positions in various pantheons such as Shalim and Eshmun. I pray to Him regularly and I hope I always have a good and close relationship with Him.
I actually just read that Jerusalem was stolen from Shalim, including the Hebrew word "Shalom".
Thank you for your work and may the Gods bless you eternally.
![Arcadia [NG]](/data/avatars/m/2/2320.jpg?1720432497){kind=avatar}
Arcadia [NG]
Member
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Firstly, magnificent article as always, SG. There are some interesting things I would like to add, regarding the anemone flower. Even in eastern cultures like Japan, the anemone often represents transience; the twilight hour of the day, and the autumn season. It is these liminal times which are representative of a thinned veil between the physical and spiritual worlds. Another interesting bit of behaviour is the fact anemones will close their petals not only at night, but will even do so when conditions are overcast, like right before a rainstorm. As such, there are certain cultural connotations of the anemone is a flower of anticipation, linking it very clearly to the The Tower Tarot.
It's worth saying that, although a rainstorm may be destructive, it's also vitalizing and necessary for nature. Death and decay as functions themselves are also necessary parts of the life-giving cycle. Further, it's worth noting there is an aspect of The Tower which involves the shattering of illusions. Oftentimes, beauty on its own can be mistaken for lasting strength. Adonis, at his death by Aphrodite's side, was young, fit, beautiful and perfect, the last thing you would ever expect to die, though in failing to heed Aphrodite's truthful warning, he met his shocking end.
Even when it comes to the "smaller" aspects of the Gods attributes, like sacred animals and flowers, you will find the divine connections essentially bottomless.
High Priestess Lydia Coventina
High Priestess
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I am bumping this magnificent work after moving it to this subforum, as our Novice Priest Karnonnos is now Clergy. Please, if you have not yet read these articles, do so. Always look to our Gods for guidance and inspiration 
Novice Priest Karnonnos
Temple of Zeus Guardian
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Tiresias contended with the forces of fate and necessity to become something divine. His story is representative of the strangest and most preternatural episodes in Greek mythology. A Theban by birth and said to assist that city for hundreds of years, he was one of the mystical prophets of Apollo, and people across Hellenic civilization attested to his strange labors that eventually led to the divine ascension of the serpent, becoming a kind of living archetype for the Great Work.
Numerous writers wrote about Tiresias at length. The story is formulated this way: the seer walks among nature, deciding in being incensed to strike mating snakes on Mount Cyllene or Mount Cithaereon with his staff, consequently, out of punishment or some other mysterious vehicle, he is transformed into a woman; after a certain amount of time, he strikes another set of snakes and is turned back into a man.¹ Due to that strange episode, he is always chosen as the one who can resolve a dispute about the sexes between Zeus and Hera. The most fleshed out of these origin stories is located in the Metamorphoses of Ovid.² The divine Jove, in good humor at a banquet with Juno, states that women are able to enjoy a greater pleasure in love, an idea with which she disagreed. To resolve the argument, he stated the sagacious Tiresias among humans must be able to understand “both sides of love”, as Tiresias had struck two snakes mating with his staff and was transformed into a woman for seven years, reverting to his manhood by the eighth when seeing the twin serpents and striking them again. When summoned by the two divinities, Tiresias took the side of Jupiter, making Juno so enraged as to physically blind him. Jove, taking pity on the seer, granted him the powers of mysterious divine sight.² ³
A variant myth is recited by Pherecydes concerning Tiresias and Athena at the spring of Hippocrene ⁴, but rendered more famous in Callimachus epic The Bath of Pallas.⁵ Tiresias, the son of Athena’s attendant Chariclo, is blinded for witnessing the virgin goddess naked when bathing. After Chariclo protests bitterly at her son’s treatment, Pallas compensates her by bestowing the power of divine sight on him. Athena also gives him the power to see eternally after death, a privilege very few have. Another myth attested by Apollodorus⁶ is that he died drinking from the spring called Tilphussa at night, and scholars assume upon this account that upon entering Hades, Persephone gave him the power of sight after death as told in the ancient Odyssey of Homer⁷, showing that the idea of his ability to see beyond mortality is ancient. Later myths give Tiresias even the power to not drink of the water of Lithi (forgetfulness). The poet Sostratus supposedly represented the lifecycle of the seer in an elegiac poem, as attested by the Byzantine antiquarian Eustathius⁸, but this work is lost. This rendition is said to be highly unusual in that the first incarnation of Tiresias is a girl who undergoes six subesequent changes of sex.
In Book XI of Homer's Odyssey, perhaps the most prominent case, Odysseus journeyed to the Underworld to seek the counsel of the blind prophet Tiresias, acting on advice from Circe to learn how to return to Ithaca. The prophet foretells a difficult journey, warns against eating Helios's cattle, and predicts the slaughter of the suitors.
Tiresias was said to intervene in several generations of Theban life, sometimes, again, as many as seven. In the famous play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, the unaware Oedipus, having seized control of Thebes after solving the inscrutable riddle of the sphinx, engages the seer in a demand to know what will alleviate the plague on the city. Oedipus was exposed by his father Laius of Thebes with his feet bound due to a prophecy from the Delphic oracle his son would kill him, but ended up being recovered and raised by a shepherd of Corinth. As an adult consulting the oracle himself, was told he must not go to his home, lest he kill his father and marry his mother. Thinking his home is Corinth, he sets off for Thebes, and at the Divided Way, he murders the vicious Laius after the latter attacks him. These events are hinted to be the cause of the plague. After an increasingly angry exchange due to Tiresias’ heavy refusal to state the cause, he mocks Tiresias as a mere worthless blind man, Tiresias reproaches the king for not having the sight to see in just what a dire situation he has encompassed himself in.
He emphatically claims that he is not here to punish, nonetheless, through his exceptional powers he can see the dictates of Apollo who is quietly designing the downfall of the Theban king.⁹ The irony of their exchange is deeply marked; Oedipus throughout the play is completely ignorant of his parentage, ignorant of the weight of his actions, ignorant of what choice to make, ignorant of the true conditions of his life, and so when confronting the seer, he is forced into a spiral of recognition from which he cannot escape. The psychic knower of fates, however, knows all and is pressed by his relentless and pushy hand, becoming something of a dramatic foil:
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles⁹
Seneca’s play on Oedipus shows a distinct contrast. ¹⁰ He does not know what will befall the king from the outset; it is only through gruesome Etruscan practices of divination that he is able to do so with the assistance of his daughter, Manto. The two characters are tied together symbolically in experiencing divine punishment through the text, such as the use of the word ‘ictus’ to describe Tiresia’s bashing of the snake and Oedipus weaponry in his suicidal ideation.¹¹ Both characters are given symbolic ties to Mount Cithareon. Interestingly, one Greek author mentioned that Tiresias was changed into a woman at a three-forked crossroad;¹² exactly where the unaware Oedipus kills his father Laius tragically and condemns himself.
Another instance where Tiresias appears is in Antigone¹³, also by Sophocles. The latter king Creon of Thebes, the uncle of Oedipus, decides to honor his grand nephew Eteocles, son of Oedipus, while deciding that the other dead son of the tragic king, Polynices, must be humiliated ritualistically in being thrown to the birds and creates an edict that he must not be buried. The curse is due to the brothers having driven their father out, as elaborated in an intermediate play, Oedipus at Colona¹⁴, but Creon shows his questionable pursuit of the law numerous times during that play by invoking "the will of the Gods" where it does not apply. One courtier, Antigone, conducts proper funeral rites for the corpse out of decency; Cleon orders her to be held in a cave where she will indirectly starve to death. Again, Tiresias enters and warns that the body must be buried as the Gods are becoming increasingly enraged, and he warns the king that the whole of Greece will soon despise him if this is not done. In the end, Antigone hangs herself, and the son of Creon, Haemon, stabs himself and then his father. His wife Euridyce also commits suicide, leaving Creon with nothing. It is implied the ultimate hubris is that Creon, initially ignorant of proper procedure like Oedipus, insults and threatens the prophet of the Gods when clearly shown that he is contradicting the divine will for his own purposes, committing Sahiburah.
On a lighter note, Lucian uses Tiresias as a stock character in his Necromantia¹⁵ and Dialogues of the Dead¹⁶, in both cases sought out by the Cynic philosopher Menippus. In the latter he mocks prophetic pretensions by consistently asking aggressive questions about Tiresias’ experience as a woman leaving the latter no choice but to defer answering while in the former, he asks Tiresias, the only seer among the dead, “who has the happiest life?” Tiresias replies the ordinary man does, and to not take things seriously.
SYMBOLISM
As has been stated, the trials of Tiresias are allegorical and laden with ornate symbolism:
Seere, High Priest Zevios Metathronos¹⁷
Seneca the Younger’s own play on Oedipus interpreted his actions as a kind of heroism driven by moral ambivalence.¹⁸ Mere stubbornness, what the Stoa called “vicious constancy”¹⁹, is not necessarily analogous with the pursuit of virtue. Oedipus's unremitting desire in pursuing the truth arises from pride and fear. His emotional responses such his rage at Tiresias, his horror at discovery represent failures of cognitive assent. The great seer in Seneca’s renedition uses every tool in his arsenal to uncover the truth, showing his commitment to double checking and wisdom.
The impasse of Oedipus and Tiresias in Sophocles’ variation of the story, though laden with dramatic flourish, has a certain symbolic meaning. The former, whose name means “swollen foot”, is able to answer the riddle of the sphinx and to become a king, yet cannot understand himself. The Seer, on the other hand, has evolved beyond mundane sight; the cornerstones of his evolution are secure regardless of fleeting appearances. His eyes are opened; he can see all things from the position of a unified mind. Being ruled by the appetitive part and not the head, the foundation of the clever swollen-footed king at the height of his virility and power is built upon a lie that dangerously unfurls. This is deeply allegorical of all three Delphic maxims as woven by each author into the story as the first cause, and it is linked to the divine Apollo’s mastery over all prophecy.
As the High Priest said above, the story also shows the absolute necessity of integration of dualities in pursuing the Opus. Oedipus is so beyond the careful tying of the dualities that he infamously committed incest with his own mother by mistake, then, in dramatic opposition, ends up blinding himself out of fury by gouging out his own eyes, or, in Euripides' version,²⁰ with a vengeful servant of Laius doing the act.
His powers represent control over the Third Eye and its truest integration as a divining tool, in other words, how to use this force properly. Imbalance on the lower Chakras and other mental problems can cause endless issues with any kind of psychic faculty; they require grounding and proper harnessing of the lower realms of the soul to function properly. The stories of Tiresias also warn against taking any particular vision as an assured fact, because this may not be true. and the failure of oracles is not uncommon, Tiresias represents the highest stage where all failure is conquered.
Tiresias is represented by the Hermit reversed, which indicates a need to come back to reality and to community, to hold oneself accountable after learning. The reversal of the old seer is allegorical of the changes experienced by the deity. It can also represent isolation due to strange experiences others find unfathomable, an impenetrable wall. Sometimes it pertains to a situation the querent cannot see or will not take action on which makes them miserable. Being antisocial is also a large element of this card.
His representative card in the Minor Arcana is the Nine of Cups. This card has an undertone of indulgence that is well-won, a period of happiness, joy and beauty. It speaks to the necessity of trying to maintain some modesty in good circumstances. The coming together of the Three of Cups is tripled. Sometimes, the bitterer note of the card is a beautiful period that, nonetheless, may not last forever. Philosophically, the card represents the type of coherent integration that Seere shows in mythology, but it also can indicate it is time to pursue your other half, which leads to the scenario of the Tenth card.
ENEMY CONTEXT
In the Yehuboric grimoires and smut, the figure of Tiresias was turned into something else. As Seere, he does not appear in the Pseudomonarchia daemonum along with some others such as Vassago and Dantalion, but does appear in the the alternative Key of Solomon grimoire:
Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis²¹
The association of Tiresias with Pegasus and the spring of Hippocrene is blatantly marked in this text, as are his functions in presiding over everything related to the Third Eye and its proper use. Likewise, the ability of his to go wherever he pleases, as in his shadowy departures in mythology, is also referenced. This is one of the most blatant descriptions of any figure. The seal of Seere is in reality related to the occult Third Eye Chakra.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Melampodia, Pseudo-Hesiod
2. Metamorphoses, Ovid
3. Fabulue, Hyginus
4. Fragment 92, Pherecydes
5. Birth of Pallas, Callimachus
6. Library, Apollodorus
7. The Odyssey, Homer
8. Addednum of Homer’s Odyssey, Eusthathius (p. 1665.44ff)
9. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
10. Oedipus, Seneca the Younger
11. Tiresias between texts and sex, Charilaos N. Michalopoulos, Eugesta: Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity
12. Metamorphoses, Antoninus Liberalis
13. Antigone, Sophocles
14. Oedipus at Colona, Sophocles
15. Necromantia, Lucian
16. Dialogues of the Dead, Lucian
17. Seere, High Priest Zevios Metathronos
18. Making Oedipus Roman/Faire d’Œdipe une tragédie romaine, Gregory A. Staley
19. Senecan Tragedy as Response to Stoic Critique, Robin Leah Weiss
20. Oedipus, Euripides
21. Lesser Key of Solomon
CREDIT:
Novice Priest Karnonnos
Numerous writers wrote about Tiresias at length. The story is formulated this way: the seer walks among nature, deciding in being incensed to strike mating snakes on Mount Cyllene or Mount Cithaereon with his staff, consequently, out of punishment or some other mysterious vehicle, he is transformed into a woman; after a certain amount of time, he strikes another set of snakes and is turned back into a man.¹ Due to that strange episode, he is always chosen as the one who can resolve a dispute about the sexes between Zeus and Hera. The most fleshed out of these origin stories is located in the Metamorphoses of Ovid.² The divine Jove, in good humor at a banquet with Juno, states that women are able to enjoy a greater pleasure in love, an idea with which she disagreed. To resolve the argument, he stated the sagacious Tiresias among humans must be able to understand “both sides of love”, as Tiresias had struck two snakes mating with his staff and was transformed into a woman for seven years, reverting to his manhood by the eighth when seeing the twin serpents and striking them again. When summoned by the two divinities, Tiresias took the side of Jupiter, making Juno so enraged as to physically blind him. Jove, taking pity on the seer, granted him the powers of mysterious divine sight.² ³
A variant myth is recited by Pherecydes concerning Tiresias and Athena at the spring of Hippocrene ⁴, but rendered more famous in Callimachus epic The Bath of Pallas.⁵ Tiresias, the son of Athena’s attendant Chariclo, is blinded for witnessing the virgin goddess naked when bathing. After Chariclo protests bitterly at her son’s treatment, Pallas compensates her by bestowing the power of divine sight on him. Athena also gives him the power to see eternally after death, a privilege very few have. Another myth attested by Apollodorus⁶ is that he died drinking from the spring called Tilphussa at night, and scholars assume upon this account that upon entering Hades, Persephone gave him the power of sight after death as told in the ancient Odyssey of Homer⁷, showing that the idea of his ability to see beyond mortality is ancient. Later myths give Tiresias even the power to not drink of the water of Lithi (forgetfulness). The poet Sostratus supposedly represented the lifecycle of the seer in an elegiac poem, as attested by the Byzantine antiquarian Eustathius⁸, but this work is lost. This rendition is said to be highly unusual in that the first incarnation of Tiresias is a girl who undergoes six subesequent changes of sex.
In Book XI of Homer's Odyssey, perhaps the most prominent case, Odysseus journeyed to the Underworld to seek the counsel of the blind prophet Tiresias, acting on advice from Circe to learn how to return to Ithaca. The prophet foretells a difficult journey, warns against eating Helios's cattle, and predicts the slaughter of the suitors.
Tiresias was said to intervene in several generations of Theban life, sometimes, again, as many as seven. In the famous play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, the unaware Oedipus, having seized control of Thebes after solving the inscrutable riddle of the sphinx, engages the seer in a demand to know what will alleviate the plague on the city. Oedipus was exposed by his father Laius of Thebes with his feet bound due to a prophecy from the Delphic oracle his son would kill him, but ended up being recovered and raised by a shepherd of Corinth. As an adult consulting the oracle himself, was told he must not go to his home, lest he kill his father and marry his mother. Thinking his home is Corinth, he sets off for Thebes, and at the Divided Way, he murders the vicious Laius after the latter attacks him. These events are hinted to be the cause of the plague. After an increasingly angry exchange due to Tiresias’ heavy refusal to state the cause, he mocks Tiresias as a mere worthless blind man, Tiresias reproaches the king for not having the sight to see in just what a dire situation he has encompassed himself in.
He emphatically claims that he is not here to punish, nonetheless, through his exceptional powers he can see the dictates of Apollo who is quietly designing the downfall of the Theban king.⁹ The irony of their exchange is deeply marked; Oedipus throughout the play is completely ignorant of his parentage, ignorant of the weight of his actions, ignorant of what choice to make, ignorant of the true conditions of his life, and so when confronting the seer, he is forced into a spiral of recognition from which he cannot escape. The psychic knower of fates, however, knows all and is pressed by his relentless and pushy hand, becoming something of a dramatic foil:
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles⁹
Seneca’s play on Oedipus shows a distinct contrast. ¹⁰ He does not know what will befall the king from the outset; it is only through gruesome Etruscan practices of divination that he is able to do so with the assistance of his daughter, Manto. The two characters are tied together symbolically in experiencing divine punishment through the text, such as the use of the word ‘ictus’ to describe Tiresia’s bashing of the snake and Oedipus weaponry in his suicidal ideation.¹¹ Both characters are given symbolic ties to Mount Cithareon. Interestingly, one Greek author mentioned that Tiresias was changed into a woman at a three-forked crossroad;¹² exactly where the unaware Oedipus kills his father Laius tragically and condemns himself.
Another instance where Tiresias appears is in Antigone¹³, also by Sophocles. The latter king Creon of Thebes, the uncle of Oedipus, decides to honor his grand nephew Eteocles, son of Oedipus, while deciding that the other dead son of the tragic king, Polynices, must be humiliated ritualistically in being thrown to the birds and creates an edict that he must not be buried. The curse is due to the brothers having driven their father out, as elaborated in an intermediate play, Oedipus at Colona¹⁴, but Creon shows his questionable pursuit of the law numerous times during that play by invoking "the will of the Gods" where it does not apply. One courtier, Antigone, conducts proper funeral rites for the corpse out of decency; Cleon orders her to be held in a cave where she will indirectly starve to death. Again, Tiresias enters and warns that the body must be buried as the Gods are becoming increasingly enraged, and he warns the king that the whole of Greece will soon despise him if this is not done. In the end, Antigone hangs herself, and the son of Creon, Haemon, stabs himself and then his father. His wife Euridyce also commits suicide, leaving Creon with nothing. It is implied the ultimate hubris is that Creon, initially ignorant of proper procedure like Oedipus, insults and threatens the prophet of the Gods when clearly shown that he is contradicting the divine will for his own purposes, committing Sahiburah.
On a lighter note, Lucian uses Tiresias as a stock character in his Necromantia¹⁵ and Dialogues of the Dead¹⁶, in both cases sought out by the Cynic philosopher Menippus. In the latter he mocks prophetic pretensions by consistently asking aggressive questions about Tiresias’ experience as a woman leaving the latter no choice but to defer answering while in the former, he asks Tiresias, the only seer among the dead, “who has the happiest life?” Tiresias replies the ordinary man does, and to not take things seriously.
SYMBOLISM
As has been stated, the trials of Tiresias are allegorical and laden with ornate symbolism:
Seere, High Priest Zevios Metathronos¹⁷
Seneca the Younger’s own play on Oedipus interpreted his actions as a kind of heroism driven by moral ambivalence.¹⁸ Mere stubbornness, what the Stoa called “vicious constancy”¹⁹, is not necessarily analogous with the pursuit of virtue. Oedipus's unremitting desire in pursuing the truth arises from pride and fear. His emotional responses such his rage at Tiresias, his horror at discovery represent failures of cognitive assent. The great seer in Seneca’s renedition uses every tool in his arsenal to uncover the truth, showing his commitment to double checking and wisdom.
The impasse of Oedipus and Tiresias in Sophocles’ variation of the story, though laden with dramatic flourish, has a certain symbolic meaning. The former, whose name means “swollen foot”, is able to answer the riddle of the sphinx and to become a king, yet cannot understand himself. The Seer, on the other hand, has evolved beyond mundane sight; the cornerstones of his evolution are secure regardless of fleeting appearances. His eyes are opened; he can see all things from the position of a unified mind. Being ruled by the appetitive part and not the head, the foundation of the clever swollen-footed king at the height of his virility and power is built upon a lie that dangerously unfurls. This is deeply allegorical of all three Delphic maxims as woven by each author into the story as the first cause, and it is linked to the divine Apollo’s mastery over all prophecy.
As the High Priest said above, the story also shows the absolute necessity of integration of dualities in pursuing the Opus. Oedipus is so beyond the careful tying of the dualities that he infamously committed incest with his own mother by mistake, then, in dramatic opposition, ends up blinding himself out of fury by gouging out his own eyes, or, in Euripides' version,²⁰ with a vengeful servant of Laius doing the act.
His powers represent control over the Third Eye and its truest integration as a divining tool, in other words, how to use this force properly. Imbalance on the lower Chakras and other mental problems can cause endless issues with any kind of psychic faculty; they require grounding and proper harnessing of the lower realms of the soul to function properly. The stories of Tiresias also warn against taking any particular vision as an assured fact, because this may not be true. and the failure of oracles is not uncommon, Tiresias represents the highest stage where all failure is conquered.
Tiresias is represented by the Hermit reversed, which indicates a need to come back to reality and to community, to hold oneself accountable after learning. The reversal of the old seer is allegorical of the changes experienced by the deity. It can also represent isolation due to strange experiences others find unfathomable, an impenetrable wall. Sometimes it pertains to a situation the querent cannot see or will not take action on which makes them miserable. Being antisocial is also a large element of this card.
His representative card in the Minor Arcana is the Nine of Cups. This card has an undertone of indulgence that is well-won, a period of happiness, joy and beauty. It speaks to the necessity of trying to maintain some modesty in good circumstances. The coming together of the Three of Cups is tripled. Sometimes, the bitterer note of the card is a beautiful period that, nonetheless, may not last forever. Philosophically, the card represents the type of coherent integration that Seere shows in mythology, but it also can indicate it is time to pursue your other half, which leads to the scenario of the Tenth card.
ENEMY CONTEXT
In the Yehuboric grimoires and smut, the figure of Tiresias was turned into something else. As Seere, he does not appear in the Pseudomonarchia daemonum along with some others such as Vassago and Dantalion, but does appear in the the alternative Key of Solomon grimoire:
Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis²¹
The association of Tiresias with Pegasus and the spring of Hippocrene is blatantly marked in this text, as are his functions in presiding over everything related to the Third Eye and its proper use. Likewise, the ability of his to go wherever he pleases, as in his shadowy departures in mythology, is also referenced. This is one of the most blatant descriptions of any figure. The seal of Seere is in reality related to the occult Third Eye Chakra.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Melampodia, Pseudo-Hesiod
2. Metamorphoses, Ovid
3. Fabulue, Hyginus
4. Fragment 92, Pherecydes
5. Birth of Pallas, Callimachus
6. Library, Apollodorus
7. The Odyssey, Homer
8. Addednum of Homer’s Odyssey, Eusthathius (p. 1665.44ff)
9. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
10. Oedipus, Seneca the Younger
11. Tiresias between texts and sex, Charilaos N. Michalopoulos, Eugesta: Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity
12. Metamorphoses, Antoninus Liberalis
13. Antigone, Sophocles
14. Oedipus at Colona, Sophocles
15. Necromantia, Lucian
16. Dialogues of the Dead, Lucian
17. Seere, High Priest Zevios Metathronos
18. Making Oedipus Roman/Faire d’Œdipe une tragédie romaine, Gregory A. Staley
19. Senecan Tragedy as Response to Stoic Critique, Robin Leah Weiss
20. Oedipus, Euripides
21. Lesser Key of Solomon
CREDIT:
Novice Priest Karnonnos
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Imperator
New member
Thank you for the amazing work, Novice Priest Karnonnos.
Learning about the Gods and Their lore has been the greatest of epiphanies, and we must recognize that slanders cast against Them must be revealed and vanquished with the power of knowledge.
Hail Zeus, King of Olympus, and all the Aeonian Gods!
Learning about the Gods and Their lore has been the greatest of epiphanies, and we must recognize that slanders cast against Them must be revealed and vanquished with the power of knowledge.
Hail Zeus, King of Olympus, and all the Aeonian Gods!
WoadWarrior
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Another excellent article as always Novice Priest Karnonnos.
soulisbrighter
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Thank you for sharing. As we partake in his divine ritual for blessings.
Chrysallida
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Thank you for the wonderful articles NP Karnonnos!
I have been writing them down on my notebook, I want to keep all writings about the Gods and Daemons.
I have been writing them down on my notebook, I want to keep all writings about the Gods and Daemons.
High Priestess Lydia Coventina
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Thank you N.Priest Karnonnos for this insightful article.
These in particular, Zevists need to take to heart. Remember these:
These in particular, Zevists need to take to heart. Remember these:
Rayquaza
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Forgive me, if it's not an error, it's a problem of my understanding. Shouldn't it be that Haemon tries to stab his father first and then stabs himself?
It's just a coincidence but just the other day, I was watching a university lecture by a judge, which had been posted on YouTube, in which this episode from Greek tragedy was cited to demonstrate how long man has been questioning the difference between laws and justice. And how tragic it is when the two do not match.
Novice Priest Karnonnos
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Renenutet was integrated in every aspect of Egyptian civil life as the great goddess of sustenance and abundance, civilization, granaries, vineyards, judgement, fate and personal defense of the Pharaoh and the Egyptian realm. ¹ The Egyptian people adored her as a savior of agriculture and viniculture², in inaugurating the great harvest season of the vast empire., and for good reason, as she represented the abundance of the great yield being given resplendently to the needy, so celebrations to her were a common feature of life in Egypt. Just as much, however, she could represent a terrifying punitive aspect of leaving the land without life. Many of her later sets of symbolism are arcane and relate to the nourishment of the soul. The serpent goddess is the syncretistic combination of the Nebty, the two lady goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet, who represented Lower and Upper Egypt respectively.
Stela with the Representation of Nekhbet-Renenutet – Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Her role in mythology is distinct. From the ancient Pyramid Texts and as one of Egypt's oldest deities, she is considered to be the guardian of the Pharaoh, at least linguistically in function. The Utterances allude to her as the personification of the Renenutet garment, ³ the eye of Horus, which Egyptologists consider to be a particularly important vestige of royal symbolism in Egypt. By presenting the pharaoh with the divine attire, it is interpreted that she gave majesty with a form of prosperity that commands respect from the divine, not merely the mortal world. The eye also changes the fate of the Pharaoh. Elsewhere in the most ancient texts, her earliest secure textual footing is in the Old Kingdom funerary corpus where she appears as an aspect of the fiery uraeus, showing off her royal protection.
Utterance 256, Pyramid Texts ⁴
Utterance 622, Recitation of Pepi II Neferkare, Tending the Spirit as Osiris, Pyramid Texts ³
Renenutet is also described vaguely as having tools that nourish the ka (vital essence) of the Pharaoh, like her oil of jubilation.⁵ From a young age, the Pharaoh could count on her nourishment and support as a deity who protected him and the royal house. However, her role of judgement in this regard also applied to the Weighing Ceremony, on the basis that she who creates and nourishes can also take. To invoke her was not a joking matter. From the Middle Kingdom onwards, her links to ultimate fate become more apparent. The Coffin Texts⁶ equate her with being the god of fate Nehekbau's mother, and the Rifeh coffin inscriptions among these name her as the 'revered one. ' The New Kingdom Papyrus of Ani ⁷ shows her at the side of Shai and Meshkenet, being part of the divine contingent of the Weighing of the Heart. Variations of the Book of the Dead increasingly link her into that ceremony too.
The multidimensionality of her cult appeared to expand and become more marked during the New Kingdom era. ⁹ Major representations of Renenutet as a motherly goddess proliferate at that point of Egyptian history, which is related to her name meaning and cult title, She Who Rears. Increasingly, she became associated with her son, Nepri, the grain god, who makes up a majority of the scenes of her nursing children. She became associated with the ren or secret name given to the child,¹⁰ while bowls fashioned in the form of cobras were used for juveniles needing milk,¹¹ possibly for protective purposes. The amount of hymns about her specifically proliferate after the New Kingdom, or at least these are the extant examples of a much older corpus. Her hymnal repertoire indicates a particular need for the Egyptians for relief and centers the harvest season as most important.;¹² Elite women often tended to her cult publicly, which is evidenced in the amount of depictions of Great Royal Wives in adjacency to the cobra goddess in Egyptian sacred art. ¹³ Other evolutions of her cult existed in the New Kingdom corpus, such as the papyrus showing her delivering boxes of treasure to the sea and then sends a messenger bird to the Canaanite goddess Astarte.¹⁴ The depictions of the goddess in Theban tombs show her presiding over fieldmen in vineyards picking grapes and delivering them to her.¹⁵ On the early stela of Setau,¹⁶ the viceroy of the Egyptian-ruled Kush offers a libation and incense to Renenutet as a supplicant. Her cult also spread into Nubia.
In the primary, most immediate way visible to all Egyptians, the snake goddess was characteristic of all things relating to the harvest. The snake creeping in the fields represented the fertility of the soil in the minds of the Egyptians, but she was also felt to guard the granaries that grain flowed into, just like her sacred ritual states. The great agricultural festival held between the end of the month Pharmouthi and the start of the month Pashons, now understood to be in the middle of May, was dedicated to Renenutet as her eternal honor as the first day of the harvest season.¹⁷ According to evidence compiled from archeologists, it was also associated with the birthday of Nepri.¹⁸ It is said via textual evidence that widespread deliveries of rations happened on this date,¹⁹ perhaps indicating its immense importance to the Egyptian people. Thebes has tombs showing endless scenes of grain gathering with a harvest and granary offering specifically. More cryptically, in the literary text O. DeM 1265²⁰ from Thebes which has been undated, the month of IV Pharmouthi is described as the ‘one where all the gods are born’ and linked in context to the snake goddess. The festival customarily showed the Pharaoh as the child of the divine triad of each Nome.²¹
The Role of Renenutet in New Kingdom Temples: A Reassessment of Archaeological Evidence for a Cult of this Divinity in Archaeological Compounds, Julie Masqueller-Loorius, Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology⁹
Shrines and locales of hers have been noted to be located near granaries and important rural sources of sustenance. That indicates that Renenutet was considered to be a guardian of Egypt's agriculture at its source.⁹ Her cult in Thebes from surviving evidence clearly was not a small one, as one British Museum component of a naos, the EA597, describes the workman Inhrkhau at Deir al-Medina worshipping Renenutet “in the form of a serpent,” on the lintel of a small shrine structure that also includes other deities and prayers.¹⁹ Other objects demonstrate she was worshipped in a domestic and highly personal way there, through small household cult shrines, votive monuments, and offering formulae asking her for food, well-being, and moral-social flourishing connected to her role as providing eloquence. The evidence points to a goddess of the people who mattered in daily life, especially as a provider and protector. Like with many of the Deir el-Medina inscriptions, Renenutet is worshiped as a goddess of the household and the farm quite reverentially.
DO NOT CELEBRATE YOUR FEAST WITHOUT YOUR NEIGHBOURS, A Study of References to Feasts and Festivals in Non-Literary Documents from Ramesside Period Deir el-Medina, Heidi Jauhiainen ¹⁹
Her cult center was in the town named Dja²³ (Medinet Madi) where a large amount of inscriptions and texts related to her due to the 1936 excavation of the area have been recovered, dating from the Middle Kingdom onwards. Renenutet shared a temple at Dja with Sobek in his Shedet form²⁴ who is sometimes considered her husband or guardian. Construction began under Amenemhat III and was completed under Amenemhat IV of the 12th Dynasty.²⁵ The site is especially important because it is often described as the best-preserved substantial Middle Kingdom temple still standing in Egypt.²⁶ Architecturally, the original temple is a small sandstone temple with a columned entrance portico leading inward to a sanctuary of three chapels. One of the surviving columns bears the name of the patron Pharaoh Amenemhat III, the other that of Amenemhat IV. The temple is quite compact in size, but archeologists noted its importance due to the fact it shows an early axial sanctuary arrangement later familiar from larger Egyptian temples, making it a prototype for newer designs that would become more popular during the later periods of the New Kingdom. ²⁷
Medinet Madi temple
The royal nature is strongly emphasized in its internal design, alongside elements of fate, with the first chapel being dedicated to the cobra goddess. A foundation scene with the Pharaoh and Seshat is shown on the internal reliefs to the south,²⁸ while on the main reliefs the older Pharaoh stands before Renenutet, with his daughter Neferuptah also depicted in the scene as one of her maidens. The second chapel is dedicated to Renenutet and Sobek., while the third is exclusively dedicated to just her in accordance with the first's general character. In the Ptolemaic period, the temple was significantly expanded and given stylistic embellishments like a kiosk of eight columns. She has also been associated in name with Mefket (Tarrana, known to the Greeks as Terenouthis).²⁹
THERMOUTHIS
In Hellenistic Egypt, a distinct style of representing Renenutet emerged through the interpretatio graeca known as Thermouthis. Often this symbolism pertained to her having the already-Egyptian standard of a snake-like body and a human head, similar to the distinct symbolism of Abraxas and Chnoumis, but she could also be represented in the specifically Greek-style of portraying snakes. The cult of Thermouthis spread dramatically during Roman times and received much attention outside of Egyptian borders,³⁰ while this form of her was more directly equated with fate and with magic practice. She was often associated with the male Agathodaimon, as shown in an ornate bracelet from that age.³¹ In her relation to Isis, she was conflated with Agatho Tyche, or good fortune. Thermouthis provided good speech and the power to alter fate through the carefully-chosen word. Her words also reflected the ability to discern and tell the future, all kinds of premonitions and other matters.
At Dja (Narmut as it was called then, or Narmouthis in Greek), her temple as Isis-Thermouthis displayed larger levels of grandeur and attention during the Ptolemaic period where a second temple was built. ²⁵ Architecturally, it appears to have been smaller and plainer than the old Middle Kingdom sanctuary, but it follows a recognizably Egyptian plan. The building has a broad forecourt, then a hall or hypostyle hall, and at the rear three chapels; the central chapel has a niche at the back. ²⁵ The entrance faced north. Unfortunately, the decoration was never fully completed, and what survives includes unfinished relief outlines and a few carved figures near the façade and inner rooms. Its most famous relevance, however, are the inscriptions of Isidorus, a resident priest there.³² ³³
SYMBOLISM
Her name means both "to nurse" and "riches" in the Egyptian language³⁴, which makes many of the Old Kingdom passages above ambiguous. The priest of Isis from the temple of Isis-Thermouthis at Narmouthis gives a different etymology, claiming in the hymns accredited to him that her name actually means "the unique one".³²
Snake imagery was obviously persistent in the iconography of the goddess who was represented in particular as a cobra, because she represents the feminine side of the Kundalini force in its integrated, benevolent and sustaining aspect, while her sacred imagery has much to do with the wisdom of what follows when it hits the third eye proper and how the ascended indvidual is the field of grain for any true civilization. The serpent in Egyptian belief guarded the grain stores from pests and other scourges of human endeavors, central to her identity as a goddess who established civilisation. The vicious side of the cobra with its indicated in its ability to transform the tranquil Hathor into the enraged goddess Sekhmet, and the venom of the animal was also a key part of her symbolism, as she had the ability to ruin sustenance and create starvation too.
She could be represented as human with a serpent head or as a recoiling serpent on a plinth. However, Renenutet could also be represented in a fully humanoid form, much like her adjacent goddesses. In some contexts, Wadjet and Nekhbet are shown as supplicants to her, and like those Two Ladies, she is represented with the solar horn disk of Hathor and Isis. Much like Wadjet, she is often shown adjacent to Sekhmet, and the fact her temple contains a depiction of fate, Seshat, is not surprising. Most of all, she as associated in Late Egyptian contexts with the deity of fate, Shai. The historian Joyce Tyldesley summarizes the pairing very clearly where she says that Shai determined a person’s lifespan, while Renenutet determined material wealth.³⁵ She specifically connects this to the Late Period Papyrus Insinger tradition. They function as a conceptual pair governing the shape of a human life. The serpent goddess Meretseger was sometimes associated with her.¹⁹
As she is a syncretized form of Wadjet and Nekhbet who ruled over the two distinct regions of Kemet, she could be represented wearing the dual crown.
As Thermouthis, she is often represented with the sun disk,³⁶ a type of crown associated with Isis. The torch is her most important distinctive symbol, which archeologists have noted. It represents enlightenment in darkness and the cultivation of fire put to good use, the prerequisite of any civilization, but also relates to the serpent and powers of the third eye being sparked. Ears of corn³⁷ and and stalks could be represented in her imagery also, which in Egyptian contexts tends to be represented as Renenutet overseeing agrarian scenes of people gathering the yields of the field. The torch and corn symbolism also shows her association with Demeter and Persephone as a goddess of sustenance and intercession for the dead.
The Major Arcana card of the snake goddess is the Sun, the card of abundance, plenty and with symbolism usually relating to children and nourishment. The child rejoices under the Sun riding a white horse, showing some level of mastery at an early age over his mind. The abundance of the sunflowers sat atop a wall shows the prerogatives of civilization in creating beauty and bountiful rewards for its adherents. The red flag is somewhat snake-like as it coils around the attached spear. The card shows many elements of happiness for the querent, including fertility and the ability to sustain oneself with great rewards. Bune's traditional appearance of being glamorous also shows here.
On a darker note, her Minor Arcana card is the reversed Five of Wands, showing cooperation and the necessity of moving on from conflict. Cooperation is often needed for the querent, or some kind of strategy the snake would be proud of, of course. This can also relate to the advice of the afflicted after disappearing from something violent, something Renenutet on behalf of the dead is said to supervise as the one who allows the dead to speak from the Hall of Judgement. On the other hand, this can also indicate an escalation of aggression and to be wary and careful.
GOETIC SYMBOLISM
The Old Testament in its Greek translation from Hebrew rendered the Pharaoh's daughter as Thermouthis,³⁸ which is an example of confusingly co-opting a divine force for Yehuboric purposes and confusion on the part of this people during the time period. Josephus claims the maiden named Moses his sacred name, which is an obvious occult allusion to the ren. As she is his wetnurse, she is also his provider, and this is linked to the Pharaoh's daughter traditionally being the supplicant of the goddess. The reason for this is the same as above: Moses is placed under the protection of the divine aegis of the snake, which also becomes his symbol.
In the Goetia, she was called Bune or Bim which is related to one of her titles, Buto, but hints too at the name Nekhbet. The demon has three heads as a dragon (serpent), with the third being like a man, a reference to both Thermouthis and the Two Ladies. Bune is said to speak with a divine voice, bestow eloquence and to inspire truth. He is also said to make many devils assemble at graves and to greatly enrich men under his possession. Another entity, Myeob (Queen of the Fairies, simply Bim reversed), is explicitly described in the earlier Liber Officium Spiritum³⁹ a fairy queen who assists her husband Oberon.
Pseudomonarchia daemonum, Johann Weyer⁴⁰
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson
2. Renenutet: worship and popular piety at Thebes in the New Kingdom, Paolo Marini Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology
3. Utterance 256, Pyramid Texts
4. Utterance 622, Pyramid Texts
5. Utterance 73, Pyramid Texts
6. Coffin Texts
7. EA10470,3, Papyrus of Ani, British Museum
8. Book of the Dead
9. The Role of Renenutet in New Kingdom Temples: A Reassessment of Archaeological Evidence for a Cult of this Divinity in Archaeological Compounds, Julie Masqueller-Loorius, Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology
10. Remarks on the Four Renenutets in the Temples of Edfu and Dendara, Frédéric Mougenot
11. Playing with Fire: Initial Observations on the Religious Uses of Clay Cobras from Amarna, Kasia Szpapowska
12. Hymn to Renenutet
13. Sobek of Shedet: The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period, Marco Zecchi
14. Handbook of Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch
15. Grape Archaeology and Ancient DNA Sequencing, Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané, the Grape Genome
16. stela, EA1055, the British Museum
17. Древнеегипетский праздник Рененутет (The Ancient Egyptian feast of Renenutet), Alexandra Mironova
18. Calendars and Festivals of Ancient Egypt, Alexandra Mironova
19. DO NOT CELEBRATE YOUR FEAST WITHOUT YOUR NEIGHBOURS, A Study of References to Feasts and Festivals in Non-Literary Documents from Ramesside Period Deir el-Medina, Heidi Jauhiainen
20. Ostracon of Deir-el-Medina 1265
21. CHILD DEITIES/اآللھة على ھيئة الطفل, Dagmar Budd, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
22. EA597 Naos
23. Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Ägypten, Konstanz Carsen Peust
24. Gottesdiener und Kamelzüchter: Das Alltags- und Sozialleben der Sobek-Priester im kaiserzeitlichen Fayum, Benjamin Sippel
25. Medinet Madi, Madain Project
26. Egypt finds clue to ancient temple's secret, Middle East Times (citing Zahi Hawass)
27. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson
28. I templi di Medinet Madi nel Fayum, Giammarusti Breschiani
29. Kom Abu Bello, Zahi Hawass, Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, Kathryn A. Bard (eds.)
30. Isis Thermouthis in the Roman World: some Data from the Italian Peninsula, Vito Mazzuca, Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology
31. Bracelet with Agathodaimon, Isis-Tyche, Aphrodite, and Thermouthis, the Met, Rogers Fund
32. Greek and Egyptian Hymns to Isis, attalus.org
33. Graeco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BC–AD 300
34. The Goddess Thermuthis, Moses, and Artapanus, Amorai-Stark Shua and David Flusser
35 The Handbook of Egyptian Mythology, Joyce Tyldesley
36. On the Endurance of Indigenous Religious Culture in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt: Evidence of Material Culture, Tiffany Chezum
37. RPC III, 6184, Roman Coinage Online
38. Antiquities of the Hebrews, Josephus
39. Liber Officium Spiritum
40. Pseudomonarchia daemonum, Johann Weyer
Stela with the Representation of Nekhbet-Renenutet – Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Her role in mythology is distinct. From the ancient Pyramid Texts and as one of Egypt's oldest deities, she is considered to be the guardian of the Pharaoh, at least linguistically in function. The Utterances allude to her as the personification of the Renenutet garment, ³ the eye of Horus, which Egyptologists consider to be a particularly important vestige of royal symbolism in Egypt. By presenting the pharaoh with the divine attire, it is interpreted that she gave majesty with a form of prosperity that commands respect from the divine, not merely the mortal world. The eye also changes the fate of the Pharaoh. Elsewhere in the most ancient texts, her earliest secure textual footing is in the Old Kingdom funerary corpus where she appears as an aspect of the fiery uraeus, showing off her royal protection.
Utterance 256, Pyramid Texts ⁴
Utterance 622, Recitation of Pepi II Neferkare, Tending the Spirit as Osiris, Pyramid Texts ³
Renenutet is also described vaguely as having tools that nourish the ka (vital essence) of the Pharaoh, like her oil of jubilation.⁵ From a young age, the Pharaoh could count on her nourishment and support as a deity who protected him and the royal house. However, her role of judgement in this regard also applied to the Weighing Ceremony, on the basis that she who creates and nourishes can also take. To invoke her was not a joking matter. From the Middle Kingdom onwards, her links to ultimate fate become more apparent. The Coffin Texts⁶ equate her with being the god of fate Nehekbau's mother, and the Rifeh coffin inscriptions among these name her as the 'revered one. ' The New Kingdom Papyrus of Ani ⁷ shows her at the side of Shai and Meshkenet, being part of the divine contingent of the Weighing of the Heart. Variations of the Book of the Dead increasingly link her into that ceremony too.
The multidimensionality of her cult appeared to expand and become more marked during the New Kingdom era. ⁹ Major representations of Renenutet as a motherly goddess proliferate at that point of Egyptian history, which is related to her name meaning and cult title, She Who Rears. Increasingly, she became associated with her son, Nepri, the grain god, who makes up a majority of the scenes of her nursing children. She became associated with the ren or secret name given to the child,¹⁰ while bowls fashioned in the form of cobras were used for juveniles needing milk,¹¹ possibly for protective purposes. The amount of hymns about her specifically proliferate after the New Kingdom, or at least these are the extant examples of a much older corpus. Her hymnal repertoire indicates a particular need for the Egyptians for relief and centers the harvest season as most important.;¹² Elite women often tended to her cult publicly, which is evidenced in the amount of depictions of Great Royal Wives in adjacency to the cobra goddess in Egyptian sacred art. ¹³ Other evolutions of her cult existed in the New Kingdom corpus, such as the papyrus showing her delivering boxes of treasure to the sea and then sends a messenger bird to the Canaanite goddess Astarte.¹⁴ The depictions of the goddess in Theban tombs show her presiding over fieldmen in vineyards picking grapes and delivering them to her.¹⁵ On the early stela of Setau,¹⁶ the viceroy of the Egyptian-ruled Kush offers a libation and incense to Renenutet as a supplicant. Her cult also spread into Nubia.
In the primary, most immediate way visible to all Egyptians, the snake goddess was characteristic of all things relating to the harvest. The snake creeping in the fields represented the fertility of the soil in the minds of the Egyptians, but she was also felt to guard the granaries that grain flowed into, just like her sacred ritual states. The great agricultural festival held between the end of the month Pharmouthi and the start of the month Pashons, now understood to be in the middle of May, was dedicated to Renenutet as her eternal honor as the first day of the harvest season.¹⁷ According to evidence compiled from archeologists, it was also associated with the birthday of Nepri.¹⁸ It is said via textual evidence that widespread deliveries of rations happened on this date,¹⁹ perhaps indicating its immense importance to the Egyptian people. Thebes has tombs showing endless scenes of grain gathering with a harvest and granary offering specifically. More cryptically, in the literary text O. DeM 1265²⁰ from Thebes which has been undated, the month of IV Pharmouthi is described as the ‘one where all the gods are born’ and linked in context to the snake goddess. The festival customarily showed the Pharaoh as the child of the divine triad of each Nome.²¹
The Role of Renenutet in New Kingdom Temples: A Reassessment of Archaeological Evidence for a Cult of this Divinity in Archaeological Compounds, Julie Masqueller-Loorius, Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology⁹
Shrines and locales of hers have been noted to be located near granaries and important rural sources of sustenance. That indicates that Renenutet was considered to be a guardian of Egypt's agriculture at its source.⁹ Her cult in Thebes from surviving evidence clearly was not a small one, as one British Museum component of a naos, the EA597, describes the workman Inhrkhau at Deir al-Medina worshipping Renenutet “in the form of a serpent,” on the lintel of a small shrine structure that also includes other deities and prayers.¹⁹ Other objects demonstrate she was worshipped in a domestic and highly personal way there, through small household cult shrines, votive monuments, and offering formulae asking her for food, well-being, and moral-social flourishing connected to her role as providing eloquence. The evidence points to a goddess of the people who mattered in daily life, especially as a provider and protector. Like with many of the Deir el-Medina inscriptions, Renenutet is worshiped as a goddess of the household and the farm quite reverentially.
DO NOT CELEBRATE YOUR FEAST WITHOUT YOUR NEIGHBOURS, A Study of References to Feasts and Festivals in Non-Literary Documents from Ramesside Period Deir el-Medina, Heidi Jauhiainen ¹⁹
Her cult center was in the town named Dja²³ (Medinet Madi) where a large amount of inscriptions and texts related to her due to the 1936 excavation of the area have been recovered, dating from the Middle Kingdom onwards. Renenutet shared a temple at Dja with Sobek in his Shedet form²⁴ who is sometimes considered her husband or guardian. Construction began under Amenemhat III and was completed under Amenemhat IV of the 12th Dynasty.²⁵ The site is especially important because it is often described as the best-preserved substantial Middle Kingdom temple still standing in Egypt.²⁶ Architecturally, the original temple is a small sandstone temple with a columned entrance portico leading inward to a sanctuary of three chapels. One of the surviving columns bears the name of the patron Pharaoh Amenemhat III, the other that of Amenemhat IV. The temple is quite compact in size, but archeologists noted its importance due to the fact it shows an early axial sanctuary arrangement later familiar from larger Egyptian temples, making it a prototype for newer designs that would become more popular during the later periods of the New Kingdom. ²⁷
Medinet Madi temple
The royal nature is strongly emphasized in its internal design, alongside elements of fate, with the first chapel being dedicated to the cobra goddess. A foundation scene with the Pharaoh and Seshat is shown on the internal reliefs to the south,²⁸ while on the main reliefs the older Pharaoh stands before Renenutet, with his daughter Neferuptah also depicted in the scene as one of her maidens. The second chapel is dedicated to Renenutet and Sobek., while the third is exclusively dedicated to just her in accordance with the first's general character. In the Ptolemaic period, the temple was significantly expanded and given stylistic embellishments like a kiosk of eight columns. She has also been associated in name with Mefket (Tarrana, known to the Greeks as Terenouthis).²⁹
THERMOUTHIS
In Hellenistic Egypt, a distinct style of representing Renenutet emerged through the interpretatio graeca known as Thermouthis. Often this symbolism pertained to her having the already-Egyptian standard of a snake-like body and a human head, similar to the distinct symbolism of Abraxas and Chnoumis, but she could also be represented in the specifically Greek-style of portraying snakes. The cult of Thermouthis spread dramatically during Roman times and received much attention outside of Egyptian borders,³⁰ while this form of her was more directly equated with fate and with magic practice. She was often associated with the male Agathodaimon, as shown in an ornate bracelet from that age.³¹ In her relation to Isis, she was conflated with Agatho Tyche, or good fortune. Thermouthis provided good speech and the power to alter fate through the carefully-chosen word. Her words also reflected the ability to discern and tell the future, all kinds of premonitions and other matters.
At Dja (Narmut as it was called then, or Narmouthis in Greek), her temple as Isis-Thermouthis displayed larger levels of grandeur and attention during the Ptolemaic period where a second temple was built. ²⁵ Architecturally, it appears to have been smaller and plainer than the old Middle Kingdom sanctuary, but it follows a recognizably Egyptian plan. The building has a broad forecourt, then a hall or hypostyle hall, and at the rear three chapels; the central chapel has a niche at the back. ²⁵ The entrance faced north. Unfortunately, the decoration was never fully completed, and what survives includes unfinished relief outlines and a few carved figures near the façade and inner rooms. Its most famous relevance, however, are the inscriptions of Isidorus, a resident priest there.³² ³³
SYMBOLISM
Her name means both "to nurse" and "riches" in the Egyptian language³⁴, which makes many of the Old Kingdom passages above ambiguous. The priest of Isis from the temple of Isis-Thermouthis at Narmouthis gives a different etymology, claiming in the hymns accredited to him that her name actually means "the unique one".³²
Snake imagery was obviously persistent in the iconography of the goddess who was represented in particular as a cobra, because she represents the feminine side of the Kundalini force in its integrated, benevolent and sustaining aspect, while her sacred imagery has much to do with the wisdom of what follows when it hits the third eye proper and how the ascended indvidual is the field of grain for any true civilization. The serpent in Egyptian belief guarded the grain stores from pests and other scourges of human endeavors, central to her identity as a goddess who established civilisation. The vicious side of the cobra with its indicated in its ability to transform the tranquil Hathor into the enraged goddess Sekhmet, and the venom of the animal was also a key part of her symbolism, as she had the ability to ruin sustenance and create starvation too.
She could be represented as human with a serpent head or as a recoiling serpent on a plinth. However, Renenutet could also be represented in a fully humanoid form, much like her adjacent goddesses. In some contexts, Wadjet and Nekhbet are shown as supplicants to her, and like those Two Ladies, she is represented with the solar horn disk of Hathor and Isis. Much like Wadjet, she is often shown adjacent to Sekhmet, and the fact her temple contains a depiction of fate, Seshat, is not surprising. Most of all, she as associated in Late Egyptian contexts with the deity of fate, Shai. The historian Joyce Tyldesley summarizes the pairing very clearly where she says that Shai determined a person’s lifespan, while Renenutet determined material wealth.³⁵ She specifically connects this to the Late Period Papyrus Insinger tradition. They function as a conceptual pair governing the shape of a human life. The serpent goddess Meretseger was sometimes associated with her.¹⁹
As she is a syncretized form of Wadjet and Nekhbet who ruled over the two distinct regions of Kemet, she could be represented wearing the dual crown.
As Thermouthis, she is often represented with the sun disk,³⁶ a type of crown associated with Isis. The torch is her most important distinctive symbol, which archeologists have noted. It represents enlightenment in darkness and the cultivation of fire put to good use, the prerequisite of any civilization, but also relates to the serpent and powers of the third eye being sparked. Ears of corn³⁷ and and stalks could be represented in her imagery also, which in Egyptian contexts tends to be represented as Renenutet overseeing agrarian scenes of people gathering the yields of the field. The torch and corn symbolism also shows her association with Demeter and Persephone as a goddess of sustenance and intercession for the dead.
The Major Arcana card of the snake goddess is the Sun, the card of abundance, plenty and with symbolism usually relating to children and nourishment. The child rejoices under the Sun riding a white horse, showing some level of mastery at an early age over his mind. The abundance of the sunflowers sat atop a wall shows the prerogatives of civilization in creating beauty and bountiful rewards for its adherents. The red flag is somewhat snake-like as it coils around the attached spear. The card shows many elements of happiness for the querent, including fertility and the ability to sustain oneself with great rewards. Bune's traditional appearance of being glamorous also shows here.
On a darker note, her Minor Arcana card is the reversed Five of Wands, showing cooperation and the necessity of moving on from conflict. Cooperation is often needed for the querent, or some kind of strategy the snake would be proud of, of course. This can also relate to the advice of the afflicted after disappearing from something violent, something Renenutet on behalf of the dead is said to supervise as the one who allows the dead to speak from the Hall of Judgement. On the other hand, this can also indicate an escalation of aggression and to be wary and careful.
GOETIC SYMBOLISM
The Old Testament in its Greek translation from Hebrew rendered the Pharaoh's daughter as Thermouthis,³⁸ which is an example of confusingly co-opting a divine force for Yehuboric purposes and confusion on the part of this people during the time period. Josephus claims the maiden named Moses his sacred name, which is an obvious occult allusion to the ren. As she is his wetnurse, she is also his provider, and this is linked to the Pharaoh's daughter traditionally being the supplicant of the goddess. The reason for this is the same as above: Moses is placed under the protection of the divine aegis of the snake, which also becomes his symbol.
In the Goetia, she was called Bune or Bim which is related to one of her titles, Buto, but hints too at the name Nekhbet. The demon has three heads as a dragon (serpent), with the third being like a man, a reference to both Thermouthis and the Two Ladies. Bune is said to speak with a divine voice, bestow eloquence and to inspire truth. He is also said to make many devils assemble at graves and to greatly enrich men under his possession. Another entity, Myeob (Queen of the Fairies, simply Bim reversed), is explicitly described in the earlier Liber Officium Spiritum³⁹ a fairy queen who assists her husband Oberon.
Pseudomonarchia daemonum, Johann Weyer⁴⁰
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson
2. Renenutet: worship and popular piety at Thebes in the New Kingdom, Paolo Marini Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology
3. Utterance 256, Pyramid Texts
4. Utterance 622, Pyramid Texts
5. Utterance 73, Pyramid Texts
6. Coffin Texts
7. EA10470,3, Papyrus of Ani, British Museum
8. Book of the Dead
9. The Role of Renenutet in New Kingdom Temples: A Reassessment of Archaeological Evidence for a Cult of this Divinity in Archaeological Compounds, Julie Masqueller-Loorius, Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology
10. Remarks on the Four Renenutets in the Temples of Edfu and Dendara, Frédéric Mougenot
11. Playing with Fire: Initial Observations on the Religious Uses of Clay Cobras from Amarna, Kasia Szpapowska
12. Hymn to Renenutet
13. Sobek of Shedet: The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period, Marco Zecchi
14. Handbook of Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch
15. Grape Archaeology and Ancient DNA Sequencing, Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané, the Grape Genome
16. stela, EA1055, the British Museum
17. Древнеегипетский праздник Рененутет (The Ancient Egyptian feast of Renenutet), Alexandra Mironova
18. Calendars and Festivals of Ancient Egypt, Alexandra Mironova
19. DO NOT CELEBRATE YOUR FEAST WITHOUT YOUR NEIGHBOURS, A Study of References to Feasts and Festivals in Non-Literary Documents from Ramesside Period Deir el-Medina, Heidi Jauhiainen
20. Ostracon of Deir-el-Medina 1265
21. CHILD DEITIES/اآللھة على ھيئة الطفل, Dagmar Budd, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
22. EA597 Naos
23. Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Ägypten, Konstanz Carsen Peust
24. Gottesdiener und Kamelzüchter: Das Alltags- und Sozialleben der Sobek-Priester im kaiserzeitlichen Fayum, Benjamin Sippel
25. Medinet Madi, Madain Project
26. Egypt finds clue to ancient temple's secret, Middle East Times (citing Zahi Hawass)
27. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson
28. I templi di Medinet Madi nel Fayum, Giammarusti Breschiani
29. Kom Abu Bello, Zahi Hawass, Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, Kathryn A. Bard (eds.)
30. Isis Thermouthis in the Roman World: some Data from the Italian Peninsula, Vito Mazzuca, Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology
31. Bracelet with Agathodaimon, Isis-Tyche, Aphrodite, and Thermouthis, the Met, Rogers Fund
32. Greek and Egyptian Hymns to Isis, attalus.org
33. Graeco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BC–AD 300
34. The Goddess Thermuthis, Moses, and Artapanus, Amorai-Stark Shua and David Flusser
35 The Handbook of Egyptian Mythology, Joyce Tyldesley
36. On the Endurance of Indigenous Religious Culture in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt: Evidence of Material Culture, Tiffany Chezum
37. RPC III, 6184, Roman Coinage Online
38. Antiquities of the Hebrews, Josephus
39. Liber Officium Spiritum
40. Pseudomonarchia daemonum, Johann Weyer
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Carnifex Law
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https://ancient-forums.com/threads/...ulous-Zevism-partner.67872/page-2#post-324226
I remember saying many years ago the Book of Oberon entities were all real and the usual pack started attacking me as usual. At least now this type of behaviour will cease forever as there is no turning back when the Priesthood enforces this type of rigorous study. There are some things I admit Im having a hard time process since I still believe the Gods are actually white for the most part. But I really enjoy the reinforced rigour in occult study. I invite everyone to study the offices of the Daemons and spirits shown in the book of oberon which appear and are listed around page 200. Finally the TOZ immerses in actual occult and mystic study without the hangups of the usual narrative.
Carnifex Law
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Yeah Im reading the thread that is the link i gave above again and Im actually disgusted with the treatment I was given in those years. Its the same bs members with the all so mighty certainties always quick to engage in trying to discredit and deny knowledge that genuine members are trying to provide enthusiastically because we are followers of the Gods which are mighty avatars of life. Its incredible it was the same bs when I shared enthusiastically that I woke up the kundalini in 2016 which people did not believe because they expect this to be a cosmic event that creates a ripple through space time continuum. Its not its just an incredibly burning energy that makes you suffer and slowly your body adapts by burning and tuning the back centers along the spine. Interesting I came across an image the other day that had a message "you grew into the sentinel that has been dreamed" and I got emotional because the one place that I thought was the most embracing for sharing spiritual knowledge I always got nothing but hostility apart from the priesthood which has always been exemplary and welcoming and are actually flexible in their studies and HP Metathron sent me a message last year on Hall of Osiris encouraging me regarding my experiences with the burning serpent. Bless them and their reforms and may they continue their holy mission with religious fervor.
Carnifex Law
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In the kundalini awakening thread I was literally ganged up by the tribe, If it wasnt for HPS Lydia stepping in my account would for sure be ostracised by the gang. At least learn something from the latest updates and dont be so quick in the future to disprove anything without processing information and making an occult approach with an actual open eye.
Pan_Shaman
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Astounding work NP Karnonnos! Always delighted to see progress and search for a deeper meaning in ToZ
Kouros Aionios
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Fantastic article once again, N. Priest Karnonnos. I always look forward to reading your works on our Gods.
Novice Priest Karnonnos
Temple of Zeus Guardian
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Aristaios, also known as Agreos and Nomios, is a divine hero associated with many kinds of agricultural and civilization-making pursuits. He was known to be the primordial beekeeper who perfected all forms of honey cultivation and the design of the apiary, ¹ the cheesemaker par excellence,² the teacher of all shepherds, a master of hounds and the hunt, the innovator of many basic technologies for humanity to master the countryside, olive-refining and, alongside his adopted son Dionysus, one of the major innovators of wines. A more occult aspect dealt with his control of the winds, augury and pleasing the energies of the Dog Star, Sirius. The scope of his cult was particularly famed in Thessaly³ and in the Greek islands. Myths of the Greeks and Romans stated that Aristaios achieved a mystical apotheosis⁴ and became a divine force as a true son of Apollo. The heroic rural deity was given a poignant place in the beating heart of Antiquity as one of the progenitors of civilization.
He emerges in myth from the corpus of Hesiod in particular. ⁵ In his fragmentary catalog of women, he gives Aristaios the title of being son of Apollo Nomios and Cyrene. The centaur Kheiron⁴ prophesizes to Cyrene, a native of Thessaly (Haimonia), that she will have a son, after which a great city will be founded in her name. It is elaborated elsewhere that Aristaios was the son of this fierce and beautiful shepherdess, who was in Nonnus’ account was encountered by Apollo after killing a lion, then carried off to Libya in a ‘robbers’ carriage’. Apollonius Rhodius⁶ that she was tending her sheep and guarding her flock, carried off to the lands of the Nymphai in Libya by the infatuated solar god. The mythological accounts claim that Aristaios was either reared by the Nymphs through Apollo’s intervention at the springs of knowledge or left in Kheiron’s cave⁶ for the centaur to educate as a foundling. In Pindar’s distinctive account, Hermes took him from his mother’s beast to be raised by the Horae and Gaia herself. ⁴ In any case, while he was employed as a youthful shepherd, each parental figure taught him every single rustic art in existence to the point of excellence.
Aristaios, Met kothon
At adulthood, Agreos then miraculously have spread his arts to all of the countryside, enriching it from a basic, harsh and precarious status; he taught every art of shepherding to the owners of sheep and goats,⁷ taught cattle herders how to feed their cows, ¹ creating the preconditions for proper farming, and instructed hunters in how to control their hounds. The great bucolic hero is also credited for inventing civilized staples that underpinned the conditions for basic produce and exchange in the marketplace: commodities like milk, grapes, hides and other items. ⁸ Oppian claimed he was the first inadvertent cheesemaker who combined curdled milk with rennet, and the first to understand the finicky art of olive pressing. His cult became greatly integrated with the rural life of the region of Boeotia, something that Virgil quotes as a fact handed down from Hesiod, because that was the area he tended to first, but he was spoken of as a savior by several bucolic regions outside that area with the passing of time. ⁹
Cynenegtica, Oppian²
In some cases, Aristaios is the immediate foster father of Dionysus with his daughter Macris. ² This episode is also associated with an allegorical competition between Dionysus, who invented wine, and Aristaios, who invented honey. While Zeus recognizes the power of honey and Apollo votes steadfastly for his son’s invention, it nauseates the Gods to consume too much, while wine is always welcomed, leading Dionysus to win the contest. Later, he is considered part of the latter’s retinue to capture India with a host of Achaean troops and sheepdogs, although he does so only begrudgingly due to losing; ¹ he applies salvos on the field and uses the healing arts of his solar father to save the combatants and tends to their wounds patiently. It is said he is saved from drowning in the river Hydaspes from Apollo’s intervention in swan form. Ultimately, he becomes the husband of Autonoe, the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes,¹⁰ the majority of the myths in a very prosperous wedding prompted by the king’s awareness of his deeds.
Aristaios and Autonoe have a male child, Aktaion. His ambitious huntsman son is sometimes raised by Kheiron, and in the Dionysiaca, he exhorts Aktaion to participate in Olympic-style games while campaigning in India, showing his extreme talent as a horseman. However, because of his ambitions and vaunted talents, it is implied the son of Aristaios becomes seized by hubris or a general lack of caution. Upon peeking at the maiden goddess Artemis bathing nude and seized with lust to desire a goddess, he is turned into a stag and torn apart by his own coursing hounds. ¹¹ ¹² The parents attempt to look for their son, but this is tragically to no avail and in the end, the ill-starred Aktaion is only able to communicate with his father in an ethereal form of a stag through dreams, where he tells Aristaios to consult his own father at the Oracle of Delphi. Diodorus⁷ hints that his son was acting under the malefic influence of the beautiful star Sirius; Apollo informs Aristaios that the population of Keos is dying from a malignant famine or pestilence through the punishment of that star’s energy on high, requiring his help. However, the Dionysiaca gives a completely distinct chronology to this story¹: at his wedding to Autonoe, Aristaios is already called the Kaion and is said to have calmed the star before marrying his bride or siring children, after which the tragedy of Aktaion occurs, a chronology Pausanias seems to align with as it is said his son’s death prompts him to leave the country. The Argonautica simply affirms that he left Thessaly and went to Keos by himself, ⁶ while the Aetia fragment of Callimachus explains the unsuccessful attempts of Zeus Aristaios Ikmaios to please the star. ¹³
Aristaios conscripts the sons of Lykaon for the mission to relieve Keos. When Aristaios sails there, much is made of his successful precipitation of Zeus, which he does through building a majestic public altar⁶ or, alternatively, conducting secretive rituals in the hills. His acts cause the primordial deity to send the holy Etesian winds for forty days that nourish the fields and cause them to grow bountifully or rid the land of its plague, making it possible to stop the suffering of the Keians at the glare of the ill-fortuned Dog Star. Through his astrological compendium, Hyginus claims that the land was cursed by Icarus of Attika’s dog, Maira, as her owner had been murdered by Keian shepherds. ¹⁴ After the hanging of his daughter Erigone when she found the horrifying truth, the despairing dog took her own life and subjected the populace to a scorching, neverending heat when ascending as a star, also eponymously named Maira, Procyon or Sirios by the Greeks. The death of Icarus is only expiated through sacrifice through Apollo’s command, a command his dutiful son follows. ¹⁴ For saving Keos, Aristaios is commemorated as Kaion and beloved on the island forever, known as the island’s savior and the protector of the people, the one who came to redeem the shepherds.
According to Virgil’s Georgics, after Aristaios unintentionally caused the death of Eurydice by pursuing her lustfully and causing her to be bitten by a venomous snake,³ his bees became diseased and died, which is also a common theme in other writings. In some cases, this is the pretext for his future tragedies. He was told to appease her spirit in accordance with the Nymphs’ angered will by sacrificing a bull or twelve animals in a specific manner. After doing so, new swarms of bees emerged from the carcasses—a miracle known as bugonia, making him the master of beekeeping. This is another occult allegory related to bovine and apiac symbolism. After all of these events, it was said Aristaios despaired of Greece, left his descendants on Keos, and moved to the island of Sardinia with a new retinue. He was honored greatly on Sicily, according to Diodorus:
Library of History, Diodorus Siculus⁷
Aristaios was worshiped widely in both Boeotia and Thessaly, but the classical sources are vague in relation to what this means, perhaps showing his status as an abstract god of the countryside. His sole built sanctuary seemed to exist at Olbia in modern day France, where the authors of a CNRS project show that the ruins of the Olbia sanctuaries yielded “several hundred Greek inscriptions, all dedicated to the Greek god Aristaaios,” and OpenEdition summarizes the site as having produced more than 600 vessels, about 350 of them inscribed in Greek with a dedication to the hero.¹⁵ ¹⁶ The Euboean tradition links Aristaios and his daughter Macris with the aforementioned nursing of Dionysus on the island, ² and so it is explicitly mentioned that Dionysus is raised in a sacred cave on the island connected with this mythology. The clearest ancient dramatic portrayal associating Aristaeus with prophecy itself is the Argonautica. After describing Aristaeus as the son of Apollo and Cyrene, Apollonius Rhodius says that the Muses taught him the arts of healing and of prophecy:
Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius⁶
SYMBOLISM
Antinous as Aristaios (?)
Again to his status as a rustic, rural nature God, the only possible extant classical sculpture of Aristaeus shows the divine youth Antinous in agrarian attire currently housed at the Louvre,¹⁷ making it a tribute, rather than a strictly direct representation of this god. Caution must be used in interpreting it as a full-on visual symbol, especially because older sources claimed this statue is of Vertumnus, so the identification is not fully beyond dispute. He wears a rustic sun-hat which is identified by some as a petasos, a short tunic called an exomis, a belt named a ceinture, while holding a hoe. The most authentic imagery is of a kothon where a winged youth is identified as Aristaeus.¹⁸ Another representation is in a variety of coins from Keos presumably with his head on one side, with a reclining dog either representing Sirius or Maira herself surrounded by shining rays on the obverse. ¹⁹ Out of any physical description, a fragment of an Egyptian papyrus from Oxyrynchus, ²⁰ preserving Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women, names Aristaeus as being adorned with beautiful hair:
P. Oxy. 2489²
Much of Aristaeus’ symbolism is linked to blocking the effects of the star Sirius in its heliacal rising, a star named as beautiful yet malignant in many Greek texts, such as the Iliad, where Achilles himself is compared to its portentous and dangerous nature. ²¹ The ancients associated this star most of all with the appearance of disease. The star’s appearance at dawn signals the high point of summer and the danger of the season when crops are subjected to scorching heat, the body dries out, fevers run amok and dehabilitation is at its peak. Alleviating the condition of man that was so precarious during the ancient summer months is one underlooked aspect of his mythological inventions.
The bee is an important symbol of his for many reasons, some of which are essentially obvious. A bee exists in a hive which serve as secure, temperature-controlled homes for storing honey, the pollen and raising young. They follow strict hierarchies and have distinct phenotypes, such as, for example, the distinction between a queen and a worker. These animals are adaptable and may build their hives upon hollowed trees, in between walls, roofs or even suspended on branches. Bees forage tirelessly and attack as a unit; these are all metaphors for the necessary birth pains and teething stages of any civilization. The greatest mystery of all, of course, is how the bee maintains flight with its fragile and small wings – they do so through rapid movements and creating airy pockets based on judging airflow. The prophetic nature of the hero Aristaios is built into his therian symbol.
The other mystery of the hexagonal shape of honeycombs has perplexed mathematicians for millennia, a problem called the Honeycomb Conjecture. In antiquity, the hexagonal shape was associated with structure, making efficiency out of the natural order. Marcus Terentius Varro looked at his own bees and proposed that the hexagonal structures that honeybees build must be more compact than any other shape. ²² Later research simply names it as the most efficient shape for a bee that leads to the least amount of energy expended, ²³ linking it symbolically with the various inventions Aristaios gave humanity. The abstract cube shape of the hexagon was also associated with the earth itself, as Plato’s dialogue of the Timaeus elaborated on. ²⁴
All animals are under Aristaios’ counsel, the communicator with beasts par excellence. Again, this is also highly symbolic of being able to cultivate wild and uncontrolled energy to the benefit of the initiate to be able to be prescient. It serves one to remember that most of the other Greek heroes need to communicate with animals in order to progress in any way – Herakles with the Stymphalian birds and human-eating horses of Diomedes, Valarefon and Perseus with the Pegasus, Oedipus with the sphinx, among others. The only one superseding his authority in the animal world is the great Olympian huntress, Artemis, whose nude form being witnessed leads to the grisly end of his son.
A major modern statue of Aristaeus is Aristée, dieu des jardins, by François Joseph Bosio, exhibited at the Salon of 1817 in the Kingdom of France.
His major Arcana card is Strength, showing a laurel-wearing woman in flowery robes holding a lion by its jaws amidst a fair, empty rural landscape and a mountain to the left. This card shows the necessity of keeping one’s cool under deep pressure. Inner strength is needed, just as Aristaios put away his mourning and cares for his beloved son to travel to Keos to save the people who needed him. The jaws of the fierce and terrible lion being held open by a pair of hands may be showing the need of the maiden to reveal its secrets in legible language, something humanity may actually need to know. Metaphorically, the card deals with taming what is animal, tumultuous and dangerous inside of us, learning to control desires through the human, civilized mind, another reason why the rustic hero of the Greeks stands at the threshold between brutality and polity.
The Ten of Wands is deeply symbolic of Aristaios in many ways. The figure is totally clad in orange and in gold in daylight. First, he gathers the bundle or fasces of wands in his arms while struggling, unable to see. The card indicates immense stress, the completion of a great exhausting endeavor that one can see no end to and almost as if one is in the dark in the midst of sheer daylight. However, the manor house in the distance is still within sight beyond the bundle of wands, which leads to the most optimistic rendering of the card for a querent – that the end of any massive labor is within reach. This card can also be a desperate call to get back to basics, to look out for deception, including self-deception of working too hard. Sitting and smelling the roses can be called for with the Ten of Wands, even in obverse.
GOETIC CONTEXT
In the Goetia, he was rendered as the entity Caim, Caym or Cameo, related to his epithet of Kaion. The epithet Cameo is related to the function of a Magical Square, while he was represented as taking the shape of a bird, and is said to understand all animals and knows all things to come.
Pseudomonarchia daemonum, Johann Weyer
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Dionysiaca, Nonnus
2. Cynegetica, Oppian
3. Georgics, Virgil
4. Ninth Pythian Ode, Pindar
5. Catalog of Women, Hesiod
6. Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius
7. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History
8. Nonnus of Panopolis in Context II: Poetry, Religion, and Society
9. Aristaeus, Alan H. Griffiths, Oxford Research Encyclopedia
10. The Library, Apollodorus
11. Pausanias, Description of Greece
12. The Bath of Pallas, Callimachus
13. Aetia Fragment, Callimachus
14. Astronomica, Hyginus
15. Sanctuaires d'Olbia, Les sanctuaires urbains et extraurbains d’Olbia de Provence (Hyères, Var), Archéologie et histoire de la Méditerranée et de l’Egypté de la Préhistoire au moyen age
16. Les dédicants gaulois du sanctuaire d’Aristée de la chôra d’Olbia de Provence (Hyères, Var) connaissaient-ils le gallo-grec ?, Michel Bat
17. statue, Louvre
18. Terracotta tripod kothon (vessel for perfumed oil), attributed to the Boethian dancers, The MET
19. coin, 1949,0411.694, British Museum
20. Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2489, fragment of Catalog of Women by Hesiod
21 The Iliad, Homer
22. De re rustica, Varro
23. The Honeycomb Conjecture, Thomas C. Hales
24. Timaeus, Plato
25. Pseudomonarchia daemonum, Johann Weyer
He emerges in myth from the corpus of Hesiod in particular. ⁵ In his fragmentary catalog of women, he gives Aristaios the title of being son of Apollo Nomios and Cyrene. The centaur Kheiron⁴ prophesizes to Cyrene, a native of Thessaly (Haimonia), that she will have a son, after which a great city will be founded in her name. It is elaborated elsewhere that Aristaios was the son of this fierce and beautiful shepherdess, who was in Nonnus’ account was encountered by Apollo after killing a lion, then carried off to Libya in a ‘robbers’ carriage’. Apollonius Rhodius⁶ that she was tending her sheep and guarding her flock, carried off to the lands of the Nymphai in Libya by the infatuated solar god. The mythological accounts claim that Aristaios was either reared by the Nymphs through Apollo’s intervention at the springs of knowledge or left in Kheiron’s cave⁶ for the centaur to educate as a foundling. In Pindar’s distinctive account, Hermes took him from his mother’s beast to be raised by the Horae and Gaia herself. ⁴ In any case, while he was employed as a youthful shepherd, each parental figure taught him every single rustic art in existence to the point of excellence.
Aristaios, Met kothon
At adulthood, Agreos then miraculously have spread his arts to all of the countryside, enriching it from a basic, harsh and precarious status; he taught every art of shepherding to the owners of sheep and goats,⁷ taught cattle herders how to feed their cows, ¹ creating the preconditions for proper farming, and instructed hunters in how to control their hounds. The great bucolic hero is also credited for inventing civilized staples that underpinned the conditions for basic produce and exchange in the marketplace: commodities like milk, grapes, hides and other items. ⁸ Oppian claimed he was the first inadvertent cheesemaker who combined curdled milk with rennet, and the first to understand the finicky art of olive pressing. His cult became greatly integrated with the rural life of the region of Boeotia, something that Virgil quotes as a fact handed down from Hesiod, because that was the area he tended to first, but he was spoken of as a savior by several bucolic regions outside that area with the passing of time. ⁹
Cynenegtica, Oppian²
In some cases, Aristaios is the immediate foster father of Dionysus with his daughter Macris. ² This episode is also associated with an allegorical competition between Dionysus, who invented wine, and Aristaios, who invented honey. While Zeus recognizes the power of honey and Apollo votes steadfastly for his son’s invention, it nauseates the Gods to consume too much, while wine is always welcomed, leading Dionysus to win the contest. Later, he is considered part of the latter’s retinue to capture India with a host of Achaean troops and sheepdogs, although he does so only begrudgingly due to losing; ¹ he applies salvos on the field and uses the healing arts of his solar father to save the combatants and tends to their wounds patiently. It is said he is saved from drowning in the river Hydaspes from Apollo’s intervention in swan form. Ultimately, he becomes the husband of Autonoe, the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes,¹⁰ the majority of the myths in a very prosperous wedding prompted by the king’s awareness of his deeds.
Aristaios and Autonoe have a male child, Aktaion. His ambitious huntsman son is sometimes raised by Kheiron, and in the Dionysiaca, he exhorts Aktaion to participate in Olympic-style games while campaigning in India, showing his extreme talent as a horseman. However, because of his ambitions and vaunted talents, it is implied the son of Aristaios becomes seized by hubris or a general lack of caution. Upon peeking at the maiden goddess Artemis bathing nude and seized with lust to desire a goddess, he is turned into a stag and torn apart by his own coursing hounds. ¹¹ ¹² The parents attempt to look for their son, but this is tragically to no avail and in the end, the ill-starred Aktaion is only able to communicate with his father in an ethereal form of a stag through dreams, where he tells Aristaios to consult his own father at the Oracle of Delphi. Diodorus⁷ hints that his son was acting under the malefic influence of the beautiful star Sirius; Apollo informs Aristaios that the population of Keos is dying from a malignant famine or pestilence through the punishment of that star’s energy on high, requiring his help. However, the Dionysiaca gives a completely distinct chronology to this story¹: at his wedding to Autonoe, Aristaios is already called the Kaion and is said to have calmed the star before marrying his bride or siring children, after which the tragedy of Aktaion occurs, a chronology Pausanias seems to align with as it is said his son’s death prompts him to leave the country. The Argonautica simply affirms that he left Thessaly and went to Keos by himself, ⁶ while the Aetia fragment of Callimachus explains the unsuccessful attempts of Zeus Aristaios Ikmaios to please the star. ¹³
Aristaios conscripts the sons of Lykaon for the mission to relieve Keos. When Aristaios sails there, much is made of his successful precipitation of Zeus, which he does through building a majestic public altar⁶ or, alternatively, conducting secretive rituals in the hills. His acts cause the primordial deity to send the holy Etesian winds for forty days that nourish the fields and cause them to grow bountifully or rid the land of its plague, making it possible to stop the suffering of the Keians at the glare of the ill-fortuned Dog Star. Through his astrological compendium, Hyginus claims that the land was cursed by Icarus of Attika’s dog, Maira, as her owner had been murdered by Keian shepherds. ¹⁴ After the hanging of his daughter Erigone when she found the horrifying truth, the despairing dog took her own life and subjected the populace to a scorching, neverending heat when ascending as a star, also eponymously named Maira, Procyon or Sirios by the Greeks. The death of Icarus is only expiated through sacrifice through Apollo’s command, a command his dutiful son follows. ¹⁴ For saving Keos, Aristaios is commemorated as Kaion and beloved on the island forever, known as the island’s savior and the protector of the people, the one who came to redeem the shepherds.
According to Virgil’s Georgics, after Aristaios unintentionally caused the death of Eurydice by pursuing her lustfully and causing her to be bitten by a venomous snake,³ his bees became diseased and died, which is also a common theme in other writings. In some cases, this is the pretext for his future tragedies. He was told to appease her spirit in accordance with the Nymphs’ angered will by sacrificing a bull or twelve animals in a specific manner. After doing so, new swarms of bees emerged from the carcasses—a miracle known as bugonia, making him the master of beekeeping. This is another occult allegory related to bovine and apiac symbolism. After all of these events, it was said Aristaios despaired of Greece, left his descendants on Keos, and moved to the island of Sardinia with a new retinue. He was honored greatly on Sicily, according to Diodorus:
Library of History, Diodorus Siculus⁷
Aristaios was worshiped widely in both Boeotia and Thessaly, but the classical sources are vague in relation to what this means, perhaps showing his status as an abstract god of the countryside. His sole built sanctuary seemed to exist at Olbia in modern day France, where the authors of a CNRS project show that the ruins of the Olbia sanctuaries yielded “several hundred Greek inscriptions, all dedicated to the Greek god Aristaaios,” and OpenEdition summarizes the site as having produced more than 600 vessels, about 350 of them inscribed in Greek with a dedication to the hero.¹⁵ ¹⁶ The Euboean tradition links Aristaios and his daughter Macris with the aforementioned nursing of Dionysus on the island, ² and so it is explicitly mentioned that Dionysus is raised in a sacred cave on the island connected with this mythology. The clearest ancient dramatic portrayal associating Aristaeus with prophecy itself is the Argonautica. After describing Aristaeus as the son of Apollo and Cyrene, Apollonius Rhodius says that the Muses taught him the arts of healing and of prophecy:
Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius⁶
SYMBOLISM
Antinous as Aristaios (?)
Again to his status as a rustic, rural nature God, the only possible extant classical sculpture of Aristaeus shows the divine youth Antinous in agrarian attire currently housed at the Louvre,¹⁷ making it a tribute, rather than a strictly direct representation of this god. Caution must be used in interpreting it as a full-on visual symbol, especially because older sources claimed this statue is of Vertumnus, so the identification is not fully beyond dispute. He wears a rustic sun-hat which is identified by some as a petasos, a short tunic called an exomis, a belt named a ceinture, while holding a hoe. The most authentic imagery is of a kothon where a winged youth is identified as Aristaeus.¹⁸ Another representation is in a variety of coins from Keos presumably with his head on one side, with a reclining dog either representing Sirius or Maira herself surrounded by shining rays on the obverse. ¹⁹ Out of any physical description, a fragment of an Egyptian papyrus from Oxyrynchus, ²⁰ preserving Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women, names Aristaeus as being adorned with beautiful hair:
P. Oxy. 2489²
Much of Aristaeus’ symbolism is linked to blocking the effects of the star Sirius in its heliacal rising, a star named as beautiful yet malignant in many Greek texts, such as the Iliad, where Achilles himself is compared to its portentous and dangerous nature. ²¹ The ancients associated this star most of all with the appearance of disease. The star’s appearance at dawn signals the high point of summer and the danger of the season when crops are subjected to scorching heat, the body dries out, fevers run amok and dehabilitation is at its peak. Alleviating the condition of man that was so precarious during the ancient summer months is one underlooked aspect of his mythological inventions.
The bee is an important symbol of his for many reasons, some of which are essentially obvious. A bee exists in a hive which serve as secure, temperature-controlled homes for storing honey, the pollen and raising young. They follow strict hierarchies and have distinct phenotypes, such as, for example, the distinction between a queen and a worker. These animals are adaptable and may build their hives upon hollowed trees, in between walls, roofs or even suspended on branches. Bees forage tirelessly and attack as a unit; these are all metaphors for the necessary birth pains and teething stages of any civilization. The greatest mystery of all, of course, is how the bee maintains flight with its fragile and small wings – they do so through rapid movements and creating airy pockets based on judging airflow. The prophetic nature of the hero Aristaios is built into his therian symbol.
The other mystery of the hexagonal shape of honeycombs has perplexed mathematicians for millennia, a problem called the Honeycomb Conjecture. In antiquity, the hexagonal shape was associated with structure, making efficiency out of the natural order. Marcus Terentius Varro looked at his own bees and proposed that the hexagonal structures that honeybees build must be more compact than any other shape. ²² Later research simply names it as the most efficient shape for a bee that leads to the least amount of energy expended, ²³ linking it symbolically with the various inventions Aristaios gave humanity. The abstract cube shape of the hexagon was also associated with the earth itself, as Plato’s dialogue of the Timaeus elaborated on. ²⁴
All animals are under Aristaios’ counsel, the communicator with beasts par excellence. Again, this is also highly symbolic of being able to cultivate wild and uncontrolled energy to the benefit of the initiate to be able to be prescient. It serves one to remember that most of the other Greek heroes need to communicate with animals in order to progress in any way – Herakles with the Stymphalian birds and human-eating horses of Diomedes, Valarefon and Perseus with the Pegasus, Oedipus with the sphinx, among others. The only one superseding his authority in the animal world is the great Olympian huntress, Artemis, whose nude form being witnessed leads to the grisly end of his son.
A major modern statue of Aristaeus is Aristée, dieu des jardins, by François Joseph Bosio, exhibited at the Salon of 1817 in the Kingdom of France.
His major Arcana card is Strength, showing a laurel-wearing woman in flowery robes holding a lion by its jaws amidst a fair, empty rural landscape and a mountain to the left. This card shows the necessity of keeping one’s cool under deep pressure. Inner strength is needed, just as Aristaios put away his mourning and cares for his beloved son to travel to Keos to save the people who needed him. The jaws of the fierce and terrible lion being held open by a pair of hands may be showing the need of the maiden to reveal its secrets in legible language, something humanity may actually need to know. Metaphorically, the card deals with taming what is animal, tumultuous and dangerous inside of us, learning to control desires through the human, civilized mind, another reason why the rustic hero of the Greeks stands at the threshold between brutality and polity.
The Ten of Wands is deeply symbolic of Aristaios in many ways. The figure is totally clad in orange and in gold in daylight. First, he gathers the bundle or fasces of wands in his arms while struggling, unable to see. The card indicates immense stress, the completion of a great exhausting endeavor that one can see no end to and almost as if one is in the dark in the midst of sheer daylight. However, the manor house in the distance is still within sight beyond the bundle of wands, which leads to the most optimistic rendering of the card for a querent – that the end of any massive labor is within reach. This card can also be a desperate call to get back to basics, to look out for deception, including self-deception of working too hard. Sitting and smelling the roses can be called for with the Ten of Wands, even in obverse.
GOETIC CONTEXT
In the Goetia, he was rendered as the entity Caim, Caym or Cameo, related to his epithet of Kaion. The epithet Cameo is related to the function of a Magical Square, while he was represented as taking the shape of a bird, and is said to understand all animals and knows all things to come.
Pseudomonarchia daemonum, Johann Weyer
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Dionysiaca, Nonnus
2. Cynegetica, Oppian
3. Georgics, Virgil
4. Ninth Pythian Ode, Pindar
5. Catalog of Women, Hesiod
6. Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius
7. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History
8. Nonnus of Panopolis in Context II: Poetry, Religion, and Society
9. Aristaeus, Alan H. Griffiths, Oxford Research Encyclopedia
10. The Library, Apollodorus
11. Pausanias, Description of Greece
12. The Bath of Pallas, Callimachus
13. Aetia Fragment, Callimachus
14. Astronomica, Hyginus
15. Sanctuaires d'Olbia, Les sanctuaires urbains et extraurbains d’Olbia de Provence (Hyères, Var), Archéologie et histoire de la Méditerranée et de l’Egypté de la Préhistoire au moyen age
16. Les dédicants gaulois du sanctuaire d’Aristée de la chôra d’Olbia de Provence (Hyères, Var) connaissaient-ils le gallo-grec ?, Michel Bat
17. statue, Louvre
18. Terracotta tripod kothon (vessel for perfumed oil), attributed to the Boethian dancers, The MET
19. coin, 1949,0411.694, British Museum
20. Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2489, fragment of Catalog of Women by Hesiod
21 The Iliad, Homer
22. De re rustica, Varro
23. The Honeycomb Conjecture, Thomas C. Hales
24. Timaeus, Plato
25. Pseudomonarchia daemonum, Johann Weyer
Pan_Shaman
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Thank you Np!
Arcadia [NG]
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Thank you NP Karnonnos, amazing article as always. To those who are interested in further reading on Aristaios, I have discovered several interesting things in my own research I felt were worth sharing before any additions are made to a finalized article.
Sacred Plant - Centaurea:
The genus Centaurea belongs to the Asteraceae (daisy) family and encompasses hundreds of species, many known by common names like cornflower, knapweed, starthistle, and bachelor's button. These hardy annuals, biennials, and perennials are native primarily to Europe and Western Asia but have spread globally, often as vibrant wildflowers in meadows or notorious invasive weeds in rangelands. [1]
The very name Centaurea derives from Greek mythology and the Centaur God Chiron (covered in his own article). According to etymological tradition, Chiron discovered the medicinal properties of certain plants, which were eventually called "centaury" (a name sometimes applied to the related genus Centaurium but popularly linked to Centaurea). From Chiron, Aristaeus learned the arts of prophecy, healing and most importantly to the matter at hand, herbal medicine. [2]
As there are over 700 species of Centaurea, the focus here will primarily be upon Centaurea cyanus, also known as the cornflower, which holds the most cultural relevancy. This particular species has been used in medicine since the ancient times. The Cornflower contains flavonoids, anthocyanins (the blue pigment), and tannins, which give it a variety of anti-inflammatory effects, mild astringent properties, antioxidant activity, and gentle diuretic action. [3]
The pollen of Centaurea cyanus attracts a wide range of insects, especially those belonging to the Hymenoptera (primarily bees and wasps) and Diptera orders. Because the plant is self-incompatible, it relies on these external pollinators for reproduction. Its nectar is notably rich in sugar, containing around 34%, and each flower can produce up to 0.2 mg of sugar per day. This high nectar yield makes the plant particularly valued by, quite fittingly, beekeepers. [4] Further, Centaurea cyanus has a particularly interesting use as a companion plant, and thus as an alternative to pesticides, as it naturally attracts predatory parasitoids of the cabbage moth. [5]
It should be noted that the cornflower appears with notable frequency in Egyptian arts, craft and even religion, given their usage in funeral wreaths and garlands for royalty, including Tutankhamun. This was most likely due to its annually flowering nature being symbolic of the life-death-rebirth cycle.
The flower maintained an interesting trend in more modern courtship traditions, where single men would wear the flower in their jacket buttonholes to denote they were looking for love (hence the flower's colloquial name of Bachelor's Button).
Bees & Yehuboric Context
Much like Centaurea cyanus, bees themselves undergo a process of death and rebirth--colonies dying in the winter and being "reborn" in spring. In a sense, the industrious nature of the bee as described is metaphorical of the rustic arts presided over by Aristaios, but the symbology does not end at the microcosm of the hive. In his appearance as described by both HPS Pythia and within his ritual itself, it's noted that Aristaios leaves golden trails of light on the air as he flies. The imagery here is immediately reminiscent of a bee covered in pollen, leaving it behind as it flies, propagating life.
Prophecy in Ancient Greece is also often associated with bees. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes specifically acknowledges that Apollo's gift of prophecy first came to him from three bee-maidens (sometimes identified with the Thriae Naiads of the sacred spring Corycian Cave of Mount Parnassus in Phocis. This association was strong enough that the Oracle of Delphi is referred to as "the Delphian bee" by Pindar. [6]
The exact reason why the Greeks held this allegory is uncertain in modern academia, though, what is most likely the case is the fact that bees freely between realms (the air, the flowers, and hidden hives), making them and their behavior ideal representatives of messengers from the supernal realms.
Further, honey itself has strong associations with ambrosia, the "nectar of the Gods" often considered in myth to confer immortality through its ability to prevent decay (fittingly, honey was used as one of the many ingredients in the Egyptian embalming process). [7]
Like almost every other God, Aristaios too, had his aspects and imagery pilfered by a Saint into the Christian religion, in the form of Saint Ambrose--a particularly insulting fact, given Ambrose was perhaps the most major opponent of the efforts of Zevist Personality Quintus Aurelius Symmachus.
If the fact his name was "Ambrose" wasn't telling enough, Ambrose is the Christian patron saint of beekeepers (and often candlemakers, due to beeswax), honeybread baking, domestic animals and stonemasonry.
Ambrose's relation to bees stems from a well-known hagiographic legend: as an infant in his cradle, a swarm of bees landed on his face and mouth without stinging him, leaving drops of honey. This was interpreted as a divine omen foretelling his future eloquence--"honey-tongued" speech in preaching Christianity. [8]
Ingwaz
Ing, or Ingwaz, is one of the many runes utilized during his ritual, and its place is very telling, given its connection to the prayer that directly invokes him as the patron of beekeeping. Further, the image of the rune is also visible on his sigil (if you look to the center-left).
Aristaios governs the agricultural acts of creation that determine a rustic though growing society. This is particularly important, as the English language participle "-ing" adds to any verb the idea of commitment to action. Do-ing, see-ing, be-ing, etc. This is what represents the actual activity, rather than just the object. Fittingly, Ingwaz does govern agriculture in the mundane sense, but the spiritual aspects go deeper.
Inguz symbolizes a kind of latent energy that builds slowly over time before being released in a single, powerful expression. It can be understood as the development of an idea or intention--first planted consciously, then nurtured within the subconscious--where it undergoes a period of incubation before eventually manifesting as something new in one’s life. In this sense, Inguz is associated with transformation: the progression from seed to catalyst, and the necessary surrender of one state to allow another to emerge, carrying forward certain inherited qualities.
Within this framework, Ingwaz also embodies a deeper concept of sacrifice. This sacrifice involves the ending of one form so that a more developed form can come into existence. Think how a Queen Bee is born. The egg is identical to a worker bee's, until fed the royal jelly.
Such a principle is central to what are often described as the "male mysteries," where themes of death and renewal play a key role. The idea of giving one’s life for a cause or ideal (again, something constantly seen in the self-sacrificing nature of bees, with some hives even developing "queen-slayers" in times of hive turmoil where she develops the wrong kind of male offspring) [9].
In divination, Ingwaz can be a sign of committing to long-term structural or familial goals, or grounding oneself in nature. A new hive may take up to six months to begin producing harvestable honey, and it's important to note why bees make honey in the first place. Much as Ingwaz governs the storing of gestational energy, bees will store their honey to survive the winter period. When spring arrives, they will usher in the season by aiding in the pollination cycle.
It should be noted that Ing was the alternative name of the Norse God Frey, who was said to travel the earth in his chariot, dispersing happiness.
Sources
[1] Sunset Western Garden Book - Kathleen Norris Brenzel (1995)
[2] Argonautica - Translation by R.C. Seaton (1912)
[3] The pharmacological importance of Centaurea cynus - A review. - Ali Esmail Al-Snafi (2025)
[4] Das grosse Honigbuch: Entstehung, Gewinnung, Gesundheit und Vermarktung - Helmut Horn and Cord Lüllmann (2006)
[5] Wildflower companion plants increase pest parasitation and yield in cabbage fields: Experimental demonstration and call for caution - Belz, Elodie; Kölliker, Mathias; Balmer, Oliver (2013)
[6] "The bee in Greek mythology" Journal of the Hellenic Society - Arthur Bernard Cook (1895)
[7] Magical honey: some unusual uses in Ancient Egypt - Dr Amandine Marshall (2023)
[8] St. Ambrose: His Life, Times, and Teaching - Robinson Thornton (1879)
[9] How Some Worker Bees Become Queen Slayers - Manuka Honey USA (2017)
Novice Priest Karnonnos
Temple of Zeus Guardian
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I want to note here too, note the amount of female historians and archeologists who uncovered information about Hathor. And not only that, but the amount who are women of European descent as well. The conceit of walling women away from knowledge is a disaster. The modern, progressive idea that investigating civilizations like Egypt held captive by Islam and Christianity is 'colonialist, cultural appropriation' is bottom of the barrel filth, not even worth anyone's time.
Wotanwarrior
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Although my comment is late, this painting was commissioned from Titian by King Philip II of Spain.
He was one of the most important kings of Spain and a historical figure surrounded by controversy. I've always suspected he was deeply involved in the occult due to his great interest in alchemy, his contacts with numerous alchemists, philosophers, and spiritualists of the time, and the large number of Hellenic-themed paintings of the Gods that he commissioned from Titian. It seems he was particularly admirer or devote to the Goddess Aphrodite/Venus.
Apart from this one of Venus and Adonis, other famous paintings commissioned by Philip II from Titian are the Venus of El Pardo and the commemoration of the victory at the Battle of Lepanto.
Pardo Venus - Wikipedia
LA RELIGIÓN SOCORRIDA POR ESPAÑA
Esta obra alegórica tiene una curiosa historia relacionada tanto con su proceso de creación como con su significado iconográfico. Sabemos...
Note all the ocult symbolism in the painting.
Arcadia [NG]
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Thank you, NP Karnonnos. I've performed some further research, for those who may be interested in further information on the sacred plant, Tarot and related myths pertaining to Hathor.
Sacred Plant - Myrrh:
Much as Hathor herself rules over incense generally, myrrh resin is perhaps the best singularly known source of incense in the ancient world alongside frankincense, to the point of common references across both Pagan and even Abrahamic sources alike (with usage present even in contemporary Christian liturgies).
The earliest known Egyptian expedition to the land of Punt (generally identified with the Horn of Africa) was documented during the reign of the Fifth Dynasty pharaoh King Sahure. This mission returned with substantial amounts of frankincense, malachite, electrum and especially myrrh, alongside a variety of exotic animals and resources. [1]
A relief from Sahure’s mortuary temple commemorates the success of this journey and notably portrays the king cultivating a myrrh tree within his palace garden. Titled "Sahure’s splendor soars up to heaven," this scene is unique in Egyptian art for depicting a pharaoh engaged in gardening. In ancient Egyptian practices, myrrh, together with natron, played an important role in the embalming process used for mummification. [2]
Myrrh appears in multiple passages of the Hebrew Bible as a valuable and uncommon fragrance. In Book of Genesis 37:25, the merchants who purchased Joseph from the sons of Jacob are described as traveling with camels carrying goods such as spices, balm, and myrrh. Later, in Book of Exodus 30:23–25, Moses is instructed to include 500 corrupt money of liquid myrrh as a principal component in the preparation of the sacred anointing oil.
Myrrh also formed part of the Ketoret, the consecrated incense burned in both the alleged First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, as detailed in biblical and Talmudic sources. This incense was offered on a dedicated altar and played a central role in temple ritual. In addition, myrrh is again noted as an ingredient in the holy anointing oil used for consecrating the tabernacle, as well as high priests and kings. Oil of myrrh is used in Esther 2:12 in a purification ritual for the new queen to King Ahasuerus:
"Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women)."
Within the field of Pharmacology, myrrh has traditionally been valued for its antiseptic qualities, leading to its inclusion in products such as mouthwashes, gargles, and toothpastes. It has also been formulated into topical preparations like liniments and salves, which are applied to cuts, scrapes, and other minor skin conditions. In addition, myrrh has been used for its pain-relieving effects, particularly in easing toothache discomfort. It has likewise been incorporated into liniments designed to soothe bruises, muscle soreness, and sprains. [3]
Beyond its material usage, myrrh figures into the myth of Myrrha, retold by Ovid in Metamorphoses Book 10. In the reading of the myth, one can clearly recognize thematic parallels with the nature of the Reversed Empress Tarot.
Cinyras, king of Cyprus, has a daughter of marriageable age who is courted by princes from across the East. Yet Myrrha is consumed by an incestuous passion for her own father. Ovid is careful to distance the crime from the usual Olympian culprits: Cupid himself denies responsibility, and the poet blames one of the Furies, who has breathed "viper’s venom" into the girl (note the allegorical parallel here with the cobra venom of the Eye of Ra).
Myrrha knows the horror of her longing. She wrestles with it in long, anguished monologues, wishing her father were not her father so she could love him "properly," envying animals that mate without human taboos, and finally attempting suicide. Her old nurse intervenes, coaxes out the secret, and--during the nine-night festival of Ceres when wives (including Myrrha’s mother, Cenchreis) abstain from sex--tricks the drunken Cinyras into bed with "a girl who truly loves you".
The deception is repeated for several nights. Myrrha becomes pregnant. When Cinyras finally discovers the truth by torchlight, he tries to kill her. She flees into exile, wandering for nine months until, heavy with child and exhausted, she prays to the gods: "Take from me this life that is both living and dead… so that I offend neither the living by living nor the dead by dying." The gods answer by turning her into a myrrh tree. The bark closes over her, but the fetus continues to grow. When the time comes, the Goddess of childbirth (Lucina) cracks the trunk; the tree "weeps" fragrant resin (myrrh) as it gives birth to the beautiful boy Adonis. [4]
Where the Upright Empress embodies harmonious, life-affirming creation and maternal love, Myrrha experiences the archetype in its inverted, poisoned form. Her femininity is not blocked, but instead perverted. The impulse that should lead her toward healthy partnership and motherhood (the suitors at the door) is hijacked into an incestuous fixation on her father, collapsing the generational boundary the Empress naturally guards. The nurse, a twisted maternal surrogate, "helps" her in the name of love, enabling the crime instead of protecting natural order, exactly the codependent, boundary-less dynamic the reversed card often flags.
The pregnancy itself is a prime example of reversed-Empress fertility: it succeeds, yet it is unwanted, shameful, and born of violation. Myrrha flees in horror, carrying a child who is simultaneously her son and her half-brother. She cannot mother him in any human sense; she can only reach out to the Gods and become something else.
However, it is important to note that Myrrha comes to terms what she's done, and allows the necessary retribution of the Gods to take its place. With the necessary acceptance of what she's done and the consequences of it having taken place, what was once wrong has transformed into something beautiful; in this case, the beautiful Adonis, who becomes the lover of Venus herself.
The Reversed card does not deny or act contrary to fertility. Rather, it warns that when the Empress’s gifts are abused or denied their proper channel, the result can be pain, exile, and the necessity of retribution. Myrrha herself becomes the origin of myrrh, something fragrant in smell but bitter in taste.
Sources:
[1] Seagoing Ships & Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant - Shelley Wachsmann
[2] New worlds: The great voyages of discovery 1400-1600 - Ronald H Fritze
[3] Myrrh - Uses, Side Effects, and More - WebMD: Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database Consumer Version
[4] Metamorphoses - Ovid
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