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He is considered to be one of the eminent and leading figures of the contemporary restitution of the Hellenic Religion. Panagiotes Marinis -a most known doctor in the center of Athens and president of the Societas Hellenica Antiquariorum- republished his work on the Hellenic Religion in a new improved edition. The work is an extensive collection of articles and essays on issues that can be considered as key points in the concept of Hellenic Religion.
The work starts with the issues of Cosmogony and its philosophical principles throughout the ancient era and the various philosophical and sectarian doctrines. It is important that the author gives a significant importance in the idea of comparative religious research. Therefore after an extensive and, in my opinion, successful presentation of the Orphic Cosmogony, he states in a separate chapter the Cosmogonical myths of the ancient civilizations and of the ‘primordial’ people. The conclusion of the first chapter titled as the Cosmogony’s Outcomes gives the following phrase: “[…] the world is the everlasting ‘ον’, is uncreated and the cause of its self” (p. 115).
The Hellenic Psygogony is the second main principle, which is extensively analyzed by the author. A great attention is being made on the concept of soul (ψυχή) in the Stoic tradition. This chapter is mainly a collection of fragments by Galenus, Chrisippous, Alexxander Aphrodiseus, Diogenes Lartious, Porfyrius, Iamblichus amd Aetius. Hence background knowledge of the presenting texts is needed for their understanding. It is important to indicate that metempsychosis and a research study on the existence of poltergeists –these are perfectly stated and cased academic material- are specialized and indeed unique in such subject area books.
Theogony is the last extensive section of the book. Issues of mythology and faith, theology, Hellenic festivities, household religion, sacrifice, private pray and a great article on the Hellenic Temenos are being discussed and/or presented in a well stated manner with numerous referent scholarly based material. The chapter discussing the Gods –and some daemons- is well done but there is a limited brainstorm and material on the section of Athena. The material needed is been provided by a vague text by Demetrios Ioannides with no research and/or referent material.
As the author specifies in the epilogue the book is only a ‘touch’ material on the Hellenic religion’s colossal area of study, research and exploration. It is indeed true that the book gives the opportunity, in some sections, for introduction on specialized issues and, on the other hand, some other sections require additional background knowledge. However, the book has still the need of a better structure. An example can be the following; in the book one where the issue of Cosmogony is been discussed the fourth chapter presents the issue of “religions’ type” and cultural evolution by ‘healthy’ religious believes as well as the relation in between the religion belief and the nation-polis. The above material could easily introduce and compose a section of the book only for the past and contemporary political-sociological identity of religion. Personally I cannot see the connection of the Hellenic Cosmogony and the relation of religion-state.
The book is an easy and enjoyable reading material. It is a book –a collection- of articles and essays of a man well-known to his endeavors for the reestablishment of the Hellenic faith –a faith that for years is under pursue. It is a book by a Hellene –a follower of the ancient ways- and therefore discusses issues mostly familiar to Hellenes. The book, although, is not a pagan –as numerous book-reviewers with a banal way will describe- book for a New Age religion but a scholarly based study on a religion which cannot be illustrate in the concept of modern pagans’ principles. This book indeed gives the credibility that the Hellenic religion’s movement need in Greece.
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He is considered to be one of the eminent and leading figures of the contemporary restitution of the Hellenic Religion. Panagiotes Marinis -a most known doctor in the center of Athens and president of the Societas Hellenica Antiquariorum- republished his work on the Hellenic Religion in a new improved edition. The work is an extensive collection of articles and essays on issues that can be considered as key points in the concept of Hellenic Religion.
The work starts with the issues of Cosmogony and its philosophical principles throughout the ancient era and the various philosophical and sectarian doctrines. It is important that the author gives a significant importance in the idea of comparative religious research. Therefore after an extensive and, in my opinion, successful presentation of the Orphic Cosmogony, he states in a separate chapter the Cosmogonical myths of the ancient civilizations and of the ‘primordial’ people. The conclusion of the first chapter titled as the Cosmogony’s Outcomes gives the following phrase: “[…] the world is the everlasting ‘ον’, is uncreated and the cause of its self” (p. 115).
The Hellenic Psygogony is the second main principle, which is extensively analyzed by the author. A great attention is being made on the concept of soul (ψυχή) in the Stoic tradition. This chapter is mainly a collection of fragments by Galenus, Chrisippous, Alexxander Aphrodiseus, Diogenes Lartious, Porfyrius, Iamblichus amd Aetius. Hence background knowledge of the presenting texts is needed for their understanding. It is important to indicate that metempsychosis and a research study on the existence of poltergeists –these are perfectly stated and cased academic material- are specialized and indeed unique in such subject area books.
Theogony is the last extensive section of the book. Issues of mythology and faith, theology, Hellenic festivities, household religion, sacrifice, private pray and a great article on the Hellenic Temenos are being discussed and/or presented in a well stated manner with numerous referent scholarly based material. The chapter discussing the Gods –and some daemons- is well done but there is a limited brainstorm and material on the section of Athena. The material needed is been provided by a vague text by Demetrios Ioannides with no research and/or referent material.
As the author specifies in the epilogue the book is only a ‘touch’ material on the Hellenic religion’s colossal area of study, research and exploration. It is indeed true that the book gives the opportunity, in some sections, for introduction on specialized issues and, on the other hand, some other sections require additional background knowledge. However, the book has still the need of a better structure. An example can be the following; in the book one where the issue of Cosmogony is been discussed the fourth chapter presents the issue of “religions’ type” and cultural evolution by ‘healthy’ religious believes as well as the relation in between the religion belief and the nation-polis. The above material could easily introduce and compose a section of the book only for the past and contemporary political-sociological identity of religion. Personally I cannot see the connection of the Hellenic Cosmogony and the relation of religion-state.
The book is an easy and enjoyable reading material. It is a book –a collection- of articles and essays of a man well-known to his endeavors for the reestablishment of the Hellenic faith –a faith that for years is under pursue. It is a book by a Hellene –a follower of the ancient ways- and therefore discusses issues mostly familiar to Hellenes. The book, although, is not a pagan –as numerous book-reviewers with a banal way will describe- book for a New Age religion but a scholarly based study on a religion which cannot be illustrate in the concept of modern pagans’ principles. This book indeed gives the credibility that the Hellenic religion’s movement need in Greece.
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It may be true that Tropaion is a personal and private blog – website – however the need for a second hand seems to be quite a need. A need that is based on the concept of having a fully functional ‘live’ website (blog in this case) discussing and debate on issue of the Hellenic faith.
If you are interest and most importantly a Hellenes who explores not only in practice but also in theory the ancient Greek religion on its past and present principles do not hesitate to contact me at the following email address: markoulakis82@yahoo.gr
If you are interest and most importantly a Hellenes who explores not only in practice but also in theory the ancient Greek religion on its past and present principles do not hesitate to contact me at the following email address: markoulakis82@yahoo.gr
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In today world that no ethical mentality exists and the respect to the divine is not any longer a way of life and thought. The only way to understand the immense different between the Hellenes' practise and the contemporary eastern religious practises is to display few remarks concerning the Hellenic Sacrifice, or for me, the correct way of action (drôoimi) in honour of the divine.
In the Hellenic Sacrifice, you can easily witness entirely a way, which flows Θεοσέβεια. In addition, by the manner that my ancestors worship it can easily support that “idolatry” has no meaning. On the contrary, it can magnificently to prove the absolute naturalistic and spiritually concept of the Hellenic way of religious praxis!
The centre of the Hellenic Sacrifice is the Mother Nature, as impressively stated in the Orphic Hymns.
The liturgies of the ancient Greeks had as a purpose the recognition of the divine work and its honour correspondingly. With the use of prayers, hymns, music, sacrifices, libations and other liturgical ways, they gave respect and presented their highly educational and spiritual background, by following the concept of anthropomorphic divinity. That is the soaring different between the Hellenic notion and the rest slavered ruled Eastern religions! A Hellenist by his entrance to äñþìåíá, liturgies, or by having clergy position, with moral manner could find the enlightening and the way to his spiritual quest of the highly divine levels.
The non-use of an employed clergy for centuries, the use of the heliocentric customs and the non-commercialized of faith eventualy gave the opportunity for better access in higher worlds and spiritual spheres. We must recall the importance of the Hellenic mysteries, which were building upon myths that provided the earlier stages of initiation in the understanding of the Cosmic Law.
We must initially understand that by the liturgical deed the citizen of a state had an energetic and motivated action for his/her social life. The imperceptible and laconic rituals had as a result the stimulation of the notion in addition to spiritual acts. That is the testimony of our ancestors’ religious awareness and a faith, which live by the Nature for the Nature. A religion that honour the divinity of Nature's creation. A religion which throughout the body of myths, allegorically, symbolise, encode, the archegonic dromena and the immortal cosmic laws. A religion under which the titanic-mortal human ask to be a part of the divine world.
Ritual means liturgy, liturgy means according Hesichio to sacrifice "θύω"
For every liturgy we have a different preparation and celebration. We have knowldge of our dromena (from drôoimi = to do) and for our rituals in addition to a great volume of liturgical words that mainly correspond to Gods/Goddesses epithets (the importance and meaning of words in the Hellenic liturgical praxis (action) cannot be in any way connected with the idea of magic). In Hellenic (ancient Greek) faith we have numerous rituals: Funeral, Marriage, Request of Rain, Weather’s Rituals, Divination’ Ritual, Oath Taking, Cursing, Exorcism, Sacrificial, Purification, Libation, Blessing, Praying, Invocation, Appeasing etc.
My purpose is to state a clearest, as possible, historical accurate reconstructed rites and rituals and a fully composed database for the modern Hellenic studies.
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Subsequent to the self-formation of the Cosmos and the creation of the Soul and human spirit, for the Hellenes and the Hellenic tradition, and for every traditional "pagan" belief, there is the issue, to be discussed, of the birth of the divine worlds’ spirits, Gods and Goddesses. I mentioned the word ‘birth’ which means that the currently displayed on screen webpage will not discussion the issue of the ‘allegorical’ Theogony of Hellenes, but, on the contrary, it will explain the framework of the divine existence.
“M/AKAR M\EN )ANDR=WN M/ETA )/ENAIEN, (/RWS D’ )/EPEITA LAOSEB/HS”, (Blessed was he, while he among men, and thereafter a hero worshiped by the people), Pindar, Pythian Ode V128.
When a man reaches the higher stage, by the continuation of his life, by expanding his knowledge of Truth throughout his reincarnations, he no longer needs to posses a gross human body. He is free to be elevated into the ranks of the divine hierarchy, becoming Hero, Daemon, God, Olympian God etc.
Indeed, the Hellenes accept as true the opportunity for a man to manage with the help of the Mysteries and the assistance of Dionysus (the supervisor of the human soul’s task), to develop his consciousness to a higher state. He is able to leave the world of gross matter and to gain the immortality of his soul gaining light (spiritual light=Logos) and bright, persists his spiritual evolution as divine spiritual organism intensifying to higher levels of spiritual growth.
That does not change the fact that the soul is immortal by its own nature. However, in order to maintain its psychic envelopment it needs to take energy from the gross body. “[...] nourishment of the psyche is the blood [...]”, (Galen). Thus, when we address the matter of the soul's gain of immortality, we imply the contact with heavenly stages where the spiritual organism could preserve itself without energy from the gross body but via the natural environment. Having reached that stage the soul, which has a perfectly manifestation of brightness, we call it a “divine spiritual organism” (see also the Platonic allegory of the Cave).
In conclusion, I would like to give the Hellenic definition of the word spiritual. For the Hellenes (I am referring to the ancient Greeks), with the word spiritual do not refer to a stage or a immaterial worlds or other dimensions, like those of the since fiction novels, but it refers, first, to the fine states of matter known today as 'electromagnetic energy' and, second, to those mental states that are known as 'higher consciousness'.
I hope the above were in any assistance of the core concept of the Hellenic Theogony.
“M/AKAR M\EN )ANDR=WN M/ETA )/ENAIEN, (/RWS D’ )/EPEITA LAOSEB/HS”, (Blessed was he, while he among men, and thereafter a hero worshiped by the people), Pindar, Pythian Ode V128.
When a man reaches the higher stage, by the continuation of his life, by expanding his knowledge of Truth throughout his reincarnations, he no longer needs to posses a gross human body. He is free to be elevated into the ranks of the divine hierarchy, becoming Hero, Daemon, God, Olympian God etc.
Indeed, the Hellenes accept as true the opportunity for a man to manage with the help of the Mysteries and the assistance of Dionysus (the supervisor of the human soul’s task), to develop his consciousness to a higher state. He is able to leave the world of gross matter and to gain the immortality of his soul gaining light (spiritual light=Logos) and bright, persists his spiritual evolution as divine spiritual organism intensifying to higher levels of spiritual growth.
That does not change the fact that the soul is immortal by its own nature. However, in order to maintain its psychic envelopment it needs to take energy from the gross body. “[...] nourishment of the psyche is the blood [...]”, (Galen). Thus, when we address the matter of the soul's gain of immortality, we imply the contact with heavenly stages where the spiritual organism could preserve itself without energy from the gross body but via the natural environment. Having reached that stage the soul, which has a perfectly manifestation of brightness, we call it a “divine spiritual organism” (see also the Platonic allegory of the Cave).
In conclusion, I would like to give the Hellenic definition of the word spiritual. For the Hellenes (I am referring to the ancient Greeks), with the word spiritual do not refer to a stage or a immaterial worlds or other dimensions, like those of the since fiction novels, but it refers, first, to the fine states of matter known today as 'electromagnetic energy' and, second, to those mental states that are known as 'higher consciousness'.
I hope the above were in any assistance of the core concept of the Hellenic Theogony.
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After the two explanatory posts of the Hellenistic traditional belief as regards to Cosmogony, let now discuss what is the opinion of the Greeks concerning the human soul and its course to the Higher Words (meaning the evolution of the spirit).
The Greeks declare that the soul is that "which is everlasting". We had mentioned at the previous posts that the Hellenic World view accept as true only one physical reality. No other imaginary or immaterial world is in reality true. Thus, the Greeks believe that the soul is not abnormal, but a completely natural and real identity. That means that has basic material particles, which have specific functions.
That is a fully recognisable idea by the researchers, and was a advance when Plato in “Timaeus” says, in the passage of Timaeus’ 35a, that the soul is created from the mixture of the two creative cosmogonical substances, the Same and the Other:
“Now as regards the Soul... He made her of the material and in fashion, which I shall now describe. Midway between the substance which is indivisible and remains always the same and the substance which is transient and divisible in bodies, He blended a third form of Substance compounded out of the twain, that is to say, out of the Same and the Other; and in like manner He compounded it midway between that one of them which is indivisible and that one which is divisible in bodies. And He took the three of them, and blend them all together into one form, by forcing the Other into union with the Same, in spite of its being naturally difficult to mix [...]”
The Stoics insist that whatever exists is a material body and that the soul is such a body. Hence, the Hellenic tradition consider, at the moment that the soul was created, it lives forever by its own nature and since it is a basic particle it does not get destroyed, not even at the contraction of the Universe.
Before we continue to the course of the soul according the Hellenic traditional believes let make obvious that the soul created by a process that is wholly natural and has a immortal nature as a automatic quality which does not rest wit any other entity. This establishes the self-existent status of the soul and ascertains its self-dominant nature. On the other hand, the monotheistic religious have spread queer ideas claiming that some god creates the soul, and its immortality depends upon his will. For the traditional religions it is the exact opposite: souls are self-existent and by their own nature everlasting.
The soul has a specific course to follow to rich the Higher Worlds. At the beginning the soul progressively acquires the quality called consciousness. This is achieved by going through several experiences, forms and characters. The mechanism of the course of the soul – from the below towards the higher world –, the Classics called among others, metempsychosis, cycle of births, transmigration of souls or reincarnation. “Thus, I myself was once a boy and also a maiden, a bush, a bird, and a voiceless fish in the salty flood”, Empedocles.
The reincarnation is the beginning of an endless journey until we reach enlightenment. “And at the end they come among men as prophets, minstrels, physicians, and leaders, and from these they arise as gods, highest in honour”, Empedoces. When one reach the desired end, besides higher consciousness has also regained full memory of all of one’s previous lifetimes;
During a person’s last lifetimes upon earth he receives special names. First the name and respects of a Hero (Theseus), then Demi-God (Hercules) and in one’s very last human incarnation he is called God-upon-earth or Man-God (Asclepios).
The Greeks declare that the soul is that "which is everlasting". We had mentioned at the previous posts that the Hellenic World view accept as true only one physical reality. No other imaginary or immaterial world is in reality true. Thus, the Greeks believe that the soul is not abnormal, but a completely natural and real identity. That means that has basic material particles, which have specific functions.
That is a fully recognisable idea by the researchers, and was a advance when Plato in “Timaeus” says, in the passage of Timaeus’ 35a, that the soul is created from the mixture of the two creative cosmogonical substances, the Same and the Other:
“Now as regards the Soul... He made her of the material and in fashion, which I shall now describe. Midway between the substance which is indivisible and remains always the same and the substance which is transient and divisible in bodies, He blended a third form of Substance compounded out of the twain, that is to say, out of the Same and the Other; and in like manner He compounded it midway between that one of them which is indivisible and that one which is divisible in bodies. And He took the three of them, and blend them all together into one form, by forcing the Other into union with the Same, in spite of its being naturally difficult to mix [...]”
The Stoics insist that whatever exists is a material body and that the soul is such a body. Hence, the Hellenic tradition consider, at the moment that the soul was created, it lives forever by its own nature and since it is a basic particle it does not get destroyed, not even at the contraction of the Universe.
Before we continue to the course of the soul according the Hellenic traditional believes let make obvious that the soul created by a process that is wholly natural and has a immortal nature as a automatic quality which does not rest wit any other entity. This establishes the self-existent status of the soul and ascertains its self-dominant nature. On the other hand, the monotheistic religious have spread queer ideas claiming that some god creates the soul, and its immortality depends upon his will. For the traditional religions it is the exact opposite: souls are self-existent and by their own nature everlasting.
The soul has a specific course to follow to rich the Higher Worlds. At the beginning the soul progressively acquires the quality called consciousness. This is achieved by going through several experiences, forms and characters. The mechanism of the course of the soul – from the below towards the higher world –, the Classics called among others, metempsychosis, cycle of births, transmigration of souls or reincarnation. “Thus, I myself was once a boy and also a maiden, a bush, a bird, and a voiceless fish in the salty flood”, Empedocles.
The reincarnation is the beginning of an endless journey until we reach enlightenment. “And at the end they come among men as prophets, minstrels, physicians, and leaders, and from these they arise as gods, highest in honour”, Empedoces. When one reach the desired end, besides higher consciousness has also regained full memory of all of one’s previous lifetimes;
During a person’s last lifetimes upon earth he receives special names. First the name and respects of a Hero (Theseus), then Demi-God (Hercules) and in one’s very last human incarnation he is called God-upon-earth or Man-God (Asclepios).
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For Hellenic traditional believes, Cosmos is the only thing that exists, there is nothing else. Nothing can be beyond the system of Cosmos; nothing is external into Nature's frames. Cosmos is the "absolute," (apoliton) being, a system, infinite in space-time and within its matter-life perception and its development-expansion.
Within the frame of Cosmos there is only matter, with its wider sense of something, which can be researchable by the science. That is why the philosophy of the classics and especially of Stoics is materialistic "monism". "Monism" is the idea, which states that only one type of substance within the Cosmos exists. That is dissimilar with the idea called "dualism," which considers two substances in and out of the frame of Nature. For example, the extramundane God, who created the world, Cosmo, “ex nihilio”.
By the word 'matter' we do not mean the matter of any chemical element, but in a wider sense, all natural forces (matter and energy, chemical elements, electromagnetism, nuclear radiation, ect).
“Cosmos, the same for all, no God no man has made it, but it ever was and is and will be: fire everlasting, kindled in measures and in measures going out”. The divine Heraclitus articulated that the world order, Natural law, is the same for all the Gods, men and for all things. It is completely refutation of any fundamental duality, which supposed that exists between a produced world order and the everlasting cause from which it is arises or the verdict intelligent by which it is ordered. Heraclitus stated the cyclic life of a universe, the interchange cosmogony and cosmic conflagration (ecpyrosis).
I must make a remark about the terms of Cosmos, Universe and Nature. The whole of what is Cosmos is called Universe (T\O P=AN, S/UMPAN) while each of the individual clusters of matter is called Êüóìïò (Cosmos).
However, 'matter' was not appeared out of zero, “Ex nihilo nihil”, (Lucretius). The 'matter' and its particles were naturally made out of matter which was finer and which, as well, was produced by the two cosmological elements (the elements that according the Hellenic tradition gave birth to Cosmos).
Therefore, the structure of the Cosmos, consists of infinite Space, Time (Time for the Hellenic religion has a real existence, is not a faction of other parameters), the Natural Law (The Natural Law has and will always exist as it is now. Empedocles wrote: “the universal law extends throughout the air’s broad realm and the enormous light”), and additionally the two creative cosmological substances -which are self-existed, “Substance is the prime matter of all existing things”, (Zeno).
Therefore, within the infinite Space, at a given Time and in conformity with the Natural Law, the two creative cosmological substances act in order to bring into being a new universe (the first substance is the vacuum of the Space and second th primordial electromagnetic radiation).
“)/AFQARTOS KA\I )AKATAP/ONATOS DIAM/ENEI T/ON )/APEIRON )A=WNA. O)/TE G/AR )/ENTOSQEN )/ALLA, TIS A)IT/IAS DUNAMIKWT/ERA A)UT=AS E(UEQ/HSETAI O)/UT’ (/EKTOSQEN FQE=IRAI A)UT/ON DUNAM/ENA.” (Cosmos is still everlasting and strong to his immortality. Because, either from inside is possible to uncover a different cause, or from outside that can be destroyable for him).
For the better understanding of what I wrote in the aforementioned paragraphs, I explain as follows: Formally, three myths of creation exist into the Hellenic tradition – the first by Homer at his epic Iliad, the second by the divine Orpheus and the third by the epic poet Hesiod. All three have the identical chronicle to speak.
In the beginning was Night (Nyx). She was a bird with black wings. The ancient Nyx convinced by the Wind and laid her silver Egg in the gigantic knee of Darkness (Erevos).
From the Egg sprang the son of the Wind, a god with golden wings. He was called Eros, the god of the cosmic love; but this is only one of his names. He also was called as Protogonos, the first born of all Gods. His name of Phanes explains what his role was after he was hatched from the Egg. He gave light in everything that had previously lain hidden in the silver Egg, to the whole Cosmo. Up above was a void named Sky or Aether or the primordial electromagnetic radiation (synehes ousia). Our ancient language has a word for the void “Chaos” (void) or the vacuum of Space (meriste ousia).
So the Earth, Chaos, was down below in the Egg, the Sky (Aether) and Earth married. This was the work of God Eros, who brought them into the light and then compelled them to mingle. They produced a brother and a sister, Okeanos and Tethys.
As Proclus said, “the egg is born from Aether and Chaos” and for Phanes the philosopher said, “when he come forth trough the Aether and misty Chasm he irradiated the air with unimaginable light from his dazzling body”.
That was the Hellenic traditional belief about the creation of world or Cosmos.
Within the frame of Cosmos there is only matter, with its wider sense of something, which can be researchable by the science. That is why the philosophy of the classics and especially of Stoics is materialistic "monism". "Monism" is the idea, which states that only one type of substance within the Cosmos exists. That is dissimilar with the idea called "dualism," which considers two substances in and out of the frame of Nature. For example, the extramundane God, who created the world, Cosmo, “ex nihilio”.
By the word 'matter' we do not mean the matter of any chemical element, but in a wider sense, all natural forces (matter and energy, chemical elements, electromagnetism, nuclear radiation, ect).
“Cosmos, the same for all, no God no man has made it, but it ever was and is and will be: fire everlasting, kindled in measures and in measures going out”. The divine Heraclitus articulated that the world order, Natural law, is the same for all the Gods, men and for all things. It is completely refutation of any fundamental duality, which supposed that exists between a produced world order and the everlasting cause from which it is arises or the verdict intelligent by which it is ordered. Heraclitus stated the cyclic life of a universe, the interchange cosmogony and cosmic conflagration (ecpyrosis).
I must make a remark about the terms of Cosmos, Universe and Nature. The whole of what is Cosmos is called Universe (T\O P=AN, S/UMPAN) while each of the individual clusters of matter is called Êüóìïò (Cosmos).
However, 'matter' was not appeared out of zero, “Ex nihilo nihil”, (Lucretius). The 'matter' and its particles were naturally made out of matter which was finer and which, as well, was produced by the two cosmological elements (the elements that according the Hellenic tradition gave birth to Cosmos).
Therefore, the structure of the Cosmos, consists of infinite Space, Time (Time for the Hellenic religion has a real existence, is not a faction of other parameters), the Natural Law (The Natural Law has and will always exist as it is now. Empedocles wrote: “the universal law extends throughout the air’s broad realm and the enormous light”), and additionally the two creative cosmological substances -which are self-existed, “Substance is the prime matter of all existing things”, (Zeno).
Therefore, within the infinite Space, at a given Time and in conformity with the Natural Law, the two creative cosmological substances act in order to bring into being a new universe (the first substance is the vacuum of the Space and second th primordial electromagnetic radiation).
“)/AFQARTOS KA\I )AKATAP/ONATOS DIAM/ENEI T/ON )/APEIRON )A=WNA. O)/TE G/AR )/ENTOSQEN )/ALLA, TIS A)IT/IAS DUNAMIKWT/ERA A)UT=AS E(UEQ/HSETAI O)/UT’ (/EKTOSQEN FQE=IRAI A)UT/ON DUNAM/ENA.” (Cosmos is still everlasting and strong to his immortality. Because, either from inside is possible to uncover a different cause, or from outside that can be destroyable for him).
For the better understanding of what I wrote in the aforementioned paragraphs, I explain as follows: Formally, three myths of creation exist into the Hellenic tradition – the first by Homer at his epic Iliad, the second by the divine Orpheus and the third by the epic poet Hesiod. All three have the identical chronicle to speak.
In the beginning was Night (Nyx). She was a bird with black wings. The ancient Nyx convinced by the Wind and laid her silver Egg in the gigantic knee of Darkness (Erevos).
From the Egg sprang the son of the Wind, a god with golden wings. He was called Eros, the god of the cosmic love; but this is only one of his names. He also was called as Protogonos, the first born of all Gods. His name of Phanes explains what his role was after he was hatched from the Egg. He gave light in everything that had previously lain hidden in the silver Egg, to the whole Cosmo. Up above was a void named Sky or Aether or the primordial electromagnetic radiation (synehes ousia). Our ancient language has a word for the void “Chaos” (void) or the vacuum of Space (meriste ousia).
So the Earth, Chaos, was down below in the Egg, the Sky (Aether) and Earth married. This was the work of God Eros, who brought them into the light and then compelled them to mingle. They produced a brother and a sister, Okeanos and Tethys.
As Proclus said, “the egg is born from Aether and Chaos” and for Phanes the philosopher said, “when he come forth trough the Aether and misty Chasm he irradiated the air with unimaginable light from his dazzling body”.
That was the Hellenic traditional belief about the creation of world or Cosmos.
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At first I would like to introduce the current web site briefly and, therefore, to express unreservedly ourselves. In this web site I will have written materials regarding of a different world of thinking and knowledge of truth in comparison of the today's chaotic relation in between society and religion. Then (the ancient times), religious ideas, philosophy of History and the multifaceted social phenomena (for example the so called 'Late periods of civilizations') did not exist. Then, it was only one path for the individuals. And this is the purpose of that topic, I believe, to examine together that "strange" world of the Hellenic view of world, or in other words Hellenic Religion.
'At the Antiquity I discover myself, I found myself for the first time to be in agreement with my consequence, pleased and above all reasonable', Goethe.
Cosmos (universal world), according the Hellenic tradition, is all that we see around us, the land and the seas, the stars and the galaxies, the entire universe. The Cosmos is everlasting, æonian (without end), uncreated, the one that has been and will always be, without beginning or an end, self-existent, self-contained and self-supporting, master and provider of itself. But how we can understand it? We recognize our surrounding world according our ideas, which are provided by the education we have. Hence an argument exists of whether or not this perception of ours could be wrong or could be right. Every theory about the world has its own viewpoint and with that explains the Cosmos. A Theory of man and nature argues and debate on of what is Cosmos: where it comes from and where it is heading, what is human being, what his origins or end, how we can lead our life, and how a society must be organized. The theory that has the 'answers' it is called religion.
From all the spiritual systems the Hellenic Religion provides complete and well standing theoretical answers, which are also supports modern science's justification of the Universal World. The Hellenic Religion in numerous cases provides contemporary science with rediscoveries, issues and answers that today we call revolutionary. That is the reason that the Hellenic World-view has been categorized as scientific.
A question can thus be answered: where did those people (the ancient Greeks) get their answers from? This answer is, however, effortless. It is known that they were extremely intelligent who regulated their knowledge, which came from the science of an advanced and spiritual civilization back to the Golden Age.
'[...] and very soon I understand that for the realization of the Greeks I must first, before everything else, to became a polytheist [...]' (Louis Nicolas Menard, 1822-1901.)
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A Site build by an Hellenic Polytheist, living in Greece. He provides insight into ideas of Cosmos; Creation Myths; Psychogony; Theogony; Rites & Rituals; and much more.
Η Επιστολή, Issue 2, (Spring 2004): 7
At first I would like to introduce the current web site briefly and, therefore, to express unreservedly ourselves. In this web site I will have written materials regarding of a different world of thinking and knowledge of truth in comparison of the today's chaotic relation in between society and religion. Then (the ancient times), religious ideas, philosophy of History and the multifaceted social phenomena (for example the so called 'Late periods of civilizations') did not exist. Then, it was only one path for the individuals. And this is the purpose of that topic, I believe, to examine together that "strange" world of the Hellenic view of world, or in other words Hellenic Religion.
'At the Antiquity I discover myself, I found myself for the first time to be in agreement with my consequence, pleased and above all reasonable', Goethe.
Cosmos (universal world), according the Hellenic tradition, is all that we see around us, the land and the seas, the stars and the galaxies, the entire universe. The Cosmos is everlasting, æonian (without end), uncreated, the one that has been and will always be, without beginning or an end, self-existent, self-contained and self-supporting, master and provider of itself. But how we can understand it? We recognize our surrounding world according our ideas, which are provided by the education we have. Hence an argument exists of whether or not this perception of ours could be wrong or could be right. Every theory about the world has its own viewpoint and with that explains the Cosmos. A Theory of man and nature argues and debate on of what is Cosmos: where it comes from and where it is heading, what is human being, what his origins or end, how we can lead our life, and how a society must be organized. The theory that has the 'answers' it is called religion.
From all the spiritual systems the Hellenic Religion provides complete and well standing theoretical answers, which are also supports modern science's justification of the Universal World. The Hellenic Religion in numerous cases provides contemporary science with rediscoveries, issues and answers that today we call revolutionary. That is the reason that the Hellenic World-view has been categorized as scientific.
A question can thus be answered: where did those people (the ancient Greeks) get their answers from? This answer is, however, effortless. It is known that they were extremely intelligent who regulated their knowledge, which came from the science of an advanced and spiritual civilization back to the Golden Age.
'[...] and very soon I understand that for the realization of the Greeks I must first, before everything else, to became a polytheist [...]' (Louis Nicolas Menard, 1822-1901.)
