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| Home > Reconstructionism > Greek/Hellenic > Kerux Index > Kerux #12 | Search |
| The Kerux #12 1 Skirophorion 4/694 (23 May 2001) edited by Drew Campbell |
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THE KERUX #12
1 Skirophorion 4/694
23 May 2001
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
* A Letter from the Editor
* Book Reviews: Under Athena's Aegis
* Greeks Bearing Real Gifts: Modern Liturgies as Religious Observance
* Poll Results: The Greek Language
* New Poll: Delivery of the Kerux
* Upcoming Events
* How to Contribute to the Kerux
***
A Letter from the Editor
It is hard to believe that we are fast approaching the end of the Hellenic year and the beginning of a new Olympiad (695). This twelfth issue of the Kerux also marks an ending and a beginning.
As some of you know, my wife and I are expecting a baby next month, and, gods willing, our lives will soon change more than we can now imagine. I will be setting aside my writing career to become a full- time, stay-at-home dad. I hope to be living more fully the message that the _Kerux_ has conveyed for the past year: What we do at home, with our families and in our local communities, _is_ religion. It is the foundation of all else. Without a firm grounding in home ritual, our public rites run the risk of being hollow show, and our devotion to the gods mere lip service. I hope that the articles, recipes, and prayers that the _Kerux_ has brought to your inbox over the past year have helped you and yours to live a life of greater service to the gods.
Because of my new responsibilities to my family, I will not be able to continue bringing out the Kerux on a monthly basis. Instead, I hope to publish a somewhat longer e-newsletter on a looser schedule, probably 3-4 times a year. This month's poll asks for your input on one aspect of this change.
You can help assure that the _Kerux_ will keep going by contributing your own articles, book reviews, announcements, poetry, rituals, prayers, and so on. The more material I collect, the more issues I'll be able to send out. Everyone benefits from greater involvement.
Finally, I want to thank all the contributors and subscribers whose enthusiasm for the _Kerux_ has made it a most gratifying project. I ask your prayers for my family and offer mine for the continued vitality and growth of our religion. Houtos esto! (May it be so!)
Khairete!
Drew Campbell
***
BOOK REVIEWS
Under Athena's Aegis: Karl Kerenyi's _Athene: Virgin and Mother in Greek Religion_ and Ann Shearer's _Athene: Image and Energy_
Despite her perennial popularity, Athena (also spelled Athene) poses some conceptual problems for us moderns. As Ann Shearer and Karl Kerenyi both acknowledge, it is difficult for many people to understand why the ancient Greeks envisioned the power of war and of technology as feminine. (Personally, I don't see the problem, but I'm hardly what you'd call committed to my culture's gender norms.) Both authors grapple with this seeming contradiction in carefully researched books that nevertheless raise as many questions as they answer.
Kerenyi's short essay, as the title indicates, focuses on the tension between images of Athena as virgin and those of her as mother. Both, he argues, are intrinsic to the goddess:
It [this established duality of aspects] is so characteristic of this Goddess that we could hardly even speak of Pallas Athene if only one or the other side stood before us without the tension and polarity of both. This is what differentiates a _Goddess_, who is able to exercise power over human beings, from a mere _personification_. (p. 25)
(This last sentence, by the way, neatly sums up the distinction not just between goddess and personification, but between a religious and a purely psychological view of the Hellenic gods.)
Yet despite this disclaimer, Kerenyi's analysis does seem to constrain divinity rather than expand biologically based notions of motherhood or virginity to include it. Ultimately, Athena is reduced to the archetype of the masculine, father-focused woman that she appears as in more popular works like Jean Shinoda Bolen's _Goddesses in Everywoman_: "The image of Athene is conditioned by bondedness to the father." (p. 45) Kerenyi sees Athena's role is that of protector of the patriarchal order, and defender against the terrible mother, Medusa.
Yet one wonders if Kerenyi, usually such a careful observer of our cultural ancestors and their religion, simply saw what he wanted to see here. He says almost nothing about Athena's relationships with other goddesses, while focusing on her connections with various gods: Zeus, Ares, Hephaistos. He seems unable to imagine the subtle ways in which the martial maiden undercuts the very order that he has her uphold.
If Kerenyi's focus is too narrow and rigid to do justice to Athena, Ann Shearer's book suffers from the opposite problem. Shearer, a Jungian analyst, takes the image of Athena and runs with it. Here the Hellenic goddess is just the starting point for a historical survey of images of the feminine in Western culture. The discussion ranges from Athens to Rome to London to Nashville, from the Gnostics' Sophia to orthodox Christian images of the Virgin Mary, through Early Modern allegory and occult science to the Byron and Shelley's Romantic Hellenism, from Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War to Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands. Along the way, the red thread of connection to Athena's loom gets stretched very thin indeed.
To her credit, Shearer marshals an enormous amount of information in an accessible and creative way. Still, I sometimes felt that I was learning more about the author's personal obsessions--Florence Nightingale's neuroses, the "Black Virgin," British militarism, sexism among the fathers of modern psychology--than I was about Athena. The early chapters on Hellenic myth and cult are fascinating and much more accessible than Kerenyi, especially for non-academic readers, and the central thesis is sound:
Foresight, discrimination, a harnessed power that understands precisely the fitness of every action: these are what Athene brings to her works of transformation, this is how she moves things on, in the world of matter, in individual lives and in the progress of human civilization itself. (p. 21)
Shearer is unafraid of Athene's complexity; in fact, she suggests that it's not the goddess who is so odd, but a culture that has broken down a unified view of the feminine into virgin and mother, saint and whore. Like Nature itself, the divine powers that we understand as "feminine" include rationality and practical action. So deeply mired are we in biologically bolstered gender stereotypes that we fail to see "that there is also an aspect of the archetypal energy we call 'feminine' which is engaging, battling, thrusting, kicking, punching, hitting, destroying--and so finally transformative." (p. 264)
Walter Otto called Athena the "ever-near," and so she is. In her affection for the witty, the crafty, and the wise, she stands closest of all the Olympians to the dust and noise of human life. Teacher of both men and women, patroness of potters and weavers, maiden and mother, healer and contriver, inventor and benefactor: She is all this and more. After all, no one ever said that being a goddess was simple.
***
Greeks Bearing Real Gifts: Modern Liturgies as Religious Observance
In ancient Greece, to "perform a liturgy" did not mean to enact a set type of worship. A "leitourgia" was a form of public service, a tax levied on the wealthiest citizens. Common liturgies included the outfitting of triremes (war ships), the setting up of memorials, and the funding of choruses for the public festivals.
Today, the income tax system assures that we all do our bit to fund the military and public works. But separation of church and state means, at least for residents of the United States, that support of religious organizations comes primarily from private sources. Perhaps it is time to revive the ancient custom of religious leitourgia, but on a voluntary basis.
What are appropriate ways for modern Hellenes to perform liturgies? First, we can support our religious communities, both on the local and the national levels. Every time we lend our sewing machine to a friend who is making a khiton or bake offering bread for a festival, we are performing a small liturgy. Simple gifts of cash to help cover the cost of renting a space for the ritual or to buy stamps for mailing the newsletter are also liturgies. Pooling our financial resources, we may be able to help buy land or statuary, or organize a regional gathering.
But we can also honor the gods with other kinds of charity. The Emperor Julian, in his "Letter to a Priest," calls upon polytheists not to let other religions outdo us in good works. "All beggars come from Zeus," he reminds us. Pyrokanthos of Thiasos Olympikos relates that, when distributing items to the homeless, he adds a note reading, "Gift of..." with the name of the deity being honored. Many charities encourage giving in honor of special people or events. Why not list Zeus Ktesios as the honoree of your next food bank donation? If you don't need a tax receipt for your donations, you can also do some instant public relations work by crediting your contribution to "The Hellenic Polytheist Community" or to your local Hellenic ritual group.
Finally, we may also undertake acts of religious obligation, such as burying the dead and preserving their memory. I recently became aware of an organization, Garden of Angels, that arranges for burial and memorial services for abandoned newborns. Donations for memorials for our war dead would also fulfill this type of obligation.
As Artistotle points out in the Nichomachean Ethics, we are forever endebted to the gods. Performing liturgies is a way for Hellenes to acknowledge that debt, while fostering community spirit and extending hospitality to those in need.
Related Links:
http://www.gardenofangels.org/
http://pagan.drak.net/twigpebble/clergy/index.htm#charities
http://www.beliefnet.com/features/tithing_chart.html
***
POLL RESULTS
POLL QUESTION: Do you speak or read Greek?
CHOICES AND RESULTS
- I am a native speaker of Greek., 2 votes, 6.45%
- I speak modern Greek fluently or well., 1 votes, 3.23%
- I speak modern Greek moderately well., 0 votes, 0.00%
- I speak a little modern Greek., 2 votes, 6.45%
- I am currently studying modern Greek., 3 votes, 9.68%
- I read ancient Greek fluently or well., 2 votes, 6.45%
- I read ancient Greek moderately well., 2 votes, 6.45%
- I can read a little ancient Greek., 5 votes, 16.13%
- I am currently studying ancient Greek., 6 votes, 19.35%
- I do not speak or read Greek., 8 votes, 25.81%
***
NEW POLL
Would you prefer to continue to receive the Kerux by email, or would you like it to be posted directly to the Nomos Arkhaios web site and notification sent out? To vote, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/polls/kerux
***
UPCOMING EVENTS
=Northern California=
On Saturday, 9 June 2001 Thiasos Olympikos will celebrate the Birthday of Sokrates with a dromena in honor of the God Asklepios. For more information, visit http://home.pon.net/rhinoceroslodge/ or contact Pyrokanthos at rhinoceroslodge@pon.net.
=New England=
The Greater Boston Pagan Network hosts a series of open rituals by different local Pagan groups. For transportation and parking details, send a blank message to sabbats-faq@numachi.com or contact Maureen at MaureenRW@excite.com or 781-388-3773.
***
CONTRIBUTE TO THE KERUX
The Kerux is always looking for articles, reviews, and announcements of interest to the Hellenic Reconstructionist community. We're particularly interested in items that support home-based religious practice and eusebeia (piety). Paste your contribution into an email and send to kerux-owner@yahoogroups.com.
***
The Kerux is a project of Nomos Arkhaios, an educational resource center promoting the study and practice of traditional Hellenic religion. For more information, visit the website at http://www.nomos-arkhaios.org . Individual authors appearing in the Kerux retain all rights to their work. If you'd like to reprint something you see here, please write directly to the author of the piece for permission.
This article originally appeared on Andrew Campbell's Nomos Arkhaios site which is currently on hiatus.
This article is copyright © 2000-2003 by Andrew Campbell and is reprinted here with permission.