Altars For Greek Gods (pt.2)

altars for greek gods (pt.2)

this post includes zeus, hera, poseidon, hestia, hephaestus, dionysus, ares, demeter, and athena. for part 1 including hades, persephone, artemis, apollo, aphrodite, hermes, and hekate click here.

keep in mind that typical offerings to any god includes meat, wine, grain (usually barley), honey, and incense (myrrh and frankincense would be period appropriate), but i'm listing some specific offerings that can be given if you'd like

colors can be used for candles, banners, decor, whatever you want

ZEUS

Colors: white, blue, and grey for association with the heavens, yellow and black for association with storms. gold because he's the King of the Gods

Offerings: rain water, oak, olives/olive branches/olive leaves, vervain, cinnamon, laurel. images of himself or lightning bolts are particularly recommended for Zeus

Crystals: diamonds, gold (i think pyrite, aka fool's gold, would be offensive), turquoise, lapis lazuli, celestite, iron/steel, any quartz

Animals: eagle, bull

POSEIDON

Colors: blue and white for association with the seas, gray for association with storms, brown for association with the earth/earthquakes

Offerings: coffee, mint, ocean water, salt, seashells

Crystals: coral, petoskey stone, abalone, opal (especially water opal), blue calcite, aquamarine

Animals: horse, bull, dolphin, hippocampus

HERA

Colors: red, pink and white for association with love and marriage. gold because she's the Queen of the Gods.

Offerings: iris, rose, patchouli, coconut, cypress, maple, peacock feathers, pomegranate

Crystals: pearls, garnet, citrine, diamonds, lapis lazuli, topaz, opal, moonstone, rose quartz

Animals: peacock, cuckoo, cow

HESTIA

Colors: red, orange, and yellow for association with fire, brown or white for the hearth/home.

Offerings: tea/coffee (especially if you drink it with her), pine, bread, cider, apples, anything on fire, cinnamon

Crystals: amber, jade, garnet, ruby, carnelian, sunstone, amethyst, honey calcite

Animals: donkey, pig, crane

HEPHAESTUS

Colors: red, orange, and yellow for association with fire, metallics for association with metalworking.

Offerings: spicy things, hot beverages, handmade things, dragon's blood incense, seashells, anything on fire

Crystals: metals, fire opal, honey calcite, obsidian, hematite, carnelian

Animals: donkey, dog, crane

DIONYSUS

Colors: purple and green for association with grapes/wine, leopard/tiger print for his holy animals

Offerings: grapes (or any derivative), alcohol, cinnamon, ivy, pinecones. there's a particular emphasis on non-physical offerings with dionysus, like playing music, partying or sex/masturbation

Crystals: grape agate, leopard jasper, crazy lace agate, tiger's eye, garnet, rose or rutilated quartz, amethyst, jade

Animals: panther/leopard, tiger, bull, serpent, dolphin

ARES

Colors: red and purple for association with war

Offerings: spicy things, yarrow, chocolate, basil, cinnamon

Crystals: bloodstone, garnet, red jasper, smokey quartz, black tourmaline, hematite, metals, obsidian, carnelian

Animals: eagle owl, barn owl, poisonous snakes, boar, vulture

DEMETER

Colors: green, brown, and yellow for association with the earth/harvest. black for her ruthlessness

Offerings: oats and grain, anything baked, flowers, spices (like cinnamon or cloves, allspice is good too), leaves that have begun to change colors for fall, mint, poppy

Crystals: jade, tree/moss agate, carnelian, amber, aventurine, rutilated quartz

Animals: serpent, farm animals (especially pig), gecko, turtle-dove

ATHENA

Colors: white and grey/silver for association with wisdom. red for association with war

Offerings: anything handmade, olives/olive oil/olive branches/olive leaves, snake shed, cedar, cypress, cinnamon

Crystals: metals, celestite, fluorite, lapis lazuli, bloodstone, obsidian, iolite

Animals: snakes and owls

Trying to Explain How the Gods Feel to Me

Inspired by @khthonioi and their post. They’re really sweet so check them out!

Hermes: The excitement of getting a letter from a real person, winning a coin toss, suddenly breaking into a sprint, helping a friend up after they’ve fallen, getting on a train and not knowing where you’ll get off, speaking in a foreign language for the first time, having someone you love stay over at your house, cool evening air after a hot day, jumping a fence, winning a game of go fish as a child, visiting a bustling market, getting doubles with dice, successfully passing a soccer ball

Ares: Doing what needs to be done, finding old scars, persevering no matter what, the feeling that comes after a workout, overcoming a fear, bandaging up a wound, the buzz of a protest, feeling the blood of all that have come before you running through your veins, holding an old pocket knife, wearing a leather jacket, the smell of dragons blood, lighting a match only to blow it out, the satisfaction of cracking ice, pressing on a bruise and finding it no longer hurts

Artemis: Slipping into worn boots, balancing on a log with no fear of falling, dancing alone in your room, late night walks, running your hands through a dogs fur, severing the stem of a flower with a knife, the lightness after cutting off a lot of hair, twirling in a flowy skirt or dress, being able to see at night thanks to the moon, the drive to keep going, the gurgling of a stream, making eye contact with a wild animal and feeling a connection, cooking on a campfire 

Zeus: The rumble of thunder in your chest, seeing justice be carried out, knowing this is where you’re meant to be, watching lightning hit the earth, realizing you can change the outcome, entering a dark oak forest, watching a bird soar against the wind, doing what other deemed impossible, a warm hand on your shoulder, smelling petrichor in the air, finding proof of something you knew to be true, seeing the trees bend but not break to the wind, feeling all the hair on your body stand up, the heaviness in the air before a storm

Ares and Hera (pregnant with Ilithyia).

This is the first time I’ve drawn dialogue in ages.

Low energy Devotional Acts for when you don’t have a lot of energy (or time, or money, etc.) pt. 1

⚡️Zeus⚡️

-listen to storm or rain soundscapes

-watch the weather or check the weather on your phone or in the newspaper

-watch storm chasing videos

-watch documentaries or videos about various monarchies and/or kings

-watch videos about Crete! His mother hid Him there in a cave to keep Him safe from his father! And there’s all sorts of travel videos and such about it! If military history is your thing you could also learn about the Battle of Crete which took place in ww2!

-listen to devotional playlists for Him I have one up on Spotify but I know there’s some others there as well!

-cloud gaze

-watch nature docs about any of His sacred animals! The eagle, bulls, etc.

⚔️Ares⚔️

-watch war movies or war related shows (my favorite is Band of Brothers which I have on dvd)

-watch war related documentaries

-watch combat sports like boxing, wrestling, etc.

-do a Wikipedia rabbit hole search about various weapons and/or combat styles from any era or a YouTube deep dive whichever works for you

-if able find and attend a reenactment my town does a little civil war thing a few times a year that I occasionally go to you learn about what life as a soldier was like and what training was like and all that it’s very interesting

-watch a video about Thebes! Ares is said to have played a role in its founding!

-learn about birds of prey!

-listen to a devotional playlist for Him

-adding to this with: listening to video game soundtracks from fighting/combat games, or listening to war soundscapes

Fertility gods get a lot of emphasis on sexuality. That's definitely an aspect of them given how much Freyr particularly is ehm... portrayed, but that's not all that fertility means.

Example: Beltane is, according to my Llewellyn book collection, a sexy sex festival of fornication and, on the side, a splash of PG rated euphemisms. To me, this is boring and ought to make Beltane an entirely skippable season. However, it's actually one of my favorites, and the time I feel closest to Freyr.

Fertility is just abundance. It can manifest a multitude of ways, from physical wealth, to richness of soil and flourishing of crops and livestock. Passion is mental as much as physical. Anyone who has sunk into a warm bath at the end of a hard day can tell you that physical bliss doesn't always mean sex.

Freyja and Freyr are gods of indulgences and good things. Taking care of yourself. The feeling of being wrapped in a warm blanket on a rainy day, or the rush of joy in seeing something or someone you love. The pleasant aching stretch of growing, and the satisfaction after working hard. And, yes, sometimes sex.

Love, War, and Disability

From a historical lens looking at the myth of Aphrodite cheating on Hephaestus with Ares, it’s interesting because the Hephaestus cults were often primarily made up of men who were injured in combat.

Blacksmithing and metalworking was a primary career path for those who had limb differences or other disabilities as a result of war. And thus, the devotees of Hephaestus often were people who might harbor resentment towards the concept of war.

Furthermore, the idea that war (Ares) would steal their love/lust/sexual experience (Aphrodite) away from them makes sense too, a lot of people with various injuries and disabilities might have physical difficulties with sex, AND people are less likely to view disabled people as sexual beings.

Alternatively, if we consider Aphrodite as a Goddess of self-love, then the myth is changed to be that war, and the injury of war, stole away their self-love. This is something a lot of disabled people even in modern day struggle with on many levels.

I personally view the golden net as a reclamation of the self, of one’s self love, of sexuality, healing emotionally from war, and coming to terms with disability.