8417
A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
If you ever need proof of platonists being anti-Pagan and atheistic all you have to do is talk to them.
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I’m taking a long break from the topic of serpent worship. We have covered Hellenic tradition, next will probably be Celtic. But for now I want to delve into other things.
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Asclepius A collection and interpretation of the testimonies by E. and J.Edelstein
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Whoever came in quest of the god’s help had to take some preparatory steps before he could approach him; he had to bathe and to offer sacrifices.
At night, then, without paying any fee of admission, the patients went to the place where they were supposed to wait for the god.
In these sober, almost trivial surroundings the god Asclepius revealed himself directly to everyone who needed his help, and he did so nightly.
The god was seen by the incubant in his sleep or in a strange state between sleep and waking.
Having approached the patient and entered into personal contact with him, the god then immediately proceeded to heal the disease brought to his attention, or he advised a treatment to be followed...
E. and L.Edelstein
It must be remembered that the precinct was as beautiful as the noblest works of Greek art could make it; moreover large and lofty trees formed a shady grove, protecting from the sun’s heat, while the soft breeze and the sweet pure air of the mountains formed in themselves a potent agency for the restoration of health. The patient had much around him to please and interest—beautiful buildings, rich with sculpture and with colour, statuary figures and groups representing Asklepios and other divinities or subjects from the old Greek mythology in marble and bronze.
R.Caton
Patients Sleeping in the Temple of Aesculapius at Epidaurus
by Ernest Board
The image of Asclepius is, in size, half as big as the Olympian Zeus at Athens, and is made of ivory and gold.
The god is sitting on a seat grasping a staff; the other hand he is holding above the head of the serpent; there is also a figure of a dog lying by his side.
Pausanias
Dean further states that:
"Among the common people of Constantinople, there were always many more pagans than Christians at heart. With the Christian religion, therefore, which they professed, would be mingled many of the pagan traditions which were attached to the monuments of antiquity that adorned Byzantium, or were imported into Constantinople."
Even despite being a literal priest he had to admit the the conversion was a failure so whenever some modern christians try to use it as an argument just quote their own clergymen to them.
Delphi appears to have been the principal stronghold of serpent worship in Greece. Strabo says its original name was Pytho derived from the serpent Python, slain there by Apollo. From this story Heinsius concludes that the god Apollo was first worshipped at Delphi, under the symbol of a serpent. It is known that the public assemblies at Delphi were called Pythia, these were originally intended for the adoration of the Python.
H.Jennings
Restoration of the polychrome decoration of the Athena statue from the Aphaea temple at Aegina, c. 490 BC (from the exposition "Bunte Götter" by the Munich Glyptothek)
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Athena by gracedpalmer
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The statues, by Phidias, of Minerva, represent her as decorated with this emblem. In ancient medals, as shown by Montfaucon, she sometimes holds a caduceus in her right hand; at other times she has a staff around which a serpent is twisted, and at others, a large serpent appears going in front of her; while she is sometimes seen with her crest composed of a serpent.
It is remarkable too, that in the Acropolis at Athens was kept a live serpent who was generally considered the guardian of the place, and Athens was a city specially consecrated to Minerva.
H.Jennings
Why snakes, of all creatures, are the household guarding spirits in European traditions?
One theory I personally support is the chthonic nature of snakes and them representing dead ancestors. In cases when a European tradition has a non-snake household spirit (like domovoi) it’s a dead ancestor. Often both snake and human household spirits coexisted.
Among many European peoples, as well as in other parts of the world, we find the snake as the guardian of the house. In my own country —Sweden—the house snake was extremely common, and only a few years ago there died a farmer of whom I know that he was wont to offer milk to the house snakes.
M.Nilsson
Pagan Rome is the only Rome
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Under primitive conditions a foreigner is excluded from the protection of law and custom enjoyed by members of the tribe. The word "guest" and the Latin word hostis (foe) are the same word. A suppliant is a man who by trespassing against law and custom has put himself outside their protection. Such a man might be purified and pardoned. As for foreigners, there might be reasons for entering into friendly relations with them. They might, for example, be merchants, for trade, however restricted, always existed, even in early times and under the most primitive conditions.
M.Nilsson
Hermodicos of Lampsacus comes to the Hieron in a paralyzed condition. As he sleeps in the abaton the god tells him to rise, to walk outside the precinct, and carry back into it the largest stone he can find. He does so, and brings in a stone so heavy that no other man can lift it, and the stone, as the inscription says, still lies before the abaton.
R.Caton
Art by Bendis https://www.instagram.com/bend1zart/
I seemed almost to touch him and to perceive that he himself was coming, and to be halfway between sleep and waking and to want to get the power of vision and to be anxious lest he depart beforehand, and to have turned my ears to listen, sometimes as in a dream, sometimes as in a waking vision, and my hair was standing on end and tears of joy (came forth), and the weight of knowledge was no burden—what man could even set these things forth in words?
Testimony of a patient of Asclepius №417
Every night...sick and afflicted pilgrims flocked to the Grecian Temples of Asclepius to take part of a ritual called incubation. The ancient kindly god of medicine was expected to visit them during a dream state and either heal or prescribe drugs, diet, and modes of treatment. Only requisites were that they should be clean and “think pure thoughts.” To show their appreciation, recipients of Asclepius’ favor caused votives (stone or terra cotta images of the afflicted parts which supposedly had been healed) to be made, suitably inscribed, and presented to be hung as testimony on the temple walls.
R.Thom
There can be little doubt that many of the sick benefited greatly by the rest, the pure air, the simple diet, the sources of mental interest, the baths, exercise, massage, and friction, and in later days by the actual medical treatment adopted. Surgical treatment was also employed, for we find marble reliefs of surgical instruments.
R.Caton
The valley of the Hieron was the habitat of a large yellow serpent, perfectly harmless, and susceptible, like most snakes, of domestication. Pausanias tells us it is found in the Epidaurian country alone. I am afraid it is now extinct, though it has been seen during the present century. A number of these creatures dwelt in the sanctuary, perhaps in the vaults of the Tholos. They were reverenced as the incarnation of the god. The sick were delighted and encouraged when one of these creatures approached them, and were in the habit of feeding them with cakes. The serpents seem to have been trained to lick with their forked tongue any ailing part. The dog also was sacred to Asklepios, and the temple dogs in like manner were trained to lick any injured or painful region of the body.
R.Caton
The serpents, including a peculiar kind of a yellowish color, are considered sacred to Asclepius, and are tame with men.
Pausanias
Writing on the Serpent Column of Delphi (transported to Constantinople from the Temple of Apollo), J.Deane mentions a legend about it and concludes it with:
This traditionary legend…marks the strong hold which Ophiolatreia must have taken upon the minds of the people of Constantinople, so as to cause this story to be handed down to so late an æra as the XVII c.
Among the Greeks who resorted to Constantinople were many idolaters of the old religion…Hence, probably, the charm mentioned above, was attached by them to the Delphic serpent on the column in the Hippodrome and revived…by their descendants, the common people, who are always the last in, every country to forget or forego an ancient superstition.
^ note the snake cloak. Just like the statue from Old Temple of Athena (Archaios Neos)
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The Minoan snake-goddess was a house goddess. She was a snake-goddess, not because, as Sir Arthur Evans asserts, she was the lady of the nether world and of the dead, but because she was a house goddess. The guardian spirit of the house had been anthropomorphized, and the house snake had become her attribute.
M.Nilsson
We all know that Athena is the Goddess of wisdom and war as well as a patron of Athens, but often forget that she has a strong connection to snakes.
For example, she is frequently depicted with a shield or cloak with snakes. You can see the latter on this statue of Athena from the pediment of the temple of the Peisistratidai.
Athenians say that a great snake lives in the sacred precinct guarding the acropolis.
The monthly offering is a honey-cake.
In all the time before this the honey-cake had been consumed, but this time it was untouched. When the priestess interpreted the significance of this, the Athenians were all the more eager to abandon the city since the goddess had deserted the acropolis.
Herodotus
Pagan Finns used to feed snakes in the vicinity of their house, usually beneath a sacred tree, such as a spruce (Picea abies) or rowan (Sorbus aucuparia). A sacred birch (Betula pendula or Betula pubescens) might be called Jumalankoivu (God's birch).
These snakes were called elättikäärme (lit. "a snake that is fed / supported").
In the Finnish village of Kieppi in Mäntyharju there were two snakes called Pissu & Sussu living beneath a sacred rowan. They were given the first fish caught in the springtime, tidbits from slaughter during fall, and the first milk after a cow or a woman had given birth.
The tree itself was sacred, as were the snakes, and offerings were brought to it, even after it had been felled for one reason or another.
In Tunnila in Sulkava there used to be a tree underneath which offerings of food were left for the dead, the elves, and various spirits.
Ill fate would befall those who disrespected or mistreated a sacred tree or snake.
Photo: Sacred spruce of the house of Kinnunen.
The problem with Christianity, if anything, is just that it's not authority-based enough.
Your heathen religion is right because the vast majority of your ancestors said so. It's not some groovy middle finger to the man. It's the ultimate in humility and obedience before the divine.
Christianity is the ultimate in hubris. It's you telling almost all your ancestors that you know better.
Words had separated me from my body. The sun released me. Greece cured my self-hatred and awoke a will to health. I saw that beauty and ethics were one and the same. Creating a beautiful work of art and a beautiful oneself are identical.
Yukio Mishima