#2) laurels are associated symbolically and ritually with Apollo

[eruvadhril]

I have become That FFXIV Fan who makes up elaborate headcanons about Azem.

(For the record mine was named Daphne.)

[thegrapeandthefig]

Hello! How are you? I'm in love with your posts, and I learn a lot from them. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! But could you help me, please? Can you tell me how the Greeks asked for spiritual protection for the house? I know it was usually for Hekate, but I don't know how I could be asking. Thank you!

Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you find my posts helpful.

Edit: This got very long, and I promise I do answer your question eventually, just please bear with me.

There were many ways one could protect their home, and as I said in my "spiritual protection" post (which I assume is the one you read before asking this question), a lot of different techniques revolved around the house's threshold. I'm going to avoid repeating too much what I already said in that post and add that a lot of it comes down to a set of religious habits that were protective in nature.

Let's start with the Noumenia and the action of cleaning/replenishing the khadiskos in honor of Zeus Ktesios (+ the libation to the Agathos Daimon on the 2nd). More than monthly praise to the divine Father, it is in essence a protective ritual meant to protect the pantry - your food. So here we have a first domestic ritual that very likely included a prayer and sacrifice.

In parallel, the beginning of the month marked the time where one would tend to the statues (hekataia for Hekate, herms for Hermes):

In fact, it seems likely that the immediate outside of a Greek house could well be cluttered with statues: as well as the pillar of Apollo Agyieus, we have evidence that it was common to find hekataia and herms, representative of Hekate and Hermes respectively:

ὥστερ Ἑκατεῖον πανταχοῦ πρὸ τῶν θυρῶν. they’d [personal law courts] be on doorsteps everywhere, like the shrines for Hekate. (Aristophanes, Ckouds 804)

ὁσοι Ἑρμαῖ ἦσαν λίθινοι ἐν τῇ πόλει τῇ Ἀθηναίων (εἰσὶ δὲ κατὰ τὸ ἐπιχώριον ἡ ἐργασία πολλοὶ καὶ ἐν ἰδίοις προθύροις καὶ ἐν ἱεροῖς) the stone statues of Hermes in the city of Athens – they are the pillars of square construction which according to local custom stand in great numbers both in the doorways of private houses and in sacred places (Thucydides 6.27.1)

Porphyry tells us that these hekataia and herms would be cleaned on a monthly basis (De abstinentia 2.16). There are no identifiable archaeological remains of any of these statues in situ, but Faraone points to evidence of ‘a shallow recess off the street in front of the housedoor… [which] seems ideally suited for statuettes, presumably fashioned from perishable materials.’

- Kerr M. D., Gods, Ghosts and Newlyweds: exploring the uses of the threshold in Greek and Roman superstition and folklore, 2018

So we have to imagine that the presence alone of the statues had their own protective/apotropaic properties but also the monthly tending of it. We could go as far as to imagine that the monthly cleaning was accompanied by a prayer and offering. It honestly doesn't seem like too much of a stretch.

We need to understand that, despite me titling this last post as "spiritual protection", there really isn't much of a distinction between the "physical" and the "spiritual". The statues at the door of the average Greek household protected as much from the spiritual (eg. the restless dead) than the mundane (thieves, mice, illness, etc.)

And this is only for domestic cult. Athens had a fair amount of festivals dedicated to purification, and therefore, protection. The most relevant one for your question is the one(s) that involve the eiresione, aka a branch of olive or laurel that is adorned with wool, dried fruits, nuts, sometimes little flasks of oil or honey. It’s part of at least the Pyanepsia, but some people associate it with both the Pyanepsia and the Thargelia, and I would even be tempted to add the Delphinia, all festivals to Apollo.

During the Pyanopsia, an eiresione would be carried by a young boy during the procession to the temple of Apollo, where it would be placed at the door. That being said, it seems that people made their own at home, and kept it close to their house door:

several passages of Aristophanes which show that any normal house in Athens might be expected to have one outside the front door all year round; […] The orator Lycurgus associates the origin of the custom with an ancient famine, and says ‘decorating a large olive branch with everything that the seasons produce at that time they dedicated it to Apollo in front of their doors, calling it eiresione, making first fruit offerings of all the products of the earth, because the suppliant branch placed with Apollo ended the famine in our land.’ –Robert Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens, 2005

So here we have an example of a protective device that doubles as a ritual tool and is intertwined in both personal and state-cult. Placed at the door for a whole year, it is then replaced at the next Pyanepsia where the ritual would be renewed. Again, we find something that is close to this type of formula (imo) "ritual involving an object"+"sacrifice"+"prayer" like with the monthly sacrifice to Zeus, but here, the eiresione seems to provide more long-term protection.

One could point out also the presence of other apotropaic devices, like phallic imagery. Pompeii stands out in this matter for the Roman example but the practice is present in Greece as well:

Phallic imagery in public monuments and in ordinary domestic and commercial plaques can be found at different times and places throughout the Greek world. A relief of a phallus was discovered on the island of Thera in the Dorian, Hellenistic colony (Figure 1). This engraved, rock-cut, large phallic plaque (1.4m) is placed in the doorway of a residence from the Oea on the island of Thera next to the Greek inscription τοισ φιλοισ (for my friends), an inscription that reflects the “benevolent inclusion of friends within the apotropaic protection.”2 When the phallus is accompanied by this type of inscription, [...], the strength of the apotropaic phallus is further reinforced, sometimes promising “retribution in the precise form taken by the evil to be warded off." - Claudia Moser, "Naked Power: The Phallus as an Apotropaic Symbol in the Images and Texts of Roman Italy.

But there were others that weren't necessarily linked to a deity, like some plants, such as when Dioscorides (Ist century AD) tells us this about the red squill: "It does also ward off evil when hung whole on front doors." (De Materia Medica; II, 171, 4)

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While I wouldn't advise the red squill method (toxic plant), I hope you can see from my long answer that methods were varied. If anything, it shows the ancients were very much concerned about their protection -spiritual or not-.

I do not know your situation, so I can't tell you which of the options will work best for you. Personally, I have an eiresione at my door (+ a lot of phalli around the house due to the gods I worship) and more recently I added the tending of the khadikos to my routine. But you could choose to have a representation of Hekate, Hermes or Apollon at your door (even one that is aniconic, if you need discretion) and do a monthly ritual to the chosen deity, giving your thanks for the protection, pouring a libation, cleaning it. Choosing the right epithet during your prayer to communicate your request clearly (such as Thyraios or Hermes Strophaios -the latter being more against thieves) is a good idea.

I hope this helps, and that examples I gave can inspire you to figure out what it is you want to do.

[thegrapeandthefig]

Attempting to set up a "holiday decoration" box

One of the things that make holidays feel like holidays is symbolic decor. There's a reason why, when December comes around, people get excited about shiny garlands, gingerbread cookies and branches of holy/mistletoe. If you take those elements apart, they don't really mean much but once in context, they communicate a particular message linked to a particular tradition. While I've taken a Christian example, the association of symbolism to specific religious event is something that is found across cultures and faiths.

For hellenic reconstructionists, the question of "what do the festivals mean and how did people celebrate?" is very real, especially when the information is fragmentary and doesn't do justice to the religious diversity of the Ancient World.

the Eiresione: the eiresione is a branch of olive or laurel that is adorned with wool, dried fruits, nuts, sometimes little flasks of oil or honey. I'm putting it first because there's a lot to cover. It's part of at least the Pyanepsia, but some people associate it with both the Pyanepsia and the Thargelia, and I would even be tempted to add the Delphinia. The pattern is that those are all festivals to Apollo.

Plutarch, in his Life of Theseus (22), gives us more details:

At that feast they also carry the so-called ‘eiresione,’ which is a bough of olive wreathed with wool, such as Theseus used at the time of his supplication, and laden with all sorts of fruit-offerings, to signify that scarcity was at an end, and as they go they sing:—

"Eiresione for us brings figs and bread of the richest, brings us honey in pots and oil to rub off from the body, Strong wine too in a beaker, that one may go to bed mellow."

The part in bold is what leads me to believe there might be a link with the Delphinia, even if they don't have the same ritual purpose, as Plutarch also describes earlier in Life of Theseus (18.1):

When the lot was cast, Theseus took those upon whom it fell from the prytaneium and went to the Delphinium, where he dedicated to Apollo in their behalf his suppliant's badge. This was a bough from the sacred olive-tree, wreathed with white wool. Having made his vows and prayers, he went down to the sea on the sixth day of the month Munychion, on which day even now the Athenians still send their maidens to the Delphinium to propitiate the god.

In the ritual for the Pyanopsia, the eiresione would be carried by a young boy during the procession to the temple of Apollo, where it would be placed at the door. That being said, there's indication that people had their own eiresione at home, close to their house door:

several passages of Aristophanes which show that any normal house in Athens might be expected to have one outside the front door all year round; [...] The orator Lycurgus associates the origin of the custom with an ancient famine, and says ‘decorating a large olive branch with everything that the seasons produce at that time they dedicated it to Apollo in front of their doors, calling it eiresione, making first fruit offerings of all the products of the earth, because the suppliant branch placed with Apollo ended the famine in our land.’

-Robert Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens, 2005

We could go on and on with this topic, but the point is just that the eiresione is meant to be a bringer of wealth to the household. Its purpose and use in religious festival make it an item to consider when thinking about stuff to add to your religious paraphernalia.

Garlands: They are mentioned in sources and probably could exist both made out of flowers and fabric but we don't really know what they actually looked like. This seems like a generally versatile festival decoration. Colour-coding could be an interesting modern adaptation.

Wreaths: following with the garland logic, this is something that seems very universal and could easily be adapted to the time of the year/festival. Olive wreaths for important Athena festivals, laurel for Apollo, vine for Dionysus, wheat for Demeter etc. Wreaths could make up for a very rich and handy way of decorating for specific festivals.

Phallus and phallic imagery: Again, a symbol that comes up in processions, especially for Dionysus. I'm aware this isn't the easiest to pull off, but if 1) you're fine with the imagery and 2) have the freedom to decorate your house however you want, this is something to consider for Dionysian and Demeter festivities.

Torches, fire imagery/candles: Fire is a bit of a given considering the central place of the hearth in this religion, but I wanted to bring it up for some specific events. The Prometheia, the Panathenieia and the Hephaisteia all included a torch race. The Mounychia also featured "little torches" (dadia) that were put on the cake-offerings to Artemis (the amphiphontes).

Cow and bull imagery: Appropriate for Zeus and Hera-centered festivals, especially the Dipolieia.

Bear imagery: Especially appropriate for the Brauronia.

This is a work in progress, and I will probably update those ideas in the future. It's while making the holiday cards that I realized what was missing was clear symbolism for the festivals that are part of my religious calendar. Feedback and ideas more than welcome.