#ancient Greek ephebes

[jeannereames]

While reading stories of Alexander & his friends, it often feels like they could very well be today's youths. Is it because the authors present Alexander's world in a way relatable to the modern reader? Or there are things about youth common in all eras, like teenage crisis, romance, dreams, bold & adventurous spirit? And if I'm not wrong, you mention at one place that you don't "heroize" Alexander. That's interesting, since he's often worshipped a mythical hero. Why did you move away from that?

Alexander and the boys

This query was really two, or at least I want to separate them into two, so I’ll address the matter of heroizing Alexander in a different post.

The reason teen Alexander feels familiar owes to the simple fact biology makes certain aspects of adolescence universal. That said, while all human beings go through (suffer?) adolescence, whether it’s recognized as a “stage of life” depends on place and era. Does X culture have an adolescent moratorium, or time period between childhood and adulthood when teens are not (yet) saddled with the full responsibilities of adulthood?

Ancient Greece did, at least for some classes; they even had a specialized term: ephebe/έφηβος. Later, it came to signify a specific military class for training (18-20), but originally, it just meant a teenage boy, although the start age was imagined as later, more like 15+. Up to that, the generic pais (child) was more common. Ephebe has the implication of “starting to look like a man.”

Of more import, they invented what’s become the Western pedagogical system. The word pedagogy is GREEK: pais (child) agōgē (guiding/training): a paidagōgos was a nanny, but also a method of teaching children. The specific Spartan schooling system is referred to as the Agōgē, but the word has a generic meaning too. All of that is related to the Greek word for “work” (agōn) but also “to lead” (egōn).

There’s your Greek lesson for the day.

The Greeks had a pretty firm idea of the proper way to train up boys* and shape young minds. By the Classical era, and arguably the late Archaic, city Greeks were sending boys between the ages of 7 and 12 to school. These were private, so parents paid for the privilege of getting junior out of the house so somebody else could run herd on him. Mom and Dad had work to do. What were boys taught? The Three Rs (reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic) but also phys-ed (PE) and music. Again, the basics of a proper European primary-school education.

At 12, most boys returned home to take up their father’s occupation. So these were not all wealthy boys. Some were what we’d call middle class, but their families had enough money to invest in their education, and then, as now, the pricier the tuition, the better the teachers. But most stopped on the cusp of adolescence and went to work; they had no adolescent moratorium.

Only the wealthiest boys could afford to go on to what amounted to secondary education: lessons with a philosopher in order to prep them for their future careers as politicians, generals, and city leaders. What they learned now were rhetoric, eristics (art of argument), some literature, laws, theory on government, etc.

This higher-level tutoring is what Aristotle was hired for. Alexander (and friends) had already had the basics. A “philosophic education” had been around for over a century by the time Philip called Aristotle to Pella, although it wasn’t as set in form as it would become by the Hellenistic and Roman eras. In some of his more famous works, such as the Politics, Aristotle talks about the importance of education in the formation of a state: specifically in Book 7.18, and most of Book 8. He gets very specific in Book 8. He puts forward a number of common ideas the ancients had about the nature of the child. Most believed character was unchanging, so education would work to curb a person’s vices and elevate their virtues.

The Greeks, btw, did not invent schools themselves. Egyptians and Mesopotamians both had schools for children before the Greeks did. Greeks got the idea from them. But they did create their own notion of what school should include, which is what they passed down to the Romans, then to Europe, and finally, to most school systems in the West.

Anyway, when a culture introduces the adolescent moratorium, it frees up teenagers to, well, do “stupid teen shit.” Schools provide an environment where they create their own society with their own rules. In cultures where they begin adult jobs at 12/13 (or even sooner), they’re integrated and don’t have the chance to create these little sub-societies that percolate with all the drama of wildly pumping hormones.

So, a society that creates an environment where groups of teens regularly congregate in disproportionate numbers to either adults or children, like secondary school, squire/military, maid, or scribal training--or the Macedonian Pages Corps--will feel familiar to modern societies that have high schools.

Put a bunch of teens together, suffering through adolescence, and it’ll produce similar results anywhere, any time.

—————-

*Girls were obviously not included in misogynistic Greece.

[officialpenisenvy]

what is ephebe?

basically an old word for a suspiciously young twink of great beauty

[escapismsworld]

The piercing gaze of the ancient Greeks.

A collection of some famous Greek sculptures looking directly at...you

From left to right:

1) Antikythera Philosopher, 250 BCE

2) Athena of Piraeus, 4th century BCE

3) Head of Hygeia, 5th-4th cen. BCE

4) Antikythera Ephebe, 4th cent. BCE

5) Unknown man from Delos, c. 100

BCE

6) Head of a Goddess, 2nd cent. CE

📸 ArysPan

[thegrapeandthefig]

Hair offerings: historical context, purpose and uses

Offerings of hair, locks of hair or ritual hair-cutting is quite a regular occurrence in ancient sources and textbooks discussing various religious customs of the ancient Greek world. It also seems to be a fairly forgotten offering in a modern context, which is why I wanted to delve back in and write this post. I will be focusing on laying out the historical contexts in which we find this specific offering in order to understand the core logic behind what it means to offer a lock of hair to a deity.

Rites of passage

It is impossible to mention offerings of hair without touching on the topic of “rites of passage”. However, this is an umbrella term that encompasses different kinds of rites or life events depending on the environment and stage of life of the participants.

Kourotrophic hair-cutting

Arguably the most common example of offerings of hair is the one done by boys, typically when entering adulthood (typically referred to as paides or ephêboi), but there are important variations depending on the era and local customs, with the youngest example known being the one of a 4-year-old boy in the 3rd century BC.

Kourotrophic deities typically refer to Apollo, Artemis and the plentitude of local river gods. However, this is far from being the only gods considered kourotrophoric since we also have evidence that includes Poseidon, the Nymphs, Asklepios and Hygieia in that group.

There were several occasions for which young boys would offer their hair. In Athens, later sources mention that the 3rd day of the Apatouria festival included the ritual cutting and offering to Artemis of the hair of the young men who officially entered their phratries after having made an offering of wine to Herakles.

In a wider context, kourotrophoric deities are concerned with the growth and well-being of children and adolescents. It seems common that offerings were made pursuant to a vow, often done by a parent while the adolescent is still a child (or even just born). Their purpose is to help assure successful maturation, but they seem to work by establishing a positive relationship with the kourotrophic deity. These rites unfold over a long period of time: there is a vow, a period of hair growth that might last for many years, and then, a ceremonial cutting.

Pausanias gives us an example of ritual growing of the hair for the river god Alpheios in his story about Leukippos, stating he “wove the hair he was growing for the river Alpheios in the same way that maidens do.” (Pausanias 8.20.3)

The organization of the final cutting seems to have been a familial event that included the participation of the parents, if they didn’t even make the offering themselves on behalf of the son. Three inscriptions from the island of Paros in the 3rd century AD describe the offering of “childhood” or “ephebic” hair done by a parent to Asklepios and Hygeia, instead of being performed by the boy himself.

A noteworthy example from Thebes shows the participation of a brother instead of the parents (see image below). In this case, the dedication of the hair, shown braided, is made to Poseidon by Philombrotos and Aphthonetos, sons of Deinomachos. David Leitao rules out the possibility of this inscription being about a votive, in favour of it being a rite of passage for two reasons: firstly, the locks that are sculpted in relief on the stele are long and carefully braided, and reminiscent of the braids frequently seen elsewhere on the heads of boys and adolescents in Greek sculpture. Secondly, Poseidon seems to play an important role in the growth of children in Thessaly in particular.

Further reading for this section:

→ Leitao, David D. "Adolescent hair-growing and hair-cutting rituals in ancient Greece: A sociological approach." Initiation in ancient Greek rituals and narratives. Routledge, 2013. 120-140.

→ Pilz, Oliver. "Water, Moisture, Kourotrophic Deities, and Ritual Hair-Cutting among the Greeks." Les études classiques 87.1-3 (2019).

Marriage

If young men grew and offered their hair to kourotrophoric deities at a young age, girls and young women tended to offer a lock of hair a bit later, as part of the pre-nuptial rites. While the practice was widespread throughout the Greek world, we can use this passage from Herodotus (4.34) concerning the citizens of Delos to illustrate the phenomenon:

“And in honor of these Hyperborean girls who died in Delos, the girls and boys of Delos cut their hair. The girls cut off a lock before marriage, wind it around a spindle, and place it on the tomb (the tomb is within the sanctuary of Artemis, on the left side as one enters, and an olive tree grows there); and the Delian boys wind some of their hair around a kind of grass and they, too, place it on the tomb.”

Similar pre-nuptial rites are attested elsewhere: in Troezen, the brides dedicated a lock of hair to the temple of Hippolytus (Pausanias 2.32.1) while in Megara, the brides made the offering on the tomb of the maiden Iphinoe.

Offerings of hair before marriage is only one of the many pre-nuptial offerings. Katia Margariti calls it a “very symbolic premarital offering” and notes that in most of the cases mentioned, the brides offered their hair to maidens who had died before they could transition into adulthood. Hippolytus, son of Theseus, stands as an exception, the aetiological myth behind the rite being that he angered Aphrodite by staying chaste in honour of Artemis, which caused his tragic death (before being resuscitated by Asklepios). It is in this context that he places himself as an appropriate recipient for the offering of brides.

In Athens, the offering of hair from brides was addressed to Artemis directly instead, but it could also be made to Hera and/or to the Nymphs.

Let me quote Evy Johanne Håland to summarize what has been said so far:

“The cutting of hair, ‘the crown of childhood’, admits boys and girls to society, announcing their passage to adulthood and marriage. By offering the aparchai, first fruits or primal offerings, to the life-giving waters, boys who were initiated as warriors and girls ensured their fertility in their married lives. Haircutting symbolizes the transition to another stage in life. This practice is found in ancient and later periods of Greece, where the fountains were decorated with maidenhair until modern times. In this connection the theme of death and rebirth is important, since the initiates are reborn into a new life. Moments of transition from one state of life to another are high points of danger, and the person is especially vulnerable to spirits, agencies, influences, or invisible mischief.”

Further reading for this section:

→ Oakley, John Howard, and Rebecca H. Sinos. The wedding in ancient Athens. University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.

→ Margariti, Katia. "The Greek Wedding outside Athens and Sparta: The Evidence from Ancient Texts." Les Études Classiques 85.4 (2018).

→ Dillon, Matthew PJ. "Post-nuptial sacrifices on Kos (Segre," ED" 178) and ancient Greek marriage rites." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (1999): 63-80.

→ Håland, Evy Johanne. "“Take, Skamandros, My Virginity”: Ideas Of Water In Connection With Rites Of Passage In Greece, Modern And Ancient." The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing and Hygiene from Antiquity through the Renaissance. Brill, 2009. 109-148.

Death, the dead and departures

With everything that has already been brought up, it comes as no surprise to find offerings of hair in funerary context. Death is, after all, a great transition, both for the deceased and the one suffering the loss of a loved one.

The premarital offerings of hair already hinted towards a link to death, whether it is through the remembrance of a dead hero or, more symbolically, the death of childhood.

While not a dedication to a deity, the symbolism of hair in the context of remembrance is something also found in a gesture connected with the memory of fallen soldiers: the warrior cuts strands of his hair, which after his death were then handed over to his relatives.

It is tempting to link this gesture to the funerary rituals that involved hair. As such, already in the Archaic era, it was customary for each attendee of a funeral to place a lock of their own hair upon the remains of the deceased. The Iliad gives us an idea of such a rite in Book 23 and to the rite of growing hair for a river god.

“No, before Zeus, who is the greatest of gods and the highest, there is no right in letting water come near my head, until I have laid Patroklos on the burning pyre, and heaped the mound over him, and cut my hair for him, since there will come no second sorrow like this to my heart again while I am still one of the living.”

“In the midst of them his comrades bore Patroklos and covered him with the locks of their hair which they cut off and threw upon his body. Last came Achilles with his head bowed for sorrow, so noble a comrade was he taking to the house of Hades.”

“He went a space away from the pyre, and cut off the yellow lock which he had let grow for the river Spercheios. He looked all sorrowfully out upon the dark sea, and said, "Spercheios, in vain did my father Peleus vow to you that when I returned home to my loved native land I should cut off this lock and offer you a holy hecatomb; fifty she-goats was I to sacrifice to you there at your springs, where is your grove and your altar fragrant with burnt-offerings. Thus did my father vow, but you have not fulfilled the thinking of his prayer; now, therefore, that I shall see my home no more, I give this lock as a keepsake to the hero Patroklos. […]As he spoke he placed the lock in the hands of his dear comrade, and all who stood by were filled with yearning and lamentation.”

The implications of this passage would deserve its own post, and I won’t dwell on this, but we can clearly see the double layer of symbolism at play with the locks of hair alone.

When it comes to burial rites, beyond the Archaic customs, Ochs interprets the custom this way: “Rhetorically, cutting a lock of hair and placing it in the grave can be understood as a message of collective solidarity. All mourners in the polis engaged in the same action and, thus, by doing so reaffirmed the cohesion of their beliefs. Note also that the collective, dedicatory message is directed at the deceased. The symbolic behavior, therefore, visually links the living community with the dead person or, more accurately, the dead person's spirit. In other words, the message is one of aggregating the living with each other and the living with the soul of the deceased.”

We can also find another purpose in the scope of ancient tragedies about Orestes and Elektra, where post-burial offerings are used to pacify the dead and to convey personal affection primarily through the use of food and drink. The lock of hair is also found but it functions in the plays as a device for recognition.

Further reading for this section:

→ Closterman, Wendy E., A. Avramidou, and D. Demetriou. "Women as gift givers and gift producers in ancient Athenian funerary ritual." Approaching the Ancient Artifact: Representation, Narrative, and Function. A Festschrift in Honor of H. Alan Shapiro (2014): 161-174.

→ Barbanera, Marcello. "Dressing to Hunt: Some Remarks on the Calyx Krater from the So-Called House of C. Julius Polybius in Pompeii." Approaching the Ancient Artifact: Representation, Narrative and Function. A Festschrift in Honor of H. Alan Shapiro (2014): 91-104.

→ Ochs, Donovan J. Consolatory rhetoric: Grief, symbol, and ritual in the Greco-Roman era. Univ of South Carolina Press, 1993.

Votives

Last but not least, now that the heavier ritual uses have been covered, is the topic of hair offerings as a way to say “thank you”. Similarly to how the offering of hair from young boys to river gods came as a petition for safety, we find locks of hair being used as thanks to surviving dangerous situations like illnesses or an escape from a disaster.

A Hellenistic epigram names the rescue from distress at sea as reason for a ritual hair-cutting, where a man named Lukillios shaves off his hair for Glaukos, the Nereids, Melikertes, Poseidon and the Samothracian gods as thanks for surviving the incident.

Another example is one told to us by Pausanias concerning the cult of Asklepios and Hygieia in the city of Titane:

“Of the image [of Asclepius] can be seen only the face, hands, and feet, for it has about it a tunic of white wool and a cloak. There is a similar image of Hygieia; this, too, one cannot see easily because it is so surrounded with the locks of women, who cut them off and offer them to the goddess, and with strips of Babylonian raiment. With whichever of these a votary here is willing to propitiate heaven, the same instructions have been given to him, to worship this image which they are pleased to call Health.” (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.11.6–7)

While it is impossible to know the exact reasons why each of the women offered their hair to Hygieia, the idea that it was in return for health sounds the most logical.

In the sanctuary of Zeus at Panamara in Caria hair was either enclosed in a small stone coffer in the form of a stele and set up in the precinct with an inscription placed upon it, or placed in a hole in the wall or hung upon the wall with a small label placed upon it. The former was probably for the wealthiest citizens, while the latter reserved for those with less means. In the case of the former, the hair itself was no longer visible, but the stele and inscription were. In the case of the latter the hair remained visible in conjunction with a label that named the dedicant. The care put into storing the locks in these examples is telling of an offering that is symbolically charged and likely lasted a lifetime, due to the durability of hair.

Similarly, an epigram in the Palatine Anthology, attributed to Antipater of Thessalonica poetically tells of the hair offering of a young man to Apollo:

“Having shaved the down that flowered in its season under his temples, [he dedicated] his cheeks’ messengers of manhood, a first offering, and prayed that he might so shave gray hairs from his whitened temples. Grant him these, and even as you made him earlier, so make him hereafter, with the snows of old age upon him.”

While this epigram is clearly related to the idea of hair-cutting for young boys, as it refers to the growth of the first facial hair, it also begs the question of the quality of the appearance of the first white hair. Aside from being a poetic call to the blessing of living a long life — long enough to know old age — we might want to wonder about what it would mean to offer one’s white hair within the logic of transition from adulthood to seniority.

Further reading for this section: → Draycott, Jane. "Hair today, gone tomorrow: The use of real, false and artificial hair as votive offerings." Bodies of Evidence. Routledge, 2017. 77-94.

Final thoughts

If there is something to take away from the historical uses of hair in the religious setting of the Ancient Greeks, it is the idea of transition. From the entrance into adulthood to death, hair offerings come up at key moments in one's life, or at least, in answer to brushes with death, placing hair in a very important position. It is a highly personal, intimate and symbolic offering.

While this post isn't the place to discuss modern reinterpretations, I think the key to integrating hair offerings in reconstructionist practice comes down to asking yourself the question of what the milestones in our modern lives are and what they mean, alongside other life-changing events.

[darkphoenix180]

Zeus: god of thunder and the sky. He is considered the ruler, protector, and father of all gods and humans. 

Hera: goddess of marriage, family, childbirth, and woman. She was the wife and sister of Zeus, and many of her most famous myths center around her jealous retributions to Zeus's infidelity.

Poseidon: god of the sea (and water in general), earthquakes, and horses. He was one of the most powerful gods in ancient Greek mythology, Poseidon was held responsible for earthquakes, rivers, floods, droughts, and anything involving water in general.

Demeter: goddess of harvest and agriculture. This was a hugely important role, which gave her the power to sustain life through the growth of all plants and grains, particularly cereal grains.

Ares: god of war and more properly the spirit of battle. He represented the distasteful aspects of brutal warfare and slaughter. Ares was noted for his beauty and courage, qualities which no doubt helped him win the affections of the Greek goddess Aphrodite.

Athena: goddess of wisdom, craft, and warfare. In wars where she was most commonly depicted, Athena embodied cold rationality, tactics, and strategy. Athena's cold logic stood in direct contrast to her brother Ares' rage, violence, and impulsiveness.

Apollo: god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. He is considered to be the most beautiful god and is represented as the ideal of the Kouros (ephebe, or a beardless, athletic youth).

Artemis: goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. Artemis was very protective of her purity and gave grave punishment to any man who attempted to dishonor her in any form. Like all the Greek Olympic gods, Artemis was immortal and very powerful. Her special powers included perfect aim with the bow and arrow, the ability to turn herself and others into animals, healing, disease, and control of nature.

Hephaestus: god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture, and volcanos. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was either the son of Zeus and Hera or he was Hera's parthenogenous child. He was cast off Mount Olympus by his mother Hera because of his lameness, the result of a congenital impairment; or in another account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his advances (in which case his lameness would have been the result of his fall rather than the reason for it).

Aphrodite: goddess of love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. Florence

Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, which is why she is sometimes called "Cyprian", especially in the poetic works of Sappho. The Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia, marking her birthplace, was a place of pilgrimage in the ancient world for centuries.

Hermes: god of boundaries, roads, travelers, thieves athletes, shephards, commerce, speed, cunning, wit, and messages. Hermes was considered the messenger of the Olympic gods. According to legend, he was the son of Zeus, king of Mount Olympus, and Maia, a nymph. As time went on, he was also associated with luck, shepherds, athletes, thieves, and merchants.

Dionysus: god of wine making, orchards and fruit, fertility, festivity insanity, tuition insanity, religious ecstacy, and theatre. The son of an immortal god and a mortal princess, Dionysus’ role forged a crucial link between humanity and the divine, serving as a force of cyclical, unbridled nature who drew men and women out of themselves through intoxication. In that sense, Dionysus, a genial but wild and dangerously ravishing intermediary, represents one of the enduring mysteries and paradoxes of life.

[mask131]

The myth of Dionysos (7)

I covered before two articles of the "Dictionary of Literary Myths". Here I bring you another loose translation of a thorough article covering Dionysos' legend, myth and god-self. However this time, it is an article coming from Félix Guirand's "General Mythology". It is a bit of an old article - originally written in 1937 - so some elements might be lacking or outdated, but Guirand's book and studied stayed a very influential and referential work when it came to mythology studies for a very long time, up to the early 21st century, so there is a legitimate interest to put it alongside other Dionysos articles throughout this series.

In the section about Greek mythology, Félix Guirand classifies Dionysos right after Demeter among the "earth gods" and "agragrian deities".

I/ Traits and attributes

Dionysos (etymologically speaking, the “Zeus of Nysa” seems, by analogies of his attributes and legends, to be the Greek version of the Vedic god “Soma”. His cult seems to have been born in Thrace: brought to Boeotia by settling Thracian tribes, it was then carried to the island of Naxos by Boeotian colonizers, before it finally started spreading over the entire archipelago, before returning to the continental Greece – first in the Attic region, and later in the Peloponnese. The character that was the primitive Dionysos complexified itself by borrowing traits from foreign deities – most notably the Cretan Zagreus, the Phrygian Sabazios, and the Lydian Bassareus. As such, Dionysos kept gaining new domains and powers as his characterization grew. It seems that Dionysos was originally simply a god of wine. From the spirit of wine, he became a god of vegetation and hot humidity, and from this point he evolved into the god of pleasures, then into the god of civilization, and finally, according to the Orphic traditions, he reached his apex as a manifestation of the supreme deity.

II/ Cult and depictions

Dionysos was honored throughout all of Greece, but the nature of his festivities and holidays varied depending on the regions and eras. One of his most ancient celebrations was the Agrionia, that came from Boeotia (most specifically Orchomenos): in its primitive form, the Bacchants killed a young boy in honor of the god. Human sacrifices were also practiced at Chios and Lesbos – they were however replaced by ritual flagellation. In the Attic region, it was the rural Dionysia that were celebrated: in December it was the Lenaea, holidays of the wine press, when the god was offered the first products of the wine-season. Then, at the end of February, came the Anthesteria, or “flowery celebrations”, that lasted three days during which the wine of the last harvest was tasted – in the Lenoeon sanctuary a procession was organized, followed by a sacrifice offered by the wife of the archon-king, and concluded by the offering of boiled seeds to both Dionysos and Hermes. The most famed and renowned celebrations of Dionysos were however the Great Dionysia, or urban Dionysia, at the beginning of March. It was during this festival that theater plays were organized. These nobles and respectful ceremonies were coupled with orgy-like celebrations all throughout Greece – such as the orgiastic celebrations on the slopes of the Cithaeron.

The physical appearance of Dionysos changed as his legend was modified. He first appeared in the same of a mature, bearded, middle-aged man wearing a crown of ivy. Then he became an effeminate and beardless ephebe, sometimes half-naked, barely covered by a “nebride” (a panther’s pelt or fawn skin), other times wearing a long dress identical to those worn by women. His head, which sported long curly hair, was crowned with vine and grapes – he was holding in one hand a thyrsus, and in the other either grapes or a drinking cup.

(Here I cut off parts III and IV of the article - I'll post them separately)

V/ Foreign deities associated with Dionysos

This exuberant wealth of legends is explained not only by the great popularity of the god, but also by the fact that Dionysos’ personality (as said previously) absorbed several foreign deities. Three in particular: the Phrygian Sabazios, the Lydian Bassareus and the Cretan Zagreus.

Sabazios, who was the supreme god of the Hellespontic Thrace, was a solar god from Phrygia. Very diverse traditions surrounded him: sometimes he was the son of Kronos, other times the son and lover of Cybele. His wife was either the lunar goddess Bendis, either Cotys/Cottyto, an earth-goddess similar to the Phrygian Cybele. Sabazios was depicted with horns, and the snake was his sacred animal. He was celebrated through nocturnal orgies. When later Sabazios was assimilated to Dionysos, the legends of the two gods intertwined. Some said that Sabazios has placed Dionysos within his thigh before entrusting him to the nymph Hippa ; others claimed that it was the opposite way and that Sabazios was Dionysos’ son. It is because of these parallels and links fome between the two that ultimately Dionysos’ native land was considered to be the Hellespontic Thrace.

Sometimes the Bacchants were called the “Bassarids/Bassarides”, and Dionysos himself sometimes wore the epithet “Bassarios” when he wore a long dress of Oriental style. One theory, presented by the lexicography Hesychios, was that it was a reference to the fox-skins the Bacchants used as clothing ; but another theory rather proposes the reading of these names as an allusion to an Oriental god absorbed by Dionysos. In Lydia, there was a god similar to the Phrygian Sabazios. This god was worshipped at Tmôlos, the same place where (according to the Orphico-Thracian tradition), Sabazios gave a child-Dionysos to Hippa. The Tmôlos later became one of Dionysos’ favorite residences. If this theory is correct, what was the name of this Lydian god? The hypothesis is that it might have been Bassareus – this Bassareus might have been a conquering deity, and it is because of him that the “far-reaching conquests” of Dionysos might have entered his legend. It was also probably because of Bassareus existence that Dionysos became involved in the legend of Aphrodite and Adonis, and maybe it was even because of this Bassareus that the legend of Ampelos came to be – this very beautiful young man that Dionysos was in love with, but who was killed by a wild bull he tried to tame. Dionysos, full of sorrow, asked the gods to turn Ampelos into vine.

As for Zagreus… Zagreus very probably started out as the Cretan equivalent of the Hellenistic Zeus, but under the influence of the Orphic mysticism he was identified with Dionysos, and this resulted in a new element of the Dionysos legend: Dionysos’ passion (in the Christian sense). Here is what was told about the Zagreus-Dionysos: He was the son of Zeus, and of either Demeter or Kore. The other gods were jealous of him, and thus conspired against him. He was ripped to pieces by the Titans, that then boiled his dismembered corpse. However Pallas saved the heart of the god: she brought it to Zeus, who destroyed the Titans with his thunderbolt, and from the still-beating heart he had Dionysos be born. As for Zagreus, whose remains were buried at the foot of the Parnassus, he became a chtonian deity qui, in the Underworld, welcomed the souls of the dead and helped their purification. To these sufferings and this resurrection, the adepts of the Orphism gave a mystical meaning/reading, and this deeply changed the character of Dionysos. He stopped being this rustic god of wine and joy that had descended from the mountains of Thrace – he even lost his trait as the “god of orgies and madness that came from the Orient”, no, this new Orphic Dionysos was, to take back Plutarch’s words, “the god who was destroyed, the god who disappears, the god who abandons life and then is reborn” – aka, a symbol of universal life.

As such, it is no surprise to see that in the Mysteries of Eleusis Dionysos was associated with Demeter and Kore ; because, like them, he embodied one of the great powers of fecundity in the world.

[evilios]

If Hermes is not a twink then who is!!? Dionysus? Apollon? Eros?

Well, hello! 🌻

Dionysus is bearded in most of the early tradition black-figure vase art, he's by definition not a twink. That, plus, I think defining Dionysus through a gay term is limiting for him, that man has something much more sinister going on. He's much younger in later sculptures, but that's still not a twink, that man has some meat on (as men should; please. give us some meaty men I am begging-)

Twink!Apollo does not exist to me, that man rides a chariot and wields multiple weapons. I get that he's a divine ephebe but I really struggle to call his body type that of a twink, plus, he often deals in battles and I do not think a twink would be defined through his skills on the battlefield. That's not exactly field of a youthful man, war is a rite of maturity for an ancient Greek man.

Eros... sort of kind of? I have a pretty hard time with him because on one hand his descriptions do not contain markers of his bodily strength, but on the other hand he's often depicted far too young for me to define that. I would lean towards "borderline, likely no" because he is not attested to have taken a male lover and twink is still a gay/mlm/whichever you call it term? A man can be lean and thin without being a twink, you know; at least the other two have recorded male love interests.

If I were to pick someone deified that fits the definition of a twink, specifically that of a gay man body type? Ganymede. He is repeatedly described as pretty, golden-haired (not sure if it implies blondness/fair hair but it could), and very youthful.

godlike Ganymedes that was born the fairest of mortal men

— Homer, Iliad (trans. by A. T. Murray)

Zeus carried off golden-haired Ganymedes because of his beauty

— Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, (trans. by H. G. Evelyn-White)

Ganymede was loved <...> what time his boyhood was in its lovely flower

— The Elegiac Poems of Theognis (trans. by J. M. Edmonds)

And Ganymedes, who excelled all men in beauty

— Diodorus Siculus's Library (trans. by C. H. Oldfather)

We know very little of Ganymede's backstory before his abduction, only so that he's usually attested to be probably Anatolian and be kidnapped while tending to the cattle. There's no mention of him being involved in war action, and notion of youth, beauty, and feminine traits of his appearance alongside the fact that he's a young male lover of an older man point towards, well, twinkification beam, ancient Greece style.

[searching4wisdom-blog]

Taylor's Albatross...

It's Harry 😭

One must read the poem, Rime of the Ancient Mariner from beginning to end to fully comprehend this concept.

She carries his metaphorical weight on her shoulders.

The pictures are a reflection of each other. The sheep representing Taylor.

Harry's laurel wreath crown, is a nod to the Greek god, Apollo. The laurel wreath, traces back to Ancient Greece. In Greek mythology, the god Apollo, who is patron of lyrical poetry, musical performance and skill-based athletics.

Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more.

He is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. He is considered to be the most beautiful god and is represented as the ideal of the kouros (ephebe, or a beardless, athletic youth)

Ok, so now we know that Apollo is tied to a twin, named Artemis.

Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. In later times, she was identified with Selene, the personification of the Moon. She was often said to roam the forests and mountains, attended by her entourage of nymphs. The goddess Diana is her Roman equivalent.

Now where did we see Artemis recently, oh yes, that's right...as Diana of Ephesus at The Tortured Poets Spotify Popup. We might have full circle moment right here....

[deathlessathanasia]

“From Pausanias we learn that the Charites were believed to have arrived on earth as aeroliths, rocks that fell at the feet of the legendary king of Orchomenus, Eteocles (9.35.1-3; 9.38.1). These rocks were in some way associated with water and with the fertile prosperity of the city, as were other aniconic rocks worshiped in centers not far from Orchomenus. As protecting goddesses of the Cephisian waters, the Charites were bound up with the water-based prosperity of Orchomenus. The wealth of the city was proverbial. Homer compares the gold and treasures flowing into Orchomenus at the time of the Trojan War with those of Egyptian Thebes (II. 9.381). The treasury of King Minyas, excavated by Schliemann (1881), was one of the marvels of the world, according to Pausanias. King Minyas is described by Pausanias as having such large revenues that "he exceeded in wealth all men before him" (9.36.5-6). The Charites, overseers of these Minyans and of sleek-rich Orchomenus, had their own links with water, which in some way produced  this wealth. The Charites were identified as waternymphs (Hes. Astron. 291) and were connected with springs (Callim. fr. 740, Servius ad Aen. 1.720, Plut. Mor. 301a-c). The ancient city of Orchomenus occupied the slope of a steep hill, and the Cephisus wound around the southern base of this hill in serpentine fashion, feeding Lake Copais. Archaeological evidence has revealed that during the Bronze Age, at the time the cult to the Charites was founded, man-made as well as natural subterranean channels drained Lake Copais, transforming it into a marshy plain rich with fish and waterfowl. In classical times the mere of Copais continued to furnish wealth for Orchomenians, because it was filled with large quantities of fish and waterfowl, eels and reeds for the Athenian market, as we learn from Aristophanes and Pliny. The Charites were overseers of this abundance and received gifts from the grateful inhabitants (Ephorus FGrH 70.152).

Among the "sweet delights" conferred by the Charites in cult and in literature was that of the love bond between men and women. As gameliai (wedding deities), the Charites presided over marriages of the Athenian young at a festival called the Apatouria. Here they received sacrifices from the citizens on behalf of the youths who were being enrolled as ephebes (young members of the citizenry) and on behalf of those about to marry. We see the Charites on the Francois Vase, attendants at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and they were prominent guests at another important wedding, that of Cadmus and Harmonia (Theognis 15-16). They may have played a role at the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera, celebrated in the month Gamelion, at a festival that honored young bridal couples. Their blessings at the time of marriage assured that the sexual bond would be an active one: In literature as in cult, the Charites were associated with Aphrodite and Eros. When the accent was on conferring harmony and concord, they were associated with Peitho. Charis, says Pindar, dwells with Peitho in the beguiling beloved (Pindar, fr. 123.4).Among the other sweet gifts for which the Charites were worshiped was the gift of healing. Pindar, in an ode for the ailing Hieron, speaks of the charis of "golden health" {Pyth. 3.73). At Epidaurus the Charites were found with Asclepius on votive reliefs. Human health is a natural extension of the health of vegetation, and these Epidaurian Charites, one of whom was named Auxesia (Growth), were credited with restoring crops that had been failing (Hdt. 5.82).

The epithet semnai (revered, awe-inspiring), which is applied to the Charites elsewhere in Greek literature, suggests that the goddesses had considerable power. As vegetation goddesses and nymphs, they would possess chthonic powers, of which semnai is an echo here. In the Oedipus Coloneus, Sophocles refers to the power of the dead hero Oedipus as a chthonic charis (1752). Iconographic evidence from the archaic period suggests links between the Charites and deities like Hermes or Persephone. As attendants of Persephone, they accompanied the goddess when she left the underworld, performing circle dances (Orphic Hymn 43.7-8). In Arcadia, Pausanias tells us, the Charites represented the bright side of dark powers. They were connected with the curing of Orestes from the madness that he suffered because of his bloodguilt. This took place after his sacrifice to underworld goddesses, the Maniae (Madnesses, another version of the Erinyes), who appeared to Orestes dressed in black until he made the appropriate sacrifice, when they appeared to him in white. Pausanias gives us the detail that it was customary to sacrifice to the Charites in this place at the same time as to these white goddesses, to whom he refers as "Eumenides" (8.34.1-3).”

 - The Age of Grace: Charis in Early Greek Poetry by Bonnie MacLachlan

[ainews]

The ancient Greek city-state known as ecclesia was renowned for its strict military code of conduct and tactical advantage. Its military structure was specifically designed to defend its citizens and their way of life from outside threats, while at the same time protecting the city-state's own interests. This structure has been used as a model for many different militaries throughout history, and continues to be a source of inspiration today.

Ecclesia's military system was based on a division of responsibilities between a select group of citizens, known as ephebes. These ephebes were responsible for training warriors, and were highly regarded for their abilities in tactical strategies. In addition to this,all citizens were expected to take part in military training on a regular basis and to pledge their allegiance to the city-state. This commitment to defending the city-state had two main advantages: first, it created a strong sense of unity amongst the population; second, it allowed for the quick deployment of large numbers of well-trained warriors when needed.

The military system in ecclesia also had several other important elements. Warriors were expected to act in accordance with a strict code of conduct, which was enforced both on and off the battlefield. The city-state also established a clear chain of command, which helped ensure orders were followed swiftly and efficiently. Additionally, the ephebes were given high degrees of authority in order to provide clear direction to their troops in the field.

It is this legacy of military discipline and strategy that has made ecclesia an ideal model for many militaries. In modern times, the US Marine Corps, the French Army, and the UK Army have all adopted elements of ecclesia's military structure and code of conduct. Modern militaries are still guided by the same principles of efficiency, loyalty, and tactical advantage that guided the city-state two thousand years ago.

[gloriousprincesscreature]

I did a re-watch of Mission: Impossible last night with a really old DVD. The image quality was like a potato and my TV stretches all DVD images, but Brian de Palma is so great that once you get into it, it doesn't matter anymore.

Tom had *far* more chemistry with Kristin Scott Thomas than with Emmanuelle Beart.

And when I watched the beginning, I just felt that there was so much thematic overlap between the team and the vibe of the squad in The Secret History before Richard came into the picture. I read this article on culty workplaces and culty environments; the cult leader designs the work to take up so much of your time that you can't socialize or make connections outside of it AND sleeping around within the group is very encouraged. And it's obvious that Jim Phelps created such an environment, with himself as the leader, king, and mentor.

..when you think about it, Ethan, it was inevitable..no more Cold War. No more secrets you keep from everyone but yourself, operations you answer to no one but yourself. Then one morning you wake up and find out the President of the United States is running the country - without your permission. The son-of-a- bitch! How dare he? You realize it's over, you're an obsolete piece of hardware not worth upgrading, you've got a lousy marriage and sixty-two grand a year.

He's so much like Julian, they both have an inflated self-image and grandiose notions of being the ultimate holder of power. And if Jim is the Julian-figure, then Ethan is Henry. The star student whose relationship with Julian is the holy of the holies in the web of relations that binds the group, and everyone outside looks at it only from their peripheral vision because to stare directly might be dangerous or feel like you're intruding on something private. But its the relationship that sets the tone and ground for every other relationship in the movie.

And like, Julian and Henry are interesting because Henry is (for all the textual evidence) straight and only interested in Camilla, but Julian is the deepest longest-lived (?) relationship that he has. And yeah, the two of them were LARPing the whole ancient Greek older man/younger ephebe relationship because they feel that the only way to live meaningfully is to live like an ancient Greek aristocrat/philosopher king. tl;dr-->Jim has groomed Ethan to be his idealized lover and student, but Ethan has more natural feeling for Claire.

no more Cold War. No more secrets you keep from everyone but yourself, operations you answer to no one but yourself.

Jim lived for secrets and for being what is now known as the Deep State. Unelected, unnoticed, wielding absolute power.

And Hannah has the sadness of the one who is always left out of the team orgies.

[jeannereames]

do we have any idea of what hephaistion actually looked like??

Hephaistion’s Image

I finally have access to my books again, so tackling this much-delayed query. The short answer, unfortunately, is…

We haven’t got a bloody clue what he looked like.

Curtius tells us he was larger in physique/taller than Alexander, and nice-looking (3.12.16), but in a manly way (7.9.19). Lysippos and Philon both made portraits of him, and Aetion painted him into his “Marriage of Alexander and Roxane.” After his death, other Hetairoi at court commissioned portraits of him to please Alexander. None of these images survive.*

We have just ONE named statue of him, originally from Pella, now in the Thessaloniki Museum (photo mine). Even though it’s labeled, it’s a generic image. It’s not what he looked like. All other statues called “Hephaistion” are guesswork.

The difficulty with ancient portraiture is that, too often, busts/statues don’t come down to us labeled. If enough do, we can create a “portraiture tradition,” which means certain distinguishing features became standardized across (virtually) all images, allowing us to identify an individual. Then we can look at unlabeled statues/busts and say, “Yeah, that’s ___.” **

Another problem is the tendency for Greek sculptors to make shit up. Recall that at certain points in history, portraiture didn’t exist. Nobody making busts of, say, Homer knew what he’d looked like. All those statues labeled “Homer”? That’s just what later sculptors thought he ought to have looked like, down to the closed “blind” eyes. Folks, we’re not even sure Homer was blind! This mythologizing is related to another tendency in Greek sculpture called “idealizing.”

So, some quick art-history terminology … we have three basic ways of talking about people in ancient sculpture: idealized (and mythologized), a portrait, and a likeness. The latter two are not the same. A portrait means a recognizable person (those standardized features), but it may differ according to workshop style or be partly idealized. (The Akropolis head of Alexander below is partly idealized; it’s Alexander “prettied-up.”) By contrast a likeness looks like the person, warts and all. Portraiture was FAR more popular. It’s no different from the various filters you can apply to photos today before posting them on social media. A likeness is the plain image the camera takes before you “fix” it.

By the Archaic period into Classical Greece, we see a drive towards accuracy in anatomy, but aiming for what they considered physical perfection. They’d use Olympic (or other contest) victors to model (male) bodies, and the face would be a generic ideal young man (ephebe). This will be oval with smooth cheeks, a round chin, straight nose, small bow mouth and high, smooth forehead with level, almond eyes. The hair is tightly coiled and close to the skull.

This ideal ephebe is the ancient version of a male model. If you walk around the National Museum in Athens, you’ll see dozens of faces just like it, especially on the gods. Btw, it wouldn’t photograph that well—features aren’t sharp enough—which is why our modern canons of beauty have morphed a bit.

Art historians (or even just those of us who’ve spent decades looking at these statues) are decent at picking out these “generic” faces. I’m giving you a few below, so you can see. The first is Hermes, the second the Marathon boy, and the third is the Getty head of “Hephaistion.” This is why we say that’s not a portrait.+

Now, go back and look at the image of “Hephaistion” on the dedication bas-relief above. You’ll see why we say it’s generic ephebe-style. To understand why, it’s important to know how these stone-carving workshops operated.

It takes time to make these. So, if you want a tombstone or dedicatory plaque, you don’t walk in and order one from scratch to be delivered next week … or even next month. For something wholly original, it takes months, and you’re expected to pay accordingly. Only the very wealthy can afford individualized portraits or statue groups. By very wealthy I don’t mean the ancient equivalent of “He drives a jaguar and lives in a gated community.” I mean the ancient equivalent of “He has chauffeurs and lives on ten acres with private security.” See the difference?

Workshops kept a stock of pre-cut stones for shoppers to choose from. These were what most people purchased. A nice, high-end figured gravestone is still one of these standard images. They’d have them for hoplites, young mothers, girls, teen boys, etc. etc. So also with dedicatory plaques (as ours for Hephaistion). These also had certain typical elements, like a horse (recalling Hero the Horseman, a common figure in Thracian and Macedonian art), or the pattela plate in the woman’s hand for an offering, etc. Buyers would visit a workshop to see what they could afford. It would then be personalized with an inscription. Only the wealthiest could afford to personalize an image.

Our dedicatory statue (SEG 40: 547) has an inscription that reads, “Diogenes, to the Hero Hephaistion.” That’s kind of short, suggesting the purchaser didn’t have oodles to spend. I find two other things interesting on this statue, other than the quality, which is good if not super-exceptional. First, I note that the spelling of his name is Attic, not Doric. I explain why this matters in my article “Becoming Macedonian.” The other interesting thing is the fact the dedication comes from a man…but it’s a woman on the statue making an offering. Maybe this is meant to be Diogenes’s wife or mother, but it’s one reason I think it a pre-made statue. If it were personalized, we’d see Diogenes, not Ye Generic Matron.

Another clue is the date: between 330-320, but it MUST be on the lower end as Hephaistion died late in 324 and wasn’t declared a hero until just before Alexander’s own death in mid-323. Assume travel time for news to spread and we’re looking at very late 323/early 322 or later (the dating of the stone could be off a bit). Nor was Hephaistion standing there as a model. Ergo, the purchaser chose a generic ephebe.++ And no, we have no idea who Diogenes was. Not the cynic philosopher (who died in 323 in Corinth, around the same date as Alexander, supposedly).

So, we’ve no statue we can securely call Hephaistion that’s even a portrait, never mind a likeness.

A few other statues are commonly tagged “Hephaistion,” one from Kyme (top) and another from Alexandria (bottom). Both are paired with an Alexander, but the faces of the two Hephaistions don’t look alike. One (Kyme) has a long face, big nose, very down-slanted brows, and small flat ears; the other (Alexandria) has a small nose, oval face, even eyes, and big flaring ears. If you look at the Alexander found with each, you can detect the workshop styles, and if the Alexanders do show identifying features associated with his portraiture, the Hephaistions do not. In fact, the Alexandrian statue is sometimes labeled “Demetrio,” as its identification is disputed.

Just pairing a statue with Alexander does not an Hephaistion make. 😉

The Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon presents a different sort of problem. The middle male figure on horseback on the long-side battle scene, and the figure on horseback behind the lion on the other long side have both been identified as Hephaistion. But that identification depends on the sarcophagus belonging to Abdalonymus, who, according to some stories, got his position as King of Sidon from Hephaistion. The Alexanders on the sarcophagus are easy to spot, but off to the side. A Persian figure is centered, as is this other Greek male. If it IS Abdalonymus’s sarcophagus, Hephaistion would be a good guess. But Mardonius has also been reasonably proposed as the sarcophagus owner, in which case, that’s probably not Hephaistion.

Even if it is Hephaistion…we have the same problem. It’s a very generic ephebe face. (It would have been made years after Hephaistion was in Sidon, btw.)

A few other images out there have been proposed, but largely argued down. I still like the oversized bronze head from the Prado Museum. It’s more clearly somebody’s portrait, and it’s the one I had in mind when I went looking for a model for the (old, original) cover of Dancing with the Lion. But it’s been more securely tagged as Demetrios Poliorketes. One big problem is that, not only is it unlabeled, we don’t even know where it was found. A number of statues are purchased in the back allies of Istanbul or Thessaloniki or Rome or… (you get the idea).

I’ll address a final image that’s been more recently proposed: the non-Alexander figure (below, left) in the stag-hunt mosaic from the House of the Abduction of Helen, in Pella. It’s possibly from the same workshop as the lion-hunt mosaic from the House of Dionysos (second below). That lion-hunt mosaic is Alexander and Krateros, which identification is about 95% secure. Why? We’re told about a bronze group dedicated at Delphi that’s this very scene, completed by Krateros’s son for his father in honor of a specific event from Alexander’s campaigns. Copies of a famous work made in other mediums are remarkably common. In fact, I’d bet the “House of Dionysos” in Pella belonged to Krateros the younger, or that family anyway. It dates to exactly the right period.

Now, the stag-hunt mosaic is in a different house, but there are links in style between the two Alexanders (e.g., the petasos). The non-Alexander figures kinda resemble each other, but less clearly. (No, the axe in left stag-hunt guy's hand is not associated with Hephaistos. It is associated with a Thracian god, Zalmoxis.) Is stag-hunt guy a second Krateros? More likely it’s meant to be the owner of the house. Given their placement and size, those houses would have belonged to Very Important People. E.g., Hetairoi families. And everybody wanted a piece of the king—like taking a selfie with celebrities today.

Once more, just because Alexander appears with another person in a group, you cannot leap to the conclusion that person is Hephaistion.

So, that’s a fast survey of images tagged “Hephaistion,” and why I say none of them shows us what he may actually have looked like.

This took a while to assemble everything.

(For more information on some [not all] of these, see Andrew Stewart, Faces of Power: Alexander’s Image and Hellenistic Politics, U-Cal Press, Berkeley, 1993, 453-55.)

————

* The painting today called “The Wedding of Alexander and Roxane” by Sodoma in the Roman Villa Farnesina is a much, much later (1517 CE) re-imagining of what Aetion’s painting may have looked like. The ancient painting is long gone.

** For Alexander, his portraiture includes the anastole (cowlick), round chin, heavy brow, strong nose, “melting” gaze, and (often) tilted head and longer-than-average wavy hair like a lion’s mane. I can spot an Alexander anywhere. Ha. I was once in the Capitoline Museum, just idling along, when way down the aisle I spotted him, over 50 yards away. It was a heavy, Romanized style, but it was Alexander!

+ Both heads (his and Alexander) are forgeries anyway. Forgeries are BIG business in antiquities. Needless to say, museums don’t like to admit when they’ve bought a forgery, so you’ll next-to-never see one labeled as such. Gotta read the art history assessments to find out. If museums are convinced, they usually just quietly remove it.

++ Sometimes people ask me why one of these idealized ephebes couldn’t be what Hephaistion did look like, as he was supposed to be attractive? Well, it’s possible, but even very pretty people who we can tag as a portrait — I give you Antonoös — have distinguishing features. You can tell an Antinoös from a generic ephebe. Also, we have enough labeled portraits of Antinoös to create a portraiture tradition. We don’t have that with Hephaistion. So even if some generic statue currently labeled an ephebe were to be Hephaistion, we have zero way to know.

[officialpenisenvy]

i thought ephebe was a younger guy being trained in the military & an eromenos was the barely legal/not quite legal twink. like i know theres overlap (+ eromenos is in the context of pederastry) but i feel like im missing something. am i missing something?

that IS pretty much the original meaning of the words in the ancient greek context! however the word ephebe has remained in the culture and shifted semantically to mean a gorgeous youthful illegal twink for centuries, whereas the word eromenos has mostly fallen out of fashion (maybe because it implies a specific sexual context/dynamic or because it has no indication of youth in its direct translation as opposed to ephebe?). so that's the context and meaning with which i call my beautiful skinny boygirls ephebes

[the-hem]

"Food and Faith." The Rape of Tamar, Part 1. From 2 Samuel 13.

Tamar is the "Tallest, most fruitful date palm" which represents the Free Market Economy in Judaism.

The noun תמר (tamar) means palm tree but it's not immediately clear from what verb it comes, and thus how the ancients saw the palm tree — in the Bible all trees (oaks, figs, olives, and so on) relate to certain aspects of the wisdom tradition.

Female judge Deborah had her seat under a palm tree, which seems to suggest that the palm tree related to a kind of popular court.

Noun תמר (tomer) also means palm tree but secondarily refers to a kind of sign post or pillar. Nouns תמרה (timora) and תימרה (timara) refer to palm-like artistic expressions; the first word describes an image of a palm tree and the second a palm-like pillar.

Since the word "palm-like" does not necessarily mean to look like a palm, but merely to imitate some kind of signature quality of the palm, it's debated what a palm-like item might actually be.

It appears that the palm tree reminded the ancients of a social focal point that was spontaneously and organically established (rather than by some decree or violence or trickery).

A palm is like paths that form in an open field with a well at the center, or it's like the effects of a free market, which drives society to unknown heights that no single trader could have imagined.

What does it mean to rape the free market? 2 Samuel was written around 550 BCE, when the Jews and Greeks were starting to mix and read and write and think together. The concept of democracy, the free market, class warfare were emerging as critical topics in academia and public practice.

The Greeks contended with these ideas using strange stories. While the stories of the Jews were certainly strange too, they contained one element missing in the rest: all the characters are human. The rape of Ganumede by Zeus, for example, commentary for and against sex with ephebes is an example. "Zeus did it, so why not?".

The story certainly changes when the gods are absent and the rape takes place between a brother and a sister as we will see. Even still, as with the Greek versions of such things, alas, this one is not meant to be taken literally:

13 Now David’s son Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar. And Amnon, her half brother, fell desperately in love with her. 

2 Amnon became so obsessed with Tamar that he became ill. She was a virgin, and Amnon thought he could never have her.

3 But Amnon had a very crafty friend—his cousin Jonadab. He was the son of David’s brother Shimea.[a] 4 One day Jonadab said to Amnon, “What’s the trouble? Why should the son of a king look so dejected morning after morning?”

So Amnon told him, “I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

5 “Well,” Jonadab said, “I’ll tell you what to do. Go back to bed and pretend you are ill. When your father comes to see you, ask him to let Tamar come and prepare some food for you. Tell him you’ll feel better if she prepares it as you watch and feeds you with her own hands.”

6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. And when the king came to see him, Amnon asked him, “Please let my sister Tamar come and cook my favorite dish[b] as I watch. Then I can eat it from her own hands.” 

7 So David agreed and sent Tamar to Amnon’s house to prepare some food for him.

In Judaism, familial relationships have symbolic meaning stemming from Adam and Eve. Men are commitments, females are habits. When they are both noble in purpose, a genealogy is formed.

The entire purpose of Judaism is one unbroken genealogy of nobility from Adam onward in faith, subtely, reality, personally and globally. If Adam and Eve make something good together, so will Cain and Abel, etc. except we know this is a process that is not without hazards. Abel was an idiot, Cain was a genius. They fought and Cain won.

To outwit the sibling that is not worthy and succeed is how the genealogy is built. The Torah emphasizes this process of elimination between siblings quite a lot. It is continued by God and the Synagogue, which together produce lots of little bouncing baby Jews.

Here, the siblings are not brothers, they are brother and sister and the competition, the survival of the fittest is decided by trickery and a rape.

What is a rape in Judaism before we get all messed up about it? The rape of a man or woman in the Torah refers to the loss of that person's voice by force. Ancient Greeks and Jews differed on this a great deal. Women in Greek culture were nothing. Oppression of women was usual and customary, there were few restrictions regarding the mistreatment of women.

The Torah and the Mishnah however, all speak of compensation and lashes in some case as punishment for the rape. What is really supposed to happen, however is the oppression that allowed the rapist to silence the other woman's or man's voice has to be lifted.

Rape in the Torah and Tanakh refer more to the pre-existing conditions of the rape than the rape itself. The Mishnah says "This...shall not enter your mind."

So the story of the Rape of Tamar seems to be about a pattern of abuse in society that originates in the Court of the King as a thought rather than an act. Let us see what kind of thought that is and how it pertains to silencing the voice of the Free Market:

v. 1. David= persistent beauty

son Absalom= "father of peace"

Tamar= the open market

Amnon= faith

"Faith in the open market leads to persistent beauty."

v. 2. the Gematria value is 846, ח‎דו‎‎, heydo, "lively, able to speak."

Amnon, faith, therefore felt as if it was not going to find its voice and lusted for the Marketplace.

=Free Speech

v. 3.

Jonadab= to volunteer

The verb נדב (nadab) means to give, donate or volunteer, and by implication to be noble. From it derive the noun נדבה (nedaba), freewill offering, the noun and adjective נדיב (nadib), generous or noble, and the noun נדיבה (nediba), generous deed.

Shimea=to report, but this could mean rumors as much as free speech

Amnon is a prince, and what do they do besides act like shmucks? Princes are supposed to descend into the depths of human suffering on behalf of the people and emerge victorious. Princes are supposed to be the heroes of the people. The King is in charge, the Prince is the lifeblood of the kingdom. Princes represent humanity's most intense and profound fantasy.

This one, Amnon, faith, however is having a few problems.

v. 4. The value is 11146, קיאםו, kiamo, "because of the burden"

The substantive כי (ki), expresses "a temporal, causal, or objective relationship among clauses expressed or unexpressed" (in the elegant words of HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament). It's used more than 4,000 times in the Old Testament and can most often be translated with "that" or "in that (= because)" or "in that (= when)".

Both the verbs עמש ('amas) and עמס ('amas) mean to load or carry a load. Noun מעמסה (ma'amasa) means load or burden.

"The burden of the Prince is always Mashiach. The Free Market and the burden of Mashiach on humanity are one and the same."

v.5. Food is always the impetus for one's conduct. If one consumes the Torah, one's conduct for example, is expected to be non-violent. The appetite for non-violence feeds the habit for consuming the Torah and then the food and the appetite reciprocate in creating the energy needed for the ongoing effort to curb violence.

The value for v. 5 is 11151, קיאהא, kiaha, "the cause for a fellow member of a social economic node (a "house") within a broader economic whole."

Faith in the government and the market is not enough, there needs to be a cause. What is the cause?

v. 6-7, the value is 10008, י'ח, Eighteen. 18 is the numerical value of the Hebrew word "chai" which means "life." It is a Jewish custom to give monetary gifts in increments of 18, thus symbolically blessing the recipient of the gift with a good long life.

So if we want to have faith, we need free speech, we need a voice and a marketplace for it. The reason we would create such a thing is to bless humanity with a long and blessed, violence and oppression free way of life.

More on the Rape of Tamar to follow.

[facesofthepast]

Bust of an ephebe (Narcissus leaning on a pillar)

Marble, Roman copy of a Greek original of the late 5th century BC.

Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican Museums, Rome

[nemfrog]

Ephebe, bronze, detail. National Museum, Athens. History of Art: Ancient Art. 1921.