Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.22.1-2
There are sanctuaries of Hermes Kriophoros (Ram-bearer) and of Hermes called Promachos (Champion) at Tanagra in Boiotia. They account for the former surname by a story that Hermes averted a pestilence from the city by carrying a ram round the walls; to commemorate this they made an image of Hermes carrying a ram upon his shoulders. Whichever of the youths is judged to be the most handsome goes round the walls at the feast of Hermes, carrying a lamb on his shoulders. Hermes Promachos (Champion) is said, on the occasion when an Eretrian fleet put into Tanagra from Euboia, to have led out the youths to the battle; he himself, armed with a scraper like a youth, was chiefly responsible for the rout of the Euboians. In the sanctuary of Promachos (the Champion) is kept all that is left of the wild strawberry-tree under which they believe that Hermes was nourished. Nearby is a theater and by it a portico. I consider that the people of Tanagra have better arrangements for the worship of the Gods than any other Greeks. For their houses are in one place, while the sanctuaries are apart beyond the houses in a clear space where no men live

Apollodoros, Bibliotheka 3.115
Hermes was tending the cattle, this time he fashioned a shepherd’s pipe which he proceeded to play. Covetous also of this, Apollon offered him the golden staff which he held when he herded cattle. But Hermes wanted both the staff and proficiency in the art of prophecy in return for the pipe. So he was taught how to prophesy by means of pebbles, and gave Apollon the pipe.

Nonnos, Dionysiaka 9.28 ff
Hermes gave him to the daughters of Lamos, river Nymphai – the son of Zeus, the vineplanter. They received Bakchos into their arms; and each of them dropt the milky juice of her breast without pressing into his mouth … The consort of Zeus beheld the babe, and suffered torments. Through the wrath of resentful Hera, the daughters of Lamos were maddened by the lash of that divine mischiefmaker. In the house they attacked the servants, in threeways they carved up the wayfaring man with alienslaying knife. Indeed they would have chopt up little Bakchos, a baby still, piecemeal in the distracted flood of their vagabond madness, had not Hermes come on wing and stolen Bakchos again with a robber’s untracked footsteps.

Aischylos, Psuchahogoi fragment 273
Chorus of Evocators: We, the race that lives around the lake, do honor to Hermes our ancestor … Come now, guest-friend, take up your stance on the grassy sacred enclosure of the fearful lake. Slash the gullet of the neck, and let the blood of this sacrificial victim flow into the murky depths of the reeds as a drink offering for the lifeless. Call upon primeval Earth and chthonic Hermes, escort of the dead, and ask chthonic Zeus to send up the swarm of night-wanderers from the mouth of this melancholy river, unfit for washing hands, sent up by Stygian springs.

Alexander Polyhistor, Successions of Philosophers FGrHist 273 F 93
Hermes is the steward of souls, and for that reason is called Hermes the Escorter, Hermes the Keeper of the Gate, and Hermes of the Underworld, he brings upwards the purified souls, but impure souls were not allowed to approach each other, much less to come close to pure souls, since they were fettered in unbreakable bonds by the Erinyes. And all the air is full of souls and they are called daimones and heroes; and they carry to men dreams, portents, diseases, and purification, averting by expiatory sacrifices, all divination and omens are related to them.

I cannot wait until the rumor that I am creating a queer werewolf fight club cult under the aegis of a Northern Hermes collides with the “he’s a Nazi” one.  

Although they are not formally married, the most important romantic relationship that Hermes has is with the Goddess Aphrodite, with whom he shared a temple at Olbia on the Black Sea. We have records of a magical duel conducted by Pharnabazos, a diviner of Hermes who worked out of this temple, and one of his rivals; it is also possible that Pharnabazos was the Orpheotelest who inscribed enigmatic signs and phrases on the bone tablets found nearby. (For more on this matter consult Andrei V . Lebedev’s Pharnabazos the diviner of Hermes and The Devotio of Xanthippus: Magic and Mystery Cults in Olbia.) 

We find a similar pairing in the Magna Graecian city of Lokroi Epizephyrii where their temple contained a series of pinakes or terracotta plates: 

On two pinax types they appear together as cult statues. In one example Aphrodite stands facing Hermes, extending the offering of what appears to be a lotus blossom. Eros stands on her outstretched right forearm, mimicking her gesture with his own extended right arm; he holds a tortoise shell lyre in his left hand. Hermes holds the kerkyreion in his right hand and there is a thymiaterion between the divine pair. The scene appears to represent a meeting between the two divine lovers but we have no mythological context in which to place the scene. […] On the next example Aphrodite and Hermes are clearly shown as cult statues inside a temple of mixed Ionic and Doric orders. The statue of Hermes is nude except for a chlamys draped over his shoulders and his petasos, travelling hat. He holds a patera in his right hand. Aphrodite is clothed in a peplos and her hair is worn down with a filet at the top. She appears to be holding a dove in her right hand but most of the remaining examples are badly damaged at this point. In front of the temple, a bare-foot young woman and young man are pouring a libation on an altar. The plaque is iconographically rich and suggestive of Aphrodite and Hermes’ cultic “personality” at Locri. The seemingly somber libation being performed by the mortal couple is subtly undermined by the erotic relief on the altar — a satyr copulating with a hind. This complicates the interpretation of the plaque. In the overall context of the pinakes the mortal couple would seem to be either betrothed or married. However, they are pouring a libation to an unwed divine couple on an altar. depicting an erotic sexual act that stands outside the bounds of the civic intercourse necessary for reproduction. I would argue, therefore, that this pinax type would have been a dedication made by worshippers of Aphrodite who fall outside the bounds of ‘civic society’ but who also recognize the overall power of the Mannella sanctuary to protect all women within Locrian society. (Rebecca K. Schindler, Aphrodite and the Colonization of Lokroi Epizephyri) 

The concern of Hermes and Aphrodite for individuals and couples who do not conform to societal norms is perhaps most potently expressed through their child Hermaphroditos:

… whose name is a combination of his parents’ names. Some say that this Hermaphroditos is a God and appears at certain times among men, and that he is born with a physical body which is a combination of male and female elements, in that he has a body which is beautiful and delicate like that of a woman, but also possesses male genitalia and the vigour of a man. There are some however who declare that such two-sexed creatures are monstrosities, and coming rarely into the world as they do they have the quality of presaging the future, sometimes for evil and sometimes for good. (Diodoros Sikeliotes, Library of History 4.6.5)

Hermaphroditos was the prototype for the Enarees, a group of gender-variant diviners described by Herodotos:

But the Skythians who pillaged the temple, and all their descendants after them, were afflicted by the Goddess with the “female sickness”: and so it is that visitors to the Skythian territory see among them many who are in the condition of what the Skythians call Hermaphrodites. (Histories 1.105.4)

There are many diviners among the Skythians who divine by means of willow wands. They bring great bundles of wands, which they lay on the ground and unfasten, and utter their divinations as they lay the rods down one by one; and while still speaking, they gather up the rods once more and place them together again; this manner of divination is hereditary among them. The Enarees, who are Hermaphrodites, say that Aphrodite gave them another art of divination, which they practise by means of lime-tree bark. They cut this bark into three portions, and prophesy while they braid and unbraid these in their fingers. (ibid 4.67.1)

Aphrodite is not Hermes’ only romantic partner, however. 

There is his union with the Witch-Goddess Hekate from the Black Sea region: 

We are told that Helios had two sons, Aeëtes and Perses, Aeëtes being the king of Kolchis and the other king of the Tauric Chersonese, and that both of them were exceedingly cruel. And Perses had a daughter Hekate, who surpassed her father in boldness and lawlessness. she was also fond of hunting, and when she had no luck she would turn her arrows upon human beings instead of the beasts. Being likewise ingenious in the mixing of deadly poisons she discovered the drug called aconite and tried out the strength of each poison by mixing it with food given to strangers. 

Which also resulted in the production of an androgynous child, Hermekate:

I call upon you, Mother of all men,
you who have brought together the limbs of Meliouchos,
even Meliouchos himself,
OROBASTRIA NEBOUTOSOUALETH
Entrapper, Mistress of Corpses,
Hermes, Hekate, Hermekate
LETH AMOUMAMOUTERMYOR
I conjure you, the daimon that has been aroused in this place,
and you, the daimon of the cat that has been endowed with spirit.
Come to me this very day and from this very moment,
and perform for me the NN deed…
(PGM III 45-52)

He lay with the mysterious Brimo:

Brimo, who as legend tells, by the waters of Boebeis laid her virgin body at Mercury’s side. (Propertius, Elegies 2.29)

And also Chione (whose name means “Snowy”) by whom he had Autolykos, the shapeshifting trickster and thief (whose name means “the wolf itself”) who was responsible for naming his world-famous grandson:

Autolykos was the noble father of Odysseus’ own mother, and excelled all mankind in thieving and subtlety of oaths, having won this mastery from the God Hermes himself, for to him he was wont to burn acceptable sacrifices of the thighs of lambs and kids; so Hermes befriended him with a ready heart. Now Autolykos, on coming once to the rich land of Ithaka, had found his daughter’s son a babe new-born, and when he was finishing his supper, Eurykleia laid the child upon his knees and spoke, addressing him: “Autolykos, find now thyself a name to give to thy child’s own child; be sure he has long been prayed for.” Then Autolykos answered: “Since I have been angered (ὀδυσσάμενος; odyssamenos) with many, both men and women, let the name of the child be Odysseus.” (Homer, Odyssey 19.395-410)

Hermes blessed and watched over clever Odysseus, even when he wandered among Northern barbarians:

Moreover, some speculate that Ulysses, driven on that long and fantastic journey to this Ocean, had himself come to the lands of Germany, and that Asciburgium, which was located on the bank of the Rhine and is inhabited even today, was founded and named by him. Nay, even more, they say that there was found in that same place an altar consecrated to Ulysses, which bears also the name of his father Laeertes; further, there are monuments and tombs bearing inscriptions in Greek letters which are still extant today on the borders of Germany and Raetia. I have no intention either of confirming or refuting these speculations: everyone may either add or withdraw his belief according to the inclination of his own mind. (Tacitus, Germania 3)

When Odysseus encountered Kírkē (herself an émigré from the Black Sea) Hermes was there to offer counsel and the magical plant μῶλυ (moly) which rendered the hero immune to the Goddess’ sensual sorcery. 

Her response to Odysseus’ challenge suggests that Kírkē was on rather familiar terms with Hermes:

“Who are you, and from where? Where are your city and your parents? It bewilders me that you drank this drug and were not bewitched. Never has any other man resisted this drug, once he had drunk it and let it pass his lips. But you have an inner will that is proof against sorcery. You must surely be that man of wide-ranging spirit, Odysseus himself; the Radiant One of the golden wand has told me of you; he always said that Odysseus would come to me on his way from Troy in his dark and rapid vessel.” (Homer, Odyssey 10)

This dalliance has added significance within the Starry Bear tradition, for we understand Kírkē to be one of the personae adopted by Freyja as she searched for her lost husband Ódr, whom we identify with Dionysos:

Freyja is most gently born (together with Frigg): she is wedded to the man named Ódr. Their daughter is Hnoss: she is so fair, that those things which are fair and precious are called hnossir. Ódr went away on long journeys, and Freyja weeps for him, and her tears are red gold. Freyja has many names, and this is the cause thereof: that she gave herself sundry names when she went out among unknown peoples seeking Ódr: she is called Mardöll and Hörn, Gefn, Sýr. Freyja had the necklace Brísinga-men. She is also called Lady of the Vanir. (Gylfaginning 29)

Odysseus we likewise regard as Ódr, having forgotten his true identity – which gives added poignancy to the question Kírkē puts to him. (As does the one-eyed Polyphemos, whom he answers – Οὖτις; “Nobody.”) 

Accepting this, however, means that on some level Hermes is the progenitor of Dionysos, or at least one of the mortal lines that he incarnated into. This is no stranger, however, than what we find in the cult-hymn of a group of Orphics from Asia Minor:

Orphic Hymn 57. To Chthonic Hermes
Incense: Storax
You dwell in the compelling road of no return, by the Kytos.
You guide the souls of mortals to the nether gloom.
Hermes, offspring of Dionysos who revels in dance,
and Aphrodite, the Paphian maiden of the fluttering eyelids,
you who frequent the sacred house of Persephone,
as guide throughout the earth of ill-fated souls,
which you bring to their haven when their time has come,
charming them with your sacred wand and giving them sleep,
from which you rouse them again.
To you indeed Persephone gave the office 
throughout wide Tartaros to lead the way 
for the eternal souls of men. But, O Blessed One, 
grant a good end for the initiate’s work.

For those familiar with the Battle of the Bull and Wolf mytheme the grandfather of “Odysseus” becomes a very intriguing figure. 

Autolykos – “the wolf itself” – was both a protector of flocks and a devourer of them, and this latter habit had tragic consequences. 

Back when Herakles was a boukolos or cowherder:

Herakles was taught to drive a chariot by Amphitryon, to wrestle by Autolykos, to shoot with the bow by Eurytus, to fence by Kastor, and to play the lyre by Linos. This Linos was a brother of Orpheus; he came to Thebes and became a Theban, but was killed by Herakles with a blow of the lyre; for being struck by him, Herakles flew into a rage and slew him. When he was tried for murder, Herakles quoted a law of Rhadamanthys, who laid it down that whoever defends himself against a wrongful aggressor shall go free, and so he was acquitted. But fearing he might do the like again, Amphitryon sent him to the cattle farm; and there he was nurtured and outdid all in stature and strength. Even by the look of him it was plain that he was a son of Zeus; for his body measured four cubits, and he flashed a gleam of fire from his eyes; and he did not miss, neither with the bow nor with the javelin. While he was with the herds and had reached his eighteenth year he slew the lion of Cithaeron, for that animal, sallying from Cithaeron, harried the kine of Amphitryon and of Thespius. (Apollodoros, The Library 2.4.9)

Autolykos was preying upon his neighbors, for which Herakles was blamed, driving the son of Zeus into another murderous frenzy:

Not long after, some cattle were stolen from Euboea by Autolykos, and Eurytus supposed that it was done by Herakles; but Iphitos did not believe it and went to Herakles. And meeting him, as he came from Pherae after saving the dead Alkestis for Admetos, he invited him to seek the kine with him. Herakles promised to do so and entertained him; but going mad again he threw him from the walls of Tiryns. Wishing to be purified of the murder he repaired to Neleus, who was prince of the Pylians. And when Neleus rejected his request on the score of his friendship with Eurytus, he went to Amyclae and was purified by Deiphobos, son of Hippolytos. But being afflicted with a dire disease on account of the murder of Iphitos he went to Delphi and inquired how he might be rid of the disease. As the Pythian priestess answered him not by oracles, he was fain to plunder the temple, and, carrying off the tripod, to institute an oracle of his own. But Apollon fought him, and Zeus threw a thunderbolt between them. When they had thus been parted, Herakles received an oracle, which declared that the remedy for his disease was for him to be sold, and to serve for three years, and to pay compensation for the murder to Eurytus. (ibid 2.6.2)

Hermes stepped in to help his brother fulfil the oracle and attain healing and release:

After the delivery of the oracle, Hermes sold Herakles, and he was bought by Omphale, daughter of Iardanes, queen of Lydia, to whom at his death her husband Tmolus had bequeathed the government. Eurytus did not accept the compensation when it was presented to him, but Herakles served Omphale as a slave, and in the course of his servitude he seized and bound the Cercopes at Ephesos; and as for Syleus in Aulis, who compelled passing strangers to dig, Herakles killed him with his daughter Xenodoce, after burning the vines with the roots. And having put in to the island of Doliche, he saw the body of Icarus washed ashore and buried it, and he called the island Icaria instead of Doliche. In return Daedalus made a portrait statue of Herakles at Pisa, which Herakles mistook at night for living and threw a stone and hit it. And during the time of his servitude with Omphale it is said that the voyage to Kolchis and the hunt of the Calydonian boar took place, and that Theseus on his way from Troezen cleared the Isthmus of malefactors. (ibid 2.6.3)

During this period of transvestite sexual slavery Omphale instructed Herakles in the mysteries of weaving, much as Óðinn had to submit to Freyja to learn the art of seiðr. 

One wonders if Hermes knew (and perhaps had a prior relationship with) the Lydian Queen Omphale. After all, when Saint Paul was traveling through the region people mistook him for Hermes:

And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, ‘The Gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’ Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. (Acts 14.11-12)

This is where things get really interesting. For you see, Lycaonia is “wolf country” (from the word lykos) and Hermes has some strong connections with the animal. As a pastoral deity he was invoked to protect the flocks against wolves (just as he was said to have power over guard-dogs in more domestic contexts) and in Hellenistic Egypt he was frequently equated with both Wepwawet and Anubis, to the point where he was depicted with canine features as Hermanubis. Diodoros Sikeliotes mentions these two as a pair of heralds (and Hermes is the God of heraldry) who marched in the army of Osiris-Dionysos:

Now he was accompanied on his campaign, as the Egyptian account goes, by his two sons Anubis and Makedon, who were distinguished for their valour. Both of them carried the most notable accoutrements of war, taken from certain animals whose character was not unlike the boldness of the men, Anubis wearing a dog’s skin and Makedon the foreparts of a wolf; and it is for this reason that these animals are held in honour among the Egyptians … Makedon his son, moreover, he left as king of Makedonia, which was named after him. (1.18ff)

A feature that is curiously paralleled much later on in Nonnos of Panopolis’ epic on the Indian conquest of Dionysos when he speaks of the Satyroi Hermeides:

With Pherespondos walked Lykos the loudvoiced herald, and Pronomos renowned for intelligence – all sons of Hermes, when he had joined Iphthime to himself in secret union. To these three Eiraphiotes entrusted the dignity of the staff of the heavenly herald, their father the source of wisdom. (Dionysiaka 14.105ff)

Hermes within the Starry Bear tradition has essentially the same character, attributes, functions and status as he does within the Starry Bull and other Greco-Roman derived religions – with a few notable exceptions. Mostly these are a matter of emphasis rather than divergence. Without denying his incredible versatility we tend to focus on Hermes’ magical, mantic, apotropaic and luck-bringing powers; he is also a guide of souls (in this and other worlds) and master of the realm of dream. 

Where there is divergence this is usually due to his relationship with Dionysos. In addition to being his protective older brother and one of the God’s closest friends, Hermes holds an esteemed position in the Court of Dionysos. He performs the roles of advisor, mediator, translator, diplomat, high priest, spy and assassin, governs in his absence and leads a third of the Host of Nysa in battle and the hunt. 

Much of this he did for Zeus before, but in Starry Bear mythology when their father refuses to heed Dionysos’ warnings of the coming Ragnarök Hermes switches his allegiance and works tirelessly with Dionysos to change the war’s outcome. For his loyalty Dionysos grants Hermes dominion over the Dreamlands which border Nysa since its previous ruler is fated to fall in the failed attempt to defend the gleaming walls of Olympos from the allies of the all-consuming nothing.

Kallimachos, Hymn 3 to Artemis 46 
When any of the maidens doth disobey her mother, the mother calls the Kyklopes to her child; and from within the house comes Hermes stained with burnt ashes. And straightway he plays bogey to the child and she runs into her mother’s lap, with her hands upon her eyes.

Here’s the music I’m listening to as I work on the Hermes piece: Northern Star. 

History is a bit like a game of telephone, isn’t it? Couple hundred years from now they’ll be talking about how tomorrow’s holiday honored King Martin Luther II, and how he freed the slaves or something. Maybe sooner, if the American educational system continues its steady decay. Anyway, however you celebrate it I hope you have a good one!

Hermes, Herakles and Theseus, who are honored in the gymnasium and wrestling-ground according to a practice universal among Greeks, and now common among barbarians. (Pausanias, Description of Greece 4.32.1)

Above all other Gods they worship Mercury, and count it no sin on certain feast-days to include human victims in the sacrifices offered to him. Herakles and Mars they appease by offerings of animals, in accordance with ordinary civilized custom. Some of the Suebi sacrifice also to Isis. I do not know the origin or explanation of this foreign cult; but the Goddess’s emblem, being made in the form of a light warship, itself proves that her worship came in from abroad. The Germans do not think it in keeping with the divine majesty to confine Gods within walls or to portray them in the likeness of any human countenance. Their holy places are woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to that hidden presence which is seen only by the eye of reverence. (Tacitus, Germania 9)

When morning was come they set up an eagle at the eastern gate, and erecting an altar of victory they celebrated appropriate rites with all due solemnity, according to their ancestral superstition: to the one whom they venerate as their God of Victory they give the name of Mars, and the bodily characteristics of Hercules, imitating his physical proportion by means of wooden columns, and in the hierarchy of their Gods he is the Sun, or as the Greeks call him, Apollo. From this fact the opinion of those men appears somewhat probable who hold that the Saxons were descended from the Greeks, because the Greeks call Mars Hirmin or Hermes, a word which we use even to this day, either for blame or praise, without knowing its meaning. (Widukind of Corvey, Deeds of the Saxons)

Among the rest of the Thracians it is the custom to sell their children for export and to take no care of their maidens, allowing them to have intercourse with any man they wish. Their wives, however, they strictly guard, and buy them for a price from the parents. To be tattooed is a sign of noble birth, while to bear no such marks is for the baser sort. The idler is most honored, the tiller of the soil most scorned; he is held in highest honor who lives by war and robbery. They worship no Gods but Ares, Dionysos, and Artemis. Their princes, however, unlike the rest of their countrymen, worship Hermes above all Gods and swear only by him, claiming him for their ancestor. The wealthy have the following funeral practices. First they lay out the dead for three days, and after killing all kinds of victims and making lamentation, they feast. After that they do away with the body either by fire or else by burial in the earth, and when they have built a barrow, they initiate all kinds of contests, in which the greatest prizes are offered for the hardest type of single combat. (Herodotos, Histories 5.6-8)

And again Hera would have destroyed the son of Zeus but Hermes caught him up, and carried him to the wooded ridge where Kybele dwelt. Moving fast, Hera ran swift-shoe on quick feet from high heaven; but he was before her, and assumed the eternal shape of first-born Phanes. Hera in respect for the most ancient of the Gods, gave him place and bowed before the radiance of the deceiving face, not knowing the borrowed shape for a fraud. So Hermes passed over the mountain tract with quicker step than hers, carrying the horned child folded in his arms, and gave it to Rheia, nurse of lions, mother of Father Zeus, and said these few words to the Goddess mother of the greatest: ‘Receive, Goddess, a new son of your Zeus! He is to fight with the Indians, and when he has done with earth he will come into the starry sky, to the great joy of resentful Hera! Indeed it is not proper that Ino should be nurse to one whom Zeus brought forth. Let the mother of Zeus be nanny to Dionysos – mother of Zeus and nurse of her grandson!’ This said he put off the higher shape of selfborn Phanes and put on his own form again, leaving Bakchos to grow a second time in Meter’s nurture. (Nonnos, Dionysiaka 9.136 ff)

Kallisto was loved by Zeus and mated with him. When Hera detected the intrigue she turned Kallisto into a bear, and Artemis to please Hera shot the bear. Zeus sent Hermes with orders to save the child Arkas that Kallisto bore in her womb. (Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.3.6)

Although it’s been a while since I asked for Starry Bear writing prompts, I haven’t forgotten. Over the last couple days I got around 8 or 9 pages down on Hermes’ role in the pantheon, with a particular focus on his presence in Germanic and Russian lands and how that shapes our conception of him within the tradition. Unfortunately while doing some research for this I made a discovery that’s going to necessitate completely changing how this paper is written. We’re talking from the title on down to the concluding paragraph. Which, on the one hand is pretty fucking cool. And on the other is irksome, as I’m rather lazy.  Funny thing – this isn’t the first time that’s happened since I started working on it. Laying it all out like this is both forcing me to refine my understanding of certain things and bringing up layers I’d never glimpsed before. Which, of course, is helping me grow closer to Hermes. Talk about a hermaion. 

As you go from Megalopolis to Messene, after advancing about seven stades, there stands on the left of the highway a sanctuary of Goddesses. They call the Goddesses themselves, as well as the district around the sanctuary, Maniae (Madnesses). In my view this is a surname of the Eumenides; in fact they say that it was here that madness overtook Orestes as punishment for shedding his mother’s blood. Not far from the sanctuary is a mound of earth, of no great size, surmounted by a finger made of stone; the name, indeed, of the mound is the Tomb of the Finger. Here, it is said, Orestes on losing his wits bit off one finger of one of his hands. Adjoining this place is another, called Ake (Remedies) because in it Orestes was cured of his malady. Here too there is a sanctuary for the Eumenides. The story is that, when these Goddesses were about to put Orestes out of his mind, they appeared to him black; but when he had bitten off his finger they seemed to him again to be white and he recovered his senses at the sight. So he offered a sin-offering to the black Goddesses to avert their wrath, while to the white deities he sacrificed a thank-offering. It is customary to sacrifice to the Graces also along with the Eumenides. Near to the place called Ake is another sanctuary called . . . because here Orestes cut off his hair on coming to his senses. (Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.34.1-3)

When Orestes had departed in haste from the Taurians with his sister, it so happened that he contracted some disease. And when he made inquiry about the disease they say that the oracle responded that his trouble would not abate until he built a temple to Artemis in a spot such as the one among the Taurians, and there cut off his hair and named the city after it. So then Orestes, going about the country there, came to Pontus, and saw a mountain which rose steep and towering, while below along the extremities of the mountain flowed the river Iris. Orestes, therefore, supposing at that time that this was the place indicated to him by the oracle, built there a great city and the temple of Artemis, and, shearing off his hair, named after it the city which even up to the present time has been called Comana. The story goes on that after Orestes had done these things, the disease continued to be as violent as before, if not even more so. Then the man perceived that he was not satisfying the oracle by doing these things, and he again went about looking everywhere and found a certain spot in Cappadocia very closely resembling the one among the Taurians. I myself have often seen this place and admired it exceedingly, and have imagined that I was in the land of the Taurians. For this mountain resembles the other remarkably, since the Taurus is here also and the river Sarus is similar to the Euphrates there. So Orestes built in that place an imposing city and two temples, the one to Artemis and the other to his sister Iphigenia, which the Christians have made sanctuaries for themselves, without changing their structure at all. This is called even now Golden Comana, being named from the hair of Orestes, which they say he cut off there and thus escaped from his affliction. (Prokopios, History of the Wars 1.17.18-25)

Something else I’m thinking about: the assumption that the cultural institutions of the ancients were ageless and unchanging.

They weren’t.

For instance, when did the Athenians stop celebrating Anthesteria?

If memory serves, Plutarch is one of the last authors to speak of carrying out the rites; subsequently references to it tend to be in the past tense.

His observances are also very different from the evidence we have for the Classical Athenian form of the festival, which differs again from what was done in Southern Italy, and likely Ephesos and Magnesia too.

Interesting fact: Themistokles (of 300: Rise of an Empire fame) is credited with transplanting Anthesteria to the latter polis, where he was banished after successfully defending his mother-city from Persian incursion.

I bet Orestes’ Supper held some interesting resonances for him, especially considering the tragic hero’s ties to the Black Sea region. 

Oh, there’s more! Starry stuff, that is.

Did you catch the month-name we use for the Bakcheion calendar? (Hint: it’s here.)

That’s right – Στέφανος, the month of Flower Crowns.

As in the one Ariadne wore when she and Dionysos first celebrated Anthesteria:

As the author of the Cretica says, at the time when Liber came to Minos with the hope of lying with Ariadne he gave her this crown as a present. Delighted with it, she did not refuse the terms. It is said, too, to have been made of gold and Indian gems, and by its aid Theseus is thought to have come from the gloom of the Labyrinth to the day, for the gold and gems made a glow of light in the darkness. (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.5)

Are you wandering in darkness?
Are you drowning in your shame?
Are you weary, or sick and tired
of living in the blackness of this age?
Come with me
and meet the one
who makes the night like day.
And bow before him,
and adore this king
who bears our shame.
Come with me
and meet the one
who makes the night like day.
And bow before him,
and adore this king
who bears our shame.
Come with me
and meet the one
who makes the night like day.
And bow before him,
and adore this king
who bears our shame.
Everything will change
Everything will change
Everything will change
Everything will change

One of the reasons that Óðr has been on my mind of late is because we have entered the White Season according to the Bakcheion calendar, during which Dionysos:

acts out the role of the Magician come from a strange and distant land, bringing wonders and radical transformation in his wake. He knows the songs and ceremonies to awaken and release, and he is followed by a triumphant procession of Nymphs and Satyrs whose ecstatic revelry chases off barrenness, stagnation and malignant or at least mischievous Spirits from the land and his people.

This is the Season in which Anthesteria falls (at this point it’s only a couple weeks away! 11-13 Stephanos or 4-6 February by the common reckoning) and the overlapping feast for Erigone, the Hanged Maiden:

Nor did the morn of the Broaching of the Jars pass unheeded, nor that whereon the Pitchers of Orestes bring a white day for slaves. And when he kept the yearly festival of Ikarios’ child, thy day, Erigone, lady most sorrowful of Attic women, he invited to a banquet his familiars, and among them a stranger who was newly visiting Egypt, whither he had come on some private business. (Kallimachos, Aitia 1.1)

And the reason that made me think of Óðr is found in Hyginus’ Astronomica:

§ 2.2.1 LESSER BEAR: Aglaosthenes, who wrote the Naxica, says that she is Cynosura, one of the nurses of Jove from the number of the Idaean nymphs. He says, too, that in the city called Histoe, founded by Nicostratus and his friends, both the harbour and the greater part of the land are called Cynosura from her name. She, too, was among the Curetes who were attendants of Jove. Some say that the nymphs Helice and Cynosura were nurses of Jove, and so for gratitude were placed in the sky, both being called Bears. We call them Septentriones.

§ 2.2.2 But many have said that the Great Bear is like a wagon, and the Greeks do call it amaza. This reason has been handed down: Those who, at the beginning, observed the stars and supposed the number of stars into the several constellations, called this group not “Bear” but “Wain,” because two of the seven stars which seemed of equal size and closest together were considered oxen, and the other five were like the figure of a wagon. And so the sign which is nearest to this they wished to be called Bootes. We shall speak of him later on. Aratus, indeed, says that neither Bootes nor the Wain has these names for the reason above, but because the Bear seems, wagon-like, to wheel around the pole which is called North, and Bootes, is said to drive her. In this he seems to be considerably in error, for later, in connection with the seven stars, as Parmeniscus says, twenty-five were grouped by certain astronomers to complete the form of the Bear, not seven. And so the one that followed the wagon and was formerly called Bootes, was now called Arctophylax [Bear Watchter], and she, at the same time that Homer lived, was called Bear. About the Septentriones Homer says that she was called both Bear and Wain; nowhere does he mention that Bootes was called Arctophylax.

§ 2.4.1 BEAR-WATCHER: He is said to be Arcas, the son of Jove and Callisto, whom Lycaon served at a banquet, cut up with other meat, when Jupiter came to him as a guest. For Lycaon wanted to know whether the one who had asked for his hospitality was a god or not. For this deed he was punished by no slight punishment, for Jupiter, quickly overturning the table, burned the house with a thunderbolt, and turned Lycaon himself into a wolf. But the scattered limbs of the boy he put together, and gave him to a certain Aitolian to care for. When, grown to manhood, he was hunting in the woods, he saw his mother changed to bear form, and did not recognize her. Intent on killing her, he chased her into the temple of Jove Lycaeus, where the penalty for entering is death, according to Arcadian law. And so, since both would have to die, Jupiter, out of pity, snatched them up and put them among the stars, as I have said before. As a result, Arcas is seen following the Bear, and since he guards Arctos, he is called Arctophylax.

§ 2.4.2 Some have said that he is Icarus, father of Erigone, to whom, on account of his justice and piety, Father Liber gave wine, the vine, and the grape, so that he could show men how to plant the vine, what would grow from it, and how to use what was produced. When he had planted the vine, and by careful tending with a pruning-knife had made it flourish, a goat is said to have broken into the vineyard, and nibbled the tenderest leaves he saw there. Icarus, angered by this, took him and killed him and from his skin made a sack, and blowing it up, bound it tight, and cast it among his friends, directing them to dance around it. And so Eratosthenes says: Around the goat of Icarus they first danced.

 

§ 2.4.3 Others say that Icarus, when he had received the wine from Father Liber, straightway put full wineskins on a wagon. For this he was called Bootes. When he showed it to the shepherds on going round through the Attic country, some of them, greedy and attracted by the new kind of drink, became stupefied, and sprawling here and there, as if half-dead, kept uttering unseemly things. The others, thinking poison had been given the shepherds by Icarus, so that he could drive their flocks into his own territory, killed him, and threw him into a well, or, as others say, buried him near a certain tree. However, when those who had fallen asleep, woke up, saying that they had never rested better, and kept asking for Icarus in order to reward him, his murderers, stirred by conscience, at once took to flight and came to the island of the Ceans. Received there as guests, they established homes for themselves.

§ 2.4.4 But when Erigone, the daughter of Icarus, moved by longing for her father, saw he did not return and was on the point of going out to hunt for him, the dog of Icarus, Maera by name, returned to her, howling as if lamenting the death of its master. It gave her no slight suspicion of murder, for the timid girl would naturally suspect her father had been killed since he had been gone so many months and days. But the dog, taking hold of her dress with its teeth, led her to the body. As soon as the girl saw it, abandoning hope, and overcome with loneliness and poverty, with many tearful lamentations she brought death on herself by hanging from the very tree beneath which her father was buried. And the dog made atonement for her death by its own life. Some say that it cast itself into the well, Anigrus by name. For this reason they repeat the story that no one afterward drank from that well. Jupiter, pitying their misfortune, represented their forms among the stars. And so many have called Icarus, Bootes, and Erigone, the Virgin, about whom we shall speak later. The dog, however, from its own name and likeness, they have called Canicula. It is called Procyon by the Greeks, because it rises before the greater Dog. Others say these were pictured among the stars by Father Liber.

§ 2.4.5 In the meantime in the district of the Athenians many girls without cause committed suicide by hanging, because Erigone, in dying, had prayed that Athenian girls should meet the same kind of death she was to suffer if the Athenians did not investigate the death of Icarus and avenge it. And so when these things happened as described, Apollo gave oracular response to them when they consulted him, saying that they should appease Erigone if they wanted to be free from the affliction. So since she hanged herself, they instituted a practice of swinging themselves on ropes with bars of wood attached, so that the one hanging could be moved by the wind. They instituted this as a solemn ceremony, and they perform it both privately and publicly, and call it aletis, aptly terming her mendicant who, unknown and lonely, sought for her father with the god. The Greeks call such people Aletides.

And to make things even more interesting, give Viking Stranger-Kings: the foreign as a source of power in Viking Age Scandinavia by Andres Minos Dobat and The Stranger King and Rock Art by Michael Rowlands a read. 

Before I venture forth to cause mischief I want to leave you with this link to the works of Zaur Hasanov. Assuming you want more context for the Figs and Honey post. 

Artistic renderings of Óðr are few and far between, likely because of the paucity of information on him in the lore. So it was kind of cool to stumble across this image from Mythology Wiki: 

Except … uh … is it just me, or does that look uncomfortably like an idealized rendering of a certain failed Austrian art student? Must be why Heathens have to grow beards. 

Anyway, I much prefer this for Óðr:

 

L. M. Hollander, The Old Norse God Óðr in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Jul., 1950)
Against this theory, Falk raised the objections that the name of Óðr is not instanced in early Old Norse and that any transition Adonis>Óðr would call for etymological justification; also, that the meaning ‘raging, mad’ ill agrees with the character of Baldr. To account, then, for the name of Óðr, Falk calls attention to a passage in Martianus Capella’s (early 5th century) poem De nuptiis Philologie et Mercurii, translated into Old High German by Notker Labeo. There, in the hymn to the sun god, the sun god is celebrated under his various names; last, as Biblius Adon. This is glossed by Notker as Biblius cantans. In other words, Notker interprets Adon as αδων, present participle of Attic αιδω ‘to sing.’ This, Falk surmises, may have been the common medieval interpretation of the name of Adonis; which, then, translated into Old Norse, would be Óðr; which as a noun also signifies ‘song, poetry.’