APOLLO God of light, god of prophecy and music, god of medicine, god of flocks and herds, the divine archer, a pastoral god. Wise, beauteous, all-knowing, ever just, ever young. Apollo urges forgiveness to all offenses, even the blackest of crimes, so long as the offender was truly penitent. After Zeus and Athene, the greatest of the Gods. Apollo's most important place of worship was the famous temple at Delphi, where oracles prophesied in his name. The Sybil at Cumae in southern Italy also foretold the future in his honor. Paintings and statuary show him with his bow and lyre, which were a gift from the infant Hermes. Apollo loved young men and young women alike, though his affairs usually ended unhappily. Artemis is his twin sister, and Horus is his counterpart in the Egyptian pantheon.

ARTEMIS Fertility goddess, patron of maidens, goddess of childbirth. Identified with the moon, as her brother Apollo is identified with the sun. The Virgin Huntress, Mistress of Beasts, Lady of All Wild Things, A Lion unto Women. Usually benevolent, but stern and demanding, dangerous to cross. Artemis lived in Arcadia with a band of nymphs subject to her strict discipline; those who dallied with men, as did Callisto, might be shot down with an arrow or otherwise punished. No man or god ever gained the love of Artemis. Artemis is virtually unbeatable in combat. The only one of the immortals who ever bested her was Hera, who defeated Artemis on the battlefield at Troy, whipped her with her own bow, and sent her fleeing in tears.

aulos The ancient Greek aulos, often mistranslated as "flute", was a double-piped reed instrument. Archeological finds indicate that it could be either single-reeded, like a clarinet, but more usually double-reeded, like an oboe. Unlike the lyre, which could be mastered by any aristocrat with sufficient leisure to practice it, the aulos was an instrument chiefly associated with professional musicians, often slaves.

 Female aulos-players were a fixture of Greek drinking parties, and male and female aulos players often doubled as prostitutes.

The aulos accompanied a wide range of Greek activities: it was present at sacrifices, dramas and even wrestling matches, for the broad jump, the discus throw, sailor's dances on triremes. Plato associates it with the ecstatic cults of Dionysus and the Korybantes. In his writings, Plato banned the aulos from his Republic but reintroduced it in "Laws".

bull From earliest times the bull was lunar in Mesopotamia, its horns representing the crescent moon. For the Greeks, the bull was strongly linked to the Bull of Crete: Theseus of Athens had to capture the ancient sacred bull of Marathon (the "Marathonian bull") before he faced the Bull-man, the Minotaur. Of all of the animals that man has domesticated, few of them possess the

wiki/Bull_mythology

  Everyone who surrenders to this god must risk abandoning his everyday identity and becoming mad: both god and follower can be called Bacchus. Dionysus when he is "in us" causes us to "stand outside ourselves" with the group and enjoy the irrational side of our nature.

"The name Bacchus for Dionysos is inseparable in Greek from a verb meaning "to act like a Bacchant"--that is, to become agitated, to cry out, to fall into a trance, to act crazily. the ancient trance and excitement. Translators have had trouble finding the worlds to describe that frenetic madness without falling into the vocabulary of pathology." Ginnette Paris Pagan Grace

"Early worshippers of Dionysos reenacted this gruesome scene by whipping themselves into a frenzy and tearing a live bull to pieces with their hands and teeth. These grisly rites, accompanied by loud music and the crashing of cymbals, were intended to propel the revelers into a state of ecstasy, a word literally meaning 'outside the body' to the Greeks. Through this ecstasy, the cultists hoped to transcend their earthly bonds and allow the soul a temporary liberation from the body. Only in this way could the soul achieve a condition of enthousiasmos, meaning 'inside the god,' which the worshipers believed was a taste of what they might one day enjoy in eternity."
     - The Search for the Soul 

"Following the torches as they dipped and swayed in the darkness, they climbed mountain paths with head thrown back and eyes glazed, dancing to the beat of the drum which stirred their blood…. In the state of ekstasis or enqousiasmos, they abandoned themselves, dancing wildly…. and calling 'Euoi!' At that moment of intense rapture they became identified with the god himself…. They became filled with his spirit and acquired divine powers".
Peter Hoyle, Delphi (London: 1967), p. 76.

After as long as 2000 years The Roman emperor Theodosius I closed the sanctuaries by decree in CE 392 in an effort to destroy pagan resistance to the imposition of Christianity as a state religion

wiki/Eleusinian_Mysteries

Aphrodite offered him two things. The first was his body, and the second was the perfection of beauty, the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen., wife of Menelaus of Sparta. Since Paris's first love was women, he decided to pick Aphrodite's offer. Hera and Athena vowed vengeance.
world, Helen.

EVOCATION - The calling forth of daimons into visible and sometimes tactile presence.

GAIA "Mother of all things." The Earth itself, mother of the Titans, the old gods. Usually represented as a giant woman. Before anything else existed, there was only Chaos (the Void, the Nothingness, the Emptiness) and the Earth. Gaia nurses the ill and watches over marriages. Gaia is an oracle as well, and the temple at Delphi was hers before it was Apollo's. The Greeks had no tales about Gaia, because she belonged to the distant past.

• the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt based at Alexandria
• the Seleucid dynasty in Syria based at Antioch
• the Antigonid dynasty in Macedonia and the mainland of Greece

HERA; to the Romans, JUNO Wife of Zeus, queen of the gods. Zeus is quite a randy god, and Hera's domestic life with him is always stormy. Zeus and Hera were on opposite sides during the Trojan War, and they squabble all the way through the Iliad. At first a sky goddess, Hera later became the embodiment of womanliness. Like Dionysus, Hera is a pre-Olympian deity whose cult was so strong that it had to be adopted by the Dorian Greeks. Hera was worshiped in high places, and her temples were built on mountain peaks. Her festival, held at Argos and called the Heraia, involved athletic contests.

HERMES; to the Romans, MERCURY The messenger of the gods, the god of eloquence, the god of luck. God of travelers, merchants and athletes. Originally a pastoral and fertility god in Arcadia, in his oldest monuments Hermes is represented simply as a phallus. Easygoing, kind and obliging, Hermes is quite helpful to both gods and men, though he appears in some stories as a trickster. Hermes invented the lyre, which he gave to Apollo to get out of a mess he'd made by stealing Apollo's cattle. Hermes' image was often found at crossroads and junctions, and he is shown with winged sandals and a winged helmet. Hermes was quite popular.

"The 'heiros gamos,' the sacred prostitute was the votary chosen to embody the goddess. She was the goddess' fertile womb, her passion and her erotic nature. In the union with the god, embodied by the reigning monarch, she assured the fertility and well-being of the land and the people. . . she did not make love in order to obtain admiration or devotion from the man who came to her, for often she remained veiled and anonymous; her raison d'être was to worship the goddess in lovemaking, thereby bringing the goddess love into the human sphere. In this union -- the union of masculine and feminine, spiritual and physical -- the personal was transcended and the divine entered in. As the embodiment of the goddess in the mystical union of the sacred marriage, the sacred prostitute aroused the male and was the receptacle for his passion . . . . The sacred prostitute was the holy vessel wherein chthonic and spiritual forces united."

Nancy Qualls-Corbett, The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspect of the Feminine (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1988), pp. 39-40.

 http://www.widdershins.org/vol5iss4/06.htm

www.carnaval.com/initiation

Hygiene in the Roman World was available to the rich and anyone who could afford the public baths or thermaes. Running water from lead pipes connected to the aqueducts was available in many homes. If you were not so rich folks relieved themselves in pots or commodes which were emptied into vats located under staircases and these emptied into cesspools throughout the city. At Pompeii, for instance, all houses except the poorest had water pipes fitted with taps, and the waste water was piped away into sewer or trench.

 But after the dormant months of winter, when the God himself is reborn, it sends out another shoot, one that grows upright and towards the light, thus honoring the return of the vibrant God

kantharos The kantharos was a special drinking cup, said to be invented by the God himself. Unlike the skyphos, which was round, with small handles, the kantharos had a high base and projecting handles that stretched from the rim to the foot of the cup.

Kraters used to mix water and wine. In Greek Art the frolicking of Maenads and Dionysus is often a theme depicted on Greek kraters. At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in the center of the room. They were quite large, so they were not easily portable when filled. Thus, the wine-water mixture would be withdrawn from the Krater with other vessels. Since kraters could be seen into, they were glazed on the interior for aesthetic reasons.

Robert Graves has argued that the original Dionysian rites were only partially wine-inspired. He has insisted, through his combination of sound scholarship and poetic insight, that the worship of Dionysus once also involved the ingestion of the hallucinogenic fly-agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria.

As befits a psychedelic god, Dionysus was given to a bewildering series of mutations and transformations. Again echoing shamanism, with its traditions of shape-shifting,
 wiki/Krater

PERSEPHONE, also KORE "Maiden." Daughter of Demeter, wife of Hades. Hades kidnapped Persephone and took her to the underworld to be his queen. When Demeter heard, she wandered the earth in mourning, abandoning her responsibilities, and the earth grew gray and barren. The growing famine forced Zeus to demand that Hades return Persephone to the surface world. But Persephone had eaten part of a pomegranate, and eating of the food of the dead bound her to their world. Zeus and Hades struck a bargain -- Persephone would spend seven months a year in the world of the living and five in the world of the dead. When Persephone is in the world, her mother Demeter is content, and the world blooms and lives. When she is in the underworld, Demeter mourns, the world languishes, and we have winter.

large phallic pillar outside Dionysus shrine, one of two Delos. Credits: Barbara McManus, 1980

The phallos was ubiquitous in connection with Dionysos as a symbol of the source of life, and is a symbol of virility, courage, and power.- it was carried in processions, herms and other phallic monuments were erected in his honor.

Priapus This god is mainly known for his huge virile member, and the size of it is so enormous that it has been called "column", "twelve-inch pole", "cypress", "spear", "pyramid", and many other names of the same kind referring to the dimensions of his penis.

With Aphrodite, Dionysos had a son, Priapus, a hideous being whose penis was so large that he had to support it by means of a pulley and strings. Representations of Priapus were installed in gardens, both to encourage fertility and the growth of their fruit, but also to protect the garden from thieves. Those who were caught trespassing were punished by being placed on the Garden God's erect member. Priapus warned, "si fur veneris, impudicus exis" ("In a thief and out a faggot."

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Priapus.html

Gods were not personified, unlike in Ancient Greece. Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had their own genius such as say family guardian spirits).
As contact with the Greeks increased, the old Roman gods became associated with Greek gods.
Just as the sun was Lord of the Heavens so the Roman Emperor was Lord of the Earth. As long as everyone could accept this, imperial temporal authority was strengthened, but everyone could continue to revere their own celestial or spiritual god. Most did! The notable exceptions were Jews and Christians.
The Romans were tolerant of religious differences partly because they were indifferent to blasphemy. To a Roman it was absurd for a mortal to take up cudgels to defend a god. Romans sincerely believed that the gods were sensitive, petulant, and ready to intervene in the lives of mortals. If a god were offended by a mortal then the poor fellow had better watch out—at the very least he'd find his luck was out. Romans thought Christians courted disaster by deriding Pagan gods as devils but they did not take personal offence. What did worry them was that vengeful gods might not be too discriminating, and innocent bystanders might suffer. It was this generalized fear of divine anger rather than intolerance of blasphemy that invited Roman displeasure.
So Imperial policy was that, subject to the requirement to honour the Genius of the Emperor, Romans could worship whoever or whatever they liked and how they liked as long as they respected and did not interfere with others and the ceremonies were respectable. However clandestine meetings were not allowed since they could be a cover for subversive plots. The priests and priestesses of the gods of the Empire were generally celibate and even Bacchanialian "orgies", by the intertestamental period, were merely drunken, not licentious.
The transference of the anthropomorphic qualities to Roman Gods, and the prevalence of Greek philosophy among well-educated Romans, brought about an increasing neglect of the old rites, and in the 1st century BC the religious importance of the old priestly offices declined rapidly, though their civic importance and political influence remained. Roman religion in the empire tended more and more to center on the imperial house, and several emperors were deified after their deaths.


Spread of Eastern Religions
Under the empire, numerous foreign cults grew popular, such as the worship of the Egyptian Isis and the Persian Mithras. Despite persecutions, Christianity steadily gained converts. It became an officially supported religion in the Roman state under Constantine I. All cults save Christianity were prohibited in AD 391 by an edict of Emperor Theodosius I. www.carnaval.com/saturnalia

Spread of Christianity

The early Christians acknowledged that Dionysus (his Greek name) / Bacchus (his Latin name) came before Jesus. when the Christian Father Justin Martyr, writing in the 100s AD, wrote that the Devil reading the Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah sent Bacchus early, to trick men about Jesus: "The devils, accordingly, when they heard these prophetic words, said that Bacchus was the son of Jupiter, and ...having been torn in pieces, he ascended into heaven." [Justin Martyr, First Apology, 54]

Despite desultory persecutions, usually at times of civic tensions beginning with Nero, and more throrough persecutions beginning under Diocletian, Christianity steadily gained converts. It became an officially supported religion in the Roman state under Constantine I, who ruled as sole emperor from AD 324 to 337. All cults save Christianity were prohibited in AD 391 by an edict of Emperor Theodosius I. Destruction of temples and desecration of the fanes began immediately, with the sacking of the Serapeum in Alexandria as an encouraging example.

After the Fall of Rome
After the fall of the city of Rome and the Western Empire the state continued its existence as the Byzantine Empire, which is conventionally treated as a separate entity in history books. Also the Holy Roman Empire and Russia have claimed the "Roman" legacy after the fall of Constantinoplewiki/Roman_mythology

Sun

We need to repair our metaphors of ‘what the Sun is’, as a species. Not with science, or a new system or expert — with experiential contact. www.organelle.org

He is always shown as a youth and usually as a traveller, with a broad-brimmed cap (petasos), often supported by Athena. His story was developed to rival that of Herakles, by devising for him a series of adventures he is said to have had on his way to Athens from his birthplace at Troezen: see Sinis, Skiron, Procrustes. In Athens he is recognized by his father Aigeus, and encounters Medea who tries to poison him. Later with his companion Peirithoos he abducts Helen, the Amazon Antiope and attempts Persephone; he also fights beside Peirithoos when the latter's wedding is disrupted by Centaurs. For this they are imprisoned in Hades, whence only Theseus is rescued by Herakles.
 

 and leaves and topped with a pine cone. The thyrsus is a composite symbol of the forest (pine cone) and the farm (fennel).  Dionysus (or Bacchus) and his followers, the Satyrs and Maenads carried this symbolic staff. Sometimes the thyrsus was displayed in conjunction with a wine cup, forming a male-and-female combination like that of the royal scepter and orb. The thyrsus  has been interpreted as a phallic symbol. The maenads, followers of Dionysos, pound the ground with the thyrsus, which drips honey and causes milk and wine to gush up from the earth.

 wiki/Thyrsus

toga virilis On March 17, during the Roman festival of Liberalia, held in honor of Liber (Dionysos), Libera (Ariadne or Persephone), and Ceres (Demeter) the toga virilis or toga libera was donned. This was a white toga symbolizing that the boy (usually around 14-17) had passed from childhood and was now iuvenis, a young man.  It was customary to select the date for the coming of age ceremony according to the birthday that came nearest to March 17, the Liberalia (the festival of Liber).

A boy's coming-of-age ceremony began when the boy laid his bulla and bordered toga before the lares of the house in the early morning The purple-edged toga praetexta of childhood was put away and sacrifices were offered to Juventas, Goddess of childhood, in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The boy then dressed himself in a white tunic, adjusted by his father.  Over this was draped the toga virilis (toga of the grown man). When the boy was ready, the procession to the Forum began. The father had gathered his slaves, freedmen, clients, relatives and friends, using all his influence to make his son's escort numerous and imposing. Here the boy's name was added to the list of citizens, and formal congratulations were extended. Then the family climbed up to the temple of Liber on the Capitoline Hill, where an offering was made to the god. Finally they all returned to the house, where the day ended with a dinner party given by the father in honour of the new Roman citizen.

Ovid says that Dionysos is associated with the toga virilis either because he is depicted as a young man, midway between childhood and adulthood, or because he is a father, and it is into his care that fathers place their sons.

While no special public ceremony marked a Roman girl's passing into womanhood, Pompeii's Villa of Mysteries shows that the story of Dionysus and Ariadne

himation: a cloak worn by men in ancient Greece and Rome;
chiton: a woolen tunic worn by men and women in ancient Greece

www.classicsunveiled.com/romel/html/romechildren.html 

http://www.ventrue.net/GSA/myth.htm

http://www.geocities.com/hiera_mysteria/logos.html

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