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Episode 142: Ancient Sabbats pt. 1
498 Plays17 days ago
Welcome back, Witches! In this episode, we dive into the ancient Athenian festivals of Thesmophoria and Skirophoria, exploring their sacred rituals, cultural significance, and ties to the cycles of life and death. So get in, loser—we’re traveling back to ancient Greece!
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References:
- Christina Vakkas (2021). The Thesmporphia: Women’s Ritual in the Ancient World. The Hellenic. Org. https://www.hellenic.org.au/post/the-thesmophoria-women-s-ritual-in-the-ancient-world
- Apostolos Papapostolou (2024). Thesmorphia: Ancient Greek Thanksgiving Celebration. Greek Reporter. https://greekreporter.com/2024/11/28/thesmophoria-an-ancient-greek-thanksgiving-celebration-2/
- Ioannis Melantis. (n.d.). https://www.melanitis.com/Garden4.html
- Antonio Garcia (2024). Thesmorphia, the festival of ancient Greece where men were prohibited from participating. La Brujula Verde. https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2024/08/thesmophoria-the-festival-of-ancient-greece-where-men-were-prohibited-from-participating/
- Gold, Melissa. Skiraphoria/Skira. Hellenion. https://www.hellenion.org/festivals/skiraphoria/
- Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Skirophoria. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Skirophoria
- Chaliakopulos, Antonis. Athena and Poseidon’s Contest: How did Athens Get its Name?. (2021) The Collector. https://www.thecollector.com/athena-poseidon-contest-athens-name-giving/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft and the occult, but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get In, Loser, where you're doing witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we've learned about the craft. So get in, witches, as we travel back in time and revisit some ancient Sabbaths.
Costco Adventures in Japan
00:00:42
Speaker
So we went to Costco again yesterday. I'm so jealous. I miss Costco. It was better. yeah um it was i mean When we got there though, like did you see my Instagram story where it was like, there's people already lined up. and Before it opened. Before it opened. One thing I will say, Japanese people love a line. They love to wait in line. I don't understand this mentality because I am not that person.
00:01:12
Speaker
But here you have to wait in the line. Um, so we didn't get out of the car until the line started moving. Cause I was like, yeah, outside. I'm not standing outside for 30 minutes. Um, because here's the thing is like technically, so the store doesn't open till 10. I think I was saying this last time we recorded, but like they had been opening at nine. I guess now they're like opening at 10. So we got there at 906 expecting it to be open.
00:01:41
Speaker
No, but people are already lined up outside and they were going to stay there for an hour. So when they were opening it at nine, were they opening it to everyone at nine? yeah Okay. Cause in the States, I know like Costco opens at say 10, but if you have the, cause there's like a two tiers to the membership, if you have the higher tier, you can come in at nine and start shopping before.
00:02:07
Speaker
They let everybody in. They don't do that here. It's like, yeah they were just opening it up at nine because it was getting so packed. yeah So they ended up opening at like nine 30. So those people had been waiting for at least, at least 30 minutes. Oh my gosh. And so we get up there, whatever, as the lines moving and more streams, hordes of people are coming behind us. And I'm just like, I'm getting kind of nervous because I'm like, Oh my God,
00:02:34
Speaker
it's gonna be a nightmare inside. Like a stampede. Yeah. And so like, and I've never been to Costco in the States, but I'm assuming it's set up exactly the same where you like, once you kind of get inside, it's like not inside the store yet, but that's where the carts are. Like the entryway area or whatever. Oh yeah. So we were in that area and it's just a stampede getting the carts. All semblance of order goes out the window as soon as they see the fucking the carts. It's just like stampede. And so like Mike and I get separated and I'm trying to get to Mike. Yeah, this older Japanese lady won't let me get to my husband. And I'm like,
00:03:18
Speaker
I'm just like, whatever. So I'm just like, you just go wait over there. And I am the one with the Costco card. So it's not like like he doesn't have one. And so yeah like he can't get in the store without me. So I'm just like, just wait on the side. I'll grab a cart. And so I'm like going to grab the cart. And the lady, the older lady who wouldn't let me just bypass her to get to my, because I was in front of her in line. like Here's the thing. I was in front of her in line. But as soon as she took the cart, it was like, no, that's my part.
00:03:47
Speaker
I'm like, you know what? No, I'm going to be mean today. And I like, she like put her hand in front of me to like stop me from getting, I'm just like, uh, excuse you. I'm like, just pushed her gently out of the way, grabbed the cart. She grabbed my cart. And then I put my bags inside the cart. Cause I'm just like, ma'am, we're not, I was here. Like, look here, crazy. me go play I got my car and then pushed through everybody to get inside. It was.
00:04:16
Speaker
But once we got inside, it was fine. And we were able to get the chickens. There was no line to get the chickens. We got the chickens. Jealous. And so I'm just like, oh my god. And so we were able to get our fruits and veggies. And I was disappointed when we got home because the raspberries were not. They had seen better days, which was disappointing. I always open everything in chocolate.
00:04:40
Speaker
Yeah, I did though. like They looked fine and there was no mold or anything. They were just yeah softer than they should be. And I'm like, meh. But me we ate them all almost anyway. I miss Costco so much.
Shopping Anticipations in the US
00:04:59
Speaker
Yeah. Everybody goes back to the States and they're like, Target. And I'm like, Costco. I cannot wait. I have been watching all of the Target haul videos that have of things that have been out recently um because that will be my first stop when I get back yeah in February for my TDY is Target. And I'm going to do what I did last time where I put my suitcase inside of a suitcase going to the States because yeah I'm going to buy a bunch of shit. All stuff I need, all stuff I need, but it's still going to be a lot. Yeah. Not just shit to have shit, but what are we talking about?
Ancient Sabbats Exploration
00:05:36
Speaker
Oh, we're talking about ancient sabbats. I'm excited. I love this. This series is going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah. This was so interesting to me. Like I know
00:05:49
Speaker
about, like I know that they're older than like the Sabbats that we typically see like Samhain or in bulk or any of that, but I didn't know about them, I guess. Like I didn't know like the the details of it. That's kind of what I'm looking for, the details. And so this was really interesting. it Yeah, I agree. And while like with some of the other Sabbats that you mentioned, like with in bulk and Samhain and stuff,
00:06:18
Speaker
while they have their ties in ancient ritual practices, a lot of the the the way that we celebrate those is similar, right? But with some of these, like I really like that we don't really celebrate these anymore. like theyve They've completely died out, but that doesn't mean that we stopped learning about them. so yeah So I love that. So I guess I will kick it off. I am going to talk about Thesmophoria. So for both of us, I believe we're both going back to ancient Greece.
00:06:52
Speaker
with our sabbats, which was not planned. know So exciting how that works out. We took it even a step further with our brains picking two sabbats that actually kind of go together. so I don't know how we did that, but we did it. Without knowing what the other one was researching. So you know that just shows. Two peas in a pod. Exactly. The final brain cell.
00:07:23
Speaker
We found it. um So we briefly talked about Thesmophoria in episode 132, which was our Persephone and Hades Underworld deities episode. And we talked a lot about Demeter and Persephone in that episode in particular. So for that reason, I'm not going to rehash all of that lore here.
00:07:43
Speaker
I will touch on a few things as a reminder, but just know if you want more lore related to Demeter and Persephone specifically and why they're ah associated with the fertility and abundance, whatever, go listen to Episode 32. Thesmophoria was a festival held in ancient Greece and it was pretty unique because it was only allowed to be observed by citizen wives in ancient Greece.
00:08:10
Speaker
So women in general were not considered citizens in Ancient Greece. However, if they were married, they were citizen wives and they they could participate in the rituals associated with Thesmophoria and could even help plan it.
00:08:24
Speaker
So as I said, you know men were not allowed to participate, and they were also banned from knowing what the rituals entailed. And there was even punishments given to men who broke the rules. And some sites that I was researching said that they were castrated, and others said that they were put to death. So either way, that was pretty serious. Pretty serious. Pretty too serious. No, human rituals served. Yeah. They took this fertility festival very seriously. Yes.
00:08:53
Speaker
also sometimes known as the ancient greek thanksgiving festival because of its ties to the harvest and for giving thanks to a bountiful harvest this festival was celebrated in ancient greece around the 11th century BCE. This festival typically spanned three days and was celebrated by the female cult of Demeter and Persephone, also known as Corae. And by all accounts and what we know about ancient Greek civilization, this festival was a very popular and highly celebrated. It was held during the beginning of autumn. So in today's calendar, this would be in sometime between October and November um in that timeframe.
00:09:34
Speaker
However, in ancient Greece, this festival would have been held in Pyenipsian, which was the fourth month of the ancient Greek attic calendar. This festival marked the official beginning of autumn and would signal the time to plant wheat, barley, and legumes. and This festival was important because it was celebrated to secure protection from the divine for the land and to secure a successful harvest.
00:09:59
Speaker
so As I mentioned, Demeter and Persephone were the goddess's honor during this festival because they are the goddesses of fertility and agriculture. The festival played into the myth and lore surrounding the story of Hades' capture of Persephone and Demeter's agreement with Hades to share Persephone where she would spend part of the year in the underworld with Hades and part of the year in the living world with her mother Demeter, helping to provide fertility and abundance to the land of the living. And while Persephone was in the underworld with Hades,
00:10:30
Speaker
all harvesting would stop because Demeter would be too depressed to bring agricultural fertility to the world. So this lore sets the basis for how ancient Greeks understood, described, and personified the changing of the seasons, and Thesmophoria was celebrated as a pre-harvest ritual, and it also celebrated the return of Persephone.
00:10:52
Speaker
So Thesmophoria was celebrated at the Thesmorphian, which, of course, why wouldn't it be, um of which was a hillside sanctuary of Demeter in Athens. But there is evidence of Thesmophoria also being celebrated in Arcadia, Sicily, and Aricia. And historians cite that the women would camp at the space for three days and two nights And they would be set up in like little rows of huts where women would sleep two to three in a hut. And I thought that was, and they would sleep on the ground too. Like they didn't have beds or anything. So I thought it was interesting that archeologists were able to find evidence of that. So as far as the rituals celebrated during Thesmophoria, one of the biggest and most important rituals of the festival was a sacrifice of piglets. which is kind of sad. um But Laura suggests that when Persephone was ah abducted by Hades while she was picking flowers, she was actually on land where a farmer was herding his pigs. And that when Hades took Persephone, everything on that land fell to the underworld as well to include the pigs and the farmer.
00:12:05
Speaker
um so Kind of sad. um Sorry about your luck. Yeah, sorry. Should have been somewhere else, maybe. I don't know. um So on the first day of the festival, also known as anodos or the descent, homage was paid to Persephone and the farmer by sacrificing the pigs. And they were then the pigs were buried in a pit called a Megaron, and another group of women would then retrieve the sacrifice piglets from the year before, and they were brought to the altar. So the remains of the pigs that were sacrificed the year before, like whatever bones or flesh that were made after that year was brought to the altar, um and the new pigs that were sacrificed were then buried in the Megaron.
00:12:52
Speaker
And on the second day, known as Nestia, I could be saying that wrong. I couldn't figure out exactly how to pronounce that, um which also translates to fast. The citizen wives fasted, avoiding all solid food, and they would place pine branches in cakes or like little flower emblems that were shaped as serpents and men on the altar with the pig remains. and They believe that by combining the remains of the pigs with grain, aka the little cakes that they would make, they would ensure divine protection of their crops. and The fasting was completed in honor also of Demeter's mourning and they would the citizen wives would sit on the ground to transfer their strength from their bodies to the soil.
00:13:37
Speaker
Which is interesting as we just last week or a few minutes ago talked about like energy transmutation and grounding and yeah wouldn't you know? yeah we are And then the last day of the festival was known as Caligenia or Caligenia. I honestly don't know and I couldn't find definitive proof on how to say this. Pronunciations were not really available for most of what I'm going to talk about, so I can imagine you also struggled with finding any pronunciations on any of these things. A hundred percent, yeah. So this was also the day known as the fair offspring, and it was all about individual fertility. So women would pray to the Ellusian nymph, Caligenia,
00:14:23
Speaker
or Caligenia, I have no clue how to say it, for protection and fertility. And they would also engage in ritual obscenity by telling naughty jokes to each other. to And this would please Demeter as well to enhance their fertility and sexuality. And I just thought that was funny. Like, can you imagine just like a group of women just sitting around like talking shit to one another and telling naughty jokes like all day? I would we love that.
00:14:49
Speaker
And as I was reading some accounts on Thesmophoria, they discussed that women would engage in this like joke telling and like picking on each other like in you know a fun way. On the second day of the festival as well during the fast, because they were so hungry, like whenever the hunger started to bother them, they would then taunt each other to take their mind off the hunger, which I thought was going to be funny. But that is Thesmophoria.
00:15:17
Speaker
I love it. Yeah.
Skiraphoria Festival Insights
00:15:20
Speaker
So I'm going to be talking about, I think it's pronounced Skiriforia, but it was also just called Skira. So this was an ancient um Athenian festival that was held annually at threshing time.
00:15:37
Speaker
um which was done on the 12th of Skiriforion, which of course it was, and it was thought to be roughly in what is June or July now.
00:15:50
Speaker
So Skiriforian was the month of the final harvest of grain, and Skira was a major agricultural festival that took place over three days as well. It was linked to both human and agricultural fertility, and it has ties to Athena, Poseidon, Helios, Demeter, and Corae, or Persephone.
00:16:15
Speaker
The Skira Festival was one of the few days where Athenian women could gather in public and organize an event on their own. Though some believed that this was a time when women, ah like in Athens, were plotting to take over the Athenian assembly. As they should. As they should.
00:16:38
Speaker
And something I found really funny during this time, women with would withhold sex from men on the day of Skira and they would eat garlic to keep the men away from them.
00:16:50
Speaker
Oh, that's funny. That's hilarious. um The only real involvement for men on Skira was participating in the games that were held um that included this race, apparently, where you had to race to the shrine of Dionysus and they would carry like vine branches with them to the shrine as part of the race. And the winner would be given a drink that was made out of wine, honey, cheese, grain and olive oil.
00:17:19
Speaker
these were all things that Athena was asked to bless during the ritual of Scarra. It sounds gross. Yeah, it does. I love all those things. Walking Honey had me there. Yeah, all of those things by themselves. Olive oil? Love it. In my drink. Together? No, thank you. That's a no. Yeah, but that was the only thing that men's involvement included, was just playing these games and then doing this race. So as far as the deity tie-ins, Athena was the patron of Athens after winning Athens from Poseidon. And basically before Athens held its name, Athena and Poseidon fought for the right to make the city theirs.
00:18:06
Speaker
In the contest for Athens, Poseidon struck a rock with his trident, releasing a spring of saltwater. And then Athena, on the other hand, grew an olive tree. And the judges for the contest decided that the olive tree was more useful than the saltwater spring, and they awarded the city of Athens to Athena, making her their patron deity.
00:18:28
Speaker
um and she was honored on a sacred hill of the Acropolis. And though Athena won and was the patron deity, Athens' most sacred temple, known as the Erechtheum, I think, was shared between both Athena and Poseidon.
00:18:49
Speaker
So Helios' tie to Scarat is that he or the priest of Helios was to be present for the procession that we're gonna talk about here in a little bit to ensure that there was the best weather conditions for harvesting um and threshing grain. A lot of sun was needed, so his presence was meant to drive away the rain and to keep the weather clear and dry. Poseidon's presence was two-part, and this part gets really funny to me.
00:19:18
Speaker
So the first is that the grain and the crops need water to grow and flourish. But the second part... which is the funny part, and it's slightly petty. So since Athena won Athens from Poseidon, his part in the procession ritual was to show that Helios was predominant to him. um The sun was predominant to Poseidon's wetness and the rain, as well as to symbolize Athena over Poseidon, which was just a little bit petty, but also hilarious. She was like, you're going to be here, but also get to the back.
00:19:53
Speaker
and then Demeter and Corrie or Persephone. So their tie-in was because Skiraphoria was believed to have been a companion festival to Thesmophoria. And there are a few accounts that show that both had a connection to Skira and that some of the games and rituals completed during Skira were done in their honor. So there's there's like a period of time, like we know part of the ritual, then we know nothing that happens during day two essentially and then we know the end. I guess like there wasn't just, there wasn't a full account of the ritual anywhere for some reason. So the rituals that took place during Skira were considered victory rituals that marked Athena's victory over Poseidon for the city. Not a whole lot is known about the rituals, like I just said, but what is known is that there are two major pieces that took place two days apart from each other.
00:20:53
Speaker
So the first part was a festival procession that was led under a white canopy. The canopy was meant to symbolize the protection of the attic soil from the sun's rays, keeping them from burning the soil. This procession was led by the priestess of Athena, the priest of Poseidon, and the priest of Helios, and it went from the Acropolis to a precinct outside of Athens known as Skiron. It's unknown what was done like exactly, but the priest and priestess did something at Skiron that pertained to the fertility of the crops. What is known is that one this was one of the three sacred plowings for the Athenians that took place, um and it's believed that the sacred plowing might have entailed a blessing of the harvest.
00:21:46
Speaker
and that the farmer of the grain crops had to complete the harvest and threshing before he was free to take part in the games that were held during the festival. The second part of the ritual that was held two days after the procession um was a ceremonial ox slaying. So an altar was set up and it was adorned with grain offerings and then a group of oxen would be driven around the altar.
00:22:15
Speaker
And the first one to eat some of the grains off the altar would be slain. And specifically, someone would chop the ox's head off with an axe. That person would then flee the area, leaving the axe at the end of this like specific trail. And then everyone would run after them. And they would find the axe and condemn the axe guilty for slaying the ox. And then they would cast the axe into the sea.
00:22:42
Speaker
ah They would then stuff the oxide and it would be yoked to a plow. And this was said to be symbolic of dissolving the social order and then reconstructing it. But outside of that, nothing else is known about this ritual. Interesting. Right?
Episode Conclusion
00:23:07
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get in Loser. We're doing witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you leave us a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser Wager & Witchcraft.
00:23:30
Speaker
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