Notices by Erotic Mythology (hire me) 🌹 (aimeemaroux@mastodon.social), page 2

I'm a bit sad. I've tried to bring people over to #Mastodon with what are good arguments to ME: #NSFW content creators will eventually be shadowbanned or booted off a platform as soon as there is advertisers or payment processors demanding it. For marginalised people, Mastodon has powerful tools to stay safe.
But most people I talk to do acknowledge that and then go on to stay on #Twitter or sign up for #Bluesky.
But I understand the discoverability issues, it's Mastodon's greatest weakness IMO.

This week's #MythologyMonday theme is fire and there are two major Greek gods associated with fire: #Hestia, goddess of the hearth, and #Hephaistos, god of smiths.

They represent #fire in two different forms: the sacrificial flame of the hearth as the sacred centre of domestic life and the flame of Hephaistos, source of all arts, and fuel of the funeral pyre. But both could be invoked for the cooking of sacrificial meat or a good meal:

1/8?

"For without you [Hestia] mortals hold no banquet."
Homeric Hymn 24 to #Hestia

"Swine with the fat abundant upon them were singed and stretched out across the flame of #Hephaistos."
Homer, Iliad 9.467

As the hearth of a house is at the same time the altar on which sacrifices are offered to the domestic gods, Hestia presides over all sacrifices, and, as the goddess of the sacred fire of the altar, she gets a share of every sacrifice to the gods made at home or in their temples.

2/8?

If it did go out, only sacred fire produced by friction, or by bronze burning mirrors drawing fire from the sun, might be used to rekindle it.

A ritual from #Lemnos, the cult centre of #Hephaistos, has all fires on Lemnos extinguished for nine days until new fire is brought from the island of #Delos:

4/8

@pagan @mythology #ancientRome #Pompeii #ancientGreece

#Hestia also presided over the central hearth of a state, the fire kept alight in the civic hall as a public hearth in every town. City officials would sacrifice at the public hearth on entering upon their office, and there, as at a private hearth, Hestia protected the suppliants.

When a new colony was founded, the emigrants took the fire which was to burn on the hearth of their new home from the public hearth of their mother town.

3/8?

#MythologyMonday @pagan @mythology

"For then, while invoking chthonian and ineffable gods, they keep pure, I think, the fire that is out on the sea. Whenever the sacred ship sails in and they distribute the fire both to its new abode and to the forges of the artisans, from that source is the beginning of new life."

Heroikos by Lucius Flavius Philostratus, 213–214 CE

6/8

@antiquidons @mythology #Hephaistos

"And the island of #Lemnos is purified every year for the deed once done to the men on Lemnos by their wives at #Aphrodite's instigation. The fire on Lemnos is extinguished for nine days. A sacred ship from #Delos, however, carries the fire, and if it arrives before the offerings for the dead, it puts in nowhere on Lemnos, but rides at anchor off the headlands out at sea until sailing into the harbor is permitted by divine law."

Heroikos by Lucius Flavius Philostratus, 213–214 CE

5/8

No fire meant a disruption of all normal life for nine days: no regular meals like bread or porridge, no incense to burn for the gods, the hearth and thus the centre of every community and household is dead - until new life arrives from the sea.

#Hephaistos, it is said, loves #Lemnos "more than any place on earth". According to the Illiad, it was on Lemnos where Hephaistos landed after being thrown from Olympos by his father #Zeus and it is on Lemnos where he has his forge.

7/8

The myth of his fall from Olympos can also be read as an allegory:

#Hephaistos (fire) arrives on Lemnos from the sky, as it would through a burning mirror. He is weak, within an inch of his life, but the people of #Lemnos care for him and kindle the weak little flame until it grows strong enough to craft the most beautiful things.

If you enjoyed this read and are looking for more, you can find all my non-fiction articles and erotic mythology fiction on my website:

https://eroticmythology.com/

8/8

It's the Day of Ares / Mars' Day / #Tuesday! 🗡️

Vase painting depicting the combat of Herakles and Ares' son Kyknos: #Herakles with his lion's skin draws his sword to attack Kyknos, who retreats to right, looking back, fully armed. On the right is #Ares, ready to protect his child.

🏛️ Black-figure amphora dated 550 BCE - 530 BCE, today in the British Museum.

#DayOfAres #GreekRomanArt #ancientGreece e #mythology @antiquidons @histodons @mythology #Ares #MarsDeity

On #NationalUnderwearDay I want to talk about the ancestor of the bra: the strophion!

In #GreekRomanArt the goddess #Aphrodite can sometimes be seen putting it on or taking it off but mortal women are depicted wearing it too.

It is uncertain what the Greek strophion looked like but the Roman adaptation, the strophium, was a breast band, a strip of cloth wrapped around the upper torso.

It was a normal but optional piece of feminine clothing.

@antiquidons @histodons #herstory #ancientRome

@antiquidons @histodons

Here is a photo of a woman replicating the Roman Strophium, inspired by the Greek Apodesme. It was folded from a single piece of fabric, as in the figure of Aphrodite above.

Image via #Reddit, but no attribution was given.

#NationalUnderwearDay #ancientRome #reenacting #experimentalArchaeology #archaeology

@VVitchy @Sine @antiquidons @histodons It would prolly be a piece of linen and linen is awesome at absorbing moisture.
I'll see if I can maybe work it out with a scarf. The original page with instructions sadly is no more 😔

It's the #DayOfDionysos here at Erotic Mythology! 🍇

#Dionysos, #Silenos and #Maenads are celebrating the weekend in this Apulian vase painting.

🏛️ Krater with red-figure vase painting, dated 380-370 BCE. Today in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in #Geneva.

#GreekRomanArt #Satyrday #ancientGreece @antiquidons @histodons @mythology

This week's #MythologyMonday theme is artworks featuring mythology. There are, of course, countless depictions of mythological scenes from ancient times. Some myths, in fact, are ONLY known through artwork, for example the drinking contest between #Herakles and #Dionysos.
(More details in the alt text)

🎨 Roman Mosaic, dated ca. 100 CE, Antioch

1/?

In the European #Renaissance, the writings of ancient Greek and Roman authors were rediscovered and with them the myths. My favourite piece of #neoclassical Renaissance art is Benvenuto Cellini's #Perseus. He is shown right after having killed #Medusa, holding up her severed head. But to me, he doesn't look triumphant. He looks sad and tired. Cellini paid close attention and kept the tradition of the long tapered foreskin with his Perseus that is known from ancient art.

#MythologyMonday

2/?

Drink directly from the bottle 😏

Phallus wine jar, popular in the 2nd century BCE

#PhallusThursday #GreekRomanArt @antiquidons @phistorians @LJTrafford

It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏

"They say he [#Hermes] was responsible for #profit and an overseer of the businesses: consequently they set up the statue of him weighing a purse."
#Suidas, Byzantine Greek lexicon, 10th century CE

🏛️ Hermes, Archaeological Museum of Nikopolis, Greece

#DayOfHermes #Mythology @mythology @antiquidons @histodons #ancientGreece #GreekRomanArt #HermesDeity

@dansup Sounds exciting!

This week's #MythologyMonday theme is work.
Four deities spring to my mind when I think of work: #Demeter, #Hermes, #Hephaistos, and #Athena. #AncientGreece was an agricultural society with 80% of the population being involved in this line of work. In Greek mythology, it was Demeter who invented agriculture but according to Diodorus Siculus she burnt all the grain when her daughter #Persephone vanished out of grief and anger.

1/🧵

@mythology @folklore #mythology #GreekMythology