#nyx and oath of vengeance eris

[snekverse]

i once again ask for aid

this time it has nothing to do with art or even aphblr content lmao, just need an outside opinion. I recently had a DND character die and I need to make a new one!! however, I am HELLA indecisive and would like as many outside opinions as possible :3

for this particular campaign, the character needs the be a demigod; they can be the child of any god from any pantheon, but their class/subclass needs to reflect their godly parent. I'm most familiar with Greek mythology so I'd prefer to play a Greek character, and my party desperately need some sort of healer so I'll probably be either a cleric or a paladin, but there as soooo many good choices so i can humbly to you tumblr. So with that, I ask...

#please help me decide i am BEGGING you #you deadass don't even need to know anything about dnd lol just whatever sounds like it fucks the hardest #snek speaks #dnd

[piristephes]

The 5th lunar day, to the Eumenides/Kindly Ones.

The 5th lunar day, as all lunar days ending in 5, is dedicated to the Kindly Ones. They were midwives to Eris, the Goddess of Strife, and assisted the birth of Horkos, the daimon/god who punishes the oath-breakers.

Hesiod, Works and Days 218 ff : "The better path is to go by on the other side towards justice; for Dike (Justice) beats Hybris (Outrage) when she comes at length to the end of the race. But only when he has suffered does the fool learn this. For Horkos (Horcus, Oath) keeps pace with wrong judgements."

Hesiod, Works and Days 804 ff : "Beware of all the fifth days [of the month]; for they are harsh and angry; it was on the fifth, they say, that the Erinyes (Furies) assisted at the bearing of Horkos (Horcus, Oath), whom Eris (Strife) bore, to be a plague on those who take false oath."

At Haliartos there is in the open a sanctuary of the goddesses they call Praxidikai (Those who Exact Punishments) [the Erinyes]. Here they swear, but they do not make the oaths rashly. The sanctuary of the goddesses is near Mount Tilphousios."  (Pausanias, Description of Greece)

 Make no empty promises today, philloi (friends), honour the things you say.  Also a good day to demand justice to the Gods if you have been wronged in any way and to pray to the Semnae - The Holy Ones, another euphemistic title to the Furies.

I found a quote that was rather lovely about a family who was in charge of priesthood towards Them:

Callimachus, Fragment 123 (from Scholiast on Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 489) (trans. Trypanis) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) : "And evermore to burn for them [the Eumenides] honey-sweet cakes is the duty of the sober priestesses, the Hesykhides (Hesychides, Of the Quiet, Of the Still)." [N.B. The descendants of the Athenian hero Hesykhos (Hesychus) were encharged with the priesthood of the Eumenides.] 

 Honey-cakes were really common offerings to the Gods back then. There are a lot accounts of Them receiving goat meat and wine as offerings too. Likely done in a chthonic manner, which means you take no part of what’s being offered and pour it on the ground/burn it all/bury it.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 38. 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : "[Myonia, Lokris] has a grove and an altar of the Meilikhioi (Gracious Gods) [the Erinyes]. The sacrifices to the Meilikhioi are offered at night, and their rule is to consume the meat on the spot before sunrise."

 They are punishers of evil-doers, inflicters of madness, guardians and oathkeepers, powerful and fearful Goddesses, described to be either daughters of Night (Nyx) or born out of the blood of Ouranos. If you wanna know a bit more about them, Theoi has a bit about their worship throughout Greece and you may also read the Oresteia, which tells the story of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Klytaimnestra.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 34. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : "[Near Megalopolis in Arkadia] is a sanctuary of goddesses. They call the goddesses themselves, as well as the district around the sanctuary, Maniai (Maniae, Madnesses). In my view this is a surname of the Eumenides [Erinyes]; 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 [in his Erinys-driven madness]. Another sanctuary called Ake (Remedies) because in it Orestes was cured of his malady. Near to the place called Ake is another . . ((lacuna)) a sanctuary called . . ((lacuna) because here Orestes cut off his hair on coming to his senses. Here too it a sanctuary of 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 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 sacrifices a thank-offering. It is customary to sacrifice to the Kharites (Charites, Graces) [perhaps the Semnai] also along with the Eumenides. Historians of Peloponnesian antiquities say that what Klytaimnestra's (Clytemnestra's) Erinyes did to Orestes in Arkadia took place before the trial at the Areopagos; that his accuser was not Tyndareus, who no longer lived, but Perilaos, who asked for vengeance for the mother's murder in that he was a cousin of Klytaimnestra."

 I wanted to make this post because I recently found out that I was born on a their day. Quite an ominous one, but as always, the Gods of the Underworld are portrayed as some of the scarier forces of the Cosmos - which makes it easy to understand why people are nervous to get in touch with some of Them - but that doesn’t mean that the Theoi Khthonioi are less honourable in any way. They are just as necessary to the world as the other Gods are, and you may always honour Them just as much. Hekate, Hermes Chthonios, The King and the Queen, along with the Kindly Ones, are all well-deserving of praise for their role in the universe.

May their fiery wrath strike only the deserving and keep us safe from any evil!

 Errosthe (Be strong/healthy!)

#helpol #hellenic polytheism #the furies #The erinyes #hellenismos