Sunday, September 28, 2014

Hermes, Hercules, Aphrodite, Apollo, Eros (September 2014)

Kala Ermou Tetras and Tetradistai

Today (September 28), the sundown will bring the fourth day of the month of Pyanepsion 

On the fourth day of every month we celebrate the Ermou Tetras and Tetradistai.

The Ermou Tetras celebrates the birth of Hermes and his four gifts: Logos (speech), Agon (Contest), the musical scale and geometry

The Tetradistai is also a birthday celebration. It celebrates the birth of Aphrodite, in her epithet as Pandemos (Common to All People), and the birth of Eros.

Herakles is also said to have been born on a fourth day.

Also the fourth day of every month is sacred to the gods Apollon and Hermaphroditos

"On the fourth day of the month queenly Maia bare him (Hermes)."
~excerpt from the Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes

"...Menander, in his Flatterer, makes the cook on duty at the fourth-day club-feast (Tetradistai) or the day of Aphrodite Pandemos, speaks as follow: 'Libation! Round with the tripe! Mind what you do. Come Sosias, boy, libation! Good for you! And now pour out. To all above we will pray both Gods and Goddesses, and may Life, Health, and many a blessing come of this, and those we've got Heaven grant we never miss!" ~ Athenaios 14. 659Dd

"...the fourth, and the seventh -- on which Leto bare Apollo with the blade of gold - each is a holy day"
~ excerpt from Hesiod, Works and Days

"On the fourth and seventh days of each month, he directs mulled wine to be prepared, and going himself to purchase myrtle-wreaths, frankincense and convolvuluses; he returns to spend the day worshiping the statue of Hermaphroditus."
~ excerpt from Theophrastus, Characters

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