English

Welcome

This website is dedicated to Hellēnismôs, Greece’s indigenous culture. Our aim is to explain Hellēnismôs as a living tradition from a Hellenic point of view and to defend our culture against appropriation, alienation and expropriation, in order to fulfill the great task of re-Hellenization, as we call the Hellenic effort for re-Indigenization. As such, we welcome and support the content of the “Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality.” Hellēnismôs or Hellēnikôn is the designation for the indigenous Hellenic culture, including the Hellenic virtue system, language, religion and ethos. Hellēnismôs is also the ethnic identity and worldview of the ancient and medieval Hellenes. The term “Hellenismos” means “of the Greeks, Hellenism […]. II. use of a pure Greek style and idiom” (Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott: A Greek-English Lexicon, p. 536, 9th edition, Oxford University Press, New York 1996). Simply put, Hellēnismôs is the “greek way of life” (Richard A. Horsley, Paul and Empire, p. 206, Harrisburg 1997). In order to avoid misunderstandings, we must specify that by Hellenismos we do not mean Romiosyni or Byzantium, but only genuine Hellenic culture, also known as ethnikos Hellēnismôs (in order to distinguish carefully between Hellenic culture and “christian Hellenism” → Romiosyni). Hellenic tradition, Hellenismos, Hellenikon etc. are different names for the same culture and should therefore not confuse people, especially since the Hellenes perceive their religion, identity, worldview, language and way of life as a unity. Thus Hellēnismôs refers automatically to Hellenic religion.

The Hellenes are an ethnos. The word “ethnos” derives from the ancient Greek éthos which means “character, idiom, behavior.” An “ethnos” is a group of people sharing a common ethos. A Hellene is someone of Hellenic ancestry who participates in Hellenic ethos: language, religion, way of life (“kinship of all Greeks in blood and speech, and the shrines of gods and the sacrifices that we have in common, and the likeness of our way of life,” Herodotos, 8.144). The Hellenes are bearers of a specific ethnic identity based on a specific ethos, tradition and religion. Thus Hellēnismôs refers automatically to Hellenic religion. As a religion Hellēnismôs is orthopraxic by its very nature and dominated by the respective local and tribal moment, which explains its natural diversity. It is a polytheistic, cosmotheistic, animistic and culturally specific religion. Hellenic religion is Minoan-Mycenaean in origin (E.O. James, The Cult Of The Mother Goddess, London 1959). Orthopraxy, the revitalization of the Hellenic tradition and loyalty towards common Hellēnismôs are basic characteristics that all ethnic Hellenes have in common, regardless of whether they are platonists, stoics or members of a different school of philosophy, and irrespective of which tribe they belong to.

The principal aim of Hellenic collectives is the full restoration and autonomy of the Hellenic ethnos and its identity. The most important Hellenic collective is the Supreme Council of ethnic Hellenes (YSEE) which could be referred to as a nativistic movement. A nativistic movement is defined as: “Any conscious, organized attempt on the part of a society’s members to revive or perpetuate selected aspects of its culture(Ralph Linton: Nativistic Movements, in: American Anthropologist, Vol. 45, no. 2, 1943, p. 230). People’s economic situation, philosophical affiliations, political standpoints or sexual orientations do not concern the ancestral cults. Ideologies, political parties and artificial modern opposites (nationalism ≠ internationalism, capitalism ≠ leninism, state ≠ market, universalism ≠ folkism, left ≠ right etc.), most of which are of Western origin anyway, are irrelevant to Hellēnismôs, since these things have no place in ethnic religions in general and in particular in Hellenismos. “By Ethnic Religion, we mean religion, spirituality, and cosmology that is firmly grounded in a particular people’s traditions. In our view, this does not include modern occult or ariosophic theories/ideologies, nor syncretic neo-religions” (European Congress of Ethnic Religions, ECER: About ECER).

The regeneration of Hellēnismôs is by no means a return to an undefined “antiquity” or ancient socioeconomic conditions, as one–who associates the Hellenes exclusively with antiquity–may suspect at first glance. In general, the Hellenic re-indigenization is not a step back in time, rather it is the return of some people to their homeland’s indigenous culture. It is in this context where the recovery of the Hellenic tradition as a living present takes place. Whether we are looking at the past, present, or future, Hellēnismôs is of timeless importance to the Greeks, because it represents their original culture and religion, their language and customs. In addition to that, it is in the very nature of Hellēnismôs to shape free societies and upright human beings, and freedom has always been very important to the Hellenes.

Hellēnismôs addresses the whole human being, since it is culture, language, religion, philosophy and value system and at the same time an authentic alternative to the Occident, Orient and Romiosini. It offers a way of human being that is specifically Hellenic and yet all-human, that guides through life and prepares man for death, that educates the human being, embedded in the cosmos, towards reason and fulfills its entire existence. From the cradle to the grave. It is a path open to all open-minded and tolerant people who respect the Hellenic culture in all its historical variety and the Hellenes‘ right to self-determination.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Further down on this page follow English texts from different sources. Some were written by the owner of this website, while others were written by single authors and Hellenic collectives. The latter were re-published on this website with permission. For more specific information, read the relevant note at the top of each text.

1. English articles
2. English links
3. Privacy Policy, Disclaimer & Impressum

1. English articles

About Hellenic culture, religion and history

Anti-Hellenism

Hymns

Labrys

Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes (YSEE)

The Hierophants of Hellenic religion

2. English links

Publishers

  1. Oxford Classical Texts, Oxford University Press
  2. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
  3. Yale University Press, Classics
  4. Routledge Publishers, Classical Studies
  5. Harvard University Press, Classics & Ancient World
  6. University of California Press, Books
  7. University of Michigan Press, Classical Studies
  8. Cambridge University Press, Classical Studies
  9. Penguin Classics
  10. Macmillan Publishers, Academics

Sources for statues, Greek incense and more: Suggestions

  1. Ifestos Art (Statues from Greece)
  2. SouvenirsFromGreece
  3. Greek Art Shop
  4. Etsy (Statues, amulets, chests, jewelry and vases)
  5. Ebay (Statues, amphorae, ceramic bowls, replicas, wall reliefs, oil lamps etc.)

Sources for statues, wall reliefs and more: Suggestions

3. Privacy Policy, Disclaimer & Impressum

Privacy Policy, Disclaimer & Impressum

Legal notice: Although thoroughly checked we can not take any responsibility for the content of any external link. The operators of linked pages are solely responsible for the links and the content of the linked pages.