Read some of the most detailed descriptions of ancient necromantic rituals as they can be found in ancient texts.

This is an extended article that I am writing before the dark moon of September as an offering to the Goddess Hekate Chthonia. I am going to present some basic information about the ancient hellenic necromancy and then a presentation of one of the four biggest death oracles in the ancient world will be presented. Averno is closely associated with Hekate and Persephone. So, our Goddess lived there and She was very active bringing the dead back to life.

The ancient Hellenes didn't believed in idolatry, the had a complicated religion full of Gods. Using the oracle of Trophonios in Boetia as an example we will see how this worked every time.

There is a several amount of people even in Hellas who believe that ancient Hellenes worshipped statues, so they call them eidololatres and the phenomenon idolatry. In ancient hellenic religion people believed in Gods and Goddesses, energies of the universe, angels, daimones (daimons). The gave to those energies different forms according to their vision or experience. Those forms were the statues. So ancient Hellenes never woshipped statues but the idea behind the statue, the idea that the statue represented.

In the ancient city of Hyampolis from the copper era (2000 b.C.) the Goddess Artemis and the God Apollo were worshipped until the Byzantine period of 4th century a.C. For many centuries in that area, Artemis was the main Goddess (at least from 13th century b.C.). From this area, the cult of Apollo expanded and went to Athens. The modern name of Hyampolis is Kalapodio. In 1973 German archaeologists under Rainer Felsch discovered the temple of Elaphivolos Artemis. The epithet means deer hunter. The temple is similar to Parthenon of Athens. Some people also believe that the same artist, Iktinos was the designer.

Eleusinia

The oldest celebration in Eleusis. Some people think that Eleusina and Mysteries of eleusis are the same celebration. Eleusinia were the oldest and biggest celebration of Hellas. Aristotle writes that Eleusinia were a big event before all the other events of his time. When Eleusinia started they were organized every five years. Then, three more years added and they were called Big Eleusinia. Sport games, musical competitions, horse races were a part of the celebration in order to honor and thank the Goddess for the food she gave to people through the land.
Sports was a main way to honor a Goddess in ancient times. So athletes were honoured. The winners earned ear from Rhario Pedio,the first place that Triptolemos had cultivated.

Introduction

As Cicero writes among all wise nations or among all barbaric nations there is no nation which does not believe in the revelation of the future and does not believe that there are people who have that ability.
In the far ancient times, divination, witchcraft and religion were the same thing. The connection of divination and religion is very clear in ancient Hellas. In this article are going to read some examples from ancient texts.

Divination in her first steps was connected with the Divine. There is no divination without the true connection to the Gods and the unseen powers of the nature. Through their signs (oionoi) the will of the Gods is revealed. The method of catching and explaining these signs is divination.

Magickal Divination

The first forms of divination concluded with invocations, evocations, magical rituals and the explaining the signs. As years were passing by, those steps became complicated and only a few priests could perform them. The techniques of divination became more and with great details. Knowledge of those techniques and practice are necessary.

Ancient divination is based in signs. Those signs could be divided to two categories. Signs that are revealed without the diviner do any great actions and signs that are caused because the diviner did something.