Hélio is a Portuguese Roman polytheist who's into the habit of piling rocks on the roadside and leaving coins in public spaces (but he won't tell you exactly where). He's a Mercury devotee, having joined the ranks of the fleet-footed through a series of suspicious coincidences involving internet glitches, lost money, mail delivery and a small lottery prize. He's also very fond of the Norse Vanir gods and thus he often finds himself "liminaling", i.e. exercising the very hermetic art of translating. Which is a fancy way of saying he's into Latinized cults of Scandinavian deities. He’s also a medieval historian, a Pratchett and Monty Python fan, dog-friend, cyclist for the fun of it and a completely amateur potter at least once a year. Occasionally, he bangs coconut shells in public, but that's another story.
in Fleet-Footed
Let me start by clarifying that this is not a piece on Game of Thrones or Song of Ice and Fire, though George Martin’s work provides a metaphor whose sense will become clear at one point. So if you don’t like the show or books and were feeling disappointed that this website can host a text on Westeros, relax and take a deep breath. This is also not a piece written by several people, but…
in Fleet-Footed
Today is the fourth day of the fourth month of the year, a combination that doesn’t go unnoticed for this particular mercurial devotee. It’s also my fourth piece on this site, so in light of that and as a tribute to the son of Maia, I’ve decided to write an article not about a fundamental topic that needs to be addressed or some obscure aspect of polytheism, but rather something more personal. It’s an expression…
in Fleet-Footed
To the modern eye, one of the most controversial features of ancient Roman polytheism – if not the most controversial – is the imperial cult. For one, because in an age of individual freedom many of us are uncomfortable with authority figures, let alone deified ones, and especially when they’re not particularly sane or their moral compass differs from ours. But also because of our modern attitude towards divinity, in that we tend to see…
in Fleet-Footed
In 23 May 1618, in the European city of Prague, a group of Christian Protestants literally threw out the window two representatives of a Catholic prince. This act of defenestration, which could have been no more than a local uprising, triggered a thirty years war in Europe, eventually involving most of its great powers – Spain, France, Denmark, Sweden, England – plus a myriad of States that made up the German empire of the time,…
in Fleet-Footed
The first words are yours, Janus, burnt on a virtual altar. This column is named in your honor, Mercury, and opened on this first Wednesday of the month. A golden blessing to everyone on this site, residents and visitors. And thank you! I wanted these to be my first words as a contributor. An opening moment calls for a religious gesture, as do so many instances in life. So here’s to Janus, Mercury, the golden…
