Things you should know about HellenismosStilian K. Ariston, 12. Elaphebolion 2791 / 2. April 2.015

Hellenismos is the native cultural Tradition of Greece, including greek virtue System, Religion ("Polytheism"), Identity and Ethos. Hellenismos is also the ethnic identity and worldview of the ancient and medieval Hellenes. Hellenismos is an autochthon tradition. 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, Hellenismos is the "greek way of life" (Richard A. Horsley, Paul and Empire, p. 206, Harrisburg 1997).The Hellenes are an Ethnos. The word “Ethnos” derives from the ancient greek éthos, meaning “character, idiom, behavior”. "Ethnos" means a group of people with common Ethos. A Hellene is someone who participates in hellenic ethos: language, religion, way of life ("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 Polytheists or Ethnici (from singular Ethnicus: "Heathen"), and Hellenismos thus refers to Hellenic Ethnicum ("Heathenism") → "Religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Hellenes" (Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Greek Religion"). As a religion Hellenismos is orthopraxic by its very nature. Orthopraxy, the restoration of Hellenic tradition and worldview, and the loyalty towards Hellenism are some basic characteristics all Hellenes and Hellenic Polytheists have in common, regardless of whether they are platonists or stoics. Hellenismos is polytheistic, cosmotheistic and animistic. It's not a universal religion, but a culturally specific one. Greek Religion has its origin in the minoan culture (E. O. James: The Cult Of The Mother Goddess, London 1959).

In order to avoid ambiguities, we must specify that by Hellenismos, in its true hellenic meaning, we don´t mean Romiosyni (greekspeaking orthodox Christianity), Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), Modern Greek Nation State, Citizenship, and Affairs. By Hellenismos we mean nothing but the genuine Culture of Hellenic Ethnos, also known as ethnic Hellenismos (in order to distinguish carefully between Hellenic Culture and "christian Hellenism", meaning Romiosyni).

Hellenic Collectives and Hellenismos itself doesn´t bother about the philosophical affiliations (platonic, stoic), political standpoints (democratic, aristocratic), sexual orientations (homosexual, heterosexual) or Dietary Preferences (vegan, vegetarian) of its members, except principal hellenic aim: the full restoration and freedom of an autonomous hellenic Ethnos and Ethnicum (“Heathenism”). Political parties or modern political dipoles (nationalism - internationalism, capitalism - leninism etc.) don´t concern Hellenismos and its collectives. For they have no place within ethnic religions. "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" (WCER).

Hellenismos is a religion, a worldview and a way of live, but also an authentic alternative to Occident [1], Orient [2] and Romiosyni [3].

__1) Parliamentarianism, nationalism, Christianity, Occultism, Neopaganism, New Age etc.2) Mysticism, Hermeticism, soteriology, dualism, Monasticism, etc.3) Byzantium, Archaeocentrism, Epsilonism, racial mysticism, soteriological ufology etc.