Roughing it in the Dorm: My Shrine and a Meditation on Terminology

Unless the weather outside is amazing, I worship the Gods in my dorm room. As a college student, I don't have the room to make a shrine for each deity I worship the most in addition to a basic one for rituals, so this is a compromise. Each of the sticks pictured has the name of a God (or groups of Gods, in the case of the Muses). I may sound like a broken record by now, but Mikalson states in Ancient Greek Religion during his example of sacred center construction:

We are obliged to carve Poseidon's name on [the altar], so that both the god and visitors know it is his. Each altar is so designated with the god's name or with the name of a specific group of gods because there were no "common" altars to serve all the gods. (Mikalson, 6)

You will first notice that Mikalson contradicts my current practice of worshiping all of the non-Chthonic Gods in the same space. The Ancient Greeks never had the predicament of a college student living in a poorly-lit dormitory. That won't convince some of you to believe that I am not committing a breach of religious etiquette, so let me cite something. A map of the agora in Athens during Plato and Socrates's lifetimes indicates that an altar to the Twelve existed, so Mikalson's statement on the early Hellenic worship center is not temporally universal. As long as I have representations of all of the gods in question, worshiping them at my altar is fine.

My dormitory shrine is divided into two parts. I have an image of Apollon (currently unframed because using nails is against the housing policy) and a list of the Delphic Maxims on the wall, which comprises my sub-shrine to Apollon. The second half is where I make libations, offering, and sacrifice (the shelf with the cloth on it). I keep supplies and religious texts in the shelves immediately below it.



If you want any explanations about the above images, go to the non-embedded slide show and click "Options." Check "Always show title and description." This will tell you more about the items.

In Hellenic practice, temples and altars are usually inside the temenos, or sacred precinct. The temple is not necessary to worship, as Mikalson also states over the course of his amazing book; the altar, the place where sacrifice is made, is essential. In my modern shrine, altar space is replaced by the receiving vessel for libations and the offering bowl.

Finally, I would like to offer some clarification on the difference between an altar and a shrine. It is my understanding that in Wicca and Wicca-derived traditions, an altar is the primary focal point for worship in the sacred circle. These altars usually contain images or representations of the God and Goddess, along with candles and sacred supplies. They look much like Catholic altars, which contain scriptural texts and images, and the practice was probably appropriated.

Historically, the altar is a place of sacrifice, usually made of stone (or, in the case of Zeus's altar on Olympus, ash), where offerings are burned. In Hellenic Polytheism, domestic shrines contain images of the god(s), their names, and/or representations of them to assist in worship, and they perform similar functions to permanent Wiccan altars to specific deities. Due to the changing meanings of the words shrine and altar, many Hellenic Polytheists call their household shrines altars. Most people generally know what you mean, but the real meanings matter when reading scholarly works . . . like Mikalson. On real altars, you make fire.

Notes on vocabulary (from the Oxford English Dictionary):

shrine - A place where worship is offered or devotions are paid to a saint or deity; a temple, church. A receptacle containing an object of religious veneration; occas. a niche for sacred images.
altar - A block, pile, table, stand, or other raised structure, with a plane top, on which to place or sacrifice offerings to a deity.