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The Hellenic Calendar

Established nearly 6,000 years ago in Athens, the Hellenic Calendar is one of the more complex day-keeping methods developed. Based on lunar cycles with occasional intercalculary months added to match solar seasons, the Hellenic Calendar, unlike the current secular calendar, varied broadly from island to island, or even city to city. The following, then, is general information about the calendar as it was followed in Athens (according to Hesiod’s Works and Days).

The Hellenic year consists of twelve or thirteen months of 29 or 30 days, beginning on the night the new moon is first visible. Each year might have 354, or 384 days, depending on if the intercalculary month is included. This month, which occurs immediately after Poseideon, and is called Poseideon II, is added according to the 19-year Metonic Cycle, which appoints this intercalculary month on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years. To determine what year in this cycle we are in, divide the current Hellenic Year (HY) by 19. The remainder is the number of years into the current Metonic Cycle we are.

On July 9th, 776 BC, an additional system was added; that of Olympiads. An Olympiad is a period of 4 years, which dictates which games are held when. The span of each Olympiad varies, of course, as it may include either one or two intercalculary months, depending on where we are in the Metonic Cycle. We are currently in the third year of the 695th Olypmiad.

The exact date of Year Zero (called Prota Selenogenesis) in the Hellenic Calendar (ie, the year the Calendar was implemented) has been calculated to have fallen on what the secular calendar would call September 7th, 3760 BC. Hence, we are currently in Hellenic Year 5762. Year 5762 is the 5th year in the Metonic Cycle, so it does not include an intercalculary month.

The twelve (thirteen) months of the Hellenic year are as follows:

Note that Metageitnion and Poseideon II have a variable number of days. Generally, Metageitnion has 29 days, and the intercalculary month has 30 days. Occasionally, however, in order to maintain the stability of the calendar, one or the other gains or loses a day. This never happens in the same year, so a given Hellenic Year might actually be 354, 355, 383, or 384 days long. In ancient Athens, this was determined first by simply observing what night the beginning of the next month would begin on due to the visibility of the moon, and later by edict. Current scholars use a complex mathematical theorem to determine the length of the year. Those who follow the spirit of the calendar, however, and observe the start of each month with the visible new moon, don’t seem to mind adjusting. (This moon view, set on Universal Time, is only two hours behind time in Athens. Hence, if you want to base your calendar on the moon, and not on math, this is a good tool to know about.)

An important thing to note is that each day in a Hellenic Year begins not at midnight in the previous night, but at dusk. Hence, when accounting for the Hellenic Calendar on a current Gregorian Calendar, the month of Boedromion might begin September 8/9th, and end October 7/8th.

Why the Hellenic Calendar?

The creation myths of the Furies all contend that the Tribal Totem was originally Luna herself, in the guise of Artemis. The Black Furies are inherently connected to the cycles of the moon, being her daughters, and being women, which doesn’t even account for their being Garou. Even the Greeks as a nation are connected with the moon, as it directs the tides around the sea-loving country. Greece only finally accepted the Julian calendar in 1924, at the insistence of the Greek Orthodox Church. Why would a Tribe of traditional, moon-bound women with a general antipathy for the edicts of the Patriarch’s church abandon a lunar-based calendar that they likely had a hand in creating, for a solar calendar based on the birthday of some savior boy-child whose followers were responsible for centuries of persecution and bigotry?

Granted, many Furies who have never lived in the traditional home are likely to follow the local calendar, since they don’t know any better. But the Septs in Greece would surely still follow the ancient ways of counting, since the dates of every ritual, observance, or Mystery were based on the Hellenic Calendar, not the Julian year. In addition, if Furies were to refer to secret Tribal gatherings or events, but were forced to do so in mixed company, discussing the event in terms of the Hellenic Calendar would both confuse eavesdropping interlopers, and add to the Furies reputation as being rather aloof and mysterious.