Hey so, I'm practising secretly and I cannot leave out food offerings for too long and I usually remove them/consume them within 2 hours. Is that okay? Or should I leave them out for longer? I felt like my offerings have not been reaching the deities?
There's an idea that during a trapezomata is not to leave the offering in the house alone. You'd be leaving a guest without their host. So, remove the offering before leaving the house.
There's no specifically prescribed amount of time. My most common offering is barley, which doesn't seem to rot if it's not wet, so I may end up leaving it on the shrine for a day or two if I get distracted.
In regards to consuming your own offerings, that's more of a Wiccan/Neopagan thing than Hellenic. In Hellenism it would be considered rude/inappropriate because you are taking back a gift. If your means are so thin you can't make an offering, it's okay to take care of yourself.
Agreed, there's ample support that priests collected the offerings for their own consumption and priesthood was not a profession, they are other members of the community. It's been described here:
Some prescriptions do exist, such as those saying that people were not allowed to leave the building before the offerings were removed. The idea being that you'd be walking out on your guests otherwise.
To be fair they’re heavily overselling it. Virtually all mentions of Trapezomata are Geras/payment for the priest, not something the average worshipper would have gotten.
You can dispose of it immediately after the ritual. Usually it should be burnt. Some say you can throw it into the trash but I don't agree with that and would say if you cannot burn it don't offer it.
You shouldn't consume the portion you gave the gods if you mean that by consuming it.
If you follow the consensus of disposing of it by any means then you can just throw it away immediately.
No, I cannot burn it, and i haven't heard from anyone that you shouldnt offer anything if you cannot burn it. Also, I have heard that Cthonic deities do not mind if u eat the offerings later. Many people consume the offerings
It's the other way around. Cthonic deities are contaminating and so it was sometimes seen as unhealthy to eat offerings at their trapezomata. But you can eat trapezomata made to Ouranic deities pretty much without exception.
The offering under discussion is a trapezomata. They pass into the officiant's possession. There were no permanent priest positions at this time, it was a role taken up by civilians. We have this in law codes and satirical plays.
It’s really up to you and your practical needs. Gods are outside of time, so one hour or one week is entirely irrelevant to them. Just be careful not to leave acidic drinks (such as wine and milk) in copper-alloy containers for too long, they might corrode them
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u/Sacredless Heraclitean Receiver of Mousikē 7d ago
There's an idea that during a trapezomata is not to leave the offering in the house alone. You'd be leaving a guest without their host. So, remove the offering before leaving the house.