and From Modern Greek Carnivals to the Masks of Dionysos and other Divinities in Ancient Greece are two very interesting articles about the Kalogeros (monk), a carnival ritual associated with something that is a deep concern in Greek culture: magic rain and the wish for water:
Both of them are written by Evy Johanne Harland.
”On Cheese Monday, the Kalogeros, followed by other painted characters visit the houses of the village, and are treated with wine, ouzo, and food. The housewife sprinkles the Kalogeros with polysporia, a symbolic mixing of grains, through a sieve. As a counter gift, he swings with his “sceptre” in order to mix the grains
with water and earth, while wishing a lot of rain and a plentiful harvest. The Kalogeros plungs his “sceptre” with the cloth into puddles, soaks it with muddy water, and smears the celebrants with it. The aim of the procession is to assure the rain and a plentiful harvest. When they have made the round of the village, they end up in front of the church, where the entire village is awaiting them. Here, a play, a parody of ploughing and sowing, begins: “May the water-melons grow as big as the Queen’s breasts, may the maize grow as long as the King’s prick” – all the actors in the agricultural play join in the recitation. Simultaneously, they sow “polysporia”. Two men take the place of a pair of oxen, yoked to the plough, and everybody invokes the buried grain so it may come back to life again. The Kalogeros is the rain-maker, who symbolizes the forces of vegetation and the fertility of the earth. Babo also belongs to the ritual. This is a man dressed up as an old woman. Babo holds a cup with “holy water”, i.e. women’s spittle and a sprig of basil in “her” hands and “she” sprinkles the holy content on the male articipants. “Her” assistant holds “The Invincible Life’s Powers” in “her” or his hands. This is the male sex organ in the form of a lyre, to be deposited on the earth when it has been “ploughed” and “sown”. The assistant pretends to play, while “she” utters magical fertility formulas. In ancient and popular Greek, Babo or Baubō is a wet-nurse, and symbolizes nourishment.” ( From Modern Greek Carnivals to the Masks of Dionysos and other Divinities in Ancient Greece, p.115-6)
