Miasma and the Underworld

Hello everybody
According to a certain blogger on Hellenic Polytheism (I'm not sure if I can mention names), contact with the Underworld brings miasma. The blogger also states that contact with Khthonic deities brings miasma, too. I would like to hear your opinions on this statement, because I was under the impression that all of the Blessed Gods were worthy of worship and could be prayed to. Also, is there any historical basis for this belief?

Many thanks

Dimitrios65 wrote:
contact with Khthonic deities brings miasma, too.

I. Contact with divinities is never polluting, that is nonsense. The only difference therein is that certain things which may be miasmatic with regard to worship of heavenly powers are not necessarily so with some terrestrial/chthonian powers – death, for instance, or contact/connection with one who has died.

Pollution of the mind and/or body might itself serve to attract malevolent powers, but here the cause and effect are inverse of what you describe – it is pollution that invites hostile forces.

Dimitrios65 wrote:I was under the impression that all of the Blessed Gods were worthy of worship and could be prayed to.

II. Yes.

Dimitrios65 wrote: Also, is there any historical basis for this belief?

III. No / see part I of my response.

Okay, I understand
So why are things like death or contact with the dead considered miasmatic to Ouranic deities?

cuz dead bodies are dirty, its a pretty straight forward concept

Dirty as in the fact that it's decaying?

Dimitrios65 wrote:Okay, I understand
So why are things like death or contact with the dead considered miasmatic to Ouranic deities?

Because it is seen to be antithetical to everything that heavenly deities embody and represent.

Broadly speaking, something is considered pure and holy by being like unto the Gods. Something utterly unlike a deity is, consequently, seen as impure.

Though this is a generalization – as I mentioned, this type of miasma does not apply to all situations or all divinities.

I understand, thank you very much.