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Home , Eirene (goddess), Eunomia, Myrto

CHAPTER SIX

ARISTOCRACY OR DEMOCRACY? EUKLEIA AND BETWEEN THE GODS

Two of the most popular in the come late: Ploutarkhos ( 20.5) men- vase paintings made during the Peloponnesian tions she was the child of Herakles and Myrto, War (431-404) are Eukleia and Eunomia , the per- but Euripides notes that (Labour) was her sonifications of Good Repute and Good Order. father (fr. 474 N2): this aitiology is itself a sort The underlying concepts of eukleia and eunomia of . In earlier Greek literature, are closely related in meaning, so it is not sur- eukleia, ἡ εὔκλεια, refers to the glory and fame prising that they appear together on no less than that results from military victories (Homeros, nine Meidian vases (Borg, 2005, and 2002: 190- Ilias 8.285 and Odysseia 14.402). Eukleia’s mean- 208). Were they even worshipped together? Pau- ing as the good reputation of private individuals sanias (1.15.4) records that a temple to Eukleia becomes more prominent in the literature of the was erected on the edge of the Athenian Agora as second half of the fifth century, and is particu- a thank-offering for the victory over the Persians larly prominent in the works of Euripides (for who landed at Marathon (490). The evidence for eukleia in Hippolytos see Braund, 1980: 84-85). Eukleia’s presence at is otherwise slim: She is personified in Classical Athenian literature Harrison’s attempt to identify the Hephaisteion to the degree that she owns, holds, or bestows a as the Temple of Eukleia (Harrison, 1977a: 139 wreath or crown, as in Sophokles ’ Aias (462-465), n. 14) has not been widely accepted (Camp, 1986: produced in 442 or 441, when Aias bemoans his 82). There is ample evidence for the concept and bad fortune: personification of Eunomia at Athens, on the And how shall I present myself and appear to other hand, although her cult is unattested there the eye of my father, Telamon? How will he bear before the fourth century. Appearances of these it when he sees me naked, without the prize of two personifications together, especially in the the best and the bravest, for which he himself circle of , on Attic vases dating exclu- held the great crown of Eukleia ? sively to the last two decades of the fifth century, Sophokles’ ‘crown of Eukleia’ (στέφανος εὐκ- however, are taken by some to show that they λείας), also worn by Theseus (Euripides,Hiketides may have received joint worship at Athens dur- 315), is recalled in the words of Bakkhylides, ing that time, or even joined in cult with Apol- who calls Eukleia’ φιλοστεφάνος, ‘lover of the lon . I will first survey the identity and visual wreath’ (Bakkhylides, Epinikoi 13.183; see also representations of each of these personifications Bakkhylides, Epinikoi 1.184 and Dithyramboi separately, and then reassess their appearances 15.54; and Pindaros, Isthmionike 5.22). together in art and cult. With or without a wreath, Eukleia could bestow a good reputation on someone, through birth and/or marriage, as well as victory. In regard to Eukleia ancestry, eukleia therefore takes on aristocratic connotations (Metzler, 1980). She was involved in Eukleia represents the personal qualities that marriage preparations, at least in Boiotia, Athens’ brought a person a good reputation, as well as neighbour and long-term rival, where she was the reputation itself. Mythic genealogies for her worshipped as an epithet of (Shapiro, 72 chapter six

1993: 70-78; Kossatz-Deissmann, 1988c). Plout- candidate for the personification, labelled ΕΥ[. . .], arkhos notes that Artemis Eukleia had an altar who stands at the left: she would sanction the in each Boiotian marketplace (see also Sophokles, good reputation of a cult that was not previously Oidipous Tyrannos 161; Schachter, 1981: 102), in Athens (see 63-64, for the idea that this is and that boys and girls who had become engaged Eutykhia paired with ). Similarly, she would make sacrifices to Eukleia in preparation seems to welcome Eunomia on VP 46 (fig. 6.1) for their weddings (Ploutarkhos, Aristides 20.5-6). (Hampe, 1955: 113). In the same passage Ploutarkhos tells the story of a certain Eukhidas of Plataiai (in Boiotia) who, at the end of the Persian Wars, fetched the Eunomia sacred flame from Delphoi and brought it home within the same day; although the feat killed him, Eunomia is extremely popular in Greek literature Eukhidas was rewarded with burial in Artemis (Rudhardt, 1999: 97-104; Ostwald, 1969: 62-65). Eukleia’s sanctuary. This is also when, according Her earliest appearance is as one of the Horai to Pausanias, a Temple to Eukleia was erected in (Seasons), along with and , in Hesio- the Athenian Agora (as noted above, Pausanias dos ’ Theogonia (901-902). While several fifth 1.15.4). Nilsson and others have supposed that century lyric poets followed this genealogy (Bak- this Eukleia was brought over to Athens from khylides 14.59; Pindaros, Olympionike 9.22-24, Boiotia, became detached from Artemis, and 13.6-8), in the sixth century, Alkmanos referred was thereafter worshipped independently at Ath- to Eunomia (along with and Tykhe ) as the ens (Nilsson, 1955: 494). After all, only Boiotian daughter of Promatheia (Forethought) (Alkma- sources connect Artemis with Eukleia . nos fr. 64 Davies, PMGF). The noun eunomia, Despite her new Athenian temple, Eukleia is ἡ εὐνομία, stems from the verb εὐνομέομαι, barely mentioned in fifth-century sources. The meaning to have good (LSJ9 s.v. εὐνομέομαι; Antiphon at least mentions eukleia in Rosler 2005, 233-236). Eunomia refers not just to his discussion of marriage in Peri homonoias, so the condition of having good laws, but adherence we might presume that she retained her special to those laws. In Sophokles ’ Aias, for example, significance to engaged couples, as noted above. eunomia means loyalty to divine law (Sophokles, There are only two or three extant visual sources Aias 713; see also Homeros, Odysseia 487). In on which Eukleia appeared without Eunomia , the seventh century, the elegiac poet Tyrtaios of but in each case the identifying label is lost or connected this divine law with human law, incomplete. On the Painter’s name when he eulogised eunomia as the divine right vase, VP 16 (fig. 4.2), Eukleia may represent the by which kings rule (Tyrtaios frs. 1-4 West, IE2). good reputation that Helene is about to cast aside In a democratic polis, such as Athens, eunomia (as noted above, 45). Eukleia may also refer to also refers to the citizen’s obeisance to the laws Helene’s reputation in an image of Helene’s bridal (), which creates good order (Ostwald, bath, on a squat lekythos once in London, in the 1969: 62-65; Andrewes, 1938: 90). At the begin- manner of the Meidias Painter, VP 42 (fig. 5.4). ning of the sixth century, the Athenian Here Eukleia carries the wreath that is her defin- Solon (fr. 4.31-38 West, IE2) eulogised Eunomia ing attribute in literature (Sabetai, 1997: 320). as a civic virtue: Eukleia’s civic responsibilities may have extended to welcoming and sanctioning foreign My soul calls on me to teach these things to the cults. On a plate now in Leuven, attributed to Athenians: that Disnomia (Lawlessness) brings the Meidias Painter , VP 28 (fig. 5.14), Eukleia countless evils to the city, while Eunomia makes all things appear well ordered and proper, and is probably the character who joins Eudaimonia often locks up the feet of criminals. She softens in welcoming Asklepios (shown in the arms of the rough, shrinks excess, lessens pride, withers Epidauros) to Athens. Eukleia is a most likely the budding flowers of sin, sets straight crooked