Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities (2010)
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Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION american classical studies volume 54 Series Editor Kathryn J. Gutzwiller Studies in Classical History and Society Meyer Reinhold Sextus Empiricus The Transmission and Recovery of Pyrrhonism Luciano Floridi The Augustan Succession An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio’s Roman History Books 55 56 (9 B.C. A.D. 14) Peter Michael Swan Greek Mythography in the Roman World Alan Cameron Virgil Recomposed The Mythological and Secular Centos in Antiquity Scott McGill Representing Agrippina Constructions of Female Power in the Early Roman Empire Judith Ginsburg Figuring Genre in Roman Satire Catherine Keane Homer’s Cosmic Fabrication Choice and Design in the Iliad Bruce Heiden Hyperides Funeral Oration Judson Herrman Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities The Sacred Laws of Selinus and Cyrene Noel Robertson Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities The Sacred Laws of Selinus and Cyrene NOEL ROBERTSON 1 2010 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright q 2010 by the American Philological Association Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robertson, Noel. Religion and reconciliation in Greek cities : the sacred laws of Selinus and Cyrene / Noel Robertson. p. cm. (American Philological Association American classical studies ; v. 54) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-0-19-539400-9 1. Selinus (Extinct city) Religious life and customs. 2. Rites and ceremonies Italy Selinus (Extinct city) 3. Religious law and legislation Italy Selinus (Extinct city) 4. Religious calendars Italy Selinus (Extinct city) 5. Inscriptions, Greek Italy Selinus (Extinct city) 6. Cyrene (Extinct city) Religious life and customs. 7. Rites and ceremonies Libya Cyrene (Extinct city) 8. Religious law and legislation Libya Cyrene (Extinct city) 9. Religious calendars Libya Cyrene (Extinct city) 10. Inscriptions, Greek Libya Cyrene (Extinct city) 11. Religious calendars Greek religion. I. Title. BL793.S46R63 2009 292.08 dc22 2009002662 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For E. L. R. E. A. R. S. A. R. L. I. R. This page intentionally left blank Preface This book is an interpretation of two unusual documents of Greek religion, which though of obvious importance have baffled understanding until now. Both are ‘‘sacred laws’’ calling for certain rites to be performed; they would normally be of interest to specialists alone. But in both, the variety of items and the strangeness of some are unparalleled. It is because old customs have been selected, and new occasions have been devised, so as to satisfy and reconcile the unequal members of a traditional society, the few and the many who are so often set against each other. Both documents are tantamount to a religious reform, otherwise hardly seen in Greek cities. There have been three successive versions, differing considerably in the material included. The original version was much improved by expert criti- cism. Robert Parker at a busy time probed and queried much of it. An authoritative reader for the APA Monograph Committee supplied a searching philological critique. Kathryn Gutzwiller, chair of the committee, tactfully and patiently guided both revisions. After this long process, the book is dedicated to four family members in gratitude for their unfailing interest and forbearance. This page intentionally left blank Contents Abbreviations, xi Introduction, 3 Part I. At Selinus, Rules throughout the Year 1. The Lead Tablet, 15 2. Displaying the Tablet, 31 3. A Household Offering, 41 4. The Kotytia and the Olympic Truce, 53 5. The Solstice Festival at Olympia, 69 6. Zeus Eumeneˆs and the Eumenides, 85 7. The Semnai Theai, 105 8. Zeus Milichios in Spring, 129 9. Before the Harvest, 143 10. Tritopatreis Foul and Pure, 155 11. Tritopatreis as Wind Gods, 167 12. Zeus Milichios in Summer, 185 x contents 13. After the Harvest, 199 14. Hospitality for an Elasteros, 213 15. Zeus Elasteros and Other Lightning Gods, 229 16. Selinus, c. 450 b.c., 253 Part II. At Cyrene, Rules for Every Need 17. The Inscription, 259 18. Some General Rules, 279 19. Akamantes and Tritopateres, 287 20. The Tithing Rules, 299 21. Rites of Artemis, 319 22. Suppliant Purifications, 353 23. Cyrene, c. 335 324 b.c., 371 References, 375 Subject Index, 397 Select Index of Sources, 409 Abbreviations Ancient authors and works, as well as epigraphic and papyrological publica- tions, are abbreviated as in Liddell, Scott, and Jones, Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. (Oxford 1940), xvi xlviii, together with Revised Supplement (1996), x xxxi, or more fully. Periodicals and reference works are abbreviated as in the Ameri- can Journal of Archaeology 111 (2007): 14 34,ormorefully.Incitingstandard editions of Greek or Latin authors by the editor’s name I add the place and date of publication if this seems helpful. The following items are additional: Bernabe´, Orph. A. Bernabe´, Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia et fragmenta, 2 vols., Munich 2004 2005. Chantraine, DE´ LG, Suppl. P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire e´tymologique de la langue grecque, Paris 1968, Supple´ment 1999. Frisk, GEW H. Frisk, Griechisches etymologisches Wo¨rterbuch, Heidelberg 1960 1979. IGDS L. Dubois, Inscriptions grecques dialectales de Sicile, Paris 1989. Kannicht R. Kannicht, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, vol. 5 (Euripides), Go¨ttingen 2004. LGPN P. M. Fraser and E. Matthews, Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, 5 vols., Oxford 1987 2005. Massimilla G. Massimilla, Callimacho, Aitia I II, Pisa 1996. xii abbreviations Schwyzer, Gr. Gram. E. Schwyzer and A. Debrunner, Griechische Grammatik, 4 vols., Berlin 1953 1994. Threatte, Gram. Attic Inscr. L. Threatte, The Grammar of Attic Inscriptions, 2 vols., Berlin 1980 1996. Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities This page intentionally left blank Introduction Sacred Laws Greek inscriptions regulating sacred matters, sacred laws so called, are a large and varied class; they help us to a more realistic understanding of Greek religion than we obtain from literary works or monuments. They are seldom laws in the sense of enactments by an official body but rather customs of self-evident authority. They plunge us straightway into details of priests and processioners and cult associates, of groves and altars and offerings, of treasuries and inven- tories, and of ritual of every kind from personal ablutions to interstate festivals, but especially of animal sacrifice, a way of life as much as a religious ceremony. They have come to light all round the Greek world, in the homeland and in colonial areas, and from an early period, as early as any kind of public inscrip- tion. Similar details recur everywhere. In the light of sacred laws we could assert the proposition, if Herodotus had not already done so, that next to consanguin- ity and language Greeks are defined by their religion. Asacredlawgivesnotice,whethertoneighborsofalocalsanctuaryorfarand wide. The most comprehensive are sacred ‘‘calendars’’ published by a city or a village or other social entity. These are long lists of sacrifices, sometimes of other things as well, month by month, even day by day, throughout the year. They are valuable not only for their assortment of detail, but for showing what is most essentialtoourunderstanding,theseasonalcontextofeachitem.Greekreligionis a nature religion suited to the resources and the livelihoods of the Mediterranean shores that the Greeks inhabited. The yearly progress of the seasons calls for a cycle of ritual addressed to deities who inhabit different parts of nature. 4 introduction Sacred laws may be prompted by changing conditions or by large events. The most elaborate example of a sacred calendar was assembled and published at Athens at almost the worst time in the city’s history, the last years of the Peloponnesian War and the ensuing years of internal conflict. Other calendars were compiled to mark a synoecism, the enlargement of a community, as when the island of Cos became prosperous and much visited. Festivals were extended or even created to show off the importance of a growing city. Cult associations were formed to satisfy needs newly felt, such as loyalty or good fellowship or a deeper piety. The Eleusinian Mysteries, a universal cult of the grain goddess transcending city-state and every other allegiance, issued schedules and regu- lations repeatedly during more than seven centuries. Such are sacred laws, their scope and character. But the two inscriptions that are the subject of this book are different from all the rest: a sacred law of Selinus of the mid-fifth century, and another of Cyrene of the late fourth century. Both are extraordinary documents of Greek religion that have resisted any satisfactory interpretation. The Sacred Law of Selinus The inscription of Selinus in southwest Sicily was first published in 1993.Itisa large lead tablet about two feet wide and eight inches high, dated by letter forms to the mid-fifth century b.c. It sets out rules for sacrifice and other ritual in two columns of writing that are upside down to each other. This format is unique and unexplained. A bronze bar is laid vertically between the columns so as to clamp the tablet with just three nails to some wooden fixture; at any given time the column that is right side up is on the right.