GREEK RELIGION

WalterBurkert

Translated by John Raffan

r

Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts

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of

fit

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it 57 58

necessary standard sacrifice. expression Otto art’.22 strikes

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agriculture:23 agriculture,

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altar.35 knife,34 sacrifice

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blood the work. of Artemis the the

brings

Didyma acts;

constitutes

with

with sustenance,

every sacrificer,

with to discussion.26

and

with

as

origin. blood

in

cannot of

blood

libations

praying, divine

law

in

sacrifices

be

by

of

shown become

inevitably mostly

such.3°

some

cults

at

Iphigeneia,

special religion

towards polar and

the

Ortheia in

life, preserved the

the

of

community,

in the Tauropolos

which

reality

was rituals

The

be he

the

leading .

men

sense divine human the

belief roasting,

a

splashed

the

of the the large

relation

sacred

On

harmed

social also

are bloody emphasis

Jews.29

in

Among

said

wine,

victims

image

blood

and

in

plunge

priest,

slaughter,

all arouses

most

only

in

impure,

Coichis

vase

3.2

in

and

rarely mammals;

ordinance is

Sparta

demonstrates

blood of

have

which

to

spot.

order,

everyday

Halai

mentioned

and

with

magic; first to

every

a or

extreme, death,

of Animal

(haimassesthai) the

superstition

paintings the Blood

which

have

who

the

as man

the

fear

killed;

the their

if

finally

but

is

For and

where

of

blood

animals; Greeks

the

pure the

Araphenides

is whole

ever

shed; prays,

shedding order

there

the been and Rituals appears

Taurian

which

fish, constituted

are

enjoys

has

this

place

sacrifice skinning, shedding

was

existence

yet

this

in

the

(hagna

in

sacrificed. splanchna, his

the

the

pleasing

suspicion.

city

what

this his though is

particular

reason made

dangerously

must testimony

tastes,

has

later

would

distribution

sanctions

then

and

nothing own a

epheboi

white-chalked is

e

into

of

sacred,

Artemis,

throat

the thymata).32

contrario

is often

is

of and in

a

blood;

their

brought interpenetrate

from in

be

power,

come

the striking

much

a

and to

ruin. be

Greeks

then

Attica,

characteristic blood

are

What man

the Unbloody BLOOD

the

the of founded

as

a

to been

scratched shedding

exceptional

and

task.

makes

perversion

the

a

to

similar whipped

provoking the which the sacrifice the

of

of

more

dismemberment;

gods

universal

who a appears The

The

embrace

to

is,

then the

where

counts

demands

the

the

power

blood

sacred

RITUALS

Directing

shedding

stages

sides

Greece if

are libation;

important asylum

meat.

sacrificer,

sits

through

rest

subject

anything, sacrifices presided

contrast

of

trace

with

so

through

at

at

warm

status of to

of

blood; of

of is which,

on

work.

such

blood

life

of

of

com

the

the

Boys

the

the be

by the

the

the

the

to

or

of of

the a the

the

of

as

in

a 6o RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 1.3 II ‘.3 FIRE RITUALS 6i its own sake and not as the prelude to a meal; these are blood destruction: things great, carried out for fixed, and solid dissolve in smoke and ashes. Fire the narrower sense, sphagia. They are found primarily in two with its multiple fascinations sacrifices in is present in almost every cult act of the Greeks. extreme situations, before battle 6and at the burial of the dead; the other Sacrifices without fire are rare, conscious exceptions, and conversely there which they occur is at purifications. Before battle the Spartans is rarely a fire without context in sacrifice; the hearth, Hestia, is a goddess as well. for Artemis Agrotera; usually, however, the reports mention An early form of the 8 49 slaughter a goat 37 temple is the hearth house; the early temples at Dreros god, but just the fact that on the battlefield, in view of the enemy, the and Prinias on Crete no are of this type, as indeed is the temple of Apollo at general or the seers who accompany the army will cut the throats of animals; Delphi which always had its inner hestia.° Otherwise the altar stands as a whole herds are driven along for this purpose. From certain signs in the rule in the open air opposite the temple entrance; by virtue of its function, the victims the seers determine the prospects of success in the battle. The quasi- altar is the pre-eminent fire place, the hearth of the gods. Fire miracles are harmless and manageable slaughter is a premonitory anticipation of the spoken of only in the Dionysos 5 52cult. Nevertheless, ’a sudden burst of flame unforeseeable dangers; it is a beginning. It is asserted that from the altar fire is battle and its seen as a sign of divine presence, and this gives were sacrificed in place of the 53 special before the battle of Salamis captured Persians import to the libations of oil and wine poured over the altar. Myth knows many variants of the — ideally willing — sacrifice of Just as in the home animals. the fire on the hearth is not allowed to die, so too in Iphigeneia in Aulis can also be placed in this group. many temples 8maidens before battle; 39 an eternal fire is maintained: most notably in the temple- of In Aeschylus’ Sevenagainst Thebesthe threatening anticipation of bloodshed is Apollo at Delphi, but also in the temple of Apollo Lykeios at Argos and in the presented as a binding oath: before the walls of Thebes the Seven slaughter a temple of Apollo Karneios in Cyrene.54As a kind of technical refinement, the bull ‘into a black-rimmed shield’, touch ‘with their hands the blood of the ever-burning lamp takes the place of fire in the temple of Athena Polias in bull’, and swear ‘by Ares, Enyo and bloody Terror’ to win or die. Otherwise Athens and in the temple °4 of Hera in Argos and also in the Asklepios cult. rites of blood brotherhood and the communal drinking of blood are generally A fire of this kind is the embodiment of the continuity of the sanctuary and attributed to babarians or else to extreme groups at the edge of society. of the body politic; Athena’s lamp went out shortly before Sulla stormed At the burial of the dead, animals are slaughtered and burned4 on the and destroyed Athens.5 ’ With the extinguishing and rekindling of the fire, pyre Patroclus, Achilles slaughters many funeral pyre. At the funeral of impressive enactment may be given to the sequence of completion, dogs, and twelve captured Trojans. This tion, and purifica sheep and oxen, four horses, two 42 new beginning. In Argos, the hearth of a house in which someone can be understood as an outburst of helpless fury: ‘If you are dead the others has died is extinguished, and after the prescribed period of mourning, new should not live.’ Nevertheless, when it is related that ‘about the dead man fire is fetched from the 43 state hearth, and the domestic hearth is kindled anew flowed blood such as could be drawn in cups’, it is clear that the intention with a sacrifice. The island of Lemnos was for the blood to reach the dead man in some way, to give him back life is6 purified at a certain and colour; red colouring is used in burials as early as the Palaeolithic. time of the year, and the fire on the island is extinguished for Sacrifices of this kind are also repeated in honour of the dead man. Here no nine days. A ship bearing festal envoys fetches fire from Delos. Once the altar is set up, but a pit is dug in the ground (bothros), into which the blood ship has arrived and they have distri 45 buted the fire for all flows. The idea then arises that the downward flowing blood reaches the other needs of life and especially for the craftsmen who dead: ‘satiating with blood’, haimakouria. In the earliest and definitive depend on fire, they say, ‘from now on a new life begins for them’.7 literary text describing such a sacrifice,6 this has become a conjuring up of the dead man: Odysseus, on the instructions of the enchantress Circe, digs out a After the battle of Plataea, the Greeks all decided to fetch new fire from square pit (bothros)at the edge of the world, and after a threefold libation and Delphi; thereafter, on the basis of certain signs, the Athenians repeatedly a prayer to Hades and Persephone, he slaughters a ram and a black sheep, sent a Pythian mission to Delphi to bring fire to Athens in a tripod causing the blood to flow into the pit; thereupon the souls (psychai)gather to cauldron. drink blood and so to awake to brief consciousness. The sacrificed The altars the 8 which stand in the open air do not have fire burning on them animals are burned next to the pit. continuously; they are 47 kindled in an impressive ceremony in the course of the festival. At Olympia, the victor in the stadion race has the right to ascend to 3.3 Fire Rituals the altar to which the stadion leads, where the consecrated portions lie prepared, and to light the 59fire. At the Panathenaia, the fire is carried in a Fire is one of the foundations of civilized life. It is the most primitive torch race from the grove of Akademos through the market place to the altar protection from beasts of prey, and so also from evil spirits. It gives warmth of the goddess on the Acropolis. The Argives fetch fire for their celebrations and yet is always grievous and dangerous, the very epitome of in Lerna from and light, the °6distant sanctuary of Artemis ’6Pyronia. Nocturnal

fail

processions 62

atmosphere

Homeric sensation, than

consideration

too,

incense the

and sacrificing. 6

wares,

mediaries, latest;

must

the

Greeks

particularly

flames mention

between the

cense

extravagantly

festival

the

The

Laphria

Nothing

The

to

thymiaterion,

epiphany

ancient

RITUAL

what

one

the

a

have

Round

lies each

construct

sanctuary

victims is

altar

beasts.

Then

some

flames,

many

impress;

thrown

these

festivals

distinctive

is

and

primarily

offering

of

later

—

of

quivering

beginnings

formula

the

comes

Hesiod

but

the

Laphrià

expanded

lends

admittedly

and

frankincense

of

with

bring

Etruscans

steps.

they

with

word AND

of

another Exactly

came

customary

the most

of in

of

them

some They

them

costly.

driest also

above

in

which

divine

is

is

a

all

the

the

torches 6

set

a

from

becomes

SANCTUARY

the

altar

commends

even

the

frankincense

of

not

smoother

fragrance;

Greek

for

They

more

widespread,

branches

kinds,

to

at

up

even

to

in

fire

goddess

selection

also

what

Babylonian—Assyrian

of

along

cult

animal

gods

of The

all

clear. 6

via

Patrai: 68

fumigating,

are

Greece

from

the

Calydon, now

wolf

to

in

fragrance.

that

to

is

everywhere;

unique

escaping

the

throw

place they they

of

sixteen

Cyprus.

a

and

are

wholly

found

Patroclus

the

sense

most

an

with

already

and

drive

Aphrodite

circle

ascent Imperial

Aphrodite

and

forced

to

shift

wood.

fire

of

At

among

wood.

further

have

retain

from

amphitheatre.

on

be

and

bear simplest,

alive

the

the

and

detailed

in

all

of

where

cubits incense-burning

defined

speaks

them

they

by

Incense

burned in This

thyein,

that

the

have

to

smell.

their

trade. woods

events,

its

southern

throws

At

At

to myrrh,

unmistakable

cubs,

their

their

the

wild

meaning

onto

times

the

and

way

strew

set

back altar

poem

in

this

the

long;

the

was

their

not

account

place

most

by

and

came

her

The

altar Semitic

every

offerings

boars

others origin,

violence;

and

up of

the

the The

onto

point

out

cult —

the

into

time

commenced

only

fruits

a

Adonis;

by

inside

no

And

also Arabia

grove

‘fragrant

logs

which

primitive

granule

import

in

twigs

sacred

may

altar

to

by

at

destructive type

morning

Sappho 6

and the

place

even

the doubt

I

of

Dionysos

and

altars.

to

of

names.

cheapest

be

the

character

of

saw

piling

of

yet

and

but

on

of

a hearth

be

of

deer

for

eye,

Pausanias

pyre.

edible

appropriately,

the

wood

via

festival

cultivated

the

probably

fully

of

is

first

of

apple

existed

incense

how

top

altars’

the

altars

those

discerned

the customs

always

The

specialized

experienced

frankincense

and

about

and festival which

ear,

earth

Phoenician

The

normal

of

fire

grown

rush

power festivals.

still

act

a

cult

sacral

birds

trees

to

use

bear

the

who are evening

•63

of

gazelles;

and

in

burner

cult

for

an

of

on

came

gives

green,

conjures

this In

taken

700

of

of

trees.

and

of

associated

altar

Geometric

they

wild

offering. and

of

word fire.

the

and

and

had

occasion

whereby

physical

the

the

practice

Homer,

frankin

the

Artemis incense

II

fire

kind

at

never

as

to

of

inter

in

as

gods 3

used,

roses

In

into

first

1.3

the

the

the

for

are

the

an

an

up

a

is

Polieus,

holocausts pyra. 8

great

banquets

the special

feast.

to

primarily

complete

Promethean

became and

and

holocausts,

though with

the

the peasant

rituals, 74

executed

Again

and festival

them.

then

upwards

the Thebes

sun’s

myth in

commemoration took

the

pijthaea

birth: 6

he

which II

associated

times

Fire

the

cult Messene.

same

rhythm

Phoenicians.

in died,

Sons

1.3

Elaphelilia

fire

the

This

told

the

place

light

burning

which

For

Jerusalem

On

with

and

class

led

for it

sacrifices

of

by

a

the custom

there

festivals

placed

which

in

story

surrender

in

in

to

root.

of

is

Semitic

reflex

according

dichotomy,

that

even

Mount

the

to

example,

this

burning

again,

the

are with

the

on

myth, the

of

the

impossible

the

sacrificial

of the

centre

undoubtedly

the

Another

is

dead

the

Chthonic of Connections was their

Mount

flame

cult

for

characteristic

cult

are

earliest

reason,

back

aether

are of

Valiant

a

her

Calydonian

for

Children

of

the

of

the

Kithairon

the

in

lies

and

year,

parellel a

Zeus. 8 ’

to not

of

of

rude,

of not,

told

Artemis

and

first

Artemis

Heracles’

father sacrifice

cult

to

daily on

rising

which

corpse,

however, the

sacrifice

gods behind

the

practice. 77

the

with

fire

Oita

Anatolian necessarily

to

temple

burning

the

the

but

especially

therefore,

a

One,

of

sacrifices 79

is

god

human-shaped

dead,

find

What

piglet where

took

burning

nocturnal

divine

festival

had

who

older

Hera’s

fire

celebrates

with fatty

original,

near

are

in

or

of

boar

through

animals

of

and

the

which

identified

direct

terrible

of

being

does

Hera

honour

Hyampolis

over

a

killed

as

are

the

rather

is

is

is still

the fire

a Plataea,

smoke’ log

Among

still;

hunt

in service. 6

fire

described

burned,

the

connected

significant

in

attended

of

man

quarrel

widely

explicitly

in

religion

not

contrasted

important

are

which

burned proof. 75

built

both

festivals.

festival

Minoan

the

destruction

pre-Iliadic

two

them

origin

unceasing

or

the

festivals,

contrast

self-immolation

offshoots

and

of

fit

.‘

or

excluded

as

idols

hero

the

the

one-year-old

even

Heracles.’

in

cases

Iliad

the

then

Here

regarded

of

and

had

finally

the

and

in

The

of

with

in

in

and

in

the

with

called

Greeks,

is

Boeotians

peak

a

evidence:

The

cult; 8 ’

a

made

the

the

Carthage

with

elements

children

tells

to which

god,

a

been

more

the

one

men

must reconciliation

and

the

fit

seventh

Greeks

through version,

explanation

by

bull

bull

as

to

the

the

Odyssey;

West

annual

cults,

of

Chthonic, 8 °

festival

their

special

of

Alkeidai

fire.

speaks

hinted the

as

torn

of

reinterpretations

moreover,

the

is

holocausts

course

It

madness

Olympian are sacrifice

be ‘at

lambs

the

at

wood,

slaughtered

there

celebrated

characteristic

death

of

Semites,

in

from

was

century.

marvelled

Clearly

fact

and

FIRE

own

from

the

the

considered,

when

that

fires

this

burned anger

Heracles;

historical

cases,

of

at

of

of

are

are

of regarded

that

in

night,

sinking

perhaps

questionable

the

of

the

in RITUALS

the

a

corresponds

the

with

of

and

very

the

and

and

even

the

the

his

fire

Meleagros;

related

are

sacrificial

sacrificial

ritual

of

honoured,

European

the

there

The

for

ritual.

Daedala,

fire

Kouretes

their

sun

wholly, contests

ancient

for

Artemis

at

also

temple

burned kicking

Zeus. 73

spot,

mother

place,

times,

found

if

Jews,

it

Zeus

of

from at

even

of even

myth

this

the

are

and as

the

and

was

fire

the

in

are

his

In

a

63

a a I 64 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 1.4 JI 1.4 ANIMALANDGOD 65 myth is suppressed and kept secret sacrificial 8meal — a sequence which is also very familiar among the Semites since it is scarcely compatible with the and which seems to correspond in an exaggerated way to the sequence of the public image of the divine. normal sacrifice with the burning of the thigh bones followed by the meal. In the iconography, god and animal are intimately associated: the bull appears with Zeus, the bull or horse with Poseidon, the ram or he-goat with 1.4 Animal and God Hermes, the stag or roe with Apollo and Artemis. The iconographical tradition, however, has a life of its own, especially as it needs to differentiate Evolutionary theories found in animal worship a very attractive, more gods by means of attributes; the bull god and stag god can be traced to Asia primitive antecedent to the belief in anthropomorphic gods. Further support Minor/Hittite tradition; the owl of Athena, the eagle of Zeus, and the for this view came from the discovery about the turn of the century of a half peacock of Hera-Juno°9 are little more than heraldic animals for the Greeks.’ understood totemism which was seen as an original form of religion as such. In myth Hecabe is transformed into a dog and accompanies the goddess It was not surprising therefore that animals worshipped as gods, animal Hecate, doubtless an association of the names Hecabe—Hecate; nevertheless, gods, and totem animals were sought and found behind the gods of the this dog is described as the agalmaof the 92goddess, a show-piece in which she Grecks. Where this means that the god is identical with his victim, then the takes delight, just as all gods take delight in the animal figures set up in their 8god himself is sacrificed and eaten. The explosive power of these reflections sanctuaries. Many of these figures represent in turn the favoured sacrificial derived not least from their contiguity with the Christian theology of the victims of the god: bulls for Zeus and Poseidon, stags and goats for Artemis sacrifice in the mass. and Apollo, rams and he-goats for Hermes, and doves for Aphrodite. The concept of the theriomorphic god and especially of the bull god, Animal sacrifice is the underlying reality. In sacrifice, the power and however, may all too easily efface the very important distinctions between a presence of the Stronger One, the god, are experienced. Following a custom god named, described, represented, and worshipped in animal form, a real which stretches back to catal Hflyük and beyond, horns, especially bull animal worshipped as a god, animal symbols and animal masks in the cult, skulls with horns, bucrania, are raised up and preserved in the sanctuary; they mark the site of 93 and finally the consecrated animal destined for sacrifice. Animal worship of sacrifice as eloquently as the stains of blood on the altar. the kind found in the Egyptian Apis cult is unknown in Greece. Snake The Horn Altar of Artemis on Delos, which was made from goat horns, was worship is a special case.° Myth, of course, toys with animal meta famed as one of the wonders of the world. The most remarkable and most direct morphoses. Poseidon in stallion shape sires — with Demeter, who is trans evidence for the wearing of animal masks is also found in the context of sacrifice: in Cypriot formed into a mare — the primal horse Areion and a mysterious 86daughter. sanctuaries masks to cover the head were made from real Zeus in the shape of a bull abducts Europa from Tyre to Crete and fathers bull skulls; terracotta figures wearing these bull-masks have also been found. These figures Minos on her. When we then hear how the sacrificial bull risen from the sea are not directly representing a bull god, but are priests, as is coupled with Minos’ wife Pasiphae and fathered the Minotaur, the evident from the accompanying myth of the Horned Ones, the Kerastai, who made identification of divine progenitor and sacrificial victim seems complete. gruesome human 94sacrifices. The sacrificer conceals himself by assimilating Nevertheless, in the fully formulated myth, Minos and Minotauros8 are no himself to the victim, and at the same time he seems to bring to more equated than their begetters. Jo, Hera’s priestess in Argos, is watched life again the creature killed earlier. One may surmise that goat sacrifice, over as a cow by a guardian cloaked in a bull’s hide called Argos, is made masked Pans, and the goat god Pan belong together in a similar way, and pregnant by Zeus, and is driven across the world by Hera; here, connections that for this reason the satyr play follows the tragedy, as the goat lamented by the with the cattle herds and cattle sacrifices of Hera of Argos are manifest. goat singers is resurrected in a droll manner in the shape of a man Nevertheless, the Greeks avoid calling Zeus or Hera bull or cow even masked in its 95skin. Similarly, the wearing of a ram’s fleece for purification was very metaphorically, although in Egypt or Ugarit gods were addressed in this way probably connected with a ram sacrifice. But direct evidence is without scruple. The only appellation of this kind is found in the fixed lacking. 6 At the Homeric formula of the ‘cow-eyed Mistress Hera’ where it is no longer same time, the animal in Greek sacrifice seems to be associated in a possible to distinguish what was metaphor and what was belief. particular way with man. Again and again, myth relates how an animal Dionysos is an exception. In the cult hymn from Elis he is invoked to come sacrifice takes the place of a human sacrifice or, conversely, how an animal sacrifice as a bull, ‘with bull foot raging’. Quite frequently he is portrayed with bull is transformed into a human 97sacrifice; one is mirrored in the other. horns, and in Kyzikos he8 has a tauromorphic cult image. There is also a A certain equivalence of animal and man is doubtless inherited from the myth which tells how he was slaughtered as a bull-calf and eaten by the hunter tradition and is also quite natural to the cattle breeder. To both belong impious creatures of old, the Titans. In the Classical period, however, this eyes, face, eating, drinking, breathing, movement, and excitement in 66 attack animal a sacrifice, bones To the

it

everlasting

nized.’ and In sacrificing they through does counts nevertheless honour that primitial role something little by sea,5 left beginnings destruction. first higher also man pig At limbs’

man

confirms

An

The

human

the

form hunting,

the to

for RITUAL

in

relations the have

manifests instance

again importance.

not

and

or elementary

and

other

may

god

the —

and

on

If order Odysseus, model

distribution of

and

giving domestic

in the

or they

the

accord

also unquestioning a

discussions the flight.

and society

it

of god.

via

fat,

man be

e

first AND

taken fishing,

men claim

dying goes

It function stands

gods beyond

this

contra

at

god. of

of

expressly

the

the may

his

praying’ is

sprinkles

and

fruit —

least, SANCTUARY The simple

or

superiority hand possible, form

with

Such

portion

he

the animal organization

to splanchna heart,

good from

are animal

rio

in animals,

gathering,

be

of receiving,

lays gifts.

offering, 2

the

slaughter of

concerning exchange

a

the

the

of

the

in

gifts

this

the

burned; relation

the and piety sense

stated.

the GIFT

this

assent. lungs,

gift

desire

pieces 2.! hand

may as

belongs

Stronger

of

Plato superior act

meat,

which

genitals.

may is

sacrificing

a whole, they

with

offering,

course,

and OFFERINGS

in

the

in

of seen or

possession First

come personal

with

of

then

kidneys,

to

of

of of

That

has

the be

relation

At gift

renunciation

agriculture.4

the

temple may surrender

he

barley

subordination to have

gifts

raw fill polarity:

set Ones

Fruit

as power

gifts

that

reveals

for

That Socrates Odyssey

this to

that

origin

first

sacrifice

so

one’s

the

be

down

meat

an

as

reach

is always AND

bonds the omnipresent

liver,

meal economy

extent separation

to

Offirings to

sunk and

the

must

a actual

of ‘making

an

age-old

of

of the

through

belly. social of the

the

is —

god

on

all LIBATION

animal

gifts

a

define

the

also The

and firstlings the

‘taking and

demonstratively the

in

turns

had

gods,

are

higher be

warm

on

a gods.

sets

practice

are

springs

concept comes sacred

process

and may

swineherd given wholly

the

throws Greeks the gifts gall-bladder,

deception;3

the

forged

of

the

piety’

is

aside not

into

that expressed

When

the

blood,

side Givers being priesthood; gods

sacrificed

same

even

of

to

death

spot

up

first. to

and

of

beginning

of

food

it the of speak

the other, sacrifice

and

as

of

one

mention

animal and

for

the plays

come

he is,

flesh,

the names

where

men,

rivers, Eumaios,

of

‘knowledge

lot

which

gods’,

How

whether

the maintained, recognizes of

of slaughter

divine slaughters

Good,

and men and of

first

in

on

deathless,

a

course,

but

the to

skin

ap-archai,

mortals.

sacrifice place

practice

decisive they through

in

from

the the II fen

it

exactly and

finally

benefit

recog in order;

in

is seven

dies, both

then

and

won

who

fact 2.1

fire. and

the

the

are

the

he

of

all

in of

of

a a

I

offerings

in guests The

Thousand Skillous

customary not eating thalysia” incorporated himself are

naturally gods rural

bread, everything simple,

first portions

II

About

the

Xenophon”

Elsewhere,

forgotten;

make those send tithe They states

in Eleusis. 2.1

than one from from The

sacred

nuts encamped

women sacrifice what and

bits,

form

at shrines

are

and

the

figs

such

for age-old 420 near

sixth

the

once

Athenians

is

notice for

one

who

the

first Demeter

Delphi: and thereafter shall

argrnata, shall

mentioned:

the

villages animal

of drinking

to

transformed

and

the

which

herd

festival. the

Three

‘Hermes

of

fruits

Olympia, as

a

twelfth

are

in of

the

in

to found fell fruit

olives,

fields used also,

corn

lasting send also the

olives, in peasant

sanctuary

to

a Poseidon

this

the

and

the

a

harvest

at

bushel, from

sacrifice.

the go

all of tents and

and offerings

corn

neighbourhood

favourite shall

part

are bring

first

he

the

way goddess bore

Elsewhere

them

of goddess; an

the and

and

a

state

up

other

seasons Pan,

grapes, votive

Dionysos;

portion a always one deliver

naturally

into

battle

world.7

of silos

the

bring Artemis field

the

in fruit

bushel has

through

from a

the

of

first

of

to his

portion

calendar.

smoke.6

hundred

Greek

if

Hermes,

the

Troizen.b0 goddess

first

Eleusis

theme Demeter

Athens

shall nymphs’. gift,

been

following

they

of

share

fruit first and offerings wine,

bring,

one

it

the

brought

of

The

gift .

Plataea,9

fruit

but

at uppermost

. sanctuary

as the the

gathered

fruit cities wish be

hundred

tithe

. took all

offerings

of

of

which

in pious

Eleusis

The proclaimed

and

a

gave heroes .

bushels

seasonal

the seasons offering hunted

built

the

The

throughout Hellenistic .

the the

kind

Before

ancient The

offerings .

are .

part to

is .

demarchoj milk.

The .

and

sacrificed

. man

nymphs,

spoils

often .

the

citizens barley

the

in .

peasant

And

harvest of in

to bushels

too regarded

in

here,

and with

in

of

animals.

of

Eleusjs flows the

occasionally city

goddess

from

tax.’3

gifts

Such

the custom

the takes

sanctuary FIRST

are the

handed its

barley,

from to the

if

shall

men

epigrams.8

meal,

Greece:’

even

an

one council

same sacred

the

and

title

honoured

over

festival.

his animals Heracles,

(horaia),

festivals of

shall

year

gifts

or

to FRUIT

the .

altar as

start wheat, and

two of

urge in

. a

field

though

to

lord

the

no

over

bread, once

manner .

sanctuary

these

dedicated and characteristic

collect March turn

The the

officials

collect

shall

goddesses

even

the

less

eating,

and men

them To OFFERINGS or

from

ears

proper

Popular,

to

celebrates

in

again

no

made

tithe

oracle

offers

Priapos,

allied

cities

estate;

the

wine,

the

than those

the

also this

this

less

. of

temple

first and

of

the

to .

of

he gods

a

of the

into

city temple in

a

are way,

corn

to

little

makes

fruit

festal

lesser

small

Ten

her

of

god

and

are the

not

his

at

as

or

67

of

a 68

The sanctuary were from sacrifice accompanied

bring.’ as thrown after destroyed to side placed there rationalized in from sacrifice, the Anatolia. with altar Demeter

bloodless altars blood the from The ancient

between

The

place.

In

flour,

cash;

offertory-box, RITUAL

Minoan—Mycenaean

the

silos

votive two

honeycombs used

animals brings manner. special then each to each . the ‘the is the

sacrifice,

may

animal In at

on

increasing the .

they altar; broth,

an

Offerings

civilizations

first

or bushels,

men

then

and

bones the fruits altar

were were The in

for

to

a addition of

preserve them; instructions offering,

ox,

even offerings AND

even

cases perfect

this

finance

are

the by

fruit

beginning,

Triptolemos

the Sacrifice

(trittoia)

choice and they

altar

pancakes,

dedicated

and sacrifices then

obviously

of

then

food

and SANCTUARY

in still way

two

further one

and form

thesauros.’7 the

offering

cultivated the of

evidence

gods

pour

contrast

in

to

victim,

the

a of

[as this

normal the

in

called offerings.

pieces

fat

goddesses and offering

was measure

front

raw

Bronze

offerings

the

beginning

Apollo

shall

of

of

gift

fact as food

there sacred oil

kind

when of

mould. and

to

in

regarded

the the kept

more

wool

and plays

unground

established

of

and

of firstlings, over

made

of to Zeus 2.2

the

be

sacrificial

turn trees

built,

offerings]

of

cakes;’6 the Age are Eumolpidai,

ritual is

tables

Genetor, it.

roast of

A the

within

these

made officials

still

in

first for also

from

then

victim.

them.”8

an

wine

In

bequest

Erechtheion

burned

Votive Hypatos,

with

to

occasion

and

tradition: are

god

and simply

Athena

full

Phigaleia

indicate meat,

fruits ground essential

the

of

gifts

groats

from

but

here the

fall

limits. and

especially — in festivals.

and offering,

of

an

Offerings of shall

Begetter,

god

the

Nevertheless,

on In

as on

they barley the

are

its wheat

stands

to

a

cakes, other

and

as

the

ox

than

Highest.’9

the

an

this

the barley, of

rich

revenues in

the Thera

grease. in receive

a

From

the

exchange

in collected the

in

part

with

are sacred

ox

connection consequence barley

also

goddess

altar,

trapezai,

Semitic in Arcadia, altar Athens,

firstlings

case

from

variety and

on

the

and

on capital

priest.

with

to

substance.

Classical prescribes:’5 psaista,

in

a

gilded its

These

them

Delos fruit be

from the sacrifice

as some cakes

As similar

which one

that

defining

the

own,

from

gilded

of

and

placed

is being

table

there

ritual

associated of in

The offerings

which

of in

gifts.2’

found bushel,

with

in

they

the

amount

before

flowed horns, never

according

the Paphos,

of

Euboulos

without

the the the

times

are

various

offerings

It

of of horns. stood

set

a

procedure

wheat,

straight —.

place

Bronze temple

the pervades

‘They the

vow,

very same

vine, three offerings

from

taken

In

served

up

and

regularly

are of

for

onwards

into

seasons

myth

II another of

relation

distress 20

animal

forms,

barley

along

on outset

differs

along made place

some

shall these

were

food

and

into and 2.2

Age

the

the

for

all

in of

is

I

r

gods ion Centuries. victories

of Samothrace. Greece

of Persian shields.

sanctuaries or

the

before a began: spear of fruit

the handed the service sanctuaries, a

go initiative and

offerings of throughout sacrifice23 men

before is

cry, witnesses plague, Any individual,

master renunciation, and

II

tithe

war, splendid

The

his

several

divine

The

as

so an

first

army

practice true

increase,

2.2

who offerings

a

reassure

to far

opponent

proof danger

situation

battle,

irrevocable

prayer, (dekate),

most came

and

vow this

A the

in

over

Wars,

with Athena.’7 the

fruit

sense,

or

as

owes Polytheism and

of

large

are

gods;

sign.

the

as may

eyes

votive

war.

a

to

of may were tribute the

sickness uncertainties

this

of

and

extravagant The to

into

which

however,

possible

tithe

is

and

offerings

themselves then found first man

temple.25

and the

setting

was

its one anathemata.’6 to the

revenue

year:

to be occasioned

this

of

Slaves of

kind

very involve The

Sacred

resplendent existence

gifts.

the Later, victory.’8

the power

duty,

Apollo,

gods

temple, of

fruit a

specified,

anxiety

taken entitled

determined

is

seeks

the

also

a or

vow.22

allows at

would

this vow

occasionally

gods

up new

also —

Nike

a

the

or

the was Some Greeks

and Movable

and offerings

any

the

as

share

a

avoids

form of

of out in of Way

revenue

to is

and

or

fixed

sanctuary are

the

perils

called harvest

by If

well

in

a Booty the

may every

generally also to the

the

Greek by gift men.

made

animal

even for

for

find

the

Stronger

of

war.

promised

this with of of

Odysseus

an promise

destroyed at

divine

future

and temple

proportion

Paionios any

requiring

raised the

the as

example,

of

setting the then Outcome goods,

present

akrothinia,

victory

Delphi

a members

was

consists

appropriate

deliverance

festival, aloud,

way,

word

a Hector

an

tract

god weapons

most

doubt

circumscribed

spoils

with

herds

sea

require

order;

by

become

given

from

One, opportunity

artefacts

to

their

from primarily

before up

voyage;

hands of

euche

themselves

means in to

is

some ceremonially, an

renowned

the

is

in

primarily

promises

prayers

about

is of

increase land.

of

may

connected

be

lined the

the

successful,

in as Olympia

equally

altar

awarded which,

portion some

the

captured

the

the

means occasion

linked

thanks

recognized the

through

turn minimal over

an

sale

made

topmost of

Most

for

booty

the be

household

Snake

or

with

costly

distribution act

are a

special

by

to

or the to

these to VOTIVE artistic Dolon’s

common in

even of self-imposed once

in

bestowed

god

simultaneously

in

by common,

of through made

offering and

parade with

dedicate

ransom

himself.

the

the

won fulfilment weapons:

monuments turn.

and

community, in

for

expense.

a

an

Column

garments,

favour

of

oneself,

or

a

the

without sanction

offerings.

god voluntary

fifth

war,

temple,’4

the

unending

vows

in monuments

a

the

are

for before gods

OFFERINGS

cap,

One

is

crisis

one’s

war, vow:

vows

of of

from in

on

and

Nike new the

He

the

pledged however,

of

pile.

especially

An

all

prisoners votives the

of

bow,

from and

‘if— to

may

the

inhibit

specific

as

through

armour existing

promise

may usually

seeks

the

fourth is

growth to

famine,

whom success to

for Greek animal

Votive

but

those

spoils

a

from

Even form

act

chain

many

then’. first-

over,

even

and one

the the loud

vow

for

of

be the an

in

is

6g

to of 70 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY 112.3 II 2.3 vicissitudes LIBATION whom they have exalted; but the gods give no guarantee against the second to the heroes, 7i and from the third and last of fortune or precipitate downfall. Finisher; or alternatively, to Zeus Teleios, the from the first to the Agathos At the same time, gifts of a kind which no man might be offered also find third to Hermes. Daimon and from the Each participant is free to their way into sanctuaries as a result of vows. Of these the most common is libations. invoke a god with further Patroclus’ bier Achilles cuts off a long lock of hair the hair offering.’ At Invocation and prayer are and girls inseparable from libation: which is pledged9 to his native river Spercheios. In many places boys order to pray, and the the cup is filled in filled cup is passed to the guest on entering their majority would cut their hair and dedicate it to some deity, pray in turn. In order with the invitation to to supplicate the gods aright a river, a local hero, or a god; the most pettily pretentious would even travel therefore required. at all, a libation is When embarking on a voyage, to Delphi to do so. Similarly, a girl would dedicate the playthings of her and then wine is mixed in kraters 39emptied into the sea from the stern childhood in a sanctuary and present her girdle to Artemis before marriage. of the ship, amid prayers 30 vows. When Achilles sends Patroclus and their retirement, aged hunters, fishermen, and peasants would dedicate 4 out to battle, he takes from On the’ cup from which he alone drinks, his chest cleans it, the tools of their trade in a sanctuary. The things which man leaves behind the wine; then, washes his hands, and draws stepping into the court, he pours at a turning point in his life remain preserved in the shrine. This dedication to the sky, out the wine and, looking up 3 prays for the Victory and safe return of his friend. cannot be annulled; the renunciation’ is irrevocable. The background to this prayer, but denies the other.’ Zeus grants one practice is clearly the sacralization of the remains of the sacred act, the Wine libations also have a fixed place hanging up of the skin and the elevation of the skull. By dedicating his hair, a in the ritual of animal sacrifice. cry sponde!,sponde!may introduce any The — sacrificial act. To man surrenders a part of himself to a higher power a loss which admittedly wine is poured over the 4 Conclude the ritual, flames on the altar which’ causes no pain and is quickly replaced. Just as the sacralization at the are consuming the Thus the sacrificer with the libation remains. contains something of bad conscience and restitution, so here the bowl in his hand above the sacrifice became a favourite iconographical motif. flaming altar anxiety associated with the turning point in life becomes a symbolic however, 43 Even the gods themselves, were shown holding the libation redemption from the powers which have previously ruled one’s life. The especially phial in real statues and in paintings. Perhaps the priest 4 bride in particular must not forget to show reverence to the virgin Artemis. would pour the wine divine libation bowl and the wine into the childbirth are dedicated in her would flow from there in turn. The garments of women who have died in it were, makes offering to The god, as himself; or rather, he is drawn sanctuary at Brauron, as if the miscarriage indicated a debt which must be taking of the serenely into the giving and flowing stream, an epitome of settled posthumously.3 The libation consequently self-sustaining piety. stands in a certain polarity to ’ which precedes it. the blood sacrifice The sphtigia open 2.3 Libation hostilities; the spondai end Normally there is no other word hostilities. for armistice or peace treaty than spondai.‘We, the polis, have made simply the The outpouring of liquids, libation, though it has now disappeared from libation’45 means: we have 33 Committed ourselves The Truce resolved and of God at our culture, was one of the most common sacral acts during prehistoric times festivals, the the time of the Panhellenic Olympic Games, or the Eleusinian and especially in the civilizations of the Bronze Age. Alongside the poetic in this way. Mysteries, is also designated ‘Spondebearers’4 make their way word leibein, loibe, the Greeks use two terms in which Anatolian and Indo and bring through the lands to proclaim about the 6truce; such libation is European tradition 34meet, spendein,spondeon the one hand, and cheein,choeon final. bloodless, gentle, irrevocable, and the other. Spendein,significantly, is associated primarily with wine, the fruit of Libations which the earth drinks7 are the Mediterranean; there are, however, also choaiwith wine and spondaiwith gods who destined for the dead and for the dwell in the earth. A rite honey, oil, and water. The distinction is based in the first instance on the of this kind is already performed 35 Odysseus as he conjures up the dead:4 by type of vessel employed and the manner of its manipulation: the spondeis around the offering pit libation for all the dead, first 9 he pours a with a honey made from the hand-held jug or bowl and the pouring is controlled; the choe with water; drink, then with wine, and thirdly over this he strews white barley involves the complete tipping and emptying of a larger vessel which may be promising future and beseeches the dead, burnt sacrifices. Similarly, in held or may stand on the ground. The choeis intended for the dead and for brings milk, honey, Aeschylus’ Persians, the queen water, wine, and oil and also Chthonic gods; nevertheless, one can also speak of spondaifor the chthonioi. dead king;49the flowers to the grave of the songs which accompany the pouring The spondeis performed whenever wine is drunk. Before drinking6one’s fill, the light. The call the dead Darius to second play in the Aeschylean a libation is poured; this is already found fixed in a formula in Homer. Libation Oresteia takes its title, Bearers, from the offerings The In symposia there are later specific rules which prescribe, for instance,3 that maidens which Electra brings with her to the grave of the dead Agamemnon. hand from the first krater a libation is to be made to Zeus and the Olympians, from has The unfolding 8 a rhythm which corresponds of the ritual to that of the normal sacrifice: first the ceremonial 72 Sophocles wild then fetched performed departs, which are symbol the place food. then the surrenders important is remains and ity: What libations purest grave Nevertheless, surprise: seat. 57 anthropomorphic festival. tives his made stands here demarcation, recognizes libations. 6’ mythology here. blood the ‘The And a The veneration libation east, garlanded RITUAL what presence why a clear admittedly cries assures That of where Similarly, distinguishes stelae libation he silence, Stones and a left from souls’, yet outpouring for unexplained. 53 the But not stone the to has wine is provides in of is instance how the the from himself procession this highest on the is knows, AND the are dead a spilled himself not sacrificer the oil looking grief of glistening been of oil usually freshly wrote with a for there, which earth mysterious is the dead is attribute fixing earth the anointed prayer is can Orestes, 59 grove that the SANCTUARY is these poured associations. who, not also like holding the form specified to of the wool white-chalked of the traces cannot of Lucian, 5’ drinks glistening something therefore the always back. 5’ the flowing accepted has a water a of all. a tips to most the outpouring In poured stones. 8 the to with centre Omphalos like higher superstitious of first the libation and curious the and straight the drunk fact, of The disappearance spatial and the in renunciation. Ololyge is be detailed glistens Eumenides the offerings oil The along has spring; grave fruit filled dead garlanded, 6 said his ‘are signal or vessels however, without In over brought that role this will stand In which living, in needs many reaches order point hand front silent onto nourished from explicitly altar. 6° this with offering at man; with the stone with other of is special in with cauldrons description a at at man the towards also recognition oil case of to of libation; is question the of he associations the other are back. by peacefulness wine crossroads; the water the then all its oil the of the orientation. at not things; men in sacrifice. 50 they now The way at act the in it stones ground anointed grave the destination, libation often the and Delphi; dead by libations Palace and is least gifts the The a its which and the of have sense strews may of obviously dying centre and the of as vessels drink on any pouring, atonement. negative honey enough. serene of and of of in a is west; a libation honey; which for whoever libations.’ of of and be Agamemnon libation with established food drink the careful stranger of stand special given this Whoever In and on Oedipus. has subterranean Nestor wine be of taken the being this but for power the Oedipus is wastefulness. the simply is a too a wreathed the the Mythology been offering, accompanied turning aspect. in silent Heavenly by understood is its spondai. 55 before drink that to act olive it ritual places ground as First, the who in king borne is therefore Accordingly, irretrievabil was world pours demonstrate the of representa noted Pylos becomes their a at a the sanctuary prayer announce the branches matter passes drinking offering? which takes stains What that towards water place a Colonus, without II beings, for offerer along; out at When gift dead. is, Ones order must there with The had 2.3 and the the the by his he by oil of as is is of of of is a

I gods, entreaties; 8 officially includes sacrifice to to supplication, full granules Athena, barley an and invocation silence.2 speech, coarse, But Libation, libation: sympathetic constitute engraved one ‘conceive!’ were away. away; ground in Then Ara, of 6 goal must mentioned; when normal described The II let oneself ancient sacrifice Athens. no each silent towards out 3 libations of too, filled usual in in there water here important or and euphemia, within she life. Out of To and the where, sacrifice raising of this than the sacrifice, on means and and prayer complaining frankincense and the — — by is these In word conclude cry washes, the are At hikesia, makes of in the magic, is a with before sacrificial in performed, way of entreaty: the of the in semantic fountain. it fixed poured the the of particular water special Greek it to east, prayer submission. for acts of water one is prayer the exceptional triumph: water? receive sanctuary first was Greeks hope silence same may libation prescribed. 9 the dresses witnesses. to but conjunction.4 the vow must speaks while which fruit out a pray, said, water-carrying word basket. 5 conclude are the participants and through field even without and Dearth play taken time, Eleusinian — a there it in — at such be strewn and offerings—these prayer. 3 to posthumous in prays euc/zesthai, is of which vow, simply a the had the many The would cases, of be on attended the however, special clean said once the The 3 rises then As prayer and such organized ritual: serene water grave, words: the been heavens king, but In in aloud PRAYER Olympian is a different There in that of Mysteries be gods, garments, again up surplus, overturned, consists other the the rule, procession, likewise a at festivals, the also the is carried by from harm, litai bathing wastefulness. general, the the ritual, hye bridal someone flame. the and more O4yssey, is the one washing cult of outpourings from to wine means are — apostrophe thirst — rarely ways. same Deucalion’s in rain thysiai, Earth the course, for kye. 67 right blasphemia, two cried an called along the and bath 6 of though Hydrophoria, On water 6 or the is the one known god all. when of act uncanny, to who magic, acts time vessels a fetched At of priest word. The important prepares there ‘rain!’ the boast, ritual prayers first fundamental was of towards euche; in Usually hands, in can the which has to not for of drawing it Penelope dead same as order his and obviously instance flood Any and who was an of is honey without and beginning also the a and for died such so in subterranean sanctuary. 6 also — a procession the Opposite, chernips. 5’ is define the so formula flood a occasions wrong, dead special to sacrifices PRAYER it the the directs libation to in had also hear cleft attention unmarried as groats and a is the attain prays the west victory, sense in prayer prayer, form curse. the poured made piety.’ clearly is spoken flowed in good of earth wine. soft holy form evil, often the was Also and one an or of the to of the the is a of of 73 74 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II fl 4.1 PURIFICATION Success and honour for one is usually inseparable from humiliation and 75 suppliant has performed works pleasing to the god, has burned sacrifices and destuction for another; the good ara and the evil ara’° go hand in hand. Ara built temples, then this should now hold good. Often the assurance ‘for you has an archaic sound and recalls the direct power which the word of prayer are able’ is slipped in. Once contact has been established, the entreaty is exercises as a blessing or as a curse which, once uttered, can never be made succinctly and clearly and is usually accompanied by the promise for retracted. In the Iliad, the title of the priest who knows how to manipulate the future, the vow; piety is supposed to guarantee constancy. Philos such words of prayer is areter:” it is Chryses who brings the plague on the ophically refined religious sensibility later took exception to the Achaean army with his prayer and who later brings the plague to an end. self- interested directness of these euchai;one should, it was recommended, pray In the poetic setting, this prayer is admittedly a well-formulated entreaty to simply for the Good and leave the decision to the god.’ Such sublimated the personal god Apollo, who heeds his priest. 8 piety could never become the general rule: Normally the Greeks had no A more elementary stratum of invocation is touched by those traditional, qualms about praying for an other’s destruction. linguistically meaningless, word-sounds which accompany specific dances or Kneeling down to pray is unusual.’ The gesture of entreaty is outstretched processions each of which is associated with a particular god. Through sound arms. To invoke the heavenly9 gods, both hands are raised to the sky with and rhythm they help to mould the experience of the festival, and at the same upturned palms; to call on the gods of the sea, the arms are extended out to time they receive their content from that experience. The act of sacrifice is the sea; the hands are also stretched towards the cult image. A cult image or marked by a shrill cry, the Ololygeof the women; the same cry of women sanctuary must always be given a friendly greeting — a chaire— even if one is accompanies birth as the coming and intervention of a birth goddess is simply passing by without any special reason,’° or else the gesture a awaited, and it recurs in other situations of crisis, such as supposed of kiss may be made by raising a hand to one’s lips; a short, simply prayer possession.’ The Dionysian revellings are recognized by wild shouts, 2 may always be added, Socrates greets the rising’ sun also in this way. Simple especially the cry euhoi— transcribed as evoc in Latin — and also thriambe,’ 2 2 apostrophes invoking the gods punctuate everyday life; in excitement,’ fear, dithyrambe.Associated with the Apollo cult is the Paean, or more 3precisely, amazement, or anger, the ‘gods’ or some fitting divine name are invoked. the shout ie iepaian, with the special rhythm of three short and one long; this Often names of local gods trip off the tongue, or else Zeus and Apollo shout gives its name to the hymn which drives out pestilence and celebrates and especially Heracles, the averter of all that is evil; Herakleis— meherculein Latin victory, and also to the god who so manifests himself.’ Iakch’o Iakcheis the — is almost as overworn as the exclamation, ‘Jesus!’. Women have their own shout which accompanies the procession to Eleusis;4 here, too, a name is special goddesses, Artemis, Pandrosos, and so heard in the cry, Iakchos, the name of the one who is supposed to lead the 23on. Special measures are required, however, if the dead or the gods procession as a daimon and is probably identical with Dionysos; later he was of the underworld are to be reached. Poets describe how the suppliant also carried along in the form of a statue.’ Dithyrambos was also used as an hurls himself on the ground and hammers the earth with his fists. Where the purpose epithet of Dionysos. The collective5 scream leads to the brink of ecstasy; as 24 was to harm or curse, the silent and lasting inscription replaced such soon as the Greeks come to offer an account of these words, they speak of invocations from the fifth century at the latest: leaves of lead — of the kind personal, anthropomorphically represented gods. also used for letter-writing — were inscribed surrendering one’s enemy to the gods of the It is a striking fact, but one that is very closely connected with this underworld; these leaves were buried in the shrines of anthropomorphism, that in Greek no ancient liturgical prayer formulae are subterranean gods or in graves. While the official cult always continues with the spoken transmitted, no Veda and no Arval Hymn. Indo-European comings are word, the innovation of the written word is used to serve magical ends. The magical preserved in the poetic language, but by virtue of that very fact they may be act replaces the invocation: ‘I write down’, ‘I bind down’;’ this is employed quite freely. A basic prayer form’ with variations in detail arises therefore 6 called Icatadesis,deJlxio. 5 from its function. At the beginning, underlined by the request ‘Hear!’, comes the name of the deity. Great importance is attached to finding the right name, especially appropriate epithets; as much as possible, epithets are 4 PURIFICATION heaped one upon another — a feature which probably also derives from Indo European tradition — and the god is also offered the choice: ‘With whatever i Functionand Methods name it pleases you to be called’.’ An attempt is also made to define the 4. sphere of the god spatially by7 naming his favoured dwelling place or several All creatures must keep clean, eliminating matter which is a possible places from which he is to come. This is followed by a justification source of irritation and so is defined as dirt. For man, cleaning for calling on the god, in which earlier proofs of friendship are invoked by becomes one of the formative experiences of childhood. Cleanliness sets way of precedent: if ever the god has come to the aid of the suppliant, or if the limits. The child learns how ready others are to banish a dirty person along with his dirt, and how, 4.2 THE SACRED AND THE PURE 77 76 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 4.1 II and eliminated. In practice few words and no detailed explanations were by following certain procedures, an acceptable status may be regained. needed: the social function was immediately manifest and effective. Purification is a social process. To belong to a group is to conform to its Purification rituals are familiar in the Ancient Near East as in the Old standard of purity; the reprobate, the outsider, and the rebel are unclean. Testament. Homer mentions not only the ‘pure garments’ and the washing of Groups which set themselves apart from the rest of society may do so hands before prayer and sacrifice, but also the purification of the entire army through an appeal to special, heightened purity. Accordingly, the emotion after the plague.’ A number of special prescriptions are found in Hesiod. ally charged activities of cleaning have become ritual demonstration. By Still able 4to find a place in mythology were the purifications from madness — celebrating the elimination of irritating matter, these rites delimit a more Melampus and the Proitides’ — and from blood guilt’ Apollo and Orestes. highly valued realm, either the community itself in relation to a chaotic — problem of murder and the murderer, especially6 its power to The 5 cast a outside, or an esoteric circle within society; they mediate access to this realm shadow over later generations and the means of overcoming this by purifi and so to a higher status; they play out the antithesis between a negative cation, seems to have become increasingly urgent during the course of the and a positive state and so are suited to eliminate a state which is truly seventh century. The Deiphic Oracle clearly played a leading role in this and disruptive, and to lead over to a better, pure state. uncomfortable development while nevertheless exploiting local traditions whenever Purification rituals are therefore involved in all intercourse with the sacred possible.’ Special purifying priests, kathartai, also appeared who promised and in all forms of initiation; but they are also employed in crisis situations of 7relief in cases of epidemic and civil discord. The most famous of these, madness, illness, and guilt. Insofar as in this case the ritual is placed in the Epimenides of Crete, purified Athens of the Cylonian pollution some time service of a clearly identifiable end, it assumes a magical character.’ before 600.18 Families and individuals were also inclined to trace calamities The most widespread means of purification is water, and in Greek of all kinds to some ancient pollution, to the wrath, menima, of some purification rituals contact with water is fundamental. In addition, there is 2 mysterious power.’ From the practice of ritual, in the figure of impurity, a to eradicate foul smells, a primitive form of the practice of fumigation concept of guilt9 develops; purification becomes atonement. disinfecting; Odysseus sulphurates the hail after the blood bath he has 3 A process of internalization of this kind leads, of course, to a questioning of caused. The Greek word for to purify, kathairein, is perhaps to be derived ritual. Already in Hesiod an inner dimension corresponds to the outer when from4 the Semitic word for cultic fumigation, qtr. Since, moreover, fire 5 he warns against crossing a river ‘without washing wickedness and one’s consumes and destroys everything, including things unpleasant and disgust hands’. Plato later writes, ‘The impure man is whoever is wicked in his ing, one can say: ‘fire purifies everything.’ Two further requisites of Greek °2soul’; and even an 22orator can demand that a priest should ‘not keep purifications are less immediately intelligible, the winnowing fan (liknon)and 2 6 ’himself pure for a certain number of days, but be pure in his whole way of sea onions (skilla). The winnowing fan purifies the corn as the swinging 7 life’. An often quoted line which was engraved over the entrance to the movement of the basket allows the chaff to be blown away by the wind. The Askiepios sanctuary at Epidaurus reads: ‘Purity is to think pious things.’ swinging of the basket over the head of the initiand, suggests analogy magic, 23 In practice, such statements were regarded not as devaluing the outer forms but equally the showering of the newcomer° may be recognized as an of piety, which were still rigorously upheld, but as adding a deeper abreaction of aggressive feelings, just as the victors in the games are dimension. In the sphere of purification, ritual and ethical reflection could (phjllobolia).No Greek explanation is found honoured by pelting with leaves therefore merge without a break. for the use of onions, but a Hittite ritual text is illuminating: the onion is peeled skin by 9skin, until nothing remains;’ in this way the disturbing matter 4.2 The Sacredand thePure is eliminated very elegantly. The0 use of blood sacrifice for purification is ambiguous, but nevertheless purification is thereby brought within the The demand for purity draws attention to the boundary which separates the central reserve of the sacred work. sacred from the profane; the more scrupulously and intensively purification is Whatever is ritually and forcibly eliminated in the act of purification can be pursued, the greater the difference in order appears. ‘In no way can a man pray interpreted as a gift to certain powers who are therefore uncanny and perverse to Zeus spattered with blood and filth’; hence the washing of hands, chernips, and better not mentioned by name: ‘For you the dirty water for whom it is 2 before libation and sacrifice. Clean’ clothing is also worn, and occasionally necessary and for whom it is right.” From the time of Xenocrates onwards, white garments are prescribed.’ Vessels containing water, perirranteria,’ are one of daimones;” concerned with unclean things, they are in turn speaks set up at the entrances to the sanctuaries, like the fonts of holy water in unclean. Modern interpreters, seeking to clarify the ideas which accompany 5 Roman Catholic churches; everyone who enters dips a hand6in vessel the and the ritual, prefer to speak of a material conception of pollution’ which can be sprinkles himself with water. There is no consecration of the water, but often transmitted through contact, but which can also be3isolated, concentrated, I 78 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 4.2 r II 4.3 DEATH, ILLNESS it must be drawn from a particular source. Not a few sanctuaries have their AND MADNESS 79 Dirt gathers even in sanctuaries own spring or fountain, but occasionally the water must be fetched from and on images of gods; regular cleaning is as unavoidable as it is delicate. further afield, from an ever-flowing spring or from the always powerful sea. Ritual has once again transformed this into a festival, or rather an anti-festival, an uncanny The water-carrying maiden with the jug on her head, the hydrophoros,is fixed and impure occasion which at the same time enhances the proper, in the iconography of worship and also appears frequently in votive terra pure festival by way of antithesis. The demonstrative enactment of the uneasiness cottas. The purifying power of fire is joined to the power of water when a of the defilement makes the 27 purity of the new beginning all the more log is taken from the altar fire, dipped in water, and used to sprinkle the secure. So in Athens the Plynteria,4’ the washing festival, fall sanctuary, altar, and participants.’ in the last month of the year. Virgins and women clean the ancient wooden image of the city The Indo-European word for sacred, hagnos,’ is defined and narrowed goddess Athena: ‘they remove her ornaments and veil the image’; the day is down in Greek 8 its mysos, regarded as a day of ill omen on through opposition to9 defilement, miasma. The which no important business should be conception of specifically cultic purity is defined by considering certain more started. Not to be confused with this is the annual procession in which the epheboi or less grave dislocations of normal life as miasma.Disturbances of this kind carry another image of Athena, the Palladion, to the sea where it is purified in are sexual intercourse, birth, death, and especially murder. 1-fagnosin 43 order to be set up once more 30 on the ancient site of an important law court, where crimes such 3 as homicide the exemplary sense therefore’ applies to whoever shuns contact with blood are tried: the condemned man is and death, especially the virgin. Virgins play leading roles in many cults. banished, but after certain purification ceremonies he may occasionally be able Priestesses must often observe chastity at least for the period of their office; to return. His exile, purification, and 32 return follows the path of the image but priests and temple servers too must on occasion attain a certain degree of which goes to be purified. A similar procession in Argos in which a Pallas hagneia, especially in preparation for the festival. This involves not only image is carried to the bath is known from a poem by Callimachus’ An avoiding sexual intercourse and contact with women in childbirth and inscription from Kos prescribes that when a sanctuary has been polluted by households in mourning, but also observing dietary prohibitions, fasting for a dead body, the priestess must take the boy-nursing goddess, Kourotrophos, to the sea to purify her there. several days, and eating certain unusual 33foods. These prescriptions vary In this 45 way the proper distinction between the divine and the mortal according to time and place; there are no universally unclean foods as with re-established. is the Jews. Curiously, the hagneiamay even involve a prohibition on bathing: the contrast with everyday life or some future act of cultic purification is more important than obvious cleanliness. 4.3 Death, Illness, and Madness A bath followed by dressing in new robes forms part of individual Disturbances which set everyday initiations, of initiations into mysteries, and of the wedding ceremony life out ofjoint are confined and mastered 34 by the demand for purification precisely because which, of course, is celebrated as a sacrificial feast. In the sanctuary of they cannot simply be avoided or eliminated. The most Athena Kranaia near Elateia there are special bath-tubs for the boy who harmless of these is sexual intercourse, but a purification is still necessary before intercourse with holds the five-year office of priest. Before the Eleusinian initiation the mystai the gods may be 35 resumed. Death cuts much more deeply into all bathe together in the sea near Athens on a certain day. Reliefs show how the life of relatives, of the house; 6 those affected are impure and are excluded for a this was Ibliowed by a purification with torches: Heracles, in the act of certain period from normal life. Anyone who visits them must purify receiving the Eleusinian initiation, sits on a ram’s fleece with his head veiled himself on leaving by sprinkling himself with water. During this while a priestess holds a torch close beneath period the defilement is given dramatic 37him. On another relief, the outward expression:6 the mourners wear Two Goddesses themselves seem to hold out torches towards a child sitting torn or dirty clothes, refrain from washing, and rub earth or ashes on on the ground; while in mythology, Demeter thrusts the Eleusinian child their heads. When a Spartan king dies, two free persons from each family must defile Demophon straight onto the fire on the hearth in order ‘to purge him of all themselves, says Herodotus — not spontaneous reaction, but action mortality’. When other portrayals of Heracles’ initiation show the use of the prescribed. In Julis on Keos a decree restricts by law the number of those liknon as well, late systemization was able to speak of a purification who may and must defile themselves 8 39 (miainesthai)in this way: mother, wife, through the elements, water, fire, wind. There is also a purification by earth, 47 sisters, daughters of the dead man and their daughters, and then not more than a wiping off: in certain4mysteries clay and bran are smeared on the initiand, five other women. At the end of ° the prescribed period, they must all purify themselves especially on his face, and then wiped off. Thus, a purifier is someone who with a bath by pouring water over their heads; the house too must has knowledge of offscourings. By its contrast to the artificial defilement, be purified — sprayed with sea water, smeared with earth, and the subsequent purity appears all the more impressive. then swept out. Sacrifice is then to be made on the hearth which has ’4 meanwhile been extinguished: the normal relation to r

8o RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 4.3 II 4.4 PURIFICATION 8i the gods is restored. It is clear how the constraint of the ritual is also a help; proclaims Heraclitus, thus exposing to his ridicule the paradox in this most whatever is able to be done is thereby externalized, objectified, and can be set striking of purification 55rituals. It has its place especially in the purification aside at the specified time. of the murderer. The act of murder gives rise to a peculiar, almost physically Illness and disease can also be understood as defilement. In the first book experienced pollution, agos, in which the murderer is ensnared: he is enages. of the Iliad, as the wrath of Apollo turns aside after reparation has been made Admittedly, his extreme position is ambivalent, just as sacrament and to his priest, Agamemnon commands the Achaeans to wash off their defile sacrilege merge in every act of sacral killing; thus it has been debated ment (apolymainesthai);‘and they washed themselves and threw the washings whether the word agos and the word for sacred, pure, hagnos, might share into the sea.’ The purification is followed immediately by the festival of the a common 6root. This, at all events, would lead into prehistory. The god, which fills the whole day with the beautiful cult hymn, the paean, and community of Archaic times knows its obligation to drive out the agosand the with sacrifices. Apollo is the god of such purification and healing. His murderer with it: he must leave his home and seek a protector abroad who sanctuary in Didyma is said to have been founded when Branchos came will take charge of his purification; until then o word must pass his lips, nor there to drive out the plague, which he did by swinging bay branches and may he be received in any house, nor share a table with others: anyone who sprinkling the people with them while chanting a mysterious, incompre comes into contact with him is similarly 57defiled. The mythical instance is hensible 49hymn. Mention is repeatedly made in the Archaic period of the matricide Orestes who flees abroad after his deed. Various places with purifying priests of Apollo who could similarly banish plagues. their local rituals claim connection with his purification: in Troizen in front The special preserve of purifying priests is mental illness,°5 madness, which of the Apollo sanctuary stood a hut of Orestes which was said8 to have been is regarded unquestioningly as sent by a god. The purification is to conduct erected to avoid receiving the murderer in a normal house. A priestly group the abnormal over into normality. The mythical instance is the madness of met there regularly for a sacral meal. In Athens, the curious wine-drinking the daughters of King Proitos of Tiryns which was provoked by Hera or on the day of defilement during the Anthesteria 59festival was traced back to Dionysos and which spread to all the women of the 5city. In reality this is the arrival of Orestes. After Aeschylus it was imagined how Apollo himself from normality; the description’ of the outward had purified Orestes at Delphi with a pig sacrifice. Vase paintings give an a ritual breaking away disfigurement of the mad Proitides recalls primitive make-up and masks, like idea of the procedure, similar to that used for the purification of the Proitides: the hideous idols from the shrine in Mycenae. The path back to normality the piglet is held over the head of the person to be purified and the blood was found by the seer Melampus. One version transfers the purification must flow directly onto the head and hands. Naturally, the blood is then sanctuary of Artemis in Lousoi: the name Lousoi washed off and the regained purity is made6 outwardly manifest as well. which he performed to the ° was associated with washing, lousthai.In the clear light of the fifth century, A purification of this kind is clearly in essence a rite de passage. The the author of On the Sacred Disease holds forth against the ‘magicians, murderer has set himself outside the community, and his reincorporation at a purifiers, begging priests and quacks’ who treat epilepsy with ‘purifications new level is therefore an act of initiation. Thus the purification of Heracles and incantations . . . and of the remains from their purifications, some they before the Eleusinian initiation and the purification of Orestes have distinct hide in the earth, others they throw in the sea, and others they carry away structural parallels; a piglet sacrifice is involved at Eleusis as 6well. To offer into the mountains where no one will touch them or tread on 52them.’ a surrogate victim to the pursuing powers of vengeance is an idea which The Korybantic madness to which Plato repeatedly alludes was regarded seems natural in expiating a murder, but the essential aspect seems to be that as a special kind of 53possession. The Korybantes stand under the sway of the the person defiled by blood should once again come into contact with blood. Great Mother of Asia Minor. At the sound of one specific tune each will lose The ritual is a demonstrative and therefore harmless repetition of the consciousness and be driven to a delirious dance under the power of the shedding of blood in which the result, the visible defilement, can equally Phrygian music. When the dancer is finally overcome with exhaustion, he demonstratively be set aside; in this way the deed is not suppressed but feels release not only from his madness, but from everything which had overcome. Comparable is the primitive custom where the murderer sucks in previously oppressed him. This is the purification through madness, the the blood of his victim and then spits it out 62again: he must accept the fact purification through music, which was later to play such a prominent role in through intimate contact, and at the same time effectively free himself of it. the discussions about the cathartic effect of 54tragedy. Blood is also quite frequently shed for purification in other contexts. The most detailed evidence is given in connection with the lustration of the 4.4 PurifIcationbj Blood Assembly and of the Theatre in Athens. At the beginning of the assembly, special officials, peristiarchoi, carry piglets around the square, cut their ‘They purify themselves by defiling themselves with other blood, as if throats, spray the6 blood over the seats, cut off the genitals and throw them someone who stepped in mud should try to wash himself with mud,’ away. How the carcass was disposed of we do not learn. The name of the

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simple

with

late

bereft Boulimos, every

man

attempt

katluirsia,

precinct similar occaSi0a

then,

toWfl

the

II

Corresponding

purification 77 great

It Accordingly,

Speculations

sweetness,

pointed

45

men,

is

which

Thirty

antiquity. 73

is

puzzling

the being

him:

amid

decked

year;

of

clearly

must

not

and

across

of

meaSures

cairn

to

was

such

of

contact

ritual

on

new

is

and

and

such

the

projection

Apollo

circumscribed

active are

the ‘become

curses

assembled

he

plunged

rationalization whipped

the

terrifying

Tyrants

to

the

the

be

with

made

in

essential

on

luxury,

as

one

harvest:

rite

towered

Thargelia

was,

the

constantly

accompaniment,

the

perhaps

fruits

an

poor

rudely

as

outcast

the boughs about

—

side

with

As

in

some

water

killing,

to

and

of

Leukatas a for

boundaries

a

judgement

old

plague,

to

however,

Massalia,

performance

into

this poor

our

the

driving

were

beggar,

purge of

out

of

of

the

fish

character

licentiousness,

the

finally

distinguished.

that the

purification the

beggar

over

loathsome

the

is

and

the

and

the

they

in

plague

of

offscourings’

in

but

the

community,

mentioned.

women’;

man

then him

form

then

entire

just

of

the the

fury Vegetation

the

the

in

with field

the a

sacred

the

his

in

sea

provided

simply

chased

a

condemned

or

may

too

by

up

called

creature

the

was

clad

people

spite

door

Old

able

similar

and

is

born

early

scapegoat of

appears

corpse.

was

over

blood,

for

and

potsherds population

of

again.

connected

were

outsider;

this

they

most

well

vestments,

as

offered

Testament

in

the

a

of away.

the

to

in

Poseidon,

of

a

The

the

Figs 8

raging

the summer,

to

the

matter a

with

(peripsema).

of

drama.

his

breath

rags:

designate despair,

Spirit

tradition the

to

includes

are

be

pure.

prerequisite

in Another

driven

The

ritual

the

one

ominous

city;

Massalia—Marseilles 7 ’

cliffs,

criminal

encircling,

be

out

pleas

From

pure

a

the form

are

wings

on

draped

everyone

flesh

driven

wiped in

possibly

in

this

in

of

aggression

into

have

this

he

of

doubly

in

a

earlier

The

in

with

is

never

as

offscourings

Ephesus,

for

the

out

all

lonia

and

of

has

disturbing

the

report 73

a

their

was

order

was

to

the

of

exceptional well

sense

the In

is

was

a

the

off

golden

out

mercy, with

same tended

theatre,

lighten

the

cliffs

the

with

the

of

which

costly

long

slave. 74

historical

famous,

to

Chaironeia, led

feels

desert;

form.

contrasted

all

the

and

as

pure

political

plunged

be

the

to

sense

return.

first

figs

victim;

of

excited

by

around,peripsema. speaks

around

drama,

of

the

PHARMAKOS

first been

stones.

be

plague

was

age

Attica

relieved

food

new

is

the

members

his

to

individual,

which

That the Leukas 72

then

and

fruit

this

also

rid

of miracle

though

situations

brought

stoned

obscure

from

leap

report

recognized.

into

murders

certainty

word.

resorted

beginning.

they

for

of

the

by

to

led

the

has of

well-nigh

suddenly

the

with

found

offerings

daimon.

On

Hunger,

must

a

normal

and

a

all

gifts the

by

fear

which

young

out

whole

of

in

given

point

Attic

until

itself year,

from

man

The

into

dire

is

evil

the

the the

the sea

the

be

an

as

in

83

of as

of

of

to

is a 84 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 5. II 5.1 TEMENOS 85 the whole complex the usual name of scapegoat 79ritual. In Greece there are a groves with their rustling leaves, singing birds, and murmuring brooks. Yet number of instances of an ox being driven out, either towards enemies on cult is not a response to the experience of the landscape. If ever3 a the breath it misfortune, or else across the boundary. Comparable rituaLs betrays some spot as whom brings of divinity the sphere of higher4 beings, then this is are attested in the Near East. by the institutionalized cult. 5 8 8 evoked To expel a trouble-maker is an elementary° group reflex; perhaps in the as the rites frequently give form to the ’ Just opposition between indoors and most distant background there is also the situation of the pack surrounded by outdoors, so in relation to the township there are centrally and peripherally beasts of prey: only if one member, preferably a marginal, weak, or sick placed sanctuaries. The former crown the high fortress — the Acropolis — or member, falls victim to the beasts can the others escape. The outcast is then border On the market place — the Agora; the latter seek out mountain heights also the saviour to whom all are most deeply indebted. or else swamps and marshland, limne. In particular there is an Artemis The Greek description as katharmosmakes the process seem unequivocal, Limnatisand a Dionysos en1imnais.’Here in the marshes the ancient practice as if it were merely dirt which is eradicated; myth, however, points to the of sacrifice by sinking or drowning has doubtless left its trace while the provocative ambivalence. It may even be the king who becomes the outcast: climbing up, the leading up of victims to the mountain can call on an equally King Kodros of Athens has himself killed by the enemy while dressed as a impressive tradition. The sanctuaries, however, were often placed not on the beggar; there is the wandering King Oedipus; King Thoas of Lemnos is very summit but on a protected 7col. The divine names are not confined to 8cast out to sea in a chest at the revolt of the women, the great katharrnos. specific functions. There is Apollo in the market place, as well as in ’ 8 8 the Alternatively, the group member handed over to the enemy, pelted,84 and lonely mountains of Bassae; there are peak cults of Zeus, but equally Hera killed is a particularly beautiful, chosen maiden, such as Polykriteof Naxos, Akraia or Aphrodite on Acrocorinth. The goddess of the citadel is pre who is honoured with sacrifices at the Thargelia festival. The expulsion of eminently Athena; outside the city on a hill there often lies a sanctuary of adolescents, as in the case of the Lokrian maiden tribute8 to Athena of Ilion, Demeter, which enters into a certain polarity with the everyday life of the which is described as propitiation for the sacrilege of Ajax the Lokrian, may, 9city. of course, also be part of an initiation ritual in which the purifying separation The sacred site must he marked unmistakably, but natural features are leads on to a reincorporation which allows the old order to continue. In the seldom appropriated for this purpose. Grottos and caves play only a foundation sagas of a number of colonies it is related that the first settlers had marginal role; the most striking is the mystery cult in the Ida cave.” The been dedicated as tithes to the god at Delphi and so had been sent abroad; wild rocky gorge at Lebadeia with its many springs undoubtedly lent features the driving out, a kind of versacrum,is here interpreted as a first fruit offering to the subterranean Trophonios cult;” there are also sanctuaries which are instead of as a katharmos; in other foundation sagas it is again outsiders, located at hot springs.” The simple marking with rock and tree is usually bastards, and slaves,8 who are driven out and find a new beginning in the sufficient. At the centre of the Eleusinian sanctuary stood an unhewn rock foreign 88land. that was always left open to 3view;’ the sanctuary of the Olympian Earth in Athens encompassed a natural cleft in the 4rock.’ Nevertheless, stones are also set up, unwrought stones (argoi litIwi);’5in Delphi the stone worked in 5 THE SANCTUARY the characteristic form of the navel was regarded as the centre not only of the sanctuary, but also of the world: the two eagles which Zeus released from the 5.1 Temenos furthermost West and the furthermost East met at this 6spot.’ The tree, however, is even more important than the stone in marking the The cult of the Greeks is almost always defined locally: the places of worship’ sanctuary, and this corresponds not only to Minoan—Mycenaean but also to are fixed in ancient tradition and cannot be moved lightly. Sanctuaries are Near Eastern tradition.’ The shade-giving tree epitomizes both beauty and often preserved and tended through catastrophes, revolution, and changes in continuity across7 the generations. Most sanctuaries have their special tree. population. The Temple of Apollo continued to tower over Corinth long after In Athens the carefully tended olive tree stands on the Acropolis in the the city had been destroyed by the Romans, and even today a number of its sanctuary of the Dew Goddess, Pandrosos; that it immediately broke into leaf columns are still standing. Even Christians followed tradition, erecting again after the Persians had burned down the temple in 480 was a vivid chapels in place of sanctuaries or transforming temples into churches; the assertion of the unbroken vital force of Athens.’ In the Hera sanctuary on cathedral of Syracuse incorporates the Athena Temple from the fifth century. Samos the willow tree (lygos)remained always8 at the same spot and was even Modern experience of a Greek sanctuary is indissolubly fused with Greek incorporated into the great 9altar.’ On Delos the palm tree was shown landscape.’ Something of this even touched the ancients: they speak of the against which Leto had leaned at the birth of the twin gods Artemis and towering heights, the rocky cliffs of Delphi, and the sweet charm of sacred Apollo; Odysseus can compare Nausikaa’s virgin beauty with nothing more 86 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 5.1 II 5.2 ALTAR 87 water basins only what is pure is admitted. fitting than this Delian palm. In Didyma” there stood the laurel tree of the 39 Hence within the sanctuary is 2 , everything forbidden which would produce a miasma— sexual intercourse, Apollo; in Olympia it was° a wild olive tree (kotinos) whose twigs were used to and death. As time went on, wreathe the 22victors. Particularly old and sacred was the oak (phegos)of birth, the scruples if anything increased: Delos Dodona which imparted the oracle with the rustling of its 23branches. was purified twice, under Pisistratus and again in the year 426/5;4° first, were removed from The tree is closely associated with the goddess. The carved image of graves the area which could be seen from the sanctuary, the whole island; Athena in Athens is made of olive wood and the image of Hera in Tiryns is then from pregnant women and the dying were transferred 24 neighbouring island made of wild-pear 25wood. Coins from Gortyn2 and from Myra in Asia to the of Rhenia. Pausanias the Spartiate, who had been 6 left in the sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos to starve, was dragged Out still 27Minor show a goddess sitting in a tree: the former depicts Europa, who is approached by Zeus in the shape of an eagle, and the latter shows Artemis alive, although this also violated the asylum of the sanctuary. Admittedly, Eleuthera. Nonetheless, dark myths which tell of the goddess or the maidens the taboos of the sacred are essentially ambivalent4 here too: the god can marriage in her service being hanged on the tree2S are a warning against taking the tree celebrate in the sanctuary, Apollo and Artemis’ were born on Delos, cult simply as a precursor of the goddess cult. Offerings have been hung on and sacrificial victims forever bleed to death at the altar. Frequently a site of trees from time immemorial: animal skins by age-old hunting custom, and sacrifice is interpreted as the grave of a hero whose grisly death in the is then also discs, oscilla, which move in the wind; for mythological fantasy or sanctuary recounted in 42myth. In order to make way for the gods, are out of the tradition these are hanging sacrifices. Thus it may also be said that a who ordinary in the most eminent sense, all that is exceptional Dionysos idol is made from the wood of the pine tree on which Pentheus met in the life of men must remain excluded. his 29death. Often a tract of woodland belongs to the sanctuary, a grove, alsos, 5.2 Altar called allis in Olympia, either constituting the sanctuary itself or lying immediately adjacent. The name feeding place points to its practical The temenosis set apart for the sacred work, for sacrifice; its most essential more function as a3 grazing area for the pack animals and mounts of the element, essential than the cult stone, tree, and spring, is the altar, ° bomos,on which the fire is kindled. ‘Temenos and participants at the festival, though this in no way precludes a certain feeling 43 fragrant altar’ of the god already a Homeric for nature, especially as the grove is reserved for sacral use. is 44formula. There are natural rock altars; altar and cult stone are then identical. In simple rustic shrines a few4 More important still is water for drinking and for watering the animals as stones roughly set well as for the special purity of the cult. Many sanctuaries have their own together may serve as an 6altar. In a number of large and important springs and fountains, especially the Demeter sanctuaries; but in Didyma sanctuaries the remains of ash and bone are allowed to grow up into great too there is a well near the altar; from the Alea temple in 33Tegea a3separate mounds; even at Olympia this and nothing else was the Altar of 47Zeus. The 3 normal Greek altar, however, is well built, door leads down to the fountain; the Heraion of Argos has its brook at least at constructed of bricks and white ’ washed with lime or else fitted together from carefully the foot of the 34hill. In Delphi, the water of the Kassotis spring flows into the hewn stone blocks. Apollo sanctuary itself while the much more powerful and more famous Not infrequently the sides are decorated with volutes. In between lies the Castalian spring gushes from the rocky gorge 35nearby. On the Acropolis in metal tablet on which the fire burns. Large altars have one or more steps Athens, the most important mark of the cult apart from the olive tree was the built to one side, which the priest can mount to lay the consecrated portions ‘sea’, a little pool of salt water in a hollow in the rock; though incorporated on the fire and to pour the libation. into the north hall of the Erechtheion, it had always to remain open to the According to literary sources, the celebrants stand around the altar; the 6sky. Here it is the symbolism of the deep which is important, rather than water vessel is carried around everyone in a circle at the beginning. In many any practical use. sanctuaries, however, the altar stands so close to the temenoswall that an The Greek sanctuary, however, is properly constituted only through the irregular semicircle is the only conceivable arrangement. The temple façade demarcation which sets it apart from the profane (bebelon).The land cut off then, as a rule, forms the background. The entrance to the temenosusually and dedicated to the god or hero is known by the ancient term which really leads directly into the cult area in front of8 the altar. In a number of cases signifies any domain at all, temenos. Even when a river or the all-seeing sun there is theatre-like terracing which could make the ceremonies visible to a 37 greater god Helios is worshipped, he receives his well-defined temenos. The number of 49people. The boundary is marked by boundary stones which are often inscribed,8 or else by altar is ceremonially set up when the first sacrifice is performed; this act a massive stone wall, usually about the height of a man. Mostly only one is often attributed in myth to some hero, to a king of ancient times, or to entrance is allowed; there the water basins for purification are set up. Within Heracles. Thereafter, the position of the altar remains fixed, whatever other 88

alterations were final,

sacrificial another.

raised hero each

Greek

architecture building religion, sanctuaries

anthropomorphic temple. overlap

worship important cult

Europeans house

exception Egypt

there anything vidual Mycenaean goddesses, groups;

the

place where end The

Odysseus betakes for Trojan

A

Greeks

The

RITUAL

temenos

able the image

sanctuary. and

may

monumental of

are

stone culture

Phaeacian of

(neos)

and

Leto

temples the

Homeric

slaughter with The

Frequent women

there

of

the

the herself god to of

sites,

the

have specific

may

themselves

of

gods and

wish

Geometric need

the

distinguish Mesopotamia AND are

are used

altar, temples,

and

and

cult

of

civilization

Israel

temple

temple

the

(usually are

as

is

affect

gods

several

his a older

temple

set

and,

organize

not of

to a

to SANCTUARY not

Artemis

art

statue

no history particular

in poems,

be

of

is

city whole corresponding

cult

form

own set

the

up — Athens

found

the this

the was

the images be

at ascertained

the is was than

by

not

female) later

period.

up

in

down

altars,

image.

Mycenaean seven

has had least

the

reserved

unique

separate at

antithesis god’s

i:j.

the sanctuary. way has

occupies of

without

tend

a

sanctuaries. on

a

and of

by

their

its

the

procession

and

the proposed dwelling

temple long

god,

its West

of

in

been

into palaces,

the

different

directly no fulfilment.

Apollo

Temple which

his statuettes

cattle.6

was

The hands

the

the

cult

development

temples,

enters

temples

for been

about

contrary,

and means

temenos.5’

Classical to

images.53

wounds

termed

Semitic

of a

late taken

gods.

to

period, beginnings In statue

a

one

special

then

and offering

transports place,

of

this

associated the Chthonic the Helios

amphitheatres, states of But

When

the

the

their phase,

Rhoikos

of

god

given and But supplication

Cult

over

of On

centre a

in

stand

corresponds theory

Heraion which peoples.

these Neolithic

times.

‘close know

In temple

Zeus

naos,

of

the

position.55

meaning

gods, alone, from

a

in of and

pit

Image

the

by

fact, statuettes,

the number

as

of

the the

Aeneas

adton.

and in

of

statuettes

or

with represents

about

and

the of built It

that the

other

to

a temple the

altar

worship

culture,52 a

on

Before

ground in but

sixth and

images

is

the furnish

matter

tradition,

an defined

Hittites

temple

to

possible or Poseidon,

point

each Samos

many or

the

to

In house

always

may Here 55o.°

before

to hand,

Olympian

the

deity;

use.54

the

book

mostly

baths, the

the

building

and

his

pure

usually

in level

of other;

the

of

temple

it of

for

include places

relation

the as

situation

Odyssej, companions

of there

and

the

temple

the

view it richly

that

the but of disdained The

alongside

it

course;

god

it

and

the

received Erechtheus’, did

hearth statuettes

that excavators

the

houses

religions

was

gods. — otherwise

rarely

temple

sacrifice; appear

the

of

therefore

Minoan— of the

as

are

with

dwelling

II

without

several

Iliad to

earliest

in

to

Athena

Athena

Greek Greek

in lord

Indo.

at

most

most

atone

and Troy indi

one 5.3

the

this

can the the

its

the

the

the

as

of

in

of

of

of

Boo stone Apollo

the shoe

the simply was lingered, a which fire

enclosed, towards probably house, following surrounded examples federal

banquets; hearth called

bronze on ance

oblong the niegaron Corresponding fond

cult slaughtering, heirlooms, ceremony.

without Hera, (hidyein).59 in temples presupposed:57 II to

wooden

The

For

bay

particular Crete. fact

site, and

lay regarded most

5.3

shaped

image

building

of

was

is

Daphnephoros,66

cult

by

but

temple

bearing

prehis Athena,

house sanctuary dedicated

which

building

stands

it; using the a

however,

follow

given

temple

important again dating

image

period

a

In of

of

robe

found,

the

an

when, is

images;

Connections

plank

altar,

wooden

statuettes

Foundation by

the

a

called

as tory

form the

of

elongated temple.

the and

represent

altar

fire,

in

in by

in columned later.

cult a to

probably

on

the Artemis.6

Apollo,

and

from is

Dreros

with

stands

to honour

the

(sanis),just the ring of

word

but Mycenaean of

of

image,just this a

in

the

of

dates hedos her Athena nevertheless,

examples structure, image

a

those

the

an statuette

the

cult

Nevertheless,

temple.

North eighth

as an

the The

installation

sacral there

in of

of

earlier

perhaps bretas

temple knees,

Apollo,

rectangular Aetolians,

in

with

temple Artemis,

early

as offerings

entrance of dating

back image.

the wooden

very

temple.6 gods,

and

The eighth

the

elongated

temple

that

this

Syrian/Late

century,

were

An as

eighth

which Hittite—Anatoljan

are

as

meal,

was from

as

stage

open into

gods

temple royal

a

a

particular

god.

on

has

from which

as Leto,

for

entirely

and

cult the

cooking

at

seated

and in erected are columns,

on

also

century, at

a

a the

the were

the the

air Earlier when who

many Perachora

must

building

Quite ct1tury

tabernacle, and

number

the

ninth by

Gortyn6

palaces the

bench

apsidal

the

pots

and belong

buried has island

tenth

opposite

then

altar,

unique

seventh

a

probably

Heraion

Hittite are

eighth

different

image

narrow

and ring

libations

in the

be

type

strands.

an Artemis.62

different

century.

with

still

of

there a

also the century.

Demeter;58

is

of of of

with there

together.

goddess

immovable TEMPLE

buildings

beneath has

which

of

eating

Minoan—Mycenaean

near

and

building

the

sanctuaries

figures

Ikaros century, foreign

eighth the Century. tradition. tradition

a

of

and

wooden

represented

on

offerings

side

kind

bay

also

a arose

often is

The

hearth

the

again

role

temple

always

Corinth6’ This

central

Samos64 was

a

Hera’s

also

Perhaps

truly

had

hut AND

and

a

ceremonial The century

of

houses

the

origin.6° made

goddess

connection in

of

rude some

Poseidon

one

constructed of

columns.

The building seat;

been

building,

is are

corresponding

been took It

house

the

Thermos, a

which

CULT

walls

always early

decisive of

the

row

accompany

cult this

encloses

central —

of

by

piece

probable.

and

of

impression

memory

these

for poets

image

food;

at

not

rectangular

place emphasized.

represented

the

cult

of

is

image

temples

hammered IMAGE

temple, —

Eretria

opens kind

sacrificial

setting

was

at

and

Here

remained

columns a a

of

with

certainly

precious

appear

may

earliest

are

for

hearth;

statues:

hearth horse

Dreros

about

animal

led

in

in not

wood

then

was still Zeus

was

The out

also

the

the

the the

the

the

to to

to

are

of be an

up a

89 I II r 11 5.3 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY TEMPLE 90 5.3 AND CULT IMAGE 91 altar was added shortly afterwards and its outstretched right hand held cult image but an offering pit; a large statuettes of the three Charities; the somewhat further down the hillside, and an almost life-size stone figure of a image was overlaid with gold. The subsequent development seated goddess was set up nearby. is a commonplace in all histories of architec been produced in the dark age, but ture and art. After the invention of the Images of gods do not seem to have roof tile, the familiar normal type of Minoan—Mycenaean figurines remained to hand and Greek temple develops in the seventh were used nonetheless. century, everywhere replacing the In the temple on Keos, diverse earlier, primitive structures: were employed as foundation offerings as late as 700. a platform raised in three steps supports Middle Minoan statue had clearly been set up as a cult a rectangular stone building with a gently the head of a large sloping gable roof, preferably one hundred feet long (hekatompedos) image. In Olympia, too, there was discovered a very modest little . Not without Egyptian influence, the 68 orders are perfected, the lonian column Mycenacan figure which had been deposited or lost there at some very much in Asia Minor and the Doric in Corinth. From the sixth Argos and later date. In addition, a considerable number of small bronze statuettes of century on, we find a universal acceptance 6 fixed conventions for columns, of those clearly also found their way to Greece, entablature, a Warrior god of Syrian—Hittite origin frieze, and pediment which were threateningly brandished spear. The possible role to dominate the architecture of the with helmet, shield, and Mediterranean for more than seven 7 hundred years. The centre of the of wooden figures quite eludes our grasp. Nonetheless,° xoanon,carved figure, temple is the naosproper, in Latin, the celia, is word for There are a number of pointers towards the where the cult image is set up on a pedestal; the usual statuette. the furnishings include a table of use of small, movable figures in the cult. In Patrai, an image of Dionysos is offerings, incense stands, and occasionally an 7 ever-burning lamp; the room is lit by the great, high doorway kept in a chest and produced’ only once a year for the nocturnal festival, for which faces towards the east. A adjoins the porch often the sight of the image brings madness; the priestess of Ortheia in Sparta door opening. Occasionally a door leads inner room behind the celiainto an wears the image of the cruel goddess on her arm during the bloody which only a few may enter, an adyton. With the rise spectacle; in Aigion the priest of Zeus and the priest of Heracles each keep a of large-scale marble sculpture8 in the the discovery ’ seventh century, and 72 of their god in their own homes. The gods which Aeneas hollow casting in bronze bronze statuette of 73 in the sixth century, the creation of are imagined as small figures in a closed container, like statues of the gods becomes the most brought from Troy elevated task of plastic art. The cult the head of a household still possessed very much later, Ovid images were generally already in existence those that 74 and could not be replaced; the famous archaic and classical works describes how in the cave of the Mother Goddess numerous wooden images are almost all votive gifts. Still new temples to be built 82 there are of the gods are to be seen. All this may in principle be older than the setting and new images to be consecrated. 75 century the chryselephantine In the fifth up of cult images in temples. As a separate tradition there is the undoubtedly image appears in place of the as the highest display wooden statues ancient custom of erecting wooden phalloi or ithyphallic figures as apotro of artistic splendour: around a wooden are worked in core, the robes paic markers, forerunners of the herms. pure gold and the flesh is worked in architecture ivory. Just as temple In the eighth century, images6of gods in clay and bronze begin to be attained its acme and a certain finality in the Temple of the in typical gesture of Minoan— Olympian Zeus (about 460) and in produced once more, some the epiphany the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis Mycenaean tradition, and others in the now particularly popular Warrior (consecrated in 438), so, in the judgernent chryselephantin of the ancients, the two style. The unique pillar-shaped cult image of Apollo at Amyklai with helmet images by Pheidias, the Athena Parthenos and the Zeus of on the Acropolis and spear also seems indebted to this latter type, and its influence continues Olympia, were the culmination of all Greek 77 Pheidias’ Zeus religious art. to be felt in the large-scale sculptures of powerful, war-like gods: Athena with in particular set its seal on the artistic gods for centuries; representation of the the lance, Zeus with the thunderbolt, and finally the magnificent god from even a Roman general was awestruck However much by its majesty. Artemision. the picture of Greek religion was thereafter temple and the defined8 by the statue of The surviving images are almost exclusively small votive figures from the god, for the living cult they were more a side-show than and remained sanctuaries; the true cult images were xoana, carved from wood. Besides the a centre. The sacredness of the ancient course, extolled, and xoana was, of standing image such as the image of Hera on Samos, another principal type often it was said that they had fallen Palladion in particular from heaveri; a is the image of the seated goddess — a type which ultimately goes back to was a possession to be cherished it was greatly, even84 though never çatal Hüyük. A seated goddess is portrayed in the image of Hera of Tiryns, a pledge of divine nearness as in rites Rome. There are no magical which was later housed in the Argive Heraion and regarded as one of the to give life to the cult image as in Babylon. famous The statues which were oldest images in existence; the ancient image of Athena Polias in Athens were the work of artists who were for 85known by name; these were famed their was also and the same type is presupposed in the sixth book of the beauty as agalmata,glorious 79seated, 8 gifts in which the gods must also delight. Philosophers Iliad. The much larger than life-size cult image of Apollo on Delos which was from Heraclitus onwards with warned against confusing the image in sixth century achieved wide renown: its left hand held a bow the god, ‘as if they were to try made the °8 and converse with houses’; nevertheless, 92

one

and deity.86 decked dressed. great have which image and are Ares:9° uncanny order, licence,

eyes in, the temple

circled around cent within the the the The of Peloponnesian

accumulate traces: the rows, kind sacrifice Palaeolithic which the dedicated

constructed

During

However

altars

withdrawing

purification

can

participants;

world; this RITUAL

stereotype

animals Acropolis construction

return

of

background;

sacred

encircled

Panathenaic

was

play

there

later

So

was

opens they out the

As in here

human

say

which

the was

Such

breaking

are

of

the

too the

found

a

deity;

to

it

a in

viewed

in of

set

spot AND

are

altar await sites much differing

the

hunted; at hunters,

from matter

major

dismisses

placed out

sacred

Artemis

shade

in

the

prayer,

attention

the

must

cost relief

the

War.92

up

fettered processions

proportions: the

reason

him

Greek arises SANCTUARY

in of

they

but

to

of

and

it

festal

procession

the

goat

Samian

skill

with up

Parthenon

in

fire,

role

the the

Dreros,

stands

same

of

decoration of then

a

work

on

it

from in

types

moreover, the

look ‘Thy

abandoned

of

temple;

and Greek

the

spontaneously

fact, is

him

for east.9’

sanctuaries and

astonishment images horns. city there

rite, the in

display;93

was

order.

not

lead

Erechtheion.88

place

of

the

entering

column-borne the

giving towards

Hera;

Apollo

image,

and such

shrines as

and

the craftsmanship

of

sacrifice

it

bestowed immortalized

the

the

stains

temple,

So

in

5.4

world. Ancient

back

it built

was

of Athens

on

As

suppliant functions.

the Furthermore,

deposited

on

the as order

welcomed inner

strength entire gods,

and

bucrania

altars

0

goat

such

Anathemata

the

the

of an of those

skulls presented

to

Delos

as pious great

at

goddess’,

The

as

as

blood the

catal

perilous

the

space

Near

to

antithesis,

temple;8

primarily

no a east

especially

the

horns

one

Periclean

the

and Processions

a

entablature, for

façade,

take

from scale festival

man

behind did established the ash

bones

more Where moving on

of

altar him.

with

and

and of sacred

Hüyuk

East

of the

sacral

the the

with

great accumulate;

go the

the

the

without

altars

stands

unchaining the

the

and

oil

pray the Palladion

the

than

garlands and

the — on

of

Parthenon up

highest is the

an

wonders

ash,

locks

robe

building

temple

of

acts a

buildings. are on

victims

Artemis,

bull

image

enacted

Horn temple

expenditure

with

the

new to

temple, expression

man are raised

to

as provides the

order.

did

the

an equating

charcoal,

leave

to

the

of

the it

skulls

ancient

formed.

quality

stone immovable images robe

which exception.

Altar were who or

therefore

was two the

of in

hair

a

of is

image

sky, programme up

in frieze

Dionysos,

the deposit

the behind

which

the

In at

the

very

are

cleaned

the the

years looks

(peplos) —

the

beneath

shorn

image the of just

sanctuaries of

draws

world, abduction xoanii;

and

were rudiments festival

of went

hunt Even

can

set

to open magnifi

Artemis,

binding skulls

ancient

II

back become

gods

can

lasting There out

as

of

of

pray,

bones is

up

at

only

and and kept and

and him

into 5.4

the

and was

the

this the

the

the

air an

on

on be

of an of

in —

of

I

r

and frequented Gyges

ostentation. sanctuary. Children at give discharged dedicated.o2 sanctuary those later sacrifice. appear. god fourth

the especially

influence. Orientalizing In metal, boiling sacrificial all industry object place:

state, take may relationship

and century set

at (anatithenai) distinctiveness

initiation turning

J

The

To

One

Olympia

From

this sacrifice

tripods.

dark

up Croesus

5.4

lasting or

many

the grant

by

who

what

of

the pious

bronze century

set

group became

his

Olympia

in

Gods the

onwards,

Lydia

from

age.

certain

most

in such The point

the up

act: in donor

Animal sanctuaries

have

ritual,

this

temple

forms.

him

devotees

extent meat

One devotional

expression

cannot The

Large clearly

act to

similarly

acts

of which

Cult

ox can

and of

the votive

beginnings, vessels representative

onwards, was

griffin

the

way,

of

in occasion

the

been

anathemata

Lydia of figures

creates expects characteristic

tripod

led

or

and

Hearth as

be

primarily terracotta

Valuables

the duties,

scenes

figures deity,

statues the life,

dedication

always

simply

underwent

most

a they

indeed

recognized figures

anathema,6

is

the

connected

of sacred

are sign,

at

have small

objects

cauldron — to

often which

will

cauldron,

all one’s on

to

the

a the way;

in

such are

are

the

the representative

this

in should

known

the be

gracious

a

set

kinds, Eleusis,”'

in

large anything

in

figurines,

need

principal

can also

the limestone,

same

substitute is anthropomorphic

often

most

document

very

placed;

returned

proverbial appear

is

connection

memorial,

from developed bond,

as early

up custom

an

to

attributes;

in

is

with

thereby

be

right

the elaborate

not

which also to remain

be

another

which unprecedented

roasting

early

a efficacious

depicted

time difficult

understood

about gift

times

the

lasting,

upheld,

Arrhephoroi particularly

the with

left

or

statuettes form be or

be of

to

to model,

marble

Greeks had of

times in

a

priests

votive

strictly transformed

at god was

mnema. setting

Croesus with

behind

showed

profane seen are

at

painting

a

set

gift

700, men

official

return,

of

spits,

votive

to

on

an

certain

considerable

visible

then

the

expression testimonies

in garments

used

by

the

a up decide;’°’ in

or votive

in

early

votive

as

and the through

gift

often

sign of

a

related

The up

sacrificial

at the

the

expansion sacred

bronze boys

votive

the

on use. reliefs.”0 giving

piety. the

a

— special

even

on

Urartian/North

other

as

continuity dominant

priestesses.

a

of

gift: things

date.

epiphany of secured

bronze

future.

the

anathemata tablets,

into clay

implements

cultically

context

figures

carry

a

Greek and

the

and

if

his

for

cooking offering.

to

As

both may

Acropolis permanence

to

spot.95

a ANATHEMATA

gods

intrinsic

only way

or

an

sign,

in

axes,

the

witness

gold a private

girls

metal.

the from

an

statue wood;

glorious

and,

even represent be

act

form

sanctuaries,8 even the

of The

undoubtedly

gesture,

and

can

deity that

The

accentuated

animal inscriptions

can

in

And

erected

who and

sacrifice,9 utensil

The

of

the

sanctuary

of employed

Since

from

value

devotion

Delphi, and gifts

through

greater quite was

wish also

to

victors

the

in

public

take

Syrian

much of

eighth above

past.

to object

have

if

one’s

and

the

the

the

god

the

the

can the for

the

by the

be for

the to

an

its

as

93 94

renown.’04

erect

already to might

As became up. to the chronicle; riches melted votive forests many still Characteristic

sacred erected Didyma sixth shelter in and sacrifices image man of

sacrificial very normal gradually is in The agalma. intervening instance product foundations.

Within

a

Votive

the

Priestly The therefore

Olympia

stories reciprocal

purity

The

principal

RITUAL

god;

write

are

symmetrical

his

near can

century

be

a delight

gifts

and naturally

of

down

spoken

from

precinct.

once

layout,

quite

later

temple worthless

followed

Only to

of dedicated.’°5

in

monument

a

statues

gifts take

an

Changeable

which of the

by, banquets,

over admit dwellings attach

temple

relatively from

commemorate

Hellenistic AND

no

turn

and

sacral

thousands

again

sun for

individual,

tyrant

separate

assets

overwhelmed

A of

anagraph relation.

especially

are

pride

of

are

real

the

the

which

especially

Phocian modern harmonious

the SANCTUARY

Delphi;

attracted by votaries

were

and The

a

no

suit

layout

long, to

are

trinkets

a

in

area

centuries,

architectural

gift

Homer,

relationship

financed

of

in Trojan

in

stimulus hestiatoria,”

remarkable short

in

normal

the

rain reproduced.

shortly

as

serves treasure

later

earliest

Each

everything; architects the the

open of

of

is

to

Olympia

after of

archaeologists; the

these mercenaries

constructed

Heraion

multiply

statues

of

defined a

Lindos period

were

and

sanctuary

temples, rapacious

the

temple

with

made

War

but

sea

fortune

colonnades,

building,

solely relationship

the

himself

with human afterwards)°8

the

to

themselves

houses,

and

god, also

all

buried battle,

plan, further

votive

are gradually

objects, between

ancient

of designing hearth in

on by

is

functionally and The

constant

other

all and

in

as

colonnades,

of encourage exemplary time

preserved Delphi.’07

part

frequently

Samos

itself Roman by

during

for

attention.

life.

are a the

war no

especially

thesauroi,

god

a

Delphi.

from

careful gifts.

dwelling

the

the

weapons

building

stoai, house

the ship’s

its

strict

and

between the

of

agalmatai°9

are

votive

are

was,

the

On

will became

The

great

rebuilding

as most

same

the

own popular

the time

art

Priests

usually temple in

the

important

in

early and

him

organization temple

the temple

beak delight account

structure erected the

begin

Shields

stairways

colonnades Sacred

The

the

collectors,

aparche

each inscription.b06

place

representations,

could

temple valuable activity

exception;”° sake to

method.

the

victor

to a

other

to

as

shape

time

or

supervised

sanctuaries

matter

at

gold inventory

to

some

temple, linger had

and

individual in

the for

and and within

also

War even

the in

of

be

or

complexes

everything, always

sanctuaries,

of and in

hand, in

the

seventh gifts

given Clearings of

of them additions. sanctuaries set

but boundary dekate.

extent be

offer

beautiful of

the altar of

(356—346) the an

this

awhile.

small

Croesus altars

the

deity. up, is

the surrendered the

course. To

Pliny

constituted

entire

the becomes

sanctuary,

hastens

sanctuary.

inevitably houses

in way

was

the

kind

parts

so

temenos

buildings above

demands

constant. with Like

produce

century;

temples II

the

for setting

was

just

visitor

In

in divine

could There of

to

kept.

as

arose

ship

The

was and 5.4

was

are

new first

of

the

the

the the

the

the the for to

all

an

as or

a

a

I r

just

Athena

No general

required

human To

make

with sixth

Panathenaia a

Mysteries, religious archon Athens In the

council, The libation. assumes

is acquired sacrifice means,

men, the strangers

community; respects

hierarchy, priestly but

Greek

Archaic

precisely sanctuary

II Various

The

spectacular

At

one

Athens,

ensure easily

one

kings Persians

the

sacrificer

6

only

century.

the

every

are

sanctuary is

use,

Polias;

status,

religion —

is

caretaker, administration

including —

caste the

ceremonies,

a Prerequisite

can

annual

the learned or of

the

officials

and

usage,

and

that all

in

priest elected

the the

have

unless

and alongside

was

the major

the and

elected

its

be

must

important leadership,

At nomos, for

as

is

several

role

but

citizens,

priest,

everything Lenaia,

Classical

even

might

specialist

performed seeming army nonetheless

the

a

as the sacrifice

Olympia,

special nomos.

is

for

through

this

closed

function housewives

for service neokoros.

cultic

call

such, to

head

the

Dionysia, chief

in

that

the conducting

for

the

priesthoods

hiereus, almost general.

play.

one

of the

very slaves

and on

The

property

at benefit this

group

irregularity.

times; but archon, of

responsibility occasion

the of

who arts

magistrate is,

of is

permanently

imitation a

by

the

as year.

To

times.

the

a

the

achieved

The

done

god

role

Magus one reason,

Elean

the

be as or

and

ram

anyone

of precinct and

the

Where

organization

with

begins, organize

house,

of

the called

long the Anthesteris

‘all

the Priest

6

is

in specific

The

there

of

archon,

can,

major

the freemen,

in Herodotus

to there

slaves.

state: a

fixed

traditional

principle

for PRIESTS the vitality priestess, seer

and

certain

proper

of

of Pelops

sanctuary

by who as

there

family,

king

of a

governors.

of

speaks is

established

every for

the

festivals

god; religion

the

must,

course,

the he the

simply tradition,

course, god

Apollo

also participation;

The

on

is

children

is

of

city

is

intercourse

order, authority

in is sacrifices,

city of —

possessed

builders

records or

admits in

the

still

sacrifice;2 the

a

hureia.

the

sacrifices’, responsible

the

tradition

in of

willing the

and this

king,

village, —

one through

without Pythios

magistrates that

be

role

temenos

course,

There

cult which other

a

known

education,

cults

prayer, a Pelopion.6

united and

the

kingship,

sacral

particular

responsible

were anyone,

Basileus, with

and

and

distinctions

Priesthood

is

of

from

to

sacrificial

the

much

there

among

adults, or

of with hand,

priests:’

will closely

observation.3

his

is

the

in

be

as

fit

economic

architects

organized

amazement in

for

the rites

and

president architecture

removed

particular,

elected

the

wife

the

desire

someone

generally into

is initiation,

one

as as

who

the

can

Priestess

the

PRIESTS

directs

sanctuary.

no

the women

associated

makes and

in purchase

long

official

archon

there

festivals.

person.

is

also

the

disciplina,

sacred.4

even

like

between

ancient

Sparta,

and Greeks,

in

power.

not

in even

myths

of

from

as

Elis

who

local

is

has

the that the

the

be

the and

the and the

of

the

is

lies a in be

no he

95

in 96 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY 116 116 PRIESTS 97 animals to the sale of the skins, sacrifice executors, hieropoioi,are well. With progressing of the rationalization, fixed charges are set and levied along appointed; and more important still are state commissions to oversee the with the victim; once these are fixed in cash, the sanctuary receives a finances of the sanctuaries, epimeletai,hierotami.az.The priest rarely lives in collection box, thesauros,with a slot for coins.’ The begging procession of the the sanctuary, but he is expected to be conscious of his responsibilities; in one priest is an exception in Greece, 7 8 but belongs in an ancient tradition.’ inscription specifies that the priest be present in the sanctuary at The temples in the Near case an East, from the very beginning of high civilization, can be performed without 8 ten days a month. If necessary, the sacrifice a were economic concerns least Supporting a large body of priests. Scarcely anything comparable exists priest. in Greece, although parallels deriving from 9 hereditary in certain ancient families which owe their Eastern traditions Priesthoods are often can certainly be found in Asia Minor. Delphi is an status not least to this prerogative. In Athens it is the Eteoboutadai who exception: situated in craggy isolation on the steep hillside, it is simply provide both the priest of Erechtheus—Poseidon and the Priestess of Athena unable to support a peasant community of any size. In the Hjmn toApollo,the Polias, so administering the central cults on the Acropolis. Their eponymous Cretans whom the god has led to Pytho as his priests enquire: ‘And how shall ancestor Boutes — whose name points to the sacrifice of oxen — was, they say, we now live?’ Smilingly the god comforts them: ‘Each man shall carry a knife the brother of the first king Erechtheus, putting their priesthood almost on a in his right hand and simply slaughter sheep — and these will be available in level with the kingship. The family of the Praxiergidai oversees the Plynteria plenty .. . But guard my temple and receive the crowds of men.’ So the festival, so assuming office shortly before the priest of Erechtheus and the Delphians live for the sanctuary and from the sanctuary.’ The oldest family, priestess of Athena leave the Acropolis. The Thaulonidai perform the ancient traced back to Deukalion, the survivor of the flood, furnishes the five on Acropolis the Bouphonia. The Bouzygai Consecrated 9 bull sacrifice for Zeus the at Ones, hosioi; another kin group, the Labyadai, with its festal The Mysteries of Eleusis banquets, is 2 provide the priest of Zeus at the Palladion. known °through an ancient decree.21 cultic remained until the end of antiquity in the hands of the Eumolpidai and the Non-Greek elements are evident in the cult of Artemis—Upis of Ephesos, Kerykes, with the Eumolpidai providing the hierophantes and the Kerykes not only in the remarkable cult image with its pectoral which was later seen providing the Torch-bearer, dadouchos,and the Sacred Herald, hierokerjx.’° as many-breasted. The high priest, megabyos, is a eunuch. A society of men, The Branchidai maintain a similar relationship to the Apollo sanctuary at set apart for a year and bound to sexual abstinence, meets for sacral meals; Didyma. Upstarts also invest themselves with a dignity to suit: Gelon and they are called essenes,bee kings. There are also conserated maidens; the Hieron, the tyrants of Gela and Syracuse, claimed that a hierophantic office myth tells of Amazons who founded the sanctuary. Castrated priests are gods was hereditary in their family, and after their great attested in the cult 22 of the Chthonic of Kubaba—Kybele, and Hecate of Lagina in Caria also victory over Carthage in 480 they proceeded to build a Demeter temple in has eunuchs, just as Aphrodite—Astarte has her male transvestites. secured for In Syracuse.” Founders of sanctuaries later regularly the priesthood Greece the priesthood is not a way of life, but a 23 part-time and honorary ‘for all eternity’.’ office; it may themselves and their families involve expense, but it brings great prestige. The treats pious man Priests are installed; as early as 2the Iliad it is said that the Trojans the priest with reverence: at the sack of Ismaros, Odysseus spares (ethelcan)Theano as priestess of Athena.’ As with other posts, the Maron in the grove established of Apollo, and Alcibiades frees priests without ransom. appointment is decided by the community, usually the political assembly. The priest is consecrated 24 3 (hieromenos).His hair is usually long and he wears Sortition may be seen as an intimation of divine will. In Asia Minor, a head-band (strophion), a garland, costly robes of white or purple, and a priesthoods were regularly auctioned in many places from Hellenistic special waistband; he carries a staff in his hand. The priestess is often times.’ Depending on the nomos,the priesthood may last for a year, for a represented carrying the large key to the temple, kleidoucho.c.In the theatre 4 cycle, or for life. An annual priesthood is frequently eponymous, that is, seats of honour festal are reserved priests.25 for the The priest is ‘honoured among the local chronology is related to the list of the names of the priests. For the people as a god’, as the Iliad 6says.2 Hellanikos towards the end of the fifth century, the list of the Hera priestesses In a number of cases the priest seems almost to appear as a god. In at Argos, as the list reaching furthest back, was the backbone of his historical Thebes, the priest of Apollo Isrnenios is a boy of noble family; at the chronology.’ Daphnephona festival he follows behind the laurel pole, wearing a golden A priestly office brings revenues, at least provisions, in accordance with garland and a long festal robe and with his hair untied — the epitome 5 of the of gifts youthful ancient custom. Together with the sacrificial victim the priest receives god with unshorn hair. At the Laphria festival priestess 2 in Patrai, the food, which he uses only in part at the sacrifice; he is accorded an honorary of Artemis rides on a chariot drawn by deer;hi similarly, when the portion (geras) of the roast meat, usually a leg, and the foods deposited on a Hera priestess at Argos drives to the sanctuary on an ox-drawn cart, she is table next to the altar eventually fall to him.’ Often he receives the skin as especially close to the 6 cow-eyed 29goddess. At Pellene the priestess of Athena

98

is

wanders

priestess appears

Dionysos priest. 34 conjugal but

sacred Acropolis; period Zeus

they

virgin she-bears, consecrated

consecrated nocturnal

excluded goddess temple,

temple Zeus

the

death 43 As expulsion rituals Poseidon,

only dietary purity,

The full a installation to

responsible

the

the

A

worthy

Widespread

The

sexuality.

a

hosioi

Sacred

RITUAL

citizenship 47

there

priestess

in

are,

mutilated

common

of

as

victim,

known

of

olive

significance

of

protest

prohibitions hagneia, 42

may

and

while

Dodona.

In

with

in

through

of

of

relations

temple

in

from

Aphrodite

representative quite of

and to

arktoi. 37

are

they

the

ceremony. 35

Island

Athena

Aigion, 8

Delphi. 6

of

sexual

positions,

AND

to

with

tree; course,

whom to

priestess

Life-long be

as

very

all

helmet

a

denominator

Demeter

child

Poseidon; 6

and

her

against important

frequently

start

and

Artemis

priest

the

service.

sensed others

SANCTUARY

befitting

and

women

at

the

Boys

behind

nearby

works.

commonly

of

life

characteristic

Polias

the

water

and

at

the

accompanied

crippled

sacrifice.

the

As

but

all

and

also

streets

it

there

the

Sikyon, 4 °

and

celibacy

virgin

are

can

cult

may

end

of

for

fasts

Similarly,

such

is In

work

which

before

in

also

her. 33

and

The

is exceptions

the

carrier,

civilization

has

in

shield, 3 °

that

the

true

consecrated

Athens

double

other

of

priests

childbed,

are

of

be

not

pray

Athens,

wearing

are

are

details

in

officiates

sacred.

of

to

what

community.

sired

priestesses,

tension the

he

that

frequently

approached

is Pallas

merge,

an

Kalauria

marriage,

a

weaving

to

Athena

requirements,

excluded.

is

to

loutrophoros;

in

virgin

scarcely

year

must

two are

old

of

be

and

in

is

the

Theseus. 4 ’

anyone

the

is

office

girls

of and

Artemis.

This

and the

observed, required

in

common,

woman,

revealed seeks

arrhephoroi

Aigeira

not

for

they

consecration

iii

goddess

the

in

be

but

Argos

as

the

is

aegis. 3 ’

are

a

and

special

complications. 32

This

while

goddesses

by

ever

only

involves

mythology

Athens

polis

consecrated,

free

Otherwise,

can

negatively

in

discharge:

freely

are

a

peplos

these

sent

serves

priestesses

so mature

In

the

Tegea

of

only

is

found. 44

to

and

means but

notably

from

only

become discharged

and

are

in

In

initiations, a may

the

escorted

Apollo

to

priest

for

only

the

two

priest

eschewing

real

in

Kalauria

mythology

as allotted

of

Artemis

its

from

and

Patrai,

background

any

and

Athena

woman

Apollo

each

at

charged

that

mythology

priestess

neokoros

boys

alone

in

priesthood. 45

asceticism hierophantai,

From

a should

ravished

by

as

and

there

a

least,

physical

contrast

priest. 49

the

Elateia. 39

to

In

he

individual

in

priest

in

those

and

to

teleisthai,

may

at

the

a

and

hierophantide.

entrance:

a and

must who

Thebes a

contact

time

Athens,

along

serve

relationship remains

above

Iphigeneia

Brauron

mysterious

maiden

with

of

maiden

girls bath

Aithra

initiation

for

tells enter

even

develops

who

tend

to defect,

has

Athena

to

though

possess

In

on

with

At

gods,

as

all II

child

more

for

case.

or

by

with

time

how

put

the

the

are the the

the the the

the

the

for

on

be

as

to

is

is

6

a

a a

I

1

which

only banquet.

almost transport

kalathos,

this consequently wickerwork

initiate

and water

be literally, seen

purification. 6

enact

city

celebrations. 4

returned

are same

Athens,

the

also drawn

Hardly

interaction into

The

JI

else normality

come relaxation,

everyday; days

As

Pompe

carried

The

with

Dionysos

kind

market

7.1

first

the

with

from

in

active

important formation,

they

bearer,

gateway the

—

always

is

together,

are

in menace

fundamental

a

sanctuary

the

means

The

to

festal

is

reckoned

naturally

may

brought

at festival

its

abandonment

the

hold

and

the

may

work

basket

accompany

the carried

participants

place. 3 with

procession

but

the

ancient

there

participants

cult

fire

In

procession

garments,

also

through

includes

expressicm

corresponding

ship

escort,

in

and

be

the

and

and

the

is

head

setting

is

Paphos

bearer,

covered

with

along

their

articulates

a

At

expressed

are laid

to

without

around

be

festival

on

sanctuary

onlookers,

terror.

sanctuary. 3

sacred. medium

move

the

include

sets

but

of

borne

a

kistephoroi

the

thirty

wheels,

aside

hands.

separate

the

of

themselves

lid,

but this

the

in

bowl

the

Eleusinian

themselves containers

meaning

how out

escorts.

its

programme

in

the

towards

Alexandria. 9

kiste,

victims

also

procession

in

To

and

along

pathway

space,

kilometres

pompe.

great

roles

of

connection

where

7

from

the

bearer,

is

the

sanctuary,

far

mirth

themselves

group

There

7.3

scarcely

and

with reach

THE

and

customary

There

preceding

the

ship

with

the

to

on

procession

a

so

The

apart

sacrifices

whose

for

festival

demonstrate

liknophoroi. the and

Pompe FESTIVAL

garlands,”’

goal,

celebrate

and

procession

to city

the

a holds

formation

a

are

leads

chariot.

fixed

of

the

centre

An

chariot, veiled

less

are

with

joy,

centre

Athens

the

from

festival

countryside.

gates

bough

contents

also

from

though

the

roles

especially

new

sacred

all

important

night

from

take

titles

in

interruption

the

of

to

winnowing

Sacred

Above

a

kinds

processions

and

others.

Sacred

woollen such

adornment

the

is

roles

which

are

as bearer. 7

is

by

mystai

their place;

articulates

festival,

Mysteries

the such

—

the

an

are

the

work

makes

amorphous

is

the

dissolved

of

are

as

in

impressive

end

new

all,

Demeter’s

Way

The

special demonstration,

known

than

THE

the

The

appurtenances

procession,

for

but

as

appurtenances

fillets,

readiness.

epheboi

the

In

set

and

pompas

fan,

the for

in

its

basket

sacred

city

sacred

and

which the

the

runs

FESTIVAL

the

—

the

time.’

contrast

itself Acropolis

way

off

a

only

procession

liknon 8

status

in

and the

the

pathway

to

crowd,

goal

nocturnal

beauty,

period

and

Demeter

from

a

form

pempein,

from

basket,

action

through

bearer,

the

can

vividly

objects

round

Groups Certain

to general

pompe.’

twigs

festal

itself.

and

then

not

the

with

old

the

of

be

of

the fall

to

the

of

in

99

or

is is

100

wall

Parthenon

procession

been

east

holding

moves

bearers

suggestion

metics), donate

armed

sport catching.

Naturally

women

their

festival.

composed

At

the

Tempe

Delphic

The god

represent

god leading

The

cult

Dionysos

A

Apollo

simpler

face

RITUAL

of

characteristic carried

maypole

essential

associated

himself

is

They

many

smaller

images of

part

wood; classical

boy still

festal

laurel

followed

along

and

with

and

who the

the

present;

musicians,

the

valley

We

the

over

There

ritual,

At

Frieze,

the

presented

of

himself

in songs:

of

living;

the

is

folded

wreathe

victims

festivals

Parthenon.”

carry

through

robe

have AND

piece

branch;

colours;

procession

both

a

shields

the

the

have

the

brought

Thebes,

brought

are

spheres

civic

or

groupings

god

monument

the

hecatomb

in by

with

are

but

every

head

wood

SANCTUARY

originally

bay

reaching

Christmas

made

more

Thessaly.’ 3

sides

of robe

his

form

these

is

a

himself.

a

entrance

officials for

venerable

a

one

chorus

his

also

the

the

called wood

for

and

the

at

description

piece

hang

bearer

nearest

to

the

specially

of

Athena

is

between

eight

to

of

of

the

the

hair

can

vessels

this the

city

goddess

Athens in festival

the

on

war

wrapped

At

Delphi

the

which

purifying

the

some

down

and

peplos.

of

down;

bay

In

i6o

exception.’ 5

of

are

this,

imagine

the

is top

on

daphnephoria

cult

to

tree

years

the

himself

Apollo

olive

old

chariots

the maidens temple

relative

untied (four

purple

metres

also

bearer,

decked

a

was

the the

other),

—jumping

gives

on

from

the

a

with

with

to

images

of

men,

beginning

ship

type The

Hymn

a

wood

about

bronze

a

his

twelve

smaller

oxen

bay

represented, temple,

the

horseback

a greatest

cult

the

follows

boy and

towards

lyre

the

straightforward

Eleutherai;

a

ribbons

entire

chariot in

with

carries

of

with

and

Daphnephoros,

feet,

bowl

out

At to

new

Theban

with

to

goes

is

special

are

length,

with

and

fullest

object he

Apollo

in

fetches

Olympian

the

globe

the

down

Delphi

globe

above

and

warriors

twigs

and

of

hand

citizenry

pompe

the

not

wears

robe,

bearers

bay

behind

four

a

and

a

this

bay

hang

the

Great

boy

who

the

saffron-coloured

idea

which

the

grasping

privilege

necessary.

described

special

Erechtheus

as

festival

is

from

is

sprigs

vase

and

the

in

all

sheep

now,

bearing,

centre:

piece the

of

after a

fixed

whose

fixed well

year

poet

from

and

golden

of

and

their

practising are

and warrior

gods.

the

present

Dionysia

bay

bay

playing

peplos;

the

ran

paintings

a

represented

and

sandals;

slaying on

as

has

of

great

myth

at

for

water

year.

the

it;

particularly

from

the

branch

touches and

there

hands) 2

hurtling

parents

around

branch

The

the

here.

Processions one

the

the

garlanded

garland,

flowers

the

the

which

priest

the

youths,

themselves

Panathenaic

bay,

sweetly.’ 4

pompe

Daphnephoria

duty

tells

virgins

the

centre

which

bearers

side,

the procession

are

lower

the

god

portray cloth

robe

he

So,

in

the

are

the

from

117.1

chariot.

seems

image

of

how

stands

special

on

basket

place

dragon.

Pindar

is

of

is

a

himself

and

in some

celia

had

eye-

the

and

the

the

with

(to

The

the

the

the

in

the

a

of

to

of

I

the represented

of

almost

again,

wine

in’,

begging

flasks

wool

brings

good

Pyanopsia children

wine

special

of

and

priestess

lnachos’. 23

terror

Pamphylia

married

garment

attached

she

Byzantine

Polias

only

Processions

European

cast

those

aspect

no

untouched

images

unmoved

seated

flemeter Taygetos,

advent

117.2

men

animals,

case

while

one

Arge,

wore

so

and

their

skin;

luck,

a

of

are

would

figs

who

sacral

went

procession,

aweful

you

or

anywhere

requests:

on

marginal

looks

for

oil.

of

wives,

— seeking

made

to

laden

Apollo

Eleusinia

the

the

on

and fruit

image

in

as

popular

boys,

source

and

in In

escort

and

a

an

in in

the

it

go

also

the

through collecting

The

become

claim

autumn.

they

masks.

Rhodes by Kore

Delian

aegis

on

lonia, the

fat

and

drunk

Athens

of

ox-drawn

wherever

with

who

health. 25

carrying

god

unsettling

its

gifts

festivals.

are

collects. 22

is

branch

woollen it,

‘or

bread,

it

do

appearance,

in

temple,

wearing

collect

to

statue

grievous,

culture.’°

moved.

very

for

of share

but

numerous in

no

Greece. the

we’ll a

This maidens. 24

the

often

gifts. we

to

for

gifts

the

They

blessing

the

at

the

the

doubt

bed.” 6

city

honey

name.

all

a

it

women

Elsewhere, learn

is

the

wagon.’ 8

gifts fillets,

in

To

but

cannot,

is

carry

Swallow

the

leather

Elsewhere

goddess,

are

purification.

is

deer

festival) 7

connected

called

The

Aeschylus

avert ship

carry its

Nymphs, collecting escorted

The

but

carried.” 9

In

the

when

widespread

owed

they

by

Thargelia

On

firstlings, to

in but

In

7.2

power.

antlers,

In

off

image

though

ancient

collect

even

promise

chariot.b

public

them.

pots,

or their

Eiresione,

chance

pouch

particular,

an

Sicily,

Samos,

Then

Song

your

they

announce

now the

processions

Agermos

perhaps

gifts The

such

olive

from

with

trees

the

on

had

of

and

The

gaze;

hung

The

gifts

priestess

Terror

something

adds

cults

Greece

door,

with

fruits

certainly

no

herdsmen

there

Artemis Magna

of

that

to

certain

festival

activities, and

‘life-giving

the

oil

branch

In

the

it the

Hera

divine

blessings

priestess

and

the longer

while

can

about for

the

are

all

in

causes

light-hearted

children

to

still

even

or

of

Therai

spreads

is

cult

Marsh

customs

virgin

of

song moves

not

priestess

rub

no kinds

they

Mater

days. 2 ’

all

your

financed

of

the

in

appear

survive

presents

exist.

of

singing

wreathed

this

with

enter

a

the

longer,

performed

kind,

of

Pellene

down,

only

to

daughters

of the

summer

there

real

sing:

the

leading

in

wife.” 7

of

sing

goddess

ancestors

Artemis it

to

when

priestess

become

sort

makes

bread

On

ancient

Only

into

of

grains

and

the

sought

advent

to

bread,

as in

goat

from

a

the

corresponds

a

be

a

‘The

‘Wealth

threats this

such

hymn

are

‘usually

AGERMOS

some

mankind

with

Medusa

cup

the

a

the

carries

mountains

shown These,

away

in

and

by sanctuary

her

from

of

skin,

so

the

at

barren

wandering

and

kind

staged

terror

of

out

Eiresione

the

and cities

of of

occasions

who

societies

otherwise

the

fillets

places

Perge

that

entrance

to

Athena

public

at

to

strong

peace,

enters

also

of

shape

newly

a

stands

to

but it

once

make

Opis head;

little

river

is

in

are

the

still

the

late

out,

and

be

an

the

cult

by

of

in

ror

its

in

a

a

of

a of IF 102 AND SANCTUARY RITUAL II 7.3 JJ 7•4 MASKS, PHALLOI, AISCHROLOGIA 103 purse. Collecting therefore appears as a characteristic of unofficial sects; Minoan tradition.” Elsewhere too, the experience of the dance merges with in addition to the Apollo collectors such as Abaris,’ there were aLso the the experience of the deity. At the Gymnopaidia boys dance for Apollo, and adherents of the Magna Mater of Asia Minor,8 the Meter collectors, everywhere girls dance for Artemis: the vigorous, youthful form of these siblings metragyrtai;’ the true polis Greek treated them with disdain. divine appears as a projection of these dances. Apollo himself plays dance, 9 for the and Artemis joins in the dance with her Nymphs.° In the of 7.3 Dancing and Hymns groups Nymphs or Charites, in the bands of Kouretes, and even in the case of the dance-loving satyrs, divine archetype and human reality are often Rhythmically repeated movement, directed to no end and performed virtually inseparable, except that what for man is the short-lived blossom of together as a group, is, as it were, ritual crystallized in its purest form: ‘Not a youth attains permanence in the mythical-divine archetype. single ancient initiation festival can be found that is without dancing.’ Although the names and basic rhythms of the dances are traditional, the To belong to a traditional group means to learn their dances. Following3 on cult in no way demands the repetition of ancient, magically fixed hymns. On contrary, ancient custom, the Greeks have group dances of many kinds, not for’ virtuosi the the hymn must always delight the god afresh at the festival; for and not for arbitrarily paired couples, but for representative members of the therefore dance and hymn there must always be someone who makes it, poet, poietes. community. The group of dancers and the place for dancing are both called the The literary genre of choral lyric, which can be traced from end of the choros;there are choruses of boys, of maidens, and of women, and also war- the seventh century, accordingly develops from the practice of the dances for warriors. Dancing and music are inseparable. Even the simplest cult and culminates in the first half of the fifth century in the work of Pindar. The invocation musical form, the song, leads to dancing; as musical instruments, the of the gods, the enunciation of wishes and entreaties, is double flute, aulos, and the plucked string instruments, kithara and lyra, are interwoven ever more artfully with mythical narratives and topical allusions most percussion instruments associated 3 to the festival and chorus. Already prominent; are with foreign orgiastic in the seventh century, several choruses worship. ’ are competing for the honour of performing the most beautiful hymn — with To celebrate a festival is to set up choruses. Even the processions have the costuming of the chorus then also playing its role. The religious function, the relationship their special hymns; Pindar wrote daphnephorikafor Thebes. The procession with the gods, is in danger of being lost in the rivalry; but all are well convinced may halt at various points along the route in order to perform exacting that the gods, like men, take a delighted interest in the hymns and dances. In Miletos there is a guild of singers, molpoi,in honour of contest. Apollo Delphinios; along the pathway of the procession to the Apollo sanctuary at Didyma there are six appointed shrines at which they perform 7.4 Masks, Phalloi, Aischrologia their paean. The hymn becomes associated with the sacrificial victim which is led3along in the procession: Pindar speaks of the ‘ox-driving dithyram Masks, the most ancient means of ’ surrendering one’s own identity and assuming4 a new 33bos’, and the goat singers, tragodoi,and hence ultimately tragedy, probably ’ extraordinary identity, come to the Greeks through various take their name from a procession which leads the goat to 34sacrifice. traditions. There are Neolithic and also Near Eastern connections. There are animal In the sanctuary itself, the special dances are even more elaborate. On masks, and also, in particular, ugly, ridiculous masks. Besides the processions Delos, boys and girls dance the Crane Dance (geranos)with tortuous, labyr and the dancing of masked figures, there are masks which are inthian movements: it is said that the maidens and youths from Athens raised up and worshipped, sometimes even becoming cult idols. The most invented this dance together with Theseus after escaping from the laby direct evidence for the wearing of animal masks comes from those 35rinth. Mythical Kouretes brandish their shields in a dance around the new bull skulls cut into mask shape which were found in Cypriot born Zeus child; and the Orientalizing bronze shields from the Ida cave on sanctuaries; this practice, however, did not have any direct influence outside Crete testify to the reality of such shield dances in the context of an initiation Cyprus. Nevertheless, the wine-pouring youths at the festival of Poseidon festival of the eighth century. In a hymn from Palaikastro, youths invoke in Ephesus are called bulls, tauroi, maidens in the Spartan Leukippides cult Zeus as greatest Kouros6 to come to Dikte to spring in flocks, fields, towns, and are called foals, poloi, priestly groups of bees, melissai,are more frequent, ships, and doubtless it is the dancing leaps of the youths themselves in which and there are also bears, arktoi. Along the selvage of the robe on the Despoina 45 this power of the god is 37present. When Pallas Athena leapt in full armour statue from Lykosoura all kinds of musicians are shown masked from the head of Zeus, she brandished her shield and lance in a war-dance, as animals, mostly with donkey-like masks, but also creatures with cow and and in imitation of this divine origin, the war-dance, pyrrhiche,is performed at pig heads; even though the iconographical motif of the animal orchestra reaches6 back her festival, especially at the Panathcnaia. The names Paean and Dithyr to Sumerian times, some ritual context must lie in the background. ambos refer equally to the god,8 his hymn, and his dance, perhaps from That hybrid creatures such as Centaurs and Pans are in reality r 117.5 304 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 7.4 AGON io the sexes is masked figures is highly probable. We are well informed about the costume between played up and finds release in lampoonery. A name for 47 songs on mocking such of the Silenoi and Satyrs: the fiat-nosed mask with animal ears and the occasions is lambos — developed as a poetic genre Archilochus; animal skin apparel or loin cloth with horse tail and phallos attached. This since the ritual background still shows through in the lamboson get-up has admittedly become the literary satyr play from the end of the sixth Womenby Semonides, which tears the opposite sex to pieces type by type. lambe was made into a mythical 6 century, and has thereby attained a different relation to reality from the figure, a maid who was able to cheer’ up earlier ritual. Demeter after her sorrow and fasting. In Athens, the Stenia festival the sphere of female deities, immediately before the Thesmophoria6 was given over to the 8 masks of old women are found in exchange of Grotesque ’ between especially Artemis; striking clay specimens were found as votive gifts in the abuse the sexes. The women in Aegina, financed by specially choregoi, 63 appointed Ortheia sanctuary. It is said that the masks were properly made of wood presented mocking choruses at the festival of Damia and and that the wearers were called kyrittoi, and b7yllichistai; men could also Auxesia, though here the raillery was directed only at other women from the appear in masks of ugly women. The story was told that by the river Alpheios district. On the island of Anaphe, however, men and women jeered at one 5 another at the 6 sacrifice for Apollo Aigletes — a in Elis, Artemis and her nymphs had smeared their° faces with mud in order practice initiated, according to legend, by the slave girls of to escape the amorous attentions of the river god — a reflection of the ritual Medea during the Argonaut expedition. During use of such grotesque masks. Terracotta, pot-shaped masks from the Hera the procession to Eleusis grotesquely masked figures sat at a critical narrow pass near the bridge across 6 Tiryns date5 from as early as the eighth century — the earliest the brook known as the Rheitoiand terrorized and sanctuary at ’ insulted the Gorgon heads with wild tusk-like fangs; they undoubtedly go together with passers-by. At Dionysian festivals wagons drove through the 52 carrying the myth of the witch-like metamorphosis of the daughters of King Proitus, streets masked figures who shouted abuse at everyone they passed which took place in Tiryns, and with the grotesque painting on the idols from in a proverbially coarse manner. Mycenae. Rites with sexual emphasis6 are generally understood in terms of fertility If the three avenging goddesses, Praxidikai, were worshipped in the shape magic in Frazer’s sense. The Greek evidence, however, always points most conspicuously of 53heads, these will doubtless have been pot-masks of this kind. The Gorgon to the absurdity and buffoonery of the whole affair: there is a mask appears on its own as an apotropaic sign, with round goggling conscious descent to the lower classes and the lower parts of the anatomy, mirrored in eyes, lolling tongue, and jutting teeth. An ancient Gorgoneion which was the talk of mythical maids, Just as pomp and ceremony contrasts 54 with everyday said to be the work of the Cyclopes stood in the market place at Argos. life, so does extreme lack of ceremony, absurdity, and 55 obscenity; A mask of Demeter Kidaria was kept in Pheneos in Arcadia, and at the a redoubled tension arises between the two extremes, adding mystery festival the priest would don the mask and ‘beat the subterranean further dimensions to the festival. Similarly there are sacrifices which demand dwellers with a rod’. An elevated, bearded mask may represent the god the very opposite to the usual holy silence, wild cursing or affected 6 lamentation. By plumbing the Dionysos; that it was also worn to represent the frenzied god directly may extremes the just mean is meant to emerge, 57 just as the sexes which be surmised. greet each other with jeers are dependent on each other.6 The mask effects a transposition into a new and unknown world, but apart from the petrifying Gorgon, this, for the Greeks, is not so much an uncanny and unsettling world as a world ofabsurdity and aggressive obscenity. There are many variants of the procession with giant false phalloi; the wearers of 7.5 Agon these massive membra must conceal their bourgeois identity by smearing The themselves with soot or bran or by wearing masks. Thus a Hellenistic author agonal spirit, deragonaleGei.st,has, since Friedrich Nietzsche, often been describes the soot-smeared phallophoroi and the ilhyphalloi who march described as one of the characteristic traits and driving forces of Greek along in masks representing drunks. Mask and phallos also go together cuhure. The number of things which the Greeks can turn into a contest is astounding:7 sport and physical beauty, in the satyr costume. But even8 in the Artemis cult there were girls who ° handicraft and art, song and dance, appeared in phallic 59attire. Clown-like mummers, probably connected with theatre and disputation. Whatever is instituted as custom comes almost some popular dithyrambos, are known in particular from Corinthian vase automatically under the jurisdiction of a sanctuary. On Lesbos, a beauty contest paintings, where they parade a mock nudity with their buttocks padded out of the girls took place at the annual festival in the sanctuary of in an exaggerated way and indulge in all kinds of buffoonery. Zeus, Hera, and Dionysos;’ some such contest seems to be mirrored in the As a counterpart to this there are ugly sayings, aischrologia,and obscene myth of the judgement of Paris. On a votive gift from Tarentum, a girl 6 boasts of having outshone all exposures in women’s festivals, especially at the° Thesmophoria. As the others in a wool-carding contest; the earliest Greek women celebrate on their own at the expense of the men, the antagonism inscription concerns a boy who ‘of all dancers ’7plays most 73gaily’. I

io6 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 7.5 II 7.6 THEBANQUETOFTHE 107 Musical contests appear primarily in honour of Apollo and Dionysos; flute- sport that Apollo himself killed his youthful000favourite Hyakinthos — players, flute-players with singers, and kithara-singers each compete with throw with as if the the unpredictable stone disc sought out a one another at the Pythian Games in Delphi; in Athens, dithyrambs, chance victim. comedies, and tragedies are staged competitively at the Dionysia, while at S 7.6 TheBanquetof the Gods the Panathenaia, rhapsodes vie with one another in the recitation of Homer. Even more popular, of course, were the sporting contests. The simplest The natural and straighforward aim of a festival is feasting eating and form, the foot-race, and its most extravagant variant, the chariot race, which drinking. In Greek sacral practice this element is always present. The meal developed from the Bronze Age chariot fight, were the most important, and in the sanctuary may be marked as extraordinary when, in contrast tended to overshadow the other events such as wrestling, boxing, long normal civilization, to the ancient way of life is imitated: jumping, and javelin throwing. Nevertheless, the sporting event is no profane stibas, a bed of twigs, 79 takes the place of seats or banqueting couches, festival. Funerary rites are at first a major occasion for games, as 8 and the house is evidenced replaced by an improvised hut, skene — misleadingly translated by the epic description of the funeral games for Patroclus and also by twigs on 8 as tent. The which one sits assume ° a symbolic character which varies according Geometric vase paintings and later inscriptions; the epitaphiosagon persists to deity and festival: pine or willow for the Thesmophoria, and wild olive into Classical times. Karl Meuli has described how the prize contest branches in Olympia. proceeds from the grief and rage of those affected by the death. Later, The festival is spoken 74 8 of as the ‘fulsome banquet of the gods’; and yet the however, attention is focused on the games connected with calendrically portion of the ’ gods at the normal Olympian sacrifice is 8 somewhat fixed festivals, and the trial of strength of the living also has an initiatory precarious. ’ more than For gods to be expressly entertained as guests at a meal is the character. In the sixth century, four Panhellenic festivals come to form a exception, but it still gives a number of festivals their special character. So in recognized group: the Olympia, the Pythia at Delphi, the Nemeios in honour Athens, Zeus of the Friends, Zeus Philios, may be invited to a of Zeus and the Isthmia for Poseidon near Corinth. Other city festivals such a banqueting banquet: couch (kline)is prepared8 and the table is spread with all that is as the Panathenaia in Athens or the Heraia in Argos strove to attain an equal necessary; reliefs show the god present at the feast. The mortals themselves status without quite succeeding. obviously join in 75 with a will. This Zeus who is treated on such familiar Mythology associates these games also with funeral games, with a local hero terms is obviously not immediately identical with the sky whose death had occasioned the first celebration; Pelops or Oinomaos in thunderbolts. god who hurls Olympia, Archemoros in Nemea, Palaimon on the Isthmus, and in Delphi the The real guests at the entertaining of gods, theoxenia,are the Dioskouroi. Python dragon. As a matter of fact, the agon, as transition from an aspect of They are celebrated above all in the Dorian area, in Sparta, but in Athens death to an aspect of life, is intimately connected with the various sacrificial also they are presented with a breakfast in the Prytaneion where a table is rituals. In Olympia, the games are preceded by a thirty-day period of spread with cheese, cakes, olives, and leeks. Vase paintings and reliefs show preparation during which the athletes are required to observe a vegetarian the divine horsemen galloping through the air towards the two klinai diet and sexual abstinence. The festival opens with sacrifices, a preliminary prepared for them. sacrifice for Pelops, and great ox sacrifices for Zeus. In 8 Delphi, the Theoxenia are a major festival which also gives a month its name.8 Delegations arrive The consecrated portions then lay on the altar, but had not yet from all over Greece and numerous gods are invited to the banquet, been set alight; the runners were one stadion away from the altar; though, understandably, Apollo comes to dominate the proceedings more in front of the altar stood a priest who gave the starting signal and more. A scurrilous agonis fought out: whoever can offer Leto the largest horn with a torch. The victor put fire to the sacred portions and so onion receives a portion from the sacred table. All portions from the table went away Olympic victor) of the gods, however, are eventually distributed to men, and the breakfast of the gods is followed by general eating and drinking The oldest stadion led directly to the Zeus altar; the victor in the simple foot on the part of mortals. race was the Olympic victor whose name was recorded from 776 onwards. It was from Delphi that the Romans took over the feasting of the gods, The sprint marks the transition from the bloody work to the purifying fire, lectisternium;but at the same time, ancient tradition was probably preserved from the Chthonic to the Olympian, from Pelops to Zeus. Similarly at the and activated in this; the Veda after all repatedly shows the invitation of gods Panathenaia, the special sport, the leap from the chariot, is intimately to a meal, and the Dioskouroi most particularly point to Indo-European connected with the sense of the New Year festival; at the Dorian Karneia tradition. Among 86 the Greeks this is in part more a matter of family custom festival the race is still more ritual than sport. An event curiously than polis religion; along 77 with Zeus Philios there is the custom of meals for surrounded by mythology is the discus throw: it was while practising this heroes and meals for the dead. ro8

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consciousness

Testament.

attack

as

the

face

time licence.

of

a

that

connected

back

he

enthusiasm

purification abandoned

but

way the

unique

much,

in

nevertheless

and

to

an

the

individual,

Perhaps

returns

of

song

divine

by is

for

accordingly,

are

the

may

hide

his

since Mother

of

provoked evolution

can

is

the

to

In

of

term

other

the

to

The

Phoibos

interpreted

the

people

the

the not

almost

role,

choruses

understanding

and sense,

a

of

particular,

frenzy

the

appear

in

neither

The

experience,

the

unknown.

quite

with possessio,

with

beautiful

his

god

all in

aim,

and

some

Minoan

caves can gods of

of

dance,

Pentecostal

with

there

miraculously

god

the

who

normal

disciplined

men;

by

inseparably

the

in

and

the

a

being

of

tales

ecstasy,

once

also

flute

different,

nonetheless,

the

process

of

can

be

sense

the

the

vestige

the

in

the

himself

Korybantes. 6

Gods,

is

are

miraculously

and

is

possession.’

maidens

each

the

song

religion,

the

of reconciled

possession

also

The

be

illustrated anger

fulfilment,

result

history

again

countered women

ways

also

music

seized

(nous)

that

Apollo’s

but

II

miracle

Greeks

treated

experi

wilder

joined

whose which

would

of

ritual

hymn

is

most

sober

fused

filled

send

and

8 .i

of

that

as

this

the

the

the

on

in

in of

by

of

is

is

a

a —

.

much All

just

to

higher revealed

guidance

signs

ancient

automatically

occasional which

experiments

linguistically

chance

doing

are

In

himself,

thinking,

brothers,

consigned Dionysos

and

madness

moment.

goddess, which

in

information

widespread

There

body

legends demonstrations

Scythian have

centuries,

II

remote

For

Faith

doubt

Plato

Greek

a

acting,

linked

as

8.2

special

come

as

to

the

world

so,

the

been

lay

is

in

is

cultures

discover in

scriptures,

and

Zeus;

and

which

the

distinguishes

the

more

to

gods

phronein.

it

of

also

the

erotic

nomads

the

to

signs

our

signs falsification

within

man

in

as

a

from

is

relationship

man,

and Dionysos,

and

called

highest

can

specific

number wondrous

causal

arts

fixed

about

as

this

simply

if

the

freely

Muse,

sons

the

own

than

surround

is

can

bring

nevertheless

the

a

dead

is

doubtless

the

a

or

scarcely

well-defined

art

compelled

of

even

mainstay

the

are

report

way,

something

rule

wandering

and

of

human;

interpretation

culture.

persist

god,

dispense

nexus

observations:

philosophical

gods,

distant

divination

of

a

of

who

signs

as

probable.’ 3

while

through

before

Zeus the

feature

people,

if

such

of

to

interpreting

culturally

them,

the

an

stands

concerning

in

be

8.2

the

older

play,

and

sends

without prophetic

become

of

there

and

aid

Similarly,

rule

miracle

his

to

cryptic

a

places

peripheral

signs

adding,

risked.

which

spheres:

piety. divine

of

especially

shamans,

the

experience

religious

make

The

through

is

to

is

similarly

as

as

spirit

animal

him

over

Whether,

is

which

one

the

transmitted.

Hyperboreans.’ 2

to

following

decision-making

the

enthusiasm.’ 5

religious

father

Art

a

This

can

them

since

form.

men

at

and

Furthermore,

Hermotimos

a

madness

as

decision-making

fall,

conviction

recognizes

divination

pre-eminent

happy

went

of

the

the

hopeful

first

interpretation

is them

only

other

learning

those

phenomena

is

and

the

seem

the

his

under above

is does

even

convincing

also

Precisely

casting respective

like

bestowed interpretation,

grace

journeying

Seer

words

oral

neither be

inspiration influences

the

concerning

types

not

of

to

the

projection

THEARTOFTHESEER

For

shamans,

about inferred

them

suspicion

here,

signs

that

that singer

have

By

gods

from

Apollo

and

form

case

tell

the

of

In

presuppose

is

a

of

because

and

of

every

theory

naming

by

so

specific

spheres,

lots

in

— initiation the

favour, distinction

mechanism.

is

against

travelled

madness,

gain

among

give

the

Klazomcnai,

of

is

which

and

consciousness from

indirectly

considerable

long the

his

their

beyond

from

from they

of seventh

dependent

contact

functions

of

as

seer

future.’ 4

direction

in

son

the

clear

there

nor

brought

godlessness.

superstition,

expectations

but

established:

the

the

gave

them.

for ability

a

Apollo

while

moment

confidence

the

there.

must

about;

knowledge

future.

Apollo.’ 6

the

doubt,

with

method;

none between

man

Greeks:

and

space

realm

from

are

In

ecstatic

telcstic

quite poetic

on

whose

stand

to

More

Zeus

and Two

that

back

sixth

the

the

and

are

they

no

so

are

In his fly.

the

a

Iii

of

to of I II 8.2 THEARTOFTHESEER 1i3 1 2 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 8. eagerly awaited and evaluated at every act of slaughter. This technique charismatic gift, inspiration, is required. From time immemorial this task has originates in Mesopotamia, and its diffusion can be traced through Man and performed by a highly esteemed specialist, the seer, mantis, a prototype been AlalaCh to Ugarit and the Hittites and into Bronze Age Cyprus. In Homer, of the wise man. The gift is handed down from generation to generation. Not at all events, there is an allusion to this practice at one point; evidently it only did mythology create genealogical connections between the legendary 30 was taken over from the East by the Greeks in the eighth/seventh centuries. seers — Mopsos as grandson of Teiresias — but even historical seers would The Etruscans obtained their much more detailed haruspicinafrom the same trace themselves back to some figure such as Melampus; in Olympia there source, not via the Greeks; no Greek counterpart has as yet been discovered was the line of seers known as the Iamidai.’ for the liver models with inscriptions and signs such as are known from Significantly,the Greek word for god,7 theos,is intimately related to the art Assyria, Ugarit, Cyprus, and Etruria. of the seer: an interpreted sign is thesphaton,the seer is theopropos,and what he The inspection of entrails is the prime task of the seers who accompany the does is a theiazeinor entheaein.’ The Iliad seer Kalchas is the son of Thestor; armies into battle. Herds of victims are driven along expressly fhr hiera and the seer with second sight who is introduced into the Odjssev is called 8 sphagia — although also, of course, for provisioning. Without favourable Theoklymenos, and the tribe which guards the unique Oracle of the Dead in sacrificial signs no battle isjoined. At Plataea, Greeks and Persians remained Epirus is called the Thesprotoi.Insofar as the seer speaks in an abnormal state, encamped opposite each other for ten days because the omens — obtained by he requires in turn someone who formulates his utterances, the prophetes) the same techniques — did not advise either side to attack. Even that ‘Theword for seer itself, mantis,is connected with the Indo-European9 root for mercenary horde, the Ten Thousand, which plundered3 its way through mental power, and is also related to mania, madness. ’ barbarian lands, would never embark on a raid without sacrifices; when the In practice, however, the art of interpretation becomes to a large extent a omens remained unfavourabLe for several days they were threatened with quasi-rational technique. Any occurrence which is not entirely a matter of starvation, but an expedition undertaken in defiance of the signs did in fact course and which cannot be manipulated may become a sign: a sudden prove disastrous. Finally the right sacrificial liver came to light and the day sneeze, a stumble, a twitch; a chance encounter or the sound of a name 22 was saved. King Agesilaos could still be persuaded in 396 to abandon a 2caught in passing; celestial phenomena such as lightning, comets, shooting 32 2 the ° 23 campaign on basis of unfavourable omens. stars, eclipses’ of sun and moon, even a drop of rain. Here the transition to 33 24 Whether the credit for a victory was due to the commanding general or the scientific meteorology and astronomy is made almost inperceptibly. Then, of mantis was therefore a matter which was certainly open to dispute; at all course, there are dreams — ‘the dream also is from Zeus’ — but Penelope in the events, to have a good seer was of the utmost importance. At the time of the Odysseyalready knows that not every dream has a meaning. 25 Persian Wars, the Spartans went to exceptional lengths to secure the services The observation of the flight of birds plays a special role, perhaps from of the seer Teisamenos from the line of Melampus, who did in fact win five Indo-European tradition. This is the special art of the seers in the ancient great victories for them, including the victory at Plataea. And the epics, of Teiresias and Kalchas; their title is therefore also oionopolos.Oionos, Athenians, after their victory at Cnidos, in ordained in an inscription the bird of omen, is pre-eminently the bird of prey: whether one or several 394 that the seer Sthorys who had led them be granted Athenian citizenship. appear, and whether from right or left, is always of significance. The seer has seat;2 Alexander still had his seers; in the Hellenistic armies their influence his fixed 6 the association of right — good, left — bad is unequivocal; as a diminishes. rule the seer faces north. Nevertheless, the Greek seers do not seem to have That the seer creates the good omens in some magical way and so induces developed a fixed disciplinalike Etruscan and Roman augurs. In Homer, the 27 success is never articulated; rather it is believed that there is a complicated bird omens are poetic invention, unlikely contrivance, making the interpreta and tortuous path to the goal which must be discovered by means of signs. tion all the more self-evident. Nevertheless, a man like Xenophon2B still 6 The philosophical question as to how omens, predetermination, and freedom sought out a seer in the year 401 to discover what was meant by the fact that of the will can be reconciled was discussed extensively only in Hellenistic he had heard a perched eagle screaming to his right: this, he learned, was a times; the discovery of natural laws in the sphere of astronomy acted as a great sign, but one which also portended suffering; this knowledge helped catalyst to this discussion, and at the same time produced a new and him endure. enormously influential form of divination in the shape of astrology. In the Sacrifice, the execution of the sacred work, is followed with heightened early period one can always try to make something even of unfavourable attention; here everything is a sign: whether the animal goes willingly to the signs by waiting, circumvention, purification, repetition; conversely, it is altar and bleeds to death quickly, whether the fire flames up swiftly and important that even favourable omens be accepted with an approving word clearly, what happens at the burning in the fire, how the tail curls and the 37 or vow in order for them to achieve their fullest efficacy. Here In particular, the inspection of the livers of the victims we find bladder 29bursts. confirmation that the aid to decision-making, the gain in self-confidence, is developed into a special art: how the various lobes are formed and coloured is I 14 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 8.3 LI 8.2 ORACLES 115 more important than real foreknowledge, just as the seers decide above all installation uncovered through recent excavations dates only from the fourth what is to be done and what is not to be done without saying what will century; earlier structures were doubtless lost when that monumental new happen. building was erected. The centre is a square complex with walls of polygonal masonry three metres thick giving a Cyclopean appearance. Around this 8.3 Oracles z.uns the approach corridor, once completely dark, passing a bathroom, incubation and dining chambers, places for purification, for throwing a It is in the cults which attach to specific sanctuaries that the gods are present, stone, and for bloody sacrifice, and finally leading through a labyrinth with and their signs, too, are therefore concentrated on cult places. But success in many doors into the central chamber, beneath which a vaulted crypt the interpretation of signs could, more than anything else, carry the fame of a represents the world of the dead. Perhaps there was a machine for producing god and of his sanctuary far and wide. In this way, from the eighth century ghostly appearances — iron rollers which have been found are interpreted onwards, a supra-regional and even international importance was attained in this way — or perhaps the eating of certain kinds of beans had a by certain places where the god offers a service, chresmos,to those in search of hallucinogenic effect; numinous experience and manipulation may overlap. counsel; the Greeks called a place of this kind chresterionor manteion,the Comparable is the oracle of Trophonios at Lebadeia. A veritable journey Romans oraculum. Near Eastern and Egyptian sanctuaries had led the way into the underworld is reported by Pausanias 6from his own experience. After in such specialization;8 the oracles of Daphne near 39Antiocheia, Mopsuestia long preparations, the inquirer at the oracle is led at night time into a vaulted in Cilicia, 4Sura and Patara in 4Lycia, and Telmessos in 43Caria stand in chamber from which a whirlwind miraculously carries him through a Asia4 Minor tradition; the Greeks probably came to know the Amon oracle at small aperture above the ground; when he returns he is ’ unable to laugh. ° ’ This the oasis of Siwa shortly after the foundation of Cyrene about 63o. By that last detail, as well as the descent, kataba.ns, is also mentioned in the early time the Lydian King Gyges had already sent offerings of gold to 45Delphi. 57sources, but it is not known to what degree the theatrical, and perhaps even The methods of imparting oracles are almost as varied as the cult forms; mechanical, elaboration of the process is a product of the Imperial Age. attention is attracted first, of course, to the most spectacular mode, that in Dream oracles are more straightforward. After preparatory sacrifices, the which the god speaks directly from a medium who enters the state of inquirer spends the night in the sanctuary; priests are at hand to assist in the enthousiasmos. interpretation of the dreams. This incubation later flourished above all in Dodona, the sanctuary of Zeus in Epirus, boasted of being the oldest the domain of the healing8 gods, in the Amphiaraion at 59Oropos and in the oracle. The Iliad has Achilles pray to the Pelasgian Zeus of Dodona; ‘about Asklepieia. The practice, however, also leads back into Asia Minor tradition: you6 dwell the Helloi (Selloi?), the interpreters, with unwashed feet, sleeping the oracle of Mopsos in Cilicia was a dream oracle, as was the oracle of the on the 47ground.’ That remarkable body of priests later disappeared, and Telmessians in Caria. even their name is discussed only on the basis of this Iliad text. Odysseus Mopsos, grandson of Teiresias and rival of Kaichas, was also regarded as alleges he has gone to Dodona ‘in order to learn the plan of Zeus from the oak founder of the oracle at Klaros near Colophon. This oracle persisted of lofty foliage’; the Hesiodic Cataloguesperhaps already spoke of three through a number of crises and destructions6 into the Imperial Age, when it doves which8 dwell in the oak 49tree; according to later tradition it is three enjoyed its greatest renown. In the Imperial building a vault led beneath ° the priestesses who are called the 50doves; they enter a state of ecstasy, and temple to the sacred spring which, according to mythology, had gushed from ‘afterwards they do not know anything about what they have 5said.’ The the tears of Teiresias’ daughter Manto; the thespiodosdrank from this water excavations have exposed the simple tree sanctuary; not until’ the fourth and thereby became entheos.Whoever wished to enter in to the oracle was first century was a small temple added, after the Molossian kings of Epirus had required to undergo an initiation, myesis. assumed the protectorship of Dodona. From that time onwards, Dodona A sacred also 6 spring existed in the’ other great Apollo oracle of Asia Minor enjoyed a certain popularity; nevertheless, it is mostly private individuals at Didyma near Miletos. Here it was a priestess who entered a state of who on the surviving lead tablets approach the god for advice on everyday ecstasy while holding the laurel wand of the god in her hand, wetting her feet problems. with the water, and breathing in its vapours. In Patara in Lycia the The Oracle of the Dead at Ephyra must be of ancient repute and the priestess was shut up in the temple at night:6 she was visited by the god and name of the surrounding Thesprotoi’5 clearly points to their divine mission; filled with prophecy. ’ the association of Odysseus’ journey to Hades with this spot is probably There is no oracle of which so much is known or about which so much is in than Odyssey. two rivers of older our 53 The there were then given the names dispute as that of Pytho, the sanctuary of the Delphians. Originally, it is the rivers of the underworld, Acheron and 54Kokytos. About 6oo the tyrant said, the god gave responses here only once a year6 at the festival of his advent Periandros of Corinth conjured up the soul of his dead wife 55there. The in the 6spring; but as a result of the fame of the oracle, services came to be I i i6 RITUAL AND SANCTUARY II 8.3 II 8. ORACLES ‘17 offered throughout the entire year; indeed, at times three Pythiai held office Patara, and Telmessos are non-Greek, but nevertheless have no inspired at once. The Pythia is a woman dedicated to the service of the god for life; she divination; in the Branchos tradition of 77Didyma and also in Klaros pre is dressed as a young 6girl. After a bath in the Castalian spring and after the Greek elements may be present. In addition there is the tradition about the preliminary sacrifice of a goat, she enters the temple, which is fumigated with sibyls, individual prophesying women of early times who admittedly are barley meal and laurel leaves on the ever-burning hestia, and descends into known only through legend. The most famous sibyl was connected with the adyton,the sunken area at the end of the temple interior. This is where the Erythrai, but a sibyl is also supposed to have reached Delphi; it is interesting Omphalos stands and where, over a round, well-like opening in the ground, that a Babylonian sibyl is also mentioned. The sibyl of Kyme—Cumae the tripod cauldron is set up; the cauldron is closed with a lid and it is on this became most important by virtue 8of her influence on Rome; the conquest of that the Pythia takes her seat. Seated over the chasm, enveloped by the rising Cumae by the Oscans in the fifth century admittedly destroyed this tradition, vapours, and shaking a freshly cut bay branch, she falls into a trance. The but at the same time provides a terminusante 79quem. Heraclitus assumes as Hellenistic theory that volcanic fumes rose up from the earth has been well-known that the sibyl ‘with raving mouth . . . reaches over a thousand disproved geologically; the ecstasy is self-induced. Medium-like abilities are years . . . by force of the 8god’. The Delphian sibyl also called herself the not entirely uncommon. Admittedly it was also regarded as possible to bribe wedded wife of the god Apollo.° In 458 Aeschylus presented Cassandra on the Pythia. The utterances of the Pythia are then fixed by the priests in the stage as a frenzied prophetess;8 she refused to satisfy the desire of the god ’ and normal Greek literary form, the Homeric hexameter. in punishment her prophecies are no longer belicved. How the sibyl suffers The Apollo temenosin Delphi was obviously not founded before 75o; violence from the god is alluded to by Vergil82 8also. There are hints .of a nevertheless, the Iliad already speaks of the rich treasures held fast within the similar relationship between the Pythia and Apollo, even if it was only door-sill of the 6god. It is clear that in the founding of the Greek colonies in Christians who first elaborated this with sexual details. The priestess in the West and on the Black Sea from the middle of the eighth century the Patara had a relationship of this kind with her god8 and parallels are found instructions of the Delphian god assume a leading 68role. Once again this is elsewhere in Asia Minor, but this is manifestly not the case in Semitic less a matter of prediction than of helping to make decisions in these risky inspired divination; 8in Kiaros and on Mount a male seer is 86Ptoion seized by and often abortive undertakings. Later, important state constitutions are also the god. Inspired divination is again too complex for its origin and the submitted to the Delphian god for approval; this was done with the Spartan stations of its diffusion to be clearly defined. Rhetra which was attributed to Lycurgus and even with the thoroughly The preservation of oracular utterances was doubtless one of the earliest rational phylai constitution introduced by Cleisthenes in Athens in 510.7° applications for the art of writing in Greece, which began to spread about Apollo’s proper domain is cultic questions — innovations, restorations, and 750. The utterance is thereby freed from the context of question and answer, purifications in the cultic sphere. The sacred law of Cyrene and the aparche from the execution of the ritual, and can become of importance at another decree of Athens were both ratified by Delphi.” That Delphi manifestly place at another time. Age inspires respect; ancient sayings especially are failed to foresee the Greek victory in the Persian Wars and all too clearly therefore collected in writing and so are always ready to hand. That forgery recommended surrender badly damaged its reputation, in spite of all begins as soon as recording goes without saying. Sibyl oracles which last a attempts to reinterpret its pronouncements. Thereafter political decisions thousand years probably played a leading role among the written oracles; were increasingly taken without reference to the 72oracle. Instead, we hear later, probably about 6oo, oracles of Epimenides of Crete appear, then, of inquiries by private individuals such as Chairephon’s question whether overshadowing his, oracles of the ancient bard Orpheus and87of his disciple anyone was wiser than 73Socrates. Before joining Cyrus’ adventurous revolt 88Musaios. The oracles of Bakis, who claimed to owe his inspiration to against the Great King, Xenophon inquired at Delphi not whether he should the Nymphs, 8 become important at the time of the Persian Wars and even become involved or not, but ‘to which gods he should sacrifice in order to thereafter; Bakis seems to be an Asia Minor, Lydian name. His oracles take remain safe and sound’; in obedience to the response he sacrificed to Zeus the general form of a conditional prediction: ‘but when . a 74 . .‘; particular Basileus, and even though he achieved no great success, he at least returned event is alluded to in bold metaphors, often drawn from the animal world, safe. which will be followed by something terrible, very rarely something There was also a lot oracle in 75Delphi; this is also recalled by the formula gratifying; ritual advice is then given. Cities began to make official collections ‘the god took up’ (aneile) for the giving of the response. The inspired of oracles. Most long-lasting was the influence of the libri Sibyllini— written in divination is therefore clearly secondary; indeed, it is generally believed to be Greek — in Rome. In Athens, Onomacritus was charged with the task of of non-Greek origin. Frenzied women from whose lips the god speaks are collecting the oracles of Musaios about 520; the poet Lasos proved him guilty recorded very much earlier in the Near East, as in Man in the second of a forgery and Onomacritus was forced to leave Athens. Whereas millennium and in Assyria in the first 6millennium; Mopsuestia, Daphne, Herodotus energetically defends the authority of ’9Bakis,°9 the comedy of

Aristophanes

of i

Onomacritus surviving

Plato

nected

i8

ritual.

RITUAL

the

with

mockery

collection

Even

the

AND

presents

instead

editing

the

SANCTUARY

is

of

collections

compounded

became

highly

the

and

Sibylline

forging

dubious

the

of

with

exemplary

oracles

of

Oracles

literary

figures

a

moral

did

is

name

touting

texts.

condemnation

not

of

Judeo-Christian

become

for

oracle

the

problems

holy

books,

of

the

writ,

II

misuse

and

origin.

con

8.

the

in

different

reformed

so

more

and

ing,

the

to

the

only

about

ritual mediated

apart;

revelation fixed

Plato’s

be

a

understood

of

unquestioningly

opposite,

For

as Human

its

The

So

write

matter

But

The

the

understood

the

ritual,

same,

own

explanations

mythology;

and

for

easily the

in

rituals,

tradition,

programme

the

a

classical

various,

peculiar ‘gods’,

philosophy

the

polytheistic

gods: Greece,

the

terms,

speech

in

the

high

of

this

by

the

named

the

in

than

history

new

outsider.

course.’

by

even

at

images

divine

the

complex

anthropomorphism

fire

very

negatively

civilizations

elements

no

are

analogy

least

quality

drama

but

is

rituals,

combinations.

very

are

being,

form

if

festivals’

to

and

Veda

integrated

of

retains

in

they

world

substance

name

names

four

any

may

consist

The

invented,

fact

similar

unique

is

is

of

of

while

with

and and

may

are

easily

single

still in

different

Greek

a

distinctive

may

of

always

point

the

I

belong

and

of

sacred the

gods

no

the

man

continually

into

be

of

images

enacted

THE

cults

The

atmosphere,

fiction

the

and

be

dissolved,

god.

first

Pyramid

questions

described

myths

religion

iconography,

with

a

is

the

bound

etymologically

and

and SPELL

to

factors:

ancient

book.

do

plurality

nevertheless

meaning

instance:

The

Artemis,

personality

transcend

of

rituals

their

in

imagined

polytheism

Gods

can

in

living

within

OF

mythology,

texts; up

a

separated

The

and

fact

as

asked,

the

single,

the

always

world

various

HOMER

with

to

a

there of

of

this

Demeter,

established

especially

kind

dialogue.

world

appear

nor

divine

this

invoke

even

potentially

in

religion

of

transparent

personal

language

and

unique

makes

this

are

is

is

be

human

a common of

from

attributes

of

linguistic

there

of

no

god

language

name,

spread

an

found

under

course,

tales

opposite

writing

Heracles,

priestly

the

it

itself

is opposite,

one

performance,

local

any

form;

quite in

beings

chaotic,

constituted

cult framework

told

the

and

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