KEY THEMES IN ANCIENT HISTORY RELIGIONS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS
P.A. Cartledge GlareCollege,Cambridge SIMON PRICE P.D. A. Garnsey Jesus College,Cambridge
Key Themes in Ancient History aims to provide readable, informed and origi nal studies of various basic topics, designed in the first instance for students and teachers of Classicsand Ancient History but also for those engaged in related disciplines. Each volume is devoted to a general theme in Greek, Roman, or where appropriate, Graeco-Roman history or to some salient aspect or aspects of it. Besides indicating the state of current research in the relevant area, authors seek to show how the theme is significantfor our own as well as ancient culture and society By providing books for courses that are oriented around themes it is hoped to encourage and stimulate promising new developments in teaching and research in ancient history
Other books in the series Death-ritualandsocialstructurein classicalantiquity,by Ian Morris o 521 37465 0 (hardback), o i 37611 4 (paperback) Literacyandoraliyin ancientGreece,by Rosalind Thomas o 521 373468 (hardback), 0 52’ 37742 0 (paperback)
Slaveryandsocietyat Rome,by Keith Bradley o 521 37287 9 (hardback), 0 521 36887 7 (paperback) Law,violence,andcommuniçyin classicalAthens,by David Cohen o 521 381673 (hardback), 0 521 388376 (paperback) Publicorderin ancientRome,by Wilfried Nippel
o 521 38327 7 (hardback), o 521 387483 (paperback) V Friendshzin theclassicalworld,by David Konstan o 521 45402 6 (hardback), 0 521 45998 2 (paperback)
Sportandsociqyin ancientGreece,by Mark Golden o 521 49698 (hardback), 0 521 49790 6 (paperback) Foodandsocietyin classicalantiquity,by Peter Garnsey 0 521 641829 (hardback), o 521 64588 3 (paperback) CAMBRIDGE J• UNIVEi.sjry PRESS 10 Introduction I (iv) a stone temple built by the heroes Trophonios and Agamedes, burnt down In 548 22BC. CHAPTER 2 Though it might be tempting to find archaeological correlates of all four of these temples, the temptation should be resisted. Though there might Gods,mjthsandfestivals have been an eighth-century temple at Delphi constructed out of laurel and with an apsidal end, it is more likely that the laurel temple (i) is a refraction of the importance of the laurel in the cult of Apollo. There was an all-stone temple at Delphi from 675—650BC, but temples (ii),(iii) and (iv)are likewise mythical creations designed to express ideas about the ideal evolution of Delphi from nature to humanity through the divine and heroic spheres. According to a Christian writer of the second century, the Greeks had The point that we must not, in the first instance, interpret archaeolog 365 gods.’ For the proponent of one (Christian) god this alleged fact ical evidence in the light of written evidence can also be seen in another demonstrated the absurdity of Greek religion. Moderns too sometimes Deiphic example. A myth, perhaps originating in the Hellenistic period, assume the nobility and superiority of one supreme god (‘monotheism’) told how the site of Delphi was first discovered by a goatherd who had as against the proliferation of little gods (‘polytheism’).But the number lost some animals down a chasm in the 23rocks. When he approached of the Greek gods (not as great as 365) does not mean that those gods the spot, he was overcome by vapours and began to prophesy. A vivid lack significance, any more than does the multiplicity of gods in the story which was taken at face value by some modern scholars who Hindu tradition. In addition, proponents of monotheism (whether asserted that this explained the workings of oracular prophecy at Delphi. Jewish, 2Christian or Islamic) are often not ready to note the disruptive Unfortunately, the geology of Delphi is such that there can never have consequences of monotheistic intolerance or the extent to which alleged been actual vapours, and there was, at most, only a symbolic chasm in monotheisms contain plural elements. Within Christianity what about the temple itself. the Trinity, the BlessedVirgin Mars or the Saints? In fact the categories Archaeological evidence and the written record each need some care ‘monotheism’ and ‘polytheism’ do not promote historical under in their interpretation and should ideally be studied in isolation before standing. In both ethnography/anthropology and ancient history schol they are combined. The structures of the texts are themselves at least as ars have sometimes sought to ‘rescue’ polytheism by arguing for an interesting as the ‘factual’ details in them. One cannot pile together element of monolatry or henotheism, in which the power of one god in ‘facts’ culled from texts without regard for contexts, in categories of the pantheon is proclaimed as supreme. But the manoeuvre is condi which one isunconscious and which may wellbe inappropriate. The his tioned by a Judaeo-Christian evaluation3 of monotheism. The terms torian of Greek religions needs to be alert both to modern categories ‘polytheism’ and ‘monotheism’ are best abandoned to the theologians. and questions, and also to those of the ancients. PANHELLENIC MYTHS 22 Pindai EighthPaean58—99;Pausanias 10.5.9—13. Cf. Sourvinou-Inwood ‘979. 23 Diodorus Siculus ,6.s6. Cf. Price sg8, The principal Panhellenic Greek deities were quite limited in number, though infinitely extensible via epithets: Zeus, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hephaistos, Ares, Demeter, and
Proclaimed by Orpheus: Theophilus, ToAutolycus3.2 (trans. R.M. Grant, Oxford 1970); also Lactantius, DivsneInstitutes1.7.6-7 (trans. M,F. McDonald, Fathersof theChurch49, Washington DC 1964). Cf. below, p. i6i. Historiographical debates: Schmidt 1987; Hinduism: Fuller 1992. Desy in Schmidt 1987;Versnel ig9oa.
‘I
wine-drinking
for preserved
they
ideally
metalwork),
including fourth
contexts
ings places:
are topics iconographically
name latei,
sumposia
° contexts. 6 were
nurses. 7
earth,
8 there modern
not
canonical Homeric
(Apollo)
men’, Dionysos. 4
children. tional
“
12
p.
material.
Bérard
Xenophanes
beLow,
Plato,
Poseidon).
Homer,
Introduction:
The
Stories
the
127,
influenced
Poseidon
were
by
related,
were
Republic
(cf. ‘Painted’
myths was
for Hades
in
p. centuries
aristocratic
not
most
in
1989
Iliad
the Aristocratic
(formalised
129.
On
of
books
his
the
or
contests. 5
below,
the
The
buried
for
about
ancient
non-Greek
Children
all at
other
These
the
1.19—23,
other
e,cplores
Guthrie
2t.469;
others
377a;
these outstanding
notable
6
a
fifth
its
was
Athenian king
be
us
that
were
were
imagery
Bwton
family
by
niece
because
and
criticisms
head,
BC
Dionysios
p.
because
this
lumped
‘chthonic’
and
in
century
a
trans.
Oyssey
now ‘twelve
version
1950.
pots
of
Greek
they
the
are
first
22).
depict
However,
complementar 9
chamber
1994: drinking
heard
men
wall
omnipresent
tellings
of
family
verbally.
the
(Athena)
structure
imagery
Loch
Hera
For
fresh
slaves,
the
lost
of
The
is
cousin
all
of 6.329-30,
it
a8—66.
together
artists
some
sumposion.
underworld Gods,
myths.
they in
sumposion
charts
Olympians’,
BC,
Halikarnassos,
scenes
important.
and
Elegy
served
lived
the
works
(chthon
were
archaic his
creations
thousands
of
of
parties)
tombs,
approaches formed
the
working They
the
of
for
were
and
myths
myths
might
Greek
sister—wife,
Athenian
was
13.341—2.
of
on
together
is
of
Demeter.
extent
Iambus
to told
as example,
in
Greeks
pottery
in
very
the
Myth-telling
were
the
and
important
exported
andfestivals
display
‘Greek’.
were
other
‘earth’)
liked
Thucydides
a
of and
They
at
myths
to
or
sanctuaries
yield
the
s,
of
pottery;
Cf.
family.
day
in
gods
of
Dionysos
misleading.
criticised classical
the
see
the
also
represented
on were
extant
his
Euripides, number
designed
to
detail
different
What
media
and
Lissarrague
one
on
four
are
individual
gods
to
6—7;
and
knees
were
Mount
tell
Many
very
wife
to
Carpenter
Zeus,
up
not
the
see
mythical the
an
cf.
the
and
vases
myths. 8
Etruria
fifth-century
Greece
of
mattered
heroes.
who
McGinty
usual visible
(paintings,
Aristophanes,
the Persephone.
to
Troades
that
bothered
and
of others
uncle
family
in
of
1990.
product
There
states ‘father
(portico)
the
Olympos
a
in
works
lived
of
absurd
the their
1991
pot
the
point:
became
48--52
many
pottery
attending
As
festivals,
in
Some in
and
1978.
the
his
(Poseidon)
first
pots, trees
systematises was
painter.
and other
Italy was
beneath
of
we
tales;
mothers
whether
of
Wasps
seventh
tapestries,
of
(Athena
siblings
gained
a
historical
BC
gods
instance
that
and
different
of
shall
Homer nephew
given
conven
though
cf.
no
for
should
artists,
where
public
paint
1174
them
below,
both their
The
they
that
one
the
and
and
this
the
see
if;
its
or
to
or
or
in in
I
war,
the Homer’s both
remedied
stories
articulation inspiration
and learned
wonderfully
a scheme that
Giants, the
readily
on the
Pergamon
Typhoeus).
which
Zeus divine p.
legacy
Greek about morphism:
their
battle
Homeric
gods
and
1.178-323).
struggle
Homer
The
127),
which
exploits
other
then
iconography
and
all
Hesiod.
claim
power
and
and
were
pantheon,
divine
being
the
pre-eminence
understand
Homer
which
in
the
of
and
Iliad
the
often
their
the
° gods
° ‘°
stories
how
and
the
that
of the
narrator Greece,
for
in
16.778),
gods
known
Homes
that
Cf.
Griffin
of
Such
definitive.
leisurely dramatic
Theogony
and
The
focuses
(daimon).
altar
interventions,
the
north-west
does
monument.
Smith
human
later
conflated
the
own
equally
Hesiod
the
against
he
the
and
which
g8o:
their
about
Homeric
Iliad of
interactions
divine
divine
stood
mastered
the
or
not
to Greek
1991:155—80.
ignorance.’ 2 sometimes
accounts,
uses,
on
gods
is
the
2.4 8 4-(J3; viewer
giants of
544—204;
how
the
Hesiod’s
Neither
protagonists:
frieze,
emphasises
were, the
a
appear
four
has
the
Hesiodic
the
celebrated
Gods 5
genealogy
order
omniscience
massive
but
Asia
author.
pantheon,
are
Athena
It
giants
narratives
at
they
were
days
two
Vernant
to
gods,
Hesiod,
challenges
deals
but
See
as
indeterminate
which
like
myths
its
in
author
between
Minor
appreciate
criticised
against
Theogony
running
we
further
Nor
battles
centre
use
of
the
the
also
Subsequent
(Fig.
thinking
gave
that
altar
humans.
with
1991:
Theogonj presuppose
the
of
andfestivals
fighting
have
how
invented
attributes
not
was
but
Theogony,
When
describe
LZMC 4 :
of
claims labelled
the
in
27—49;
gods
2.
guidance
successful
a
of
the
the
of
to
gods
is
the
i).
rio
the
this
the
either by Apollo
threat
seen,
gods,
the
the
can
a
it
establishment
battle The
Zeus
were
cf.
during
Though
Muses,
202—7;
metres
terms
characters
systematic
divine
names
later
by
second
did
writers,
and
also
the
Titans
complex
interactions
but
would
be
of
a
privileged
not
writer
from
casual to
other
also
Burkert
K5stner attacked
struggle
and
degree
the
of
seen,
not
battle
Hesiod’s
humans,
Telemachos
the
generations
like
daughters
a
revelation,
round
of
the
this
and
recounting
gods
century
unlike
permit
mean
therefore,
outside
Athena
comprehensive.
ten-year
powers
199i.
iconographical
for
observer
a
specific
1994.
in
treatise
of
Gods
of
was
of
the god
of
texts
and
the between
Patroclus
Homer
example,
the humans,
account
the
and
that
anthropo
these
the
Giants.”
of
BC.
a
(t/zeos)
was
podium
and
(Titans,
built
the
though
Trojan
Giants
deities,
(below,
on
in
rule
lasting
could
Zeus,
could
of
more
their other
The
arid
fact
talk
the
the
the
the
the
all
of
or
in
at
of
in
in ‘3 Gods,nyths 15 14 Gods,mythsandfestivals andfestivals of mythological works took particular themes, such as love stories, trans formation tales or genealogies. The principal extant example is the Librarysaid to be by Apollodorus (first or second century Al)), which is organised in terms of mythical genealogies, and which has been the foundation for many modern handbooks of Greek mythology’ Given that Greek myths were not rigid, it is methodologically very important respect individual teffing 4 that we the or representation of the myths. It is absurd to weave together a compendium of Greek mythology from extracts in different authors.’ Reflection on the5standing of the stories of Homer and Hesiod is attested already in the sixth and fifth centuries 6BC,’ and the iconogra phy of sanctuaries also demonstrates the existence of privileged stories about the gods. Difficulties arose when historians and antiquarians sought to construct narratives down to the present on the basis of myth ical tales. Was it reasonable for a writer in the classical period to treat a traditional tale about Theseus, the hero who united Attica, in the same way as one about the tyrant Peisistratos in the sixth century BC? Some writers did attempt to do just this, for example Hellanicus, writing the first history of Attica in the 4208 BC; later historians of Attica, in the fourth century, were similarly committed to recounting a continuous Fig. 2.5. Part of the east frieze of the altar of Zeus and Athena, Pergamon (height tradition from Kekrops, the first king of Athens. But others took a more 2.3om). In the centre Zeus is about to slay, with the thunderbolt in his right hand, a 131). kneeling giant (Porphyrion?). To the left a captured giant watches; to the right a snake- critical line to distinguish mythical from human history (below,p. legged giant (Typhon?), below the eagle of Zeus. Just where that line was to be drawn was a matter of arbitrary personal judgement. Herodotos put King Minos of Crete in the mythical cate gory unlike the sixth-century tyrant of Samos Polycrates (3.122), while fillin the gaps left by Homer and Hesiod — such were the other, now lost, Homeric epics of the archaic period, and (especially important for Thucydides was perfectly happy to refer to Minos’ dominion of the sea mythology) the Catalogueof Women,a continuation of Hesiod’s Theogony (i.). Four hundred years later the geographer Strabo still found it nec which was accepted in antiquity as being by Hesiod but which probably essary to assert his (personal) distinction between myth and history (1.2.35). dates to the sixth century BC. They were also, as we shall see, at liberty Some degree of rationalisation was necessarç from the classical to offer novel tellings of familiar tales. The tradition of telling and re period onwards, if myth was to be recuperated for history. telling myths extends from the archaic period right down to the mid-fifth Modern approaches to these myths have been very varied, but all dis century Al) when Nonnos composed his great epic on Dionysos.’ tance themselves from Plato’s rejection of others’ myths as obnoxious Ancient scholarly handbooks of mythology were composed mainly and therefore false stories and all assume that myths are ways of con 3 structing meaning, whether they are Greek myths of gods and Titans, between c. 250 BC and Al) 150, but they could not cope with all the vari ants and conflicting versions. They fell into two types. One set of Christian myths of the incarnation or New Age myths of Atlantis.’ mythological studies collected myths to aid in understanding major 7 Greek authors. For example, in the imperial period there circulated a 14 Henrichs 1987. For best translation and commentary of Apollodorus see Aldrich 1975 and Simpson 5976;also Loeb and World’sClassics. huge collection of myths as background to Homer. The second category 5 Morford and Lenardon 1995,a work so much used for teaching that it is now in its fifthedition; 16 cf. Rose 1958. Xenophanes, below,p. 157; Herodotos, above, p. 6. ‘ Cf. Calame 1991a on Greek categories ‘myth’and ‘ritual’. “ Bowersock 1990: 41—9; Hopkinson s994. There needs ing different the Enlightenment)
the names stories Zeus Indian books,
thing. the Indo-European an Aphrodite Ishtar the allels bone
origins. When son for Ouranos whom secretly with threw prehensible name a
the
21
The
Greek
Edmunds Aphrodite, between Dowden Friedrich See
amalgam
objectives
details
a
function
main
fear
Kronos
succession
reference Pater between
Mondi modern
to
of
But
is
is
are
Kronos
of
the
he Zeus origins
Dyaus
and
In
to
cognate
approaches
be
no
of
them
context, Hesiod’s 1992
their
used divinity
had
1978;
certainly 5990,
etymology
are
Zeus the Vedas,
were see
zo.
(father)
eclectic,
being
to
one his
had with
of
the
and
survey
one
below,
Aphrodite
largely
swallowed beginning
Burkert of
model
and Bruit
gods castrate Pitar to
to
story
relation onto
the mythology on
Calarne
at with
modern
grown
has, prevent elements Greek Near
Phoenician of
some
as
the 20 pp.
overthrown
Theogony,
Zaidman his Crete is least
varied.’9
deities.2°
go
depending
seem
Dumezil
the
(the the 1987b; the main exist
cognate
76—7.
the lost
tells
of and
Titans.22 1996:
back
him.
Eastern
to of
up
Gods, in myths
Sumerians
father Greeks)8
were myth
current and, and ancient and
sky), to method
his
in one to see us
and
Ouranos,
borrowed
5—55.
its
part
does
he
1968—73:
to us,
Kronos
the The
various
reveal 22
very In
further
children
the gave
myths
with
Schmitt elements
with
needs
Gala
forced
Astarte,
indo-European
approathes. Detienne
Vernant regarded
have (which
by
and
Although
deities. the
on
modelled our
not
succession
Indian
love
Greeks
little,
which 1.51.
Kronos
one
Burkert
Roman their
the
andfestivals different
origins
(Earth),
circa with
survive Pantel earliest
to in interested ‘Heaven’.
Near
from
his
ig8o:
goddess
and being
arose
material be
turn
Knowing
of
can
and
Buxton
word
suggest
and
father were
in
the is
Vernaut 1992a:
3,000
ig9:
the
alert
i86-zj,a
on
the
a Eastern
them
of
Dies
the
in
be list,
swallowed and
evidence the stone priority
aspects
born
other
in
earth
those
story
for I9 the Near 543—214,
of
Indo-Europeans a
in
88—127.
to
prototypes.
many understood
to to
key
the 1978:
one pure
remains
also Ouranos
ancient
Pater
until
the for that
‘sky’ the fact,
argues
Greek
to
until
disgorge 2,100
people’s
is languages,
the
East. deities.2’
eighteenth-century to 57—530.
of
is devour
should example
and Near
dangers For fully
has
form.
scholars.
the
makes
earlier
Rhea
(Jupiter) a considering
for
Greek all
his
the
origin
Gala
good BC, a
Graf
gods
Indian The
eclecticism.
Near
(hypothetical)
cult
(Heaven),
assimilated mythologies;
own
East
Most
subject;
much aid,
the
It
in the be
introduction.
1993a: more
The
gave versions incited
of
of
that
close is
and
of
including
his
ideas
Though
given
children
children and manna, he and
Phoenician Eastern
Semitic already
impos
clearly
sacred
every
place.
better
back
chs.
See
Zeus’
their
birth over
com
par
and
one
the
the
but
his
also
to
of r—o
to
of
the
rituals. close formulation tainly said swallowing as modern Much traced suggest matter emphasis data rituals.26 posite myths if little detection theory ‘primitives’. rituals. Athena prevented first entail the and That swallowed
rary
The
Enuma A
not The
Akkadian
struggles
wife
Hesiod’s
and to light meanings.
variation
parallels 20 26 25 25
is,
recited
that
figure
of continued
all
Myths of Versnel origins Trans. back Hesiod, Burkert search hypothesised
In
that
be
hunter—gatherer and
study
Initiation
this Metis an
of on
myths,
fact on
Elish,
the fact,
the
Metis,
and
derived
Dailey
whose initiation
the inadmissible
of
then
‘initiation’
rqgob: to Greece 1983, epic
at Theogony is lying
succession
myth for to
of of
classical
birth of
of
wishful the
a
(‘Cunning
this
the
dating
the
need
Hesiod’s
to
origins
for supported stone.
origins 1q89:
gave myths
of
to
this
rituals
Greek
behind
be
borrowing
had
886—goo;
new
from
of
old
creation,
palaeolithic
a
of that,
example, 233—77.
rituals
for
told
Greece birth son
search
probably
thinking
the
as
historic
no
has
Gods,
have
myths
year
theory cannot
societies; by
or
retrojection
configurations
such
succession or
actual
a
while
Intelligence’) in “
cf.
who the
meaning
Versnel
son.
category ‘rites
to
can
himself
specific
Burkert
Aeschylus, the
festival
myths
sometimes
also
for
had
of 24
lead
present that
rituals
make
periods.
would
based
be
Zeus’ sacrificial
be
to
classical
Versnel rituals
199ob.
ritual
de
period
a
meaning
parallels
been
5983:
very
the
the
andfistiuals
rather
to
myth
of
for passage’
local
of to
Agamemnon
for in
good
of
is
a
Cf.
rule on
i99ob.
end the
second 150—4; overthrow
sovereignty
Athena
the
gods,
few Babylon.23 had procedures.24
synchronic
was
sought located
are
understanding
the known below,
and
by
from
a
myths
arbitrary
rituals
Athenian
with Greek
was
Greeks. of
peculiar
initiation through below, different
been
to
practice
means
168—75. are
Jater
including
pp.
an
millennium
have
the
(through
in
not
animal from
at
35—6,
are
held
pp.
enquiry
Zeus. sense
themselves
lost periods.
their
The a of Near
Aphrodite
study
and 91—5,
to
selection
given indeed
of
from
origins on very
arrhephoroi.27
its of
rituals
to
the In
be
or
sacrifice.
behaviour
also
both in
in
on relationship stories first
parallels
Zeus
underlie
contemporary
his
East
of
into
one transformed,
challenged.28
the
world. the deep
arrhephoroi.
emphasising BC,
birth
Compulsive
contempo sometimes castration,
head),
two
and
lays
myth
of
originals,
are therefore
end
is myths
does
and
modern
contain
level.25
a
first
words
Greek
so
many
Zeus’
great
com
from
As
casts then then
cer
and
and
not
the
to
or
to
a Godc,mythsandfestivats Gods,mjthsandfestivals ‘9 The most influential contemporary studies of the synchronic mean an appropriate action by the deity whose name included the words Ge ings of myths, originating in France, have shown how Greek myths are (earth) and Meter (mother) and whose specific sphere of responsibility ways of thinking about issues fundamental to society. They have was agriculture. The resulting famine would have led to the end oF the explored the structures of thought and particular tellings of myths as human race and would hence have robbed the Olympians of the rites structures that are common to many or all of the surviving versions. offered to them by mortals. That roused Zeus to action and he per Analyses have been made both of texts and of images. The foundations suaded Hades to let Persephone return to her mother arid the of civilisation and its defence against disorder preoccupy both Hesiod Olympians, though by a ruse Hades ensured that she would stay with and the kings of Pergamon. This reading of the story is fairly unprob him under the earth for a third of each year. The power of the female lematic, except that, in Hesiod, the Titans are not external monsters but god was immense, but it was ultimately circumvented by that of the male kin of Zeus who have to be expelled from the society of heaven. Not all gods.Au analogy is established between the fertility of Demeter and that foes can be so easilyidentified or conquered. Other myths might explore of the soil with a further suggestion that her mysteries were connected the limits of rule by one man. In the story of Oedipus, that his name is with human mortality and 34afterlife. derived from his lameness suggests the unsoundness of his royal rule. Similar stories left-handedness or lameness circulated concerning of LOCAL MYTHS Greek tyrants of the seventh century BC, which shows the durability of some patterns of 29thought. In addition, major members of the The Panhellenic myths of Homeu Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns also Panhellenic pantheon were female, an obvious fact, but one whose had their local versions which either rooted the myths in the local com implications for a patriarchal society are surely surprising and far reach munity or elaborated significantly different versions of the myth. Local ing. Athena or Demeter were at least sometimes classified as ‘female’ myths might concern the Olympians or they might relate to a further rather than simply as ‘divine’,and myths involving goddesses sometimes order of beings, ‘heroes’, normally conceived as mortals who had died address social issues such as the definition of gender roles. Myths also and who received cult at their tomb or at a specific sanctuary Heroes is 3 were very (in Attica alone 170 worshipped). relate to local rituals, but even so their interest not merely° aetiological, numerous over heroes were and they too have their own structure of meaning. They ranged from major Attic heroes like Erechtheus or Kekrops, wor One example of the way a myth can3 incorporate contemporary shipped in the Erechtheion on the Akropolis, down to minor and some meanings is provided by the myth of Demeter’ and Persephone as told times even anonymous heroes worshipped only in a particular deme (like in the sixth-century BC Hjmn to32Demeter. The hymn tells of the seizure Hyttenios at Marathon, or Heros latros, the hero physician, near the of Demeter’s daughter Kore (‘maiden’) or Persephone by Hades, and Athenian Agora).’ Demeter’s search for her. It has an oblique relation to the mysteries of Pausanias’5 Guidebookis a wonderful repository of the stories told to Demeter and Persephone celebrated at Eleusis (below,pp. 102—7) in that him in the second century An and thus a neat refutation of the view that the mourning Demeter disguised as an old woman is given hospitality the Greeks somehow outgrew mythology with the growth of ‘rational’ by the king of Eleusis and, when she reveals her true identity, bids a 36thought. For example, the Athenians told of a contest between Athena temple to be built to her there and later teaches her secret mysteries to and Poseidon for the control of Attica; the event was depicted on the the leaders of the 33Eleusinians. But the hymn is not a narrowly local west pediment of the Parthenon (Fig.2.2). Poseidon created with a blow aetiological myth; it concerns general Panhellenic themes. Demeter in of his trident a salt spring on the Akropolis, while Athena planted there her anger at the theft of Persephone prevented the crops from growing, the first ever olive tree. Athena was adjudged the victor, but Poseidon in pique flooded a plain north-west of Athens, until a final reconciliation ‘° Vernant 5982; Ogden 1997; Ginzburg Iggo: 226-g5 speculates on this pattern. Loraux ,gg; below, pp. 98—100. 31 Introduction: Tyrrell and Brown 199T. was brought about. Athena Polias became the guardian deity of the city, 32 Parker 1991; compare below, p.45 on Homeric Hymns. Trans. in Foley 1994 (or Loeb He.riodand but the mythical contest left its material remains (Fig. 2.3). The unique HomericHymns). Clinton 1992: 28-37 argues that the Hymnwas an aetiology for the Thesmophoria, but this view does not account for the overall thrust of the piece. See Nixon 1995. Kearns ig8g; ,gg; Larson 1995. 36 Veyne 1988.
Akropolis king
the
had
plan
spring
Herse,
restoration
Fig. and
20 Erechtheion,
2.2.
Poseidon
burned
of
of
Erysichthon
within
A
Athens,
the
montage of
i.o6.,
he
(right).
the
Erechtheion
it
was
the in
27.2;
sculpture
were
and
of
480
which
On
building
shown
Herodotos
the
Aglauros.
the
BC. 37
both
west
showing
had
left
was
both
Gods,
front
where
worshipped,
8.55.
(after
regenerated
(No.4
due
(in
the
of
Parker
myths
two
the
the
in
Poseidon
on
salt
unknown
celitre)
1987b.
part
Parthenon,
Fig.
andfestwals
spring and
2.14.)
miraculously
to
Below,
the
and
figures)
the
when
struggle
and
Athens.
p.
need
Erechtheus,
4°,
are
the
Pausanias
on
between
In
Kekrops,
to
the
after
olive
the
incorporate
Akropolis.
pediment
the
Athena
tree
the
Pandrosos,
visited
Persians
behind
second
(left)
is
the
a
the
1 Fig.
2.3.
III
II
I
Athena;
Western Restored
marks; thunderbolt Erechtheus;
Pandroseion: megaron Hermes; Eastern
chimney; of
the
priests.
I.
for
section:
R.
section:
Aduton
L.
plan
M.
the Altar
Kailimachus’
on C.
Booty
0.
of
wooden
Altar
the
for
A.
Tomb
F
of
the
North
Altar
rocks
the
from
Zeus
of Erechtheion
Gods,
cult
tomb
of
the
below; of
the
Herkeios.
lamp
porch;
Kekrops;
statue
Hero
Zeus
mjt/zs
Persian
of
with
Erechtheus
H.
G.
Hypatos;
Boutes; of
(1—4o5
andfestival.s
Prostomiaion,
P. Altar
eternal
Wars;
Athena
Temple
B.
of
B.
N.
ac)
and
fire
Altar
Thyechoos,
Polias;
Altar
Porch
of
(No.
and
the
Pandrosos;
salt
of
of
K.
6
sacred
bronze
of
Hephaistos;
on
sea
Poseidon
Wooden
the
with
Fig.
and
snake;j.
Maidens.
palm Q
2.14).
marks
the
Olive
and
statue
tree E.
trident
Aduton
of
Thrones
tree
of
the of or 21 42 40
‘ Xenophon.)
‘
the Athenian
Greek
central the
spot
grounds
Persians prototype
describing
story
Amazons
carvings
BC
and to
battle
covery’
Theseus
encamping
(who Athenian
ing
Greece,
story
ical
and Theseus
side
22
Blok
See, vase-paintings.
Theseus: Theseion:
9.27.
Koumanoudis
marshalling
informed Pausanias
Athens
A
and
Theseus
Greek
local
to
and
probably
of
for
of Theseus
1995;
fine
Amazons
glorified
of
Theseus
bore
Pausanias)
world.
to
example,
their
of
the
of
but
Dubois
made
T. 42
two
on
about cult
the
and
had Pausanias
1.15;
Walker
one
the
world
was
victory
Athenian
at
the
of
for
the
their
Agora
the
him on
1976;
in
The
Parthenon: Athenian
Athens
Camp
conflict
of
removal
somewhere
on
and
the
Ephesos,
city’s
the
of
acquired
bones
(Remember
far
Chuvin on
1982;
fighting
battle
the
then
the
Athens
fifth-century
1995;
Akropolis,
the
the
historical
towns
otherwise great
Athena
Castriota Amazons.
1.17.2.
a
point
in
the
over
5986:
from
the
displayed
Athenian Athenians
Tyrrell
sense
Athenian
Parker
Areopagos
defeated
son,
forces
of
the
1987
example
was
between
Castriota of
Athenian
Cf victory
to
reliefs
66—72;
claimed
the
Theseus
as
for
unique
and
unattested the
1992:
comes
on
fact
Barron Plataia
and
Athens 1984
1996:
at
of
depicted
Gods,
Hippolytus).
scenes,
near
the
certainly
Hierapolis treasury
the Persians
Castriota
The
the
example,
communal
Amazons,
33—63.
brought
Athens
on that
1992:
on
Poseidon.
the Tyrrell
168—70;
against
Attic
claim
resistance of
1972,
Greeks
defender
to myths
in
over
battle
cult
hill
its
defeat
the
on
Painted
in
the
where Amazons.
143—51.
at
village be
the
described
a
having esp.
1992:
and
and
rear
in
479
Mills
the
Delphi:
at
local
on
opposite
a
the west
at
it
Agora. 39
and
in
most
the
back deity
33—40
a
Lindner
offers
Marathon
position
Brown
and
Oenoe;
received
of
76—89. Aegean of
the
identity
The
BC
The
1997. the
they
wall
mural festivats
the
birthplace
Stoa
of
threatening
Oenoe
to
locally
hero
Robertson
end the
for
between
vividly
shield Amazons
to
was
The
by
i99i Greek
civilised
In ancient
the
Peloponnese
were
two
5994 Persia.
a
Amazons
alleged
built
the Athens
Spartans
fact
before
of
in
Theseus’
Pausanias:
scene
island
of
myth
in
worshipped
a
Pride
story
159—88;
on
rooted paintings
in
Pausanias
of
that
specifically
the
Akropolis.
buried
honour
ig:
action
in
C.
influence
Nysa.
of
victory
may
Marathon.
490
the
cult Athena’s
Indeed
female 460
(male)
was
the
X of
grew
analogous
Parthenon. 4 °
was
an
John sanctuary
167—70.
rather
at
invaded
Greeks
BC
myths.
Skyros
of
or
may BC
Amazon
defeat
in
well is
confrontation
of
the
Oenoe. 38
taken
described
partly
Henderson
of
with
the
Artemis
and
at
Amazons. 4 ’
on
the have
the
all
values a
have
Amazons
Herodotos
local
In
cult
Athenians
mytholog
sanctuary
known
Troy,
favoured
painting
the
over
in
All
shown
and
(accord
the
been both
story
a
of
on
to
Attica,
and
statue
476/5
north
bride
twist.
great
over
i99;
as
The
was
‘dis
The
mis
the
the
and
the
the
the
by the
the
on
in
in
in
of a
‘
affecting
Dionysos. 45
refuge
of
Athens
also
sometimes
times
often
Ephesos Artemis
image
at
dramatised
Amazons,
century
Fig.
nos.
Fleischer
though
Birth:
Acts
Some
the Ephesos
2.4.
ifiustrated
of
claimed
claimed
and
city Strabo
AD).
in
Part
the
the
(Fig.
of
local
of
in
who also
.
particular
Apostles
‘tradition’
Bammer
the
right
Greeks
Artemis,
On
of
the
had
Artemis
in only
14.1.20;
seek
claimed
frieze
myths
on
city
the
that
in
sanctuary
Ephesians.’ 43
through a sanctuary
19.23—41;
under
foundations the
the
1974:78—82;
to
was
Acts
Appendix
much
from
The
her
be
did
remained
Aegean
local
disputed
communities,
which
that
Herakles
of
cult
temple
benevolence
shouted
Oster
not
more
antiquity.
with
the
of
no.
story
Gods,
see
Price
Artemis
had
(Weiss
simply
Not had
1976.
Tacitus,
island Apostles
15.
of
Arten-tis,
Artemis
(marked
1984a:
positive
the
Rogers
of
myths
Artemis
been
down
1984:
only
supposedly
how
protector
Annals
had
invoke
of
255—6.
they
of (on
205
andfestival.s
established
igi:
by
was
when
Delos).
and
by
the
both Artemis
significance been block
n.52).
his
4.5
Other
68—g,
offered
Ephesos
the
Hadrian,
Panhellenic
Amazons
club
-6;
Paul
to
both born
from
scenes
The
Weiss
fallen crowd
right,
and
towards
preached
by
a of
5984;
Ephesos
Ephesians
there
in lion’s
guardian
Herakies
Amazons,
not
at
LJ7vIC
Amazons:
successfully
refraction
from
chanting
the
belo
deities
Ephesos
preserved).
cape)
(and
the
1.603
Amazons
(early
in
heaven,
p.
Amazons
scare
of
Bammer
the
also
no.
not
and
156.
in
who
fourth
‘Great a
249,
than
actions
of
unique theatre
sought
off
as
some
from
thus
four 5.765
1976,
and
was
the
but
at
is
is 23
which
moreover
One only
view
century the
(Figs. nicely. 46
civic
emphases. existed
structures Panhellenic
Fig.
24
2.5.
Greek
reflect
deities
from
2.5—2.8).
series
was
Seizure
at
BC
Seven
both
emphasise
Athens
in
of
Though
the
city
have
looked
deity
adds other
46
of
the
The
series
Panhellenic
Sourvinou-Inwood
the
Persephone
of
been
or
pantheon
through
an
Greek very
Panhellenic
scenes
Locri
all
of
Ephesos
her
entirely found
accepted
clay
different.
sphere
Gods,
by
in
depicted
the
myth
relief
mature,
varied
southern
in
where
1978.
mjtlis
lens
normally
and
new
the
by
of
the
The
For
plaques
bearded
and
extending
Persephone’s with of
the
Athena
andfestwa/s
sanctuary
data
ultimate
dimension
case
local
Italy
local
particular
see
under
different
from
Hades.
also
of
and
concerns.
illustrates level,
the
Pruckner
it
supremacy
of
the the
into Artemis
to
seizure
cult
Persephone
symbols
local
and
protection first
the
that
1968.
of
For
the
half
the
selections
Persephone
by
were
cult,
of
of
in
Panhellenic
Greek
Hades,
point
of
marriage,
Zeus,
them
of
the
at
the
namely
Hera.
Locri
chief
gods
very
fifth
and
but
not
the
at
divided
ally there
us,
and was
our the
For
female
but
Locri
Persephone goodbye.
Fig.
Deuhner offer
1992
however,
names
2.6.
has
tiamed
the
a
because
29
introductions
and were
firm
Persephone
Girl
activities
February)
into
incorporated
This
Greeks, 1996
1932
of
structure
voluntarily
some
after
three
series
the
as
include
is
the
the
the
a
in
‘Greek
one
which
months
alignment
a
may
common
protector
basic
English,
groups
was
lacks
good
festival
of
FESTIVALS
entering
way
have
the
study
studies
various
done
were
though
Calendar’
the
varied
of
spheres
been
of Gods,
(in
celebrated
principles.
of
of
usual
chariot
ten
of
German)
central
dealing
haphazardly
both
dedicated
one
lunar
children
calendars
mjths
in
days;
works AND
of
festival,
Panhellenic
the
of
is
of
marriage
something
to
young
and
and
with
the
are
different
during
Attic
There
SACRIFICES
by
the
the
(as
unsatisfactory
festwals
individual
of
women
solar
festivals.
man;
Panathenaia.
the
by
community.
Demeter
festivals
were
that
association
different and
multiplicity
years
ethnic
her
of
on
Parke
month:
female
a
marriage.
children,
in
twelve
months
nightmare,
and
their
by
was regions
1977
cities.
intercalation
interpretations.
friends
sacrifices. 47
and
with
elsewhere).
months,
Lenaeon
of
were
that
E.
of
their
However,
say
Demeter,
Simon
because
Greece,
is
gener
those
each
gods
Neils was
1983
For
(as
At 25
a
members
fifty-five
Mysteries; proclaimed
ities
begin years.
which
to
Pythia
2.9).
the
may
Fig.
26
town
Appendix
On
be
month 2.7.
be
by
these At
sent
so
But
a
in
the Procession
(at
or
bridal
the
that
days
Aetolia
no.
of
and
the
Delphi)
against
out
in
Panhellenic
they
by
15.
the
Panhellenic
people
which
other
robe
uncertainties
each
both
heralds
clans
of
protested
in
to
the
female
sacred
every
central
be
the
cycle
could
for
of
dedicated
host
twice
Lenaia,
festivals
periods’
the
priest
four
level,
the
Gods,
to
attend
Greece
of
city
vigorously
Eumolpidae
announce
a
and
Lesser
years,
calibration
to
(hieromeniaz)
there
myths
year;
and
a
should
Persephone).
four
the
Dionysiac
b
‘contrary
the
competitors. 48
andfestivals
festival
in young
was
and
when exactly
see
be
spring
Isthmia
and
meant
agreement
for
women
Rougemont
held;
festival,
and
to
Kerykes,
in
the
and
when
the
that
and
to
carrying
the
367
laws
The
prevent
Greater
autumn,
was
1973;
sacred
Nemea
the
as
Olympia
were
BC
common
Athenians
celebrated
to
a
Dillon
festival
robe
the
the
open
heralds
arrested
Eleusinian
a
every
(which
igg:
truce
heralds,
years
and
hostil
would
to
(Fig.
also
had
i—TI;
two
the
the
by
of
in
r
°
until
invasion
to
periods’,
presentation
Greeks’. 49
series
Fig.
Thucydides
IG
1983:
ravage
2.8.
,
their
was
6.a
no.
Persephone
probably
17—27,
the
140
not
Epidaurus
task
There
5.54(419
to
(c.
2 7 th
Persephone.
to
36—47.
422
was
be
dedicated
Bc);
seated,
ac).
was
of
profaned
completed. 5 °
trans.
Tod
just
the
also
opening
Fornara
2.137,
before
previous
by
agreement
Gods,
parents
trans.
by
1983:
box,
military
the
myths
Conversely
Harding
month,
on
no.
within
Karneia,
the
75
andfestivals
that
(before
1985:
action.
occasion
which
thus
certain
nO.
a
460
they
generation
is
54(367
When
postponing
of
the
se);
called
their
months
young
ML
Bc).
the
child’s
73,21—6,
each
Dionysos.
later;
Argives
were
the
ritual
trans.
day
when
Karneia
‘sacred
This
began
Fornara
of
the
the 27
52 ‘
postpone
of rooted
9 th
inscribed val
Limnai
(Demosthenes Argives
a
toth until claimed (Zeus)
28
truce. 51 Xenophon, the no.
.lnschr,flen Below,
Within
Elaphebolion.
was of Maeander:
128
of
the
and Elaphebolion; was p.
(Myconos).
had
to
were
a
von Elaphebolion.
were
the
78. Spartan
on any
Hellenica
sacred Delphi
Eythrae
occur. the Fig.
Longest
Appendix the
performance
to
themselves
given
staged 59.76),
2.9. fixed
For
be walls 4.7.-3 207, Mounuchion Thargelion Skirophorion
Elaphebolion Anthesterion Maimakterion truce Posideion Metageitnion Gamelion Pyanopsion Boedromion
Hekatombaion
When
At
king (Apollo earlier
sacrificial Calendar
opened city Months rio.
second
date
was
Athens,
the
while of and
3.
obtained
every All
examples
the
the
the Godc, Great
5.1.29
a under
century by
— that, of calendar
of
three-
once
this
his
calendar the
the
Portico four
modern Macedonian
Athenian
time for
(388 myths Athenian
see
son)
when Dionysia
BC.
Great
was
threat a
BC).
from days,
a
example, or Parker Cf. January—February
equivalents ruling July-August June-july May—June April—May March-April
February-March the December—January November--December August--September
October--November Septembes—October
year
andfestivals
that
four-day of
sill. 3
specified festivals. spelled
civil in
outside
four Spartans or
1996:
of
the he 270
calendar, on
1024
could
from
City
king
Spartan
43 Basileus
the
days need
Attica the BC
=
festival, out
15.3. exactly
LSCG
the
Dionysia
thus temple
with
Demetrios
it
were invaded.
Cf. not 12th
from
in
proved oracles 110.
nmetable
invasion
in
still
be a
Erythrae:
beginning inserted
96,
of
when
the
of
great
bound begin
trans.
at
Anthesterion
This
necessary
Agora. 52 Dionysos
at
at
Poliorketes
which each Magnesia
LSAM they
Austin
Olympia
calendar
after
on
by
worked
on
festi
such
ioth pro 26
5981:
our
the
the
So
on to at
= r “
‘
home winter, Akropolis’
to that Akropolis
itself. 57 Athens Athena
Dionysia
demes to by
their shows formed
the fragments by
nary their central festivals Boedromion. 53 was
centuries be
ebrated
deities Mounuchion Dionysia. with, Mikalson The Beard, Sourvinou-Inwood tions.
Boedromion. Mikalson Plutarch,
the
issues
The
calendars
initiated
deme
date
locality
deme Athenian:
benign
dernes
local of
the
that
also of
North
when
Some
itself;
calendar
who
calendar
in
their
and
of
in
of Kephalos,
Demetrios
savage, among celebrated 1975: i’;
BC,
largely the
honour’
at of she
face
analogues.
hero in
celebrated
the
Anthesterion,
in fertility For
and
lived
performed
For
of
at
own
one
have plays
46,
deme
five
Athens
city. 55 first
Whitehead a
of
a was
later which
wild
Price Panathenaia,
the
A
single
everyone period
the that
Thorikos; 1990: 26; example,
in
of
those
in
deme
at
religious
calendars.
Anthesterion city’s
honours not
(i various Dionysos
Dionysos
established were
Habicht
‘demes’
who private,
1998: and
the
calendars
the
Thorikos);
by 313-16. .26.6).
(302
the
The
ceremony festivals
Greater a
1986:
sent
most their
(Erchia),
Athenian of
15
marriage
remote
accidentally
calendar performed
at
Gods, meat
ch.
was, at 1997: BC),
of and
of
to
festival ways.
Athens
peak
community
The
or perhaps
176-222; by 3
these
the
own Nevertheless,
Eleusi,iia
demes
Euripides’ the Kephalos on
56
include villages
79. the
myths
of
in
which
and each
worship in Rome;
For
fact
political
and deme
and
presumably
As
see into
deme
principal
sacrifices. principle,
This
sacrificial
state
which
of
Athenians
the thus the Parker
above,
to Pausanias
other
was
that
had
andfesti were as
then
deme. 56
the shot
Markus the Baccho.e.
Thesmophoria had
passage
that
two the
of
Greater
at was
and
self-consciousness,
and expressed cults
held Arrhephoria,
p.
of
deity a
1987a;
there
a
also Lesser
Thorikos
his
the
Boedromion
worship no
7.
corresponding
constituted
Panhellenic
riotous
festival
these victims
1990:
From
as
vats
to complemented free
Henrichs the has suggests,
not
because
wife
renamed
Some
central
concerned Great
Rosivach
of
such
noted,
Prokris were to
in
85—135 Mysteries
Mysteries
to gods
be no
see
calendars
late the
Prokris);
in
affair
in
of was pace
set
attend
sacrifices celebrated ,qo;
below,
central
no
concern Dionysia
Metageitnion
honour
late
parallel. ‘Even on
alongside,
linear the
1994:
heroes
(Thorikos
the
nevertheless performed
Deubner
figures
the
detne
distributed to Christiais
SEG held
p.
the
fifth
festival
festival
state. 55
permit
of the
14—34. celebrated
98.
actual
there
to
those
festivals
at relate
43.26
fashion
were
deme. to
peculiar
of
festivals Eleusis
and
during
Phionis
and
with The
in local
1932:
festival their transforma
but
the Athena,
Cf. was
in Athens
for
survive
related ‘on
Demes
who
month
him
on
fourth to
in made
senSio,s deme
91 rural
briefly
local
ordi
hold level
deme
The
own had
early
cel
the
the the the
the the
and on
29
to
in in
(a
in to 30 Gods,mjthsandfestivals associations, Demeter, who landed at Thorikos on arrival in Attica; and Helen, after whom an island lying off Thorikos was named, where she allegedly first slept with Paris on her way from Sparta to 58Troy. The Attic demes were thus integrated into the religious life of the Athenian state while preserving their own individuality. Attica was unique in Greece in the size of its territory (c. 2400 2km and in the degree of political integration ) attempted at least during the fifth and fourth centuries BC, and there is no exact equivalent from other states for these Attic deme calendars. But other states did have their own sub-divisions depending upon their own scale and complex ity, and these sub-divisions did sometimes participate as units in central state festivals (as the phratries in the Karneia at Sparta) and also had their own religious life, as phratries in Thasos, Delphi and indeed in 59Athens. It is only the poverty of extant epigraphy outside Attica that keeps the details of the calendars of the civic sub-divisions from us. The festivals whose sequence was fixed in the calendars were central to the piety of Greek cities. They vary greatly in scale and content depending upon context6 the ° and on the deity, but they have some common features. The festivals often opened with a grand procession through the town leading to the sanctuary of the god (Fig. 2.Jo). A vivid picture of a procession at Ephesos isgiven in a Greek novel of the second century AD, where it serves to link the hero (Habrocomas) and heroine (Anthia):
The localfestivalof Artemiswasin progresswith itsprocessionfrom the cityto the temple nearly a mile away.All the local girlshad to march in procession richly dressed as wellas the young men of Habrocomas’ age. He was around sixteen, already a member of the ephebes, and took first place in the proces sion.There wasa great crowdof Ephesiansand visitorsaliketo seethe festival, for it was the custom at this festivalto firtd husbandsfor the girlsand wivesfor the youngmen. Sothe processionfiledpast, firstthe sacredobjects,the torches, the basketsand the incense;and horses,dogs,hunting equipment, someforwar, most for peace. . . Each of the girlswas dressedas if to receivea lover.Anthia led the line of ’6girls. At Athens the processions, especially at the Panathenaia, were so lavish that a special marshalling building, the Pompeion (pompe= procession),
Appendix no. i;Parker 1987a; Kearns 1989: 177,195, 203. The claim about Helen and Paris was also made by Gytheum, the port of Sparta, the islet being Kranae. Sourvinou-Inwood 5990: 312—13 and 316—so.See more generally N.EJones 1987;Osborne iggo. ° Price 1984a: 101; Connor 1987;Parker 1996: 79—80. Xenophon of Ephesos 1.2, nans. of whole in B.P Reardon. collectedAncientGreekJ’fovels(Berkeley London, 1989). and Cf. Price 1984a: 110—ti and procession at Magnesia: Appendix no. 3. 32 Gods,mjthsandfestivals Gods,mjthsandfestivalc 33 further horsemen. The climax of the frieze is on the east side: two pro cessions of maidens lead towards the handling of the robe; the heroes who gave their names to the ten Attic tribes and the twelve Olympians are displayed to either side of the robe scene. The robe itself displayed and (literally)paraded a mythological 6Sstory. Indeed it seems that Athena’s robe was so important that not one (as used to be thought) but two robes were regularly woven. The new robe for the cult statue of Athena Polias woven each year for the annual Panathenaia by girls, the arrhephoroi,and women included a traditional design of the battle of the Olympians against the Titans. It may be the presentation of this annual robe which is shown in the east frieze of the Parthenon. In addition, from perhaps the 47os onwards, a second, and much larger; robe was woven by professional (male) weavers for the quadrennial Greater Panathenaia and featured Athena and Zeus as saviours of the divine 66order. Weaving a figured cloth was extremely time-consuming and required the highest degree of skill;the annual robe will have taken — most of the nine months allocated for its production, and the quadren nial robe was made as the result of an officiallyjudged competition. Fig. 2.11. Three youths leading sacrificial cow, on south frieze of the Parthenon, One of the components of processions including that of the Athens (width I.22m). Panathenaia were the animals which were to be sacrificed to the 67god. A civic decree which formed part of the reorganisation of the annual festi was constructed on the north-west outskirts of the city. The surviving val in 335/4 BC specified the 68details. The cattle bought with rent from building, circa o by 35 metres, dates to around 400 BC, but it replaced land sacred to Athena, once they had reached the Akropolis, were sacri an abandoned predecessor of the fIfthcentury 62BC. From there the pro ficed on the great altar of Athena in front of the Parthenon, with the finest cession made its way a thousand metres along a special route ten metres reserved for a sacrificeon the nearby altar of Athena Nike ‘Victory’.The wide through the Agora and up the steep hill to the temple of Athena sacrificialmeat from two of the sacrificeswas distributed there to various on the 63Akropolis. As at Ephesos, the procession consisted both of reli civic officials and participants in the sacrifice: the prutaneis, the chief gious objects (here a new robe woven for the ancient image of Athena) magistrates, the treasurer of the goddess,the sacrificialofficials,the board and of participants representing the state. An idealised version of the of generals and division commanders and also Athenians who partici procession was carved on a frieze round the main building (celia)of the pated in the procession and the maidens who acted as /canephoroi(Vessel Parthenon (Fig. 2.1 i).64 The relief was and remained unique in that rio Bearers). The meat from the other sacrifices was distributed to the other Greek temple, so far as we know, featured a representation of a Athenian people in the vicinity of the Pompeion, portions assigned to religious ritual. On the south and north sides of the frieze are horsemen each deme in proportion to the number of participants in the procession and chariots emphasising the aristocratic tradition at Athens, preceded from that deme. rfhat is, under a democratic system all citizens were by elders, animals for sacrifice and ritual objects. The west side has 65 Mansfield 1985;Barber 1991: ch. i6, the relevance of which was pointed out to roe by L.E Nixon; Barber in Neils 1992: 1o3—17. Compare gifts of cloth to Artemis Brauronia below, p. 95. 62 66 Knigge 3988:79—82. For the addition of Demetrios Poliorketes, see Plutarch, Demetrios30.5, 32.3 (and above, p. 29); 65 Travlos 3973: fig. 540. The route, initially gravelled, was paved in the first and second Centuries below,p. 128, br Plato’scriticisms;below,pp. 90—2, for the arrhephorol. n: Thompson 1960:328—33;Archaeo1gica1Reportsfor 1995--96 (London, 1996) 2—3. For cults on 67 Introduction to sacrifice:Jarneson 1988a;Bremmer 1996a. the Akropolis see Herington içr, Hooker 1963 and Neils 1996. 66 IG 22334 = 5SyIL 273, trans. Rice and Stambaugh 1979: 119—20; ISCO and Schwenk ig8: no. ‘ Jenkins 1994. Connelly 1996 offers a mythological interpretation of the frieze. 17include a new fragment; below,p. 65 on the land, p. 8i on the context. Cf. Appendix no. 3.
72
69
‘
prosperity
everything he
used
he
Ktesios
Dionysia,
and
This
speaker’s
one
speech
setting
purpose
the
addition
civic rifices
offerings. 70
some
specified
involved
or
because
in
animals.
might participate
of receive
Pompeion.
civic
eligible
34
Jameson
Below,
Isaeus
(parody
sacrifice.
Osborne
performed
did
Sacrifices
The
by
their
the
relevant
we
to
Kiron.
applied
sacrifices.
officials
deities
not
smaller
8.i—i6.
p.
usually
receive
touch
social
[of
arguing
is
celebrated
of
Panathenaic
igB8b;
to
97,
their
1993,
of
of
to
scale:
to
at
participation:
in,
invite
as
prayer Cattle
brought
else
Property],
on a
70 Otherwise
the
which
in
least
their
the
a
Formal
not
Kiron,
deity.
and
were for
the
portion
everything
For
against
groupings
Zeus
Rsivach
grandfather
Figs. (numbering
perquisites;
with portions
the
cities.
involved
at
either
normal
smaller
The
that
nice
sacrifice
only
example,
offerings
were
Assembly);
on
850
expense.
Ktesios.
3.3
all
he
sacrifice.
always
The
Detienne
out
him;
examples
lesser
rules,
it
and
the
a meat
to
1994.
the Sheep,
slaves took sacrifices,
of
oxen,
sacrifice
the
is the
very
personally,
of
rites
combination
3.5.
Greek
involved
these
communities
the
speaker
he
festivals
with and
On
Thucydides would
claimed,
us;
accompanied up
occasions:
Gods,
the
deme
varying
1989,
derived
Athenian
sacrifices
most both
or
of
Sacred
but
used
sacrificial
to
costs
clearly
goats
we
to
public
non-slaves
specified
him, cheaper
roast
to
diet
who
which
when
myths
naturally
cattle sixty-six)
of
men
calendars prestigious
attended
was
which in
at
to
we
sacrifices,
argues
6.32
and
put from from
based
officials
never
meat.
a
his
pray
by
to
the
state
used
the
we
particular
of
and
too
were
would
meal,
and
(at
them victims,
Athena
house.
he
what
pigs
a
not
for
sacrifice
see
libations). by
were
such
animals
cult
do. 72
festivals
that
dined
son
performances
on
fourth-century
The
oxen
at to offered
gave
sacrifices
the
women
(Appendix
part
Aristophanes,
rarely (both
prayers
Delos;Jacquemin
were
on
participate at
sacrificial
plant
was
to
of not
complete
it
When invited,
sacrifices
rules
public
especial
are in
the were
as
of
would
cult. 69
cult,
a
Cf.
and
and male
expect
special
desired
the
legitimate
offered
sacrffices
the is
and
Versnel
altar
exemplary
attending
were
in
which
he
illustrated
exclusion
killed,
their
specified
but
prayer
family,
expense.
normal
Thesmophoriazusae
no.
give
the
attention, and
animal,
in
milk
seated
sacrificed
oflèred
with
rooms
1981b;
to thus
also
Athenian
the
1991.
in
by
fourth
i).
prices
explained
us
female)
were
products. 7 ’
kill
of
without
and
return
him,
daughter
Attic
in
sacrifice,
Private
beside
to
health
victims the
a
Pulleyn
women of
who
Honoured
no
on
a
a
inside
reflection
the
to
so
at
are
to
unusual
normal
century
private
modest
and
festival
demes
which
which
votive
would
312—71
doubt
many
from
legal could
Zeus rural
him,
5997.
from
duly
and
sac
the
the
we
do
for
the
of
r
‘
rebelled
comes
humans
humans,
ence
the
on different
belonged
around
youth
scribed
right,
Behind
c.
altar, Fig.
Durand
CAl-.! 3
5993;
460
The
The
skewers
dismemberment
2.12.
and
at
part
cooks
BC
van
him
and
as
the
handling
540
aetiology
Drawing
in
(height
1986;
a
and
against
stages
while
of
Straten
in
youth
edn is
part
the
the
sacrifice
goat’s
BC
prior
a
a
Deticnne
gods
innards
Plates herm.
religious
of
by
Panathenaic
the
holds
i995.
of
of
of
Zeus.
skull
image
of
an
to
for
can
sacrificial
the
vol.
inedible
On
a
Cf.
is
and
the
the
(splankhna)
artist
of
roasting. 74
with
no.
sequence
sometimes
the
sacrifice,
Price
be
o.2om).
the
One
Vernant
setting. 73
ktsnoun
the
animal
324;
horns.
found
far
originally
Gods,
division
59842:
scene
portions body
Durand
decree
son,
tight
(with
of
On
1989;
the
myths
the
on
207—33.
The
in
and
concerning
The
the
emphasised
Prometheus, and stands
sacrificial
Durand
in
Attic
Hesiod’s
sacrifical
handling
of
followed
left
from
Detienne
were
the
edible
painting andfrstivals
the
the
another
mixing
an
and
distribution
placing east
older
burnt
materials).
animal
animal
and
Sclinapp
portions
Theogony
of
conventional
iconographically
the
bowl
Greece
spit
man
on
Vernant
at
the
for
over
with
of
a
sons
a
(a
in
pours
in
time
0
body vase
the
column
sections
Béraid
(--7). of
the
were
depicts
1989:
splanichna.
this
the
of
god,
the
a
flames
made
when
after
87—118.
right
1989:
rules
way
a
krater),
served
meat
whose
of
in
Titan
At
of
it
The
another
53—70;
(Fig.
in
gods
detail
between
the
and
is
over
the
the
Etruria
as
to
killed,
story
2.22).
pres
meat
top
Peirce
who altai
and
pre
the
also
the
the 35 36 God, mythsandfestivals Gods,mythsandfe,stivals 37 mortals stilllived together, tried to deceive Zeus by giving him the white During festivals, in addition to sacrifices, hymns were sometimes bones of a slaughtered ox wrapped in succulent fat, and the flesh and sung. The standard structure was invocation of the god, honouring the offal to mortals covered with the paunch so that it looked unappetising. god through recounting of one or more divine deeds, and finally a Though Zeus saw through the trick, he went along with it and, prayer for divine 79favour. At Miletos there was a special association of ‘because of this, the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the singers (molpoz):on the ‘Sacred Way’, the processional route over deathless gods on fragrant altars’. The event is taken to mark the divi twenty kilometres from Miletos to the temple of Apollo at Didyma, sion between mortals and immortals, and leads to a complex chain of they stopped at six designated shrines to perform their hymn in honour events. Zeus in his anger deprived mortals of fire which Prometheus of Apollo Delphinios. Elsewhere in the Hellenistic and Roman stole back, and Zeus, angry again, created woman as a curse to man. periods there were special choirs to sing hymns to the 8god. Some of The story of the origins of sacrifice thus treats the division of the these cult hymns°8 were inscribed on stone and survive to’ this day; two animal both as a marker of the distance between mortals and immor hymns at Delphi include a full musical 82notation. Cult hymns natu tals and as a means of bridging that divide. It is also connected by an rally deployed mythology often with local emphasis; that from extension of the story (in the WorksandDays42—105)with the need for Palaikastro on Crete invokes Zeus and refers to his birth on 83Crete. humans to cultivate crops (rather than live off what grew spontane Such hymns were, from the start, a fundamental and autonomous ously) and with the creation of woman as a bane to man, two key mode of religious action — a well-performed hymn was in itself a ‘gift’ aspects of Greek 75civilisation. to the god. Sacrifices are to modernJudaeo-Christian eyesa rather peculiar prac Sacrifices, hymns and other offerings to the gods had a common 76tice. Judaism has not practised animal sacrifice since the destruction purpose, namely to please the gods. The standard term for what we call of the temple in Jerusalem by Rome in AD 70, and the ideology of ‘cult statue’, and indeed for other images, was an agalma,an object in a Christianity is intimately bound up with the theory that the death of sanctuary which was a glory or a delight to the 84gods. And the gods were Christ superseded animal sacrifice. As an early Christian explained certainly supposed to savour the offering of sacrifices to them. when writing toJews who had converted to Christianity: Conversely, the proper performance of cult could be drawn on in the individual or the communitt A typical example is found The bloodof his [Christ’s]sacrificeishisownblood,not the bloodof goatsand future by the 85 Apollo, calvesand thus he has entered the sanctuaryonce and for all and securedan at the beginning of Homer’s iliad, where Chryses, the priest of eternal deliverance. Forif the bloodof goats and bullsand the sprinkled ashes prays to Apollo Smintheus: of a heifer havepowerto hallow thosewhohavebeen defiled and restoretheir Smintheus,if everI roofeda templethat pleasedyou or if everI burnt foryou externalpurit howmuchgreateristhe powerof the bloodof Christ.. rich thighsof bullsor goats,fulfilthisprayerfor me. (i.39--4i) This text expressesvery forcefullythe view that animal sacrifice is a form Though this form of prayer, ‘if I ever. . . will you now.. .‘, is attested of religious worship inferior to the more spiritual practices of modern only in works of high literature, as here, most Greeks probably shared religions. Sacrificeswere no doubt noisy rather 78 and messyaffairs (butnot the assumption that previous offerings gave them some claim on the particularly smelly,as anyone knowswho has been present at the butcher gods’attention. The point is made explicit in two verses inscribed on the ing of an animal by the roadside in Greece today). However, they were thighs of a small bronze statue of a warrior: not just the pretext for a good meal, they were major religious events.
Rudhardt 1970; Vernant sg8o: 168—85. Bremer ,gB,; Furley 8995. 76 For very different modern approaches see 1966: 1986 Schneider 1987 on route. Cf. Burkert 102—13 (more fully in Burkert 1983); yl1. 57 = LSAAIo; RE Supp.6.5o9—o; GOdecken and 3 81 Detienne and Vernant sg8g. Cf.above, 17, on Burkert’ssearch 1955—67:11.377—81; Price 1984a: 88. “ p. for origins. Appendix no. 7. Nilsson ‘ Letter to the Hebrews 9.82—13, ascribed to Paul. 82 West 1992: 279—80,288-301. Sacrifice has an ambiguous position in modern Islam. Sanctioned by the Koran (Surah 22.32—7) ‘° West 1965,with comment of Versnel 1990: 32—3 (trans. Rice and Stambaugh 1979: 29—30). Cf. and practised at the time of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, sacrificenonetheless has no place below,pp. is8—ig,for ‘Orphic’ hymns. 84 Price 1984a: 178. in officialIslamic worship. Pulleyn 1997: 16—38;Parker 1998, on the importance of charisor reciprocity; Appendix no. 9. 38 Gods,mythsandfeslivals Gods,mythsandfestivals 39 of buying the gods, but of creating goodwill from which humans might hope to benefit in the 87future. Festivals also often included competitions of various sorts. The most prestigious of these competitions, at the Panhellenic festivals at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and the Isthmia, drew competitors from all over the Greek world in chariot racing, horse racing, athletics and, at Delphi and the Isthmia, musical 88events. ‘Sport’ in the ancient world involved as much fervour and local pride as today, but it belonged overtly within a religious framework. In due course other cities sought to promote their own festivalsto Panhellenic status, thus hoping to attract top rank competitors from all over Greece. The Athenians established the Greater Panathenaia as a Panhellenic festival in about 566/5, and in the Roman period in numerous cities there were ‘sacred and crowned games’, which operated on the cycles of the four ancient Panhellenic games and whose competitions and privileges were modelled on 89them. This period marked the greatest flowering of competitions in the Greek world, in part because rivalry between cities under Rome found its outlet in civic display. The Panathenaia, whatever its Panhellenic status, retained the struc ture of a civic 90festival. In the Greater Panathenaia, every fifth year (on inclusive counting), there were competitions (for men, youths and boys) in reciting Homer, music, athletics, equestrian events, team events for tribes, a torch race, and a boat race. Some of the athletic and eques trian events probably took place along the Panathenaic Way, especially in the Agora; some remained there even after a special stadium for racing was built in 330 BC and a hippodrome in the Peiraeus. The musical events were also held in the Agora until the building9 in the mid- Fig. 2.53. Drawing of bronze statuette (height o.2om) from Thebes, perhaps from the fifth century BC of a concert hail (odeion)on the south’ slope of the sanctuary of Apollo Ismenios (early seventh century BC). The figure may originally Akropolis (Fig. 2.14 no. 23). Whereas victors at Panhellenic games won have worn a helmet, carried a spear in his right hand and a shield in his left. only a crown and subsequently a pension from their own city,victors at Athens won substantial sums. In the fourth century BC first prize in the Mantikios dedicated me to the silver-bowed far-shooter [i.e. Apollo] from his drachmas tithe. Phoibos [Apollo], grant him grateful recompense. (Fig. 2.53)86 lyre competition was a crown of gold leaf worth ,ooo and That is, mortals and gods were in a relationship defined in terms of an exchange of favours. For a comicapplicationof this idea, involving Athena remembering the gift of the robe, see Moderns of an anti-ritualistic bent criticise this as Aristophanes, KnighLci 178—80.Foranotheruseof the analogyof gift-exchangeseePrice 1984a: merely dout des,‘I give that you may give’,but such criticism misses the 65—77.Forphilosophicalcriticismseebelow,p. 133, and Parker1998. point. Like other systems of gifts and counter-gifts, the Greek ritual Finley and Pleket 1976; Raschke 1988;Tzachou-Alexandri 1989; Golden 1998. Establishment: Fornara 1983: no. 26. Fig. 2.io is a response to the new festival.Appendix no. ii system assumed choice on both sides. Gifts to the gods were not a way for a new Hellenistic festival.Roman period: Cartledge and Spawforth 1989:184—9. ° Tracy 1991; Neils igg; Parker 1996:75, 8g—ga;Neils 1996. 86 The stadium was rebuilt in the early 140S .n by the Athenian dignitary Herodes Atticus: Tobin PA. Hansen, CarminaEpgraphica Graeca(Berlinand NewYork1983), no. 326. 1997: 162—73.
Arrhephoroi.
4. Fig. 52.
i9. i6. s.So-called
40
Parthenon.
Propylaia.
Top Cave
2.24.
of
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. Athenian
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They
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31.
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sanctuaries, 27. the
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this
and
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with
and
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Temple
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labourer’s
Nikias
evidence
38
performed,
and
needed
special
youths’
not
pottery
genre
placed
into
at
and
a
jars
perhaps
of of
1989:109-14
to
scenes
by
for and
useful
figure
the
a
at
Herodes
survive
of
monument.
39 the
choral
Pindar
festival aristocratic
commemorated
were
the
The
heroes
Dionysos.
decoration
were
were
third
olive
for
litres
in
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by
where
for
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of
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on daily
performances.
victor’s
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for
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intact.
a
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Pindar
a
and
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28.
red
early
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the
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house.
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at in
41 in 42 Gods,mjthsandfestivals Gods,mjthsandjèstivals 43 and then moves on to praise of Theaios, who had also won Panhellenic victories at Dclphi, Istbmia, Nemea and Athens, where he had twice been awarded ‘in earth baked by the fire olive oil in richly painted vases’ (lines35—6),that is Panathenaic oiljars. Praise of Theaios’ family leads to a furthei standard element of these poems, adaptation of local mythology in honour of the victor. Here Pindar tells the story of the friendship of the divine twins Castor and Polydeuces, who had once been entertained by ancestors of Theaios and whose patronage of his family might enable him to win a victory at Olympia. The poems in deploying myths in an allusive manner often assume knowledge by the audience of local 94mythology Drama, like ‘sport’, always occurred within a religious context. At Athens the major dramatic festivalswere two festivals of Dionysos, the Great or City Dionysia and the Lenaia. Here all Athenian tragedies and comedies were performed during the festivals from the later sixth century in special seating in the Agora and then from the fifth century in a new theatre of Dionysos on the slopes of the 95Akropolis. There is much dispute as to the extent to which the context should affect our interpretation of the 96plays. Some have seen tragedy as essentially reli gious, while others have argued that the festivals were really just a holiday and merely the occasion for the plays. Both extremes are prob ably untenable. On the one hand, plays are not ‘cultic’like the hymns sung in honour of the gods. Some plays do include aetiological myths for the cities where the action is set, for example Corinth, Thebes, Athens. For Athens Aeschylus’ Oresteiatrilogy closeswith an Athena who is Athena Polias founding the venerable Athenian law-court of the Areopagus and establishing a shrine on the Areopagus hifi for the Erinyes or Furies, now placated as the Semnai ‘revered ones’ or Eumenides who will grant blessings to the 97Athenians. Euripides’ Ion, set at Delphi, refers to the aetiology of the Athenian Arrhephoria, and his Iphigeniaat Taurisends with Athena commanding98the foundation of
See, for example, Calame i9o, revised in 1996: 57—169; Dougherty On Pindar’s social valuessee Kurke 1991. Fig.2.14 no. 24. See Gebhardt 1974: 432—4;Polacco 1990, without reference to the work of the Greek Archaeological Service (Ar/thaiologikonDeltion Khronika 40 (ig8 [1990], 9—it). It was Fig. 2.15. The earliest surviving prize amphora, dating (on stylistic grounds) to the rebuilt in the fourth century under Lycurgus(cf.below,p. 8r). 56os, the decade in which the Panathenaia was reorganised (height 96 o.6im) (cf. 2.10). Goldhil 1987;Connor ‘990; Mikalson,99,; Seaford 1994: 235- 8o;Sourvinou-Inwood1994 and The main is scene of a two-horse chariot race, the specific competition for which this 997b; for the settingsee Pickard-Cambridge 1988. amphora was awarded. is 1 On the neck a siren. On the other side is a representation of Eumenides68, —7o6,794—1047. Aeschyluswasprobably the firstto identilythe PanhellenicErinyes Athena, which is constant over many generations. with the localSemnai.Fortheir cult,performed by an Athenian lineage,seePolemoin Scholiast on Ssphocles,Oedipusat Colonus489;l’arker 1996: 298—f);cf.Lardinois 1992; Clinton 1996:165—70. 8—ag’,267—82;cf.below,p. 94.
popularity:
were
of
until
new
Roman
turies. 103
cities,
and
exclusively
103
gious 102
101
ISO
and is
given
justice,
mally
( tiates Dionysos
local
their
political.
licensed
Dionysos
of
theon,
vals
operate
written
shipped
of relationship
the
Asia no
Tragedies
Taplin
Cf.
Parker
Cf.
1449—67;
6—459),
Although
procession
Sophocles’
other
work.
comic,
at
still
Attic
pp.
the
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cults.’° 1
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Minor)
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and
periods.
1997.
102—7
Euripides
in
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They
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commentaries
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ct
Thus
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p.
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New
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pp.
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to
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and
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the
90—3
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Respect
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Rather,
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staged
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for
between
movingly
Artemis
Macedonia,
performed.’°°
absence
instance
of
second Sicily
The or
sacrifice pp.
Brauron.
The
mid-second
to
were
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In
explore
are
the
tragic
98—100
Euripides’
the
comedies
from
on
Women
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for
works
They
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1993.
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to
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later
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the
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one
Thesmophoria
andfestivals
of
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time
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Italy,
use
Athens
masters
Athenian
on
both
by
issues
civic
gods
exclusively
meets
throughout
held
cults
drama
or
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of
medium
comedy
cultic,
as
the
of
of
explicitly
everyone,
is
Brauron. 99
other
were
a
at
what
For
in
the
tragedy
contemporary
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represented
women
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through
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did
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example,
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Homeric/Hesiodic
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Demeter
the
composed Dionysos
punishments
dramatists,
the
level
the
for
fifth
The of
not
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so
p.
Athenian,
religious
the
and
religious
the
and
of
Athena
including
women
both
particular
52,
(on
exploring
Euripides’
But
festivals
of
close.
of
mean
Frogs
and
in
Hellenistic
on
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the
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at
in
Dionysos’
and
other
religious
attests
for
the
fourth
of
both The
festivals
whose
west
debate
a
the
settings
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Polias
framework
of
comedies
should
Dionysos.
cults.
‘° 2 There
of
and
festivals
women
tragedies
drunken
focus
the
Iacchus
Athens
Bacchae,
end
to
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Greek
tragic
coast
divine
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their
cen
and
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praised
identify will The Apollo to typical
The festivals.’ 07 kithara and stretching south-west the
ate. delights refers guage gymnasium comic and and
Panathenaia, and of called
(and
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‘°
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There
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pp. The
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heralds);
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slaves,
particularly
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168—9.
to
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38.
collection
archaic
stood Homeric
by
cult
‘lyre’,
1992:
actors,
105
with
competitions
Apollo of
of Aristides in
at
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of
1962;
lcitharodoi,
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See
over
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hymn
69—75.
events:
The
of
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‘in
Asia
period
festival
competitions
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in
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players
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which
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for later),
classical
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the
first
29.30,
tragic
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the
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three
extant hymns,
festival
full
also
handmaidens
and
Minor.’° 6
they
have
children
the
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and
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musical happens
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at
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record
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of
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1991:
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Hymn
competitions
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This
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at
tradition.
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to
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included
(146—61)
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called
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s—4;
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long-robed
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and citizens.
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1981—6.
sixth
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1995.
wives:
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BC
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45
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of
in of
at at 46 Godcmjthsandfestiva/s competitions are still found in second-century AD Oenoanda. Here, as elsewhere in the Roman period, we also find competitions for encomia CHAPTER 3 of the gods in prose.’° In addition, Greek orators of the Roman period also composed9prose hymns to the gods, not for competitions, but for vii- Religiousplaces tuoso performances, whether at festivals or in other settings. Ten such speeches by the second century AD orator Aelius Aristides survive, and rules for their composition were formulated in rhetorical 10 Competitive and epideictic praise of the gods was one of the enduring ways in which Greek mythology was deployed and constantly adapted and recreated for local circumstances. Greek temples are among the most familiar surviving objects of antiq 109 Price 198 90 on encomia to gods and emperors. uity. Thousands of visitors a year gaze at the Parthenon, and the influ “° 4b: Aelius Aristides, Orations37—46Keil, trans. C.A. Behs Leiden ig8r—6; cf. RusseU io. ence of the temples, direct or indirect, is visible all the way from the Quintilian 3.7.7—8(Latin, first century AD); Alexander Numenius, in Spengel, RhetoresGraecz3. White House in Washington DC to the Opera House in Ulan Bator, 4—6(second century An); Menander Rhetor’, trans. in Russell and Wilson 1981: 6.—29and (in part) in MacMullen and Lane 1992: 59—62(third century AD). Mongolia. In antiquity too they were prestigious buildings. Architects around the Greek world rivalled one another in building bigger and finer temples, and cities were extremely proud of their religious architecture. Herodotos, who was fond of Samos, includes the temple of Hera there among the three architectural wonders that jus tifled his writing at length about the Samians (the other two were an aqueduct one kilometre long through a mountain, and a harbour mole) (3.60). This temple of Hera on Samos was planned in the earlier sixth century BC on a colossal scale and, a generation later, probably because of marshy conditions, rebuilt on a similar scale. Work continued for the iiext five hundred years until hope of actually completing the temple was abandoned, but the temple was still an impressive sight. Bronze coins produced by Greek cities in the Roman period often feature their temples as matters of local pride; for example, coins of Samos from the first to the mid-third centuries proudly display the ancient cult statue of Hera in its temple. Temples, however, are only the most prominent component of a1 Greek sanctuary and must be seen as secondary to the functions of the sacrificial altar, which was indispensable, and in the context of an area of sacred space surrounding both altar and temple. An antiquarian writer of about 200 BCdescribed the marvels of2 the Samian sanctuary of Hera (including her peacocks) in his treatise on the wonders of 3Samos. Temple: Kyrieleis 1981; 1993. Coins: Price and Trell 1977: 133—5. 2 Price 1984a: —; Schachter 1992; Marinatos and Hagg 1993. For general introductions see Melas 1973, Tomlinson 1976and Osborne 1987: 165-92. On the Athenian Akropolis see Hopper 1971; Korres in Economalcis 1994: 35—51; and on Athens generally Wycherley 1978. Menodotos in Athenaeus 14.655a, 15.671d-674.a(Tresp 594 151—8;I).54FGH
47 48 Religiousplaces Religiousplaces 49 magistrate with the help of the council and the others listed in this decree LOCATION shouldgodownto the ancientAgoraon the frurth of the next month and upon the altars of the godswhichour ancestorsbequeathed to us shouldpray to Zeus When Greeks from the eighth century BC onwards founded new Savioui Poseidonthe Securer,Apollothe Clarian, Mother Antaia [‘appear colonies, one of their principal acts was the definition of sacred space. the ing face to face’j,Athena Poliasand to all the other male and femalegods and We find an example in Homer’s Odjssçy,which reflects 4 many aspects of to the heroes who occupy our city and territory since we enjoy complete eighth-century Greece, prosperity,to make a solemnprocessionand sacrificein the manner the people NausithoUssettledthem [the Phaeacians]in Scheriafar from men who liveby decided. toil.About the cityhe had drawn a wall,he had built housesand made shrines 5 The revival of the old sacred places, which did not have to be freshly to the godsand dividedthe plough land. (Odyssej6.7—b) allocated, is marked by means of procession, sacrifice and prayer. God- Some five hundred years later, Alexander the Great is said to have dis given places as they were, the ten land-commissioners and the architect played similar concern when founding Alexandria in Egypt: had to work around them when laying down the line of the roads, the building lots reserving the agora, the work-places and the other neces He himselfmarked out the ground plan of the city:wherethe market placewas to be laid out, how many templeswereto be built and in honour of what gods, sary public land. both Greek and Isisthe Egyptian, and where the wallwas to be built round it. Greek sanctuaries were carefully placed, within an urban, suburban With thisin viewhe offeredsacrifice,whichprovedfavourable.(Arrian,Anabasis or rural context. The urban sanctuaries were situated in a variety of con 3.1.5) texts. Though the Parthenon stood out at Athens and ‘makes a great Some sanctuaries in mainland Greece were sited in relation to divine impression on sightseers’ as the author of a guidebook to Greece noted intervention, for example those of Poseidon and Athena at Athens in the third century BC, this was unusuaL Most urban sanctuaries did (above, 19), or at a particularly awesome spot like Delphi. But when not tower over their towns like medieval6 cathedrals; rather they were p. founding new communities the Greeks assumed that the founder would integrated into the fabric of urban life, especially with the development locate sanctuaries as part of his overall urban planning. The assumptions in the classical period of imposing secular architecture. of the colonial founders no doubt formaiised views current at home. The locating of urban sanctuaries may be illustrated archaeologically Although there was no divine sanction for the siting of most new Greek from the excavations of Megara Hyblaia, a Greek town founded on the BC. were temples in the archaic and classical periods, no community could exist east coast of Sicily in about 725 In and around the agora built without temples to its gods. a series of temples and shrines during the first phase of the settlement The official assignment of sacred space was equally important when down to circa 650 BC (Fig. 3.I). Megara Hyblaia gradually grew into the built cities were refounded. Colophon, an ancient city on the west coast of division of space appointed by the founder: temples were in and Asia Minor, regained its freedom (from Persia) at the hands of Alexander adjacent to existing sanctuaries and within the agora itsclf other build the Great and his successors, and decided at the very end of the fourth ings came to sharpen the boundaries of the civic space, and the founder the house in century BC to incorporate within its walls the ‘ancient city’. It seems to himself probably received heroic honours perhaps next to have been long ruined and abandoned. The decree of the city includes which he had once lived. the following provision: Selinus, on the south-west coast of Sicily (founded in about 628 BC) followed the model of her mother city, Megara Hyhlaia. There was a Resolved the by people to enclosewithin the same walls in addition to the walled Akropolis, a grid plan of streets, and sanctuaries going back to present city the ancient city which, on receipt from the gods, our ancestors the seventh century Although the city possessed several temples on the founded and where theysetup templesand altars,our ancestorswho wereheld in high esteem among all the Greeks. In order this 8 that could be achieved Maier I(J59 no. 69, lines 9—21 (311—306 BC). quickly,the priest of Apollo and the other priestsand priestessesand the chief 6 Heraclides of Crete?, ed. F Pfister,Vienna 1951, trans. in Austin sg8i: no. 8g, is. Vallet,Villard and Auberson 1q76;1983. For sanctuaries in and around the Athenian agora see Malkin 1987: 135--86. See also the theoretical divisions of Hippodamus, criticised by Aristotle, Camp 1986. Polities1267b22--1269a28. Fifth-century listing of the gods of Selinus:ML 38, trans. in Appendix no. to. _ __
50 Religiousplaces Religiousplaces 5’ Akropolis, in addition there was a contemporary and no less important 7-., sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros ‘apple bearer’ about 750 metres to H I I, I the west of the city outside which was probably the main 9gate. There is no reason to suggest that the complex perpetuated local cults predating 9 the arrival of the Greek colonists. The sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros was probably designed to replicate a sanctuary to the same goddess at mainland Greek Megara, the ‘grandmother’ of Selinus. The founder of the city had been sent out from Megara, where too the sanc tuary was sitedjust outside a gate on the way down to water, in this case the sea of the Saronic Gulf (Pausanias 1.44.3), and at Selinus the several thousands of terracotta votives of a goddess holding a pomegranate belong within a Greek iconographical tradition.’° The goddess was simply one of the major protectors of the community. The sanctuary consistsof a large temenos(sacred precinct) roughly iio by 8o metres, with a an inner precinct about 6o by 50 metres (Fig.3.2). The latter included an 0 altar dating back to the mid-seventh century, and a shrine of the late seventh century, rebuilt in the sixth, and a large altar replacing the earlier one in the late sixth century The chthonic elements of the cult are \ picked up by the sanctuary of Zeus Meilichios that lies in the north-east corner of the main precinct; a sanctuary of Hekate may be next to the a main entrance. The placing of this sanctuary on the periphery of the town fits into a pattern of ‘suburban’ sanctuaries.” The deities whose sanctuaries lay on a city’sakropolis or agora were normally ordinary Olympian deities, central both physically and metaphysically. But the sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros, though important, was concerned with rites of çt transition and women, who were not politically central to the 2city.’ Similarly the sanctuary of Persephone at Locri in south Italy, which as we have seen was especially concerned with women, marriage and
Original publication:Gibrici 1927; seebrieflyCoarelli and Torch 1984: 97-103. Recentwork synthesised:Jameson,Jordanand Koiansky 1993:132—6. IC Seeabove,pp. 49—50. Mergingof Greekand Punictraditionsin the fourthcentury:Jameson, Jordan and Kotansky1993:137—41.
1 Cole 1994 surveysthe evidenceon Demeter.Seein generalVallet1968: 8r—-8;de Polignac 1995: — 12 : I 21—5. Below, 98—100, --- pp. forfestivalsof Demeter. 1 I - Fig. 3.1 (cont.) Fig. 3.5. Plan of archaic agora, Megara Hyblaia. Religious and civic buildings are Pits inside, probably for chthonic sacrifice, suggest it was a ‘heroon’ for the city’s shaded. i. Secular public building (sixth century Bc). 2. Hestiatorion (c. 530 Bc). founder, who will have received after his death the heroic sacrifices that were normal 3. Temple built c. 6oo BC at rear of earlier sanctuar destroying earlier buildings. for founders. 5—6.Porticoes (650—600 BC). 7. Temple (65o--625BC). 8. Temple Building added c. 630 BC to house dating to 4. period of foundation of colony. (625—600BC). 9. Building for civic administration (640-630 BC). ‘0. Small temple [cont. On p. 51] (650-625 BC) built in large sanctuary. ii. Sacred building (550—500 BC). 52 Religiousplaces Religiousplaces 53 ate for the sanctuaries to be away from the centre, either physically or in terms of mythical origins. Deities associated with fertility often had their sanctuaries in a suburban location. Sanctuaries are also found well away from the nucleated centre of the polis. Some were small shrines, perhaps dedicated by local groups or by individual families.’ Others were major civic 17sanctuaries. The reasons for the precise6 location of these rural sanctuaries must be varied, but one common reason was the definition of boundaries.’ The Argive Heraion, some eight kilometres from the city of Argos, lay at the edge of the fertile plain disputed by Argos, Mycenae,8 Tiryns and Asine. The sanctuary, which may go back to the eighth century BC, may originally have been more in the orbit of Mycenae, and become decisively‘Argive’ only after the destruction by Argos of Mycenae and Tiryns in the 946os.’ The role of sanctuaries on boundaries is clearer in, for example., Pausanias’ account of Mantinea in the southern Peloponnese. The city was ringed by a series of sanctuaries at or near boundaries with the various neighbouring city states: a sanctuary of Poseidon Hippios near the frontier with Tegea, one of Zeus Kharmos on the way to Pallantion, one of Artemis on the way to Orchomenos, and at Anchisia also on the way to Orchomenos are ‘the ruins of a sanctuary of Aphrodite and the boundary between Mantinea and Orchomenos’. Such sanctuaries Is on’ I were not forts, they were symbolic markers laying claim to and hopefully defining the outer limits of a city’sterritory, Given that marginal areas Fig. 3.2. Sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros, Selinus. i. Shrine of 2 Demeter Malophoros; 2. Sanctuary of were often important for grazing and°that most Greek wars were fought Hekate? Sanctuary of Zeus Meiichios. . over disputed border lands, such definitions were a matter of no mean importance. child-rearing, lay on a large terrace, about ioo by 40 metres, on the In some cases at least a major procession as part of an annual festival north edge of the town outside the walls. Sanctuaries of Dionysos were served to make manifest the links between city and sanctuary, At Argos, also characteristically suburban: in some cities he bore the telling name for example, a major procession led from the city to the Heraion. The ‘infront of the city’.’ 3 At Athens one sanctuary of Dionysos was outside sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis on the western edge of Attica the original ‘in 2 city the Marshes’,’ the other was on the south slopes of was also closely tied to Athens. At the foot of the Akropolis’ at the edge the Akropolis (Fig.2.14, 4floS.24—5), but an annual ritual recalled that the of the Agora was a sanctuar the Eleusinion, where special rites took statue of Dionysos displayed there during the Dionysia had been place and any Athenian business concerning the Mysteries was carried brought to Athens from outside, from Eleutherae on the borders of out. From it there started the great procession of initiates and future Attica and Boeotia.’ The outsider-status of Dionysos made it appropri 5 6 Edlund 1987: 98—102, 141—2. “ ° Vallet 1968:88—94;Edlund 1987; Osborne 1987: 165—71;Alcock 1993: 200—10; de Polignac 1995. Gernet and Boulanger 1932: ion; cf.Robert 1948: on the meaning of the phrase. de Polignac 1994; 1995: 98-106; Nixon ‘990 applies de Polignac’sideas to Crete. 14 79 Thucydides 2.15.4. Probably in the Ilissus area but the precise location is unknown: Pickard ‘ Hall 1995; cf. de Polignac 1995: 52-3. Cambridge tg68: 19—25; below,p. 117. 20 8.io—is.Cf. Bruit Zaidman and Schmitt Pantel 1992: 207-14, with fig. II; and on Arcadia gener On the sixth-century origins of Great/City Dionysia: Connor 1990: 8 -16; Sonrvinou4nwood allyJost 1994. 1994; 21 Parker 1996:92—6. Above, p. , on tragedies. de Polignac 1995: 41—3, 46; Hall 1995: 594—6,arguing for a fifth-century origin. 54 Religiousplaces Religiousplaces 55 initiates and youths (ephebes) who walked the seven kilometres from Some woods were sacred; indeed Pausanias is particularly interested in Athens to celebrate the Mysteries at 22Eleusis. During the latter stages of woods with a religious (or political) significance. On a mountain south the Peloponnesian War, at a time when the Spartans controlled access to west of Argos at Lerna was a sacred wood consisting largely of plane Attica, the Athenians had had to skip the procession to Eleusis, omitting trees bounded by two rivers stretching down to the sea. the customary sacrifices, dances and rites which were performed on the Within the grove are cult images of Demeter Prosymne and of Dionysos.Of road to Eleusis. In 407 BC Alcibiades, although found guilty of profaning Demeter there is also a seated image of no great size.These are of stone, but Mysteries in415 BC, was the able to assert his piety and to raise Athenian elsewherein a temple is a seatedwooden image of DionysosSaviour. morale by leading the procession by land. ‘He posted sentries on the 27 heights, sent out an advance guard at daybreak, and then, marshalling The god Pan and his associated nymphs were normally worshipped in the priests, novices and initiates, and placing them in the centre of his caves, at least outside his ‘home’ in Arcadia. Pausanias mentions one on column, he led them along the road to Eleusis in solemn and complete the slopes of the Athenian Akropolis; the cult was founded by the Athenians after Pan had appeared to the runner 23silence.’ Ephebes, who were formally organised in the 330S under Phiippides returning to Athens with the news that the Spartans could not help fight the Lycurgus (below,p. 95), came to have a prominent and enduring role in Persians at in BC 19 2.14);28 the procession. In the third century AD the Athenian people gave fresh Marathon 490 (1.28.4, No. on Fig. he also mentions instructions to the official in charge of the ephebes to organise ‘in accor an important one in the Attic countryside (1.32.7), which along dance with ancestral custom’ the procession escorting the sacred objects with other such cave cults probably developed after that on the from Eleusis to the Eleusinion in Athens and the return procession six Akropolis. Caves were the perfect symbol for this god of the wild who days 24later. No doubt the organisatiori of the procession was very could steal people’s wits away. Then there were sanctuaries on level or different from that of the classical period, but this and other similar pro terraced ground, defined perhaps by boundary stones or a wail, as the cessions long formalised and defined the ties between centre and periph sanctuaries of Megara Hyblaia or Selinus. Take for example the sanc ery Processions leading to popular festivities at sanctuaries outside the tuary of Asclepius at Sicyon on the north coast of the Peloponnese, urban centre were normal in the Greek 25world. On passingwithin the enclosureyou see on the left a buildingwith two rooms. In the outer oneliesa figureof Sleep,of whichnothing nowremainsexceptthe head. The inner room isgivenovertoApolloKarneios.Into it no onemay enter APPEARANCE AND SETTING exceptthe priests.In the portico liesa huge bone of a sea monster,and after it an imageof the Dream-God, and Sleep,surnamed Epidotes(‘Bountiful’) Sanctuaries varied not only in location but also in appearance. Pausanias lulling to sleepa lion. Within the temple of Asclepiuson either sideof the entrance is described the full range. On Mount Lykaion in Arcadia, central an image,on the one sidePan seated,on the other Artemisstanding.When you Peloponnese, known locally as Olympos or ‘Sacred Peak’, where (rather have entered you see the god, a beardless figure of gold and ivory made by than on Crete) Zeus was believed by the Arcadians to have been born, Kalamis [fifth-centurysculptor].He holdsa staffin one hand and a cone of the was a sanctuary of Zeus Lykaios cultivatedpine in the other. (2.Io.—3) into which people are not allowedto enter; if anyone ignores the rules and Defining and analysing sanctuaries archaeologically without the aid of enters he inevitablylivesno more than a year. . . On the mountain top is a Pausanias or other texts is rather challenging. While excavators of pre mound of earth forming an altar of Zeus Lykaios,from which most of the historic sites have begun to formulate explicit criteria for deciding that Peloponnesecan be seen.Beforethe altar on the stand east two pillarson which particular sites are ‘sanctuaries’ and explicit questions that may be there used to be gilded eagles. On this altar they sacrificein secret to Zeus 26Lykaios. answered archaeologically (see above, p. 9, fl. 21), classical archaeolo gists have so far not been so ready to be explicit about their methods. 23 Travlos I97I 198—203. Plutarch, Alcibiades34.3—6;cf. below, pp. 82—5On 415 BC Graf 24 They have often identified their buildings on the basis of Pausanias’ 1996. IG’ 1078 = SIL’ 885, C. AD 220. Cf. Pélékidis 1962 220-5. 25 3 Note their discussion in Aeneas Tacticus 27 ‘7.1 (trans. 0. Whitehead, Oxford i99o; also Loeb). 2.36.8—37.2, Cf. Herodotos 6.75—82for violation of the woods sacred to the hero Argos by the 25 8.38.6—7. Pausanias here alludes to the alleged local practice of human sacrifice: Bonnechere Spartan king Cleomenes:Jacob 1993; Birge 1994. 1994: 85—96. “ Borgeaud 1988 explores his cults; Parker 1996: 163—8.
Athena
Apollo’s
II ° with
man to the where ‘° present
than and size, theon another believed
exceptionally, surrounds it. objects. 3 ’ resulting inwards, 56
a gold Delphi, included temple.
a altar its descriptions
architecture
dwelling cult The Harris For For had Plan:
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Olympia tige. 35
Hermes fortune
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man. ivory,
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54 not aniconic,
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120—7. criticises thunderbolt,
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1983: the
1984a:
present
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Stoicism. conventional
to
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Above,
to
hands. 36
prestigious by
in
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of
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Above,
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but which Athena p.
114.
of
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the
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1992:
Donohue the
not
sights. 34
13,
places travel p.
folly. in
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eight-foot considerable misleading
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sculptors of
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from that
23,
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831—5;
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(8.17.2).
Greek serve pp.
ig88;
to
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63—4,
excited actually
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Ephesian labourers.
Appendix
as
fallen
it
high
(xoana)
of
throughout sides. 33
(I.528—3o).
the
etc.
to
be
cult young
on
to
explaining, noteworthy
too Some
in
of
the
antiquity
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in
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a
great to
Erechtheion
The
woman,
of
So
literally
in
The public of
3.
for see costs.
of
out views
of
people. 38
a
the
in these
xoana
feelings.
the
the
Artemis. of
That
and
matter
the speech
1994:
in
does
image image
statue
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as
accor
a
ritual.
Greek
crafts
of
etc.
deity
accu xoana 93.
on
early
primi pres
work
par
mis
and
and
not
the the the
Cf.
In
of
of 57
of
at
of of — 58 Relzgiousplaces I Religioasplaces 59 the doors of the temple especially opened for the occasion at the ritual happening 39outside. Some deities, however, it was not thought proper to honour in this manner. In sanctuaries of Demeter there was generally no ‘normal’ temple, though there were some buildings. For example, the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Corinth was laid out on three terraces, on the lower slope of the hill overlookingthe city The lowestterrace, which was used for dining, had thirty dining rooms, with couches for 200 people; the middle terrace had pits for sacrifice and other offerings, but neither a temple nor a normal altar; the highest terrace had two theatre areas cut into the rocks, with space for 8o to 90 spectators. The offering of sacrifices normally took4place outside the temple on an altar; altars, not temples, were in fact the° key element of sanctuaries. At Olympia the altar of Zeus where ioo oxen were sacrificed during the Olympic games consisted of a mound of ashes that accumulated over Fig. 3.3. Painted wooden plaque, from a cave sanctuary at Pitsà (near Sicyon), the centuries. Pausanias reported that in his day it was 6.5 metres high 550—500 BC (length c. o.3om). A family prepares to sacrifice. On the right, a lighted altar. Next to it, a woman carries on her head a kanoun (with objects for the sacrifice), (5.13.8—9). When there was a temple, the standard design of an altar and in her left hand a vessel for libations. A boy leads the sacrificial sheep. There from the seventh century BC onwards was a square or rectangular stone follow two other youths, playing a lyre and a double shawm. Three women advance, structure placed in front of the temple at the east end where the sacri in time to the music, carrying branches. All the figures are wearing garlands. The four fice would be performed in sight of the deity. Raised altars and temples women are named, and were perhaps a mother with her three daughters. They are 4 described as making a dedication to the Nymphs (to whom the cave was sacred). formed a single unit. Offerings to chthonic’ deities, who often lacked a regular temple, took a different form. Sacrifices to heroes often involved low hearths and the burial of objects in pits, as probably for the heroic which to today’s visitor seem an empty expanse of open ground were founder of Megara Hyblaia, and in Demeter sanctuaries such as that at cluttered with votive offerings: sanctuary inscriptions recorded, often in Corinth there were also pits for ritual purposes. meticulous detail, the proper transfer of the votives from one board of annual magistrates to the 43next. Sometimes the numbers grew so great that the old ones had to VOTIVES be cleared away to make room for new dedica tions. Particularly in sanctuaries of Asclepius and other healing gods, Sanctuaries were not just places for the performance of ritual; they were special sacred regulations governed the removal and disposal of such also places where communities and individuals could display their grat objects. Some survive to this day, sometimes because old or damaged itude and piety toward the god. From the earliest to the latest times offerings were piously buried, others are attested by the inscriptions offerings were made to the gods, though the nature of these offerings which survive from their bases, yet more are described by Pausanias. changed over time. Some were of marble or bronze, and were thus rel This abundant information on votives makes them important for our atively durable (and familiar); others were of more perishable materials, understanding of Greek religions. 3.3).42 45 such as ivory or wood (Fig. We have to imagine that sanctuaries In the Panhellenic sanctuaries cities from all over the Greek world
Linders 1988. ‘ 40 For access to temples see Corbett 1970. nos 41—3, 70, ISCG Supp.43, 507, 59[SAM Inschr,ftenseaIszsos220. Cf.Appendix no. 8. 1g95:77—85. (above, ‘ Nixon The sanctuary of Denieter Malophoros at Selinus p. i) had a shrine, Rouse 1902 remains a good starting point; see briefly Osborne 1987:185—8.Above,pp. 24, 51, but not a fulltemple. ‘ Cf. Rupp 1983. on Locri and Selinus. Neumann 1979; van Saten ig8i, 1992; Simon 1986; Linders and 42 For other votivessee Figs2.5—8,8.2 (terracotta); 2.13 (smallbronze); 3.5 (relief),5.2 (pottery); ,., Nordquist 1987;Alroth 1989;Morgan 1990: 194--203, ;Jackson iggi; Muller 1996on the and 5.3 (marble statues).Cf. Appendix nos. 9—10. Thesmophorion at Thasos. 522—33 ______t
6o Religiousplaces Religiousplaces 6i made offerings to the gods. After defeating the Persian invasion of 480-479 ac, the Greeks made collective dedications. Pausanias reports that at Delphi ‘the Greeks in common dedicated from the spoils taken at the battle of Plataia a gold tripod set ui a bronze serpent’ (10.13.9). By his day the gold tripod had been removed, but the bronze serpent column, which was about 5.5 metres high, remained until the early fourth century An, when Constantine took it to his new city of Constantinople (modern Istanbul), where the remains of it stand to this day.Dedications by communities and individual citizens were often kept in special bmldrngs or 46‘treasuries’. At Olympia eleven treasuries stand in a line overlooking the altar of Zeus and the end of the stadium. At Delphi treasuries, about thirty in total, mainly flank the Sacred Way that leads up through the sanctuary to the temple. The Delphic treasuries were erected by cities from all over the Greek world: mainland Greece (Corinth, Sicyon, Thebes, Athens), northern Greece (Potidaea), the Aegean islands (Siphnos), eastern Greece (Knidos), north Africa Fig. 3.4. Gold and silver statue of bull (on wooden frame), Delphi (sixth century an) (Cyrene) Massilia). in from and the west (Syracuse and They range date (height I .45m). the mid-seventh century through into the mid-fourth century BC. Those of the archaic period are themselves adorned with sculpted reliefs of the 2.3 metres high. The Athenians built not only a treasury perhaps around highest quality. By the time of Pausanias most if not all the treasuries 500 BC, but also a monument from the spoils of victory against the were empty the lavish offerings having been removed in the passage of Persians at Marathon in 490 BC and a portico from spoils taken during time by other Greek states and by Romans. the Peloponnesian war. From the late fourth century BC such monuments Fortunately for us, the contents of one treasury which seems to have replaced the building of treasuries. One commemorated a lion hunt by been damaged by fire were carefully buried under the Sacred Way at Alexander the Great, and from the early third century BC victory dedica Delphi, to be rediscovered only in 5939.The cache dates mostly to the tions, by Hellenistic kings and others, took the form of lavish buildings. seventh and sixth centuries, though there are also some fifth-century In civic sanctuaries dedications were made both by the local commu pieces. Gold, silver and ivory were used in great abundance as well as nity and by individual men and women, both in their own names and as bronze. The cache included three beautiful anthropomorphic statues, members of 48families. One of the best known assemblages happens to the flesh in ivory with gold plates for the clothing, perhaps of Apollo, his survive from the Athenian Akropolis. After the sack of the Akropolis by mother Leto and his sister Artemis; a life-sizebull in gold and silver and the Persians in 480 BC the damaged dedications were gathered up and a large number of ivory reliefs of mythological scenes, which once carefully buried together. Subsequently votives accumulated again in adorned either the side of a throne or a separate votive, perhaps a abundance. One Polemon composed four books about them in the 47chest. Evidently, an extraordinary amount of wealth went into these second century BC, and Pausanias also described many dedications. The dedications (Fig.3.4). surviving archaic votives, while not as lavish as the Delphic cache, At Delphi monuments and objects were also dedicated outside the include some of the finest extant works of archaic Greek sculpture and treasuries. The Naxians around 560 BC dedicated just below the temple the picture is filled out by the inscriptions on the votives’ 49bases. The a marble column about 10 metres high surmounted by a sphinx a further Van Straten 1992: 274—84 stresses the representation of women in votives as members of fami Roux 1984. lies, but the point is also truefor men. On dedications by women see Kron 1996: 155—71. ‘ Arnandry 1939; 1977; Robertson 1975: 140--I. On gifts of gold and silver to sanctuariessee Lewis Sculpture: Schrader ‘939; Payne and Mackworth-Young 1950. Inscriptions: Raubitschek and 1986; Linders 1987;Harris 1990—I. Jeffery ig; IG s’ 526—947;some trans. in Rice and Starnbaugh 1979:150—s. 62 Religiousplaces Religiousplaces 63 r sculpture ranges in date from around 560 BC down to the years immedi show, this group commemorates victories in games, Panhellenic and ately preceding the Persian attack. local, in the most prestigious and expensive of the sports. The most common surviving type of dedication was statues of young Individuals also commemorate themselves in exceptional ways. There women, korai.As we have seen, dedications of similar statues of young is a free-standing sculpture of a man with a writing tablet on his lap (a men (kouroz)were common in the Greek world (above p. 4), but no true Treasurer of Athena? or a democratic official?); a relief of a family kouroiit seems were dedicated on the Akropolis. Seventy-five korai (mother; father, two boys and a girl) making a sacrifice to Athena. Nor survive, some only in small fragments, dating mainly between 530 and was only marble sculpture dedicated: there were numerous bronze fig 480 BC. The statues, around life size or less, stood sometimes on bases urines, such as a youth probably holding jumping weights, presumably and sometimes mounted on columns for greater visibility The women commemorating an athletic victory, and vases. Some of these were quite are always shown holding an offering in one or both hands (principally modest offerings, a world apart from the lavish marble statues of koraior pomegranates and apples). Though these statues have long been studied 53horsemen. by art historians, the reasons for thefr dedication remain 50uncertain. Sanctuaries of Asclepius and other healing gods were much used by Korai might predominate over other types of sculptural dedication individuals in search of healing, who often made personal votive because of the importance of women in the cult of Athena. In general 54offerings. Many votive objects, of stone and clay, survive from such the extant groups of kouroi/koraiin sanctuaries parallel the gender of the sanctuaries. In the sanctuary on the south side of the Akropolis of deity: kouroiin the sanctuary of Apollo 55 a all dedications recorded in Ptoios in Boeotia, and of Apollo Athens stone reliefs form about fifth of the at Didyma; koraiin the sanctuary of Hera on Samos, though there are the (extensive) inscribed inventories; the extant ones often feature some cross-gender dedications. But the statues were not necessarily put Asclepius (Fig.3.5). The other principal categories of dedication in the up by women. In the two cases on the Akropolis where inscribed statue sanctuary were of anatomical objects, or of gold or silver coins destined bases can plausibly be associated with koraiit was men who dedicated the to be melted down to form new cult equipment. Asciepius continued statues. For 56 example, ‘Nearchos the potter (?)dedicated the work from to be popular through into the Roman period, and the sanctuary at the first fruits (aparkhe)to Athena.’ Pergamon was one of the most famous (below,pp. IIo—12). A wide range of dedications5 was made by non-aristocrats. The inscribed bases record potters’ and painters (in addition to Nearchos and EXPENSES a relief showing a seated potter), a tanner; an architect, a shipbuilder; a fuller and a washerwoman. The dedicatory inscriptions regularly indi The costs of building and running Greek sanctuaries could be consider cated that the offeringswere made ‘from the first fruits’ or ‘from a tithe’. able. The only detailed extant figures for the building of a Greek temple It is unclear if there was a real difference in meaning between the two relate to the temple of Asclepius at Epidauros 375—370 BC. This cost terms, but in any case they both draw attention to wealth as the source something over twenty-three talents. Accounts also survive for most of of the dedications. The Akropolis koraiwould thus be signs of the piety the twenty-fiveother items, the cult’sbuildings, the cult statues, the struc of the wealthy (but not necessarily aristocratic) classof archaic 52Athens. tures in the sanctuary that were constructed in the period 370—250 BC Another range of sculpture is to be associated with aristocrats. The The total expenditure was probably in the region of 250 to 300 57talents. magnfficent statue of a man bearing a calf on his shoulders for sacrifice dedications (male) is surely aristocratic, Later, iii the fifthand fourth centuries, Akropolistemple inventories record by and the most common representations of men are citizens, wives/daughters of citizens, resident (male) foreigners, other (male) foreigners, and those of horsemen and charioteers, both free standing and in relief. One women (unspecified):Harris 1995: 223—38. surviving horseman wears a wreath of wild celer the prize in two of the A visit to suth a sanctuary is vividly described by Herodas, Mimsambi 4, c. 280—265 BC. Cunningham ig66: 115—17 argues that the sanctuary is not specifically that on Kos, but see Panhellenic games, at Nemea and at Isthmia. As extant inscribed bases Sherwin-White 1978: 349—52. For paintings, see L!MC 2.1, 891 (cf.above, fig.3.3). 56 Aleshire 1989; 1992; cf. also Rouse 1902: 208—27. Below,fig.8.2. 50 M Holloway 1992. IG i 628. Burford 1969. Cf. the contract price of 300 talents for rebuilding the temple of Apollo at Delphi, 52 Cf. the assumption of the author of the Hippocratic treatiseAirs, WatersPlacesas that the wealthy burnt in 548 Bc: Herodotos 2.180; 5.62.2. For contributions to a rebuilding in 360 Bc see Tod are more able than the poor to make sacrificesto the god and to set up votive offerings. 2.140, trans. in Harding 1985: no. 6o. Introduction: Tomlinsors1976:49—53. 64 .Relzgzousplaces Relzg’ousplaces 65 the so-called sacred revenues of the gods themselves. During the Athenian empire Athena’s income was exceptional, again, in that ‘first fruits’ (aparkhaz),one-sixtieth of the regular tribute of the cities, was paid to her; the so-called ‘Athenian tribute lists’are in fact massive inscribed records of the quotas, set up on the Akropolis. Like other deities else where, Athena also owned large areas of land which were leased out for profit. It has been guessed that 5 to io per cent of all Attica was sacred land of one sort or 59another. Mass leases of sacred property (houses, fields, orchards etc.) were established in 34.3---2, and repeated ten years later; one aspect of the regularisation of public finances in this 69period. A similar picture is implied in the civic decision, probably in the late first century BC, to restore Attic sanctuaries arid to lease out their proper 6ties. When ‘new land’, perhaps in the newly restored territory of ’Oropos on the border between Attica and Boeotia, became available in the 3305 BC, it was leased to provide revenues particularly earmarked to Fig. 3.5. Votive plaque from sanctuary of Asciepius, probably in Athens (35o--300 BC) meet the costs of the Lesser Panathenaia. In the previous century (height o.5om). On the left, Asciepius seated; Hygieia standing, her right hand during the Athenian empire boundary62 stones of ‘Athena ruler of the resting on a disc on top of a votive pillar. In the centre an altar, to which a slave leads a bull. On the right a family: the man places on the altar an offering from the basket Athenians’ are found in three Greek states (Samos, Kos and Chalcis); carried by a naked servant; then two women, one with a littlegirl; finally, a servant they probably mark lands confiscated by the Athenians whose revenues carrying a baby. went to Athena. Land sacred to Demeter lay near the border of Attica with Megara, its alleged cultivation by Megarians being one of the pre This figure does not reflect the level of expenditure we can normally texts for the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war; and also nearly the expect from a modest city (for comparison, Athens received circa 400 cause of Athenian military action in the late 63350s. talents per year as tribute in the mid-fifth century BC). Epidauros being Although sacred lands existed everywhere in the Greek world, their a Panhellenic sanctuar some of the money was in this case donated by extent and sizewould have varied from state to 64state. In Aristotle’sideal other states and individuals. Fifth-century Athens, too, was certainly state the revenues of a quarter of the territory were dedicated to cover atypical, with her resources including her Aegean empire. Extrapolation the expenses of the worship of the gods, while in Hippodamus’ ideal has been made from the Epidauros figures to Athenian building projects, state the proportion of the territory devoted to this purpose was as high but it is difficult to control the key variables, cost of marble and cost of as a 65third. In a number of cases the survival of boundary stones helps transport. In fact the accounts for the Parthenon, Pheidias’ cult statue us to trace the evolution of a particular deity’s lands. In the case of and the entrance gateway,the Propylaea, suggestthat the total there may Artemis of Ephesos we can actually plot her extensive estates all the way have been as high as 2,000 58talents. These and other costs to do with the upkeep of cults were met by Cf. Lewis 1973: ig8—g.See survey of Faragisna 5992: 341—6. 60 Walbank 1983:100—35, 177—23; on the reforms of Lycurgus, below,p. 8s. public subscriptions as well as — especially in the Hellenistic and Roman IGa 1035 = SEGa6.iai. Cf. Culley 1977. 62 2 — periods private individuals. In the case of the fifth-century Athenian Above,p. 33. Robert ig6o: 189—203 identified the ‘NewLand’ with Oropos; Langdon 1987 iden Akropolis building programme, the revenues of the empire were tifIed it with an Aegean island, In democratic Athens festivalswere financed partially through ‘liturgies’,a system of para-taxation fallingon the rich:J.K. Davies 1967; 1971: xvii-xxxi;Parker employed too. Many of the regular expenses, however, were paid for by 1996:128. ° Boundary stones: see now Parker 1996:144--5.Megara: LSCG32,trans. in Harding 1985:no. 78; IvILpp. 164—5. For some accounts see ML jp and IG i 436-51, partially trans. in Fornara 1983: de Ste. Croix 5972: 254--fl. no. 120. The contribution of allied tribute should not be exaggerated: Kallet-Marx 1989; 64 Debord 1982: 127-80; Ainpolo 5992; Isager and Skydsgaard 1992: i81—g8. Giovannini 1990. See in general Burford 1963; Coulton 1977: I8—Q3. Aristotle,Politics133oa8—16, 7b33126—7. 66 Religiousplaces up the river valley running east from Ephesos. Artemis’ estates included two lakes which afforded the goddess good revenues. Not that they were CHAPTER 4 untouched. Our sources also tell us that the Attalid kings despoiled the goddess of these revenues, that the Romans restored them before the Author4y,controlandcrisis Roman tax-gatherers claimed them again for themselves, but that finally Artemis recovered them when an Ephesian embassy appealed to 66Rome. Sacred lands were vulnerable not only with respect to central rulers, but also to forces within the communities themselves. A story is told that in the fifth century the Byzantines were so pressed for money that they sold off publicly owned sacred lands, the fertile land for a period, the infertile in perpetuity They also dealt in a similar manner ‘Polytheism’,in contrast to Christianity or Islam, is often seen as a toler with the sacred lands belonging to religious associations and phratrics ant and open religious system. It is associated with amateur priests, who (especiallywhen they were sited in the midst of the property of a private lacked authority, and with an absence of dogma, orthodoxy and heresy individual, who would pay a high price for this land); only in the case of Already having many gods, it is attributed the capacity to accommodate the lands belonging to religious associations and phratries was there any even more at any time. This romantic view of Greek religious liberalism form of compensation. has little to commend it. The absence of dogmas did not entail that any Sacred67revenues derived from various sources were stored in cash in thing was permitted, nor was the pluralism of gods open-ended. Iii fact the sanctuaries, at Athens in the Parthenon. The money was, in prin the terms ‘polytheism’ and ‘monotheism’ are unsatisfactory (above, ciple, the deity’s, though in the fifth century the Athenians felt able to p. ii), and the issue of tolerance/intolerance is anachronistic. As a borrow it for secular so6 purposes °long as they paid interest on it, and in matter of state policy, religious toleration does not predate the eight the last decade of the Peloponnesian War golden dedications to Athena eenth century.’ The best way forward to understand this issue is to were converted into coins. Howeveti theft of sacred property was a examine religious authority and responses to religious crisis.The chapter capital crime, and the temple-robber might be denied 69burial. The pil sets the scene for Greek cities in general, and then concentrates on laging of the Delphic sanctuary by the Phocians in 356 BC to pay for Athens, largely because the Athenian evidence best illuminates the mercenaries sent shock waves through the Greek world. It was noted issues. piously that the subsequent war was waged for ten years until the annihilation of those who had divided among themselves the sacred RELIGIOUS OFFICIALS property; the Phocians were then condemned as temple-robbers to pay a huge indemnity to the sanctuary, which they did for some twenty Priests were an essential component of every Greek 2state. Aristotle’s years. Despite occasional pillaging, temple properties survived into late Politics,an analytic study of the fourth-century Greek political commu 7antiquity, when they ° faced new threats from the rise of Christianity in nity includes among the necessary officesof the state superintendents of the fourth and fifth centuries ’7AD. religion, namely priests and, especially in larger states, a range of 66 officialsconcerned with the performance of rites, the upkeep of temples Strabo 14.1.27, 642c; IaschrjflenvonEphesos7.2.3501—56. 67 Ps-Aristotle, Oeconomica2, —21. and religious accounts, and also civic magistrates who were responsible 5535,, 136b1 Tod 1.69 aIG trans.43in Fornara 1983: no. 541; ML 76 = IC I 329, trans. in Fornara 1983: for religious festivals (1322 b.18—29; cf. 1328 b.II—1 Aristotle’s assump 110. 543; IG 1388,trans. in Harding 1985:nO. so. Harris 1995 analyses(and translates) the inven ‘priests’). runs counter to the tories. Eleusinian ,3 tion that there was a clear category of 3 revenues Cavanaugh 1996: 211—12 (on IC 386—7). ° Thucydides 2.13.4—5; ML 72 = IC,’ 369, trans. in Fornara 5983:150. 534; Linders 1987: ir5; cf. suggestion of modern scholars that the category is a Judaeo-Christian ‘ Parker 1983: cli. 5. Diodorus Siculus 56.54.3; Tod 2.572, trans. in Harding £985: 150. 88; contributions to ‘Sacred Garnsey 1984. War’: Tod 2.560, trans. in Harding 5985: no. 74; Linders 5987:117; Bousquet 1988. 2 Burkert 1985: 95-8; Jordan 1989; Sourvinou-Inwood 1990: 320—1; Garland 5984 catalogues See below, pp. 164—71. Athenian religious officials;Garland 1990b; Kron 5996: 139—55 on female priests.
67
Athenian
these
down
were
Mysteries
were Athena’s
Classifying absolutely
are ing
We
prominent
at
central
normally Although
memberment
special
over facilitated
the
Artemis
ing
of
Zeus
theon, Nevertheless,
and
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gory
did
stitute
thought. 3
one
68
the
The
surprising,
Both
Apollo
often
can
particular
a gender
not
limited
women.
which
‘lineages’
to
somehow
or
with
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Feaver
sacrifices,
centre
ritual
parts
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so
function
the
figures
see
Hephaistos,
men
necessarily
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robe
unified
‘lineages’,
said
were
the
other
that
by
at
Hiereis
and
a
essential
1957
in
aspect
ending them
was
has
this,
wide
to
stool
of Delphi,
of
and
her
processions
North Priesthoods
skins,
given
from
priesthood
deity,
of
studies to normally
priesthoods
continues
members
run
limited
in
the
chosen
the
not
officials
for
‘clergy’,
of
though
be
or
the
gender.
as
women
range
of
from
of
1990.
most
another
climactic
both
the
example, priests
sacrificial
while that
which hiereiai
the
for
were
serve
not
very
their
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the
sacrificial
the
‘lineage’
correspondence
to
of
Kerykes
the
held
Author4y,
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professionals, all
festivals.
Pythia,
Mysteries
throughout
but
of
by
was
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normally
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their
were
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important.
represent
full-time
may
functions.
young
could
was
of
Appendix
girl.
other
particular
civic
proper
and
panel
equally
by
in
not
responsible
animals
they
female
animals,
to
not
principally
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was
women,
possession
and
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a
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In
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priests.
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be
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the
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always
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antiquity
Though
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their
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,
and Christian
life-long,
the
with
and
misleading.
part community
by
extent
the
6.
their
of
offices
end
the
while
priesthoods.
for
Eumolpidai,
are
More
The
east
was
men;
implication
such
ritual. 4
equal
of
special
crisis
the
is
a
priests
Graeco-Roman
in
perquisites
of
the
woman.
a
ritual
and
of
those
the
untenable.
from
side
presence
homologous
frieze,
recognised
those
the
were
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not
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as
(gene). 5
their
exceptionally
generally,
priests
actual
the
opportunities
Pythia
by
They Demeter,
the main
commonly
clothing
fourth
importance,
appointed
the
in
Some
always
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archon
religious
which
office
6
The
its
The priestess
being
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and
Clinton
archaic
killing
of
of
the
by
ritual
might
relations
Priests
century
ancient
priests
priesthoods
women
correspond
their
the
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Apollo
to do
might
male
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patterns
Athena
necessary.
that
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1974.
the
as
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the
and
actions.
by
system.
not
fbr
of
period
role
preside
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priest
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gods,
6
they
men.
pan
two
with
cate
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of
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a
Archias;
was
remained Similarly
Athenians one
twenty-second
of
female tic
established
for lot gious
the
developed
Whatever for
and
that to
and
of
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ried sometimes
val sanctuary
were office
order
IS
Pausanias Priests
pp.
Cf.
Thucydides no. specialisation.
of ML
Athena follow
procedure
‘from
fifty-six
life.
case
by
understood
being
Flavius
made
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this
and
are
Isocrates
5)
109-
not
and
only
to
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priest
fish
One
priest
the
Pythia,
of
12.
be
all
held unknown,
it
expected
were
particular at
in
IG
the
political
or,
appointed
deposed
2.26.8;
until Polias a
them
and
For
tombstone
prescribed,
Athena
2.2.1,
or
from
Athenian
open
2.6.
subsequently
in
fifth-century the
i’
Aristomachus
Pergamon
cult
of
in
mode
other for
Aristophanes’
office
35,
in
old
On
appointed
a
4.133.
as
they
the
who
the
ISAM ‘lineage’
trans.
appropriate
half
Admittedly
going
at
line
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to
appointment
appointment
hereditary abstinence
a
to
ones
of
competence
from
Nike)
Athens
case
new
of
traditional
for
the
and
rules
reached
was
by
Appendix
years
the
be
women’. 9
from
13,
appointment
either,
back
Authority,
life.
the
first
divine.”
lot. 8
of
unmarried
reorganised
Lysisfrata
fifth-century
trans.
office.’°
priests
of
required priesthoods
female
For
which
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in in 70 Authority,controland crisis Authority,controland crisis 7’ Such regulations necessarily marked out the holders of priesthood as distinct from the rest of society. The distinction of priests was echoed and emphasised iconographically. Priests, male and female, were hon oured in the Hellenistic and Roman periods in sanctuaries with statues of themselves as priests. For example, in the sanctuary of Athena Polias at Priene on the west coast of Asia Minor were a statue of Niko, a female priest of the fourth century BC, and an early imperial statue of a male priest of Rome and Augustus; there also survives the bust of a young girl, also of the fourth century BC, who may have taken part in the cult of Athena.’ Tombstones also feature priestly office. For example, classical Attic2 tombstones show men in distinctive dress holding a knife, and women with a huge key (of a temple): their office was the distinctive feature of their personal identity (Figs. 4.I--2). ‘ Priests were not the only authority within the religious sphere. Complementing their ritual authority were people with particular expertise in interpreting the sacred laws. At Athens special officials(exege taz)were appointed for the task, at least from the fourth century BC onwards. They are to us somewhat shadowy figures, but they were pre sumably important upholders and (re-)interpreters of traditional prac 4tices.’ They could also give advice to individuals especially on problems arising from pollution and murder. Plato presents a paradoxical case in which a son prosecuted his father for murder of a niurderer. The origi nal murderer, perhaps a hired agricultural workman, had killed a house hold slave and then been left tied up in a ditch while the father enquired of one of the official interpreters what should be done. The murderer died before a reply came back from the interpreter.’ For Plato the story sets off a dialogue about the role of piety For us the enquiry of the inter preter reveals the possible 5 official importance of an religious expert. Whereas these exegetaiwere officially appointed, other religious experts of a similar kind were not. According to Plato:
Vagrant priests and diviners (manteis)go to the doors of the wealthyand as if they possesseda power providedto them from the godsbecause of their sacri ficesand incantations they persuade the wealthyperson that they can remedy
12 InschrfienvonPrienei6o, 222; Carter 1983: 276 no.86; Price 19842: 179. Cf. below,pp. 92—3 for Fig. 4.5. Grave relief from Athens, of an elderlyman, ‘Simos of the deme Myrrhinous’ other representations of young girls. (c. 400 Bc) (height o.62m). The clothing (a long chitonwith short sleeves) the 3 and Clairmont 5993, men: no. i.i86, 1.250, 2.341b, 2.412a, 3.297—297a, 3.305, ob, 4.781—2; prominent knife are characteristic of male priests. women: no. 1.248, 1.350a, 1.934, 3.39ob, 4.358. Cf. further, index 6.147—8.Mantis3 199o: 28—65, 82—96,114—15. Cf. Connelly in Ridgway 1994: 28-31. For an inscribed tombstone. see Appendix ‘ no. 5. Jacohy 1949: 8—51;Oliver i9o; Clinton 1974: 89—93.Their early history is obscure: Parker 1996: n. 26. For other officials Appendix 2, 5 49 see nos. 6, 7. 4Eut4yphro b—d;below, p. ia8. 72 Author4y,controland crisis Authority,controland crisis 73 interpretation of sacrifices, dreams and omens (above, p. i). They were often itinerant figures who moved from place to place as occasion demanded.’ In the fifth century a certain Lampon was a prominent Athenian religious expert. He was not only influential as far as measures 6of a religious character were concerned, but also the first signatory of the peace between Athens and Sparta in 421 BC. When the Athenians decided to reorganise the first fruits given to Eleusis an amendment on various technical matters proposed by Larnpon was passed,’ and he was sufficiently well known to be the butt of jokes in7 the comic poets.’ However, he was an exceptional figure and the more normal standing8 of the diviner is described by Euthyphro, the son prosecuting his father for murder: The people laugh at me arid say I am an enemywhen I say anythingin the assemblyabout divine thingsand forecastthe future to them, and yet there is not one of thosethingsI haveforetoldthat is not true, but they arejealous of allsuchmen asyou are [Socrates]and I am. (Plato,Euthjphro3C) What for the diviner seemed to be jealousy was experienced differently by the members of the assembly.They could prefer detailed arguments over religious expertise, though speakers always appealed to the general benevolence of the gods for the 9city)
ORACLES The consultation of oracles by the state represented an appeal to reli gious authority of a rather different kind. In the archaic period it seems from the narrative of Herodotos that it was perfectly normal for states to consult oracles, especially the oracle at Delphi, on a wide variety of Fig.4.2. Graverelief from Kerameikoscemeter Athens(heighti.oim). A young 20issues. Indeed the consultations about founding a new city were so woman ‘Polystrate’carriesin her right hand a longkey;her lefthand may originally standard that Herodotos is not surprised when a Spartan, Dorieus, who have carried a smaller(painted)object.The keymarksher as a femalepriest. omitted to consult Delphi failed the first time and, when he went beyond his oracular brief the second time, lost his life. About the founding of with rejoicings and religious celebrations any injustice which the wealthy man ’2 himself or his ancestors may have committed, and if the wealthy man wishes 16 to harm some enemy they say that at little cost they will harm ajust man as well For exceptional Athenian honours for a diviner (in 394—3Bc) see M.J. Osborne 1970, repeated in Mj. Osborne 1981—3; 2.45—8.Cf. Herodotos 933—6.See further on manttisBremmer as an unjust with some invocations and spells. They do this as they say by ‘.43—5, per 996b. On other mobile skilledworkers see McKechnie 1989:142—77. 17 suading the gods to serve them. (Republic2.364 b—c) ML 73, trans. Fornara 1983: no. 140 (?C. 422 Bc). 18 i Cratinus in Athenaeus 8.34x = fr. 62 Kassel—Austin,Eupolis fr. 319 Kassel—Austin;cf. below, Plato’s depiction of the priests and diviners ispart of an argument about pp. 129—3o. For another Athenian diviner see SEG 16.193. the nature of true justice and virtue (which cannot be bought) and is See Parker 1997 for assumption in oratory of divine benevolence. 20 sharply hostile, but diviners could be Parke1967 and 1985;Vernant 1974;Price 1985; Parker 1985. On attitudes to oracles see Nock prominent and prestigious figures. 1942. Cf. Appendix no,. 11--12. In the AnabasisXenophon regularly turned to diviners for help in the 21 5.42 -. Sparta had four Pythioi, whom Dorieus bypassed: Herodotos 5b.7. 74 Author4y,controland crisis Authoriv,controland crtsis 75
Cyrene by Thera in circa 630 BC Herodotos tells two different and Zeus at Dodona, perhaps in 430, and perhaps about how they should incompatible stories which he has heard in the two cities.Delphi plays a respond to the plague devastating 24Athens. Some states did continue to role in each but is especiallyprominent in the Cyrene version. A century consult Delphi and other oracles, hut they were states where internal after Herodotos heard this story, the people of Cyrene decided to debate was less developed. So Sparta consulted Delphi in 432 BC as to inscribe what purports to be the original seventh-century document, whether it would be better or worse for her to go to war with Athens starting with a reference to the special role of Apollo in instigating the (Thucydides i.ii8), and any state could find itself in a real quandary. 22foundation. Should a state on the borders of Macedon make an alliance with The authenticity of such consultations has been doubted, but is sup Macedon’s mighty Philip II? The Chalcidians consulted 25Delphi. And ported, for example, by the Athenian consultation in 481 BC about their what was a city to do about the incursion of pirates? In the first century response to the threat of Persian attack (Herodotos 7.14&-4). The BC the city of Syedra in southern Turkey had to ask Apollo for his Athenian envoys first received a bleak oracle advising the Athenians to 26advice. flee to the ends of the earth, as other Greek cities had done, rather than Although by An ioo Delphi was perhaps a shadow of its former self, capitulate to Persia. The envoys were dismayed at the advice and oracles did not fade 27away. Elsewhere in the Greek world they certainly returned as suppliants to ask Apollo if the future need be so bleak. The did flourish in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The oracle of Apollo Pythia replied that Athena could not prevail upon the will of Zeus but at Didyma, in the territory of Miletos on the west coast of Asia Minoi that a wooden wall would ultimately protect the Athenians and divine continued to issue divine responses until its sack by the Persians in 494 Salamis would bring death to women’s sons. On their return to Athens BC. The revival of the oracle and the rebuilding of the temple, on a the envoysreported the oracle to an assembly of the people where a spir grand scale, began in the late fourth century BC, and oracles continued ited debate occurred as to its meaning. Herodotos’ report of this public to be issued there until the mid-third or even early fourth century 28AD. debate, which should have occurred within his own lifetime, has strong One hundred kilometres to the north was the oracle of Clarian Apollo. claims to historicity.If the debate and the oracle are rejected as fictitious, This too probably went back to the archaic period, but the temple was we open up serious general problems with our major ancient account of redesigned in the early Hellenistic period and, in the first century AD, archaic Greece. The debate centred on the interpretation of the text: colossal statues of three gods (Apollo seated between his mother Leto was the wooden wall a wall round the Akropolis, or ships? if the latter, and his sister Artemis) were added, and the temple at least was com why was Salamis to be a place of death? The final interpretation, by the pleted in the second century AD by the emperor Hadrian. In the second Athenian politician Themistocles, claims that the unofficial interpreters and third centuries AD delegates came from numerous Greek cities of of oracles (Ichresmologoz)are wrong to take the deaths to be of Athenians, inland Asia Minor and the west coast of the Black Sea to consult the for Salamis was called ‘divine’and he therefore persuaded the Athenians oracle, some every yeai some only at times of public crisis (likethe city to hope for victory by sea. Rational argument, based on a close reading of 29Syedra). Consultation of all oracles about matters of religious pro of the oracular text, carried the day. priety remained perfectly normal, and it was always possible to argue Consultations of oracles on major political issues were less common that an external crisis (plague or brigands) had a religious cause and so in the classicalperiod. This was not because of a loss of faith in Deiphic could best be solved by asking an oracle which god should be placated. authorit or in the gods generally, but because of the development of For example, a series of cities asked the oracle of Clarian Apollo how political institutions that could reach political decisions within the state. 24 The Athenians, after 481 BC, did not again consult an oracle on an Cf. below,p. 77for the recommendation to create an official cult of Bendis, overtly political matter. The development of democratic debate made 25 Tod 2.158, trans. Harding 1985: no. 67. 26 SEG 41.1411, trans. Appendix no. 12. Cf. Robert rg66: i—soo; Parke 1985: 157—9; see Faraone that But unnecessary. even the Athenians consulted an oracle, that of 1992: 74—93on binding images. 23 27 Plutarch, The Obsolescenceof Oracles(Moralia4IoE--438E),explained the diminution of Delphic 22 Herodotos 4.150—8. ML , trans. Fornara 1983: 110. i8 (first half of fourth century). importance in terms of population decline. 25 28 The consultation in 352 about Megarian cultivation of sacred land (above, p. 6) blended ‘polit Archaeology: Tuchelt 1995. Above, p. 37 on the route between Miletos and Didysna. ical’ and ‘religious’ factors. 29 Parke 1985;Lane Fox 1986: i68—s6i. 76 AutIzoriy,controland crisis AuthoriE’y,controland crisis 77 they should handle the great plague which devastated the Roman empire after AD 165.30 Oracles remained through antiquity pre-eminent sources of religious authority.
THE CITY AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE On the one hand, the observance of religious guidelines impinged on the political life of the community in many ways. Meetings of the Athenian assembly began with the purification of the auditorium by the sacrifice of a pig and the carrying of its body round the auditorium, the reading of a prayer and a curse against speakers who spoke and acted against the interests of the city, and the making of offerings to various gods. The Athenian council probably also opened in a similar 31fashion. Religious items were privileged in the conduct of assembly business. Sacred matters were taken first at two of the four monthly meetings of the assembly, at any rate after 350 BC, followed by questions concerning heralds and embassies and then questions concerning secular matters. Fig. 4.3. Bendis on an Attic red-figured cup (430--42o Be) (height o.i8m). On the left, 32 Themis with a torch in her right hand, and a kanoun (for sacrifices) in her left. On the This privileging of religious items was normal in Greek cities. On the right, Bendis in exotic Thracian dress carrying two spears, accompanied by a doe. other hand, the overall control of the religious life of the community lay Themis, as the god of order, stands for the recent placing of Bendis among the state with the citizens and their magistrates and political leaders. While the cults; her attributes allude to the new festival, with its sacrifice and torch race. assembly considered religious items that required decision, the council held a watching brief over religious matters as over all other aspects of a temple at Kition) on the analogy of the permission given to Egyptians civic life. The council assisted the treasurers of the gods when necessary for the sanctuary of 36Isis. As they were not citizens, they could not own and was involved in temple-building and repair. It often provided from land in Attica, hut rather than merely rent land they obtained the special its members boards of religious officials(hieropoioz)for particular festivals right of land ownership for their sanctuary. In the fifth century similar and it heard reports from priests and others on the performance of their permission seems to have been granted to Thracians for a sanctuary in religious 33duties. The role of the state was to co-ordinate the sacred and the Peiraeus of their native (female)god Bendis, perhaps in accordance the human spheres, to ensure that the community 34flourish. with an oracle from Zeus at Dodona. In this case the assembly took a One of the matters regulated by the assembly was the introduction of subsequent interest in the cult. On making a second enquiry to Dodona, new 35cults. Foreigners living in Athens who wished to establish shrines the assembly was told for reasons that are entirely unclear to placate to their native deities sought the permission of the assembly. In 333 BC Bendis. The Athenians negotiated with the Thracians and instituted Phoenician merchants from Kition on Cyprus gained permission to their cult as a state cult. Payment for the cult was made from at least found a sanctuary of their ancestral deity Astarte/Aphrodite (who had 429/8 BC by the Treasurers of the Other Gods (that is of the gods other than Athena); at some stage the festival was expanded and the noctur 30 Graf 1992, with trans., on Cf. Faraone 5992: on Apollo’s statues as protectors. nal torch race at the festivalin the Peiraeus became a notable event (Fig. n 8s.SEG 54—73 Rhodes 1972: 36—7;Hansens. 1987: 90—I. n 49 4.3). Plato’s Republicopens with Socrates recounting that (in about 410 Aeschines 5.23; Aristotle, Ath.Psi. 43.6; cf. 30.5. For the particular importance of speecheson ‘rites’seea fourth-centuryrhetorical handbook, probably by Anaxirnenes,ascribed to Aristotle: BC)he went down to the Peiraeus the previous day to pray to Bendis and RhetorictoAlexander3.1423a2o—1424a8 (trans. Loch Aristotle vol. t6). to see the inauguration of her new festival. He was impressed by the Rhodes 1972: 127—34. Appendix no. is for hieropoioielsewhere. Connor ig88, rejecting the sacred/profane dichotomy. Garland 5992; Parker 1996: 2 14—17. 36 Tod 2189 = ISCG , trans. Harding iq8: no. iii. Cf. Parker 1996: i6o—i. °
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After the transfer of the Delian League’s treasury from Delos to Athens Eleusis.No obligation was or could be imposed on other states but many in 454 BC, representatives of the allies were expected to bring their Greek states apparently did send first fruits each year. Laggards were tribute to Athens each year at the time of the Great Dionysia, when they chastised by the Delphic 47oracle. could take part in the festivaland watch the performance of tragedy and The reorganisation of Athenian finances at a time of financial crisis comedy. Every fourth year the allies were also expected to send repre in the 330S BC involved considerable reorganisation of the financing of sentatives to Athens, along with a cow and panoply, to take part in the festivals; over a period of twelve years from 338 to 326 BC the politician Greater Panathenaia (eight months before the 43Dionysia). The order to Lycurgus succeeded in restructuring all aspects of Athenian finances send the cow and panoply which would be paraded in the Panathenaic and gradually increasing Athenian 48revenues. This reorganisation procession was peculiar. Normally only citizens took part in their city’s included religious expenditure, and was designed to maintain or even festivals.The exceptions were colonists,who did not retain citizenship of to enhance the celebration of traditional cults. A series of laws allocated their mother city but who were expected to continue participating in that specific revenues for specific festivals and was designed to ensure that city’sfestivals.Thus an Athenian colony founded in Thrace in the 440s money was not wasted and that traditional sacrifices could be carried was to send a cow and panoply to the Greater Panathenaia as well as a out. One law concerned the regulations for festivals, the money raised phallos to the Great 44Dionysia. The Athenians were therefore exploit by selling the hides of sacrificial victims and the making of the ing the belief that the lonian citieswho formed the core of the allies had appropriate cult vesselsfor processions. Oracular approval, presumably originally been founded from Athens; they extended the participation to that of Delphi, was to be sought for these changes, which involved the other non-lonian cities and established severepenalties for the breach of melting down of many old 49offerings. Another law, on the leasing of an alleged 45convention. newly acquired land on the northern border of Attica to provide rev Athens also exploited the religious value of Eleusis. The Eleusinian enues for the Lesser Panathenaia, entailed a complete revision of both Mysteries were unique at Athens: though a civic cult, initiation in them the Lesser and the Greater Panathenaia. Financial concerns were was open to all Greeks, and to Greek-speaking non-Greeks. The accompanied by and were directed towards general changes in the civic Athenians had traditionally offered first fruits of grain to Demeter, cults. 5 goddess of agriculture. Perhaps BC guiding spirit behind °the whole series of reforms was that of in the osmid-4 they decided to The extend the scope of the offerings: Athenian3 allies were ordered to democratic patriotism, a strong sense of attachment to the gods of the appoint local collectors of grain who would take the firstfruits to Eleusis; land of Attica. As Lycurgus himself said in a speech prosecuting one other Greek cities were invited but not obliged to do likewise. The Leocrates for abandoning the city after its defeat at the hands of Philip increased volume of grain presented to Demeter necessitated the build of Macedon: ing of new storehouses in the sanctuary. The 46 Athenians claimed it was I pray to Athena and the other godsand heroesestablishedin the cityand its ancestral custom, sanctioned by the Deiphic oracle, for other Greek territory if I have actedjustly in denouncingand bringing to trial Leocrates, citiesto givefirst fruits to Eleusis;as rulers of an empire, they could insist whobetrayedtheirtemplesand imagesand sanctuariesand the ritesand sacri on observance of the custom by their allies. In the fourth century, with ficeslaid downbylawand handed downbyyourforefathers,makeme todaya the ending of Athens’ centralised empire, Athenians and Athenian citi fit prosecutorof Leocrates’crimes. zens living in settlements overseas 5 (cleruchs)continued to send grain to Lycurgus’ reforms constitute’ a great period of Athenian religious consolidation and revitalisation, which left as its heritage a system of ML 40.2—8 = IG trans. Fornara 1983: r i, no. i; ML 46.41—3 = Ic’, 34, trans. Fornara 1983: ‘traditional’ cults which endured for centuries to come. no. 98; ML 69.55—8= IG 71, trans. Fornara 1983:no. 336. ‘ ML 49.11—13 = IG 46, trans. Fornara 1983: no. ,oo. Cf. Parker 1994 for the cults of such colonies. “ ° Isocrates 4.31. The law on the Mysteries was revised at this time: SEG30.61. Cf. Clinton 194b. Ionian cities in the fourth to second centuries ac again sent representatives (theoroz)to the Mitchel 1970: 34—52;Humphreys 1985; Faraguna 1992: 355—80;Parker 1996: 24255. Panathenaia, by now without Athenian compulsion: Habicht 1991: 329; Parker 1996: 221. IG 2 333 = Schwenk 1985: no. 21, 335—4BC Above,p. 33. SI ° ML 7 = IG , 78, trans. Fornara 1983:no. 140. Cf. Mylonas 1961: 125—7; Clinton 1987 and Lycurgus,AgainstLeocrates15 (trans. Loch, MinorAtticOrators2). See below,p. 95, on the oath of Cavanaugh 1996: 73—95on date; below,pp. 102--7, Fig.5.4 no. 5. the ephebes. F
82 Author4y,controlandcrisis Authority,controlandcrisis 83
RESPONSES TO RELIGIOUS THREATS The protective concern of the Athenian demos in religious matters comes over very clearly in caseswhere the religion of the state was alleg edly threatened or challenged. Two episodes from the later fifth century ifiustrate the mechanisms of control and the appeals to popular religious belief: the profanation of the Mysteries and the mutilation of the herms in 415 BC, and responses to 52Socrates. Both episodes illustrate the scope of the law against impiety (osebeth).Though the law,like other Athenian laws, did not offer an extensive definition of impiety but rested on ordi nary usage, it applied (aswe shall see) both to actions that offended the gods (415 Bc) and also to the promulgation of scandalous beliefs con cerning the gods (Socrates). That is, both episodes refute the common modern view that democratic Athens was basically liberal and open- minded in relation to deviant actions and 53opinions. The affair of 415 BC involved two religious scandals that were separ ate, though it was believed that the same group of people was involved in both. Establishing what actually happened is not possible; apart from Thucydides’ brief narrative, the main evidence is a speech of defence delivered by Andocides in (probably) 400 BC which is, naturally, very ten dentious. He was standing trial for alleged breach of a decree of 415 banning him from the Athenians’ Agora and sanctuaries. We also have part of a speech for the prosecution (one of the handful of cases in ancient history when arguments on both sides survive). Both speeches are suspect as to matters of fact, but very important in terms of their arguments and assumptions. One night shortly54 before the Athenian expedition to Sicily set out, a gang of men mutilated most of the herms in Athens. The herms were Fig. 4.4. Head of herm found in the Athenian Agora (height O.23m). It was buried in plain rectangular shafts with a head of the god Hermes on top and a set the late fifth century BC, and may have been one of those mutilated in 415 BC. of male genitalia half way up (cf.Fig. 2.13). Followingcustoms that went back to the later sixth century BC these herms were dedicated through and install an oligarchy. The logic of this amdet which has worried out Athens in large numbers outside houses and shrines, and in the some scholars, is perfectly clear. The connection of religion and politics Agora in a special Stoa of the 55Herms. The mutilation of the faces was was so closethat to attack one was automatically to undermine the other. deeply shocking and an ill omen for the expedition (Fig.4.4).Thucydides Andocides in4oo was defending himself against accusations of being (6.27)and Andocides (1.36) agree that it was also generally taken to have involvedin the mutilation and of thus having turned informer to savehis been done as part of a conspiracy designed to overthrow the democracy own skin. He had opposed the mutilation, which took place while he was incapacitated by injury Only one herm in the city escaped mutilation, See generallyon impietyCohen iggi: 203—17; Parker 1996:162—3; Parker 1983:144—90 on sac that near his house, which the conspirators had expected him to muti rilege. See belo pp. 133--4, for Plato’simpietylaw late. ‘ Cf. MacDowell 1962; Dover 1970; Osborne 1985; Murray 199°; Furley 1996. Apparently, on his return to Athens from exile in4o3, he had insti Thompson and Wycherley 1972: 94—6;Parker 1996: 8o-i. tuted proceedings for impiety against someone for mutilating a herm 1
84 Authority,controlandcrisis AuthoriEy,controland crisis 85 belonging to his own family.This pioy to clear his own name disgusted evaded the issue of his alleged participation in the Mysteries, obfuscated his prosecutor in 400, who argued that it showed contempt for the gods. the events of 415 and appealed successfullyfor leniency. But he entirely Andocides’ own speech and that of the prosecution concur in their agreed with the prosecution that those actually guilty of impiety condemnation of the impious nature of the crime. deserved death (1.30). The profanation of the Eleusinian Mysteries came to light immedi Threats to the religious system were not always unreligious acts,like ately before the Sicilian expedition set off It was alleged that Alcibiades the mutilation of the herms; they might also be more conceptual, but no and others had celebrated the Mysteries in at least fiveprivate houses in less repugnant to the Athenian people. In the second half of the fifth the presence of non-initiates. Some scholars assume that the profanation century BC Athens was the centre towards which thinkers from all over was a parody and exceedingly funny to the participants, hut the prosecu the Greek world gravitated. Their free thinking about the gods and tion of 400 stressed that the rite was performed by the wrong person and about the world, so exciting to those interested in ‘progress’,was checked that in imitation of the rites sacred things were revealed to the unin by a series of trials. The evidence for all the fifth-century trials islate and itiated (Lysias 6.51).This celebration was even more shocking than the has been rejected in part as mere inferences from jokes in 58comedy, but mutilation of the herms and challenged one of Athens’ central religious it is no weaker than many sources for the flfih century BC and perhaps rites. So sensitivewas the matter that the assembly in 415 to which news should not all be dismissed. However, only with Socrates are Athenian of the profanation was brought was cleared of non-initiates before responses to these thinkers well attested and cleat The evidence for atti matters could proceed and Andocides’jury in 400 again consisted only tudes to Socrates is principally Aristophanes’ comedy, The Clouds,first of Eleusinian initiates. Others might inadvertently have learned some of performed unsuccessfully in 423 BC but substantially revised a few years the secrets of the 56Mysteries. later to meet popular criticism, though not actually staged 59again. The Those implicated in the scandal, including Andocides, were the play, often seen as merely comic, in fact articulates a set of profound subject of an awesome curse by male arid female 57priests. Andocides objections to the free thinkers. Possible defences of Socrates are found himseif was excluded by a special decree of 415 from the Athenian in Apologiesby Plato and Xenophon. Plato’s version, because it is more Agora and sanctuaries. He thus wandered the Greek world for thirteen surprising and less conciliatory than Xenophon’s, is likely to be nearer years until his return in 402. At his trial in 400 Andocides denied that he to what Socrates said, but both stand as possible lines of defence against had acted impiously or had turned informer, especially not on his own the accusation of impiett father. He also argued that the exile decree of 415 was no longer valid The actual charge°6 sheet at Socrates’ trial in 399 consisted of the fol because of subsequent constitutional changes. He stressed his per lowing points. Socrates is guilty: formance of religious functions for the state since his return in 402 and (ia) Of refusing to recognise the gods (theoz)recognised by the state; argued that his safe passage over the seas in the years of exile demon (ib) Of introducing other new divinities (daimonia); strated that the gods did not seek his death. Conversely, the prosecution (2) He is also guilty of corrupting the youth. The penalty demanded is argued for the continuing validity of the exile decree, expressed horror death. at the impious nature of his advising the council on religious matters and The ’6first charge (ia), that Socrates does not recognise the gods of the the possibility of his being appointed magistrate in charge of the state is explicitly stated in the Clouds.In the play a father, Strepsiades, Mysteries, and claimed that he had been preserved from the sea specif overwhelmed by the debts run up by his son Pheidippides, urges his son ically to stand trial in Athens. But the central event which had brought about the trial was Andocides’ alleged participation in the Mysteries 58 Dover 1975 demonstrates the weak evidential base for the decree of Diopeithes (allegedly c. 432 while still debarred. The prosecution argued for the absolute necessity BC),and for the trials of Anaxagoras, Diagoras, Protagoras and Euripides, against (for example) Dodds 1951: 189-91. For later trials at Athens see Parker 1996: 276—8;below, p. 127. of punishing impiety: the gods were capable of punishing impiety them Dover ig68;Jefliey Henderson 1993 on revision. selves, but the jury should here act as agents of the gods. Andocides 60 Versnel I990 123—31; Connor 1991: 203—17; Cohen 1995;Parker igg6: 199-217; Burnyeat 1996 stresses the provocativeness of Plato’s Apology.Hansen 1995 argues for the historicity of both speeches. See also below, p. 128, on Plato’s phv.Euth 56 ‘ 61 Andocides 1.12, 29, 31. Lysias 6.51; Plutarch, Alcibiades22. Diogenes Laertius 240; cf. Plato, Apology2423 and Xenophon, Apologyso. F
86 Authoriy,controlandcrisis Authority,controland crisis 87 to learn at Socrates’ think tank how to make the Right Argument lose so new gods, but both admit that he had privileged access to the divine that he could evade his debts. Pheidippides refuses and Strepsiades through a special voice or divine being (daimonion)that spoke to him. himself goes, a comic reversal of the age of Socrates’ normal pupils. Socrates’ claim to have his personal divine being, which no doubt under There he finds an institution devoted to science (including geometry and lay the prosecution’s argument, was paradoxical. The man who claimed astronomy), he hears of enquiry into alleged trivia, how far can a flea to know least had a hot line to the divine. It was also threatening to the jump, the sort of research still pilloried by those hostile to universities, principles of communal life in which access to wisdom and knowledge and he finds Socrates hanging in a basket to contemplate the sun. was supposed to be evenly distributed. Strepsiades immediately takes this to mean that he looks down on the The consequences of the religious charges were supposed to be the gods, which Socrates confirms: gods like Zeus do not exist, and are not corruption of the youth (2). The whole purpose of Strepsiades’ educa responsible for the workings of nature, like rain or thunder. Later tion was to enable him not to pay his son’sdebts. The Clouds are said by Strepsiades passes on the lesson and reproves his son for believing that Socrates to teach all the sophistical skills of logic and persuasion, and Zeus exists. Strepsiades later watches a debate in which the Wrong Argument tri The defence against these charges differs in Xenophon and Plato. umphs over the Right. Strepsiades puts his lesson into practice by for Xenophon simply claims that Socrates was conventionally pious; every swearing himself by Zeus, Hermes and Poseidon that he owes a creditor one could have seen him sacrifice at the public festivalsand at the state any money: after all, he has been taught that Zeus does not send thun altars. Xenophon’s Socrates could thus sanction Xenophon’s own reli derbolts to strike down 63perjurers. Later, however, Pheidippides turns gious actions described in the Anabasis(above, p. i). Plato goes deeper his own skillsin logic on Strepsiades and starts to beat up his father, at into the charge, seeking to distinguish between old prejudices against which point Strepsiades repents of his rejection of the gods and sets the Socrates articulated long ago by Aristophanes and the arguments of the think tank on fire: actual prosecution: standard charges against all philosophers about Forwith what aim did you insultthe gods teaching things up in the clouds and under the earth, having no gods and And pry into the seatof the moon? making the worse appear the better cause are inapplicable to Socrates. Chasethem, hit them,pelt them formany reasons He was not interested in science, and it was the philosopher Anaxagoras But mostbecausethey havewrongedthe gods.(15o6-.9) who claimed that the sun was stone and the moon earth and that they This act of violence which closes the play may were not therefore gods. Here Socrates accepts the logic of the prosecu be an alteration to the original version, but it has the same logic as the tion, but denies that it happens to be true of himself He also rejects the that of prosecution of 399: the elimination of Socrates from the community. idea that he was completely godless (atheos).He did recognise the gods, 64 The moral consequences of Socrates’ teaching were serious though not in the same way as the prosecution (a surprising admission a issue in Socrates himself had acted honourably that charge (Ia) was at least half true). 399. during the vicious oligarchy 62 of 404—403, but he had been associated with Critias, one of those The counterpart of the alleged denial of civic gods (ta), was the intro oh garchs, and with Alcibiades, the aristocratic playboy implicated in duction of new deities (ib). In the Cloudsthe admission of Strepsiades to the scandal of 415, who had eventually the think tank takes the form of initiation into the mysteries. Strepsiades betrayed his 65city Because of an amnesty passed on the restoration of democracy in 4o3, political accusa sits on a sacred bed, is crowned with a garland and is sprinkled with a tions against suspected oligarchs could not be brought, it is special substance and finally sees a vision of the only true gods, the but wrong to see the actual charges against Socrates merely Clouds, who of course are responsible for rain and thunder. He decides as a device to circumvent the amnesty The charges did have their own logic and their force. that he will now not pour a libation or sacrifice to any other gods but own these. Xenophon and Plato both deny that Socrates had any interest in 63 The issue of oaths and perjury also recurs in Athenian tragedies: Mikalson 1991: 8o—. For a civic oath see Appendix no. 1. 62 Fahr 1969; Yunis 1988: 6o—6. 64 For the unconventional nature of Socrates’ piety see Vlastos 1991: M. Davies 1990 shows that the ending of Cloudsdoes not imply the actual killing of Socrates. 157—78. 65 Xenophon, Memorabilia1.2,9—Ia; Aeschines 1.173.
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