Religious Recollections of Family in the Ritual World on Rhodes

RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES

PATRICIA RIAK*

Greek Orthodox traditions nurture the relationship between family and religion. Families express religious beliefs in a number of ways. Small family patroned chapels are open for the feast day of the saint of the chapel or open for an important day in the history of the family. Even when small chapels (exoclisia) are not patroned by a particular family of the village, they often represent historical connections to particular families when, for example, a daughter decides to marry in the chapel her father was baptized in. A name day (onomastiki yiorti) is a more signiﬁcant celebration than a birthday because of the nominal rite associated to a family naming a child after a Saint or the Holy Family. Often the connection is related to the patron saint of a village or monasteries surrounding the village where the family resides. Name days have established traditional practices of name-giving1 and the celebration of name days (onomastikes yiortes)2 in direct association to Saint’s Days (paniyiria) and the slaughter of animals for the feasting3 and of the connection of saints to particular foods4 at the paniyiria. Nominal rites also include naming a child after a family member who proved barren and could not have children. When a family member dies, families continue to remember them with

* The author is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. – This essay is dedicated to my mother Yvonne. 1 See P.A. Bialor, ‘What’s in a Name? Aspects of Social Organization of a Greek Farming Community Related to Naming Customs’, in Essays in Balkan Ethnology, ed. W.G. Lock- wood, Kroeber Anthropological Society. Special Edition, vol. 1 (Berkeley, 1967), pp. 95-108. See also N. Tavuchis, ‘Naming Patterns and Kinship among Greeks’, Ethnos, 36 (1971), pp. 152-162. 2 For cultural practices associated to paratsouki or nicknaming, see B. Russell, ‘Paratsoukli: Institutional Nicknaming in Rural Greece’, Ethnologia Europaea, 2-3 (1968-1969), pp. 65- 74. 3 See J. Baldovin, ‘On Feasting the Saints’, Worship, 54 (1980), pp. 336-344. 4 See D.O. Bennet, ‘“Saints and Sweets”: Class and Consumption in Rural Greece’, in The Social Economy of Consumption, eds. H. Rutz & B. Orlove, Monographs in Economic Anthropology (Lanham, MD, 1988), pp. 177-209.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 222727 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 228 PATRICIA RIAK

religious practices. Roadside shrines are erected when family members die on or near a road; the roadside shrine is often built on the exact location or near the location of death. A small house resembling a chapel will have an icon housed inside chosen by the family. These small houses are also found atop of individual graves in cemeteries. Religious memorials are held during the church service remembering family members who are now deceased and, after mass, a ritual food of wheat and raisins (koliva) is made and distributed by family members to the congregation outside of the church. The koliva often depict a house or church with the symbol of the cross. On the islands, small chapels standing at the end of harbors, like that of Saint Paul the Apostle in the village of Lindos on Rhodes and, other places by the water, are also built as religious places for the prayers of sailors wishing for their safekeeping out at sea and for their return back home to their families. Cathedrals, monasteries and churches have been built because a miracle occurred there such as the discovery of a Holy icon, most notably icons of the Panayia, the Holy Mother conceiving the Christ Child. These miracles emphasize the role of the family because from these Holy icons, churches are built. These shrines are the most popular with Greek mothers and young married women wishing to become mothers who participate in roles as pil- grims5 and travel to revere the Holy Family for the safeguarding of their own families and for the creation of family. Mothers also create a household shrine (iconostasis) and icons are associated to their families and, often spe- ciﬁc devotions in the form of these family icons have been brought back from the pilgrimage experience. Often the household shrine will also house an icon that was passed down from mother to daughter when the daughter got married. This icon typically represented The Virgin Mother and Christ Child, inspiring the young married woman to create her own family. This paper would like to contribute to the study of shrines by investigating the worship performed at a cemetery chapel and not the patron church of a village or major pilgrimage center6 (see Figure 4).

5 See further J. Dubisch, In a Different Place: Pilgrimage, Gender and Politics at a Greek Island Shrine (Princeton, NJ, 1995). 6 For accounts of festivals of saints on Rhodes, see M. Hamilton, Greek Saints and Their Festivals (Edinburgh, 1910); E. Langaki, Rhodiakon Hemerologion (Rhodos, 1929-30); A. Brontes, O Hagios Georgios sten Rhodiake Laographia, vol. 1 (Rhodos, 1934-37), pp. 217- 249; I. Arnold, ‘Festivals of Rhodes’, American Journal of Archaeology, 40 (1936), pp. 432-436.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 222828 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 229

A concern of the paper includes the offerings that are given to the saint. In particular, there will be a focus on dance as a form of offering to the saint. Religious shrines maintain the religious experience of latreia that begins in the village where the connection to the saint begins as being either offered (tamenos or tameni) as a child.7 Alongside the Panayia and pilgrimages in Her honor, the saints are also Holy exemplars strongly identified with protection, miracles, and healing. The icon8 is an important point of religious reference when the worshipper invokes the spiritual assistance of a saint. It is at the saint’s icon where a promise (taximo) and an offering (tama) are brought forth to the saint. The taximo and the tama are the religious expres- sions among worshippers. Dance is a less popular expression of taximo that will be investigated with a view to understanding how the dance known as the monahiko is performed when Istrians and their families are faced with an event of illness. There is a focus on the role that Istrian mothers play when assisting their children in times of illness and, of a comparison of this religious practice with another religious dance therapy in Greece known as the Anastenaria.9 The ethnographic concern of the paper is that religious space is associated to the family and not to developing gender distinctions. Religious space is the space of the family and not defied as a ‘private space’ associated to the Greek woman because ‘public’ space is associated to the Greek man. The focus of the paper is not on gender distinctions and the social relations that reflect a splitting or a differentiating of the genders. The paper is concerned with the role that men and women play in the family, as parents to their

7 For an account of the role saints played in the late Byzantine Empire, see A.E. Laiou- Thomadakis, ‘Saints and Society in the Late Byzantine Empire’, in Charanis Studies, ed. A. Thomadakis (New Brunswick, 1980), pp. 135-156. 8 For an ethnographic account of icons, see M. Kenna, ‘Icons in Theory and Practice’, History of Religions, 24 (1985), pp. 345-368 and M. Herzfeld, ‘Icons and Identity: Reli- gious Orthodoxy and Social Practice in Rural Crete’, Anthropological Quarterly, 63 (1990), pp. 109-121. For a theological account of icons, see L. Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon, 2 vols. (New York, 1978 and 1991); L. Ouspensky and V. Lossky, The Meanings of Icons (New York, 1982). 9 See further L.M. Danforth, ‘The Role of Dance in the Ritual Theory of the Anastenaria’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 5 (1979), pp. 11-163; Id., ‘Power through Submission to the Anastenaria’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 1 (1983), pp. 203-224; Id., Fire walking and Religious Healing. The Anastenaria of Greece and the American Fire walking Move- ment (New Haven, NJ, 1989).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 222929 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 230 PATRICIA RIAK

children. ‘Man’ and ‘woman’ are viewed as ‘father’ and ‘mother.’ Danforth offers an interpretation that takes into account that honor is both a male and a female value, as the family is the most important social unit in Greek society. He states that male and female social roles make both the honorable man and the honorable woman who, in their roles, show different qualities. In aligning with J. Campbell (see below n. 36), he highlights the notion that honor is not just about ‘individuals’ but also about ‘families.’ Danforth also points out that Friedl gives an inaccurate position to power when she states that women are the weaker partner in the social structure being associated to shame (ntropi) while only the husband is associated to honor (timi). Dan- forth argues that the husband and wife are bound together by the need to maintain family honor. Thus, a woman’s behavior is socially controlled just as the man’s is because her honor, like that of her family, depends on her behavior. The mother then honorably practices a spiritual role through her responsibilities to her home through her village church. Religious factors play a key role in the discursive construction of the female role in Greek society. The mother realizes her ‘sacred self’ in her relation to the icons and the altar (iconostasis). In the home, the iconostasis is placed in a quiet room and it is the mother’s responsibility to assemble and maintain it.10 Often icons are brought to the home from pilgrimage to churches. The importance of icons reﬂects the importance of saints in Greek Orthodox religion. Dubisch notes that religious cosmology is evident in and around a village, typically made up of many churches and smaller monasteries. The reverence of more than one individual saint in a village reﬂects the need of the local community for many saints known to respond to different needs.

10 The iconostasis is a wall of icons that faces the congregation in the church. The Royal door is located at the centre of it, which leads into the Royal Altar. The iconostasis is an important symbolic barrier separating the congregation from the Royal Altar, which is considered the holiest area symbolizing Heaven on Earth. Along the iconostasis, oil lamps (kantilia) hang above each divine iconic figure. They are lit for the duration of the Divine Liturgy. The oil lamps are symbols marking the forgiving nature of God as conceived through the sacred concept where the first coming of Christ, God the Son, forgave the human soul by sacrificing Christ for the salvation of humanity. During the Divine Liturgy the priest reveres the iconostasis with a censer (thimiatiri) and chants hymns and prays to the divine figures, for forgiveness, which underlines the importance of icon worship in the Greek Orthodox Church. See Kenna for a detailed explanation of the theological back- ground of icons (Kenna, ‘Icons’, pp. 348-350).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223030 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 231

Dubisch terms this a ‘Greek pantheon where a cycle of reverence during the religious calendar maintains the strength of this cosmology’.11 The iconic ﬁgures of God the Father, Christ and Virgin Mother provide the archetypal image of the family. The saints are seen as the close relatives of the family and they provide the names given to fathers, mothers and children of the villages. A village church is named after the patron saint of the village, and monasteries venerating particular saints also typically surround the village. Stewart notes that for the villagers, Christ, the Virgin Mother and the Saints all mediate the distant concept of God and in so doing allow for the realm of the sacred to be reached in social action (see below n. 15). Out of the sacred relationship with icons, priest and mother starting from the iconostasis screen also perform two important rituals: they are the lighting of the oil lamp (kantili) and the lighting of the censer (thimiatiri), which serves to revere the icon and spiritually protect the family.12 In the church,

11 J. Dubisch, In a Different Place. Pilgrimage, Gender and politics at a Greek Island Shrine (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1995), p. 61. For an account of icons see M. Kenna, ‘Icons in Theory and Practice’, History of Religions, 24/4 (1985), pp. 345-368 and Id., ‘Mattresses and Migrants. A Patron Saints’ Festival on a Small Greek Island over Two Decades’, in Revitalizing European Rituals, ed. J. Boissevin (London: Routledge, 1992). To understand the centrality of the icon in the mind of the local village member, Kenna mentions a quote from one of Juliet du Boulay’s respondents who remarked ‘What is a house without icons? A shelter for animals’ (‘Icons’, p. 364). 12 The kantili is lit in the church for each divine iconic figure on the iconostasis for the duration of the Divine Liturgy. Two kantilia are located on the Royal Altar and are known as akimita or ‘never sleeping’ because they remain alight constantly to symbolize the Sacred Presence. The icon depicting the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child is lit regularly after the Divine Liturgy because she is considered the bearer of humanity and the life giving force – symbolized by fire. It is interesting to note that the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child is considered the most important icon in the Greek Orthodox Church because it is connected with the Greek family. For a detailed account of how Greek women find the Virgin Mary a model of emulation see J. Dubisch, Gender and Power in Rural Greece (Princeton, NJ: Princetion Univ. Press, 1986. The mother then always performs the lighting of the kantili in the home. Dubisch gives an account of the duty of the Greek woman lighting the oil lamp in front of the family icons and graves and generally how they connect their families to the spiritual world. The kantili is lit for the icons to symbolize the sacred concepts the divine creation and giving spiritual life to the soul. At home the mother always lights the kantili on Saturday night to greet the dawning of the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. The kantili is also lit on Saint’s Days, especially those divine figures who are found on the household iconostasis, which bear the names of family members. The kantili is especially important for the family as it is lit to represent the strengthening of the collective spirit in the home and its protection by the sacred spirit of the church.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223131 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 232 PATRICIA RIAK

the lighting of the thimiatiri during the Divine Liturgy is performed twice: at the beginning of the service, during the coming out of the Theotokos (The Virgin Mary), and also during the parading of the Ayia (sacred objects) upon the Royal Altar during Holy Communion. Icons are paraded around the Church held high in the air by the priest, while the altar boy dispenses incense before the sacred objects. In a parallel fashion, the thimiatiri in the home is lit by the mother everyday and symbolizes a purification rite to God by the burning of the incense (livani), which wards away any evil from the home. The thimiatiri is firstly taken to the iconostasis and any other icons located in the home and then to the back door, where the mother prays. The mother dispenses incense throughout the house, making the symbol of the Holy cross, finally leaving the thimiatiri outside the back door so that the remaining incense will dispense to God in Heaven. The connection between the home and the church is also established through sacred objects that are brought from the church to the home and from objects taken from home to church by the mother.13A number of objects are brought from church to home: water, oil, bread, fire and offerings. Holy water (ayiasmos) is brought to the home on the day of the Epiphany.14 The mother gives it to family members to drink when they suffer from illness and it is to be sprinkled on the walls of the family home to ward away evil spirits.15 Stewart also states that women are allowed to take holy water from the church on the first of every month and sprinkle the icons in their houses and drink from it three times wishing those present a good month. This helps to establish the physical purity of the family home.

13 For another account of connections between the church and the home, see L.K. Hart, Time. Religion and Social Experience in Rural Greece (Cambridge, Mass., Rowman and Littlefield, 1992), pp. 147-169. 14 During the Epiphany on January 6, water is blessed during the sacred ritual, which commemorates the day Christ was baptised by John the Baptist. Ayiasmos is blessed on the Eve of the Epiphany and taken home and kept on the iconostasis. 15 C. Stewart, Demons and the Devil. Moral Imagination in Modern Greek Culture (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1991) mentions how Holy water is also used to cure inflictions from the evil eye. He describes that curing of the evil eye should be seen parallel to the mixing of oil and water at baptism. Prayers spoken by the priest bless the water in baptism and then blessed oil is poured into this water. The very same ritual is followed by the mother in evil eye ceremonies (pp. 235-241). For an excellent account of the Greek Orthodox ritual calendar, and, of the way a village celebrates Holy days see Hart, Time, pp. 239-263). See also Hart for a list of substances used in Greek ritual events (p. 238).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223232 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 233

Holy oil can also be taken from the church and like holy water is produced during a church ritual for the Efhelio, celebrated on the Wednesday before Easter. The event is to commemorate the Apostle Jacob who helped Chris- tians who suffered illness, by anointing them with oil. The mother places the oil on the forehead in the form of a cross. This oil is later dabbed upon some cotton wool and placed upon the iconostasis by the mother. Another way in which Holy oil is brought to the home is by taking some from the kantilia of the church iconostasis. The oil is then kept on the household iconostasis to be used whenever a member of the family is ill, by rubbing it on the forehead in the form of a cross. Holy bread (antidhero) is brought home after a church service and eaten by the family before breakfast the following morning and placed on the iconostasis before the mother eats it that morning.16 Bread used by the church in any ritual is baked by mothers at home and brought to church to be sanctiﬁed before use in ritual. At the end of the liturgy it is given to the congregation as blessed bread. Holy herbs (vayia) are brought home from the church and placed on the household iconostasis.17 If they become plentiful upon the iconostasis, it is forbidden to throw them away. Mothers usually burn them along with the livani when they use the thimiatiri for the sacred ritual of dispensing incense in the home. Holy Fire (ayio fos) is also brought home by Greek families during the resurrection ceremony at Easter time. Each family carries a candle to church and it is lit from the candle of the priest who performs the sacred ceremony in the Royal Altar. The candle is then taken home to re-light the kantili upon the household iconostasis by the mother.18

16 Andidhero is the holy remain of prosforo which is holy bread prepared for communion given during every church service (Hart, Time, p. 148). 17 Cf. Stewart, Demons and the Devil, p. 293. Olive branches and cane crosses are given to the congregation during the event of the Stavroproskinisi, the Saturday before Easter, which commemorates the event of Christ entering the city of Jerusalem on a donkey. Basil is also a form of vayia when it is given during the event of the Stavrou, which commemorates the event of finding the holy cross Christ was crucified, celebrated on September 14. When the cross was dug up, a basil plant was found at its base. 18 It is a cultural tradition in many Greek houses for the mother to burn the form of a cross on the lintels of doors and windows as protection for the family against any evil directed toward them. If this tradition is not performed, it is because mothers have placed the cane cross given during the religious event of Stavroproskinis upon windows and doors. See Hart, Time, p. 148.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223333 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 234 PATRICIA RIAK

Offerings (tamata) are family votives in the form of gold or silver rectan- gular or square plaques that are tied to the icon in the church when a family has a sick member or if it is undergoing difficult times. In a similar household iconostasis, tamata are a reflection of the personal link to a patron saint. Tamata are offered by a family in trouble and show the importance of the icon to the Greek family. They are also a reflection of family protection afforded by one family member to another, as often one family member will have a tama made for another family member, normally done by the mother (see Figure 5).19 Often the design of tamata will bear the etching of adults and children holding a candle in their right hand. Thus, not only icons of divine figures are found in the church but also the physical and spiritual icon of the family as represented by tamata. Both together mirror an important iconic relationship between family and church. Dubisch states that the offering of a tama shows just how close to the relationship between material and spiritual can be to the Greek family where mothers often make a pilgrimage to churches on other islands (such as the Aegean island of Tinos) where Holy figures are considered strong miracle workers in helping to cure a family member of their condition. The paper will look at mothers and their employ- ment of tamata for members of their family; however, the tama elaborated upon is in the form of a dance performance that is a rare expression of offering to a saint.

METHODOLOGY

I arrived in Istrios with gatekeeper John Iakras (58), a theologian and a retired high school teacher, principal and retired Head of the Dodecanesian Archive. John’s father had been the village priest of Istrios for the past 45 years since my ﬁeldwork in the village in 1998. Until his recent passing, John remained a church and community council member in Istrios and lived

19 Dubisch gives the example of tamata in the form of soldiers made by anxious mothers whose sons are going away to the army (Dubisch, In a Different Place, p. 90). She also describes an artist’s painting in a church gallery showing a woman in black with an obvi- ously sick child in black, reclining across her lap. The woman is looking at the child in distress (p. 95). Hart also associates this to curing, where sickness is ‘tied’ to the Saint (Hart, Time, p. 148). For an account of the Greek Orthodox ritual calendar, and of the way a village celebrates Holy days, see Hart, Time, pp. 239-263.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223434 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 235

with his wife and family in the nearby village Malona and worked on a part- time basis with my aunt who was the Acting Head of the Dodecanesian Archive. Upon hearing of my intention to conduct fieldwork in Istrios and not being aware that John was from Istrios, he was only too pleased to take me there in person and introduce me to members of the village. The first visit to Istrios was for three days. I returned after a month with John and organized to spend time with his parents. As he is a native to the village, and both his parents were born and married there, I was soon introduced to members of his extended family and given the keys to a vacated family home situated next to the old school in panohorio (upper village). This cottage had been the village coffeehouse during the Turkish occupation. I was first introduced to Katholiki Iakras (88) by her son John. The three of us had a dinner in her courtyard and John then left me there to begin my fieldwork. Katholiki introduced me to her husband’s sister, Vassilia Iakras (76), an old spinster and Vangelis Avgoustakis (84) their widowed cousin. Vangelis then introduced me to his aunt Anna Avgoustaki (96) and his sister in-law Theano Avgoustaki (82). After some time, John Iakras returned to the village and introduced me to Christina Pazzias (63) who was his God sister and was holidaying from Brisbane in Australia where she migrated. Christina has two sisters living in the village, with their husbands: Theodora Vouki (63) and Argiro Vouki (66) (two Istrian sisters who married two Istrian brothers). I also interviewed Kostas Vouki, Argiros’ husband. Christina has been living in Brisbane for the past 45 years with her Istrian husband whom she married in Brisbane. She informed me that there were many Istrians now living in Bris- bane of the 70+ age bracket and that she would be pleased to introduce them to me for the purposes of the research. When I returned to Australia, I traveled to Brisbane to conduct further interviews (14-26 March, 1998), staying with Christina and going along with her to visit Istrian migrants with whom she remains in close contact. The Istrians now living in Brisbane migrated there after 1962. Christina introduced me to her god sister Anna Lazarou (71), her godson’s father Con Lisgos (82), her childhood friend Vangelia Milona (63), her cousin Kostas Psardelis (75) and her aunt Hariklia Tsimbika (82). For the purposes of this study their names are initialized henceforth.20

20 The 1991 National Census listed a total of 357 Istrians, 183 males and 174 females. Fifty-one males and females were above forty-five.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223535 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 236 PATRICIA RIAK

Respondent Sex Age in 1998 Location Dancing the Fieldwork Monahiko Period

AA Female 96 Istrios D KI kantilonaftissa Female 88 Istrios D HT Female 82 Brisbane D TA Female 82 Istrios D VI Female 76 Istrios ND AL Female 71 Istrios D AV Female 66 Istrios D VM Female 63 Brisbane D CP gatekeeper in Female 63 Brisbane D Brisbane TV Female 63 Istrios D VA Male 84 Istrios D CL Male 82 Brisbane D KP Male 75 Brisbane ND KV Male 69 Istrios ND JI gatekeeper in Male 58 Istrios ND Istrios

D=Danced ND = Not danced KI was a kantilonautissa –caretaker of the cemetery chapel of Saint Merkourios, 1944-1954 Fig. 1. Sample Size of Istrian Interviewees.

Information collected through informal interviewing revealed that the worship (latreia) of Saint Merkourios in Istrios included dance as a form of offering to the saint. On a concurrent path, I was researching marriage and dance traditions in the village of my paternal heritage, Kattavia, located to the southwest of Istrios. Both villages perform the monahiko but in Kattavia a variant of the dance was performed during the wedding and in Istrios a variant of the dance was performed as a promise (taximo) to a

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223636 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 237

saint.21 All Istrian respondents, except one, were above the age of sixty at the time of fieldwork, ending 1998. Of the fifteen Istrians interviewed, eleven have danced at some point for Saint Merkourios. Of the eleven who have danced, nine are women and two are men. Of the four who have not danced, three are men and one is a woman. The one female who has not danced is an older spinster and has no children. Most respondents in the interview sample, who have danced, recall that they were under the age of forty, which makes the last time of dancing for this sample size at 1960 (TV, seventy-four, danced when she was twenty-five). Of the interview sample, seven respondents (KI, VA, AL, KV, AV, TV and CP) believe that this dance is still practiced. Of these seven respondents all are women and one is a man. Four respondents (AA, TA, VI and JI) believe that this dance is not practiced anymore. Of these four respondents, three are women and one is a man, with one of these women and the man never having danced for the saint. The remaining interview sample (CL, HT, KP and VM) could not say if the dancing is or is not practiced anymore as they now live in

21 The monahiko that was performed by women was a religious variant of the sousta. In the neighboring village of Kattavia during the Interwar period, the sousta was the most important dance during the wedding celebration as a timitikos horos (an honorable dance). Performed as a monahiki sousta, before the wedding ceremony, Kattaveni would stop at the village square or a smaller square in the village to perform the dance on the way to the church. Performed as a couple dance, it honored the coming together of the families of the bride and groom before the wedding ceremony. Before the dancing the families walked to the church as two different processions. After the dancing the families walked as one procession. The importance of the monahiki sousta in Kattavia to the monahiko of Istrios is that of performing to honor the family during religious occasions defining Greek Orthodoxy. What both the sousta and the monahiko share for women is that of concealment that comes out of honor. The sousta performed during the Kattaveno wedding valued the female through honorable concealment. In Istrios, the performance of the monahiko as both tama and taximo was mostly performed by women that indicates both honorable practice to religious faith and also concealment of the woman dancing alone in the cemetery chapel. The Kattaveni sousta although a public performance involving young men and women, was performed to ‘camouflage’ the female through the interplay of concealing and revealing played out during the wedding. See P. Riak, ‘The Performative Context: Song Dance on Rhodes Island’, Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand), 11 (2003), pp. 212-227; Concealing and Revealing. The Sousta as Honorable Dance on the Island of Rhodes, PhD School of Politics and Anthropology, La Trobe University, 2004; ‘The Sousta in the Aegean’, in Greek Research in Australia. Proceedings of the Fifth Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies Flinders University (South Australia, 2005), pp. 155-164; ‘The Interplay of Spirit in Greek Island Dance’, History and Anthropology, 18 (2007), 2, pp. 197-226.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223737 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 238 PATRICIA RIAK

Brisbane and do not frequent the village like CP. The interview sample indicates that dancing was more frequent amongst women. Only one of the eleven women in the sample size did not dance for Saint Merkourios. However, three of the ﬁve men in the sample size did not dance for Saint Merkourios, indicating that dancing for Saint Merkourios seems to be a practice largely performed by Istrian women, which was also stated by all of the respondents during interviews.

Fig. 2. Maps of Istrios and the latreia of Saint Merkourios on Rhodes.

The maps give the geographic location of Istrios and the worship (latreia) of Saint Merkourios as told through the experiences remembered by the respondents. Interviewing about the latreia came immediately after realizing that the last dance performed by a respondent in the sample size was in 1960. At a given point in time then, the respondents did not perform the monahiko anymore. The interviews revealed that only two dancers were known to have come to Istrios to dance at the cemetery chapel from other villages but not personally known by the respondents. However, KV remembers that in 1996 one of his wife’s sister-in-law’s sons married in the village of Archangelos and his wife could not hear properly because her ears hurt. She had consulted doc- tors about the problem but to no avail. The young woman’s mother-in-law advised her to go to Saint Merkourios in Istrios. The young couple went and she danced inside the cemetery chapel and KV mentioned that her ears ‘opened

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223838 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 239

up’ and she was cured. KI also remembers that in 1996 a Laermenos (a man from the village of Laerma) performed the monahiko in the cemetery chapel and was cured. However, respondents remembered the many worshippers who came to dance for the saint came from the village of Asklipio but they stopped coming to Istrios when the date of the festival for Saint Merkourios was changed from November 25 to August 16, a three-day saint’s festival (trimero) that began on August 14th and ended the night of his name day on August 16th. Because the village of Asklipio celebrates the Holy Patron of their village, the Virgin Mary on August 15th, they appeared less and less at the Istrian festival that was celebrated the same time (see Figure 2). Although no respondent could recall when this change of date for the festival occurred, my gatekeeper John was able to remember that by 1955 another practice associated to celebrating at the festival with people from other villages, stopped. John recalled that the disappearance of the yareni during the festival signaled the decreasing number of people from other villages coming to the festival and staying with Istrians for the duration of the festival. John recalls that the yareni was head of the household in Istrios who invited a family from another village to stay with his family to celebrate the festival together. The guest family was not related to the yareni and the invitation implied ties of inter-village friendship, usually old ties that were established by the father of the yareni and, through earlier generational lines, passing through to the grandfather and so forth. John remembers that there were no automobiles before the war and the guest family traveled to Istrios with donkeys and, usually stayed between two days to one week with the host family in Istrios; longer periods were not uncommon because of bad weather. The guest family brought their farm animals that were placed in the stable (aherona) of the yareni along with his farm animals. John explained that staying with the yareni also gave the guest family the opportunity to exchange or sell some of their agricultural produce with the yareni and with other Istrians. John recalled that he remembered seeing wheat, oil and oranges often exchanged. John believes that the yareni may have disappeared around 1955 but that the ties these people created have not been forgotten. VI remembers her mother telling her that the change of the saint’s festival did not occur during VI’s lifetime (b. 1922). The reason for the change was because the festival took place during the winter and it was difﬁcult for Istrian families to house the many guest families and their farm animals during winter, so they changed the date festival date to the summer.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 223939 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 240 PATRICIA RIAK

Although present on the eve of the festival at the cemetery chapel of Saint Merkourios in 1998, no dancing was observed. Further, the monahiko as a promise and an offering was temporally undetermined as there were no particular scheduled times to dance during the year. This is because those who suffered from illness do not succumb at the same time and do not dance at the same time. The only preferred time for performance was if the worshipper decided to perform a second dance, as a promise (taximo) after being cured. This performance did occur the eve of the festival to honor the saint, either during the day or the evening, on Dhekapentavghousto, the most important festival of the Panayia celebrated August 15th. However, many dancers kept their promise (taximo) private and did not dance at this time, as festival-goers would be in the village celebrating the saint. Failure to observe dancing may indicate that this form of promise and offering to the saint is in decline, at least when it could have been danced on this particular day. Taking into account that the dance therapy is associated to illness, the occasional and private nature of the dance can occur on other days. Because of difﬁculties associated to observing the dance therapy, I resorted to con- ducting research employing informal interviews with Istrian respondents, many of who had danced for the saint.

Fig. 3. Saint Merkourios LX Martyr.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224040 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 241

The image of Saint Merkourios is from an icon found at Iera Moni Evan- gelismou on the island of Patmos.22

THE STORY OF SAINT MERKOURIOS THE MARTYR

Saint Merkourios is not as recognized as Saint Dhimitrios or Saint George but he presides with them in the Orthodox religious calendar as a warrior saint.23 The saint is an Orthodox saint and my gatekeeper John believes he is of Syrian Orthodox origin. Saint Merkourios was born with the name Philopater in the city of Eskenos in Cappadocia in 224 AD. Shortly after his birth, his father, who was a Scythian officer in the Roman army, had his family baptized after seeing a dream of God telling him that Philopater would become His servant. After the baptism, Philopater was given the name Merkourios. Like his father, Merkourios also became a Scythian officer in the Roman army. When the Berbers attacked Rome, Merkourious fought in the battle and was given a second sword by the Archangel Michael, kill- ing the king of the Berbers.24 This is why he is also known as Abu-Seifein – the holder of both military and divine swords.25 The Roman Emperor Trajanus Decius promoted Merkourios to the rank of military commander (stratelates) after the victory.26 The Emperor began his persecution of Chris- tians a year previous to the war against the Berbers and, would offer sacrifices to the Goddess Artemis that Merkourios did not want to participate in. With the encouragement of the Archangel Michael, Merkourios declared his faith

22 C. Walter, The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition (Ashgate, 2003), connects the representation of the saint holding an arrow with Jovian who would become the suc- cessor to Julian the Apostate and, who was in Nisibe when the emperor recalled him. Fearing that Julian was planning to persecute the Christians of the city, he consulted the bishop and local clergy. That night he had a dream where one of the martyrs who perished in the icy lake and Maximus appeared to him in military dress holding a bow and three arrows. One of these arrows was destined for Julian the Apostate. This would be the source of the portraits of Merkourios holding an arrow. Walter further states that both helmet and arrow are fairly common in late and post-Byzantine representations (p. 106). 23 The Byzantine warrior saints are six: Theodore Tiron and Theodore Stratelatos, Deme- trius, Procopius, George and Merkourios. 24 Walter (Warriors, p. 102) notes that the version in which he was presented with the sword enabling him to conquer the barbarians recalls that of Procopius. 25 H. Thurston and D. Attwater, Butler’s Lives of Saints (New York, 1956), p. 421. 26 Walter argues that this recalls the Passions of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Warriors, p. 102).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224141 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 242 PATRICIA RIAK

in Christianity to the Emperor. Merkourios was then stripped of his military rank and placed in prison. He was tortured but continued to pray as the Archangel Michael came to him in his dreams and appeared and healed his wounds of the tortures. Emperor Decius then sent Merkourios to Caesarea. Because the tortures in Caesarea were also without success, Decius had Merkourios beheaded in 250 AD. After his martyrdom, at age twenty-ﬁve, he was revered in the East as a warrior saint.27 Saint Merkourios is reputed to have appeared at various times in history to lend his sword to Christian causes, notably with Saint George and Saint Dhimitrios, at Antioch during the First Crusade on November 25th. According to Eastern legend, one hun- dred and thirteen years after his martyrdom, Emperor Julian the Apostate imprisoned Saint Basil in 363 AD when he began his Sassanid Campaign. Saint Basil prayed to Saint Merkourios and he appeared to Saint Basil telling him that he speared the Emperor through the chest with his sword.28

27 The worship of Saint Merkourios originated in the fifth or early sixth century in the city of Caesarea where his tomb and arm were later shown. In a Syrian romance composed at Odessa between 502 and 532 Markur, one of the forty martyrs, was named as the one who had killed the emperor Julian the Apostate (d. 363). Relics of Saint Merkourios were first introduced into the West by Arechis II, Duke of Benevento (757-787), who had the saint’s Greek Passion translated into Latin and the relics deposited at the new basilica of Saint Sophia in Benevento (765); see L. Loomis, Adventures in the Middle Ages. A Memorial Col- lection of Essays and Studies (New York, 1962), p. 188. In the eight or ninth century the Life of Saint Basil, written in Greek in the East and attributed to Basil’s co-worker Amphilochius of Iconium, told of Saint Basil’s vision of the Virgin Mary ordering the martyr to slay the emperor. In the West this life was translated into Latin at least four times in the ninth and tenth century. The story of the saint’s slaying of Julian became famous in both the East and the West when it passed into certain early collections of the Miracles of the Virgin; as part of the Life of Basil it entered into some collections of the Vitae Patrum; later on the episode was also incorporated into the Legenda of Jacobus de Voragine. 28 The Byzantines were fascinated by the memory of Julian the Apostate and the account of his murder. The hero is portrayed as a warrior rather than as a martyr. Merkourios’ Passio indeed also begins with his successes in battle. Although no inscriptions are known in which he is invoked and although he has no shrine in Constantinople, he continued to be considered among the military saints (Walter, Warriors, p. 106). In the Syriac his name was given as Mar Kur, probably a tautology (Mar in Syraic means Lord, Kyrios); hence in Greek ‘Merkourios.’ This identification would have increased the prestige of the warrior saint (Warriors, p. 108). In the saga about Charlemagne’s adventures in the East and in Constantinople, it is told how he receives five relics. In later versions, two more relics were included, one of which was the lance of Saint Merkourios. The story is repeated by William of Malmesbury (1125) in the Short English Chronicle of the famous Auchinleck (Loomis Adventures, p. 198).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224242 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 243

My gatekeeper John believes that the worship of Saint Merkourios in Istrios came with the Apostle Paul to the port of Lindos in the Second Century A.D. John believes that the worship of Saint Merkourios was not brought with the Knights of Saint John, as Merkourios is not a Saint of the Catholic Church. John believes that his worship came to Rhodes with Saint Paul the Apostle from Asia Minor, with Greeks from Syria. Apart from my gatekeeper John, who was a theologian, my respondents knew little about the origin of Saint Merkourios, only that he cures illness associated to the ear.29 There was a story told by HT’s mother. Her grandfather was a priest in Istrios and he told HT’s mother that an Istrian woman had gone to Saint Merkourios to be cured of an ear problem and she became well. This story was the oldest told through the memory of a respondent in Istrios with a family member being a priest of the village. This story may go back at least 150 years considering HT was born in 1910. Her story indicates that the latreia of Saint Merkourios was present in Istrios at least 150 years ago.30

THE CEMETERY CHAPEL OF SAINT MERKOURIOS

The caretaker (kantilonaftissa) of the cemetery chapel remembers that when she was about 35 (c. 1945) a group of Greek-Australians came to worship the saint. KI met them at the cemetery chapel in the evening to unlock the door for them. Later that evening she returned to the chapel to unlock it again for another group of worshippers and noticed that the doors of the chapel were wide open. She was surprised because she had locked the door. Retelling the story, she believes the reason for the doors being wide open that evening was because the saint did not want to be locked inside his chapel and did not want his worshippers being locked out of his chapel. There are two churches of Saint Merkourios with the dance performed in

29 On Samos, Merkourios is known to cure ailments of the ear. However, there is no mention of his worship on Rhodes (Hamilton, Greek Saints, p. 32). 30 There do not seem to be any accounts of his festival in popular folkloric texts. The people I spoke with could not give any further information on the origin of the story that the saint acted as the protector of the village during the First Balkan War (1912) as was mentioned by M. Barbounes, ‘He Latreia tou Hagiou Markouriou ste Rhodo’, Dodikanesiako Archeio, 7 (1996), pp. 51-57, here p. 54.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224343 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 244 PATRICIA RIAK

the cemetery chapel. John explained that there once was the monastery of Saint John and the cemetery chapel of Saint Merkourios. On Sundays people of the upper village (pano horio) would attend the church of Saint John and people of lower village (kato horio) would attend the cemetery chapel Saint Merkourios (see Figure 2). The village population was soon separated with villagers being either named upper villagers (panohorites) and lower villagers (katohorites). VI remembers her father telling her that when she was young (c.1932). It was decided that the monastery of Saint John be abandoned and a new church, the main church (megali ekklisia) of Saint Merkourios be built. The new church was built in the center of the village so that the population would unite in one church for Sunday mass. John’s grandfather was born in 1884 and when he was about ﬁfteen years of age (c. 1899) a lady in the village had died and she did not have family to bequeath her wealth. The land she owned was given to the village and the meghali ekklisia was built. VI remembered her father telling her that when the church was built, they made a large icon of Saint Merkourios and placed it in the new church. The older and smaller church remained the cemetery chapel as it had been before the construction of the meghali ekklisia but also used for Sunday mass by the katohorites. No respondent is exactly sure how old the cemetery chapel is but KI remembers her mother telling her that her grandfather, who was a priest of the village, told his mother that the church was very old (c. 1925).

Fig. 4. The Cemetery Chapel of Saint Merkourios. (Author’s private collection)

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224444 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 245

John recalled that the Mayor of the village contacted the Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities to send a team of Byzantine archaeologists to date and restore the cemetery chapel. In 1995 a team of archaeologists came and conducted restoration work, meticulously scraping the plaster that was smeared on the walls of the chapel, inside and out. VA recalls that during his lifetime (b. 1914) he had not seen the wall painting that was revealed after the restoration work was completed. He remembers that he was told that before he was born, kantilonaftisses would come to the chapel to light the oil lamps (kantilia) and smear plaster over the walls inside the chapel in order to protect the wall painting from the Turks. Most of the wall painting of Saint Merkourios was smeared over with plaster with only His head revealed. KI offers a conﬂicting story, retelling that the icon was ‘closed’ to them because it was smeared over by the Turks who hid the Greek Orthodox iconography while they occupied the island. Maybe this is why Varvounis (1996) refers to the war of 1912 in his article, as some respondents seem to be referring to the Ottoman Empire about the wall paintings being covered in the church. What was also revealed after the restoration work were that twelve old plates (pinakia) had been placed above the entrance of the cemetery chapel along with two glass cups that fell off during restoration that the Byzantine archaeologists disclose was a peculiar discovery.31 The respondents had stressed a curiosity about the white slab of marble located right of center on the chapel ﬂoor. Some believe that an Istrian-born bishop is buried under there because Istrian priests, being of lower clerical rank, are buried outside in the cemetery grounds near the chapel. Some respondents believe that the bishop was buried there before the church was converted to a cemetery chapel. John mentioned that according to Orthodox tradition a bishop is buried upright, sitting on a chair with the bible in his lap. The respondents explain that important rituals occurred on or around the marble slab. For example, when babies died, they were placed on top of the marble slab. The priest would then read the mortuary rites and then the babies were taken to a separate section of the cemetery to be buried. Another example is given by KI who believes that the deceased would also be placed on the marble slab. Their lower back was placed upon the marble slab; with

31 When discussing this with my gatekeeper John, he told me that no other church on the island is decorated with plates like the cemetery chapel of Saint Merkourios.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224545 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 246 PATRICIA RIAK

the lower half of the body on the side that faced the icon screen (iconostasis) that was the direction of sunrise or East (anatoli). The upper half of the body was facing the chapel door, towards the direction of sunset or West (dhisi). However, this tradition stopped when she was about 16 years of age (c. 1926). VA believes that when people dance for the saint they also dance around the marble slab to also revere the Istrian-born bishop buried there. KI further states that it was the tradition to dance around this marble for the saint.32 The oil lamp for Saint Merkourios was located in front of his wall painting, to the right. It is now placed on the right hand side of Jesus on the iconostasis. The reason for this change was because a dancer accidentally hit the kantili and made it fall, spilling the Holy oil.33 KI remembers the oil lamp being previously in front of Saint Merkourios when she was about 20 (c. 1930).34

THE SAINT AS MIRACLE WORKER

Although Saint Merkourios is best known for helping to cure illness of the ear, very poignant stories from the Istrian memory point to miracles related to saving a life and that the miracle was not associated to illness of the ear.

32 Hamilton explains that in Athens, at the church of Saint John of the Column, which I frequented in 1998, there was an old Corinthian marble column that went through the roof. The column was thought to be an important part of the chapel because marble was considered to have oracular and healing powers. Saint John was invoked against fever and worshippers took a colored thread or rag or lock of their hair and adhered these to the column with either wax or glue. It was believed that by doing this, worshippers transferred their illness to the column (Greek Saints, p. 126). 33 While doing research in Istrios, I have also conducted interviews about traditional wedding and dancing in the neighboring village of Kattavia, asking people about Saint Merk- ourios and what they knew of his latreia. A Sianniti by the name of Miltiadis Manias who had married a Kattaveni woman and left the village of Sianna to settle in his wife’s village told me why the kantili of Saint Merkourios had its location changed in the cemetery chapel. He remembered that a woman from Sianna went to dance for Saint Merkourios and bumped the kantili and spilt the oil. He believed this happened when he was around five years of age (c. 1917). This story proves that at least one woman from Sianna went to the cemetery chapel of Saint Merkourios and danced for the saint as taximo. 34 In Byzantium, the order on earth was deemed to be a replica (eikon) of the kingdom of heaven. Such analogies live on today. Stewart mentions that an old man explained to him that Christ is like a despotis (bishop). Accordingly, in spells to cure illness, the name despotis should be interpreted as a reference to Christ; see C. Stewart, Demons and the Devil, p. 80.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224646 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 247

KI retold a family story that had occurred during the morning of the paniyiri of Saint Rafael. A motorbike hit her husband, the village priest, as he was crossing a road to go to the Archdiocese of Rhodes to collect his paycheck. She had been waiting for him at their daughter’s house. While waiting, her daughter had given her a book of Saint Rafael to read. She remembered her son-in-law coming in and telling them that a motorbike had hit her husband and that his ears were bleeding. After having taken him to the doctor for a medical examination, the doctor found it an enigma that his ears were bleeding, as there were no wounds evident for the blood to come out of. However, the doctor advised that if his ears did not bleed he would have died of internal hemorrhaging. There was no medical explanation for his ears bleeding and KI believes that Saint Merkourios saved his life by allowing the bleeding to save him of a fatal internal hemorrhage. TV told another story when her younger cousin was gravely ill with typhoid in 1946. She remembers being present when the doctor told the young girl’s mother that her daughter would die during the night. They brought the holy icon of Saint Merkourios to the child’s bed from the megali ekklisia. The icon was left on top of the pillow beside the child. At exactly midnight, the mother heard a scream from the child’s room and she ran in and the child asked for some water. TV believes the saint and not the doctor cured the child of typhoid.

Fig. 5. The Wall Painting of Saint Merkourios in the Cemetery Chapel (Author’s private collection).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224747 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 248 PATRICIA RIAK

Because of the Divine Nature of the miracles experienced, a taximo and a tama were dedicated to the Saint for his service to healing the people of the village. Many Istrians approached the saint for ailments of the ear. For the older villagers it was deafness and for the young it was ear infections.35 VA remembered Istrians would offer a small goat or a calf to Saint Merkourios.36 This was both a way of offering to the saint and sharing the occasion amongst members of the village.37 Istrians would press tamata in the form of money against the icon of Saint Merkourios in the cemetery chapel and the coins would adhere to the icon. AL remembers pressing Turkish grossi coins with her friends and they left the coins there for KI the

35 Tamata are a form of exchange. The saint is asked by the believer to provide spiritual assistance, relief from danger or pain, cure from illness, or fertility to the barren. The worshipper commits him or herself with a vow, asking if the saint is able to provide assistance. When assistance is granted the worshipper will enact the vow he or she had promised with an offering, a tama. See M. Kenna, ‘Greek Urban Migrants and Their Rural Patron Saint’, Ethnic Studies, 1 (1977), pp. 114-123. The tamata are proof of a religious inequality – that humans depend on the divine and, they express the worshipper’s grati- tude in a material form. An individual can establish his or her religious belief as a worshipper of a particular patron saint through his or her own or their parents’ association with the category or group patronized. They are able to ask for the intervention of the saint in a specific situation. This creates an obligation on the part of the saint to act as a religious patron for a member of this group. The way this dynamic works seems to define the spiritual extension of the family. The spiritual kinship that Greeks experience is understood through the best man (koumbaro) and the matron of honor (koumbara) at the wedding or the godfather (nouno) and the godmother (nouna) at a Christening. The relationship to a saint is also a form of spiritual kinship where the worshipper becomes either tamenos or tameni – they are offered or promised to the saint, developing the belief of an extension to the Greek family. 36 On the more important religious feasts, such as Christmas, Easter, the feasts of Saints George and Dimitrios and the feast of Assumption, the Sarakatsani would sacrifice a lamb or a sheep. It represents the taximo of an animal to a saint. A taximo was also made when a person or a sheep fell sick. Sheep have a spiritual as well as an economic value and support the honor of a family. See J. Campbell, Honor Family and Patronage (Oxford: OUP, 1964), p. 45. 37 The former offering to the latter characterizes the relation between an individual and a saint. Man puts himself in a position of dependence in return for protection. Most Greeks have a personal patron saint, much like a favorite family member. This is also a way of understanding the spiritual extension of the Greek family. Often the personal patron saint is not identical with the patron saint of the village. However, the latter protects all those living in the village and is an example of the spiritual extension of the Greek family. Members of a village name their children after the village patron saint or saints of the surrounding monasteries.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224848 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 249

kantilonaftissa to pick them up and take them to the main church of Saint Merkourios. Further AL remembered that if someone gave the coin with his or her heart, the saint would ‘hold on to it.’ VA also remembered that he saw this when he was young and when he was older at the meghali ekklisia (c. 1920).38 BI remembers that black cotton crosses with cotton necklaces were also hung as well as large church candles (lampadthes). Both CP and AL remember that as a taximo to Saint Merkourios, people walked to the cemetery chapel barefoot.39 AL and CP also remember that if a person were ill they would purchase a gold or silver plaque with the form of an ear molded on it and leave it by the icon of Saint Merkourios as a tama after making a taximo to bring it to him (see Figure 5). If a child’s ear hurt, the mother would make a tama in the form of a silver or gold plaque with a child on it.40 Often people also made a taximo to give an olive tree as a tama to the saint from their pasture or olive grove because olives are churned to make olive oil that in turn is used in the church to light the kantilia. John explained that an Istrian could own an area of land but the olive tree on that land could be the property of the church if it was offered (tameno).

DANCING FOR SAINT MERKOURIOS

When asking the respondents about the dancing, they all mentioned a dance called the monahiko. They explained that the monahiko is a lone dance having personal religious signiﬁcance. The reason why the dance is called monahiko is because the dancer dances alone (monahos) with the saint and performs the dance as a taximo to encourage the saint to cure their ailing ear. The monahiko is not connected to one particular folk dance, or, do all performers,

38 At the church of Panayia Kremasti on Rhodes, the saint’s icon served as a coin oracle. The worshipper makes a wish and presses a coin on the icon. If the coin does not fall, the wish will be granted. Copper was said to be worthless. All coins, whether they stick or not, become the property of the priest; see Hamilton, Greek Saints, p. 46. 39 Walking barefoot to the saint’s shrine is also a form of tama; see Kenna, ‘Greek Urban Migrants’, p. 136. 40 In a crisis situation, when there is an urgent need, this is established through tamata. Gifts include oil, bread, money and jewelry. The covering of icons with metal was also considered a tama in earlier times. See Stewart, Demons and the Devil, p. 182.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 224949 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 250 PATRICIA RIAK

men or women, perform it in the same way. What defines the dance gener- ically is that it is a form of taximo. Its private nature is given meaning as worshippers performed within the confines of the cemetery chapel located on the outskirts of the village. KI specifically stressed that people locked themselves in the chapel because when she was the kantilonaftissa, she would have to unlock the chapel to let the dancers inside and she remembers waiting outside while the worshippers would dance. She remembers that sometimes the dancers would not close the door and she would watch the dancing from outside the door. The etymology of the word monahikos means ‘alone.’ When the word monahikos is applied to the dancing, various meanings are construed. Although the dancer physically dances alone, it is stressed that the dancer ‘spiritually’ dances alone as the word monahos in this context, explained by the respondents, is understood as being ‘monastic.’ The word monahos gives a spiritual significance to the dance because monahos also means ‘monk.’ Monahos is then construed as ‘belonging to one’ in the sense that a monk ‘belongs to God.’ The dancer is understood by Istrians as ‘belonging to the saint’ as they are either tamenos or tameni (offered to the saint) when dancing alone for him. When associating the word monahikos to the word ‘solitary’, Istrians understand the dancer is ‘housed’ while they perform. The meaning of the term ‘solitary confinement’ is significant in defining the private nature of the dance in the cemetery chapel. This is especially relevant to the respondents when some referred back to the life story of the saint who was locked in prison. Being housed inside the cemetery chapel and closing the door re-enacted the young Merkourios the soldier who was locked in jail and cured of his tortures by the Archangel Michael. In the life of the saint, Emperor Decius ordered soldiers to place Merkourios in a dark and moist room to succumb to his tortures. It was there that the Saint prayed to God and the Archangel Michael appeared and cured him. This further explains why the respondents said that people who had ear infections ‘locked’ themselves in the small chapel and they danced the monahiko and prayed to the saint. The worshipper dances the monahiko alone in order to help heal himself or herself with the intervention of the saint. The dance is a performance not observable to the community but to the holy healer. The monahiko does not act to honor the church by unifying the community through group dancing at the paniyiri. It is a dance that acts to honor the saint by binding

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225050 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 251

the individual to the saint in a private performance away from the paniyiri.41 There was no mention in the interviews that the respondents had a dream of Saint Merkourios who called them to the chapel to dance for him also indicating that trance and possession was not part of the dancing involved as a form of taximo for the saint.

Fig. 6. The Wall Painting of Saint Merkourios in the Cemetery Chapel (Author’s private collection).

41 Incubation was a central principle in ancient therapy that emphasized the personal relationship between the god and the patient. The ritual expresses an attitude of total sur- render to the God’s providence and of faith in the possibility of cure. In the Asclepios cult the patient prayed to the god but could also rely on medical assistance. This closely parallels the praxis to God with the assistance of the patron saint. See D. Constantelos, ‘The Inter- face of Medicine and religion in the Greek and in the Christian Greek Orthodox Tradition’, Greek Orthodox Theological Review, 33 (1988), pp. 1-17, here p. 4.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225151 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 252 PATRICIA RIAK

The very unique aspect of this worship is that Saint Merkourios is not portrayed as an icon but as a life-size wall painting. The impression one receives when standing in front of his image (see Figure 6) is that the saint is leaping out of the wall toward the worshipper. Such an ‘active’ portrayal of the saint is rather different to the smaller iconic representations of saints who are depicted as standing placidly facing the worshipper, hung on the wall of a church with distinct boundaries of the frame around the icon to suggest a celestial distance. The active, life-size warrior saint does not suggest this distance to the worshipper – he is depicted as though he is steering his horse through a door. He is not symbolically depicted as a ‘window’ representation the way that icons are traditionally depicted. It is this unique representation that the worshipper reﬂects ‘action’ back to the saint in the form of the dance promise and offering. The offering of barley to the saint’s horse before dancing seems to indicate that the worshipper wants to distract the saint’s horse to stop and eat while the saint’s attention is diverted and, looks on at the worshipper performing the dance for him (see Figure 6). AL mentioned that the wall painting is housed in a tholos. AL’s father’s parents commissioned the wall painting when her father was still a young, unmarried man (c. 1910). By deﬁnition, a tholos is a circular temple or mausoleum, much like the Roman pantheon in Rome. This comes to symbolize that Saint Merkouros is coming out of or leaving the pagan belief in the ancient gods and coming into or entering Christianity. The wall painting does not typically represent the ‘window’ representation of the icon but a ‘door’ representation of a gate and two columns (see Figure 6) that allude to this notion of ‘leaving and entering’. When the worshippers visited the cemetery chapel, there were a number of ways they showed their reverence and devotion to the saint. VA remembers that dancers would offer tamata to the saint the day before his paniyiri. CP states that if a worshipper danced for the saint while ill, they would make a taximo to go to his festival and open his kantili for having cured them. VA mentioned that some worshippers made a taximo to go to the chapel and do a skliva (circle) and to dance ‘to Monaxiko tou Agiou Merkouriou’ (the monahiko dance of Saint Merkourios, see Figure 7). VA was able to see this when he was about eight years of age (c. 1922). His parents told him that when someone made a taximo to the saint, they had to dance a skliva for him and that they would dance in the center of the chapel where there

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225252 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 253

is a marble. He continued to remember that they danced around the marble but he was not sure why, although he is sure that it was a very old tradition. TV recalls that when she performed the dance, she would do sklives very quickly so that the sickness would drop from her body and, as soon as she ﬁnished, she walked straight out of the cemetery chapel. Her reason for doing this was that she had to exit as if she were dancing because she could not exit the way she entered – so that the sickness would leave with the turn- ing of her body. VA remembers that before the war, when he was eighteen years of age (c. 1932), he remembers a lot of dancing at the cemetery chapel. He would follow people and watch them from the door and they would do a skliva. He remembers seeing women from the villages of Asklipio and Laerma but mostly from the village of Asklipio. They would do three sklives around the marble, to honor the Ayia Triadha. KI remembers that when the women from Asklipio danced monahiko, they sung prayers. AV recites a song prayer:

Ayie Merkouraki mou my Saint Merkourios kane mou kala to aphtaki mou make my ear well kai ego tha ertho na chorepso mprosta sou and I will come and dance in front of you

CP also remembers that worshippers gave a taximo to dance a particular number of yirous (circles) after they were cured. Although a skliva and a yiro are both defined as circles, they are different movements occurring at the same time during the performance, which will be explained when comparing male and female dancing (see Figure 7). Performing a number of yirous only occurred if a worshipper had made it a taximo to perform again after being cured. Another type of tama was the offering of barley to the horse of the saint. KV remembers worshippers would place a handful of barley on a plate on the floor of the wall painting before dancing. This was done so that the saint’s horse could eat. KI remembers that barley was placed in front of the image of the saint and worshippers would go to the chapel the next morning and find that the barley had been eaten. When the horse ate the barley it meant that the saint had ‘listened’ and that the worshipper’s ears would ‘open up.’ Many respondents mentioned that when their ear had healed they described a ringing sensation (koudhounizma) that would first occur after the dancing and after they had placed the Holy oil from the saint’s kantili with

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225353 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 254 PATRICIA RIAK

a piece of cotton into their ear. This usually occurred when they were at home. However, CP recalls that her experience with the koudhounizma occurred while she was dancing at the cemetery chapel. All respondents explained that the kouthounizma was a very loud ringing in the ear that was ailing, an almost piercing sound that shocked them. After this loud ringing sound they were healed.

KRITHARAKI AND PREGNANT WOMEN

Barley was also known as a kritharaki, a small rice-like lump that appeared under the eye of a woman. It is believed that kritharaki appeared soon after a woman would not give some of the food she was eating to a pregnant woman who craved for a little of it but, was refused. It is said that if this occurred the pregnant woman would chant a curse:

Den mou doneis you do not give to me krithari na bgaleis sta matia then barley to surface on your eyes

Kritharaki was almond shaped and, the pointy side made a small incision in the skin where something resembling a small grain of rice came out, much like a splinter. AA remembers that if her eyes hurt and a kritharaki surfaced under her eye, she would go to the saint and make the form of a cross over the kritharaki with a grain of barley and would leave the barley in front of the icon for the saint’s horse much in the same way that they crossed their ears after they danced the monahiko.42 At the neighboring village of Proﬁlia, the patron saint, Saint George, like Saint Merkourios, was also a saint where offerings of barley were left and, often women would go to Saint George when they had kritharaki and they would sing a song prayer:

42 Stewart (Demons and the Devil, p. 209) equates making the sign of the cross with that of ‘sealing’. Priests are instructed to seal, that is, to seal from evil and to bless. At baptism the priest blesses the water three times by making a cross and saying, ‘Let all adverse powers be crushed beneath the sign of the image of the cross’, the cross evidently symbolizing Christ’s victory over death and the devil. The apotropaic function of the cross is generally accepted in Greek tradition. Almost every church has an image of Christ at the cross on its icon screen. Beneath this cross are the skull and bones of Adam. The blood of Christ drips from the cross onto earlier sin to express that the cross has conquered death.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225454 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 255

Agio Georgi kabalarè Saint George the horse rider me spathè kai me kontari with the sword and with the spear dose mou to kleidaki sou give my your key na anoixo to mataki mou so that I can open my eye na do ti echei mesa to see what is inside it gia krithari, gia sitari is it barley or is it wheat? gia margaritari? or is it a pearl?

The fact that barley is offered as a tama to the saint and, that women may produce a kritharaki under their eyes from the curse of a pregnant woman, creates an interesting connection to barley. To be cured of the kritharaki the woman must go to the cemetery chapel of Saint Merkourios with a grain of barley and, with it make the sign of the cross over the kritharaki. The grain of barley used to cure the woman of kritharaki was a form ‘reflective curing,’ that is, barley helping to cure a condition described as barley. This practice introduces an important point – the significance of women to curing. Beginning with Saint George, the significance of kritharaki as a curse given by a pregnant woman seems to reflect local practices connected with children and, associated to this saint. Another practice performed by Istrian women associated to Saint George at the neighboring village of Profilia was that many women left their dead, unbaptized children there to be buried. ‘Aborted’ did not mean that pregnant women had abortions and brought the dead fetus there, as no respondent disclosed this to be the case. However, children who were still born or, had died as babies, were aborted, or, left here. The female respondents mention that Saint George is the only saint of the Greek Orthodox Church believed in by Moslem Turks and this is the reason given by the respondents as to why mothers buried their unbaptized children there. Because Saint George is believed in by Moslems, who are not Christians, hence not baptized, it was believed by these mothers that the saint would care and protect their babies after death as Saint George cares and protects non-Christian Moslems who believe in him.43

43 I remember that my kattaveni grandmother would call Saint George, “Saint George the Arab”.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225555 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 256 PATRICIA RIAK

ISTRIAN MOTHERS AND RELIGIOUS DANCING

An early relationship shared between mothers and children was the monahiko as mothers performed it for their ailing children. AV recalls mothers would take their young directly to the saint and dance for them. They would ﬁrst make their cross and pray to the saint. If the child was a baby or very young, another woman would pass it through the chapel’s small window (thiraki) to its mother inside the chapel where she would change the child’s clothing and leave the old clothes outside the thiraki. The mother then held her child and danced in front of the saint. VA remembers that passing the child through the thiraki was considered an offering (tama). The thiraki has religious symbolism as it is considered a spiritual window. Children were brought out of the earthly environment (outside the chapel) and into the celestial (inside the chapel). This symbolic transference of earthly to celestial environ- ments, when passing the child through the thiraki symbolizes transference from illness to health.44 After the mother received her child, she would put oil on the child from the oil lamp (kantili) before dressing the child with new clothes and then dancing the child, holding it in front of the image of the saint. The new clothes were placed on the ﬂoor in front of the image of the wall painting before the mother dressed the child. AA mentioned that the mother took some cotton wool and made the form of the cross on the head of the image of saint. She then dabbed the cotton wool with Holy oil from the kantili. VA states that in older village tradition people would not do a cross on the head of the saint but a swirl with the piece of cotton and then insert the cotton into the ailing ear.45 Istrian worshippers also rubbed themselves with the oil from the kantili where their body hurt. TA would also soak oil from the kantili onto a piece

44 This more spiritual role of the mother is added to what R. and E. Blum say about families that have a member who possesses special healing skills; most often that person is the mother or the grandmother. She is not a professional or specialist in any sense, rather the love of healing is part of her nurturing role as mother and as a nurturer of old tradition. Most of these skills consist of semi-magical or practical techniques associated with diagnosis and healing; see R. and E. Blum, The Dangerous Hour. The Lore and Crisis and Mystery in Rural Greece (London, 1970), p. 168. 45 The application of oil in baptism is to seal the ears and other parts of the body, which are anointed and crossed (sealed); cf. Stewart, Demons and the Devil, p. 201.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225656 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 257

of cotton to place in her child’s ear. VM also mentions that before dancing she would first bow (aspasi) to the saint and then danced one or two circles yirous and later threw barley to the saint’s horse. Women danced more often than men because of assisting to help cure their children of illness. AA retold a story of a nephew, who, in 1926, had a severe ear infection and pus would continuously trail from his ear for a two-year period. His mother was wor- ried as the symptom seemed chronic and when he was five years of age, his mother bought a tama, an ear molded on a silver square plaque and hung it in front of the image of the saint (see Figure 5). The next day his ear was healed. The mother then went and danced with the child for the saint. As a taximo, the mother performed three circles (yirous) for the saint (see Figure 7). CP states that it was normally the mother that danced three yirous for the Holy Trinity (Ayia Triadha). As a child, VA remembers something that happened to him when he was eight years of age (c. 1922). He was walking in the village and a bee came and sat in his ear without him realizing. The bee had left eggs that developed into worms and his ear hurt. Near his house there was a woman who was known for plucking worms with a pair of twee- zers and she plucked the worms and placed oil in his ear. She then did her cross and advised him to go to the cemetery chapel and do a circle (skliva) and clicks (tsakoumakia) so that the saint would help him to recover (see Figure 7). Most respondents mentioned that mothers would dance around the marble slab as well as in front of the saint. Not one respondent mentioned this about the men’s dancing. Before the marble slab was placed there, it was also known to be a chalice for the baptism of children and later sealed. This gives religious significance to mothers assist to and childcare, especially when considering that both mothers assist to dress and undress their children during baptism. It is also interesting to note that in child cure the mother takes the place of the priest in baptism. This is also clearly indicated as the mother anoints the child with Holy oil. The monahiko performed by women is different to the monahiko performed by men. The women’s monahiko has been compared to the monahiki sousta. Women at the paniyiri do not dance monahiki sousta.46 The men’s monahiko

46 For a description of monahiki sousta performed by men in Southern Rhodes, see Riak, Concealing and Revealing, pp. 142-160, and ‘Interplay’, pp. 212-219.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225757 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 258 PATRICIA RIAK

has been compared to a number of folk dances that are performed by men at the paniyiri. The women’s monahiko included more circles (sklives) and circles (yirous) that are circular movements in the dance, reﬂecting religious worship during the sacraments of the Greek Orthodox Church – in baptism when walking the baby around the chalice and also during the marriage crowning service when the Dance of Isaiah is performed (see Figure 7). Because it was disclosed by the respondents that the woman’s monahiko included three yirous indicates a religious reverence, similar to walking around the chalice during baptism and during the marriage ceremony that also occurs three times for the Holy Trinity (Ayia Triadha). Finally, because it was disclosed that women bowed to the saint before, during or after performing the monahiko, indicates reverence to the Ayia Triadha.47 Male respondents mentioned that this indicates that men’s dancing is associated to a secular understanding of relating the folk dances they danced at the paniyiri to the dancing they performed for the saint in the cemetery chapel. They also mentioned that women’s dancing in the cemetery chapel was associated to the sacred, as the way they danced was only performed in the cemetery chapel and not at the paniyiri. Male respondents further mentioned that if the dancer was a woman, they would perform sklives and yirous during the performance, while men did not perform these during their performance. The male respondents remembered that men would dance like they did at any other celebratory occasion, often performing the karsilama. The extent of the dance tradition is not fully known but my gatekeeper John believes that the monahiko was also a tourkikos or servikos performance for the men. CL also mentions that the men performed as though they were dancing in the lead position for the sousta (uncanny as this was used to deﬁne the

47 The monahiko has received some attention in the folkloric literature of Rhodes. At the village of Kremasti during the wedding, the singer (kanakisti) while the sperveri was hung on the bridal bed would sing: ‘dance the monahiko so that it may enter into my mind what I will say’. Young adults would dance the monahiko, a type of dance that has the movements of the sousta. Also during the Sunday wedding procession to the church the kanakisti would sing and stop people dancing the monahiko so that the kanakisti can sing something different. The kanakisti would sing: ‘the monahiko has arrived and it has come to my mind what to say’; see Brontes, Rhodetikos Gamos, p. 34. See also, Tarsouli, Dodekanissos (Athens: Alpha, 1947), p. 122.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225858 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 259

woman’s performance that was very different to the men’s performance), when the male broke from the circle to do a monahiki sousta and that the monahiki sousta resembled mballo. CL mentions that men performed sklives by using both their hands in the air, but that this was associated to the folk dances that men performed at the paniyiria. The women, on the other hand, would use the right hand for performing the skliva, swooping toward the left side of their bodies and this guided the whole of their bodies to do a skliva to the left. The skliva was moving one’s body in a circle much like making a 360-degree turn. The yiro was the movement direction that was circular as opposed to moving the body in a straight line. Three sklives would be performed within the movement direction of a yiro, which was circular, and three sklives were completed within one yiro (See Figure 7). Four female respondents had mentioned that when they were performing for their children, they completed three yirous. This, they explained, corresponded to the Holy Trinity (Ayia Triadha).

Fig. 7. The Sklives and the Yiro in the Performance of Monahiko by the mother.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 225959 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 260 PATRICIA RIAK

From the interviews it was established that women combined sklives and a yiro in this manner. TV mentioned that while doing the skliva both men and women would do a click of the ﬁngers (tsakoumaki or kounari). AV mentioned that she would move her body left and right as she would walk toward the wall painting and, at the same time, click her ﬁngers, one hand up and one hand down, then reverse the hand positions, the other hand up and the other hand down. Women did three sklives for one yiro, very slowly around the marble slab in the chapel. KI mentioned that they did a skliva, then a tsakoumaki, with the right hand that was guiding the body to complete a skliva. KI also mentioned that women went around the marble slab three times, the way a worshipper would complete the cross three times and, would aspasi three times to the saint. My gatekeeper John mentions that men’s monahiko was also different in that it was quicker: it involved jumping movements and doing tsakoumaki with both hands. This contrasted with the women’s monahiko that was slower and that they bowed during a skliva and also did more yirous. KI mentions something rather important from her own observations as the caretaker of the cemetery chapel for a nine-year period – she remembers that men did not frequent the chapel, only women who had taximo and they were called tamenes. They would dance once when they were ill and one other time as taximo when they were cured, but usually they danced when they were ill. KI also recalls that dancing for a second time after being cured almost always occurred on the eve of the saint’s festival. KI called these dancers paleomonahi. They would go and dance monahiko at the cemetery chapel and then they would return to the main church and dance the folk dances at the paniyiri.

OTHER CHILD CURING PRACTICES ASSOCIATED WITH MOTHERS AND SAINTS

Another saint that is associated with Istrian mothers is Saint John at the village of Proﬁlia because he cures children of fever (thermi).48 At the church of Saint John in Proﬁlia, there was a thiraki where mothers would pass their

48 It was said that the connection between Saint John and fever came from the trembling of his body when he was beheaded. Another account has it that at Herod’s banquet, when the head of Saint John was brought on a plate, those present were struck by a fever that did not subside until those afflicted prayed to the saint for healing. Hamilton notes that according to Athenian legend, Saint John was a doctor skilled in curing fever (Greek Saints, p. 64).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226060 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 261

young children through once, so that the fever would leave the child’s body. The thiraki was located near the Royal Altar (iero) and because of the sacred nature of this precinct in the church, it is believed that only ‘clean’ women could enter to pass the children through; ‘clean’ alluding to women not sexually active. CP explained that older women would stand near the iero and from the outside of the window the child’s mother would retrieve the child from the thiraki. At the back of the monastery, about twenty meters away, there was a place of water (agraki) and they would go there and wash the child’s face and would take another road home so that the child would not re-catch the illness. As well as washing the face, young children had to run to the agraki and throw water behind their back three times so that the sickness would drop from their body. They would come through the door and exit from the window to the agraki outside. KI remembers that her parents sat on donkeys and would take her there (c. 1915). They would put her through the thiraki and they would take another road home, usually coming from the downward road (kato dhromo), while leaving from the upward road (pano dhromo).49 The old monastery of Saint John near the old school in Istrios is now damaged but the Holy myrrh (mira) is taken there to be discarded once liturgy had ﬁnished. Normally mira are taken to the ocean and discarded but because Istrios is a highland village, mira are thrown into the remnants of this church because it is considered ‘never stepped on’ (apatito) and the Holy Threads of the Holy Altar (Ayia Trapeza) would also be washed there.50 Another saint that was also associated to the health of Istrian children was Saint Paraskevi, whose church is located in the forest close to the village. It is an old monastery that was rebuilt. There is an old marble structure there and when children caught fever (thermi) they would be taken to the marble and rolled on it by their mothers so that the sickness would ‘drop’ from their

49 She remembered that when she was young thermi was called eleodosia. 50 Saints were thought to provide wells with miraculous properties. Hamilton describes this phenomenon at the monastery of Plimmiri in Southeast Rhodes where the priest walks around the well offering prayers and sometimes the water rises in answer to his invocation and flows over into the courtyard, hence the name ‘plimmiri’ (‘to flood’). It is considered important to acquire some of the flooding water since it possesses special healing powers (Greek Saints, p. 52). The healing and protecting power of water is also a crucial topic in Christian baptism (cf. Stewart, Demons and the Devil, p. 205).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226161 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 262 PATRICIA RIAK

bodies. The child’s undergarments were left there so that the sickness would remain there. They would take another road home so that the child would not re-catch the sickness. KI remembers that her parents took the “goat road” there and walked through the pastures in the forest to go back home (c. 1915). AA and TV took their children there because at Saint Merkourios this did not happen. There was also an old church believed to be one of the old churches of Saint John found between the villages of Arnitha, Apollakia and Proﬁlia where there was a ditch and mothers would undress their children and left the clothing in this ditch so that the sickness could leave their bodies. The ditch had rocks inside and where the dirt road led to the ditch was where the very old church used to stand, known as the paleoekklisia.

DANCERS FROM OTHER VILLAGES

Worshippers who performed monahiko also came from other villages (see Figure 2). The respondents remember that these worshippers were women. KI remembers when she was 20 (c. 1930) women from the village of Asklipio would come to Istrios a day before the festival and these women were remembered by KI as very religious women and they brought olive oil from the village of Monolinthos (known for its superior olive oil) for Saint Merkourios. Unlike Istrian men and women, they would hold hands and perform the monahiko as a group. This was the only account stated concerning group dancing at the cemetery chapel. KI remembers that while dancing, the women from Asklipio would sing:

Kaname ena monahiko mprosta stou agiou to steno ‘We did a monahiko in front of the saint’s alley’

And:

O asimenos Sklipenos prepei na paei sto Agio Merkouri ‘A silver Sklipenos has to go to Saint Merkourios’

And:

Elate mare na kanoume ena monahiko na mas perasei to aute mas ‘Come here you [female] so that we can dance the monahiko so that our ear will get better’

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226262 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 263

Both VA and HT also remember that these women went to the cemetery chapel and brought krithari for the saint’s horse. AA also remembers at the time she was 22 (c. 1924) these women would bring krithari and they would all dance together at the cemetery chapel, which was something Istrian women did not do. VA, KI and HT mention that dancers were also known to come from Ayios Isidhoros. VA and KI also mention dancers from the village of Monolinthos and Laerma. VA and KV mention that dancers still come from Lardhos. Respondents mention that there are also smaller monasteries (exoklisia) for Saint Merkourios near the villages of Lardhos and Para- dhissi. It is not certain whether dancing occurred near these other villages. However, respondents remembered that people from Laerma did not dance at the exoclisi of Lardhos because they came to Istrios to dance for the saint. There was also an exoklisi near the village of Masari but during the Second World War the Germans had bombed and destroyed it and was later re-built. The monastery at Lardhos was damaged more than 60 years ago but my gatekeeper John mentions that the older dancers may have decided to come to the cemetery chapel in Istrios because it is closer than the village of Paradhissi.

SAINT MERKOURIOS AND SAINT CONSTANTINE

In the ethnographic record, Loring Danforth researched religious dance therapy called the Anastenaria performed by the Kostilides of Ayia Eleni in Serres.51 Although the latreia of Saint Merkourios on Rhodes and the cult of Saints Constantine and Helen show differences in their form of worship and dance therapy, it is within the scope of the paper to make mention of the similarities and differences found between them to highlight similar religious practices that involve ritual dancing during a paniyiri in Greece. Essentially, Danforth explains that the Anastenaria deals with trance and possession52 of the Anastenarides by Saint Constantine; ritual dancing for Saint Merkourios does not indicate this, rather the monahiko is a form of promise (taximo) and offering (tama) that Istrians and others from Rhodian villages perform for the saint.

51 See Danforth, ‘Role’, pp. 141-163, ‘Power through Submission’, pp. 203-223; Fire- walking, pp. 10-84. 52 See Danforth, Firewalking, p. 15.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226363 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 264 PATRICIA RIAK

THE EXPERIENCE OF CATHARSIS

Although the Kostilides experience states of trance and possession by Saint Constantine and the Istrian dancers do not, both dance therapies indicate the experience of catharsis, the feeling of ‘opening up’ in the process to being cured after dancing.53 When Istrians performed the monahiko, they would click their fingers in front of their ears so that their ears could ‘open’ in order to hear. This was done while standing in front of the saint’s image and dancing. Some dancers would turn around very quickly so that the sickness would drop from their body and they would click with one finger, sometimes with two, and would say ‘Saint Merkourios make it go away.’ After the dancing, they would pray on their knees (metania) to the image of the saint. Dancing for the Kostilides was a process of becoming a better dancer.54 When first becoming an Anastenaris, the dancer would dance awkwardly and out of time to the music played during the ritual with Thracian lyre and drum (ntaouli). This trance experience would improve to become a graceful and more synchronized experience to indicate the re-gaining of one’s health. Saint Constantine stops punishing and with the assistance of more experienced Anastenarian dancers they now dance with the power of the saint. Danforth equates this to a structuring process of illness to health that also includes time periods of up to several years. The cathartic release for Istrians was that of an internal ringing in one’s ear and for the Kostilides it was the experience of losing nervous tension55 through image of ‘coming out’. Danforth mentions that this is seen as a process of emerging, opening up or being released from confinement through the image of ‘the open road’.56 When an Anastenaris is able to dance freely and easily it is said that ‘Saint Constantine has opened the road for him’.57

53 For further explanation of catharsis during the Anastenaria, see Danforth, ‘Role’, pp. 150-151. 54 The dance performed by the Anastenarides is a sacred version of the kerchief dance (mantilatos horos) that is danced individually with two different music tunes: the first being the ‘tune of the dance’ when performing at the konaki and during the fire walk; the second the ‘tone of the road’ when in procession (Danforth, ‘Role’, p. 143). 55 For a more detailed account of the symptoms of illness see Danforth, ‘Role’, p. 153. 56 See Danforth, Firewalking, pp. 122-126. 57 Cf. Danforth, ‘Role’, p. 154.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226464 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 265

INDIVIDUALIZED PERFORMANCE AS ‘INCLUSIVITY’ AND GROUP PERFORMANCE AS ‘EXCLUSIVITY’

Istrians perform an individualized dance performance for the saint, by any one dancer at any one time. They do not dance in front of other dancers or observers; they go to the cemetery on their own because of the promise to dance in front the saint. In the instance where a mother dances for her child, and another woman is present, the other woman waits outside. The monahiko then is a private dance as a result of a private promise, a performance not observable as a public dance performance as one would dance at the panyiri in honor of the saint. The Kostilides who dance as Anastenarian dancers for Saint Constantine perform publicly in front of other dancers and thousands of observers. What also makes it public for a female dancer is when either her family or her husband’s family has to give permission for her to dance, making the concern both public and social.58 This indicates a strong social presence during the ritual of possession and trance where people danced together and others observed them during the dancing. This is also indicated in the diagnosis of illness by the Anastenarides of the patient and of the therapeutic systems the patient goes through to find the cure related to their situation, if related to the Anastenaria. The Anastenaria is character- istic of group therapy and first performed indoors at the house that keeps the Anastenarian icons (konaki) and outdoors in a field on a bed of hot coals. The performance of the Anasteranrian dancers indicates ‘exclusivity’ insofar as dancers hold membership from a particular community narrowing to dancers originating from particular families.59 Because members of the Anas- tenarian cult have the power to heal alongside Saint Constantine, this also

58 For example, a wife would have to ask permission from her husband to dance (Dan- forth, Firewalking, pp. 27-28). 59 Reasons for performing the Anastenaria not only include physical ailments, but also nervous tension. Illness can be associated with the Anastenaria itself. If the victim is a descendant of an Anastenaris, or someone who is responsible for the care of an Anastenaria icon, or if they have ridiculed the ritual therapy, or if the onset of illness coincides with an important ritual gathering of the Anastenarides, the patient is consulted at his home about some ritual fault he or she, or a member of the family, may have committed. The saints cause the suffering in order to force the patient to correct the fault and have him or her serve the saints in the desired manner. Improvement of the patient’s condition will only occur if the instructions are carried out.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226565 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 266 PATRICIA RIAK

indicates ‘exclusivity’ because the dancers are considered equal to the saint at the time of healing. The dancers also mention that only they alone are able to perform the ﬁrewalk without being burned because they are protected by the supernatural power of Saint Constantine.60 Istrian performances of the monahiko by contrast are performed inside a cemetery chapel where dancing is restricted to the image of the saint. Only Saint Merkourios is considered the healer. The therapy is ‘inclusive’ in that it incorporates members of other village communities and not just those from Istrios (see Figure 2). Young and old alike experience illness of the ear and the saint does not target particular village communities or families.

KOSTILIDIAN FEMALE POWER OF STATUS AND ISTRIAN FAMILY HONOR

The ritual dancers in both Istrios and Ayia Eleni are predominantly female. Danforth suggests that for the Kostilides, women acquire power when they dance for the saint. When a woman regains her health, she has elevated her social status for the purpose of balancing power. Firstly, Anastenarisses are distinguished from other Kostilidian women because a male saint is allowing them to become ‘symbolically male’ and possesses them.61 They gain sub- stantial power through the ritual dance, especially when in trance because their performance is legitimated by the saint. Secondly, healed women are given the power of healing other women and men entering into the Anas- tenaria. Women are given a red kerchief associated to the power of an Anastenarian icon (simadhi) by the head ritual dancer (Archianastenaridhis) to keep at home on their icon screen (iconostasis). The simadhi is a symbol that the Anastenarissa has entered into a permanent relationship with Saint Constantine and now has the power to heal. In the case of Istrian mothers, they do not assist to heal their children but just request assistance by dancing for a male saint. However the signiﬁcance of being female is not centered on balancing power and giving the female a symbolically male role. Rather, this is a form

60 Danforth, ‘Role’, p. 144. 61 Danforth cites an Anastenarissa, Maria, as explaining that she felt like Christ (‘I was like Christ’) when she described an icon tormenting her. This indicates the extent to which some women, while dancing, place themselves in the position, not only of a male saint, but also of Jesus Christ (Firewalking, p. 27).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226666 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 267

of worship orientated around the family and not the cult like that of the Anastenaria. This is where a difference is seen due to trance and possession. The strength of the role of the Istrian women is her role as a ‘mother’ and not as a ‘woman’ who becomes symbolically male. This is because her relationship is with her child and not her mother-in-law and her husband. Her relationship then is one of linking her role to protector of her family with the divine intervention of the saint. This is an honorable relationship mediating the profane to the sacred with a performance that honors the saint through the Holy Trinity (Ayia Triada). The role the mother plays in honoring the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost seems to complete the notion of family and emphases the role of honoring the family. The notion of more individualist or gender centered notions gaining and balancing power as practiced by the Kostilides is not centered on the notion of family, even if family lines are involved with the cult.62 What seems to be emphasized for the role of women is not honor but the unequal relations between men and women in the Kostilidian community that Danforth equates to social identity and self- image.63 Istrian women also bow (aspasi) after completing every skliva that is something Istrian men do not do when they dance. This further indicates the importance of honorable deference on the part of the Istrian mother and the role she plays in offering a promise to the religious realm.

ISTRIAN MOTHERS AND YOUNG KOSTILIDIAN MARRIED WOMEN

Istrian mothers dance for their children and as the children grew older, mothers encouraged their children to go alone and dance for the saint when their ears hurt. Some young women took their mothers with them to the cemetery chapel but the mother waited outside while the daughters danced.

62 Women would criticize those women who were deemed not to be the ‘appropriate types’ to become Anastenarisses, i.e., those who had married more than once or were said to be frequenting other men. Danforth quotes one woman as saying, ‘How could such a woman become a Holy Saint and dance on fire? I touch a hot stove and get burned, and she walks in fire up to her knees. How could a saint forgive her? When people see a woman like that in the fire, they don’t want to believe anymore’ (Firewalking, p. 28). 63 Self-image is evident when a male Anastenaris complained that the women were always holding the Anastenarian icons, which are rarely given to men, and were arguing over who should hold the icons; cf. Danforth, ‘Role’, pp. 149-150 and Firewalking, p. 24.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226767 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 268 PATRICIA RIAK

This indicates the importance of mothers in the therapy of their children, especially of the continuing connection to their adult daughters after having danced for them as babies and young children. It was not uncommon that married daughters with children took their mothers with them to the cemetery chapel when dancing for their children because the grandmother would pass her grandchild into the chapel through the thiraki to its mother who then danced for the child. Because of matrilocal residence practiced more notably in the Aegean, such practices were possible with one’s mother in the village.

‘In androcentric communities like those of the Kostilides women are clearly subordinate to men and experience a variety of psychological and social conflicts that are often dealt with through involvement in spirit possession ritual like the Anastenaria. Through the rituals women seek to address the discrepancies that characterize the relationship between official ideology of male dominance and a social reality in which women actually exercise a significant degree of power. Spirit possession, then, provides a context for the resolution of conflict often associated with gender roles and gender identity’.64

By contrast, the Anastenaria focuses on young married women and not young married women who move to their husband’s village due to patrilocal residence65 and live with their mother-in-law. Danforth mentions that often the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relationship creates stress and this is what leads to social tension due to also being closed in the house with the mother-in-law or living near the mother-in-law. Danforth relates emotional symptoms of being withdrawn because of being closed in.66 The young wife becoming an Anastenarissa then helps to improve her relationship with her mother-in law in the patrilocal situation.67

64 Danforth, Firewalking, p. 99. 65 For an account of sogambros, men going to live with the bride’s family, see Danforth, Firewalking, p. 22. 66 See further Danforth, ‘Role’, pp. 153-154. 67 Danforth tells the story of a young woman called Maria whose mother-in-law dictated to her father that she would enter the Anastenaria to regain her health to which the father strongly objected. Because of patrilocal residence, the mother-in-law replied that her and Maria’s husband own her now and that she was to do what they said (‘Role’, pp. 146-147).

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226868 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 RELIGIOUS RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMILY IN THE RITUAL WORLD ON RHODES 269

Danforth also extends the meaning of ‘dance’ to instances of nervous tension and the releasing of it. He uses nouns, verbs and proverbs in the Greek language to define the way the meaning of dance equates to the way people perform and define other social relationships to connect the ‘dancing’ of the Anastenaria to the broader social meaning of ‘dance’ in everyday relationships.68 By contrast the Istrian performance is not connected to the broader social meanings of what dance could mean in the everyday living, defining social relationships as ‘dances’. There is a specific reference to the monahos and the monastic, where Istrians refer to the monk, someone not involved in social relationships but someone living with the Holy when dancing the monahiko. This paper has introduced a religious practice that gives a new definition of taximo and tama through the form of dance performed in front of a shrine in a cemetery chapel. The use of grain in the form of barley is also given with the dance performance, not associated to other warrior saints in such a manner. The taximo in the form of dance is associated to child cure as are other practices disclosed. However, the reason why the dance is practiced by Istrians, in particular Istrian mothers, remains enigmatic. No respondent was able to give a reason for the origins of this dance practice. When did dancing the monahiko originate and, what was it connected to religiously? However, the way the mothers performed alludes to the possibility that the monahiko may be connected to the Dance of Isaiah, which is performed during Holy Matrimony and the Holy Orders. Further analysis of the Dance of Isaiah performed during Holy Matrimony may connect a possible origin. The connection of the dance to Saint Merkourios could be through the Holy Trinity: as it is mentioned during the Marriage Crowning Service that the martyrs preached the Trinity with Saint Merkourios being an LX Martyr. The crown is also a symbol of martyrdom and because death is typically associated with martyrdom, this may explain why the monahiko, performed as a taximo and a tama, was performed in a cemetery chapel? Further to this, during the marriage service, a hymn begins by calling for the ritual of dance (khorodia) and the triple circular procession of the couple during the Marriage Crowning Service, are seen as the proper and respectful form of liturgical

68 See further Danforth, ‘Role’, pp. 161-162.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 226969 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03 270 PATRICIA RIAK

dance. The liturgical dance also represents that a couple enter into the midst of the church and this new religious reality may have been how the monahiko originated – from the Dance of Isaiah? There is a need to further research the liturgical Dance of Isaiah in order to connect these rare practices of dancing as taximo and tama for the saint, to bring further ethnographic evaluation of the role of the Greek mother as a liturgical dancer. This, in turn, may bring further insight into deﬁning her role alongside, but outside of, the duties of the cleric in the realm of the religious.

Abstract

The paper reconstructs what is remembered about saint worship practiced in the Rhodian highland village of Istrios. Saint Merkourios, the patron saint of Istrios will be examined. Istrian memory reveals a religious practice that included dance as a form of promise (taximo) and offering (tama) to Saint Merkourios, particularly by Istrian mothers and their role in assisting to cure their children of illness. The paper introduces the presence of dancing as a form of promise and offering to worship a saint, describing in detail how Istrian mothers performed the dance in a Holy shrine atypically located in a cemetery chapel. The paper also investigates other forms of religious child cure practices by Istrian mothers. However, the main focus of the paper is the dancing for Saint Merkourios and the paper concludes with a comparison to the Anastenaria, Greek religious fire walking and, what the dancing may mean in a religious context for the Istrian mother.

994006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd4006_JECS_2010/3-4_04.indd 227070 111/01/111/01/11 15:0315:03