War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult1
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War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult Alexander T. Millington UCL Dissertation submitted for the degree of PhD in History 2013 1 I, Alexander Millington, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract This dissertation presents a new interpretative synthesis of the sources relating to the cults, identities, and functions of the god Ares, focusing on the Archaic and Classic periods. An apparent dichotomy is identified: in many respects, the evidence suggests that Ares must have been a very important god throughout much of the Greek world throughout the Archaic and Classic periods (and beyond), but in other respects the evidence suggests that he was not. I argue that this dichotomy does not derive from changes in the popularity, relevance, or nature of the god, as has been proposed. Instead, I argue that the elements of Ares’ cults and representations which suggest that Ares was unpopular or unimportant derive from those which made him important and continually relevant. I argue that because Ares was identified with war, attitudes towards the god directly reflect Greek attitudes towards war. War’s importance as an element of Greek life, and the god’s power as a causal force with it, led to deep respect for Ares, reflected by widespread cult, and a place among the great Olympians. But the wild, destructive, and unpredictable nature of war, which Ares represented, meant that he was not a regular recipient of large-scale celebratory cult. Instead, war itself was conceived of as a form of cult for Ares, which he took pleasure in, despite the fact that it was not initiated on his behalf. Ares was associated with all aspects of war, and represented as a warrior archetype. I argue that the cluster of ideas and associations that Ares represented was a powerful tool which many Greek poets and artists were attracted to use in order to articulate and explore a series of interconnected ideas relating to war, violence, the nature of the warrior, and the role of the warrior within society. 3 Contents Acknowledgements – 7 1. Introduction - 8 1.1. Ares: a great god on the fringes? – 8 1.2. Theory and Method – 10 1.3. Thesis Outline – 17 2. Ares in the Iliad – 21 2.1.i. Introduction – 21 2.1.ii. Methodological Note – 24 2.2.i. Of Gods and Men: Divine Protectors and Layers of Causality – 26 2.2.ii. The Complex Nature of Zeus – 32 2.3.i. Warrior, War, and War’s God – 35 2.3.ii. Rebuked and Defeated – 56 2.4. Conclusions – 72 3. Ares in Early Hexameter Traditions beyond the Iliad – 75 3.1. Introduction – 75 3.2. Ares as War in the Odyssey – 75 3.3. The Dangers of a Preoccupation with Ares – 77 3.4. Herakles and Athena defeat Ares in the sanctuary of Apollo – 80 3.5. Conclusions – 88 4. Ares and Aphrodite – 90 4.1. Introduction – 90 4.2. Ares as Warrior in the Odyssey: The Song of Ares and Aphrodite – 90 4.3. The Song of Ares and Aphrodite: Parallels and Contrasts – 97 4.4. Ares and Aphrodite in Cult – 99 4 4.5. Conclusions – 106 5. Ares in Melic Poetry of the Classical and Archaic Periods – 108 5.1. Introduction – 108 5.2. Ares as Motive Force – 109 5.3. The Nature of Ares – 113 5.4. Ares in Lyric Praise-Poetry: Pindar and Bacchylides – 119 5.5. Conclusions: Ares as War and Warrior in Melic Poetry – 132 6. Ares at Athens – 136 6.1. Introduction – 136 6.2. Rereading the Iliad in Classical Athens – 138 6.3. The Persian Archer and the Greek Fleet – Ares at Salamis – 142 6.4.i. Stasis – 148 6.4.ii. The Impious Judge – 153 6.4.iii. The Wild God – 156 6.4.iv. Internal Wildness – 162 6.4.v. Taming Ares – 164 6.5. Ares and Athena at Athens – 169 6.4.vi. Ares and Erra: Civic Concerns Across the Aegean – 177 6.6. Refractions of Aeschylus: Sophocles’ Ares – 186 6.7. Ares in Focus: Euripides and his Phoenicians - 200 6.8. Aristophanes – 211 6.9. Conclusions – 212 7. Dancing for Ares – 214 7.1. Introduction – 214 7.2. Celebration, worship, and peace: the ideology of music and dance-214 5 7.3. Dance and war: forms of movement – 218 7.4. War as anti-cult – 222 7.5. Analogies between war and cult – 224 7.6. Dancing for Ares: Conclusions – 230 8. Ares and Hades – 231 9. Literature Review: 1848-2012 – 234 9.1. H.D. Müller and the Nineteenth-Century Encyclopaedias – 234 9.2. “Der Rächer”, “Schädiger” – From Kretschmer to Burkert – 243 9.3. Ares after Burkert – 255 9.4. Conclusions – 257 10. Conclusion – 259 Bibliography – 266 6 Acknowledgements Andrew Roberts and Jen Hicks read almost the entire thesis between them, and improved every page they read. So has Hans van Wees, who has supervised the writing of this thesis with calm patience rivalled only by the incisiveness of his criticism, which has saved me from many missteps. Ellie Mackin, Jess Baxter-Lloyd, Chris Farrell, Naomi Carless, Leah Broad, Laura Proffitt, and Tom Coward have all acted as tolerant sounding-boards, thoughtful test readers, and sources of bibliographic gems over the last four years. Riet van Bremen first pointed out to me that there appears to be a dearth of recent scholarship on Ares, and convinced me that the god would remain interesting for four years. She was right. Ian Rutherford suggested that I think about the connections between Ares and Iyarri, before inviting me first to talk, and then to write about them, which provided a series of major confidence-boosts at a critical juncture. The late Simon Price taught me that material evidence has a voice of its own, which I am beginning to learn to listen for. Amélie Kuhrt showed me that Greece lay on the periphery of a vast cultural milieu. Daniel Schwemer, Mark Weeden, Andrew George, Luis Siddall, Marie-Christine Ludwig, Martin Worthington, and David Hawkins invited me to audit a series of courses in Near Eastern languages, and displayed remarkable generosity in offering to guide my first faltering steps into the world of cuneiform. Karen Radner held up a large stop- sign at the edge of a precipice. Rob Gray thought it would be fun to spend our evenings learning Greek, and James Bradby agreed with him. Daria Popescu enabled a jaunt to Paris, where Morgan Guiraud makes la Bibliothèque des Sciences religieuses France’s answer to the ICS. My parents have supported me throughout, far beyond the call of duty. All of the staff at the Joint Library of the Hellenic & Roman Societies, combined with the incomparable London postgraduate Classics community, have made the Institute of Classical Studies a wonderful place to spend the last five years. Throughout, my friends both within and outside the discipline have kept me sane. Many thanks to all of you. 7 War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult1 (1) Introduction (1.1) Ares: a great god on the fringes? A striking dichotomy, which can at first sight resemble a paradox, lies at the heart of the corpus of extant sources relating to the Greek god Ares. Ares’ cults were ancient2 and ubiquitous,3 and he was often called upon as a witness to treaty oaths.4 Repeatedly described as one of the twelve great Olympians,5 Ares pervades Archaic and Classical poetry,6 and was depicted by many sculptors and painters.7 And yet only one city is currently thought to have called upon Ares as its primary civic 1 Abbreviations follow the Oxford Classical Dictionary (= Hornblower & Spawforth (2003)). 2 Ares appears as a recipient of cult in a Linear B text from Knossos, and appears to feature in many Mycenaean theophoric names. Cf. Ventris & Chadwick (1956) 125 & 307 (no.201); Aura Jorro (1985) 96–98; Ilievsky (1999) 306-307; Rougemont (2005) 332; García Ramón (2011) 231; Gallavotti 1957: 229; Pötscher 1959: 11–15; Gérard-Rousseau 1968: 38; Gulizio 2001: 33; Gonzales 2004: 353–355; Millington (2013) 544-545. 3 In his Laws (833b), Plato assumes that all Greek cities will have a sanctuary of Ares somewhere within their territory when he suggests that standard training for heavy infantry in any Greek state should include running in full armour to the nearest shrine of Ares and back (I here adopt a reading justified by England (1921) 335, contra that implied by Brisson & Pradeau (2006) 317). The extant evidence for cults of Ares is surveyed by Gonzales (2004). The majority of cult-sites of Ares may, however, have consisted of small shrines and altars, perhaps in rural areas, in addition to sacred groves. Sites of this nature are less likely to be found by archaeologists. They were, moreover, less likely to attract the attention of Pausanias and Strabo, with the exception of those instances where the god bore an unusual epithet, or where an interesting aetiological tale had developed by the second century A.D. As Snodgrass (1987: 76-77) remarks, Pausanias rarely ventured far from the cities and roads (for further discussion of Pausanias’ selectivity, cf. Habicht (1985) 22-24, and Alcock (1996) 245-248). Cf. also Farnell (1909) 396. 4 Brulé (2005). 5 Rutherford (2010) 46. 6 See below, passim. 7 Beck (1984); Bruneau (1984). 8 patron and protector, and even there the god’s primacy is not entirely certain.8 Attestations of monumental temples to Ares are few, and late,9 and no major public festivals are attested before the Imperial period.