Chapter 2 SEASIDE TEMPLES AND SHRINES I have demonstrated that several different deities were important to Canaanite and Phoenician seafarers because of the divine protection which they provided during a voyage. The question then arises as to where sailors worshipped these deities, in order to appease the gods and ensure that their sacred patrons continued to guard their journeys at sea. As the earthly residence of maritime gods, temples and shrines located in harbors and along the coast were sacred locations for classical and modern, traditional mariners: And a shrill wind sprang up to blow, and the ships ran swiftly over the teeming ways, and at night put in to Geraestus. There on the altar of Poseidon we laid many thighs of bulls, thankful to have traversed the great sea.1 Yet of a surety do I deem that never in my benched ship did I pass by fair altar of thine (Zeus's) on my ill-starred way hither, but upon all I burned the fat and the thighs of bulls.2 Temples in harbors were important for they provided seafarers with places which linked them to their sacred benefactors. Port sanctuaries were a place for both ancient and modern mariners to pray to their gods 1Homer, The Odyssey, IIl.176-79. Trans. A. T. Murray, vol. 1, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), p. 81. 2Homer, The Iliad, VIIl.238-40. Trans. A. T. Murray, vol. 1, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1924), p. 355. For further references see Homer, The Odyssey, XIl.345-49; Livy, XL.52.5-7; Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.1.3, 11.32.2; Rouge, La marine dans l'Antiquite, pp. 208-9; Semple, "Templed Promontories," 370-74; and Wachsmuth, IIOMIIIMffE 0 MIMDN, p. 137, n. 237. 39 40 Each Man Cried Out to His God for safety on the waters before travel, and a location where thanks could be expressed to these deities after safely landing following a difficult voyage.3 Thank-offerings were presented to guardian deities which were representative of the sailors' environment. Sacred anchors, called sheet-anchors in English maritime vocabulary, were kept in reserve on board ship and were thrown overboard in emergencies during storms in hope of securing or slowing a vessel battered about by the elements.4 These special anchors were commonly placed in temples in honor of guardian gods for getting ships safely through tempests: There they cast away their small anchor-stone by the advice of Tiphys and left it beneath a fountain, the fountain of Artacie; and they took another meet for their purpose, a heavy one; but the first, according to the oracle of the Far-Darter, the Ionians, sons of Neleus, in after days laid to be a sacred stone, as was right, in the temple of Jasonian Athena.5 Models of ships were dedicated in thanks to patron deities, too, as were actual parts of ships, such as rudders, oars, or the prows of captured enemy vessels.6 The presence of a sacred building in a harbor site does not prove its importance to sailors. It is through the evidence of material remains of maritime votives, such as dedicatory anchors or model ships, that one may posit the significance of an ancient temple to the sacral needs of seafarers. Similarly, shrines dedicated to classical and modern sailors' patron deities were built on seaside promontories, isolated from settlements along the coast: 3Herodotus, The Persian Wars, VIII.121-22; Pausanias, Description of Greece, I.40.5. Bassett, Legends and Superstitions of the Sea, pp. 379-98; Wachsmuth, ITOMIIIMOI O MIMDN, pp. 133-42. 4Davaras provides a summary of the archaeological and textual evidence for sacred anchors in the classical world in "Une ancre minoenne sacree?" 47-71. See also F. Carraze, "L'ancre de misericorde dans la marine antique," Archeologia 61 (1973), 13-19. For the usage of "sheet-anchor" in English see The Oxford English Dictionary, XV, pp. 225-26. 5 Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.955-60. Trans. R. C. Seaton, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988), p. 69. See also Davaras, "Une ancre minoenne sacree?" 47-71. 6For model ships see Canney, "Boats and Ships in Temples and Tombs," 50-57; A. Gi:ittlicher, Materialien fiir ein Corpus der Schiffsmodelle im Altertum (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1978), pp. 8-10; Johnston, Ship and Boat Models in Ancient Greece, pp. 127-28. For other types of maritime votives see W. H. D. Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902), pp. 228-31; and Wachsmuth, ITOMITIMOI O MIMDN, pp. 133-42. .