Kernos Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique 23 | 2010 Varia Manteis, Magic, Mysteries and Mythography Messy Margins of Polis Religion? Jan Bremmer Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/kernos/1559 DOI: 10.4000/kernos.1559 ISSN: 2034-7871 Publisher Centre international d'étude de la religion grecque antique Printed version Date of publication: 1 January 2010 Number of pages: 13-35 ISSN: 0776-3824 Electronic reference Jan Bremmer, « Manteis, Magic, Mysteries and Mythography », Kernos [Online], 23 | 2010, Online since 10 October 2013, connection on 01 May 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/kernos/1559 ; DOI : 10.4000/kernos.1559 Kernos Kernos 23 (2010), p. 13-35. Manteis, 3agic, 3ysteries a d 3ythography5 3essy 3argi s of Polis Religio 7 A1stractS In recent decades it has 1ecome customary to assume that in the c assica period the polis contro ed re igion in a its aspects. It is on y recent y that this 2iew is 1eing questioned. A though the more margina aspects of polis re igion ha2e a ready recei2ed the necessary attention, the study of these margina aspects remains dominated, to a certain eLtent, 1y o d preMudices of pre2ious generations of scho ars, which in turn were sometimes fed 1y the preMudices or representations of ancient authors. I wi concentrate on those areas of Greek, especia y Athenian, re igious ife in which 1ooks and writing were particu ar y important, as the written word ena1 ed peop e to take a more independent stance in polis re igion. ,u1sequent y, I wi make o1ser2ations on manteis (] 1), magic (] 2), mysteries and Orphism (] 3) and mythography (] 4), and end with some remarks on the nature of polis re igion (] 5). R sum S Ces derni=res d cennies, i est de2enu ha1itue de consid rer que a polis de a p riode c assique contr; ait a re igion sous tous ces aspects. Ce n8est que r cemment que ce point de 2ue a t mis en question. MQme si es aspects p us marginauL de a re igion de a polis ont d M7 reGu 8attention n cessaire, eur tude reste marqu e, dans une certaine mesure, par es pr Mug s des sa2ants des g n rations ant rieures, euL-mQmes nourris des pr Mug s et des repr sentations des auteurs anciens. Cet artic e se concentre sur es ieuL de a 2ie re i- gieuse grecque, et p us particu i=rement ath nienne, oV des i2res et de 8 crit taient particu- i=rement importants, dans a mesure oV 8 crit permet auL gens de prendre une position p us ind pendante en regard de a re igion de a polis. Mes o1ser2ations concerneront es manteis (] 1), a magie (] 2), es myst=res et 8Orphisme (] 3), a mythographie (] 4), en terminant par que ques consid rations sur a nature de a re igion de a polis (] 5). With the passing away of Christiane ,our2inou-Inwood (1945-2007), my generation has ost its most persona 2oice and, perhaps, its most powerfu inte ect. Christiane had sti much to offer and her death is an irrepara1 e oss. I knew her for thirty years, and she a ways was a 2ery oya friend. I wou d ne2er 2isit OLford without ha2ing unch with her and her hus1and Mike Inwood, often in Trinity Co ege, and those occasions are some of my 1est memories. It is a so fair to say that from my generation she was one of the most po emica scho ars. One contradicted her at one8s peri , as se2era of her pu1 ications a too c ear y show.1 That is why my contri1ution is de i2ered not without a certain fee ing of am1i2a ence. Certain y, whi e she was sti a i2e, it wou d ha2e 1 ,ee, for eLamp e, C. ,O-RVINO--INWOOD, YReading’ :reek Death to the End of the Classical Period,OLford,1995,p.413-44. 14 J.N. BREMMER 1een 2ery hard to disagree with her in print at ength. Yet the memory of a great scho ar is ne2er ser2ed 1y hagiography, and it is in the spirit of the greatest admiration that I wou d ike to ask some questions regarding Christi- ane8s semina and high y inf uentia artic es on the idea of polis re igion.2 It is a sign of her persuasi2eness that criticisms of Christiane8s mode ha2e ong 1een few and far 1etween, and that a sustained critica ana ysis appeared on y ast year.3 In my contri1ution I wi take a c oser ook at the more margina aspects of polis re igion. A though these ha2e recent y 1een admira1 y studied 1y Ro1ert Parker and Esther Eidinow,4 it may sti 1e possi1 e to add a few more touches to their genera picture, as the study of these margina aspects remains dominated, to a certain eLtent, 1y o d preMudices of pre2ious generations of scho ars, which in turn were sometimes fed 1y the preMudices or representations of ancient authors. I wi concentrate on those areas of Greek, especia y Athenian, re igious ife in which 1ooks and writing were particu ar y important, as the written word ena1 ed peop e to take a more independent stance in polis re igion. ,u1sequent y, I wi make o1ser2ations on manteis (] 1), magic (] 2), mysteries and Orphism (] 3) and mythography (] 4), and then end with some fina o1ser2ations on the nature of polis re igion (] 5) 2. 3a teis Let us start with the Greek seers. It is c ear that in the Archaic Age the o dest seers sti operated without the use of writing or teLts. In fact, the idea that orac es 6speak8 and 6are spoken8 asted we into the fifth century. In a 2a ua1 e study of Greek 6ho y ta es8 and 6ho y 1ooks8,5 A 1ert Henrichs has recent y stressed that orac es are 6intrinsica y ora , that is to say they _speak” to the human recipient in their own 2oice 1y addressing an issue, as at Birds 9.2 f.S 6There is an orac e (chrZsmos) of Bakis eLp icit y speaking a1out (leg[n) C oudco- cucko and8.. And indeed, as the ate O i2ier Masson has argued, Bakis actua y means 6,peaker8.7 This ora character started to change from the ate se2enth 2 I quote her 6What is Polis Re igiona8 (1990) and6Further Aspects of Polis Re igion8 (19AA) from the reprints in R. B-DTON (ed.), OFford Readings in :reek Religion, OLford, 2000, p. 13-37, 3A-55. 3 J. 9INDT, _Po is Re igion –A critica Appreciation,” Oernos 22 (2009), p. 9-34R note a so M.H.HAN,EN, Polis:anintroductiontotheancientGreek cityIstate,OLford,200.,p.119-122. 4 R. PAR9ER, Polytheism and Society atAthens, OLford, 2005, p. 11.-35R E. EIDINOW, Oracles, Curses,&Risk Amongthe AncientGreeks, OLford,2007. 5 A. HENRICH,, _Hieroi Logoi and Hierai BibloiS the (-n)written Margins of the ,acred in AncientGreece,” HSCP 101(2003),p.207-2..at220. .NotethesameeLpressionin Ar., Eq.,12A. 7 Suda, s.E. BakisR scho . Ar., PaF, 1071, cf. W. B-R9ERT, _Apoka yptik im frbhen GriechentumS Impu se und Transformationen,” in D. HELLHOLM (ed.), Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean world and the Near East, Tb1ingen, 19A3, p. 235-254 at 24A-249R O. MA,,ON, Onomastica :raeca Selecta III, Manteis, Magic, Mysteries and Mythography 15 century onwards when orac es and prophetic utterances were fiLed into writing. Our o dest eLamp e is the so-ca ed 6skin of Epimenides8, apparent y a parchment sheet with orac es of that great 1ut e usi2e purifier.A Epimenides8 gra2e was in the officia 1ui ding of the ,partan ephors, who a so regu ar y consu ted an incu1ation orac e in Tha amae, a ham et south-west of ,parta,9 whereas each of the two ,partan kings had two Pythioi, officia s who cou d consu t the De phic orac e, the resu ts of which they preser2ed in an archi2e for future consu tation.10 We see here c ear y the com1ination of seers, power and iteracy in the area of the gods8 messages. Power o2er these messages must ha2e 1een considered so important that the Pisistratids too kept orac es on the acropo is, and Pisistratus8 son Hipparchus eLpe ed the man who had 1een officia y charged with co ecting orac es, Onoma- critus, when he was seiCed in the 2ery act of fa sifying one of these orac es.11 When in 510 B.C., the ,partan king C eomenes ousted the Pisistratids, he took the ora- c es home in the process, to 1e stored, presuma1 y, in the ,partan roya archi2es.12 This c ose connection 1etween orac es and the ru ing powers is a so suggested 1y Herodotus8 story that the ,partan Dorieus was ad2ised 1y the seer Antichares who cited an orac e of Laios (V, 43). It was apparent y not considered strange that the The1an kings owned orac es and this, presuma1 y, added to the authority of the oracu ar source. In fact, Pausanias (ID, 2., 3) mentions that Laios re2ea ed to the ,phinL an orac e that was known on y to the kings of The1es. It fits this situation that many kings of archaic times were a so known as seers, such as Anios of De os13, Po yidos of Argos, who was the son of 9oiranos, 6Ru er8,14 Mounichos, Gene2a, 2000, p.