Other cities often had their own versions of the myth that failed to be displaced because they, like the traditions at Eleusis, were venerable tales tied to local
landmarks
(wells, caves, or rocky outcroppings).
Ancient-greek-cults-a-guide
Pausanias, our source for most of this information, speaks of the sanctuary of Demeter outside Thelpousa, but does not elaborate on the cult of Poseidon here, except to say that he had the title of Hippios.
Similarly
66
POSEIDON
at a cave sanctuary outside Phigaleia in the Neda river gorge, the cult myth recounted the coupling of Demeter and Poseidon in the shape of horses, specifying that their daughter was the goddess known as Despoina (Mistress). Poseidon Hippios also had an altar at the important sanctuary of the Mistress at Lykosoura. 27 Here Poseidon is hardly a god of the sea, and his cults are presumably least changed from their Mycenaean antecedents (just as Arkadian Posoidan is the dialect form closest to Linear B). The few references to his marine nature are due to Panhellenizing influences during the Classical period and later.
Athenian Poseidon
Athens and Trozen shared a myth according to which Athena and Poseidon disputed ownership of the land. 28 In the lore of cities bordering the Saronic Gulf, Poseidon figures in a number of these contests; tellingly, he is never the winner. At Trozen, the contest ended in a truce under which the territory was shared, while at Athens, the story went that the victorious Athena produced an olive tree on the Akropolis as a token of her claim, while Poseidon struck the rock with his trident, creating a "sea. " The nature of this sea is unclear, though Pausanias (1. 26. 5) describes it as a well with salt water, enclosed within the walls of the Classical Erechtheion. He also notes an altar on which sacrifices to both Poseidon and Erechtheus were made. The story of the conflict between Poseidon and Athena seems to be closely related to that of the early war between Athens and Eleusis, in which the earth-born Athenian king Erechtheus, prote? ge? of Athena, battled Eumolpos, the Eleusinian leader and son of Poseidon. Athens was victorious when Erechtheus sacrificed his daughters to save the city, but he himself was struck by Poseidon's trident and hidden under the earth. 29 By the fifth century, Poseidon had taken the name of his antagonist as a cult epithet, an arrangement comparable to that between Apollo and Hyakinthos at Amyklai. In both cases the cults of Olympian gods were superimposed on those of earlier indigenous deities, and the earlier figures were transformed into heroes killed by the gods and worshiped side by side with them. 30
Poseidon was an important deity in Archaic Eleusis, consistent with his usual close cult relations to Demeter. Eleusis possessed a cult of Poseidon Pater (Father), and a priest of the Kerykes served Poseidon Prosbaterios (of the Approaches) and Themeliouchos (Upholding the Foundations). It is likely that all these epithets have to do with Poseidon's role vis-a`-vis Demeter as a fructifying deity of water and flooding. That Poseidon's role in Athenian cult has much to do with the relations between Athens and Eleusis is likewise demonstrated in the festival known as the Skira, when the Athenian priests of Poseidon, Athena, and Helios walked to a sanctuary near the boundary with Eleusis. 31
Poseidon had other cults in Attica, but the most important was at the 67
POSEIDON
promontory of Sounion, where a temple was added c. 490 and rebuilt under Perikles. The Athenians held a quadrennial festival with boat races, and the vigor of the Archaic cult is attested by at least twelve kouroi (statues of idealized young men) found buried in a pit east of the temple. 32 The earliest cult at Sounion, however, probably belonged to the hero Phrontis, the steers- man of Menelaos buried there according to Homer (Od. 3. 276-85). In spite of the apparent antiquity of his cult, Poseidon was not a significant presence in Attica compared with Zeus, Demeter, Apollo, Dionysos, and of course Athena.
Further reading
Gebhard 1993 and Morgan 1994 summarize the development of sacred space at Isthmia from the eleventh century. Robertson 1984 demonstrates Poseidon's role as a god of fructifying waters and partner of Demeter. Schu- macher 1993 discusses the function of Poseidon's sanctuaries as places of asylum. Chapter 6 of Pache 2004 is devoted to Melikertes-Palaimon.
68
6
MISTRESSES OF GRAIN AND SOULS
Demeter and Kore/Persephone
Demeter's origins as a grain goddess must lie in the Neolithic period with the advent of agriculture. Her name contains the Greek word for "mother," but whether the initial syllable means "earth," "grain," or something else has long been debated. Homer had little interest in Demeter and none in her relationship with Kore (the Maiden), though Persephone appears in epic poetry as the bride of Hades. The queen of the dead (Attic Pherephatta) has a non-Greek name and must have been in origin a deity separate from Demeter's daughter. Even after the two were firmly and inextricably identified, they were often paradoxically represented in cult as two distinct personages. Eleusinian iconography and terminology, for example, juxtaposed Thea, the underworld goddess, with Kore, the daughter. The Greeks avoided pro- nouncing or inscribing the ominous name Persephone in cult contexts, replacing it with Kore or other euphemisms, though such caution was less often exercised by the poets. Demeter and Kore were frequently worshiped together under such names as the Two Goddesses, the Thesmophoroi, or the Great Goddesses.
Demeter sanctuaries tended to be scattered in neighborhoods rather than centralized, probably because they were used for local celebrations of the Thesmophoria, Demeter's main festival. In spite of their crucial role in the prosperity of the city, Demeter and Kore rarely functioned as civic gods. Exceptional were Thebes, where Demeter's sanctuary occupied prime civic space on the Kadmeia, and certain cities of Sicily and Magna Graecia, where the two goddesses were dominant presences in the pantheon. In the Greek West, Kore/Persephone herself was sometimes the more prominent partner of the two, and played an important role in the social construction of marriage and the rites leading to adulthood for women and men. In keeping with Kore's significance as the archetypal bride, the western colonies saw the core of the myth as the theogamy of Persephone/Kore and Hades, rather than the reunion of Demeter and Kore after the latter's abduction, which was the focus of the famous Eleusinian Mysteries.
69
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
Thesmophoria
The most widespread festival of Demeter and Kore, and one of the most popular of all Greek rites, was the women's festival known as the Thesmo- phoria. The term thesmos means "that which is laid down," hence laws, rites, or revered customs. As the presiding deities, the two goddesses were called Thesmophoroi (Bringers of the Divine Law) because the introduction of grain cultivation was considered the origin of civilized life. Some scholars believe that the "things laid down" are to be understood in a much more literal sense, as the dead piglets deposited during the central rite of the festival. Still, the epithet unquestionably conveys the respect in which the goddesses were held, as do other cult titles such as Megalai Theai (Great Goddesses) and Hagnai Theai (Pure Goddesses). Each year, normally in late summer or early fall, married Greek women gathered in the local Demeter sanctuary, often called the Thesmophorion. Although celebration of the festival was generally not centralized, one sanctuary might be more heavily frequented than the rest. Most had a few modest cult buildings or a simple shrine called a megaron rather than an elaborate temple, but they are relatively easy to identify as sanctuaries of Demeter and Kore by the objects left behind: ceramic table- ware; water jars; terracottas of the goddesses or their votaries, often carrying a piglet; pig bones; numerous lamps for the nocturnal parts of the rites; and the remains of ritual meals.
Literary evidence for the exclusion of males is plentiful. Herodotus (6. 134) tells how the Athenian general Miltiades attempted to enter a restricted building (megaron) in the sanctuary on Paros - perhaps to meddle with the "untouchable" things there - and as a result of divine anger was stricken with a fatal case of gangrene. Xenophon says (Hell. 5. 2. 29) that the men of Thebes kept clear of the Kadmeia while the women were performing the rites there, going so far as to hold the boule ? (council) in the agora rather than its usual place on the akropolis. Men's dedications are often found at these sites, so we know that their exclusion was not complete. Demeter sanctuaries were apparently used for a number of different observances throughout the year, only some of which involved ritual gender segregation. 1
The sacred objects used and acts performed during the Thesmophoria were kept secret. We hear of ritual dances, processions, and special foods, particularly bread. The Delian celebration, held in the late summer month of Metageitnion, involved an event called the Megalartia (Large Loaves), and bread seems to have played an important role in the celebrations at Korinth (below). 2 Only one source, a scholiast on Lucian (Dial. meret. 2. 1), describes the ritual in detail, and his version refers to Attic custom. He writes that piglets are cast into the "chasms of Demeter and Kore" in honor of Eubouleus, a herdsman whose swine were swallowed in the abyss when Hades abducted Kore (Eubouleus reappears as a deity in Eleusis). After an unspecified period, the rotted remains of the piglets are brought up from the chasms (also called
70
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
aduta, innermost chambers, and megara, chambers) by ritually pure women, laid on the altars, and mixed with the seed grain to ensure a good harvest. The scholiast says that pine branches and phallic shapes made of wheat dough are used the same way, all given as thank offerings for the generation of crops and the procreation of people.
The ritual deposition of piglets was probably widespread; piglets were cast into megara at Potniai in Boiotia, and excavations of Demeter and Kore sanctuaries at Knidos and Priene have uncovered such pits. At Eleusis, several deep shafts, which probably served this function, were found around the porch of the so-called Telesterion. 3 Apparently, the story of Kore's rape was the mythic foundation for the ritual; the piglet is also symbolic of the female genitals, and the piglets falling into the earth to be resurrected with the grain repeat the descent and ascent of Kore. Thus the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinian Mysteries shared the same myth, interpreted in different ways. Kevin Clinton has suggested that the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, usually thought to recount the origin of the Mysteries, is primarily an aetiological account of the Thesmophoria. 4
The Attic Thesmophoria was a three-day festival held a few weeks before the ploughing and sowing of the fields; we also hear of such festivals cele- brated as early as midsummer (Thebes) and lasting as long as ten days (Sicily). Women gathered in the sanctuaries, bringing supplies of food and setting up tents as temporary accommodations. As part of the proceedings, the women engaged in sex-talk (aischrologia) and ritual mockery. This seems to have been a mainstay of the goddesses' segregated worship; its mythic explanation is that when Demeter was grieving for Kore, scurrilous jokes and gestures caused her to smile. 5 The sex-talk was the verbal equivalent of the piglets, pine branches and phallic shapes handled by the participants; the women's heightened awareness of their own sexuality and reproductive ability was powerful (therefore it could be deployed to aid the growth of crops) yet dangerous to male prerogatives (therefore its unfettered expression was limited to the festival context). 6
The first day of the Athenian festival was called Anodos (Ascent), perhaps with reference to the women's retrieval of material from the chasms. The second day was the Nesteia (Fasting), a day when no public business or sacri- fice was conducted in the city. The last day was called Kalligeneia (Beautiful Offspring), making clear the connection between agricultural bounty and women's fertility. This was probably a feast day, presided over by leaders (archousai) elected from each deme. It is clear from Isaeus' speeches (3. 80, 6. 49-50, 8. 19) that citizen matrons organized and attended the festival, but the sources conflict on the question of whether slaves and prostitutes could be present and in what capacities. Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria draws a vivid tableau of male suspicion and female revelry during the Thesmophoric ritual, which he sets on the Pnyx, in the same meeting place used by the Athenian assembly. Excavation in this area uncovered a few
71
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
terracottas and lamps consistent with a sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, but not enough material to confirm the existence of a Thesmophorion. 7
Demeter, Kore, and the agricultural year
As one might expect, many festivals of Demeter and Kore were tied to the annual cycle of grain cultivation. Barley and wheat were the staple crops, sown during the fall in most Mediterranean lands. Great anxiety surrounded the fateful question of when to plough and sow, for the farmer must plant late enough to coincide with the fall rains, yet early enough to allow the shoots to become established before the onset of winter cold. 8 Therefore the most important festivals and rituals connected with grain cultivation are clustered around sowing time.
As usual, we are best informed about the Attic year. Early in Pyanopsion (October/November), the Proerosia or pre-ploughing sacrifices took place in the demes, including Eleusis. In conjunction with the Proerosia there were at least three sacred ploughings, one at Skiron, one in the Rharian plain of Eleusis, and one in Athens. The Thesmophoria, with its ritual preparation of the seed, followed soon after. During the next month, Poseideion (December/ January), the grain sprouted and began to grow. By the time of the Haloa at the winter solstice, it became evident whether the farmers had chosen their sowing dates wisely. Epigraphic evidence from the fourth century (IG II2 1672. 124, 144) shows that huge amounts of firewood were used, probably for the bonfires typical of solstice ritual. At this point in the year, the grain was quiescent because of the cold; only the returning heat of the sun could bring it to fruition. Ancient accounts of the Haloa are late and confused, but it is clear that like the Thesmophoria, the festival involved a link between human and vegetable fertility. 9 Temporarily flouting the rules of behavior for respectable females, women gathered at Eleusis drank wine, engaged in sexual banter, and handled pastries shaped like male and female genitals.
In Anthesterion (February/March) the Lesser Mysteries took place just as the grain stalks entered their prime phase of growth, celebrated in the Chloaia (Greening festival). This was probably the main festival of Demeter Chloe? , though she also received a sacrifice at the harvest. Perhaps surprisingly, the main harvest observance, known in Attica and some Ionian cities as the Thargelia and in other Greek lands as the Thalysia, had early ties to Apollo and Artemis rather than Demeter. Homer (Il. 9. 533-35) thinks of thalusia as first fruit offerings to Artemis, and Apollo was the patron of the Thargelia, but by the Hellenistic period Theocritus (Id. 7. 31-38) describes the Thalysia on Kos as a Demeter festival. On the other hand, we know that Demeter was an important figure in the harvest folklore of Greek peasants, who sang songs to her as they reaped. The Kalamaia (Straw festival), probably held in the mid-summer month of Skirophorion, was an Attic/Ionian celebration of the threshing and winnowing. This was also the month of the Skira, a poorly
72
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
understood festival celebrated by married women who temporarily abstained from sex. Like the Thesmophoria, it was celebrated at a number of sites in Attica. 10 Finally, the Eleusinian Mysteries were held in Boedromion (Sep- tember/October), about a month before the ploughing and sowing began once more, renewing the agricultural cycle.
The Eleusinian Mysteries
For a thousand years, people traveled to the small town of Eleusis in Attica in order to experience something profound, something that soothed their fears of death and enhanced their lives immeasurably. This most prestigious of mystery cults must have begun as a local rite open only to the people living nearby, but gradually it accommodated ever-larger numbers, including slaves and foreigners. Many secrets still surround the cult, for its hundreds of thousands of initiates kept their promise not to reveal what took place within the sanctuary. Still, a surprising amount is known from archaeological investigation of the once-inviolate precinct, the assertions of hostile Christian Fathers (which must be read with caution), and other scattered bits of information. The Eleusinian Mysteries had an important public component, and contemporary sources addressing this aspect of the rites, including inscriptions and vase paintings, are numerous.
In spite of the plentiful data (or perhaps because of it), many scholarly controversies surround the Mysteries. Debate centers on the date at which the Eleusinian cult was incorporated into Athenian religion (from the beginning, or not until the sixth century? ), the relationship between the cult and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (to what extent does the latter reflect an "Eleusinian" perspective? ) and the significance of the Mycenaean remains found in the sanctuary (do they point to continuity of the cult from the Bronze Age? ). The early Mycenaean Megaron B, located beneath the later Demeter temple or Telesterion, was distinguished from nearby houses by its stepped porch and the remains of frescoes within; Mycenaean figurines were found in the vicinity. Yet its function is not clearly established; it may have served as an elite residence, a cult building, or both. A curved Geometric wall outside Megaron B could be either the remains of a Geometric Demeter temple or a retaining wall added to the still-standing Bronze Age structure. In any case, the earliest unequivocal evidence of the cult are the massive eighth- century terrace and a wall enclosing the whole area, with a sacrificial pyre full of broken figurines, pottery, and ashes at the entrance. 11
Eleusis lies at the edge of the Thriasian plain, the "bread basket" of Attica; it was bound to be of interest to the emerging polis. 12 Legend tells of a war between the two towns when Erechtheus was king at Athens and Eumolpos, the first celebrant of the Mysteries, at Eleusis. The resulting settlement left financial control of the cult entirely in Athenian hands, while ritual respon- sibilities were shared between two aristocratic families, the Eumolpidai of
73
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
Eleusis and the Kerykes of Athens. The chief priest of the Mysteries, the Hierophant (Revealer of Sacred Things) was always a Eumolpid, while the Keryx (Herald) and Dadouchos (Torchbearer), other important officials, were both Kerykes. Second only to the Hierophant was the Priestess of Demeter and Kore, who might come from a number of different families. Hers was probably the oldest office associated with the cult, for her duties extended to several of the local, deme-level festivals of Demeter at Eleusis. Inscriptions reveal an ongoing struggle for ritual authority between the Hiero- phant and the Priestess of Demeter in the fourth century, when a Hierophant was convicted of impiety for usurping the Priestess' right to preside at the Haloa. Many of the sacred personnel connected with the Mysteries seem to have held their offices for life, a fact that sets the Eleusinian priesthoods apart from most others among the Greeks. 13
Initiation to the Mysteries required time, effort, and a cost that, while substantial, was not out of reach even for the poor. Those who wished to participate were expected to undergo a long period of preparation, beginning with the Lesser Mysteries in Anthesterion, seven months before the Eleusinian festival. Little is known of the Lesser Mysteries, but they took place in the suburb of Agrai at Athens in the sanctuary of Meter/Rhea, and they involved purification of candidates by bathing in the Ilissos river or through the use of the Dios ko ? idion, a sacred fleece obtained by sacrificing a ram to Zeus Meilichios. Together with the Sacred Way that connected Athens to Eleusis, and the city Eleusinion between the agora and the northwest corner of the Akropolis, the Lesser Mysteries helped to cement the relationship between Athens and Eleusis and shaped the "Athenian" identity of the festival as a whole.
Candidates for initiation, or mustai (those whose eyes are closed), had to seek a sponsor from the Eumolpidai or Kerykes to guide their spiritual prepar- ation, known as mue ? sis. On 13 and 14 Boedromion (September/October), the hiera (sacred objects) were brought in procession from Eleusis to the Athenian Eleusinion, and their safe arrival was announced to the priestess of Athena on the Akropolis. Priestesses from Eleusis carried these objects in boxes on their heads, so they cannot have been large or heavy, but we know nothing else about them except that they played a central role in the climactic rite. The next day was the first day of the Mysteries proper, the Agyrmos (Gathering). All assembled in the agora for a formal proclamation by the Hierophant and Dadouchos. Anyone unable to speak Greek, ritually impure, or conscious of having committed a crime was asked to abstain from the rite. At this time the mustai probably paid their fees, which have been calculated as the equivalent of several days' wages. The sixteenth of Boedromion was a day of purification. Directed by the heralds, the mustai brought piglets to Phaleron or Peiraieus, where they bathed in the sea and washed the animals. Each then sacrificed the piglet "on his/her own behalf. " The next day was allotted to major state sacrifices, and the eighteenth was the Epidauria, a
74
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
subsidiary festival of Asklepios that began in 420 when the cult of Asklepios and Hygieia was introduced at Athens on this day. 14
The nineteenth brought the great pompe ? (procession) and escort of the hiera back to Eleusis. Wearing garlands of myrtle and carrying bunches of myrtle twigs or bundles of provisions attached to the end of sticks, the mustai set out in a merry mood to walk about 22 km to the sanctuary. They were led by Iakchos, the god who personified the ritual cry "Iakche! " Because of the boisterous tone of the parade and similarity between the names Iakchos and Bakchos, the former began at an early date to be associated with Dionysos, yet he is a distinct Eleusinian deity. 15 After arriving at the outer court of the sanctuary, where there was a temple of Artemis Propylaia (Before the Gate- way) and the Eleusinian patron deity Poseidon, the mustai spent the rest of the evening celebrating the "reception of Iakchos" and singing and dancing at the well called Kallichoron (Place of Beautiful Dances). Perhaps this was also the day when kernoi, special offering trays equipped with cups of various seeds and grains, were presented to the goddess. The next day saw the offering of the pelanos, a massive cake of barley and wheat harvested from the sacred Rharian plain, and other sacrifices financed from the "first fruit" offerings (aparchai) tithed to Demeter and Kore. The mustai mean- while fasted, and finally broke their fast with the kukeo ? n, a posset of barley water and an aromatic herb, pennyroyal. These actions, and others to follow, imitated the activities of Demeter when her daughter had disappeared; Demeter's fast and request for the kuko ? n is recorded in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2. 208-10).
With evening began the secret part of the ritual, when the mustai were admitted into the confines of the sanctuary proper. This was situated on the southwest slope of the Eleusinian akropolis, and had two main components. First was the rocky cliff containing a cave that served as a cult place for Theos (God) and Thea (Goddess), the Eleusinian titles for Plouton and Persephone in their roles as king and queen of the dead. With them was worshiped a deity or hero named Eubouleus, whose role was similar to that of Hermes in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter: he is shown on vase paintings holding torches in the presence of Theos and Thea, ready to guide the goddess back to the upper world for a reunion with her grieving mother. The agelastos petros (Mirth- less Rock), where Demeter is supposed to have sat mourning the loss of her daughter, was probably also in this rocky area. Passing by the cave with its small shrine, the mustai would have followed a path up to the principal structure, the initiation hall known to scholars as the Telesterion, but in Classical times called the neo ? s (temple) or anaktoron (lord's hall). Starting in the late seventh or early sixth century, a succession of ever-larger temples was built over the old Mycenaean Megaron B, each one containing an inner room whose position was kept constant. The design of this "temple" differs dramat- ically from those of other gods, for unlike most Greek temples, it was designed to hold a large number of people and includes seating around the walls. 16
75
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
The sources give us only a glimpse of what took place in this room amid the forest of columns, the actual telete ? (mystery rite). Certainly the initiates were guided on an emotional path from confusion and grief to confidence and joy, and this progression seems to have corresponded to the events in a ritual drama depicting Kore's return from the underworld and her reunion with Demeter. At a critical moment, the Hierophant appeared from the inner room in a blaze of torchlight to display the hiera to the onlookers. Those who had experienced the Mysteries in a previous year were permitted to remain in the Telesterion for a further revelation; such individuals were called epoptai (those who have seen). Following the climactic rites, bulls and pigs were sacri- ficed to the goddesses and other Eleusinian deities, while initiates used special vessels called ple ? mochoai to pour libations of water toward the east and west.
On the day after the Mysteries concluded, the Athenian Council met in the city Eleusinion to review the conduct of the festival and deal with any infractions of sacred law; this custom was attributed to a law of Solon. The earliest votive deposits in the Eleusinion date to the seventh century, and it received architectural elaboration in the sixth. It contained a temple of Demeter and Kore, altars, and many inscribed decrees relating to the conduct of the Mysteries, as well as a temple of Triptolemos, the Eleusinian hero who is said to have introduced the knowledge of grain cultivation to the world, flying about in his winged chariot. 17
Particularly in the period of empire, Athens promoted the Mysteries, along with the knowledge imparted by Triptolemos, as its unique gifts to the world. Heralds were sent to other cities to declare a sacred truce of fifty-five days, which allowed time for pilgrims to travel to Athens, be initiated, and return home. The first fruits decree (IG I3 78), issued c. 435, details the collection of an annual tithe of grain from every deme in Attica and the Athenian allies, and urges that every Greek city likewise join in the offering. 18 We don't know how many Greek cities heeded this rather high-handed request, but Athens clearly succeeded in securing for Eleusis a Panhellenic reputation and status, which it maintained until the end of antiquity. Even as the cult gained renown across the Greek world, however, the "Eleusinian version" of the Demeter/Kore myth remained surprisingly localized.
Other cities often had their own versions of the myth that failed to be displaced because they, like the traditions at Eleusis, were venerable tales tied to local landmarks (wells, caves, or rocky outcroppings). Even the Homeric Hymn to Demeter reflects a generic, Panhellenized version of the Attic cult: Eubouleus, the titles Theos and Thea, and the Mirthless Rock are omitted from the story, while Tripto- lemos is barely mentioned.
Demeter at Korinth
On a steep slope of the Akrokorinthos, some fifteen minutes' walk from the city center, Demeter's principal sanctuary at Korinth was constructed in a
76
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
? Figure6. 1 DemeterandKoreorHekate. Reliefsculpture,fifthcentury. Archaeological Museum, Eleusis. Erich Lessing/Art Resource.
series of three terraces. Though there was continuous activity on the site from the Late Bronze Age, no evidence for a cult appears until a series of pins and rings deposited in the mid-eighth century. Even at this early date the offerings give the impression of a strong female presence at the site. In the seventh century a wider variety of offerings appears in the middle terrace, including bronze jewelry, miniature vases, and terracotta figurines. A small but sub- stantial building, probably a temple, was already present in this period. The middle terrace, with its temple, sacrificial area, bone debris (primarily from pigs), and votive collections, served as the nucleus of the cult for its first hundred and fifty years, while the upper terrace contained a theatral area that was probably used for a mystery rite.
In the sixth century came a major architectural development: numerous dining rooms were constructed on the lower terrace. Ritual dining in this area was probably not new, but the Korinthians now expended considerable resources on dining facilities. Each room held from six to eight diners, who reclined on stone couches. By mid-century, the sanctuary could accommodate about one hundred diners at once. The ritual menu seems to have focused not on sacrificial meat, but on grain-based foods. One of the characteristic votive offerings at this site was the terracotta liknon (winnowing fan) filled with a
77
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
variety of model breads and cakes. The cooking vessels are the types used for boiling and stewing, so gruels or porridge may also have been an important menu item. Finally, numerous wine cups (kantharoi and skuphoi), mixing bowls and amphoras show that wine was consumed with the meal.
Who partook of these meals is a mystery. On the one hand, elaborate dining facilities, reclining posture, and wine consumption are associated with men's symposia. Yet the abundance of women's votive offerings, the empha- sis on grain-based foods, and the fact that this was a Demeter sanctuary point toward a women's festival such as the Thesmophoria. In any case, the expansion of the dining facilities at Korinth continued through the fifth and fourth centuries. Eventually, more than two hundred diners at once could use the rooms, which were provided with extra spaces for food preparation and washing. To judge from the scarcity of imported offerings here (relative to a sanctuary like that of Hera at Perachora), the cult seems to have attracted few outsiders. 19
The Two Goddesses are said to have played a role in the success of Timoleon, the Korinthian who was credited with the liberation of Syracuse from rule by Greek tyrants and Carthaginians. On the eve of Timoleon's expedition in 345/4, the priestesses of Demeter and Persephone reported a dream in which the goddesses appeared to them in traveling garb to announce that they would accompany Timoleon to Sicily. Much encouraged, the Korinthians dedicated a "sacred trireme" to the goddesses and set sail. On their journey, a great flame appeared in the night sky, and forming itself into a torch "like those used in the Mysteries," guided them to their destination. 20
Demeter Chthonia at Hermione
Pausanias (2. 35. 4-11) is our most detailed source for the famous cult of Demeter Chthonia (of the Underworld) at the remote town of Hermione in the Argolid. Hermione was not a Dorian town, but was settled by the aboriginal Dryopes when the Dorians expelled them from Thessaly. This cult is unusual in its emphasis on the role of Hades (who is given the euphemistic name of Klymenos, the Renowned One). Examination of the site has revealed a lengthy section of wall, which probably marked off the Classical sanctuary, a series of inscribed bronze cows (which relate to the ritual described below), and numerous late inscriptions. It is difficult to know from Pausanias' second-century CE account which elements of the ritual date back to the Classical period. He reports that the Chthonia festival took place in the summer and began with a procession of all the priests, magistrates, and townspeople, even the children. Dressed in white and crowned with wreaths made from a local summer wildflower, they led a heifer to the sanctuary, where it was allowed to roam about until it entered the open doors of the temple. Inside, four old women rose from their ceremonial thrones and
78
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
pursued the heifer until one of them cut its throat with a sickle. Three more cows were slaughtered for the goddess in the same way.
The indoor sacrifice is very unusual, but can be explained as the result of the strict gender segregation practiced in the cult. The cult statue of Chthonia was so sacred that only the old women were permitted to view it, and the exclusion of men seems to have extended to the sacrificial slaughter, usually a male prerogative. Although the whole city participated in the festival, its climactic ritual acts had to take place in seclusion, away from male eyes. Chthonia seems to have been an important Dryopian goddess, for the Dryopes of Asine, a neighboring town, sent a sacrificial cow and a delegation to walk in the procession even after they were forced to emigrate to Messenia (IG IV 679. 1-2). Opposite Chthonia's sanctuary was that of Klymenos, and the area was famed for its entrance to the underworld, an opening in the earth from which Herakles once emerged, it was said, leading Kerberos. Although Kore plays no role in Pausanias' description of the cult, she appears with Demeter Chthonia and Klymenos in numerous dedicatory inscriptions from Hermione. A fragmentary hymn composed by the sixth-century poet Lasos of Hermione confirms that worship of the triad Demeter, Klymenos, and Kore was the norm in the late Archaic period as well. 21
Demeter and Despoina in Arkadia
According to Herodotus (2. 171), the telete ? (secret rite) of Demeter which the Greeks call the Thesmophoria was mostly abandoned in the Peloponnese with the arrival of the Dorians, but was preserved among the Arkadians, whose lands were not penetrated by the invaders. Certainly the worship of Demeter was far more prominent in Arkadia than elsewhere in the Pelopon- nese. The Arkadia of the poets is a mountainous, wild land sparsely inhabited by goatherds and hunters, but the district also encompassed fertile lowlands where cereal crops were grown. Like so many other Arkadian cults, with their pronounced tendency toward theriomorphic (animal-shaped) gods, the worship of the Two Goddesses in this isolated district seems strange and primeval, the remnant of a very early syncretism of Greek and indigenous traditions.
The Arkadians worshiped an equine Demeter, consort of the horse-god Poseidon Hippios. They held in common with the other Greeks the belief that Demeter angrily withdrew to an earthly abode and caused a crisis in the natural world because of her rage at the abduction of her daughter. Demeter's anger was further attributed to her unwilling union with Poseidon. In order to escape his lustful pursuit, she transformed herself into a mare, but he saw through the trick and forced himself on her in the form of a stallion. Their offspring were the miraculous horse Areion and a daughter, the Arkadian equivalent of Kore, whose true name was revealed only to initiates. In public, their daughter was called Despoina (the Mistress). This story was attached to
79
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
Thelpousa, where Demeter had the title Erinys (the Wrathful One), and a similar myth about Erinys is attested for Telphousa/Tilphossa in Boiotia. 22 Demeter also had the title of Lousia (of Washing) at Thelpousa, because she purified herself in the river Ladon after intercourse with Poseidon and let go of her anger. Demeter Erinys and Demeter Lousia thus form a complemen- tary pair representing angry and appeased manifestations of the goddess.
The Thelpousan cult is closely related to that at Phigaleia, where Demeter's Archaic statue had the head of a horse and was housed in a cave on the rocky gorge of the river Neda, well outside the city. To this cave Demeter had withdrawn, causing a famine until her anger abated. She was known as Melaina (the Black) because she dressed all in black to express her mood; scholars generally interpret her blackness, which is a feature shared by the Erinyes, as a sign of her underworld nature. The statue was seated on a rock with serpents and other creatures emerging from its mane, and it held a dolphin in one hand and in the other a dove. This Demeter is a Mistress of Animals and has close affinities with the gorgon Medousa, who similarly sported snaky hair, mated with Poseidon, and gave birth to a miraculous horse (Pegasos). Kore/Despoina has little involvement in this cult, nor is Demeter primarily a grain goddess. Every year the people set upon an altar outside the cave samples of all the raw materials produced in their land, including grapes, honeycombs, and wool, and poured olive oil over these in an attempt to appease the disgruntled goddess. According to Pausanias (8. 42. 5-7), this was a revival of an Archaic cult that had fallen into disuse. The original theriomorphic statue was lost to a fire in the distant past. On the occasion of a blight, the people consulted Delphi and were told to replace the statue of "stallion-mated Deo," whose anger had been renewed by the people's neglect. Onatas of Aigina, a sculptor active in the fifth century, was given the commission, and inspired by a dream and perhaps an old copy of the image, he re-created it. 23
The Arkadian cults of Demeter resulted from a complex process combining the old Mycenaean goddess Erinys, who was early on linked to Poseidon Hippios and whose offspring was a horse, with the Panhellenic and Eleusinian Demeter who bore a daughter. The persona of the daughter seems to have been superimposed on an older Arkadian goddess, Despoina. The sanctuary of Despoina at Lykosoura was dramatically rebuilt in the Hellenistic period with sculptures by Damophon (c. 175-150), and most of the excavated remains are late. Only a few Archaic and Classical terracottas attest to the earlier life of the sanctuary, which the Arkadians considered very ancient. Pausanias' account (8. 37. 1-10) of Lykosoura mentions the worship of Despoina with her mother Demeter; certain mysteries (most likely derivative of the Eleusinian rites); and a platform called the megaron where an unusual form of sacrifice took place. Each participant sacrificed an animal, not only cutting its throat, but also chopping off a random limb for the goddess. Despoina clearly had a strong affinity with Artemis, who not coincidentally
80
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
maintained a cultic presence in the sanctuary. Another clue to the nature of the cult are the theriomorphic figures found in the megaron area and sculpted on the robe of Damophon's statue of Despoina, fragments of which were recovered in the excavations of Lykosoura. The border of the robe shows a line of dancing male and female figures with ram and horse heads. These belong to the Hellenistic period, yet likely reveal a very old custom of masked dances for the goddess. 24
The Two Goddesses in Sicily
The religious life of the colonists in the west developed differently from that of people in the mother cities for several reasons. First, the entire pantheon of major and minor deities could not be reproduced in a colony; the settlers were forced to focus on a limited number of cults selected from those they knew at home. As it happened, Demeter's cult was particularly well suited to the fertile soils of Sicily. Second, Greek religious assumptions required that the local gods be recognized (preferably as Greek deities in a new guise), and their cult places respected. The native Sikans and Sikels worshiped a number of goddesses, among them Hyblaia, Anna, and local water spirits, whose functions and personalities were easily assimilated to those of Demeter and Kore/Persephone. In particular, the dominance of Persephone, who was often worshiped quite independently of her mother in this part of the world, may be due to syncretism with local underworld goddesses.
During the Archaic period, much of Sicily was ruled by tyrants of the Deinomenid family including Gelon and Hieron. The Deinomenids played an important role in the dissemination of the cults of the Two Goddesses, for their ancestor Telines held a family priesthood of the chthoniai theai (earth goddesses, i. e. , Demeter and Kore). When a group of Geloans seceded, Telines was able to win them back by displaying the sacred objects of the goddesses. In return for this service, he demanded a civic priesthood, which he passed to his descendants. The Deinomenids seem to have exported cults of Demeter and Kore/Persephone to Gela's daughter city Akragas and to several other sites in the hinterland. 25 Already in the sixth century, Pindar (Pyth. 12. 1-2) described Akragas as the "seat of Persephone," and by the first century, Cicero (Verr. 2. 4. 106) could remark that all Sicily was sacred to Demeter and Persephone. The names of Sicilian festivals such as Anakalypteria (Unveiling of the Bride), Theogamia (Divine Marriage), and Koreia (Festival of the Maiden) suggest the importance of Kore/Persephone's cult and show that its principal focus was her marriage to Hades. 26
Founded on the south coast of Sicily by seventh-century colonists from Rhodes and Krete, Gela lies on a hill beside the mouth of the Gela river. While Athena and Hera were worshiped in the city proper, Demeter and Kore seem to have possessed at least three sanctuaries outside the walls, all quite modest in terms of architecture, yet rich in votive gifts. A pot graffito
81
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
indicates that the sanctuary across the river at Bitalemi was a Thesmophor- ion, and to judge from the votive deposits, the other two sites served a similar function. Excavation of Bitalemi revealed some mud-brick structures, the remains of ritual meals cooked on the spot, terracotta figurines, and interest- ing deposits of vessels buried upside down in orderly rows. The early settlers signaled the importance of this site by burying a hoard of ingots and other objects in bronze, a custom borrowed from the natives. They also laid down a ploughshare and other agricultural tools as offerings to Demeter and Kore. 27
The sanctuaries of Predio Sola, on the seaward side of the Geloan akro- polis, and Via Fiume to the north, similarly possessed small buildings and a wealth of votive objects including a large number of lamps and the "masks" or busts so characteristic of the worship of Demeter and Kore in Sicily and Italy. Other terracottas considered diagnostic of the cult include standing women with torches and piglets and certain types of enthroned goddesses with pectoral decoration; many of these types were locally made but derive from Rhodian models. These sites are notable for the care with which votives were buried. In many Greek sanctuaries, old votives were unceremoniously dumped in pits to make room for newer offerings, but in the chthonic sanctuaries of Sicily, burial was a form of communication with the deities, so vessels and terracottas were carefully positioned face down, and every avail- able space was used. In some cases, rings of stones were arranged around pits in which sacrificial remains, vessels, and figurines were deposited. Sanctu- aries closely resembling Bitalemi have been uncovered at Akragas and the Syracusan colony of Heloros. 28
Founded from Gela in the sixth century, Akragas was a major center of Persephone's worship. Its tyrant Theron is portrayed in Pindar's second Olympian ode (56-83) as a believer in afterlife judgments, reincarnation, and final salvation in the Isles of the Blessed. It is very likely that Theron's convictions about the afterlife were intertwined with the cult of Persephone, who played an important role in the Bakchic/Orphic mysteries so popular in the Greek west. Several cult places at Akragas date to Theron's day or before. On the north side of the city, just outside the wall, the rupestral sanctuary of S. Biagio consists of a series of artificial caves or tunnels in the rocky hillside. These were filled with votive deposits, including many large busts. The exca- vation of the tunnels seems to have been a method of conveying the offerings to divine power(s) conceived of as present within the earth. Opposite the rupestral sanctuary and within the walls, the present church of S. Biagio was constructed over an early fifth-century temple, beside which are two circular altars with hollow depressions in the center. These were used to direct libations and perhaps other offerings into the earth. At the south end of the city, the area known as the "Chthonic sanctuary" of Akragas was probably devoted to Persephone and/or Demeter. 29
Selinous, westernmost of the Sicilian Greek colonies, is famous for a group of well-preserved Doric temples, none of which can be assigned with certainty
82
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
to a specific deity. West of the akropolis was a more modest, extraurban sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros (Bearer of Fruit), a goddess imported from the mother city of Megara in mainland Greece. The Malophoros sanc- tuary, founded in the seventh century, is actually a compound containing smaller shrines of Hekate (who appropriately guards the entrance) and Zeus Meilichios. Demeter's temple stood within a second inner boundary wall, emphasizing its inviolate nature. The rear of the temple was hidden under a large mound, giving the appearance that the entrance led into the earth. A water channel bisected this area, carrying water to the long platform altar facing the temple. Wherever visitors walked within the sanctuary, they were standing on carefully buried ritual deposits. Among these were numerous clay pomegranates, ideal gifts for the fruit-bearing goddess, and terracottas of standing women holding torches and piglets. The Malophoros sanctuary is also famous for its many early curse tablets, inscribed on lead. As the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone (or Pasikrateia, the All-ruling, to use her local name) was a particularly appropriate recipient of these missives to the underworld powers. 30
Persephone at Lokroi Epizephyrioi
The Dorian Greek colonists of Lokroi Epizephyrioi, on the "toe" of Italy, developed a distinctive pantheon with Persephone and Aphrodite as the key deities. Demeter too was worshiped here in a typical Thesmophorion, but Persephone's role and personality overshadowed those of her mother. At the seaward end of the city was the ancient U-shaped stoa, the oldest cult place in Lokroi and the center of Aphrodite's worship. At the other end on the Mannella hillside lay the sanctuary of Persephone, which also dated to the seventh century and the founding of the city. Here excavators uncovered an amazing trove of terracotta plaques or pinakes decorated in relief with ritual and mythic scenes. Difficult as they are to interpret, these give us a glimpse into the religious life of the Lokrians in the fifth century, particularly that of the Lokrian women, whose votive gifts (mirrors, perfume jars, dolls) predominate in the excavated deposits. 31 Their Persephone served many of the functions in relation to female maturation, marriage, and childbirth that Artemis and Hera fulfilled for the mainland Greeks. Her union with Hades was a divine exemplar of marriage and it was she who received the pre- wedding sacrifices known as proteleia. She was also the protector of young children. But in the background was always the knowledge of Persephone's identity as the Queen of the Dead, and her role in the ultimate fate of the soul as set forth in "Orphic" eschatology. Thus the widespread Greek analogy between marriage and death finds at Lokroi its most complex and highly developed manifestation. The ideology of marriage had its own peculiarities at Lokroi, where social status and ritual privilege seem, uniquely in the Greek world, to have been transferred in matrilineal fashion. The wife, particularly
83
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
? Figure 6. 2 Persephone opens a box containing an infant. Terracotta pinax from Lokroi Epizephyrioi, 470-50. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Reggio Calabria. Scala/Art Resource.
in the role of bride, seems to have held a higher status than in many other Greek cities. Furthermore, the idealized institution of marriage had an eschatological significance: just as marriage was a symbolic death, death was a symbolic marriage and the blessed afterlife state was assimilated to that of marital bliss. 32
The pinakes are the primary source for this picture of marriage as a Lokrian cultural ideal. About the size of a standard sheet of paper, they are pierced for suspension and originally hung in the sanctuary, probably on trees. The main types include scenes of Persephone's abduction by Hades; the abduction of a maiden by a youthful male which is thought to be a generic representation of the bride's "capture" by her groom; wedding libations and processions; women packing and unpacking wedding gifts; Persephone enthroned alone or with Hades, receiving divine visitors and mortal suppliants including children; and various scenes with Aphrodite and Hermes, who governed the sexual aspects of marriage. Fragments of similar pinakes have been found at
84
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
Medma and Hipponion, towns in the Lokrian orbit, as well as Francavilla in Sicily, though the Lokrian products do not appear to have been widely exported. 33
Further reading
Cole 1994 provides an excellent, brief review of Demeter's cults, with good use of archaeological evidence. For the Eleusinian Mysteries, Clinton's work is indispensable; Clinton 1992 develops his controversial theories about the relationship between the Thesmophoria and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and draws together visual as well as literary evidence for the Mysteries. For more on the Hymn and the Mysteries, see Foley 1994. Detienne 1989, to be read with Osborne 1993, argues that women's limited role in sacrificial ritual, even in the Thesmophoria, corresponds to their limited political rights. On the Athenian rites of Demeter and Persephone, see Parker 2005, Chapters 13 and 15.
85
7
GUARDING AND GUIDING THE CITY
Apollo
One of the most widely worshiped deities in the Greek world, Apollo is nevertheless a relative latecomer to the pantheon. The Mycenaeans probably did not know him, though their healing god Paian, who appears in a Linear B tablet from Knossos, survived as one facet of Apollo's complex character. 1 Early dedications in Apollo's sanctuaries include bronzes of Near Eastern "smiting gods" such as the Semitic Reshep, who shared Apollo's function as a sender of plague, while Apollo's bow may be a borrowing from the Hittite archer-god Irra. 2 In keeping with his Near Eastern associations, and like his sister Artemis, Apollo is a temple deity. While temples and images were not indispensable to his cults, they were characteristic of his worship. Among the sanctuaries described in this chapter, those at Eretria, Dreros, and Thermon are noted for the wealth of information they provide about the origins of the Greek temple and the range of cult practices during the eighth and seventh centuries.
Several etymologies have been proposed for Apollo's name, but it probably derives from the Dorian Greek word for an annual tribal gathering, apella. At such gatherings, young men were admitted to membership and received political status as adults; thus the presiding god is almost always depicted as a beardless youth. 3 Patronage of youths approaching manhood was one of Apollo's key functions, but he is best known as the oracular god who interpreted the will of Zeus and gave advice on everything from war and colonization to private dilemmas about marriage and family. Apollo's role as the god of prophetic inspiration was closely tied to other aspects of his character, including his interests in purification, poetry, and music. The only Olympian to possess a musical instrument, the lyre, as an attribute, he regu- larly appears in poetry with the Muses and other divine choruses. Compara- tively few cults focused specifically on Apollo's patronage of poets and musicians, but hymns and music are everywhere essential to his worship.
86
APOLLO
? Figure 7. 1 Youthful Apollo in bronze. Possibly produced as a cult statue, originally with a bow in the left hand and an offering bowl in the right, c. 520. Ht 1. 91 m. Peiraieus Museum. Scala/Art Resource.
Widespread cults of Apollo
One of the most widely diffused types of Apolline cult is perhaps the least familiar to readers of Greek poetry: the worship of Apollo as a guardian and an averter of evil. For this role, Apollo was often depicted in aniconic form as a stone pillar on a stepped base. He was known as Apollo Agyieus (of the Street), Thyraios (of the Door), Propylaios (Before the Gate), and Prostaterios (Protector). 4 In Athens, the pillars stood in front of houses, where they were decorated with branches of laurel or myrtle, and received offerings of incense or oil. Belief in the protective powers of sacred stones was widespread throughout the Mediterranean, including the Levant, where Reshep's pillar functioned in similar fashion during the Bronze Age.
66
POSEIDON
at a cave sanctuary outside Phigaleia in the Neda river gorge, the cult myth recounted the coupling of Demeter and Poseidon in the shape of horses, specifying that their daughter was the goddess known as Despoina (Mistress). Poseidon Hippios also had an altar at the important sanctuary of the Mistress at Lykosoura. 27 Here Poseidon is hardly a god of the sea, and his cults are presumably least changed from their Mycenaean antecedents (just as Arkadian Posoidan is the dialect form closest to Linear B). The few references to his marine nature are due to Panhellenizing influences during the Classical period and later.
Athenian Poseidon
Athens and Trozen shared a myth according to which Athena and Poseidon disputed ownership of the land. 28 In the lore of cities bordering the Saronic Gulf, Poseidon figures in a number of these contests; tellingly, he is never the winner. At Trozen, the contest ended in a truce under which the territory was shared, while at Athens, the story went that the victorious Athena produced an olive tree on the Akropolis as a token of her claim, while Poseidon struck the rock with his trident, creating a "sea. " The nature of this sea is unclear, though Pausanias (1. 26. 5) describes it as a well with salt water, enclosed within the walls of the Classical Erechtheion. He also notes an altar on which sacrifices to both Poseidon and Erechtheus were made. The story of the conflict between Poseidon and Athena seems to be closely related to that of the early war between Athens and Eleusis, in which the earth-born Athenian king Erechtheus, prote? ge? of Athena, battled Eumolpos, the Eleusinian leader and son of Poseidon. Athens was victorious when Erechtheus sacrificed his daughters to save the city, but he himself was struck by Poseidon's trident and hidden under the earth. 29 By the fifth century, Poseidon had taken the name of his antagonist as a cult epithet, an arrangement comparable to that between Apollo and Hyakinthos at Amyklai. In both cases the cults of Olympian gods were superimposed on those of earlier indigenous deities, and the earlier figures were transformed into heroes killed by the gods and worshiped side by side with them. 30
Poseidon was an important deity in Archaic Eleusis, consistent with his usual close cult relations to Demeter. Eleusis possessed a cult of Poseidon Pater (Father), and a priest of the Kerykes served Poseidon Prosbaterios (of the Approaches) and Themeliouchos (Upholding the Foundations). It is likely that all these epithets have to do with Poseidon's role vis-a`-vis Demeter as a fructifying deity of water and flooding. That Poseidon's role in Athenian cult has much to do with the relations between Athens and Eleusis is likewise demonstrated in the festival known as the Skira, when the Athenian priests of Poseidon, Athena, and Helios walked to a sanctuary near the boundary with Eleusis. 31
Poseidon had other cults in Attica, but the most important was at the 67
POSEIDON
promontory of Sounion, where a temple was added c. 490 and rebuilt under Perikles. The Athenians held a quadrennial festival with boat races, and the vigor of the Archaic cult is attested by at least twelve kouroi (statues of idealized young men) found buried in a pit east of the temple. 32 The earliest cult at Sounion, however, probably belonged to the hero Phrontis, the steers- man of Menelaos buried there according to Homer (Od. 3. 276-85). In spite of the apparent antiquity of his cult, Poseidon was not a significant presence in Attica compared with Zeus, Demeter, Apollo, Dionysos, and of course Athena.
Further reading
Gebhard 1993 and Morgan 1994 summarize the development of sacred space at Isthmia from the eleventh century. Robertson 1984 demonstrates Poseidon's role as a god of fructifying waters and partner of Demeter. Schu- macher 1993 discusses the function of Poseidon's sanctuaries as places of asylum. Chapter 6 of Pache 2004 is devoted to Melikertes-Palaimon.
68
6
MISTRESSES OF GRAIN AND SOULS
Demeter and Kore/Persephone
Demeter's origins as a grain goddess must lie in the Neolithic period with the advent of agriculture. Her name contains the Greek word for "mother," but whether the initial syllable means "earth," "grain," or something else has long been debated. Homer had little interest in Demeter and none in her relationship with Kore (the Maiden), though Persephone appears in epic poetry as the bride of Hades. The queen of the dead (Attic Pherephatta) has a non-Greek name and must have been in origin a deity separate from Demeter's daughter. Even after the two were firmly and inextricably identified, they were often paradoxically represented in cult as two distinct personages. Eleusinian iconography and terminology, for example, juxtaposed Thea, the underworld goddess, with Kore, the daughter. The Greeks avoided pro- nouncing or inscribing the ominous name Persephone in cult contexts, replacing it with Kore or other euphemisms, though such caution was less often exercised by the poets. Demeter and Kore were frequently worshiped together under such names as the Two Goddesses, the Thesmophoroi, or the Great Goddesses.
Demeter sanctuaries tended to be scattered in neighborhoods rather than centralized, probably because they were used for local celebrations of the Thesmophoria, Demeter's main festival. In spite of their crucial role in the prosperity of the city, Demeter and Kore rarely functioned as civic gods. Exceptional were Thebes, where Demeter's sanctuary occupied prime civic space on the Kadmeia, and certain cities of Sicily and Magna Graecia, where the two goddesses were dominant presences in the pantheon. In the Greek West, Kore/Persephone herself was sometimes the more prominent partner of the two, and played an important role in the social construction of marriage and the rites leading to adulthood for women and men. In keeping with Kore's significance as the archetypal bride, the western colonies saw the core of the myth as the theogamy of Persephone/Kore and Hades, rather than the reunion of Demeter and Kore after the latter's abduction, which was the focus of the famous Eleusinian Mysteries.
69
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
Thesmophoria
The most widespread festival of Demeter and Kore, and one of the most popular of all Greek rites, was the women's festival known as the Thesmo- phoria. The term thesmos means "that which is laid down," hence laws, rites, or revered customs. As the presiding deities, the two goddesses were called Thesmophoroi (Bringers of the Divine Law) because the introduction of grain cultivation was considered the origin of civilized life. Some scholars believe that the "things laid down" are to be understood in a much more literal sense, as the dead piglets deposited during the central rite of the festival. Still, the epithet unquestionably conveys the respect in which the goddesses were held, as do other cult titles such as Megalai Theai (Great Goddesses) and Hagnai Theai (Pure Goddesses). Each year, normally in late summer or early fall, married Greek women gathered in the local Demeter sanctuary, often called the Thesmophorion. Although celebration of the festival was generally not centralized, one sanctuary might be more heavily frequented than the rest. Most had a few modest cult buildings or a simple shrine called a megaron rather than an elaborate temple, but they are relatively easy to identify as sanctuaries of Demeter and Kore by the objects left behind: ceramic table- ware; water jars; terracottas of the goddesses or their votaries, often carrying a piglet; pig bones; numerous lamps for the nocturnal parts of the rites; and the remains of ritual meals.
Literary evidence for the exclusion of males is plentiful. Herodotus (6. 134) tells how the Athenian general Miltiades attempted to enter a restricted building (megaron) in the sanctuary on Paros - perhaps to meddle with the "untouchable" things there - and as a result of divine anger was stricken with a fatal case of gangrene. Xenophon says (Hell. 5. 2. 29) that the men of Thebes kept clear of the Kadmeia while the women were performing the rites there, going so far as to hold the boule ? (council) in the agora rather than its usual place on the akropolis. Men's dedications are often found at these sites, so we know that their exclusion was not complete. Demeter sanctuaries were apparently used for a number of different observances throughout the year, only some of which involved ritual gender segregation. 1
The sacred objects used and acts performed during the Thesmophoria were kept secret. We hear of ritual dances, processions, and special foods, particularly bread. The Delian celebration, held in the late summer month of Metageitnion, involved an event called the Megalartia (Large Loaves), and bread seems to have played an important role in the celebrations at Korinth (below). 2 Only one source, a scholiast on Lucian (Dial. meret. 2. 1), describes the ritual in detail, and his version refers to Attic custom. He writes that piglets are cast into the "chasms of Demeter and Kore" in honor of Eubouleus, a herdsman whose swine were swallowed in the abyss when Hades abducted Kore (Eubouleus reappears as a deity in Eleusis). After an unspecified period, the rotted remains of the piglets are brought up from the chasms (also called
70
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
aduta, innermost chambers, and megara, chambers) by ritually pure women, laid on the altars, and mixed with the seed grain to ensure a good harvest. The scholiast says that pine branches and phallic shapes made of wheat dough are used the same way, all given as thank offerings for the generation of crops and the procreation of people.
The ritual deposition of piglets was probably widespread; piglets were cast into megara at Potniai in Boiotia, and excavations of Demeter and Kore sanctuaries at Knidos and Priene have uncovered such pits. At Eleusis, several deep shafts, which probably served this function, were found around the porch of the so-called Telesterion. 3 Apparently, the story of Kore's rape was the mythic foundation for the ritual; the piglet is also symbolic of the female genitals, and the piglets falling into the earth to be resurrected with the grain repeat the descent and ascent of Kore. Thus the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinian Mysteries shared the same myth, interpreted in different ways. Kevin Clinton has suggested that the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, usually thought to recount the origin of the Mysteries, is primarily an aetiological account of the Thesmophoria. 4
The Attic Thesmophoria was a three-day festival held a few weeks before the ploughing and sowing of the fields; we also hear of such festivals cele- brated as early as midsummer (Thebes) and lasting as long as ten days (Sicily). Women gathered in the sanctuaries, bringing supplies of food and setting up tents as temporary accommodations. As part of the proceedings, the women engaged in sex-talk (aischrologia) and ritual mockery. This seems to have been a mainstay of the goddesses' segregated worship; its mythic explanation is that when Demeter was grieving for Kore, scurrilous jokes and gestures caused her to smile. 5 The sex-talk was the verbal equivalent of the piglets, pine branches and phallic shapes handled by the participants; the women's heightened awareness of their own sexuality and reproductive ability was powerful (therefore it could be deployed to aid the growth of crops) yet dangerous to male prerogatives (therefore its unfettered expression was limited to the festival context). 6
The first day of the Athenian festival was called Anodos (Ascent), perhaps with reference to the women's retrieval of material from the chasms. The second day was the Nesteia (Fasting), a day when no public business or sacri- fice was conducted in the city. The last day was called Kalligeneia (Beautiful Offspring), making clear the connection between agricultural bounty and women's fertility. This was probably a feast day, presided over by leaders (archousai) elected from each deme. It is clear from Isaeus' speeches (3. 80, 6. 49-50, 8. 19) that citizen matrons organized and attended the festival, but the sources conflict on the question of whether slaves and prostitutes could be present and in what capacities. Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria draws a vivid tableau of male suspicion and female revelry during the Thesmophoric ritual, which he sets on the Pnyx, in the same meeting place used by the Athenian assembly. Excavation in this area uncovered a few
71
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
terracottas and lamps consistent with a sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, but not enough material to confirm the existence of a Thesmophorion. 7
Demeter, Kore, and the agricultural year
As one might expect, many festivals of Demeter and Kore were tied to the annual cycle of grain cultivation. Barley and wheat were the staple crops, sown during the fall in most Mediterranean lands. Great anxiety surrounded the fateful question of when to plough and sow, for the farmer must plant late enough to coincide with the fall rains, yet early enough to allow the shoots to become established before the onset of winter cold. 8 Therefore the most important festivals and rituals connected with grain cultivation are clustered around sowing time.
As usual, we are best informed about the Attic year. Early in Pyanopsion (October/November), the Proerosia or pre-ploughing sacrifices took place in the demes, including Eleusis. In conjunction with the Proerosia there were at least three sacred ploughings, one at Skiron, one in the Rharian plain of Eleusis, and one in Athens. The Thesmophoria, with its ritual preparation of the seed, followed soon after. During the next month, Poseideion (December/ January), the grain sprouted and began to grow. By the time of the Haloa at the winter solstice, it became evident whether the farmers had chosen their sowing dates wisely. Epigraphic evidence from the fourth century (IG II2 1672. 124, 144) shows that huge amounts of firewood were used, probably for the bonfires typical of solstice ritual. At this point in the year, the grain was quiescent because of the cold; only the returning heat of the sun could bring it to fruition. Ancient accounts of the Haloa are late and confused, but it is clear that like the Thesmophoria, the festival involved a link between human and vegetable fertility. 9 Temporarily flouting the rules of behavior for respectable females, women gathered at Eleusis drank wine, engaged in sexual banter, and handled pastries shaped like male and female genitals.
In Anthesterion (February/March) the Lesser Mysteries took place just as the grain stalks entered their prime phase of growth, celebrated in the Chloaia (Greening festival). This was probably the main festival of Demeter Chloe? , though she also received a sacrifice at the harvest. Perhaps surprisingly, the main harvest observance, known in Attica and some Ionian cities as the Thargelia and in other Greek lands as the Thalysia, had early ties to Apollo and Artemis rather than Demeter. Homer (Il. 9. 533-35) thinks of thalusia as first fruit offerings to Artemis, and Apollo was the patron of the Thargelia, but by the Hellenistic period Theocritus (Id. 7. 31-38) describes the Thalysia on Kos as a Demeter festival. On the other hand, we know that Demeter was an important figure in the harvest folklore of Greek peasants, who sang songs to her as they reaped. The Kalamaia (Straw festival), probably held in the mid-summer month of Skirophorion, was an Attic/Ionian celebration of the threshing and winnowing. This was also the month of the Skira, a poorly
72
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
understood festival celebrated by married women who temporarily abstained from sex. Like the Thesmophoria, it was celebrated at a number of sites in Attica. 10 Finally, the Eleusinian Mysteries were held in Boedromion (Sep- tember/October), about a month before the ploughing and sowing began once more, renewing the agricultural cycle.
The Eleusinian Mysteries
For a thousand years, people traveled to the small town of Eleusis in Attica in order to experience something profound, something that soothed their fears of death and enhanced their lives immeasurably. This most prestigious of mystery cults must have begun as a local rite open only to the people living nearby, but gradually it accommodated ever-larger numbers, including slaves and foreigners. Many secrets still surround the cult, for its hundreds of thousands of initiates kept their promise not to reveal what took place within the sanctuary. Still, a surprising amount is known from archaeological investigation of the once-inviolate precinct, the assertions of hostile Christian Fathers (which must be read with caution), and other scattered bits of information. The Eleusinian Mysteries had an important public component, and contemporary sources addressing this aspect of the rites, including inscriptions and vase paintings, are numerous.
In spite of the plentiful data (or perhaps because of it), many scholarly controversies surround the Mysteries. Debate centers on the date at which the Eleusinian cult was incorporated into Athenian religion (from the beginning, or not until the sixth century? ), the relationship between the cult and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (to what extent does the latter reflect an "Eleusinian" perspective? ) and the significance of the Mycenaean remains found in the sanctuary (do they point to continuity of the cult from the Bronze Age? ). The early Mycenaean Megaron B, located beneath the later Demeter temple or Telesterion, was distinguished from nearby houses by its stepped porch and the remains of frescoes within; Mycenaean figurines were found in the vicinity. Yet its function is not clearly established; it may have served as an elite residence, a cult building, or both. A curved Geometric wall outside Megaron B could be either the remains of a Geometric Demeter temple or a retaining wall added to the still-standing Bronze Age structure. In any case, the earliest unequivocal evidence of the cult are the massive eighth- century terrace and a wall enclosing the whole area, with a sacrificial pyre full of broken figurines, pottery, and ashes at the entrance. 11
Eleusis lies at the edge of the Thriasian plain, the "bread basket" of Attica; it was bound to be of interest to the emerging polis. 12 Legend tells of a war between the two towns when Erechtheus was king at Athens and Eumolpos, the first celebrant of the Mysteries, at Eleusis. The resulting settlement left financial control of the cult entirely in Athenian hands, while ritual respon- sibilities were shared between two aristocratic families, the Eumolpidai of
73
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
Eleusis and the Kerykes of Athens. The chief priest of the Mysteries, the Hierophant (Revealer of Sacred Things) was always a Eumolpid, while the Keryx (Herald) and Dadouchos (Torchbearer), other important officials, were both Kerykes. Second only to the Hierophant was the Priestess of Demeter and Kore, who might come from a number of different families. Hers was probably the oldest office associated with the cult, for her duties extended to several of the local, deme-level festivals of Demeter at Eleusis. Inscriptions reveal an ongoing struggle for ritual authority between the Hiero- phant and the Priestess of Demeter in the fourth century, when a Hierophant was convicted of impiety for usurping the Priestess' right to preside at the Haloa. Many of the sacred personnel connected with the Mysteries seem to have held their offices for life, a fact that sets the Eleusinian priesthoods apart from most others among the Greeks. 13
Initiation to the Mysteries required time, effort, and a cost that, while substantial, was not out of reach even for the poor. Those who wished to participate were expected to undergo a long period of preparation, beginning with the Lesser Mysteries in Anthesterion, seven months before the Eleusinian festival. Little is known of the Lesser Mysteries, but they took place in the suburb of Agrai at Athens in the sanctuary of Meter/Rhea, and they involved purification of candidates by bathing in the Ilissos river or through the use of the Dios ko ? idion, a sacred fleece obtained by sacrificing a ram to Zeus Meilichios. Together with the Sacred Way that connected Athens to Eleusis, and the city Eleusinion between the agora and the northwest corner of the Akropolis, the Lesser Mysteries helped to cement the relationship between Athens and Eleusis and shaped the "Athenian" identity of the festival as a whole.
Candidates for initiation, or mustai (those whose eyes are closed), had to seek a sponsor from the Eumolpidai or Kerykes to guide their spiritual prepar- ation, known as mue ? sis. On 13 and 14 Boedromion (September/October), the hiera (sacred objects) were brought in procession from Eleusis to the Athenian Eleusinion, and their safe arrival was announced to the priestess of Athena on the Akropolis. Priestesses from Eleusis carried these objects in boxes on their heads, so they cannot have been large or heavy, but we know nothing else about them except that they played a central role in the climactic rite. The next day was the first day of the Mysteries proper, the Agyrmos (Gathering). All assembled in the agora for a formal proclamation by the Hierophant and Dadouchos. Anyone unable to speak Greek, ritually impure, or conscious of having committed a crime was asked to abstain from the rite. At this time the mustai probably paid their fees, which have been calculated as the equivalent of several days' wages. The sixteenth of Boedromion was a day of purification. Directed by the heralds, the mustai brought piglets to Phaleron or Peiraieus, where they bathed in the sea and washed the animals. Each then sacrificed the piglet "on his/her own behalf. " The next day was allotted to major state sacrifices, and the eighteenth was the Epidauria, a
74
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
subsidiary festival of Asklepios that began in 420 when the cult of Asklepios and Hygieia was introduced at Athens on this day. 14
The nineteenth brought the great pompe ? (procession) and escort of the hiera back to Eleusis. Wearing garlands of myrtle and carrying bunches of myrtle twigs or bundles of provisions attached to the end of sticks, the mustai set out in a merry mood to walk about 22 km to the sanctuary. They were led by Iakchos, the god who personified the ritual cry "Iakche! " Because of the boisterous tone of the parade and similarity between the names Iakchos and Bakchos, the former began at an early date to be associated with Dionysos, yet he is a distinct Eleusinian deity. 15 After arriving at the outer court of the sanctuary, where there was a temple of Artemis Propylaia (Before the Gate- way) and the Eleusinian patron deity Poseidon, the mustai spent the rest of the evening celebrating the "reception of Iakchos" and singing and dancing at the well called Kallichoron (Place of Beautiful Dances). Perhaps this was also the day when kernoi, special offering trays equipped with cups of various seeds and grains, were presented to the goddess. The next day saw the offering of the pelanos, a massive cake of barley and wheat harvested from the sacred Rharian plain, and other sacrifices financed from the "first fruit" offerings (aparchai) tithed to Demeter and Kore. The mustai mean- while fasted, and finally broke their fast with the kukeo ? n, a posset of barley water and an aromatic herb, pennyroyal. These actions, and others to follow, imitated the activities of Demeter when her daughter had disappeared; Demeter's fast and request for the kuko ? n is recorded in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2. 208-10).
With evening began the secret part of the ritual, when the mustai were admitted into the confines of the sanctuary proper. This was situated on the southwest slope of the Eleusinian akropolis, and had two main components. First was the rocky cliff containing a cave that served as a cult place for Theos (God) and Thea (Goddess), the Eleusinian titles for Plouton and Persephone in their roles as king and queen of the dead. With them was worshiped a deity or hero named Eubouleus, whose role was similar to that of Hermes in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter: he is shown on vase paintings holding torches in the presence of Theos and Thea, ready to guide the goddess back to the upper world for a reunion with her grieving mother. The agelastos petros (Mirth- less Rock), where Demeter is supposed to have sat mourning the loss of her daughter, was probably also in this rocky area. Passing by the cave with its small shrine, the mustai would have followed a path up to the principal structure, the initiation hall known to scholars as the Telesterion, but in Classical times called the neo ? s (temple) or anaktoron (lord's hall). Starting in the late seventh or early sixth century, a succession of ever-larger temples was built over the old Mycenaean Megaron B, each one containing an inner room whose position was kept constant. The design of this "temple" differs dramat- ically from those of other gods, for unlike most Greek temples, it was designed to hold a large number of people and includes seating around the walls. 16
75
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
The sources give us only a glimpse of what took place in this room amid the forest of columns, the actual telete ? (mystery rite). Certainly the initiates were guided on an emotional path from confusion and grief to confidence and joy, and this progression seems to have corresponded to the events in a ritual drama depicting Kore's return from the underworld and her reunion with Demeter. At a critical moment, the Hierophant appeared from the inner room in a blaze of torchlight to display the hiera to the onlookers. Those who had experienced the Mysteries in a previous year were permitted to remain in the Telesterion for a further revelation; such individuals were called epoptai (those who have seen). Following the climactic rites, bulls and pigs were sacri- ficed to the goddesses and other Eleusinian deities, while initiates used special vessels called ple ? mochoai to pour libations of water toward the east and west.
On the day after the Mysteries concluded, the Athenian Council met in the city Eleusinion to review the conduct of the festival and deal with any infractions of sacred law; this custom was attributed to a law of Solon. The earliest votive deposits in the Eleusinion date to the seventh century, and it received architectural elaboration in the sixth. It contained a temple of Demeter and Kore, altars, and many inscribed decrees relating to the conduct of the Mysteries, as well as a temple of Triptolemos, the Eleusinian hero who is said to have introduced the knowledge of grain cultivation to the world, flying about in his winged chariot. 17
Particularly in the period of empire, Athens promoted the Mysteries, along with the knowledge imparted by Triptolemos, as its unique gifts to the world. Heralds were sent to other cities to declare a sacred truce of fifty-five days, which allowed time for pilgrims to travel to Athens, be initiated, and return home. The first fruits decree (IG I3 78), issued c. 435, details the collection of an annual tithe of grain from every deme in Attica and the Athenian allies, and urges that every Greek city likewise join in the offering. 18 We don't know how many Greek cities heeded this rather high-handed request, but Athens clearly succeeded in securing for Eleusis a Panhellenic reputation and status, which it maintained until the end of antiquity. Even as the cult gained renown across the Greek world, however, the "Eleusinian version" of the Demeter/Kore myth remained surprisingly localized.
Other cities often had their own versions of the myth that failed to be displaced because they, like the traditions at Eleusis, were venerable tales tied to local landmarks (wells, caves, or rocky outcroppings). Even the Homeric Hymn to Demeter reflects a generic, Panhellenized version of the Attic cult: Eubouleus, the titles Theos and Thea, and the Mirthless Rock are omitted from the story, while Tripto- lemos is barely mentioned.
Demeter at Korinth
On a steep slope of the Akrokorinthos, some fifteen minutes' walk from the city center, Demeter's principal sanctuary at Korinth was constructed in a
76
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
? Figure6. 1 DemeterandKoreorHekate. Reliefsculpture,fifthcentury. Archaeological Museum, Eleusis. Erich Lessing/Art Resource.
series of three terraces. Though there was continuous activity on the site from the Late Bronze Age, no evidence for a cult appears until a series of pins and rings deposited in the mid-eighth century. Even at this early date the offerings give the impression of a strong female presence at the site. In the seventh century a wider variety of offerings appears in the middle terrace, including bronze jewelry, miniature vases, and terracotta figurines. A small but sub- stantial building, probably a temple, was already present in this period. The middle terrace, with its temple, sacrificial area, bone debris (primarily from pigs), and votive collections, served as the nucleus of the cult for its first hundred and fifty years, while the upper terrace contained a theatral area that was probably used for a mystery rite.
In the sixth century came a major architectural development: numerous dining rooms were constructed on the lower terrace. Ritual dining in this area was probably not new, but the Korinthians now expended considerable resources on dining facilities. Each room held from six to eight diners, who reclined on stone couches. By mid-century, the sanctuary could accommodate about one hundred diners at once. The ritual menu seems to have focused not on sacrificial meat, but on grain-based foods. One of the characteristic votive offerings at this site was the terracotta liknon (winnowing fan) filled with a
77
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
variety of model breads and cakes. The cooking vessels are the types used for boiling and stewing, so gruels or porridge may also have been an important menu item. Finally, numerous wine cups (kantharoi and skuphoi), mixing bowls and amphoras show that wine was consumed with the meal.
Who partook of these meals is a mystery. On the one hand, elaborate dining facilities, reclining posture, and wine consumption are associated with men's symposia. Yet the abundance of women's votive offerings, the empha- sis on grain-based foods, and the fact that this was a Demeter sanctuary point toward a women's festival such as the Thesmophoria. In any case, the expansion of the dining facilities at Korinth continued through the fifth and fourth centuries. Eventually, more than two hundred diners at once could use the rooms, which were provided with extra spaces for food preparation and washing. To judge from the scarcity of imported offerings here (relative to a sanctuary like that of Hera at Perachora), the cult seems to have attracted few outsiders. 19
The Two Goddesses are said to have played a role in the success of Timoleon, the Korinthian who was credited with the liberation of Syracuse from rule by Greek tyrants and Carthaginians. On the eve of Timoleon's expedition in 345/4, the priestesses of Demeter and Persephone reported a dream in which the goddesses appeared to them in traveling garb to announce that they would accompany Timoleon to Sicily. Much encouraged, the Korinthians dedicated a "sacred trireme" to the goddesses and set sail. On their journey, a great flame appeared in the night sky, and forming itself into a torch "like those used in the Mysteries," guided them to their destination. 20
Demeter Chthonia at Hermione
Pausanias (2. 35. 4-11) is our most detailed source for the famous cult of Demeter Chthonia (of the Underworld) at the remote town of Hermione in the Argolid. Hermione was not a Dorian town, but was settled by the aboriginal Dryopes when the Dorians expelled them from Thessaly. This cult is unusual in its emphasis on the role of Hades (who is given the euphemistic name of Klymenos, the Renowned One). Examination of the site has revealed a lengthy section of wall, which probably marked off the Classical sanctuary, a series of inscribed bronze cows (which relate to the ritual described below), and numerous late inscriptions. It is difficult to know from Pausanias' second-century CE account which elements of the ritual date back to the Classical period. He reports that the Chthonia festival took place in the summer and began with a procession of all the priests, magistrates, and townspeople, even the children. Dressed in white and crowned with wreaths made from a local summer wildflower, they led a heifer to the sanctuary, where it was allowed to roam about until it entered the open doors of the temple. Inside, four old women rose from their ceremonial thrones and
78
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
pursued the heifer until one of them cut its throat with a sickle. Three more cows were slaughtered for the goddess in the same way.
The indoor sacrifice is very unusual, but can be explained as the result of the strict gender segregation practiced in the cult. The cult statue of Chthonia was so sacred that only the old women were permitted to view it, and the exclusion of men seems to have extended to the sacrificial slaughter, usually a male prerogative. Although the whole city participated in the festival, its climactic ritual acts had to take place in seclusion, away from male eyes. Chthonia seems to have been an important Dryopian goddess, for the Dryopes of Asine, a neighboring town, sent a sacrificial cow and a delegation to walk in the procession even after they were forced to emigrate to Messenia (IG IV 679. 1-2). Opposite Chthonia's sanctuary was that of Klymenos, and the area was famed for its entrance to the underworld, an opening in the earth from which Herakles once emerged, it was said, leading Kerberos. Although Kore plays no role in Pausanias' description of the cult, she appears with Demeter Chthonia and Klymenos in numerous dedicatory inscriptions from Hermione. A fragmentary hymn composed by the sixth-century poet Lasos of Hermione confirms that worship of the triad Demeter, Klymenos, and Kore was the norm in the late Archaic period as well. 21
Demeter and Despoina in Arkadia
According to Herodotus (2. 171), the telete ? (secret rite) of Demeter which the Greeks call the Thesmophoria was mostly abandoned in the Peloponnese with the arrival of the Dorians, but was preserved among the Arkadians, whose lands were not penetrated by the invaders. Certainly the worship of Demeter was far more prominent in Arkadia than elsewhere in the Pelopon- nese. The Arkadia of the poets is a mountainous, wild land sparsely inhabited by goatherds and hunters, but the district also encompassed fertile lowlands where cereal crops were grown. Like so many other Arkadian cults, with their pronounced tendency toward theriomorphic (animal-shaped) gods, the worship of the Two Goddesses in this isolated district seems strange and primeval, the remnant of a very early syncretism of Greek and indigenous traditions.
The Arkadians worshiped an equine Demeter, consort of the horse-god Poseidon Hippios. They held in common with the other Greeks the belief that Demeter angrily withdrew to an earthly abode and caused a crisis in the natural world because of her rage at the abduction of her daughter. Demeter's anger was further attributed to her unwilling union with Poseidon. In order to escape his lustful pursuit, she transformed herself into a mare, but he saw through the trick and forced himself on her in the form of a stallion. Their offspring were the miraculous horse Areion and a daughter, the Arkadian equivalent of Kore, whose true name was revealed only to initiates. In public, their daughter was called Despoina (the Mistress). This story was attached to
79
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
Thelpousa, where Demeter had the title Erinys (the Wrathful One), and a similar myth about Erinys is attested for Telphousa/Tilphossa in Boiotia. 22 Demeter also had the title of Lousia (of Washing) at Thelpousa, because she purified herself in the river Ladon after intercourse with Poseidon and let go of her anger. Demeter Erinys and Demeter Lousia thus form a complemen- tary pair representing angry and appeased manifestations of the goddess.
The Thelpousan cult is closely related to that at Phigaleia, where Demeter's Archaic statue had the head of a horse and was housed in a cave on the rocky gorge of the river Neda, well outside the city. To this cave Demeter had withdrawn, causing a famine until her anger abated. She was known as Melaina (the Black) because she dressed all in black to express her mood; scholars generally interpret her blackness, which is a feature shared by the Erinyes, as a sign of her underworld nature. The statue was seated on a rock with serpents and other creatures emerging from its mane, and it held a dolphin in one hand and in the other a dove. This Demeter is a Mistress of Animals and has close affinities with the gorgon Medousa, who similarly sported snaky hair, mated with Poseidon, and gave birth to a miraculous horse (Pegasos). Kore/Despoina has little involvement in this cult, nor is Demeter primarily a grain goddess. Every year the people set upon an altar outside the cave samples of all the raw materials produced in their land, including grapes, honeycombs, and wool, and poured olive oil over these in an attempt to appease the disgruntled goddess. According to Pausanias (8. 42. 5-7), this was a revival of an Archaic cult that had fallen into disuse. The original theriomorphic statue was lost to a fire in the distant past. On the occasion of a blight, the people consulted Delphi and were told to replace the statue of "stallion-mated Deo," whose anger had been renewed by the people's neglect. Onatas of Aigina, a sculptor active in the fifth century, was given the commission, and inspired by a dream and perhaps an old copy of the image, he re-created it. 23
The Arkadian cults of Demeter resulted from a complex process combining the old Mycenaean goddess Erinys, who was early on linked to Poseidon Hippios and whose offspring was a horse, with the Panhellenic and Eleusinian Demeter who bore a daughter. The persona of the daughter seems to have been superimposed on an older Arkadian goddess, Despoina. The sanctuary of Despoina at Lykosoura was dramatically rebuilt in the Hellenistic period with sculptures by Damophon (c. 175-150), and most of the excavated remains are late. Only a few Archaic and Classical terracottas attest to the earlier life of the sanctuary, which the Arkadians considered very ancient. Pausanias' account (8. 37. 1-10) of Lykosoura mentions the worship of Despoina with her mother Demeter; certain mysteries (most likely derivative of the Eleusinian rites); and a platform called the megaron where an unusual form of sacrifice took place. Each participant sacrificed an animal, not only cutting its throat, but also chopping off a random limb for the goddess. Despoina clearly had a strong affinity with Artemis, who not coincidentally
80
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
maintained a cultic presence in the sanctuary. Another clue to the nature of the cult are the theriomorphic figures found in the megaron area and sculpted on the robe of Damophon's statue of Despoina, fragments of which were recovered in the excavations of Lykosoura. The border of the robe shows a line of dancing male and female figures with ram and horse heads. These belong to the Hellenistic period, yet likely reveal a very old custom of masked dances for the goddess. 24
The Two Goddesses in Sicily
The religious life of the colonists in the west developed differently from that of people in the mother cities for several reasons. First, the entire pantheon of major and minor deities could not be reproduced in a colony; the settlers were forced to focus on a limited number of cults selected from those they knew at home. As it happened, Demeter's cult was particularly well suited to the fertile soils of Sicily. Second, Greek religious assumptions required that the local gods be recognized (preferably as Greek deities in a new guise), and their cult places respected. The native Sikans and Sikels worshiped a number of goddesses, among them Hyblaia, Anna, and local water spirits, whose functions and personalities were easily assimilated to those of Demeter and Kore/Persephone. In particular, the dominance of Persephone, who was often worshiped quite independently of her mother in this part of the world, may be due to syncretism with local underworld goddesses.
During the Archaic period, much of Sicily was ruled by tyrants of the Deinomenid family including Gelon and Hieron. The Deinomenids played an important role in the dissemination of the cults of the Two Goddesses, for their ancestor Telines held a family priesthood of the chthoniai theai (earth goddesses, i. e. , Demeter and Kore). When a group of Geloans seceded, Telines was able to win them back by displaying the sacred objects of the goddesses. In return for this service, he demanded a civic priesthood, which he passed to his descendants. The Deinomenids seem to have exported cults of Demeter and Kore/Persephone to Gela's daughter city Akragas and to several other sites in the hinterland. 25 Already in the sixth century, Pindar (Pyth. 12. 1-2) described Akragas as the "seat of Persephone," and by the first century, Cicero (Verr. 2. 4. 106) could remark that all Sicily was sacred to Demeter and Persephone. The names of Sicilian festivals such as Anakalypteria (Unveiling of the Bride), Theogamia (Divine Marriage), and Koreia (Festival of the Maiden) suggest the importance of Kore/Persephone's cult and show that its principal focus was her marriage to Hades. 26
Founded on the south coast of Sicily by seventh-century colonists from Rhodes and Krete, Gela lies on a hill beside the mouth of the Gela river. While Athena and Hera were worshiped in the city proper, Demeter and Kore seem to have possessed at least three sanctuaries outside the walls, all quite modest in terms of architecture, yet rich in votive gifts. A pot graffito
81
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
indicates that the sanctuary across the river at Bitalemi was a Thesmophor- ion, and to judge from the votive deposits, the other two sites served a similar function. Excavation of Bitalemi revealed some mud-brick structures, the remains of ritual meals cooked on the spot, terracotta figurines, and interest- ing deposits of vessels buried upside down in orderly rows. The early settlers signaled the importance of this site by burying a hoard of ingots and other objects in bronze, a custom borrowed from the natives. They also laid down a ploughshare and other agricultural tools as offerings to Demeter and Kore. 27
The sanctuaries of Predio Sola, on the seaward side of the Geloan akro- polis, and Via Fiume to the north, similarly possessed small buildings and a wealth of votive objects including a large number of lamps and the "masks" or busts so characteristic of the worship of Demeter and Kore in Sicily and Italy. Other terracottas considered diagnostic of the cult include standing women with torches and piglets and certain types of enthroned goddesses with pectoral decoration; many of these types were locally made but derive from Rhodian models. These sites are notable for the care with which votives were buried. In many Greek sanctuaries, old votives were unceremoniously dumped in pits to make room for newer offerings, but in the chthonic sanctuaries of Sicily, burial was a form of communication with the deities, so vessels and terracottas were carefully positioned face down, and every avail- able space was used. In some cases, rings of stones were arranged around pits in which sacrificial remains, vessels, and figurines were deposited. Sanctu- aries closely resembling Bitalemi have been uncovered at Akragas and the Syracusan colony of Heloros. 28
Founded from Gela in the sixth century, Akragas was a major center of Persephone's worship. Its tyrant Theron is portrayed in Pindar's second Olympian ode (56-83) as a believer in afterlife judgments, reincarnation, and final salvation in the Isles of the Blessed. It is very likely that Theron's convictions about the afterlife were intertwined with the cult of Persephone, who played an important role in the Bakchic/Orphic mysteries so popular in the Greek west. Several cult places at Akragas date to Theron's day or before. On the north side of the city, just outside the wall, the rupestral sanctuary of S. Biagio consists of a series of artificial caves or tunnels in the rocky hillside. These were filled with votive deposits, including many large busts. The exca- vation of the tunnels seems to have been a method of conveying the offerings to divine power(s) conceived of as present within the earth. Opposite the rupestral sanctuary and within the walls, the present church of S. Biagio was constructed over an early fifth-century temple, beside which are two circular altars with hollow depressions in the center. These were used to direct libations and perhaps other offerings into the earth. At the south end of the city, the area known as the "Chthonic sanctuary" of Akragas was probably devoted to Persephone and/or Demeter. 29
Selinous, westernmost of the Sicilian Greek colonies, is famous for a group of well-preserved Doric temples, none of which can be assigned with certainty
82
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
to a specific deity. West of the akropolis was a more modest, extraurban sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros (Bearer of Fruit), a goddess imported from the mother city of Megara in mainland Greece. The Malophoros sanc- tuary, founded in the seventh century, is actually a compound containing smaller shrines of Hekate (who appropriately guards the entrance) and Zeus Meilichios. Demeter's temple stood within a second inner boundary wall, emphasizing its inviolate nature. The rear of the temple was hidden under a large mound, giving the appearance that the entrance led into the earth. A water channel bisected this area, carrying water to the long platform altar facing the temple. Wherever visitors walked within the sanctuary, they were standing on carefully buried ritual deposits. Among these were numerous clay pomegranates, ideal gifts for the fruit-bearing goddess, and terracottas of standing women holding torches and piglets. The Malophoros sanctuary is also famous for its many early curse tablets, inscribed on lead. As the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone (or Pasikrateia, the All-ruling, to use her local name) was a particularly appropriate recipient of these missives to the underworld powers. 30
Persephone at Lokroi Epizephyrioi
The Dorian Greek colonists of Lokroi Epizephyrioi, on the "toe" of Italy, developed a distinctive pantheon with Persephone and Aphrodite as the key deities. Demeter too was worshiped here in a typical Thesmophorion, but Persephone's role and personality overshadowed those of her mother. At the seaward end of the city was the ancient U-shaped stoa, the oldest cult place in Lokroi and the center of Aphrodite's worship. At the other end on the Mannella hillside lay the sanctuary of Persephone, which also dated to the seventh century and the founding of the city. Here excavators uncovered an amazing trove of terracotta plaques or pinakes decorated in relief with ritual and mythic scenes. Difficult as they are to interpret, these give us a glimpse into the religious life of the Lokrians in the fifth century, particularly that of the Lokrian women, whose votive gifts (mirrors, perfume jars, dolls) predominate in the excavated deposits. 31 Their Persephone served many of the functions in relation to female maturation, marriage, and childbirth that Artemis and Hera fulfilled for the mainland Greeks. Her union with Hades was a divine exemplar of marriage and it was she who received the pre- wedding sacrifices known as proteleia. She was also the protector of young children. But in the background was always the knowledge of Persephone's identity as the Queen of the Dead, and her role in the ultimate fate of the soul as set forth in "Orphic" eschatology. Thus the widespread Greek analogy between marriage and death finds at Lokroi its most complex and highly developed manifestation. The ideology of marriage had its own peculiarities at Lokroi, where social status and ritual privilege seem, uniquely in the Greek world, to have been transferred in matrilineal fashion. The wife, particularly
83
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
? Figure 6. 2 Persephone opens a box containing an infant. Terracotta pinax from Lokroi Epizephyrioi, 470-50. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Reggio Calabria. Scala/Art Resource.
in the role of bride, seems to have held a higher status than in many other Greek cities. Furthermore, the idealized institution of marriage had an eschatological significance: just as marriage was a symbolic death, death was a symbolic marriage and the blessed afterlife state was assimilated to that of marital bliss. 32
The pinakes are the primary source for this picture of marriage as a Lokrian cultural ideal. About the size of a standard sheet of paper, they are pierced for suspension and originally hung in the sanctuary, probably on trees. The main types include scenes of Persephone's abduction by Hades; the abduction of a maiden by a youthful male which is thought to be a generic representation of the bride's "capture" by her groom; wedding libations and processions; women packing and unpacking wedding gifts; Persephone enthroned alone or with Hades, receiving divine visitors and mortal suppliants including children; and various scenes with Aphrodite and Hermes, who governed the sexual aspects of marriage. Fragments of similar pinakes have been found at
84
DEMETER AND KORE/PERSEPHONE
Medma and Hipponion, towns in the Lokrian orbit, as well as Francavilla in Sicily, though the Lokrian products do not appear to have been widely exported. 33
Further reading
Cole 1994 provides an excellent, brief review of Demeter's cults, with good use of archaeological evidence. For the Eleusinian Mysteries, Clinton's work is indispensable; Clinton 1992 develops his controversial theories about the relationship between the Thesmophoria and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and draws together visual as well as literary evidence for the Mysteries. For more on the Hymn and the Mysteries, see Foley 1994. Detienne 1989, to be read with Osborne 1993, argues that women's limited role in sacrificial ritual, even in the Thesmophoria, corresponds to their limited political rights. On the Athenian rites of Demeter and Persephone, see Parker 2005, Chapters 13 and 15.
85
7
GUARDING AND GUIDING THE CITY
Apollo
One of the most widely worshiped deities in the Greek world, Apollo is nevertheless a relative latecomer to the pantheon. The Mycenaeans probably did not know him, though their healing god Paian, who appears in a Linear B tablet from Knossos, survived as one facet of Apollo's complex character. 1 Early dedications in Apollo's sanctuaries include bronzes of Near Eastern "smiting gods" such as the Semitic Reshep, who shared Apollo's function as a sender of plague, while Apollo's bow may be a borrowing from the Hittite archer-god Irra. 2 In keeping with his Near Eastern associations, and like his sister Artemis, Apollo is a temple deity. While temples and images were not indispensable to his cults, they were characteristic of his worship. Among the sanctuaries described in this chapter, those at Eretria, Dreros, and Thermon are noted for the wealth of information they provide about the origins of the Greek temple and the range of cult practices during the eighth and seventh centuries.
Several etymologies have been proposed for Apollo's name, but it probably derives from the Dorian Greek word for an annual tribal gathering, apella. At such gatherings, young men were admitted to membership and received political status as adults; thus the presiding god is almost always depicted as a beardless youth. 3 Patronage of youths approaching manhood was one of Apollo's key functions, but he is best known as the oracular god who interpreted the will of Zeus and gave advice on everything from war and colonization to private dilemmas about marriage and family. Apollo's role as the god of prophetic inspiration was closely tied to other aspects of his character, including his interests in purification, poetry, and music. The only Olympian to possess a musical instrument, the lyre, as an attribute, he regu- larly appears in poetry with the Muses and other divine choruses. Compara- tively few cults focused specifically on Apollo's patronage of poets and musicians, but hymns and music are everywhere essential to his worship.
86
APOLLO
? Figure 7. 1 Youthful Apollo in bronze. Possibly produced as a cult statue, originally with a bow in the left hand and an offering bowl in the right, c. 520. Ht 1. 91 m. Peiraieus Museum. Scala/Art Resource.
Widespread cults of Apollo
One of the most widely diffused types of Apolline cult is perhaps the least familiar to readers of Greek poetry: the worship of Apollo as a guardian and an averter of evil. For this role, Apollo was often depicted in aniconic form as a stone pillar on a stepped base. He was known as Apollo Agyieus (of the Street), Thyraios (of the Door), Propylaios (Before the Gate), and Prostaterios (Protector). 4 In Athens, the pillars stood in front of houses, where they were decorated with branches of laurel or myrtle, and received offerings of incense or oil. Belief in the protective powers of sacred stones was widespread throughout the Mediterranean, including the Levant, where Reshep's pillar functioned in similar fashion during the Bronze Age.
