No More Learning

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. 5 Apollo Agyieus was also expected to protect travelers, as Aeschylus reveals in the Agamemnon (1081, 1086) when he makes Kassandra bitterly reproach this god for lead- ing her into danger. Sometimes the worship of Apollo focused on protection from very specific ills, as in the cult of Apollo Smintheus (of Mice), which thrived as early as Homer's time near Troy and in the neighboring parts of Asia Minor settled by Aiolian Greeks. Smintheus protected the harvest
87
APOLLO
against incursions of mice, but he also appears as the bringer of plague in the Iliad (1. 37-42) and like his Near Eastern counterparts, he could avert plague. Similarly, a sacred law from Kyrene in North Africa directs that if disease should come against the city, the inhabitants are to "sacrifice in front of the gates before the shrine of aversion a red he-goat to Apollo Apotropaios [the Averter]. "6
Semitic Reshep and Hittite Irra were weapon-bearing gods whose anger could be channeled against enemies, just as Chryses called down Apollo's plague on the Greek invaders in the Iliad. Apollo Lykeios (of Wolves) was similarly invoked against enemies, particularly in military contexts. One of his ancient cults was that at Argos, where he was the most important god next to Hera, and his temple held the sacred fire of the city. In both Argos and Athens, he presided over the mustering of hoplite warriors who would defend the city with the ferocity of the wolf. Athenian hoplites in the fifth century paid a tax for the upkeep of the sanctuary of Apollo Lykeios, which also served as their training ground. In its earliest stages, the cult probably had to do with the need to ward off marauding wolves from the flocks. 7
Another widespread and early cult, common to many Dorian and Ionian cities, is that of Apollo Delphinios. The Greeks believed that his name came from their word for dolphin (delphis), but the real etymology is unknown, and is most likely non-Greek. Both ancients and moderns have understood this god as a protector of seafarers, and have speculated that his cult is related to that at Delphi (the pun-loving author of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo has the god appear in dolphin form and demand that the first priests of Delphi erect an altar to him under this name). More recent scholarship has noted the important role of Apollo Delphinios in civic life, particularly with regard to inter-city relations. Official documents including treaties were stored in his temples, and he was associated with the ephebes, or youths who would soon become citizens. At Miletos, where Apollo Delphinios was the patron of the city, the annual procession to the oracular shrine at Didyma started from the Delphinion. When excavated, this sanctuary was found to contain hundreds of inscriptions recording citizenship decrees, treaties, a cult calendar, and other matters of interest to the state. 8
Two early temples of Apollo
In the 1930s, men digging a field in eastern Krete made a stunning discovery: the undisturbed remains of a very early temple. Along the back wall, the excavators found a stone box filled with bones and goats' horns, which reminded them of the Keraton or horn altar at Delos (below). Upon this boxlike altar stood three figures made of bronze sheets hammered over a wood core. The largest, just under a meter tall, is a nude figure of Apollo, while the two clothed female figures, about half the size of the Apollo, must be Artemis and Leto. (Apollo's sister and mother are regularly worshiped
88
APOLLO
with him, and this group is known as the Apolline triad. ) These Late Geo- metric figures, contemporary with the temple, are unique examples of early Greek cult images. The back wall also supported a bench that held pots, a lamp, and terracotta figurines. A bronze gorgon mask hung on the wall or was propped on the bench. The temple continued in use for centuries, safeguarding its heirloom contents, before it was abruptly abandoned in the Hellenistic period. Epigraphic evidence shows that the city of Dreros had an important cult of Apollo Delphinios, probably to be assigned to this sanctuary. 9
The tribes of Aitolia in northwest Greece worshiped Artemis and Apollo above all the other gods. They met at the rural sanctuary of Thermon, another truly venerable cult site where excavators have uncovered what may be the earliest Apollo temple on the Greek mainland. It did not appear, as we might expect, on the future site of a large and prosperous polis. Instead, Aitolia lacked a centralized government and was considered a cultural backwater during the Classical period. Yet in the late Bronze Age, it had been part of the Mycenaean civilization, and it escaped the violent upheavals of the centuries after the Mycenaean collapse. A mysterious building called Megaron B, dating to well before 800, served as a center for ritual feasts and perhaps as a temple. Among the earliest votive objects is a Syro-Hittite "smiting god" statuette of the eighth century. The seventh-century Thermon temple, constructed atop Megaron B, had walls of mudbrick, while its columns and
Figure 7. 2 Bronze cult statues from Dreros, Krete: Apollo, Artemis, and Leto, eighth century. Ht of Apollo 0. 8 m. Heraklion Museum. Photo used by per- mission.
? 89
APOLLO
entablature were wood. The roof was decorated with gorgon masks.
The surviving terracotta metopes, rare examples of early Greek painting, show that the temple was Doric in style. They depict the myth of the Nightingale and Swallow (Prokne and Philomela) and the Apolline triad of Apollo, Leto, and Artemis (who had her own temple here), as well as more gorgons, whose traditional function as architectural ornaments was to repel enemies. 10
Dorian Apollo
For the Dorian Greeks of the Peloponnese and their overseas cousins, the late summer festival of Apollo Karneios (of the Ram) was the most important of the year. They took seriously the prohibition on combat during the Karneia, which was the reason why the Spartans missed the battle of Marathon and sent only a token force to Thermopylai. The festivities involved dances by the young men and women of the community; at Sparta the Karneia grew into a major musical competition. A group of unmarried men known as the Karneatai were chosen by lot to organize and bear the expenses of the festi- val. They also entered a footrace as staphulodromoi, "grape runners," and carried fruited vine branches while pursuing a runner decked with wool fillets like a sacrificial victim. If they caught him, it meant good luck for the city in
Figure 7. 3 Painted metopes and roof ornaments from the temple of Apollo at Thermon, Aitolia, c. 625. Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
? 90
APOLLO
the coming year. In spite of the injunction against warfare during the festival, it celebrated the warlike nature of the Dorians, and their legendary conquest of the Peloponnese, as well as historical colonization efforts. At Sparta, the warriors set up tents and banqueted in honor of the god as if on campaign, and at Kyrene they conducted a dance in armor. The myths surrounding the Spartan festival attributed its origins to the pre-Greek inhabitants. Sometime in the Geometric period, scholars have suggested, Apollo supplanted a pastoral, ram-headed god Karnos, whether of Dorian or indigenous origin, who presided over the seasonal movements of the flocks and led them to new pastures. The journey of the flocks was eventually identified with the mythic Dorian migration and the festival took on a more military character in keep- ing with the theme of conquest. 11
A more clear-cut case of a prehellenic deity whose cult was absorbed by Apollo is Hyakinthos. The -nthos termination of his name is also found in the Luwian language of Anatolia, and reveals a non-Greek origin. He is some- times thought to be Minoan. The month and festival named after Hyakinthos are common in Dorian cities, but most of our evidence comes from the cult at Amyklai outside Sparta. Here, Hyakinthos was remembered as a hero beloved of Apollo, whom the god accidentally killed with a discus throw. His tomb was located within the base of Apollo's ancient cult statue, a colossal bronze figure that stood in the open air. It drew on Near Eastern iconography, showing Apollo as a helmeted warrior with a bow in one hand and a spear in the other. This image, created in the late seventh or early sixth century, was unusual for several reasons. It did not possess a fully human shape, but took the form of a huge bronze pillar with sculpted face, feet, and hands. Colossal statues like the Athena Parthenos made by Pheidias were celebrated in the Classical period, but most Archaic cult images were considerably smaller than life-size. The size of the Apollo, estimated by Pausanias at 30 cubits (15 m), explains why there was no temple to house it, for buildings of such height were beyond the technology of the day. Instead of a temple, the image was displayed in an elaborately decorated enclosure known as the "throne," which was added about a century after the statue was erected. 12
The festival itself combined the worship of Apollo Amyklaios and Hyakinthos. The first day was a day of mourning and solemnity, when the blood of sacrificial animals was poured into Hyakinthos' tomb through a bronze door in the side of the statue base, which also functioned as an altar. The rest of the festival, in contrast, was a joyous celebration. The whole city joined the procession from Sparta to Amyklai, where there were spectacles of music, dance, and horse racing in which both boys and girls took part. Even the slaves joined in the celebrations. Every year, the women of Sparta presented Apollo with a newly woven tunic or chito ? n (probably not one large enough for the statue to wear). The high point of the festival was the singing of the paian, the special hymn for Apollo.
Apollo Amyklaios has drawn attention from scholars because his name 91
APOLLO
appears on a bilingual inscription from Idalion in Cyprus, where he was equated with Reshep Mukal. The epithet Mukal, transformed to (A)myklos, was carried at an early date to Gortyn in Krete, and thence to Sparta, supply- ing a name for both the cult and the town. It illustrates how Cyprus and Krete were conduits for cultural influences from the Near East during the formative period of Greek religion. Excavation of Amyklai revealed evidence for nearly continuous activity from the late Bronze Age, another unusual feature of the site. After serving as a sub-Mycenaean cult place, the sanctuary began to receive dedications again in the ninth century, perhaps the date of Apollo's introduction. 13
Ionian Apollo
The small Cycladic island of Delos was a religious center for the Ionians, including the Athenians and many Greeks who emigrated during the Dark Age to the coast of Asia Minor. Delos was celebrated as the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and while Artemis was probably the original mistress of the sanctuary there, Apollo came to dominate it in the Archaic period. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3. 145-61) tells how the festival was celebrated with "boxing, dancing and song" and describes the Delian maidens who were famed for their choral songs in honor of the god. The Athenians, who controlled the sanctuary for much of its life, twice purified the tiny island by removing burials (except for those of the heroes) and decreeing that all inhabitants must leave if they were soon to give birth or die. An elaborate web of myth and ritual connected Delos with Athens and its hero Theseus. The Athenians believed that Theseus visited Delos after slaying the Kretan Minotaur, and with his companions performed a winding dance called the Crane, which imitated the tortuous paths of the Labyrinth. They danced around the famous Keraton, an altar constructed from the horns of goats, Apollo's favored sacrificial animal. 14
Apollo, Artemis, and Leto all possessed temples on the island. In Apollo's Archaic temple stood a famous cult image, the work of the sixth-century sculptors Tektaios and Angelion. About twice life-size and covered with hammered sheets of gold, the god appeared in the frontal pose of a kouros, holding a bow in his left hand and small images of the three Charites in his right. 15 Another feature of the Delian cult was the legend that the Hyper- boreans, a mythical northern people whom Apollo visited every year, sent annual offerings of "sacred things" wrapped in wheat sheaves to his shrine. The mysterious offerings themselves seem to have some historical basis; in the Classical period they were conveyed by a long trade route until they reached Athens, where they were ceremoniously escorted to Delos. A Mycen- aean tomb on the island was venerated as the gravesite of two Hyperborean maidens. 16
The Athenians boasted of their descent from Ion, the son of Apollo and 92
APOLLO
ancestor of the Ionian peoples; therefore they worshiped Apollo Patroo? s (Ancestor). The possession of domestic cults of Apollo Patroo? s and Zeus Herkeios became one of the criteria for holding office in Athens. 17 Because of their ancient kinship, the Athenians and the Ionians of Asia Minor had similar ritual calendars, and many of their common cults and festivals can be dated to the time before the Ionian migration. One of the shared Ionian-Attic festivals was the Thargelia, held at the onset of harvest time in May. The festival took place on the sixth and seventh of the month Thargelion, the birthdates of Artemis and Apollo respectively. At this time the Athenians sent sacred ambassadors (theo ? roi) to Delos with sacrificial victims and choruses for the musical competitions. Athens had to be kept pure, so executions of criminals were postponed until the return of the ship from Delos (such a delay occurred when Sokrates was to be executed). They also purified the land of Attica through a ritual involving human scapegoats known as pharmakoi. Two men, chosen for their ugliness and poverty, were feasted at public expense, then beaten with fig branches and driven out of the city. They symbolically carried away all the ills and impurities that might result in harm to the city or its ripening crops. On the second day of the Athenian Thargelia, the city celebrated with a cereal offering to Apollo, a mixture of produce cooked and carried in procession to the suburban shrine of Apollo Pythios. The festival was also noted for extensive dithyrambic (choral) competitions, and victors dedicated tripods at the Pythion. 18
Pythian Apollo
Perched on a rocky slope of Mt. Parnassos, Delphi has a stunning view and a "numinous quality" noted by every visitor. 19 A thriving Mycenaean village and cult area were abandoned at the end of the Bronze Age, but in the mid- ninth century, people returned to this lovely spot and resettled it. Fifty years later, Delphi had already become a regional gathering place for the worship of Apollo. Fueled by the popularity of the oracle, its fame grew until it became the premier sanctuary of Apollo in the Greek world, exerting a unique influ- ence on Greek colonization and interstate relations. Its only rival in this respect was the Panhellenic sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. 20 During the Archaic period, a mythic pedigree for Apollo's sanctuary was established in order to cement its claim to be the most important Greek oracle. Before Apollo's arrival, it was said, the oracle belonged to Gaia (e. g. Aesch. Eum. 1-8). Although Gaia did have old oracles like the one at Olympia, the lack of archaeological or literary evidence for Gaia's presence at Delphi before the fifth century makes it difficult to accept the historicity of this tradition. 21
What drew so many visitors to Delphi was the chance to consult Apollo, god of divination and prophecy. In myth, Apollo often predicted future events, such as Oedipus' murder of his father. In reality, he more often advised peti- tioners on the best course of action for addressing their problems, specializing
93
APOLLO
in ritual solutions that invoked the aid of the gods. If a town suffered from a plague or crop failure, perhaps the citizens had neglected to make the proper sacrifices or purifications. If land shortages resulted in civic discord, or if new trade connections were required, Apollo might recommend that colonists settle in likely areas overseas. The oracle could be consulted on virtually any major enterprise contemplated by a city, from legal reform to military conquest. The congregation of delegates from many cities also ensured that Delphi remained a valuable resource for intelligence-gathering and diplo- matic exchange. The political importance of Delphi meant that it must not be under the control of any one state. After a series of wars, the sanctuary was overseen by a federation of states known as the Delphic Amphictyony. By the Classical period, however, the oracle was consulted primarily on matters involving religious practice and procedure. Purification was an important Apolline specialty, although there is surprisingly little evidence for purifica- tion rituals (for example, the cleansing of blood-guilt) performed at Delphi itself. 22
At the center of all this activity was the Pythia, the priestess who acted as the medium for the voice of Apollo. Consultation with the Pythia was limited to one day per month during the nine-month season when Apollo was believed to be "in residence," and this helps to explain why consultations in the early centuries of the oracle were dominated by important matters of state, rather than by individual concerns as at Dodona. Before an oracular session, the Pythia purified herself, probably with water from the Kastalian spring. She entered the inner room of the temple and sat on a covered tripod cauldron, clutching a branch of laurel. There she received the questions of the petitioners and answered them. Many reconstructions of the oracle have described the process as one of violent possession, in which the Pythia raved incoherently while priests translated her answers into verse oracles. None of the early sources presents the Pythia as frenzied or hysterical, and she is always described as responding directly to the petitioners in intelligible speech, though sometimes her answers were ambiguous and riddling. 23
Certainly the Pythia experienced a form of religious ecstasy, and its cause has been the subject of much speculation through the centuries. According to various theories, she owed her inspiration to a drink from the spring Kassotis, to laurel leaves she chewed while seated on the tripod, to a mediumistic trance that required no artificial stimulant, or to intoxicating vapors rising from a chasm in the earth. This last possibility, taken seriously by Plutarch (Mor. 432d-438d) but scoffed at by modern scholars, was revived when geologists newly evaluated the site of Delphi in the 1990s. They concluded that ethylene, a sweet-smelling, mildly intoxicating gas present in the lime- stone beneath the temple, could have contributed to the Pythia's trance. 24
The Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3. 300-76) gives the foundation legend for the sanctuary, telling how the god battled a huge serpent (later known as the Python) for possession of the site and supervised the building of the first
94
APOLLO
temple, which archaeologists date to the late seventh century. At the Pythian festival, held every four years, one of the most important contests was the Pythian nome, in which musicians presented their interpretations of Apollo's combat with the serpent. 25 The Pythian games originally focused upon artis- tic contests of lyre-playing and singing to the flute, though athletic events soon began to gain in popularity as the festival was modeled more closely on the Olympic games. The serpent combat was also considered the basis for another important Delphic festival, the Septerion. Every eight years, the Delphians enacted a ritual drama that incorporated elements of the combat myth and linked Delphi with the valley of Tempe in Thessaly. According to the Delphic myth, Apollo was purified in Tempe after killing the serpent, and returned in triumph with the laurel for his sanctuary. In ritual, a boy played Apollo's role and traveled to and from Tempe in a sacred procession, bring- ing laurel boughs to make crowns for the Pythian victors. 26
Because of Apollo's sponsorship of colonization efforts and his import- ance for civic decision-making, the cult of Apollo Pythios/Pythaeus became widespread throughout the Greek world; he often bears the titles Archegetes (Leader/Founder) and Ktistes (Establisher), which were also given to colony founders. The Spartans believed that Apollo played an instrumental role in creating their constitution. In their marketplace they had statues of Pythian Apollo, Artemis, and Leto, and the kings appointed a board of Pythioi who were responsible for state consultations of the oracle. In Athens, the Pythion was the oldest cult center of the god. At Argos, where an important sanctuary of Apollo Pythaeus was located on the Deiras ridge between the two citadels, the cult seems to have been appropriated from Asine, which the Argives destroyed at the end of the eighth century. 27
Other Apolline oracles
Apollo had other oracles on the Greek mainland, yet the majority of Apollo shrines there were not oracular, or their oracles faded because they could not sustain competition with Delphi. One district with a strong independent oracular tradition was Boiotia, where the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios thrived in spite of its relative proximity to Delphi. The hero Ptoios, named for the triple-peaked Mt. Ptoion, may have preceded Apollo as the resident deity of the sanctuary. Its most prosperous period began in the late seventh century, when kouroi became fashionable dedications. Typical Archaic gifts to the gods, these stiffly frontal, sculpted nude youths made especially appropriate votives for Apollo, himself a divine kouros (youth). About a hundred kouroi were dedicated during the seventh and sixth centuries and discovered in the excavation of the site, providing a treasure trove for the study of Archaic sculpture. 28 The sanctuary attracted attention outside Boiotia, particularly from the neighboring Athenians. Visitors included Hipparchos, son of the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos, who left an inscribed dedication. Herodotus
95
APOLLO
(8. 135) gives our only account of the oracular procedure in his story of a barbarian named Mys who consulted the oracle during the Persian wars. As soon as Mys entered the shrine, the male prophet shocked the Greeks present by uttering words they could not understand. But Mys declared that the oracle was responding in his own language, Karian, and left satisfied.
Other mainland Apollo oracles included the Ismenion of Thebes and the sanctuary at Abai in Phokis, while at the Argive shrine of Apollo Pythaeus, a female prophet gave oracles after tasting the blood of a sacrificed ewe. 29 Yet these sanctuaries were exceptional. In the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, the situation was reversed. The entire Aegean coast was dotted with oracular Apollo shrines. The East Greeks had rich Apolline traditions influenced by their non-Greek neighbors, and were distant enough from Delphi to require their own oracle centers. The most famous was Didyma, but it never achieved the prominence of Delphi in Greek affairs because its interests were too closely aligned with nearby Miletos, a powerful Ionian city. In the Archaic period, Didyma was run by a family of prophets, the Branchidai, who traced their ancestry to the beautiful herdsman Branchos. Once, Apollo spotted Branchos with his flocks and immediately fell in love with him. The god kissed Branchos and bestowed on him a crown, a laurel rod, and the power of prophecy, which he passed down to his descendants. The story explains one of Apollo's cult titles at Didyma, Philesios (Loving). When Apollo became angry with the Milesians and sent a plague, Branchos saved the people by striking or sprinkling them with the purifying laurel branch. 30
Didyma and Miletos remained close partners throughout the history of the sanctuary. The patron god of Miletos was Apollo Delphinios, and his priests, the Molpoi (Singers), began every year with a grand procession, which traveled from the Delphinion along the Sacred Way to Didyma. The sanc- tuary itself can be traced archaeologically to the eighth century, when the sacred spring used to induce the prophetic trance was enclosed. Around 600 a portico was added to shelter visitors and display the increasing number of offerings. These included the Pharaoh Necho's gift of a royal garment, worn at his victory over Josiah, King of Judah, in the battle of Megiddo (609). Didyma also received treasures from the rich Lydian king Kroisos, who sent gifts to a number of Greek oracles. In the sixth century, a huge temple was constructed in the tradition of the colossal Ionic temples of Hera at Samos and Artemis at Ephesos. Differing from temples in mainland Greece, it was designed as an unroofed courtyard enclosing a grove of laurels and the sacred spring. At one end a small roofed shrine (naiskos) was provided to house the cult statue of Apollo Didymeus, commissioned from the sculptor Kanachos. He created a roughly life-sized, cast bronze figure of the nude god in a standing, frontal pose with one leg forward. In the left hand was a bow; in the outstretched right palm, the god held a stag. With respect to ritual practice, osteological analysis of the finds from Didyma has revealed that the sacrificial procedure was nonstandard: thigh bones of cattle were not burned on the
96
APOLLO
altar, but were deposited unburned and whole in special places. The accumu- lation of these bones, like the "horn altars" of other sanctuaries, must have formed an impressive visual record of the gifts allotted to the gods in the sanctuary. 31
The Milesians and their neighbors consulted the oracle for much the same reasons as other Greeks consulted Delphi. Didyma, or Branchidai as it is often called, played an important role in Miletos' vigorous colonization program. A few sixth-century consultations are recorded in inscriptions: one petitioner asked for advice on whether to engage in piracy and was told to follow the practices of his ancestors, while another query dealt with whether women should be permitted in the sanctuary of Herakles. A recently discovered Archaic inscription from Olbia, found on a bone tablet, preserves an enigmatic text linking the colony's fate with multiples of Apollo's sacred number, seven, and different aspects of the god:
7: Wolf without strength. 77: Terrible lion. 777: Bowbearer, friendly with his gift, with the power of a healer. 7777: Wise dolphin. Peace to the Blessed City (Olbia). I pronounce her to be happy. I bear remembrance to Leto.
A second inscription on the same tablet mentions Apollo of Didyma, and the tablet has therefore been interpreted as a record of an oracular response. It is also possible that the tablet represents a hitherto unattested Apolline cult with Orphic or Pythagorean connections. 32
The highly prosperous operations of Didyma came to an abrupt end in 494, when Darius captured Miletos. The sanctuary was pillaged and burned, and the Branchidai were deported according to the usual Persian policy of resettling war captives far from home. After about a hundred and fifty years of silence, the oracle was revived under state-appointed priests to welcome Alexander the Great when he took the city. Alexander is said to have discovered the descendants of the Branchidai when he arrived in Bactria, but instead of restoring them to their ancient role, he cruelly slaughtered them. 33
Apollo Daphnephoros and Ismenios
Many gods possessed sacred groves, but they are especially characteristic of Apollo, whose major shrines were often located outside the cities. At Kour- ion, his most important sanctuary in Cyprus, he was known as Hylates (He of the Grove). 34 Apollo's special tree was the laurel or bay (daphne ? ), and he was worshiped particularly in central Greece as Apollo Daphnephoros (the Laurel-Carrier). The laurel had a purifying effect because of its sweet aromatic leaves, and in Euripides' Ion (102-6) we hear how the title character, an orphan raised at Delphi, sweeps the temple entrance with laurels and hangs up garlands every morning. Processions of laurel-carriers may have
97
APOLLO
served a similar purpose of purification long before the advent of Apollo in Greece. We are best informed about the celebration of the Daphnephoria at Thebes, the leading city of Boiotia. In his discussion of ancient hymns, Pro- clus says that it involved a procession led by a boy with both parents living. His nearest male relative carried an olive log adorned with laurel branches, small bronze globes, and purple fillets. A man or boy designated as the daphne ? phoros and a chorus of girls carrying branches followed this group. Such festivals of "bringing in the tree" to symbolize prosperity are found in connection with other deities including Hera and Dionysos; the ritual, not the god, is primary. 35
A sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros has been discovered in Eretria, where a very early, apsidal hekatompedon was constructed about 740. (The cultic function of an even older building, which may have been a chieftain's house, is disputed. ) In addition to its early date, the Eretria temple is noted for the find of a bronze horse's blinker, inscribed in Aramaic to a ninth-century Syrian ruler. This was part of an heirloom set of horse trappings, dedicated piecemeal by some ancient traveler, and it is the earliest example of a West Semitic script to appear in Greece so far. Even more amazing, a forehead piece from this set, with the same inscription, has been found in the Heraion on Samos. Other finds at the sanctuary, including gold ornaments, bronzes, faience amulets, scarabs, and amber beads, further illustrate the wide trading contacts of the Geometric Eretrians and the prominence of Apollo Daphne- phoros in their city. 36
One of the most important gods of Thebes was Apollo Ismenios, named for the Ismenos river running through the city. Visitors to his temple were impressed by the numerous dedications of tripods, including one of gold dedicated by Kroisos of Lydia. Others were reputed to date to the heroic age. Writing in the fifth century, Herodotus (5. 59-61) attributed some of the tripods he saw to the time of King Oedipus. He says they were inscribed with "Kadmean letters," a reference to the Phoenician immigrant Kadmos who settled in Thebes, bringing with him the alphabet. The tripods were probably early gifts to the sanctuary, which was founded at the end of the eighth century. Other tripods were dedicated by youths after they served as daphne ?