By remaining in physical contact with the sanctuary, they
attempted
to extend its protection to the city itself.
Ancient-greek-cults-a-guide
20), at the crucial point when the enemy was within sight, the Spartans slaughtered a goat for Artemis Agrotera, "as was their custom," and charged.
Athenian sacrifices to Artemis Agrotera were conducted by the polemarchos, a military official, and made in conjunction with those to the war god Enyalios.
In thanks for their victory at Marathon in 490, the Athenians annually organized a large procession to Agrai outside the city, a pleasant spot where the young Artemis was supposed to have hunted for the first time.
Dressed in their armor, the ephebes escorted five hundred female goats to be sacrificed at Artemis' small Classical temple on the Ilissos river.
The battles of Artemision and Salamis were also com- memorated with festivals for Artemis, whose saving power was felt in times of dire peril.
4
Artemis' identity as mistress of wild nature is expressed through the place- ment of sanctuaries (often in rural areas, especially near rivers or wetlands) and through epithets and unusual sacrificial practices. In Samos, she was known as Kaprophagos (Boar Eater), presumably because wild boars were offered to her. The wild boar also appears as a sacred animal in the legends of Kalydon in Aitolia, where the angry goddess once sent a huge boar to ravage the countryside. The Laphrion or sanctuary of Artemis Laphria in Kalydon was the most important in the district, next to Apollo's sanctuary at Thermon. It was established in the Geometric period, while the first temple of Artemis appeared at the end of the seventh century and was rebuilt several times. In the fifth century (c. 460) the Kalydonians added a gold and ivory statue of Artemis in huntress garb with one breast exposed, sculpted by Menichmos and Soidas of Naupaktos. A second temple at the site was devoted to Apollo Laphrios, just as the Thermon sanctuary of Apollo in Aitolia included a temple of Artemis. The remains at the site show that the sacrificial animals here included boars, deer, and horses. Pausanias' description (7. 18. 8-13) of the later cult at nearby Patrai, where Augustus transferred it after destroying Kalydon, may give us some idea of earlier practices, though we cannot be certain that there was continuity. Each spring the people of Patrai held a grand procession to the altar, and last of all came the priestess of Artemis in a
102
ARTEMIS
? Figure8. 1 ArtemisfromtheeastfriezeoftheParthenon. ErichLessing/ArtResource.
chariot drawn by yoked deer. Creatures of all sorts, including deer, game birds, bear cubs, and domesticated animals, were driven into a large enclosure around the altar. A bonfire of logs within was kindled and the fire consumed the animals alive. The offerings also included fruit from the local orchards, which suggests that the animals too were considered "first fruits" for the goddess. This ritual has been compared to the spring fire festivals of other Indo-European cultures, including the Celtic practice of burning live animals and people in wicker enclosures. 5
The themes of salvation in wartime and mastery over the animal world are again united with a fire festival in the Phokian cult of Artemis Elaphebolos (Shooter of Stags). The people of Phokis in central Greece long remembered a sixth-century conflict with their neighbors to the north, the Thessalians. They told how on the eve of the most desperate battle, the men of Phokis constructed a huge pyre and placed on it all their valuable possessions and the images of the gods. If the battle was lost, the men guarding the pyre were to kill the Phokian women and children, place them on the pyre, light it, and then commit suicide. When the Phokians instead won the battle, they com- memorated the victory during the important festival called the Elaphebolia at the sanctuary of Artemis and Apollo near Hyampolis. This site (modern Kalapodi) held symbolic and strategic importance because it guarded the entrance into Phokis. In all likelihood the festival, and certainly the sanctuary, were far older than the war with the Thessalians. Recent excavations have revealed that Kalapodi is one of the extremely rare cases in which continuity
103
ARTEMIS
of worship can (arguably) be demonstrated from late Mycenaean times to the Geometric period. While this does not prove that Artemis was a goddess of the sanctuary in the Bronze Age, the remains of sacrificial deer from the Mycenaean levels are consistent with her title of Elaphebolos.
In the ninth century the sanctuary was reorganized and two small temples (presumably for Artemis and Apollo) were constructed, one over the pre- vious Mycenaean installation. These were followed by a succession of later temples, in the early phases characterized by interior hearths for cooking sacrificial animals (now the more conventional goats and sheep). About 560, major renovations were undertaken and the character of the offerings changed, with a new preponderance of weapons and armor. These develop- ments are consistent with local memories of the war with Thessaly and the development of the sanctuary as a regional place of worship and a key factor in Phokian self-definition. 6
The bloodthirsty goddess: Artemis Tauropolos and Ortheia
Like Dionysos, Artemis embodies much that stands in opposition to Greek cultural ideals: she is an untamed, powerful female, a deity of the wilds more than of the city, and her personality includes a savage element which must be suppressed in the making of a civilized society. Both deities are so challenging to cultural norms that they are sometimes presented as "foreigners," gods who have arrived from strange and savage lands. This was the case in a number of cities, including Athens and Sparta, which attributed the founding of their Artemis cults to Orestes and his sister Iphigeneia. 7
Attic myths about Artemis tell of an angry goddess who must be appeased. At Aulis in nearby Boiotia, Agamemnon is said to have outraged Artemis by killing a sacred stag, causing her to demand the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia. In some versions of the story, Iphigeneia perished at the altar, but in others she was saved by Artemis and made immortal, or spirited away to a distant land. Herodotus (4. 103) tells of the barbarian Tauroi on the shores of the Black Sea, who sacrifice strangers to a goddess they call Iphigeneia or Parthenos (the Maiden). His account may have inspired Euripides' Iphigeneia in Tauris, in which Orestes discovers his sister serving as priestess of Artemis in the land of the Tauroi. Obeying an oracle, they escape the barbarians and bring the barbarian statue of Artemis Tauropolos (Bull Tender) to Attica, where it is installed in a temple at Halai Araphenides. There a strange rite of bloodletting takes place: a sword is held to a man's throat in order to draw a small amount of blood, "so that the goddess may have her proper honors" (Eur. IT 1459-61). This practice may have been an attenuated form of human sacrifice, though there is no additional evidence for this. What it does demonstrate is the uncanny and savage aspect of the goddess and the belief that she desired such sacrifices. While it is unclear whether the Greeks ever actually practiced human sacrifice, the concept was deeply embedded in their
104
ARTEMIS
culture. Instead of recognizing their own fascination with the topic, they disavowed it by giving the practice, and even the goddess herself, a barbarian origin. 8
At Sparta, a bloody ritual was again linked to the putative origin of the goddess' image in the land of the Tauroi. Spartan boys underwent a series of trials designed to toughen them and to produce ideal warriors worthy of inclusion among the ranks of citizens; one of these tests took place at the altar of Artemis Ortheia. According to our earliest source, Xenophon (Lac. 2. 9), it was a sort of war game between two teams. One team attempted to steal cheeses piled on the altar, while the other wielded whips against them. Later sources speak of a simple test of endurance in which boys were whipped so that blood fell on the altar, while the priestess of Artemis stood by holding the ancient statue. If the men wielding the whips were too lenient, the statue became heavier in her hands. The boys who withstood the most punishment, called "victors at the altar" (bo ? monikai), were greatly honored. In Roman times this ritual became a popular spectacle, and an amphitheater was built around the altar to accommodate tourists. 9
Ortheia seems to mean the Upright Goddess, and folk etymology derives the name from the discovery of the statue tangled in the boughs of the agnus castus bush, which held it upright. 10 In the cult legend related by Pausanias (3. 16. 9), the strange character of the goddess was immediately manifested when the men who found her went mad. The early inscriptions speak of Ortheia, who was probably an independent goddess, only later syncretized with Artemis. Known as the Limnaion (the Marsh), the sanctuary was founded in the late eighth century, and originally consisted of a pavement and altar located in a hollow beside the river Eurotas. An Archaic temple was added and restored after a flood destroyed the original installation. The exca- vators found an unbroken series of votive objects from the late Geometric period to Roman times; among these the sanctuary is famous for its ivory and bone plaques inspired by Phoenician models, more than one hundred thou- sand lead figurines, and an array of unusual terracotta masks.
Found immediately north and south of the temple, the masks are votive copies of wood or cloth masks worn during ritual dances in the Archaic period, and depict a variety of stock characters: grotesque demons, youths, warriors, satyrs, and gorgons. The most numerous are the masks covered with wrinkled ridges, featuring gaping toothy mouths. The iconography of these rather fearsome-looking masks, based on Phoenician models, can be traced back to the male Babylonian monster Humbaba. Most modern schol- ars, however, think the masks represent grotesque females, for an ancient authority speaks of Spartan dances performed by males wearing female masks and clothing. Such dances, described as "funny and obscene," were a regular part of the Dorian and Peloponnesian worship of Artemis, and were probably related to rites of passage. 11
The ivories and the far cheaper molded terracotta and lead figurines include 105
ARTEMIS
numerous images of a winged goddess, holding animals in the heraldic Mistress of Animals pose or grasping a wreath in each hand. Initially, Artemis' favorite animal, the deer, is absent from the animals depicted, but becomes increasingly popular after 600, suggesting that the syncretizing of Ortheia and Artemis took place in the sixth century. The lead figurines, including many hoplite warriors, are characteristic of Peloponnesian sanctuaries but little known elsewhere. Among the early votive gifts, limestone sculptures of heraldic lions and bronze double axes show that artistic motifs from the Mycenaean period were still remembered here. 12
Artemis and the vulnerable maiden
In many if not most Greek cities, adolescent girls danced for Artemis. These dances had social as well as religious functions, as they signaled a girl's readi- ness for marriage and made her visible to potential suitors. Also, transitions in the female life cycle governed by Artemis were linked to the prosperity and safety of the community as a whole. Many of Artemis' sanctuaries were located on the borders of a given polis, in lands that formed territorial boundaries. Rituals conducted safely by girls at these vulnerable sites demon- strated the strength of the polis, just as the very placement of such border sanctuaries asserted territorial claims. Likewise, a number of myths and legends draw a clear analogy between the rape of young women celebrating Artemis' festivals and the penetration of polis territory by enemies. The Spartans traced the origins of their hostility toward the Messenians to such an incident. During a festival, they said, Spartan girls were raped in the sanc- tuary of Artemis Limnatis (of the Marsh), which stood on the borderlands between Lakonia and Messenia and was disputed territory. 13
Artemis' concern for the nurture of human young overlaps with her control over the fertility of the natural world. Particularly in the Peloponnese, where her cults are extremely numerous, Artemis has the characteristics of a nature goddess who promotes the growth of vegetation and is to be found in green, moist places. The cult of Artemis Karyatis (of the Nut Tree) was famed throughout Greece for its dancing maidens, often said to be the inspiration for the columns in maiden form (caryatids) that support the porch of the Athenian Erechtheion and other ancient buildings. Located on the border between Lakonia and Arkadia, Karyai was sacred to Artemis and the nymphs who served as her companions. The girls of Lakonia made an annual pilgrimage there to dance "a traditional local dance" before the goddess' statue, which in Pausanias' day stood in the open air. Here too, the maidens were vulnerable: it was said that the Messenian general Aristomenes and his men kidnapped the daughters of their Lakonian enemies from this sanctuary. 14
As a virgin goddess, Artemis is not asexual but fosters a constant aware- ness of the maturing sexuality of the community's adolescent girls. From a
106
ARTEMIS
patriarchal perspective, the asset of female fertility is always complicated by fears of poaching by rival males (or the desire to engage in such poaching), which helps to explain the regular appearance of the rape motif in Artemis' myths and cults. Still another Peloponnesian cult, that of Artemis Alpheiaia (of the river Alpheios) at Letrinoi, incorporated a legend about the attempted rape of Artemis by the local river god. Artemis escaped recognition by daubing her own face and those of her nymph companions with river mud, an act that probably reflects a lost ritual practice. Artemis and Alpheios shared an altar at Olympia, and the cult spread to the Dorian colony of Syracuse in Sicily, where Artemis Potamia (of the River) was worshiped at a spring said to be the local manifestation of the river Alpheios. 15
Artemis Brauronia
All over the Greek world, women prayed to Artemis for help with gynecological problems, childbirth, and the nurture of young children. Artemis' cult at Brauron, one of the oldest and most important in Attica, was concerned with these functions. The sanctuary, which included a temple and a dining facility, was arranged around a sacred spring and a cave-like cleft in the rocky hillside nearby. This "cave" area was appropriate for a goddess of childbirth, both from a symbolic standpoint and because the Kretan childbirth deity Eileithyia, who is sometimes syncretized with Artemis, was also worshiped in a cave. It is possible that Iphigeneia, whose name means something like "strong in birth," was originally the goddess of Brauron, and that she was demoted to the status of a heroine upon the arrival of Artemis. In Euripides' day (Eur. IT 1462-67), Iphigeneia was remembered as the first priestess at Brauron, and garments of women who died in childbirth were dedicated at her tomb. Excavation has failed to pinpoint the location of this tomb, but it may have been associated with the complex of structures found in the cave area.
Here and in the spring, archaeologists discovered costly gifts to Artemis from the women of Attica: gold jewelry, stone seals and scarab gems, glass beads and vases, and bronze mirrors. 16 But the most frequently dedicated items were articles of women's clothing: belts, tunics, long robes, shawls, and headgear. After using the garments for a time, women gave them to the goddess, often embroidered with their own names or the words "sacred to Artemis. " The items were displayed in the temple in boxes and on racks, and the officials in charge of the sanctuary kept careful records of them. No trace of them exists today, but the temple inventories were carved in stone in the fourth century and set up both at Brauron and at a sister sanctuary on the Athenian Akropolis. These lists make it clear that women gave the best they had to the goddess:
Pheidylla, a white woman's himation in a display box. Mneso, a frog- green garment. Nausis, a lady's himation with a broad purple border in
107
ARTEMIS
wave pattern around the edge. Kleo, a delicate shawl. Phile, a bordered textile. Teisikrateia, a multi-colored Persian style shirt with sleeves. 17
Some of the garments were draped over the cult images of Artemis in the temple, which was first constructed in the sixth century and rebuilt after the Persian invasion in the fifth. There were at least two statues and possibly three, referred to in the inventories as "the old image," "the stone image," and "the standing statue. " As many as five garments at a time were worn by these images, a practice that allowed worshipers to feel they had achieved the closest possible contact with the goddess. 18
Old Attic stories, dating to the founding of Brauron and beyond, tell how Artemis became enraged when local inhabitants killed a sacred bear. The ensuing plague could be stopped only by a maiden sacrifice or by the insti- tution of a ritual in which young girls "played the bear" (arkteuein). 19 The bear was noted in Greek lore for both its fierceness and its maternal devotion; though presumably not commonly encountered in Classical Attica, it had a long history as a sacred yet prized game animal in the prehistoric hunting cultures of Europe. At Brauron, girls between the ages of five and ten danced and ran races beside the altar of Artemis. They wore special yellow robes, which they shed at some point in the rite, for the small painted jars dedicated at the end of their service depict both clothed and naked girls. 20
When the Attic towns were united under Athens, the state took over the Brauronia and entrusted the quadrennial festival to the hieropoioi (doers of the sacred things), the same officials who ran the Panathenaic festival for Athena. Not every girl in Attica could serve as a bear at Brauron, though the painted cups have turned up in several other sites, suggesting that some of the Attic villages held their own Brauronian festivals. "Playing the bear" is often described as a puberty or initiation ritual that prepared the girls for the next stage of life, but clearly they were pre-adolescent, too young to be married even by Greek standards. Rather, the ritual has to do with Artemis' role as a goddess who alternately nurtures and destroys the young of both humans and wild animals. By serving the goddess, the young "bears" appeased her and placed themselves under her protection. Many statues of young children, both boys and girls, were dedicated at Brauron. These were apparently given in thanks for the children's survival, because mortality rates were highest in the first few years of life. 21
Artemis Ephesia
Almost nothing remains of the Artemision at Ephesos, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. This monumental temple was an expression of the awesome power attributed to the goddess, the patroness of the city. The plan consisted of an unroofed central court surrounded by an outer phalanx of over a hundred columns, each nearly sixty feet tall. Thirty-six of
108
ARTEMIS
the columns in the front had bases carved with relief sculptures, a feature inherited from Hittite palace architecture, so that entering the temple was like walking through a gallery of gods and heroes. At the heart of the temple was the famous cult image, mysteriously un-Hellenic in appearance. When Paul of Tarsos (Acts 18:19-20:1) visited Ephesos as a missionary in the first century, he found a thriving city that owed much of its prosperity to the popular cult of Artemis.
The Greek settlers who reached the Anatolian coast about 1000 encoun- tered the deities of the indigenous peoples. Most prominent among these was a mother goddess who held a dominant position in the pantheons of this region. She was worshiped under many local names and in many variations, but is best known as Kybele or the Great Goddess. The Greeks chose to recognize their own Artemis in this foreign deity, in spite of the fact that Artemis was emphatically a virgin, not a mother. Yet like her Anatolian counterpart, Artemis was a mountain-roving goddess and a Mistress of Animals.
It is likely that the Greeks found a pre-existing cult at the site of the later Artemision, for legends attributed the founding of the cult to the native Amazons. According to Callimachus (Hymn 3. 237-42), the women warriors set up the goddess' statue beneath an oak tree and danced around it in their armor. Both Artemis' early epithet Oupis/Opis and the name Ephesos itself seem to be etymological descendants of the Hittite town Apasa, which occupied the site in the Bronze Age. While there are Mycenaean and Proto- Geometric potsherds at the site, the earliest archaeological remains securely attributed to the cult are those of a hundred-foot eighth-century temple (hekatompedon) with a surrounding colonnade. Following the local practice, the entrance faced west rather than east. By the next century, there was a large altar opposite the entrance with a special base for the cult image; presumably it was brought out of the temple to witness sacrifices at close quarters. Beside the altar was a sacred spring, perhaps the focus of the earliest cult, and the entire site was marshy and wet.
The evidence suggests that a statue of the goddess was an important ele- ment of the worship from at least the seventh century onward. We know little about the earliest cult image, but a new statue seems to have been commis- sioned with the construction of the massive Archaic temple in the sixth century. Literary sources tell us that the sculptor Endoios, who made several other famous cult statues, created the Artemis. It was similar in appearance to the Archaic Hera of Samos: a rigidly frontal standing figure with legs together, swathed in a tight garment. The arms were bent at the elbows and held forward, and the goddess wore a high crown called a polos. This basic wooden image, probably smaller than life-size, was adorned with a variety of objects: from her hands hung long knotted ribbons, she was draped with cloth garments including a veil, and she wore fine necklaces. Eventually, she was given an elaborate chest ornament, a feature characteristic of Anatolian
109
ARTEMIS
cult images. Covered with globe-like objects, this pectoral was later mis- understood by both ancients and moderns, who thought that the goddess was many-breasted. Votive reliefs depicting the Zeus of Labraunda with a similar pectoral falsify the breast theory, though it was a favorite of early Christian authors, and a few ancient copies of the Ephesian statue actually have nipples, suggesting that the globes seemed breastlike to some pagan worshipers. 22 A recent hypothesis holds that the globe-like objects were scrotal sacs from sacrificed bulls, symbols of fertility. More likely suggestions are that they represent the large, globular dates harvested from the date palm under which Artemis was born in Ephesian Ortygia, according to local legend, or that they can be traced back to a leather bag considered a divine attribute in Hittite religion. It is unclear whether the pectoral was added in the Hellenistic period or had Archaic origins. The panels of Artemis' skirt were covered with a profusion of small relief images. These were a develop- ment of early modes of ornamentation for cult statues, in both the Near East and Greece, which involved fixing hammered plates of gold to the statues. 23
Figure8. 2 ArtemisEphesia. Romanalabasterandbronzecopyofcultstatue,original c. 500. Ht 2. 03 m. Naples, Museo Nazionale. Alinari/Art Resource.
? 110
ARTEMIS
Beneath the Archaic temple, the original excavators found a collection of valuable objects including ninety-three Lydian coins (the earliest known coinage) and intricately crafted items of gold, ivory, terracotta, and bronze. More recent investigations revealed a cache of jewelry contemporary with the Geometric temple, including many amber beads that may have been used to adorn the cult statue. The Archaic stone temple was constructed with help from the Lydian monarch Kroisos, who had his name inscribed on one of the column drums. It endured until the fourth century, when it was consumed in a fire set by a madman. The Ephesians, men and women, gave their own jewelry toward its restoration, which took more than a century. 24
The archaeological remains from the sanctuary include large numbers of animal bones, primarily those of sheep and goats, but cattle, pigs, and a wide variety of wild animals are also attested. Slightly fewer than one hundred deer bones were found around the hekatompedon in the same areas as the ovicaprid bones; this suggests that they were sacrificed. Other bones of wild animals, such as bear teeth, may have been brought to the sanctuary as offer- ings. A "horn altar" composed of goat horns within a stone casing recalls similar Apolline altars on Delos and at Dreros in Krete. 25
We know surprisingly little about the rituals conducted for Artemis at Ephesos in the Archaic and Classical periods; we can only make guesses based on later evidence. A first-century inscription describes a sacred pro- cession including a singer and several individuals specially chosen to carry salt, wild celery, a garment or cloth, and the kosmos, or accessories, of the goddess. A late lexicographer provides context for this inscription, telling of a ritual in which the cult image is brought down to the sea, laid on a bed of wild celery, and given a meal of salt. 26 According to the temple legend, Klymene, the daughter of the king, once treated the goddess to this meal as a game, and she responded by demanding an annual reenactment of the ritual. Such rites focused on the dressing and feeding of cult images are not unknown in Greece, but are more often attested in Near Eastern and Egyptian sources.
A typically Anatolian feature of the Artemision, perhaps borrowed from the cult of the Great Mother, was the eunuch priest called the Megabyzos, a word of Persian origin. The Athenian mercenary Xenophon (An. 5. 3. 6) speaks of his dealings with one of these priests, with whom he deposited money for safekeeping. The Megabyzoi were held in great honor among the Ephesians, though they faded away during the Hellenistic period. 27 Like many other ancient sanctuaries, the Artemision was a place of asylum for fugitives and suppliants of all kinds. The inviolate aura of the sanctuary was so strong that according to legend, when the Ephesians came under attack by Kroisos, they stretched ropes about a mile from the gates of their city to the columns of the temple.
By remaining in physical contact with the sanctuary, they attempted to extend its protection to the city itself. 28
Ephesian Artemis, unlike her mainland counterparts, was a city goddess concerned primarily with the prosperity and safety of the Ephesians, yet her
111
ARTEMIS
great fame encouraged the spread of her cult. When sending a colony to Massilia (Marseilles) around 600, the people of Ionian Phokaia were instruc- ted by an oracle to bring with them a guide from Ephesos and a copy of the cult image. Meanwhile, an Ephesian woman named Aristarche dreamed that the goddess stood beside her and commanded her to go with the Phokaians. Strabo (4. 1. 4) tells how she became the first priestess of the goddess at Massilia, where a temple was constructed and the rituals performed at Ephesos were preserved unchanged. Another example shows how the cult could be spread through private devotion. After visiting the Artemision, Xenophon (An. 5. 3. 4-13) decided to build a miniature copy of the temple for the goddess on his land in Skillous near Olympia. Within it he placed a cypresswood copy of the cult image, and every year he held a banquet in honor of Ephesian Artemis for the people living in the district.
Artemis on Delos
Ephesos and Delos put forward competing claims to be the birthplace of Artemis, but the Delian claim became more widely accepted. Here the triad of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto was worshiped from the eighth century onward, and these cults, particularly that of Artemis, may have had Mycenaean ante- cedents. One of the enduring riddles of Delian archaeology is the nature of the cache of precious objects found beneath the Archaic (c. 700) temple of Artemis. This was a foundation deposit like the one discovered beneath the temple at Ephesos, but it consisted of true antiques: Mycenaean gold orna- ments, a cache of ivory pieces including plaques carved in relief, bronze arrowheads, and potsherds spanning the gap to the Geometric period. The excavator suggested that these were the collected votives from a Mycenaean temple of "pre-Artemis" that preceded the Archaic one and stood on the spot until it was replaced. Others have questioned this reconstruction of a con- tinuous cult because there is little evidence that the island was inhabited from the eleventh to ninth centuries. 29 Still, the deposit suggests that the Archaic temple builders wished to emphasize links to the past. Perhaps they chanced upon a long-buried hoard and piously placed the ancient treasures beneath the new temple.
The richest concentrations of Mycenaean and Geometric votives on Delos were found around Artemis' sanctuary, not that of Apollo, the dominant deity in later centuries. Even in the Classical period, the Artemision remained the spot where the most important votive offerings and heirlooms were pre- served. Among these was the famous seventh-century kore (maiden) dedicated by Nikandre to "the Far-Shooter," the oldest Greek example of a larger than life-size marble statue. Because the hands are pierced to hold attributes, the statue probably represents Artemis rather than a worshiper. Its size and proportions were inspired by Egyptian art. In the temple itself was a seated image of the goddess. Hellenistic inventories of the temple's treasures record
112
ARTEMIS
that this statue possessed an extensive wardrobe including crowns, robes, and a necklace. 30
Artemis' sanctuary was associated with two tombs said to be those of maidens from the land of the Hyperboreans, the legendary northern people who sent offerings to Apollo. According to Herodotus (4. 35), Arge and Opis came to the island "at the same time as the gods themselves. " Upon their tomb, located behind the Artemision, the Delians scattered ashes from the thighbones burned at the altar. The maidens were the subject of ancient songs, and the Delian women had a custom of taking collections on their behalf. When excavated, their shrine turned out to be a real tomb of Mycenaean date. Another pair of maidens, Hyperoche and Laodike, had a monument in the Artemision itself. Legend said that they came to bring thank offerings for the birth of Apollo and Artemis, but they died without returning home. 31 The tale of these girls who died young formed the basis for a Delian rite of passage to adulthood: both girls and boys cut their hair at adolescence and laid it on the tomb as a sign of mourning. For the girls, this was a prelude to marriage. The reason for the location of the monument in the Artemision is clear, for Artemis herself often presided over such rites. Plutarch (Vit. Arist. 20. 6) tells us that Artemis Eukleia (of Glory) had an altar and image in the marketplace of every Boiotian and Lokrian town, where she received offer- ings from couples about to be married.
Further reading
Vernant 1991 gathers some essential writings (Chapters 11-14) on the "other- ness" of Artemis, a quality she shares with Dionysos. Cole 2004 (Chapters 6-7) deals with the goddess of the wilderness in relation to the civilized spaces of polis and sanctuary. The web of connections between Artemis, Gorgo, and the prehistoric Mistress of Animals, and the goddess' patronage of warriors are explored in Marinatos 2000. Faraone 2003 rejects the consensus view that the rites at Brauron pertain to female initiation and focuses instead on the way the ritual functions to placate the anger of Artemis. On Iphigeneia, see Bremmer 2002.
113
9
THE PERSUASIVE GODDESS Aphrodite
Aphrodite was universally recognized as the Lady of Cyprus, the cosmopoli- tan island where Greek colonists and mariners were exposed at an early date to the cultures of the Near East. Because of the many similarities between Aphrodite and Semitic Ishtar/Astarte, and the lack of clear evidence for a Mycenaean Aphrodite, many scholars view the goddess of sexual desire as a relatively late addition to the Greek pantheon, borrowed from the Phoeni- cians. A persistent minority, however, argue that her roots were Indo- European, and that she was a cousin to Ushas, the Vedic dawn goddess, brought to Cyprus by the Mycenaeans. A third view holds that her ancestor was a Bronze Age Cypriot goddess who incorporated both indigenous and Phoenician elements by the time the Greeks adopted her. 1
In poetry as in cult, she was associated with blooming gardens and all the paraphernalia of female beauty: perfumed textiles, jewels, and mirrors. Incense, dove sacrifices, and myrtle crowns were distinctive features of her worship. Aphrodite was typically honored at several smaller shrines in a given city rather than one major sanctuary, which indicates an important popular element in the development of her cult. Her sanctuaries often inclu- ded a cult statue, which required housing, but only rarely were grandiose temples built for her. Similarly, few state festivals in her honor are attested except in the case of Aphrodite Pandemos, though private activities such as vows and banquets were common, particularly in connection with the securing of husbands or sea journeys safely completed. Though a mother, she is not a "mother goddess. " Above all, as in myth and poetry, she rules sexual unions of every variety, and is therefore incidentally associated with marriage and the conception of children.
Kypris: The Lady of Cyprus
Around 1200, longstanding trade between the Mycenaean Greeks and the Cypriots culminated in Greek colonization at several sites on Cyprus, including Paphos. At about the same time, a monumental sanctuary was constructed in the local style, with an open court and a covered colonnade.
114
APHRODITE
This sanctuary was destined to endure more than a thousand years, and to become the best-known cult site of Aphrodite. Here, according to Homer (Od. 8. 361-66) and Hesiod (Theog. 199), was the goddess' home, the spot where she was born from the sea, and where the smoke of fragrant incense rose from her altar. Not surprisingly, given the multicultural nature of the site, the ancient sources do not agree on whether the origins of the sanctuary were Greek, Cypriot, or Phoenician. One of the legends says that its founder was Agapenor, a king of Arkadia returning from the Trojan war. Archaeo- logical and linguistic evidence of close contacts between Arkadian and Cypriot Greeks in this period suggests that this story contains a grain of truth, but a competing version holds that the sanctuary was founded by Kinyras, an indigenous king whose descendants became the historical kings of Paphos and priests of Aphrodite. For his part, Herodotus (1. 105) says that the Cypriots borrowed the cult of Aphrodite Ourania (that is, Astarte) from Ashkelon in the Levant. 2
In spite of the fame of Paphos, few details of its early cult are known. Inscriptions show that Aphrodite had the Mycenaean title Wanassa (The Lady) until the end of the Classical period, and it is clear that her cult was closely associated with kingship on the Near Eastern model. The older structures in the sanctuary were mostly obliterated by the later Roman temple, and our only sources for the ritual life there are of Roman date. According to Tacitus (Hist. 2. 3-4), the Paphians practiced divination from the entrails of sacrificed animals, but the blood was not allowed to touch the altar, which had to remain pure. This is consistent with the early accounts of incense as a key offering. Tacitus also describes the strange image of the goddess: a large conical stone. A dark grey-green stone of matching shape, slightly over a meter high, was recovered in the excavations. 3 Other sources emphasize the importance of flowers and fragrant botanicals in the cult. The use of perfumed oil, mentioned as part of Aphrodite's toilet in her Paphian shrine in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5. 61-63), has Mycenaean precedents. Nearby was the Hierokepia (Sacred Garden), perhaps the source for the rose garlands that filled the sanctuary. An important feature of the early cult, not mentioned in the literary sources, is the relationship between the sanctuary and the industry of bronze metallurgy. Copper slag was found in the sanctuary itself and close by, a pattern that is repeated at other Cypriot cult sites from the Late Bronze Age, where the goddess was worshiped in conjunction with a male deity. This patronage of the island's main export product by a divine pair throws new light on the mythic (but not cultic) association of Aphrodite with the smith god Hephaistos. 4
Among the numerous Cypriot sanctuaries of the goddess, that at Ama- thous, where the population was of indigenous and Phoenician stock, was noted for its unusual, bi-gendered deity. Here the image of the goddess wore female garb, but was bearded and held a scepter. The locals called this deity Aphroditos, a name that was also known in fifth-century Athens. The
115
APHRODITE
androgyny of Aphrodite at Amathous again points to the Near East, for Phoenician Astarte is likewise known to have had a male aspect, but it is also compatible with Greek ideas of Aphrodite as the goddess born of Ouranos' genitals, who governed male sexuality. 5
The export of Aphrodite
The Greeks thought that the oldest cult place of Aphrodite in their lands was the island of Kythera, where an ancient sanctuary of Aphrodite Ourania was attributed to Phoenician founders by Herodotus (1. 105) and others. Archae- ology provides no support for the hypothesis of Phoenician influence on the island, though the sanctuary itself remains unexcavated, and the murex shells exploited by the Phoenicians for purple dye were locally abundant. Certainly this cult was well established by the time of Hesiod (Theog. 191-99), who mentions Aphrodite's brief sojourn there before her emergence from the sea at Cyprus. The remains of a fifth-century Doric temple survive on the island, and the cult statue was an armed Aphrodite who recalled the warlike god- desses Ishtar and Astarte. 6 The goddess probably made her way into mainland Greece during the tenth and ninth centuries from three locations: Cyprus, Kythera, and Krete. Excavations have revealed that the Kretan sanctuaries are among the oldest after those of Cyprus. At Kato Symi, the Archaic sanctuary devoted to Hermes and Aphrodite had a history of continuous use stretching back to Middle Minoan times, though the Minoan predecessors of the pair must have had different names. Again, at Olous there was a Geo- metric temple of Aphrodite and Ares. (Ares is not attested at the site until the double temple of the Roman period, but in other parts of Krete the pair was worshiped from an early date. ) All over the Greek world, Aphrodite is regularly found with a cult partner, either Hermes or Ares, and this appears to be an archaic feature of her worship rather than a later development. 7
Aphrodite Ourania and Pandemos
At Paphos, Kythera, Korinth, Athens, and many other places, Aphrodite was known as Ourania (Heavenly). For the Greeks, this most widely disseminated of her titles evoked the Hesiodic story of the goddess' birth from the severed genitals of Ouranos, Father Sky. They also associated the title with Aphrodite's putative Eastern origins, perhaps because Ishtar/Astarte was known as the "Queen of Heaven" and was likewise a daughter of the sky god. Aphrodite's abode was the heavens, and artists visualized the goddess transported through the night sky, or descending from heaven on a ladder, an Egyptian and Near Eastern symbol of travel between heaven and earth. 8 Much evidence for the cult of Ourania comes from Athens, and its observance there was attributed to the mythical King Aigeus. The goddess had a sanctuary in the city center near the Stoa Poikile with a statue attributed to Pheidias, and an altar
116
APHRODITE
excavated in the area was constructed around 500. In the vicinity of this altar lay a fragmentary, fifth-century votive relief of Aphrodite descending a ladder and later reliefs of the goddess riding on a goat, her favorite sacrificial animal. The iconography of Aphrodite on a goat must have been popular with Greek women, for it was often used to decorate bronze mirrors and jewelry. We find the goat and ladder motifs combined on votive reliefs from outside Attica, as well as on a silver medallion from a brothel in the Kera- meikos that shows the goddess riding through a starry sky accompanied by Hermes and Eros. 9
The sanctuary of Aphrodite by the Ilissos river, situated in a suburban area known as the Gardens, has not been located and is known only from Pausanias' description (1. 19. 2). Here was an image of Aphrodite Ourania in the shape of a herm, a squared-off pillar topped by a head. This shape was not unusual in the cult of Aphrodite, though it is primarily associated with Hermes or Dionysos. It may have been a sign of Aphrodite's bisexual nature, for the gods portrayed in this way were highly phallic; or it may have been a reminder of the goddess' aniconic image at Paphos. While the herm stood in the courtyard, the temple itself contained the best-known work of Pheidias' pupil Alkamenes, "Aphrodite in the Gardens. " Pausanias called this much- admired statue "one of the most noteworthy sights in Athens," but unfortu- nately failed to describe its appearance, leaving modern scholars to speculate based on minimal clues. A prevailing theory holds that two other Aphrodite sanctuaries in the Athens area are duplicates of the one on the Ilissos. Certainly the small sanctuaries at Daphni and on the north slope of the Akropolis are similar to one another, for both were bounded by stony hillsides with niches cut into the rock, both linked the worship of Eros with that of Aphrodite, and both received offerings of anatomical votives in the shape of male and female genitalia. These charming spots, surely filled with greenery in antiquity, correspond to the vase paintings of the Meidian school that show Aphrodite seated on a rock in a garden setting. Aphrodite's connection with vegetation at these shrines recalls the sacred gardens of Near Eastern Astarte and Cypriot Aphrodite Ourania. 10
Pheidias sculpted an Aphrodite Ourania for the Eleans, sponsors of the Olympic games. This work of ivory and gold showed Aphrodite standing with one foot resting on a tortoise, an animal associated with women in Greek folklore because it was always confined to its home. 11 In the sanctuary at Elis, Pheidias' Ourania was juxtaposed with a bronze statue of the goddess riding on a ram, by the fourth-century sculptor Skopas. This image was called Aphrodite Pandemos (of All the People), another widespread cult title of the goddess. Plato (Symp. 180d-181c) attempted to differentiate Ourania and Pandemos as two distinct goddesses, one the celestial deity of "Platonic love" and the other concerned with fleshly pleasures. There is no evidence, how- ever, to suggest that this distinction reflects cult practices or assumptions. Ourania, as we will see, is by no means aloof from fleshly pleasures, while
117
APHRODITE
Pandemos shares the iconography of the "celestial" goddess who travels through the sky.
The epithet Pandemos had to do with Aphrodite's political function as a goddess who unites the citizens in harmony. An Athenian legend about Pandemos says that Theseus founded her worship with that of Peitho (Persuasion) after he united all the people of Attica into one city. 12 Equally indispensable in matters of ero ? s and politics, Peitho was an important con- cept for the emergent Athenian democracy. It is probable that the cult was established around 500, and helped to promote sunousia, the fellowship of citizens. We hear of Athenian tetradistai, or men who gathered to feast in honor of Aphrodite Pandemos on the fourth of every month, a day sacred to both Aphrodite and Hermes. 13 Remnants of the sanctuary have been excavated on the southwest slope of the Akropolis, including a small fourth- century temple with sculpted doves. A later Hellenistic inscription from the site shows that preparations for the state-sponsored festival (known as the Aphrodisia) involved the purification of the sanctuary with a dove sacrifice and the washing of the statues. The cult of Pandemos was an exception to the rule that Aphrodite's worship tended to be less centralized and state- supervised than that of most other Olympian deities. At Erythrai in Ionia, an oracle solicited by the state toward the end of the fifth century advised that the citizens build a temple of Aphrodite Pandemos and supply it with a statue "for the preservation of the people. "14
Figure 9. 1 Aphrodite with dove, votive bronze from Dodona (? ), c. 450. Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
? 118
APHRODITE
An analogue to the legend of Theseus' establishment of the cult of Aphro- dite Pandemos and Peitho is found at Thebes, where the city's Phoenician founder, Kadmos, is said to have married Harmonia, the daughter of Aphro- dite and Ares. Thebans believed that Harmonia, whose name connotes the unity of the citizens, dedicated three ancient wooden statues of Aphrodite on the akropolis. These were named Ourania, Pandemos, and Apostrophia (Averter of Evils). According to Xenophon (Hell. 5. 4. 4), the three Theban civil and military officials known as polemarchoi always celebrated a festival of Aphrodite when their term of office was completed. Similar customs are attested for city officials in Megara, Ionia, and the Aegean islands through dedicatory inscriptions, the earliest of which belongs to fifth-century Keos. 15 While the emphasis at Thebes is on Aphrodite's partnership with the war god Ares, many of these dedications pair her with Hermes. In either case, the union of polar opposites (masculine and feminine or war and love) expresses metaphorically the concepts of civic concord and harmonious order.
Spartan Aphrodite
On the Spartan akropolis, we find an arrangement similar to that at Thebes, with a temple of Aphrodite Areia (of Ares) containing at least two Archaic cult statues. Based on inscribed potsherds from the area, one of these was probably Aphrodite Basilis (Queen). In the seventh century, Spartan colon- ists of Taras and Satyrion in Italy chose to carry this cult to their new home. Taras built an akropolis temple for the goddess, and at neighboring Satyrion worshipers deposited huge numbers of terracotta figurines and pots from the seventh to the third centuries, including one inscribed with the cult title Basilis. The choice of Aphrodite as a patroness may be connected with the legend that the settlers were illegitimate sons of Spartan women. 16 A second Spartan temple was unusual in that it had two stories, each containing its own cult statue. The lower level housed Aphrodite Enoplios (Armed), an Archaic type that may have been copied from Kythera. The upper room contained an unusual cedar statue called Morpho (the Beautiful One). Here the goddess, presumably Aphrodite, was shown enthroned, veiled, and wearing fetters on her feet. She belongs to a category of cult statues deemed to be so powerful and dangerous that they required binding and restraint. The veil too fits this interpretation, for such images were often hidden from view. 17
Aphrodite and "sacred prostitution" at Korinth
On Akrokorinthos, the high rocky citadel of Korinth, Aphrodite was installed as a goddess of the city, probably under the rule of the Bakchiad aristocrats in the eighth century. As in other early cults of Aphrodite, she was depicted with weapons and had the title Ourania, signs of her Near Eastern affinities. 18 The
119
APHRODITE
Korinthian cult, however, differed from most other Greek cults of Aphrodite because the goddess owned slaves who worked as prostitutes. According to the traditional scholarly view, the practice of "sacred prostitution" origin- ated as a fertility rite, and is attested in relation to Ishtar and Asherah. For example, a class of women known as ishtaritum is described in a Babylonian text alongside courtesans "whose favors are many" and prostitutes "whose husbands are legion. "19 On the other hand, this interpretation of certain Mesopotamian cultic functionaries has been vigorously criticized as a scholarly construct, overly reliant on nineteenth-century assumptions about "fertility cult" in the ancient Near East. While the vast textual evidence from cuneiform tablets reveals a bewilderingly large variety of female cultic personnel, some of whom are regularly mentioned alongside prostitutes or in contexts that hint of sexuality, they offer no clear-cut example of a "cultic prostitute," and it is likely that this conceptual category simply does not correspond to the more nuanced and complex roles of Mesopotamian women in relation to their goddesses. 20
Not surprisingly, the practice of "sacred prostitution" at Korinth has also been called into question, since it was assumed to derive directly from the cult of Ishtar. In the Greek instance, however, the evidence is much more con- vincing, and it is important to keep in mind that prostitution for Aphrodite need not be an exact imitation of any Near Eastern model. It could have been based on Greek (mis)understandings of the roles of female cultic personnel in the Near East, or it could even be an independent development. Athenaeus remarks (13. 573d) that it was the practice of individuals to "render" hetairai (courtesans) to Korinthian Aphrodite in payment of vows when their prayers were fulfilled. An example was Xenophon, a citizen who vowed one hundred girls to the goddess in return for victory at the Olympic games. He commis- sioned Pindar to write a song (fr. 122 Snell-Maehler) for the thanksgiving sacrifice, attended by the girls:
Young women, hospitable to many, handmaidens of Peitho in rich Korinth, you who burn the golden tears of pale incense; often you fly in your thoughts to Aphrodite Ourania, the mother of Loves. She gave to you, girls, without blame, to pick the fruit of soft youth on beds of desire. With necessity, all is good . . .
Strabo (8. 6. 20) reports that both men and women dedicated sacred slaves, or hierodules, to the goddess, and that the sanctuary at one time owned more than a thousand of these courtesans, who were a major source of income. 21
As a thriving port and trade depot, Korinth was famous for its prostitutes. Sanctuaries were often expected to be self-supporting, and their income usually derived from estates belonging to the resident deity. In this case, the goddess profited from one of the main industries of Korinth, the sex trade,
120
APHRODITE
through her ownership of slaves who worked as prostitutes. Most, if not all of these slaves must have worked near the harbors, rather than on the Akrokorinthos itself. To modern ears, this arrangement sounds incompatible with "the sacred," yet there is further evidence that the prostitutes of Korinth had a special relationship with Aphrodite. It was an ancient custom that whenever the city had great need, it recruited as many prostitutes as possible to participate in the supplication of the goddess. The most famous instance occurred in 480 when, with the Persian invasion at hand, the hetairai of Korinth prayed to Aphrodite on behalf of the Greeks and the Korinthian soldiery. 22 Still, there is no evidence that Aphrodite's prostitutes acted as priestesses of the goddess, or that consorting with them was in itself a religious act, so "sacred prostitution" is probably a misnomer for their role.
Artemis' identity as mistress of wild nature is expressed through the place- ment of sanctuaries (often in rural areas, especially near rivers or wetlands) and through epithets and unusual sacrificial practices. In Samos, she was known as Kaprophagos (Boar Eater), presumably because wild boars were offered to her. The wild boar also appears as a sacred animal in the legends of Kalydon in Aitolia, where the angry goddess once sent a huge boar to ravage the countryside. The Laphrion or sanctuary of Artemis Laphria in Kalydon was the most important in the district, next to Apollo's sanctuary at Thermon. It was established in the Geometric period, while the first temple of Artemis appeared at the end of the seventh century and was rebuilt several times. In the fifth century (c. 460) the Kalydonians added a gold and ivory statue of Artemis in huntress garb with one breast exposed, sculpted by Menichmos and Soidas of Naupaktos. A second temple at the site was devoted to Apollo Laphrios, just as the Thermon sanctuary of Apollo in Aitolia included a temple of Artemis. The remains at the site show that the sacrificial animals here included boars, deer, and horses. Pausanias' description (7. 18. 8-13) of the later cult at nearby Patrai, where Augustus transferred it after destroying Kalydon, may give us some idea of earlier practices, though we cannot be certain that there was continuity. Each spring the people of Patrai held a grand procession to the altar, and last of all came the priestess of Artemis in a
102
ARTEMIS
? Figure8. 1 ArtemisfromtheeastfriezeoftheParthenon. ErichLessing/ArtResource.
chariot drawn by yoked deer. Creatures of all sorts, including deer, game birds, bear cubs, and domesticated animals, were driven into a large enclosure around the altar. A bonfire of logs within was kindled and the fire consumed the animals alive. The offerings also included fruit from the local orchards, which suggests that the animals too were considered "first fruits" for the goddess. This ritual has been compared to the spring fire festivals of other Indo-European cultures, including the Celtic practice of burning live animals and people in wicker enclosures. 5
The themes of salvation in wartime and mastery over the animal world are again united with a fire festival in the Phokian cult of Artemis Elaphebolos (Shooter of Stags). The people of Phokis in central Greece long remembered a sixth-century conflict with their neighbors to the north, the Thessalians. They told how on the eve of the most desperate battle, the men of Phokis constructed a huge pyre and placed on it all their valuable possessions and the images of the gods. If the battle was lost, the men guarding the pyre were to kill the Phokian women and children, place them on the pyre, light it, and then commit suicide. When the Phokians instead won the battle, they com- memorated the victory during the important festival called the Elaphebolia at the sanctuary of Artemis and Apollo near Hyampolis. This site (modern Kalapodi) held symbolic and strategic importance because it guarded the entrance into Phokis. In all likelihood the festival, and certainly the sanctuary, were far older than the war with the Thessalians. Recent excavations have revealed that Kalapodi is one of the extremely rare cases in which continuity
103
ARTEMIS
of worship can (arguably) be demonstrated from late Mycenaean times to the Geometric period. While this does not prove that Artemis was a goddess of the sanctuary in the Bronze Age, the remains of sacrificial deer from the Mycenaean levels are consistent with her title of Elaphebolos.
In the ninth century the sanctuary was reorganized and two small temples (presumably for Artemis and Apollo) were constructed, one over the pre- vious Mycenaean installation. These were followed by a succession of later temples, in the early phases characterized by interior hearths for cooking sacrificial animals (now the more conventional goats and sheep). About 560, major renovations were undertaken and the character of the offerings changed, with a new preponderance of weapons and armor. These develop- ments are consistent with local memories of the war with Thessaly and the development of the sanctuary as a regional place of worship and a key factor in Phokian self-definition. 6
The bloodthirsty goddess: Artemis Tauropolos and Ortheia
Like Dionysos, Artemis embodies much that stands in opposition to Greek cultural ideals: she is an untamed, powerful female, a deity of the wilds more than of the city, and her personality includes a savage element which must be suppressed in the making of a civilized society. Both deities are so challenging to cultural norms that they are sometimes presented as "foreigners," gods who have arrived from strange and savage lands. This was the case in a number of cities, including Athens and Sparta, which attributed the founding of their Artemis cults to Orestes and his sister Iphigeneia. 7
Attic myths about Artemis tell of an angry goddess who must be appeased. At Aulis in nearby Boiotia, Agamemnon is said to have outraged Artemis by killing a sacred stag, causing her to demand the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia. In some versions of the story, Iphigeneia perished at the altar, but in others she was saved by Artemis and made immortal, or spirited away to a distant land. Herodotus (4. 103) tells of the barbarian Tauroi on the shores of the Black Sea, who sacrifice strangers to a goddess they call Iphigeneia or Parthenos (the Maiden). His account may have inspired Euripides' Iphigeneia in Tauris, in which Orestes discovers his sister serving as priestess of Artemis in the land of the Tauroi. Obeying an oracle, they escape the barbarians and bring the barbarian statue of Artemis Tauropolos (Bull Tender) to Attica, where it is installed in a temple at Halai Araphenides. There a strange rite of bloodletting takes place: a sword is held to a man's throat in order to draw a small amount of blood, "so that the goddess may have her proper honors" (Eur. IT 1459-61). This practice may have been an attenuated form of human sacrifice, though there is no additional evidence for this. What it does demonstrate is the uncanny and savage aspect of the goddess and the belief that she desired such sacrifices. While it is unclear whether the Greeks ever actually practiced human sacrifice, the concept was deeply embedded in their
104
ARTEMIS
culture. Instead of recognizing their own fascination with the topic, they disavowed it by giving the practice, and even the goddess herself, a barbarian origin. 8
At Sparta, a bloody ritual was again linked to the putative origin of the goddess' image in the land of the Tauroi. Spartan boys underwent a series of trials designed to toughen them and to produce ideal warriors worthy of inclusion among the ranks of citizens; one of these tests took place at the altar of Artemis Ortheia. According to our earliest source, Xenophon (Lac. 2. 9), it was a sort of war game between two teams. One team attempted to steal cheeses piled on the altar, while the other wielded whips against them. Later sources speak of a simple test of endurance in which boys were whipped so that blood fell on the altar, while the priestess of Artemis stood by holding the ancient statue. If the men wielding the whips were too lenient, the statue became heavier in her hands. The boys who withstood the most punishment, called "victors at the altar" (bo ? monikai), were greatly honored. In Roman times this ritual became a popular spectacle, and an amphitheater was built around the altar to accommodate tourists. 9
Ortheia seems to mean the Upright Goddess, and folk etymology derives the name from the discovery of the statue tangled in the boughs of the agnus castus bush, which held it upright. 10 In the cult legend related by Pausanias (3. 16. 9), the strange character of the goddess was immediately manifested when the men who found her went mad. The early inscriptions speak of Ortheia, who was probably an independent goddess, only later syncretized with Artemis. Known as the Limnaion (the Marsh), the sanctuary was founded in the late eighth century, and originally consisted of a pavement and altar located in a hollow beside the river Eurotas. An Archaic temple was added and restored after a flood destroyed the original installation. The exca- vators found an unbroken series of votive objects from the late Geometric period to Roman times; among these the sanctuary is famous for its ivory and bone plaques inspired by Phoenician models, more than one hundred thou- sand lead figurines, and an array of unusual terracotta masks.
Found immediately north and south of the temple, the masks are votive copies of wood or cloth masks worn during ritual dances in the Archaic period, and depict a variety of stock characters: grotesque demons, youths, warriors, satyrs, and gorgons. The most numerous are the masks covered with wrinkled ridges, featuring gaping toothy mouths. The iconography of these rather fearsome-looking masks, based on Phoenician models, can be traced back to the male Babylonian monster Humbaba. Most modern schol- ars, however, think the masks represent grotesque females, for an ancient authority speaks of Spartan dances performed by males wearing female masks and clothing. Such dances, described as "funny and obscene," were a regular part of the Dorian and Peloponnesian worship of Artemis, and were probably related to rites of passage. 11
The ivories and the far cheaper molded terracotta and lead figurines include 105
ARTEMIS
numerous images of a winged goddess, holding animals in the heraldic Mistress of Animals pose or grasping a wreath in each hand. Initially, Artemis' favorite animal, the deer, is absent from the animals depicted, but becomes increasingly popular after 600, suggesting that the syncretizing of Ortheia and Artemis took place in the sixth century. The lead figurines, including many hoplite warriors, are characteristic of Peloponnesian sanctuaries but little known elsewhere. Among the early votive gifts, limestone sculptures of heraldic lions and bronze double axes show that artistic motifs from the Mycenaean period were still remembered here. 12
Artemis and the vulnerable maiden
In many if not most Greek cities, adolescent girls danced for Artemis. These dances had social as well as religious functions, as they signaled a girl's readi- ness for marriage and made her visible to potential suitors. Also, transitions in the female life cycle governed by Artemis were linked to the prosperity and safety of the community as a whole. Many of Artemis' sanctuaries were located on the borders of a given polis, in lands that formed territorial boundaries. Rituals conducted safely by girls at these vulnerable sites demon- strated the strength of the polis, just as the very placement of such border sanctuaries asserted territorial claims. Likewise, a number of myths and legends draw a clear analogy between the rape of young women celebrating Artemis' festivals and the penetration of polis territory by enemies. The Spartans traced the origins of their hostility toward the Messenians to such an incident. During a festival, they said, Spartan girls were raped in the sanc- tuary of Artemis Limnatis (of the Marsh), which stood on the borderlands between Lakonia and Messenia and was disputed territory. 13
Artemis' concern for the nurture of human young overlaps with her control over the fertility of the natural world. Particularly in the Peloponnese, where her cults are extremely numerous, Artemis has the characteristics of a nature goddess who promotes the growth of vegetation and is to be found in green, moist places. The cult of Artemis Karyatis (of the Nut Tree) was famed throughout Greece for its dancing maidens, often said to be the inspiration for the columns in maiden form (caryatids) that support the porch of the Athenian Erechtheion and other ancient buildings. Located on the border between Lakonia and Arkadia, Karyai was sacred to Artemis and the nymphs who served as her companions. The girls of Lakonia made an annual pilgrimage there to dance "a traditional local dance" before the goddess' statue, which in Pausanias' day stood in the open air. Here too, the maidens were vulnerable: it was said that the Messenian general Aristomenes and his men kidnapped the daughters of their Lakonian enemies from this sanctuary. 14
As a virgin goddess, Artemis is not asexual but fosters a constant aware- ness of the maturing sexuality of the community's adolescent girls. From a
106
ARTEMIS
patriarchal perspective, the asset of female fertility is always complicated by fears of poaching by rival males (or the desire to engage in such poaching), which helps to explain the regular appearance of the rape motif in Artemis' myths and cults. Still another Peloponnesian cult, that of Artemis Alpheiaia (of the river Alpheios) at Letrinoi, incorporated a legend about the attempted rape of Artemis by the local river god. Artemis escaped recognition by daubing her own face and those of her nymph companions with river mud, an act that probably reflects a lost ritual practice. Artemis and Alpheios shared an altar at Olympia, and the cult spread to the Dorian colony of Syracuse in Sicily, where Artemis Potamia (of the River) was worshiped at a spring said to be the local manifestation of the river Alpheios. 15
Artemis Brauronia
All over the Greek world, women prayed to Artemis for help with gynecological problems, childbirth, and the nurture of young children. Artemis' cult at Brauron, one of the oldest and most important in Attica, was concerned with these functions. The sanctuary, which included a temple and a dining facility, was arranged around a sacred spring and a cave-like cleft in the rocky hillside nearby. This "cave" area was appropriate for a goddess of childbirth, both from a symbolic standpoint and because the Kretan childbirth deity Eileithyia, who is sometimes syncretized with Artemis, was also worshiped in a cave. It is possible that Iphigeneia, whose name means something like "strong in birth," was originally the goddess of Brauron, and that she was demoted to the status of a heroine upon the arrival of Artemis. In Euripides' day (Eur. IT 1462-67), Iphigeneia was remembered as the first priestess at Brauron, and garments of women who died in childbirth were dedicated at her tomb. Excavation has failed to pinpoint the location of this tomb, but it may have been associated with the complex of structures found in the cave area.
Here and in the spring, archaeologists discovered costly gifts to Artemis from the women of Attica: gold jewelry, stone seals and scarab gems, glass beads and vases, and bronze mirrors. 16 But the most frequently dedicated items were articles of women's clothing: belts, tunics, long robes, shawls, and headgear. After using the garments for a time, women gave them to the goddess, often embroidered with their own names or the words "sacred to Artemis. " The items were displayed in the temple in boxes and on racks, and the officials in charge of the sanctuary kept careful records of them. No trace of them exists today, but the temple inventories were carved in stone in the fourth century and set up both at Brauron and at a sister sanctuary on the Athenian Akropolis. These lists make it clear that women gave the best they had to the goddess:
Pheidylla, a white woman's himation in a display box. Mneso, a frog- green garment. Nausis, a lady's himation with a broad purple border in
107
ARTEMIS
wave pattern around the edge. Kleo, a delicate shawl. Phile, a bordered textile. Teisikrateia, a multi-colored Persian style shirt with sleeves. 17
Some of the garments were draped over the cult images of Artemis in the temple, which was first constructed in the sixth century and rebuilt after the Persian invasion in the fifth. There were at least two statues and possibly three, referred to in the inventories as "the old image," "the stone image," and "the standing statue. " As many as five garments at a time were worn by these images, a practice that allowed worshipers to feel they had achieved the closest possible contact with the goddess. 18
Old Attic stories, dating to the founding of Brauron and beyond, tell how Artemis became enraged when local inhabitants killed a sacred bear. The ensuing plague could be stopped only by a maiden sacrifice or by the insti- tution of a ritual in which young girls "played the bear" (arkteuein). 19 The bear was noted in Greek lore for both its fierceness and its maternal devotion; though presumably not commonly encountered in Classical Attica, it had a long history as a sacred yet prized game animal in the prehistoric hunting cultures of Europe. At Brauron, girls between the ages of five and ten danced and ran races beside the altar of Artemis. They wore special yellow robes, which they shed at some point in the rite, for the small painted jars dedicated at the end of their service depict both clothed and naked girls. 20
When the Attic towns were united under Athens, the state took over the Brauronia and entrusted the quadrennial festival to the hieropoioi (doers of the sacred things), the same officials who ran the Panathenaic festival for Athena. Not every girl in Attica could serve as a bear at Brauron, though the painted cups have turned up in several other sites, suggesting that some of the Attic villages held their own Brauronian festivals. "Playing the bear" is often described as a puberty or initiation ritual that prepared the girls for the next stage of life, but clearly they were pre-adolescent, too young to be married even by Greek standards. Rather, the ritual has to do with Artemis' role as a goddess who alternately nurtures and destroys the young of both humans and wild animals. By serving the goddess, the young "bears" appeased her and placed themselves under her protection. Many statues of young children, both boys and girls, were dedicated at Brauron. These were apparently given in thanks for the children's survival, because mortality rates were highest in the first few years of life. 21
Artemis Ephesia
Almost nothing remains of the Artemision at Ephesos, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. This monumental temple was an expression of the awesome power attributed to the goddess, the patroness of the city. The plan consisted of an unroofed central court surrounded by an outer phalanx of over a hundred columns, each nearly sixty feet tall. Thirty-six of
108
ARTEMIS
the columns in the front had bases carved with relief sculptures, a feature inherited from Hittite palace architecture, so that entering the temple was like walking through a gallery of gods and heroes. At the heart of the temple was the famous cult image, mysteriously un-Hellenic in appearance. When Paul of Tarsos (Acts 18:19-20:1) visited Ephesos as a missionary in the first century, he found a thriving city that owed much of its prosperity to the popular cult of Artemis.
The Greek settlers who reached the Anatolian coast about 1000 encoun- tered the deities of the indigenous peoples. Most prominent among these was a mother goddess who held a dominant position in the pantheons of this region. She was worshiped under many local names and in many variations, but is best known as Kybele or the Great Goddess. The Greeks chose to recognize their own Artemis in this foreign deity, in spite of the fact that Artemis was emphatically a virgin, not a mother. Yet like her Anatolian counterpart, Artemis was a mountain-roving goddess and a Mistress of Animals.
It is likely that the Greeks found a pre-existing cult at the site of the later Artemision, for legends attributed the founding of the cult to the native Amazons. According to Callimachus (Hymn 3. 237-42), the women warriors set up the goddess' statue beneath an oak tree and danced around it in their armor. Both Artemis' early epithet Oupis/Opis and the name Ephesos itself seem to be etymological descendants of the Hittite town Apasa, which occupied the site in the Bronze Age. While there are Mycenaean and Proto- Geometric potsherds at the site, the earliest archaeological remains securely attributed to the cult are those of a hundred-foot eighth-century temple (hekatompedon) with a surrounding colonnade. Following the local practice, the entrance faced west rather than east. By the next century, there was a large altar opposite the entrance with a special base for the cult image; presumably it was brought out of the temple to witness sacrifices at close quarters. Beside the altar was a sacred spring, perhaps the focus of the earliest cult, and the entire site was marshy and wet.
The evidence suggests that a statue of the goddess was an important ele- ment of the worship from at least the seventh century onward. We know little about the earliest cult image, but a new statue seems to have been commis- sioned with the construction of the massive Archaic temple in the sixth century. Literary sources tell us that the sculptor Endoios, who made several other famous cult statues, created the Artemis. It was similar in appearance to the Archaic Hera of Samos: a rigidly frontal standing figure with legs together, swathed in a tight garment. The arms were bent at the elbows and held forward, and the goddess wore a high crown called a polos. This basic wooden image, probably smaller than life-size, was adorned with a variety of objects: from her hands hung long knotted ribbons, she was draped with cloth garments including a veil, and she wore fine necklaces. Eventually, she was given an elaborate chest ornament, a feature characteristic of Anatolian
109
ARTEMIS
cult images. Covered with globe-like objects, this pectoral was later mis- understood by both ancients and moderns, who thought that the goddess was many-breasted. Votive reliefs depicting the Zeus of Labraunda with a similar pectoral falsify the breast theory, though it was a favorite of early Christian authors, and a few ancient copies of the Ephesian statue actually have nipples, suggesting that the globes seemed breastlike to some pagan worshipers. 22 A recent hypothesis holds that the globe-like objects were scrotal sacs from sacrificed bulls, symbols of fertility. More likely suggestions are that they represent the large, globular dates harvested from the date palm under which Artemis was born in Ephesian Ortygia, according to local legend, or that they can be traced back to a leather bag considered a divine attribute in Hittite religion. It is unclear whether the pectoral was added in the Hellenistic period or had Archaic origins. The panels of Artemis' skirt were covered with a profusion of small relief images. These were a develop- ment of early modes of ornamentation for cult statues, in both the Near East and Greece, which involved fixing hammered plates of gold to the statues. 23
Figure8. 2 ArtemisEphesia. Romanalabasterandbronzecopyofcultstatue,original c. 500. Ht 2. 03 m. Naples, Museo Nazionale. Alinari/Art Resource.
? 110
ARTEMIS
Beneath the Archaic temple, the original excavators found a collection of valuable objects including ninety-three Lydian coins (the earliest known coinage) and intricately crafted items of gold, ivory, terracotta, and bronze. More recent investigations revealed a cache of jewelry contemporary with the Geometric temple, including many amber beads that may have been used to adorn the cult statue. The Archaic stone temple was constructed with help from the Lydian monarch Kroisos, who had his name inscribed on one of the column drums. It endured until the fourth century, when it was consumed in a fire set by a madman. The Ephesians, men and women, gave their own jewelry toward its restoration, which took more than a century. 24
The archaeological remains from the sanctuary include large numbers of animal bones, primarily those of sheep and goats, but cattle, pigs, and a wide variety of wild animals are also attested. Slightly fewer than one hundred deer bones were found around the hekatompedon in the same areas as the ovicaprid bones; this suggests that they were sacrificed. Other bones of wild animals, such as bear teeth, may have been brought to the sanctuary as offer- ings. A "horn altar" composed of goat horns within a stone casing recalls similar Apolline altars on Delos and at Dreros in Krete. 25
We know surprisingly little about the rituals conducted for Artemis at Ephesos in the Archaic and Classical periods; we can only make guesses based on later evidence. A first-century inscription describes a sacred pro- cession including a singer and several individuals specially chosen to carry salt, wild celery, a garment or cloth, and the kosmos, or accessories, of the goddess. A late lexicographer provides context for this inscription, telling of a ritual in which the cult image is brought down to the sea, laid on a bed of wild celery, and given a meal of salt. 26 According to the temple legend, Klymene, the daughter of the king, once treated the goddess to this meal as a game, and she responded by demanding an annual reenactment of the ritual. Such rites focused on the dressing and feeding of cult images are not unknown in Greece, but are more often attested in Near Eastern and Egyptian sources.
A typically Anatolian feature of the Artemision, perhaps borrowed from the cult of the Great Mother, was the eunuch priest called the Megabyzos, a word of Persian origin. The Athenian mercenary Xenophon (An. 5. 3. 6) speaks of his dealings with one of these priests, with whom he deposited money for safekeeping. The Megabyzoi were held in great honor among the Ephesians, though they faded away during the Hellenistic period. 27 Like many other ancient sanctuaries, the Artemision was a place of asylum for fugitives and suppliants of all kinds. The inviolate aura of the sanctuary was so strong that according to legend, when the Ephesians came under attack by Kroisos, they stretched ropes about a mile from the gates of their city to the columns of the temple.
By remaining in physical contact with the sanctuary, they attempted to extend its protection to the city itself. 28
Ephesian Artemis, unlike her mainland counterparts, was a city goddess concerned primarily with the prosperity and safety of the Ephesians, yet her
111
ARTEMIS
great fame encouraged the spread of her cult. When sending a colony to Massilia (Marseilles) around 600, the people of Ionian Phokaia were instruc- ted by an oracle to bring with them a guide from Ephesos and a copy of the cult image. Meanwhile, an Ephesian woman named Aristarche dreamed that the goddess stood beside her and commanded her to go with the Phokaians. Strabo (4. 1. 4) tells how she became the first priestess of the goddess at Massilia, where a temple was constructed and the rituals performed at Ephesos were preserved unchanged. Another example shows how the cult could be spread through private devotion. After visiting the Artemision, Xenophon (An. 5. 3. 4-13) decided to build a miniature copy of the temple for the goddess on his land in Skillous near Olympia. Within it he placed a cypresswood copy of the cult image, and every year he held a banquet in honor of Ephesian Artemis for the people living in the district.
Artemis on Delos
Ephesos and Delos put forward competing claims to be the birthplace of Artemis, but the Delian claim became more widely accepted. Here the triad of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto was worshiped from the eighth century onward, and these cults, particularly that of Artemis, may have had Mycenaean ante- cedents. One of the enduring riddles of Delian archaeology is the nature of the cache of precious objects found beneath the Archaic (c. 700) temple of Artemis. This was a foundation deposit like the one discovered beneath the temple at Ephesos, but it consisted of true antiques: Mycenaean gold orna- ments, a cache of ivory pieces including plaques carved in relief, bronze arrowheads, and potsherds spanning the gap to the Geometric period. The excavator suggested that these were the collected votives from a Mycenaean temple of "pre-Artemis" that preceded the Archaic one and stood on the spot until it was replaced. Others have questioned this reconstruction of a con- tinuous cult because there is little evidence that the island was inhabited from the eleventh to ninth centuries. 29 Still, the deposit suggests that the Archaic temple builders wished to emphasize links to the past. Perhaps they chanced upon a long-buried hoard and piously placed the ancient treasures beneath the new temple.
The richest concentrations of Mycenaean and Geometric votives on Delos were found around Artemis' sanctuary, not that of Apollo, the dominant deity in later centuries. Even in the Classical period, the Artemision remained the spot where the most important votive offerings and heirlooms were pre- served. Among these was the famous seventh-century kore (maiden) dedicated by Nikandre to "the Far-Shooter," the oldest Greek example of a larger than life-size marble statue. Because the hands are pierced to hold attributes, the statue probably represents Artemis rather than a worshiper. Its size and proportions were inspired by Egyptian art. In the temple itself was a seated image of the goddess. Hellenistic inventories of the temple's treasures record
112
ARTEMIS
that this statue possessed an extensive wardrobe including crowns, robes, and a necklace. 30
Artemis' sanctuary was associated with two tombs said to be those of maidens from the land of the Hyperboreans, the legendary northern people who sent offerings to Apollo. According to Herodotus (4. 35), Arge and Opis came to the island "at the same time as the gods themselves. " Upon their tomb, located behind the Artemision, the Delians scattered ashes from the thighbones burned at the altar. The maidens were the subject of ancient songs, and the Delian women had a custom of taking collections on their behalf. When excavated, their shrine turned out to be a real tomb of Mycenaean date. Another pair of maidens, Hyperoche and Laodike, had a monument in the Artemision itself. Legend said that they came to bring thank offerings for the birth of Apollo and Artemis, but they died without returning home. 31 The tale of these girls who died young formed the basis for a Delian rite of passage to adulthood: both girls and boys cut their hair at adolescence and laid it on the tomb as a sign of mourning. For the girls, this was a prelude to marriage. The reason for the location of the monument in the Artemision is clear, for Artemis herself often presided over such rites. Plutarch (Vit. Arist. 20. 6) tells us that Artemis Eukleia (of Glory) had an altar and image in the marketplace of every Boiotian and Lokrian town, where she received offer- ings from couples about to be married.
Further reading
Vernant 1991 gathers some essential writings (Chapters 11-14) on the "other- ness" of Artemis, a quality she shares with Dionysos. Cole 2004 (Chapters 6-7) deals with the goddess of the wilderness in relation to the civilized spaces of polis and sanctuary. The web of connections between Artemis, Gorgo, and the prehistoric Mistress of Animals, and the goddess' patronage of warriors are explored in Marinatos 2000. Faraone 2003 rejects the consensus view that the rites at Brauron pertain to female initiation and focuses instead on the way the ritual functions to placate the anger of Artemis. On Iphigeneia, see Bremmer 2002.
113
9
THE PERSUASIVE GODDESS Aphrodite
Aphrodite was universally recognized as the Lady of Cyprus, the cosmopoli- tan island where Greek colonists and mariners were exposed at an early date to the cultures of the Near East. Because of the many similarities between Aphrodite and Semitic Ishtar/Astarte, and the lack of clear evidence for a Mycenaean Aphrodite, many scholars view the goddess of sexual desire as a relatively late addition to the Greek pantheon, borrowed from the Phoeni- cians. A persistent minority, however, argue that her roots were Indo- European, and that she was a cousin to Ushas, the Vedic dawn goddess, brought to Cyprus by the Mycenaeans. A third view holds that her ancestor was a Bronze Age Cypriot goddess who incorporated both indigenous and Phoenician elements by the time the Greeks adopted her. 1
In poetry as in cult, she was associated with blooming gardens and all the paraphernalia of female beauty: perfumed textiles, jewels, and mirrors. Incense, dove sacrifices, and myrtle crowns were distinctive features of her worship. Aphrodite was typically honored at several smaller shrines in a given city rather than one major sanctuary, which indicates an important popular element in the development of her cult. Her sanctuaries often inclu- ded a cult statue, which required housing, but only rarely were grandiose temples built for her. Similarly, few state festivals in her honor are attested except in the case of Aphrodite Pandemos, though private activities such as vows and banquets were common, particularly in connection with the securing of husbands or sea journeys safely completed. Though a mother, she is not a "mother goddess. " Above all, as in myth and poetry, she rules sexual unions of every variety, and is therefore incidentally associated with marriage and the conception of children.
Kypris: The Lady of Cyprus
Around 1200, longstanding trade between the Mycenaean Greeks and the Cypriots culminated in Greek colonization at several sites on Cyprus, including Paphos. At about the same time, a monumental sanctuary was constructed in the local style, with an open court and a covered colonnade.
114
APHRODITE
This sanctuary was destined to endure more than a thousand years, and to become the best-known cult site of Aphrodite. Here, according to Homer (Od. 8. 361-66) and Hesiod (Theog. 199), was the goddess' home, the spot where she was born from the sea, and where the smoke of fragrant incense rose from her altar. Not surprisingly, given the multicultural nature of the site, the ancient sources do not agree on whether the origins of the sanctuary were Greek, Cypriot, or Phoenician. One of the legends says that its founder was Agapenor, a king of Arkadia returning from the Trojan war. Archaeo- logical and linguistic evidence of close contacts between Arkadian and Cypriot Greeks in this period suggests that this story contains a grain of truth, but a competing version holds that the sanctuary was founded by Kinyras, an indigenous king whose descendants became the historical kings of Paphos and priests of Aphrodite. For his part, Herodotus (1. 105) says that the Cypriots borrowed the cult of Aphrodite Ourania (that is, Astarte) from Ashkelon in the Levant. 2
In spite of the fame of Paphos, few details of its early cult are known. Inscriptions show that Aphrodite had the Mycenaean title Wanassa (The Lady) until the end of the Classical period, and it is clear that her cult was closely associated with kingship on the Near Eastern model. The older structures in the sanctuary were mostly obliterated by the later Roman temple, and our only sources for the ritual life there are of Roman date. According to Tacitus (Hist. 2. 3-4), the Paphians practiced divination from the entrails of sacrificed animals, but the blood was not allowed to touch the altar, which had to remain pure. This is consistent with the early accounts of incense as a key offering. Tacitus also describes the strange image of the goddess: a large conical stone. A dark grey-green stone of matching shape, slightly over a meter high, was recovered in the excavations. 3 Other sources emphasize the importance of flowers and fragrant botanicals in the cult. The use of perfumed oil, mentioned as part of Aphrodite's toilet in her Paphian shrine in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5. 61-63), has Mycenaean precedents. Nearby was the Hierokepia (Sacred Garden), perhaps the source for the rose garlands that filled the sanctuary. An important feature of the early cult, not mentioned in the literary sources, is the relationship between the sanctuary and the industry of bronze metallurgy. Copper slag was found in the sanctuary itself and close by, a pattern that is repeated at other Cypriot cult sites from the Late Bronze Age, where the goddess was worshiped in conjunction with a male deity. This patronage of the island's main export product by a divine pair throws new light on the mythic (but not cultic) association of Aphrodite with the smith god Hephaistos. 4
Among the numerous Cypriot sanctuaries of the goddess, that at Ama- thous, where the population was of indigenous and Phoenician stock, was noted for its unusual, bi-gendered deity. Here the image of the goddess wore female garb, but was bearded and held a scepter. The locals called this deity Aphroditos, a name that was also known in fifth-century Athens. The
115
APHRODITE
androgyny of Aphrodite at Amathous again points to the Near East, for Phoenician Astarte is likewise known to have had a male aspect, but it is also compatible with Greek ideas of Aphrodite as the goddess born of Ouranos' genitals, who governed male sexuality. 5
The export of Aphrodite
The Greeks thought that the oldest cult place of Aphrodite in their lands was the island of Kythera, where an ancient sanctuary of Aphrodite Ourania was attributed to Phoenician founders by Herodotus (1. 105) and others. Archae- ology provides no support for the hypothesis of Phoenician influence on the island, though the sanctuary itself remains unexcavated, and the murex shells exploited by the Phoenicians for purple dye were locally abundant. Certainly this cult was well established by the time of Hesiod (Theog. 191-99), who mentions Aphrodite's brief sojourn there before her emergence from the sea at Cyprus. The remains of a fifth-century Doric temple survive on the island, and the cult statue was an armed Aphrodite who recalled the warlike god- desses Ishtar and Astarte. 6 The goddess probably made her way into mainland Greece during the tenth and ninth centuries from three locations: Cyprus, Kythera, and Krete. Excavations have revealed that the Kretan sanctuaries are among the oldest after those of Cyprus. At Kato Symi, the Archaic sanctuary devoted to Hermes and Aphrodite had a history of continuous use stretching back to Middle Minoan times, though the Minoan predecessors of the pair must have had different names. Again, at Olous there was a Geo- metric temple of Aphrodite and Ares. (Ares is not attested at the site until the double temple of the Roman period, but in other parts of Krete the pair was worshiped from an early date. ) All over the Greek world, Aphrodite is regularly found with a cult partner, either Hermes or Ares, and this appears to be an archaic feature of her worship rather than a later development. 7
Aphrodite Ourania and Pandemos
At Paphos, Kythera, Korinth, Athens, and many other places, Aphrodite was known as Ourania (Heavenly). For the Greeks, this most widely disseminated of her titles evoked the Hesiodic story of the goddess' birth from the severed genitals of Ouranos, Father Sky. They also associated the title with Aphrodite's putative Eastern origins, perhaps because Ishtar/Astarte was known as the "Queen of Heaven" and was likewise a daughter of the sky god. Aphrodite's abode was the heavens, and artists visualized the goddess transported through the night sky, or descending from heaven on a ladder, an Egyptian and Near Eastern symbol of travel between heaven and earth. 8 Much evidence for the cult of Ourania comes from Athens, and its observance there was attributed to the mythical King Aigeus. The goddess had a sanctuary in the city center near the Stoa Poikile with a statue attributed to Pheidias, and an altar
116
APHRODITE
excavated in the area was constructed around 500. In the vicinity of this altar lay a fragmentary, fifth-century votive relief of Aphrodite descending a ladder and later reliefs of the goddess riding on a goat, her favorite sacrificial animal. The iconography of Aphrodite on a goat must have been popular with Greek women, for it was often used to decorate bronze mirrors and jewelry. We find the goat and ladder motifs combined on votive reliefs from outside Attica, as well as on a silver medallion from a brothel in the Kera- meikos that shows the goddess riding through a starry sky accompanied by Hermes and Eros. 9
The sanctuary of Aphrodite by the Ilissos river, situated in a suburban area known as the Gardens, has not been located and is known only from Pausanias' description (1. 19. 2). Here was an image of Aphrodite Ourania in the shape of a herm, a squared-off pillar topped by a head. This shape was not unusual in the cult of Aphrodite, though it is primarily associated with Hermes or Dionysos. It may have been a sign of Aphrodite's bisexual nature, for the gods portrayed in this way were highly phallic; or it may have been a reminder of the goddess' aniconic image at Paphos. While the herm stood in the courtyard, the temple itself contained the best-known work of Pheidias' pupil Alkamenes, "Aphrodite in the Gardens. " Pausanias called this much- admired statue "one of the most noteworthy sights in Athens," but unfortu- nately failed to describe its appearance, leaving modern scholars to speculate based on minimal clues. A prevailing theory holds that two other Aphrodite sanctuaries in the Athens area are duplicates of the one on the Ilissos. Certainly the small sanctuaries at Daphni and on the north slope of the Akropolis are similar to one another, for both were bounded by stony hillsides with niches cut into the rock, both linked the worship of Eros with that of Aphrodite, and both received offerings of anatomical votives in the shape of male and female genitalia. These charming spots, surely filled with greenery in antiquity, correspond to the vase paintings of the Meidian school that show Aphrodite seated on a rock in a garden setting. Aphrodite's connection with vegetation at these shrines recalls the sacred gardens of Near Eastern Astarte and Cypriot Aphrodite Ourania. 10
Pheidias sculpted an Aphrodite Ourania for the Eleans, sponsors of the Olympic games. This work of ivory and gold showed Aphrodite standing with one foot resting on a tortoise, an animal associated with women in Greek folklore because it was always confined to its home. 11 In the sanctuary at Elis, Pheidias' Ourania was juxtaposed with a bronze statue of the goddess riding on a ram, by the fourth-century sculptor Skopas. This image was called Aphrodite Pandemos (of All the People), another widespread cult title of the goddess. Plato (Symp. 180d-181c) attempted to differentiate Ourania and Pandemos as two distinct goddesses, one the celestial deity of "Platonic love" and the other concerned with fleshly pleasures. There is no evidence, how- ever, to suggest that this distinction reflects cult practices or assumptions. Ourania, as we will see, is by no means aloof from fleshly pleasures, while
117
APHRODITE
Pandemos shares the iconography of the "celestial" goddess who travels through the sky.
The epithet Pandemos had to do with Aphrodite's political function as a goddess who unites the citizens in harmony. An Athenian legend about Pandemos says that Theseus founded her worship with that of Peitho (Persuasion) after he united all the people of Attica into one city. 12 Equally indispensable in matters of ero ? s and politics, Peitho was an important con- cept for the emergent Athenian democracy. It is probable that the cult was established around 500, and helped to promote sunousia, the fellowship of citizens. We hear of Athenian tetradistai, or men who gathered to feast in honor of Aphrodite Pandemos on the fourth of every month, a day sacred to both Aphrodite and Hermes. 13 Remnants of the sanctuary have been excavated on the southwest slope of the Akropolis, including a small fourth- century temple with sculpted doves. A later Hellenistic inscription from the site shows that preparations for the state-sponsored festival (known as the Aphrodisia) involved the purification of the sanctuary with a dove sacrifice and the washing of the statues. The cult of Pandemos was an exception to the rule that Aphrodite's worship tended to be less centralized and state- supervised than that of most other Olympian deities. At Erythrai in Ionia, an oracle solicited by the state toward the end of the fifth century advised that the citizens build a temple of Aphrodite Pandemos and supply it with a statue "for the preservation of the people. "14
Figure 9. 1 Aphrodite with dove, votive bronze from Dodona (? ), c. 450. Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
? 118
APHRODITE
An analogue to the legend of Theseus' establishment of the cult of Aphro- dite Pandemos and Peitho is found at Thebes, where the city's Phoenician founder, Kadmos, is said to have married Harmonia, the daughter of Aphro- dite and Ares. Thebans believed that Harmonia, whose name connotes the unity of the citizens, dedicated three ancient wooden statues of Aphrodite on the akropolis. These were named Ourania, Pandemos, and Apostrophia (Averter of Evils). According to Xenophon (Hell. 5. 4. 4), the three Theban civil and military officials known as polemarchoi always celebrated a festival of Aphrodite when their term of office was completed. Similar customs are attested for city officials in Megara, Ionia, and the Aegean islands through dedicatory inscriptions, the earliest of which belongs to fifth-century Keos. 15 While the emphasis at Thebes is on Aphrodite's partnership with the war god Ares, many of these dedications pair her with Hermes. In either case, the union of polar opposites (masculine and feminine or war and love) expresses metaphorically the concepts of civic concord and harmonious order.
Spartan Aphrodite
On the Spartan akropolis, we find an arrangement similar to that at Thebes, with a temple of Aphrodite Areia (of Ares) containing at least two Archaic cult statues. Based on inscribed potsherds from the area, one of these was probably Aphrodite Basilis (Queen). In the seventh century, Spartan colon- ists of Taras and Satyrion in Italy chose to carry this cult to their new home. Taras built an akropolis temple for the goddess, and at neighboring Satyrion worshipers deposited huge numbers of terracotta figurines and pots from the seventh to the third centuries, including one inscribed with the cult title Basilis. The choice of Aphrodite as a patroness may be connected with the legend that the settlers were illegitimate sons of Spartan women. 16 A second Spartan temple was unusual in that it had two stories, each containing its own cult statue. The lower level housed Aphrodite Enoplios (Armed), an Archaic type that may have been copied from Kythera. The upper room contained an unusual cedar statue called Morpho (the Beautiful One). Here the goddess, presumably Aphrodite, was shown enthroned, veiled, and wearing fetters on her feet. She belongs to a category of cult statues deemed to be so powerful and dangerous that they required binding and restraint. The veil too fits this interpretation, for such images were often hidden from view. 17
Aphrodite and "sacred prostitution" at Korinth
On Akrokorinthos, the high rocky citadel of Korinth, Aphrodite was installed as a goddess of the city, probably under the rule of the Bakchiad aristocrats in the eighth century. As in other early cults of Aphrodite, she was depicted with weapons and had the title Ourania, signs of her Near Eastern affinities. 18 The
119
APHRODITE
Korinthian cult, however, differed from most other Greek cults of Aphrodite because the goddess owned slaves who worked as prostitutes. According to the traditional scholarly view, the practice of "sacred prostitution" origin- ated as a fertility rite, and is attested in relation to Ishtar and Asherah. For example, a class of women known as ishtaritum is described in a Babylonian text alongside courtesans "whose favors are many" and prostitutes "whose husbands are legion. "19 On the other hand, this interpretation of certain Mesopotamian cultic functionaries has been vigorously criticized as a scholarly construct, overly reliant on nineteenth-century assumptions about "fertility cult" in the ancient Near East. While the vast textual evidence from cuneiform tablets reveals a bewilderingly large variety of female cultic personnel, some of whom are regularly mentioned alongside prostitutes or in contexts that hint of sexuality, they offer no clear-cut example of a "cultic prostitute," and it is likely that this conceptual category simply does not correspond to the more nuanced and complex roles of Mesopotamian women in relation to their goddesses. 20
Not surprisingly, the practice of "sacred prostitution" at Korinth has also been called into question, since it was assumed to derive directly from the cult of Ishtar. In the Greek instance, however, the evidence is much more con- vincing, and it is important to keep in mind that prostitution for Aphrodite need not be an exact imitation of any Near Eastern model. It could have been based on Greek (mis)understandings of the roles of female cultic personnel in the Near East, or it could even be an independent development. Athenaeus remarks (13. 573d) that it was the practice of individuals to "render" hetairai (courtesans) to Korinthian Aphrodite in payment of vows when their prayers were fulfilled. An example was Xenophon, a citizen who vowed one hundred girls to the goddess in return for victory at the Olympic games. He commis- sioned Pindar to write a song (fr. 122 Snell-Maehler) for the thanksgiving sacrifice, attended by the girls:
Young women, hospitable to many, handmaidens of Peitho in rich Korinth, you who burn the golden tears of pale incense; often you fly in your thoughts to Aphrodite Ourania, the mother of Loves. She gave to you, girls, without blame, to pick the fruit of soft youth on beds of desire. With necessity, all is good . . .
Strabo (8. 6. 20) reports that both men and women dedicated sacred slaves, or hierodules, to the goddess, and that the sanctuary at one time owned more than a thousand of these courtesans, who were a major source of income. 21
As a thriving port and trade depot, Korinth was famous for its prostitutes. Sanctuaries were often expected to be self-supporting, and their income usually derived from estates belonging to the resident deity. In this case, the goddess profited from one of the main industries of Korinth, the sex trade,
120
APHRODITE
through her ownership of slaves who worked as prostitutes. Most, if not all of these slaves must have worked near the harbors, rather than on the Akrokorinthos itself. To modern ears, this arrangement sounds incompatible with "the sacred," yet there is further evidence that the prostitutes of Korinth had a special relationship with Aphrodite. It was an ancient custom that whenever the city had great need, it recruited as many prostitutes as possible to participate in the supplication of the goddess. The most famous instance occurred in 480 when, with the Persian invasion at hand, the hetairai of Korinth prayed to Aphrodite on behalf of the Greeks and the Korinthian soldiery. 22 Still, there is no evidence that Aphrodite's prostitutes acted as priestesses of the goddess, or that consorting with them was in itself a religious act, so "sacred prostitution" is probably a misnomer for their role.
