Evidence from the excavations, however, shows that by the
Classical
period, one consulted Zeus and Dione by writing a question on a ribbon-shaped lead tablet and handing it to the priestess.
Ancient-greek-cults-a-guide
During times of prolonged drought, the priest of Zeus made a sacrifice and stirred the waters of the spring Hagno (the Pure) with an oak branch in order to bring rain.
5
But the most mysterious activity of the cult took place on the summit of the mountain. At the very top, a large mound of ashes and blackened soil contained knives, small tripods and burnt bones, while the sanctuary 20 m below included two fifth-century Doric columns topped by gilded eagles. Here, a secret nocturnal sacrifice was held during which participants ate portions of "mystery meat" from a tripod kettle reputed to contain not only entrails of animals, but also a piece taken from a human victim. According to Plato (Resp. 565d) "he who tastes of the human entrails minced up with those of other victims inevitably becomes a wolf (lukos). " Tradition said that at least one person at the sacrifice was always transformed; if during his time as a wolf he abstained from human flesh, he would become human again after ten years, but otherwise he would remain a wolf forever. What are we to make of this ancient story of lycanthropy? And could it be true that people were regularly sacrificed to Zeus Lykaios? The latter possibility is not the most likely, considering that no human remains have been found in the excavation of the site, and that human sacrifice seems to have been far more common in Greek myths and symbolic rites than in actual practice. On the other hand, the participants in the ritual may well have believed that the pot contained forbidden meat. As for the werewolves, it has been suggested that the ritual originally served as a rite of passage, through which youths entering adolescence (girls were apparently excluded) began a period of rugged training as warriors by hunting and living in the wild as "wolves. " After this probationary period, the young men would be eligible to marry and enjoy other rights of full manhood. 6
The Arkadians believed that their ancestral king Lykaon and his fifty sons once played host to the gods, who in those days dined among humans. They incurred the wrath of Zeus, however, by serving a cannibalistic feast that contained the flesh of a slaughtered boy, in some accounts the king's own grandson Arkas. Lykaon's punishment was to be turned into a wolf. Thus, the re-enactment of the meal was an annual reminder of a past epoch in which the savage ancestor of the Arkadians failed to distinguish properly between human and animal, and offended the gods with a perverted sacrifice. The descendants of Lykaon were fated to suffer his punishment, but this special burden of identity with the wolf also set them apart from other Greeks. In spite of the Arkadians' belief in the great antiquity of this custom, the oldest artifacts in the sanctuary are no earlier than the seventh century. 7
18
ZEUS
Zeus of the city
As the sovereign and father of the gods, Zeus presided over normative civic, social, and family relationships. He endorsed the power of early chieftains and kings (in Hom. Il. 2. 100-8, for example, Agamemnon's scepter is an heirloom from the god), but in the later age of the Greek polis, Zeus was the upholder of civic authority. Zeus Polieus (of the City) was worshiped in many Greek cities, often with Athena Polias, the citadel goddess, as his partner. The Athenians preserved an ancient and curious ritual for this god, carried out on the Akropolis at his annual festival, the Dipolieia. Already considered old-fashioned by the Classical period, the Dipolieia ritually linked Zeus' Archaic role as an agricultural deity with his civic function as a guarantor of justice. According to Pausanias (1. 24. 4):
They put barley mixed with wheat on the altar of Zeus and leave no guard there. The ox that they have ready for the sacrifice goes to the altar and touches the grains. They call one of the priests the Ox-Slayer (Bouphonos); [after striking the ox] he drops the axe and flees, for this is the custom. And refusing to recognize the man who did the deed, they put the axe on trial.
The ritual has received attention for its special focus on the ox: many sacrifices included oxen, but only this one had a special priest known as the Ox-Slayer, and the alternative name of the festival was the Ox-Slaying or Bouphonia. This indicates that the festival was concerned with the value of the ox as a domesticated animal. The ritual expresses tension between the ox's value as a meat animal and the need to keep oxen alive as draft animals, vital for agriculture. Hence, the man who kills the ox commits a "crime," but also re- enacts the first sacrifice and the pleasurable sacrificial meal of meat.
The location of the altar on the Akropolis and the priest's use of a double- edged sacrificial axe (pelekus), well known from Bronze Age Aegean icon- ography, suggest that this ritual has roots in Mycenaean religion. The Swiss ethnologist Karl Meuli, followed by Burkert, would take the origins of this rite back much further, to the time before cattle were domesticated. A later but more detailed source for the Dipolieia says that after the sacrifice, the hide of the dead ox was stuffed and set up as if it were still alive. This reminded Meuli of the customs of tribal peoples who subsist by hunting; often the hunter tries to maintain the goodwill of the animal and its kind by shifting blame for the kill to others, or even to a weapon. Attempts to reconstruct the animal symbolically, so as to ensure its future abundance, are also attested. 8
Under other titles associated with civic functions, such as Boulaios (of the Council) and Agoraios (of the City Center), Zeus preserved order and over- saw the political and legal systems of the Greek polis. He is also associated with victory in battle. After a battle, soldiers honored Zeus Tropaios (of the
19
ZEUS
Rout) by setting up an effigy in the form of a pole with armor placed on it. The first literary description of this practice occurs in Sophocles' Antigone 141-47, where the chorus describes how six of the Seven Against Thebes "left behind their bronze armor for Zeus Tropaios. " Such images were normally temporary, but Zeus Tropaios appropriately possessed a sanctuary of his own in warlike Sparta. 9
Cults of Zeus Eleutherios (of Freedom) were instituted on special occasions when Greeks believed they had experienced divine deliverance from tyranny. After the battle of Plataiai in 480, an altar was built for Zeus Eleutherios to commemorate the united defense of Greece against the invading Persians. The poet Simonides wrote an epigram (fr. 15 Page, FGE) to be inscribed on the altar, including the words: "Having driven out the Persians, they set up the altar of Zeus Eleutherios, a free (eleutheron) ornament for Hellas. " The commemorative games instituted at this time, which included a race of fully armed men around the altar, were still observed hundreds of years later. An existing altar in the Athenian agora, most likely belonging to Zeus Soter (Savior), was rebuilt c. 430 together with a stoa, which formed a new sanc- tuary of Zeus Eleutherios/Soter. The timing of the construction suggests that the power of Zeus was now being invoked against the invading Spartans. In Sicily, the cult of Zeus Eleutherios was first established when the tyrant Thrasyboulos was overthrown in 466. The city of Syracuse erected a colossal statue of Zeus and, as at Plataiai, founded games. 10
The cult of Zeus Soter was more geographically widespread, and similarly marked occasions when disaster was averted or battles won. Zeus Soter was also invoked broadly as a god who saved individuals in times of trouble. At his temple in the Peiraieus, which was shared with Athena Soteira, sailors made offerings upon returning home from dangerous journeys, and the ephebes, or young warriors-in-training, rowed trireme races in his honor at an annual festival, the Diisoteria. Finally, Zeus Soter was an important god of the household. With other deities such as Hygieia (Health) and Agathos Daimon (the Good God), he traditionally received the third libation at symposia. The first libation was poured to Zeus and the Olympian gods, who represent the cosmos; the second to the heroes, who stand for the city; and the third to Zeus Soter, the patron of home and family. In his Suppliants and Oresteia, Aeschylus alludes several times to Zeus Soter as the deity who upholds the authority of the male head of the household, and the physical integrity of the home itself, which were felt to be interdependent. 11
Zeus of the family
Because of his position as head of the divine family of Olympian deities, Zeus was the archetype of the patriarchal father. In myth, Zeus' many amorous alliances with mortal women produced heroes, who gave rise to aristocratic lineages. Thus he was worshiped as Zeus Patroo? s (Ancestor) by Dorians,
20
ZEUS
who traced their lineage to his son Herakles, and more generally as a god of familial bonds. At Athens, Zeus Phratrios and Athena Phratria presided over the enrollment of boys into the phratries, or brotherhoods, that guaranteed their status as legitimate offspring of citizens. Shrines of individual phratries sometimes had altars dedicated to the pair. 12 But most widespread of all were Zeus' many domestic cults. Zeus Herkeios (of the Courtyard) received sacrifices on behalf of the household at an open-air altar. An anecdote from Herodotus (6. 67-68) illustrates the role that Zeus played as the guarantor of the male line. When confronted by his enemies with claims that he was illegitimate, the Spartan king Demaratos sacrificed to Zeus and brought his mother a portion of the entrails. Placing them in her hand, he beseeched her in the name of Zeus Herkeios to tell him the truth about his parentage, and she complied. Zeus Herkeios is attested as early as Homer (Od. 22. 333-37), who mentions that Odysseus and his father sacrifice to the god outside their ancestral home. Zeus' importance to fathers may also explain the unusual votive offerings uncovered in the hilltop sanctuary at Messapeai near Sparta. The sanctuary of Zeus Messapeus contained weapons, armor, and athletic gear, but these were far outnumbered by crude, handmade clay statuettes of males with huge, erect phalloi. The site was frequented mostly by men, who may have sought Zeus' aid in becoming fathers. 13
Zeus Ktesios (of Possessions) was a humbler deity. In Athens, it was customary for the head of the household to wreathe a two-handled jar with wool tufts around its "ears" and "from its right shoulder to its forehead," and to empty into the jar a mixture of pure water, olive oil, and various fruits and grains, referred to as ambrosia. The finished jar stood in the storeroom as a "sign" of Zeus and acted as a charm to increase the household goods. That the ritual has many points of contact with funerary customs suggests a relationship to domestic ancestor cults. Though he had public altars in some cities, Zeus Ktesios was primarily an intimate, family god. The orator Isaeus (8. 16) tells of an Athenian who admitted only family members to the sacrifice for this god, though his practice was not necessarily universal. Like certain other manifestations of Zeus discussed below, Ktesios could be represented as a snake. 14
Chthonian Zeus
Rather surprisingly in view of his origins as a sky god, many cults of Zeus are chthonian or semi-chthonian in character. One of the most widespread was that of Zeus Meilichios (the Mild). Like many chthonian gods, Meilichios bore a euphemistic name. In truth he was by turns angry and kindly, a deity who required regular appeasement in order to keep the beneficial side of his personality to the fore. By calling him "mild" or "kindly," his worshipers expressed their hopes rather than their fears. Because they governed the fruitfulness of the earth, chthonian deities had the power to be givers of good
21
ZEUS
things if properly propitiated. Xenophon (An. 7. 8. 3-6) describes how he once fell short of money while working as a mercenary commander in Asia Minor. A seer told him that his financial straits were due to his failure to sacrifice to Zeus Meilichios. Xenophon admitted that, although he had regularly sacrificed when living at home, he had not done so since leaving Greece. The next day, he sacrificed two pigs and burned them whole for the god, and his piety was immediately rewarded with the return of a horse he had been forced to sell.
Personal or family offerings to Zeus Meilichios were the rule in the Greek world, but in Athens there was an important public festival for this god, the Diasia. 15 In early spring, people gathered just outside the city at the banks of the river Ilissos for the rites, which involved bloodless offerings of agricultural produce and pastries shaped like animals. For the average citizen, the festival was a time to gather with family members and to enjoy a fairground atmos- phere. In Aristophanes' Clouds (864), Strepsiades recalls how he bought a toy cart for his young son on this occasion. Yet Meilichios was also an awesome and somber deity. On votive reliefs, he usually appears not in human form, but as a huge coiling snake, rearing up to meet his worshipers. (In Greek art, the snake as companion or attribute often indicates that the deity or hero in question belongs to the underworld. Such theriomorphic epiphanies, in which the gods took animal form, were unusual among the Greeks. ) Zeus Meilichios was recognized in the Pompaia (Procession), another Athenian festival that took place while the fields were being plowed and the crops sowed. At this crucial time, it was important to be sure that the land was purified and free from evil influences, such as those introduced by the shedding of a kinsman's blood. Therefore, a ram was sacrificed and its fleece, known as the Dios ko ? idion or Fleece of Zeus, was carried in proces- sion. 16 We have already seen that the fleeces of rams sacrificed to Zeus carried special powers; their purifying function was one of the most important.
As an upholder of social norms, Zeus presided over the purification rituals conducted when a homicide took place. Persons who had killed, even accident- ally, could not participate in family, religious, or political life until they were purified. They turned for help to householders in neighboring communities, or to sanctuaries, where they were protected by divine law from the vengeance of angry relatives. The role of Zeus in purifications is illustrated in one of the oldest extant sacral laws, a mid-fifth-century inscription from Selinous in Sicily dealing with procedures to be followed by a man who has killed and "wishes to be purified against the avenging spirit. " The killer is to announce his intentions, provide a meal for the hostile spirit, and sacrifice a piglet to Zeus Meilichios at his own expense. 17 From other sources we know that in such rituals, the piglet's blood was allowed to flow over the killer, since the participants believed that blood could wash away blood.
A person in need of this purification was known as a hikete ? s, "one who comes," but the angry ghost of his victim was similarly a "visitant," hikesios.
22
ZEUS
? Figure 2. 2 Zeus Meilichios as serpent, votive relief from the Peiraieus, c. 400. Berlin, Staatliche Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
Zeus Hikesios, the god of "ones who come," protected suppliants and guests from violence, but could himself be a supernatural avenger. He and Zeus Meilichios are invoked in rock-cut inscriptions made by family or clan groups in Thera, Kos, and Kyrene. His importance to the extended family arises from the belief that the religious impurity of one member affected the entire group.
Other manifestations of Zeus as a chthonian deity were common in dom- estic and public cult. Zeus Philios (the Friendly) was similar to Meilichios but more concerned with banqueting and friendship, and his cult was of more recent origin. He is shown on a fourth-century votive relief in a pose usually reserved for heroes, reclining at a banquet and accompanied by his consort, Good Luck (Tyche Agathe). He too can be depicted as a huge snake. 18
Righteous Zeus
In Greek literature and popular belief, Zeus is a righteous god who punishes the arrogant and the wicked. His companion or daughter is Dike (Justice),
23
ZEUS
and he is closely associated with the Moirai (Fates) in myth and cult. Many cults of Zeus had a moral dimension, and focused on enforcing behavior that was expected by society. Among the most revered of traditional beliefs was the idea that one was prohibited from harming strangers, guests, beggars, and suppliants, all of whom fell under the protection of Zeus. Instead, one ought to respect guests and strangers, and give aid to beggars and suppliants. 19 According to Plato (Leg. 729e), "being without friends or relatives, the stranger has more claim on the pity of gods and men. " Anyone who refused these obligations could expect punishment from Zeus.
Under the law instituted by Solon in the sixth century, judges at Athens had to swear an oath of office by Zeus Hikesios (of Suppliants), Katharsios (of Purification) and Exakester (of Making Amends). 20 Likewise, there was a Zeus Horkios (of Oaths). Pausanias (5. 24. 9) describes the solemn oaths taken by athletes and their fathers at Olympia beneath a statue of Zeus Horkios brandishing his thunderbolt in a threatening fashion: a boar was sacrificed and over its dismembered body the athletes promised "to do no wrong to the Olympic Games. " A bronze inscription in front of the statue told of the divine punishment in store for oath-breakers.
Kretan Zeus
As we have seen, the Arkadians considered their land the birthplace of Zeus, but there were many claimants to this distinction. In the Peloponnese alone, the Messenians, the Arkadians, and the Achaians preserved myths and cults relating to Zeus' birth, his escape from the evil designs of his father Kronos, and his upbringing. Perhaps the most venerable traditions of the young Zeus, however, were those of the Kretans, who maintained ancient traditions of a youthful god they identified as Zeus. The Bronze Age Minoan civilization, predecessors of the Greeks in Krete, worshiped a young god as part of their pantheon. Though little is known about this god, modern scholars have sug- gested that he was the partner of an older goddess, and that the relationship arose from the same pattern of myth and ritual that gave rise to the Near Eastern worship of Inanna and Dumuzi, Ishtar and Tammuz, Isis and Osiris, and Kybele and Attis. 21
Zeus Diktaios was the most important deity of eastern Krete, and a deity of this name was worshiped in Mycenaean Knossos. He appears in a number of inscribed treaty oaths between Kretan cities in the Hellenistic period, but the oath formulas themselves appear to be of Archaic date. 22 All refer to the god whose cult was localized at Mt. Dikte, where Rhea gave birth to him in a cave and he was protected by a band of youthful warriors, the Kouretes, and nourished with the milk of the goat Amaltheia. There has been much debate in both ancient and modern times about the location of Dikte: modern scholars once linked Dikte with Psychro cave near Lyktos, because Hesiod (Theog. 477-79) mentions this area in his description of Zeus' birth. But this
24
ZEUS
identification was refuted when excavation of an ancient sanctuary at Palaikastro brought to light an inscribed hymn that begins "Io, greatest Youth (Kouros), welcome, son of Kronos, all-powerful Brightness, here now present, leading the gods (daimones), come for the New Year to Dikte, and rejoice in this song. " The hymn was inscribed at a late date, but its content and style show that it goes back to the Classical period or earlier. 23 It tells how, with the coming of Rhea's divine child, Justice and Peace attend the earth, and it urges the Kouros to "leap into" the herds, fields, and cities. Diktaian Zeus appears to be primarily a god of vegetative and procreative energies who is "born anew" every year.
The excavations also brought to light rich votive offerings showing that the sanctuary was most prosperous from the seventh to fifth centuries. Mt. Dikte, then, is probably the peak overlooking Palaikastro, known today as Mt. Petsophas. Significantly, the Classical site of Palaikastro overlay a Middle Minoan settlement, and on Mt. Petsophas was a Minoan peak sanc- tuary that yielded terracotta figures of a young deity. The most spectacular find, discovered within a hundred meters of the inscribed hymn, was a magnificent Minoan statuette of gold and ivory, depicting a youth in the same pose as the Petsophas figurines. The striking spatial juxtaposition of the Minoan and Greek cults of a youthful god suggests that memories of the Bronze Age persisted into Classical times. At the same time, there is a gap in archaeological continuity at the site from the Bronze Age to the early Archaic period, so the cult was presumably interrupted and re-established. In those intervening centuries, it must have undergone significant changes. 24
Another famous cult site of Zeus was the cave below the summit of Mt. Ida in central Krete, which served as a sanctuary for over a thousand years. Excavated in the nineteenth century, it contained many layers of burnt sacrificial offerings, and an unusually rich hoard of votive objects, including bronze and gold items. Some of the objects from the Idaian cave, including a famous group of bronze shields with orientalizing decorations, date to the time of Homer, the eighth or seventh centuries. 25 The cult here, as at Dikte, was concerned with the youthful Zeus and his band of protective warriors, the Kouretes, who clashed their shields to conceal the infant's cries from his hostile father. Idaian Zeus was a mysterious god into whose rites young men were initiated on the model of the Kouretes, according to a fragment of Euripides' Cretans. 26 The chorus of this play tell how the god's worshipers led a life of purity, wearing only white clothing and abstaining from all meat except the raw flesh of the bull sacrificed to Zeus. The celebrations are described as ecstatic and involved torch-lit processions over the mountain. There is a story that the philosopher Pythagoras was initiated into this cult: after strenuous preparations, he descended into the cave for twenty-seven days and viewed the "tomb of Zeus. "27 This concept of a tomb for Zeus would have seemed reasonable to Egyptians or Syrians, who were familiar with dying gods, but it was alien to other Greeks, who never questioned that
25
ZEUS
the gods were immortal. The poet Callimachus, commenting on the tomb in
his Hymn to Zeus (1. 8-9), concluded: "Kretans always lie. " Oracular Zeus
Zeus was the ultimate source of oracular wisdom, but generally did not give oracles at his own shrines, delegating this task instead to his son Apollo. There were a few exceptions to this rule, including the oracles of Zeus read from sacrificial omens at the Panhellenic sanctuary of Olympia, and the oracle of Ammon in the Libyan desert, where the Egyptian god Amun-Ra was syncretized with Zeus as early as the sixth century. 28 But the most important oracular center of Zeus, established in the eighth century, was Dodona in northwestern Greece. Zeus' cult title here was Naios (the Flow- ing), probably from the abundant springs in the area, and he shared the sanctuary with a consort, Dione, whose name is merely a feminine form of his own. Homer (Il. 16. 233-35) mentions the Selloi, interpreters of Dodo- naian Zeus, who have unwashed feet and sleep on the ground. These early prophets apparently obeyed an ascetic rule designed to preserve and increase their contact with the earth, often viewed as a source of oracular knowledge. But in the Odyssey (14. 327-28), we hear that Odysseus went to Dodona to get Zeus' advice "from the god's high-leafed oak tree. " In some descriptions of the oracle, an oak tree sacred to Zeus speaks with a human voice. Other accounts tell of messages from doves perched in the tree's branches, or from dove-priestesses who presumably replaced the male Selloi.
Evidence from the excavations, however, shows that by the Classical period, one consulted Zeus and Dione by writing a question on a ribbon-shaped lead tablet and handing it to the priestess. Most questions dealt with personal matters, such as whether to undertake a voyage or whether to marry. Often, the oracle advised people on which gods they should sacrifice to in order to ensure health, the birth of children, or prosperity. 29
Zeus at Olympia and Nemea
Two of the "big four" sanctuaries that hosted Panhellenic athletic festivals, Olympia and Nemea, were dedicated to Zeus. The younger of the two was Nemea, controlled by Kleonai in the sixth century (when the first temple was built) and later by Argos. The founding myth of the festival linked the cult of Zeus with that of a child-hero, Archemoros/Opheltes, for whom funeral games were established. The recently excavated hero shrine of Opheltes consisted of a long, mounded embankment containing some forty drinking vessels left as foundation deposits. On the broad end of the embankment, from which spectators could view the stadium, was a pentagonal wall enclosing at least two stone altars and a fire pit with the remains of sacrifices. The pottery from this shrine dates no earlier than the early sixth century,
26
ZEUS
when the Nemean games were established, though a few scraps and sherds suggest cult activity at Nemea as early as the eighth century. The Archaic temple of Zeus was destroyed by fire during the late fifth century, probably as a result of warfare to judge from the remains of weapons in the burnt layer of soil. 30
As early as the tenth century, Olympia was a meeting place where local chieftains displayed their wealth by dedicating valuable bronze sculptures and tripods to Zeus. The traditional date for the founding of the games them- selves is 776, and during the eighth century, Olympia gradually developed into the most elaborate and important cult site of Zeus. In place of local Peloponnesian chiefs, it now became the arena for rivalries between devel- oping city-states. 31 The center of the sanctuary was a walled precinct called the Altis (Sacred Grove), where stood the primitive altar of Zeus, a great conical pile of molded sacrificial ashes. Every four years, the high point of the festival was the sacrifice of one hundred or more cattle, whose thighs were burned on the altar by Olympic victors. Zeus' altar was also the seat of an oracle; at its summit a mantis (prophet) drawn from the Klytiad or Iamid families would observe and interpret the burn pattern of the offerings for those consulting the god. 32
An early structure near Zeus' altar was the Pelopion, or tomb of Pelops, an ancestral hero who gave his name to the Peloponnese; his archetypal chariot race was immortalized in the eastern pediment of Zeus' temple. This tomb consisted of a mound on which stood a polygonal enclosure wall (probably the model for the similar hero shrine of Opheltes at Nemea). At every festival the hero received a black ram, whose blood flowed into a pit in the Pelopion, as well as preliminary offerings whenever sacrifice was made to Zeus. There has been vigorous debate over the age of Pelops' cult; though Early Helladic walls were found beneath the Pelopion, they may be unrelated to the Archaic cult, and the stratigraphy is not well enough preserved to draw conclusions about continuity. On the other hand, the mound on which the Pelopion sat was itself prehistoric, and the fact that this site was chosen shows a desire on the part of the sanctuary's founders to forge links to the heroic past. 33
Over the centuries, hundreds of secondary and minor deities became attached to the sanctuary. Among the most important of these were Hera, whose temple dated to the seventh century, Kronos (on the Hill of Kronos), Rhea (in the Metroo? n), and Herakles, who was credited with founding the games. Once a month the Eleans, inhabitants of the surrounding district, made offerings at the roughly seventy lesser altars on the site. In the time of Pausanias (5. 14. 4-10), these included at least eight altars of Zeus in various aspects, including Zeus Katharsios (of Purification), Kataibates (of Descending Lightning), Chthonios (of the Underworld), and Hypsistos (the Highest).
As we have seen, Zeus' cults seldom required a temple or image, and the first temple on the site was that of Hera. None was supplied for Zeus until the
27
ZEUS
fifth century, when the Eleans defeated the Pisatans, their rivals for control of the sanctuary, and began a building program with the spoils. Completed before 457, the Doric temple was furnished with a colossal ivory and gold statue of Zeus, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The god was depicted in a restful pose that departed from the standard Archaic representations of him striding forward with raised thunderbolt, and drew instead on Homer's description (Il. 1. 497-99) of a majestic Zeus enthroned on Mt. Olympos. Seated on an elaborately ornamented, gem- encrusted throne, he held Nike (Victory) in his raised right hand, and his left hand grasped a staff, on which perched an eagle. It was said that when the sculptor Pheidias completed the statue, he prayed to Zeus to make a sign if the work pleased him, and a flash of lightning immediately appeared. Few visitors to the temple failed to be moved with religious awe at the sight of the image, which measured about 13 m in height and could be viewed from a second-floor gallery. But in spite of its huge size, viewers received the impression of a calm and peaceful deity. According to Dio Chrysostom (Or. 12. 51), "whoever is deeply burdened with pain in his soul, having borne much misfortune and grief in his life and never being able to attain sweet sleep, even this man, I believe, standing before this image, would forget all the terrible and harsh things which one must suffer in human life. "
Further reading
Cook 1964 [1914-] is still valuable for its collection of primary sources, but this massive study should be used with caution because its materials and methods are outdated. Much of Burkert 1983b focuses on cults of Zeus in relation to sacrificial practices. Jameson, Jordan, and Kotansky 1993 and Lalonde 2006 collect information about Zeus Meilichios and his role in purifications. Parke 1967 is still the best account in English of the oracles of Zeus. Sinn 2000 provides a popular account of Olympia by an excavator and scholar of religion who knows the site intimately.
28
3
LADY OF GRAND TEMPLES Hera
Major cults of Hera were not evenly spread over the Greek world, but instead were characteristic of certain regions and peoples. The Dorians of the north- east Peloponnese (Argos, Korinth, Tiryns) and the Peloponnesians who colonized southern Italy honored her the most. A famous Ionian seat of her worship was the island of Samos. Her cult enjoyed its greatest prosperity during the Archaic period, when Argos and Samos were at the height of their power. Hera's origins are generally thought to lie in a powerful prehellenic goddess (or goddesses) whose cult was adopted by the Mycenaean Greeks. Her name has been connected with the word ho ? ra, season, indicating fertility and ripeness for marriage, and appears on Linear B tablets from Pylos (in connection with Zeus) and Thebes. The same etymology makes Hera a feminine form of hero ? s, and this background may help to elucidate the goddess' complex ties to heroes, Herakles above all, and the genesis of the Greek concept of the mythic and cultic hero. 1
Greek poetry and myth tell us of a goddess who vehemently opposes her husband's extramarital affairs and attempts to punish her rivals and their offspring. She is a scheming and vengeful deity, who plots against the Trojans when she loses the beauty contest judged by Paris, but she also has favorites such as the hero Jason, whom she aids in his quest for the Golden Fleece. She is not a tender mother, but Homer describes her sexual union with Zeus as a source of fecund power (Il. 14. 347-49): "under them the divine earth grew newly-sprouted grass, dewy clover, crocuses, and hyacinths, thick and soft. " In some of her cults, Hera is likewise viewed primarily as a bride or wife, and her status as Zeus' consort is central for worshipers. But in her most famous cults (Argos and Samos) Hera is a powerful city goddess who fosters economic and military success. In these cases her relationship to Zeus is not a crucial factor, and the literary portrait of a jealous, scheming wife seems far removed from the cultic experience of an awe-inspiring deity who brings success in battle, multiplies the herds of cattle, frees the enslaved, and protects the young for her chosen people.
29
HERA
Argive Hera
Despite Homer's Panhellenizing tendencies, he recognizes Hera's regional character as goddess of the Argive peninsula, giving her the epithet Hera Argeia (e. g. Il. 4. 8). In historical times she became the city-goddess of Argos itself, and her Argive sanctuary was the most venerable and famed center of her worship. Her festival there, known as the Heraia or Hekatombaia (Sacrifice of one hundred Oxen), was held in the first month of the year. A grand procession escorted the priestess, who rode in an ox-drawn wagon from the city to the sanctuary several miles distant. The youth recognized as most virtuous carried a sacred shield in the procession, marking his and his age-mates' transition to adulthood and warrior status. After the procession, there were athletic competitions for which the prize was, again, a bronze shield. 2 Hera's cult at Argos shows a preoccupation with two aspects of the Argolid's prosperity: the herds of cattle on which its wealth was based, and its military might. Terracotta figurines from the Heraion indicate that Hera was also viewed as a kourotrophic deity, one who nourished and protected the young. Often she is shown holding a child in her lap. Sometimes she holds not a child but a horse, an emblem of aristocratic privilege. Hera's cult seems to have been closely bound up with the efforts of the early Archaic Argives to define their relationship with the heroic past.
The Argive Heraion was constructed over the remains of a Mycenaean settlement, but there is no clear evidence of continuity of cult from the Bronze Age to the ninth century, when activity at the Heraion becomes archaeologic- ally visible. Around 700, a terrace was built using huge "Cyclopean" blocks in imitation of the Bronze Age architectural style, and shortly thereafter a temple of stone and wood with a colonnade was added. This Archaic struc- ture was not superseded by a newer temple until the fifth century, when the sanctuary was transformed from a rallying center for the towns in the region to a symbol of the power of Argos, by then the dominant city. In 2000-01, excavators found (SEG 51 [2001] 410) a cache of inscribed bronze tablets recording, among other things, the sums borrowed from the state treasuries of Pallas and Hera to pay for the construction of this temple. It possessed sculptures depicting not myths of Hera herself, but subjects of interest to the Argives: the birth of Zeus, the battle of the gods and giants, the Trojan war, and the saga of Orestes.
In Pausanias' time, one entered the temple after walking through a series of statues of the former priestesses (styled kleidouchoi or Keyholders), whose tenures provided a chronological framework for the city's history. The list of priestesses was already ancient in the fifth century, when Hellanicus (FGrH 4 F 74-82) used it as the basis for an account of the Greeks from the Trojan war to his own day. The cult image of the Classical period was a famous one by Polykleitos, fashioned of gold and ivory over a wood core. The seated goddess held a scepter and a pomegranate, symbols of temporal power and
30
HERA
fertility. A more ancient wooden image must have existed, but presumably was destroyed when the Archaic temple burned in 423/2. When Pausanias (2. 17. 3) visited the temple, he saw a venerable image of pearwood taken from nearby Tiryns, another ancient Heraian cult center, which the Argives had installed on a pillar beside Polykleitos' statue. The pillar itself may have held special significance, for a fragment of the Argive epic Phoronis (fr. 3 Davies, EGF) describes Hera's priestess adorning "the high column of the Olympian queen, Hera Argeia" with fillets and tassels. Another item of interest in the temple was the "couch of Hera," a symbol of Hera's status as the bride of Zeus.
The Asterion river near the Heraion was regarded as the father of Hera's three nurses, the nymphs Akraia, Prosymna and Euboia, who were named after features of the sanctuary's topography. Local tradition, therefore, held that Argos was Hera's birthplace. Women conducted secret rituals at the Heraion, involving purifications, sacrifices, and the offering of garlands twined from a local herb also called asterion. The women wove a robe for Hera, as they did at Olympia, first taking a ritual bath in the waters of the spring or well called Amymone. The hundreds of miniature water vessels (hudriai) from the excavations further attest the importance of water in these activities. Perhaps the ritual involved a bath for Hera's image; a legend describing how Hera took an annual bath to restore her virginity was attached to the spring Kanathos in nearby Nauplia. The "water of freedom" of the stream Eleutherion, near the Heraion, was used for the women's secret rites, and was also drunk by slaves and prisoners about to be emancipated. Hera's daughter Hebe (Youth), whose statue stood beside hers in the Heraion, similarly granted asylum to suppliants and freed prisoners at her ancient sanctuary in Phlious. 3
Hera of Samos
Half of one column from the Heraion at Samos has been reconstructed, scarcely hinting at the former glory of this sanctuary. A succession of temples stood in the marshy site, beginning with the late eighth-century hekatompedon or hundred-foot temple. One of the later temples was a truly gigantic Ionic structure with a forest of columns, which Herodotus (3. 60) called the largest temple of his time. Among the dedications at the Samian Heraion were over thirty house models in stone and terracotta. The Hera sanctuaries at Argos and Perachora have also produced models with Geometric decoration, causing speculation that the houses are intended to represent the earliest temples, before the construction of hekatompeda. Given the fact that Hera's temples are everywhere among the earliest attested, this is likely, but other explanations are possible. If the models represent chieftains' houses, they could symbolize Hera's association with political authority and social status. 4
31
HERA
? Figure 3. 1 Terracotta house or temple model from Perachora. End of the ninth century. Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
The center of the sanctuary, and its earliest feature, was the altar, which existed from the tenth century. Like the temple, it was rebuilt several times, culminating in a monumental 40 m structure. 5 All this grandeur, however, came after the sanctuary was well established. While not of Panhellenic stature, its fortunes rose with those of the maritime state of Samos in the seventh and sixth centuries. Asius, a poet of this period, described the wealthy Samians visiting the sanctuary dressed in flowing white tunics, with long hair bound in golden bands, and adorned with gold cicadas. A stunning variety of imported objects was uncovered in the excavations: Egyptian ivories, Babylonian bronze figurines, and a collection of exotic animal trophies including crocodile and antelope skulls. In spite of the cosmopolitan nature of the sanctuary, the dedications show that it was also a local center of worship. The excavations turned up many humble, crudely carved vessels and figurines, as well as natural curiosities like coral and rock crystal. 6
There were conflicting stories about the origins of the sanctuary and to what degree it was dependent on the Heraion at Argos. One tradition said that it was founded by the Argonauts, who brought the cult statue from Argos, while the Samians themselves said that Hera was born here under the lugos, a willow-like tree preserved in the sanctuary, and that the place was founded by non-Greek Karians. Still, their tradition allowed that the first Greek priestess of the sanctuary was the Argive Admete, daughter of
32
HERA
Eurystheus. Once, Karian pirates had attempted to steal the cult image of Hera, but found their ship immobilized when they placed the statue on board. Terrified, they left the image on the beach with a food offering and made their escape. There the searching Samians found it, and believing that it had run away, bound it to the lugos with the tree's flexible branches. Admete herself purified the image and restored it to its place in the temple. This myth provided the background for the annual festival called the Tonaia (Binding), during which the goddess' statue was carried to the sea, purified, and given a meal of barley-cakes. At some point during the rite, it was probably also bound with lugos branches. Celebrants at the feast wore wreaths made of lugos and reclined on beds of it. This festival has been interpreted as a drama of the deity's disappearance and return, in which the recovery of the goddess is symbolic of the yearly cycle of vegetative abundance. A related possibility is that the drama expresses the Samians' anxiety lest Hera, the protector of their city and guarantor of their good fortune, abandon them. The goddess is annually bound to her birthplace and her proper residence at Samos is reaffirmed. The myth itself asserts that even should outside forces attempt to move the goddess, she would express a preference for her home and actively resist leaving it. 7
There are indeed indications that Hera at Samos was a goddess concerned with fertility. Among the objects dedicated to her were pinecones and pome- granates (real fruits as well as clay and ivory models), symbols of fecund reproduction. The offering of pomegranates, however, appears to cease after about 600. Joan V. O'Brien suggests that this is due to a shift in the percep- tion of Hera, through which her role as bride of Zeus came to be emphasized over her earlier manifestation as a powerful, independent goddess. In any case, Hera's role at Samos was never limited to assuring fertility, but must have been closely connected with the Samians' successful trading ventures. Stylized wooden ship models were common votives, and in the Archaic period two full-size ships were dedicated in the sanctuary. 8
The cult image of Samian Hera has been described by ancient witnesses as crudely carved and planklike. It was wooden, small and light enough to be carried annually to the shore for the Tonaia, but spent the rest of the year ensconced in the temple, dressed in rich garments and wearing a high crown. It also wore a pectoral ornament, resembling an extended collar or series of necklaces, which was characteristic of East Greek and Anatolian deities (the so-called "multiple breasts" of Artemis at Ephesos are another example). When the Samians built the huge Classical temple, they supplied it with a new cult image that resided in the cella, the normal location. The venerable old image was kept in the pronaos, or front room, of the temple. This arrangement was perhaps dictated by the need to keep the old image in its original location: its base in the pronaos stood on the same spot it had occupied in the cella of the old temple. As we have seen, keeping the goddess fixed in her proper place was a major cultic concern for the Samians. 9
33
HERA
Hera at Korinth and Perachora
The Heraion at Perachora was among the richest minor sanctuaries in Greece. Literary sources are almost completely silent about this sanctuary, but the archaeological finds show that it was of great importance during the Archaic period. In the territory of the prosperous mercantile state of Korinth, it was founded in the eighth century and saw the construction of yet another of the very early temples to Hera we have noted. The first temple had a curved (apsidal) back wall and was only about 7. 5 m in length. Nothing is known about the cult image, but the goddess here was called Hera Akraia (of the Headland), a reference to the Perachora promontory on which the sanctuary was situated near a small harbor. Sixth-century dedications to Hera Limenia (of the Harbor) have also been found; surprisingly, these appear on a terrace above the harbor itself and the main part of the sanctuary. An Archaic struc- ture on the terrace, once thought to be a separate temple of Hera Limenia, is now considered an auxiliary building, probably a dining room. Blocks used in this building contain dedications to Hera under yet another title, Hera Leukolene (of the White Arms). These early (seventh- and sixth-century) dedications echo one of Homer's favorite epithets for Hera (e. g. Il. 5. 711, 8. 381, etc. ).
The pattern of votives shows that this was an important cult site for local people, as well as for sailors traveling up and down the Gulf of Korinth. The many imported objects, including Egyptian-style scarabs and Phoenician bronzes, illustrate the wide trading contacts of the Archaic Korinthians. The earliest, eighth-century temple at the harbor was accompanied by a deposit of Geometric votive objects, including drinking vessels, wine jugs, clay models of cakes presented as offerings to the goddess (koulouria), and house models. This temple was replaced in the sixth century with a new Doric stone temple, and a monumental altar was added. North of the altar the excavators found a flight of steps, which probably functioned as a spectator area for viewing the sacrifices. 10
The myth of Medeia, the young sorceress whom Jason brought back from his travels in the Black Sea, is best known from the play by Euripides. This work portrays her as a spurned wife who kills her children by Jason in order to avenge herself for his abandonment, then buries the children in the sanc- tuary of Hera Akraia and founds their cult (Eur. Med. 1378-83). There were, however, other myths about how the children of Medeia died. According to one, Medeia took each of her children in turn to the sanctuary of Hera to "hide them away" (katakruptein), thinking that this operation would make them immortal. (The word may mean that she buried them. ) When her hopes were disappointed and Jason discovered what she had done, he abandoned her. Another version held that Medeia instructed her children to bring a poisoned robe to her rival Glauke. When Glauke perished as a result of the gift, the enraged Korinthians stoned the innocent children. The murdered
34
HERA
children took a supernatural vengeance by causing Korinthian infants to die, until the desperate citizens consulted an oracle and were told to institute annual sacrifices to Medeia's children. They also set up a statue known as Deima, or Terror, which took the form of "a frightening woman. " In antiquity, infant mortality was often attributed to female demons (Mormo, Lamia) who had a hideous appearance; the statue seems to have been designed to ward off such malign influences. Other sources tell us more about the relationship between the children's cult and that of Hera. Every year, seven boys and seven girls from noble families were dressed in black and sent to live in the sanctuary of Hera Akraia (it is unclear whether this refers to a sanctuary in Korinth itself, since no such sanctuary has been identified, or to that at Perachora). They cut their hair and dedicated it to Medeia's children, and presumably participated in the thre ? noi, or laments, sung for the children, and the enagismata, or sacrifices for the dead. 11
All these myths and related customs have been taken as evidence of a real (in the distant past) or symbolic child sacrifice to appease hostile divine forces, or as an initiation rite by which the youths and maidens, after a period of separation from the community, reached adult status. Certainly they indicate that the Korinthians thought it was necessary to devote elite children to the service of the goddess, and that upon this service depended the health and welfare of the entire community's children. The rituals originally may have been conducted for Medeia herself, since some scholars view her as a divine figure whose cult was superseded by Hera's. 12
Hera at Olympia
One of the paradoxes of the Panhellenic site of Olympia is that its earliest temple was erected not for Zeus, the primary deity of the sanctuary, but for Hera. During the late seventh century, a Heraion was built in the Altis, or sacred enclosure, which then contained no other major structures. Originally, only the foundations were of stone, while the walls were mud brick, and the rest of the structure, including the colonnade, was wood. The temple was refurbished in such a way that the columns were gradually replaced in stone, and each one was slightly different in style, thickness, and the type of stone used. The mismatched columns were probably the result of contributions by many donors, each of whom supplied one column and wanted it to be recog- nizably different from the rest.
Some scholars, disturbed by the anomaly of a Heraion as the only temple in a sanctuary of Zeus, have suggested that the temple was from the beginning dedicated jointly to Zeus and Hera, or that it was originally a temple of Zeus, and was rededicated to Hera only after Zeus' Classical temple was built in the fifth century. The question is still open, but we should keep in mind that a temple was never a requirement for a sanctuary, and was often absent from sanctuaries of Zeus in particular (as at Dodona, another Panhellenic Zeus
35
HERA
sanctuary).
But the most mysterious activity of the cult took place on the summit of the mountain. At the very top, a large mound of ashes and blackened soil contained knives, small tripods and burnt bones, while the sanctuary 20 m below included two fifth-century Doric columns topped by gilded eagles. Here, a secret nocturnal sacrifice was held during which participants ate portions of "mystery meat" from a tripod kettle reputed to contain not only entrails of animals, but also a piece taken from a human victim. According to Plato (Resp. 565d) "he who tastes of the human entrails minced up with those of other victims inevitably becomes a wolf (lukos). " Tradition said that at least one person at the sacrifice was always transformed; if during his time as a wolf he abstained from human flesh, he would become human again after ten years, but otherwise he would remain a wolf forever. What are we to make of this ancient story of lycanthropy? And could it be true that people were regularly sacrificed to Zeus Lykaios? The latter possibility is not the most likely, considering that no human remains have been found in the excavation of the site, and that human sacrifice seems to have been far more common in Greek myths and symbolic rites than in actual practice. On the other hand, the participants in the ritual may well have believed that the pot contained forbidden meat. As for the werewolves, it has been suggested that the ritual originally served as a rite of passage, through which youths entering adolescence (girls were apparently excluded) began a period of rugged training as warriors by hunting and living in the wild as "wolves. " After this probationary period, the young men would be eligible to marry and enjoy other rights of full manhood. 6
The Arkadians believed that their ancestral king Lykaon and his fifty sons once played host to the gods, who in those days dined among humans. They incurred the wrath of Zeus, however, by serving a cannibalistic feast that contained the flesh of a slaughtered boy, in some accounts the king's own grandson Arkas. Lykaon's punishment was to be turned into a wolf. Thus, the re-enactment of the meal was an annual reminder of a past epoch in which the savage ancestor of the Arkadians failed to distinguish properly between human and animal, and offended the gods with a perverted sacrifice. The descendants of Lykaon were fated to suffer his punishment, but this special burden of identity with the wolf also set them apart from other Greeks. In spite of the Arkadians' belief in the great antiquity of this custom, the oldest artifacts in the sanctuary are no earlier than the seventh century. 7
18
ZEUS
Zeus of the city
As the sovereign and father of the gods, Zeus presided over normative civic, social, and family relationships. He endorsed the power of early chieftains and kings (in Hom. Il. 2. 100-8, for example, Agamemnon's scepter is an heirloom from the god), but in the later age of the Greek polis, Zeus was the upholder of civic authority. Zeus Polieus (of the City) was worshiped in many Greek cities, often with Athena Polias, the citadel goddess, as his partner. The Athenians preserved an ancient and curious ritual for this god, carried out on the Akropolis at his annual festival, the Dipolieia. Already considered old-fashioned by the Classical period, the Dipolieia ritually linked Zeus' Archaic role as an agricultural deity with his civic function as a guarantor of justice. According to Pausanias (1. 24. 4):
They put barley mixed with wheat on the altar of Zeus and leave no guard there. The ox that they have ready for the sacrifice goes to the altar and touches the grains. They call one of the priests the Ox-Slayer (Bouphonos); [after striking the ox] he drops the axe and flees, for this is the custom. And refusing to recognize the man who did the deed, they put the axe on trial.
The ritual has received attention for its special focus on the ox: many sacrifices included oxen, but only this one had a special priest known as the Ox-Slayer, and the alternative name of the festival was the Ox-Slaying or Bouphonia. This indicates that the festival was concerned with the value of the ox as a domesticated animal. The ritual expresses tension between the ox's value as a meat animal and the need to keep oxen alive as draft animals, vital for agriculture. Hence, the man who kills the ox commits a "crime," but also re- enacts the first sacrifice and the pleasurable sacrificial meal of meat.
The location of the altar on the Akropolis and the priest's use of a double- edged sacrificial axe (pelekus), well known from Bronze Age Aegean icon- ography, suggest that this ritual has roots in Mycenaean religion. The Swiss ethnologist Karl Meuli, followed by Burkert, would take the origins of this rite back much further, to the time before cattle were domesticated. A later but more detailed source for the Dipolieia says that after the sacrifice, the hide of the dead ox was stuffed and set up as if it were still alive. This reminded Meuli of the customs of tribal peoples who subsist by hunting; often the hunter tries to maintain the goodwill of the animal and its kind by shifting blame for the kill to others, or even to a weapon. Attempts to reconstruct the animal symbolically, so as to ensure its future abundance, are also attested. 8
Under other titles associated with civic functions, such as Boulaios (of the Council) and Agoraios (of the City Center), Zeus preserved order and over- saw the political and legal systems of the Greek polis. He is also associated with victory in battle. After a battle, soldiers honored Zeus Tropaios (of the
19
ZEUS
Rout) by setting up an effigy in the form of a pole with armor placed on it. The first literary description of this practice occurs in Sophocles' Antigone 141-47, where the chorus describes how six of the Seven Against Thebes "left behind their bronze armor for Zeus Tropaios. " Such images were normally temporary, but Zeus Tropaios appropriately possessed a sanctuary of his own in warlike Sparta. 9
Cults of Zeus Eleutherios (of Freedom) were instituted on special occasions when Greeks believed they had experienced divine deliverance from tyranny. After the battle of Plataiai in 480, an altar was built for Zeus Eleutherios to commemorate the united defense of Greece against the invading Persians. The poet Simonides wrote an epigram (fr. 15 Page, FGE) to be inscribed on the altar, including the words: "Having driven out the Persians, they set up the altar of Zeus Eleutherios, a free (eleutheron) ornament for Hellas. " The commemorative games instituted at this time, which included a race of fully armed men around the altar, were still observed hundreds of years later. An existing altar in the Athenian agora, most likely belonging to Zeus Soter (Savior), was rebuilt c. 430 together with a stoa, which formed a new sanc- tuary of Zeus Eleutherios/Soter. The timing of the construction suggests that the power of Zeus was now being invoked against the invading Spartans. In Sicily, the cult of Zeus Eleutherios was first established when the tyrant Thrasyboulos was overthrown in 466. The city of Syracuse erected a colossal statue of Zeus and, as at Plataiai, founded games. 10
The cult of Zeus Soter was more geographically widespread, and similarly marked occasions when disaster was averted or battles won. Zeus Soter was also invoked broadly as a god who saved individuals in times of trouble. At his temple in the Peiraieus, which was shared with Athena Soteira, sailors made offerings upon returning home from dangerous journeys, and the ephebes, or young warriors-in-training, rowed trireme races in his honor at an annual festival, the Diisoteria. Finally, Zeus Soter was an important god of the household. With other deities such as Hygieia (Health) and Agathos Daimon (the Good God), he traditionally received the third libation at symposia. The first libation was poured to Zeus and the Olympian gods, who represent the cosmos; the second to the heroes, who stand for the city; and the third to Zeus Soter, the patron of home and family. In his Suppliants and Oresteia, Aeschylus alludes several times to Zeus Soter as the deity who upholds the authority of the male head of the household, and the physical integrity of the home itself, which were felt to be interdependent. 11
Zeus of the family
Because of his position as head of the divine family of Olympian deities, Zeus was the archetype of the patriarchal father. In myth, Zeus' many amorous alliances with mortal women produced heroes, who gave rise to aristocratic lineages. Thus he was worshiped as Zeus Patroo? s (Ancestor) by Dorians,
20
ZEUS
who traced their lineage to his son Herakles, and more generally as a god of familial bonds. At Athens, Zeus Phratrios and Athena Phratria presided over the enrollment of boys into the phratries, or brotherhoods, that guaranteed their status as legitimate offspring of citizens. Shrines of individual phratries sometimes had altars dedicated to the pair. 12 But most widespread of all were Zeus' many domestic cults. Zeus Herkeios (of the Courtyard) received sacrifices on behalf of the household at an open-air altar. An anecdote from Herodotus (6. 67-68) illustrates the role that Zeus played as the guarantor of the male line. When confronted by his enemies with claims that he was illegitimate, the Spartan king Demaratos sacrificed to Zeus and brought his mother a portion of the entrails. Placing them in her hand, he beseeched her in the name of Zeus Herkeios to tell him the truth about his parentage, and she complied. Zeus Herkeios is attested as early as Homer (Od. 22. 333-37), who mentions that Odysseus and his father sacrifice to the god outside their ancestral home. Zeus' importance to fathers may also explain the unusual votive offerings uncovered in the hilltop sanctuary at Messapeai near Sparta. The sanctuary of Zeus Messapeus contained weapons, armor, and athletic gear, but these were far outnumbered by crude, handmade clay statuettes of males with huge, erect phalloi. The site was frequented mostly by men, who may have sought Zeus' aid in becoming fathers. 13
Zeus Ktesios (of Possessions) was a humbler deity. In Athens, it was customary for the head of the household to wreathe a two-handled jar with wool tufts around its "ears" and "from its right shoulder to its forehead," and to empty into the jar a mixture of pure water, olive oil, and various fruits and grains, referred to as ambrosia. The finished jar stood in the storeroom as a "sign" of Zeus and acted as a charm to increase the household goods. That the ritual has many points of contact with funerary customs suggests a relationship to domestic ancestor cults. Though he had public altars in some cities, Zeus Ktesios was primarily an intimate, family god. The orator Isaeus (8. 16) tells of an Athenian who admitted only family members to the sacrifice for this god, though his practice was not necessarily universal. Like certain other manifestations of Zeus discussed below, Ktesios could be represented as a snake. 14
Chthonian Zeus
Rather surprisingly in view of his origins as a sky god, many cults of Zeus are chthonian or semi-chthonian in character. One of the most widespread was that of Zeus Meilichios (the Mild). Like many chthonian gods, Meilichios bore a euphemistic name. In truth he was by turns angry and kindly, a deity who required regular appeasement in order to keep the beneficial side of his personality to the fore. By calling him "mild" or "kindly," his worshipers expressed their hopes rather than their fears. Because they governed the fruitfulness of the earth, chthonian deities had the power to be givers of good
21
ZEUS
things if properly propitiated. Xenophon (An. 7. 8. 3-6) describes how he once fell short of money while working as a mercenary commander in Asia Minor. A seer told him that his financial straits were due to his failure to sacrifice to Zeus Meilichios. Xenophon admitted that, although he had regularly sacrificed when living at home, he had not done so since leaving Greece. The next day, he sacrificed two pigs and burned them whole for the god, and his piety was immediately rewarded with the return of a horse he had been forced to sell.
Personal or family offerings to Zeus Meilichios were the rule in the Greek world, but in Athens there was an important public festival for this god, the Diasia. 15 In early spring, people gathered just outside the city at the banks of the river Ilissos for the rites, which involved bloodless offerings of agricultural produce and pastries shaped like animals. For the average citizen, the festival was a time to gather with family members and to enjoy a fairground atmos- phere. In Aristophanes' Clouds (864), Strepsiades recalls how he bought a toy cart for his young son on this occasion. Yet Meilichios was also an awesome and somber deity. On votive reliefs, he usually appears not in human form, but as a huge coiling snake, rearing up to meet his worshipers. (In Greek art, the snake as companion or attribute often indicates that the deity or hero in question belongs to the underworld. Such theriomorphic epiphanies, in which the gods took animal form, were unusual among the Greeks. ) Zeus Meilichios was recognized in the Pompaia (Procession), another Athenian festival that took place while the fields were being plowed and the crops sowed. At this crucial time, it was important to be sure that the land was purified and free from evil influences, such as those introduced by the shedding of a kinsman's blood. Therefore, a ram was sacrificed and its fleece, known as the Dios ko ? idion or Fleece of Zeus, was carried in proces- sion. 16 We have already seen that the fleeces of rams sacrificed to Zeus carried special powers; their purifying function was one of the most important.
As an upholder of social norms, Zeus presided over the purification rituals conducted when a homicide took place. Persons who had killed, even accident- ally, could not participate in family, religious, or political life until they were purified. They turned for help to householders in neighboring communities, or to sanctuaries, where they were protected by divine law from the vengeance of angry relatives. The role of Zeus in purifications is illustrated in one of the oldest extant sacral laws, a mid-fifth-century inscription from Selinous in Sicily dealing with procedures to be followed by a man who has killed and "wishes to be purified against the avenging spirit. " The killer is to announce his intentions, provide a meal for the hostile spirit, and sacrifice a piglet to Zeus Meilichios at his own expense. 17 From other sources we know that in such rituals, the piglet's blood was allowed to flow over the killer, since the participants believed that blood could wash away blood.
A person in need of this purification was known as a hikete ? s, "one who comes," but the angry ghost of his victim was similarly a "visitant," hikesios.
22
ZEUS
? Figure 2. 2 Zeus Meilichios as serpent, votive relief from the Peiraieus, c. 400. Berlin, Staatliche Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
Zeus Hikesios, the god of "ones who come," protected suppliants and guests from violence, but could himself be a supernatural avenger. He and Zeus Meilichios are invoked in rock-cut inscriptions made by family or clan groups in Thera, Kos, and Kyrene. His importance to the extended family arises from the belief that the religious impurity of one member affected the entire group.
Other manifestations of Zeus as a chthonian deity were common in dom- estic and public cult. Zeus Philios (the Friendly) was similar to Meilichios but more concerned with banqueting and friendship, and his cult was of more recent origin. He is shown on a fourth-century votive relief in a pose usually reserved for heroes, reclining at a banquet and accompanied by his consort, Good Luck (Tyche Agathe). He too can be depicted as a huge snake. 18
Righteous Zeus
In Greek literature and popular belief, Zeus is a righteous god who punishes the arrogant and the wicked. His companion or daughter is Dike (Justice),
23
ZEUS
and he is closely associated with the Moirai (Fates) in myth and cult. Many cults of Zeus had a moral dimension, and focused on enforcing behavior that was expected by society. Among the most revered of traditional beliefs was the idea that one was prohibited from harming strangers, guests, beggars, and suppliants, all of whom fell under the protection of Zeus. Instead, one ought to respect guests and strangers, and give aid to beggars and suppliants. 19 According to Plato (Leg. 729e), "being without friends or relatives, the stranger has more claim on the pity of gods and men. " Anyone who refused these obligations could expect punishment from Zeus.
Under the law instituted by Solon in the sixth century, judges at Athens had to swear an oath of office by Zeus Hikesios (of Suppliants), Katharsios (of Purification) and Exakester (of Making Amends). 20 Likewise, there was a Zeus Horkios (of Oaths). Pausanias (5. 24. 9) describes the solemn oaths taken by athletes and their fathers at Olympia beneath a statue of Zeus Horkios brandishing his thunderbolt in a threatening fashion: a boar was sacrificed and over its dismembered body the athletes promised "to do no wrong to the Olympic Games. " A bronze inscription in front of the statue told of the divine punishment in store for oath-breakers.
Kretan Zeus
As we have seen, the Arkadians considered their land the birthplace of Zeus, but there were many claimants to this distinction. In the Peloponnese alone, the Messenians, the Arkadians, and the Achaians preserved myths and cults relating to Zeus' birth, his escape from the evil designs of his father Kronos, and his upbringing. Perhaps the most venerable traditions of the young Zeus, however, were those of the Kretans, who maintained ancient traditions of a youthful god they identified as Zeus. The Bronze Age Minoan civilization, predecessors of the Greeks in Krete, worshiped a young god as part of their pantheon. Though little is known about this god, modern scholars have sug- gested that he was the partner of an older goddess, and that the relationship arose from the same pattern of myth and ritual that gave rise to the Near Eastern worship of Inanna and Dumuzi, Ishtar and Tammuz, Isis and Osiris, and Kybele and Attis. 21
Zeus Diktaios was the most important deity of eastern Krete, and a deity of this name was worshiped in Mycenaean Knossos. He appears in a number of inscribed treaty oaths between Kretan cities in the Hellenistic period, but the oath formulas themselves appear to be of Archaic date. 22 All refer to the god whose cult was localized at Mt. Dikte, where Rhea gave birth to him in a cave and he was protected by a band of youthful warriors, the Kouretes, and nourished with the milk of the goat Amaltheia. There has been much debate in both ancient and modern times about the location of Dikte: modern scholars once linked Dikte with Psychro cave near Lyktos, because Hesiod (Theog. 477-79) mentions this area in his description of Zeus' birth. But this
24
ZEUS
identification was refuted when excavation of an ancient sanctuary at Palaikastro brought to light an inscribed hymn that begins "Io, greatest Youth (Kouros), welcome, son of Kronos, all-powerful Brightness, here now present, leading the gods (daimones), come for the New Year to Dikte, and rejoice in this song. " The hymn was inscribed at a late date, but its content and style show that it goes back to the Classical period or earlier. 23 It tells how, with the coming of Rhea's divine child, Justice and Peace attend the earth, and it urges the Kouros to "leap into" the herds, fields, and cities. Diktaian Zeus appears to be primarily a god of vegetative and procreative energies who is "born anew" every year.
The excavations also brought to light rich votive offerings showing that the sanctuary was most prosperous from the seventh to fifth centuries. Mt. Dikte, then, is probably the peak overlooking Palaikastro, known today as Mt. Petsophas. Significantly, the Classical site of Palaikastro overlay a Middle Minoan settlement, and on Mt. Petsophas was a Minoan peak sanc- tuary that yielded terracotta figures of a young deity. The most spectacular find, discovered within a hundred meters of the inscribed hymn, was a magnificent Minoan statuette of gold and ivory, depicting a youth in the same pose as the Petsophas figurines. The striking spatial juxtaposition of the Minoan and Greek cults of a youthful god suggests that memories of the Bronze Age persisted into Classical times. At the same time, there is a gap in archaeological continuity at the site from the Bronze Age to the early Archaic period, so the cult was presumably interrupted and re-established. In those intervening centuries, it must have undergone significant changes. 24
Another famous cult site of Zeus was the cave below the summit of Mt. Ida in central Krete, which served as a sanctuary for over a thousand years. Excavated in the nineteenth century, it contained many layers of burnt sacrificial offerings, and an unusually rich hoard of votive objects, including bronze and gold items. Some of the objects from the Idaian cave, including a famous group of bronze shields with orientalizing decorations, date to the time of Homer, the eighth or seventh centuries. 25 The cult here, as at Dikte, was concerned with the youthful Zeus and his band of protective warriors, the Kouretes, who clashed their shields to conceal the infant's cries from his hostile father. Idaian Zeus was a mysterious god into whose rites young men were initiated on the model of the Kouretes, according to a fragment of Euripides' Cretans. 26 The chorus of this play tell how the god's worshipers led a life of purity, wearing only white clothing and abstaining from all meat except the raw flesh of the bull sacrificed to Zeus. The celebrations are described as ecstatic and involved torch-lit processions over the mountain. There is a story that the philosopher Pythagoras was initiated into this cult: after strenuous preparations, he descended into the cave for twenty-seven days and viewed the "tomb of Zeus. "27 This concept of a tomb for Zeus would have seemed reasonable to Egyptians or Syrians, who were familiar with dying gods, but it was alien to other Greeks, who never questioned that
25
ZEUS
the gods were immortal. The poet Callimachus, commenting on the tomb in
his Hymn to Zeus (1. 8-9), concluded: "Kretans always lie. " Oracular Zeus
Zeus was the ultimate source of oracular wisdom, but generally did not give oracles at his own shrines, delegating this task instead to his son Apollo. There were a few exceptions to this rule, including the oracles of Zeus read from sacrificial omens at the Panhellenic sanctuary of Olympia, and the oracle of Ammon in the Libyan desert, where the Egyptian god Amun-Ra was syncretized with Zeus as early as the sixth century. 28 But the most important oracular center of Zeus, established in the eighth century, was Dodona in northwestern Greece. Zeus' cult title here was Naios (the Flow- ing), probably from the abundant springs in the area, and he shared the sanctuary with a consort, Dione, whose name is merely a feminine form of his own. Homer (Il. 16. 233-35) mentions the Selloi, interpreters of Dodo- naian Zeus, who have unwashed feet and sleep on the ground. These early prophets apparently obeyed an ascetic rule designed to preserve and increase their contact with the earth, often viewed as a source of oracular knowledge. But in the Odyssey (14. 327-28), we hear that Odysseus went to Dodona to get Zeus' advice "from the god's high-leafed oak tree. " In some descriptions of the oracle, an oak tree sacred to Zeus speaks with a human voice. Other accounts tell of messages from doves perched in the tree's branches, or from dove-priestesses who presumably replaced the male Selloi.
Evidence from the excavations, however, shows that by the Classical period, one consulted Zeus and Dione by writing a question on a ribbon-shaped lead tablet and handing it to the priestess. Most questions dealt with personal matters, such as whether to undertake a voyage or whether to marry. Often, the oracle advised people on which gods they should sacrifice to in order to ensure health, the birth of children, or prosperity. 29
Zeus at Olympia and Nemea
Two of the "big four" sanctuaries that hosted Panhellenic athletic festivals, Olympia and Nemea, were dedicated to Zeus. The younger of the two was Nemea, controlled by Kleonai in the sixth century (when the first temple was built) and later by Argos. The founding myth of the festival linked the cult of Zeus with that of a child-hero, Archemoros/Opheltes, for whom funeral games were established. The recently excavated hero shrine of Opheltes consisted of a long, mounded embankment containing some forty drinking vessels left as foundation deposits. On the broad end of the embankment, from which spectators could view the stadium, was a pentagonal wall enclosing at least two stone altars and a fire pit with the remains of sacrifices. The pottery from this shrine dates no earlier than the early sixth century,
26
ZEUS
when the Nemean games were established, though a few scraps and sherds suggest cult activity at Nemea as early as the eighth century. The Archaic temple of Zeus was destroyed by fire during the late fifth century, probably as a result of warfare to judge from the remains of weapons in the burnt layer of soil. 30
As early as the tenth century, Olympia was a meeting place where local chieftains displayed their wealth by dedicating valuable bronze sculptures and tripods to Zeus. The traditional date for the founding of the games them- selves is 776, and during the eighth century, Olympia gradually developed into the most elaborate and important cult site of Zeus. In place of local Peloponnesian chiefs, it now became the arena for rivalries between devel- oping city-states. 31 The center of the sanctuary was a walled precinct called the Altis (Sacred Grove), where stood the primitive altar of Zeus, a great conical pile of molded sacrificial ashes. Every four years, the high point of the festival was the sacrifice of one hundred or more cattle, whose thighs were burned on the altar by Olympic victors. Zeus' altar was also the seat of an oracle; at its summit a mantis (prophet) drawn from the Klytiad or Iamid families would observe and interpret the burn pattern of the offerings for those consulting the god. 32
An early structure near Zeus' altar was the Pelopion, or tomb of Pelops, an ancestral hero who gave his name to the Peloponnese; his archetypal chariot race was immortalized in the eastern pediment of Zeus' temple. This tomb consisted of a mound on which stood a polygonal enclosure wall (probably the model for the similar hero shrine of Opheltes at Nemea). At every festival the hero received a black ram, whose blood flowed into a pit in the Pelopion, as well as preliminary offerings whenever sacrifice was made to Zeus. There has been vigorous debate over the age of Pelops' cult; though Early Helladic walls were found beneath the Pelopion, they may be unrelated to the Archaic cult, and the stratigraphy is not well enough preserved to draw conclusions about continuity. On the other hand, the mound on which the Pelopion sat was itself prehistoric, and the fact that this site was chosen shows a desire on the part of the sanctuary's founders to forge links to the heroic past. 33
Over the centuries, hundreds of secondary and minor deities became attached to the sanctuary. Among the most important of these were Hera, whose temple dated to the seventh century, Kronos (on the Hill of Kronos), Rhea (in the Metroo? n), and Herakles, who was credited with founding the games. Once a month the Eleans, inhabitants of the surrounding district, made offerings at the roughly seventy lesser altars on the site. In the time of Pausanias (5. 14. 4-10), these included at least eight altars of Zeus in various aspects, including Zeus Katharsios (of Purification), Kataibates (of Descending Lightning), Chthonios (of the Underworld), and Hypsistos (the Highest).
As we have seen, Zeus' cults seldom required a temple or image, and the first temple on the site was that of Hera. None was supplied for Zeus until the
27
ZEUS
fifth century, when the Eleans defeated the Pisatans, their rivals for control of the sanctuary, and began a building program with the spoils. Completed before 457, the Doric temple was furnished with a colossal ivory and gold statue of Zeus, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The god was depicted in a restful pose that departed from the standard Archaic representations of him striding forward with raised thunderbolt, and drew instead on Homer's description (Il. 1. 497-99) of a majestic Zeus enthroned on Mt. Olympos. Seated on an elaborately ornamented, gem- encrusted throne, he held Nike (Victory) in his raised right hand, and his left hand grasped a staff, on which perched an eagle. It was said that when the sculptor Pheidias completed the statue, he prayed to Zeus to make a sign if the work pleased him, and a flash of lightning immediately appeared. Few visitors to the temple failed to be moved with religious awe at the sight of the image, which measured about 13 m in height and could be viewed from a second-floor gallery. But in spite of its huge size, viewers received the impression of a calm and peaceful deity. According to Dio Chrysostom (Or. 12. 51), "whoever is deeply burdened with pain in his soul, having borne much misfortune and grief in his life and never being able to attain sweet sleep, even this man, I believe, standing before this image, would forget all the terrible and harsh things which one must suffer in human life. "
Further reading
Cook 1964 [1914-] is still valuable for its collection of primary sources, but this massive study should be used with caution because its materials and methods are outdated. Much of Burkert 1983b focuses on cults of Zeus in relation to sacrificial practices. Jameson, Jordan, and Kotansky 1993 and Lalonde 2006 collect information about Zeus Meilichios and his role in purifications. Parke 1967 is still the best account in English of the oracles of Zeus. Sinn 2000 provides a popular account of Olympia by an excavator and scholar of religion who knows the site intimately.
28
3
LADY OF GRAND TEMPLES Hera
Major cults of Hera were not evenly spread over the Greek world, but instead were characteristic of certain regions and peoples. The Dorians of the north- east Peloponnese (Argos, Korinth, Tiryns) and the Peloponnesians who colonized southern Italy honored her the most. A famous Ionian seat of her worship was the island of Samos. Her cult enjoyed its greatest prosperity during the Archaic period, when Argos and Samos were at the height of their power. Hera's origins are generally thought to lie in a powerful prehellenic goddess (or goddesses) whose cult was adopted by the Mycenaean Greeks. Her name has been connected with the word ho ? ra, season, indicating fertility and ripeness for marriage, and appears on Linear B tablets from Pylos (in connection with Zeus) and Thebes. The same etymology makes Hera a feminine form of hero ? s, and this background may help to elucidate the goddess' complex ties to heroes, Herakles above all, and the genesis of the Greek concept of the mythic and cultic hero. 1
Greek poetry and myth tell us of a goddess who vehemently opposes her husband's extramarital affairs and attempts to punish her rivals and their offspring. She is a scheming and vengeful deity, who plots against the Trojans when she loses the beauty contest judged by Paris, but she also has favorites such as the hero Jason, whom she aids in his quest for the Golden Fleece. She is not a tender mother, but Homer describes her sexual union with Zeus as a source of fecund power (Il. 14. 347-49): "under them the divine earth grew newly-sprouted grass, dewy clover, crocuses, and hyacinths, thick and soft. " In some of her cults, Hera is likewise viewed primarily as a bride or wife, and her status as Zeus' consort is central for worshipers. But in her most famous cults (Argos and Samos) Hera is a powerful city goddess who fosters economic and military success. In these cases her relationship to Zeus is not a crucial factor, and the literary portrait of a jealous, scheming wife seems far removed from the cultic experience of an awe-inspiring deity who brings success in battle, multiplies the herds of cattle, frees the enslaved, and protects the young for her chosen people.
29
HERA
Argive Hera
Despite Homer's Panhellenizing tendencies, he recognizes Hera's regional character as goddess of the Argive peninsula, giving her the epithet Hera Argeia (e. g. Il. 4. 8). In historical times she became the city-goddess of Argos itself, and her Argive sanctuary was the most venerable and famed center of her worship. Her festival there, known as the Heraia or Hekatombaia (Sacrifice of one hundred Oxen), was held in the first month of the year. A grand procession escorted the priestess, who rode in an ox-drawn wagon from the city to the sanctuary several miles distant. The youth recognized as most virtuous carried a sacred shield in the procession, marking his and his age-mates' transition to adulthood and warrior status. After the procession, there were athletic competitions for which the prize was, again, a bronze shield. 2 Hera's cult at Argos shows a preoccupation with two aspects of the Argolid's prosperity: the herds of cattle on which its wealth was based, and its military might. Terracotta figurines from the Heraion indicate that Hera was also viewed as a kourotrophic deity, one who nourished and protected the young. Often she is shown holding a child in her lap. Sometimes she holds not a child but a horse, an emblem of aristocratic privilege. Hera's cult seems to have been closely bound up with the efforts of the early Archaic Argives to define their relationship with the heroic past.
The Argive Heraion was constructed over the remains of a Mycenaean settlement, but there is no clear evidence of continuity of cult from the Bronze Age to the ninth century, when activity at the Heraion becomes archaeologic- ally visible. Around 700, a terrace was built using huge "Cyclopean" blocks in imitation of the Bronze Age architectural style, and shortly thereafter a temple of stone and wood with a colonnade was added. This Archaic struc- ture was not superseded by a newer temple until the fifth century, when the sanctuary was transformed from a rallying center for the towns in the region to a symbol of the power of Argos, by then the dominant city. In 2000-01, excavators found (SEG 51 [2001] 410) a cache of inscribed bronze tablets recording, among other things, the sums borrowed from the state treasuries of Pallas and Hera to pay for the construction of this temple. It possessed sculptures depicting not myths of Hera herself, but subjects of interest to the Argives: the birth of Zeus, the battle of the gods and giants, the Trojan war, and the saga of Orestes.
In Pausanias' time, one entered the temple after walking through a series of statues of the former priestesses (styled kleidouchoi or Keyholders), whose tenures provided a chronological framework for the city's history. The list of priestesses was already ancient in the fifth century, when Hellanicus (FGrH 4 F 74-82) used it as the basis for an account of the Greeks from the Trojan war to his own day. The cult image of the Classical period was a famous one by Polykleitos, fashioned of gold and ivory over a wood core. The seated goddess held a scepter and a pomegranate, symbols of temporal power and
30
HERA
fertility. A more ancient wooden image must have existed, but presumably was destroyed when the Archaic temple burned in 423/2. When Pausanias (2. 17. 3) visited the temple, he saw a venerable image of pearwood taken from nearby Tiryns, another ancient Heraian cult center, which the Argives had installed on a pillar beside Polykleitos' statue. The pillar itself may have held special significance, for a fragment of the Argive epic Phoronis (fr. 3 Davies, EGF) describes Hera's priestess adorning "the high column of the Olympian queen, Hera Argeia" with fillets and tassels. Another item of interest in the temple was the "couch of Hera," a symbol of Hera's status as the bride of Zeus.
The Asterion river near the Heraion was regarded as the father of Hera's three nurses, the nymphs Akraia, Prosymna and Euboia, who were named after features of the sanctuary's topography. Local tradition, therefore, held that Argos was Hera's birthplace. Women conducted secret rituals at the Heraion, involving purifications, sacrifices, and the offering of garlands twined from a local herb also called asterion. The women wove a robe for Hera, as they did at Olympia, first taking a ritual bath in the waters of the spring or well called Amymone. The hundreds of miniature water vessels (hudriai) from the excavations further attest the importance of water in these activities. Perhaps the ritual involved a bath for Hera's image; a legend describing how Hera took an annual bath to restore her virginity was attached to the spring Kanathos in nearby Nauplia. The "water of freedom" of the stream Eleutherion, near the Heraion, was used for the women's secret rites, and was also drunk by slaves and prisoners about to be emancipated. Hera's daughter Hebe (Youth), whose statue stood beside hers in the Heraion, similarly granted asylum to suppliants and freed prisoners at her ancient sanctuary in Phlious. 3
Hera of Samos
Half of one column from the Heraion at Samos has been reconstructed, scarcely hinting at the former glory of this sanctuary. A succession of temples stood in the marshy site, beginning with the late eighth-century hekatompedon or hundred-foot temple. One of the later temples was a truly gigantic Ionic structure with a forest of columns, which Herodotus (3. 60) called the largest temple of his time. Among the dedications at the Samian Heraion were over thirty house models in stone and terracotta. The Hera sanctuaries at Argos and Perachora have also produced models with Geometric decoration, causing speculation that the houses are intended to represent the earliest temples, before the construction of hekatompeda. Given the fact that Hera's temples are everywhere among the earliest attested, this is likely, but other explanations are possible. If the models represent chieftains' houses, they could symbolize Hera's association with political authority and social status. 4
31
HERA
? Figure 3. 1 Terracotta house or temple model from Perachora. End of the ninth century. Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
The center of the sanctuary, and its earliest feature, was the altar, which existed from the tenth century. Like the temple, it was rebuilt several times, culminating in a monumental 40 m structure. 5 All this grandeur, however, came after the sanctuary was well established. While not of Panhellenic stature, its fortunes rose with those of the maritime state of Samos in the seventh and sixth centuries. Asius, a poet of this period, described the wealthy Samians visiting the sanctuary dressed in flowing white tunics, with long hair bound in golden bands, and adorned with gold cicadas. A stunning variety of imported objects was uncovered in the excavations: Egyptian ivories, Babylonian bronze figurines, and a collection of exotic animal trophies including crocodile and antelope skulls. In spite of the cosmopolitan nature of the sanctuary, the dedications show that it was also a local center of worship. The excavations turned up many humble, crudely carved vessels and figurines, as well as natural curiosities like coral and rock crystal. 6
There were conflicting stories about the origins of the sanctuary and to what degree it was dependent on the Heraion at Argos. One tradition said that it was founded by the Argonauts, who brought the cult statue from Argos, while the Samians themselves said that Hera was born here under the lugos, a willow-like tree preserved in the sanctuary, and that the place was founded by non-Greek Karians. Still, their tradition allowed that the first Greek priestess of the sanctuary was the Argive Admete, daughter of
32
HERA
Eurystheus. Once, Karian pirates had attempted to steal the cult image of Hera, but found their ship immobilized when they placed the statue on board. Terrified, they left the image on the beach with a food offering and made their escape. There the searching Samians found it, and believing that it had run away, bound it to the lugos with the tree's flexible branches. Admete herself purified the image and restored it to its place in the temple. This myth provided the background for the annual festival called the Tonaia (Binding), during which the goddess' statue was carried to the sea, purified, and given a meal of barley-cakes. At some point during the rite, it was probably also bound with lugos branches. Celebrants at the feast wore wreaths made of lugos and reclined on beds of it. This festival has been interpreted as a drama of the deity's disappearance and return, in which the recovery of the goddess is symbolic of the yearly cycle of vegetative abundance. A related possibility is that the drama expresses the Samians' anxiety lest Hera, the protector of their city and guarantor of their good fortune, abandon them. The goddess is annually bound to her birthplace and her proper residence at Samos is reaffirmed. The myth itself asserts that even should outside forces attempt to move the goddess, she would express a preference for her home and actively resist leaving it. 7
There are indeed indications that Hera at Samos was a goddess concerned with fertility. Among the objects dedicated to her were pinecones and pome- granates (real fruits as well as clay and ivory models), symbols of fecund reproduction. The offering of pomegranates, however, appears to cease after about 600. Joan V. O'Brien suggests that this is due to a shift in the percep- tion of Hera, through which her role as bride of Zeus came to be emphasized over her earlier manifestation as a powerful, independent goddess. In any case, Hera's role at Samos was never limited to assuring fertility, but must have been closely connected with the Samians' successful trading ventures. Stylized wooden ship models were common votives, and in the Archaic period two full-size ships were dedicated in the sanctuary. 8
The cult image of Samian Hera has been described by ancient witnesses as crudely carved and planklike. It was wooden, small and light enough to be carried annually to the shore for the Tonaia, but spent the rest of the year ensconced in the temple, dressed in rich garments and wearing a high crown. It also wore a pectoral ornament, resembling an extended collar or series of necklaces, which was characteristic of East Greek and Anatolian deities (the so-called "multiple breasts" of Artemis at Ephesos are another example). When the Samians built the huge Classical temple, they supplied it with a new cult image that resided in the cella, the normal location. The venerable old image was kept in the pronaos, or front room, of the temple. This arrangement was perhaps dictated by the need to keep the old image in its original location: its base in the pronaos stood on the same spot it had occupied in the cella of the old temple. As we have seen, keeping the goddess fixed in her proper place was a major cultic concern for the Samians. 9
33
HERA
Hera at Korinth and Perachora
The Heraion at Perachora was among the richest minor sanctuaries in Greece. Literary sources are almost completely silent about this sanctuary, but the archaeological finds show that it was of great importance during the Archaic period. In the territory of the prosperous mercantile state of Korinth, it was founded in the eighth century and saw the construction of yet another of the very early temples to Hera we have noted. The first temple had a curved (apsidal) back wall and was only about 7. 5 m in length. Nothing is known about the cult image, but the goddess here was called Hera Akraia (of the Headland), a reference to the Perachora promontory on which the sanctuary was situated near a small harbor. Sixth-century dedications to Hera Limenia (of the Harbor) have also been found; surprisingly, these appear on a terrace above the harbor itself and the main part of the sanctuary. An Archaic struc- ture on the terrace, once thought to be a separate temple of Hera Limenia, is now considered an auxiliary building, probably a dining room. Blocks used in this building contain dedications to Hera under yet another title, Hera Leukolene (of the White Arms). These early (seventh- and sixth-century) dedications echo one of Homer's favorite epithets for Hera (e. g. Il. 5. 711, 8. 381, etc. ).
The pattern of votives shows that this was an important cult site for local people, as well as for sailors traveling up and down the Gulf of Korinth. The many imported objects, including Egyptian-style scarabs and Phoenician bronzes, illustrate the wide trading contacts of the Archaic Korinthians. The earliest, eighth-century temple at the harbor was accompanied by a deposit of Geometric votive objects, including drinking vessels, wine jugs, clay models of cakes presented as offerings to the goddess (koulouria), and house models. This temple was replaced in the sixth century with a new Doric stone temple, and a monumental altar was added. North of the altar the excavators found a flight of steps, which probably functioned as a spectator area for viewing the sacrifices. 10
The myth of Medeia, the young sorceress whom Jason brought back from his travels in the Black Sea, is best known from the play by Euripides. This work portrays her as a spurned wife who kills her children by Jason in order to avenge herself for his abandonment, then buries the children in the sanc- tuary of Hera Akraia and founds their cult (Eur. Med. 1378-83). There were, however, other myths about how the children of Medeia died. According to one, Medeia took each of her children in turn to the sanctuary of Hera to "hide them away" (katakruptein), thinking that this operation would make them immortal. (The word may mean that she buried them. ) When her hopes were disappointed and Jason discovered what she had done, he abandoned her. Another version held that Medeia instructed her children to bring a poisoned robe to her rival Glauke. When Glauke perished as a result of the gift, the enraged Korinthians stoned the innocent children. The murdered
34
HERA
children took a supernatural vengeance by causing Korinthian infants to die, until the desperate citizens consulted an oracle and were told to institute annual sacrifices to Medeia's children. They also set up a statue known as Deima, or Terror, which took the form of "a frightening woman. " In antiquity, infant mortality was often attributed to female demons (Mormo, Lamia) who had a hideous appearance; the statue seems to have been designed to ward off such malign influences. Other sources tell us more about the relationship between the children's cult and that of Hera. Every year, seven boys and seven girls from noble families were dressed in black and sent to live in the sanctuary of Hera Akraia (it is unclear whether this refers to a sanctuary in Korinth itself, since no such sanctuary has been identified, or to that at Perachora). They cut their hair and dedicated it to Medeia's children, and presumably participated in the thre ? noi, or laments, sung for the children, and the enagismata, or sacrifices for the dead. 11
All these myths and related customs have been taken as evidence of a real (in the distant past) or symbolic child sacrifice to appease hostile divine forces, or as an initiation rite by which the youths and maidens, after a period of separation from the community, reached adult status. Certainly they indicate that the Korinthians thought it was necessary to devote elite children to the service of the goddess, and that upon this service depended the health and welfare of the entire community's children. The rituals originally may have been conducted for Medeia herself, since some scholars view her as a divine figure whose cult was superseded by Hera's. 12
Hera at Olympia
One of the paradoxes of the Panhellenic site of Olympia is that its earliest temple was erected not for Zeus, the primary deity of the sanctuary, but for Hera. During the late seventh century, a Heraion was built in the Altis, or sacred enclosure, which then contained no other major structures. Originally, only the foundations were of stone, while the walls were mud brick, and the rest of the structure, including the colonnade, was wood. The temple was refurbished in such a way that the columns were gradually replaced in stone, and each one was slightly different in style, thickness, and the type of stone used. The mismatched columns were probably the result of contributions by many donors, each of whom supplied one column and wanted it to be recog- nizably different from the rest.
Some scholars, disturbed by the anomaly of a Heraion as the only temple in a sanctuary of Zeus, have suggested that the temple was from the beginning dedicated jointly to Zeus and Hera, or that it was originally a temple of Zeus, and was rededicated to Hera only after Zeus' Classical temple was built in the fifth century. The question is still open, but we should keep in mind that a temple was never a requirement for a sanctuary, and was often absent from sanctuaries of Zeus in particular (as at Dodona, another Panhellenic Zeus
35
HERA
sanctuary).
