27,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Serie: Blackwell Ancient Religions
- Sprache: Englisch
Ancient Greek Religion provides an introduction to the fundamental beliefs, practices, and major deities of Greek religion. * Focuses on Athens in the classical period * Includes detailed discussion of Greek gods and heroes, myth and cult, and vivid descriptions of Greek religion as it was practiced * Ancient texts are presented in boxes to promote thought and discussion, and abundant illustrations help readers visualize the rich and varied religious life of ancient Greece * Revised edition includes additional boxed texts and bibliography, an 8-page color plate section, a new discussion of the nature of Greek "piety," and a new chapter on Greek Religion and Greek Culture
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 490
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
Ähnliche
CONTENTS
List of color plates
List of figures
List of maps
Preface
Abbreviations
I An Overview: Greek Sanctuaries and Worship
Location
The Altar
The Temenos
Priests and Priestesses
Sacred Days
Dedications
Statue and Temple
Worship
II Greek Gods, Heroes, and Polytheism
The Gods
Ouranic and Chthonic Deities
Heroes and Heroines
Gods and Heroes in Combinations
Gods and Heroes as a Unified Collective
A Human in a Polytheistic World
III Seven Greek Cult Myths
1. Athena, Poseidon, and Athens
2. Erechtheus, Athena, and Athenian Autochthony
3. Erechtheus, Poseidon, and Athena
4. Dionysus, Icarius, and Erigone
5. Artemis Brauronia and the Bears
6. Zeus Polieus, the Bouphonia, and the Ox
7. Zeus, Prometheus, and the Gods’ Portion
IV Five Major Greek Cults
Athena Polias of Athens
Demeter Eleusinia and the Eleusinian Mysteries
Dionysus Cadmeios of Thebes
Apollo Pythios of Delphi
Zeus Olympios of Olympia
V Religion in the Greek Family and Village
The Father
The Mother
The Daughter
The Son
The Slave
VI Religion of the Greek City-State
Fertility of Crops, Animals, and Human Beings
Good Health
Economic Prosperity
Safety in Seafaring and Warfare
National Identity and National Needs
VII Greek Religion and the Individual
Death and the Afterlife
VIII Greek Religion in the Hellenistic Period
Athens
Delos
Erythrae
Alexandria
IX Greek Religion and Greek Culture
Life and Death
Government
Architecture
Sculpture
Vases and Painting
Athletic and Other Competitions
Law and Morality
Literature
Localism, Nationalism, and Polytheism
Glossary of recurring Greek terms
Index
Blackwell Ancient Religions
Ancient religious practice and belief are at once fascinating and alien for twenty-first-century readers. There was no Bible, no creed, no fixed set of beliefs. Rather, ancient religion was characterized by extraordinary diversity in belief and ritual.
This distance means that modern readers need a guide to ancient religious experience. Written by experts, the books in this series provide accessible introductions to this central aspect of the ancient world.
Published
Ancient Greek DivinationSarah Iles Johnston
Magic in the Ancient Greek WorldDerek Collins
Religion in the Roman EmpireJames B. Rives
Ancient Greek Religion, Second EditionJon D. Mikalson
Forthcoming
Religion of the Roman RepublicChristopher McDonough and Lora Holland
Death, Burial and the Afterlife in Ancient EgyptSteven Snape
This second edition first published 2010 © 2010Jon D. Mikalson
Edition history: 1e (2005, Blackwell Publishing Ltd)
Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.
Registered Office
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ,United Kingdom
Editorial Offices
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148–5020, USA
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.
The right of Jon D. Mikalson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataMikalson, Jon D., 1943–
Ancient Greek religion / Jon D. Mikalson. — 2nd ed.
p. cm. — (Blackwell ancient religions)Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-8177-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Greece—Religion. 2. Religion— History. I. Title.BL783.M55 2010292.08—dc22
2009005597
COLOR PLATES
Credits:
1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 © Connolly through akg-images, London.
FIGURES
MAPS
PREFACE
This book is intended to serve as a first introduction to the fascinating subject of ancient Greek religion. It will be, I hope, a place to begin but certainly not to end. The study of Greek religion is wondrously complex, involving hundreds of deities of several different types who were worshiped over a period of nearly two thousand years in hundreds of ancient Greek city-states. The deities, their myths and rituals, and even the beliefs about them varied, in greater or smaller degrees, from city to city and from century to century. The complexity of Greek religion is understandably daunting for those first approaching it, and I attempt here to make the subject more intelligible initially by a variety of strategies. First, I limit my descriptions largely to Greek religion as it was practiced in the Classical period, from about 500 to 323 B.C.E. I do not attempt to describe the developments over many preceding centuries that led to its form at this time, and I devote only Chapter VIII to distinctive features of religion in the Hellenistic period (323–30 B.C.E.). Secondly, I center much of the discussion on Athens because the evidence – literary, artistic, archaeological, and epigraphical – is many, many times more abundant for Athens than for any other one Greek city–state and this allows us to see better the coherency of the Greek religious system. But even a full account of religion in classical Athens would require several volumes, and for this introduction I have chosen to direct attention first to some basic concepts, then to a select group of deities and cults which, each in its own way, represent important aspects of Greek religious life, then to the religion as practiced in the context of the family, the village, and the city–state, and, finally, to the religious life of the individual. For each deity, ritual, belief, and myth I have attempted to concentrate on what seems to me essential for the purpose at hand, leaving aside many of the questions and uncertainties, variant ancient accounts, and details that accompany many of these topics. Also, we intend to give a general account, and to virtually any general statement about Greek religion some exceptions may be found. In addition, readers should be forewarned that many of the statements made on every page have been challenged at one time or another by one modern scholar or another. And, finally, this book is largely descriptive, based on the ancient evidence that survives, and it limits discussion of modern theoretical interpretations of these complex subjects. Over the last hundred and fifty years a number of theoretical systems to explain major elements of Greek religion have come and sometimes gone. These theoretical approaches hold great interest in themselves, but one needs to know what the Greeks themselves did and said about their religion before one can adequately apply or evaluate the various theoretical systems to explain it all. The books and essays suggested in Further Reading at the end of each chapter will begin to open up for readers the full complexity of these subjects, but we need a place for those interested in the subject to begin, and I hope that this book offers that.
An excellent place to pursue further the topics, deities, and religious practices introduced in this study is the third edition of The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford, 1996) which offers concise discussions by experts along with some basic bibliography. An abbreviated version of the Oxford Classical Dictionary which collects the entries on Greek and Roman religion and myth is Oxford Dictionary of Classical Religion and Myth (Oxford, 2003), edited by E. Kearns and S. Price. For more advanced study I offer, at the end of each chapter, suggestions for Further Reading. These include references to other general accounts of Greek religion, and they include especially J.N. Bremmer, Greek Religion (GR) (Oxford, 1994), W. Burkert, Greek Religion (GR) (Cambridge, MA, 1985), S. Price, Religions of the Ancient Greeks (RAG) (Cambridge, 1999), and L.B. Zaidman and P. Schmitt Pantel, Religion in the Ancient Greek City (RAGC) (Cambridge, 1992). Each of these books is valuable in quite different ways, and in Further Reading I give references to them when they offer a fuller account or a different interpretation of the topic at hand.
In recent years lonely travelers in the ancient world have been given many companions, collections of essays on numerous topics, each entitled Companion to, and in many there is an essay on Greek religion suitable for the readers of this volume. Some are focused on periods, as The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles (Samons II, 2007), with an essay on “Athenian Religion in the Age of Pericles” by Boedeker. Two, so far, treat the Hellenistic period: The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World (Bugh, 2006), with “Greek Religion: Continuity and Change in the Hellenistic Period” by Mikalson and A Companion to the Hellenistic World (Erskine, 2005), with “Hellenistic Religion” by Potter and “The Divinity of Hellenistic Rulers” by Chaniotis. Some treat individual ancient authors, such as The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus (Dewald and Marincola, 2006), with “Herodotus and Greek Religion” by Scullion or Brill’s Companion to Herodotus (Bakker, De Jong, and Van Wees, 2002), with “Religion in Herodotus” by Mikalson. There are many other such companions, some published and some forthcoming, on topics such as Greek tragedy and tragedians, Greek philosophy and philosophers, Greek law, and a wide range of other topics, and the essays in them on Greek religion can be read with profit. T.J. Smith and D. Plantzos are preparing A Companion to Greek Art, which will have several essays placing the various genres of Greek art into their religious contexts. A Companion to Greek Religion (ed. D. Ogden, Oxford, 2007), is devoted entirely to Greek religion and has a wealth of valuable essays, and references to it hereafter will be abbreviated to Ogden, Companion. I give references to these companions and similar writings second rank in the suggestions for Further Reading. And under Further Reading I offer lastly some references to more detailed accounts of the individual topics to be found in scholarly articles, books, and other collections of essays. Of special note here is R. Parker’s Polytheism and Society at Athens (Oxford, 2006) (abbreviated as Parker, Polytheism), a new and very valuable study of many aspects of religion in Athens. Also new in this edition are references to M. Robertson, A History of Greek Art (Cambridge, 1975), abbreviated as Robertson, A History, a venerable and exceptionally valuable work, well illustrated and still in print, treating in two volumes the history and development of the various forms of Greek art, often in their religious context. New, too, are references, for sculpture, to the two volumes of A. Stewart, Greek Sculpture (New Haven, 1990), abbreviated as Stewart, Greek Sculpture.
The suggestions for Further Reading form in no sense a complete bibliography for each topic, but each item will lead the reader to many further treatments of the topic. The reader will also find now and in the future much of use and interest in a new series, “Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World,” published by Routledge Press. So far have appeared K. Dowden, Zeus (2006); E. Griffiths, Medea (2006); L. Edmunds, Oedipus (2006); C. Daugherty, Prometheus (2007); and R. Seaford, Dionysus (2007), and many more are promised. Finally, those interested in the religious environment in which Greek religion developed and thrived and in shared and distinctive features among the religions of Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, Israel, Anatolia, Iran, Minoan Crete, and Etruria will find most helpful Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide (Oxford, 2004), edited by S.I. Johnston. Virtually all of these books have appeared since Ancient Greek Religion was first published in 2004, and they are but one of several indicators of the strong and growing interest in all aspects of ancient Greek religion.
Some discussion in the text is based on quotations or summaries of important ancient writings, and I strongly suggest that some of these be read in their entirety. These include the Homeric Hymns to Demeter and to Apollo, Euripides’ Bacchae and Ion, Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae, and Pausanias’ descriptions of Olympia in Books 5 and 6 of his Description of Greece. For the Iliad, Odyssey, and the poems of Hesiod and Pindar I use the translations of Richmond Lattimore (The Iliad of Homer, Chicago, 1951; The Odyssey of Homer, New York, 1965; Hesiod, Ann Arbor, 1959; The Odes of Pindar, Chicago, 1947); for the Homeric Hymns, the translations of Apostolos N. Athanassakis (The Homeric Hymns, Baltimore, 1976). All other translations are my own.
I throughout offer what would seem proximate equivalents in dollars for the ancient Greek monetary sums, at the rate of one drachma to $100. In fifth–century Athens one drachma was roughly the average daily wage, and by our conversion a lower– to middle–class Athenian would earn approximately $30,000 a year. For the English spelling of ancient Greek names I follow, with the exception primarily of epithets of the gods, the conventions of The Oxford Classical Dictionary3.
Alfred Bertrand at Blackwell Publishing first suggested this book to me, and he and his colleagues Angela Cohen and Simon Alexander have contributed much to making it a reality. Robert Garland read the whole of this manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions and corrections, as did the anonymous reader for Blackwell Publishing. Kevin Clinton kindly commented on the Eleusinian material. I am especially indebted to my colleague Tyler Jo Smith who helped me find, select, acquire, and properly describe the illustrations. For assistance with the new, final chapter (Chapter IX, Greek Religion and Greek Culture), I am most grateful to John Camp, Jenny Clay, Carol Lawton, and, again, Robert Garland and Tyler Jo Smith. Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to the many undergraduate and graduate students of the University of Virginia who over the years have, quite unbeknownst to them, shaped the form of this book even before it was thought of as a book.
ABBREVIATIONS
AN OVERVIEW: GREEK SANCTUARIES AND WORSHIP
Location
The Altar
TheTemenos
Priests and Priestesses
Sacred Days
Dedications
Statue and Temple
Worship
Greeks most often prayed and made offerings to a deity in that deity’s own sanctuary. In this chapter we begin by constructing such a sanctuary, first introducing the essential elements and then adding features found in many sanctuaries. In its simpler form, with an altar and a surrounding fence, our sanctuary will be typical of thousands of sanctuaries in the city–state of Athens alone and of many more thousands elsewhere in the Greek world; in its developed state, with a temple and monumental statue of the deity, it will be similar to only about twenty major sanctuaries even in Athens, the richest of the Greek city–states at this time.
Figure 1.1 Head of a bronze statue of a god, usually identified as Poseidon or Zeus and dated to about 460 B.C.E. For a photograph of the complete statue, see Figure 1.7. It was recovered from the sea near Cape Artemisium off the east coast of Greece in the 1920s and is now in the National Museum, Athens. Courtesy of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Athens, neg. no. Hege 850.
Ours will be a sanctuary of Poseidon, the god who, for all Greeks, was, among other roles, the master of the sea. For Athenians in the fifth century Poseidon was particularly important because their navy was instrumental in establishing and maintaining their empire and because trade by sea, especially the importation of the grain necessary to feed their people, was central to their economy. The Athenians were the most sea–oriented of all Greeks in this period, and for them Poseidon assumed a special importance.
Our sanctuary of Poseidon will be located at Sunium, on the summit of a promontory on the southernmost tip of the Athenian coastline. This promontory overlooks a large expanse of the Aegean Sea which Athenian warships and freighters regularly traversed as they made their way to and from the Athenian harbor at Piraeus. We have chosen this cult site for our Poseidon because the Athenians chose it for theirs. By the middle of the fifth century the Athenians had at Sunium a fully developed sanctuary of Poseidon, with a temple visible still today from many miles out at sea. We re–create, hypothetically, the beginnings and development of this sanctuary, not in an attempt to describe and explain the features of the real cult of Poseidon there but to establish a model for the nature and development of Greek sanctuaries in general. We shall later see many modifications to this model as we examine the cults of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, of Demeter at Eleusis, of Apollo at Delphi, and several others, but it will be useful to have a model of typical sanctuaries in mind before we turn to the exceptions.
Map I.1 Map of Attica.
Location
Figure 1.2 View of the Aegean Sea from the cella of the Temple of Poseidon at Sunium. Photograph by the author.
Why did the Athenians locate a cult of Poseidon at just this spot on the Athenian coast? How were cult sites in general selected? Some sites apparently had a natural mystique. Mountain tops were often sacred to Zeus, the god of the sky and the weather. Springs, the source of the water always in short supply in Greece, and caves almost always attracted cults. Springs and caves were often assigned to the Nymphs. The god Pan, himself often associated with Nymphs, was given a cave on the north slope of the Acropolis when his cult was established in Athens about 490. Artemis preferred rural sanctuaries, also often associated with sources of water. A water source, necessary for medicinal purposes, may have played a role in locating Asclepius’ sanctuary on the south slope of the Acropolis in 420/19. Places touched by the gods themselves, as by Zeus with his lightning or by Poseidon with his trident on the Athenian Acropolis, also became sacred. By contrast to these naturally numinous places many cult sites, especially in urban areas, seem to have been selected based on the deity’s function. Athena, the armed patroness and protectress of Athens, had her major sanctuaries on the Acropolis, the city’s fortified citadel. The cult sites of Zeus Boulaios (of the Council), Zeus Eleutherios (of Freedom), and Apollo Patroos (Ancestral) were clustered on the west side of the Agora (marketplace), in the Classical period the governmental and archival center of Athens. Similarly Hephaestus, the god of fire, shared a temple with Athena in an area of Athens that housed foundries and blacksmiths. The siting of these sanctuaries as well as of many in new cities founded as colonies suggests that often the Greeks were willing to locate sanctuaries, as we do churches, on the basis of land available and to fit them into a larger urban design. These sanctuaries were built in places appropriate to the gods’ activities in civic affairs, not in a place sacred, as it were, by nature. In these cases the site was made sacred by the establishment of the sanctuary. The reasons for choices of sites for cults surely varied widely, and we can see patterns but no one pattern. Myths, as we shall later see for the cult of Apollo at Delphi, sometimes explained that the deity selected the location of a cult site. Many of the smaller cult sites throughout the Greek world also had myths explaining their origins, but these myths do not survive, and we now have no way of knowing why they were where they were.
For our cult of Poseidon, the site of Sunium seems an obvious choice, with its commanding view over one of the major sea lanes to and from Piraeus, the last such vantage point before the ships disappear from view on the open sea and the first point from which hostile ships would be sighted. It may also be that this site was initially chosen or later developed especially because of its frontier location, with the intent of laying permanent claim to this remote spot and establishing Poseidon as a potent defender against the form of attack most likely at this border. In the late fifth century, in fact, the Poseidon sanctuary at Sunium was enclosed within a large military fort with considerable naval installations.
The Altar
The altar serves to receive offerings to the deity, and since giving offerings was a fundamental form of worship for the Greeks, the altar was the one essential physical component of cult. An altar may, in fact, serve as the litmus test for religious cult: if a deity had one, we can be sure that he or she was worshiped and was a part of practiced Greek religion. If a deity did not have an altar, that deity was most probably a creation of the literary tradition or of folklore, not of the religious tradition, and did not receive sacrifice, prayer, or dedications. A few figures such as the personifications Eirene (Peace) and Agathe Tyche (Good Fortune) made the transition from literary to religious figures in the fourth century, and we recognize that transformation in Athens when altars are built and dedicated to them.
Some altars were simple pits (bothroi ) or low-lying structures with openings to the bare earth (escharai ). Liquid offerings such as water, milk, and honey were poured into these. These altars were for deities and divine figures thought to dwell in or beneath the earth, and, presumably, the offerings were thought to seep down into the earth to their recipients. Poseidon is, however, an ouranic (“of the sky”) deity who dwelled and moved about above ground, in the sky. The offerings to these deities are directed upwards, towards the sky. Their altars (bomoi ) needed to have a flat surface on top to hold the offerings, but otherwise could assume a variety of shapes – usually rectangular but sometimes square or cylindrical. Altars ranged greatly in size, often in proportion to the size of the sanctuary itself. Simple altars might be waist high, a block of stone a meter square or a cylinder equally tall. Monumental altars were often features of panhellenic sanctuaries. The altar of Zeus at Nemea, for example, was a rectangular structure over 41.5 meters long and 2.42 meters wide and that of Zeus at Olympia was 38.1 meters in circumference at its base and 6.7 meters high. Such were, however, very much the exception.
Since the ouranic deities were in the sky, for the offerings to be visible to them and for the savor of the burnt offerings to reach them their altars had to be outdoors, not within a building and covered by a roof, and so altars within a temple were a rarity. And, finally, altars of the ouranic deities were oriented to the east. The priest, as he made the offerings or sacrifice, stood on the west side of the altar, facing east. Offerings to ouranic deities were made before noon, often at dawn, and as he performed his rituals the priest would be looking towards the rising sun.
Figure 1.3 A marble altar, dedicated by the Athenians to Aphrodite and the Charites in 194/3 B.C.E. It was discovered by the Agora in Athens and is now on display in the National Museum. Photograph courtesy of the National Museum, Athens, inv. no. 1495.
The altar will be the first element of our sanctuary of Poseidon. Let us make it a block of stone. In other cities we might well use limestone, but in Athens, with its mountains of marble, we can make it of this beautiful and durable stone. Let us make it of Pentelic marble, about 1¼ meters high and wide, two meters long, and with a molding around the top edge. We are obliged to carve Poseidon’s name on it, so that both the god and visitors know it is his. Each altar is so designated with the god’s name or with the name of a specific group of gods because there were no “common” altars to serve all the gods. If one wished to make an offering to Athena, one must offer on her altar. If, as in our case, the offering is to Poseidon, it must be made on his altar. An offering to Poseidon on an altar of Athena would be received by and would influence neither deity. Our altar is of stone because it must endure the elements. On occasion we will want to burn offerings on it, and then we will put on the altar a metal pan to protect its surface from the fire and ashes. We will orient our altar, as always, to the east, but, by chance, in our sanctuary at Sunium it will appropriately also face the open sea. We have inscribed on it Poseidon’s name in large letters, perhaps painted for ease of reading.
And so our sanctuary of Poseidon is founded. The one essential element, the altar, is in place, inscribed with Poseidon’s name. The altar is oriented to the east and overlooks the Aegean. Since it is of marble and has sculpted moldings, it is a bit more elaborate than altars found in the simplest sanctuaries, and this betokens future development of the sanctuary.
The Temenos
The abode of the gods is a protection shared by all men.
Euripides, Heraclidae 260
The altar is an unbreakable shield, stronger than a fortification tower.
Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 190
As was very commonly done, we will mark off an area around our altar. We might use boundary stones (horoi ) at the corners or a surrounding fence (peribolos), thereby establishing the enclosed area as a separate precinct. We are “cutting off “ (for which the Greek is temnein) an area from the surrounding land, and the Greek term for such an enclosed area is temenos. Our temenos is to be dedicated to a god and hence is “sacred” (hieron), and the two terms together, temenos and hieron, mark the two aspects of our sanctuary: a temenos as a separate precinct, and a hieron as a sacred place, the god’s property. Let us use a low fence, quite probably of mud brick or field stone, which will serve more to demarcate the sacred area than to protect it. It might deter the wandering cow or sheep, but its gate would not be locked and the temenos would be readily accessible to human visitors. Everything within the temenos is “sacred,” that is, the property of the deity, and the deity, not the fence, will protect it. Sylân is the Greek word for “to steal,” and property and persons in Greek sanctuaries enjoyed asylia, the right “not to be stolen.” Individuals seeking refuge in these sanctuaries had asylum. They were under the protection of the god of the sanctuary and could not be removed against their will. They might be tricked out or starved out, but under no circumstances could they be forcibly dragged out. To steal property of the god from a temenos was both a civil and a religious crime. In Athens such malefactors if caught would be prosecuted in the courts, but an even greater danger faced them, caught or not, from the wrath of the offended deity.
Most cults of Poseidon had open access and were not, like some Greek cults, limited to either men or women worshipers. Let us assume that men, women, and children of Athens could enter the temenos of our Poseidon cult at will – unless they were “polluted.” Those polluted were ritually impure and were denied access to virtually all sanctuaries in the Greek world. One “polluted” from sexual intercourse must bathe to remove the pollution before entering the sanctuary. Those who had entered the home of a woman just having given birth could not enter a sanctuary for three days, and new mothers and midwives probably had to wait longer. Men and women who were “polluted” from attending a funeral or being in the presence of a corpse were excluded from sanctuaries for a time. Sexual intercourse, childbirth, and attendance at funerals are, of course, normal events of life and were not in moral terms “polluting” or reproachable, but they made one ritually impure, repulsive to the divine. Those who had killed another, except in battle, voluntarily or not, were also polluted, and they were forbidden entrance until they had undergone formal rites of purification, rituals distinct from any legal proceedings that might be involved. An individual recently engaged in these various activities “did not belong in” and was “out of place” in a sanctuary, and the concept of “pollution” was a marker for that. He or she was, while polluted, excluded from the worshiping community. If a polluted person was in the sanctuary, the deity would not come, and prayers and offerings would be in vain. Pollution in the classical Greek religious tradition is a quasi–physical state – in the sense that pollution is a real or symbolic “dirt” that can be passed on by contact –, not a moral state. One rids oneself of such pollution by washing, by the gradually cleansing passage of time, or by appropriate rituals. The impure “dirt” from sexual intercourse, childbirth, and murder are physical and, perhaps, obvious. Funerals and the aversion to the dead may be explained by the nature of the ouranic gods themselves. They were by nature deathless, the gods of the living, and in the Greek tradition these gods abhorred death and withdrew from anything (except their own sacrificial victims) tainted by it. For this reason the dead, those who had recently attended the dead, and murderers were excluded from the gods’ sanctuaries. As the whole of the island of Delos gradually became thought of as the sanctuary of Apollo, the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus in the sixth century removed from the surrounding hills all tombs which even overlooked Apollo’s temenos, and then in 426/5 the Athenians had all the remaining tombs removed from the island.
It has been destined for her to die and depart from life on this day. I leave now this house that is very dear to me so that pollution may not reach me in this house.
Apollo, on the forthcoming death of Alcestis.
Euripides, Alcestis 20–3
The same acts that pollute individuals and prevent them from entering sanctuaries are all the greater dangers if they occur in a sanctuary, and therefore every effort was made to prevent sexual intercourse, childbirth, or a death from occurring there. Those caught trysting in a sanctuary could even be put to death,
Figure 1.4 Drawing of the sanctuary of the Twelve Gods, founded in Athens by the grandson of the tyrant Pisistratus in 522/1B.C.E. It served also as the official central milestone from which all distances in Attica were measured. It has the typical form of a sacred temenos with an altar facing east, a períbolos wall, and a perirrhanterion at the main gate. Courtesy of the American School of Classical Studies, Athens: Agora Excavations.
and on Delos it became the practice to remove both those who were dying and women in childbirth to a nearby island before they “polluted” Apollo’s sacred island. And, of course, to kill someone in a sanctuary was a heinous sacrilege which would be punished by the god.
Never, from dawn forward, pour a shining libation of wine to Zeus or the other immortals, without washing your hands first.
When you do, they do not hear your prayers; they spit them back at you.
Hesiod, Works and Days 724–6 (Lattimore translation)
Pollution can be imagined as a form of real “dirt” or “filth” and in its most minor forms could simply be washed away. Greeks wished to be physically clean when they approached their deities – morally clean was not the issue. Often, just at the gate of a sanctuary, stood a basin ( perirrhanterion) of water with which the worshiper sprinkled himself, symbolically cleansing himself before approaching the divine. A Hippocratic author (On the Sacred Disease 4.55–60) describes the act as follows:
We ourselves establish boundaries of the sanctuaries and precincts for the god so that no one may pass over them unless he is pure. When we go in, we sprinkle water around ourselves, not as though we were polluted but to purify an uncleanliness we had before.
Sprinkling the water from the perirrhanterion around oneself would not eliminate the more serious pollutions of association with the dead and of murder, but it would suffice for the accumulated “dirt” of the day.
For our cult of Poseidon let the first temenos fence be of mud brick, low, perhaps a meter high, and with a single gate. For most sanctuaries the area enclosed was probably quite small, with land enough just for the altar and for the priest to perform the necessary rituals. Poseidon, however, is a major deity, and even as we establish his cult at Sunium we foresee expansion and development of the sanctuary. Therefore we make his initial temenos rather large, 10 × 20 meters. Let us have also a perirrhanterion at the gate for the worshipers’ final “cleansing” before they enter the sanctuary. With the altar, its surrounding fence, and the perirrhanterion we now have the basic elements of a Greek sanctuary – the altar being required, the fence and perirrhanterion being very common. Our temenos is somewhat larger and our altar a bit more elaborate than most, but together they represent the most common form of a Greek sanctuary.
Priests and Priestesses
The priest of Amphiaraus is to frequent the sanctuary from when winter ends up to the season of ploughing, being absent for no more than three days, and he is to remain in the sanctuary no less than ten days each month. And he is to require the neokoros to take care of the sanctuary in accordance with the law and to take care of those who come into the sanctuary.
The priest is to pray over the offerings and to place them on the altar when he is present. When he is not present, each sacrificer is himself to pray at his sacrifice, but the priest is to pray over the state’s offerings. The skins of all the animals sacrificed in the sanctuary are sacred. Each person may sacrifice whatever animal he wishes, but the meat is not to be removed from the temenos. The sacrificers are to give to the priest the shoulder from each victim, except when there is the public festival. Then let the priest receive from the state’s offerings a shoulder from each of the victims.
Some regulations concerning the priest of Amphiaraus, a healing god, at Oropus, near Athens. 386–374 B.C.E.
P.J. Rhodes and R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions: 404–323 b.c., #27, lines 2–l;8 and 25–36.
For Poseidon and his sanctuary we need a priest (hiereus) since our deity is male. If our deity were female, Athena or Artemis, we would have a priestess (hiereia). The priest will probably be an elder of the family that has tended Poseidon on this site for decades or even centuries. We have been imagining that “we” are founding this cult of Poseidon, but in fact such a cult would probably have been originally founded, perhaps in the eighth century B.C.E. or earlier, by an aristocratic family who owned the property, and the priest is quite likely a descendant of the family of the original founders. He is chosen by the family and will hold his priesthood for life or until he cedes it to another member of the family. The foundation of our cult predates the establishment of Athenian
Priests, as tradition says, are expert in giving gifts through sacrifices from us to the gods as the gods wish them and in asking for us from the gods in prayers the acquisition of good things.
Plato, Politicus 290c8–d2
democratic institutions in 508/7. For state cults established after this date priests and priestesses were often, in the tradition of Athenian democracy, selected by lot for annual terms. The priest’s prime responsibility as hiereus is to manage the hiera : the offerings, sacrifices, and the sanctuary itself and its property, all of which were hiera (“sacred”). The priest would surely know much of the traditions and rituals of the cult, but for a cult of Poseidon, unlike, for example, that of Demeter at Eleusis, this would not be esoteric, closely held, secret knowledge. Even the rituals of sacrifice would be, as it were, generic, common to the cults of many deities, but with, perhaps, one or two local idiosyncracies. The priest’s role was not that of a rabbi or pastor – he tended not the worshipers but the deity. He would serve only the cult of one deity, and his authority as priest was limited to the cult of that deity. There were no “colleges” of priests whereby individual priests might combine their authority or knowledge and make pronouncements on matters of religion in general. In a small cult such as ours the priest’s duties would occupy only a few days each year, and he would be, if not retired, a farmer, sailor, merchant, stone mason, or engaged in some other occupation. While holding his priesthood he could serve in the military and hold government office. His income from his priesthood would be minimal, probably only portions, often the skins, of the animals sacrificed on the altar or of other food offerings left there. Our priest would live in his own home away from the sanctuary and would have no special restrictions on his dress and behavior. Except on festival days, when he might wear special robes, he would be indistinguishable from his fellow citizens. The priesthood would, however, bring him a certain respect in the community, perhaps even a reserved seat in the theater for the tragedies and comedies in the annual festival of Dionysos.
Sacred Days
Virtually every one of the hundreds or even thousands of deities with cult sites in a Greek city–state had one day each year that was specially his or hers. The day might be celebrated by only the family that tended the cult, by the people of the neighborhood, or by all the citizens of the state. Worship on this day was intended, in general terms, to keep the deity happy with his devotees throughout the year. It was, as it were, routine religious maintenance and might be thought of, in crude terms, as an annual auto or home insurance payment. For a cult tended by one family, it might well involve just a simple prayer and offering by the priest in the morning. The family might also sacrifice a goat or sheep and have a feast for family members and friends. The deity’s festival day might also include the whole neighborhood or village that participated in this cult.
Figure 1.5 The tombstone (.62 m. high) of the Athenian priest Simos of the deme Myrrhinous, dating from 370–360 B.C.E. His priesthood is indicated by the sacrificial knife he carries and by his long, unbelted garment. Courtesy of National Museum, Athens, inv. no. 772.
Let us imagine at this early stage a rather simple festival day for Poseidon at Sunium. For all Athenians the eighth day of each month was sacred to Poseidon, and let us put his annual festival day on the eighth day of the month Posideon. This, the sixth month of the Athenian year, fell in mid–winter and was named, like most Greek months, after a festival held in it – here the Posidea of Poseidon. And so, on Posideon 8, the priest, members of his family, and some neighbors will gather at the sanctuary at dawn to celebrate the Posidea. They will offer a prayer to Poseidon to come to their sanctuary – since Greek gods were not
Months of the Athenian Year
HekatombaionJune–JulyMetageitnionJuly–AugustBoedromionAugust–SeptemberPyanopsionSeptember–OctoberMaimakterionOctober–NovemberPosideonNovember–DecemberGamelionDecember–JanuaryAnthesterionJanuary–FebruaryElaphebolionFebruary–MarchMounichionMarch–AprilThargelionApril–MaySkirophorionMay–Juneomnipresent –, to receive their offering, and to protect them and their friends as they venture out to sea, and then they will make an offering. This might well be the end of it, and they then would turn to other business of the day. If they sacrifice an animal, however, they will probably make a day of it, butchering and cooking the animal and settling down for a feast in the afternoon. The prayer and sacrifice will offer moments of great religious solemnity, but they will occur in the context of the pleasures of family, friends, neighbors, and good food.
Figure 1.6 An Athenian red–figure crater (mixing bowl for wine) from about 425 B.C.E., by the Cleophon painter or a member of his circle; 42.3 cm. high and 47 cm. in diameter. In the lower center stands the altar over which the bearded sacrificer washes his hands in a bowl held by a young man. In his left hand the young man holds a container for the sacrificial knife. The victim, a sheep, is depicted on the left. Note the double–flute player on the far left and the garlands worn by all. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 95.25. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. On similar sacrifice scenes on vases, see T. Carpenter, “Greek Religion and Art,” pp. 409–15 in Ogden, Companion.
Dedications
There were also occasions of worship apart from the annual festival days, and these often arose in times of personal need. We might imagine that Apollodorus is about to make a business trip, sailing with a cargo of wine to Byzantium and planning, with the proceeds of the sale, to buy grain, sail back to Athens, and sell the grain there for another profit. Apollodorus might well come to our sanctuary and promise Poseidon one–tenth of his profits if he returns safely from this long and dangerous voyage. He makes a vow to Poseidon in a prayer, and, if all goes as he wishes, he must give to Poseidon what he promised. The gift he gives to Poseidon as a result of such a vow is a votive offering, and, in the Greek tradition, he would most likely not give the cash but would have made from the cash a beautiful object (agalma) such as a small statuette or a sculpted or painted plaque which would adorn the sanctuary. He would, of course, wish to memorialize his gift, to let his friends and the god know who gave it, and so he would inscribe his name on it, perhaps in a text like this:
“Apollodorus, son of Diopeithes, after having made a vow,
Erects this for you, Poseidon, as a tithe.”
Similarly Diocles, after a long and successful career as a sailor, might present the sanctuary with a thank–offering – perhaps some tools of his trade or a terracotta plaque inscribed simply,
“With thanks, to Poseidon, from Diocles, son of Hermias, a sailor.”
We call such gifts, both votive offerings and thank–offerings, dedications, and we find them today in museum cases throughout the world. They include vases of all types, often in miniature; statues and statuettes of deities and of the animals commonly sacrificed to them; stone, wooden, and terracotta plaques representing the deity or the worshipers praying and sacrificing to the deity; clothing and tools; and inscriptions describing the deity’s services to the individual. When these gifts have been dedicated in a sanctuary, they become the god’s property and are sacred. Some might be used for processions and other religious purposes, but they otherwise cannot be removed from the temenos. We should imagine them set on pedestals or benches, hung from the temenos wall, nailed to or hung from trees within the sanctuary, perhaps set on the altar, and displayed in various other ways.
