Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth

FIOMO NECANS TheAnthropology of AncientGreek SacrificiqlRitual andMtlth bV WALIER BURKERT Translated by PETERBING

UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley LosAngeles London

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For ReinholdMerlcelbsch

Originally published in German by Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, under the title Homo Necans(1972). University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England @ 1983by The Regents of the University of California

Library of CongressCatalogingin PublicationData Burkert, Walter r93rHomo necans. Translationof: Homo necans. Bibliography: p. r. Ritesand ceremonies-Greece. z. Sacrifice. 3. Mythology, Greek. 4. Greece-Religion. I. Title. zgz' .38 77-93423 sr788.a8V3 rg8) rsrwo-5zo-o5875-5

Printed in the United Statesof America 456789 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standardfor llformation Sciences-Permanence of Paperfor Printed Library Materials,ANSI 49.48-r984.

xcti rair'

Eart rd. puarr1pca, cvueltovrt gduut. gouoL xo.i ragoc Clementof Alexandria

et nos servasti_sanguine

fuso

Mithraic inscription,Santaprisca,Rome

Contents

Translator'sPreface xi to theEnglishEdition xiii Preface Listof lllustrations xvii lntroduction xix I . SACRIFICE,HUNTING, AND FUNERARYRITUALS r. Sacrificeasan Act of Killing 1 Explanation: PrimitiaeMan as Hunter z. TheEtsolutionary 3. Ritualization 22 4. Myth and Ritual 29 of Ritual Killing J5 5, TheFunctionand Transformation Funerary Ritual 6. 48 7. TheSexualizationof Ritual Killing: Maiden Sacrifice, PhallusCuIt 58 8. FatherGodand GreatGoddess 72 il. WEREWOLVESAROUND THE TRIPOD KETTLE

72

83

r. Lykniaand Lykaion 84 z. Pelopsat Olympia 93 3. Thyestesand Harpagos 1o3 4. Aristaiosand Aktaion 1o9 5. TheDelphicTripod tr6 6. A Glanceat Odysseus t3o

m. DISSOLUTION AND

NEW YEAR'SFESTIVAL

r. FromOx-Slayingto thePanathenaic Festiaal t36 Dipolieia q6 Skira 74) IX

a35

Arrhephoria 71'o Panathenaia 754 Excursus: The Troian Horse 1 5 8 2 . Argos and Argeiphontes 16r ) . Agrionia $8 4 . Tereusand the Nightingale a79 5 . Antiope and EPoPeus 185 6 . The Lemnian Women 79o 7. The Return of the DolPhin t96 8 . Fish Adaent 2o4

IV. ANTHESTERIA

Translator'sPreface

273

Testimoniaand Dissemination 213 Pithoigia and Choes zt6 3 . Carians or Keres zz6 i SacredMarriage and Lenaia-Vases z3o ?' 5 . Chytroi qnd Aiora 48 6 . Protesilaos 243 7.

2.

V. ELEUSIS t. Documentation and Secret 248 z. TheMyth of Koreand Pig-Sacrifice256 3. Myesisand Synthema 265 in the Telesterion274 4. TheSacrifice Deathand Encountering Death:Initiationand 5. Oaercoming Sacrifice zg3 and Bibliography 299 Abbreaiations Indexof Cult Sitesand Festiuals 3o9

248

walter Burkert'sstyle is often suggestiverather than explicit, his descriptionsare vivid (at times almost visionary)rather than dryly academic,and he does not hesitateto use colroquiarismsso as to make a point more forcefully. In the processof translation, such featuresinevitably undergo a certain levelling. I have tried, however, to maintain the drama and drive of ProfessorBurkert'sprose.In the German, Homo Necansis remarkable for being both an exemplary piece of scholarshipand just plain good reading. It is my hope that itiemains so in the.English. Among the many friends and colleagueswho helped me at various stagesin this translation,specialthanks are due to fames Fanto, ProfessorBruce Frier, ProfessorLudwig Koenen, Charlotte Melin, ProfessorWilliam Owens, and ProfessorSusan Scheinberg.I was privileged to spend severalenjoyable and productive days revising the manuscript with ProfessorBurkert in Uster. Finally my thanki to Doris Kretschmer of the University of California piess who entrusted this project to me and politely,but firmly, kept my nose to the grindstone. PHILADELrHIA, NovEMBnn rg8z

Index of Namesof Godsand Heroes 3a3 PeterBing

and Things )79 lndexof Persons lndex of GreekWords 33a

xi

Prefaceto the English Edition

It is with some hesitation that I present this book, conceivedin the sixties, to an Anglo-American public of the eighties. An holistic synthesisin the field of anthropology may appear preposterousand inadequateat any time; and changesin approach, method, and interest, which have been especiallymarked in these decades-be it through progress in the individual branchesof study, be it through changes.ofparadigmsor even fashions-make such an attempt all the more questionable.When this book appearedin German in 1972,it could claim to be revolutionary in various respects.To a field still dominated largely by philological-historicalpositivism or by the residue of the Tylorian approach in Nilsson and Deubner, it brought a comprehensiveand consistentapplicationof the myth-and-ritual position; it introduced, after Harrison's Themis,functionalism to the study of Greek religion; it used a form of structuralismin interpreting the complexesof mythical tales and festivals;and it made a first attempt to apply ethology to religious history. In the English-speaking world, ritualism and functionalismhad made their mark long before, and much more on all theselines has beenworked out, disseminated, and discussedin the last decade.What was originally novel and daring may thus soon apPearantiquated.The socialaspectof religion in generaland the central role of sacrificein ancient religion are taken for granted today.Much of the credit goesto the schoolof Jean-Pierre and the Vernant and Marcel Detienne in Paris. Ren6 Girard's Violence Sacred, which appearedin the sameyear as HomoNecansand may be seenas largely parallelin intent (cf. L5.n.r), was also instrumental. More generally,we have seen the swift rise of semiology and structuralism, which, though judged by some to be already past their apogee, still command attention and discussion.We have likewise witnessedthe emergenceof sociobiology,which aspiresto a new synthesisof natural and socialsciences.To keep up with all thesedevelwould virtually require opments and iniegrate them into HomoNecans xlll

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

another book replacing the tentative essay that now constitutes my first chapter. Chapters II through V appear less problematical. They elaborate basic ritual structures reflected in myth, demonstrating correspondences and integrating isolated pie-9gsinto a comprehensive whole. As a description-this *ill prorr. ualid.in its own right. The attempt, however, to extrapolate from this an historical-causal explanation of the phenomena-that is, to derive sacrifice from hunting and religion be condemned by the stern rules of from sacrificial ritual-could I have decided to run this risk rather than Yet methodology. a many limit my perspectives by preestablished rules. In so doing, I have inevitably made use of various hypotheses concerning prehistory, sociology, and psychology that are open to error and to the possibility of attack and falsification in the course of further research. There is no denying that a decisive impulse for the thesis of Homo Necans came from Konrad Lorenz's On Aggression, which seemed to offer new insight into the disquieting manifestations of violence, which are so prominent in human affairs and not least in the ancient world. Lorenz's assertions about the innate roots of aggression and its necessary functions have come under vigorous attack by progressive sociologists. Some overstatements no doubt have been corrected, but some of the criticism and subsequent neglect may be viewed as part of the schizophrenia of our world, which pursues the ideal of an ever more human, more easygoing life amid growing insecurity and uncontrolled violence. Fashionable psychology attempts to eradicate feelings of guilt from the human psyche; ideas of atonement appear old-fashioned or even perverse. The thrust of Homo Necans runs counter to these trends. It attempts to show that things were different in the formative period of oui civilization; it arguJs that solidarity was achieved through a sacred crime with due reparation. And while it has no intention of thwarting modern optimism, it tries to warn against ignoring what was formerly the case. Great advances have been made in prehistory and especially in primatology. We now know there are hunts with subsequent ,,distribution of meat" among chimpanzees (seeI.z.n.z3)-showing them to be more human than had been suspected; a chimpanzee ,,rarar,,has been observed, and there are reports of intentionaf kitting by gorillas and orangutans (see I.6.n.5). The picture of evolution hai become ever richer in details but increasingly blurred in its outlines. In reaction to the "hunting hypothesis" of Robert Ardrey and others, specialists are now reluctant to lay claim to knowledge of the importance of hunting behavior. what had been taken to be lhe earliest evidence

for sacrifice has been called into question again (see I.z.n.6). yet the historian of religion still insists that religion must have come into ex_ is.tence at some specific point_chimpir,re"s are apparentlv irreli_ gious-and that it first becomes disceinibre with funera.y uni nrr.,t_ ing ritual. In view of all this it is essential to note that the lor.r" or historical development as delineated in Homo Necqnsdoes not at any stage require that "all" men acted or experienced things in a certain way-e'9., that all hunters feel sympathy for their quairy or remorse over their hunting-but only that ro*" iid indeed instiiute forms of behavior that became traditional and had a formative influence on the high cultures accessible to historical investigation. For the srrange prominence of animal sraughter in ancient rer'igion this still seems to be the most economical, and most humane, exllanation. dealing with tradition, Homo Necanstakes a stance that is . -F hardly popular: it restricts the role of creative freedom a.d fantasy; it reduces "ideas" to the imprinting effect of cultural transfer. on the other hand, modern insistence on ,,creativity,, may simply be an at_ tempt to compensate for the enormous anonymous constraints at work in our society. Nobody wants to question the spiritual achievements of mankind, but these may have it.ung" and opaque substructures. In pointing them out it is perhaps wisest not even to shun the accusation of reductionism, for, though from a structuralist-semiotic perspective one may well describe religion as the relations between men and gods, with sacrifice mediating between them, the term gods nonetheless remains fluid and in need of explanation, while sacrifice is a fact. The thesis that those groups united by religious ritual have historically been most successful seems to conflict *itn tn" modern version of the theory of evolution. That theory now discards the concept 9f qlo"p selection and insists, rather, on ih" self-perpetuation of the "selfish gene" (see I.3.n.9). It may be pointed out bnce more that this is a predictable modern perspective ieflecting the disintegration of our society. whether it applies to the history of culturally dJtermined groups is another question. The thesis of Homo Necansdoes not hypothesize about genetic fixation of ,,human nature.,, It seeks, rather, to.confront the power and effect of tradition as fuily as possibre. In this sense it is radically historical, and factual. pre.paring the translation, I have only been able to rework the ototrography and notes to a limited extent. They still largely reflect the state of the relevant scholarship in 1972. I have, howlver, taken the opportunity to refer to more recent specialized studies and stan-

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

more complete and updard works and to make the documentation to-date. ItremainstothanktheUniversityofCaliforniaPressandPeter Bing, the translator, for their untiring efforts'

List of Illustrations

usrER,yurv r98z WalterBurkert

following pagefi4 r. Sacrificialprocession.Attic black-figurecup. z. Preparation for sacrifice. Attic red-figure bell crater. 3. Leopard men hunting stagand boar. Wall painting from Qatal Htiyrik. 4- Sacrificial feast: roasting and cooking. Caeretan hydria. 5 . Warrior rising from a tripod cauldron. Mitra from Axos. 6. Bulls strolling around an altar. Attic black-figure oinochoe. 'Lenaia-vase'. Attic red-figure stamnos. 8 . Mystery initiation: pig sacrifice. Lovatelli urn. 9 . Mystery initiation: purification by liknon. Lovatelli urn. n

xvll

Introduction

It is not so much the limits of our knowledge as the superabundance of what can be known that makes an attempt to expliin man's religious behavior an almost hopelessenterprise.The mass of available data and interpretation has long exceededthe limits of what an individual can grasp and assimilate.Perhapsthis stream of information will soon be ordered and surveyedthrough a collectiveeffort using computels, but as long as intellectualindependenceprevails and an individual must seek to orient himself within his own world, he may-indeed, he must-take the risk of projectinga model of his situation and reducing a confusing multiplicity into a comprehensible form. A philologist who startsfrom ancientGreek textsand attemptsto find biological, psychological,and sociologicalexplanationsfoi religious phenomenanaturally runs the risk of juggling too many balls at once and dropping them all. And if it is strangefor a philologist to venture beyond scrupulous discussionof his texts, psychology and sociologyare just as reluctant to burden their analysesof contemporary phenomenawith an historical perspectivestretchingback to antiquity and beyond. There is a danger that important biological,psychological, and ethnological findings be overlooked, juit as can happen with archaeologicalfinds, and it is hardly possible for the non-specialistto give the Near Easternevidencethe expert treatment it requires. Yet we must not assumethat all subiectsfii neatlv within the limits of a particular discipline. Even philology depends on a biologically,psychologically,and sociologicallydeteimined environment and tradition to provide its basisfor understanding.And just as biology acquiredan historical dimension with the conceptof evolution,r so sociology,like psychology before it, should uccepfthe notion that 'H. Diels, lnternationale wochenshrift ) (1gog), g9o, discussed the "historicizins of nature" through Darwin's the
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THE DELPHIC TRIPOD

WEREWOLVES AROUND THE TRIPOD KETTLE

dence that not only Apollo was worshipped at Delphi, but Dionysus as well.n3The Leningrad vase-painting on which Apollo offers his hand to Dionysus at Delphi has often been used as an illustration. The pediments of the fourth-century temple presentedApollo in the circle of the Muses in the east, Dionysus among the Thyiades in the wests-a studied antithesisof morning/evening,light/darkness, the two were in fact conceivedof as brothers. Plutarchastestifiesthat three winter months were consecratedto Dionysus, but Apollo resumed power in the month Bysios in spring. This pairing has been seen as a result of a religious-historicalprocess,a shrewd balance, permitting the Delphic priesthood to assimilatethe religious movements of the sixth century and at the same time to soften their impact.e There is undoubtedly some truth to this. But it is not a question of diplomatic compromise or give-and-take,but, rather, of a polarity in which the contrary elements determine each other, like east and west, day and night. It comprisessavageryversus clarity, lack of inhibition versusawarenessof limitations, femaleversusmale, proximity to death versusaffirmation of life: this is the circularcourse that sacrificialritual charts again and again, renewing life by encountering death. The circle of the "werewolves" around the tripod kettle is a form of the ritual especiallyrich in antitheses.In the Delphic context, Dionysusis more likely a new name or accentuationof the one pole than a foreign intruder; in the sacrificialritual, the polar tension is present from the outset. Plutarch mentions two rituals, simultaneously performed and mutually determinant, that he associateswith the dismembermentof Dionysus. The Hosioi would offer an "unspeakable"sacrificein the a3Aesch.Eum. zz, z4; Soph. Ant. rrz6; Eur. Ion 150-51, 7r4-t8, t:'z5; Iph. Taur. tz41; Phoen.zz6 with Schol.; Bacch.3o6-1o9; Hypsipylefr. 752; Aristoph. Nrh. 6o5; Philodamosp. 165Powell. sleningrad crater,St. $o7 : trpyz n85.7, Metzger(r95r) T.25.3;Ior the pedimentsee Paus. ro.r9.4. The sixth century temple was different: see FD IV 3; P. de la Costesculptures destemplesQgSt),15-74; J. Ddrig, Festschr. K. ScheMesselidre,Art archailque: fold (,\K Beih. 4, 1965),r.o5-rog. For "Delphos" the son of Apollo and Thyia see Paus. ro.6.4; cf. the Vienna crater 9J5 : ARV2 r44r; Metzger Qg5r) pl.zz.4: Aphrodite, Apollo, Omphalos,Thyiad. asPlut. De E 389c;for the identificationof Dionysuswith Apollo seeMenander Rhet.Cr ' III 446 Spengel,and cf. Aesch. fr. 86 Mette and Philodamos.On Dionysusas the first to give oraclessee Schol. Pind. Pyth. p.2.7, t) Drachmann. See also'Atr6Mruv 6tovuoo}orosat Phlya, Paus.r.3r.4; in Asia Minor seeApollo and Marsyas(linked with the sacrificeof a ram in the Louvre statue542). *Rohde (1898)II 54-55;cf . H. Jeanmaire,Dionysos(rg5r), r87-9r.

r24

shrine; and_theThyiades would "wake" the child in the winnowing ;a1.47The Hosioi were the m-ostdistinguished sociargroup at Delphi direct descendantsof Deucalion.By undergoing a special,seemingly ancient,initiation sacrifice,they attained the stitus of ,,the purified,, and were hence able to deal with "the unspeakable,,on i regular basis.This probably entailed a sacrificialdismemberment.Euripides combines a similar "consecration"with omophagy in Crete.d The Miinnerbundis juxtaposedto the company of "iaviig" women; the act of killing in the shrine correspondsto caring for thJnewborn child in the female realm, a secretaction performed in the mountain wilderness,ason Mount Lykaion or at olympia. The Thyiadeswould have roamed Mount Parnassusin ecstasyduring the winter;{, accordingly, the Hosioi must have offered their unspeakablesacrificeat this time. Plutarch indicates,as.clearlya_sone possibly could with something "unspeakable,"that the sacrificecorresponded to the dismember_ ment of Dionysus. Thus, it probably followed the main lines of Dionysiacmyth, i.e., tearing apart, gathering, and preserving in a sa_ cred container.This in turn correspondsto the aniient closiig rite in hunting and sacrificialritua_I,The myth tells us that Arkas u.jp"lop, emergedfrom the sacrificialkettle revived. And at Delphi, the advent 9f Apollo marked the closeof the Dionysiacperiod. Apollo,sbirthday falls on the seventhday of the month of nysios in the spring,. which likewise signalsApollo's return to power. "In ancienttimes--the oracle spoke only on this day. Death, as embodied in the previous un_ speakablesacrifice,was finally overcomeby renewed divine life when the Pythia took her placeon the coveredtripod. Ecstasyis a phenom_ enon sui generis,but its placeis fixed by the sacrificialritual. Yet another sacrificehad to be made before the pythia might enter the-adyton-this time, a goat-sacrifice.Beforeit could be iaughtered,however,its entire boay had to be made to shudder;sr therefore rPfut.

k. )6sa; cf. De def. or. 4JBb;e. Gr. z9zd. fr a7z.rz -ry; cf. 1.5.n.25above.Lyk. zo7alludesto a secret sacrificeto Donysus ,".E;1 at Delphi Oltl t'rig. 9yd; De uir. z49e-f;paus.ro.4.z-3 (everysecondyear),and cf. l^Ol"r. .mul. '!_-?r...Z,Hdt. 7.t78; philodamos 27-2'),p. 166poweil; Aiirto.,oos I 37,p. 16l powell; Latullus 6+.3go-Sl. On Liknites."u Niilrror,(rSSil lg_+5. O. Cr. zgze-f, with referenceto Kallisthenes , FGrHist 124F 49. "llt, O. def. or. i1u aiya; r6L Be6fuyp4orilpbo, . . .aiya x[c.*rtprevona 65c, 4.37b ,ll'l\er 41'21. t'or a qoat'shead on Derphiccoins see HN2 34o;Hsch. ripgal,dsAiTcaosis cf. stepi. Byz. Aiva. on ihe shudder of the sacrificiaranimal ::rrupu ,"" Lr..,.r3 above.

125

WEREWOLVES AROUND THE TRIPOD KETTLE

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it was it was doused with cold water' When the goat then quivered' nottakenasanodofconsent-aswouldnormallybethecaseina fe-ar'I 'egends comedy of innocence-but, rather, as a sign of quaking but also of speak oi t o* Aix, ihe "goat," mourned its father' Python'u2 insane by the n'.r* g"",r aiscoveredti'e oraclewhen they were driven apors." Thus, the goat is clearly made to correspond-to the ;;ti;'t was offering Fytf,i" heiself. When the pylhia mounted the tripod, she r,!ir"rr up to death in an expiatory act-of mourning for the_previous Python or Uttifu lt'made no difference whether the victim was called yet Dionlsus or even Apollo himself' The Pythia, a mature woman' somale dressed and adorned like a virgin,s the only woman in-a oracleno other woman wal permitted to approalh thg .i"ty-fo. the tripod almost like a sacrificial victim herself. She too to *ui l"d would shudder, her entire body would quake, but the divine presencewelledupoutoftheanguishandfear:Apotlowouldbethere and would speak. Christian polemicstried to denigratethe imageof the woman sita ting atop rising vapors by embroidering-it with sexualdetails'usEven as ouiun like pausaniascalied the Sibyl "the god's consecrated_wife," L""rct yt"r had made Apollo's relation to-Kassandraa sexualencounter;r similar ideaswere ipplied to the Pythia consortingwith Apollo.5' simulYet, in the contextof saciiiice,offering oneselfup to the god-is the.reproawakens taneouslyan encounterwith death. The "virgin" it' ductive po*"r, in what had been dead and, being posse-ssedby winof sacrifice makes this new life manifest. After the unspeakable in the shrine beside the hearth and the tripod, the t"i p"*"r^"d divine uua^sor spring mark the advent of Apollo, the embodiment of guidance. wisdom and cllarity,the source of potentially crucial Besidesthe hearth and the tripod, and even more prominent' wastheomphalos,the,,navelofttreearth,,,thesacredsymbolofthe s'?Plut. Gr' 293c. Q. s3Dod. 16.26;Plut. De def.or. 415d. aDiod.t6.z6;yuwlEur. longr;ypair'Aesch. Eum. 18;d7vi16r'oBiouPlut'Dedef'or' 4J5d'$k. sorig. cels. xo\tav;Joh. Chrysost.,Migne PG T.S66yerrlt.rrueipa6urr6tvyvvaweiav zr Suda Ptuti.19, 3r4o;cf. Fehrle(tgro)7-8,75-76; 6r..{., followedby Schol.Aristoph. (r94o), Latte, HThR K. 9-r8. Y spaus. ro.rz.z; Aesch. Ag. L2o)-L2. The prophetessat Patarais shut into the temPleat night: Hdt. r.r8z.z. Seealso Pap.Gr.Mag' r'z9r' sTplut.De pyth. or.4o5c, and cf. De sera566d;Ps.-Long.t!.z Eyrup,ovafis 6o:r'tt'oviott xafl wt a p"6v4v 6uvti P'eas.

rz6

THE DELPHIC TRIPOD

Delphicsanctuary.$The actualomphalos was probably locatedin the adyton of the temple, next to the tripod. It was coveredwith a net-like fabric made of raw wool." Both in antiquity and today, there have beennumerousinterpretationsof this symbol. The conceptof a center of the world, expressedanthropomorphically in the image of the navel/ characteristicallydesignatesa place where sacredactions oc* c!,r; every sanctuaryis in some sensea "center." Nevertheless,the the Delphic of stone was matter a for debate.Was it a grave function Whatmonument, for Python,5lfor instance;was it a chthonic altar?62 everthe standardinterpretationsor designationsmay have been, the omphalos had one primary function in the ritual: it was the stand over which the woolen net was draped. In just this way Palaeolithic huntersspreada bearskinover a clay model, and Hermes laid out the cowskinson the rocks.u'Theomphalos,as a sacrificialmonument, belongs in the category of ritual restoration, a practice spanning the time from the ancient hunter through Greek sacrificialritual. Slaughtering the victim at the "hearth" and tearing it apart like wolves are combined with "gathering" the piecesinto the tripod kettle and spreadingthe fleece,or the goatskin,out on the stone:in the temple at Delphi, the symbols of the oracle are Hestia, the tripod, and the omphalos.The stone set up for sacrificeis the centerof the world. Every eighth year there was a festival at Delphi, which Plutarch alone describesin all its curious details.d However, becauseboth $See Harrison Qgzz) 396-4o6;Cook II (r9zl :169_93; Fontenrose Q95g 376-77;H. Y. Herrmann, Omphalos (r1Sil; J.Bousquet, BCH 75 g95r), zro'23. There is rich comParativematerialin the essaysof W. H. Roscher,Abh. Leipzig29.9g9t1l,3r.r (r9r5); Ber.kipzig 7o.z (r9t8). tlts name could be aiyis, Ael. Don. c 48, Paus.Att. a 4o, but J. Harrison called it ayprlvovwith referenceto Poll. 4.r16: BCH z4 egrn), 2.54-62. 'Ci M Eliade, Das Heiligeund dasProfanej957), zz-zg. The omphalos appears as the centerof the world in the myth of the two birds who come from either end of the world and meet there;cf. Pind. fr. 54 = Strabog p. 419;paus. ro.16.3;plut. De def. or. 4o9e. 6 Varro L.l. 7.r7; Hsch. T of iou Bouvos.Forfrescoesfrom the house of the Vettii see R.Ull ttt 3407;Fontenrose ,,tomb Diof OgSil tZS; Harrison Ggzil 4z+;EAA Vl 315.For the onysus"seeTatian8 p. Schwartz (cf. n. above). 9.t7 4r *Herrmann, Omphalos (n. 5g above). asee l.z.n.rl above. {th sourceis Plut. De def.or. 4r7e- 4r8d; seealso e. Gr. z91c;De mus. tt36a; .'^u."itt FGrHist 7oF 3tb: Strabo9 p. 4zz; Theopompos, FGrHist rrTF Bo = Ael. VH lllT..:: J'r, \-afum. h. 86-89, ry4.j4-36; cf. B. Snell, Hermes73 OSlg), +lg on pind. pae. ro; L27

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THE DELPHIC TRIPOD

WEREWOLVES AROUND THE TRIPOD KETTLE

had' Ephorus and Theopompusallude to it, we know that the festival even evidently was it in existence; been Uy ttre fourth century iong to the Pythian oider than the first Sacredfrar, for it was closelylinked year until in eighth in every held games, which were also originally a establishes ritual The fourth. every !g6 ah"V began to be celebra"ted Thesin Tempe of valley the and Delphi - t"h?ionship between ii.if.itrg was brought ;;lt f -", from ihere that the sacred laurel branch In the games' Pythian at the victor the *frich was used to crown group of large a "sacred" route' the on courseof the long pilgrimage to the festival, common to the be s-ummoned tribes and cities woul"cl the festival which Plutarch called the agon, which was precededby ;;3"pi"rio.t,"u' the festival of 'dread" ot "flight'" One might consider whether or not this was actuallya festival of the PylaicAmphictiony' to sinceit was originally centeredat Thermopylae,considerablycloser have cannot however'* period, eight-year The the valley of Tlmpe. been introduced into Delphi at tire time of the first SacredWar, for it have was then that the four-yeir interval was established.There may of an b"". u more complicatedoverlapping,basedon the foundations sepessentially ritual structure, for- even the rare and exceptional terion fiti the structure of the normal Delphic sacrificialritual: there, and too, we find a sacrificeto incur guilt, marked by flight' expiation' the return of the god. For this festival, a wooden building, a "hut" (oqvi)' which' however, "looks like an imitation of a king's or a tyrant'spala-ce"'was the circular sPacea short disbuilt on the "threshing floor" (:}i1xea fi1 'A}qua Biovtw. we do not know what position was oclf?tl"J, cupiedby the sacrificeof "bullsand rams" to Erechtheus, rt.2.55o,at the panathenaia.

r55

THE PANAT}IENAIC

DISSOLUTION AND NEW YEAR,S FESTIVAL

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porting the community. On the peplos begun by the Arrhephoroi (who in the meantime had been dismissed)were woven pictures of a triumphant reminder of the crisis for which the gigantomachy,n2 Atheni armed herselfwith the skin of the Gorgon-goat'Likewise, the myth of Erichthonius spansthe two shoresthat embracethe abyssof "dissolution": it tells of the child Erichthoniuswho brought death to the Cecropids, and of the adult Erichthonius who establishedthe Panathenaia.Erichthonius had, it was said, inventedthe four-horse It was this chariot, which he drove in the first Panathenaicagon.o3 the Panaat sPort distinctive and most characteristic that was the the armed leap of the apobates, the including thenaia: chariot-races king and way warrior the In this chariot.'n moving his warrior from his advent. land at of the possession took and Erichthoniusareobviously merelyvariants.'5Only Erechtheus in cult, as it is the original, probablynon-Greek, is used Erechtheus who is "peculiarly of the earth," is a Hellenizing Erichthonius, name. neologism, perhaps taken up in Attic epic becauseof the etymology. The myth then differentiatesbetween the two by telling of Erichthonius' birth, but Erechtheus' death. So, too, the genealogiesmade Erechtheusking after Erichthonius, who, as the "earth-born" child, had to come at the start. In the festivalcycle,the mysteriouschild and the king's sacrificialdeath confrontedeachother in the last month of the year. The new king was inaugurated at the subsequentPanathenaia: Erechtheusis dead, long live Erichthonius!What the Arrhephoria, the Skira, and the Buphonia had dissolved,the act that celebrated the polis'sbirth restored. Above the Parthenon frieze, with its Panathenaicprocession winding around the cella,abovethe battlesceneson the metopes,the pedimental sculpture portrays the epiphany of Athena in and for Athens. It is hardly accidentalthat the depiction of Athena'sbirth on ezEur. Hec. des 466-74 with Schol.; Arist. fr. 617; Orig. Cels 6 4z; F Vian, La guerre gtants (t952), 251- 5i.Since the establishment of the greater Panathenaia, the peplos was apparently woven only every four years; see Deubner (tqz) 3o; Davison, /HS 78 (rg58), z5-26; the custom itself is certainly older. esSeen. 84 above. qDion.

Hal. 7.73.2-3; Harpokr. dnopctrrls; Reisch, RE I z8r4-t7; on the pictorial tradition see Metzger Qg5t) 359-6o; (t965) 7r-72; already on late Ceometric Attic amAthenians dedicated the phoras, AA 78 (rg$), 27c'-25; Philadelphia Jo-3)-1)).The place where Demetrios leaped from the wagon to Zeus Kataibates:Plut. Demetr. rc' '5PR I r98; E. Ermatinger, "Die attische Autochthonensage bis auf Euripides," Diss' Z u r i c h , r 8 g 7 ; E s c h e r , R E V I 4 o 4 - r r , $ g - 4 6 . F o r E r e c h t h e u sa n d E r i c h t h o n i o s o n a n Attic bowl (with inscriptions) see Berlin F 25i7 = ARV? rz68; F. Brommer, Chatites L . I - a n g l o t z( 1 9 5 7 ) , t 5 z - 7 , p l . z t .

15b

FESTIVAL

the easternpediment, with the flight of the axe-bearer,looks down on the altar of the Buphonia.'6The contestbetween Athena and po_ seidon for AtticaeTon the western pediment-the first sight greeting the visitor as he approachesthe temple-embodies the sameconflici that is acted out in the ritual and marks off its beginning and end. Two cultic monuments made the sanctuary toward which the prothe first was the bit of ,,sea,,,the cessionmoved, peculiarly sacred:es depressionmade by Poseidon'strident and filled with salt water. Locatedin the northern hall of the Erechtheum,yet exposedto the open air, it was the site of "sacrificiallibations."'The second is Athena,s olive tree in the Pandroseion,upon which the western windows of the Erechtheum seem to look out. The "sea" and the olive were the pledgesthe two great gods offeredto the city as proof of their power. Poseidonlost by the decisionof Cecropsor Zeus; yet he-or, rather, Erechtheus-was as much a part of Athens as was the goddess Athena herself.In cult, Poseidonwas identified with Erechtheus.The myth turns this into a temporal-causalsequence:in his anger at losing, Poseidonle.dhis son Eumolpus againstAthens and killed Erechtheus.'mEven here, the correspondencebetween poseidon,sdefeat and Erechtheus'sinking into the earth was perceived.It was said that Athena expressedher gratitude to her father Zeus for his favorable decision by establishingthe Buphonia on the Acropolis'nr-yet another reflection of the sequenceskira-Buphonia.Thus, the mythical contestbetweenPoseidonand Athena merelyvariesthe basicthemetransposedto an Olympian level-that set the tone for the ,,houseof Erechtheus"already in the most ancient tradition: the theme of the goddessjuxtaposed with a god or ancestralking who is active as a victim in the bowels of the earth. At the city'shighest point, atop the Acropolis, there is also that bit of sea that lurfaies in the sanctuary. Likewise, the Babylonian temples contained a bit of Apsu, the primordial Ocean,'o,who was murdered by his son Ea so that Ea could %On

Athena's birth and cow-sacrifice see Cook III (r94o) 656-62. I :oz-zo4; H. Bulle, RML III z86r-66; Apollod. ).a77-7g. $Hdt. 8 . 5 5 ; S t r a b o p . 3 9 6 ; P a u s . t . z 4 . j , 2 6 . 5 ; J . M . p a t o n , e d . , T h e E r e c h t h e u m( 1 9 2 7 ) , ro4-10; N. M. Kontoleon, To 'Epelrlercv dts oixo66pqpa Tfovias Larpedas (Athens, 1949); Bergquist (:196:) zz-25. eBop.ds fi BueX6lG l'? 172.79,zo3; theater seat, /G Il/lll'_roz6: Bwlyoou. nrur' Ereclilfters; a vase-painting depicts poseiclon and Eumolpos riding toward rrtnena and the olive tree: L. Weidauer, AK rz (t969), 9r-93, T.4t. torHsch. Alds rgdxor. *E. Dho.m", Les religionsde Babylonieet d,Assyrie eg+g), )2. For a,,sea,,-basin in the rempfe at Jerusalem see I Kings 7:23-z6,ll Chron. 4:z-6. For lclopo beneath the temple of }iierapolis, see Luk. Syr. D. tz,. tPR

r57

DISSOLUTION

ii'l

r lll ,,,1

AND NEW YEAR,S FESTIVAL

build his palaceand temple on toP of him. Ariel's song, "Full fathom five thy father lies,"'03seemsto echoaround this temple. Over that bit of seaihe olive tree of the goddessgrows, eternally 8reen, surviving the courseof generationsand providing food.

' Jitrut'l

iillr ]"

EXCURSUS:THE TROJAN HORSE

1'

According to Attic tradition, Troy fell on the twelfth day of skirophorion,'* the day of the skira. Among the Dorians, the lliupersiswas ionnected with their specialfestival, the Carneia.'o'Theseseem no more than arbitrary, unverifiable conceits, but, considering that ancient etiologistscould at leastbegin from personalexperienceof their festivals,it might ue well to askwhat thesebold assertionscould mean. In point of fact, the Skira is a festival of "dissolution'" The city goddesi and the king disappear;in their place appear hostile neigh6ors, the Eleusinians.In the myth, Athens comes to within a hair's breadth of being conquered.And in the ritual, the EleusinianKerykes do indeed scalJthe Acropolis, bringing a bull for sacrificeafter Athena's priestess leaves the Acropolis, bound for Eleusis' If a "sacred city,, can be conquered at all, it is only during this period of crisis at year'send. Troy was similarly forsaken by Pallas Athena when Odysseus and Diomedescarried off the Palladion.'* However, a strangeanimal went ahead of the Greeks who conquered Troy, a sacrificialanimal for Athena, madeby the goddessherself:the wooden horse.The Trojans themselvesbroie through the walls to consecratethe animal to the goddesson their u..opolis.'o'Indeed,a priest drew near the horse and Jtro"t it with u tp"ui on the side, the priest Laoco6n,who quickly

l

r03W.Shakespeare, TheTempest, I.z. leClem. strom. r.ro4. Becausethis month existsonly in Athens (RE III A 547;for the cleruchy of Lemnos see ASAA 315lrg4t l 411,76), it must be an Attic tradition. rEEvidentlyalreadyin Alkman 5zPage;Demetriosof Skepsis,in Schol.Theocr.5'8'zb' Theocr.5.82b-c, etc') and cf. d; the Carneiawas linked toihe Doric conquest(-Schol. (rgoo,t and to the founding of Cyrene (callim. Hy. Ap. 2.65-96); see generally Nilsson II rz88-89' PR see destruction Troy's rr8-29. On the date of 16F.Chavanne.s,"De Palladii raptu," Diss. Berlin, r89r; PR ll rzz5-27' t'213-)7' D' Ziehen, RE XVnl z.r7t-89. w PRll rzzTto be found tn 1(., 7237-54.New fragments of stesichorus' lliu Persisare horse being the of a description with West, ZPE POxy 26r9,lv1.L. ai969),45-42, taken into Troy, rpds va6v is dxplottoft w' . . . dyvdv rilo,l'p'a Oe&sz'6' to'

158

THE PANATHENAIC

FESTIVAL

paid a dreadful price for his act.lmHis gruesomefate notwithstanding, the Trojans went on to hold a collectivefeastlasting well into the night. Thereupon, warriors climbed out of an opening in the horse,s side and killed the defenselesscelebrants. Ever sincethe eighth century n.c. the Trojan horse has been depicted as riding on wheels.'@To this extent, this, one of the most iliustrious themes of the oral epic tradition, is quiie comparableto the fantastic-and technically impossible-escape of Odysseusbeneath the ram. But the relics of other versions remain: according to apocryphal traditions, Odysseushimself was turned into a horse."oThis looks as though the rrrdtcnoprlos, the sacker of Troy, was actually identicalwith the Trojan horse. Odysseusdied when his son Telegonos stabbedhim with an extremelyancientspearof the Upper palaeolithic type-according to one version,r" while Odysseuswas still a horse.This is clearly the tale of a sacrificein which u horr" was killed with a spear. Preciselythis form of sacrificewas customary in Rome, in the sacrificeof the Equus October,',2the striking featuresof which have long fascinatedstudents of religion. But little attention has been paid to the aition of this sacrifice,even though it was already attestedby Timaios:stabbing a horse was how the descendantsof Troy avenged the fall of their ancestralcity, destroyedby a horse.whatever the real tGPRII rz46-52;Verg. Aen.z.5o-56;cf. Od.8.5o7. roR. Hampe, Frilhe griechische Sagenbilder in B\otien eg16), pl. z; Schefold (196g pl. 6a. rroSextus Math. t.264,2.67;PtolemaiosChennos,phot. Bib. r5oar6. urServ.auct. A e n . 2 . 4 4 ; o n T e l e g o n o s ' s p e a r s e e s c h o l .O Hd e. r r . r 1 4 ; E u s t . t 6 7 o . 4 5 ; Burkert Q96) 285-86; A. Hartmann, intersuchunpenirberdie sasenuom Tod desodusseus(rgr7). Ed. Meyer (Herntes 3o [1895],263)saw tiat the metaniorphosisinto a hoise ts connectedwith the horse-shapedPoseidonin Arcadia(paus.8.25.5);poseidonHippios and Athena Tritonia were lionored on the acropolis of pheneos;there was a herd of horses,allegedlygiven by Odysseus,at the sanctuaryof Artemis Heurippa: paus. t.r4.4-6, and cf. the coins in HNl poseidon und dieEntslehungdes 452.F Schachermeyr, grtechis-chen cdtterglaubens (r95o),r89-:.o3,thinks thatihe Trolanhorse = poseidon,the 8od of the earthquakethat destroyedTroy VI; such nature-allegorydoes not explain the ritual detailsin the mvth. 'DTimatos, F C r H i s t 5 6 6 Fj 6 : P o l y b . r u . 4 b ; t h e c o n n e c t i o n w i t h t h e E q u u s O c t o b e r i s confirmedthrough the etiologicalderivation from the Trojanhorse;it w;s still believed oy_the"vulgus" in the time of Verrius, Festusr7glgr M. polybiuspolemicizesagarnst by pointing out that many barbarianpeopleswho had nothing to do with Hlt_Yi"* jl_"J,|"y" horse-sacrifice,and precisely when going-off to war. U. scholzlstudien zum und altrdmischenMarskultund Marsiythoi 1rg7oy,89-9r,wrongly concluded T'l!!,r:,r!* nom this that Timaioswas likewise speakingof a sacrificebeforegoing of io war in the una not of the october-Horse.see a'isoI.7.n.48above.Ar the Taurobolion,the llf1s,. vuu ts killed with a spear:see prud. peristeph. 7o-.7o27.

a59

DISSOLUTION AND NEW YEAR'S FESTIVAL

It

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I

I

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i

connectionsbehind the old Trojan tradition among the Etruscansand Romans,"' the fact that Troy's fall, at the fateful feast when the Trojans acceptedthe wooden horse,was linked to the sacrificeof a horse by means of a spear"oatteststo a deeper understanding. Although, over the course of many generationsof singers, literary epic transformed the cultic elementsinto a mechanicaltrick, an inkling still remained of what had once been a sacrificeof dissolution-perhaps even at Troy-Ilion-with the stabbingof a horse. The well-known legend of Gyges"ualso depicts how one who climbed out of a horse seizedpower: contrary to all custom, the queen removed her clothing in front of Gygesand then aided him in killing the king and wresting his power away.She is obviously a manifestation of the king's divine lover, whom the Greeks called Aphrodite. The Greeks still knew of stories about Gyges' deified hetaera."oIn Abydus, there was even a shrine of 'Aphrodite the whore," "7 whoin spite of her name-was duly worshipped and had a festival. There was, moreover, a story of how the city was once freed from evil tyrants: these tyrants offered up a sacrifice,feasted,grew drunk, and slept with their hetaerae,one of whom thereupon opened the gates. The armed citizensthen rushed in and slew their defenselessoppressors.Normal order and morality could be restorede contrarioprecisely becauseAphrodite had dissolvedthem at her festival. When Pelopidasmurdered the Thebanleaderswho were loyal to Sparta, thus overthrowing the government in 379, his contemporariestold the story accordingto the samepattern:"'the polemarchs rrrA. Alfdldi, Die troianischenUralurcn der Riimer (1957), demonstrated that the tradition goes back at least to the fifth century B.c. lraLater, the Greeks occasionally associated 6oupetos iz'n'os with "speat," Eur. Tro. t4; but in the oldest literary source, Od. 8.491, 5rz, the idea of a wooden horse is already long established. tt5Plat. Resp. 35gc-6ob, on which cf. W Fauth, RhM tr1 QgTo),'t-42; the horse in the Gyges saga was linked to the Trojan horse by P M. Schuhl, RA 7 Qy6), r83-8t{; G. M. A. Hanfmann, HSCP 61 j958),76-79; Fauth, op. cit., zz. Cf. also G. Dumdzil, Le problime des Centaurs (1929), 274; N. Yalouris, MH 7 j95o), 55-78. 116On'Erarlpr;s p.ufip.a see Klearchos fr. z9 Wehrli = Ath. 57)a; Strabo 13 p. 627;Fauth' RhM n1 $g7o), 38; cf . W Fauth, Aphrodite Parakyptusa[Abh. Mainz, t966], 6. 'Eraipa rrTNeanthes, FGrHist 8+ F g : Ath. at Ephesus see Atn' 57ze-f. For Aphrodite tep6u. at Athens see Hsch. Phot.'Eraipos 57ze; 1 1 8 X e nH . ell. 5 . 4 . 4 - 6 ; n o t i n P l u t . P e l o p .t 9 , G e n . S o c r . 5 7 7 c . l t i s t h e r e f o r e c o n t r o v e r s r a r whether the Theban festival of Aphrodite is historical, and whether it was a privatt' celebration or an established custom; see Nilsson i9o6\ 374-77. Plut. Comp Cin tt. Luc. t'AgpoiiIAKH TE_ ,ll,H toUt, Mainz, ry6\, t5)7_zt. {nstoph. Lys. rr1z-84; G. W. Elderkin, Ctph 35 $9+o), lgS. 271

ELEUSIS

contents of a cistamysticn-in the mysteries of Dionysus Bassaros.ze They consistedof sesamecakes,pyramid cakes,globular cakes,pslyomphalos cakes, lumps of salt, Pomegranates,fig branches, a narthex, ivy, round cakes, poppyseed cakes, and on top of it all, of course, a snake. Thus too TheocritusPortrays the Bakchaitaking all manner of baked goods out of their kistai and depositingthem on the altar." The contents of the kiste are thus related to food and to sacrifice; the function of the kiste itself is to store and conceal.It is, as it were, a primeval receptacle,older eventhan the invention of pottery.zo The contents of the Eleusiniankiste were probably also manyshapedand ambiguous.The only specificindication may,perhaps,bg contained in the word ipyaoay.evos, "I worked." Spinning or weaving comes to mind, since both often appear as Preparatorycontrasts prior to a departure from the everyday to the mythic world. Kore worked at a loom before the snakeattackedher.'nAristotle's student Theophrastus suggestsanother interpretation, more plausible with respect to Demeter as a goddess of grain. In his cultural-historical work Or Piety, Theophrastus writes that when men discovered agriculture and the grinding of grain, "they hid the tools with which they worked [sc. the grain] as a secretand encounteredthem as something sacred."r In talking of things hidden yet encountered,sacredthings

MYESIS AND SYNTHEMA

connectedwith grain, Theophrastuscan only mean the mysteries of Derneterand, becausehe is writing in Athens, the allusion must be to Eleusis."The tools with which they worked" are, in their simplest 191p, the mortar and pestle. The grain, once ground and cooked in water with a seasoning,produces the kykeon which the initiate drinks, just as Demeter did in the house of Keleosafter sitting veiled and in silence.3lAccordingly we may presume that some ears of wheatand a mortar and pestlewere among the objectsto be found in the covered and uncovered baskets. The initiate had to grind the wheat, at ]east symbolically,in order to help in producing the next kykeon.This may seemrather banalby the light ol duy,but this too is an act of destruction-necessary nonethelessfor nourishment. The sexualassociationsof stamping and grinding are obvious. Here again the basic human themes of aggression,the need for food and sexuality are addressed.In proper frame of mind one can experience what would otherrryisebe simple as something fundamental. The rite performedby the priest as the highest mystery of Christianity is very similarto that which can be tracedback far into Anatolian-Hiitite cuiture-that is, the breaking of the bread.32 A curious parallel to the Eleusinianmyesiscomesfrom a Roman initiation custom, that of the most solemn form of marriage contract, the confarreafio.This rite was performed "through a kindlf sacrifice offeredto fupiter Farreus,for which spelt-breadwas used.,,r.A sheep wasslaughteredas the sacrificialanimal, and it was customary ,,to set up two seatsconnectedby the skin of the sheep that had been the sacrificialanimal, and there the marriagecouple,Th" pomenand flaminicy, yverepermitted to sit during thi confirreatio with their heads veiled."l Here, too, we encountei the sitting on the sheepskin and veilingof the head, and it is followed by a communalrite with a bread rnadefrom the most ancientNeolithic frain; the bread is broken, then eatencommunally; thus, collective saciifice brings about social coheston' The correspondencewith Eleusis is yet gieater if we consider varro'scommentson pig-sacrifice:,As u p."trra""to the marriage, the

26Pr. z.zz.4: oqcap,ai . . . xcrl rtpap,t}es xqi roltvtrat xai rorq.ua ro)ruop'gahay6v6pot rc a\6v xai 6paxoiv,dpytov Arcvutrov Baoc