April Kersten and Michael Barnes present…..
ATHENIAN RELIGION:
A HISTORY
Chapter 9
The Fifth Century: New Gods
Part 1
(summary by April Kersten)
I. “Traditional polytheisms are subject to constant change; that
is one of their traditions.”
A. “Nicomachus, the man with a practical job to do, could not
ignore the many changes that had occurred in Athenian practices.
B. Though many Athenians believed that the ‘old ways’ ways were the
best ways, an equally strong part of their religion was the adoption of
sacrifices which the ‘public had decreed’ of the years.
II. Ways new gods came about
A. The elevation of a minor cult to new prominence.
1. Athena Nike
2. Heracles: the pan-Attic games, the Herakaleia
3. Artemis Agrotera: the earliest attested instance of the great
democratic institution of the ‘public feast.
4. Hesphasteus: the reorganizing of his festival to include torch
races, large sacrifices, and a musical competition.
B. The application to a long-established god of a new epithet.
1. Artemis Aristoboule (best planner)
C. Foundation of new gods from existing concepts.
1. Eukleia (Fair Fame): was already a potentional goddess and
was often attached to Artemis as Artemis Eukleia.
2. The cult of Pheme or “Rumor”
D. The worship of potential gods found in mythology
1. Boreas and Oreithuia: the wind who was a son-in-law to the
Athenians
E. Potential gods from other Greek States
1. Zeus Kenaios from Euboea
2. Poseidon Kalaureiates of Kalaureia
3. Athena Itonia from Thessaly
4. Pan from Arcadia
5. Aeacus, the Aeginetan hero, whose adoption was part of a military
technique of suborning the enemies’ heroes.
F. The adoption of ‘foreign gods.’
1. This is a group “assemble by modern scholars, in the belief
that they were in fact first worshipped outside of Greece.”
2. For the Athenians “the essential distinction is not between
Greek and non-Greek gods, but between those traditionally honored in Athenian
public and all others.”
3. One difficultly in studying ‘foreign gods’ is that sometimes
what seems to be a foreign god is really a Greek product made to seem foreign.
4. Sometimes ‘foreign’ is used more to describe the strangeness
of the experience associated with the god than the origin of the god.
a. The use of ecstatic dancing in cult of Dionysus and Magna Mater
qualify them as foreign though this type of dancing is native to Greece.
b. The status of Magna Mater and her nymphs as ‘foreigners’ seems
to have qualified them for their positions as healers and givers of madness.
5. Yet foreign cults tend to differ from traditional cults.
a. One had to be born into traditional cults while one could choose
to enter a foreign cult.
b. Foreign cults have an element of the ecstatic and were liable
to be stigmatized.
6. “The crucial distinction is not between foreign and native
but between established and non-established cults; native or foreign, the
unlicensed god is exposed to suspicion, hostility, contempt, and the threat
of actual repressive actions.”
A look a several specific cults:
I. Pan
A. The cult of Pan was introduced shortly after Marathon through
a decision of the Athenian assembly.
B. Legend tells that Pan appeared to a messenger, Philippides,
on his way to report the landing of the Persians at Marathon. Pan told
him that the Athenians neglected him though he favored them.
C. Attic Pan is invariably worshipped with the Nymphs in a cave.
D. Why the joining with the nymphs: one hypothesis is that “it
was through the annexation to an older form of worship that the new cult
was assimilated and gained popular appeal.”
E. The addition of Pan changed the worship of the Nymphs slightly.
F. Rituals dedicated to Pan alone are hard to find except his official
torch race in Athens.
G. Pan can seem “a transparent embodiment of Arcadian concerns.”
H. Yet for the rest of Attica Pan represented “the life of wild
nature not as it is experienced, day to day, by those who live close to
the it, but as it is imagined from afar.” I. “This representation
of wild Pan has two aspects.”
1. Fear and danger
2. Liberation and desire
II. Theseus
A. Legend says that Skyros was the scene of Theseus’ death. So
when in 476, Cimon colonized Skyros an oracle told him to bring home the
bones of Theseus. He was guided by and eagle to the remains.
B. The bones of Theseus were welcomed home with great fan-fare.
C. The Theseum was built as a shrine to receive the honored bones.
D. He had an athletic and sacrificial festival called the Theseia.
E. There are two possibilities explaining the cult of Theseus.
1. A genos, Phytalids, existed concerning Theseus, which was promoted
by a member, Cimon.
2. A cult already existed worshipping Theseus that was expanded
after the return of his remains.
F. Theseus embodied many Greek virtues.
1. He was a symbol of Athenian heroism by sea as a son of Poseidon.
2. He took on the role of the ‘democratic king’
3. A fighter defending against the barbarian enemy.
III. Bendis
A. Bendis was a Thracian goddess who had a shrine in the Piraeus.
B. This shrine was owned by the Thracians and outsiders had to
pay a modest fee in order to worship there.
C. In the opening scene of the Republic, a festival for the goddess
is described as including:
1. Two processions: one Thracian and the other by natives
2. A torch-race on horseback, performed by the horse-loving Thracians
3. An all-nite rite
D. It is not clear whether the cult was first practiced by Thracians
of Attica and adopted by Athens, or whether the Athenians founded the cult,
intrusting its care the Thracian association.
E. The fact is that the Athenians choose to expand the worship
of Bendis.
F. But Why??
1. The same wild fascination that perpetuated cults like that
of Magna Mater
2. An attempt to appeal to the influence of the oracle of Dodona
3. A political ploy to gain military aid from the King of the
Odrysian Thracians.
4. Bendis was worshipped by slaves in Laurion or by Thracian mercenaries.
G. One possible reason for the appeal of Bendis is that she represents
Thrace, which was a place of both promise and peril in the mind of Athenians.
NEW GODS PART II. MICHAEL
BARNES.
IV. The Healing god Asclepius
A. Earlier divine healers of Attica
1. Healer gods and goddesses
a. Apollo Paion and Heracles
i. mentioned with title Alexikakos in connection with great plague
ii. Apollo approached in times of sickness
b. Athena Hygieia (Hygieia = ‘Health’)
i. hypothesized that role was essentially prophylactic, and directed
to health of community as whole, not individuals
2. ‘Doctor heroes’
a. may always have had greater appeal than doctor gods
b. more successful in resisting new competitor healing-heroes
c. figure known as ‘doctor hero’ (heros iatros) four four different
places
i. Oresinios at Eleusis
ii. Aristomachus at Marathon and Rhamnus
iii. ‘hero-doctor in the city’ at Athens
3. Early divine healers liable to be intruded upon by newer, more popular
heroes
a. Asclepius takes clientele from Apollo and becomes closely associated
with Hygieia
b. Amphiaraus eventually supplanted Aristomachus at Rhamnus
B. Asclepius’ early career
1. Asclepius and sons familiar throughout Greece since Homer as ‘healers
in myth’
2. By 6th c., doctors generically known as ‘Asclepiadae’
3. Cult as healing-hero 1st attested in Epidaurus around 500
4. During 5th c., cult spreads through the Peloponnese
C. Asclepius in Athens
1. Introduced by Telemachus on 18th Boedromion, 420/19
a. elaborate monument chronicling early history of Asclepius shrine
i. fragmented entry from first year thought to describe bringing of
sacred snake associated with Asclepius to Athens by Telemachus
ii. further speculated that sacred snake was from Epidaurus, so Telemachus
from Epidaurus
b. generally, Asclepius was ‘imported’ god, brought in by states that
heard of his fame
c. if speculation on Epidaurian Telemachus true, Asclepius’ appearance
in Athens was not import, but ‘export’ by proud fellow-citizen of local
god of exceptional powers
2. Received by the poet Sophocles
a. as result, hero-shrine built for Sophocles and name ‘Dexion’ (receiver)
given after his death
3. Coming of Asclepius occurred ‘during the Great Mysteries’
a. Epidauria celebrated on 18th Boedromion to commemorate event
i. empty day in week-long program of Mysteries
b. timely arrival significant coincidence or designed?
i. if designed, “rare illustration of down-to-earth politics of
polytheism, the way in which advent of new god could be made possible through
interest of priesthood of old”
4. Was there a specific motive for introduction of Asclepius in 420?
a. plague from 430-426
b. free association between Athens and Epidaurus restored in 421
5. By second half of 4th c., among most prominent cults (priest, income,
festivals)
D. Asclepius in the Piraeus
1. Possibly first of the two shrines built
2. Can see ritual rules in process of creation
a. Euthydemus of Eleusis, priest of ‘Asclepius in the Piraeus,’ is author
b. list of ‘preliminary offerings’ states that three cakes are owed
to each of following: Maleatas, Apollo, Hermes, Iaso, Akeso, Panakeia,
Dogs, and Hunters-with-Dogs
i. inclusion of Dogs and Hunters-with-Dogs mysterious
ii. myth of Asclepius discarded by mother in wilderness, guarded by
dog, and found by group ofhunters-with-dogs might be inspiration for inclusion
E. Differing images of Asclepius
1. Often portrayed as grave elderly doctor
a. Had ‘a mind friendly to men’
i. “precursor of softened deities of 4th c.–Zeus of Friendship
and Good Luck and Peace–who made to manthe novel promise of good without
evil”
b. Telemachus monument shows Asclepius surrounded by symbols of a hero
2. Myth portrays him as sacred, perhaps wonder-working child…more
godlike
a. votive relief shows the god and family approached by muleteer with
inscription thanking him for rescue from fall of ‘mighty rocks’
i. shows he is not just healer, but “saviour and helper of much
broader power”
F. Why did he outdo his competitors?
1. Pre-eminent mythological fame
2. Perhaps introduced new technique of psychological appeal, incubation
3. Wisdom not to resist secular ‘art’ of medicine
4. Parternship with Hippocrates
V. Two General Issues Suggested by the Various Cases
A. Role of the individual
1. individual mortal usually not considered significant in studies of
Greek religion
2. however, Philippides, Cimon, Telemachus, Sophocles, Euthydemus of
Eleusis all introduce, welcome, or shape new cults
a. did not change direction of religious thought or bring about new
gods
b. shows narrow and traditional limits in which individual action is
confined
B. Motivation for introduction of various cults
1. Influence of oracles, visions, and dreams important
2. Did introducers or receivers of cults hope to gain some benefit from
them?
a. only in a few cases
i. Asclepius meant to bring health to Athenians
ii. Aeacus meant to help Athenians conquer Aegina
iii. Thesues to aid Athenians against Skyros
b. more commonly, cult instituted after benefit already received
i. fulfillment of vow made in time of danger
ii. Spontaneous expression of gratitude
3. New foundations often reflect great struggle against Persia
a. many cults illustrate intensity with which national crisis and triumph
experienced
b. Parthenon viewed as sort of memorial to the victory
c. existing festivals reinterpreted or reorganized to commemorate events
of the struggle
d. viewed like this, “Greek religion does not appear as a mechanism
for contorlling the world; it is rather a celebration of achievement…an
affirmation of value”
VI. A Closer Look at ‘Foreign’ Gods
A. ‘Mother of the Gods’
1. shrine of the Mother, the Metroon, next to or within the Council
House, a symbolic center of Athenian political life
2. ‘Mother of Metroon’ assumes some traits of Phrygian Mountain Mother,
Cybele, “who nurses mountain lions on her lap and loves ‘the boom
of kettle-drums and castanets and blazing torches'”
a. origin of cult explained by story where plague or crop-failure followed
execution of Phrygian who ‘initiated women to Mother”
3. continues to be honored in traditional way, however
a. more exotic rites involving music and ecstatic dancing reserved for
private occasions
4. syncretism was means of “assimilating and domesticating the
potentially disquieting foreign power”
B. Corybantes
1. attendants of Mother and patrons of ritual in which madness cured
by music and ecstatic dancing
a. Corybantic initiations not limited to the mad
C. Sabazius and Adonis
1. perhaps no formal structure at all for cult of Adonis
2. Phrygian Sabazius was god who possessed worshipers
a. rituals involved cymbal-beating and dancing
D. Bendis of Thrace and Adrasteia
1. formally adopted in Athens, as evidenced by a shared treasury
2. Bendis worshiped both publicly and privately
E. Thracian goddess Cotyto
F. Egyptian Ammon
1. had public priest and shrine
2. like other Oracular gods, had to be consulted in his distant home
G. ‘Heavenly Aphrodite’
1. perhaps Oriental in origin
H. Conclusions and questions
1. Common idea that sudden outburst of interest in foreign gods in last
quarter of 5th c. is false
2. Foreign gods diverse in both nature and reception in Athens
3. Did participation in such ‘foreign’ cults mean turning away from
other gods?
4. Were social restrictions lowered within ‘foreign’ cults?
Return to Main Page: CLST 4003H. Honors Colloquium
on Greek Religion. Spring, 2002.
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