14
Archaic Greek Religion
CHAPTER CONTENTS
14.1 Herodotus on Homer and Hesiod’s Contribution to Greek Religion 184
14.2 Athens Purifies Delos (426/5) WEB69
14.3 Worship 185
14.4 Greek Temples and the Mysteries of Demeter in Eleusis 186
14.5 The Hymn to Demeter WEB70
14.6 The Decree of Offering First-Fruits in Eleusis (420s) 188
14.7 Links of Interest WEB76
Greek religion was an amalgam of elements from different times and origins. Some practices and beliefs went back to the Bronze Age, others developed locally during the Dark Age, and still others were acquired from the east. This chapter discusses just a few aspects of this large topic. It reproduces the historian Herodotus’ view of the impact of the Homeric and Hesiodic popular poems on Greek religion. It documents the Greek concept of worship and illustrates a place of worship and its administration through the Mysteries of Demeter in Eleusis. Epigraphic evidence for Athens’ regulation of the offering of first-fruits to the goddess shows the relationship between cult and polis.
Generally, the Greeks divided their divinities into immortal gods and heroes. The latter were children of gods and mortals who had performed great deeds during their lifetime and became the focus of local cults after their death. The hero’s tomb and the area surrounding it, called heroôn, were sacred. Like several other chthonic deities, heroes lived in or beneath the earth and received liquid offerings, fruits, and holocausts (burnt sacrificial offerings). This book does not discuss heroes’ cults, and only mentions by way of illustration the Spartan cults of Orestes (see WEB 7.27.I: “Sparta Obtains the Bones of Orestes”) and that of the Dioscuri, Helen’s brothers Castor and Pollux who were the sons of Zeus and mortal Leda. The Dioscuri were housed with their sister and her husband Menelaus in the sanctuary of the Menelaion. Their images accompanied the Spartan kings to battle, perhaps to draw attention to the kings’ divine ancestry that went back to Zeus.
More important than heroes were gods, who were identified by their name, an epithet that defined their function, and their locale. For example, Athena Polias (of the polis) of Athens was the patroness of the city of Athens, while Apollo Pythius watched over the oracle at Delphi. The traditions and practices associated with the Olympic gods, worshipped by all Greeks, were taken from various local cults. Many scholars agree with Herodotus that poets like Homer and Hesiod (in his Theogony) contributed to the sorting out of these Panhellenic deities according to family relations, roles, powers, fundamental traits, and appearance.
14.1 Herodotus on Homer and Hesiod’s Contribution to Greek Religion
Herodotus 2.53.1–3
(2.53.1) How individual gods arose, however, whether all of them had always been in existence, and what forms they had – this the Greeks did not know until, as one might say, yesterday or the day before. (53.2) For I think that Homer and Hesiod are to be dated four hundred years – no more than that – before my time, and it was they who created for the Greeks the divine genealogy, and who gave the gods their various names, assigned to them their honors and special functions, and described their appearance. (53.3) The poets who are said to have preceded these two men were, to my mind, later than them. The first part of what I have said here is what the priestesses in Dodona claim; but the later material relating to Hesiod and Homer is what I claim myself.
Question
1. What did Greeks need to know about their gods, according to Herodotus?
Religion was practiced most intensively on the local level, that is, at home, and less frequently in the village, the city, and Panhellenic sanctuaries.
Early Greek sanctuaries were established in places regarded as sacred, at the boundaries of the polis, or according to the function of the god, say, Zeus of the agora. At the center of the cult stood an altar, which was oriented to the east in the case of a sky-god. An enclosed area formed the sacred precinct (temenos), which was protected by the god and included asylum granted to people seeking shelter. A polluted person was barred from entering the sanctuary area so as not to deter the god from attending it. Pollution was perceived as contagious dirt that could be acquired through sexual intercourse, childbirth, attending funerals, and murder. Purification rituals and the passage of time could cleanse a person from pollution.
See WEB 14.2 for the Athenian purification of the island of Delos in 426/5.
14.3 Worship
The Greeks worshipped their gods in the hope that they would look upon them with favor, assist and reward them, or not cause them harm. People used gifts to honor and gain favor with the gods or heroes, just as they would do with highborn or powerful mortals. Gifts came in the form of dedications, votives, and especially sacrifices. Sacrifices were often a communal affair during festivals organized by the city or its component groups. Hesiod advises worshippers to be pure and honor the gods with sacrifices.
Hesiod Works and Days 336–341
Sacrifice to the immortal gods as well as you can, in a pure and clean manner, and burn splendid thighbones for them. At other times appease them with libations and offerings, both when you go to bed and when the holy light returns, so that they may have kindly feelings and thoughts toward you – in order that you may buy up another man’s estate, and not another man yours!
Question
1. What were the rewards of purity according to Hesiod (14.3) and Thucydides (WEB 14.2)?
14.4 Greek Temples and the Mysteries of Demeter in Eleusis
Prior to the polis’ supervision of religious activity, many cults were controlled by noble families, whose members served as priests, priestesses, and religious experts. In many cases priestly duties, which were not exacting or time-consuming, included performing religious acts and rituals. Generally, statues and temples were built either by tyrants or by the polis, which also regulated religious duties and officials.
During the Archaic Age, and especially the sixth century, many monumental temples were constructed for the gods. In Asia Minor, for example, enormous temples were built such as those at Ephesus for the cult of Artemis, at Samos for the cult of Hera, and at Didyma near Miletus for the cult of Zeus. Besides piety and local patriotism, building activity was designed to attract adherents from the region and beyond. Scholars have hypothesized that the building of monumental temples indicated the existence of self-assertive poleis and a new communal effort. Indeed, during the eighth century, people who in the past had placed metal dedications in graves now placed them in temples. Other scholars explained the building of temples at a distance from the polis as a boundary marker of its territory. Still others surmise that these sanctuaries were the work of powerful individuals and that they were designed to serve more than one community.
The multifaceted character of Greek religion can be illustrated through the working of the cult of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis in Attica. The cult incorporated local, state, and Panhellenic characteristics, some of them unique to Attica and others common to other cults.
The Greeks used myths to explain the origins of cults and their own relationship with their deities. The most detailed account of the myth of Demeter and Persephone is the seventh-century Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which tells of the abduction of Persephone by Hades and her subsequent reunion with her mother Demeter. See WEB 14.5 for the Hymn to Demeter.
The Athenian cult of Demeter was famous for its initiation rites, the Mysteries, which were supposed to promote agricultural fertility and provide initiates with an afterlife free from suffering and troubles. Persephone was queen of the underworld for a third of the year, namely, the winter, when seeds planted in the fall were dormant.
14.4.A The Mysteries and Hades
Sophocles fr. 837 (Radt)
Three times happy are those mortals who go to Hades having seen these rites. For to these alone is it granted to have life there – the others are allowed to have only all manner of ills.
The rites were open to any Greek-speaking adult, slaves included, but not murderers. Although the Hymn proclaims the rituals secret, and divulging them was punishable by death, some of the proceedings are known. The Great Mysteries at Eleusis were preceded by the Lesser Mysteries, which were celebrated seven months before the Great Mysteries in the sanctuary of the Mother (whose identity is debated). The purpose of the Lesser Mysteries was probably to purify initiates in preparations for the Great Mysteries. The latter took place in early autumn in Eleusis, 23 kilometers west of Athens. First, initiates went to the Attic port of Phaleron where they washed piglets in the sea and sacrificed them at the altar of the Eleusinion in Athens. Then, on a designated day, a great procession marched on the Sacred Way that led from the Altar of the Twelve Gods in Athens to Eleusis. At Eleusis, participants sacrificed to Demeter, Persephone, and Hades and commemorated the reunion between mother and daughter. Like Demeter in the Hymn, they fasted, drank a mixed drink called kykeon, and joked in imitation of Iambe (or Baube). The Mysteries were performed inside the temple of Demeter, which is mentioned in the Hymn, and which is otherwise known as the Telesterion (Hall of Initiation). They took place at night, with torches providing light. The initiates heard about the birth of a child, possibly called Brimus, who may have represented Plutus (Wealth) or agricultural abundance.
Two prominent priestly families supervised the initiations. One was the Ceryces, who served in the Mysteries as the “torch bearers”: Demeter used torches in her search for her daughter. The other was the Eumolpidae, who claimed as their ancestor the Eleusinian ruler Eumolpus (mentioned in the Hymn). The Eumolpidae displayed sacred objects, which might have included an ear of grain. The priests also proclaimed a sacred truce of fifty-five days to protect persons going to the Mysteries at Eleusis and served as experts in this cult’s traditions and practices.
14.4.B The Macron Cup with Triptolemus
An Attic red-figure cup by Macron ca. 480 is shown in Figure 14.1 (p. 188). At the center sits the Eleusinian prince Triptolemus on a winged chariot, holding ears of grain and ready to spread agriculture in the world. According to some versions, his chariot was pulled by serpents. He is flanked by Demeter in front and Persephone at the back, each carrying a torch.
A link to additional information on the Mysteries and images of related artifacts can be found in WEB 14.7.
Figure 14.1 The Macron Cup with Triptolemus. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Image not available in this digital edition.
Questions
1. What religious lessons might a Greek draw from the Hymn to Demeter (WEB 14.5)?
2. Which agricultural motifs appeared in the myth of Demeter and the Mysteries ritual (14.4, WEB 14.5)?
3. Discuss local Eleusinian elements in the myth of Demeter and the rituals (14.4, WEB 14.5).
14.6 The Decree of Offering First-Fruits in Eleusis (420s)
The Athenians were very proud of their affiliation with the Mysteries cult. The fourth-century author Isocrates even praised Athens for generously sharing it with others (Isocrates 4 Panegyricus 28–29). The Athenians also strove to enhance the status of the Eleusinian Mysteries in the Greek world. A highly detailed inscription, perhaps from the 420s, obliged the Athenians and their then allies/subjects to give as “first-fruits” to the goddesses Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis 1/1600 of all the barley and 1/1200 of all the wheat they produced. The decree strongly encouraged other Greeks to make this contribution too, perhaps because Athens failed to get an oracle ordering them to do so. The wheat was stored and sold in the market, and Athenian officials supervised these activities. The income, and the fee that the initiates paid for attending the rites, made the cult quite prosperous.
ML 73 = Fornara no. 140
Translation: Fornara, pp. 161–162
Decree regulating the offering of first-fruits at Eleusis
[Timo]tel[e]s of Acharnae was Secretary. Resolved by the Boulê [Council] and the People, Cecropis held the prytany, Timote[les] was Secretary, Cycneas presided. The following the Commissioners [syngrapheis] drafted: First-fruits shall be offered to the two goddesses, in accordance with ancestral custom and the (5) oracular response from Delphi, by the Athenians (as follows): from each one hundred medimnoi 1 of barley not less than one-sixth (of one medimnos); of wheat, from each hundred medimnoi, not less than one-twelfth. If anyone produces more grain than [this amount] or less, he shall offer first-fruits in the same proportion. Collection shall be made by [the] Demarchs2 deme by deme and they shall deliver it to the Hieropoioi3 (10) from Eleusis at Eleusis. (The Athenians) shall construct three (storage) pits at Eleusis in accordance with the ancestral custom, at whatever place seems to the Hieropoioi and the architect to be suitable, out of the funds of the two goddesses. The grain shall be put in there which they receive from the Demarchs. The allies as well shall offer first-fruits according to the same procedure. The cities shall have collectors (15) chosen for the grain by whatever means seems best to them for grain collection. When it has been collected, they shall send it to Athens, and those who have brought it shall deliver it to the Hieropoioi from Eleusis at Eleusis. If (the latter) do not take delivery of it within five days after it has been reported to them, although it was offered by (the envoys) of whatever city [was the source] (20) of the grain, the Hieropoioi at their euthynae 4 shall be fined one thousand drachmas [each]. They shall also receive it from the Demarchs in accordance with the same procedure. [Heralds] shall be chosen by the Boulê, which shall send them to the cities announcing [the present] decree of the People, in the present instance as quickly as possible and in the future, whenever it (the Boulê) thinks best. Let an exhortation be pronounced both by the Hierophant5 and by [the] (25) Daidouchos6 for the Hellenes to make offerings of the first-fruits at the Mysteries in accordance with the ancestral custom and the oracular response from Delphi. After writing on a notice board the weight of the grain (received) from the Demarchs according to deme and of that [received] from the cities according to city, (the Hieropoioi) shall set up (copies of) it in the Eleusinion in Eleusis and in the Boulêuterion [Council house]. (30) The Boulê shall also send a proclamation to the other cities, [the] Hellenic cities in their entirety, wherever it seems to the Boulê to be feasible, telling them the principles on which the Athenians and their allies are offering first-fruits, and not ordering them but urging them to offer first-fruits, if they so desire, in accordance with the ancestral custom and the oracular response from Delphi. The acceptance (35) of any (grain) that anyone may bring from these cities as well shall be the duty of the Hieropoioi according to the same procedure. They shall perform sacrifice with the pelanos7 in accordance with what the Eumolpidae and (they shall sacrifice) the triple sacrifice, first, a bull with gilt horns to each of the two goddesses separately, out of (proceeds from) the barley and the wheat; and to Triptolemus and to the [god] and the goddess and Euboulus8 a full-grown victim each; and (40) to Athena a bull with gilt horns. The rest of the barley and wheat shall be sold by the Hieropoioi together with the Boulê and they shall have votive offerings dedicated to the two goddesses, having made whatever seems best to the People of the Athenians, and they shall inscribe on the votive offerings that it was out of the first-fruits of the grain that they were dedicated, and (the name) of every Hellene [Greek] who made the offense of first-fruits. [For those] who do this (45) there shall be many benefits in abundance of good harvests if they are men who do not injure the Athenians or the city of the Athenians or the two goddesses. Lampon9 made the motion: Let all the rest be as (advised) in the draft-decree (of the Commissioners) for the first-fruits of the grain for the goddesses. But their draft-decree and this decree shall be inscribed by the Secretary of the Boulê on two steles of marble (50) and set up, the one in the sanctuary in Eleusis, the other on the Acropolis. The Poletai10 are to let out the contract for the two steles. The Kolakretai11 are to supply the money. These things concerning the first-fruits of the grain to the two goddesses shall be inscribed on the two steles. There shall be intercalation of the month Hecatombaeon [July/August] by the new Archon.12 The King (Archon) shall delimit the sanctuaries in the (55) Pelargicon,13 and in the future altars shall not be erected in the Pelargicon without the consent of the Boulê and the People, nor shall (anyone) cut stones out of the Pelargicon, or remove soil or stones. If anyone transgresses any of these regulations, he shall be fined five hundred drachmas and impeached by the King (Archon) before the Boulê. As to the first-fruits of olive oil, a draft-decree (60) shall be produced by Lampon before the Boulê in the ninth prytany and the Boulê shall be obliged to bring it before the People.
Notes
1. See the list of weights and measures on p. xl.
2. A demarch was the leading official of the deme.
3. The Hieropoioi were state officials in Eleusis in charge of the cult’s property.
4. The euthynae was giving accounts at the end of an official’s term in office.
5. Hierophants were priests who initiated worshippers. They came exclusively from the Eumolpid family.
6. The daidouchos, or “torch-bearer,” was a priestly office at the Eleusinian Mysteries.
7. The pelanos was a wheat and barley cake. For the Eumolpidae see note 5.
8. The identity of Euboulus, an underworld deity, is uncertain: it may be Pluto, Persephone, or another god.
9. Lampon was probably one of the founders of Thurii in Italy in 444/3.
10. The Poletai were elected state auctioneers or sellers.
11. The Kolakretai were financial office-holders.
12. Normally the month Gamelion (January/February) was duplicated in an intercalary year. On this occasion the first Attic month, Hecatombaeon (July/August), was duplicated, perhaps to give the worshippers extra time.
13. The Pelargicon was a site below the acropolis. For an oracle forbidding other uses of the place, see Thucydides 2.17.1–2.
Questions
1. List the various office-holders mentioned in the inscription and their functions.
2. How did Athens benefit from the Mysteries cult?
For Athenian religion, see also WEB Chapter 22: “The City of Athens,” which has sections on the Parthenon, the acropolis, and the City Dionysia.
Review Questions
1. Describe the relationship between the polis and religion based on the documents reproduced in this chapter as well as in WEB 14.2 and WEB 14.5.
2. What elements of the myth of Demeter and Persephone were replicated in the Mysteries (14.4 and WEB 14.5)?
3. What can we learn from the Hymn to Demeter about Greek perceptions of their gods (WEB 14.5)? How were these perceptions reflected in Greek religious practices?
Suggested Readings
Greek religion: Burkert 1985; Bremmer 1994; R. Parker 1996; S. Price 1999; Mikalson 2005. Pollution, purification, and cults’ regulations: R. Parker 1983; Dillon 1997, 149–182, 204–227. The Hymn to Demeter: Richardson 1974; Foley 1994; Suton 2002. The Eleusinian Mysteries: Mylonas 1962; Burkert 1987; Clinton 1974, 1993; Mikalson 2005, 82–90. Taxes for Eleusis: Lewis 1994. The first-fruits decree: Cavanaugh 1996; Clinton 2009 (both date it to 435); Lawton 2009 (dates to 421–413).