Hero-Cult and Homer

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Hero-Cult and Homer Author(s): Theodora Hadzisteliou Price Source: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 22, H. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1973), pp. 129-144Published by: Franz Steiner VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4435325Accessed: 14-08-2015 08:48 UTC

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ABHANDLUNGEN

HERO-CULT AND HOMER

There has been no comprehensive treatment of the heroic cults of the ancient Greeks since Foucart and Farnell,1 apart from studies of the myths or the character and the 'morphology' of the hero.2 R. K. Hack, a little later, in an article on 'Homer and the Cult of Heroes',3 protested against the denials of Rohde, Wilamowitz and Foucart, and Farnell's inconclusiveness, but he also tended to confuse the 'cult of the dead', that is, the burial rites and cere- monies after it, with the hero-cult, a continually repeated ritual over a long period of time; he also confused somewhat the subject of hero-belief with that of the hero-cult. He accepted 'continual cult' in places such as the 'tomb of Clytaemnestra', without reference to the gap of several centuries between the Mycenaean burial and the heroic cult started in the 8th century B. C., according to the archaeological finds. Nevertheless, he did stress certain facts which point in the right direction, although his study seems to have re- mained largely unnoticed, namely: 1. Homeric scholars reached certain conclusions and when they found passages incompatible with these conclusions proclaimed them to be survivals, innovations, exceptions or simply interpola- tions,4 thus regarding the Homeric epics as a receptacle filled with miscella- neous facts; several such instances were designated by Rhode as survivals or additions, in order to suit his theory of the psyche. 2. Homer's dramatic time is the time of the Trojan war, the 'generation of the heroes', and therefore the heroes he refers to have to be living persons; he describes them as des- cendants of Gods, which he sometimes contrasts with the living men of his age: Iliad 12.447: the two best men of the living mortals could not lift from the ground to a wagon a stone that Hector was able to throw with ease.6

Farnell: L. R. Farnell, Greek Hero Cul/s and Ideas of Immortality (Oxford 1921). Andronikos: M. Andronikos, Totenkult (Archaeologia Homcrica, Vol. iii, Gottingen 1968). Kardara: Chr. Kardara, PykinosDomos, in AE 1960, 165-184 (in Greek). Martin: R. Martin, Recherches sur l'agora grecque (Paris 1951). Nilsson: M. P. Nilsson, Geschicbte dergriechischen Religion, 18 (Munich 1967). Schnaufer: A. Schnaufer, Frubgriechischer Totenglaube (Spoudasmata xx, New York 1970). 1 Farnell, 5 if. M. P. Foucart, Le culte des hiros chez les Grecs (Paris 1918) 34 ff. 2 K. Ker6nyi, Die Heroen der Griecben (Zurich 1958); A. Brelich, Eroi Greci (Rome 1958). 3 In TAPA 60 (1929) 57-74. 4 Hack, op. cit., supra n. 3, 65 f. 6Hack, op. cit., 70 f.

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130 THEODORA HADZISTELIOU PRICE

3. Homer is for the above reason consciously archaizing, and therefore the dictionaries may be wrong on the meaning of the word 'pcog' in Homer; clear accuracy should not be expected in the Homeric works as 'Homer' wrote poetry, not a volume of 'Ionische Mitteilungen', and one should try instead to see through the poetic from the references to reality.

There was never consensus on such problems as the origin and the beginning of the hero-cult. Not only Farnell6 but also some modern scholars7 have connected the beginning of the hero-cult with the spreading of the Homeric poems, therefore assuming that the cult is a post-Homeric phenomenon; on the other hand Nilsson8 and others and lately Andronikos9 have assumed that it is a Mycenaean tradition which continued uninterrupted through the Iron Age. The latest report, summing up the results, is in the Oxford Classi- cal Dictionary, 1970: 'Hero-cult is not found in Homer, where the word ijpco! means simply 'gentleman, noble'; Iliad. 2.550-1, supposing it genuine, is proof rather that Erechtheus was regarded as a god than that hero-worship was then practised. But excavation has repeatedly shown that Mycenaean tombs were the site of cult continuously into the historic period (see Nilsson, GGrR i2, 378 ff.). In Classical and post-Classical literature mention of it is ex- ceedingly common and its typical objects are the traditional jpcosw of Homer and other writers ot saga, though this is not the only category. It is therefore likely that it began after the Dorian migration when the ancient chieftains had become legendary figures, idealized because native and not belonging to the new invading aristocracy. Whatever its origin, it spread to include many persons who had never existed save in the imagination of the worshippers.' This text reflects the current confusion in the bibliography, on the subject of the hero-cult. Three different theories, mutually contradictory, are put together: 1) 'There is no hero-cult in Homer and Erechtheus was a God.' 2) 'Excavation has repeatedly shown that Mycenaean tombs were the site of cult continuously into the historic period.' This contradicts statement no. 1, because it is further stated that such cults existed in Classical times; (unless one implies that the cults were continuous until Homer, then stopped and re- sumed in Classical times; however the reference to Nilsson excludes the possibility that this is implied). Nilsson states (wrongly as will be shown below) that the cults were uninterrupted from Mycenaean to Classical or Hellenistic times (e. g. the tombs of the Hyperborean Virgins in Delos). If Nilsson's position is accepted and quoted with no argument against it, then Homer ne- cessarily knew the hero-cults and there is no need for Erechtheus to be a God,

* Farnell, 342, and ch. xi. 7 J. M. Cook, The Cult of Agamemnon at Mycenae, in Gerar A. Keramopoullou (Athens 1953)

112 ff.; idem in BSA 48 (1953) 31 ff. T. B. L. Webster, From Mycenac to Homer (London 1960) 136 ff. and bibliography. S. Marinatos, IIEPI TO'; vlov;V PaatALKOk td TovdP cZiTV MvKqVCV. l7Poar6

in Geras Keramopoullou, 87 ff. 8 Nilsson, 378 ff. ' Andronikos, passim.



Hero-Cult and Homer 131

since he is explicitly a hero-king in subsequent periods, (and is, moreover, the eponymous of an Attic Phyle). 3) 'It is therefore likely that it began after the Dorian migration'. This flatly contradicts statement no. 2.

Before the matter of hero-cult in Homer is taken up, point no. 2 must be cleared up. It is untrue that excavations have shown even in one single in- stance continuity of cult in Mycenaean tombs from the LH period to the historic times. There are only funeral rites in the Mycenaean period itself and no continuous cult, with one dubious exception in Grave Circle A of Myce- nae.'0 There is a gap of several centuries before a cult is instituted in aMycen- aean tomb by Iron Age people. There is no evidence of continuity, and no such cult was instituted inside a Mycenaean tomb before the 8th century B. C., according to the available archaeological data. There are other instances of hero-cult which probably go further back, at least to the 9th century B. C. (Pelops in Olympia, perhaps Odysseus in Ithaca(?)) but not inside My- cenaean tombs. At present there is no clear evidence for a cult in a Mycen- aean tomb before the 8th century B. C., but there is an abundance of such cults from the 8th century onwards, that is, from the time the Homeric epics were composed. The archaeological facts, therefore, disqualify the second statement, while they ascertain that hero-cult was practised extensively dur- ing 'Homer's' time. The third statement, hesitant as it may be, is partly dis- qualified by the succeeding one: 'whatever its origins, it spread . .'.

Now the question is: was Homer aware of the practices of his time and are there any hints to hero-belief and cult in his works? At the present state of evidence one must accept that the hero-cult started at the earliest in the Proto- geometric period. The dubious readings of names of Homeric heroes in Li- near B Tablets and the Ti-ri-si-ro-e tablet from Pylos1' are not very helpful since there is no proof that these are names of heroes, or that they received worship; besides, the meaning of the word hero in Mycenaean times is unknown, as well as its origin, and there is no prefix to denote either a God or a hero. While the archaeological data at present point against a hero-cult in Mycenaean times, it is possible that a hero-belief existed.

To come now to the question of the hero-cult in Homer: if the archaeological evidence is so clear that at least by the mid 8th century B. C. heroic

10 G. E. Mylonas, Mycenac and the Mycenaean Age (Princeton 1966) 176 if.: The Cult of the Dead; 178 f.: Cult and Funeral Rites; 181f.: Evidence of Cult in Geometric Times, with previous b.blio- graphy. Andronikos still accepts Nilsson's theory of continuity, but does not produce any evidence for the bridging of the gaps of five or six centuries between the Mycenaean burial and the later cult in the tomb. See also Schnaufer, 14 ff.

21 M. Gerard-Rousseau, Les mentions religieuses dans les tablettes myciniennes (Incunabula Graceca xxix, Rome 1968) 32 ff. and bibliography; E. Grumach, Die kretischen und kyprischen Schriftsy- steme in Aligemeine Grundlagen der Archdologie, ed. U. Hausmann (Munich 1969) 234-267, esp. 244 f., 264-67; W. Ekschmitt, Die Kontroverse um Linear B (Munich 1969) 116, on the Ti-ri-si-ro-c tablet and bibliography.

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132 TITEODORA HADZISTELIOU PRICE

cult practices were carried out in accidentally discovered Mycenaean tombs in Attica and elsewhere, how is it possible that Homer did not know anything about hero-cult, moreover that he could treat the Mycenaean king-hero of Athens, Erechtheus, as a God? The theory that heroes are faded Gods has been long out of fashion, as it has no factual basis.'2 Hyakinthos may be a pre-Greek name13 but there is no proof that this name was used for a God. It might very well have been a toponymic. On the other hand the connection of Gods with heroes, such as Artemis -Iphigeneia, Zeus -Agamemnon, Apol- lo-Ptoos, have been always proved posterior to the heroic cult. One might still contest that it is possible that hero-cult is not known in the Homeric epics because the poems attempt to recreate a very ancient (partly imaginary) age and because, even though hero-cult was practised in 'Homeric times', much of his material, including even whole lines, as well as formulae, was centuries older. But not only the archaeological evidence suggests that 'Homer' was aware of the hero-cult and practices; in addition, some internal evidence from the poems themselves indicates that the category of semi-gods which Hesiod speaks about as Heroes, a separate generation of hemitheoi, is not unknown in the Homeric poems: Hesiod, Erga 159 ff.; similarly Homer, Iliad 12. 23: Kab r=Ov eV KOVl7c0rt Kai Ctt ewov yevo5 advep65v. Hesiod (ibid.) says that the heroes go to Elysion. Similarly Homer, Od. 4. 563-69 makes Proteus tell Menelaos that he will not go to Hades but to Elysion. It is even possible that Homer used the word ij'pca? (Iliad 1. 3; 2. 110; 2. 256; 4. 67; 15. 214, 733; 19. 78 etc.) in a similar way. To the latter homerists would ob- ject that it belongs to a Mycenaean formula, i'pEg /Javaol,'4 and is too liberally used. There is no proof, however, that the formula is Mycenaean and not later; it is also possible that the liberal use is due to the poetic fact that Hom- er describes the legendary generation of heroes (referred to by Hesiod, Erga 159 if.), as Hack has already suggested. In either case, even if it was an old formula with different meaning when Homer adopted it, nothing tells us that he did not already understand himself the meaning of the word in the same way as Hesiod, but use it liberally all the same, according to the metric needs. The origin and root of the word ijpwc, apparently close to that of Hera, is not

Hack, op. cit., supra n. 3, 60 f. and bibliography. 18 R. E. Willetts, Cretan Cul/s and Festivalf (London 1962) 222 and bibliography. He states

wrongly that 'the continuity of the finds is unbroken from Mycenaean times to late antiquity' in his shrine in Sparta; see Tsountas in AE 1892.

I' M. Parry, L'pithRte traditionnelle dans Hom&re (Paris 1928) passim; M. H. A. L. van Valk, 'The Formulatic Character of Homeric Poetry' in AntCi 15 (1966) 5-70 and bibliography. But J. B. Hainsworth, 'The Criticism of an Oral Homer' in JHS 90 (1970) 90-98 and bibl.: 'For all the proliferation of comparative studies Homer remains a very special case' (p. 98 P; 'their oral origin is a point that enters criticism at a lower level for it refers to the means available to the poet, not to his end' (p. 93).




exactly known.'5 Eitrem'8 suggested the Sanscrit sara-vant: 'fest', the root sar equaling the Latin servare (the hero as a servant of humanity?). In spite of the controversies about the origin and the meaning, if one compares the use in Homer, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, Aristotle and Hesychios, taking also into consideration that very many, if not most, of the heroes were kings and noblemen, one comes to the conclusion that there is not much diver- gence to speak of: Homer, II. 9. 524-5: Ke28a avbpcov ?ypcJwcv. Hesiod, Theog. 100. 159 f.; Erga 159 f.: KA,-'a rrpo-repov divopeo,v, fEIOV y0vos VI

,V , l0Ol, oAfltotfl 'pwe Homeric Hymn, 32. 18: Kiea qWTCxv rq'uYt#Eov.

Aristotle, Problem. 19.48 p. 922 f.: O' 'ye6TveC rVa IpXalhov O VOL Ir aav 'pwEr.

Hesychius: `Hpcow, bvvaTro', iaxvpo'5, yEvvalo5, aEpv6. It has been suggested that the heroes succeeded the Mycenaean kings; 17

even the Minoan king Radamanthys is mentioned as being in Elysion in the Odyssey (and later Euripides wrote a tragedy Radamanthys about him).'8

There is still an objection: the term bemitheos is used by Homer to refer to the heroes when they are already dead (Il. 12. 23), while the term heros, heroes is used for the warriors while still alive. This may hint to the belief of Hom- eric times that they became hemitheoi after death (this is also the regular belief of later Greek periods before the Hellenistic times); it may suggest that the term hemitheos implied the 'heroization' (in Classical terms) which would only occur after death, while heros could be used to refer to the hemitheos while still alive, denoting strength, power, good family, good behaviour, as in Hesychios' dictionary under ijpcow. Even if the word meant only 'noble- man' in Homer, this does not preclude the existence of hero-cult under a different name, say hemitheos-cult or noble-warrior-king's cult. On the other hand, in Homer there is reference to people who were honoured like Gods, such as the warrior-priest of Zeus Idaios, Iliad 16. 604 f.:

AaOyovov, apaaVv vhOv 'Ov'Tropo', 0R ALd' c peV

`Iba1Ov ETETVKTO, &Th6, a'J ne ro 61Up(). The references to Herakles in Olympos, Elysion and Hades, in different

instances,19 Od. 11. 570 f.; 601 f.: TOV 6d 4UeT' d0revor'Xa flh'v 'HQaxAqEhev

? Gerard-Rousseau, op. cit., supra n. 11, 1. c. ' Pauly-Wissowa, Real Encyklopaedie, s. v. . pwoc. 17 J. P. Vernant, Les origines de la pens6egrecque (Paris 1962) 30 f.

Nauck-Snell, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenla, Suppl. (1963) 566, no. 658. 1* M. Gigante, 'Poesia e critica letteraria nell'accademia antica' in Miscell. di Siudi Alessandrini in

mem. A. Rostagni (Torino 1963) 237 explains eidolon as 'psyche' and avth6 as the real self, the vovU. However, it is not probable that any such distinction was meant by Homer; it is rather an attempt to reconcile two different traditions.




d6w)AOV avTor 68E jet a'Oav'Totqt OeolatV

TEQe'eTat E'v taA2irj,' xal E%et xaAA?vaeov "Hfv. also to Achilles in the a'acpo6eAOv A)tiuCova (Od. 11. 38)20 show the theological confusion. Therefore the fact that only a few Homeric heroes go to Elysion2l and most of them go to Hades may just reflect an older theological view; the same ideals are reflected in Hesiod, Erga, 159-173. This view apparently survived, perhaps in popular strata, as is shown by a 6th century poem by Asios, where somebody is compared to 'a hero coming out from the mud of the underworld'.22

Acquaintance with the genos of the semi-gods and their abodes is evid- enced in the Homeric poems. Archaeology has proved that hero-cult was common in the 8th century B. C. But why are no cults of Herakles and Me- nelaos mentioned? Evidently this is not possible anyway because Herakles and Menelaos are treated in the story as personages of the living generation (compare with Orestes, in Aeschylus and Sophocles, for whom, however, no- body disputed that he had a hero-cult). Also Machaon and Podaleirios, the sons of Asklepios, are mentioned by Homer (Il. 2. 729-33; 11. 833-36; 11. 504-20) as 177Tipes' ayatol or aduv'juovE; 1Tbp4e, as contemporary to the Trojan generation, 'perfect doctors', without any reference to their heroic nature or cult; Sophocles, in Philoktetes 1329-34, treats the Asklepiads in similar way, with poetic licence, although it is well known that in the 5th century they were extensively worshipped as heroes-iatroi.

On the other hand the oracular hero Teiresias, later worshipped in Boco- tia (Soph. Oed. T. 310 f.; Paus. 9. 16. 1)23 and already mentioned in the Me- lampodia,24 is treated as a powerful dead, who retains superhuman power after death, while the rest of the dead are mere 'shadows' (eidola), in Odyssey xi. Odysseus offers sacrifice for nekyiomanteia. This is an element hinting at a hero-cult of Teiresias or at the notion of the superhuman power of some dead. Homeric scholars26 stress the lack of power and strength of the dead after they have received their burial rites, when they become eidola. Homer apparently only meant that they are devoid of bodily 'power' while they may retain special qualities they possessed while living, such as divination.

2 G. Petzl, 'Antike Diskussionen uber die beiden Nekyiai' in Beitr. z. Klasr. Philol. 29 (Meisen- heim am Glan 1969) 12, 10, 15 f. Scholiast b to Od. 11, 570 f.: ot 6i "E,2jvep; Ev rw aftr4 (sc. aadpo6EAci AeZqLVL) Kai 7rapa6Elrov Kal KdAartLV.

21 M. H. Monteiro de Rocha-Pereira, Concepfoes Hel/nicas de Felicidade no Alim Homero a Plaldo (Coimbra 1955); Pindar, Nem. i. 71; x. 18; Isth. iv. 59 for Herakles; Nem. x. 7 Diomedes; Pyth. xi. 63-4 Castor; 01. ii. 79 Achilles; and Nem. iv. 49.

22 J. M. Edmonds, Greek Elegy and Iambus, I (Loeb, ed. 1968) 80. 2S See Rzach in RE vA s. v. Thebai. u R. Merkelbach - M. L. West, Fragmenta Heiodea (Oxford 1967) frs. 270-79.

2 Schnaufer, 34 ff. 66 ff.




Whether Homer had in mind the predecessor of the Ephyran oracle or not,26 he (or whoever wrote the Homeric poems) seems to know well the ritual and practices connected with the propitiation of a powerful dead whose help he needs because of his ability in a specific field. Is not this a hint of knowledge of hero-ritual even if Teiresias is not actually called a 'hero'? The sacrifices of Odysseus to him are neither burial ritual nor rpt'ra nor gvara, but sacrifices proper, long after the person's death, and intended specifically for the grant- ing of a special favour. The practices, results, and the whole motive of the nekyiomanteia of Teiresias are those of the hero-cult. Furthermore, Odys- seus (Od. 11. 32) promises to Teiresias to sacrifice a black sheep to him in his return (0tv tEpEVAie,uv napyllava), a standard sacrifice to a hero (Eur. El. 516: Orestes sacrifices a black sheep on the grave of Agamemnon).

Homer mentions the Dioskouroi, brothers of Helen, as dead under the earth in I. 2. 243 f.:

"Qr jro, TOVO- 6' 462 KaTEXEV 9Vc1OO' ala Ev AaKebaL'ovt a3Ot, tIAn Iv naTpltd yai'.

while in Od. 11. 298 f. they receive honours near Zeus, although they live under the earth and moreover, they receive honours equal to those of Gods:

Kai' Aiq7dv6EMOV, Trv TvvbapEov 7apdKoITrv,

ii p v i6 Tvv6ap1cp KpaTEpqOpOVe ydlVaTO na6e, KaarTopa 0' &rLo'da,iov Kal nvt' aya0dv Holv6EV'KEa, 300 TOVr a6sqw Cwov KaTE%Et ovoartoo0 ala' oc Kal V?pOa V Y0 j TtlqnV 7p6o Z7vd'r 1xov-rEg

ROTE #D'v 4V'c E&TE ppOt, i2.OTE 6' aVTE T,0VdciVc Ttrqn)V E 2AEo'yXaatv laa Oeoka.

One might, however, contest the latter evidence about Teiresias and the Dioskouroi as coming from the Nekyia, which has been considered by some as a later insertion or contaminated, although the Nekyia has been defended by the Unitarians and there is no consensus on the matter.27 Even if one eli- minates the evidence from the Nekyia, there is still the passage in Od. 10. 527 of Circe's advice to Odysseus to sacrifice to the dead: O'lv apveLov pe'Esv i8Av'v TE /6Aatvav e'g Egp69o' rcpe'ag ...

This is a clear case of chthonic ritual reserved for deities such as Ge Me- laina and heroes such as Boubrostis in Smyrna.28 The sceptic could still suggest that this passage was added after the insertion of the Nekyia as a kind of prologue to it. But outside these passages, Od. 7. 80 f. and Il. 2. 547-51 mention Erechtheus: Od. 7. 80-81:

24 S. I. Dakaris, 'Das Totenorakel bei Ephyra' in AntK Beih. I, 1963, 51 if. 27 Petzl, op. cit., supra n. 20, passim; A. Lesky, Homeros, in RE Suppl. xi, 1968, 811 ff. 28 P. Stengel, Opferbrauche der Griechen (Berlin 1910) 189.



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ZKETO 6' k MapathCova Kat eipvdayvtav 'A i1v?v, fvcE 6' 'EpeXi'or nVKLVOV 6O,IOV.

IL. 2. 546 f.: oz 6' ap' 'A#tva' dEXov, E 'KTiEVOV ATO)LpOV, 6ij1uov 'EpeX(1og' yuyaArfropo0, 6'v 7toT' 'A#'j 2pbpE A1to Ovya&77p, TEKE 6E CEidcpog' dpovpa, Ka6 6' EV 'A&v5 eTev, Z EV 7'tovt Vr0i cvfa 6d ,IV TaVpotat Kat apveto1 Itaovrat KOV pot 'Atvaitcv nEptTEpcodevwv ?VtavrC5v.

In the second book of the Iliad the heroic rites performed for Erechtheus by the Athenian youths are described; there is nothing in them that could make them more appropriate for a God than for a hero. The sheep is a usual victim for heroes, as recent discoveries in Eretria, among others, have shown,29 and the bull as a sacrifice for a hero is mentioned in Classical in- scriptions.30 The pattern of the worship of a hero in the shrine of a Goddess is equally common (Menelaos and Helen at Amyklai, Sparta; Ptoos and an unidentified Goddess in Boeotia; Nymph and Tritopatreis in Delos; Oedi- pus in the Temple of Demeter at Eteonos; Pyrrhos of Epeiros in the Temple of Demeter at Argos, etc.).31 There is no single case of a God who after a while turned into a king-hero eponymos; there is no need to invent one afresh. On the other hand an autochthonous king would be born from the earth as a genos-founder, like the Spartoi in Thebes, while the Gods were not born from the earth.

Chr. Kardara32 suggested a very early (submycenaean-protogeometric) cult of Erechtheus on the hearth under the Nike temple of the Acropolis; this is a successor of a Mycenaean gate-shrine. She interpreted pykinos domos not as a Mycenaean megaron but as the 'well built temenos of Erechtheus' in the entrance of the Acropolis, below the Mycenaean tower. The tower would be the tomb of Erechtheus and the eschara on it the chthonic bomos for the 'un- burnt offerings' to the hero. Below the tower, to the west, she located the shrine where the burnt sacrifices were held. This interpretation fits well with the cult of a hero-phylakos by a gate, to which also Erechtheus' name seems to point, if one accepts the derivation from erkos.33 In the 6th century the archaic porous temple and altar were built around the eschara of the tower;

29 C. B6rard, Eretria iii. L'Hdr6on a laporle de l'ouest (Bern 1970). 30 Delphic inscription, Dittenberger, Sylloge2, no. 145, v. 32: ToIl flo6C TL/La TOO rpaoog eKaT'v

ataTilper Aizyvarot, there wrongly interpreted as: 100 Aeginetan staters for a bous hegemon. It dates from 380/79 B. C. and should be translated: 100 Aeginetan staters for the bull of the hero (Neoptolemos, or, more probably Phylakos - Herod. viii. 39).

31 Paus. 3. 19. 9; P. Guillon, Les Trepieds de Ploon, ii (Paris 1943); Nymph and Tritopatreis: BSA 53 (1929) 170 if.; Paus. 1. 13. 9; 2. 22. 1; Farnell, 17 f.

32 Kardara, 165 ff. 33 G. E. Elderkin, Kantbaros (Princeton 1924).




this temple, according to Kardara, housed the xoanon of Athena as well as the tomb of Erechtheus.34 Erechtheus as a king-founder gate-hero is similar to the 8th century warriors hero-phylakes of Eretria.35 The transfer of the site and tomb to the later Erechtheion, although traditions die hard in Greece, could be explained by the predominance of Athena's cult in that area, combined with the collapse of the still used Mycenaean megaron (Kar- dara dates the remaining columns in Geometric-archaic times). The above created a feeling of sacredness and antiquity for the old megaron; thus a new tradition was formed for the site, and some of the most ancient cults, like that of Erechtheus, were transferred there. This was also more convenient because of the vicinity to the Prytaneion and the Bouleutereion in the North slope. This last point ought to have been explored, as a hero-cult near or in a place of public meetings was an important feature in Greek public-religious life.38 Kardara's identification of dtOV vr qi with the archaic temple of Athena over the eschara, on the Mycenaean tower, assumes that the passage is late - however this is a very disputed point.37 It is significant that, when after the Persian wars the tower was covered anew with masonry and the megaron was closed in it, two openings were left on the west side of it. These correspond to the architecture of the previous Mycenaean tripartite gate-shrine.88 Kontoleon39 noticed also that they correspond to the architecture of the west side of the Classical Erechtheion, which recalls a gate, and noted the use of this west part for the chthonic cults of the Classical Acropolis.

Another rather unnoticed passage from the Iliad provides further clues for Homer's knowledge of the hero-cult: I. 10. 414 f.40

EKTw)p ,pUV ueTa TOtcaV, 6'col floVUqTopol ' lpo l flovla6? flovAev'c Vedov 7rapa or?7,IaTt "IAOV, voacrtv d.7r q?Aolaflov cfv)aKa'g 6' Cl 7pcat, 'p, OV Tg' KEKP1IdEv?1 pVA taTpaT6OV ov 6 a mdxcret.

1' This, Kardara connected with the Iliad passage, thus dating the latter in the 6th century; this is not necessary, howcver; see infra n. 37. The temple of Athena in Il. 2. 547 could be the temenos below the tower, or the acropolis itself as the seat of thc patron Goddess of Athens.

'l See C. Berard, op. cit., supra n. 29. 36 Pindar, 01. 1.149; Pyth. 5. 93; Martin 47 ff. Brelich, op. cit., supra n. 2, 131 ff.; Farnell,

348 if.; C. Anti - 1. Pollacco, Nuove Ricerche sui Teatri Greciarcaici (Padova 1969) 178 f. for the heroon in the Kriterion of Argos. The tomb of Arkas, son of Lycaon, was moved from Mt. Macnalus to the area by the altar of Hera in consequence of an oracle: Paus. 8. 9. 3. Kleisthenes moved the bones of Melanippos from Thebes to Sikyon: Herod. v. 3.

87 Hope-Simpson and Lazenby, The Catalogue of Ships in Homer's Iliad (Oxford 1970) 56 ff.: 'the mention of Menestheus, as it were, protects the rest of the Athenian entry. Where so much is ob- scure about the origins of the Catalogue and the factors which governed the inclusion or omission of places, we certainly should not assume that Athens alone was not mentioned from the first'.

38 Kardara, and bibliography. 39 To Erechtheion (Athens 1949, in Greek) 68. '0 Martin, 47 f.




Here Hector holds council 'by the barrow of divine Ilos', the eponymos of Ilion, son of Tros (cf. Il. 20. 232; 11. 371: a'v6poKisTnro E2l TV' #CO "IAov Jap6avi6ao; 24. 349: pE4ya aryua). Iliad 11. 166-69 gives further information for the geographic position of the sema of Ilos:

ot 6' nap' "IAov aiya aAaatoi Aap6avt6ao ieraOV KOM zErt'OV nap' E'pIVEOV e'aEV'OVTO

ZI4evot ndAro!'. The tomb of the 'ancient Dardanidas' Ilos was in the 'middle of the plain

on the way to the city'. What exactly this means is not clear; it could mean that it was below the acropolis, in the 'lower town', or on the fringe of the lower town, before the houses start, E4IEvot no'Anor, or as Capella's dictionary suggests 'in between the city and the ships of the Greeks'.

The homeric 'agorai' were held, according to the literary evidence, in two different places: 1. On the acropolis, outside the palace of the king, or 2. Be- low the acropolis, in the lower town, or even far from it, as in Ithaca, Od. 2. 146-54:

'QR oadO T7j7A4aXo5, Tx 6' alETCrO Epv'Oza ZEV5) VpOcEV EK KOpvqS7 JPCOp 7EpOt3t7KC nETEaOat.

T) 8 Ec@ YEV p 7ECTOVTO jEsa 7tVOlj avElOto

,Critc a'AL7oua Ttraivoy4vw 7vTepVyEcatV.

a&AA' OTe 6t71 /UEdarnV adyopr1v roqvyfflov ?KEadO?V, 150 EVO' E7tbtVqEVTE Ttvatdcv6lv nTepa nVKVa,

EU 6' 1'ET?7V mavwv KEqSaAa)~, okrarovro 6' AE OpovY 6pvapzyEvco 6' ovvxeqc 'r apetk dy4i TE 6E1pak

6e4tc jtav 6ta x' otKta KaL 7roAtv aiT3Ov. and especially in Phaeacia, where the agora is in the temenos of Poseidon near the harbour; Od. 6. 261-67:

KapnaA t,o g EpXeeaOat- * yc' d 06' v 7?yes1ovErwa(0. avTap E'rov dALo' &17ritl? otev, 7V nEpt nVrpyo'

vWAok, KaAdk N Al#t1'v EKa'TEpOE noAqO:, AerT'/ 6' Elatffllsr/ VEgjc' 6'6o av t xEAtaaa EptVaTat, 7ztatv yap UaTtlOV caTtv EKaaITC. MvOa 6 TE' Oro' adyopt) Kacov Ilocrwi'tov ad14i0,

pVTOl(JlV Aa,OLal KaT(OpvX9Ee(ac dpapvta. Od. 7. 39-45:

TOv 6' a'pa ial`qKcE vavaltKAvrot OVK EVo7raav

EPXOIAVOV KaTa aoTTv 6ta' aqea* ovi yap 'AO'rv Eta FvMAOKa/1O, E1v?) OFo',

, p,a ol axAwv 40

OEMrEo 'hV KaTEXeVe otbLa bpovEova' E'vi Ov,i4. Oav 'a4Ev 6' O6vaevg AtyEva' Kat viar E1aar

aVTC()V 0' qpJw'a)v ayopcg Kat TetXEa [aKpa

tYMOAa, cUKO)weavatv aprpo'Ta, Oavoya 6e'arOat. 45




Odysseus first sees the port, then the assembly, then the walls, and then goes into the polis, to Alkinoos' palace.41 The tomb of Ilos is an equally respected building as the palace on the acropolis or the temenos of Poseidon where the assemblies of the Phaeacians were held. llos is significantly called 'ancient Dardanidas' or 'ancient demogeron'. Therefore the eponymos Ilos seems to be here either similar to the local Oikistes Fekadeimos of Athens,42 or to the military hero-phylakes of the recently excavated Geometric tombs and heroon in Eretria.43 Even if the Homeric 'tomb of Ilos' is a poetic fiction, the poet draws his imagery from the world that he knows, the Greek world where eponymoi heroes, like Pelops in Olympia, had a tomb, a tymbos, where probably councils were held in early times44 (in Olympia the archaic Bouleuterion is not far from it). 'L'etude de la fonction religieuse de l'agora nous fournira l'occasion de preciser les tr&s etroites relations qui unissent les sepultures heroiques et les lieux d'assemblee. Le probleme souleve par l'agora circulaire permet de nouer les premiers anneaux de cette chaine et de remonter peut-etre a son origine. . . On connait le role du cercle fun6raire de l'Altis, attribue sur la foi de Pausanias, a Pelops, dans la formation de l'agora du sanctuaire .. .'.46 Similarly the polyandrion of the victorious hundred Oresthasioi (7th century) was in the agora in Phigalia, Paus. 8.41. 1: OtyaWi3Evr 6DE ErC' T% ayopag' Kat oAVa'v6pIov TCO(V Aoya'&wV TCrV 'Opeatacatfcv WV> Kat w) ?pwcaTl av'Toi' ivaylCovat adva& av g'to! Also the Tomb-heroon of Adrastos was in the agora of Sikyon (Herod. 5. 1-2). Later literary evidence informs us that Aratos was buried in the agora of Sikyon and that in Megara, according to an oracle, the council Hall was built so as to enclose the graves of heroes.46 That the tomb of Ilos and Hector's military assembly are outside the city does not make much differ- ence, as the Homeric agora was sometimes outside the city as in Phaeacia in the passages mentioned above. The fact that Hector's council was a military assembly strengthens the case that Ilos' tomb was a heroon. As R. Martin noted, the Macedonian 'assemblies of Chiefs', of military character, which sprang directly from the Homeric and Achaean tradition, were preceded, according to the literary evidence, by sacrifices on the tomb of a hero: Polyb. 23. 10. 17 and Suda s. v. enagizon:

evaytAovcItv ova v zo - EavO4F (oi Maxe6o'vgej) MaMamevr iai xaOap,i6v rzorotoacv av'v bwtog' (7nAlaydvoig.47 The enagisma and purification leave no doubt about the original connection

41 Martin 36 ff. " See infra n. 56. 'I C. B6rard op. cit., supra n. 29. " Kroll in RE ix, 1089, s. v. "5 Martin 47 f. "I Farnell, 348 ff. 47 Martin, 47 f.; F. Granier, Die Makedonische Heeresversammlung (Munch. Beitr. zur Papyrus-

forsch. xiii, 1931) 4-22; Usener, Arch. f. Relig. Wiss. vii (1904) 301 ff. Later versions of Ilos' myth as founder: Apollod. Bibl. iii. 12. 3; Hellanikos, FGH I, 4, F 25.




between such military assemblies and a hero-cult. The sekos with the tomb of Theseus was built by Kimon in the Athenian agora; in Argos the Kriter- ion, a rectangular theatre-like assembly-hall on a terrace, retains in the middle of it remains of a sekos-heroon from the 7th century B. C.48

Another passage in the Iliad, 2.603-4 seems to point to a tomb of a local hero, or knowledge of such tombs:

O6' 'Xov 'ApKa6cqv Vt' KvLZ7v7X o6po' a&crv

Atrv'tov 7apa T7/flOV, lV' dVEpEg d'yXtyaXTai, Aepytos' tomb is here mentioned in conjunction with a mountain aepy (-this may not be fortuitous?). As the tomb is mentioned as an important landmark near which the city was built, it is probable that it had a connotation similar to the tymbos of Ilos. We hear of cities built near rivers, mountains, but nowhere else is there mention of a citybuilt nearatomb! It seems therefore that the Hom- eric Greeks took notice of the large round tumuli of Asia Minor, moreover, that they thought of them in the same way as later Greeks, that is as tombs of superhuman beings, of heroes. Pausanias, 5. 13. 7, says that the Greeks iden- tified one such tumulus at Sipylos, to the NE of Smyrna, with the tomb of Tantalos, a hero through suffering, who came from that district.49 Another such mound in Messenia was associated with Orestes' Finger (Paus. 8. 34. 2).50 This last passage from the Catalogue of Ships (603-4) referring to the enormous tymbos of Aepytos, the largest landmark in Messenia apart from Mt. Cyllene, could hardly be explained as a tomb of a common man; moreover, the passage has never been challenged as a later interpolation, and occurs in what is considered one of the most ancient books of the Iliad.

If Odyssey book 11, the passages of Circe in book 10, and those of the Dioskouroi and Erechtheus in the Odyssey and the Iliad should be eliminat- ed as 'later' additions and all the rest should be explained as 'old formulae', then one cannot really say what is meant by 'Homeric poetry', and no kind of historical conclusions can be drawn. Poetry, however, often has an important kernel of historical truth, especially as far as thought and belief of the people are concerned. Therefore, such an exclusion would impoverish, rather than clarify, our knowledge. So lacking other proof, one must tentatively accept the Homeric epics as compositions of the Geometric period, irrespec- tively of earlier sources of inspiration and formulae, that the poet(s) may have borrowed; and one should try to draw some tentative historical conclusions from these epics, in spite of the 'Mycenaean' or 'later' elements in them. For the latter no passage should be excluded simply because it is 'suspected', unless it is demonstrably spurious or late. With the lack of sufficient

*8 Anti-Pollaco, op. cit., supra n. 36, 178 f., fig. 90, and 179, n. 13. 4" F. Robert, Thym616 (Paris 1939) 93 f, J. E. Harrison, Themis. A Study of Ike social Origin: of

Greek Religion2 1927, ed. New York (1962) 401 if. '0 Harrison, op. cit., 402 f.




evidence that they are late or 'survivals', such passages should be included in the research, if other evidence, e. g. archaeological, argues for their originali- ty on grounds of content. As at present the archaeological evidence points against a hero-cult or king-hero-cult in Mycenaean times, such passages as the one about the tymbos of Aepytos in the Catalogue of Ships cannot be considered as Mycenaean survivals irrelevant to the Iron Age practices.

J. A. Notopoulos, taking also into consideration the researches of Kretschmer and M. Parry, has recently argued that the Achaean heritage of oral poetry is not confined to the Homeric epics of the Ionian stream, but that it is also to be found in the second mainland stream; 'the eighth century shows emphasis on the heroic age in the poetry of Homer, in the prominence of the age of heroes in the cycles of Hesiod, in mainland art and vases.'61 Hesiod, Erga, 159 ff. describing the 'divine genos of Heroes' refers specifically among them to the warriors that fell in Kadmeia and to those that went to Troy for the sake of Helen:

advpc&v 7pcoCov iEltov yevor Ol KaAE'ovrat

?1P66080, 7rpOT)p? yEVE?7 KaT acbtpova yalav. 160 Kac TOk #Et 6qi&EV O TE KaKOk Kaat OVb'ontr at'V?

TOV gEV V' Ta7rvi &9 n, Kabyqr7it ral?, 'i ))Ec ,iapva,u6vov' /UL?CwV gVEK 06uo'bao,

TOV be Kal tv virEarv V?7r.Ep pue2ya Aa!r,Ta Oacraa?% E Tpot'yv dyaywv 'EAEvrj% CV6K ?r)VKO1to. 165 [4vO ' Ti TOV'rg uEwv OavacTov TIoO a/IqEKa'IVAE]

6T1 bse bX' dvOpdonrcov fl'OTOV Kat "'jOe' ;zoZaava

ZeV5 Kpov6r6% KaTe'vaaae 7iaT?p li zEtpaTa yatr. 168 KaC TO-t uev vacovarv aK?7E'a Ov1UOv `XOVTEr 170 ev /aKapWV VcaOtoat 7zap' 'QKEav6v faOv6tV7v, 6)q30t "peOC, TO!UtV #IMlr7E'a Kap;rov

Tpt4 "`Teo! Oa'A2ovra Oe pE t46EwbpO a"povpa.

If one accepts that both Homeric and Hesiodic references to the 'divine generation of heroes that are called hemitheoi' are a survival of the Achaean heritage of the Mycenaean age, that would still refer only to the existence of a hero-belief or hero-myths in Mycenaean times, but not to a hero-cult; the present archaeological evidence does not support the latter. It is probable that the Mycenaeans had the notion of heroes or hemitheoi (whatever they called them) in a similar way to that of some oriental people; the Sumerians and Assyrians sang the valour of Gilgamesh but did not offer sacrifices to him, and did not display his tomb, the most important element in the Greek hero- cult.

"' J. A. Notopoulos, Homer, Hesiod and the Achaean Heritage of Oral Poetry, in Hesperia 29 (1960) 177-197, esp. 189.



142 THEODORA HADZISTELIOU PRICE;

One could argue that archaizing Homer, like Hesiod, uses the Achaean tradition of the 'generation of heroes-hemitheoi', but either he is unaware of hero-cult practices, or the hero-cult is excluded de facto from the Homeric epics because they attempt to recreate an ancient age. However, in spite of such an intention, the poet is bound to draw much material from his own ex- periences and the world as he knows it; in several things, particularly burial practices, cremation, etc., Homer draws from contemporary society.52 Be- sides, the archaeological evidence shows that: a) Hero-cult was practised extensively in rediscovered Mycenaean tombs in the 8th century B. C. 3

b) There existed an even earlier similar cult of Pelops in Olympia.54 c) There were heroa of Agamemnon, Odysseus in Mycenae and Ithaca55 in the Geo- metric period. d) The cult of the local hero-Oikistes Fekadeimos was flour- ishing from the Geometric times onwards in the Akademeia, Athens.58 We know therefore that: 1. Homer was aware of the practice of hero-cult. 2. In his time the epic heroes were already worshipped as hemitheoi. 3. Ere- chtheus was worshipped in Homeric times, and therefore appears in the Homeric epics not as a God, but as an autochthonous king-hero (cf. Eur. Medea, 516). 4. Ilos or other heroes were venerated as eponymoi or warrior-kings, especially by military assemblies.57 5. 'Homer' knew such details of heroic ritual as the black sacrificial animal whose head is turned to erebos; (even if the Nekyia is an 'addition' there is no proof that it was added later than the 8th century, except the earlier scholars' denial of such practices in the 8th century B. C.; the same applies to the reference to the tombs of the Dioskouroi). 6. The notion of the tomb of Aepytos, so large, important and well known that it is mentioned together with a mountain as a landmark to designate the position of a city, indicates knowledge of the Greek hero-cult,

51 Andronikos, passim. Is See above and ns. 7, 10, especiaUy Mylonas and bibl. s H. V. Hermann, Zur altesten Geschichte von Olympia, in AM 77 (1962) 16 ff. fig. 2, and p.

18 where all previous bibliography. F. Willemsen, 01. Forsch. iii, 161 if.. 168: Dreiful3kessel von Olympia.

so See supra n. 7 and for the Odysseion, Cave at Polis, Ithaca, S. Benton, in BSA 35 (1934-35) 45 ff. esp. 51 f.

16 Ergon 1956, 10 ff., fig. 9; 1958, 5 if.; Athens Annals of Archaeolog y 1968, 107: the 6th cent. ho- ros tes Hekademeias; Ergon 1955, 14 if.; 1959, 5 if.; 1960, 5 ff.; figs. 1, 5, 6; 1961, 3 ff. figs. 1 if.; 1962, 3 ff. figs. 1 if.; 1963, 3 ff. figs 1 ff.

57 The date of the Doloneia has been disputed by some who place it between Hesiod and Solon; others date it very early. See A. Lesky, Homeros, in RE Suppl. xi, 1968, 791 f. x. Gesang, 415 f. The latest research can only conclude 'that it was written to be added in this place in the Iliad'. See A. Lesky, History of Greek Literature (London 1966) 60: 'Attempts to carry out Homeric analysis on a dialectal basis have consequently achieved little of note. The complexity of the problems can be seen from the Doloneia. Late forms in it have been eagerly seized upon, but

here, and only here, occurs the old Aeolic flpotrd4o,ev, a linguistic counterpart of the boar-tooth helmet !'.




whose center is the hero's tomb where his bones are buried and his strength lies. This last passage from the Catalogue of the Ships has never been disputed as an addition - either it was not noticed before, or it was hard to argue that anyone would want to add anything about the Arcadians.

One should also start wondering whether such descriptions as the athla for Patroklos, the perideipna etc.,58 do not reflect to some extent practices connected with the hero-cult, rather than ordinary burial practices which subsequently were adopted by the hero-cult. Most probably certain elements went both ways: from common burial practices to hero-cult, and from hero-cult to special important burials. The early geometric tripods from the Pelopeion in Olympia, however, show that such practices as the athla were connected with hero-tombs before the time of the Homeric epics, therefore they are not the result of influence of these epics. Were these practices described already in pre-Homeric poems such as the supposed Achil- leis,59 and how early were these poems? Unless some positive knowledge about this matter is obtained, one has to admit the possibility that the Hom- eric descriptions of elaborate sacrifices, games, dirges and perideipna reflect the influence of the dawning hero-cult, especially in the case of the funeral games. There is no evidence that funeral games were performed for common mortals, even kingly ones. The Mycenaean tomb-stones, which anyway seem to represent hunting scenes, are hardly evidence for such practices in Mycen- aean times. The Geometric vases with representations of riders may depict the games as something recalling heroic status, or they may depict a noble procession.80 On the contrary, the archaeological evidence, when it is available, points to the heroic association of the funeral games. A bronze hydria from Karabournaki, Thessaloniki, and another two from Attica, inscribed 'Atevalot Ja#[o]a brl TO IV TO& 7OAr?O5t, verify Diodoros' remark, xi. 33. 3, that an 'agon epitaphios' was celebrated by the Athenians since 479, when it was instituted for the war-heroes. If the games were something auto- matic for the ritual of the dead, as the Geometric vases could indicate if the scenes on them were interpreted as depicting funeral games connected with the burial, there would not be a special case of instituting such games for the

58 Andronikos, 16 ff.; Schnaufer, 152 f.: Die Pflege des Leichnams; 156 f.: Die Blutrache; 159 f.: Die Totenklage; 166 f.: Die Bestattungsbrauche.

Il H. Pestalozzi, Die Achilleis als Quelle der Ilias (Erlenbach-Ziurich 1945). 'I See a group of vases from the last third of the 8th century B. C. which bear representations of

a series of rituals which are certainly connected with the dead, and probably, due to the majesty of the ritual, to heroic dead, or ancestral heroes: W. Hahland, 'Neue Denkmaler des attischen He- roen- und Totenkultes' in Festhchrift F. Zucker (Berlin 1954) 177-192, esp. 184 f. See also G. Ahl- berg, 'A Late Geometric Grave-Scene Influenced by North Syrian Art' in Opusc. Aihen. 7 (1967) 177-186, for possible Eastern influence in the ritual. Rohde, Psyche, long ago suspected this fact but was refuted; Farnell, 6 ff.



144 THEODORA HADZISTELIOU PRICE, Hero-Cult and Homer

war-dead of 479 B. C. Such leges sacrae de funeribus that survive give no indi- cation that funeral games were a regular practice.6'

Future archaeological finds may produce more surprises on the early Greek hero-cult and the Homeric associations.62

Center for Hellenic Studies Washington, D. C. Theodora Hadzisteliou Price

61 F. Solmsen - E. Fraenkel, Inscript. Graecae ad inlustrand. Dialeclos' (Stuttgart 1966) 109, no. 64, from Cea.

62 This paper, in a different form, was delivered at a seminar in the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, D. C., April 1971. The author is grateful to the Fellows of the Center, especially to Dr. G. Fabiano, for their discussion; also to Prof. B. M. W. Knox for reading the first draft of this manuscript and making some useful suggestions, and to the Librarian, Dr. J. Platthy, for his kind services.



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Hero-Cult and Homer