The Cults of the Greek States Vol 5

7/30/2019 The Cults of the Greek States Vol 5

1/606

THE CULTSOFTHE GREEK STATESBY

LEWIS RICHARD FARNELLD.LITT., M.A., I A.S.

FELLOW AND TUTOR OF EXETh : COLLEGEWILDE LECTURER IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION

UNIVERSITY LECTURER IN CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGYfVOR RESPOND ING ? KMCT5R OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

HONOR AR 4"OR OF LETTERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA

IN FIVE VOLUMESVOL. V

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

OXFORDAT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1909


2/606

PREFACEWITH the publication of this volume the self-

imposed task that has occupied my intervals of leisurethroughout twenty years is at last completed. But thefulfilment of the promise of the title is incomplete ;for it has happened, according to the anticipationexpressed in the preface to my third volume, that noroom could be found for a full account of hero-worship and the cults of the dead and of the variousideas thereto attaching. I hope to be able subsequently to publish in a different setting the variousmaterials I have gathered under this head and theconclusions that I have drawn from them. Apart fromthis omission, a work of the present compass, carriedon through so long a period of one s life, is scarcelylikely in its final form to satisfy either the writer or hisreaders. I may hope, however, to have shown myselfamenable to the influence of all criticism that wasmeant to be helpful, and of the newer theories that inrecent years have presented the problems of ancientreligion in a new light. Though it has absorbedmore time than I had supposed it would demand,I rejoice to have chosen and pursued this theme, forI at least, if no one else, have derived from it bothmental profit and pleasure. And I feel now the betterfitted to labour in a somewhat wider field, as the Greek


3/606

iv PREFACEreligion, reflecting so vividly as it does both the higherand the lower workings of the religious sense, servesperhaps as the best point of departure for wider studyof Comparative Religion.The title of this treatise is an answer to the criticismthat only a portion of Greek religion in its widestsense has been presented, the public and official part ;this limitation, which has excluded the discussion ofthe philosophic speculations and of the private mysticreligion of the later centuries, appeared necessary frompractical considerations of space ; and even as it standsthe work may be regarded as too voluminous. Muchof higher Greek thought and aspiration is indeedrevealed in the study of the state-mysteries of Eleusis,which occupies a large part of the third volume. Andfor the rest I plead in defence of my choice of subjectthat the state-cults represent throughout a long periodwhat was strongest and most attractive in the popularreligion. No doubt in Greek polytheism there wasa struggle in the crowd of personalities, and a survivalof the fittest ; certain weaker forms of divinity perishedor lingered only as faded figures of myth. But whatthe people strongly clave to was taken up and organizedby the community ; and in the sphere of religious lifeand practice there was for many centuries little divorcebetween the individual and the state. Therefore thehistory of the state-cults is the main exposition ofGreek religion and reflects in clear light the life of theGreek people, their migrations and settlements, theirinstitutions of the countryside and village, of thefamily and clan and pre-eminently of the Polis, and


4/606

PREFACE vfinally their growth and achievements in law, morality,and art.

After much hesitation at the outset as to the mostpractical method of exposition, I have adopted thatwhich most writers on polytheism have followed, themethod of the separate treatment of each cult accordingto the personality and the divine name. Nor, thoughit has certain inconveniences, do I repent of mydecision. For Greek religion, being eminently personal and anthropomorphic, was a galaxy of more orless clear personalities ; and the divine names werewords of power which attracted certain organic ideas.Also, the leading personalities of this religion were oflong enduring life ; and a more thoughtful review ofthe facts, especially of those which recently discoveredinscriptions present, may save us from the error, towhich certain writers and scholars seem prone, of antedating their decay and their extinction.I feel, what every reader must, I fear, also feel, thata work of this length, so preoccupied with detail, oughtto be concluded and clarified by a succinct summaryof the main features and general phenomena of Greekpolytheism ; and it was my intention to have addedone. But I was obliged to relinquish it, as the lastvolume has come to be disproportionately long. ButI can refer the reader to my general article on GreekReligion in the new edition of the Times Encyclopaedia, and to my published Inaugural Lecture whichI delivered in the earlier part of this year as WildeLecturer.

Finally, I render my grateful thanks to many friends


5/606

VI PREFACEand scholars who have helped me readily with theiradvice and discussion on many points of difficulty,and especially to Mr. Frost, of Brasenose College,for undertaking the laborious task of preparing theindex.

LEWIS R. FARNELL.September, 1909.


6/606

CONTENTS OF VOL. VCHAPTER I. PAGE

CULTS OF HERMES . .... 1-3 rHermes probably a pre-Hellenic god, worship most prevalent in Arcadia,associated with Arcadian genealogies, 1-4 ; ethnologic question furtherdiscussed, 5-9 ; essentially a pastoral deity, Emotes, Kpiod\i]$ at Kyllene 18a wasderived from the aAAo y, then with the human head added, doubled, tripled,or quadrupled, so that the benignant lord of the ghostsmight gaze down the various ways that met at the spot.Hence we hear of a Hermes rptKe^aAo? or rerpctKe^aAos at

* Vol. 4, p. 221.b Vol. 2, p. 515: cf. Hillebrandt, Vedisches Ritual, p. 177.


29/606

i8 GREEK RELIGION [CHAP.Athens 31 . Then when, at a later period, the goddess Hekatehad established herself in many Greek communities, she sharedthis function with him, and we find the two divinities associated in Attic and Arcadian cult. We note too that thetitle hobios or oSios, a very common appellative of the goddess,is attached to Hermes as well 28 & 29 . His protection, however,is in no way confined to the cross-roads, but extends alongthe whole route. The custom already mentioned of heapingup stones at certain intervals along the way, and consecratingthem to Hermes, may well be of immemorial antiquity inGreece : these came to be called f/Ep/maiot Actyot, a name whichwas also applied to the Roman milestones" 2 . Differentopinions have been held as to the original meaning of these a ;the most probable is that which was first suggested byWelcker, that they were originally way-marks set up bythe travellers before there was any well-defined road, justlike our heaps of chalk-stones along the coastguards trackround our coasts. While serving thus a secular purpose,they could be put under a religious tapu by consecration tothe way-god, and could be regarded as a thank-offeringto him on the part of the traveller ; also the latter couldestablish communion between himself and the god by throwing his stone upon the pile 1 . The heaps thus become chargedwith the power of the god, just as in the aniconic age thepillar was full of the divinity ; and therefore they could beregarded as objects of worship p . Hence in later times thebelief might arise that Hermes was the first road-maker 32 ;and if the explanation just given of the ep/acuoi Ao (/>oi is correct,

a For a statement of these vide De b Dr. Haddon, Magic and Fetichism,Visser, De Graecorum Deis non referen- p. 8, has noticed the practice of throwingtibtts speciem humanam, p. 82 : some of sticks and stones at cairns, and regardsthem take no account of the important it as an act of ceremonial union withfact that these stone-heaps were at the immanent spirit : vide Anthrop.regular intervals along the road. De Journ. 1907, p. 265.Visser expresses no definite opinion of c Cf. the Sibylline oracle quoted byhis own, but rightly distinguishes be- De Visser, op. cit. p. 81 KO.V irapoSoiaitween these wayside heaps (which have \idcw avyx/> at Megalopolis 27 a title which Zeus andApollo enjoyed in Argolis and Laconia and Hyejuomos inAthens 28 . The former title attached to those other godspossessed a military significance ; and though Hermes AyTJro)/;at Megalopolis might have been vaguely interpreted as theGod who leads us on our journey, or perhaps in the samesense as Hermes ^VXOTTOJJLTTOS, the Escorter of Souls, yet atAthens HyejuoVios must have once meant the Leader of thehost to war: for two Attic inscriptions, one of the periodof the Lycurgean administration, prove that it was theStrategi who sacrificed to the god under this title 28 . Butthough pre-eminent in athletics, Hermes was not usuallyworshipped as a god of war: the title ITpo/uaxoy attached tohim at Tanagra 78 is a unique exception and explained bya peculiar legend, to the effect that Hermes, armed with theathlete s * strigil, led a band of the ephebi to the rescue of

* Vide Zeus, R. 15* [at Stratonikeia].


34/606

i] THE CULTS OF HERMES 23the land when it was attacked by an Eretrian fleet. Wesuspect that he was not originally the deity of the laterconquering races who possessed Hellas.As travelling exposes one to all kinds of luck, the god ofthe wayfarer becomes also the god of luck and gain a ; andif a man found a lucky thing by the way he put it downto the credit of Hermes. Even a fisherman might supposethat he owed his luck to him, though the god has no naturalconnexion with the sea ; for an epigram in the Anthologydescribes a fisherman s dedication of his worn-out nets toHermes b . Hence he is styled Ke/oSwoy, the gainful, 1 inliterature if not in worship 39 , and Tvx^ 80 , which might connote success in trade, in the competition of the artist, orin love. As the ways of gain are not always the ways ofhonesty and straightforwardness, he obtains a bad characterand an immoral cult as AoAioy, the god of craft and deceit,by which title he was actually worshipped at Pellene 41 .Here is a fact that gives us pause and reflection. How didHermes become the patron-god of thieves, liars, and de-frauders? And how did the more advanced Greek religiontolerate this view of him ? Is it a late accretion, the accidentalresult of his prominence in the Hellenic market-place, wherecheating would be an immemorial custom? This cannot bethe explanation, for other deities were equally Ayopatot,divinities of the market, and their character did not suffer.Again, this characteristic of Hermes was not a late development but recognized frankly in the Odyssey \ it is he whogives to his beloved Autolykos his unique capacity for perjury and treachery, and the author of the Homeric hymndoes worshipful homage to the celestial trickster, the shiftyone, the deceiver, the lifter of cattle/ and we must admitthat he is able to depict the humorous side of thieving.We may find a clue for the answer to the first of thequestions posed above. As a god of the road he could notavoid being appealed to by those who take to the road for

a We have in the Vedic mythology three times in one hymn as a guide toa similar conception of a Leader-God prosperity in life.(Deva Netr) who is invoked two or b Anthol. Anathem. 6, 23.


35/606

24 GREEK RELIGION CHAP.their living: even in communities living under RomanCatholicism thieves have needed and found a patron saint.Again, a god inevitably shares the vices of a conquered people,and among these are apt to be trickiness and deceit. At leastthese are generally imputed to them by the conquering race,and what the Scandinavians believed of the Finns and Lappsand the Teutons of the Welsh, the Hellenes appear to havebelieved of the Pelasgi. And if the hypothesis for whichreason has been shown be true, that Hermes was the divinityof some such pre-Hellenic people, we shall the better understand why the old way-god came to acquire this doubtfulcharacter.The second question asked above presents no real difficulty.A complex polytheism like the Greek is sure to be full ofmany contradictions, partly owing to the different strata

of which it is composed representing different moral levels.And though parts of it had attained a high morality andperjury was regarded as a sin against the divinity no lessclearly than in the Hebraic religion, yet parts of it remainedunmoralized : and a deity of a lower type who occasionallypatronized perjury and deceit might be tolerated within it.One would wish to know how far this lower view of this god scharacter affected public ritual and prayer. Did the Achaeanstate sacrifice to Hermes AoAio? when it was engaged in abusiness of dubious morality ? Private Greek prayer mightbe occasionally immoral, as Lucian satirically notes ; but wehave no evidence that the prayers of the state were ever ofsuch a character, nor can we believe that Hermes Ayopalosstood in the market-place to encourage dishonest trading.Like his fellow-deities who were gathered there, he stood topreserve the public peace of the place ; and the magistratesof the market of Olbia made offerings to him to secure suchrespectable objects as the welfare and health of the city andthemselves 35 *. Let us observe also that Hermes appears tohave been called the Just at Argos 42 . But a singular ritualcustom should be noted that prevailed at Samos, accordingto Plutarch 88 *: when the Samians offer sacrifice to HermesXapi8


54/606

n] CULT-MONUMENTS OF HERMES 35on their favourite animals of sacrifice : and so Hermes wasoccasionally figured riding on the ram, for instance on a fifth-century vase a where we find him crowned with ivy and holdinga flower and caduceus in company with Dionysos (PL II).The folk-lorist who is aware of the causative connexion betweenGreek art and Greek myth may consider whether this typegave the cue to the story of the golden ram that bore Phrixosover the sea b .The pastoral deity might be represented as himself a

shepherd driving his flock ; and the same pastoral conceptionunderlies the interesting group of monuments that associateHermes with the Nymphs, the divinities of the springs, thestreams, the woodland. A monument of equal importance forGreek art as for religion is the late archaic relief of Thasos,on which Hermes is seen in the function of * Nymphagetesleading the Nymphs to Apollo (PI. Ill) ; and on an Atticrelief in Berlin c , of the second part of the fifth century, foundsome years ago, we see him in the company of the Nymphs,with worshippers approaching (PI. IV) ; on the right is theriver-god Acheloos, in the form of a bull with human head,while above him we can discern the goat-legs of a crouchingPan. The work illustrates the Attic worship of the river-god,with which Hermes was associated ; and it is the earliest andbest example of an interesting type of relief, recently foundamong the dedications in a cave on Parnes, which appearsto have served as a wild shrine of this cult, and for whichthe Berlin relief may have been intended. One of these d isreproduced on PI. V, being a work of the fourth century andof very inferior style to the former, but evidently belongingto the same family.

a Mon. delF Inst. VI, Tav. LXVIL but whether the spear-headed shaftb That Phrixos was ever himself which he holds in his hand is furnishedidentified with Hermes is unproved, and, at its other end with the emblem of thein view of the legends about him, im- kerykeion appears doubtful ; and if thisprobable. Gerhard s article Phrixos was the intention of the artist, it isder Herold in his Akademische Abhand- difficult to say what precise mythic-hmgen, 2, p. 506 is unsound ; his PI, religious idea he had in mind.LXXXI reproduces a vase with a picture c Arch. Anzeig. 1890, p. 87.of a youth riding on a ram across the d Eph. Arch. 1905, p. 102.sea ; we may interpret this as Phrixos,D 2


55/606

36 GREEK RELIGION [CHAP.These three reliefs are also examples of a characteristic

type which Greek art invented for the expression of the ideaof Hermes the Leader. The god marching before, withthree female divinities following him, is a motive used byvery early Greek vase-painting, perhaps at first without anymythic significance whatever, while afterwards it might beadapted to such scenes as the representation of the Judgmentof Paris a . Where there is no myth, as in the case of thereliefs mentioned above, the scene is probably hieratic : theherald-god is leading the divinities to the sacrifice which theirworshippers are preparing. For there are certain monumentswhich reveal a function of Hermes, about which the literatureis almost silent, the function of the divine sacrificer. Weshould naturally expect him to occupy this position in thereligious circle of Samothrace, into which he was admittedas KafyuAos, the Minister ; and we find him by the side ofCybele, with a irpoxovs or libation-pitcher in his hand, readyfor her ministration b . And we may suppose that the generalpopular belief regarded him as fulfilling the same functionfor the higher Hellenic divinities ^ for on vases of the earlierand middle period he is represented standing by a flamingaltar holding a sacrificial basket or pouring a libation, andtwo of these refer clearly to the worship of Dionysos c .That one god should minister the sacrifices to the others isan idea found in some polytheistic religions ; in the Vedicritual it is Agni the fire-god who wafts the savour of theofferings to heaven. In the Hellenic system, the divinitiesof fire, Hestia and Hephaistos, have no such function, but itis attached to Hermes, because as we may suppose of the

a Vide the exposition in Miss Harri- flaming altar ; PI. LXXXVIII, Hermesson s Prolegomena, pp. 292-300: there with teaviffrpov dragging ram to sacrifice,are reasons against her suggestion that on right female holding kalathos beforethe art-motive itself, by misunderstand- altar, on left Dionysos half-revealeding, created the myth of the Judgment. (good style of fifth century) ; PI. XCI,b Vide reliefs published by Conze, Hermes standing before half-openedArch. Zeit., 1880, Taf. 1-4, showing door of temple, on right Bacchante withHermes in attendance on Kybele. thyrsos holding up chaplet ; PI. XCII,

c These are put together by Lenor- Hermes standing by one altar withmant, l. Cfram., iii, PI. LXXVI, sword, spear and kerykeion, female withHermes holding sacrificial basket over thyrsos holding offerings over another.


56/606

n] CULT-MONUMENTS OF HERMES 37associations of the word Kfjpv ; for already in the Homericpoems the K^UKCS are concerned with the preparation of thesacrifice, and the gentile name of the Attic Kerykes, andthe title of the public officials known in the Greek states asthe lepoKTjpvKts preserve the ritualistic connotation of the name.Hence we may understand the motive of the narrative in theHomeric hymn a, which makes Hermes, immediately after thetheft of the oxen, slaughter two of them as if for sacrifice anddivide them into twelve portions as if for the twelve deities.Where Hermes is represented standing alone, not by any

altar or any beast of sacrifice, merely pouring from a sacrificialcup, as on a red-figured vase published by Lenormant b, wemay doubt whether the intention was to depict the divinesacrificer or the god who dispenses blessing, the giver ofgood things, as every higher Greek divinity might be conceived and was therefore represented with the cup of blessingin the hand. At any rate, the art-language found a clear modeof rendering the idea of the 0o? e/oiowtos : the most speakingemblem of fertility and good fortune was the cornucopia, andthe later art set this not infrequently into the hands ofHermes c.As regards the functions of the god as a power of the lower

world, we cannot say that any of our surviving monumentsis a direct heritage from any state-cult expressing these.Nor in the symbols and attributes usually attached to himby Greek art can we discover any clear allusion to this aspectof him ; it is true that in the later type of the kerykeion theserpent-form begins to be common, but it is probable thatthis was suggested by no religious, but merely decorative,reasons. However, if we ever find the serpent combined withthe figure of Hermes in any significant way, we shall have toregard the work as a monument of Hermes XOovios ; for theserpent was specially the emblem of the chthonian powers,

Documents

The Cults of the Greek States Vol 5