NZ LOUIS GERNET a THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ANCIENT GREECE Translated by John Hamilton, S.J Pata and Blaise Nagy with a rant from America for Bulgaria Foundation THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS. Baltimore and London‘This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of the David M. Robinson Publication Bund. Originally published in Paris in 1968 as Anchopologie de ta grove antique Copyright © 1968 by Frangois Maspera English translation copyright © 1981 by The Johns Hopkins University Press All sights reserved, Printed in the United States of America ‘The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 The Johns Hopkins Pross Ltd., London Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Gernet, Louis, 1882-1962 ‘The anthropology of ancient Greece, ‘Translation of: Anthropologie de la grive antique. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1, Civilization, Greck—Addresses, essays, lectures. DFI8.G5313 938 81-47598 ISBN 0-8018-2112-6 AACR 1. Tite. . o ee earns en Contents Preface vii Translators’ Acknowledgment xii PartI. RELIGION AND SOCIETY 1 1, Anthropology in Greek Re 2. Ancient Feasts. 13 3. Dionysus and the Dionysiae Religion: Inherited Elements and Original Features 48 FORMS OF MYTHICAL THOUGHT — 71 4, The Mythical Idea of Value in Greece 73 5. The City of the Future and the Land of the Dead 112 6. Dolon the Wolf 125 Part I. LAW AND PRELAW 141 7, Law and Prelaw in Ancient Grgece 143 8. The Concept of ‘Time in the Earliest Forms of Law 216 9. Some Connections between Punishment and Religion in Ancient Greece 240 10, Capital Punishment 252 Part IV. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS 277 AL, The Nobility in Ancient Greece 2 12, Marriages of ‘Tyrants 289 13. Mortgage Horot 303 14, Law and Town in Greek Antiquity 312 15. Political Symbolism: The Public Hearth 322 PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY 341 16, Things Visible and Things Invisible 343 17, ‘The Origins of Greek Philosophy 352 Index 365Not long before his death, Louis Gemet conceived the project of bringing together in a single volume a series of his articles that had ap- peared in a number of different journals. To determine his choice of arti- cles, he had to take into account not only the relative importance he assigned to his writings but other factors that were beyond his control: the ‘very limited dimension of the work he had in mind, the difficulty or even impossibility of obtaining the original texts, and the more or less special- ized character of the periodicals in which they had been published. Some if these periodicals, especially those concerned with the diseiplines of s0- ciology and psychology, were unknown to the general public or to Hellen- ists. Finally, Louis Gemnet settled on the following eight con ‘that he himself had reviewed, corrected, and‘rought up to date: thropologie dans la religion greeque,” “La Notion mythique de la val en Gréce,” “Dolon le loup,” “Droit et prédroit en Gréce ancienne,” “Le ‘Temps dans les formes archaiques du droit,” “Horoi hypothécaires,” “Sur le symbolisme politique: Le Foyer commun,” and “Les Origines de la philosophic.” In addition to these eight articles, which appear in the present yolume together with the author's revisions, we thought that nine others should be added: they are published here in their original form. Why, then, this expansion of a project we had so often discussed ‘with our mentor, but that after his death seemed, like Gernet himself, too ‘modest? The reason is this: a whole aspect of Gernet's work—a dimension that might well be called the most important one were it not for the fun- damental unity of all his work—has been, and still remains, virtually uinrecognized. Like his friend Henri Jeanmaire, who in the manner of Gernet had contributed to the renewal of Greek studies in France, Gernet did not es- {ablish as a goal for himself a career as « Hellenist. This man, who had so ‘many things to transmit and who could have formed so many pupils, passed most of his life as a teacher of Greek prose composition on the Faculté desviii Preface Lettres d’lger. He was over sixty-five when he was able to come to the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes to speak about a subject dear to his heart, one about which he alone could speak. We were a handful who fol- lowed his seminars, and most of us were non-Hlellenists. During these years, each Thursday morning was a festive day for us, a day of grand in- {ellectual feasting. We saw him arrive with rapid and lively pace, this old still full of youth; he was tall, with a fine face framed by well- trimmed beard, and it seemed as if the great Poseidon, such as the figure seen in the Museum at Athens, were coming to us, As. sign of his noneon- formism, he wore a black, round hat in the style of Blum, and the cravat of Lavallicre. He carried not a single lecture note; only a few references jotted down on a single sheet of paper. Penal law, testament, property, war, legends and cults of heroes, family and marriage, Orphism and reli- gious sects, tragedy—it did not matter what the question was. Whatever it was, Gernet was at home in his subject, because he was at home in cient Greece. Like an ethnologist who, beginning with the dawn of civili- zation, sets out to a distant land, he would never abandon his quest, and would understand the people from within and from without, with the ‘twofold perspective of native and foreigner. Louis Gernet had readevery- thing; in all the areas of Hellenism, his knowledge was faultless. This knowledge went far beyond ours, but it never erushed or paralyzed us. ‘There was not a shadow of pedantry in this learned man, who considered erudition only a means, a tool with which to pose the problems correctly and to discover each time answers that were better nuanced than before. We used to debate every subject freely in his presence, and I cannot think of a better eulogy for him than this: none of us ever feared to lose face because of some error or silly mistake. He rescued us from our own mis- takes, gave us direction, and informed us. Our shortcomings were mere trifles in his eyes. The research he pursued continually looked far beyond In the course of his precise and fine analysis of institutions, second- ary sources, and original documents, the question that was constantly posed by Gernet concerned us directly—it put us at the very heart of things: why and how were these forms of social life constituted, these modes of thought where the West has its origins, where it believes it can recognize itself, and that today still serve as a reference point and justifi- cation for European civilization? From this perspective, what one tradi- tionally calls “humanism” finds its proper place, its correct historical context, and becomes something relative, Despoiled of its pretension to incarnate absolute Spirit/eternal Reason, the Greek experience recovers its color and full shape. It finds its full meaning only when confronted with great civilizations as different as those of the Near East, India, China, Africa, and pre-Columbian America; it appears as only one way among others in which human history has developed. Preface Louis Gernet was better armed thati Anyone to take his inquiry in this ditection. As a philosopher, sociologist, and Hellenist, he belonged to the generation of Herz, Mauss, and Granet. They were all his friends and hie shared their intellectual scope. If one rereads his first article of 1909 on the supply of grain for Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.; or his doctoral thesis on the development of juridical and moral thought Greece, which was so strongly influenced by Durkheim; and if one com- pares them to the study that near the end of his life he published in the Journal de psychologie, one discovers a twofold and constant concern: to take the sum total of human realities at every level as the starting point, to extract the core of this dense form, to measure the social import, but never to separate the realities from psychological attitudes or from the mental "processes without which the first appearance and the eventual progress ‘and changes of institutions would not be intelligible.’ To carry out this task effectively in the study of the ancient world, there had to be in one and the same man the perspective proper to the spe- cialis, as well as an even larger view with which to situate a research project within the totality of the social and spiritual life of the Greeks and to integrate it with the complex that forms civilization. Gernet was a spe- ‘cialis in each area: philology, the science of law, social and economtc his- tory-—he was a master of all these, as well as one of those individuals who had penetrated with accuracy and profundity the forms of Greek religios- ity, Familiar with the philosophical debates and with those of the law courts, well versed in the poets, historians, and medical writers, Gernet ‘could on every occasion contemplate the Greek in his entirety, while always respecting the specific nature of different areas of human experi- ‘ence, their own logic and language. Thus, the correlations that he estab- lished between the different factors of civilization are never presented ‘nly in terms of influences or parallels; they are also studied in terms of the dissonances, contradictions, and diversions that are present within the Same system, giving it movement and life. ‘Mareel Detienne has helped in the publication of this volume. In the same spirit of loyal admiration for Louis Gemet, he has helped us in the ‘choice of texts and has read over the entire volume in proof form. And we Delieve that this volume appears at just the right time. After publi ‘of the new edition of Droit et société en Gréce ancienne—where the jurid- ical studies of the author are collected—another facet of his work will be accessible to the public. But there is a more profound reason. At a time ‘when one can envisage the elimination of human nature as the object of science, when someone can write, “in our times we can no longer think ‘except in terms of the void left by the disappearance of man."? the re- search of Louis Geet is in our eyes something of great worth. What interests this sociologist, who is also a historian, is not so much the foun-x Preface dations of systems as the manner in which they were successively estab- lished, modified, and destroyed: the periods of erisis, the changes, the ruptures, the innovations in all areas of social life. ‘These facts of change, abrupt and profound, whether technological, religious, scientific, or aes- thetic in nature, always have a dimension that is properly human. It is possible to understand their dynamism only if one asks oneself cuestions not about man but about the particular mentality of the men and human groups that have put all these things in motion, and only if one attempts to penetrate their modes of thought, their intellectual tools, their forms of action and feeling, and their psychological categories, in the sense Mauss gives to this term. Louis Gernet demonstrates this point of view decisively swhen he examines a whole series of “turning points” in ancient Greece, where intellectual and social changes appear in dialectical relationship: the emergence of law from prelaw, the creation of coinage and the devel ‘opment of an economic system from modes that imply a mythical notion of value, the birth of the city and political thought, the origin of philosophy’ In the France of May 1968, where so many things have changed so rapidly, where so many new phenomena have appeared that could never have been anticipated, the work of Louis Gemet, though it deals with a very distant past, is nonetheless, because of its seope and anthrogological dimension, a book that is truly alive. JEAN-PIERRE VERNANT NOTES 1, _Imthe review in Année sociologique that is dedicated to Gemet’s work a the pro Visioning of grain, Simisnd underlines the interest of «research that ls not content with a ple description of fats but keeps as an integral part ofthe economio service studied “a certain sum of collective psychological tates, a certain grouping of complex and special ideas that the “Athenisns had conceming the role of ther eity and the provisioning of grain In 2 raport written hetween 1907 and 1510 fr the Fondation Thiers, ln whish he sun marized the orientation of the work that would concide with his disetation, Loule Geract wrote: “T conceive ofthis work as a study of philology and law. The texts are sufficiently abundant, and sufficiently Iimited, Ate las sufficlenty original that oue ean arive at some truly intresting and general conclusions. What connection is there between terminal gy and content? How can we explain the indetermination so often observed in the juridical terminology of the Grosks, and 10 often contrasted with the rigorous presseness ofthe Latin terminology? How does furidical vminology develop, and eventually take as «tablished form? How do the words of common language cake an spectalize’ form inthe ural con text? How da changes in meaning and changes of vocabulary operate? And in whst measure ‘do they both correspond to the transformation, abandonment, or ganesis of certain juridical i Preface : ‘and inoral ideas? Finally, i thereis, to besure,@ | proficean we draw ftom the dy of vocabulary for an understanding ofthe juries! psy thology of the Athenians froin the sixth to fourth century: 1c? For example, of contempo- ‘an prejuridial notions of private vengeance and family sovereignty? What remains | ae to srutinize the use of words—that is conscious or implicit i the collective fea that the Atenians of he classical epoch make las? These ate the prepa questions that T have Jplnd, Convinced of the interest that a comparative study would offer for my work, 1 will “tady estan suggestive elennents in the terminology of law codes elotestto Crook law. The ‘neg the study of Sanskrit: the direct knowledge of Hind codes would bo savaluable to me.” [These lines ace cited by George Davy in Hommage a Louis Gernet (2966) 2. Michel Foucault, Les Mots et les choses (1966), p. 25.oo Translators’ Acknowledgment ‘Our special gratitude goes to Robert Healey, S.J., and Gregory Nagy, ‘whose collaboration and many suggestions have been very helpful; and to Pearl Jolicoeur, for her expert work with the manuscript. We also wish to thank Edward Benson, Paul Perrot, and William Weeks, S.J. Finally, “thanks are due to the College of the Holy Cross for its partial support of this project through a grant from the Charles 4nd Rosanna Batchelor _ (Bord) Foundation JOBN HAMILTON Bialse NayRELIGION AND SOCIETYCHAPTER 1 Anthropology in Greek Religion Although in recent years the word “anthropology” has been subjected to different interpretations, its specific meaning is clear. Basic to an ac- ‘curate reading of this study is an understanding of anthropology as the description and characterization of human activity in its religious dimen- sion and the role that is assigned to the human within a world whose econ ‘iny is religious. What is of particular interest in an anthropological study isthe question about the barrier between human and divine reality: what separates the human from the divine, and, conversely, what brings them together? ‘This question is multifaceted, but its very complexity is in some way {ts uniting principle. It is our starting point. One of the first questions, of ‘course, is how one can even speak of Greek religion, A reality of this order is extraordinarily complex. Our purpose in dealing with it will be as fol- lows: (1) to define those religious concepts and trends for which we have tore direct and accessible evidence from Greek anthropology; (2) to un- cover the struicture of this diverse body of evidence, granted that there is ‘one for its different sectors; (3) to understand how this complex of religious concepts and trends eventually disintegrated. Our study is admittedly limited in perspective, since it deals with the history of the Greek polis, “city-state,” a period stretching from the seventh or sixth century 8.C. to the time of Alexander. We intentionally begin our study by deseribing certain fundamental attitudes about life which prevailed in that period. The testimony con- cerning human nature, its range of activities and its potentialities, is often contradictory. For example, the famous choral passage from Sophocles’ ‘This article originally appeared in Anehropolngt religiour (supplements to Numen),4 RELIGION AND SOCIETY Antigone, although extolling man as the possessor, even the creator, of seemingly limitless skills, identifies two forces that make hin absolutely limited: death, an invincible barrier, and the gods, who are man's source of justice. In Sophocles’ words, man is a“marvelous thing” but he is radi- cally limited and cannot act a$ an autonomous person. ‘The Prometheus myth, although articulated differently, ca-ties the same kind of eontradictory message. Although Prometheus is a symbol of ‘human enterprise and its technological produets, he is an immortal crea- ture, a superior being to whom mortal men are indebted for their very means of activity and livelihood. But even these skills, the gifts of Prome- theus, are not suffietent for snan’s survival. As even Protagoras, although a Sophist, admits, Prometheus ultimately fails, for he does not give man the quality absolutely necessary for human existence in an organized world: justice. It is Zeus alone who bestows justice on man. In other words, Zeus actually completes the work begun by Prometheus. Justice, although it is coextensive with the city-state, is not eoexten: sive with its citizens. For the polis is a transcendent reality, as the gods ate transcendent over mea. Condemnations of hubris, of excess, of prolonged dizzying success, as well as the appeals for moderation and self-knowledge, which is an awareness of one’s limitations—all of these take on profound religious significance within the context of the polis. Such attitudes do not mean, as Philo of Alexandria later claimed, that man is nothing; but they do contain elements of restriction, limitation, and submission, ‘These atti- tudes are part of the message of Delphi, the sanctuary of Apollo, where man seeks the source of ultimate wisdom. Apollo, its master, an exalted god, can be accommodating to his pious devotees; but his actions are often capricious. He is ultimately an unapproachable deity with whom com- union is virtually impossible, As an oracular god, he ean only portion ut to men a fate in which he cannot allow anything but the most limited sort of freedorn. Such attitudes, if qualified, could still be termed optimistic. After all, within this religious view of the human and the divine, the universe is thought of as an ordered one. The concept of a Kosmos, “structured world,” can develop, particularly in certain speculations; however, in po- try it finds its spontaneous expression in a kind of popular phitosophy where concepts of law and justice have a more or less costnic application. It is especially in the perception of an ordered universe that human thought makes contact with the divine. Here “Zeus” becomes merely a symbol of what is perceived as an impersonal structure, When the Greeks speak of divine causality, they deliberately make use of a collective or neutral expression such as “the divinity” or “the gods.” strikingly with the very individualistic description of deities when they is contrasts 5 ANTHROPOLOGY IN GREEK RELIGION | Outside of cult, which establishes (but under conditions established by the © mos maiorum) contact and in some mariner communication between the world of men and the world of gods, the general conception is that of two ‘worlds, two races mutually inaccessible, This distance between men and ods is a major theme of the poetry of Pindar, the faithful interpreter of ‘Delphic wisdom ‘There are, of course, all sorts of other things also in the most obvious us thought from this same period. Much has been made, for exam _ ple, of the opposition between Apollo and Dionysus. These two deities are | in fact antithetical. The religion of Dionysus, or to be more exact, certain “aspects of ity signifies a liberation or exaltation of the human spirit : through ekstasis, “escape from the here and now,” and enthousiasmos, _“ivine possession.” But do these experiences really bridge the gap be- | Gwen man and gods? Is the Dionysiac experience the same as commu- ‘ion? Even for his devotees, Dionysus is an elusive deity, Though one can Tecognize @ momentary fusion between man and god in this cult, the | tinon is not strietly a personal one. The historical evidence makes it clear __ that the religion of Dionysus had to be integrated into the religious life of - the city-state, where it not only adjusted to the polis but found definite Dionysus was received, more or less early, at the shrine of Apollo at Del- "phi: Once this god was incorporated into the civic cult of Apollo, the po- _ Kentials for a religion of individuality, inherent in the service of Dionysus, _ epuild not really develop. Another important religious phenomenon for our consideration is she religion of the Mysteries, specifically the Mysteries of Eleusis. They ‘sontain a concept of religious experience different from that found in the “cults of Apollo or Dionysus. Overt in Eleusi I is an idea of com- ‘union; its raison d'étre is the promise of immortality. Meeting man’s | needs in a more specifie way than the religion of Dionysus, the cult of Eleusis allows no barriers. Even so, to a certain degree, and not unlike the | onlt of Dionysus, the religion of Eleusis was also integrated into the polis _ Its patronage was part of the Athenian ancestral religion, and is practiced _ through the laws of the polis. | ___. The Eleusinian religion, then, is not the equivalent of an indepen. dent, churehlike structure, even though its originality lies in its possession __ of asingle tenet. But this doctrine remains localized, and cannot be termed representative of Hellenic religious thought. ‘Tris within the framework of this thought that the Greek concepts of _nysiae seligion, and in the Eleusinian as well,’ the concept of the soul has "no par. It is true that the idea ofthe soul has an important place in mystic6 RELIGION AND sociETY view has no intrinsic connection with the current conception. Plato recog: nizes this from the very moment he begins to discuss immortality. More- over, it is not surprising that the idea of the soul in contemporary thought is of @ nature that we would coarsely call positive. Its objectification scarcely goes beyond the giving of a name: pyukhé designated either the complex of conscious activities of the person or a vaguely pereeived princi- ple from which these activities flow on the plane of present life. From a most ancient period, and even today in certain philosophical traditions, the term “soul” covers totally different notions. Homer, as we shall soo, uses psukhZ in a radically different way that is almost opposite from our usual understanding of the term. But in texts that still belong to the ar chaic period we meet a change of meaning—it is not excessive to call it a mutation and it is extraordinarily revealing, This does not, of course, exhaust our survey. We have to mention “superstitions” or “survivals.” In a discussion of the soul, scholars have mentioned two related sub- jects: (1) the wandering souls of the dead, that is, ghosts and the likes (2) the kingdom of Hades, that is, as a kind of Hebrew Sheol, There are other concepts, more specific in nature and more consistent in their conceptual development: for example, the concept of a personal genie, analogous to the Latin genius, though the génie was never an object of cult before the Hellenistic period. At the other end of the spectrum are the cults of the dead, which are essentially familial in nature. Even these, though they imply a vague idea of survival after death, offer no conerete representa tion of immortality or even, at the outside, any real relief. Moreover, poetry can use images rather freely. For it, death is represented in terms of a separation of the "body" from the “soul.” The “body” returns to the earth, and the “soul” is received into the ether. These are the terms that not only appear in an epitaph for fallen warriors from 432 B.C., but can also be found in the poetry of Euripides. In all this material there appears no expression of a firm belief in the soul's immortality or the kind of pa- thetic concern that would sustain such a belief. “There is, however, one idea that is integral to the structure of the Greek religious universe under discussion: the concept of the hero, Because of its great significance, it merits special attention “Heroes are members of a separate race that lies halfway between gods and men. Although originally human, they acquired after death a super- human condition or status. There is no simple answer to the question con- cerning the origins of heroes. The variety of heroes is large, and one can see in it several stages of historical and social development. ‘The notion is nourished first of all ina very ancient background: the hero is often associated with the earth and fertility. No matter who he is, ae a alae ch areata hana ae gta ‘cultivate him especially. All these views converge in the historic p suhen the hero finally becomes the protector of the polis. The ranks of heroes remain open, and some eminent or outstanding men can still enter them after death. ‘The heroic idea is elosely connected with the pattern of religious thought which we have been discussing and which is that of classical “Greoce, Although the heroie condition elevates humanity since it involves “humanity, it still emphasizes, even in the conception of an intermediary ____ reality, the fact that man is in a congenital state of subordination and re- | iriction. For the heroic condition is, by definition, an exception to the _ tile, The majority of heroes belong to a lost past, an unhistorical period. > Although there are later additions to the heroic ranks, rules of admission ae, at least in theory, extraordinarily rigid. One notes an interesting “example from Delphi, which had the last word in narning later heroes: at the end of the fifth century B.C., the oracle proclaimed that one of its can | ohizations was its very last "Avery specific quality of the heroic condition is its gratuitous nature. © The achievement of heroic status, even in the distant past, did not neces- | sarily require merit or extraordinary exploits, and some late entrants into “the heroic ranks seem especially surprising. What decides who is to be a | hero is, above all, a “sign” (ouch as a disappearance), revealing for the space of a moment a sudden break in the barrier that separates men from ‘gods. Finally, the hero's historieal personality tends to evanesce within | the framework of cult, His power isa functional one situated on an inter ‘mediate level, without the hero's normally penetrating into the divine “yealm and becomming an intercessor between it and the world of men ‘At the time when the “serenity of the Greek soul” was a common- "place, one could simply stop there. Indeed, it must be said that this con- “cept, along with its nuanced variants, has been the viow of the great Hel _Tenists; and it corresponds with a historical reality, that is, with the exis. tence of a certain system of thoughts and attitudes. Tt matters little that "this system includes elements that are diverse or even heterogeneous. Even ‘opposition forms a part; Dionysus balances Apollo. But in fact one can ‘sense certain tensions. It is not easy, for example, to accept the view that ) man, as such, can in no way attain a divine conditior There could be something revealing in the very insistence with which | Pindar repeats the lesson of Delphi: “Do not attempt to be god.” Could © this be a temptation Pindar is condemning? In reality, the lesson can be P gegeesly contradicted. We are not, for the moment, thinking of “Orphi8 RELIGION AND SocIETY teachings, since they can be regarded, strictly speaking, as only marginal. But when Aristotle maintains that the sage can become immortal in some fashion, he denies the truth of a traditional saying that he does not fear to cite: it is the saying of Pindar word for word. In an entirely different realm, there is a striking episode that we know of almost by chance: Ly- sander, the conquerer of Athens and the liberator of the cities it had sub- Jugated, becomes the object of a cult in Asia Minor. He is not made into a hero alter his death, he is deified while alive, just as the kings in the Hel- Ienistic period will be. Slavish adulation, we might say; but why did it take this aberrant form? "These Facts are all of a different sort, but they have this in eommon: they contradict a form of what might be called “normal” Hellenie thought. They also raise one or two historical problems: one about the o gins of the philosophical tradition; and another about the “resurgences sevealed in the worship of rulers or kings. Some heritages weigh heavily ‘on all human thought; and they sometimes destroy equilibrium. tis a rather striking fact that what seemed to us a leading and par~ ticularly significant concept in a Hellenic view of the world—that is, the {dea of the hero—did not really survive the demise of the polis. From the Hellenistic period onward, new values are introduced; and if the cult of heroes remains faithful to tradition, the category of hero as such is no longer recognizable in the final forms it has reached. On the one hand, the title of hero is generalized and is eventually applied to all the dead. On the other hand, the ambiguity between the heroie and the divine con: dition is accentuated, at least for the type of heroes who represent social Functions: the military chief, the lawmaker, the founder of a colony, the restorer of the city. It is possible to speculate that the idea of the “divine man” did survive beneath the surface; already the Delphie oracle tseli— or so it seems—vacillated between calling Lycurgus a man or a god. In the period of the city, the tendency is severely restricted; one is tempted to say that it is almost suppressed. The ease of Lysander, then, is exceptional and striking, But we observe that, even while acknowledging the role of “oriental influences,” one ean recognize the culmination of a Hellenio ten- deney in the cult of monarchs in the Alexandrian period. This ean also be seen in the post-mortem divinizations that alternate almost acbitrarily with heroizations: ‘As remarkable as this group of facts is, there is one in particular of much larger significance. In the more or less predominant representation Of the “soul,” the religious mentality is, at the least, uniquely dormant; this is a contradictory feature found in a group of beliefs that ge far back and have important historical consequences. ‘Although this is an important item, we can barely find its origins; a ine nateoe d'étre in the most ancient literary testimony, a sure source Sree ie @ _ANTHMOPOLOGY IN GREEK RELIGION “of authority for the Greek, completely escapes us. The Homerie concept is ax removed from what we might call the “mystical” one. Under the des- ignation poukhe, insofar as it refers to a being, Homer preserves only the “ meaning of a “double,” that which appears or Is realized only at the mo- “ inent of death in order to be consigned as an ephemeral phantom to an in- "accesible und shadowy afterlife. As for the functions that are specifically Shological (especially the thumos: will and consciousness), these are linked to the living body and disappear at death. The prejudiee is obvious, | Still, one can assume that the Homeric view masks some profundities, | Shis difficult to examine these: and this is not really our purpose. Let 1s nierely say that we have the witness of a very ancient thought wherein “the dead, diroctly attached to the world of man and nature (and in partie- “lar to the Earth Mother), are integrated into the life of an essentially local group—a life represented as cyclie, In this complex, which gave rise “fo many images, the image of “breath” (suggested by the etymology of the _ word psukhe) has to be important. (The Tritopatores, patrons of births, | are both “'winds” and “ancestors.”) None of this ancient background ap- " pears any longer in Homer. In this psychological representation of the liv- a there is the same stylization and transcendence: in his handling of a "traditional vocabulary, which gradually takes on what we would call an _ shot! fore, and in his anatomical descriptions the phrenes, for examn- ple, aré a part of the body, but which part is not exactly clears and they |) ase the “spirit” or the “intelligence”, we recognize the heritage and the “wear and tear of a formulaic style, But we know from the Greeks them- © selves (excluding Homer) that behind this Homeric mentality, which the “ plhasiologoi will only prolong, there exists a very archaic representation “that makes certain organs of the body privileged ones or gives them reli- “gious value. These organs include not only the head and the heart but the “diaphragm, the lungs, the liver, and certain “humors” with which the “Imaginative thinking about the “soul” is narrowly associated in a Kind of scipationist mentality. The poet is unaware of these or chooses to ignore ~ © One could say, therefore, that in spite of archaic expressions, Homer S moving in the ditection of a “classical” mode of thought. He is, in a but perhaps at the very time when the Homeric jens were being formulated an entirely different mode of thought was serting itself in a world that we know only through a more or less thological tradition. But it is still possible to identify this world with © Some certainty, since from one figure of mythology to another its traits are | gecovered or at least they complement one another. We are thinking of “those marvelous figures who are called, in succession, sages or prophets j¢ Pythagoras of legend represents an outstanding example or offshoot, jeady suggestive by himself alone. Purifiers, healers, magicians, thau-10 RELIGION AND SOCIETY aturges on occasion, and especially prophets, or rather seers—theit legends allow us to recognize two essential elements: a systematic practice of asceticism (with clear traces of a yogalike discipline); and a fundamen tal theme, with aspects sometimes shamanistic, of the wandering soul, and of reinearnations as well Ti we see here nothing more than an accident in the history of Greek 7 thought, then this would be the place to stop our inquiry. But this move- ment must be significant; it reveals in the archaie period, when it occurs, distinctive aspirations and a mentality that moves in a direction opposed 4 to the spirit prevailing in the most obvious type of Hellenism. We can see this movement's extension; it is no stranger to the beginnings of philos. ophy Gin the fifth century B.C., Empedocles strikingly reereated a kind of magus). It spread teachings that bore fruit both in the philosophical schools and in the religious seets. If the Platonic doctrine of the soul is far from being a carbon copy, it still owes its inspiration to the teachings of this movement; and these ure recognizable in Plato. One finds them in a 4 “ynystery” religion that we designate by the somewhat conventional | epithet "Orphic,” but a religion whose tenets are of the same type and.” tone, In this same contest, itis worth considering a form of religious spec: ulation that puts the human soul in direct relationship with a divine world soul, Though quite marginal in the classical period, this specula- tion will have an illustrious future, Nothing in all this allows us to formu late a body of doctrines; but there are common tendencies, and they are ‘equally aberrant. ‘There is First a common aspiration: a desire to enter into immediate and substantial contact with the divine, At its extreme, there isthe ambi- tion to become a god, Empedocles himself claims to be one. The so-called Orphic lamellae, which were deposited in tombs and have been compared to 2 “Book of the Dead,” contain an explicit profession of faith: the dead person becomes a “hero” or a “god” (and we know that heneeferth each is the equivalent of the other). Nevertheless, divine character cannot be in- born: to put it more precisely, it must be regained. The soul, having fallen, must be saved; for it now has a history that is unfolded outside the visible world and that goes back to a prior existence, The superiority of “spiritual” existence as a reality apart, a cycle of successive lives, and the possibility of redemption—all these ideas, which were the starting points of the tradition, have remained its essentials. "Apart from this belief of “sects,” whose development was unique in the Platonic transformation, but whose extension was restrained, it is. ‘worth insisting on certain ideas that emerged from the same attitude of ind, They interest us on two levels. On the one hand, we find the exten. sion of a prehistoric mentality, which we bave seen flourish here and _ these but which takes on a truly new sense in this instance because of the ANTHNOPOLOGY IN GREDK RELIGION pathos it carries with it. On the other hid, though these notions are ogalized and occasional, it is posible to recognize in them preludes to @ orm of religious mentality that will develop in the following age. 7) One of these concepts is that of the individual daimén, Tt has several pects, but a common inspiration. First, it is the genius we alluded to ler; but itis also the general title of divine beings. The idea of daiman aviiates toward 4 very distinctive concept of divinity: the divinity ling in mar: which is revealed after his death and sometimes even ini his lifetime. Empedocles is a daimon; the famous dead are imones. Plato ascribes a statute concerning them to the “guardians” of ity in the cult he instituted in honor of their manes. This is very dil: from the traditional view of the hero: it is sign of a new kind of tality which holds out for man unprecedented possibilities, © Bat the idea that nature itself is demonic (2 formula of Aristotle) onflicts with this new view in a representation that is merely indicated. The spiritual being of the individual is not solitary (as that of the Greek fan, normally is). In the thought of Plato, man's spiritual being Is re- “united with the world soul; but outside philosophy—or parallel to it— “there appears an analogous concept, and in unique forms. This is the place to mention everything involving “breath,” “inspiration,” “chance” “GGtrangely associated altogether with a physical representation and the fen of 2 divine grace), and even the famous theory of the purification of sassions, which, according to Aristotle, includes elements that are indivis- bly physiological, psychological, and metaphysical.* The divine pneama ith which the individual can be in immediate communication appears at ‘enter of a doctrine that has a conspicuous form; through some of its mes, it re-creates, in a strange way, a type of “primitive” mentality, And it leads to a religious representation of the universe, either Stoic or fiystic, in which the place and worth of the human person are raised as fons. In other words, it poses the problem of man’s personal means of 5 to the divine. ‘There is another characteristic element: in the graphic portrayal of 1an and the world, there is a change in orientation, One form of tradi AMthought, a heritage of groups living in symbiosis with the soil they “apy, has as its dominant image the land as the source of life and recep- Of the dead. An opposite polarization shows up immediately in the fn of star worship, which is a striking new phenomenon of Platonisto’s st period. But this mutation is not only attested in Plato. This is a new ligious attitude taking shape: it is an affirmation of the divine nature of the stars and the affinity between their existence and’that of the soul. fore wo discover the origin of an imaginative thought whose ultimate for- ne in the Greco-Roman world needs no mention. © Thcomparison to the vision of the world that we qualify summa12 RELIGION AND soclETY as Hellenic, we clearly recognize the singularity of diverse and yet con- verging mentalities. There is an inversion of perspective: the “divine” is | no longer a reality for “contemplation” only; in its owa way, itis being. | that turns toward man. And correspondingly, it is the concept of the soul ‘and its future which recaptures with new content the religious stability that had been all but lost; this occurs by means of an integration of whats J most remote in human memory. We have already alluded to derivations. Iti possible to recognize as such—at whatever level they are located, and in terms of whatever Orien- tal factors influenced them certain striking phenomena of the postelassi cal period: the cult of monarchs, salvation religions, the doctrine of the costnie God, and so forth. There is a startling and sudden emergence; a new type of humanity: is proclaimed. But as we have seen, this new humanity has here and there its antecedents. Perhaps Hellenic humanism concealed its own distinetive contradic. / tion. The mental universe, which corresponds to a “political” society #2 itot need restating, There is, however, in this general area a subject that wherein the unifying principle is that of the abstract and interchangeable ‘consideration on its own. But first Task that these notes be regarded “eitizen,” is in fact that cosmos in which “man” find his place, but in {as jist notes. Ths is not going to be a systematic study of the folk religion which “mon” do not as readily, This universe is ordered in a compelling _ @h Greece; such a study, I suppose, is not even recommended. Nor is this way, but its equilibrium is unstable, From this universe it is impossible to “going to be an attempt to track down the “primitive,” if primitive is de- abstract the past that survives in it and lends itself to striking transforma: lied beforchand as a group of concepts that have been made familiar to tions, or the future that is being readied in it, or the Kind of dialectic that, by ethnographic studies. Such an undertaking, though useful in its once the age of the city-state had passed, led to its breakup. ne, has become a project that is hardly worthwhile, and one suspects it iso longer relevant. ‘The present project is much more modest. We will psider in their concrete forms a certain number of ancient customs that ony fo Falk practices and at the center of which are feasts or revelries as ‘are understood in a religious sense. We are dealing with, or hope to ‘with, an attempt to describe the emotional life of a society and the lly ancient pulse or rhythm! that these feasts reveal. We will also try uncover, in the actual thinking that forms their background, the nu- i OF certain religious and legal concepts and their course of develop- _ CHAPTER 2 Ancient Feasts 1. See U. von Wilamowitz-Moellesdorf, Der Glaube der Hellen, 11, p. 58 2. Concerning this entire agaregate, see P. Boyancé, Le Culte der Muses, {to define, Even so, we do have direct testimony bearing on the persis- foaiures of a more or less independent rural culture that lasted far14 RBLIGION AND SOGIETY ANCIENT FEASTS Bin takes special delight in their archaic quality..* What is moze illumi- js the discovery that the stibades in the Lacedaemnonian kopis exist by-side with the custom of using tents.© Of even greater interest is the that one can catch a neat glimpse of the stibades jn a distinctly ar Fite of Ephesus, whose etiological tale gives us a taste of its original tes one day the king's daughter led a group of boys and girls off to ‘and this became the origin of an annual these cultural transformations does not necessarily involve a cireulat) argument. i Tn the religion of the city, communal meals had an important place, | and in rites’ and myths,‘ food is an important feature. A convenient for) mula can be used to explain the religious importance of the sacrificial teal, but it is an abstract one. There were antecedents to the relative” recent hestiasis, and some continuity with a very ancient past does exis In the historical period, for example, women distributed food at feasts? it such a role one can see clear evidence of an archaism,* and immediately it is possible to realize that a very ancient religious feature was taken 0ves_ very early. The nobleman, according to Pindar, does not forget the origi] Df his special prestige, namely thase “banquets of the gods,” none of which he misses, since it is his function to provide them at his own ex pense” But what were they before the appearance of leaders, a social hierarchy, an Olympus? "All of this already suggests that the most ancfent festivals are not nar- vly localized within the town or village. ‘They are generally celebrated ‘the middle of the countryside, in the fields. Practices such as the aida," Bs well as the cults of rural heroes who represent avatars of peasant fan, uttest to the importance of forests. The importance of springs, “and rivers® will appear most appropriate to sexual rites, where isan clement of essentially the same origin. The importance of high 4g apparent in some archaic ceremonies, such as the annual proces: {40 the summits of Pelion and Cyliene. This importance of heights is of the clearest features of ancient festivals,” and it accounts for ex: sions of “ascents” and “descents” which, applied to festivals before be- [applied to the gods, had a direct and concrete meaning.® The sea, on her hand, appears to play only a minor role.** Finally, to complete jeture, we should not forget the sémeia, the strange “marks” in the | Legends must have been attached to these very early on; but at times, ‘without legends, they determined the places for festivities" before became thesmia,® that is, marks of property and power among of the gené and mythical themes surrounding the early “Kingships.” I If any of these festivals are to be defined even. partially, the most) specific and concrete ones must be studi od first. Rural festivities are most evident in those banquets that ere held o beds of leaves (stibades) and under tents (skénai). Such customs whiel bear the marks of their origins, remain singularly alive, In some relatively late texts, the verb skenoun is still used as a synonym for “to sacrifice.) The sacrifices in question are the occasions for banquets, and in one caseil | js preseribed that they take place in the sanctuary itself." Although we aie that forced to conclude, as the verb indicates, that they always take place, under tents, the semantics reveal a long-lived association of ideas, and in} fact the tradition of using tents is often maintained for important celebra- | tions, One need not ask if Euripides is archaizing when he describes in} Clearly signifieant terms" the banquet prepared at Delphi by Ton on his Supposed father’s orders. tis given under « huge tent; the only difercne fn this case is that the setting isa town, and we are dealing with the town ‘itizens as well as a king who entertains. The custom’s close connection swith its origins can be seen more clearly in a series of examples of Lacott jan festivals of a basically pre-Dorian type. They appear in the Kamela in the Hyakinthia during the ceremony called Kopis, and in the Tithe Ee tex so incti convivia curant. dia!” There are also examples in the Mysteries of Andania'® and in the cu mia a. eae instituted by Xenophon to honor the rustic Artemis. * ee ‘The stibades offer even more irrefutable evidence of archaism. They: belong to a long. lived tradition: Herodes Atticus, with his religious snok | Within this scheme must be represented the large festival, like the “in Arcadia, a land of the lost past, where “everyone, even the slaves, “part in festivals.”* Here a brief reference we happen to have about “Phargelia of Miletus takes on considerable importance: “Much wine is ght Here as a contribution, and precious belongings are distributed. “theme of consumption” should be noted right away. Virgil supplies Flenty of food and plenty of drink, It is not without reason that in a lar song accompanying rural merrymaking, Dionysus, or rather “the18 RELIGION AND SOCIETY men! Moreover, it ends the way it begins; the final moment is marked] festivals, and in particular by festivals honoring the dead which fluet between the adjoining months of Anthesterion and Elaphebolion. Be now we easily sve that the beginning and end of this period may have singular importance. 4 & What was the essential idea behind these seasonal “gatherings’? know that they were characterized by some consumption. For wh wurpose? : Purpe There is a notion that persists throughout in the festivals, namely, the idea of hospitality: a hestiasis is a xenismos."" A theme that app frequently in religious life, even in the later periods. is generosity; nore or less spontaneous and yet almost obligatory. In particular, iti teenerosity of the magistrate or the priest who gives the sacrificial b {quet. eis also a mythical theme; in the legends about founders of ot generosity is a common motif. But there is often question of a very exten hospitality: it is universal and addressed to “strangers” us well as “el gene,” Tt is a remarkable phenomenon, since eity cults, from the most af Gient times, were exclusive, The question can be asked, then, Is thisnotDl of hospitality a relie of a very ancient period when it had a very dist significance? : Bit is precisely those festivals whose rural aspect is most accented thi ‘are characterized by generous hospitality. At the Laconian Hyakinth «ot only one’s own countrymen are hosted, but strangers who happel be there a5 well.” During the festivals established by Xenophon in hond of a completely rural Artemis, the goddess treats all who wish to cowie’ The Thessalians, with their rustic customs, treat strangess in the sa way during their celebrations.® And in popular custom there is a pSy ¢ demes are primitive organizational forms.” tnd complicated. There is reason to assume that many hero cults a late synthesis" between the element furnished by rural so- that imposed by the dominant feudal gene.* Is this not the se- ‘Greece: that it allowed the least number of its legacies to die, and Ba aso posible numberof is anctent values? In any case, one of dathientic successes was to conceive as one an ideal of heroism and al of wisdom. The two easily cohere in figures in whom a benevo- ‘rganizing activity dominates, or in those vaguer ghosts of the ‘of the sanctuaries and cities who were the welcoming hosts of “gods. In the obscure regions where ideals are fashioned, the nces of a thousand years count for something. A vivid feeling flour- td in the past. a sense of joyous participation in a commerce with hu- aflities of daily Ife, the myth of the Hyperboreans® could, at a Fy Gate, evoke from the distant past the image of a tranquil, just aged in the delightful hospitality of the agapai. . 1. In matiers of chronology, we can speak only in relative terms Sul, we are jus Ter err vmrcnmarece sot ate: Fe cee rer rte wie os cee cain ca pach {Lets mention at random some aspects that arecf more direc interes, In are36 RELIGION AND SOCIETY feast, Thus we have expressons such as dainustha inthe calendar of Mykonos (Miche, 90 "7i4, 2548) and thoinathet, thine, i rligious regulations Gb, no. 685.11 ff. no. 721)—e- resins th are tied to the interdition ofthe apophora, that is to the obligation o consume ‘uithe spot and in the sanctuary (se J. de Prot ad I..Ziehen, Leges Sacra, 11, pp. 228 8). The organization ofa sacrifice designate as that of a hess (Michel, no. 405.6), Refer: ‘ences to hestiatoreiz within the sanctuary are comroon (Ht, IY.95; Michel, ae, 504.114 Drott and Zichen, Leger Sacree, Il, no, 246; Paus., V.15.2; Pt. Cone. sept. sap. 2). OF panticular interes sa passage in Strabo, X,p- 481, whore the large hefitorea of Tenos are Fevarded as. sign of tow sunerRhesthalpléthos hikanom tn sunthuonton autos atageitonon {see Prot and Zichen, Leges Sacae, IT, p. 250; P, Roussel, Déles, cot. then. pp. 210, 225 [at yathion® that is, a a place of an extremely anclent cult, 237: C. Plead, Ephise et Clara, P 3, For the meaning of dran when i ie applied to the Kerykes of Feu, see Cleideius, ap. Ath., SIV.G40A, concerning the Kenfriadat and the Dai, anc the aces: tral rule of the Keryics, see Phot, 5.1 J. Tooptfer, Attixche Gencalogie, 148 If 44. For the heroes Matton and Kerabn, see S. Wide, Lakonische Kult, p, 276 (or the connection with the mageirot of the Spartan susiia, see Folemon, ap. Att., 1.59C: eaetsos of Skepss, gp. Ath, 1V.A7RR). In another Line of thought, we need merely men= tion some myths, suchas the banquct of Tantalus. Also, we should remark that ia Lesbos, svhere there isa Mount Tantalus, we have both « Thyestes and a Dato (P. M. Cornfor, i J. E. Harrison, Themis, p. 46) its interesting that Tantals’ banquet, although retaining {otally primitive aspects (Connford, sid), i tthesame te and fom al evidenve a kindof pollatch, 5, The Delpnophorof of the Oskhoph 23); the Kithaests of the Dnt at Ephesus (according to x fragment of Menarder); Michal, no. 88.96. We should recall here the pasion ofthe Thuinarmustrla (MP. Nilson, Griech, Peste, pp. 398, 30), who have to organize meals forthe gods and the mortals in the cult of Demeter/Kore ae Laconia aad Mestona (ef. Prott and Ziehen, Leges Sacrse Lp. Si, 1, pp. 183, 186), In the Laconien feat ofthe Tibenidia (Polecion, ap. Ath. IV.131A), the women who celebrate i (the nurses) thuouel..kt tows galathonous erthageriskows ka para- titheasin en 125 thoind fous ipnitasartous &. See Duméal, Festin, ps 190, Compare the role of the Roman Vetals during the feasts coneerued with the feeding of the community (W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Fes: tivals, p. 114}, In an admittedly late inseripton from Sparta (C1G, no. 1239), a woman bears the tile Heston ts poles kai thoinarmostrian: another woman is called Heston tes poleds ai thugatore (ibid, 0. 1443) “7. Pink, Isthan., HL. 99: theo daitas proseptukto pasa. 8 Pratt and Ziehen, Leges Sacrae, I, pp. 3584; used to monn shoinastha ‘See Michel, no. 720.1, 34 ‘9, An inscription from Elateia (Michel, no. 709): se Prott and Zichen, Lees Soree, ad no. 70. 10, Eur, fon, 804 f.(onas ae hierar. Koinen xunepson doita pati t net) 1132 ft. {defpna[1125) havea ighly eligious ator, bat are to be distinguished from the sae ia at Athens (Harp, 4; Phat. Thee. nifce ant" opteron, which ie pecliay to Nouthos; Kas ponta Delphon laon es doing kalon [1140} cf the ritual formula tntored by the herald [1106 f£.] the ro0u i elles rssition [L165) There are several eoureing themes inthis pasa). 1, Demetrius of Skepsi, op. Ath, TV. 142E (ekiades) she text indicates that fot the Spartans the arrangement of a feast is mimoma strativtkes ogoges. Ths isa curious ex fample of the chan, oe that sto be expected, chat primitive institutions underwet in Sparta ‘We know that itis older than the azage, since the division by tens corresponds tothe division by phratries, the latter being very archaic and all but obit © iin definition. The fact that the Ephesian least of Daits took place at the seashore co 37. ANCIENT FEASTS 12, Polemon, op. Ath, TV. 198P: skénas pofowntat.. ewakhousn 13, Regulation of the Mysteries, Michel, no, 604.24 ff. One entire article ie tled shorn 14, Xen, Anab., V.8.9, Although the Artemision of Skilous was supposed to be tabranch ofthe Ephesian one oe Picard, op. cit, especially p59}, wedo not haveto regard if as an import foon the East, The eat at Skllous has a very imple nsture, one sited for ‘tl populations. 15. Philostr., VS, Thas atthe time of the City Dionysia, en Kerameikoi poticon ‘tous homoine kal enous katakeimenous epi sttbadon kis 16. Polemon, le, cits en de tates i.e, kenaissibadas ex hults, pt touton de Aapidas hupentrruosin,oph’ als tous Rataklithentaseudkhonsin 17. Btym. Magn... Daitr, p. 252 1. Strictly speaking the ation does aot com: ‘pte “feasting” Sil, a reading ote tex suffices to show that ts adaition & not arbitrary. {Groups of young people indulge in amusement td ofer a meal tthe guides. Moreove = sopatd tothe rite instituted to commemorate the event, the £tym, Magn. mentions a feast Gsowhere (a, § above) we hear of Deipnophort 18. Fortales ofthe Rural Dionysia, soe Btye. Magn, 42.9. This practice ist the base ofthe very widespread mythical theme of the apankhomene goddess (ee L. R. Farnell, Guls of the Creek Stotes, IL, pp. 427 SE). Note that the feast ofthe ara is modified by ‘dein in Hach., sv 19, Macy tnnes there ate springs inside sanctuarise Paus., VI.87.9, VIII,20.1, ‘Vill 4212, te, Rules or the Mysteries of Andania). The cut of Artemis isin this eae aoe ‘ed with springs (Peard, op. cit, p- 45s; W. Immerwahr, Die Kulte und Mythen Ar- adiens,p. 155}, as well ws with high places ekewhere. We do not have to review all the ‘vidence that shows the importance of objcts in nature to Greek religion, It would be a large {asi Before all else, one rnight note that objets in nature play a lege roe in Aegean reli “This ise general confirmation, but not an object of investigation for ws. Our goal heres te mine documents that are, unfortunately, mc later, in order to ry to eatch a glimpse ofthe oychology involved in the most anclont feasts ‘1, Pseudo Dicacarchus (Geogr. Min, p. 17}; Farell, Cults, V, p. 73 21. See Coruford, in Hatin, Themis, p. 244, Perhaps the name of the Hyperbo sean could be interpreted this way (0. Sehrider, ArchRW, VIIT [1905], pp. 69). Aleman’ description of a feast in the countryside hs en Koruphatsdreon fe. 38, Paws, 82, Even when applid to the gods, these expressions at times merely designate ‘he“artval” ofthese gods into their town or tele departure (Ath, IX.904 ,).Ieis expecially “tru for Dionysus (se Prott and Zieea, Legos Socrae, IT, p- 145). Tis symbolison conficts With that of the Katabasis tothe underworc schas some detectable antecedents, Thus we [have the aadas or anabasis ofthe cut of Zeus Panamaros at Stratonlkela (ee the comprehen. tive interpretation of A. B. Cook, Zeus, 1, pp. 18f,). Note espetally the expression ta an - giyWithenta £01 theotdlelpna (BCH, NXVL (904), p. 22,2. 74). 25. Only afew tats are ancient the epiphany of Dionysus at Prasia jn Laconia (aus, IL24.3; of. Parnell, Cus, V, pp. 189}; Dionysus iu the basket and un the boat HH. Usener, Die Sinthflutsagen, pp. 125 £); Thoss in Lemnos (G. Dumézl, Le Crime des Lemniennes, pp. 421.) Far our purposes, the seope of these mythical changes allows for be explained as having something todo with the history of colonization (se Pieard, op. ct +p 843); but itis only through the unique (and ambiguous) rite ofthe Zavatio ofthe cut statue ‘hat the feast might be brought inta some connection with the sa 24, A Theran iaerition from the beginning of te fouth contury 8.6. IG, XULS. 2 45) reads: AgorBols de [delipnon [kat hiaela pro to somtio, See Aesch Supp 28 f Piott and Ziehen, Leger Sacrae, Tl, p. 316.98 RELIGION AND socIETY 25, This ie the characteristic name that they have in a fragment of Euripides, ne that deals with the famous landmarks of the Acropolis (Erechth,, fr. 362.46). For the LLokalmarken, and the secondary process whereby they are connected to heroic legends, 2 F. Piste, Der Relgaionkult tm Altertum, pp. 951 f 95, Hariiod., FGrif, 319.1 Jacoby): saciflees are made to “heroes” (peubably to all the heroes at once). ‘The presenoe of saves, a fact in some of the most ancient fats, should bbe emphastze. 27, Parth,, TX.5, Duméall (Fstin, p. 257) woes too far when he traces these feasts back tothe Indo-European banquet of immortality 23. Ath., XIV.622C, 28. SFR. C, Jehb, Becohylide, te. 17 and commentary 50. The will of an Eplktete (Michel, no. 1002), Ie shouldbe notod that, fllowing sacastorn that goes quite ar back (as we shall sc), the wil deals witha “reception” for thee brothethoor! The translation in R. Dareste, B, Hausoullier, and T- Reach, Incr, jurid. gr, andl Zichea's interpretation are both unsatisfactory SL Pind., OF, VIL 132, See Prot and Zichen, Leges Sacrae, Il, p. 208, 38. _ Soe. for example, Nestor’ sarific in Od, TD. Ths typeof sacrifice was prac tice especially by the Achaean element (for is Indo-European characteristics, s3 B, Lau, Helliges Gel, pp. 50), ‘34 Sex R. Hirzel, Themis, Dike und Verwandter, pp. 216 ff. (note the strange inversion) ‘35.__ This is what J. E, Harsison discerned (Prologomena tothe Study of Greck Re gion, pp. 78H), An spite ofthe artificiality of ertain eonstrets, ‘HG, K Lévy (Hecherches sur les sources de a Iegenie de Pyrhagore,p. 4 as inked ‘hese traits to a certain type of Pythagorean legend: the pseudohistoricl novel ofthe third century, This isnot to deny that there were older survivals in this concept S57. Polemox, ap, Ath, TH ISBE. 38. Paus., 1123.1, There are suckling pigs atthe Laconlan Tithenidia (the feast of 1 wet nurse,” with a banquet served by women): Polemon, loc. et, The fish (se below) also shoald be mentioned. ‘3, They were no longer eaten at the Anthestria of the clasical period (Theo fy schol, At, Ran, 218) 4. For example, phuskulls bread a the Hyakintia (Poleman, lose): Ipnitel arto atthe Tithenidia (bis; Delphie dorata inthe regulations ofthe Labyadt; obetiat arco Poll, VIS), athaine bread (Ath, H.LO9E-F). Tam sre thatthe food estes together st ‘country feasts pave rise to some lively images that have lft their mark on the heterogeneous structue of clasieal ritual To this connection, uote the definition of ambrosia in Anticeides lap. Ath., XIAT5C), as well asthe cole of the pnkarpcia (ae Soph., ap. Porgh Abst. 1.9) ‘AL, Georgies, 302. Concerning this exprasion, soe JP. Jacobsen, Les Manes, 1 pomp. p. 196, 42, Alou fr 17, Page. A social practices indicated here, and not simply acon straint of natute, sce there axe earth-born fruits duving later the season Aleman has in mind, 43. ‘The Thusial are currently thought of as serficial banquet 44. Sunodois: on this word, se Hirzel, Themis, p. 330, It persisted for some time in religious voeabularies (Michel, no, 710); refers to canoentus, which are the ocasins for feasts and which point to an era older than tha ofthe polls. These conventuspavethe way for the pols: soe sunerhesthai, «concrete expresdon fr the synoccsms (Art. Pol, 12. 125% 20 Stieb,, VIIL3, p. 396); we propass translating it asasweblés, an expression of rural France 45, ‘The subordinate role of the “natucaliste cloment shows that the rhythm is, Ppa. © ihe,, themes that touch on one or another of these feasts) are thernselve 39 ANCIENT FEASTS properly speaking, socal Ht does not som at all ikl) thet the arial of wintor i marked by symbols of mouraing. Indeed, the contrary seems trae. Moreover, ifthe dead " ‘Winters end, its aot because they symbolize the spiris of vegetation returning to the lights ‘hey are sent back immediatly they are present only up to that time and can then be gotten id of. 48 See Nilson, op. cit, p. 272 47. WR, Paton and E. L. Hicks, Inscriptions of Cos, no, 34 Incr ori er. Uy so, XXIV, side B, 1.00; Michel, no, 428.5 48, Roleman, ap. Ath., IV 1S8E. 43. Xen., Anab., V.30. 50. Bato’ Sinog. (Ath., XIV.S40A): thuontar Dit Peloid,. bouts pilantheo om Gn pangurin suntelein hase koi tous serous hapanta epi 2a thoinen paralanbancin BI. Macrob,, Sat, 1.7.25 52. Daktuloi according to Paus. VAL. See R. Vallis, REA, XXVIII 0926), 53, BE. Mans, Orphous, pp. 18 4. See Zichen' disousion in Prott and Zieben, Lege Saerae, I, pp. 138 ££ ‘54. | Stibas means a bed of vy, a sacrificial banquet, a banguet locale, and even the he jestious 55. Note, moreover, thatthe statues ofthe gods are not slways preset, or 0 our sources tell us (L. Weniger, ArchRW, XXII (1923-94), p. 31), 538, We know that thiscustom later than Homer, It would be wrong to conclude [assome have done) that the notin of gods reining atthe ban “Alongside this notion chat of the thranae(E. Hohe, ayche [French tens, ‘san indication of two different religious bases, 51. For example, ia the testamentary endowment of Diomodon of Gos (wer furl. gr, 0, no. 248, 291), thexonismas of Heralds i pacalel to the desis of humans. Homer and Pindar ave invited to Theovensa 58. Bich, sv. Theosenias kone hoor past tote theo (se Hyman. Ory, XXV.21), "This 4 mos valuable reference. CE the Thalysia in I, IX.534; Duméail, Retin, p. 258 59, An old tradition maintained that atone time the gods were dinner guests of ‘en (Mes. fr. 1(MW]}. On Apollo as the Gastgeber, see Wenlger, loc. cit. Likewise. in the ‘Uanauet ofthe dead, the later are both the hosts and the guests (L. Malten, Mitel. d. arch Inst, HA., XXVIII (1923), p_ 301). At the senla of heroes, the latter aze received by the fads (schol. Pind, Nem., VIL). 80. Pind., Pacunes, 6.03 f. (oe Puech’s edition, 1V, p. 119). 81. See Dumézil. Festi, pp. 11, 194, 166. At Rome, the feast of the Cerelia ho had the same origin (Warde Fowler, The Roman Festal, p, 75) 2, Polemon, op. Ath, IX.372A. BB, See. Gruppe, Griech, Mythol.w. Religionsgesh sp. 731, 4. The presence of Apolla atthe Delphic Thecxcnia is not even certain (ison, op. i. p19) 4, Hat. 1.; see aso BCH, XX (1896), p. 625, no. 4, 1.9, The Thecdaisia have ‘the kind of religous charaoter that interests as; note especially the winter celebration at Andros, with ite miracle of river water changing ito wine 165. Tho themes of the Delphe hymns, the pooms of Pindar, and thoje of Aleseus lated, '85. For the connections hetiveen the myth of the Hyperboreans and the prebistorie conveyance of offerings, see Farnell, Cults, LV, pp. 100. {even ifhis etymological conclu fre ace suspect) (7. Bier, XIV.10, 88, Naturally has an individual aspect, in chat each person fee obliged to add jets also later. Tf one finds pp. 130), hs40 RELIGION AND socIETY to the colletion (espherein) 1s this notion that we will sce dominate when we attempt te discern historical extensions 69. Strab., VII, p. 897: XIV.25, p. 660. leis known tha several uf thesesysterns are attested in Attion, where they survive into the hisoriesl period and serve tliginss ends (soe especially Prot and Zichen, Leger Sacrac, no. 26). For the festivals whose raison d'tes fre the relationships betwen the deme, one might consult ¢ dacree of the deme of Pothela (Michel, no, 140). The deme isa peasuit unit (see Km), che that the Homeric exsresion demos te poise seems to denote (adimittely the meaning could have evolved after Homer: se V. Ehrenberg, Die Rechtsdee im jrahen Celechentum, p. 125). This uxt is the village For the characterise ofthe primitive village, see Pdllmann, Gasch. des ant. Koran. L pp. 71 For the kinds of dwellings andthe oldest morphology, se E. Kornemann, "Pais und Urbs.” Kio, ¥ (1905), pp. 75 f 70. Fos the literary soures relating tothe feast, see A. Momsen, Fest der Stadt Athen im Altertum,s.v.lsaition sin Put., Deexll, 6, The feasis unimportant inthe clasi- ‘al period, stl, the very existence af the month Metageitnon is an indication ofits primitive importance {in our calendar, Metageitnion corresponds to August, but the rounds of the eres could not have taken place in Augus!) TL. The etymelogy has a very desinte import: the amphiktiones ere those who “live about,” or those who have their pious nearby 12." Michel, ro. 986, For an interpretation, see Pott and Ziehen, Leges Sacrae, no. 45. 75, Demetrius of Skepss, op. AUh., IV IME, 74. The Heraia, which ave conducted by sixteen women, representa very old ele ‘ment in the cult of Olympia (L. Weniger. "Das Hochfest des Zeus in Olympia.” Klio, V [2005], pp. 28 1). Tho Sixtoon organiza the recs for the young gels: they also set up to ‘horase, cach named after » heroine (Paus,, V-16.6) 75. Prott and Zielien, Legos Sacrae, 1, n0. 6. 8 76, — Destadas and Pyrgion, ap. Ath. 1V.495-£, Cf. GIG, no, 2564, U. 60 BCH, XXXAV (1910), p. 31,1 17 Th. Ath. TOE. 78, Tabulae Iguvinac, V.B., 8. (C.D. Buck, Blementarbuch der ois ‘umbseehen Dialekee (German trans], p- 155). See also the work of Bréal. 79. We shall see the Spartans in Lemnos agnin, The sory of the recepten ofthe Argonauts in Lemnos was the sutect of Aewhylus Hypeipyle and Kabeios: Ath. XA28F, IX373D; schol. Ap. hod., 1.773 (where the idea of "winterig” i convayed by Khetmazo. menos 30. Duméail has shown the compelling nature of this interpretation (Crime, especially pp. 30, 42) SLL Nilson, op. ei. p. 271 (here is no seaion, however, to resect the reunion tothe dead). The month Ageonios (Agorrhanias~ Acoli) Is often attested in calendars 82. 1G, XIL3, no. 452 (liom Thera). The idea of feast seeus most probable ‘One sees an opporition between the Agorcia (an euttnnal feast} and the Artanis (spring time feast). See Frott and Ziehen, Legee Saerae, Il, p. 315; and Hiller von Gueateingen, Hermes, XXXV1 (1001), pp. 184 f. The Agoraia area country celebration "ins place far trom. Ulller von Gaertzingen, loo. cit}; ther exentil feature isn deipuon, a sanquet offered tothe gods. The ambiguity of the term is not somprising the same use of Agorela oe ‘urs in an inscription from Stratontkea (n. 22 above). 83. See Harrison, Thomi, pp. 489 £ ("Apallo as Megistos Kouros" 84. Bech, sv. Agrania, Agriania, 85. bid, a. Narain. 56. For the connection between the autumnal pankerpeta and the penspermia of the springtime celebrations of the dead, see Hurritom, Themis, p. 222. 41 ANCIENT Feasts: 51. See Rohde, Pyche (Frene trans), Hy pp. 13, 45. At Apollonia in the Chal. ide, the fast of the dead was ft celebrated in Elaphebelion, andl much later in An. | thatetion (Hepesand., ap. Ath., VIF, 88 Concerning the Authesteria, characterized 45 a feat of the desd, see Hart sen, Prologomena, chap. Il Her presentation in tis work was rather one-sided, ashe herself “roms to admit in Themis, yp, 273 H- The Anthesteria area feast of the dad are leo some: ‘hing entirely diferent, 180. There no need for us to ezamine this process. We simply ebserve, apropos ofthe word hora, the change in mearingit has undergone in the cult of the individual dead, Iwhere 1 refers to anniversary offerings (see Rohde, Poche (French trans.) Lp. Bl, n. 2. a9. A regulation of the pheatry ofthe Labyadal (Ize. juntd gr, I no. XVI, SLA regulation ofthe phratry of the Demotionids (ibid, no. XXIX), A, 28 _ all, VIITAOT. The ge was never specie (as waste evi age of aos). Felan say: "pte conjectures in Incr. juri.gr.,p- 212). For a more ancient milan, thestaterent of Po! [ux would have a very lear application, without the noed for specifi figures 2. Quite evidently, the phratry is of Indo-European origin. Whether i core | fn o an Tndo-Buropean form of organization is another question. There are some paal | les fin Sanstrt and, above all, in Slavie), but these are insufficient to justify mentioning, | page. Tn any cae, the phratry {which arhiite a “democratic” quality, as opposed to the but under a different name the avatar of some very anclent 83. Steph. Byz., sv. patra (NB. hieron koinonike eunade) 84. Concerning the collective nature of the Athenien Apatourla, sce Momansen, pit, 3, Apatoura, with regard to the dorpela, 195." Tesstrange that the subject isnot even mentioned in E. Boisaca!s Dict. ymol. “Obviously, the root ()ger is as phonetiallycorroct asthe root Ker ("to Increase") 96. Locus class isin Plut., Thes. 5 7. Wippolytas, the Hyperboresn virgins, Iphinoe of Megaea, the children of 88. IL, XNILU f: lose, Her. 104 98. Such isthe casein the offerings of Hippolytus (Eur, Hipp., 1495 fs Paws, 1152.1) tothe Hyperborean virgins (He,, IV) and perhaps also lathe clxings to Eula lit, Art, 20; there is mention ofa prothusa in her honor on the eve of a mareiage). For links between the rite ofthe euting of haic and marriage for the age for matriage), see “Cook, Zeus, 1, p. 2 00.” “Avie, Pol, VILLISS5A.95 4. In a nearby passage, st appears that marriages took placs at a very young age during antiquity (bid, 18). WL, A. Brickner, Mitte d. arch. Inet, H.A,, X11 (1900), pp. U1 ff dis a © fevpt to cake precise certala constauts fa skal seen fuscy) 102, Stuab., X.20, p. 482 (ollowing Ephorus):gamein men harna pantes anonko- “toNtel por autos hoi Kato tom auton Karon ok stm paidn age ekkithentee 103. PL, Leg., VLL771E. To be sure, Nenophon of Ephesus (se 1.2-9, where the _qilhorios heorte of Antes is taken up) is & telable source in matters reparding Ephess. “Note especially the followings there are separate processions, fst of young vis, ad then of oung men, including Habrokomes, who isxteen and who fe “reekoned among the ephebes | 23); the order ofthe procesion i broken up, the ephebes and parthenot come together, and © fhe two heroes quicly fall in love (29, 3.1), epee geek eee eet el Aesch., Cho., 5 fs Paus., 1.97.8, VI.20.8, VINALS:42 RELIGION AND soctETY 43 ANCIENT FEASTS © women ose Gortynian Code, 1 1, 11.20); this fet helps to laity Plut,, Quaest. Groee, 105. None of the proposed explanations is satisfactory (ue I, Beaucha’s account ss in Hl, d dro priv de la réubl then. , pp, 146). Stl, despite the conhison in he testimonia ofthe lescogpaphar, here isthe pletre that emerges. The gomalia sre related ta the panecurs and can even be calle thus (Les. Se, ap. Aner, Bek p. 128) the offering sssmilrto that of dhe ouroa (ibd) andthe prerequisite for “tery of wouren int the pirat" (Haep.,ap. Did, +). On theater hand, as the name ineates, the mela take Paso the cous of marrage oe rho, Path Dem ST, 4): and nee the eultins ol the Derotinids conser ther par ofthe oi (ee Incr. judg, pp- 21,205) they oe cur on the third day ofthe Apaoaia, jist like the Kourea, with be later bens for yous ten and the freer for maidens D8. Soo, Febvie, Die hult Keuchh tm Alt. p. 148. Demeter was ented with Fason at sowing time (Od., W125 8). 107. IL, XIV.295 For the relationship between the myth of hexogamy and th Kiligang, see Nilson, op- ct p- 58; idem, “Die Grund spartan, Leb” Kil, XI (1912), p. 833. 108. Sool, XIV 236: past ton Dia en Sam lithe te goneonopopardhencssal en Haran: hathen Samiol mnéstouontes tas koraslothratsunoimizousin, eta parshesi point tous gomonn. The astm at Naxos (Calin. Act. 1 f.75 Pier, which Ky Koper {REG. XXV [1813], yp, 517 f) fled to ake clear, may have some connections with tie Sarnian ne (he schlion lo eit does earmpare the two) WD, © See Fare, Cull, Hy pp. 461 4 110, At Arcadian Orkliomenes (Pas. VIG. cf. VIL, 18. 1, 5) a first ven was assigned tothe sanctuary: the rule was charwed, however, after the pretes had best Wolated NB. these customs aed the aitfon. VL. Fehr, op ct. pp. 164 112, Frasers tanlation, “thelr husbands, is amaeceptable since he txt does ot send tis heouton andres 113. Badu (or Padu) ~ hed (Rrazer, ale.) Those i popular Mavor to hit designation. 14, eis imtevesting to note that Cete ste case lana for hierogamls: soe Har von, Frologomena,p. 864; A. W. Person, "Der rap, det les. Myst." ArchW, XXL (1928, p. BOL 113, ibd. Sic., V.72.4:legousl de kat tous garious tou fe Dits kl tes eras en -nosionKhora genesthai kat tine topo plein tow Feenospotorou, kath hon nu heron ‘stn, en WB Hsia bat ‘etgutonhagiou apo ton enkhteon suntlithal, a tu gamous apomineitha,hathaper ex arkhee poedothison, 118, Soe G, Gots, L'Ordalc dens la Gréce price, p. 72 LAT. Pius, 1.98.2; shel. Pad, O1, VELA. : LIS, Perhaps in this coonection a certain Lyclan myth onght tbe mentioned (Plat, De mauler 9}. In ny case, the Arcadian srl Blea legend of Dapiine (Pas. \VHLEL.2 3) has some relationship with prehistoric customs: Leukippes, Daphne's lover, i ted wo dre like a wort, disguised in women’s othig, he wins:he fiendahip of Dephoes one day Daphne and her companions, wishing to athe in the Laon, save the identity o Lenkippos and pat hi to deat. One recogatzes in this story the wel on rite of thesexes sachanging clothes soe the Mubrika (Haris, Them, pp 505 #,), an obser nite, bat one that has bearing onthe primitive marrage the Spartan custom eomesto mins} and aso fon anclen fests. Ones surprised to find that n games of an archaic eheracte, the rie co sits of clothing: ef the Argonauts at Lemus before their marriages with the Lemriat 44 ‘This intel s enough to show that a cotimity exists. ven othe prhiveastttions are ‘women (Pind, Pyh.. TV.258 ff) the Theonenia at Achacan Fella (Paus., VL.2. A); the 429 placed na framework we know al too wel namely, that of «male soit that organi sement sven by the “Olympian Sten,” who organize the cece that were institoted ie flan (H. Jeanmaie, REG, XXVE[LSIS], pp. 121.) The results thatthe esential no- honor ofthe mareage of Hippodamela (Paws, V16.2 ff), Weaving i the ecusive tsk of 119. Ov., Fas, HHLS23 fh; Mart, 1V.64.16 ff, See I. Usener, Hal. Mythen (KI Sols, IV}. pp. 119 f: Harcson, Themis, pp. 107 § Dum, Festin, p. 128, M. Gramet {Flies et chansons anc. de la Chine (French trans}, who generally eschews comparative sfatements, makes this oteon pp. 212, We are gulded by the same principle and defer this | therwise fall study 120, _Atb., XITLSSSC. The expresions are noteworthy: “Cecrops was fist to estab dh sono, anedn to protean oun fom sods ka koinogarn onto 21. Inthe wllof Diomedon of Cos Urver. arid gr. Il, no. XXIV.B, C, I. 23 8), "an evidently human marrage intended one in which Herakles (who just eceved his zens | ts) is invoved. 1 ser likely thatthe couch, which had been prepared for the xewsmor, | adobe lft in place forthe martinge in which the hero ats athe hos (Palon and Hick, In - eiption of Cos, no- 3) 122. For the qualities of fertlty (and later ofan aphrodisiac) that were contained inl Teaves (which in turn were used by women for the Thestophoria) see Fehrle, 0p ep 1. | 77 198.) Hat, 1.64, clains i was the Bgyptians who initiated this prohibition (the verding i too vague 1 allow fora comparision withthe strictly Eastern custom of sacred > prsttation) 124. _ Prott and Zichen, LegesSavrae, MH, no, 6 (an arch Law of Olympia): ha de beneok en taro. See A. Brand, Hermes, XX1 (1885). . 312 195. This, then, accounts for legends like that of the Garden of the Hesperides Sec the excellent suggestion of Gruppe (op. cit... 457), who tm studying the origins of the Heralds myth constructs feast on MU Acta, together with hier in whieh sezed | apples (gmbole of conjugal unity) pay a role. Contests with fruit sem atested (ee lu © Quest, race, 51). 126. Finds, Pyth., X11 f 127, See Farnell, Cul, 17, p. 448, u,b; his intuition sem warranted 128, Dances continued tobe a past f the elt of Artemis (Nilson, op. cil pp- 184 1&, 196 ff, Ie worth noting that Artemis had followers, who corresponded tothe says lwymn. Hom. Ap, 2524). Primitive poetry left behind even fewer traces, Sil, ee Semos of __ Dados (FGr11, 390.24 Jacoby), op. Ath., XIV.632A. In deeibing certain popular practices, | speaks ofthe autokabdalt, ws Uhough they ixionyed to the same category asthe thuphol- lot moreover, the former were called iembot (along with their songs). Thee were probably “improvised songs, | ap9, "See L. Preller and, Robert, Griechische Mythologie, 1, p. 718. The cypress © woes that shade the tomb of Alomacon at Pophis were actually called partheno by the locals (Pans, v.24.) 130, Plat, The, 18.253 1S), Hak Wa05. 132, As did Duméal (Crime, p. 57) after translating the passage vomowhat arbi- early (bid. 9.52), 135, "7A schema might help us get oriented. tn the ensemble, two processes are = Giscerned: one (which we have heen seeing throughout that of the eoneentration and ap- 7 propriation by chiefs and noble gent: the second, exompliied in Sparta and partiliy in {ise, presents us with an identiestion botvoen phiditia and Kaing here (D-H IL.23)44 RELIGION AND SOCIETY 134, An explanation Is due. The notions we have in mind had been elaborated ‘well before the aval ofthe Greek language in Greeee. till, vocabulary may be of help the ‘words applied to certain concrote practices convey certain sustained representatiis, an thus help extend « kind f peychology which i much alder than the change in language. Subse ‘quent facts i history prove this hypothess. However, it goes without saying tht when we find different meanings for She word sumballen, what we may regard as its underlying no- ton is not ecastarly more snelent than the others in our sources 135, See Parth., IX.5 (on the Thargelia of Miletus). What we hope to rediseover in hers (ia cemnection with estan atested practors) i the concrete notion that agpeaas in is ‘mast base Fashion in peasant Feasts. Let us id that under diverse forms, the pratice of the Spartan sunitia presents a lively image of his notion, See also the term apaphora 138, See Pratt and Zichen, Leyes Sacre, I, p. 160 (the Latin frtum is compared). 137. Soph, El, 996 138, Dittenberger, S/G, ao. 998.6, 24 (regulations of the Asclepium of Epidaurus from the end ofthe ith century 8): pheraan to thot krithan medini anon, 139, Seo EG, XXX (1817), pp, 290 M0, _ Inthe regulations of the phratay of the Labyadai, D, 29, (sce Prete and Zie- ben, Leges Sacrae, TI, pp. 22348.) a whole seees of religious outlays are atribated to the Initiative of a legendary ancestor who in his daughter's dowry offered the objects enumerated as saeriices. 141 The duaphora in the regulations of the Mysterasof Andania are dues that come from the initiated: one part goes tothe sacred treasury; another is kept by Mnasistratos, the last sepresentative ofthe gonay that had een in possesion of the Mysteries. The sense of in tenet I attsted In rogard to a religious foundation (Prott and Ziehen, Leges Sacre, p. 525), 149, Several of ther are sil practiced in Kind 143, _Inthis usage, eranas és not special to groups of eranstt, properly speaking HI, Not necesitily. Even in documents fom a Inte period, there seers to be an allusoa toa recent reform that ia one instance replaced the contrition in Kind with a as sesiment in silver (Miche, no, 964; see P. Foucare Asoc. el. p. 43) 145, betrays an aristocratic contempt for customs foeiga to Homeric society. ‘The word agora was perhape smilaely discredited 148, Especially Fyth,, V.77 (naturally it underwent a change, but it continued to Aesignate 4 feast celebrated by the ity In common}. M7. Boisson, Dict. etymal., 2, heart 148. The expresion kharin herein could elit some eomparisons. Im keeping with the bilateral notion of time, Losias ig said to come to his worshippers athanotan kharia Thebais epimetsdn (Pind., Perth,, 1L23). On the other hand, in Bur., fon, 1180, kharin herein roles to a very specifi typeof homage: the presentation of a eup of houor leat despot 149, OL, 1.39 .: an eranos given by Tantalas at the summit of Sipvo. 150, Calli, Cer, 72, ie once more prise im bis archatons. When be speaks of Exystlhthon's act of ssevlogs [we rocogniza it as «ritual ac}, one for which he was plagued with insatiable hunger, be adds that ao one dared ta send Eryikhthon out...clseranos ewe sundetpnie TSLPiad., Pyth., XILLL4 (NB, the schoion ae wel) (Apollod), BUM, 1.36. The latter sans to have an independent surce; both contain the word. 158, That is, the “hospitable” one {there is no reason to Interpret hin as Hades: Preller and Robert, Griechische Mythologie, I, p. 282). 153, There isan interesting variant in Apollodorus the requested erancs is not for him, but for the waddling of Hippadamels, which was, apparently, the occasion fora feudal 45. ANCIENT Feasts 2 154." Thing’ or groups of orgbne. Tere sw incent raion between these © andthe ernest no. 144; serP Stengel, Die gc, Kuster p 6). Even rom [ate povod gis contents ae sorties refered to ae phi, Thi cera {egret avry Ube so tho word ne F Poland, Cosh, dx rec Verena pp 55), GAs fv iterest ou, sine pete, ater pasngthrogh vel Dati, evolves into |e fone fate SS. Concerning the Feta i the contaeritis ands rego siiticance (ele bitrate mnt roues) see Poland, op, pp 2581. The muttariones of soe oF [) favtotons ee of prvent interes fous Cra Le Cait de Cybele, p. 0) ee. the notion of pore sn cenil a hes asciaton at thas given ria tothe | een sean phere Ge Prt sed ii, Leas Sora, lp 82 Peon op || ish. On ths abject. on shoud recall she seman principe tht Maurie Cte deo Seated rity hs ron the Seandinavian bation, © TBI. Boise, Dit tymols. (The rearing of “band” cx “compan” should be | oe for Vngune reasons} The act that telstra back the et gue (7 tara “Ae tha orginally itevled tain spate images (bi. .952, should not concerns TD By tbe pene eo for the moment be va, F158. Therein soit some ambigutns that re a source of embarrasment 0 [las se R. Retenssn, Archi W, XIX (1016-10) p 101 (on the expression ow kat ton Foran tlountas ti Dionusdi). The usity ofthe notion within the religious vocabulary can be | Gistate by examples ike Frit and Zion's Leger Saerae I, no, 88.25 intl fous Steaua) anno 48.07 TB, Sometimes ite ric srfces, ois the endowment of Alkipos of Delphi 160. Concerning this notion, which was to become quest juried, ee, for ext ‘le Xen, Anab, V3 (a Tulation inscribed on ate ta commemorate the founding of Shi bs): ton eihonts at Raroumenon fm men deen hatathuen © 101. _Ditteuberger, SIG, wo. 993.6, 12 (0 Ahorion ekd@sount dtinas... praxantes 162.11, LC.158 £: hot ke he dotaticttheon hos mesons kat pa skEptr paras “tleousishemistas soe Ehrenberg, op it, pp. 7). On the subject of thems and it primary, “eahulary like tithenat spond {inthe regulations ofthe Tobakhoi: 111, 117, 121, 150 ff.) © 363. From her point of view, J E. Harrison has already done this by diowing the “J between the most ancient nation on initiation and the notion that Fanetions within the “Myries (Themis, pp 508 F) [6s Here tela namphewomend (Paus., 1X. 25, 1X.9.8), On the eubjoct of | trbeumenais, ee Paton’s discussion of a religious regulation from Cos (Dialektelischr., 00. 37215 "Prot and Zichen, Leges Seerae, no. 192) where itis cotrety argued that women who marry forthe fra time are distinguished for those epinumphewomenais. Cf. Dittenberser, SIG, 165. See especially A. Dieterich, Eine Mithrasltureie, pp. 121 ff 1€6, In the cult of Zous Panamros in Catia (Cook, Zeus, 1, pp. 25). 167, Thisisthecorrent communis opine (T,Hetnach, L. Bewichet, and. Polands halbeim (in K. F. Hermana’s Geiech. Rechtalt, p. 113, n. 1) has a better perspective. 168. Thus wehave words ikewunageln, eranon, pleats, and phora, They ate used |e deeribe both the assesmens to the socety and the contributions fora loan, Phora de “ses the resstution of the Towa with staggered payments of the same sort as thse of the “members phora 160. Te is espcilly the of reciprocity that appears foremost oth in the practice46 RELIGION AND socIETY ofthe loan and in the conception that usually attached to the word (Eur, Suppl, 961 4 Isee., X 90; Dem., X40, XVIT312, XXE101) 170, Michel, no 979. 17 83 Supplementum, so. 1363.6, Above all, note the nse of asumbols (no. 998.44) 71. Of coocem is the juridical protection of forsgners (an idea of reat antiguy Hes., Op., 210). It rcure as a theme of praie ia Pindar. In earlier thnes this protection Wat sssuled by the system ef the prozenla (ce I, Prancotte, Ml, de doit public grea, pp. 1605). 172, Iramediately folowing, the author speaks ofthe feast ofthe dead in Chal Aicwan Apalonia, a feast whose legendary basis he had recounted, 1173, See the testament of Diomedan of Cos (nser.jurid. gr, m0. XXIV.A, By f. Prott and Ziehen, Leger Sacrae, I, p. 255. In this cult the epopuris sa scree toa hee 1nd i therefore something consumet. Undoubtedly, that &, an enagtmos (Ath, 1V.244C), from ils very meaning, the epepuria was orginally intended for consumption. And above a ‘tis forthe se (en Kien) ofthe inhabitants that the lake yields ish in uch abundance. Te J remainder of Hegecander's text indiates just this VT, Our interpretation doesnot require us to asuene that Bolbe was the name ome. 175, On the Theodaista of Andros (daring the Nones of January, see Pliny, F2, L251, For similar traditions, ee Gruppe, op. oi. 9-736, 9.2 176, J. E. Harrison, “Delpiks," JS, XIX (1598), p. 208, The clearest formula sn 4 ipo Sonn Hp 1. What evelved int rite of rain, sping ho Arve. Dut Mest el . 120 »p. S81), which belong to thie festival, # als connected with the Hydrophoris of the Antes teria, with the myth ofthe flood, and with certain practlee such as those that deal with te rranalis lapis at Rome (sor E. Santer, “Alor. Regenzaubes,” ArchRW, XX1 (1992) ‘p- 3294, forthe meaning of mana) 178. On thie belief, se A. Dieterich, Muster Brde, pp. 45 £. The lnk between the concepts of river, Hower, marrage, and death is particulary suggestive (Glotz, L’Ondalie, 5 p. 72), 179. See Dieterich, Mutter Erde, p. 566 180. From very eafly oa. the representatio with thi fondamental notion (forthe relationship bet moun and marrage, sce Gruppe, op cit, pp. 168, 457, et). Characteristic, they ar iy ofthe celestial world were associated tegrated in an escntally seil representation, Tho term snodos testifies ta the derivation: assemblies,” “mariage,” “solar conjunction.” 81. We come full clcle with tl. See the suggestive observations in Harrison, Protegomena,p. 386, concerning the wordk epieliae and epiteletb 82. See, in partiolar, H, Hepding, At ppl cative word) at Rome, se Grillo, Culte de Cybile,p. 88. Our soures (Lusretus, uvera) show thatthe donors were gonerois 188. An amphictonie deeree concerning the celebration of Uhe Ptoia (Micke, 6 01.31) dea with the collection of funds for a national cule. CF. the usage in & Meena ea ender, which goes back perhaps to a more ancient form of agermos (Prott and Ziehen; Legis Saere, 1, n0- 15.144) 184.” P. Foucart, Ase. ealig..p. 191, 00.4.8. 185. Dualekr-insci., no. S721.19 (a regulation ta rege meter at Cay) 186. Michel, no, 718.11. 187. On the history ofthe word pelanay, sce P. Stengel, Opfecbrauche der Gri cher, pp. 66 ff, 1 example, have los inks withthe foast of ad als the practic of tomb vistations (biG. pp. 431 £). The notion of the deus being thirsty ¢Crope, op. veer theconjunction ofthe sun andthe Pe) Indo-European origin, The same ‘On the ise ofthe stipe (an eves (o the presthood of De 47 ANCIENT FEASTS 188, See Zishon's probing discuson in Prot and Zichon, Leges Sacrae, 1, pp. 278 LE Note thatthe product of the pelanos is used at hestiais (Michel, no. 719.11 8), 189..A. Dieterich, KL Sobr., chap. XX (on agermor, pp. 337 fh.) 180. For the connections between the sick laden with fruit ara the eresione, the “lo of the Delphic daphnepkoria, and the Oskhophoria, see ibid, pp. 388, 40. 191. Dawkins, JHS, XVI (1906), p. 201 102. On this notion, sce Dietrich, KI. Schr. p- 338. As woul, the views of Mauss [Peal sure don,” Année socal, ns, 1 (1923-24), pp” LAE) are worth vetaining. As for the | ci expresin flat ring te teres of ul that regal evest of Smite feasts. On the remote antecedents ofthe marriage between Dionysus and the quect | ak the Hookolelon and ss original significance, see E, Maser, Hermes, LXU (1927), pp. 1 ff 193, A. Piganicl, Recherches su os eux romaine, pp. U24.: see alo H. User, KI “Sol IV, pp. 117 ff 104 Zos., 1.5.2 £5 note the cation ofa Sibylline orate, in which we find the ex- ophee...porsuneis. (The theseuras basa very 15. ap of prepsnatory sites that have to do withthe abun of “hve aot the primitive ites atthe “closing ofthe year” simply thowe ‘Usener (oe. cit) makes 4 suggestive observation: the ceremony belongs to period just ended. Moreover, smn where the __prouts ofthat year are oonsimes in exces? 106. Plt, Quast. Crave., 12 197. Schol. Lucian, Dial. Merot. Rohde), RAM, XXV, p. 549: hon nomizoust ton | Uambananta kat sporat sunkatabailonte euphoria hese. Thi can be clarified trough its silty with the rustic Pailin at Rome, during which the resins of the October Horse an ‘he ashes of the calves from the Fardicidia are dstribsted in order to fertilize the Tan 1G. Wiswowa, Religion und Kults der Rémer, pp. 165 4.) 198," Ath, UL-1006. 199. See Perdrizet, REG, XXVIL (1914), pp- 260-70. Some inks exist withthe oi _gnsof coinage, The obeliay artoy of Poll, VT (sea deere of Canopus in Dittenberger, Or | Gir nec. Sel, no. 56.73 1.) orients us i the direction of the very interesting sugaestions of aun, Heliges Cold (seo espacially pp. 109 ft.) ‘00. "Ci. Prott and Ziehon, Leges Sacrae, 1, p. BL, with Tp. 128, 301. Asa rule, heroes’ names have a transparent etymology aavt, accordingly, an not exactly ttue fr the names of god, 202. From another point of view, Gruppe (op. ct, p. 755) shows how certain pishisoric religious elements have boon incorporated into the Fieldenlied; ia his well-known, rors, Usener adopts a similar stance. 209. See Pind., Pyth,, X, The mode of mythical trenspostion can be recognized in ‘hi ode composed in pratse of the Thestaians (cf n. 68 lowe). Ie goes without saying that -nythesbout the Colen Age belong to the same source. Like tose of the Flood, thee rayths 2eptesent an anthropogonia that differs frm those in aristocratic lagends: ts hoterogeacous | simpared tothe latter (ce Gruppe, op. ct, pp. A, 444)49 DIONYSUS AND TIiE DIONYSIAG RELIGION _ Grecks conceived of the god's history as relatively recent. Jeanmaire does ot, then, deal formally with problems of chronology; and at the very | in0st he will note (p. 86) that the period of the Dorian invasion, which _Rohde tried to link with Dionysism, is “especially remote in terms of testi ‘mony.” For Jeanmaire, it seems that the religion he is studying should “have been diffused sometime after the second millennium. ‘The author's investigation of traditional sources associated with the god's name produces more definite results. He examines first the beliefs snd popular customs that have been placed specifically under Dionysus’ atronage, and second the heortology or system of Athenian religious fes- ‘vals, the only one about which we have considerable information, Tis CHAPTER 3 Dionysus and the Dionysiac Religion: Inherited Elements and Original Features eke to Dionyeus.” The purpose ofthis chapter, in ts general and spe. “tific points, isto suggest areas of human activity where the conception of | the god, the images evoked by it, and the accompanying emotional states © nanifest themselves with some immediacy. In the most archaic represen- “ations of his cult, Dionysus is associated with vegetation, and in this _ aspect he emerges from a religion which, though primeval, has at its roots feet tt wil remot lively in him. The name Bacchus designates at Jeanmaire’s book about Dionysus, although addressed to a wide J audience, is a solid piece of scholarship.' It isich in thought, and reexan 1es for purposes other than mere erudition an important chagter in the history of religion. ‘The author’s method is not phenomenological. He does net try to 6 tablish the timeless essence of Dionysism; rather, he analyzes his theme within a carefully worked out historical context. However, the subject of his study does not easily lend itself to those more satisfying analyses that describe definite stages of “evolution.” Laterally, Jeanmaire’s book at tempts to tell us the origin of Dionysus’ cults this isthe purposeof the fist | chapter, which he bases on our most ancient testimony. In the later chiae ters, he tries to illustrate how myth and mystical thought developed eveit. in @ rather late period, and how Dionysus fared in a Hellenistic and. | Greco-Roman milieu. But over half the book—in fact its major section— is devoted to those elements that characterized Dionysiac religion as it ex ’ _Bootee and consecrates him to the god. Dionysus is more specially “ asotiated with the cultivation of trees, especially the vine. This fact of- © {eis Jeanmaire an opportunity to show that in the history of Greek agri | culture the cultivation of grains and that of fruit-bearing trees were in “some way opposed to each other. Hesiod, a famous advocate of the | ores, deseibes “the peasant’ life” as “tied down tothe eatth” (p31: © there are no feasts and there is little room for the Graces. In contrast, the “dheerful behavior, a sense of accord with the god of joy, palugethes. With regard to Dionysus’ prebistory, the author makes a penetrating "observation: if Dionysus became the god of the vine, there must have been eee are re nonce. i . ‘acancy for him to fill,” for in continental Greece, viticulture ap- With a cult such as this, questions of origin or dates of diffusion cats Ga" sar. 10 have developed and expanded without a well-defined religious not be a starting point. Since these are only objects of hypotheses, they are fee Bei eee tata pees aia ee AM oe ee mentioned later in the study, for example, when the author discusses 4/sqmey matron But the author at yythology FP the vine is meager (p, 24), both in legend and in certain ritual patterns theory of Thracian origin (pp. 99H.) and the well-known affities with M4 thay exists a clear Unread of evidence concerning the inventor of the vine Near-Eastern sources, which argue for an Asian origin (where the names E themselves, god-son {= nusos} and Earth [= Semele], suggest a substratum of two divinities associated with earth and fertility) is concerned, any precision is impossible. According to Herodotus, the / “pf the vine’s “invention” contains a recollection of royal or kingly magic “gover, and everything develops as if, between the aneientperiod and the _ ‘adic period (the period ofthe new god), there existed, asin the ease ‘ ted divine personalities, no stage involving the service This review originally appeared a HEG, LXVI (1953), pp50 RELIGION AND SOCIETY 51 DIONYSUS AND THE DIONYSIAC RELIGION ‘The system of Athenian festivals—and it is possible to refer to a sys tem, since the festivals can be described as Dionystac feasts occurring in winter —gives preliminary support to some very important conclusioas. First, Dionysus is found to be the patron of rituals much older than him: J self: the phallophoria of the Rural Dionysia, the more or les disorderly 7 eventually become canonical” in the life ofthe god. The Homeric parable, procession (komos), and the use of masks, Although a “new god,” he i fbvlously an abridgment, is likely derived from it (p. 73). strongly represented in these practices. As Jeanmaire says, “The feeling of In any case, from about 700 8.C., evidence exists of a mildly comic divine presence is essential in the conception one has of his interventions _ but edifying style of poetic tradition about Dionysus. Its origins might (p. 38). But the religious activities associated with Dionysus prove that J well be examined, Ritual themes of pursuit and escape appear in some ‘one is dealing with a complex personality. The season of his feasts isone of = cults, and they figure prominently in such legends as that of the daughters intense popular activity and gives rise to the joy and consolation of Testive | _ of Proitos. These involve a pre-Dionysiac scenario that shows up in certain celebrations. But traditionally this same season also provides a period of 4 selipious practices: a “divine child” and the nurses who surround hitn are contact with the world beyond, a world not only which the dead inhabit J threatened by some menacing character. Jeanmaire would like to find the but which is also the source of the blessings they offer, or according to # Hippocratic text, “whence comes nourishment.” The Anthesteria, espe #24 lescence,” the subject of his work Couroi et Courétes (pp. 76 ff.) but his cially, reveal this rich complexity of emotions. Another factor related ta arguments in this respect are unconvincing. The infant god of nativity this is directly relevant to the religion of Dionysus. Rarlier, Jeanmairelad [J stories is very different from the “subject” exposed to trials upon his emer- pointed out that there was a prehistoric tradition of orgiastic rites in 7% yence from childhood. The author is forced to assume that many scenarios Greece, such as thoso associated with the cult of Artemis. But for us as [combined to make a composite legend; but in other respects, he himself well as for the Creeks, orgiasmos, “the celebration of orgies.” suggests little appreciates the synthetic process as a principle of explanation. One must at least retain as basic the apparently Aegean ritual themes of “women representing the god's nurses, and the pursuit to which they can _Resubjected. Equally important and a substantial piece of Homeric test episode was altered and adapted by mahy authors, “beginning with Eumelos in the Ewropia.” Some reason exists to suggest that this pocm, a “natural place to insert the legend of Dionysus as part of the history of sociated with Dionysus himself. ‘The Lenaean festival, more or less "it J decline” by the classical period, could have gotten its naune only From the JEnai, another name for the bacchants. (Jeanmaice cannot avoid mention: ing the etymology [nos ="“wine-press,” even though he thinks that the linguistic arguments against it are irrefutable.) ‘As far as one can ascertain, then, these appear to be the most general characteristics of a divinity at once single and multiple—surely unique is | the Greek pantheon. ‘The “most ancient testimony about Dionysus" is from Homer. Hi reserve seems almost prejudicial; he barely mentions the god of wine and 4 his orgia, But the Lycurgus episode (If. VI.130-40), if only because of its allusive character, is evidence that a myth of definite shape had already _ ‘come into being, It is a tale of the infant deity, the god “of rapture,” & corted and protected by his “nurses,” who bear the thustla, a kind of thur- } sos. They are chased by the wolf-man to the edge of the sea, into whieh the small Dionysus in terror plunges for safety. It would be interesting ta determine with some precision the date of this traditional tale, Jeanmaite tries to do so, and his effort has some merits. The passage in question cat | hardly be taken out of a context wherein one sees a stratum of “Homeric. j civilization” that is rather modern. There is, for example, mention of the naos, a type of sanctuary which can hardly be earlier than the seventh century's end. On the other hand, there is a scholion indicating that the | and their ecstasies. One characteristic of Jeanmaite’s study is already apparent. One after __ the other, he selects certain testimonia, usually lengthy but restricted, and | analyzes each within a historical context in order to discover some psycho- logical facts. We should not, in my view, understand his method as liter- y-eritical; it is more an inductive approach, one that is very personal; “and it contrasts strikingly with the usually fastidious methods normally associated with philologists. Several times, one doubts that itis Euripides who supplies him with his material On the subject of orgiastic rites, Euripides’ Bacchae offers a poetic tableau with a specifically didactic purpose, and within the context of _ other testimonia, one can place it geographically. The adventure of Skylas (Herod., 1V.75-80) provides an example from a frontier region of Greece if delirium and possession in a male thiasos. A.century later, Demosthenes attests that, among members of a thiasos dedicated to a foreign god, Sabazios (but one with analogies to the Greek god), there existed a form of | behavior similar to that observed in the cult of Dionysus (XVIUL.259). And "in the vast area of the eastern Mediterranean, cult practices existed that52 ‘RELIGION AND SOCIETY 53. DIONYSUS AND THE DIONYSIA@ RELIGION characterized the bacchants of Greece as “ati ancient Aegean substrs: 7 tum"—Asia Minor and its cult of the Magna Mater, Syria and its goddess, Canaan and its nebiim. Perhaps these forms of orgiastic rites have to be distinguished. Even sa, itis possible to show that in this region of the ar cient world there was a similar kind of unity involving a yeaming for cestasy and trance. And if such a unity leads us to a period of prehistory, the classical problems are to a certain extent modified. Whea Rohde wanted to make Thrace the center for the diffusion of orgiastie practices, it was precisely because he needed to explain what he regarded as a dis: turbing element in an “Apollonian” Hellenism, It should be pointed out that for Jeanmaire the “origin” of Dionysus might be sought in Asia (surely, he too easily minimizes the evidence from Greco-Lydian inscriptions com: cerning the name Bacchus jp. 58)); but for a historical understanding of orgiastic practices themselves, it is to his advantage to define an area oF field of extension in which the Greek phenomenon, insofar as what is ta ditional rather than borrowed, should be situated ‘This phenomenon can now be examined by itself; it can be defined as an act of possession. The Greeks speak of mania “madness” and they consider it divine. The Bacchae brilliantly illustrates such an interpreta. tion and allows us to see the seriousness and profundity with which the Greeks invested mania, Although the significance of the Bacchae is a natural topic for Jeanmaire, he has managed to keep it more of less out: side the scope of his main inquiry. Even so, he has some definite but nuanced things to say about it. What is Euripides’ “real” attitude? Save for some of the philosophers, we know very few of the great figures of 7 Greece “from the inside”; the tragie poets, for obvious reasons, are even Yess accessible. But in this case, we are not completely at a .oss. The author cannot accept the thesis that Euripides represents a spisit of free. thought sympathetic to Pentheus. Although Jeanmaire does not talk about a religious “conversion’”—this would be too strong a word—the poetry of the drama, its tone and general movement, give the impression that Euripides is truly captivated, and is as sensitive as any poet could be to the ardor and rapture of Dionysiae religion, to the incomparable power of “divine madness.” This view raises a question: just how far is the special kind of “sincerity” which characterizes literary works exceeded? Jean- aire notes some reservations one must have about several parts of the play: the denouement of the play itself, the comic quality of Cadmus and. | Teiresias, representing as they do a certain form of piety, and the subtle irony of a forceful but absurd apologetic that attempts to justify the new scandal of Dionysiae religion by appealing to a tradition much older and” more venerable. Pethaps, too, there is reason for some caution when the author speaks of a conflict between “religious fact” and the “rationalism that the poet and his generation espoused for so many years.” Such a post ‘on, or at least the way itis stated, could very well contain some anachro- tists. ‘One could really ponder the subject of the Bacchae’s significance; but “ Jeanmaire deals with it in an excursus at the end of the chapter (chap. IV, pp. 138-56). There the author proposes to define and identify the psycho- “ Jogical phenomenon of mania, The Greeks accepted the fact of mania ‘with revealing complacency, and they spontaneously acknowledged the state of furor in many encounters as something “demonic.” Euripides’ ac- ‘count of Herakles’ madness is an important example not only because of its religious or mythical interpretation of mania but because the dramatist "describes the phenomenon in terms that are almost clinical. Symptomatic | Afits” and stages of “hysteria” have their parallels in the “observations” of dlinical psychiatry (pp. 112 ff.). Symptoms such as these are also assoct- “ated with gods other than Dionysus. Here, however, they are expressed! in “the language of Dionysiae religion: the term bakkheuein, “to be a bac- chant,” is applied regularly. Mania is a category of religious thought and Bacchus is not only its symbol but in a way is its ordinary representative. But the Bacchic delirium is defined not only in terms of mental pa tholoxy. Comparisons with experience from a different level can shed “light on the Greck phenomenon: history and ethnography supply ana. Jogaes to the Dionysiac religion. Jeanmaire analyzes some of the most con- " Vinoing parallels. (It is interesting to note that his study of this material “has already appeared in the Journal de Psychologie). The author singles ‘ut for special comment the cultivation and treatment of possession, “which have been observed in recent or even contemporary periods within a broad region covering part of North Africa, Ethiopia, and @ section of the Sudan, Despite their differences, the practices, known according to “their regions as zer and bori, have this in common: each uses possession + itself for the treatment of posession. This corresponds to a kind of homeo: ‘pathic care. Detailed testimony regarding the Corybantes shows that pos- session played a similar role in Greece. Once Jeanmaire has created an introductory frame of reference by drawing on history, clinical psychiatry, and ethnography, he can direct, his attention to the major institutions of the Dionysiac religion. He does, this in a series of chapters that form the book's central part “The subject of the first of these chapters (chap. V) is maenadism. Tt seems a historical oddity that in a period of enlightenment the figure of the liberated or unchained maenad appears so frequently and with such, | force. From a psychological viewpoint. it is difficult to understand that @ society that confined women to lives of domesticity could give them li cense to indulge in temporary but public frenzy. Some moder skeptics have responded to these difficulties by suggesting that the bacchants are inventions of myth or poetry. But maenadism is a fact for which there is,54 RELIGION AND SOCIETY no Lack of attestations. The iconography of the maenad herself provides us with what ean only be described as a realistic portrayal. Well-known practices in North Africa should remind us that phenomena that do not fit our preexisting notions of a given civilization should not thereby be dis. missed as impossible. It is necessary to realize that certain female prac- tices existed in Greece—just how extensively we cannot say, but they were certainly not isolated instances—which, though intermittent, were never theless institutionalized. They were institutionalized in the sense that they. occurred at definite times and places and allowed a certain minimum of hierarchical organization to appear—that is, there were initiations"(p. 173). Their singular and yet paradoxical qual existence of a “culture of feminine mania.” All the terms designating @ maenad (p, 158) connote hypnotic practices, wild ecstatic behavior, and most especially the mad forays into the wilds of nature which the thuades ‘of Delphi, among others, best exemplify. ‘At the same time, the phenomenon of maenadism should be located within the realm of religion. Two questions on quite different levels must be asked. The first deals with origins. A cultic practice is usually grounded in myth, in this ease the myths point to a background older than history ‘Thoy attribute the aition of maenadism to Dionysus; he himself isa first bacchant, seized by the madness he imparts as punishment or eure. They. also confirm the fact that this strange divinity is a god of inspiration and a paragon of enthousiasmos, So, it is truly remarkable that myths exist which attribute to divinities other than Dionysus the power to cause mad ness. In some tales, the roles of Hera and Dionysus are interchangeable, ‘The truth is that in terms of maenadism, Dionysus’ cult belongs to a much, older religious tradition, one involving orgiastie female dances that are as- sociated with cults of vegetation, The question of “origin,” then, vaises yet another: what is the significance and primitive funetion of this earlier rit. utal behavior? Jeanmaire looks for the answer in the complex of initiatory. rites he studied in an earlier work. Using an induction that he formulated there, he tries to give an account of the trieteric rhythm of many Diony siac cults by alluding to the biennial pattern, which sparsely populated societies find more suitable for the rites of initiation of youth (pp. 218 ff). But does this explain their obligatory quality, one essential to a religious thythin such as this? There is some doubt that it does. However. there is something very attractive in a theory that suggests that maenadism could originate from certain forms of initiatory practice. For there is proof that these rites are normally conducive to religious feelings and on occasion are open to genuine ecstasies, Since the scope of this review is limited, let it suffice to note that maenadism is far more an affair of gunaiker than of parthenoi. And if itis possible to believe that, in the beginning, maenad- ism functioned for the purpose of winning new fe recruits, then,” 55 DIONYSUS AND THE DIONYSIAC RELIGION "given the present state of our knowledge, ‘one can do so only by extra polation ‘The second question is about the connection between Dionysus and Delphi or, put another way, between the practice of divination, as it is generally depicted in the “ministry” of the Pythia, and the state of posses. sion, which is the index par excellence of Bacchic enthousiasmos. This is still « much discussed problem (see his p. 492 for a brief discussion of P. Amandry’s recent thesis), and Jeanmaize’s treatment of it is eautious but decisive. Prophetic inspiration at Delphi is a phenomenon that is per- hhaps earlier than either Apollo or Dionysus. Whatever accommodations it ‘was forced to make with the utilitarian and political goals of the “all too human” milicu of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., it was still considered by the Greeks to be an essential part of the Apollonian institution. That the two gods were associated is a verifiable fact, but this does not imply ‘that Dionysus conquered the oracle's sacred precinet, after which Apollo ‘would have borrowed his eestatic divination. For Dionysus is not properly an oracular god. What should be seen here is a sharing of tasks, a kind of “entente” between two gods of very different character who have in com mon their “expansionism,” which is openly that of “usurpers” (pp. 192 48.) ‘The language of Dionysiae religion is rich in words that are instrue tive. The term “dithyramb,” for example, leads to an examination of an other set of facts, Maenadism is a female phenomenon, but the dithyramb is a masculine one. Perhaps, as Jeanmaire suggests, behind this “opposi- tion” there lies another that is geographical. It can at least be seen within ‘cycle of myth and ritual belonging to the Aegean islands (especially Naxos), which are more or less independent of continental Greece, It is, of ‘course, a question not of dualisia but of complementarity, and in fact the ‘materials in the chapter on the dithyramb complement those in the pre- feeding chapter on maenadism. The word dithurambos is an ancient one __ rom the Aegean basin. In the classical period, it refers to a literary and musical genre that we know has a prehistory. Behind its standardized form, which has been shaped and assimilated by a Greek esthetic norm, one can detect several elements: memories that the word itself evokes, echoes of the pathetic, and, above all, the depiction of a very primitive Dionysus. Theve elements evoke a religious practice that, despite its origi- ‘al features, appears to resemble those making up the complex of mae- nadism and those that have been compared with them. Direct testimony — about the cult of Dionysus—or indirect (cult vocabulary) permits us to ‘mike & reconstruction. Its central act was the sacrifice of an ox: the dance to which it gave place was frenzied and “inspired.” The ritual culminated in the victim's dismemberment and the eating of its raw flesh. In this case, 00, clarification of these phenomena can be found in ethnographic paral lels: for example, the zikir, as observed in the last century among Cairo56 RELIGION AND SOCIETY conftaterntties, reveals the same kind of communal cestasy; the frissa of the Aissaoua, still practiced on occasion in North Africa, reaches its climax in a diasparagmos and omophagy. In examining this typical pattern, Jeanmaire has observed some- thing that triggers the study of an important phase of the Dionysiac reli- gion, for it deals with its literary possibilities. He says that in a milieu that is above all civic, the religious drama easily takes on the character of an exhibition; and precisely because of the audience, the cyclical choruses tond to become spectacles. However, before the question of Dionysus connection with the theater is raised, it is appropriate to explore in some depth a specific conception of Dionysus involving the actions he performs for souls and the means he uses. As has been seen, Dionysus has certain se lected affinities with the world beyond and the world of the dead. The chthonian Dionysus appears as a leader of a “chimerieal hunt,” and this conception of him is inseparable from that of his coterie, the demonic band, which is the mythical expression of the human thiasos. Even in our ‘most common depictions, those containing the fantastic and burlesque figuees of the satyss, there still persist some connections with an equine deron whose very shape could be a symbol of the underworld forces (a theory Jeanmaire has developed following Malten’s lead). At its most pro- found, this symbolism underlines the idea, or rather feeling, that the intoxi- cating ecstasy of Dionysus gives one access to a world that is supernatural This is confirmed by the testimonies about the popularity, effects, and even specific character of a type of dance which is essentially baechio—a dance that, for purposes of “purification” and “initiation,” contains elements of mimesis (PI., Leg., 815C}. Is this what the Attic theater owes to the cult of Dionysus? (Of the four theatrical genres that we know were performed during the great March festivals in the precinct of Dionysus, itis the satyr drama to which Jeanmaire devotes the most time. He postulates a “preliterary form” in which the “imitation” takes the form of orchestrated leaps and gambols. This would be the chorus of the possessed, which is the manifes: tation of the divine mania and at the same time the means of its cure Although the author believes that satyrs of the type we find depicted in art are essentially characters of myth, he does not dismiss the belief that the mask played a role in this primitive stage, a role that G. Dumézil has illustrated in his diseussion of the Centaurs. In any case, there may have been an “organic relationship” (p. 312) between the cult of Dioaysus and the origin of the dithyramb. As for comedy, it could naturally ave been placed under the patronage of Dionysus, whose traditional festivities were accompanied by a frivolous form of behavior that issues in comedy. Only tragedy remains for discussion, and here Jeanmaire is reserved. In his rapid survey of various theories (see his additional note on pp. 921 ff.), a7 DIONYSUS AND THE DIONYSIAE RELIGION the author seems at least provisionally to lean toward skepticism. The the: __ ries in question were originally inspired by a Hterature that was ethno- | graphic. But drama is a quasi-universal phenomenon; itis a specifically Hellenic typo of drama that must be explained: and evidence from con- - temporary Thracian folklore is of little help. However, despite the Greek __prevedents that are said to be of value in studies by Ridgeway, Dieterich, and Nilsson, one always runs into the same question, or better, the same ‘mystery: the transition from the vague and often undynamic elements of folklore and religion to the tragedy of Aeschylus or even Thespis remains inexplicable. | ___ Finally, in an attempt to present some idea of the “birth of tragedy," © Jeanmaire resorts to an analogy from biology: biological species exhibit {forms of mutation that explain the sudden appearance of a new life form _ Ir may be, then—and I hope I am not misinterpreting the author—that | the historical problem, that of the origin of tragedy, might be a pseudo- _ question, One can discern a milieu and catch a glimpse of some anteced- "ents; but the creation of tragedy is an original event of the same order as the other discoveries so characteristic of Greek humanism. It is probably "for this reason that tragedy’s origin cannot be found in a specific moment | f history. It should be quickly said, however, that such a semiagnostic | sev does not prevent Jeanmaite lzom taking some definite postions. He portant role to play in the prehistory of trag- " edy. And he is strongly opposed to the thesis that states that there is a “pri "mary and fundamental relationship” between Dionysus and the literary © genre which circumstances ended up placing under his patronage. Not- ___ ably i i impossible to admit that the initial themes of the tragie poems ‘dealt with the suffering” of the god. © Up tothis point, little has been said about the mythology of Diony- | sus, Actually, this mythology in part eludes us, and in some respects is in | relevant for our understanding of the god's personality. For his mythology reveals no features that are original, In the portrayal of most Greek divin- / ities, the strictly mythical element (which is rather limited) consists of © themes or remnants of themes of obscure origin that, except for an oc- | casional reference to a few moments in a cultic act, have lost their original | significance and survive only in a poetic tradition in which they are freely | embellished. Dionysus’ case is admittedly rather peculiar. The themes of - his myths happen to be very ancient; they are adapted for the use of a god yho arrives late on the scene (p. 78), and they are organized into narratives in which archaism itself is a sign of artifice. But because the work of the linagination has been redirected, the intentions that now dominate them _ ive these tales an emotional force that is certainly more vital than that in the tales of Zeus or even of Apollo. Dionysus has been provided with a bi-58 RELIGION AND SOCIETY y ography that puts him in close contact with the human world, and with a “history” that is no longer a timeless myth. In the version that has turned out to be almost canonical—it is not the only one, nor isit likely the most ancient—mythical motifs of the thunderbolt and the second pregnancy are echoes of states of society and religious thought which are “primitive,” 4 but which essentially emphasize the eminent dignity of a god, who is the preferred son of the supreme deity, although he is like so many heroes born of a mortal, and has olose ties with men. Semele and Ariedne are avatars of goddesses (they can return to their goddess forms); but depicted in their sufferings, they represent the element of the feminine which plays so large a role in the cult. On the other hand, the myth develops iz two d rections. From its beginning, the tale of such a god, because of his unique magical power, remained open-ended: a certain gospellike quality as serted itself in developments that formed the data for a divine biography. "This was at first spontaneous, but later on, contemporary history exerted its influence. Alexander's expedition to India inspired a new chapter in Dionysus’ biography, and it enlarged his sphere of activity to fit the geo- graphical and fantasy-filled world of conquest—and all this, of course, favored every form of syneretism. Dionysus, it must be observed, was al- ready by his vocation a conquering god, a god of lightning journeys; and the theme of his peregrination in the East, even the Far East, is already present in the Bacchae's prologue. In the version found in Apollodorus Bibliotheca, one that can be described as pre-Alexandrian (p. 308!, itis an integral theme. But the mythopoeie process has also operated on another level, and there is another sort of Dionysus which must be considered: the mystical Dionysus. It is curious that for both the mystical and ancient Dionysus the tales told are of the same kind. The basic myth is one of dismemberment of the god. This has been specifically interpreted as a myth belonging to a “teligion of salvation,” itself derived from “agrarian rites” (Cumont and Frazer complement each other here). Jeanmaire offers a very judicious critique (pp. 373 ff. of a theory that makes much of vague analogies and employs a form of schematization which is hardly applicable to the eon: crete themes in the legend of Dionysus. At the very least, it ear: be sald) that the myth is connected with the practice of diasparagmos, and that, based on the facts of the cult, there has been speculation of a gnostie type which finds in the destiny of the suffering but resurrected deity a model and promise for his followers, But the legend is not at one with the rite: undoubtedly the connee: tion had been established in antiquity, but only secondarily (p. 387). Tn fact, the mythical theme of boiling in a cauldron or passage through fire appears frequently in heroic myths; and though it has several meanings, its basic one is rebirth or immortalization, In its most typical for, "question is simply that of Orp! 59 DIONYSUS AND THE DIONYSIA@ RELIGION smyth explicative of a ritual of initiation of thé young, Such a view appears well founded; and though Jeaniaire does not ctte it, the tale of Pelops provides the closest analogue, Is it not then correct to say that one form of Dionysism has established its own mythology with some ease? ‘Bat the myth has been put to use: that is to say, it has been incorpo- yated into 2 “mystical” doctrine. Such a word as “mystical” can cause doubt or discomfiture, but avoiding itis difficult, although each time it is ased it must be defined. The question of mysticism had already been liscussed by Jeanmaire in its Platonic contest (pp. 295 ff.}. ‘There it was the vital movement, characterized by pathos and intelligence, toward the ‘world of ideas; Plato describes it in the myth in the Phaedrus. The author has been able to demonstrate that this form of “Platonism” owes its ‘general inspiration and its idea of mania to Dionysus. But something else ‘is involved here which the still-crude term “mysterious” might better describe (if one understands it in its ancient context and within the restraints of a eritique as informed as Jeanmaire’s), The most important », long a controversial subject. There is, ite reason to speak of an Orphic religion, if one means by that an d religion: there is no evidence for the existence of "Orphic com- ” However, there does appear to have been a specifie unity of | tradition; there must have been a transmission of teachings and conse- quently a society that, though diffuse, still had its books. This is the so- ciety of the so-called disciples of Orpheus, and there are other movements, from the same period which are analogous but which ought not to claim the same name, This society propagates a doctrine that contains a cos- jnogony (Aristophanes alludes to it) and a soteriology wherein the myth of | Dionysus has acquired dogmatic consistency. For one belief appears to hhave been well established since the sixth century 8.C.: the belief that sal- vation could be gained through initiatory and ascetical practices by the descendants of the Titans, the murderers of Dionysus. Whatever else the fantastic theology that had long been under Orpheus’ literary patronage ‘ould supply—or add—to the general concept of rebirth, this concept was ~ he ancient one, and in the framework of Hellenism the important one. The book’s last chapter is the natural place to consider, in the con- ‘ext of the religious movements of the Greco-Roman period, the belief in immortality, which is so intimately Linked with what one calls the Diony. Siac “mysteries.” How does the belief in immortality relate to those “mys- teries”? Jeanmaire does not answer this question (p. 423), but notes only that within the circle of these mysteries a “teaching that dealt with the fature life” is not attested before Plutarch, Tn sum, stich aspirations and tendencies—already alfirmed in ancient “Orphism”—would be satisfied in new milieu, one more vast, more open to the syncretism of “religions © of salvation,” and in more or less new forms