Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa

Chapter Title: Ritual Imitation During the Thesmophoria at Syracuse: Timaeus of

Tauromenium’s History of Sicily
Chapter Author(s): Ewa Osek

Book Title: The Many Faces of Mimesis

Book Subtitle: Selected Essays from the 2017 Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of
Western Greece
Book Editor(s): Heather L. Reid and Jeremy C. DeLong
Published by: Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbj7g5b.24

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 Ewa Osek1
Ritual Imitation During the Thesmophoria at Syracuse:
Timaeus of Tauromenium’s History of Sicily

This essay discusses the puzzling words: τῇ διασκευῇ

μιμούμενοι τὸν ἀρχαῖον βίον (“with their costumes they imitate the
ancient lifestyle”) that have been excerpted from the Hellenistic
historian Timaeus of Tauromenium (ca. 357–261 BCE), and
transmitted by another historian, Diodorus of Sicily (fl. 60–30 BCE).
Timaeus’s wording on imitation—“they imitate the ancient life-
style”—occur in the context of the 10-day Thesmophoria, which had
been celebrated by the city of Syracuse since 485 BCE, in honor of
Demeter the Lawgiver (Θεσμοφόρος). The Lawgiver Goddess was
the first to discover cereals (the so-called “civilized food”), and to
introduce laws to the barbarian inhabitants of Trinacria (i.e. Sicily).
The Timaean passage on imitation—an introduction
My subject is a passage on the local festival of Demeter in
Syracuse. The account, excerpted from Timaeus’s lost History of Sicily,
is preserved in Diodorus’s Historical Library 5.4.7:
The appropriate time for the feast of Demeter they chose in
the period when the sowing of the wheat begins. For ten
days they celebrate the festival that takes the name of this
goddess, a beautiful feast due to the splendor of the
decorations, and with their outfit they imitate the old way of
life. They have the custom on these days of exchanging
obscene jokes, since the goddess, mourning for the rape of
Kore, laughed as such jokes.2
Diodorus (fl. 60–30 BCE), a native of Enna in central Sicily, derived
his account from the famous Hellenistic historian Timaeus (ca. 357–
261 BCE), who was born in Tauromenium (modern Taormina) and
must, in turn, have depended on someone else for his information. It
is not actually known on whom he depended, but the most likely
sources for Timaeus seem to be: Antiochus of Syracuse (fl. 424
BCE)—who composed the Σικελικά, of which some fragments are

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extant (FGrHist 555)—and the propagandist historiographers in the
court of Gelon (491–478 BCE).3
In any case, the story cannot antedate the year 485 BCE, when
Gelon transferred Demeter’s cult from his native Gela to Syracuse.
According to Thomas Dunbabin,4 it originated in the private
mysteries of Telines of Gela,5 and was then taken to Agrigento,
before Gelon brought the cult to Syracuse and made it a political
instrument.6 After the victorious battle of Himera (480 BCE), the
tyrant built twin temples to Demeter and Kore from the spoils.7 It is
impossible to say where in Syracuse the temples were erected: either
in the suburb Achradina,8 or in the district Neapolis.9 In any case, the
new temples joined older sanctuaries of the same goddesses: one at
today’s Piazza della Vittoria, and another one by the river Kyane.
The Thesmophorion at Piazza della Vittoria dates from the 8 th
century BCE, whereas the temple of Kyane (not extant) dates from
the 6th century BCE.10
From Syracuse a new cult of Σιτώ, “Our Lady of Grain,”11 was
carried to Aetna (478–476 BCE),12 and in the middle 5th century BCE
transferred to Enna—the highest and most beautiful plateau in Sicily,
and the historian Diodorus’s fatherland.13 In Diodorus’s time (1st
century BCE), Enna was called “the navel of Sicily” (Σικελίας
ὀμφαλός).14 Since the reigns of the Deinomenids (485–465 BCE), all
these cities—Gela, Agrigento, Syracuse, Aetna, and Enna—fabricated
their own local myths about the rape of Persephone by Hades, the
wanderings of Demeter in search of her, and Demeter’s invention of
grain, agriculture, and cereals—the so-called “civilized food.” The
Siceliots generally believed that Trinacria is the island sacred to
Demeter and Kore, to whom Zeus gave it as a wedding gift.
Diodorus, following Timaeus, summarizes these stories thus:
5.2.3. The Siceliotae who dwell in the island have received
the tradition from their ancestors, the report having ever
been handed down successively from earliest time by one
generation to the next, that the island is sacred to Demeter
and Kore; although there are certain poets who recount the
myth that at the marriage of Pluto and Persephone Zeus
gave this island as a wedding present to the bride. (…).5.3.1.
Again, the fact that the rape of Kore took place in Sicily is,

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men say, proof most evident that the goddesses made this
island their favorite retreat because it was cherished by
them before all others. 5.3.2. And the rape of Kore, the myth
relates, took place in the meadows in the territory of Enna.
The spot lies near the city, a place of striking beauty for its
violets and every other kind of flower and worthy of the
goddess. And the story is told that, because of the sweet
odour of the flowers growing there, trained hunting dogs
are unable to hold the trail, because their natural sense of
smell is balked. And the meadow we have mentioned is
level in the centre and well watered throughout, but on its
periphery it rises high and falls off with precipitous cliffs on
every side. And it is conceived of as lying in the very centre
of the island, which is the reason why certain writers call it
‘the navel of Sicily.’ 5.3.3. Near to it also are sacred groves,
surrounded by marshy flats, and a huge grotto which
contains a chasm which leads down into the earth and
opens to the north, and through it, the myth relates, Pluto,
coming out with his chariot, effected the rape of Kore. And
the violets, we are told, and the rest of the flowers which
supply the sweet odour continue to bloom, to one's
amazement, throughout the entire year, and so the whole
aspect of the place is one of flowers and delight. 5.3.4. And
both Athena and Artemis, the myth goes on to say, who had
made the same choice of maidenhood as had Kore and were
reared together with her, joined with her in gathering the
flowers, and all of them together wove the robe for their
father Zeus. (…) 5.4.1. Like the two goddesses whom we
have mentioned Kore, we are told, received as her portion
the meadows round about Enna; but a great fountain was
made sacred to her in the territory of Syracuse and given the
name Kyane or ‘Azure Fount.’ 5.4.2. For the myth relates
that it was near Syracuse that Pluto effected the rape of Kore
and took her away in his chariot, and that after cleaving the
earth asunder he himself descended into Hades, taking
along with him the bride whom he had seized, and that he
caused the fountain named Kyane to gush forth, near which
the Syracusans each year hold a notable festive gathering;
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and private individuals offer the lesser victims, but when
the ceremony is on behalf of the community, bulls are
plunged in the pool, this manner of sacrifice having been
commanded by Herakles on the occasion when he made the
circuit of all Sicily, while driving off the cattle of Geryones.
5.4.3. After the rape of Kore, the myth goes on to recount,
Demeter, being unable to find her daughter, kindled torches
in the craters of Mount Aetna and visited many parts of the
inhabited world, and upon the men who received her with
the greatest favor she conferred briefs, rewarding them with
the gift of the fruit of the wheat. (…) 5.4.5. And the
inhabitants of Sicily, since by reason of the intimate
relationship of Demeter and Kore with them they were the
first to share in the corn after its discovery, instituted to each
one of the goddesses sacrifices and festive gatherings, which
they named after them, and by the time chosen for these
made acknowledgement of the gifts which had been
conferred upon them. 5.4.6. In the case of Kore, for instance,
they established the celebration of her return at about the
time when the fruit of the corn was found to come to
maturity, and they celebrate this sacrifice and festive
gathering with such strictness of observance and such zeal
as we should reasonably expect those men to show who are
returning thanks for having been selected before all
mankind for the greatest possible gift; 5.4.7. but in the case
of Demeter they preferred that time for the sacrifice when
the sowing of the corn is first begun, and for a period of ten
days they hold a festive gathering which bears the name of
this goddess and is most magnificent by reason of the
brilliance of their preparation for it, while in the observance
of it they imitate the ancient manner of life. And it is their
custom during these days to indulge in coarse language as
they associate one with another, the reason being that by
such coarseness the goddess, grieved though she was at the
rape of Kore, burst into laughter.15

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The Syracusan festivals of the Great Goddesses
The worship of Mother and Daughter was the official state cult
of Syracuse from 485 BCE, and remained vivid for the next half a
millennium, at least. The city of Syracuse celebrated festivals of the
Twin Goddesses in an especially splendid manner. The sources
provide us with names, places, and short descriptions of these
festivals, but the exact dates of celebration are not given.16
Timaeus says that the Siceliots instituted and observed sacrifices
and festivities (θυσίας καὶ πανηγύρεις) in honor of Demeter and
Kore separately.17 Otherwise we know that the festival of the Elder
Goddess was named Thesmophoria (Θεσμοφόρια) after Demeter’s
epithet Thesmophoros (Θεσμοφόρος), which means “Lawgiver.”18 It
lasted ten days.19 We are told that during the festival only women
were allowed to perform the sacrifices, which in Syracuse took place
in a garden located inside the Acropolis20—presumably the
Thesmophorion at Piazza della Vittoria21—where archaeologists have
discovered many votive statuettes of women or goddesses with
sacrificial piglets (Fig. 1).22 This was the same place where the
Syracusans used to swear a great oath.23 As concerns the period of
celebration, the festival began at the very time “when the sowing of
the wheat begins.”24 This probably means autumn, so the date might
coincide with the Athenian Thesmophoria, which lasted from the 9th
to the 13th of Pyanopsion, the month of fall sowing corresponding to
October or November.25
The one-day festival
of the Younger Goddess
was named Κόρεια, after
the goddess’s cultic
epiclesis, Kore (Κόρη)—
i.e. “a girl” or “a
daughter.”26 It was the
annual bull sacrifice,
performed as Herakles
had established it during
his visit to Sicily: living
bulls were still thrown
Figure 1. Terracotta statuette, type A5
from Piazza della Vittoria. Museo Archeologico
into the spring of the
Regionale in Siracusa. nymph Kyane (Κυάνη),
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where according to local
beliefs, Pluto descended
with Kore to the nether-
world.27 This strange
ritual bears an exact
resemblance to the so-
called megarizein
(throwing living piglets
into earth pits), observed
in Megara a few months
before the local
Thesmophoria. 28

There are also

reports of a temple,29 and
statue of Kyane as a Figure 2. Fonte Ciane, photo by author.
young woman, in this
place.30 The bull sacrifice must have taken place close to the river
Ciane, near Syracuse, and where the famous Laganello head was
discovered.31 Furthermore, the spot may be identified with a small
lake at Fonte Ciane, the ancient “Azure Font,” located six kilometers
from Syracuse (Fig. 2). Nevertheless, the nearby ruins that have been
unearthed since 1887 cannot be clearly identified as the sanctuary of
Kyane known from ancient sources.32 As concerns the date of
celebration of the Koreia, we are told that it was “about the time
when the fruit of the corn was found to come to maturity,”33 about
one month before the May harvest.34 So the Koreia in Syracuse was
observed in April, like Cereris ludi in Rome.35
To sum up, in the Classical and Hellenistic periods, Syracusans
annually celebrated festivals in honor of Demeter Thesmophoros and
her daughter Kore. The 10-day Thesmophoria in autumn
commemorated the capture of Kore (Κόρης ἁρπαγή), and her
mother’s subsequent despair. The one-day Koreia, held in late-
spring, evoked the return of Kore (Κόρης καταγωγή) by sinking a
bull in Kyane, the sacred lake.
In addition, sources inform us about the festival of
ἀνθεσφόρια—which means “picking flowers”—observed in honor
of Kore by women of Sicily and Southern Italian Hipponium.36 There
is no doubt that the Anthesphoria were closely related both to the
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Thesmophoria and the Koreia, since the young goddess was believed
to be kidnapped while she was gathering flowers. We are not told
what season the festival was held; we can only speculate that it might
be performed in October, sometime before the Thesmophoria,
because the Orphic poems—which were very popular in Sicily—
placed the rape of Kore in autumn, under the sign of Scorpio (23
October–21 November).37 During the Festival of Flowers, the ritual
dance ἄνθεμα was performed by women singing a popular song,
about gathering roses, violets, and wild celery.38 Finally, we hear
about a festival of Kore called ἀνακαλυπτήρια,39 or θεογάμια,40
which might be a part of the Anthesphoria.
Imitating Kore, Demeter, cavewomen, and ancient lifestyle
During the festivals, celebrants performed the sacred drama,
playing the part of Kore or Demeter. Sicilian women during the
Festival of Flowers imitated (μιμούμενοι) Kore picking flowers with
gestures, dance, and lyrics.41 They performed the anthema dance
because, according to the Eleusinian myth, the goddess was captured
while picking flowers.42 We also know that during the Eleusinian
festival in Attica, initiates imitated (μιμεῖσθαι) the despair of
Demeter mourning over the capture of Kore.43 Likewise, the women
of Megara held a ritual performance on the Rock of Recall, a mimetic
representation of Demeter calling for her kidnapped daughter.44
Moreover, we learn from the Andania inscription (IG V1 1390, 24–26)
that women performing the parts of the goddesses wore special
costumes.45 This custom, however, is not attested for Sicily.
The sorrow of the Mother, though deep, was not endless. There
are alternative stories concerning the end of Demeter’s grief. The
story of Iambe (Ἰάμβη) is older, occuring as early as the Homeric
Hymn to Demeter (lines 195–205). According to the Eleusinian myth,
Iambe was an Attic serving-woman who made Demeter laugh, and
the story became the aition for the following ritual: “Iambe joked with
the goddess and made her smile. For this reason, they say that
women make jests at the Thesmophoria.”46 Philicus, the Alexandrian
poet of the 3rd century BCE, informs us what Iambe said to evoke
Demeter’s smile;47 but it is hard to believe such words were spoken
among women at the Thesmophoria. It is known that Attic women,

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on the first day of Thesmophoria (called Στήνια), used to abuse each
other verbally, in a ritual that was performed at night.48
The younger myth of Baubo (Βαυβώ) occurs in the Orphic song
about Kore’s capture, whose title was probably the same as that
given by the Parian Chronicle: Κόρης ἁρπαγή.49 The term Κόρης
ἁρπαγή was also used by Timaeus, in his description of the
Syracusan Thesmophoria.50 From the Orphic fragments, we know
that Baubo was an autochthon woman, the daughter of the Earth
Goddess. When Demeter, in searching for Kore, arrived at Baubo’s
husband’s farm, the woman pulled up her dress and exposed her
belly. Baubo’s lewd gesture—the so-called anasyrma—caused the
goddess to smile, out of the blue, and drink a cup of kykeon.51
None of the mythical women who humored Demeter appear in
context of Magna Graecian Thesmophoria. The comic character
Iambe is not mentioned in the Timaean description of the Syracusan
Thesmophoria, quoted above. Nor we can be sure if the celebrants
were imitating behavior of Baubo—although Concetta Scibona
believes they were, because of a votive statuette found in Gela, which
represents a pregnant woman lifting her skirt.52 If the scholar is right,
that figurine would be the only representation we have of a celebrant
woman involved in αἰσχρολογεῖν, or “exchanging obscene jokes.”
What about “imitating the ancient lifestyle” (μιμούμενοι τὸν
ἀρχαῖονβίον), as Timaeus said? What “ancient lifestyle” did he
mean? If Concetta Scibona is right in attributing the Sicilian sacred
stories (which are partly known from Timaeus) to Orphic mythology
(of which our knowledge is fragmentary), we are free to complete the
story with the following account. According to extant Orphic
fragments, the song described the poor condition of humans before
the discovery of grain. Sextus Empiricus, who claimed to quote
Orpheus directly, says that people in ancient times practiced
cannibalism until the Thesmophoroi Goddesses (i.e. Demeter and
Kore) civilized them, by giving the earth fruit, and laws against
murder and eating flesh.53 Sextus Empiricus was much later than
Timaeus; the same, however, is stated by Moschion, an Athenian
play-writer of the 4th century BCE. There once was a time, he says,
when the earth was still liquid, and primitive men lived in mountain
caverns. At that time, the cavemen devoured each other like wild
beasts, until after very long time, the Grain Goddess showed people
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how to prepare civilized food, and live a civilized life.54 The same tale
is probably referred to by Plutarch, but in a different way. He vividly
describes the first generation of people, who lived after the deluge,
when the earth was still deformed by pools and deep swamps.
Farming was impossible, and that first generation lacked the skills
and tools to cultivate fields. The starving people ate animal meat and
whatever else they could find—including mud, tree bark, grass, and
roots—until oak forests grew, allowing them to make food from the
acorns.55 A sequel to this story is provided by two early Hellenistic
authors, Theophrastus of Eresus (fl. 319 BCE) and Dicaearchus of
Messana (fl. 320 BCE). They say that after Demeter manifested herself
and revealed the blessing of grain, the ancient people said: “We are
sick of acorn,” and started eating cereals and bread.56
Both Moschion and Plutarch refer to a flood that preceded the
rise of the first people, who from hunger ate everything they had.
What flood did they mean? The Parian Chronicle enumerates several
poems (The Rape of Kore, The Search of Demeter, The Discovery of Grain)
attributed to Orpheus, the son of Kalliope, who lived in the time of
Erechtheus, the king of Athens.57 We learn from the same source that
Demeter discovered grain some time earlier (1410/09 BCE), and we
find under the date of 1529/28 BCE a record on the flood of
Deukalion. Perhaps this is the Timaean ἀρχαῖος βίος, the period
between the flood of Deucalion and the discovery of grain.
In that case, the imitation of the primitive life would mean being
rude in manner and vulgar in language. The celebrants would
imitate the imagined behavior of the cavewomen whom Demeter met
in the mythical past. Moreover, they had to live as primitive people
did before the discovery of grain. The Attic celebrants of the
Thesmophoria ate only cakes—made of white sesame seeds, myrtle
berries, and poppy seeds with herbs58—and drank a lot of wine.59 The
same dietetic regulations were observed in Syracuse. Heracleides of
Syracuse tells that on the Panteleia (Παντέλεια), which was the final
(10th) day of the local Thesmophoria, people carried in procession the
so-called μυλλοί (sweet cakes made of sesame seeds and honey).60
The form of these cakes, shaped like female genitals (ἐφήβαια
γυναικεῖα), corresponds to the dirty jokes (αἰσχρολογία) that
Timaeus mentioned in the context of the same festival. There is no

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doubt that the vulgar talk in question belonged to the so-called ritual
obscenity.61
The Timaean passage: an interpretation
Let us return to the Timaean passage. What exactly is meant by:
τῇ διασκευῇ μιμούμενοι τὸν ἀρχαῖον βίον? The Loeb translation
reads: “in the observance of it they imitate the ancient manner of
life,” whereas Concetta Scibona omits τῇ διασκευῇ and translates it:
“by imitating the old way of life.”62 Both readings are incorrect,
which is evident by noting that Timaeus alluded to three points of
Aristotle’s theory of mimetic art: (1.) the object of imitation, or what
is imitated; (2.) the means of imitation, like language, rhythm, and
melody; and (3.) the way of imitation, that is an alternative way of
narration or actions of performers (Poetics 1447a–1448b).
The first one, the object of imitation, was defined by Aristotle as
either good men or worse characters (Poetics 1448a). The Timaean
passage has ἀρχαῖος βίος (“the ancient lifestyle”). The celebrants
imitated the wild cavemen who lived a long time ago. Their lifestyle
was described in the sacred story, which can be identified as the
Orphic song on the invention of agriculture and laws (OF 641–44).
The object of imitation would not only be the ancient lifestyle, but
also the change of diet after the invention of food like milled cereals
and bread.
Secondly, there are the means of imitation, such as words
composed in metre or prose (Poetics 1447a–b). Timaeus speaks of
αἰσχρολογεῖν κατὰ τὰς πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὁμιλίας (“saying
obscenities in the conversations”), a ritual, performed by women to
commemorate Demeter’s laughter after she was cheered up by
αἰσχρολογία (“vulgar talk”). We can suppose that the one who told
such obscenities would be one of those uncivilized cavemen
described in the Orphic song.
The third landmark of Aristotle’s theory is the way performers
imitate actions. They imitate them by acting (μιμοῦνται δρῶντας), as
Aristotle says (Poetics 1448a), in the same manner. The key-word in
the Timaean passage is τῇ διασκευῇ which means “with the outfit,”
referring to costumes worn by women celebrating the Thesmophoria
in Syracuse.63 Participants imitated the behaviors, clothes, and even
diet of primitive people from the distant past.

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 This analysis of the Timaean passage leads to the final
conclusion: that Timaeus’s wording on imitation of the ancient
lifestyle with the outfit—τῇ διασκευῇ μιμούμενοι τὸν ἀρχαῖον
βίον—refers to the ritual imitation of Syracuse’s Thesmophoria.

1
Ewa Osek is Associate Professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of
Lublin, Poland. Her research interests focus on late ancient religions,
mystery cults, and so-called Orphism. Email: ewaosek@wp.pl
2
Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Teil 3: Horographie und
Ethnographie, B: Nr. 297–607, ed. Felix Jacoby (Leiden: Brill, 1950), nr. 566
F 164, p. 648. The English translation is based on Concetta Giuffré
Scibona’s, “Demeter and Athena at Gela: Personal Features of Sicilian
Goddesses,” Demeter, Isis, Vesta, and Cybele: Studies in Greek and Roman
Religion in Honour of Giulia Sfameni Gasparro, ed. Attilio Mastrocinque, et
al. (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2012), 78. The translation is slightly modified by
me. The quoted passage belongs to the extensive excerpt from Timaeus’s
History of Sicily (FGrHist 566 F 164) incorporated in the 5th book,
subtitled: On the Islands of Diodorus’s Historical Library (5.2.1–5.23.5).
3
Donald White, ΑΓΝΗ ΘΕΑ: A Study of Sicilian Demeter (Ann Arbor: UMI,
1989), 122.
4
Thomas J. Dunbabin, The Western Greeks: The History of Sicily and South Italy
from the Foundation of the Greek Colonies to 480 B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon,
1948), 178–81.
5
Herodotus, Histories, 7.153.2–3.
6
Donald White, “Demeter's Sicilian Cult as a Political Instrument,” Greek,
Roman and Byzantine Studies 5 (1964): 261–79.
7
Diodorus of Sicily, Historical Library, 11.26.7.
8
Ibid,14.63.1.
9
Cicero, In Verrem, 2.4.119.
10
Valentina Hinz, Der Kult von Demeter und Kore auf Sizilien und in der Magna
Graecia (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1998), 95–107.
11
Polemon, Response to Timaeus fr. 39 Preller; Claudius Aelian, Varia historia,
1.27.
12
Diodorus of Sicily, Historical Library, 11.26.7.
13
Ibid 5.3.2–3.
14
Ibid, 5.3.2; Cicero, In Verrem, 2.4.106.
15
Timaeus of Tauromenium, History of Sicily, FGrHist 566 F 164. Quoted in
Diodorus Historical Library, 5.2.3–5.4.7, the Loeb translation, modified.

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16
On the ancient sources see Luigi Polacco, “I culti di Demetra e Core a
Siracusa,” Numismatica e antiquità classiche 15 (1986): 21–41.
17
Timaeus of Tauromenium, History of Sicily, FGrHist 566 F 164.
18
Allaire Chandor Brumfield, The Attic Festivals of Demeter and Their Relation
to the Agricultural Year (New York: Arno, 1981), 70–73. Demeter and Kore
alike were called Θεσμοφόροι (“Lawgivers”) (Plutarch, Dion, 56.6).
19
Timaeus, History of Sicily, FGrHist 566 F 164.
20
Plato, Letter 7, 349d.
21
Susan Cole, “Demeter in the Ancient Greek City and Its Countryside,” in
Placing the Gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in Ancient Greece, ed. Susan
E. Alcock, et al. (Oxford: Clarendon 1994), 215.
22
Hinz, Der Kult von Demeter, 102–07.
23
Plutarch of Chaeronea, Dion,56.5.
24
Timaeus, History of Sicily, FGrHist 566 F 164.
25
Brumfield, Attic Festivals, 70, 79–84; cf. Photius, Lexicon, Θ 134, s.v.
Θεσμοφόρια; idem, Σ 538, s.v. Στήνια.
26
Hesychius, Lexicon, K 3601, s.v. Κόρεια; Plutarch of Chaeronea, Dion,56.6.
27
Timaeus, History of Sicily, FGrHist 566 F 164: “While Herakles was making
the circuit of Sicily at this time he came to the city which is now
Syracuse, and on learning what the myth relates about the rape of Kore
he offered sacrifices to the goddesses on a magnificent scale, and after
dedicating to her the fairest bull of his herd and casting it in the spring
Kyane he commanded the natives to sacrifice each year to Kore and to
conduct at Kyane a festive gathering and a sacrifice in splendid fashion”
(the Loeb translation).
28
Scibona, “Demeter and Athena at Gela,” 77–78.
29
Diodorus, Historical Library, 14.72.1. The narration concerns the military
campaign of 396 BCE.
30
Claudius Aelian, Varia historia, 2.33.
31
Museo Archeologico Regionale in Siracusa, inv. 754. Günther Zuntz,
Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1971), 71–72.
32
White, ΑΓΝΗ ΘΕΑ,120–21.
33
Timaeus of Tauromenium, History of Sicily, FGrHist 566 F 164.
34
Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, “Festival and Mysteries: Aspects of the
Eleusinian cult,” Greek Mysteries: The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient
Greek Secret Cults, ed. Michael B. Cosmopoulos (London: Routledge,
2003), 38–39.

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35
Ovidius, Fasti, 4.393.
36
Pollux, Onomasticon, 1.37: “The Siceliots celebrate the festivals θεογάμια
and ἀνθεσφόρια in honor of Kore” (transl. by Ewa Osek); Cf. Strabon,
Geography, 6.1.5.
37
Orphic Hymns 29.14: “in autumn you were made a kidnapper’s bride”
(transl. by Apostolos Athanassakis); Proclus, In Platonis Rem publicam
commentarii, ed. Guilelmus Kroll, vol. 2 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1901), 62: “The
myth says that Kore was raped in that season (…) and adds that it
happened while she was busy with weaving a Scorpio at the loom”
(transl. by Ewa Osek). The latter text refers to the Orphic poem, Peplos.
The text is reproduced in: Poetae epici Graeci: testimonia et fragmenta. Pars
II. Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia et fragmenta, fasciculus 1, ed.
Albertus Bernabé (Monachii et Lipsiae: Saur, 2004), fr. 290. Hereafter, it
will be abbreviated as: OF.
38
Carmina popularia no. 852, in Poetae melici Graeci, ed. Denys L. Page
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1962), 453. ποῦ μοι τὰ ῥόδα,ποῦ μοι τὰ ἴα / ποῦ
μοι τὰ καλὰ σέλινα; / ταδὶ τὰ ῥόδα, ταδὶ τὰ ἴα, / ταδὶ τὰ καλὰ σέλινα.
39
Olympia 6.161,* in Scholia recentia in Pindari Epinicia, ed. Eugenius Abel,
vol. 1 (Budapestini: Calvary, 1891), 236: “In Sicily the ritual of
Persephone, ἀνακαλυπτήρια, was performed.” (transl. by Ewa Osek).
40
Pollux, Onomasticon, 1.37. See note 36.
41
Athenaeus, Learned Banqueters, 14.27, 629e. Cf. Clement of Alexandria,
Exhortation to Greeks, 2.17.1.
42
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 6–16.
43
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to Greeks, 2.20.1.
44
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.43.2.
45
The Sacred Law of Andania: A New Text with Commentary, ed. Laura
Gawlinski (Berlin: Gruyter, 2012), 70–71.
46
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library 1.5.1, the Loeb translation.
47
Philicus Corcyraeus, Hymnus in Cereram, PSI 12: 1282: “O, Spirit, listen to
a few profitable words of Attic Iambe. Like a gossip living in the
countryside I have poured out much rubbish. These goddesses, o
Goddess, have given you chalices and wreaths and running water from
the stream, and from these women now your gift is grass, the diet of the
shy deer.” (transl. by Peter Fraser).
48
Eubulus fr. 148 Edmonds, quoted in Photius, Lexicon, Σ 538, s.v. Στήνια:
“Stenia—a festival at Athens, at which the resurrection of Demeter was

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 supposed to take place. During the festival the women reviled one
another at night. So Eubulus.” (transl. by John Maxwell Edmonds).
49
Marmor Parium, FGrHist 239 F 14. The text is reproduced in OF 379.
50
Timaeus of Tauromenium, History of Sicily, FGrHist 566 F 164.
51
This is the Orphic fragment (395), transmitted by Clement of Alexandria,
Exhortation to Greeks, 2.20.3–2.21.1. See the translation and comment of:
Kirk Ormand, “Toward Iambic Obscenity,”Ancient Obscenities: Their
Nature and Use in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds, ed. Dorota Dutsch
et al. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015), 50–51.
52
Scibona, “Demeter and Athena at Gela,” 72–73; fig. 9.
53
OF 641–42, quoted in Sextus Empiricus, Adversus mathematicos 2.31–32.
54
OF 644, the Orphic song echoed by Moschion, TrGF I 97 F 6. For the
translation and comment on see: G. Xanthakis-Karamanos, “Remarks on
Moschion's Account of Progress,” Classical Quarterly 31.2 (1981): 410–17.
55
Plutarch of Chaeronea, De esu carnium, 993C–994A.
56
Theophrastus of Eresus, De pietate, fr. 2 Pötscher; Dicaearchus of Messana,
Life in Greece, fr. 56A Mirhady.
57
OF 379. See note 49.
58
Aristophanes, Birds, 159–61; Lois sacrées des cités grecques: Supplément, ed.
Franciszek Sokolowski (Paris: Boccard, 1962), no. 124 + p. 209, n. 11.
59
Aristophanes, Women at the Thesmophoria, 630–32.
60
Heracleides of Syracuse, On the Customs, quoted in Athenaeus, Learned
Banqueters14.56, 647a. Cf. Theodoretus of Cyrrhus, Graecarum affectionum
curatio, 3.84.
61
Ralph M. Rosen, “Aischrology in Old Comedy and the Question of ‘Ritual
Obscenity’,” Ancient Obscenities: Their Nature and Use in the Ancient Greek
and Roman Worlds, ed. Dorota Dutsch et al. (Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 2015), 76–77.
62
Scibona, “Demeter and Athena at Gela,” 78.
63
For the meaning of the word see: J. Iain McDougall, Lexicon in Diodorum
Siculum, vol. 1 (Hildesheim: Olms, 1983), 862, s.v. διασκευή.

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