LAFERRIÈRE Sacred Sounds - The Cult of Pan and The Nymphs in The Vari Cave Ca - 2019 - 38 - 2 - 185

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CAROLYN M. LAFERRIÈRE
Sacred Sounds: The Cult of Pan and the

Nymphs in the Vari Cave
Religious ritual in ancient Greece regularly incorporated music, so much so that certain instru-
ments or vocal genres frequently became associated with the religious veneration of specific
gods. The Attic cult of Pan and the Nymphs should also be included among this group: though
little is often known about the specific ritual practices, the literary and visual evidence associated
with the cults make repeated reference to music performed on the panpipes—and to auditory and
sensory stimuli more generally—as a prominent feature of the worship of these gods. I consider
the Vari Cave, sacred to Pan and the Nymphs, together with the surviving marble votive reliefs
from that space, to explore the sounds and sensations associated with the veneration of the rural
gods. I argue that the sensory experience offered by the cave and the images within it would have
enhanced the worshiper’s experience of the ritual and the gods for whom they were performed.
In this way, visual and auditory perceptions blurred together to create a powerful experience of
the divine.
With [Pan] the clear-singing mountain nymphs, tripping

nimbly by a dark spring, dance and sing;
the echo moans round the mountaintop,
while the god, moving from side to side of the dance ring, or again in the middle,
cuts a nimble caper, a brown lynx hide over his back,
delighting in the silvery singing. . . .
I would like to thank Cliff Robinson, Meghan Freeman, Sarah Olsen, Naomi Weiss, and Lauren Curtis
for their comments and suggestions for early versions of this paper. My thanks as well go to Milette
Gaifman and Verity Platt for discussing this idea in its early stages, to the audience at the 2016 con-
ference on “Sound and Auditory Culture in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” and to the anonymous reviewers
at Classical Antiquity. Ioanna Damanaki’s assistance with obtaining permissions to study, photograph,
and reproduce the images was invaluable. I am grateful to Hans Rupprecht Goette for his help with
reproducing the plan of the Vari Cave. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Despina Ignatiadou at the
National Archaeological Museum in Athens for allowing me to study the votive reliefs.
Classical Antiquity, Vol. 38, Issue 2, pp. 185–216. ISSN: 0278-6656(p); 1067-8344(e) © 2019 by The
Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to
photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and
Permissions website at https://www.ucpress.edu/journals/reprints-permissions. DOI: https://doi.org/
10.1525/ca.2019.38.2.185
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186 CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY Volume 38/No. 2/October 2019
σὺν δέ σφιν τότε νύμφαι ὀρεστιάδες λιγύμολποι

φοιτῶσαι πύκα ποσσὶν ἐπὶ κρήνηι μελανύδρωι
μέλπονται—κορυφὴν δὲ περιστένει οὔρεος ἠχώ·
δαίμων δ᾿ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα χορῶν, τοτὲ <δ᾿> ἐς μέσον ἕρπων
πυκνὰ ποσὶν διέπει, λαῖφος δ᾿ ἐπὶ νῶτα δαφοινόν
λυγκὸς ἔχει, λιγυρῆισιν ἀγαλλόμενος φρένα μολπαῖς—
Hymn. Hom. Pan., 19–241
The first half of the Homeric Hymn to Pan paints an evocative picture for its audi-
ence: the goat god, Pan, roams across the mountains, hopping over streams and rocks,
while he plays his syrinx, its shrill sounds gently gliding over the landscape. He is
joined by the Nymphs, who sing to the music he plays. Together, isolated in the
Greek countryside, the divinities dance to their song. The hymn forgoes any attempt
at conveying a narrative in this first section and, instead, focuses on the divinities’
attention to and delight in musical performance, here presented as a joyous, rural cele-
bration.2 Even the language of the hymn points to the powerful and affective qualities
of their music and dance: the Nymphs are “clear-singing” (λιγύμολπος, 19), Echo’s
song “moans around” (περιστένω, 21) the mountains, and Pan finds delight in the
“silvery singing” (λιγυραὶ μολπαί, 24). The hymn also features dynamic movement:
the Nymphs dance with “rapid footsteps” (πύκα ποσσίν, 20), Pan dances quickly
(πυκνὰ ποσίν, 23), and his actions pick up his frenetic activity from the beginning
of the hymn, when he moves “this way and that” (ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα, 22). Musical and
evocative language pervade the hymn in its description of the gods, for it begins by
describing Pan, among other things, as “krotos-loving” (φιλόκροτος, 2), suggesting
that he has particular affection for percussive sounds, whether the noise of dancing
feet, the clapping of hands, or the clacking of krotala.3 The “krotos-loving” god even
implicitly yearns for the sounds of the song itself, whether the Nymphs’ hymn to
Hermes embedded within the second half of the hymn (27–47) or the actual perfor-
mance of the Homeric Hymn to Pan, accompanied by the lyre’s music, the rhapsode’s
singing, and the audience’s applause.4
Among the Greek gods associated with music and dance, Pan is not an obvious
deity to include: he appeared late to the Athenian pantheon, having arrived within
the broader context of the Persian Wars, and for this reason seems to have been ini-
tially associated with military-inspired torch races and sacrifices.5 However, by the
end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth century BCE, Pan came to be depicted
and described predominantly as a musician, playing his syrinx not just in the rural
countryside, as in the Homeric Hymn, but also within caves. His companions, the
1. Except where noted, texts of classical authors are taken from, and translations adapted from,
the editions of the Loeb Classical Library.
2. Thomas 2011: 159.
3. Thomas 2011: 152.
4. As noted by Thomas 2011: 152.
5. Hdt. 6.105; Borgeaud 1988: 133–62. For early representations of Pan see Brommer 1949: 5–42.
LAFER RIÈRE : Sacred Sounds 187
Nymphs, similarly assumed musical associations and are typically shown dancing to
the music from his syrinx. It is within the cave shrines, found in the hills and moun-
tains of the Attic countryside, that considerable effort was made to integrate venera-
tion for these rural gods with the worshipers’ own music and dance. As a result, the
rituals for these particular gods evoked a specific sensory experience, determined by
the actions of human worshipers and the cave landscape in which they took place.
Menander’s fourth-century BCE comedy Dyskolos presents one example of
cult activity for Pan and the Nymphs: in an evocative scene, a small community
convenes outside a cave sacred to Pan and the Nymphs at Phyle, located to the
northwest of Athens.6 The religious gathering, which would have been staged in
the center of the orchestra between the houses of Knemon and Gorgias,7 is a rau-
cous celebration. The worshipers play music, dance, pour libations, eat the meat of
a sacrificed sheep, and drink wine, all within the sacred cave in which couches
have been set up for the participants.8
Although the dramatic performance took place on stage, and its costumes, sets,
and songs presented their own sensory experiences to the audience, Menander’s
clear portrayal of the setting and actions allows for an imaginative reconstruction
of the participants’ experience of the ritual. In this scene, the worshipers are
described as having gathered within the small enclosure of Pan’s cave,9 where each
sensory element would have been amplified. In addition to the smell of the food as it
cooked and the taste of the meat and wine, we might also imagine the participants
listening to the rich, resonant sounds of the aulos that would have filled the cave.
Menander places particular emphasis on music, and Sostratos’s mother, whose
dream inspired the sacrifice, instructs a young girl named Parthenis to “play Pan’s
song, [since] this god, they say, should not be approached in silence” (αὔλει,
Παρθενί, | Πανός· σιωπῇ, φασί, τούτῳ τῷ θεῷ | οὐ δεῖ προσιέναι).10 Indeed, the
6. The play won first prize at the Lenaia festival in 316 BCE. Menander establishes the play’s
setting by having Pan break the fourth wall in order to describe the scene for the audience: τῆς
Ἀττικῆς νομίζετ’ εἶναι τὸν τόπον, / Φυλήν, τὸ νυμφαῖον δ’ ὅθεν προέρχομαι / Φυλασίων καὶ τῶν
δυναμένων τὰς πέτρας / ἐνθάδε γεωργεῖν, ἱερὸν ἐπιφανὲς πάνυ. Men. Dys. 1–4. As D. Wiles has
shown, Menander’s awareness of the technicalities of the earlier comedies at least makes it possible
to approach his work with the same eye to satire and nuanced commentary on contemporary life.
Wiles 1984: 170–74, 176. In foregrounding the ritual setting of Dyskolos, I follow the model laid
out in Bathrellou 2012: 151–92.
7. Though there has been much debate on the location of the two houses, that Pan’s cave was
located at center stage has not been questioned. Quincey et al. 1959: 3; Wiles 1991: 233 n.41;
Brown 1993; Rzepkowski 2012: 584–87.
8. Men. Dys. 419–21: μεμάθηκα. πάλιν αἴρου δὲ ταυτὶ καὶ φέρε / εἴσω. ποῶμεν στιβάδας ἔνδον
εὐτρεπεῖς / καὶ τἄλλ᾿ ἕτοιμα. On this scene of cave worship, see Wickens 1986: 175–76; Borgeaud
1988: 239–40.
9. As Roy (1996: 114–15) notes, though Menander took care to locate Pan’s shrine within an
actual, physical sacred cave, the one at Phyle is on a steep, almost inaccessible mountainside. In his
comedy, Menander instead relocates the cave to a more accessible and less remote location, while
he still maintains the name of its original site.
10. Men. Dys. 432–34. Borgeaud suggests that “this remark most probably reveals a contrast
between Pan’s rite and normal cultic practice: when the baskets and the chernips approach the altar
chosen for the sacrifice, the worshippers are generally completely silent” (Borgeaud 1986: 166).
sounds of the instruments, the women’s dance, and general merriment were so loud
that one character, Getas, remarked to Sikon that the worshipers “are making such a
racket in there, carousing—no one will notice” (θόρυβός ἐστιν ἔνδον, / πίνουσιν·
οὐκ αἰσθήσετ᾿ οὐδείς).11 Getas’s remark also points to the extent to which the
human, ritual, and musical sounds echo throughout the cave. We may further imag-
ine, then, that the particular blending of these sounds creates a cacophony appropri-
ate both to Pan’s musical nature and to the panic that he could inspire.12
In Menander’s ritual for Pan and the Nymphs, therefore, the cave provides the set-
ting for worship, where the amplified sounds of the ritual surround the worshipers
and isolate them from the outside world.
By giving detailed attention to the sensory experience of the ritual in his com-
edy, Menander positions the sounds of the musical and danced performances
within the cave, so that the natural sounds it produces accompany those created
by the worshipers. Similarly, fourth-century BCE Attic votive reliefs dedicated to
Pan and the Nymphs, most of which are contemporary with Dyskolos, also focus
on music-making and dancing within caves.13 In the sculpted images, however, it
is not the worshipers who play instruments and move their bodies in rhythm to
the music but, rather, it is the gods themselves. In each instance, Pan plays his syrinx
while the Nymphs hold hands and dance together with Hermes. As a corpus, the
reliefs further assert the importance music and dance held for the cult of Pan and
the Nymphs in classical Athens and Attica more broadly.
We know a great deal about the specific contexts in which these votive reliefs
were once encountered: they were deposited and displayed in Attic caves sacred
to Pan and the Nymphs, not unlike the shrine at Phyle described by Menander.14
In addition to the cave at Phyle, which was excavated in 1901, a cave at Penteli has
survived, as its roof collapsed in antiquity and preserved its interior until the cave
was rediscovered in 1952.15 Similarly, a cave on the slopes of Mount Hymettos,
near Vari, was found almost completely intact.16 Though there is evidence of cult activ-
ity in the Vari Cave already at the end of the sixth century BCE, the cave acquired its
Whether or not rituals for Pan deviated from what constitutes “normal cultic practice,” what remains
particularly striking is Menander’s emphasis on the importance of music within cult activity for Pan.
11. Men. Dys. 901–902. Though this scene may be intended to mock pastoral religious enthusi-
asm, this joke would only be comprehensible to a contemporary Athenian audience if it were not
already generally understood that one could be expected to play music either outside of or within
caves sacred to Pan. See also Bathrellou 2012: 151–92.
12. Borgeaud 1988: 168. Yioutsos 2014: 59–60.
13. Charles M. Edwards’ dissertation (1985) is the most comprehensive account of these reliefs. His
work relies upon earlier studies by Feubel 1935; Fuchs 1962: 242–49. More recently see Güntner 1994:
10–25; Edelmann 1999; Klöckner 2001: 121–30; Gaifman 2008: 85–103; Klöckner 2010: 106–125.
14. On the cave to Pan and the Nymphs at Phyle see Wickens 1986: 245–69, no. 47.
15. Zorides 1977: 4–11; Wickens 1986: no. 39, 202–211; Travlos 1988: 329–30, 332–34; Larson
2001: 246, with earlier bibliography. Two large votive reliefs were also discovered in the cave.
See Edwards 1985: nos. 20 and 22.
16. Wickens 1986: no. 20, 90–121; Travlos 1988: 446–48, 461–65; Weller 1903: 263–88; Larson
2001: 14–16, 242–45.
Fig. 1: Vari Cave, site plan. From Goette 2001: fig. 55. Courtesy of Hans R. Goette.
Legend:
1. Dedicatory inscription 6. Altar
2. Charitos inscription 7. Staircase
3. Basin 8. Votive niche of Pan
4. Steps and entrance of the main chamber 9. Seated statue
5. Relief of Archedemos 10. Pan inscription
current form during the middle of the fifth century BCE, when a certain Archedemos
from Thera renovated it.17 The work that he undertook largely transformed the cave into
its current state (fig. 1).
Together, these three caves present a consistent picture of the typical appearance
of late Classical cave shrines sacred to Pan and the Nymphs. Regular features
include small springs with fresh water; terracotta figurines of Pan and, occasionally,
Silenos; pottery fragments of loutrophoroi; and wall inscriptions. In each instance,
the votive reliefs were set up throughout the cave: at least seven complete reliefs
have been reconstructed from the cave at Phyle, with additional fragments, while
17. The first sign of Archedemos’s presence occurs on a block that is believed to have been set
up outside of the cave, upon which two inscriptions were carved, one on either side. They read:
“Archedemos, the Therean, a nympholept, cultivated a garden for the Nymphs”; and “Archedemos,
the Therean, a cholondches, built a dwelling for the Nymph.” The term cholondches is otherwise
unknown, but it may relate to the term cholos, or bile. See Weller 1903: 265; Schörner and Goette
2004: 51–54; Pache 2011: 47–48.
another seven, with additional fragments, were found in the Vari Cave.18 Not only
may the reliefs be dated fairly precisely, as they were excavated from closed con-
texts, but their find spots and original place of display are also often known, so that
it is possible to reconstruct at least partially, the interior appearance of these caves.
Given its relatively intact state and the archaeological work previously under-
taken there, the Vari Cave is a compelling example for reconstructing the appearance
of the ancient religious site and the rituals that would have occurred within it. Known
to local shepherds who used it to find shelter for themselves and their flocks,19 the
cave became known to European scholars after Richard Chandler came across it in
1765.20 It was subsequently visited by European travelers throughout the nineteenth
century and first excavated in 1901 by a team of American archaeologists.21 The site
and its finds have been reexamined by J. M. Wickens in 1986, and most recently by
G. Schörner and H. R. Goette, who significantly add to our understanding of the cave,
which is not otherwise mentioned in surviving ancient literature.22 In addition to
studying the finds discovered in the cave, they also attempted a reconstruction of
ancient worshipers’ movements within the space based on the surviving inscriptions,
the physical landscape of the cave, and what is known from other sources of initiation
cults involving the Nymphs.23
In what follows, I build upon Schörner and Goette’s work by similarly taking the
Vari Cave as my focus, because it lends itself to a rich, sensory interpretation of the
archaeological evidence and, given the cave’s high level of preservation, it offers
the opportunity to situate the ancient worshiper’s potential religious experience within
a distinct and defined landscape.24 After discussing how the cave’s physical site would
have contributed to the production of a unique set of sounds, I turn to the human inter-
ventions integrated within it, including shrines, altars, and images carved into the
walls, arguing that each element contributed to the particular religious landscape
and soundscape of the space. I end by focusing on the votive reliefs discovered in
the cave to demonstrate how they could have intensified the ancient worshiper’s audi-
tory and visual religious experience of Pan and the Nymphs. For ancient worshipers,
18. Edwards 1985: nos. 13, 15, 16, 21, 23, 26, 29, 33, 36, 37, 40, 51, 54, 76; Thallon 1903:
301–319; Larson 2001: 242–47.
19. Weller 1903: 274.
20. Chandler 1776: ch. 32.
21. The 1903 site report was published as a series of articles under the guidance of Charles Heald
Weller and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. The original report includes: Weller
1903: 263–88; Dunham 1903: 289–300; Thallon 1903: 301–319; King 1903: 320–34; Baldwin
1903: 335–37; Bassett 1903: 338–49.
22. Wickens 1986: no. 20, 90–121; Schörner and Goette 2004. The cave is also mentioned in
conjunction with studies on the Nymphs, nympholepsy, and the role of caves in Greek religion:
Connor 1988: 166–74; Larson 2001: 14–16, 242–45; Ustinova 2009: 61–63; Pache 2011: 37–38,
44–52. More recently, work has been done on the cave’s acoustics. See esp. Yioutos et al. 2018:
2169–74.
23. Schörner and Goette 2004: 60–77.
24. Since the Vari Cave is the best preserved among surviving caves of Pan and the Nymphs, it
offers the clearest picture of what actions occurred within it (Wickens 1986: 90–121, no. 20). For a
similar attention to one’s sensory experience of the landscape see Hamilakis 2013: esp. 1–16, 57–110.
the rocky shrine sacred to Pan and the Nymphs created a unique relationship between
its sensorial field and the rituals performed within, offering its visitors a distinct sen-
sory and religious encounter. It thus becomes possible to consider the ancient worshi-
per’s sensory experience within the cave, whether through perceiving the landscape,
looking at scenes of divine music, or hearing the sounds produced by the cave.
Above all, the Vari Cave presents a mode of ritual interaction with the sights and
sounds of the sacred space that was potentially available to the ancients themselves.
1. THE CAVE AS A MATERIAL BODY

Greek cults were often installed in caves, and consistent among many of the
rituals situated within these particular sanctuaries are the ways that the dramatically
different environmental conditions of the subterranean shrines amplified one’s
senses, bent sounds, and introduced a unique sensorial environment into the context
of religious ritual.25 The Vari Cave, with its dark rooms, dripping water, and echoing
sounds, is no different and, as a result, its physical landscape becomes much more
than a simple delineation of sacred space that passively hosts the rituals performed
within it. Rather, by acknowledging its role in enhancing visitors’ sensory percep-
tion, the cave actively contributes to the worshipers’ experience of religious ritual.26
Within a phenomenological approach to archaeology, the specific experience
the cave offers to its visitors, both modern and ancient, is as essential a part of the
ritual as are the actions performed and offerings given.27 The Vari Cave, in other
words, works upon all those who entered, exerting its own material presence upon
them.28 The cave’s rocks, earth, moss, and water, as well as the gradual darkness
and echoing sounds that it creates, all would have contributed, and indeed still do,
to one’s experience of its landscape. The entirety of the cave thus becomes an active
agent that affected the worshiper’s sensory perception.29
25. For more on how caves could manipulate the senses within Greek ritual, both within cult activity
for Pan and the Nymphs as well as for other gods, see Ustinova 2009. Yioutsos 2014: 57–68. On the
acoustics of Greek caves, including the Vari Cave, see Yioutsos et al. 2018: 2169–74. Synaesthesia, the
conflation of senses, has been discussed in relation to antiquity by Porter 2013: 9–26 and 2010: 3, 45–
47, 64–66, 355–56, 368, 417, 492, 511; Butler and Purves 2013: 1–8.
26. I rely upon the work of the anthropologist Alfred Gell, who seeks to reinsert objects into the
common discourse of modern anthropology, which he sees as having neglected art in favor of ethnographic
study (Gell 1998: 66–72). On the importance and agency of the object in ancient Greek and Roman art
see Osborne and Tanner 2007.
27. Apart from the substantial treatment of phenomenology in twentieth-century continental phi-
losophy, the rise of sensory archaeology owes much to earlier discussions of phenomenology. See
Fahlander and Kjellström 2010; Day 2013; Hamilakis 2013; Pellini, Zarankin, and Salerno 2015.
On the senses in antiquity see Butler and Purves 2013; Bradley 2015; Squire 2016; Rudolph 2018;
Purves 2018; Butler and Nooter 2019.
28. Current work on the senses and archaeology includes Betts 2017: 1–12, 193–99; Hamilakis
and Meirion Jones 2017: 77–84; Harris 2017: 129–30; Hamilakis 2017: 171–75 and 2013: 6–12.
On ancient art’s materiality see Bielfeldt 2014; Platt 2016: 69–78; Platt and Squire 2017c: 75–104;
Gaifman and Platt 2018: 402–419. For more on materiality and its modern consequences see
Bennett 2010: 1–19, esp. 12–13.
29. Yioutsos 2014: 57–68. Hamilakis 2017: 171–72.
Working between the sensorial field established by the Vari Cave and the promi-
nence of music and dance within cult activity for Pan and the Nymphs, I explore the
sounds made within it, or, more specifically, how the materiality of the cave itself
shaped and determined the nature of those sounds, and how the sensorial field, spe-
cific to this cave, determined or affected the worshiper’s experience of the gods for
whom the cave was sacred. Within this model, I take “sound” to refer both to those
auditory emissions that occur in nature, such as the dripping of water or the rustling
of birds, and those produced by humans, such as conversation exchanged between
worshipers or the musical notes produced by the aulos.30 By considering these sounds
together, I show how each element contributed to the cave’s sensorial field and how, in
turn, that field may have affected and been perceived by an ancient audience.
2. VISITING THE VARI CAVE
If we consider the Vari Cave as an active agent that participates in determining

the human sensory experience within the sanctuary, its natural features should be
considered the central elements that define the quality of its materiality and subse-
quent agency. Although it is difficult to be certain how an ancient visitor would
have experienced its features, the cave’s landscape and related sensorial field have
remained consistent since antiquity, so that our experience of the cave today might
evoke that of a visitor during the fourth century BCE.31
The Vari Cave is located on the slopes of Mount Hymettos, which stands to the
southeast of Athens and is within a four- to five-hour walk from the city center.32
Most of the journey is steadily uphill and becomes increasingly rural; in antiquity,
one would likely have passed shepherds and their flocks along the way. One’s sen-
sory experience on this isolated mountain walk would have been, and indeed still is,
one of relative silence except for the noises of animals, the rustling of plants and
trees, and the crunching of grass and plants underfoot.33
The Vari Cave, in contrast with the mountainside of Hymettos, presents a very
different sensorial field that is determined by its cavernous nature.34 We begin our
30. I follow Anthony Jackson’s theory of sound. He makes a further distinction between music
and sound, defining music as “socially ordered and patterned sound” (Jackson 1968: 293).
31. Chandler’s detailed observations from 1765 allows us to compare what currently survives
with what he described. Importantly, the cave’s appearance was preserved until the time of its excava-
tion (Chandler 1776: ch. 32; Weller 1903: 263–88).
32. The cave was located at the intersection of three wealthy Attic demes, which may account for
the richness of its finds. Moreover, given the similarity between the votive reliefs deposited within the
Vari Cave and those found at other Attic cave shrines, it is likely that many of the dedicators were
Athenian. For this reason, I judge the distance between the cave and the center of Athens, as it is a
path that many worshipers could well have taken. Not all worshipers of Pan and the Nymphs were
Athenian, however; Archedemos, for instance, describes himself as a Theran.
33. As Wickens notes, in antiquity trees would have been more common on the hillside than
they are today, “as the old name of the hill, Kapsala, derived from kavsoxila (‘firewood’), suggests”
(Wickens 1986: 93).
34. For an acoustic analysis of the Vari Cave see Yioutsos et al. 2018: 2170–72.
visit at the cave’s mouth, where an ancient worshiper may have also stood before
entering the site.35 The Vari Cave is not immediately visible on the mountain slope
because its small entrance opens almost directly downward, with twelve steps that
span about 2 m. After descending the precarious steps and reaching the first level
of the cave, visitors are immediately confronted with a dark, damp, and cool space
and a natural barrier, a rock wall that divides the cave into two smaller areas
(fig. 2). As Schörner and Goette show conclusively in their recent study—and
indeed, any modern visitor to the cave will similarly feel the cave’s subtle influence
in this way—this barrier only allows for one path forward: through the smaller and
darker western cavern.36 The cave thus encourages its visitor to walk through the
dark space and rely on senses other than sight. Furthermore, because of its smaller
size, low ceiling, and large stalactites, the acoustics of the western cave are distinct
from the rest of the space, as sounds both echo and are distorted by the uneven sur-
faces of the cave’s interior.
Shortly after entering the western room, visitors pass a small pool carved into
the rock where water once trickled and bubbled (no. 2 in fig. 1; fig. 3). Just below
is the inscription ΧΑΡΙΤΟΣ, written in the genitive case, which indicates that the
pool belonged to one of the Graces or possibly a single nymph.37 Though the basin
is now empty, in antiquity not only would the water’s own material nature have
conditioned its movement within its rocky container, but the sounds it would have
created as it flowed around the small basin would have contributed to the others
within the cave. Moreover, the presence of the man-made basin suggests human
activity: in antiquity, the continuous stream of water dripping from the stalactites
may have prompted worshipers to carve out this small pool. This attention to the
cave’s landscape and an awareness of enhancing its natural features amplified
the auditory presence of water in the cave, and may even suggest that within it,
35. Inevitably, my description of the sensory experience offered by the Vari Cave depends upon
my own experience walking through it. While my sensory responses to the cave are both my own and,
to some degree, culturally construed by the memory of my other experiences, they may still offer us a
glimpse into the range of potential experiences open to the ancient visitor. As Betts acknowledges
(2017: 195–96), “Phenomenology . . . has the capacity to acknowledge the inevitability of subjectivity
whilst aiming to record sensations, emotions and experiences objectively within that caveat [of poten-
tial interpretations]. . . . a core principle of sensory archaeologies and histories must therefore be to
make clear where imagination, simulation or cognitive techniques have been used in order to gain
an insight into the subject of study.”
36. Wickens 1986: 2:90–121; Schörner and Goette 2004: 17–20.
37. The invocation of the Charites (the Graces) does not preclude the worship of the Nymphs in
the Vari Cave. Female pluralities, particularly triads, were extremely common in early Greek myth and
cult; one may think of the Muses, the Charites, and the Horai as belonging to this phenomenon. As
Larson argues, “There can be little doubt that the Muses and the Charites developed from the same
ancestral stock as the nymphs and are in fact more specialized members of the same general group.”
Moreover, though the Charites could have cults separate from the Nymphs, they were, similarly, god-
desses of flora and water, and were often depicted as dancing triads (Larson 2001: 7–8). On female
pluralities in Greek myth see also Nancy 1996: 1 and 2000; Porter 2013: 9–26. While the precise iden-
tity of the recipient may remain unclear, this area was clearly intended as a focal point of worship, as
there is a small ledge near the pool that seems intended to hold offerings (Weller 1903: 275–76;
Schörner and Goette 2004: 44).
Volume 38/No. 2/October 2019
Fig. 2: Western room, Vari Cave. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo:

Author. © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport Archaeological Receipts Fund.
194 CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
195
Photo: Author. © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport Archaeological Receipts Fund.
Fig. 3: Basin with ΧΑΡΙΤΟΣ inscription. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology.
Sacred Sounds
LAFER RIÈRE :
Fig. 4: IG I2 788. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo: Author. © Hellenic

Ministry of Culture and Sport Archaeological Receipts Fund.
the sound produced by the abundance of water was conceptualized as an auditory

manifestation of a divinity.38
Across the small passageway separating the two rooms is another inscription.
Close to the entrance, the inscription is the first sign of Archedemos (no. 1 in
fig. 1; fig. 4). It reads:
Ἀρχέδημος ὁ Θ-
ηραῖος ὁ νυμφ-
όληπτος φραδ-
αῖσι νυμφôν τ-
ἄντρον ἐξηργ-
άξατο
Archedemos the
Theran, the nympho-
38. The possibility of experiencing an epiphany of the gods was an integral aspect of Greek reli-
gion. As Platt writes, “Manifestations of the gods offer the potential for a seemingly direct sensory
experience of divine eidea—a moment in which mortal bodies can apprehend immortal bodies,
whether it be through sound, scent, or, most commonly, sight” (2011: 56). On this topic see also
Platt 2014: 185–207.
lept, at the
Nymphs’ counsel,
wrought out the
cave.39
With this inscription, Archedemos clearly establishes his identity as a Theran,

isolating himself from any particular Attic deme or tribe, though he may have been
a metic in Athens.40 He further describes himself as a nympholept, someone pos-
sessed by the Nymphs.41 The ritual consequence of using this loaded term, however,
is unclear, as it could imply that an individual was caught up in a frenzy, had oracular
capabilities, or experienced heightened awareness and clarity of thought, as occurs
in Plato’s Phaedrus. There, when Socrates responds to Phaedrus, who has noted that
an unusual rhetorical eloquence accompanies Socrates’ sentences, he says, “Then
listen to me in silence; for truly the place seems filled with a divine presence (θεῖος
ἔοικεν); so do not be surprised if I often seem to be in a frenzy (νυμφόληπτος) as
my discourse progresses, for I am already almost uttering dithyrambics
(διθυράμβων φθέγγομαι).”42 As the philosopher comes under the influence of the
Nymphs, present at their nearby shrine on the Ilissos, he demands silence in his audi-
ence so that his musical, and even dithyrambic, performance can be clearly heard.43
There is, thus, something inherently musical, or at the very least poetic, in the
term nympholept. If we return to the inscription left by Archedemos in the Vari
Cave, we may see a hint of a similar relationship between the Nymphs and poetic
music, as well as some attempt to introduce music into the cave. Although the ini-
tial three lines are difficult to scan, the last three form an iambic trimeter.44 While it
is difficult to determine the precise character of these lines’ musicality, at the very
least the inscription evokes a sonic quality, as it could have been read out loud
within the cave, almost confirming the Nymphs’ power by infusing that space with
the sounds of testimony to divine presence.45 If we take the attempt at metrical
composition seriously, then we have a rudimentary song, which could be sung
out into the cave, possibly for the Nymphs, the divine audience for this perfor-
mance. Thus, already at the entrance to the cave, this inscription provides a con-
nection among worship for the Nymphs, music, and sung poetry.46
As we continue on our journey downward into the western cave, the light
diminishes to such an extent that additional light is required; in antiquity, visitors
39. IG I2 788; translation adapted from Schörner and Goette 2004: 42–44; Pache 2011: 45–46.
40. Kansteiner et al. 2014: 2:662–64 (Archedamos).
41. Connor 1988: 156; Larson 2001: 16.
42. Pl. Phdr. 238d. Translation adapted from Connor 1988: 158.
43. There are, of course, Dionysian overtones to dithyrambic performances, and Dionysos was
thought capable of manifesting through the performance of a dithyramb, as argued by Lavecchia
2013: 59–75. For more on dithyrambs, particularly in Athens, see Kowalzig and Wilson 2013: 1–27.
44. Schörner and Goette 2004: 43.
45. On epigrams and reader interaction see Meyer 2005; Männlein-Robert 2007; Tueller 2008;
Day 2010: 26–75.
46. Pache 2011: 51.
Fig. 5: Cutting in the natural rock between the western and eastern rooms. Ephorate of
Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo: Author. © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport
Archaeological Receipts Fund.
possibly lit torches to guide their movement through the space.47 If this were the
case, the crackling of the flames would have echoed off the walls of the small cav-
ern, as would the sounds of water dripping from the stalactites and bubbling in the
basin, the rustling of the visitors’ clothing, their conversations with each other, and
their feet moving over the uneven rock as they stepped down the hill. Even before
any ritual activity has begun, the cave already manifests a distinct sensorial field
that is rooted in its own material existence, as well as the physical presence of nat-
ural elements and human visitors within its walls.
Once visitors reach the bottom of the descending hill, they must turn to step
down through a cutting in a small natural wall (no. 4 in fig. 1). Moving in this
way through the rock, one has the impression of passing through the cave’s own
rocky substance into another space that the cave has rendered accessible (fig. 5).
The visitors subsequently step out onto a large, man-made, flattened platform,
whose orientation within the cave guided them to face back toward the entrance.48
47. Prior to the cave’s excavation, shepherds often took refuge from inclement weather in the
cave and lit bunches of wild thyme for light. The black smoke that thyme produces is responsible
for the darkness of the walls in some areas of the cave (Weller 1903: 274).
48. The flattened platform and its retaining wall were visible during the initial excavations, but
now, as Schörner and Goette note, little remains (Weller 1903: 281–82; Schörner and Goette 2004:
24, 31–41, 113; Yioutsos 2013: 35–55).
Fig. 6: Eastern room, Vari Cave. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology.

The landscape from the western room is repeated in the eastern cave, though its
higher ceiling, rounded dome shape, and fewer large stalactites would have pro-
duced a different auditory effect (fig. 6). Water continues to sound throughout this
eastern room. A small natural spring was located in the farthest eastern corner
and, together with the water that continuously drips from the stalactites, the sound
of running water would have filled the space.49 The cave would not have produced
a simple echo, however, but instead the many small stalactites and indentations in
the walls each shaped and bent any sound made within the cave, so that they would
have acquired a distinct, unique, wavering quality. Each natural element thus works
together to offer a distinct sensory experience to the visitor who, in turn, relies upon
memories from previous visits to evoke the cave’s rich sensory potential.50
3. IMAGE AND SOUND WITHIN THE VARI CAVE
Adding to, and even exaggerating, the uneven surface of the cave walls are a
number of human interventions onto the landscape, each of which would have further
49. When the cave was excavated, miniature loutrophoroi were uncovered around this space, perhaps
hinting at the spring’s role in purification rites that took place before a marriage (Wickens 1986: 90–121).
50. Hamilakis 2017: 172–75. On the relationship between acoustics and space see Blesser and Salter
2007: 2–3; Samuels et al. 2010: 338; Blesser and Salter 2012: 186; Butler and Nooter 2019: 1–12.
affected the cave’s sensory field and its ability to act upon all those who entered into
its deep recesses. Perhaps the clearest indication of human interaction within the cave
is a low relief carving of Archedemos (no. 5 in fig. 1), identified by two inscriptions,
one on top of the other, each of which reads ΑΡΧΕΔΗΜΟΣ (figs. 7a and 7b).51 He is
shown holding a chisel and architect’s triangle, as if he has recently finished carving
an altar for Apollo (no. 6 in fig. 1), the sounds of his work having just faded from
the cave.52
On the hill rising opposite the image of Archedemos and closest to the plat-
form upon which the visitor stands is a schematic, seated statue (no. 9 in fig. 1).
As its head is now missing and no attributes survive, the statue’s identity is
unclear. However, as it is seated on a throne, a possible identity is Kybele, though
Fig. 7a: Archedemos relief. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo: Author. ©

Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport Archaeological Receipts Fund.
51. IG I2 787. Weller 1903: 265; Connor 1988: 167; Schörner and Goette 2004: 42–44.
52. There has been much discussion on this image of Archedemos, namely, whether it can be
considered as an artist’s self-portrait. For more see Squire 2018: 444–47. Apollo is identified through
inscription, which has been traditionally read as “Apollonos Hersou” (IG I2 783) (Schörner and Goette
2004: 46–49; Pache 2011: 48–51). Dr. Alexandra Mari with the Greek ephoreia has also suggested
that the sigma in the inscription may have been flipped on its side, as the inscription was running
up against the wall of the altar; if this is the case, the inscription could read Apollo Hermes. She pre-
sented her work in a public lecture, “Cave Sanctuaries in Attica: The Cave of Pan at Vari,” on October
11, 2016, at the Athens Centre.
Fig. 7b: Archedemos inscriptions, adjacent to the relief. Ephorate of Speleology-

Paleoanthropology. Photo: Author. © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport
Archaeological Receipts Fund.
the complete lack of any identifying features makes this identification speculative,
at best.53 To the left of the seated figure is a small shrine in the shape of a naiskos,
a small templelike structure with columns or pilasters supporting a pointed roof.
The entire structure has been carved out from the rock of the hill that rises up from
the flattened platform below (no. 8 in fig. 1; fig. 8). The shrine is intended for Pan,
as made clear by an inscription that runs along the horizontal band of stone imme-
diately below, which reads ΠΑΝΟΣ.54
During the excavations, a fragment of a relief was found that may have been
displayed on top of Pan’s shrine, as its measurements and roughly triangular shape
roughly correspond to the size and form of the naiskos (fig. 9).55 The relief depicts
53. Weller 1903: 267–69; Schörner and Goette 2004: 35–38. Dr. Alexandra Mari suggested in
conversation following her October 2016 lecture that the statue could also be a seated Apollo, an iden-
tification that would tie the altar to Apollo and the large omphalos that once stood behind the seated
statue.
54. IG I2 781. Weller 1903: 266–67; Dunham 1903: 295; Schörner and Goette 2004: 49.
55. The most likely original position of this relief has been much debated. I follow Schörner and
Goette, who suggest that Pan’s large size makes it unlikely that he was accompanied by three Nymphs
and Hermes. Its location is similarly problematic. Weller first proposed that the triangular relief may
have been displayed in the niche dedicated to Pan. While Schörner and Goette argue that neither is
the figure large enough nor is the relief complex enough to justify its placement above the niche,
Weller’s reconstruction seems the most probable given the similarity between the dimensions of the
relief and the niche. For further discussion, see Weller 1903: 266; Edwards 1985: 447–49, no. 16;
Schörner and Goette 2004: 74–75.
Fig. 8: Naiskos, eastern room. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo: Author.

© Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport Archaeological Receipts Fund.
Fig. 9: Relief depicting Pan, from his shrine in the cave to the Nymphs (Vari Cave),
Mount Hymettos, 340–330 BCE. Coarse, grained marble; 25 × 36 cm (9 13/16 × 14 3/16
in.). Athens, National Archaeological Museum, NM 2013. Photo: Author. © Hellenic
Pan, though he is shown not in his typical guise as a half-goat, half-human figure
but rather as a fully anthropomorphic god.56 He reclines in a relaxed pose amid the
rocky landscape that mimics the space of the cave, so that the god appears to sit
within the very cave in which the worshipers stand. As he turns his head to one
side, he appears to look down at the visitors on the platform below, where they
stand next to Archedemos. Despite his unusual appearance in this scene, the god
still holds his two essential iconographical symbols: he grasps his syrinx in his left
hand and his lagobolon, or hunting stick, in his right. Both these objects reference
the pastoral landscape in which Pan resides, where he hunts rabbits and plays his
pipes to calm his sheep. The relief’s position above Pan’s shrine, which is one of
the most prominent elements on the hill, establishes the god’s musicality as one of
his essential characteristics within the Vari Cave sanctuary. It is this attention to
music and sound, already introduced with Archedemos’s inscription in metrical
poetry, that continues to inform the worshiper’s engagement with the god and
his or her broader experience within the cave.
Of the seven votive reliefs discovered in the Vari Cave during excavations,
Pan is represented as a musician on five of them,57 as well as more generally
throughout the corpus of fourth-century reliefs dedicated to Pan and the
Nymphs.58 Stylistically, great variation is found within the corpus, but there are
certain pictorial elements that typically appear, as illustrated by one of the reliefs
discovered in the Vari Cave (fig. 10).59 Here, as with most of the other surviving
reliefs, three large Nymphs occupy most of the visual field, where they hold hands
and dance across the surface of the relief. Pan joins them and holds a syrinx;
though he occasionally keeps the instrument by his side, on this relief, as with
most of the surviving scenes from the Vari Cave, he lifts the pipes to his mouth
to play them. Hermes, as the Nymphs’ companion, is shown leading the
Nymphs in dance as they move to Pan’s music. Finally, Acheloös, the primordial
river god, is regularly included and typically appears as a mask on the bottom left
corner of the relief.60
The surviving reliefs offer a visual enhancement of the evocative sensory field
established by the Vari Cave and experienced by its visitors. Within the cave, the
56. In fact, as Schörner and Goette point out (2004: 75), the youthful anthropomorphic Pan has
no parallel on votive reliefs from the Classical period. See also Brommer 1938: 376–81 and 1949:
5–42; Edwards 1985: 447–49, no. 16. The syrinx is Pan’s instrument of choice, though it is claimed
to have been invented by Hermes at the end of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (512).
57. Based on niches cut into the walls of the cave and the holes that run along the small terraces
that would have supported the votives with their stone tenons, it seems likely that all the reliefs were
once displayed in this area. Schörner and Goette 2004: 60–77.
58. Edwards 1985.
59. Dunham 1903: 289, no. 1; Thallon 1903: 302–304, no. 1; Svoronos 1908–1937: 3:586–87,
no. 237, pl. 99; Feubel 1935: xv, no. II b 4 a; Isler 1981: no. 184; Edwards 1985: no. 51; Güntner
1994: 10–13, 16, 18, no. A41; Vikela 1997: 224–25; Schörner and Goette 2004: 60–62.
60. For a comprehensive discussion of Acheloös and a catalogue of images depicting the god see
Isler 1970.
Fig. 10: Votive relief depicting Pan and the Nymphs, from the cave to the Nymphs (Vari
Cave) on Mount Hymettos, 320–300 BCE. Pentelic marble; 30 × 42 cm (11 13/16 × 16 9/
16 in.). Athens, National Archaeological Museum, NM 2007. Photo: Author. © Hellenic
reliefs were set up throughout the hill in the eastern room, though likely not on top
of stelai as was common for fourth-century reliefs, but rather, based on the surviv-
ing cuttings in the rock, inset into a hole drilled down into the hill. Set into the
cave’s upward incline in this way, the images would have loomed over the visitors
as they entered the eastern room but, as the worshipers approached, they would
have been visible at eye level or even slightly below. Each relief would likely have
also been brightly painted, so that the divine bodies would have stood out against
the rocky cave landscape, almost appearing to dance and play music upon the very
rock of the cave.
Further enhancing the gods’ position within the cave is the undulating, rocky
frame that surrounds each relief; almost the entire corpus of votive reliefs dedi-
cated to Pan and the Nymphs exhibits this feature.61 The sculpted cave thus refers
both to the cave in which the relief was deposited and to the material substance
61. A notable exception is the relief dedicated to the Nymphs by Telephanes, Nikeratos, and
Demophilos, which is surrounded by an architectural frame. The relief, which can be dated to
350–320 BCE, was found in the Cave of Pan and the Nymphs on Mount Penteli. Athens,
National Archaeological Museum, NM 4465, 4465a.
Fig. 11: Votive relief depicting Pan and the Nymphs, from the cave to the Nymphs (Vari
Cave) on Mount Hymettos, 320–300 BCE. Likely Hymettian marble; 68 (including tenon) ×
70 cm (26 3/4 × 27 9/16 in.). Athens, National Archaeological Museum, NM 2009.
from which the image was made. Ancient viewers, who looked at the reliefs within
the actual, physical space of the Vari Cave, would have perceived a clear repeti-
tion, a visual doubling, between the frame and the walls of the cave. One relief
was even carved into a roughly triangular shape (fig. 11), while yet another was
shaped into a tall, rounded hill, each echoing the shape of the very mountain into
which the cave descended.62 When looking at the reliefs, perhaps even walking
among them on the hill, the ancient worshipers encountered a mimetic echo
between the actual, physical cave in which the relief was dedicated and the
sculpted cave that surrounds the dancing gods. This perceived blurring, enhanced
and encouraged by the rock frames and landscape setting of each relief, would
62. Thallon 1903: 290, 306, 312, pl. V; Svoronos 1908–1937: 587, no. 238, pl. 100; Feubel
1935: xii, no. II.21, 38; Isler 1981: 34, no. 177; Edwards 1985: 572–77, no. 40; Schörner and
Goette 2004: 64–67, pl. 39.3. The inscription has been most recently restored and translated by
Schörner and Goette 2004: 64–67. IG II2 4650 (SEG 54 318.) Vertical relief: Votive relief dedicated
to the Nymphs, from the Vari Cave on Mount Hymettos, 340–330 BCE, white marble, 52 × 36 cm.
Athens, National Archaeological Museum, NM 2011. Thallon 1903: 312–13, pl. V; Svoronos
1908–1937: 634, no. 342, pl. 137; Speier 1932: 76, pl. 22–23; Feubel 1935: IV, no. I.III, 6–8;
Fuchs 1959: 36, n.74 and 1962: 247, pl. 67; Edwards 1985: 439–46, no. 15; Güntner 1994: 120,
no. A16, pl. 3; Kaltsas 2002: 218, no. 450; Schörner and Goette 2004: 69–71, pl. 41.1.
Fig. 11b: Detail of figure 11.
have allowed the images to fold into the cave’s own landscape, the visitor’s sen-
sory experience of the reliefs collapsing into their physical experience of the
cave.63 The repetition between landscape and image, sanctuary and icon, not only
draws attention to the importance the physical cave had for the Athenians’ concep-
tion of the Nymphs and their activities, but suggests that it both determined and
created the conditions in which worshipers experienced the presence of the gods.
The sheep and goats that are often depicted on the frame of the reliefs echo this
visual blurring between divine image and sacred space, because they recall the ani-
mals that roam the slopes of Mount Hymettos, the shepherds who enter the cave to
rest with their flocks, and the goats that run with Pan in the countryside.
The presence of Acheloös in most of the reliefs further aids in enhancing the
sensory field established by the Vari Cave. Water’s pervasive presence throughout
the cave may be associated with the similarly ubiquitous presence of Acheloös, the
god of the large river in northern Greece but also originally the god of all rivers.64
The sound of the water as it drips and falls from the stalactites or moves within the
spring thus becomes more than the material presence of naturally occurring water
63. The cave frame on each relief, therefore, is essential to the image’s visual theology. On visual
theology see Gordon 1979: 5–34; Vernant 1985a: 339–51 and 1985b: 325–38; Elsner 1996: 518;
Tanner 2006; Platt 2017: 384, 390; Gaifman 2017: 392–424.
64. Isler 1981: 12–36.
and, instead, becomes almost indistinguishable from the god.65 The omnipresence
of water, combined with the repeated depiction of Acheloös on the reliefs where he
emerges from the cave walls, reinforces the visitor’s impression that the god is
eternally present and hints at the way that watery sounds move throughout the
space. The water that Acheloös embodies may thus be conceived as dripping from
the rocky material of the Vari Cave, so that each time visitors heard the water or
felt it drip upon them, they experienced the physical presence of the river god.
Above all, by drawing out the connections between the reliefs and the water and
rock of their physical surroundings, the images establish the environment of the
Vari Cave as one that is materially divine.
4. REPRESENTATIONS OF DIVINE MUSIC

In our analysis of the Vari Cave’s sensorial field, we must also consider the
images of music-making and dancing that were carved on the votive reliefs. On
three of them (figs. 10, 11, and 12), the Nymphs are shown, above all, as a visual
spectacle to be enjoyed by their human audience. In each scene, as is particularly
highlighted by the triangular relief (fig. 11), the influence of Pan’s music is clearly
felt by the Nymphs, who hold hands and dance forward as a group. Their rhythmic
movements are delineated and emphasized by the drapery that falls across their
bodies, sweeping diagonally down around their legs, swirling around their feet,
and finally trailing out behind them. Both of these elements, the joined figures
and the active drapery, are typical iconographic features that suggest that the fig-
ures are performing a choral dance.66 Worshipers would have realized the presence
of Pan’s music by the interconnectedness of his actions with those of the Nymphs;
when seen together, the meaning of their gestures complements each other’s. In
other words, Pan’s music-making is visually comprehensible insofar as the
Nymphs dance, and the Nymphs dance insofar as Pan plays his pipes and provides
the music for their movements. The reliefs thus make clear that the divinities’
musical performance and choral dancing is essential to the composition and signif-
icance of the reliefs, and perhaps even to the particular character of the divinities as
they were worshiped in the Vari Cave.
65. The prominence of water in the cave was also noted by Wickens, who writes that “there is
much dripping water in the cave” (1986: 92).
66. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite introduces dancing Nymphs when Aphrodite narrates her
abduction by Hermes (117–41, 254–76). The Nymphs dance alongside Pan in the wilderness of
Arcadia, as well as with Dionysos through the “boundless forest” (Hymn. Hom. Pan., 3; Hymn.
Hom. 26 Bacch., 9–10). The image of female divinities holding hands during a dance also appears
in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (194–202) (Lonsdale 1994–1995: 25–40). Later fifth-century comedy
develops the theme of Nymphs dancing throughout the wild Greek landscape; see, e.g., Ar. Av. 1099;
Nub. 271. The study of dance in antiquity is growing, and a selection of recent works on dance in
Greece includes Lonsdale 1993; Calame 2001; Shapiro 2004: 299–343; Ceccarelli 2004: 92–117
and 2013: 153–70; Smith 2014: 85–94; Naerebout 2015: 107–119; Smith 2016: 145–64;
Gianvittorio 2017; Olsen 2017: 153–74.
Fig. 12: Votive relief dedicated to the Nymphs by Eukleides, Eukles, and Lakrates, from
the cave to the Nymphs (Vari Cave) on Mount Hymettos, 340–330 BCE. White marble;
40 × 50 cm (15 3/4 × 19 11/16 in.). Athens, National Archaeological Museum, NM 2008.
The votive reliefs in the Vari Cave refine its living materiality by adding their
own visualized and imagined musicality to its sensory field. More specifically, the
votive reliefs contributed to the visitors’ perception of the Vari Cave by making
visible the musical and danced performance of the gods. The images’ compositions
invite us, the modern visitors to the cave, to consider what sensory experience the
ancient worshipers sought to engender by depositing votive reliefs that depicted
the gods singing and dancing. As such, the very composition of the reliefs suggests
how they interacted with, and even amplified, the performance of ritual within the
cave sacred to Pan and the Nymphs.
In each surviving example, the sculpted reliefs present a consistent portrayal of
the divinities and firmly situate the gods within the walls of the cave, so that the
sounds, sights, and other sensations provoked by the cave’s material agency are
also shown to affect the gods depicted in the reliefs. Positioned on the rising hill
in the dark cave, and blending into the rocky landscape into which they were dis-
played, the reliefs would have brought the presence of the gods to bear upon the
visitors’ imagination, asking them to imagine the sounds of Pan’s pipes, to play
their own music together with the god, and to recall how it might feel to respond
to his music, joining the Nymphs’ communal dance across the deliberately
flattened floor.67 This process of perception becomes one of collaboration between

the worshiper, the perceiving agent who reacts to his or her sensuous surroundings
and even enhances his or her reaction, and the physical object, whose materiality
actively encourages sensory perception. Within the framework of embodied and
sensory reciprocity developed between worshiper and image in the specific senso-
rial field established by the Vari Cave, the images communicate the physical effect
the imagined sounds of divine music might have had on its audience. The worshi-
pers who descended into the cave and encountered the reliefs depicting Pan play-
ing his syrinx and the Nymphs dancing to the music could have thus experienced
divine presence through a conflation of sensory perceptions. Moreover, in walking
around the reliefs, engaging in similar musical activities, hearing or remembering
the sounds of water dripping and the shrill notes of the syrinx, and imaginatively
conflating those man-made or natural sounds with the otherworldly sounds of
the gods, the worshiper’s own sensory perception of the cave’s environment
becomes an essential element in the performance of ritual and the relationship with
the gods who resided in this particular sacred space. Therefore, while music may
have been performed within the caves and may even have been required as worshi-
pers approached the sanctuary, much as it is described in Menander’s comedy,
divine musical sounds and choral dance were already virtually present in the cave
through their inclusion in the votive reliefs.
The triangular relief from the Vari Cave also demonstrates the potential effect
that Pan’s music may have had upon ancient visitors by visually presenting the goat
god as a mediator between Nymph and mortal worshiper. Here, Pan sits cross-
legged on the top of the triangular frame, at the apex of the mountain in which the
sculpted cave is located (fig. 11b). Up on the hillside, away from humans, he is
shown surrounded by his goats, his experience away from the cave acting almost
as an index of the visitors’ own experiences of traveling to the cave, passing animals
as they walked up Mount Hymettos.68 Positioned on the frame, Pan marks the point
of separation between the figures within the relief and those mortal viewers who
exist beyond it, as the frame visually delineates the image from its surroundings
while it also mediates the distance between the two.69 The frame embodies both
the material rockiness of the cave and the hard marble stone from which the relief
was carved. Through the shared materiality between cave and relief, the mimetic
repetition between image and landscape allows both agents—that is, the cave’s
physical landscape and the divine world depicted in the relief—to work together
67. Small rocks were used to fill in holes in the floor, while other protrusions seem to have been
smoothed out. Yioutsos further notes that, based on unpublished conversation with E. M. Chatzioti,
the Nymphs’ cave in Poros in Cephalonia may display a similar attention to establishing a level floor
by using small rocks to fill any cavities (Yioutsos 2013: 42, 52n.41; Schörner and Goette 2004: 113).
68. On this relief, Pan’s placement on the frame may also be interpreted as acknowledging the
journey taken by his worshipers, who had to walk through the mountainous landscape to reach the
cave.
69. Hurwit 1977: 1–30; Derrida 1987: 52–68; Platt and Squire 2017b: 3–99; Gaifman 2017:
392–424.
upon the worshiper’s perception and experience within the shrine. In occupying the
liminal space that belongs neither to the image proper nor to the external cave, Pan
moves between and mediates the sensory and imagined experiences available to his
human worshipers by bringing them into contact with those of the gods depicted
within the image. Not only are the Nymphs and Hermes shown dancing within their
dark cave, but their experience of moving throughout the sculpted cave is made
accessible and comprehensible to the visitors through Pan, who visually connects
the worshipers’ own experiences of the Vari Cave with those of the divinities.
Pan, however, is not the only god who bridges the distance between human and
divine perception in these scenes; he is regularly shown coordinating his actions
with Hermes, who, in turn, similarly transgresses the limitations of the visual field.70
In the central scene of the triangular relief, Hermes leads the Nymphs’ dance past a
low altar, made up of roughly assembled round stones. He moves to the left, passing
underneath Pan, who lifts his syrinx to his mouth and fills the scene with his music.
Just as Pan’s liminal position blurs the distinction between the relief and the cave,
so, too, does it allow his music, which fills the space of the frame, to oscillate
between the image and the outside world, further encouraging his human audience
to imagine the sounds. His melody further aids in breaking down the boundary sep-
arating the relief and the cave. As the frame becomes permeable, Hermes reaches out
with his right hand, piercing the cave wall. Moreover, Hermes not only appears to
move within the image, where he leads the Nymphs’ dance, but also seems to depart
from the relief entirely in order to enter the cave, passing through the damp, rocky
walls from which water, or perhaps even the god Acheloös, drips and falls to the
ground.
Just as the depiction of Pan’s music asks the visitors to recall the sounds of his
instrument and contribute both that sound and their imagined kinesthetic response
to it to their experience within the cave, so, too, does the Nymphs’ dance ask their
worshipers to respond to the god’s music, to feel it move through their bodies. This
provocation is particularly evident in the relief dedicated by Eukleides, Eukles, and
Lakrates in the Vari Cave (fig. 12).71 The main visual field is taken up by the three
dancing Nymphs, establishing them as the focal point within the scene. Hermes
walks in front of them, guiding their movements as he holds out his kerykeion in
his left hand. Pan stands to the right, lifts his syrinx to his mouth, and fills the cave
with the music to which the Nymphs dance. Indeed, the connection between the
Nymphs’ dance and Pan’s music is drawn out through their visual connection with
each other: as the Nymph at far right takes a step to pass Pan, on her left, her foot
overlaps with his, explicitly linking danced step with rhythmic music. The other
two Nymphs also display a profound relationship with the god’s music. The central
Nymph, depicted almost frontally facing and carved in the deepest relief, has tilted
70. Laferrière 2019: 31–48.

71. IG II2 4651. Edwards notes that this seems to be the earliest representation of Pan standing.
Thallon 1903: 304–305, pl. IV; Feubel 1935: 33–34; Fuchs 1962: 244; Edwards 1985: 489–95, no. 23;
Güntner 1994: 123, A35; Schörner and Goette 2004: 62–64, pl. 38.2.
her head back as she dances forward, seemingly absorbed in the music. Similarly,
the Nymph at the beginning of the line, shown in profile, takes a strong step to the
left, thereby creating the forward momentum that pulls her companions with her in
the dance. Indeed, her steps are taken with such enthusiasm and energy that her
robes sweep out behind her, framing the entire altar. The energy with which the
divinities perform their dance, and the degree to which they are shown absorbed
in Pan’s musical performance, could well have prompted the worshipers in the
cave to imagine the music that could so captivate and inspire the dancers.
As the Nymphs dance to Pan’s song in the relief dedicated by Eukleides, Eukles,
and Lakrates, they make their way through their dark cave, moving around the altar.
However, the Nymphs and Hermes are depicted in such a way as to suggest that
through their dance they also transgress the spatial boundaries of the image itself.
Hermes guides the Nymphs’ movements forward toward a frontal mask of
Acheloös, who, embedded in a small, rounded, arched cave, evokes the water that
drips down the walls. Despite his forward movement, Hermes is depicted facing the
frontal plane of the relief, so that he steps outward, toward the viewer. Moreover,
Hermes, with his right hand, touches Acheloös’s horn, penetrating the boundary of
the cave wall as he steps through and across it. Similarly, upon closer inspection,
the Nymph at far right appears almost to walk into the relief, her foot making contact
with Pan and the cave wall on her way. When taken together, the four figures create a
semicircle within the space of the relief. The Nymphs’ danced movements invite the
viewer to participate in their performance, to take up the final Nymph’s hand and join
in their chorus.72 In this invitation to the worshipers to perceive the sensory world
within the cave in a similar way as do the gods depicted in the reliefs, the boundaries
between image and reality fall away, so that all that remains is the sensory experience
of moving through the dark cave, feeling and hearing the water drip all around, play-
ing musical instruments, listening to the sounds bounce and distort off the walls, and
dancing together upon the cave’s flattened floor.
5. CONCLUSION
Within the Vari Cave’s distinct landscape and soundscape, where rock, water,
and music framed one’s experience of the space, ancient worshipers would have
encountered its sounds, an expansive view of its landscape, the traces and memo-
ries of previous worship and devotion, and evocative images of the gods playing
music and dancing. All these elements, both natural and man-made, contributed
to the ancient visitors’ sensory perception of the cave, so that their ritual
72. The occurrence of circle dances is much debated. Here I do not argue that the Nymphs nec-
essarily dance in a circle, but rather that their movements on this and other reliefs suggest an aware-
ness of the external world and a desire to incorporate the human viewer into their movements. Calame,
in his discussion of the circle dance as it appears in lyric, points out that Callimachus, in the Hymn to
Artemis, describes the Nymphs dancing in a circular chorus around Artemis (Calame 2001: 34–36).
experience within this particular sacred space is inseparable from that of the cave’s
landscape, their own music and dance performances, and their commission and
deposition of votive reliefs.
As I have argued, the rocky materiality shared between the votive reliefs and the
cave layers the Vari Cave’s sounds onto the space occupied by the gods, so that wor-
shiper and god occupy the same landscape or, perhaps more accurately, the same
“sensory scape.” Within this visually, sonically, and sensorially unified space, the
worshipers could imagine the sounds of Pan’s song swirling around them, inviting
them to join in the gods’ celebration, so that the two male gods, the Nymphs, and
the human audience could dance together. The Vari Cave thus absorbs the worshi-
pers into its sensorial field, which consists of rock, water, the play of darkness and
light, religious shrines, votive reliefs, and even the gods. Once immersed into this
evocative world filled with the sights and sounds of the cave, the activities per-
formed by human visitors, and a multitude of divine bodies making music and danc-
ing, worshipers were open to an embodied experience of the gods. As such, they
were not only the passive audience for the gods’ performance but, as equally active
forces within the cave’s material agency, they, too, could become part of the cave’s
sensorial field and experience the gods’ presence through their own material unity
with the Vari Cave.
Yale University
carolyn.laferriere@yale.edu
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Sacred Sounds: The Cult of Pan and the

With [Pan] the clear-singing mountain nymphs, tripping

σὺν δέ σφιν τότε νύμφαι ὀρεστιάδες λιγύμολποι

1. THE CAVE AS A MATERIAL BODY

2. VISITING THE VARI CAVE

If we consider the Vari Cave as an active agent that participates in determining

Fig. 2: Western room, Vari Cave. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo:

Fig. 4: IG I2 788. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo: Author. © Hellenic

the sound produced by the abundance of water was conceptualized as an auditory

With this inscription, Archedemos clearly establishes his identity as a Theran,

Fig. 6: Eastern room, Vari Cave. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology.

3. IMAGE AND SOUND WITHIN THE VARI CAVE

Fig. 7a: Archedemos relief. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo: Author. ©

Fig. 7b: Archedemos inscriptions, adjacent to the relief. Ephorate of Speleology-

Fig. 8: Naiskos, eastern room. Ephorate of Speleology-Paleoanthropology. Photo: Author.

Fig. 11b: Detail of figure 11.

4. REPRESENTATIONS OF DIVINE MUSIC

flattened floor.67 This process of perception becomes one of collaboration between

70. Laferrière 2019: 31–48.

Pache, C. O. 2011. A Moment’s Ornament: The Poetics of Nympholepsy in Ancient Greece.

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