The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race Volume I Part 10

This consideration may, however, in some measure a.s.sist; namely, that as soon as Apollo was once supposed to be as an earthly G.o.d, as the ideal of all human strength, it was necessary to add also a female being. And the near approximation of the male to the female deity may be accounted for by the condition of the Doric women, who were much more considered as independent beings, and possessed a capability for all those other things which adorn the other s.e.x.

3. But the most difficult part of our problem still remains unsolved; viz.

to ascertain what was the wors.h.i.+p of Artemis, which had not the same origin and nature with that of Apollo. First of all we should mention the Arcadian. That G.o.ddess has nowhere so many temples as in Arcadia; she was there the national deity, and had been long revered, under the t.i.tle of "_Hymnia_", by all the races of that people.(1548) She was also introduced under the name of Callisto into the national genealogies, and called the daughter of Lycaon(1549) (_i.e._ of the Lycaean Zeus), and mother of Arcas (_i.e._ of the Arcadian people). For that Callisto is only another form of the name of Artemis Calliste, which is a common epithet of Artemis, is plain from the fact that the tomb of that heroine was shown in the temple of the G.o.ddess,(1550) and that Callisto was said to be changed into a bear, which was the symbol of the Arcadian Artemis.(1551) Afterwards, indeed, the fable was much altered; and it was related that Artemis changed Callisto into a bear merely from anger.(1552) But that this ancient Arcadian deity was not the Doric Artemis is proved by the above-mentioned criterion; viz. that she has no connexion with Apollo.

Another circ.u.mstance, however, speaks even still plainer. Apollo and his sister seldom received any particular surnames from places where they were wors.h.i.+pped;(1553) whereas the other Artemis has almost innumerable names from the mountains, hills, fountains, and waters of Arcadia, and the other regions of Peloponnesus. Hence Alcman remarks that the G.o.ddess bears the names of thousands of hills, cities, and rivers.(1554) There must have been, therefore, something in the attributes of this Arcadian Artemis which produced such a number of local names; she must have been considered as united and connected with the country in which she was wors.h.i.+pped. This leads to the notion of an elementary G.o.ddess, of a similar, though more universal nature than nymphs of the mountains, rivers, and brooks.

Accordingly we find that this ancient Peloponnesian Artemis was nearly connected with lakes, fountains, and rivers. She was wors.h.i.+pped in several places under the t.i.tles of Limnatis and Heleia.(1555) There were frequently also fountains in the temples of Artemis: viz., at Corinth, Marius, Mothone,(1556) and near the district of Derrhiatis in Laconia.(1557) She likewise received great honours at the c.l.i.torian fountain of Lusi.(1558) Among rivers, those she was most connected with are the Cladeus and the Alpheus.(1559) The moist and watery district, through which this latter stream flows into the sea, was filled with temples of the nymphs of Aphrodite and Artemis, among which the sanctuary of the Alphean Artemis(1560) is most remarkable. There were in that temple paintings of Cleanthus and Aregon of Corinth, which were chiefly on subjects relating to religion; as, for instance, that of Poseidon presenting a thunny-fish to Zeus while in the act of producing Athene.(1561) All this naturally suggests the idea of a G.o.ddess who produced a flouris.h.i.+ng and vigorous life from the element of water; and hence we would not entirely reject the popular faith of the Phigaleans, that Eurynome, the G.o.ddess of fish, and herself represented as half a fish, was an Artemis.(1562)

4. The mention of the river Alpheus reminds us of Sicily, whither, in order to catch the fountain Arethusa, which was swallowed up in the land of Elis, he is said to have followed her under the sea, and to have first reached her in the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse.(1563) This singular fable may perhaps be explained by the following considerations. Syracuse was founded in the 5th Olympiad by Corinthians, with whom were some settlers from the district of Olympia, and particularly some members of the family of the Iamidae, who held a sacred office at the altar of the Olympian Zeus.(1564) These joint colonists (s??????st??e? according to the expression of Pindar) appear to have had sufficient weight in the new city to introduce their own religion and mythology. For, as we have seen above, Artemis was wors.h.i.+pped at Olympia as the G.o.ddess of the Alpheus, being generally considered in that country as presiding over lakes and rivers.

She had in the grove of Altis an altar, together with Alpheus;(1565) and there was there a popular legend, that Alpheus had once loved Artemis. Now the settlers that went from this district to Syracuse, in their first expedition, confined themselves to the island of Ortygia. Here they built a temple to the river-G.o.ddess Artemis; a sanctuary of so great fame, that Pindar calls the whole island "the seat of Artemis, the river-G.o.ddess.(1566)" There was, however, no river in Ortygia, and therefore Artemis was supposed to regret her beloved Alpheus. Hence arose the belief that Arethusa, a fountain near the temple, contained the sacred water of the Alpheus;(1567) a belief which was strengthened by the circ.u.mstance that large fish were found in the spring;(1568) and from this arose the fable that Alpheus had followed the G.o.ddess to Sicily. But Artemis was supposed to fly from the pursuit of Alpheus.(1569) This at least was the fiction followed by Telesilla, a poetess who lived in the 64th Olympiad;(1570) and the same fable was perhaps adopted by Pindar.(1571) Afterwards, however, the precise meaning and origin of this fable were forgotten; and the fountain-nymph Arethusa took the place of Artemis, and became the object of the pursuit of the river-G.o.d.(1572) Such appears to have been the origin of the elegant fable of Alpheus and Arethusa.

We now return to the Peloponnesian Artemis, and will mention some of her other symbols and attributes. Her statue stood next to that of Demeter, at Megalopolis, dressed in the skin of a deer, with a quiver on her back, holding a torch in one hand, and two serpents in the other, with a dog by her side.(1573) The connexion which existed between her and the Arcadian Demeter is probably more ancient than this statue; and indeed the symbol of the deer seems to have been common in Arcadia to both Artemis and Cora, called in Arcadia _despna_.(1574) She was also wors.h.i.+pped with Bacchus;(1575) and, like him, had phallic festivals.(1576) From her connexion with fountains and rivers, and other rural objects, it was natural that this Artemis should be considered as the patron of wild animals. Thus aeschylus calls her "the protectress of young lions, and the whelps of other wild beasts."(1577) In like manner she was supposed to preside over the breeding of horses,(1578) and generally over the nurture of infants and children;(1579) it was therefore by a perversion of the original idea that she took the character of a huntress, the enemy and destroyer of wild animals. An a.n.a.logous inconsistency to that before pointed out in the attributes of the _Doric_ Apollo and Artemis, who were represented as both protecting and destroying.(1580)

5. By the mythological symbol of Artemis Callisto, the bear, we are reminded of some ceremonies at Athens, where young girls, between the ages of five and ten years (who were consecrated to the Munychian and Brauronian Artemis), were called _bears_;(1581) and the G.o.ddess herself, in some singular traditions, is represented as a bear calling for human blood.(1582) When the Ionians went from Athens to Asia, they carried the wors.h.i.+p of the Munychian G.o.ddess to Miletus and Cyzicus;(1583) and to the former city the kindred wors.h.i.+p of Artemis Chitone, as the G.o.ddess presiding over birth, whose wooden statues were made of fructiferous wood.(1584)

6. The consideration of the Attic festival of Artemis leads again to another variety of the wors.h.i.+p of Artemis; viz., to that of Artemis Orthosia, Orthia, or Iphigenia. We will first give the traditions and facts as we find them. Iphigenia, coming from Tauria to Attica, was supposed to have landed at Brauron, and at the neighbouring Halae Araphenides, and left behind her the ancient wooden image of Artemis.(1585) Here she was immediately interwoven with the heroic genealogy, and called the daughter of Theseus.(1586) In Sparta there was a temple of Artemis Orthia in a damp part of the city, called Limnaeum, where was also shown a wooden statue, which had come from Tauria.(1587) As to the introduction of the wors.h.i.+p, it is said that Astrabacus and Alopecus (the a.s.s and fox), the sons of Irbus, descendants of Agis in the fourth generation (about 900 B.C.), had found the image in a bush, and had been struck mad by the sight of it; that the Limnatae, and other villages of Sparta, had upon this offered sacrifices to them, when a quarrel arose, and murder ensued. A number of men were killed at the altar; and accordingly the G.o.ddess called for victims to atone for the pollution; instead of which, in later times, the scourging of boys was inst.i.tuted, over the severity of which the priestess presided.(1588) It is remarkable that this was immediately followed by a p?p? ??d??, a Lydian procession.(1589)

From this narration it follows that the scourging was considered as a subst.i.tute for human sacrifice; and further, that the wors.h.i.+p was looked upon as of a foreign origin: notwithstanding this, it was completely interwoven into the Lacedaemonian mythology. For it can be shown that the pretended daughter of Agamemnon, Iphigenia, is no other than the Taurian G.o.ddess, who was actually wors.h.i.+pped in several cities of Greece under the name of ?f????e?a. Considered as a heroine, indeed, she became first, instead of the G.o.ddess thirsting for human sacrifice, the virgin sacrificed to her; and, secondly, her sacrificing priestess.(1590) According to the Cyprian poems (for Homer knew nothing of her) Iphigenia was sacrificed to Artemis; but was by her brought to Tauria, and made immortal, a deer (or, according to others, a bear, and also a bull) having been left in her place;(1591) Hesiod also represented her as immortal, viz., as Hecate.(1592) The sacrifice was supposed to have taken place at Aulis, because there was a temple (probably of the Orthosian Artemis) near the port, to whom sacrifices were made at the pa.s.sage.(1593)

This wors.h.i.+p probably came to Laconia from Lemnos,(1594) one of its princ.i.p.al seats. In early tradition Lemnos was probably identical with Tauria,(1595) and the latter country derived its poetical name from the symbol of the bull, in the same manner as Lycia in later times took its name from the symbol of the wolf. In Lemnos also a great G.o.ddess was anciently wors.h.i.+pped with sacrifices of virgins; to which place the wooden image is said to have been brought from Brauron. This opinion becomes more evident by a comparison with the wors.h.i.+p of Chryse. Agamemnon is said to have been the father of Chryse as well as of Iphigenia,(1596) and also, according to others, of a son Chryses, who went to Tauria with Orestes.(1597) Now it is certain that Chryse was a G.o.ddess, who had from early times been wors.h.i.+pped both at Lemnos and Samothrace. The Argonauts under Hercules and Jason were said to have sacrificed to her; and her ancient wooden image, raised over an hearth of unhewn stones, is often represented on ancient vases.(1598) Philoctetes is said to have been bitten by the viper(1599) when he discovered this altar.(1600) This G.o.ddess Chryse, who is also called Athene, was probably only a different form of her sister Iphigenia.

The wors.h.i.+p of both these G.o.ddesses spread to other places, to the north of the aegean sea. Thus on the coast of Byzantium there was an altar of Artemis Orthosia;(1601) and opposite to it, at Chrysopolis, was the tomb of Chryses, the son of Agamemnon, who, in his search after Iphigenia, was said to have died there.(1602) It is evident that this system of religious names was arbitrarily transferred to the genealogy of the Lacedaemonian kings, and most curiously interwoven with the Trojan mythology. The Greeks first became acquainted with Tauria by their voyages to Miletus; and they gave it a name already celebrated in their mythology. They found there some sanguinary rites of a G.o.ddess, which, by partly softening the name, they called _Oreiloche_;(1603) they also found human sacrifices, which they supposed to be offered to Iphigenia;(1604) their own wors.h.i.+p of that deity bore so many marks of ancient barbarism, that they were willing to consider the northern barbarians as its authors. Yet it is certain that the Tauric Artemis was no more derived from the Taurians, than the aethiopian Artemis from the aethiopians,(1605) &c. In Asia Minor(1606) also there were modes of wors.h.i.+p, which the Greeks compared with the rites of the Orthosian Artemis, of the similarity of which we shall presently treat.

7. Hitherto we have merely collected the fabulous narrations of the ancients, and attempted to show their connexion; we shall next speak of the ceremonies which attended the wors.h.i.+p of this G.o.ddess or G.o.ddesses.

In the first place we will treat of the meaning and character of this truly mystical wors.h.i.+p.(1607) We have a G.o.ddess adored with frantic and enthusiastic orgies, certain signs of an elementary religion, as well as with human sacrifices, which the character of the Greeks endeavoured only to moderate and to enn.o.ble; it appears to have originally resembled the Arcadian wors.h.i.+p of Callisto; but that it acquired at Lemnos, from the proximity of the Asiatic religion, a wilder and more extravagant form, which it retained after its return to Attica and Laconia. It cannot be a matter of doubt that Artemis Tauropolus is nearly identical with the Taurian G.o.ddess; this name of the G.o.ddess was established in Samos (where cakes of sesamy and honey were offered to her on solemn festivals),(1608) in the neighbouring island of Icarus,(1609) and at Amphipolis.(1610) The ceremonies were undoubtedly enthusiastic, as the G.o.ddess herself was considered as striking the mind with madness;(1611) and b.l.o.o.d.y, because the wors.h.i.+p at Aricia was considered like it.(1612)

8. We are now to consider those temples of Artemis which had a purely Asiatic, and not a Grecian origin, and are wholly distinct, not only from the Doric, but also from the Arcadian wors.h.i.+p of Artemis.

The Ephesian Artemis was doubtless found by the Ionians, when they settled on that coast, as already an object of wors.h.i.+p, in her temple,(1613) situated in a marshy valley of the Cayster.(1614) From some real or accidental resemblance in the attributes of the Munychian and Ephesian G.o.ddesses, they called the latter "Artemis;" yet, wherever her wors.h.i.+p spread, she was always distinguished by the additional t.i.tle of "Ephesian."(1615) Every thing that is related of the wors.h.i.+p of this deity is singular and foreign to the Greeks. Her constant symbol is the bee, which is not otherwise attributed to Artemis; the other attributes, which adorned her statues in later times, are too far-fetched to admit of any conclusion being drawn from them. The bee, however, appears originally to have been the symbol of nourishment;(1616) the chief priest himself was called ?ss??, or the king-bee: some of the other sacerdotal names are of barbarous, and not Greek derivation.(1617) The G.o.ds, by whom this great G.o.ddess(1618) was surrounded, must also have been of a peculiar description. It is not probable that Latona was _originally_ called her mother,(1619) as Apollo is never joined with her.(1620) Her nurse appears to have been called _Ammas_.(1621) Hercules is said to have proclaimed her birth from mount Ceryceum.(1622) This Hercules may perhaps be some native demiG.o.d, possibly one of the Idaean Dactyli, whose names were, according to some, contained in Ephesian incantations, which were inscribed at the foot of her statues.(1623)

9. Thus much concerns the character of this wors.h.i.+p, which appears, like an isolated point, projecting from a religious system, otherwise confined to the western parts of Greece.

As to its origin, the unanimous tradition of antiquity is that it was founded by the Amazons, This legend had probably been mentioned in some of the ancient epic poems before it was alluded to by Pindar;(1624) and that it was also preserved on the spot appears from the celebrated contest of Phidias, Polycleitus, and other artists, to make statues of Amazons for the Ephesian temple: lately also a sarcophagus was found near Ephesus representing the battle of the Amazons.(1625) The traditions respecting the foundation of the cities of Smyrna, c.u.me, Myrlea, Myrina, aeolis, Priene, Mytilene, and Pitane also make mention of the Amazons.(1626) With respect to the meaning of Amazons, it has rightly (in my opinion) been supposed that the idea of them was suggested by the sight of the innumerable female slaves (?e??d?????) who were employed about the temples of Asia Minor.(1627) According to Callimachus also the Amazons danced to the sound of the pipe round the statue which had been newly raised on the trunk of an elm-tree. It is also stated as an historical fact, that, even in the times of the Ionians, women of the Amazon race dwelt round the temple;(1628) although virgins only were permitted to enter the sanctuary itself.(1629) It appears therefore that the G.o.ddess upon whom these Amazons attended, being represented as a beneficent and nouris.h.i.+ng deity, was likewise supposed to have the attributes of war and destruction; a double and opposite character, which we have traced in other branches of the wors.h.i.+p of Artemis. As to the native country of the Amazons, who were supposed to have founded this wors.h.i.+p, it does not seem to have been Phrygia, as they are stated in the Iliad to have come from the east of the Sangarius, and to have fought with the Phrygians.(1630) The Syrians, however, bordered on that people: and Pindar, who says that the Amazons led the Syrian army,(1631) fully coincides with those who fix their origin on the banks of the Thermodon, Chadesius and Lycastus along the coast of Themiscyra.(1632) The striking agreement of several authors in this statement, and its singular precision, render it of double importance. And what country could have been more probably the native place of the Ephesian Artemis, as well as of the warlike Hierodulae, than Cappadocia; where there were, in the historical age, large numbers of sacred slaves, both male and female; where also there was an elementary religion, with frantic rites, and the princ.i.p.al divinity was at the same time a _Bellona_ and a _Magna Mater_?

This same oriental wors.h.i.+p had also been in other places adopted by the Greeks of Asia Minor. Among these are _Leucophryne_, who was wors.h.i.+pped in Phrygia, near a warm spring,(1633) and thence particularly honoured along the banks of the Maeander in Magnesia; and therefore also by Themistocles.(1634) She was represented in the same form as the Ephesian G.o.ddess.(1635) Her sacred animal was the buffalo.(1636) The Artemis of _Sipylus_ was wors.h.i.+pped with wanton games, from which she was also called at Olympia (according to Pausanias) Cordaca.(1637) The _Pergaean_ Artemis known all over Greece by her itinerant priests,(1638) and of the same form as the Artemis Leucophryne;(1639) with many others.(1640) It was in the true spirit of this wors.h.i.+p that the musician Timotheus called Artemis "the raging and foaming, like a Baccha.n.a.lian;"(1641) and the tragic poet Diogenes in a beautiful though not a very accurate pa.s.sage of his Semele speaks of the Lydian and Bactrian virgins, who with soft strains wors.h.i.+pped the Tmolian Artemis on the banks of the Halys.(1642)

I have now endeavoured to give the reader a general view of the different branches and forms of the wors.h.i.+p of Artemis; in which some difficult and doubtful questions have of necessity been pa.s.sed over: but I have preferred rather to reckon on the acquiescence of the reader in some uncertain propositions than to weary his patience by a detailed examination of all the debatable points.

Chapter X.

-- 1. On the wors.h.i.+p of deities other than Apollo and Artemis in Doric states. Wors.h.i.+p of Zeus and Here. -- 2. Of Athene. -- 3 and 4.

Of Demeter. -- 5. Of Poseidon. -- 6. Of Dionysus. -- 7. Of Aphrodite, Hermes, Hephaestus, Ares, and aesculapius. -- 8. Of the Charites, Eros, and the Dioscuri. -- 9. General character of the Doric religion.

1. Having considered the wors.h.i.+p of those deities which either wholly or partially owed their origin to the Dorians, we must now, in order to complete our account of the religion of that race, point out the various wors.h.i.+ps which they adopted from other nations.

This inquiry will be of value in two other respects than the plain and immediate result to which it leads; viz., from the light it throws on the history of the Doric colonies, and likewise on the Doric character upon which the mode of wors.h.i.+p had a most powerful influence.

But since the subject embraced in its full extent would be almost endless (there being no part of ancient history on which there are such ample accounts as on the local wors.h.i.+ps), we must give up all attempt at completeness, and rest satisfied with a narrower view.

To begin then with ZEUS. It is remarkable that there was no great establishment of the wors.h.i.+p of this G.o.d (except the Phrygian in Crete) in any Doric country, but wherever it occurred was connected with and subordinate to that of some other deity. The wors.h.i.+p at Olympia(1643) appears to have been established by the Achaeans, who in other places (_e.g._, at aegium) consecrated temples to Zeus alone: the wors.h.i.+p of Zeus h.e.l.lanius at aegina was introduced by the h.e.l.lenes of Thessaly. But the whole of Argolis and also Corinth were, from early times, under the protection of HERE, the character of whose wors.h.i.+p resembled that of Zeus, although it was more p.r.o.nounced. The chief temple was twelve stadia from Mycenae, and forty from Argos, beyond the district of Prosymna;(1644) its service was performed by the most distinguished priestesses, and celebrated by the first festivals and games, being also one of the earliest nurseries of the art of sculpture. It appears that Argos was the original seat of the wors.h.i.+p of Here, and that there it first received its peculiar form and character: for the wors.h.i.+p of the Samian Here, as well as that at Sparta,(1645) was supposed to have been derived from Argos, which statement is confirmed by the resemblance in the ceremonies; and the same is true of the wors.h.i.+p of the same G.o.ddess at Epidaurus,(1646) aegina, and Byzantium. In the early mythology of Argos her name constantly occurs; and the traditions concerning Io, so far as they were native, are only fabulous expressions for the ideas and feelings excited by this religion.

Thus also the Corinthian fables of Medea refer to the indigenous wors.h.i.+p of Here Acraea.(1647) Hence the Corinthians introduced into their colony of Corcyra, together with the religion of Here,(1648) the mythology and wors.h.i.+p of Medea.(1649) The peculiarities of the wors.h.i.+p of Here must partly be looked for in the symbolical traditions respecting Io and Medea, and other mythological personages of the same description, and partly in the various rites of the Samian festival. It was doubtless founded on some elementary religion, as may be plainly seen from the tradition that Zeus had on mount Thornax in southern Argolis seduced Here in the shape of a cuckoo (whose song was considered in Greece as the prognostic of fertile rains in the spring). The marriage with Zeus (called ?e??? ????) is always a prominent feature in the wors.h.i.+p of Here; she was represented veiled, like a bride; and was carried, like a bride, on a car, with other similar allusions.(1650) At Samos it was related that the statue of the G.o.ddess had been once entirely covered with branches; and this, as it appears, was also represented at festivals.(1651) The Argive festival of ???e??a, _i.e._, of the "bed of twigs," had the same meaning.(1652)

2. In Argolis also the wors.h.i.+p of ATHENE was of great antiquity, and enjoyed almost equal honours with that of Here; her temple was on the height of Larissa: and doubtless she had the same character and origin as the Athene Chalcicus of Sparta.(1653) Their names were in both places nearly the same, as at Sparta she was called ?pt???t??,(1654) and in Argolis ???d?????, _the quick-sighted_;(1655) and though in both places the names were explained from historical events, it seems more accurate to compare them with the t.i.tle of Athene at Athens and Sigeum, G?a???p??, and others of the same kind. At Argos a large part of the heroic mythology is a.s.sociated with the wors.h.i.+p of Athene: for Acrisius was fabled to have been buried in her temple on the citadel;(1656) and since ????a was a t.i.tle of the G.o.ddess herself,(1657) it appears to me that the name ????s??? may be satisfactorily explained in this manner: especially as it is plain from an a.n.a.lysis of the mythology of Acrisius, Perseus, and the Gorgons, that it is entirely founded on symbols of Athene. Corinth also had a part in these fables, as is clearly shown by the figures of Pegasus, of the head of Medusa and Athene herself upon the coins of this state and of its colonies Leucadia, Anactorium, and Amphilochian Argos.(1658)

There is also another branch of the wors.h.i.+p of Athene in the Doric states, viz., that which extended from Lindus in Rhodes to Gela in Sicily, and from thence to Agrigentum and Camarina.(1659) In all these places Athene was the protectress of the citadel and the town, and was a.s.sociated with Zeus Polieus (also with Zeus Atabyrius.(1660)) As to the ceremonies with which she was honoured, we only know from Pindar that at Rhodes they offered fireless sacrifices to her, and that the ancient sculpture of Rhodes was connected with her wors.h.i.+p. That of Hierapytna in Crete (the coins of which city have the Athenian symbols of Athene) more resembled the Rhodian wors.h.i.+p, if what the envoys from Praesus stated at Rhodes was correct, viz., that at Hierapytna the Corybantes were called the offspring of the sun and of Athene.(1661)

3. Although the wors.h.i.+p of these deities, and of Here in particular, had probably been more prevalent before than after the Doric invasion, the religion of DEMETER was still more depressed. This wors.h.i.+p was nearly extirpated by the Dorians, a fact which we know from Herodotus, who, in speaking of some rites of Demeter Thesmophoria which were supposed to have been founded by the daughters of Danaus, states that when the Peloponnesians were driven out by the Dorians, these rites were discontinued, and were only kept up by those Peloponnesians who remained behind, and by the Arcadians.(1662) Consequently we meet with few traces of the wors.h.i.+p of Demeter in the chief cities of the Doric name.(1663) Thus it appears that in Argos the ceremonies in honour of this G.o.ddess were on one side driven into the marshes of Lerna, and on the other to the eastern extremity of the peninsula, inhabited by the Dryopes. In the former of these two places some mystical rites were long performed, and in the latter the chief wors.h.i.+p was that of the deities of the earth and the infernal regions (??????? ?e??). Some inscriptions found at Hermione, which besides Demeter and Cora mention the name of Clymenus,(1664) an epithet of Pluto, agree well with the beginning of the hymn which Lasus the Hermionean addressed to the deities of his native city: "I sing of Demeter and the Meliban Cora, the wife of Clymenus, sounding the deep-toned aeolic harmony of hymns."(1665) And that the Hermioneans considered the temple of the earthly Demeter (which was connected with the entrance of the infernal regions supposed to be at Hermione) as the first in the city, is also evident from the fact that the Asinaeans, expelled from Argolis and resident in Messenia, sent sacrifices and sacred missions from thence to their national G.o.ddess at Hermione.(1666)

In ancient times also a wors.h.i.+p was prevalent at Argos which we will designate by the name of the Triopian Demeter.(1667) All the fables concerning Triopas and his son Erysichthon (from ???s??, _robigo_) belong to an agricultural religion, which at the same time refers to the infernal regions. The places where this religion existed in ancient times are the Thessalian plains of Dotium, Argos, and likewise Attica;(1668) and from the first-mentioned place it was transmitted to the south-western coast of Asia Minor by an early national connexion which is indicated in the account of an ancient Pelasgic colony from Dotium to Cnidos, Rhodes, and Syme;(1669) and here it formed the basis of the Triopian wors.h.i.+p, on which were afterwards founded the federative festivals of the six Doric cities.

In front of Triopium is the small island of Telos, whence a single family joined the Lindian colony that founded Gela in Sicily, and earned with it the _sacra Triopia_. A member of this family named Telines advanced this private wors.h.i.+p of the infernal G.o.ds so greatly that it was incorporated in the national religion, and he was appointed to administer it as Hierophant; it was from this person that Hiero the king of Syracuse was descended.(1670)

4. By this history of the colonial connexions, well attested from without, and having great internal probability, we have ascertained the origin of one of the branches of the wors.h.i.+p of Demeter in Sicily. Another was probably introduced by the clan of the Emmenidae,(1671) which being originally of Theban origin came into Sicily with the colony of Gela: for it was probably owing to the traditions of this family alone that Agrigentum, as well as ancient Thebes, was called "a gift from Zeus to Persephone at their nuptial festival."(1672)

But from neither of these two sources can the celebrated wors.h.i.+p of Demeter at Syracuse and its colony Enna (which in the eyes both of the inhabitants and of the Romans had made Sicily the native country of Ceres) be derived, since it differed in certain respects from both the above-named wors.h.i.+ps.(1673) From its importance we may infer that it was one of the most ancient religions of Syracuse, and established at the first foundation of that town; and since of these some came from Olympia,(1674) but the larger part from Corinth, and there is no reason for supposing that it was derived from the former place, it must have been brought over from the parent state. Now it is true that there was at Corinth a temple of Demeter and Cora, the priestesses of which also prophesied by means of dreams;(1675) but the wors.h.i.+p of those G.o.ddesses was there of far less importance than in Sicily, where its preponderance may perhaps be accounted for by the fertility of the soil, which enabled it to produce wheat, while the Greeks had in their own country been accustomed to eat barley, and therefore stimulated the colonists to be especially thankful to the G.o.ddess of corn. When, however, it is remembered that Megara also had a large share in the colonising of Syracuse, it will hardly be doubted that this state was the real source from which the wors.h.i.+p in question originated, since Demeter was there an ancient national deity, and was not disturbed in her sanctuary on the citadel of Caria even by the Doric invaders.(1676)

In Laconia also the wors.h.i.+p of Demeter had been preserved from ancient times, although it could not have been much respected by the Dorians in Sparta. For the Eleusinia of that country were chiefly celebrated by the inhabitants of the ancient town of Helos, who on certain days carried a wooden statue of Cora to the Eleusinium on the heights of Taygetus.(1677) The Lacedaemonians had also adopted the wors.h.i.+p of Demeter under the t.i.tle of ?????a, or earthly, from the Hermioneans, some of whose kinsmen had settled in Messenia.(1678)

5. POSEIDON was not originally a G.o.d of the Doric race, but was suited rather to the character of the Ionians, who, from dwelling near the sea, had acquired a love for foreign communication and a great spirit of enterprise. We therefore find it only in a few places, for example, at Taenarum(1679) (whence it was carried to Tarentum), at Cyrene,(1680) in aegina,(1681) and particularly on the Corinthian isthmus; also at Trzen and Calauria, which places (as has been already shown) were among the ancient settlements of the Ionians on the Saronic gulf,(1682) to which the legends concerning Theseus chiefly refer.(1683) From Trzen the wors.h.i.+p of Poseidon was transmitted to Posidonia in Magna Graecia, and also to Halicarna.s.sus, chiefly by the family of the Antheadae.

6. The wors.h.i.+p of DIONYSUS did not enjoy equal honours among all the Dorians. It had indeed penetrated as far as Sparta, where it had driven even the Lacedaemonian women to phrensy;(1684) and the Delphic oracle itself had ordered the inst.i.tution of a race of Baccha.n.a.lian virgins.(1685) But nothing is known of any sumptuous or regular ceremonies in honour of Dionysus; and we might indeed have supposed _a priori_ that the austere and rigid notions of the Spartans would have been very averse to that deity. The same is probably true of Argos, which had for a long time wholly abstained from the wors.h.i.+p of Dionysus, but afterwards dedicated to him a festival called t??? (_turba_).(1686) The conduct of Corinth and Sicyon was in this respect altogether different. The former city had received from Phlius(1687) the wors.h.i.+p of this G.o.d under the t.i.tle of a??e???, _i.e._, "_exciting to phrensy_;" and also under that of ??s???, the "_appeasing_" or "_soothing_," from Thebes, whence it was said to have come at the time of the Doric invasion,(1688) and where it was celebrated with festivals, of which we have very ample accounts.(1689) In early times some rude beginnings of tragedy had been formed from the dithyrambic choruses(1690) there performed, as the tradition of Epigenes informs us; though these were not regular dramas; there were likewise the tragic choruses transferred from Bacchus to some of the heroes, and Adrastus had been made the subject of these songs before the tyranny of Cleisthenes.(1691) The wors.h.i.+p of this G.o.d had also produced a native kind of comic and ludicrous entertainment, the Phallophori.(1692) In the neighbouring city of Corinth, the same wors.h.i.+p, with its musical and poetical accompaniments, prevailed;(1693) and it was in this town that, according to Pindar,(1694) the dithyramb was first established, although indeed under the direction of a foreigner (Arion). In the Doric colonies of Magna Graecia this wors.h.i.+p preserved the same character of irregularity and excess; the whole town of Tarentum was (as Plato says) drunk at the festival of Bacchus. The painted vases give a perfect representation of the antics and masques of this ancient carnival.

7. In Corinth, however, and Sicyon, the wors.h.i.+p of APHRODITE as well as of Dionysus was established. It seems probable that the wors.h.i.+p of that deity had indeed a native origin in Greece, but that it had been extended and modified by Phnician settlers in some of the maritime towns. The inst.i.tution of the "hospitable damsels,"(1695) whom the G.o.ddess their mistress herself ordered to be at the disposal of strangers,(1696) was undoubtedly of Asiatic origin, and unknown to the ancient Greeks.(1697) Sicyon, however, appears to have derived the wors.h.i.+p of these two deities from Corinth, the coins of which city generally have a dove,(1698) and frequently also a head of Aphrodite of ancient workmans.h.i.+p; and the native poetess Praxilla (452 B.C.) addressed Aphrodite as the mother of Dionysus,(1699) and sang of the joys and woes of the Phnician Adonis.(1700) While again the Dorians of these maritime cities had a certain susceptibility, flexibleness, and softness of character, the very contrary of all these qualities distinguished the Spartans. For although that state came into connexion with a Phnician establishment of the wors.h.i.+p of Aphrodite in the island of Cythera, they transformed it while they adopted it, and had their own armed Aphrodite, and the chained and veiled G.o.ddess of marriage.(1701) From the same island also they received the G.o.d Adonis under the name of Ciris.(1702) Aphrodite, however, enjoyed greater honours in the Spartan colony of Cnidos, whence she went to Halicarna.s.sus under the t.i.tle of Acraea, and from thence to the mother city Trzen.(1703) The wors.h.i.+p of Aphrodite at Selinus in the west of Sicily(1704) was doubtless derived from the neighbouring town of Eryx, and was consequently also Phnician; and the temple was probably one of the wealthiest of that once flouris.h.i.+ng city.(1705)

The wors.h.i.+p of HERMES does not appear to have prevailed in any Doric state; in one respect he was superseded by Apollo Agyieus. The same may nearly be said of HEPHaeSTUS and ARES, the latter of whom was wors.h.i.+pped by the Spartans under the names of Theritas and Enyalius. Of the wors.h.i.+p of aeSCULAPIUS it has been already(1706) mentioned that it was derived to Cos, Cnidos, and Rhodes, from Epidaurus, which state again had in ancient times received it through the Phlegyans from Tricca.(1707) From Epidaurus, according to Pausanias,(1708) also came the wors.h.i.+p of Sicyon, and the Cyrenaean at Balagrae,(1709) with which, as at Cos, an ancient school of physicians was connected.(1710)

8. We will just notice the wors.h.i.+p of the CHARITES established in Crete and Sparta; first, as a fresh proof of the early religious connexion between those two countries,(1711) and as a sign of that hilarity and gladness which was the most beautiful feature of the religion of the Greeks. These G.o.ddesses were at Sparta called Cleta and Phaenna; their temple was on the road from the city to Amyclae, on the river Tiasa.(1712) Allied to this was the wors.h.i.+p of EROS, as practised by the Cretans and Spartans, with whom, before every battle, the most beautiful men a.s.sembled and sacrificed to that G.o.d:(1713) not as the great uniter of heaven and earth, but as awaking mutual esteem and affection, which produce that fear of the disapprobation of friends which is the n.o.blest source of valour.(1714)

The most obscure, perhaps, of all the branches of religion whose origin we have to investigate is the wors.h.i.+p of the DIOSCURI, or the sons of Zeus.

It appears probable that it had a double source, viz., the heroic honours of the human Tyndaridae, and the ancient Peloponnesian wors.h.i.+p of the great G.o.ds or Cabiri; and in process of time the attributes of the latter seem by poetry and tradition to have been transferred to the former, viz., the name of the sons of Zeus, the birth from an egg, and the egg-shaped caps, the alternation of life and death, the dominion over the winds and the waves. As belonging to their wors.h.i.+p at Sparta I may mention the ancient images called d??a?a, two upright beams with two others laid across them transversely;(1715) the custom in military expeditions of taking either one or both of the statues of the Dioscuri according as one or both kings went with the army;(1716) which places the Tyndaridae in the light of G.o.ds of war; and the belief that they often appeared as a.s.sistants in time of need, or even merely as friendly guests,(1717) which distinguishes them from most other heroes. Upon the whole we know that the Dorians found the wors.h.i.+p and mythology of the Tyndaridae established at Amyclae, Therapne, Pephnos, and other places; and they adopted it, without caring to preserve its original form and meaning; rather, indeed, attempting to give to the wors.h.i.+p of the sons of Tyndareus a _military_ and _political_ reference.

9. Before we proceed to consider the heroic mythology of the Dorians, which is chiefly confined to Hercules, we will first attempt to sketch the princ.i.p.al features of the religious character of the Dorians, as seen in the several wors.h.i.+ps already enumerated. Both in the development of modes of religion peculiar to that race, and in the adoption and alteration of those of other nations, an ideal tendency may be perceived, which considered the deity not so much in reference to the works or objects of nature, as of the actions and thoughts of men. Consequently their religion had little of mysticism, which belongs rather to elementary wors.h.i.+ps; but the G.o.ds a.s.sume a more human and heroic form, although not so much as in the epic poetry. Hence the piety of the Doric race had a peculiarly energetic character, as their notions of the G.o.ds were clear, distinct, and personal; and it was probably connected with a certain degree of cheerfulness and confidence, equally removed from the exuberance of enthusiasm and the gloominess of superst.i.tion. Funeral ceremonies and festivals with violent lamentations, as well as enthusiastic orgies, were not suited to the character of the Dorians; although their reverence for antiquity often induced them to adopt such rites when already established.

On the other hand, we see displayed in their festivals and religious usages a brightness and hilarity, which made them think that the most pleasing sacrifice which they could offer to their G.o.ds was to rejoice in their sight, and use the various methods which the arts afforded them of expressing their joy. With all this, their wors.h.i.+p bears the stamp of the greatest simplicity, and at the same time of warmth of heart. The Spartans prayed the G.o.ds "to give them what was honourable and good;"(1718) and although they did not lead out any splendid processions, and were even accused of offering scanty sacrifices, still Zeus Ammon declared that the "calm solemnity of the prayers of the Spartans was dearer to him than all the sacrifices of the Greeks."(1719) They likewise showed the most faithful adherence to the usages handed down to them from their ancestors, and hence they were little inclined to the adoption of foreign ceremonies;(1720) although in commercial towns, as, for instance, at Corinth, such rites were willingly admitted, from a regard for strangers of other races and nations.(1721)

Chapter XI.

-- 1. Legends respecting Hercules in the earliest settlements of the Dorians. -- 2. Servitude of Hercules. -- 3. Legends respecting Hercules in the second settlements of the Dorians. -- 4. Legends respecting Tlepolemus, Antiphus, and Phidippus. -- 5. Legend of Geryoneus. -- 6. Legends respecting Hercules in the neighbourhood of Thermopylae. -- 7, 8, and 9. Botian legends respecting Hercules.

-- 10. Attic legends respecting Hercules.