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Hero-cults in the age of Homer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. N. Coldstream
J. N. Coldstream
Affiliation:
Bedford College, London
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Extract

‘Much hero-cult was directly engendered by the powerful influence of Homeric and other epics.… We so often hear how saga reflects cult that we are in danger of ignoring the reverse truth that cult may reflect saga; for cult was often mimetic of past events, and the memory of these was preserved mainly by saga-poetry.’

Thus L. R. Farnell, in 1921. He was doing his best to create order out of chaos, writing at a time when it had been fashionable to explain away almost all heroes as faded deities. His method was to sort out the various categories of hero: the genuine faded deities, the vegetation spirits, the epic heroes, the ancestors, the eponymous figures, and finally the heroes who lived in historical times. Greek hero-worship has always been a rather untidy subject, where any general statement is apt to provoke suspicion; yet no one has since shown any good reason for rejecting Farnell's groundwork. This in itself is a tribute to the clarity and thoroughness with which he presented the literary evidence in the first place. Nevertheless, if a new edition of his book were contemplated today, it would need some substantial archaeological footnotes; indeed, during the last fifty years, every type of hero-cult has been illumined in some measure by the results of excavation—especially the cults of epic heroes, to which most of this paper is devoted; for the interval since 1921 includes most of the digging careers of Blegen, Wace, and Marinatos—to name the three archaeologists whose fieldwork has supplied in greatest measure the most abundant kind of evidence that we are looking for: that is, the evidence of veneration shown by later Greeks for the tombs of their Mycenaean predecessors.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 96 , November 1976 , pp. 8 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1976

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References

An earlier draft of this paper was read in November 1973 to the Hibernian Hellenists at Bally-mascanlon, Co. Louth; earlier still, much of its substance was included in a paper read at a Homeric Seminar of London University, at meetings of the Classical Association Branches of Oxford and Durham, and at St David's University College, Lampeter. My thanks are due to all those who contributed to the discussions; and also to Dr J. K. Davies, Prof. G. L. Huxley, Mr S. G. Pembroke, and Prof. A. M. Snodgrass for making constructive comments on my draft MS.

Abbreviations, in addition to those in general use:

DAG = A. M. Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece (Edinburgh, 1971)

DMR = Studies presented to D. M. Robinson (St Louis, 1951) ed. G. E. Mylonas

GGP = J. N. Coldstream, Greek Geometric Pottery (London, 1968)

1 Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality (Oxford. 1921) 340, 342.

2 Nock, A. D., Harvard Theological Review 37 (1944) 141CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff., especially 163; Brelich, A., Gli eroi greci: un problema storico-religioso (Rome, 1958) 15–16Google Scholar; cf. Rose, H. J., Gnomon xxxi (1959) 385–9Google Scholar.

3 Soph. OC 616–23, 1533–4; cf. Price, T. H., Historia xxii (1973) 142–3Google Scholar.

3a My reasons for believing in a Panhellenic circulations of the Iliad in the middle of the eighth century are briefly stated in Geometric Greece (London, 1977) ch. 14; the lower limit is set at c. 650 B.C. to include the careers of the earlier cyclic poets— Stasinos, Arktinos, and Lesches. Here, however, the ‘Age of Homer’ is kept within inverted commas, since this is not the place to delve deeply into the Homeric Question. Those who prefer a much later Homer are asked to read in this phrase ‘the age when Ionic epic first became widely known on the Greek mainland’; cf. West, M. L., CQ lxxxvii (1973) 182–3Google Scholar.

4 op. cit. (n. 1) 4f.

5 Nilsson, M. P., The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion 2 (Lund, 1950) 587Google Scholar f.; Andronikos, M., Totenkult, (Archaeologia Homerica vol. W, Göttingen, 1968) 127Google Scholar. In his n. 1055 Andronikos draws attention to a ‘Submycenaean-Protogeometric’ deposit in a niche of a chamber tomb at Asine; the pottery is in fact LH IIIC. See Frödin, O. and Persson, A. W., Asine (Stockholm, 1938) 178Google Scholar f. fig. 144; 357; 398 fig. 260:8.

6 AE 1937 377 ff.; id., Prosymna (Cambridge, 1937) 263.

7 AE 1937 386 no. 1215 fig. 9.

8 Courbin, P., La Céramique géométrique de l'Argolide (Paris, 1966) 450Google Scholar para. 16, ‘peintre des plateaux à offrandes’. Cf. GGP 143.

9 Courbin, , Tombes géométriques d'Argos I (Paris, 1974) 117Google Scholar f.

10 Persson, A. W., The Royal Tombs at Dendra near Midea (Lund, 1951) 11Google Scholar, 42 fig. 24; cf. GGP 116 n. 6.

11 Keramopoullos, A. D., ADelt iii (1917) 203–4Google Scholar fig. 148; cf. Desborough, V., Protogeometric Pottery (Oxford, 1952) 195–6Google Scholar. 318.

12 Wace, A. J. B., BSA xxv (1921–1923) 292Google Scholar, Cyclopean Tomb; 295, Epano Phournos Tomb; 312–13, ‘Tomb of Aigisthos’; 320, Panagia Tomb; 329, Lion Tomb; 366, ‘Tomb of Clytemnestra’, including terracotta figurines; 387, Tomb of the Genii; Cook, J. M., BSA xlviii (1953) 80Google Scholar f. pl. 28c, d, Kato Phournos Tomb. From a pit in the dromos of the ‘Treasury of Atreus’ comes a bronze pin, said by Desborough, to be like one from a mid-eighth-century burial: BSA xlix (1954) 263Google Scholar, cf. pl. 45 no. 53–636.

13 Wace, , Chamber Tombs at Mycenae (Archaeologia lxxii, 1932) 23Google Scholar, Tomb 520; 32–3, Tomb 522.

14 Papadimitriou, I., PAE 1952 470Google Scholar fig. 35; id., PAE 1953 208 n. 1. Cf. Mylonas, G. E., Ancient Mycenae (Princeton, 1957) 171Google Scholar.

15 Jeffery, L. H., The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (Oxford, 1961) 174Google Scholar no. 6 pl. 31, with earlier references.

16 BSA xlviii (1953) 30 ff.

17 In Geras A. Keramopoullou (Athens, 1953) 112 ff.

18 Priority must be accorded to Mylonas, , DMR i 103Google Scholar; but Mylonas' main concern was to argue that no such cults existed in Mycenaean times.

19 Vollgraff, W., BCH xxviii (1904) 366–7Google Scholar, Tomb V; Deshayes, J., Argos, les fouilles de la Deiras (Paris, 1966) 215Google Scholar ff., Tombs XIV and XVII. The eleventh-century amphorae from Tombs XXIV and XXXIII (pp. 68 f., 99, 246) were each accompanied by a bronze finger ring, and the latter by a long bronze pin; no bones were associated with either group, but the amphorae are more likely to have been cremation urns than votive offerings.

20 Verdelis, N., PAE 1958, 137Google Scholar.

21 Romaios, K., PAE 1954 273Google Scholar; Howell, R., BSA lxv (1970) 95Google Scholar f.

22 Choremis, A., ADelt xvi (1960) B 108Google Scholar, xvii (1961–2) B 95.

23 Marinatos, S., PAE 1953 242Google Scholar ff.; cf. GGP 98, 223. These pots are exhibited in the Museum of Chora Triphylias, as are many of the later votive offerings from Mycenaean tombs in the neighbourhood of Pylos.

Chadwick, J. (Minnesota Messenia Expedition (Minneapolis, 1972) 109Google Scholar) is tempted to equate Volimedia with the Mycenaean religious centre pa - ki - ja - ne on topographical grounds; and he supposes that the tomb cults there might be a reminiscence of the place's earlier sanctity. Yet Volimedia is only one of many places in Messenia where cults grew up in Mycenaean tombs; and the case against any such cult reflecting a continuous memory through the Dark Age is presented in these pages.

24 Marinatos, , PAE 1959 176Google Scholar and 1960 pl. 153b, Gouvalari Tomb 1; id., PAE 1963 116, Akona Tomb 1. A tholos near Papoulia, (id., PAE 1955 255)Google Scholar yielded black-glazed pottery, probably going back to the late seventh century. In another tholos, at Tourliditsa, (id., PAE 1966 129–32Google Scholar pl. 113b), the offerings include wine amphorae from Archaic times onwards.

25 Id., PAE 1956 202–3.

26 Valmin, N., Bull Soc Roy Lund (1927–1928) 27Google Scholar, 37, Vasiliko; 47, Kopanaki (Corinthian pottery); Marinatos, , PAE 1961 170Google Scholar and 1965 113 pl. 129; Peristeria. Cf. McDonald, W. and Simpson, R. Hope, AJA lxv (1961) 219Google Scholar ff. and lxxiii (1969) 123 ff., sites nos. 22B, 24, 28.

27 ix 38.2. On the question of access at Mycenae cf. Wace, , Mycenae (Princeton, 1949) 8Google Scholar.

28 Schliemann, H., JHS ii (1882) 139Google Scholar ff.

29 Keramopoullos, , ADelt iii (1917) 86Google Scholar and n. 1.

30 Vatin, C., Médéon de Phocide (Paris, 1969) 29Google Scholar f. I owe this reference to Mr W. G. Cavanagh.

31 Lolling, H. G.et al., Das Kuppelgrab bei Menidi (Athens, 1880)Google Scholar; Wolters, P., JdI xiv (1899) 103Google Scholar ff., especially figs. 18, 19, 27; Cook, J. M., art. cit. (n. 17) 114Google Scholar and n. 4; Mylonas, , Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age (Princeton, 1966) 181Google Scholar ff.

32 Papadimitriou, , PAE 1955 96Google Scholar pl. 28e.

33 Servais, J. in Thorikos i (1968) 37Google Scholar ff, Tomb 1.

34 Townsend, E. D., Hesperia xxiv (1955) 189Google Scholar, 202, 218–19; Immerwahr, S., Agora xiii 184Google Scholar. The tomb had already been broached in the Protogeometric period for two additional burials, but without disturbing the Mycenaean incumbents.

35 Paus, i 39.2, Plut. Thes. 29; Mylonas, , PAE 1953 81Google Scholar ff. fig. 10; id., Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (Princeton, 1961) 62–3.

36 Mylonas, op. cit. 62 fig. 10; id., PAE 1955 76 pls. 24b, 25a; cf. GGP 32 no. 41.

37 Mylonas, , DMR I 98Google Scholar.

38 Kübler, K., Kerameikos v 1.36Google Scholar. The plans of the same cemetery in successive phases speak for themselves: Hachmann, R., Gött GelAnz ccxv (1963) 54Google Scholar ff. figs. 1–6.

39 Long, C. R., AJA lxii (1958) 300Google Scholar f; cf. Thuc. iii 104. 1, 2.

40 Picard, C. and Replat, J., BCH xlviii (1924) 247Google Scholar ff, especially 259; Mylonas, , DMR i 104Google Scholar; cf. Hdt. iv 35.

41 Marinatos, , AE 1933 78Google Scholar f., 97 ff.; n.b. also a brief mention of LH IIIC chamber tombs at Skala containing LG and Corinthian pottery (AR for 1960–1, 16).

42 Desborough, , The Last Mycenaeans and their Successors (Oxford, 1964) 103Google Scholar ff.

43 Apart from one doubtful case in a tomb at Praisos (Bosanquet, R. C., BSA viii (1901–1902) 242Google Scholar, Tomb A) where the stratification had been much disturbed, there is no archaeological evidence for post-Minoan votives in any Minoan tomb. The remarks of Diodorus (v 79.4) about the respect paid to the supposed tombs of Idomeneus and Meriones reflect the spurious patter purveyed to visitors to Knossos in Graeco-Roman times.

44 Taylour, W. D. in The Palace of Nestor iii (Princeton, 1973) 237Google Scholar ff.

45 Kourouniotis, K., AE 1914 101Google Scholar f., 106 f, fig. 12.

46 Choremis, , AAA i (1968) 205Google Scholar ff.; id., AE 1973 62 ff.

47 Ibid. 70–4 figs. 26–7; Nikitopoulou Grave 1 contains two skeletons, the others only one.

48 Ibid. 47.

49 McDonald, W., Hesperia xli (1972) 228–9Google Scholar pl. 40c, Nichoria; Themelis, P. G., ADelt xx (1965) B 207Google Scholar pl. 213b, Pharai near Kalamata; ibid. 208 pl. 221, Pyla.

50 DAG 154 f.; 205 f., with references.

51 Jacopi, G., Clara Rhodes vi–vii (Bergamo, 1933) 193Google Scholar ff., Tombs 82, 83.

52 The graves at Dreros, (Études Crétoises viii 18Google Scholar ff.) form a very rare exception. Small tholoi were still being built in our ‘Age of Homer’, e.g. that at Ay. Paraskies: Platon, N., AE 1945–1947 47Google Scholar ff.

53 Hood, M. S. F. and Coldstream, J. N., BSA lxiii (1968) 205Google Scholar ff., Subminoan; Boardman, J., BSA lv (1960) 143Google Scholar, Protogeometric. The ninth century hut model from Archanes, enclosing a terracotta seated goddess, has been ingeniously explained by Boardman, (BSA lxii (1967) 66Google Scholar fig. 2) as a Minoan tomb fortuitously discovered and then consecrated as a shrine; but he attributes this unusual practice to immigrant oriental metalworkers, one of whom cleared out the Minoan tholos at Teke for re-use as a family vault. On the absence of post-Minoan votives in Minoan tombs see n. 43 above.

54 Brock, J. K., Fortetsa (BSA Suppl. ii, 1957) 4Google Scholar f.

55 Kyparissis, N., PAE 1929 89Google Scholar ff.; 1930 83 ff.

56 Brann, E. T. H., Agora viii 19Google Scholar; Benson, J. L., Horse, Bird and Man (Amherst, 1970) 115Google Scholar ff.

57 See above nn. 10, 11, 34, 35, 48.

58 See above n. 15.

59 Erga 156–65.

60 See above nn. 16, 17.

61 Od. iv 517; Cook, J. M., art. cit. (n. 17) 113Google Scholar.

62 Wace, et al, BSA xv (1908–1909) 108Google Scholar ff.; for the earliest pottery see ibid. 150 and CVA Cambridge i pl. 3 nos. 116, 120. It is to be hoped that we may learn more about the beginning of this cult from the current excavations, resumed in 1973: Catling, H. W., AR for 1973–1974 14Google Scholar f.

63 Farnell, op. cit. (n. 1) 323 ff.

64 Hdt. i 67–8.

65 Erga 654–7.

66 Bérard, C., Eretria iii (Berne, 1970)Google Scholar, especially chs. 5 and 6.

67 Andronikos, (Gnomon xlvi (1974) 631–3)Google Scholar challenges the association between triangle and graves, but offers no alternative explanation for the votive deposit. A divine cult seems out of the question, since the offerings cease in the sixth century.

68 Bérard, , MusHelv xxix (1972) 219Google Scholar ff.

69 Il. ii 546 ff; cf. Price, T. H., art cit. (n. 3) 130Google Scholar, 136 f.

70 Simpson, R. Hope and Lazenby, J. F., The Catalogue of Ships in Homer's Iliad (Oxford, 1970) 56Google Scholar.

71 Kardara, C., AE 1960, 165Google Scholar ff.

72 Od. vii 81.

73 Balanos, N., AE 1937 785Google Scholar fig. 13.

74 BCH lx (1936) 455; lxii (1938) pl. 50B; lxiii (1939) 289.

75 Apud Iakovides, S., Hé Mykenaikè Akropolis (Athens, 1962) 186Google Scholar n. 361.

76 Stavropoullos, P. D., PAE 1958 5Google Scholar ff.; Drerup, H., Griechische Baukunst in geometrischer Zeit (Archaeologia Homerica vol. O, Göttingen, 1969) 31Google Scholar f. with further references; DAG 398. Another similar ‘sacred house’ was built at about the same time at Eleusis, outside the main sanctuary of Demeter (Kourouniotis, , PAE 1937 42Google Scholar ff. and RA xi (1938) 94 ff.); it, too, may have served as a sanctuary in honour of local heroes.

77 Stavropoullos, , ADelt xvi (1960) B 34Google Scholar.

78 PAE 1958 8 f. pl. 6; for the kantharoi cf. Desborough, op. cit. (n. 11) pl. 12, nos. 2031 and 2026.

79 Desborough, , The Greek Dark Ages (London, 1972) 88Google Scholar.

80 Benton, S., BSA xxxv (1934–1935) 58Google Scholar nos. 1, 2; 64 fig. 14; 113; Schweitzer, B., Greek Geometric Art (London, 1971) 168Google Scholar fig. 101.

81 Benton, , art. cit. 54Google Scholar fig. 7; BSA xxxix (1938–9) 43 no. 63.

82 Heurtley, W., BSA xl (1939–1940) 11Google Scholar f.

83 Kern, O., Die Inscriften von Magnesia am Mäander (Berlin, 1900)Google Scholar no. 36.

84 Benton, , BSA xxxv (1934–1935) 53Google Scholar; Heurtley, loc. cit. (n. 82).