The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2

by Karl Otfried Müller

Chapter X.

§ 1. On the worship of deities other than Apollo and Artemis in Doric states. Worship of Zeus and Here. § 2. Of Athene. § 3 and 4. Of Demeter. § 5. Of Poseidon. § 6. Of Dionysus. § 7. Of Aphrodite, Hermes, Hephæstus, Ares, and Æsculapius. § 8. Of the Charites, Eros, and the Dioscuri. § 9. General character of the Doric religion.

1. Having considered the worship 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 worships 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 worship 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 worships), 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 worship of this god (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 worship at Olympia[1643] appears to have been established [pg 395] by the Achæans, who in other places (e.g., at Ægium) consecrated temples to Zeus alone: the worship of Zeus Hellanius at Ægina was introduced by the Hellenes of Thessaly. But the whole of Argolis and also Corinth were, from early times, under the protection of Here, the character of whose worship resembled that of Zeus, although it was more pronounced. The chief temple was twelve stadia from Mycenæ, 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 worship of Here, and that there it first received its peculiar form and character: for the worship 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 worship of the same goddess at Epidaurus,[1646] Ægina, and Byzantium. [pg 396] 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 worship of Here Acræa.[1647] Hence the Corinthians introduced into their colony of Corcyra, together with the religion of Here,[1648] the mythology and worship of Medea.[1649] The peculiarities of the worship 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 ἱερὸς γάμος) is always a prominent feature in the worship 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 goddess had been once entirely covered with branches; and this, as it appears, was also represented at festivals.[1651] The Argive festival of Λέχερνα, i.e., of the “bed of twigs,” had the same meaning.[1652]

2. In Argolis also the worship 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 Chalciœcus of Sparta.[1653] Their names were in both places nearly the same, as at Sparta she was called Ὀπτιλέτις,[1654] and in Argolis Ὀξυδέρκης, 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 title of Athene at Athens and Sigeum, Γλαυκῶπις, and others of the same kind. At Argos a large part of the heroic mythology is associated with the worship of Athene: for Acrisius was fabled to have been buried in her temple on the citadel;[1656] and since Ἀκρία was a title of the goddess herself,[1657] it appears to me that the name Ἀκρίσιος may be satisfactorily explained in this manner: especially as it is plain from an analysis 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 worship 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 associated 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 worship. That of Hierapytna in Crete (the coins of which city have the Athenian symbols of Athene) more resembled the Rhodian worship, if what the envoys from Præsus 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 worship 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 worship 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 [pg 399] kept up by those Peloponnesians who remained behind, and by the Arcadians.[1662] Consequently we meet with few traces of the worship of Demeter in the chief cities of the Doric name.[1663] Thus it appears that in Argos the ceremonies in honour of this goddess 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 worship was that of the deities of the earth and the infernal regions (χθόνιοι θεοί). 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 Melibœan Cora, the wife of Clymenus, sounding the deep-toned Æolic 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 Asinæans, expelled from Argolis and resident in Messenia, sent sacrifices and sacred missions from thence to their national goddess at Hermione.[1666]

In ancient times also a worship was prevalent at [pg 400] Argos which we will designate by the name of the Triopian Demeter.[1667] All the fables concerning Triopas and his son Erysichthon (from ἐρυσίβη, 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 worship, 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 worship of the infernal gods 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 worship of Demeter in Sicily. Another [pg 401] was probably introduced by the clan of the Emmenidæ,[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 worship 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 worships.[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 worship of those goddesses was there [pg 402] 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 goddess 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 worship 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 worship 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 Lacedæmonians had also adopted the worship of Demeter under the title of χθονία, or earthly, from the Hermioneans, some of whose kinsmen had settled in Messenia.[1678]

5. Poseidon was not originally a god of the Doric race, but was suited rather to the character of [pg 403] 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 Tænarum[1679] (whence it was carried to Tarentum), at Cyrene,[1680] in Ægina,[1681] and particularly on the Corinthian isthmus; also at Trœzen 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 Trœzen the worship of Poseidon was transmitted to Posidonia in Magna Græcia, and also to Halicarnassus, chiefly by the family of the Antheadæ.

6. The worship 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 Lacedæmonian women to phrensy;[1684] and the Delphic oracle itself had ordered the institution of a race of Bacchanalian virgins.[1685] But nothing is known of any sumptuous or regular ceremonies in honour of Dionysus; and we might indeed have supposed à 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 worship of Dionysus, but [pg 404] afterwards dedicated to him a festival called τύρβη (turba).[1686] The conduct of Corinth and Sicyon was in this respect altogether different. The former city had received from Phlius[1687] the worship of this god under the title of βακχεῖος, i.e., “exciting to phrensy;” and also under that of λύσιος, 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 worship of this god had also produced a native kind of comic and ludicrous entertainment, the Phallophori.[1692] In the neighbouring city of Corinth, the same worship, with its musical and poetical accompaniments, prevailed;[1693] and it was in this town that, [pg 405] according to Pindar,[1694] the dithyramb was first established, although indeed under the direction of a foreigner (Arion). In the Doric colonies of Magna Græcia this worship 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 worship of Aphrodite as well as of Dionysus was established. It seems probable that the worship of that deity had indeed a native origin in Greece, but that it had been extended and modified by Phœnician settlers in some of the maritime towns. The institution of the “hospitable damsels,”[1695] whom the goddess 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 worship 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 workmanship; 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 Phœnician [pg 406] 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 Phœnician establishment of the worship 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 goddess of marriage.[1701] From the same island also they received the god Adonis under the name of Ciris.[1702] Aphrodite, however, enjoyed greater honours in the Spartan colony of Cnidos, whence she went to Halicarnassus under the title of Acræa, and from thence to the mother city Trœzen.[1703] The worship of Aphrodite at Selinus in the west of Sicily[1704] was doubtless derived from the neighbouring town of Eryx, and was consequently also Phœnician; and the temple was probably one of the wealthiest of that once flourishing city.[1705]

The worship 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 Hephæstus and Ares, the latter of whom [pg 407] was worshipped by the Spartans under the names of Theritas and Enyalius. Of the worship of Æsculapius 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 worship of Sicyon, and the Cyrenæan at Balagræ,[1709] with which, as at Cos, an ancient school of physicians was connected.[1710]

8. We will just notice the worship 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 goddesses were at Sparta called Cleta and Phaënna; their temple was on the road from the city to Amyclæ, on the river Tiasa.[1712] Allied to this was the worship of Eros, as practised by the Cretans and Spartans, with whom, before every battle, the most beautiful men assembled and sacrificed to that god:[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 noblest source of valour.[1714]

The most obscure, perhaps, of all the branches of religion whose origin we have to investigate is the [pg 408] worship of the Dioscuri, or the sons of Zeus. It appears probable that it had a double source, viz., the heroic honours of the human Tyndaridæ, and the ancient Peloponnesian worship of the great gods 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 worship at Sparta I may mention the ancient images called δόκανα, 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 Tyndaridæ in the light of gods of war; and the belief that they often appeared as assistants 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 worship and mythology of the Tyndaridæ established at Amyclæ, Therapne, Pephnos, and other places; and they adopted it, without caring to preserve its original form and meaning; rather, indeed, [pg 409] attempting to give to the worship 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 principal features of the religious character of the Dorians, as seen in the several worships 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 worships; but the gods assume 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 gods 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 superstition. 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 gods was to rejoice in their sight, and use the various methods which the arts afforded them of expressing their joy. With all this, their worship bears the stamp of the greatest [pg 410] simplicity, and at the same time of warmth of heart. The Spartans prayed the gods “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]