Primitive Athens as described by Thucydides

by Jane Ellen Harrison

Fig. 23.

They chose the cave-sanctuary of Apollo in which to place, at the close of their term of office, their votive tablet because it was in this ancient sanctuary that they had taken their oath of fidelity on their election. At the official scrutiny[162] of candidates for the archonship enquiry was made as to the ancestry of the candidate on both father’s and mother’s side. But it was not enough that he should be a full citizen, he was also solemnly asked whether he had an Apollo Patroös and a Zeus Herkeios and where their sanctuaries were. The Athenians, in so far as they were Ionians, claimed descent through Ion from Apollo and of course through Apollo from Zeus. The sanctuary in the cave was therefore to them of supreme importance. This scrutiny over, the candidates went to a sacred stone near the Stoa Basileios, and there, standing over the cut pieces of the sacrificed victim, they took the oath to rule justly and to take no bribes, and they swore that if any took a bribe he would dedicate at Delphi[163] a gold statue commensurate in value.

The archons had to prove their relation to Apollo Patroös and to dedicate a gold statue if they offended the Pythian god under whose immediate control they stood. Moreover it was not enough that they should swear at the Stoa Basileios. The oath was doubtless older than any Stoa Basileios in the later Market Place. After they had sworn there they had to ‘go up to the Acropolis and there swear the same oath again[164].’ Then and not till then could they enter office. And whither on the Acropolis should they go? Whither but to the cave where a little later they will dedicate their votive tablets, and where still the foundations of an altar stand, the cave of their ancestor Apollo Patroös and Pythios?

Whether the second oath, on the Acropolis, was taken actually in the cave-sanctuary cannot be certainly decided; the votive tablets make it probable and they make quite certain that the cave-sanctuary was officially used by the archons. This fact it is necessary to emphasize. Until these inscriptions were brought to light Apollo’s cave was thought to be of but little importance, curious and primitive but practically negligible. Now that it is clear that the archons selected it as their memorial chapel, such a view is no longer possible. It was a sanctuary not merely of Apollo Below-the-Heights but of the ancestral god, the Apollo Patroös of the archons. Moreover—a fact all important—this Apollo ‘Below-the-Heights’ being Apollo Patroös was also Apollo Pythios. Demosthenes in the de Corona[165], calling to witness his country’s gods, says ‘I call on all the gods and goddesses who hold the land of Attica and on Apollo the Pythian, who is ancestral (πατρῷος) to the state.’ The sanctuary in the cave was a Pythion. Apollo coming as he did to Athens from Pytho was always Pythian whatever additional title he might take, and every sanctuary of his was a Pythion; his most venerable sanctuary was not a temple but a hollowed rock.

The Pythion lies before us securely fixed, primitive, convincing. With the ‘sanctuary of Zeus Olympios’ it is alas! far otherwise. Given that the Pythion is fixed at the North-West corner of the Acropolis, and given that, according to Strabo (see [p. 69]), it was so near the Olympieion that the place of an altar could be described as ‘between’ them, then it follows that somewhere near to that North-West corner the sanctuary of Zeus Olympios must have lain. We may further say that as Thucydides, it will be seen, notes the various sanctuaries and the city-well in the order from East to West, and begins with the sanctuary of Zeus Olympios, it lay presumably somewhat to the East of the Pythion. To the East of the Pythion, near to the supposed site of the temenos of Aglauros, was found an inscription[166] with a dedication to Zeus, but, as inscriptions are easily moveable, no great importance can be attached to this isolated fact. Of definite monumental evidence for the existence of a sanctuary of Zeus where we seek it, we must frankly own at the outset there is nothing certain[167]. It must stand or fall with the Pythion.

Before examining such literary evidence as exists it is necessary to note clearly that Thucydides mentions not a temple but a sanctuary. The great temple near the Ilissos, begun by Peisistratos[168], and not completed till centuries later by Antiochus Epiphanes and Hadrian, is usually spoken of as a temple (ναός), but we have no grounds whatever for supposing that on or near the Long Rocks there was a temple, but only a sanctuary[169], which may very likely have been merely a precinct with an altar. Such a precinct and altar might easily disappear and leave no trace. This is of importance for the understanding of what follows.

When we come to literary evidence one point is clear. Before Peisistratos began the building of his great temple there existed another and earlier place for the worship of Zeus, and this is spoken of as not a temple but a sanctuary. Pausanias[170], when he visited the great temple, wrote, ‘They say that Deucalion built the old sanctuary of Zeus Olympios, and, as a proof of the sojourn of Deucalion at Athens, point to his tomb, which is not far distant from the present temple.’

It has usually been assumed that this earlier sanctuary was on or near the site of the later temple, but, as Prof. Dörpfeld[171] has pointed out, this is no-wise stated by Pausanias. He only says that there was a tomb of Deucalion, not far from the present temple, and that the existence of this tomb made people attribute to Deucalion the building of the early sanctuary. Where the early sanctuary was he does not say. It should be noted that he is careful to use the word sanctuary, not temple, in speaking of the foundation of Deucalion.