Primitive Athens as described by Thucydides

by Jane Ellen Harrison

CHAPTER IV.
THE SPRING KALLIRRHOË-ENNEAKROUNOS ‘NEAR’ THE CITADEL.

καὶ τῇ κρήνῃ τῇ νῦν μὲν τῶν τυράννων οὕτω σκευασάντων Ἐννεακρούνῳ καλουμένῃ, τὸ δὲ πάλαι φανερῶν τῶν πηγῶν οὐσῶν Καλλιῤῥόῃ ὠνομασμένῃ—ἐκείνῃ τε ἐγγὺς οὔσῃ τὰ πλείστου ἄξια ἐχρῶντο, καὶ νῦν ἔτι ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀρχαίου πρό τε γαμικῶν καὶ ἐς ἄλλα τῶν ἱερῶν νομίζεται τῷ ὕδατι χρῆσθαι.

The argument now stands as follows. As evidence that the old city was the present citadel with the addition of what is below it towards about South Thucydides has adduced two facts: 1st, that the sanctuaries are in the citadel, those of other deities as well (as the Goddess); 2nd, that those that are outside are placed towards this part of the city more (than elsewhere). Instances of such outside shrines are the sanctuary of Zeus Olympios and the Pythion, and the sanctuary of Ge, and that of Dionysos-in-the-Marshes. This last is defined, to prevent confusion with the later sanctuary of Dionysos Eleuthereus, as the scene of the earlier Dionysia. Finally, other ancient sanctuaries also (not named) are placed here.

We next come to the third fact adduced as evidence, namely, a statement as to the position of the ancient city spring, as follows: ‘And the spring which is now called “Nine-Spouts,” from the form given it by the despots, but which formerly, when the sources were open, was named Fair-Fount—this spring (I say) being near, they used for the most important purposes, and even now it is still the custom in consequence of the ancient (habit) to use the water before weddings and for other sacred purposes.’ Was ever argument stated in fashion more odd, involved, and utterly Thucydidean?

A spring which was once called Kallirrhoë and now Enneakrounos is ‘near,’ i.e. is near the ancient city as above defined, and is now used for weddings and the like. Why does Thucydides, who is ‘least of all mortals a gossip,’ tell us about the water and the weddings? Why refer to the history of the fountain at all? Because, as in the case of the Anthesteria, the reference to things ancient is part of his argument. The train of thought is this. The water of Nine-Spouts is now used for weddings. Why? On the face of it there seems no particular reason. The fountain ‘Nine-Spouts’ has water enough and to spare. But the fountain ‘Nine-Spouts’ was not always there, it replaced ‘Fair-Fount,’ and this spring the ancient Athenians used only for ‘most important’ purposes. Again, why? Well, clearly because there was not enough of it for general use. It was ‘near,’ and yet they reserved it for special purposes. We may gather, then, from the account of Thucydides, though he does not expressly state it, the despots not only changed the name but increased the ‘water supply[259].’

As to where the spring was, save that it is ‘near,’ Thucydides says absolutely nothing. It might be North, East, South, or West. We who have followed him step by step down the western slope, from the Olympieion and Pythion to the sanctuary of Ge and to the sanctuary of Dionysos-in-the-Marshes, expect to find ‘Nine-Spouts’ somewhere near these sites, somewhere in the depression enclosed by Acropolis, Pnyx, and Areopagos. But we must bear in mind that this expectation is based on our identification of the previous sanctuaries, not on any words of Thucydides about the spring.

But when we ask, as we inevitably must, where did Pausanias see the famous fountain, we are in better case. Pausanias[260] saw ‘Nine-Spouts’ near to the Odeion, and the Odeion he saw immediately after the statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton, on the slope of the Areopagos. Immediately after the Enneakrounos, ‘beyond the fountain,’ as he says, Pausanias[261] saw the temples of Demeter and Kore, which can scarcely be separated from the Thesmophorion on the Pnyx. Somewhere adjacent to both Pnyx and Areopagos we should, from Pausanias, expect to find ‘Nine-Spouts,’ and there find it we shall.

It is fortunate for us that Thucydides was so explicit about the fountain. He gives us not merely a fountain called Fair-Fount but a fountain called Fair-Fount that was turned into Nine-Spouts. This is fortunate, because the word translated ‘Fair-Fount,’ Kallirrhoë, is a term so general that it might be applied to almost any spring. If in travelling through Greece to-day you stop to drink from a spring and ask your guide its name, he will, three times out of four, tell you it is Mavromati, Black-Eye, because that is a term so general as to be safely applicable. So at Athens there was, certainly in later days and possibly even in the time of Thucydides, another Kallirrhoë far away on the Ilissus. As Socrates, in the Axiochos[262], was going out towards Kynosarges and had reached the Ilissos he heard some one shouting to him, and turning round he saw Kleinias running towards Kallirrhoë. Clearly this was another Kallirrhoë, not the one near the Pnyx. How this duplication of Kallirrhoës at Athens arose will later ([p. 143]) be considered. The Kallirrhoë we are in search of is the Fair-Fount which became the Nine-Spouts, that and no other.

It is worth noticing how quickly the spring lost its old name. People were, no doubt, very proud of the new Nine-Spouts. Herodotus[263] naively assumes that in the days of the Pelasgians Fair-Fount was called Nine-Spouts. The Athenians said that their expulsion of the Pelasgians from Attica was justified, for ‘the Pelasgians who were settled under Hymettus used to make excursions thence and do lawless deeds. Their daughters used constantly to go to the Enneakrounos for water, for at that time the Greeks had no household servants, and whenever they came the Pelasgians used to offer them violence out of insolence and contempt.’ There must have been people alive in the days of Thucydides whose fathers remembered the change made by the despots, yet the name Fair-Fount was, when Thucydides wrote, evidently a matter of antiquarian knowledge.