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]