| 1. Homer, Odyssey, 3.450, 9.364, 9.504, 9.525, 9.551-9.555, 12.356-12.365, 13.184-13.187 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 242, 472; Legaspi (2018), Wisdom in Classical and Biblical Tradition, 37 |
| 2. Sappho, Fragments, 103, 136, 25 (7th cent. BCE - 6th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Munn (2006), The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion. 142 |
| 3. Isaeus, Orations, 8.19-8.20 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 242 |
4. Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 177-179 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 242| 179. θύειν δοκούσαις καταλαβεῖν τὴν ἀκρόπολιν. | |
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5. Aristophanes, Peace, 960 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 471| 960. σείου σὺ ταχέως: σὺ δὲ πρότεινε τῶν ὀλῶν, | |
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6. Aristophanes, Frogs, 388 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 242| 388. καὶ σῷζε τὸν σαυτῆς χορόν, | |
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7. Aristophanes, The Women Celebrating The Thesmophoria, 750-758, 760-761, 759 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 242| 759. τί τῆς ἱερείας γίγνεται; τουτί. λαβέ. | |
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8. Herodotus, Histories, 1.34-1.45, 1.46.1, 6.58.2, 7.197 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 464; Munn (2006), The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion. 142 | 1.34. But after Solon's departure divine retribution fell heavily on Croesus; as I guess, because he supposed himself to be blessed beyond all other men. Directly, as he slept, he had a dream, which showed him the truth of the evil things which were going to happen concerning his son. ,He had two sons, one of whom was ruined, for he was mute, but the other, whose name was Atys, was by far the best in every way of all of his peers. The dream showed this Atys to Croesus, how he would lose him struck and killed by a spear of iron. ,So Croesus, after he awoke and considered, being frightened by the dream, brought in a wife for his son, and although Atys was accustomed to command the Lydian armies, Croesus now would not send him out on any such enterprise, while he took the javelins and spears and all such things that men use for war from the men's apartments and piled them in his store room, lest one should fall on his son from where it hung. 1.35. Now while Croesus was occupied with the marriage of his son, a Phrygian of the royal house came to Sardis , in great distress and with unclean hands. This man came to Croesus' house, and asked to be purified according to the custom of the country; so Croesus purified him ( ,the Lydians have the same manner of purification as the Greeks), and when he had done everything customary, he asked the Phrygian where he came from and who he was: ,“Friend,” he said, “who are you, and from what place in Phrygia do you come as my suppliant? And what man or woman have you killed?” “O King,” the man answered, “I am the son of Gordias the son of Midas, and my name is Adrastus; I killed my brother accidentally, and I come here banished by my father and deprived of all.” ,Croesus answered, “All of your family are my friends, and you have come to friends, where you shall lack nothing, staying in my house. As for your misfortune, bear it as lightly as possible and you will gain most.” 1.36. So Adrastus lived in Croesus' house. About this same time a great monster of a boar appeared on the Mysian Olympus, who would come off that mountain and ravage the fields of the Mysians. The Mysians had gone up against him often; but they never did him any harm but were hurt by him themselves. ,At last they sent messengers to Croesus, with this message: “O King, a great monster of a boar has appeared in the land, who is destroying our fields; for all our attempts, we cannot kill him; so now we ask you to send your son and chosen young men and dogs with us, so that we may drive him out of the country.” ,Such was their request, but Croesus remembered the prophecy of his dream and answered them thus: “Do not mention my son again: I will not send him with you. He is newly married, and that is his present concern. But I will send chosen Lydians, and all the huntsmen, and I will tell those who go to be as eager as possible to help you to drive the beast out of the country.” 1.37. This was his answer, and the Mysians were satisfied with it. But the son of Croesus now entered, having heard what the Mysians had asked for; and when Croesus refused to send his son with them, the young man said, ,“Father, it was once thought very fine and noble for us to go to war and the chase and win renown; but now you have barred me from both of these, although you have seen neither cowardice nor lack of spirit in me. With what face can I now show myself whenever I go to and from the market-place? ,What will the men of the city think of me, and what my newly wedded wife? With what kind of man will she think that she lives? So either let me go to the hunt, or show me by reasoning that what you are doing is best for me.” 1.38. “My son,” answered Croesus, “I do this not because I have seen cowardice or anything unseemly in you, but the vision of a dream stood over me in my sleep, and told me that you would be short-lived, for you would be killed by a spear of iron. ,It is because of that vision that I hurried your marriage and do not send you on any enterprise that I have in hand, but keep guard over you, so that perhaps I may rob death of you during my lifetime. You are my only son: for that other, since he is ruined, he doesn't exist for me.” 1.39. “Father,” the youth replied, “no one can blame you for keeping guard over me, when you have seen such a vision; but it is my right to show you what you do not perceive, and why you mistake the meaning of the dream. ,You say that the dream told you that I should be killed by a spear of iron? But has a boar hands? Has it that iron spear which you dread? Had the dream said I should be killed by a tusk or some other thing proper to a boar, you would be right in acting as you act; but no, it was to be by a spear. Therefore, since it is not against men that we are to fight, let me go.” 1.40. Croesus answered, “My son, your judgment concerning the dream has somewhat reassured me; and being reassured by you, I change my thinking and permit you to go to the chase.” 1.41. Having said this, Croesus sent for Adrastus the Phrygian and when he came addressed him thus: “Adrastus, when you were struck by ugly misfortune, for which I do not blame you, it was I who cleansed you, and received and still keep you in my house, defraying all your keep. ,Now then, as you owe me a return of good service for the good which I have done you, I ask that you watch over my son as he goes out to the chase. See that no thieving criminals meet you on the way, to do you harm. ,Besides, it is only right that you too should go where you can win renown by your deeds. That is fitting for your father's son; and you are strong enough besides.” 1.42. “O King,” Adrastus answered, “I would not otherwise have gone into such an arena. One so unfortunate as I should not associate with the prosperous among his peers; nor have I the wish so to do, and for many reasons I would have held back. ,But now, since you urge it and I must please you (since I owe you a return of good service), I am ready to do this; and as for your son, in so far as I can protect him, look for him to come back unharmed.” 1.43. So when Adrastus had answered Croesus thus, they went out provided with chosen young men and dogs. When they came to Mount Olympus , they hunted for the beast and, finding him, formed a circle and threw their spears at him: ,then the guest called Adrastus, the man who had been cleansed of the deed of blood, missed the boar with his spear and hit the son of Croesus. ,So Atys was struck by the spear and fulfilled the prophecy of the dream. One ran to tell Croesus what had happened, and coming to Sardis told the king of the fight and the fate of his son. 1.44. Distraught by the death of his son, Croesus cried out the more vehemently because the killer was one whom he himself had cleansed of blood, ,and in his great and terrible grief at this mischance he called on Zeus by three names—Zeus the Purifier, Zeus of the Hearth, Zeus of Comrades: the first, because he wanted the god to know what evil his guest had done him; the second, because he had received the guest into his house and thus unwittingly entertained the murderer of his son; and the third, because he had found his worst enemy in the man whom he had sent as a protector. 1.45. Soon the Lydians came, bearing the corpse, with the murderer following after. He then came and stood before the body and gave himself up to Croesus, holding out his hands and telling him to kill him over the corpse, mentioning his former misfortune, and that on top of that he had destroyed the one who purified him, and that he was not fit to live. ,On hearing this, Croesus took pity on Adrastus, though his own sorrow was so great, and said to him, “Friend, I have from you the entire penalty, since you sentence yourself to death. But it is not you that I hold the cause of this evil, except in so far as you were the unwilling doer of it, but one of the gods, the same one who told me long ago what was to be.” ,So Croesus buried his own son in such manner as was fitting. But Adrastus, son of Gordias who was son of Midas, this Adrastus, the destroyer of his own brother and of the man who purified him, when the tomb was undisturbed by the presence of men, killed himself there by the sepulcher, seeing clearly now that he was the most heavily afflicted of all whom he knew. 1.46.1. After the loss of his son, Croesus remained in deep sorrow for two years. After this time, the destruction by Cyrus son of Cambyses of the sovereignty of Astyages son of Cyaxares, and the growth of the power of the Persians, distracted Croesus from his mourning; and he determined, if he could, to forestall the increase of the Persian power before they became great. 6.58.2. The Lacedaemonians have the same custom at the deaths of their kings as the foreigners in Asia; most foreigners use the same custom at their kings' deaths. When a king of the Lacedaemonians dies, a fixed number of their subject neighbors must come to the funeral from all Lacedaemon, besides the Spartans. 7.197. When Xerxes had come to Alus in Achaea, his guides, desiring to inform him of all they knew, told him the story which is related in that country concerning the worship of Laphystian Zeus, namely how Athamas son of Aeolus plotted Phrixus' death with Ino, and further, how the Achaeans by an oracle's bidding compel Phrixus descendants to certain tasks. ,They order the eldest of that family not to enter their town-hall (which the Achaeans call the People's House) and themselves keep watch there. If he should enter, he may not come out, save only to be sacrificed. They say as well that many of those who were to be sacrificed had fled in fear to another country, and that if they returned at a later day and were taken, they were brought into the town-hall. The guides showed Xerxes how the man is sacrificed, namely with fillets covering him all over and a procession to lead him forth. ,It is the descendants of Phrixus' son Cytissorus who are treated in this way, because when the Achaeans by an oracle's bidding made Athamas son of Aeolus a scapegoat for their country and were about to sacrifice him, this Cytissorus came from Aea in Colchis and delivered him, thereby bringing the god's wrath on his own descendants. ,Hearing all this, Xerxes, when he came to the temple grove, refrained from entering it himself and bade all his army do likewise, holding the house and the precinct of Athamas' descendants alike in reverence. |
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9. Plato, Timaeus, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 654| 39e. ὡς ὁμοιότατον ᾖ τῷ τελέῳ καὶ νοητῷ ζῴῳ πρὸς τὴν τῆς διαιωνίας μίμησιν φύσεως. ΤΙ. εἰσὶν δὴ τέτταρες, μία μὲν οὐράνιον θεῶν γένος, ἄλλη δὲ | 39e. Nature thereof. Tim. And these Forms are four,—one the heavenly kind of gods; |
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10. Plato, Symposium, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 418| 203a. καὶ τὰς ἐπῳδὰς καὶ τὴν μαντείαν πᾶσαν καὶ γοητείαν. θεὸς δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ οὐ μείγνυται, ἀλλὰ διὰ τούτου πᾶσά ἐστιν ἡ ὁμιλία καὶ ἡ διάλεκτος θεοῖς πρὸς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ ἐγρηγορόσι καὶ καθεύδουσι· καὶ ὁ μὲν περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα σοφὸς δαιμόνιος ἀνήρ, ὁ δὲ ἄλλο τι σοφὸς ὢν ἢ περὶ τέχνας ἢ χειρουργίας τινὰς βάναυσος. οὗτοι δὴ οἱ δαίμονες πολλοὶ καὶ παντοδαποί εἰσιν, εἷς δὲ τούτων ἐστὶ καὶ ὁ Ἔρως. | 203a. and incantations, and all soothsaying and sorcery. God with man does not mingle: but the spiritual is the means of all society and converse of men with gods and of gods with men, whether waking or asleep. Whosoever has skill in these affairs is a spiritual man to have it in other matters, as in common arts and crafts, is for the mechanical. Many and multifarious are these spirits, and one of them is Love. |
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| 11. Plato, Republic, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 654 |
| 12. Aristotle, Physics, None (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 654 |
| 13. Plutarch, Lives of The Ten Orators, 22.7 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 464 |
| 14. Plutarch, Agesilaus, 33.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 15. Plutarch, Comparison of Numa With Lycurgus, 19.8 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
16. Plutarch, On The Obsolescence of Oracles, None (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 418 | 418e. "but which of the theses of Cleombrotus makes you the most uncomfortable?""That it is not the gods," said Heracleon, "who are in charge of the oracles, since the gods ought properly to be freed of earthly concerns; but that it is the demigods, ministers of the gods, who have them in charge, seems to me not a bad postulate; but to take, practically by the handful, from the verses of Empedocles sins, rash crimes, and heaven-sent wanderings, and to impose them upon the demigods, and to assume that their final fate is death, just as with men, Iregard as rather too audacious and uncivilized." Cleombrotus was moved to ask Philip who the young man was and whence he came; and after learning his name and his city he said, |
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17. Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.9.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 464| 1.9.1. τῶν δὲ Αἰόλου παίδων Ἀθάμας, Βοιωτίας δυναστεύων, ἐκ Νεφέλης τεκνοῖ παῖδα μὲν Φρίξον θυγατέρα δὲ Ἕλλην. αὖθις δὲ Ἰνὼ γαμεῖ, ἐξ ἧς αὐτῷ Λέαρχος καὶ Μελικέρτης ἐγένοντο. ἐπιβουλεύουσα δὲ Ἰνὼ τοῖς Νεφέλης τέκνοις ἔπεισε τὰς γυναῖκας τὸν πυρὸν φρύγειν. λαμβάνουσαι δὲ κρύφα τῶν ἀνδρῶν τοῦτο ἔπρασσον. γῆ δὲ πεφρυγμένους πυροὺς δεχομένη καρποὺς ἐτησίους οὐκ ἀνεδίδου. διὸ πέμπων ὁ Ἀθάμας εἰς Δελφοὺς ἀπαλλαγὴν ἐπυνθάνετο τῆς ἀφορίας. Ἰνὼ δὲ τοὺς πεμφθέντας ἀνέπεισε λέγειν ὡς εἴη κεχρησμένον παύσεσθαι 1 -- τὴν ἀκαρπίαν, ἐὰν σφαγῇ Διὶ ὁ Φρίξος. τοῦτο ἀκούσας Ἀθάμας, συναναγκαζόμενος ὑπὸ τῶν τὴν γῆν κατοικούντων, τῷ βωμῷ παρέστησε Φρίξον. Νεφέλη δὲ μετὰ τῆς θυγατρὸς αὐτὸν ἀνήρπασε, καὶ παρʼ Ἑρμοῦ λαβοῦσα χρυσόμαλλον κριὸν ἔδωκεν, ὑφʼ 2 -- οὗ φερόμενοι διʼ οὐρανοῦ γῆν ὑπερέβησαν καὶ θάλασσαν. ὡς δὲ ἐγένοντο κατὰ τὴν μεταξὺ κειμένην θάλασσαν Σιγείου καὶ Χερρονήσου, ὤλισθεν εἰς τὸν βυθὸν ἡ Ἕλλη, κἀκεῖ θανούσης αὐτῆς ἀπʼ ἐκείνης Ἑλλήσποντος ἐκλήθη τὸ πέλαγος. Φρίξος δὲ ἦλθεν εἰς Κόλχους, ὧν Αἰήτης ἐβασίλευε παῖς Ἡλίου καὶ Περσηίδος, ἀδελφὸς δὲ Κίρκης καὶ Πασιφάης, ἣν Μίνως ἔγημεν. οὗτος αὐτὸν ὑποδέχεται, καὶ μίαν τῶν θυγατέρων Χαλκιόπην δίδωσιν. ὁ δὲ τὸν χρυσόμαλλον κριὸν Διὶ θύει φυξίῳ, τὸ δὲ τούτου δέρας Αἰήτῃ δίδωσιν· ἐκεῖνος δὲ αὐτὸ περὶ δρῦν ἐν Ἄρεος ἄλσει καθήλωσεν. ἐγένοντο δὲ ἐκ Χαλκιόπης Φρίξῳ παῖδες Ἄργος Μέλας Φρόντις Κυτίσωρος. | |
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18. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.35.4-2.35.8, 4.17.1, 7.4.19, 9.8.2, 9.33.4 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 242, 464| 2.35.4. τὸ δὲ λόγου μάλιστα ἄξιον ἱερὸν Δήμητρός ἐστιν ἐπὶ τοῦ Πρωνός. τοῦτο τὸ ἱερὸν Ἑρμιονεῖς μὲν Κλύμενον Φορωνέως παῖδα καὶ ἀδελφὴν Κλυμένου Χθονίαν τοὺς ἱδρυσαμένους φασὶν εἶναι. Ἀργεῖοι δέ, ὅτε ἐς τὴν Ἀργολίδα ἦλθε Δημήτηρ, τότε Ἀθέραν μὲν λέγουσι καὶ Μύσιον ὡς ξενίαν παράσχοιεν τῇ θεῷ, Κολόνταν δὲ οὔτε οἴκῳ δέξασθαι τὴν θεὸν οὔτε ἀπονεῖμαί τι ἄλλο ἐς τιμήν· ταῦτα δὲ οὐ κατὰ γνώμην Χθονίᾳ τῇ θυγατρὶ ποιεῖν αὐτόν. Κολόνταν μὲν οὖν φασιν ἀντὶ τούτων συγκαταπρησθῆναι τῇ οἰκίᾳ, Χθονίαν δὲ κομισθεῖσαν ἐς Ἑρμιόνα ὑπὸ Δήμητρος Ἑρμιονεῦσι ποιῆσαι τὸ ἱερόν. 2.35.5. Χθονία δʼ οὖν ἡ θεός τε αὐτὴ καλεῖται καὶ Χθόνια ἑορτὴν κατὰ ἔτος ἄγουσιν ὥρᾳ θέρους, ἄγουσι δὲ οὕτως. ἡγοῦνται μὲν αὐτοῖς τῆς πομπῆς οἵ τε ἱερεῖς τῶν θεῶν καὶ ὅσοι τὰς ἐπετείους ἀρχὰς ἔχουσιν, ἕπονται δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες καὶ ἄνδρες. τοῖς δὲ καὶ παισὶν ἔτι οὖσι καθέστηκεν ἤδη τὴν θεὸν τιμᾶν τῇ πομπῇ· οὗτοι λευκὴν ἐσθῆτα καὶ ἐπὶ ταῖς κεφαλαῖς ἔχουσι στεφάνους. πλέκονται δὲ οἱ στέφανοί σφισιν ἐκ τοῦ ἄνθους ὃ καλοῦσιν οἱ ταύτῃ κοσμοσάνδαλον, ὑάκινθον ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ὄντα καὶ μεγέθει καὶ χρόᾳ· ἔπεστι δέ οἱ καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῷ θρήνῳ γράμματα. 2.35.6. τοῖς δὲ τὴν πομπὴν πέμπουσιν ἕπονται τελείαν ἐξ ἀγέλης βοῦν ἄγοντες διειλημμένην δεσμοῖς τε καὶ ὑβρίζουσαν ἔτι ὑπὸ ἀγριότητος. ἐλάσαντες δὲ πρὸς τὸν ναὸν οἱ μὲν ἔσω φέρεσθαι τὴν βοῦν ἐς τὸ ἱερὸν ἀνῆκαν ἐκ τῶν δεσμῶν, ἕτεροι δὲ ἀναπεπταμένας ἔχοντες τέως τὰς θύρας, ἐπειδὰν τὴν βοῦν ἴδωσιν ἐντὸς τοῦ ναοῦ, προσέθεσαν τὰς θύρας. 2.35.7. τέσσαρες δὲ ἔνδον ὑπολειπόμεναι γρᾶες, αὗται τὴν βοῦν εἰσιν αἱ κατεργαζόμεναι· δρεπάνῳ γὰρ ἥτις ἂν τύχῃ τὴν φάρυγγα ὑπέτεμε τῆς βοός. μετὰ δὲ αἱ θύραι τε ἠνοίχθησαν καὶ προσελαύνουσιν οἷς ἐπιτέτακται βοῦν δὲ δευτέραν καὶ τρίτην ἐπὶ ταύτῃ καὶ ἄλλην τετάρτην. κατεργάζονταί τε δὴ πάσας κατὰ ταὐτὰ αἱ γρᾶες καὶ τόδε ἄλλο πρόσκειται τῇ θυσίᾳ θαῦμα· ἐφʼ ἥντινα γὰρ ἂν πέσῃ τῶν πλευρῶν ἡ πρώτη βοῦς, ἀνάγκη πεσεῖν καὶ πάσας. 2.35.8. θυσία μὲν δρᾶται τοῖς Ἑρμιονεῦσι τὸν εἰρημένον τρόπον· πρὸ δὲ τοῦ ναοῦ γυναικῶν ἱερασαμένων τῇ Δήμητρι εἰκόνες ἑστήκασιν οὐ πολλαί, καὶ παρελθόντι ἔσω θρόνοι τέ εἰσιν, ἐφʼ ὧν αἱ γρᾶες ἀναμένουσιν ἐσελαθῆναι καθʼ ἑκάστην τῶν βοῶν, καὶ ἀγάλματα οὐκ ἄγαν ἀρχαῖα Ἀθηνᾶ καὶ Δημήτηρ. αὐτὸ δὲ ὃ σέβουσιν ἐπὶ πλέον ἢ τἄλλα, ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ εἶδον, οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ἀνὴρ ἄλλος οὔτε ξένος οὔτε Ἑρμιονέων αὐτῶν· μόναι δὲ ὁποῖόν τί ἐστιν αἱ γρᾶες ἴστωσαν. 4.17.1. ἔστι δὲ Αἴγιλα τῆς Λακωνικῆς, ἔνθα ἱερὸν ἵδρυται ἅγιον Δήμητρος. ἐνταῦθα ἐπιστάμενος ὁ Ἀριστομένης καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τὰς γυναῖκας ἀγούσας ἑορτὴν ἀμύνεσθαι τῶν γυναικῶν οὐκ ἄνευ τῆς θεοῦ προαχθεισῶν λαμβάνουσιν οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν Μεσσηνίων τραύματα μαχαίραις τε, αἷς τὰ ἱερεῖα αἱ γυναῖκες ἔθυον, καὶ ὀβελοῖς, οἷς τὰ κρέα ἔπειρον ὀπτῶσαι· τὸν δὲ Ἀριστομένην τύπτουσαι ταῖς δᾳσὶ ζῶντα αἱροῦσιν. ἀπεσώθη δὲ ὅμως τῆς αὐτῆς ἐκείνης νυκτὸς ἐς τὴν Μεσσηνίαν. ἀφεῖναι δὲ αὐτὸν ἱέρεια τῆς Δήμητρος αἰτίαν ἔσχεν Ἀρχιδάμεια· ἀφῆκε δὲ οὐκ ἐπὶ χρήμασιν, ἀλλὰ ἐρῶσα ἔτυχεν αὐτοῦ πρότερον ἔτι, προὐφασίζετο δὲ ὡς Ἀριστομένης διακούσας τὰ δεσμὰ ἀποδρὰς οἴχοιτο. 9.8.2. ἐνταῦθα καὶ Διονύσον ναός ἐστιν Αἰγοβόλου. θύοντες γὰρ τῷ θεῷ προήχθησάν ποτε ὑπὸ μέθης ἐς ὕβριν, ὥστε καὶ τοῦ Διονύσου τὸν ἱερέα ἀποκτείνουσιν· ἀποκτείναντας δὲ αὐτίκα ἐπέλαβε νόσος λοιμώδης, καί σφισιν ἀφίκετο ἴαμα ἐκ Δελφῶν τῷ Διονύσῳ θύειν παῖδα ὡραῖον· ἔτεσι δὲ οὐ πολλοῖς ὕστερον τὸν θεόν φασιν αἶγα ἱερεῖον ὑπαλλάξαι σφίσιν ἀντὶ τοῦ παιδός. δείκνυται δὲ ἐν Ποτνιαῖς καὶ φρέαρ· τὰς δὲ ἵππους τὰς ἐπιχωρίους τοῦ ὕδατος πιούσας τούτου μανῆναι λέγουσιν. 9.33.4. ἔστι δὲ ἐν τῇ Ἁλιαρτίᾳ ποταμὸς Λόφις. λέγεται δὲ τῆς χώρας αὐχμηρᾶς οὔσης τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς καὶ ὕδατος οὐκ ὄντος ἐν αὐτῇ ἄνδρα τῶν δυναστευόντων ἐλθόντα ἐς Δελφοὺς ἐπερέσθαι τρόπον ὅντινα ὕδωρ εὑρήσουσιν ἐν τῇ γῇ· τὴν δὲ Πυθίαν προστάσσειν, ὃς ἂν ἐπανήκοντι ἐς Ἁλίαρτον ἐντύχῃ οἱ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων, τούτου δεῖν φονέα γενέσθαι αὐτόν. ἐντυχεῖν τε δὴ αὐτῷ παραγενομένῳ τὸν υἱὸν Λόφιν καὶ τὸν οὐ μελλήσαντα τῷ ξίφει τὸν νεανίσκον παῖσαι· καὶ τὸν μὲν ἔτι ἔμπνουν περιθεῖν, ὅπου δὲ ῥυῆναι τὸ αἷμα, ὕδωρ ἐντεῦθεν ἀνεῖναι τὴν γῆν. ἐπὶ τούτῳ μὲν ὁ ποταμὸς καλεῖται Λόφις· | 2.35.4. The object most worthy of mention is a sanctuary of Demeter on Pron. This sanctuary is said by the Hermionians to have been founded by Clymenus, son of Phoroneus, and Chthonia, sister of Clymenus. But the Argive account is that when Demeter came to Argolis , while Atheras and Mysius afforded hospitality to the goddess, Colontas neither received her into his home nor paid her any other mark of respect. His daughter Chthoia disapproved of this conduct. They say that Colontas was punished by being burnt up along with his house, while Chthonia was brought to Hermion by Demeter, and made the sanctuary for the Hermionians. 2.35.5. At any rate, the goddess herself is called Chthonia, and Chthonia is the name of the festival they hold in the summer of every year. The manner of it is this. The procession is headed by the priests of the gods and by all those who hold the annual magistracies; these are followed by both men and women. It is now a custom that some who are still children should honor the goddess in the procession. These are dressed in white, and wear wreaths upon their heads. Their wreaths are woven of the flower called by the natives cosmosandalon , which, from its size and color, seems to me to be an iris; it even has inscribed upon it the same letters of mourning. The letters AI, an exclamation of woe supposed to be inscribed on the flower. 2.35.6. Those who form the procession are followed by men leading from the herd a full-grown cow, fastened with ropes, and still untamed and frisky. Having driven the cow to the temple, some loose her from the ropes that she may rush into the sanctuary, others, who hitherto have been holding the doors open, when they see the cow within the temple, close the doors. 2.35.7. Four old women, left behind inside, are they who dispatch the cow. Whichever gets the chance cuts the throat of the cow with a sickle. Afterwards the doors are opened, and those who are appointed drive up a second cow, and a third after that, and yet a fourth. All are dispatched in the same way by the old women, and the sacrifice has yet another strange feature. On whichever of her sides the first cow falls, all the others must fall on the same. 2.35.8. Such is the manner in which the sacrifice is performed by the Hermionians. Before the temple stand a few statues of the women who have served Demeter as her priestess, and on passing inside you see seats on which the old women wait for the cows to be driven in one by one, and images, of no great age, of Athena and Demeter. But the thing itself that they worship more than all else, I never saw, nor yet has any other man, whether stranger or Hermionian. The old women may keep their knowledge of its nature to themselves. 4.17.1. There is a place Aegila in Laconia , where is a sanctuary sacred to Demeter. Aristomenes and his men knowing that the women were keeping festival there . . . the women were inspired by the goddess to defend themselves, and most of the Messenians were wounded with the knives with which the women sacrificed the victims and the spits on which they pierced and roasted the meat. Aristomenes was struck with the torches and taken alive. Nevertheless he escaped to Messenia during the same night. Archidameia, the priestess of Demeter, was charged with having released him, not for a bribe but because she had been in love with him before; but she maintained that Aristomenes had escaped by burning through his bonds. 9.8.2. Here there is also a temple of Dionysus Goat-shooter. For once, when they were sacrificing to the god, they grew so violent with wine that they actually killed the priest of Dionysus. Immediately after the murder they were visited by a pestilence, and the Delphic oracle said that to cure it they must sacrifice a boy in the bloom of youth. A few years afterwards, so they say, the god substituted a goat as a victim in place of their boy. In Potniae is also shown a well. The mares of the country are said on drinking this water to become mad. 9.33.4. In the land of Haliartus there is a river Lophis. It is said that the land was originally arid and without water, so that one of the rulers came to Delphi and asked in what way they would find water in the land. The Pythian priestess, they say, commanded him to kill the man who should first meet him on his return to Haliartus. On his arrival he was met by his son Lophis, and at once smote the youth with his sword. Still living, the lad ran about, and where the blood ran water rose up from the earth. Wherefore the river is called Lophis. |
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19. Anon., Leviticus Rabba, 22.8 (2nd cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Klawans (2009), Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism, 262, 263| 22.8. רַבִּי פִּנְחָס בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי לֵוִי אָמַר מָשָׁל לְבֶן מֶלֶךְ שֶׁגַּס לִבּוֹ עָלָיו וְהָיָה לָמֵד לֶאֱכֹל בְּשַׂר נְבֵלוֹת וּטְרֵפוֹת, אָמַר הַמֶּלֶךְ זֶה יִהְיֶה תָּדִיר עַל שֻׁלְחָנִי וּמֵעַצְמוֹ הוּא נָדוּר [גדור], כָּךְ לְפִי שֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל לְהוּטִים אַחַר עֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים בְּמִצְרַיִם וְהָיוּ מְבִיאִים קָרְבָּנֵיהֶם לַשְּׂעִירִים, דִּכְתִיב (ויקרא יז, ז): וְלֹא יִזְבְּחוּ עוֹד אֶת זִבְחֵיהֶם לַשְּׂעִירִים, וְאֵין שְׂעִירִים אֵלּוּ אֶלָּא שֵׁדִים, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים לב, יז): וַיִּזְבְּחוּ לַשֵּׁדִים, וְאֵין שֵׁדִים אֵלּוּ אֶלָּא שְׂעִירִים, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה יג, כא): וּשְׂעִירִים יְרַקְּדוּ שָׁם, וְהָיוּ מַקְרִיבִין קָרְבָּנֵיהֶם בְּאִסּוּר בָּמָּה וּפֻרְעָנֻיּוֹת בָּאוֹת עֲלֵיהֶם, אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא יִהְיוּ מַקְרִיבִין לְפָנַי בְּכָל עֵת קָרְבְּנוֹתֵיהֶן בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, וְהֵן נִפְרָשִׁים מֵעֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים וְהֵם נִיצוֹלִים, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב: אִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וגו'. | 22.8. "Rabbi Pinhas in the name of Rabbi Levi stated: This is comparable to a king’s son who strayed and was accustomed to eat non-kosher meat. The king declared, “let him always eat at my table and on his own he will eventually become disciplined.” Similarly, because Israel was attached to idolatry in Egypt and would bring their sacrifices to the goat-demons, as it is written (Leviticus 17:7) \"No longer shall you sacrifice to goat-demons, which refer to the shedim they sacrificed to (Deuternomy 32:17) \"and they sacrificed to shedim\", and those shedim refer to the goat-demons, as it says, (Isaiah 13:21) \"and the goat [demons] shall prance there.\" And they would offer sacrifices on high places and retribution would befall them, the Holy One blessed be He said “let them offer sacrifices before Me at all times in the Tent of Meeting and they will be separated from idolatry and be saved.” This is the meaning of what is written (Leviticus 17:3-7): “Any man of the House of Israel who slaughters an ox or sheep or goat... and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting as a sacrifice to God.... that man will be cut off from among his people… so that they no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat-demons that they are wont to stray after.\"", |
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20. Lactantius, Divine Institutes, 1.21 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 464 | 1.21. We have spoken of the gods themselves who are worshipped; we must now speak a few words respecting their sacrifices and mysteries. Among the people of Cyprus, Teucer sacrificed a human victim to Jupiter, and handed down to posterity that sacrifice which was lately abolished by Hadrian when he was emperor. There was a law among the people of Tauris, a fierce and inhuman nation, by which it was ordered that strangers should be sacrificed to Diana; and this sacrifice was practised through many ages. The Gauls used to appease Hesus and Teutas with human blood. Nor, indeed, were the Latins free from this cruelty, since Jupiter Latialis is even now worshipped with the offering of human blood. What benefit do they who offer such sacrifices implore from the gods? Or what are such deities able to bestow on the men by whose punishments they are propitiated? But this is not so much a matter of surprise with respect to barbarians, whose religion agrees with their character. But are not our countrymen, who have always claimed for themselves the glory of gentleness and civilization, found to be more inhuman by these sacrilegious rites? For these ought rather to be esteemed impious, who, though they are embellished with the pursuits of liberal training, turn aside from such refinement, than those who, being ignorant and inexperienced, glide into evil practices from their ignorance of those which are good. And yet it is plain that this rite of immolating human victims is ancient, since Saturn was honoured in Latium with the same kind of sacrifice; not indeed that a man was slain at the altar, but that he was thrown from the Milvian bridge into the Tiber. And Varro relates that this was done in accordance with an oracle; of which oracle the last verse is to this effect: And offer heads to Ades, and to the father a man. And because this appears ambiguous, both a torch and a man are accustomed to be thrown to him. But it is said that sacrifices of this kind were put an end to by Hercules when he returned from Spain; the custom still continuing, that instead of real men, images made from rushes were cast forth, as Ovid informs us in his Fasti: Until the Tirynthian came into these lands, gloomy sacrifices were annually offered in the Leucadian manner: he threw into the water Romans made of straw; do you, after the example of Hercules, cast in the images of human bodies. The Vestal virgins make these sacred offerings, as the same poet says: Then also a virgin is accustomed to cast from the wooden bridge the images of ancient men made from rushes. For I cannot find language to speak of the infants who were immolated to the same Saturn, on account of his hatred of Jupiter. To think that men were so barbarous, so savage, that they gave the name of sacrifice to the slaughter of their own children, that is, to a deed foul, and to be held in detestation by the human race; since, without any regard to parental affection, they destroyed tender and innocent lives, at an age which is especially pleasing to parents, and surpassed in brutality the savageness of all beasts, which - savage as they are - still love their offspring! O incurable madness! What more could those gods do to them, if they were most angry, than they now do when propitious, when they defile their worshippers with parricide, visit them with bereavements, and deprive them of the sensibilities of men? What can be sacred to these men? Or what will they do in profane places, who commit the greatest crimes amidst the altars of the gods? Pescennius Festus relates in the books of his History by a Satire, that the Carthaginians were accustomed to immolate human victims to Saturn; and when they were conquered by Agathocles, the king of the Sicilians, they imagined that the god was angry with them; and therefore, that they might more diligently offer an expiation, they immolated two hundred sons of their nobles: So great the ills to which religion could prompt, which has ofttimes produced wicked and impious deeds. What advantage, then, did the men propose by that sacrifice, when they put to death so large a part of the state, as not even Agathocles had slain when victorious? From this kind of sacrifices those public rites are to be judged signs of no less madness; some of which are in honour of the mother of the gods, in which men mutilate themselves; others are in honour of Virtus, whom they also call Bellona, in which the priests make offsprings not with the blood of another victim, but with their own. For, cutting their shoulders, and thrusting forth drawn swords in each hand, they run, they are beside themselves, they are frantic. Quintilian therefore says excellently in his Fanatic: If a god compels this, he does it in anger. Are even these things sacred? Is it not better to live like cattle, than to worship deities so impious, profane, and sanguinary? But we will discuss at the proper time the source from which these errors and deeds of such great disgrace originated. In the meantime, let us look also to other matters which are without guilt, that we may not seem to select the worse parts through the desire of finding fault. In Egypt there are sacred rites in honour of Isis, since she either lost or found her little son. For at first her priests, having made their bodies smooth, beat their breasts, and lament, as the goddess herself had done when her child was lost. Afterwards the boy is brought forward, as if found, and that mourning is changed into joy. Therefore Lucan says, And Osiris never sufficiently sought for. For they always lose, and they always find him. Therefore in the sacred rites there is a representation of a circumstance which really occurred; and which assuredly declares, if we have any intelligence, that she was a mortal woman, and almost desolate, had she not found one person. And this did not escape the notice of the poet himself; for he represents Pompey when a youth as thus speaking, on hearing the death of his father: I will now draw forth the deity Isis from the tomb, and send her through the nations; and I will scatter through the people Osiris covered with wood. This Osiris is the same whom the people call Serapis. For it is customary for the names of the dead who are deified to be changed, that no one, as I believe, may imagine them to be men. For Romulus after his death became Quirinus, and Leda became Nemesis, and Circe Marica; and Ino, when she had leapt into the sea, was called Leucothea; and the mother Matuta; and her son Melicerta was called Pal mon and Portumnus. And the sacred rites of the Eleusinian Ceres are not unlike these. For as in those which have been mentioned the boy Osiris is sought with the wailing of his mother, so in these Proserpine is carried away to contract an incestuous marriage with her uncle; and because Ceres is said to have sought for her in Sicily with torches lighted from the top of Etna, on this account her sacred rites are celebrated with the throwing of torches. At Lampsacus the victim to be offered to Priapus is an ass, and the cause of the sacrifice of this animal is thus set forth in the Fasti:- When all the deities had assembled at the festival of the Great Mother, and when, satiated with feasting, they were spending the night in sport, they say that Vesta had laid herself on the ground for rest, and had fallen asleep, and that Priapus upon this formed a design against her honour as she slept; but that she was aroused by the unseasonable braying of the ass on which Silenus used to ride, and that the design of the insidious plotter was frustrated. On this account they say that the people of Lampsacus were accustomed to sacrifice an ass to Priapus, as though it were in revenge; but among the Romans the same animal was crowned at the Vestalia (festival of Vesta) with loaves, in honour of the preservation of her chastity. What is baser, what more disgraceful, than if Vesta is indebted to an ass for the preservation of her purity? But the poet invented a fable. But was that more true which is related by those who wrote Phenomena, when they speak concerning the two stars of Cancer, which the Greeks call asses? That they were asses which carried across father Liber when he was unable to cross a river, and that he rewarded one of them with the power of speaking with human voice; and that a contest arose between him and Priapus; and Priapus, being worsted in the contest, was enraged, and slew the victor. This truly is much more absurd. But poets have the licence of saying what they will. I do not meddle with a mystery so odious; nor do I strip Priapus of his disguise, lest something deserving of ridicule should be brought to light. It is true the poets invented these fictions, but they must have been invented for the purpose of concealing some greater depravity. Let us inquire what this is. But in fact it is evident. For as the bull is sacrificed to Luna, because he also has horns as she has; and as Persia propitiates with a horse Hyperion surrounded with rays, that a slow victim may not be offered to the swift god; so in this case no more suitable victim could be found than that which resembled him to whom it is offered. At Lindus, which is a town of Rhodes, there are sacred rites in honour of Hercules, the observance of which differs widely from all other rites; for they are not celebrated with words of good omen (as the Greeks term it), but with revilings and cursing. And they consider it a violation of the sacred rites, if at any time during the celebration of the solemnities a good word shall have escaped from any one even inadvertently. And this is the reason assigned for this practice, if indeed there can be any reason in things utterly senseless. When Hercules had arrived at the place, and was suffering hunger, he saw a ploughman at work, and began to ask him to sell one of his oxen. But the ploughman replied that this was impossible, because his hope of cultivating the land depended altogether upon those two bullocks. Hercules, with his usual violence, because he was not able to receive one of them, killed both. But the unhappy man, when he saw that his oxen were slain, avenged the injury with revilings - a circumstance which afforded gratification to the man of elegance and refinement. For while he prepares a feast for his companions, and while he devours the oxen of another man, he receives with ridicule and loud laughter the bitter reproaches with which the other assails him. But when it had been determined that divine honours should be paid to Hercules in admiration of his excellence, an altar was erected in his honour by the citizens, which he named, from the circumstance, the yoke of oxen; and at this altar two yoked oxen were sacrificed, like those which he had taken from the ploughman. And he appointed the same man to be his priest, and directed him always to use the same revilings in offering sacrifice, because he said that he had never feasted more pleasantly. Now these things are not sacred, but sacrilegious, in which that is said to be enjoined, which, if it is done in other things, is punished with the greatest severity. What, moreover, do the rites of the Cretan Jupiter himself show, except the manner in which he was withdrawn from his father, or brought up? There is a goat belonging to the nymph Amalthea, which gave suck to the infant; and of this goat Germanicus C sar thus speaks, in his poem translated from Aratus: - She is supposed to be the nurse of Jupiter; if in truth the infant Jupiter pressed the faithful teats of the Cretan goat, which attests the gratitude of her lord by a bright constellation.Mus us relates that Jupiter, when fighting against the Titans, used the hide of this goat as a shield, from which circumstance he is called by the poets shield-bearer. Thus, whatever was done in concealing the boy, that also is done by way of representation in the sacred rites. Moreover, the mystery of his mother also contains the same story which Ovid sets forth in the Fasti:- Now the lofty Ida resounds with tinklings, that the boy may cry in safety with infant mouth. Some strike their shields with stakes, some beat their empty helmets. This is the employment of the Curetes, this of the Corybantes. The matter was concealed, and imitations of the ancient deed remain; the attendant goddesses shake instruments of brass, and hoarse hides. Instead of helmets they strike cymbals, and drums instead of shields; the flute gives Phrygian strains, as it gave before.Sallust rejected this opinion altogether, as though invented by the poets, and wished to give an ingenious explanation of the reasons for which the Curetes are said to have nourished Jupiter; and he speaks to this purport: Because they were the first to understand the worship of the deity, that therefore antiquity, which exaggerates all things, made them known as the nourishers of Jupiter. How much this learned man was mistaken, the matter itself at once declares. For if Jupiter holds the first place, both among the gods and in religious rites, if no gods were worshipped by the people before him, because they who are worshipped were not yet born; it appears that the Curetes, on the contrary, were the first who did not understand the worship of the deity, since all error was introduced by them, and the memory of the true God was taken away. They ought therefore to have understood from the mysteries and ceremonies themselves, that they were offering prayers to dead men. I do not then require that any one should believe the fictions of the poets. If any one imagines that these speak falsely, let him consider the writings of the pontiffs themselves, and weigh whatever there is of literature pertaining to sacred rites: he will perhaps find more things than we bring forward, from which he may understand that all things which are esteemed sacred are empty, vain, and fictitious. But if any one, having discovered wisdom, shall lay aside his error, he will assuredly laugh at the follies of men who are almost without understanding: I mean those who either dance with unbecoming gestures, or run naked, anointed, and crowned with chaplets, either wearing a mask or besmeared with mud. What shall I say about shields now putrid with age? When they carry these, they think that they are carrying gods themselves on their shoulders. For Furius Bibaculus is regarded among the chief examples of piety, who, though he was pr tor, nevertheless carried the sacred shield, preceded by the lictors, though his office as prœtor gave him an exemption from this duty. He was therefore not Furius, but altogether mad, who thought that he graced his pr torship by this service. Deservedly then, since these things are done by men not unskilful and ignorant, does Lucretius exclaim:- O foolish minds of men! O blinded breasts! In what darkness of life and in how great dangers is passed this term of life, whatever be its duration!Who that is possessed of any sense would not laugh at these mockeries, when he sees that men, as though bereft of intelligence, do those things seriously, which if any one should do in sport, he would appear too full of sport and folly? |
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21. Porphyry, On Abstinence, 1.25, 2.9, 2.54-2.55 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 464, 471 | 1.25. 25.Moreover, the Gods themselves, for the sake of a remedy, have delivered mandates to many persons about sacrificing animals. For history is full of instances of the Gods having ordered certain persons to sacrifice animals, and, when sacrificed, to eat them. For, in the return of the Heraclidae, those who engaged in war against Lacedsemon, in conjunction with Eurysthenes and Proscles, through a want of necessaries, were compelled to eat serpents, which the land at that time afforded for the nutriment of the army. In Libya, also, a cloud of locusts fell for the relief of another army that was oppressed by hunger. The same thing likewise happened at Gades. Bogus was a king of the Mauritanians, who was slain by Agrippa in Mothone. He in that place attacked the temple of Hercules, which was most rich. But it was the custom of the priests daily to sprinkle the altar with blood. That this, however, was not effected by the decision of men, but by that of divinity, the occasion at that time demonstrated. For, the seige being continued for a long time, victims were wanting. But the priest being dubious how he should act, had the following vision in a dream. He seemed to himself to be standing in the middle of the pillars of the temple of Hercules, and afterwards to see a bird sitting opposite to the altar, and endeavouring to fly to it, but which at length flew into his hands. He also saw that the altar was sprinkled with its blood. Seeing this, he rose as soon as it was day, and went to the altar, and standing on the turret, as he thought he did in his dream, he looked round, and saw the very bird which he had seen in his sleep. Hoping, therefore, that his dream would be fulfilled, he stood still, saw the bird fly to the altar and sit upon it, and deliver itself into the hands of the high priest. Thus the bird was sacrificed, and the altar sprinkled with blood. That, however, which happened at Cyzicus, is still more celebrated than this |24 event. For Mithridates having besieged this city, the festival of Proserpine was then celebrated, in which it was requisite to sacrifice an ox. But the sacred herds, from which it was necessary the victim should be taken, fed opposite to the city, on the continent 11: and one of them was already marked for this purpose. When, therefore, the hour demanded the sacrifice, the ox lowed, and swam over the sea, and the guards of the city opened the gates to it. Then the ox directly ran into the city, and stood at the altar, and was sacrificed to the Goddess. Not unreasonably, therefore, was it thought to be most pious to sacrifice many animals, since it appeared that the sacrifice of them was pleasing to the Gods. SPAN 2.9. 9.The sacrifice, therefore, through animals is posterior and most recent, and originated from a cause which is not of a pleasing nature, like that of the sacrifice from fruits, but received its commencement either from famine, or some other unfortunate circumstance. The causes, indeed, of the peculiar mactations among the Athenians, had their beginning, either in ignorance, or anger, or fear. For the slaughter of swine is attributed to an involuntary error of Clymene, who, by unintentionally striking, slew the animal. Hence her husband, being terrified as if he had perpetrated an illegal deed, consulted the oracle of the Pythian God about it. But as the God did not condemn what had happened, the slaughter of animals was afterwards considered as a thing of an indifferent nature. The inspector, however, of sacred rites, who was the offspring of prophets, wishing to make an offering of first-fruits from sheep, was permitted to do so, it is said, by an oracle, but with much caution and fear. For the oracle was as follows:--- "offspring of prophets, sheep by force to slay, The Gods permit not thee: but with wash'd hands For thee 'tis lawful any sheep to kill, That dies a voluntary death." SPAN 2.54. 54.And that we do not carelessly assert these things, but that what we have said is abundantly confirmed by history, the following narrations sufficiently testify. For in Rhodes, on the sixth day of June, a man was sacrificed to Saturn; which custom having prevailed for a long time, was afterwards changed [into a more human mode of sacrificing]. For one of those men who, by the public decision, had been sentenced to death, was kept in prison till the Saturnalia commenced; but as soon as this festival began, they brought the man out of the gates of the city, opposite to the temple of Aristobulus, and giving him wine to drink, they cut his throat. But in the island which is now called Salamis, but was formerly denominated Coronis, in the month according to the Cyprians Aphrodisius, a man was sacrificed to Agraule, the daughter of Cecrops, and the nymph Agraulis. And this custom continued till the time of Diomed. Afterwards it was changed, so that a man was sacrificed to Diomed. But the temples of Minerva, of Agraule, and Diomed, were contained in one and the same enclosure. The man who was also about to be slain, was first led by young men thrice round the altar, afterwards the priest pierced him with a lance in the stomach, and thus being thrown on the pyre, he was entirely consumed. SPAN 2.55. 55.This sacred institute was, however, abolished by Diphilus, the king of Cyprus, who flourished about the time of Seleucus, the theologist. But Daemon substituted an ox for a man; thus causing the latter sacrifice to be of equal worth with the former. Amosis also abolished the law of sacrificing men in the Egyptian city Heliopolis; the truth of which is testified by Manetho in his treatise on Antiquity and Piety. But the sacrifice was made to Juno, and an investigation took place, as if they were endeavouring to find pure calves, and such as were marked by the impression of a seal. Three men also were sacrificed on the day appointed for this purpose, in the place of whom Amosis ordered them to substitute three waxen images. In Chios likewise, they sacrificed a man to Omadius Bacchus 23, the man being for this purpose torn in pieces; and the same custom, as Eulpis Carystius says, was adopted in |77 Tenedos. To which may be added, that the Lacedaemonians, as Apollodorus says, sacrificed a man to Mars. SPAN |
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22. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 8.24-8.33, 9.18 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 418; Munn (2006), The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion. 51 | 8.24. to respect all divination, to sing to the lyre and by hymns to show due gratitude to gods and to good men. To abstain from beans because they are flatulent and partake most of the breath of life; and besides, it is better for the stomach if they are not taken, and this again will make our dreams in sleep smooth and untroubled.Alexander in his Successions of Philosophers says that he found in the Pythagorean memoirs the following tenets as well. 8.25. The principle of all things is the monad or unit; arising from this monad the undefined dyad or two serves as material substratum to the monad, which is cause; from the monad and the undefined dyad spring numbers; from numbers, points; from points, lines; from lines, plane figures; from plane figures, solid figures; from solid figures, sensible bodies, the elements of which are four, fire, water, earth and air; these elements interchange and turn into one another completely, and combine to produce a universe animate, intelligent, spherical, with the earth at its centre, the earth itself too being spherical and inhabited round about. There are also antipodes, and our down is their up. 8.26. Light and darkness have equal part in the universe, so have hot and cold, and dry and moist; and of these, if hot preponderates, we have summer; if cold, winter; if dry, spring; if moist, late autumn. If all are in equilibrium, we have the best periods of the year, of which the freshness of spring constitutes the healthy season, and the decay of late autumn the unhealthy. So too, in the day, freshness belongs to the morning, and decay to the evening, which is therefore more unhealthy. The air about the earth is stagt and unwholesome, and all within it is mortal; but the uppermost air is ever-moved and pure and healthy, and all within it is immortal and consequently divine. 8.27. The sun, the moon, and the other stars are gods; for, in them, there is a preponderance of heat, and heat is the cause of life. The moon is illumined by the sun. Gods and men are akin, inasmuch as man partakes of heat; therefore God takes thought for man. Fate is the cause of things being thus ordered both as a whole and separately. The sun's ray penetrates through the aether, whether cold or dense – the air they call cold aether, and the sea and moisture dense aether – and this ray descends even to the depths and for this reason quickens all things. 8.28. All things live which partake of heat – this is why plants are living things – but all have not soul, which is a detached part of aether, partly the hot and partly the cold, for it partakes of cold aether too. Soul is distinct from life; it is immortal, since that from which it is detached is immortal. Living creatures are reproduced from one another by germination; there is no such thing as spontaneous generation from earth. The germ is a clot of brain containing hot vapour within it; and this, when brought to the womb, throws out, from the brain, ichor, fluid and blood, whence are formed flesh, sinews, bones, hairs, and the whole of the body, while soul and sense come from the vapour within. 8.29. First congealing in about forty days, it receives form and, according to the ratios of harmony, in seven, nine, or at the most ten, months, the mature child is brought forth. It has in it all the relations constituting life, and these, forming a continuous series, keep it together according to the ratios of harmony, each appearing at regulated intervals. Sense generally, and sight in particular, is a certain unusually hot vapour. This is why it is said to see through air and water, because the hot aether is resisted by the cold; for, if the vapour in the eyes had been cold, it would have been dissipated on meeting the air, its like. As it is, in certain [lines] he calls the eyes the portals of the sun. His conclusion is the same with regard to hearing and the other senses. 8.30. The soul of man, he says, is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals as well, but reason by man alone. The seat of the soul extends from the heart to the brain; the part of it which is in the heart is passion, while the parts located in the brain are reason and intelligence. The senses are distillations from these. Reason is immortal, all else mortal. The soul draws nourishment from the blood; the faculties of the soul are winds, for they as well as the soul are invisible, just as the aether is invisible. 8.31. The veins, arteries, and sinews are the bonds of the soul. But when it is strong and settled down into itself, reasonings and deeds become its bonds. When cast out upon the earth, it wanders in the air like the body. Hermes is the steward of souls, and for that reason is called Hermes the Escorter, Hermes the Keeper of the Gate, and Hermes of the Underworld, since it is he who brings in the souls from their bodies both by land and sea; and the pure are taken into the uppermost region, but the impure are not permitted to approach the pure or each other, but are bound by the Furies in bonds unbreakable. 8.32. The whole air is full of souls which are called genii or heroes; these are they who send men dreams and signs of future disease and health, and not to men alone, but to sheep also and cattle as well; and it is to them that purifications and lustrations, all divination, omens and the like, have reference. The most momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or to evil. Blest are the men who acquire a good soul; they can never be at rest, nor ever keep the same course two days together. 8.33. Right has the force of an oath, and that is why Zeus is called the God of Oaths. Virtue is harmony, and so are health and all good and God himself; this is why they say that all things are constructed according to the laws of harmony. The love of friends is just concord and equality. We should not pay equal worship to gods and heroes, but to the gods always, with reverent silence, in white robes, and after purification, to the heroes only from midday onwards. Purification is by cleansing, baptism and lustration, and by keeping clean from all deaths and births and all pollution, and abstaining from meat and flesh of animals that have died, mullets, gurnards, eggs and egg-sprung animals, beans, and the other abstinences prescribed by those who perform rites in the sanctuaries. 9.18. 2. XENOPHANESXenophanes, a native of Colophon, the son of Dexius, or, according to Apollodorus, of Orthomenes, is praised by Timon, whose words at all events are:Xenophanes, not over-proud, perverter of Homer, castigator.He was banished from his native city and lived at Zancle in Sicily [and having joined the colony planted at Elea taught there]. He also lived in Catana. According to some he was no man's pupil, according to others he was a pupil of Boton of Athens, or, as some say, of Archelaus. Sotion makes him a contemporary of Anaximander. His writings are in epic metre, as well as elegiacs and iambics attacking Hesiod and Homer and denouncing what they said about the gods. Furthermore he used to recite his own poems. It is stated that he opposed the views of Thales and Pythagoras, and attacked Epimenides also. He lived to a very great age, as his own words somewhere testify: |
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| 24. Demosthenes, Schol., 24.28 Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 25. Epigraphy, Ig Xii,7, 241.6-241.7 Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 26. Orphic Hymns., Fragments, None Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: McClay (2023), The Bacchic Gold Tablets and Poetic Tradition: Memory and Performance. 37 |
| 27. Epigraphy, Ig Xii,5, 595 Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 28. Epigraphy, Ig Ii2, 713.9-713.10, 1186.10 Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 29. Epigraphy, Lss, 14.35-14.40 Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 30. Epigraphy, Lsam, 32.12, 81.6-81.9 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 31. Epigraphy, Rhodes & Osborne Ghi, 73.2-73.3 Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 32. Various, Anthologia Palatina, 7.407 Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Munn (2006), The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion. 142 |
| 33. Epigraphy, Cid (Rougemont Et Al.), 4.71.4 Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
| 34. Various, Fgrh, None Tagged with subjects: •detienne, marcel Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 469 |
