Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

59.73 And this woman offered on the city’s behalf the sacrifices which none may name, and saw what it was not fitting for her to see, being an alien; and despite her character she entered where no other of the whole host of the Athenians enters save the wife of the king only; and she administered the oath to the venerable priestesses These were women whose duty was to minister at the altars of Dionysus. who preside over the sacrifices, and was given as bride to Dionysus At the festival of the Anthesteria, in order to symbolize the union of the god with the people, the (presumably) noblest woman in the land—the wife of the king—was given as bride to Dionysus. ; and she conducted on the city’s behalf the rites which our fathers handed down for the service of the gods, rites many and solemn and not to be named. If it be not permitted that anyone even hear of them, how can it be consot with piety for a chance-comer to perform them, especially a woman of her character and one who has done what she has done? ^59.74 I wish, however, to go back farther and explain these matters to you in greater detail, that you may be more careful in regard to the punishment, and may be assured that you are to cast your votes, not only in the interest of your selves and the laws, but also in the interest of reverence towards the gods, by exacting the penalty for acts of impiety, and by punishing those who have done the wrong. In ancient times, men of Athens, there was sovereignty in our state, and the kingship belonged to those who were from time to time preeminent by reason of their being children of the soil, and the king offered all the sacrifices, and those which were holiest and which none might name his wife performed, as was natural, she being queen. ^59.75 But when Theseus settled the people in one city and established the democracy, and the city became populous, the people none the less continued to elect the king as before, choosing him from among those most distinguished by valor; and they established a law that his wife should be of Athenian birth, and that he should marry a virgin who had never known another man, to the end that after the custom of our fathers the sacred rites that none may name may be celebrated on the city’s behalf, and that the approved sacrifices may be made to the gods as piety demands, without omission or innovation. ^59.76 This law they wrote on a pillar of stone, and set it up in the sanctuary of Dionysus by the altar in Limnae A district in the southern part of Athens, though topographers differ widely as to its location. It was doubtless originally a swamp ( λίμνη ). (and this pillar even now stands, showing the inscription in Attic characters, nearly effaced). Thus the people testified to their own piety toward the god, and left it as a deposit for future generations, showing what type of woman we demand that she shall be who is to be given in marriage to the god, and is to perform the sacrifices. For this reason they set it up in the most ancient and most sacred sanctuary of Dionysus in Limnae, in order that few only might have knowledge of the inscription; for once only in each year is the sanctuary opened, on the twelfth day of the month Anthesterion. Anthesterion corresponds to the latter half of February and the prior half of March. It was in this month that the Feast of Flowers ( τὰ Ἀνθεστήρια ) was celebrated in honor of Dionysus. ^59.77 These sacred and holy rites for the celebration of which your ancestors provided so well and so magnificently, it is your duty, men of Athens, to maintain with devotion, and likewise to punish those who insolently defy your laws and have been guilty of shameless impiety toward the gods; and this for two reasons: first, that they may pay the penalty for their crimes; and, secondly, that others may take warning, and may fear to commit any sin against the gods and against the state. ^59.78 I wish now to call before you the sacred herald who waits upon the wife of the king, when she administers the oath to the venerable priestesses as they carry their baskets The baskets contained the salt meal which was sprinkled upon the heads of the victims. in front of the altar before they touch the victims, in order that you may hear the oath and the words that are pronounced, at least as far as it is permitted you to hear them; and that you may understand how august and holy and ancient the rites are. The Oath of the Venerable Priestesses I live a holy life and am pure and unstained by all else that pollutes and by commerce with man, and I will celebrate the feast of the wine god and the Iobacchic feast These festivals derived their names from epithets applied to the God, and belonged to the ancient worship of Dionysus. in honor of Dionysus in accordance with custom and at the appointed times.
^59.80 When these rites had been solemnized and the nine archons had gone up on the Areopagus on the appointed days, the council of the Areopagus, which in other matters also is of high worth to the city in what pertains to piety, forthwith undertook an inquiry as to who this wife of Theogenes was and established the truth; and being deeply concerned for the sanctity of the rites, the council was for imposing upon Theogenes the highest fine in its power, but in secret and with due regard for appearances; for they have not the power to punish any of the Athenians as they see fit. ^59.81 Conferences were held, and, seeing that the council of the Areopagus was deeply incensed and was disposed to fine Theogenes for having married a wife of such character and having permitted her to administer on the city’s behalf the rites that none may name, Theogenes besought them with prayers and entreaties, declaring that he did not know that she was the daughter of Neaera, but that he had been deceived by Stephanus, and had married her according to law as being the latter’s legitimate daughter; and that it was because of his own inexperience in affairs and the guilelessness of his character that he had made Stephanus his assessor to attend to the business of his office; for he considered him a friend, and on that account had become his son-in-law. ^59.82 And, he said, I will show you by a convincing and manifest proof that I am telling the truth. I will send the woman away from my house, since she is the daughter, not of Stephanus, but of Neaera. If I do this, then let my statement that I was deceived be accepted as true; but, if I fail to do it, then punish me as a vile fellow who is guilty of impiety toward the gods. ^59.83 When Theogenes had made this promise and this plea, the council of the Areopagus, through compassion also for the guilelessness of his character and in the belief that he had really been deceived by Stephanus, refrained from action. And Theogenes immediately on coming down from the Areopagus cast out of his house the woman, the daughter of this Neaera, and expelled this man Stephanus, who had deceived him, from the board of magistrates. Thus it was that the members of the Areopagus desisted from their action against Theogenes and from their anger against him; for they forgave him, because he had been deceived. ^59.84 To prove the truth of these statements of mine, I will call before you as witness to these facts Theogenes himself, and will compel him to testify. (To the clerk.) Call, please, Theogenes of Erchia. Erchia, a deme of the tribe Aegeïs; but see note a on Dem. 59.72 . The Deposition Theogenes of Erchia deposes that when he was king he married Phano, believing her to be the daughter of Stephanus, and that, when he found he had been deceived, he cast the woman away and ceased to live with her, and that he expelled Stephanus from his post of assessor, and no longer allowed him to serve in that capacity. ^59.85 (To the clerk.) Now take, please, the law bearing upon these matters, and read it; for I would have you know that a woman of her character, who has done what she has done, ought not only to have kept aloof from these sacred rites, to have abstained from beholding them, from offering sacrifices, and from performing on the city’s behalf any of the ancestral rites which usage demands, but that she should have been excluded also from all other religious ceremonials in Athens. For a woman who has been taken in adultery is not permitted to attend any of the public sacrifices, although the laws have given both to the alien woman and the slave the right to attend these, whether to view the spectacle or to offer prayer.
^60.8 They so prevailed over the invading host of the Amazons as to expel them beyond the Phasis, and the host of Eumolpus and of many another foeman they drove not only out of their own land but also from the lands of all the other Greeks—invaders whom all those dwelling on our front to the westward neither withstood nor possessed the power to halt. The female warriors known as Amazons were repelled by Theseus. The Phasis River in Colchis, now the Rion, was the legendary boundary between Europe and Asia. Eumolpus invaded Greece from Thrace but was halted by Erechtheus at Eleusis. The route to all parts of the mainland issued from Athens on the west side. Moreover, they were styled the saviors of the sons of Heracles, who himself was the savior of the rest of mankind, when they arrived in this land as suppliants, fleeing before Eurystheus. In addition to all these and many other noble deeds they refused to suffer the lawful rites of the departed to be treated with despite when Creon forbade the burial of the seven against Thebes. This phrase became proverbial as the title of a drama by Aeschylus. Theseus, king of Athens, gave aid to the suppliant wives of the Argive heroes when Creon, king of Thebes, refused burial to their slain husbands: Eur. Supp. '' None