Michael Barnes
Oxford Readings in Greek Religion
Chapter 8: Anthony Snodgrass: "The Archaeology of the Hero"
Views on the Origin of Hero Worship
I. Homeric Fundamentalism
A. Popular belief that hero cults inspired by Epic
B. Farnell's Greek Hero Cults
C. Archeological discoveries that support Farnell's case
II. Ancestor Worship
A. Earliest form much older than Homer
1. Rohde says it comes from "that remote period which is obscured for us by the intervening mass of the Homeric poems"
2. Homer and Hesiod betray some familiarity with earlier form of hero worship, but use other words than heroes hemitheoi or daimones
a. Hesiod speaks of treating the dead of bygone age as 'spirits of the underworld'
B. Ambiguity of heros
1. one meaning familiar to readers of Homer
a. 'hero' is hero already in lifetime
b. title awarded not only to warrior or king, but to free men of varied estate
c. does not show hero worshiped after death
2. another more commonly used meaning
a. denotes person who has become 'heroized' only through death
b. honored by sacrifice and cult, specifically around grave, where power is located
c. notoriety and influence confined to region where grave is located, which is fixed dwelling place after death
C. Parallel between Greek heroes and saints of early Christendom
D. Speculation that 'living hero' was speciality of Ionian Epic in early stages of Classical period and that from Ionia, idea of 'living hero' and perhaps term heros originated
1. must have been very early because of inclusion of 'Age of Heroes' in Works and Days
2. implies that "worship of the transfigured dead was the only form of contact with the heroic past on the Greek mainland" before Hesiod
E. Archeological evidence for older practice of worship of ancestors and chthonic spirits
1. institution of cults at Bronze Age tombs
a. appears frequently on Greek mainland, rarely in islands, not at all in Ionia
b. corresponds with geographical division mentioned above
c. circumstances make it almost certain that their importance was local or regional
2. form of burial in prehistoric tombs where cult installed contradicts burial practices of Epic
a. inhumations instead of cremations
b. multiple not single
c. rock-cut chambers (tholoi) as opposed to under tumuli
III. Worship of Recent Dead
A. glorification of hero, specifically oikistes (founder) that was central to polis of Classical times
B. burials at Eretria and Lefkandi
1. if Lefkandi actual case of cult immediately after death of prominent figure, its early date assures that this practice evolved independently from Ionian Epic
C. lavish or 'heroic' burial ceremonies for newly-deceased
D. early institution of cults to 'real', Homeric heroes
1. fusion between two meanings of heros to certain extent
2. prehistoric graves not found near where cults established for major heroes
3. evidence that these 'hero-cults' perhaps differently intended at time of foundation
IV. Political Use of Hero Cults
A. Often employed to 'underline the territorial integrity of the emergent polis'
B. Cases where might have been used as separatist claims against the polis
C. Possibly even markers for territorial claims by individual landowners
"the phenomena of the installation of cult at pre-historic tombs is to be understood in a way quite independent of the influence of Homeric Epic, and..other phenomena may also be less susceptible to this influence than we have come to believe."