Joshua Cook and Angela Robey Present:
ATHENIAN RELIGION: A HISTORY.
CHAPTER 11: THE FOURTH CENTURY
Part One (Joshua)
I. Greece in the fourth century
·After a Spartan victory in the Peloponnesian War in 404, alliances of the major cities of mainland Greece shifted constantly in order to maintain a balance of power.
·Macedonian encroachment on central and southern Greece began in the middle of the century, culminating in the establishment of Macedonian control over all Greece after the Battle of Chaeronea in 338.
·The fourth century was the age of philosophy (Plato and Aristotle) and oratory.
·On a religious note, at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Spartan general Lysander became the first Greek to be worshipped as a god while he was still living.
II. Athens in the fourth century
·The terms granted to Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War were not as devastating as they might have been because Sparta's allies were afraid that, in the absence of a capable Athens, Sparta would come to dominate all Greece. Athens lost her defensive walls and her fleet, as well as her democracy, but all these were restored within two decades.
·Athens had changed governments several times in the last decade of the fifth century, finally returning to democracy in 403.
·To combat Spartan domination, Athens resurrected her empire in 378/7, but learned from her experiences with her first empire (the Delian League) to function as a responsive leader rather than a despotic power.
The Second Athenian Sea League lasted twenty-two years.
·Conflict with Macedonia over Athenian possessions in Thrace resulted in the subjection of Athens to Macedonia in 338.
III. Attic religion in the fourth century The downsizing transition from an empire to a simple polis in 404 left Athenians nostalgic for the days of Pericles in the mid 5th century, when her empire was at its height.
Her allies had been compelled to send tribute to Athens, magnifying her religious festivals and enabling her to undertake great building projects such as the Parthenon. In the fourth century, despite a theoric fund to
pay viewers to attend festivals, and despite voluntary offerings from foreign states to Athenian cults, religious celebration did not recover the pomp of her first imperial days. The general trend in religion was one of conservatism, but with a few new features. Religious change came not in the form of outstanding reforms, but as slight shifts in religious conception and practice.
A. The sacrificial calendar of Nicomachus and his subsequent prosecution demonstrate the prevailing mood of conservatism at the outset of the fourth century.
1. Nicomachus was commissioned to draw together both Solon's religious festivals and those that had been added since then into a unified sacrificial calendar.
2. His calendar was certainly reviewed and ratified by the Athenian Council before being put into use.
3. However, he was prosecuted in 399 on an uncertain charge.
a. This charge was in part motivated by political enmity.
b. The accusation of over-spending his budget and thus causing some sacrifices to go unfunded the next year was likely the main thrust of the charge.
Parker speculates that Nicomachus had the full support of the Athenians in including every existing sacrifice into his calendar, but that when it came time to pay, the Council backed off, leaving Nicomachus without adequate funding for all the rites. Both Nicomachus and his accusers were appealing to religiousconservatism, Nicomachus by not leaving out any rites, his accusers by prosecuting him for leaving rites unfunded.
B. Although festivals within Attica were downscaled after the dissolution of the Delian League, her imperial policy with regard to foreign cults was not relinquished. This is most obvious in Athenian dealings with the cult of Delian Apollo.
1. The two great cults of Apollo in the Classical period were those of Pythian Apollo at Delphi, a Panhellenic cult, and of Delian Apollo at Delos, a Panionian cult.
2. Delos is a small island in the middle of the Cyclades not significant for anything other than its safe harbor and its reputation as the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.
3. The first Athenian empire was centered in Delos, but Athens' relationship with the island goes back at least to Pisistratus in the 6th century.
4. Although in the fourth century Athens was willing to let the city of Delos remain at least nominally autonomous, she would not give up her superintendance of the cult of Delian Apollo.
5. Delos, however, had been mistreated by Athens in the late 5th century, and wanted to administer the cult of Delian Apollo without Athenian interference. Delian dissatisfaction was evident throughout the fourth century.
a. In 376, eight Delian citizens were fined and exiled on a charge of beating up Athenian Amphictyons. Two years later, Andrians are included as Amphictyons alongside Athenians, perhaps indicating a concession to Delian wishes evidenced by this event.
b. In 364, the Theban general and enemy of Athens Epaminondas either sent a crown to the Delians to try to disrupt Athenian control, or sent back a crown that was sent to him by the Delians, perhaps as a token of
Delian support in his struggle against Athens.
c. In the 340s or 330s, a Delian who favored the Athenians was forced to flee for his life to Athens.
6. After the Macedonian king Philip became leader of the Delphic Amphictyony in the 340s, the Delians appealed to him, a well-known enemy of Athens, to arbitrate their dispute in hopes of returning the administration of the cult of Delian Apollo to Delos.
a. Hyperides argued the case for Athens, reportedly using many allusions to mythology. He argued that the Athenians had first colonized Delos shortly after the Trojan War; that Erisichthon, a son of the Athenian king Cecrops, had led the first pilgrimage to Delos; that Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis, had gone into labor on Attic territory, but gave birth on Delos; that the mysterious offering of the Hyperboreans, conveyed from one Greek city to another until it reached Delos, was carried by Athenians in its last stage of the journey; and that Athens' administration of the cult was in the best interest of all Greece, since the Delians had once massacred Aeolian pilgrims.
b. Philip decided in favor of the Athenians, probably out of a need to pacify them so that he could unite Greece for a campaign against Persia.
7. Mythology was also used by Aeschines to argue Athens' right to Amphipolis, a city near the borders of Macedonia.
8. Atthidographers also began their work with appeals to mythology, demonstrating the conservatism of Greek land ownership rights. The descendants of the original inhabitants always held title to the land unless it was justly stripped from them in times of war.
All these appeals to mythology show that, even in the great age of philosophy and emerging scientific methods, the old oral traditions remained generally persuasive. Religious conservatism is best summed up in Parker's words, "We live by traditions, they [Athenians] might have said, even if we cannot wholly believe in them" (p. 227).
C. Despite the strength of religious conservatism in Athens itself, some of the new gods in the fourth century were introduced in a different manner than their predecessors.
1. With the exception of Ammon from Egypt, most of the new gods of the fourth century were abstract qualities personified and deified. These abstractions differed from those before them in both number and prominence. Although some of them may have been conceived before the fourth century, they weren't allotted sacrifices and rites until then. These abstractions were worshipped for the benefits they could confer, so that even a concept as limited as Democracy could receive sacrifices.
2. The typical way of introducing a new deity involved relating them to the existing Olympian pantheon, a process Parker calls Olympianization. They could be so related either through a genealogy (e.g. Nemesis), through attendance upon an Olympian (e.g. Peitho, or Persuasion, the handmaiden of Aphrodite), or through appending a new epithet to the name of one of the Olympians.
a. The epithet Soter, or Savior, was attached to both the names of Zeus and Athena, a cult which became the most popular in Attica by the 330s. The original Olympians may have been seen as too remote from daily life to gain the sympathy of fourth century Athenians, but with an epithet like "Savior," the Athenians could hope for help in battles, voyages, litigation, and in seeking omens. The cult of Zeus Soter and Athena Soteira was prominent for at least five hundred years, when Pausanias called it the thing most worthy of seeing in the Piraeus (Athens' port city) in the 2nd century AD.
b. Zeus Philios (Friendship or Affection) was apparently a private cult, but widely worshipped in households and by private clubs of revellers (eranistai). Parker sees his significance in upholding the social realm of Athens.
c. Other Olympianized newcomers include Hermes Hegemonios, Aphrodite Euploia, Modesty and Simplicity (handmaids of Athena), and the Nymphs and Demos.
3. No traceable efforts were made to connect other newly-worshipped abstractions to the Olympian pantheon. They were allowed to stand alone, though they may have shared shrines with Olympian gods.
a. The cult of Democracy was probably established after the restoration of the Athenian democracy in 403 and the return of democratic exiles. She may have been deified long before the fourth century, but it is only to the fourth century that her rites are traceable.
b. Peace was considered a god by Hesiod, who made her one of the Hours, but, like Pheme, she was worshipped by the Athenians in a specialized way. The cult of Peace was probably instituted after an
Athenian victory in a battle in 375 that convinced the Spartans to draw up terms for peace with Athens. As such, it was not peace in general that was worshipped, but this particular instance of peace, which gave good terms to Athens. The cult lasted only about 50 years, and then faded. (By contrast, the Athenians worshipped Peitho, or Persuasion, in a more generalized sense than Hesiod had conceived of it. To Hesiod, it was Romantic Enticement, but to the Athenians, it was any form of persuasion, so important in a democracy.)
c. Agathe Tyche (Good Luck) was worshipped both individually and corporately, publicly and privately. This goddess was probably a product of language, since her cult is first attested around the same time the Athenians began using the expression "with good luck."
d. Pheme (Report, Rumor) may have been worshipped in the fifth century. Like Peace, the cult of Pheme was given sacrifices after good service to Athens. It was not any rumor, but only those true rumors which seem to have no source.
e. Other new cults included Impulse, Abundance, and Eukleia.
None of these new gods, even when allowed to stand outside the Olmpian pantheon, represent radical new ways of religious thinking. Parker sees them not as a break with the past, but as perhaps the culmination of Greek religious thinking.
Angela Robey
THE FOURTH CENTURY Part Two: The Lycurgan Period
I. Lycurgus: Who was he?
A. Member of priestly genos
B. held priesthood of the most ancient dignity
C. One of the few among Athenian politicians to have a religious policy to speak of, but this should not be stressed too much b/c any politician serving after a period of long war could not avoid restoring shrines and cults
D. P. 248 interest in allowing private, rich, citizens notoriety in religious affairs, 'expenditure of private wealth for the public good' (p. 248)
E. Eager to enhance the cults of the city and to involve the citizenry in them
F. Further intertwined ceremonial and political life
G. Felt tragedy was a precious part of the city's educational heritage
II. His religious policy
"Lycurgus' religious policy was one of ways and means, of shrewd financial management directed to maintaining and enhancing traditional cults. (p. 245)"
A. Stressed importance of religion for the state
B. Encouraged worship of the gods to help Athens flourish
C. Did not intend to move religious life in a new directions; neither forward or backward
D. Insisted on the major importance of cult and myth in city life
E. His speeches show Atthidographic interest in myths and procedures of minor cults
F. No hint of desire to replace festivals of the fifth century
G. Made provision to improve kosmos, the cult equipment of a number of gods (Ex. Zeus Olympios, Dionysus, Demeter, and Agathe Tyche)
H. Did things 'in accord with the oracle of the god' (p. 245) he checked with the gods to see that they were happy and approved of his actions
I. Central core: 'an obligation to parents, country, and gods' (p. 252)
III. Events of Lycurgan Period
A. Restoration in Athens after the catastrophe of Chaeronea
1. restored finances
2. dominated domestic policy
3. constructed new buildings religious building projects included extensions of temples, restorations of existing buildings, and finishing incomplete projects discontinued earlier because of insufficient funds (p.245-246)
B. Granted merchants of Kition permission to buy land and build a shrine for Aphrodite
C. Passed law to exclude foreigners who had been given citizenship from membership of certain phratries (on religious grounds)
D. Took measures to increase the flow of precious metals into sacred places
1. Replaced Periclean Golden Victories, melted into coin in 407/6 Parker says it is anachronistic to see dedications as public funds, but that "rich gods symbolized a rich state" (p. 244)
2. required certain people to dedicate silver vessels at the acropolis (p. 244-245) exploited private generosity (ex. Of Neoptolemus p. 245)
E. Changed features of festival program
1. added new musical and dramatic competitions -- Ex. Added horse race to the Eleusinia (p. 246)
2. Possibly reorganized and extended existing festivals
3. Possibly added tradition of issuing commemorative coins at the Eleusinia
4. Possibly created the "agonistic Nemesia at Rhamnus" (p.246)
5. 330's Amphiaraic games entered Athenian calendar
F. 326-- Dispatch of a Pythais (sacred assembly) to Delphi
G. institution of the boule created
1. Webster's dictionary: a legislative council of ancient Greece consisting first of an aristocratic advisory body and later of a representative senate
2. priest reports successful sacrifices to the boule 'on behalf of the Athenian people' (p. 247)
3. boule 'accepts the benefits arising from the sacrifice' (p.247)
H. Passed a law forbidding women to attend the Eleusinian Mysteries on a carriage 'so that women of the people would not be outdone by the rich' (p. 248)
I. Rich and powerful once again gain ceremonial privilege (ex. Responsibilities for the Dionysia to the most important elected officers of the state)
J. Board of 'supervisors of the Mysteries' chose members by election, not by lot
K. Post of 'hieropoios of the Semnai Theai' filled by appointment held by Demosthenes
L. It can be questioned whether priests receiving crowns were also contributing to cult finances
M. Ephebate extensively reformed
1. reformed by 'law of Epicrates' (p. 253)
2. training previously voluntary now given public support -- 'young men training and racing and doing guard duty and patrolling the borders' (p. 253)
3. late century no festival was complete w/o their participation
4. Ex. 333/2 Torch-races at one festival of the city and at Nemesiai at Rhamnus 'proto-ephebes' spent their time under charge of gymnasiarchs in training for the races
5. possibly provided the tragic choruses
IV. Other Mentionable Figures of Lycurgan Period
A. Neoptolemus of Melite
1. Rebuilt temple of Artemis Aristoboule and made many dedications
2. gilded Apollo's altar
B. Xenokles of Sphettos
1. built bridge on road to Eleusis for the 'mystic procession' (p. 248)
2. 'was duly acclaimed in an epigram which has been sen as one of the earliest expressions of Hellenistic taste' (p. 248)
C. Leocrates
1. fled the city after the battle of Chaerona
2. in his one surviving speech, Lycurgus urges the death penalty for him
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