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Jason, Hypsipyle, and New Fire at Lemnos. A Study in Myth and Ritual

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Walter Burkert
Affiliation:
Berlin

Extract

History of religion, in its beginnings, had to struggle to emancipate itself from classical mythology as well as from theology and philosophy; when ritual was finally found to be the basic fact in religious tradition, the result was a divorce between classicists, treating mythology as a literary device, on the one hand, and specialists in festivals and rituals and their obscure affiliations and origins on the other.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

page 1 note 1 This paper was read at the Joint Triennial Classical Conference in Oxford, September 1968. The notes cannot aim at completeness of bibliography. The prepon- derance of ritual as against myth was vigorously stated by Smith, W. Robertson, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites (1889;Google Scholar 19273), ch. i, pressed further by Jane Harrison: myth ‘nothing but ritual misunderstood’ (Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens [1890], xxxiii).Google Scholar In Germany, it was the school of Albrecht Dieterich who concentrated on the study of ritual. Thus mythology is conspicuously absent from the indispensable handbooks of Nilsson, M. P. (Griechische Feste von religioser Bedeutung [1906; hereafter: Nilsson, GF]Google Scholar and Geschichte der griechischen Religion [i, 1940; i3, 1967; hereafter: Nilsson, GGR]Google Scholar and Deubner, L. (Attische Feste [1932;Google Scholar hereafter: Deubner]), whereas Wilamowitz stated that mythology was the creation of poets: ‘Der Mythos … entsteht in der Phantasie des Dichters’ (Der Glaube der Hellenen i [1931], 42).Google Scholar Mythology tried to re-establish itself in the trend of phenomenology and C. G.Jung's psychology, largely ignoring ritual: cf. the surveys of de Vries, J., Forschungsgeschichte der Mythologie (1961);Google ScholarKerényi, K., Die Eröfnung des Zugangs zum Mythos (1967);Google Scholar ‘die Religionswissenschaft ist vornehmlich Wissenschaft der Mythen’ (Kerényi, K., Umgang mit Göttlichem [1955], 25).Google Scholar

page 1 note 2 Malinowski, B., Myth in Primitive Psychology (1926);Google ScholarKluckhohn, D., ‘Myths and rituals: a general theory’, HThR xxxv (1942), 4579.Google Scholar

page 1 note 3 Hooke, S. H. (ed.), Myth and Ritual (1933),Google Scholar defining myth as ‘the spoken part of the ritual’, ‘the story which the ritual enacts’ (3); Myth, Ritual, and Kingship (1958).Google Scholar Th. Gaster, H., Thespis (1961 2).Google Scholar Independently, Otto, W. F., in his Dionysos (1934),Google Scholar spoke of ‘Zusammenfall von Kultus und Mythos’ (43 and passim). In fact connections of myth and ritual had been recognized by F. G. Welcker and, in an intuitive and unsystematic manner, by Wilamowitz (‘Der mythische Thiasos aber ist ein Abbild des im festen Kultus gegebenen’, Euripides Herakles i [1889], 85,Google Scholar cf. ‘Hephaistos’ [GGN, 1895, 217–45;Google Scholar hereafter: Wilamowitz; = Kl. Schr. v. 2, 535], 234 f.Google Scholar on the binding of Hera). In interpretation of Greek tragedy, due attention has been paid to ritual, cf., e.g., Dodds, E. R., Euripides Bacchae (1960 2) xxv–xxviii.Google Scholar

page 1 note 4 Nilsson, , GGR 14 n.Google Scholar with reference to Malinowski: ‘für die griechischen Mythen trifft diese Lehre nicht zu’; cf. Cults, Myths, Oracles, and Politics in Ancient Greece (1951), 10;Google ScholarRose, H. J., Mnemosyne iv. S. 3 (1950), 281–7;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMarlow, N. A., BRL xliii (1960/1961), 373402;Google ScholarFontenrose, J., The Ritual Theory of Myth (1966).Google Scholar As a consequence, historians of religion turn away from the Greek, cf. Eliade, M., Antaios ix (1968), 329,Google Scholar stating ‘daβ wir nicht einen einzigen griechischen Mythos in seinem rituellen Zusammenhang kennen’.

page 1 note 5 With regard to mysteries, as Nilsson (cf. n. 4 above) remarks (Gal, . UP 6, 14Google Scholar [iii. 576 K.]; Paus. 1. 43. 2; 2. 37. 2; 2. 38. 2; 9. 30. 12, cf. Hdt. 2. 81; 2. 47; 2. 51; Burg, M. N. H. van den, AπOPPHTA ΔPωMENA OPΓIA, Diss. Amsterdam, 1939),Google Scholar not because there was nothing similar in non-secret cults, but because only the secrecy required the use of general passive expressions as Ritual as of myth, e.g. Diod. 4. 3. 3; Steph. Byz. s.v. Cf. Ach. Tat. 2. 2

page 2 note 1 Python (1959), 461–2,Google Scholar against Hooke (above, p. 1, n. 3) and J. E. Harrison who wrote ‘the myth is the plot of the (Themis [1927 2], 331).Google Scholar

page 2 note 2 On the problem of the Philostrati and the author of the Heroicus, Münscher, K., Die Philostrate (1907), 469 ff.;Google ScholarSolmsen, F., RE xx (1941), 154–9;Google Scholar on the date of the Heroicus, Münscher, 474, 497–8, 505; Solmsen, 154.

page 2 note 3 Ch. 19 § 20 in the edition of G. Olearius (1709; followed by Kayser) = ch. 20 § 24 in the edition of A. Westermann (1849; followed by Nilsson, , GF 470)Google Scholar = ii. 207 of the Teubner edition (C. L. Kayser, 1871); critical editions: Boissonade, J. F. (Paris, 1806), 232;Google ScholarKayser, (Zürich, 1844, 1853 2), 325.Google Scholar is found in three codices (γ, φ, ψ) and apparently in a fourth (p) before correction; the printed editions, from the Aldina (1503), dropped the Kai at the beginning; Boissonade and Westermann adopted found in the other manuscripts. Kayser lists 32 codices altogether.

page 3 note 1 AAWW, 1939, 41–6,Google Scholar followed by Delcourt, M., Héphaistos ou la légende du magicien (1957; hereafter: Delcourt), 172–3;Google ScholarNilsson, , GGR 97, 6.Google ScholarEitrem, S.SO ix (1930), 60Google Scholar tried

page 3 note 2 c. gen. ‘down to a certain deadline’ in the instances adduced by Wilhelm: a contract Cf. Schmid, W., Der Attizismus iv (1898), 456.Google Scholar

page 3 note 3 Moer.: cf. Schmid, , loc. cit. 361.Google Scholar For inversion of word-order, cf. Heroicus 12. 2Google Scholar

page 3 note 4 Il. i. 593,Google ScholarOd. 8. 283–4Google Scholar with schol. and Eust. 157. 28; A.R. 1. 851–2 with schol.; Nic. Ther. 458 with schol., etc.; cf. Wilamowitz; Fredrich, C., ‘Lemnos’, MDAI(A) xxxi (1906), 6086, 241–56Google Scholar (hereafter: Fredrich); Malten, L., ‘Hephaistos’, JDAI xxvii (1912), 232–64Google Scholar and RE viii. 315–16.Google Scholar Combination with the fire-festival: Welcker, F. G., Die aeschyleische Trilogie Prometheus und die Kabirenweihe zu Lemnos (1824; hereafter: Welcker), 155304,Google Scholar esp. 247 ff.; Bachofen, J. J., Das Multerrecht (1861), 90Google Scholar = Ges. Werke, ii. 276;Google Scholar Fredrich, 74–5; Delcourt, 171–90, whereas Farnell, L. R., Cults of the Greek states, v (1909), 394Google Scholar concluded from the silence of Philostratus that the festival was not connected with Hephaistos. The importance of the craftsmen was stressed by Welcker, 248, Delcourt, 177. That the festival belongs to Hephaistia, not Myrina is shown by the coins already used by Welcker, cf. p. 8, n. 3 below.

page 3 note 5 Cf. A.R. 1. 850–2, 858–60; a dedication from the Kabeirion of Lemnos, ASAA 3/5 (1941/3), 91 nr. 12; a temple of Aphrodite at Lemnos, schol. Stat. Theb. 5. 59; the in Aristophanes'; Lemniai (fr. 365) may be the same ‘Thracian Aphrodite’.

page 4 note 1 The sacrificial calendars regularly combine different deities in the same ceremonies, cf. as the most extensive example the calendar of Erchiai, Daux, G., BCH lxxxvii (1963), 603 ff.,CrossRefGoogle ScholarDow, S.BCH lxxxix (1965), 180213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 4 note 2 Phot., Hsch. s.v. = Ar. fr. 368; Steph. Byz. s.v. Pre-Greek representations: Fredrich, 60 ff. with pl. VIII/IX; Seta, A. Della, AE, 1937, 644,Google Scholar pl. 2/3; Greek coins in Head, B.V., Historia Mumorum (1911 2), 263.Google Scholar

page 4 note 3 Fredrich, 75; Frazer, J. G., The Golden Bough (hereafter: Frazer, , GB; 1911 3) viii. 72–5;Google Scholar x. 136; generally on fire-festivals: ii. i95–265; x. 106–xi. 44.

page 4 note 4 Usually ‘beliefs’ are traced back to emotional experience; but cf. Lévi-Strauss, C., Le Totétnisme aujourd'hui (1962), 102 f.:Google Scholar ‘Ce ne sont pas des émotions actuelles… ressenties à l'occasion des réunions et des cérémonies qui engendrent ou perpétuent les rites, mais l'activité rituelle qui suscite les émotions.’

page 4 note 5 Cassola, F., ‘La leggenda di Anio e la preistoria Delia’, PP lx (1954), 345–67;Google Scholar there is an old sanctuary of the Kabeiroi on Delos, Hemberg, B., Die Kabiren (1950; hereafter: Hemberg), 140–53;Google Scholar the Orion myth combines Delos and Lemnos, below, p. 6, n. 1.

page 5 note 1 Fredrich, 75; with reference to a custom in Burma, Frazer, , GB x. 136;Google ScholarMalten, , JDAI xxvii. 248 f.;Google Scholar Fredrich, however, thinks that the earth fire came to be extinguished at an early date.

page 5 note 2 : Eust. 158. 3; 1598. 44; schol. Soph. Phil. 800, 986; Val. Flacc. 2. 332–9; Stat. Theb. 5. 50, 87; Silv. 3. 1. 131–3. Less explicit: Heraclit. All. 26. 15 (echoed by Eust. 157. 37, schol. Od. 8. 284) (F. Buffiére, , CB 1962Google Scholar keeps the manuscript reading ‘un feu qu'on croirait presque sorti de terre’, but this is hardly Greek); Ace. trag. 532 ‘nemus exspirante vapore vides …’ is incompatible with the volcano-, though not with the earth-fire-hypothesis.

page 5 note 3 Preller, L.Robert, C., Griechische Mythologie, i 4 (1894), 175, 178;Google ScholarJebb, R. C., Sophocles, Philoctetes (1890), 243–5;Google ScholarMazon, P., Sophocles, Philoctète (CB 1960), note on v. 800.Google Scholar

page 5 note 4 Neumann, K.Partsch, J., Physikalische Geographic von Griechenland (1885) 314–18,Google Scholar who immediately thought of the earth fire, cf. Fredrich, 253–4, Malten, , JDAI xxvii. 233,Google ScholarRE viii. 316,Google ScholarNilsson, , GGR 528–9;Google ScholarHennig, R., ‘Altgriechische Sagengestalten als Personifikation von Erdfeuern’, JDAI liv (1939), 230–46.Google Scholar Earth fires are well attested at Olympos in Lycia (Malten, , RE viii, 317–19),Google Scholar where the Hephaistos-cult was prominent, and at Trapezus in Arcadia (Arist. Mir. 127, Paus. 8. 29. 1) and at Apollonia in Epirus (Theopompus, FGrHist 115 F 316) without the Hephaistos-cult.

page 5 note 5 Meineke and Pearson changed the text to Mazon translates ‘que tu évoqueras pour cela’, though keeping Jebb translates ‘famed as’, with reference to El. 693, where, however, is ‘being solemnly proclaimed’ as victor.

page 6 note 1 Ancient burning-mirrors were always made of bronze; the testimonies in Morgan, J., ‘De ignis eliciendi modis’, HSCP i (1890), 5064;Google Scholar earliest mention: Theophr. Ign. 73, Eucl. Opt. 30 (burning-glass: Ar. Nub. 767); used in rituals of new fire: Plut. Num. 9 (Delphi and Athens, 1st cent. B.C.); Heraclit. All. 26. 13

Parallels from the Incas, Siam, China: Frazer, , GB ii. 243, 245;Google Scholar x. 132, 137. Fredrich, 75. 3 thought of the burningmirror in connection with the myth of Orion, who recovers his eyesight from the sun with the help of the Lemnian Kedalion (Hes. fr. 148 Merkelbach-West). ‘Fire from the sky’ lit the altar at Rhodes, the famous centre of metallurgy (Pi. O. 7. 48). The practice may have influenced the myth of Helios' cup as well as the theories of Xenophanes and Heraclitus about the sun (21 A 32, 40; 22 A 12, B6 DK).

page 6 note 2 Galen xii. 173 K., cf. Ace. trag. 529–31.

page 6 note 3 Op. cit. 249–50.Google Scholar

page 6 note 4 Le Crime des Lemniennes (1924; hereafter: Dumezil).Google Scholar

page 6 note 5 Survey of sources: Roscher, , Myth. Lex. i. 2853–6Google Scholar (Klügmann), ii. 73–4 (Seeliger), v. 808–14 (Immisch); Preller, L.Robert, C., Griech. Mythologie, ii 4 (1921), 849–59;Google Scholar cf. Wilamowitz, , Hellenistische Dichtung, ii (1924), 232–48.Google Scholar Jason, Hysipyle, Thoas, Euneos in Homer: Il. 7. 468–9, 14. 230, 15. 40, 21. 41, 23.747; cf. Hes. fr. 157, 253–6 Merkelbach-West.

page 7 note 1 Pi. P. 4. 252–7.

page 7 note 2 FGrHist 477 F la = schol. A.R. 1. 609/ 19e; F ib = Antig, . hist. mir. 118Google Scholar is less detailed and therefore likely to be less accurate: Delcourt, 173, 2 holds that only the information about Medea goes back to Myrsilos; but the scholiast had no reason to add a reference to ‘contemporary’ events, whereas Myrsilos was interested in contemporary mirabilia (F 2; 4–6). Welcker, 250, already combined Myrsilos' with Philostratos' account.

page 7 note 3 A.R. 1. 620–6; Theolytos, FGrHist 478 F 3, Xenagoras, FGrHist 240 F 31, and Kleon of Kurion in schol. A.R. 1. 623/6a; cf. Eur. Hyps. fr. 64. 74 ff.; 105 ff. Bond; Hypoth. Pi. JV. b, iii. 2, 8–13 Drachmann; Kylix Berlin 2300 = ARV 2 409, 43 = Richter, G. M. A., The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans (1966), 385.Google Scholar

page 7 note 4 Cf. Immisch, , Roschers Myth. Lex. v. 806.Google Scholar Domitian had made a very similar escape from the troops of Vitellius in A.D. 68: Isiaco celatus habitu interque sacrificulos (Suet, . Dom. i. 2,Google Scholar cf. Tac, . Hist. 3. 74;Google Scholar Jos. Bell. lud. 4. 11. 4; another similar case in the civil war, App. BC 4. 47; Val. Max. 7. 3. 8).

page 8 note 1 This is the manner of death of Osiris, Plut, . Is. 13. 356Google Scholar c. Parallels from folkcustom: Mannhardt, W., Wald- und Feldkulte, i (1875), 311 ff.;Google ScholarFrazer, , GB ii. 75,Google Scholar iv. 206–12; Dumézil, 42 ff. Hypsipyle is a telling name; ‘vermutlich war Hypsipyle einst eine Parallelfigur zu Medea: die “hohe Pforte” in ihrem Namen war die Pforte der Hölle’ (Wilamowitz, , Griechische Tragoedien iii 7 [1926], 169, 1)Google Scholar—or rather, more generally, the ‘high gate’ of the Great Goddess. The same name may have been given independently to the nurse of the dying child—another aspect of the Great Goddess (hymn. Cer. 184 ff.)—at Nemea.

page 8 note 2 Cf. Burkert, , ‘Greek tragedy and sacrificial ritual’, GRBS vii (1966), 102–21.Google Scholar

page 8 note 3 Cf. Königliche Museen zu Berlin, Beschreibung der antiken Münzen (1888), 279–83;Google Scholar Head, 262–3; Cook, A. B., zeus, iii (1940), 233–4;Google Scholar Hemberg, 161. A similar ramsacrifice has been inferred for Samothrace, Hemberg, 102, 284. Instead of the ram, the coins of Hephaistia sometimes have torches, (of Kabeiroi-Dioskouroi), and kcrykeion, also vines and grapes; all these symbols have some connection with the context of the festival treated here.

page 8 note 4 Nilsson, , GGR 110–13; Paus. Att. δ 18 Erbse.Google Scholar

page 8 note 5 Simonides, 547 Page; Pi. P. 4. 253 with schol.; cf. A.R. 2. 30–2; 3. 1204–6; 4. 423–34.

page 8 note 6 Pi. O. 4. 23–31; cf. schol. 32 c; Callim. fr. 668. Here Erginos is son of Klymenos of Orchomenos, father of Trophonios and Agamedes (another pair of divine craftsmen, with a fratricide-myth, as the Kabeiroi), whereas A.R. 1. 185, after Herodorus, FGrHist 31 F 45/55, makes him son of Poseidon, from Miletus, cf. Wilamowitz, , Hellenistische Dichtung, ii. 238.Google Scholar

page 8 note 7 The constellation Erginos-Jason-Hypsipyle is akin to the constellation Hephaistos-Ares-Aphrodite in the famous Demodocus hymn (Od. 8. 266–366): another triumph of Hephaistos amidst unextinguishable laughter. A special relation to Lemnos is suggested by a pre-Greek vase fragment, found in a sanctuary in Hephaistia (Seta, A. Della, AE, 1937, 650;Google ScholarPicard, Ch., RA xx (1942/1943), 97124;Google Scholar to be dated about 550 B.C., as B. B. Shefton kindly informs me; cf. Delcourt, 80–2): a naked goddess vis-à-vis an armed warrior, both apparently fettered. This is strikingly reminiscent of Demodocus' song, as Picard and Delcourt saw, though hardly a direct illustration of Homer's text, rather of ‘local legend’ (cf. Johansen, K. Friis, The Iliad In Early Greek Art [1967], 38, 59),Google Scholar i.e. a native Lemnian version. The crouching position of the couple reminded Picard of Bronze Age burial customs; anthropology provides examples of human sacrifice in the production of new fire: a couple forced to mate and killed on the spot (cf. Pechuel-Loesche, E., Die Loango-Expedition iii. 2 [1907], 171 ff.).Google Scholar Surely Homer's song is more enjoyable without thinking of such a gloomy background.

page 9 note 1 Mannhardt, 502–8, Frazer, , GB x. 121 ff.;Google Scholar on ‘risus Paschalis', Sartori, P., Sitte und Branch (1914), iii. 167.Google Scholar

page 9 note 2 Fr. 40 Mette, cf. Pi. P. 4. 254; Herodorus, FGrHist 31 F 6.

page 9 note 3 Preliminary report ASAA i/ii (1939/1940), 223–4;Google Scholar inscriptions: ASAA iii/v (1941/3), 75–105; xiv/xvi (1952/4), 317–40; Levi, D., ‘II Cabirio di Lemno’, Charisterion A. K. Orlandos, iii (Athens, 1966), 110–32;Google Scholar Hemberg, 160–70. Wine-vessels bore the inscription Kabeiroi and Hephaistos: Akousilaos, FGrHist 2 F 20, Pherekydes, FGrHist 3 F 48 with Jacoby ad loc.; Kern, O., RE x. 1423 ff.;Google Scholar this is not the tradition of Samothrace nor of Thebes (where there is one old , Nilsson, , GGR, pl. 48, 1), and thus points towards Lemnos. In the puzzling lyric fragment, adesp. 985 Page, Kabeiros son of Lemnos is the first man.Google Scholar

page 9 note 4 Photios s.v.

page 9 note 5 Fr. 45 Mette; that the Kabeiroi are speaking is clear from Plutarch's quotation (q. conv. 633 a):

page 9 note 6 Meuli, K., ‘Bettelumziige im Totenkult, Opferritual und Volksbrauch’, Schweizer Archiv für Volkskunde, xxviii (1927/1928), 138.Google Scholar

page 10 note 1 A.R. i. 641–51, cf. Pherekydes FGrHist 3 F 109.

page 10 note 2 Polyb. 34. 11. 4, Steph. Byz.

page 10 note 3 Fredrich, 72–4; Hasluck, F. W., ABSA xvi (1909/1910) 220–30;Google ScholarSealey, F. L. W., ABSA xxii (1918/1919) 164–5;Google Scholar Cook, iii. 228 ff.; Diosc. 5. 113; Galen, xii. 169–75 K. (on the date of his visit to Lemnos, Fredrich, 73. 1; 76. 1: late summer A.D. 166). According to Dioscorides, the blood of a goat was mixed with the earth, but Galen's informants scornfully denied this. The ‘priests of Hephaistos’ used the earth to heal Philoctetes: schol. AB B 722, Philostr. Heroic. 6. 2, Plin. N.H. 35. 33. Philoctetes' sanctuary, however, was in Myrina (Galen, xii. 171).

page 10 note 4 Possibly the ‘great Goddess’, cf. above, p. 4, n. 2.

page 10 note 5 Cf. n. 3 above.

page 10 note 6 ASAA iii/v (1941/1943), 75 ff. nr. 2; nr. 6; but nr. 4 Hekatombaion.Google Scholar

page 10 note 7 General remarks in Dumézil, 35–9. Welcker, 249 thought of some kind of fumigation. Cf. Frazer, , GB viii. 73Google Scholar for the use of purgatives in a New Fire festival. A marginal gloss in Antig, . hist. mir. 118Google Scholar (cf. p. 7, n. 2) mentions cf. Jacoby, , FGrHist iii. Komm. 437, Noten 223.Google Scholar

page 10 note 8 Gjerstad, E., ARW xxvii (1929/1930), 201–3 thinks Philochoros misunderstood the sense of the ritual, which was rather ‘aphrodisiac’; though he recognizes himself that short abstinence enhances fertility.Google Scholar

page 10 note 9 IG ii/iii21177.Google Scholar 8–12

page 11 note 1 Lysimachides, FGrHist 366 F 3; schol. Ar. Eccl. 18; fullest account: Gjerstad, E., ARW xxvii (1929/1930), 189240.Google Scholar Deubner's treatment (40–50) is led astray by schol. Luk. p. 275. 23 ff. Rabe, cf. Burkert, , Hermes xciv (1966), 23–4, 7–8.Google Scholar

page 11 note 2 Eur. Erechiheus fr. 65 Austin; death and tomb of Skiros: Paus. 1. 36. 4.

page 11 note 3 Paus. 1. 26. 6–7.

page 11 note 4 An. Bekk. 304, 8 (shorter EM 720, 24); schol. Paus. p. 218 Spiro (cf. Wilamowitz, , Hermes xxix [1894], 243;Google Scholar slightly corrupt Et. Gen. p. 267Google Scholar Miller = EM p. 718,Google Scholar 16, more corrupt Phot., Suda s.v. who speak of Theseus' return); schol, . Ar. Vesp. 926Google ScholarLoeff, R. van der, Mnemosyne xliv (1916), 102–3,Google Scholar Gjerstad, 222–6, Deubner, 46–7 tried to distinguish Deubner, 46, 11 even and the place Herodian, , Gramm. Gr. iii. 1, 385.Google Scholar 1–4; iii. 2, 581. 22–31 [cf. Steph. Byz. seems to prescribe Ar. Thesm. 834,Google ScholarEccl. 18); contra, Jacoby, FGrHist iiiB Suppl., Notes 117–18. The changing quantity (cf. is less strange than the connection (cf. LSJ S.V. which points to a nonGreek word. On (cf. Oros. EM 720, 24) Theseus was thrown down the white rock (Plut, . Thes. 35).Google Scholar

page 11 note 5 IG ii/iii2. 1184Google Scholar On Thesmophoria, Nilsson, , GF, 313–25,Google ScholarGGR, 461–6, Deubner, 50–60.Google Scholar

page 12 note 1 Aelian, fr. 44 = Suda s.v. and Nilsson, , GF, 324–5.Google Scholar

page 12 note 2 Plut, . q. Gr. 24. 296 F.Google Scholar

page 12 note 3 Cf. Nilsson, , GF 470,Google Scholar 5; Apollod. 2. 22, Zenob. 4. 86, etc. point to a connection of Danaid myth and Lerna (new fire for Lerna: Paus. 8. 15. 9).

page 12 note 4 Pi. P. 9. in ff., Paus. 3. 12. 3, Apollod. 2. 22. Dumézil, 48 ff. discussed the similarities of the Argive and the Lemnian myth, without taking notice of the Thesmophoria.

page 12 note 5 Hdt. 2. 171 The connection of Danaoi and Egypt is taken seriously by modern historians (Huxley, G., Crete and the Luwians [1961], 36–7;Google ScholarStubbings, F. H., C.A.H. xviii [1963], 11 ff.;Google ScholarWalcot, P., Hesiod and the Near East [1966], 71);Google Scholar Epaphos may be a Hyksos name. Now Mycenean representations mainly from the Argolid show ‘Demons’ (cf. Nilsson, , GGR, 296–7)Google Scholar in ritual functions—procession, sacrifice— whose type goes back to the Egyptian hippopotamus-Goddess Taurt, ‘the Great One’ (cf. Roeder, , Roschers Myth. Lex. v. 878908).Google ScholarMarinatos, S., Proc. of the Cambridge Colloquium on Mycenean Studies (1966), 265–74Google Scholar suggests identifying them with the of Linear B texts. If these ‘Demons’ were represented by masks in ritual (Heckenrath, E., AJA xli [1937], 420–1)Google Scholar it is tempting to see in this ritual of the ‘Great Goddess’, influenced from Egypt, the Thesmophoria of the Danaids. Cf. also p. 8, n. 1.

page 12 note 6 Cf. Wissowa, G., Religion und Kultus der Römer (1912 2), 420;Google ScholarLatte, K., Römische Religionsgeschichte (1960), 412–14;Google Scholar on Vestalia: Wissowa, 159–60, Latte, 109–10; on Matralia: Wissowa, in, Latte, 97–8, Radke, G., Die Götter Altitaliens (1965), 206–9,Google ScholarGagé, J., Matronalia (1963), 228–35.Google Scholar The flogging of a slave-girl at the Matralia has its analogy in the role of the Thracian concubines at Lemnos and the hair-sacrifice of the Thracian slave-girls in Erythrai (below, n. 2). With the ‘tutulum’ (= pilleum lanatum, Sueton. apud Serv. auct. Aen. 2. 683) of the Argei, cf. the of Hephaistos and Kabeiroi (above, p. 8, n. 1).

page 13 note 1 Plut. qu. R. 86, 284 F: no marriage in May; Ov. Fast. 6. 219–34: no marriage until 15 June, the flaminica abstains from combing, nail-cutting, and intercourse.

page 13 note 2 There is connection between the Lemnian festival and the Chian myth of Orion (above, p. 6, n. 1); a cult legend of Erythrai implies another comparable ritual: ‘Heracles’ arrived on a raft, and Thracian slave-girls sacrificed their hair to pull him ashore (Paus. 7. 8. 5–8).

page 13 note 3 Gaster, Th., Thespis (1961 2);Google Scholar for necessary qualification of the pattern, Bleeker, C. J., Egyptian Festivals, Enactment of Religious Renewal (1967), 37–8.Google Scholar

page 13 note 4 The evidence is collected by Lochner-Hättenbach, F., Die Pelasger (1960).Google Scholar The Athenians used the legends about the Pelasgians, whom they identified with the (Thuc. 4. 109. 4), to justify their conquest of Lemnos under Miltiades (Hdt. 6. 137 ff.). There was a family of EvveiSai at Athens, acting as heralds and worshipping Dionysos Melpomenos, Toepffer, J., Attische Genealogie (1889), 181206;Google Scholar Preller-Robert, ii. 852–3. On Pelasgians in Italy, Hellanikos, FGrHist 4 F 4, Myrsilos, FGrHist 477 F 8 apud D.H., Ant. i. 17 ff.,Google Scholar Varro apud Macr. Sat. 1. 7. 28 f.; on Camillus–Ernout, A.Meillet, A., Diet. étym. de la langue latine (1959 4) s.v. Camillus.Google Scholar

page 14 note 1 Themis (1927 2), 331.Google Scholar

page 14 note 2 Cf. above, p. 1, n. 3. In Egypt, there were clearly rituals without myths, Bleeker, 19; Otto, E., Das Verhältnis von Rite und Mythus im Agyptischen, SBHeid. 1958, 1.Google Scholar Biologists have recognized rituals in animal behaviour, cf. Lorenz, K., On aggression (1966), 5480.Google Scholar

page 14 note 3 An expression coined by Knight, W. F. Jackson, Cumaean gates (1936), 91 for the function of the mythical pattern as to historical facts.Google Scholar

page 15 note 1 Identification of Sinties and Tyrrhenians: Philochoros, FGrHist 328 F 100/1 with Jacoby ad loc. Main report on the excavations (interrupted before completion by the war): ASAA xv/xvi (1932/1933);Google Scholar cf. Mustilli, D., Enc. dell'arte antica, iii (1960), 230–1,Google ScholarBernabo-Brea, L., ib. iv (1961), 542–5.Google Scholar It is remarkable that there are only cremation burials in the pre-Greek necropolis (ASAA, loc. cit. 267–72).Google Scholar Wilamowitz, 231 had wrongly assumed that the pre-Greek ‘barbarians’ would have neither city nor Hephaistos-cult.

page 15 note 2 Wilamowitz, 231; LAW s.v. Lemnos.

page 15 note 3 In several towns of Switzerland there are traditions about a ‘night of murder’ allegedly commemorated in carnival-like customs; a few of them are based on historical facts; cf. Tobler, L., ‘Die Mordnachte und ihre Gedenktage', Kleine Schriften (1897), 79105.Google Scholar

page 15 note 4 Welcker, 585 ff.; Bachofen, cf. above p. 3, n. 4; Engels, F., Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigentums und des Staats (1884),Google ScholarMarx-Engels, , Werke xxi. 47 ff.;Google ScholarThomson, G., Studies in Ancient Greek Society (1949), 175Google Scholar (more circumspect: Aeschylus and Athens [1941; 1966 3], 287).Google Scholar For a cautious re-evaluation of the theory of matriarchy, cf. K. Meuli in Bachofen, , Ges. Werke, iii. 1107–15;Google Scholar on the Lycians, Pembroke, S., ‘Last of the matriarchs’, Journ. of the Eton, and Soc. Hist. of the Orient viii (1965), 217–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 15 note 5 were written by Aristophanes (fr. 356–375), Nikochares (fr. 11–14), and Antiphanes (fr. 144/5); cf. Alexis (fr. 134), Diphilos (fr. 54), and Turpilius (90–9).