The Parthenon Enigma (45 page)

This reading may also help explain just why the
Erechtheion and the Parthenon shared a single priestess and a single
altar (
this page
). Normally, each temple had its own altar and its own presiding priest or priestess. The peculiarity of Acropolis cult practice can now be understood in light of the founding myth that has
Praxithea looking after the tomb shrine of her husband as well as that of her daughters, both housed within temples of Athena: the Erechtheion and the Parthenon. As the sole surviving member of the royal family, Praxithea is appointed first priestess of Athena on the Acropolis. She alone has the right to initiate burnt sacrifice on Athena’s altar, an altar that serves both temples.

One can only wonder if the small
naiskos
and altar identified by
Manolis Korres in the north peristyle of the Parthenon (
this page
) has something to do with an ancient understanding of a very early shrine beneath the platform of the Periklean temple. We recall Athena’s words to Praxithea in the
Erechtheus:
“It is necessary that these daughters have a precinct that must not be entered [
abaton
] and no one of the enemies should be allowed to make secret sacrifice there.”
⁹²
Could this
naiskos
mark the spot of the inaccessible holy place of the maiden daughters of Erechtheus perceived to be down below?

NEARLY THIRTY YEARS AGO
,
Donald G. Kyle argued that the Panathenaia developed from funeral games initiated by prominent old Athenian families.
⁹³
This would explain why games and competitions (in
memory of the heroic dead) were such an integral and essential part
of the Panathenaic festival. It would also signal that the grand procession from the Kerameikos to the Acropolis (insert
this page
, top) had as its ultimate destination not only the altar of Athena but also the tombs of Erechtheus and his daughters. Thus, from cemetery to cemetery the citizenry marched, ever mindful of lives lost across the ages to ensure the very survival
of Athens itself.

We have noted earlier that “Parthenos” is not a proper epithet for Athena. Instead, I maintain that the name comes to the goddess by attraction, referring not to Athena herself but to the youngest daughter of Erechtheus, the girl who is called “Parthenos” throughout Euripides’s play. So intimately was this maiden associated with Athena that in time their identities merged. And so the foundation myth gave rise to a double-barreled cult title incorporating the name of the divinity with that of the local heroine: Athena-Parthenos. This follows the same pattern through which the cult title
Poseidon-Erechtheus was formed. At the end of the
Erechtheus
, Athena proclaims that on account of his killer, Erechtheus will henceforth be called Holy Poseidon-Erechtheus. The double-barreled cult names, Poseidon-Erechtheus and Athena-Parthenos, thus represent the incorporation of local hero cult into the worship of local Olympians.

This same model of double-barreled worship, combining an Olympian deity with a local hero, is found at other Greek sanctuaries. Zeus-
Agamemnon was worshipped at Sparta,
Apollo-Hyakinthos at
Amyklai, and
Artemis-Iphigeneia at
Brauron. Each of these sites features the tomb of the local hero/heroine situated close to the temple of the locally worshipped Olympian.
⁹⁴
The pattern at Athens is the same, only more so, for the daughters of Erechtheus are part of a larger program of paideia. They are vitally central to the teaching of a unique set of values and the establishment of a common
knowledge that made Athens different from every other city-state in Greece.

THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
between tombs and
temples brings us to the larger question of the role of hero cult in shaping sacred space.
⁹⁵
Greeks of the historical period regularly stumbled upon remains from the prehistoric era. The great stretches of Cyclopean masonry surviving from the Late
Bronze Age were fairly indestructible, becoming a permanent feature of ancient sites. Mycenaean walls are visible to this day on
the Athenian Acropolis, juxtaposed with constructions postdating them by eight hundred years and more (
this page
). Classical Athenians would have understood these remains to be relics from the time of their earliest ancestors. They clearly constructed stories, and rituals, around them.

Iron Age Greeks of the Peloponnese discovered
Bronze Age ruins and believed them to be the tombs of epic heroes. A Mycenaean bridge is still in use to this day at Arkadiko near the modern road leading from Tiryns to Epidauros. One of a handful of bridges that survive from the Late Bronze Age, it is made of Cyclopean masonry and runs some 22 meters (72 feet) in length, supported by a corbeled arch.
⁹⁶
Recognizing the great antiquity of this structure, historical Greeks of the classical period erected a shrine near it, following a larger pattern by which hero cult was established in proximity to Bronze Age remains.

The relationship of tombs, temples, and
foundation myths can in fact be observed at far-flung Panhellenic sites, battening down our argument for Athens. If the perceived tombs of local heroes influenced the development of sacred space at these other sites, it becomes more reasonable to infer that the “tombs” of Erechtheus and his daughters played significant roles in the planning of the
Erechtheion and the Parthenon, and thus shaped what the Parthenon meant to the Athenian people as a whole.

Athens was the earliest state to ardently emulate
Olympia in developing its own festival of Panhellenic proportions. Indeed, the Great Panathenaia’s close association with the Olympic model both established and reinforced its high status.
⁹⁷
Of the four
periodos
sites, Olympia maintained the strongest ties to the elite, aristocratic origins from which it sprang. The Athenians, never to be outdone, enlarged, expanded, and highlighted this aspect of exclusivity, forging for themselves a hugely comprehensive display of elite tribal excellence that harkened back to the aristocratic glory days of the city. All the while, of course, the noble origins of the festival and athletic contests were veiled beneath the mantle of democratic values shared with those lucky enough to be numbered among the citizenry. Athenians had competed and won with great success at the
Olympic Games throughout the seventh century, beginning with
Pantakles’s victory in the stade race of 696
B.C.
⁹⁸
No wonder they wanted a Panhellenic festival all their own.

And looking to the model at Olympia, we find the tomb
of Pelops, local founder of the games, right in the heart of the sanctuary. He was a
hero of such proportion that, to this day, the whole of southern Greece is called the Peloponnese, Island of Pelops. An immigrant from Lydia, Pelops won the hand of the daughter of the king of Pisa by beating him in a chariot race, thereby becoming a member of the royal family of Elis. His open-air precinct, the Pelopion, stood within the sacred grove (
altis
) at Olympia and just beside the great ash
altar, close to the foundations of early apsidal buildings that harken back to the distant past. The
heroön
of Pelops was flanked by the Archaic temple of
Hera and the great classical temple of Olympian Zeus.
⁹⁹

In the sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea, also in the Peloponnese (
this page
), a hero shrine to the baby Opheltes, mythical prince of the city, has been unearthed close to the temple.
¹⁰⁰
Here, as at Athens, a child of the local king dies, is buried near the local temple, and is honored in funeral games. The son of King
Lykourgos, Opheltes was born under a dark prophecy. Death would come to the child if any part of his body touched ground before he learned to walk. One day, when in a leafy grove with his nurse, Hypsipyle, Opheltes met his fate when seven Argive warriors passed by and asked for a drink of water. Hypsipyle laid the baby down in a bed of celery, whereupon a snake sprang out and fatally bit the child. The warriors killed the snake and instituted funeral games in the boy’s honor, changing his name from Opheltes to
Archemoros.
¹⁰¹

Pausanias saw the
heroön
of Opheltes and the tomb of his father,
King Lykourgos, during his visit to Nemea in the second century
A.D.
¹⁰²
Excavations have revealed a pentagonal, open-air precinct, identified as the enclosure for the tomb and altar of
Opheltes-Archemoros.
¹⁰³
It represents the Hellenistic phase of a shrine already established in the Archaic period, when the
Nemean Games were inaugurated (573
B.C.
) and the first temple of Zeus was built.
¹⁰⁴
Not far from Opheltes’s shrine, twenty-three planting pits for fir or cypress trees have been unearthed, constituting a sacred grove that memorialized the spot where Opheltes died among the celery plants.
¹⁰⁵

Tomb, temple, and games: they can be found, as well, at the Panhellenic
sanctuary of Poseidon at
Isthmia. Here, a princely child dies and is honored with athletic competitions. Melikertes was the son of
Athamas and
Ino, king and queen of Orchomenos in Boiotia. Hera was angry at Ino for having raised the child
Dionysos, illegitimate son of her own husband, Zeus. In retaliation, she caused Athamas to go mad and
murder his eldest son. Fearful for the life of her remaining boy, Ino took Melikertes and leaped with him into the Saronic Gulf. Mother and son were transformed into sea deities and acquired new names: Ino became
Leukothea (“White Goddess”) and Melikertes became
Palaimon. Just as with Opheltes-
Archemoros, the prince gains a double-barreled name: Melikertes-Palaimon. Dolphins carried his corpse to the shores of nearby Isthmia, where the Corinthian king
Sisyphos discovered the body. Before meeting his tormented end of forever pushing a stone uphill, Sisyphos buried the boy in a pine grove near the sea and instituted the
Isthmian Games in his
memory.
¹⁰⁶

Excavations at Isthmia have revealed an open-air sanctuary identified as the
heroön
of Melikertes-Palaimon.
¹⁰⁷
Though Roman in date, it is built upon a classical manhole cover for the water reservoir of the early stadium. By the mid-first century
A.D.
, this opening was perceived to be the tomb of Melikertes-Palaimon, becoming the focal point of the hero’s cult worship. So vital was the
foundation myth and the physical remains that “proved” its existence that both could be invented in later periods and proudly projected back into a newly remembered past.

Athens might have started by copying
Olympia, but it was not long before other cities and sanctuaries began to emulate the Athenian model of matchless pomp in festival ritual. Nowhere is this more strongly felt than at the sanctuary of
Apollo-
Hyakinthos at
Amyklai, 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) south of
Sparta. Here, a handsome local prince, Hyakinthos, suffered death before his time, was buried within the temple of Apollo, and was commemorated in a festival called the Hyakinthia. This feast included a grand procession, the ritual weaving of a dress (chiton) for the god, as well as an all-night vigil, or
pannychis
—in which maidens and youths sang and danced—sacrifices, and a feast.
¹⁰⁸
In time, athletic competitions were added to these festivities. Each of these elements can be seen to draw inspiration from the
Panathenaia. Even more, the Amyklaion developed into a major shrine for the display of arms and armor and played a critical role in local paideia, preparing the young men of Sparta for their future role as warriors. It is clear that young women participated in the cult as well, singing and dancing at the Hyakinthia festival.

Hyakinthos was the son of the eponymous founder of Amyklai, King
Amyklas. As a beautiful boy, he was deeply loved by both Apollo and
Zephyr, the West Wind. One day, when Apollo and Hyakinthos were
out throwing the discus, jealous Zephyr interfered, causing the discus to blow off course. It hit and killed Hyakinthos on the spot. Apollo was inconsolable. In
memory of his beloved, the god inaugurated the Hyakinthia festival. King Amyklas buried his son directly beneath Apollo’s cult statue, the base of which took the shape of an
altar.
¹⁰⁹
Upon entering through the bronze doors of the temple, worshippers first made offerings upon this altar/base to the dead hero Hyakinthos before sacrificing to Apollo himself.

According to
Pausanias, the venerable cult statue of Apollo was aniconic (not unlike Athena’s old olive wood image at Athens). It consisted of a great cylinder standing 13 meters (43 feet) tall, crowned with a helmet and given vestigial arms, in which it held a spear and a shield.
¹¹⁰
Apollo’s conspicuous martial aspect at
Amyklai served to inspire the young men of
Sparta toward a future in the great fighting force of the city-state. The bronze armor of
Timomachos of Thebes (said to have aided the Spartans in their war against the Amyklaioi) was displayed in the sanctuary along with other spoils and booty. Pausanias especially remarks on the large number of dedications made by soldiers and athletes he saw during his visit to the shrine.
¹¹¹
Exposure to objects of memory from military exploits of the past fortified the effect of the Hyakinthia as a kind of initiation for young men about to become warriors.
¹¹²