Wandering Greeks (20 page)

It remains questionable whether the resettlement of the populations of Gela and Camarina should be thought of as evacuations or as deportations. In both cases the decision to evacuate was the only option available, though this did not make the event any the less traumatic for those involved. Their resentment was no doubt intense and there were probably many who departed under extreme pressure. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the contemporary perception was that Dionysius had exploited people's dread of the Carthaginians “to become lord of the remaining cities without exposing himself to risk” (D.S. 13.112.1). Soon afterward a revolt against Dionysius broke out and the refugees from Gela and Camarina fled once more—this time to the abandoned city of Leontini (13.113.4).

7
THE ASYLUM-SEEKER

Asylum as a Sacred Obligation

The international community first assumed protection for refugees as a result of the rise of nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and later from massive population displacement caused by World War I. The belief that refugees should be treated with respect was widely endorsed in antiquity and is enshrined in several sacred texts. In the so-called Covenant Code the Lord of the Hebrews declares that he will establish a place to which those guilty of unpremeditated homicide may take refuge so that their cases can be properly adjudicated before the deceased's nearest relative has an opportunity to undertake a revenge killing (Exodus 21:13). In later books of the Hebrew Bible, He instructs the Israelites to establish “cities of refuge” for the same purpose (Numbers 35:9–15; Deuteronomy 4:41–43 and 19:1–13; Joshua 20:1–9). The Roman historian Livy attributed to Romulus the founding of an asylum on the Capitoline Hill, where, during his reign, “An indiscriminate mass of people, some free, some servile, fled from neighboring peoples, eager for a new start in life, with the consequence that the population of Rome increased for the first time” (1.8.6). The Romans also established the reciprocal right for exiles to take refuge in neighboring cities in Latium and they later extended it to include other cities. In its definition of
birr
, the Arabic word sometimes translated as “piety,” the Qur'an includes giving money to
ibn as sabil
, literally “a son of the road,” meaning anyone who has no means to survive, including refugees and exiles (Second Surah v. 177). The Qur'an also requires the faithful to provide
aman
(refuge) to non-Muslims.

The Greeks, too, observed the principle of asylum, and there are many examples in their literature of the gods taking vengeance on those who mistreat suppliants. One of the explanations that Herodotus puts forward as to why Cleomenes I of Sparta went mad is divine retribution for having executed some Argive suppliants who had taken refuge in his sacred grove (6.75.3). Similarly, Thucydides reports the widely held belief that the great earthquake at Sparta in 464 was divine retribution for the fact that the Spartans had ejected helot suppliants from the sanctuary of Poseidon at Taenarum and then slaughtered them (1.128.1). Pausanias interpreted the destruction of Helice by earthquake on the north coast of the Peloponnese in 373 as proof that “the wrath of the god of suppliants is inexorable,” since its inhabitants had killed some suppliants who had taken refuge in the sanctuary of Poseidon, the god thought to cause earthquakes (7.25.1). We should note, however, that it was left to the gods to exact redress against those who violated the right of asylum. There were no provisions in Greek lawcodes to punish violators.

Qualifying for Asylum

The Greek word
asulia
, which we somewhat misleadingly translate as “asylum” and which is sometimes better translated as “inviolability,” literally means “not plundering” or in the case of an individual “the condition of not being plundered or abducted [viz from a sanctuary].” In theory at least
asulia
offered refuge for all, irrespective of a person's political affiliation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or any other qualifying condition. What complicates our understanding of the term is the fact that it is closely related to, but distinct from,
hikesia
or
hiketeia
(supplication), though the exact difference is difficult to determine. One distinction is that
asulia
might be a long-term arrangement, whereas
hikesia
was only ever a temporary expedient.

Because any long-distance traveler was usually at some risk in ancient Greece, anyone with a legitimate reason to be on the road or at sea was entitled to apply for
asulia
inside a sanctuary. This would have included
athletes and spectators traveling to and from the various panhellenic festivals and games, ambassadors and state delegates en route from one city-state to another, the sick and their attendants visiting sanctuaries that belonged to the healing god Asclepius, plus tourists, merchants, and so on. At times of crisis, too, entire populations might seek refuge in a local sanctuary (see below).

In addition, orphans, adolescent girls escaping from an arranged marriage, runaway slaves, and other kinds of needy individuals could claim
asulia
. Abandoned children were sometimes deposited in sanctuaries in the hope that they would be properly cared for, perhaps by the temple authorities themselves. Fugitives and criminals were also eligible to apply, though the decision whether to grant them asylum would no doubt have been controversial. Traitors, too, could seek sanctuary, like the Argive general Thrasylus, who narrowly escaped being stoned to death by his fellow-citizens when he sought refuge at an altar (Thuc. 5.59.5, 60.6). Pursued by his army, the Spartan admiral Astyochus avoided being lynched only by taking refuge at an altar after he had threatened to thrash one of their number (Thuc. 8.84.1–3).

As Chaniotis (1996, 67) remarks, “Considerations of sin, guilt, right, and justice have no bearing on the claim of a suppliant to remain in the sanctuary”—no doubt to the disconsolation of many. Ion in Euripides' play of that name not only rails against malefactors who seek asylum, but even attacks the gods for supporting the institution (ll. 1312–20):

It is shameful that a god ordained bad laws for mortals—statutes that were not framed wisely. Unrighteous persons should not be allowed to squat beside the altar but be driven out by force. It is not proper that hands that are soiled with sin should touch the gods. Righteous people, if they are wronged, should claim sanctuary. Good and bad people should not indiscriminately claim the same boon of the gods.

Ion's observation that the institution lent itself to abuse was doubtless correct, though it comes oddly from the mouth of a temple servant
who had himself been abandoned inside a sacred precinct. We should also note that in some city-states communal law overrode the universal entitlement to supplication. In Athens, for instance, murderers and
kakourgoi
(felons), were prohibited from supplicating. This included kidnappers, thieves, male prostitutes, and deserters (Naiden 2006, 178). In addition, those who were polluted through birth, marriage, or death and those who had been deprived of their civic rights (known collectively as
atimoi
) were automatically prohibited from entering a sanctuary and thus denied the right of
asulia
(Chaniotis 1996, 72–75).

We also hear of a large number of civilians seeking refuge in a sanctuary in wartime, though it did them little good. In ca. 390, when the Spartan king Agesilaus invaded Perachora, “a multitude of men and women, both servile and nonservile, together with a large number of cattle” took refuge in the Heraeum. Not long afterward, the asylum-seekers voluntarily came out of the sanctuary, perhaps because Agesilaus threatened to slay them anyway. Those deemed hostile to Sparta were murdered, whereas the others were sold into slavery (Xen.
Hell
.4.5.5; Sinn 1996, 67–69).

In theory at least asylum might be granted to an enemy in wartime. Claiming to be the son of a Cretan called Castor, Odysseus tells Eumaeus that he and his men once invaded Egypt with the purpose of stealing food and abducting both the women and children. The Egyptians turned the tables on the raiding party, however, “slaughtering some and capturing others.” At this the Cretan stranger threw away his arms and supplicated the Egyptian king, who answered his appeal by defending him from attack from his own subjects (
Od
. 14.257–84).

Though many helpless people must have had their appeal for asylum rejected, especially if it meant angering a powerful state or person, occasionally compassion prevailed. When 300 Corcyrean boys who were being escorted to Sardis under military escort in order to undergo castration escaped from their guards and took refuge in the sanctuary of Artemis on Samos, the islanders hit on the imaginative plan of
instituting a festival that required celebrants to bring cakes to the sanctuary. By this means the guards were prevented from starving the boys into submission (Hdt. 3.48).

Supplication

The current working definition of an asylum-seeker is “an individual who arrives in another state seeking protection in that state, but who has yet to be granted refugee status” (Gibney 2009, 315). The same definition works well enough for the ancient world, though we should note that many asylum-seekers would have been internally displaced as opposed to being refugees from abroad. One could petition for asylum by supplicating an individual, a god, or a community. Supplication not only took the form of a formal verbal appeal but also necessitated ritual action involving gestures and movements, the intent being to establish a religious bond between the two parties through self-abasement (Gould 1973, 94). It could occur in all sorts of situations: gods supplicated other gods, humans supplicated gods, women supplicated men, and slaves supplicated their owners (Herman 1987, 56). Scenes of supplication occur in both the Homeric poems and Greek tragedy, but rarely elsewhere in Greek literature, though defendants in lawsuits occasionally present themselves as suppliants. The act is also depicted occasionally in art (Naiden 2006, figures 2.1–9).

Though suppliants were under the protection of Zeus
Hikesios
, there was no moral or religious obligation for the supplicandus to accede to a particular request (Freyburger 1988, 512). The extent to which Zeus
Hikesios
might be expected to intervene on a suppliant's behalf is therefore questionable. Possibly his role was limited to insuring that the suppliant's vulnerability was not exploited.

It was customary to grasp either an altar or a statue within a sanctuary, as Orestes does to escape his pursuers (Aes.
Eum
. 258; cf. Hom.
Od
.22.334–36). The most detailed description occurs at the beginning of Aeschylus's
Suppliants
(ca. 463), where the daughters of Danaüs, after fleeing from Egypt under the protection of their father to escape forced
marriage with their cousins, take refuge in a sanctuary in Argos near their point of disembarkation. Soon they attract the attention of the local inhabitants and a menacing crowd begins to surround them. To placate the crowd, Danaüs urges his daughters to adopt the formal guise of suppliants. This they do by holding branches in their left hands wound around with white woolen fillets. The branches, which could be made of either laurel or olive, identify the group as suppliants. He also advises his daughters to call upon the Greek gods, specifically Apollo, Poseidon, and Hermes, who were presumably worshipped in the sanctuary (ll. 176–233).

When supplicating an individual, it was customary to touch the chin, grasp the knees, or seize the hands as a demonstration of submission. When Priam comes to supplicate Achilles for the return of Hector's body, he grasps both his knees and his hands—“the hands that killed so many of his sons,” as Homer reminds his audience (
Il.
24.478–80). However, when Odysseus is washed up on the shores of Scheria, naked and begrimed, he decides to “stand well away and supplicate Nausicaä in flattering terms, for fear that if he grasped her knees, she might become angry” (
Od.
6.146–47). It is, of course, deeply ironic that a seasoned warrior like Odysseus should be reduced to supplicating an adolescent and defenseless virgin. But it is also one of life's ironies, and that is where the joke lies. Similarly, when the fugitive seer Theoclymenus, who has slain a fellow-tribesman, entreats Telemachus to be taken on board ship, the two refrain from physical contact, perhaps because the seer is guilty of manslaughter (see later,
chapter 8
).

Another instructive instance of
hikesia
is reported by Thucydides in the case of the fugitive Themistocles, who found temporary asylum with Admetus, king of the Molossians, even though the two had previously not been on good terms (1.136.1–137.1). As luck would have it, Admetus was away from his palace when Themistocles arrived. Otherwise the suppliant would surely have been sent packing. Instead he was greeted by Admetus's wife. Well-schooled in the niceties of supplication, she urged her visitor to pick up her child and squat by the hearth to await her husband's return, this being “the most solemn form of supplication.” A hearth, like a sanctuary, had powerful religious significance,
since it was sacred to the goddess Hestia. Her advice proved effective. Admetus overcame his animosity and granted Themistocles asylum. When Themistocles' pursuers arrived to demand that he hand over the fugitive, Admetus sent them on their way. His behavior was in sharp contrast with that of the Corcyraeans, who had previously rejected Themistocles' appeal for asylum, even though, as Thucydides notes, he had shown them favor in the past.

The Politics of Offering Asylum

There is no way of knowing what percentage of appeals for
asulia
met with success. I strongly suspect, however, that the vast majority was granted only after those being petitioned had asked the question, “What's in it for me?” The Corcyraeans rejected Themistocles' appeal because they were fearful of offending his pursuers. Soon after the Peloponnesian War ended, the Thebans, Corinthians, and Megarians, alarmed at Sparta's ascendancy, provided refuge for exiled Athenian democrats. Not for nothing Oedipus promises the chorus of Athenian citizens that he will “bring profit to those who receive him by settling in their land.” The “profit,” as he later explains, will take the form of assistance in their wars against the Thebans, when his corpse, as he ominously predicts, will drink their enemies' blood (Soph.
OC
92, cf. 287–88; 616–23).