E-Book Overview
This work shows that the worship of heroines, as well as of gods and heroes, was widespread in the Greek world from the 8th through the 4th centuries BC. Drawing upon textual, archaeological and iconographic evidence as diverse as ancient travel writing, ritual calendars, votive reliefs, and Euripidean drama, Jennifer Larson demonstrates the pervasiveness of heroine cults at every level of Athenian society. Larson reveals that a broad range of herioc cults existed throughout the Greek world, encompassing not only individuals but couples (Pelops and Hippodamela, Alexandra and Agamemnon, Helen and Menelaos) and families such as those of Asklepios and the Dioskouroi. She shows how heroic cults reinforced the Greek's gender expectations for both women and men through ritual status, iconography, and narrative motifs. Finally, Larson looks at the intersection of heroine cults with specific topics such as myths of maiden sacrifice, the Amazons, the role of the goddess Artemis, and folk beliefs about female "ghosts".
E-Book Content
Greek Heroine Cults
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WISCONSIN STUDIES IN CLASSICS General Editors Richard Daniel De Puma and Barbara Hughes Fowler
Greek Heroine Cults
Jennifer Larson
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The University of Wisconsin Press
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Contents
Figures and Tables Preface Acknowledgments Orthography and Abbreviations
Introduction to Greek Heroine Cults Familial Context 4 Heroines Outside a Familial Context Tombs and Cult Places 9 Cult Activities 13 Heroization Stories 16 Heroine and Nymph 18 Words for Heroine 21 Summary 24
The University of Wisconsin Press 114 North Murray Street Madison, Wisconsin 53715 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England Copyright © 1995 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System All rights reserved
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Larson, Jennifer Oennifer Lynn) Greek heroine cults / Jennifer Larson. 256 p. em. - (Wisconsin studies in classics) Includes bibliographical references and mdex. J ISBN 0-299-14370-8 ISBN 0-299-14374-0 (pbk.) I. Heroines-Cult-Greece. 2. Hero worship-Greece. 3. Greece-Religion. I. Title. II. Series. BL795.H47L37 1994 292.2' 13-dc20 94-11044
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Heroine Cult in the Political and Social Organization of Attica The Deme Calendars 27 The Deme Eponymoi and Associated Cults 35 The Orgeones 37 The Heroines on the Acropolis: The Daughters of Kekrops 39
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Heroines in Votive Reliefs The Totenmahl Reliefs 43 The Archaic Lakonian Reliefs 50 Other Heroic Reliefs 52 Terracottas 54 Iconography and Heroic Cult 55 A Comparison: The Hero Stones of India v
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Heroines and the Heroic Family Myth and Ritual 60 The Family of Asklepios 61 The Dioskouroi and the Leukippides 64 The Dioskouroi and Helen 69 Family Groups at Eleusis 70 The Heroic Family and the Foundation of the Polis
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Heroines in Individual Familial Relationships Husband and Wife in Cult 78 Other Pairs 84 Brother and Sister 86 Mother and Son 89 Father and Daughter 96
FIGURES
Independent Heroines Sacrificial Virgins 101 Euripides and Two Patterns of Human Sacrifice 103 Groups of Sisters 109 The Heroine as Other: Amazons and Aliens 110 Artemis and Cult Heroines 116 Kourotrophic and Hospitality Figures 121 Ino 123 Sibyls and Priestesses 125 Historical Figures 128
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The Wrongful Death of the Heroine The Substitute Avenger 133 Rape and W