Table Of ContentSKRIFfER UTGIVNA A V SVENSKA INSTITUTET I ATHEN, 8°, XII
ACTA INSTITUTI ATHENIENSIS REGNI SUECIAE, SERIES IN 8°, XII
Cults of Apollo at Sparta
The Hyakinthia, the Gymnopaidiai
and the Kameia
by
,
Michael pettersson
STOCKHOLM 1992
SKRIFTER UTGIVNA AV
SVENSKA INSTITUTET I ATHEN
ACTA INSTITUTI ATHENIENSIS REGNI SUECIAE
8°, XII
Michael Pettersson
CULTS OF APOLLO AT SPARTA
The Hyakinthia, the Gymnopaidiai and the Kameia
SKRIFTER UTGIVNA AV SVENSKA INSTITUTET I ATHEN, 8°, XII
ACTA INSTITUTI ATHENIENSIS REGNI SUECIAE, SERIES IN 8°, XII
Cults of Apollo at Sparta
The Hyakinthia, the Gymnopaidiai and the Karneia
by
Michael Pettersson
STOCKHOLM 1992
Distributor Paul Astroms forlag
Vastra Hamngatan 3, S- 411 17 Goteborg, Sweden
Editorial Committee: Prof. Tullia Linders, Uppsala, Chairman; Prof. Paul Astrom, Goteborg, Vice-chairman;
Mrs. Inez Hagbarth, Stockholm, Treasurer; Dr. Charlotte Scheffer, Secretary; Prof. BirgerBergh, Lund; Prof.
Birgitta Bergquist, Stockholm; Prof. Jerker Blomqvist, Lund; Miss Gunnel Ekroth, Stockholm; Prof. Par
Goran Gierow, Lund; Prof. Robin Hagg, Athens; Prof. Carl Nylander, Rome.
Secratary's address: Department of Ancient Culture and Society, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stock-
holm, Sweden.
Editor: Dr. Brita Alroth, Uppsala.
Distributor. Paul Astroms Forlag, Vastra Hamngatan 3, S-411 17 Goteborg, Sweden.
The English text was revised by Mr. Jon van Leuven, Goteborg.
Recommended abbreviation for this series: ActaAth-8o.
Published with the aid of a grant from
the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Goteborg
Abstract
Pettersson, Michael, Cults of Apollo at Sparta. The Hyakinthia, the Gymnopaidiai and the Karneia. Skrifter
utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Athen, 8°, 12. Stockholm 1992, 170 pp. ISBN 91-7916-027-1.
In this study, the three cults of Apollo are regarded as a rite of passage. In the first three chapters, the evidence
concerning each cult is reviewed and discussed. The two-part structure of the Hyakinthia is investigated as an
expression of the cult as a rite of passage. The identity of Hyakinthos is analyzed, starting with Pausanias'
description of the altar at the Amyklaion from the sixth century BC. It is argued that the bearded Hyakinthos,
depicted on one relief, indicated a mature man and not the youth who was loved by Apollo, while the scene
with Hyakinthos and Polyboia was associated with female initiation. Hyakinthos is interpreted as an ancestral
figure, whose death was commemorated as part of a rite of initiation.
The Gymnopaidiai was chiefly connected with the performances of choruses. The role of choreia in Spartan
culture and religion is examined. The nakedness of the participants in this cult is viewed as a symbolic expres-
sion of the liminal stage which the initiands went through.
The Karneia is regarded as the post-liminal phase of the rite of passage. Order and structure are emphasized,
for example through the use of nine tents with representatives of the phylai. The enigmatic race of the staphy-
lodromoi is interpreted as a restorative ritual, recreating the bonds between men and gods, with the pursued
man impersonating a seer.
In the fourth chapter, the symbolism of the three cults as a rite of passage is further investigated. The age
class system of Spartan society and its relation to the cults are dealt with.
The fifth chapter places the cults within a historical framework. The origin of the Hyakinthia is connected
with the collapse of the Mycenaean palace civilization. This cult is regarded as one of the dead Hyakinthos,
its function being to create group cohesion in a turbulent period.
It is suggested that the three cults came to function as a ritual cycle during the emergence of the Spartan
polis towards the middle of the eighth century BC. The annually celebrated rituals established a common iden-
tity for the Spartan citizens. The Dorian character of the Spartan polis is considered as an ideological rather
than ethnic identity, expressing the hegemony of the polis and its citizens over the subdued population of La-
konia.
Key words: Greek religion, Sparta, Amyklaion, Apollo, Artemis Orthia, Hyakinthos, rite of passage, limi-
nality, age class system, peer polity interaction, big-man society, polis formation, Dorian identity.
Michael Pettersson, Department of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Goteborg University, Vastra
Hamngatan 3, S-411 17 Goteborg, Sweden.
ISBN 91-7916-027-1
ISSN 0081-9921
© 1992 Svenska Institutet i Athen
Printed in Sweden by
Textgruppen i Uppsala AB, 1992
Contents
Introduction 7
1. The Hyakinthia 9
1.1 The Cult 9
Introduction and literary testimonia 9
Previous research 12
Elements of the cult 14
Food 14
Wreaths 17
The paean 19
The sacrificial practice 21
The structure of the cult 25
Summary 29
1.2 The hero and the heroine: Hyakinthos and Polyboia 29
Introduction 29
The young Hyakinthos 30
The mature Hyakinthos 35
Hyakinthos and Polyboia 38
Summary 41
2. The Gymnopaidiai 42
The literary testimonia 42
Previous research 44
Elements of the cult 45
Choreia as tests of endurance 45
Choreia as education 48
Choreia as a religious experience 51
Summary 55
3. The Karneia 57
The literary testimonia 57
Previous research 59
Elements of the cult 60
Distribution of the cult 60
Representations of Apollo Karneios 61
The military aspect 62
The Karneia and the Aigeidai 66
The race of the staphylodromoi 68
Summary 71
4. The cults as a ritual cycle and the age class system 73
Introduction 73
The cults as a ritual cycle 75
The age class system 78
Introduction 78
Age classes between 0 to 6 years 79
Age classes between 7 to 20 years: the agoge 80
Age classes between 20 to 60 years 85
The ritual cycle and the age class system 87
5. The cults and the development of the Spartan polis 91
Introduction 91
The pre-polis period 92
The Amyklaion in the Late Bronze Age 92
The transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The Protogeometric pottery .... 97
Society in Early Iron Age Lakonia 101
The Dorian question 106
The creation of the Spartan polis 109
The political development during the eighth century 109
The Great Rhetra 112
Religion and the polis 117
Conclusions 124
Testimonia 127
List of illustrations 138
Abbreviations 139
Bibliography 140
Index of sources 160
Epigraphical index 164
Index 165
Introduction
This study is an attempt to understand Spartan The identity of the city was expressed through
religion as it was expressed in three of its most religious ritual.
important cults, the Hyakinthia, the Gymno- This work is intended to proceed from the
paidiai and the Karneia. Several testimonia study of each cult to a demonstration that the
concern the celebration of these cults either three cults constituted a unitary ritual cycle.
during or in expectation of wars. Thus it was The three first chapters examine each cult in
due to participation in the Karneia that Leoni- the light of the literary and archaeological ma-
das came with an insufficient contingent to terial, and in comparison with previous inter-
Thermopylai. These examples show how im- pretations of the cults. Among other things,
perative the veneration of Apollo was for the every study of cult has to ask what the religious
Spartans. experience was like for the participants. In the
The Spartan attitude towards religion has of- chapter on the Gymnopaidiai, emphasis has
ten been treated as a curious expression of awk- been laid on the meaning of choreia, the art of
ward irrationality, and efforts have been made song and dance. I will argue that choreia was a
to find logical explanations for such a mental- medium for the actual experience of the divin-
ity, perhaps as a flashing light.
ity. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz has
given a famous definition of religion as 'a sys- In Chapter Four, I will try to show how the
tem of symbols which acts to establish power- three cults formed a ritual cycle through the
ful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and mo- structuring of symbols and symbolic acts. Wal-
tivations in men by formulating conceptions of ter Burkert's Homo Necans has been my fore-
a general order of existence and clothing these most inspiration for discovering how several
conceptions with such an aura of factuality that cults could constitute a unity. A structuralistic
the moods and motivations seem uniquely rea- perspective has been a guiding principle in this
listic.'1 By this definition religious ritual, as search for the architecture behind the ritual
symbolic action, becomes a medium for creat- cycle. Adapting the scheme proposed by A.
ing and maintaining the world view of a cul- van Gennep, the cults have been regarded as
ture, and much of what seems peculiar to Spar- rites of separation, marginality and aggrega-
tan religious behaviour can be understood as tion.2 Victor Turner's studies of ritual, focusing
ways of creating meaning. Thucydides on the period of liminality in rites of passage,
(1.10.2), saying that if one were to judge Sparta
from her buildings one would never have
grasped her greatness, indicated the import- 1 Geertz 1969, 4.
ance of immaterial elements in Spartan culture. 2 van Gennep 1960.
Introduction
when the participants seem to be 'betwixt and Spartan polis as an outcome of sudden changes,
between' the order of ordinary life, have also including the Lykourgan reforms, the estab-
been a source of concepts for analyzing the lishment of the organization described in the
symbolism acted out in the three cults. Rhetra, and the age class system. This system,
Many references will be made to the cults as functioning from c. 700 BC, should be viewed
initiation rituals, and in this respect my study as an invention rather than a primitive survival,
leans to a high degree on the work of Jeanmaire and as an instrument in the creation of the class
and Brelich. Initiation rituals concern the most of homoioi which made up the body of Spartan
vital interest of a society: how to integrate the citizens.
young generations into the structures of an or- It was through the performance of religious
dered society. In contrast to these scholars, rituals that the 'powerful, pervasive, and long-
however, I have tried to understand initiation lasting moods and motivations' were created in
not as a primitive survival from earlier stages the Spartans, generation by generation from the
of Greek history, but as an instrument in the rise of the polis in the eighth century BC down
emergence of the Spartan polis in the eighth to Roman times, an impressively long period.
century, closely related to the age class system Travelling in the second century AD, Pausa-
which came to characterize Sparta. nias could report that the Gymnopaidiai was
'Alle Rekonstruktion von Geschichte und still a cult which the Spartans celebrated most
Zustanden der spartanischen Friihzeit muB hy- seriously. Several centuries earlier, at the battle
pothetisch bleiben.' Thus Victor Ehrenberg.3 at Plataia, the will of the gods constrained the
In spite of the scarcity of evidence, attempts Spartan contingent of the Greek army beyond
made by British scholars in adapting new theo- the instincts of self-preservation. Prevented
ries of state formation to the study of the Early from taking action, the Spartans fell to the ar-
Iron Age of Greece, such as peer polity inter- rows of the Persians, many being slain or
action and big-man society, have encouraged wounded, because the signs from the gods were
me to try to place the three cults within a his- not favourable.5 In this scene we feel the force
torical framework.4 of an earlier remark by Herodotos: for the Spar-
Most scholars prefer to regard the emer- tans, 'the will of the gods weighed more than
gence of the Spartan polis and its social system the will of men'.6
as the result of a prolonged development. The
astonishing political changes in Europe today
might suggest, however, that behind the idea of 3 Ehrenberg 1965, 161.
gradual development lies a human wish to live 4 Renfrew 1986; Morgan 1990; Whitley 1991a;
1991b.
in a controlled world, rather than a correct de-
5 Hdt. 9.61.
scription of historical events. In the second part 6 Hdt. 5.63. Translation A.D. Godley (Loeb Classi-
of the fifth chapter I will indeed consider the cal Library).
Chapter one
The Hyakinthia
1.1 The cult
7 Tsountas 1892, 1-26; Fiechter 1918, 107-245;
Buschor & von Massow 1927, 1-85. Results from the
Introduction and literary testimonia
first excavation at the Amyklaion under the direction of
At first sight the evidence concerning the C. Tsountas, were published in 1892, 1-26. Inscriptions
on sherds with the expression 'knahXoNoc, ev 'AUUK-
Hyakinthia may seem abundant compared to
taxtoi confirmed the location of the sanctuary (Tsountas
that of other Greek cults. In addition to the lit- 1892, 3). Tsountas interpreted the remnants of a semi-
erary and epigraphical testimonia, there is rich circular structure as the foundation of the sanctuary. In
1904 the site became the subject of a new excavation,
archaeological material from the excavations
under the direction of the German archaeologist A.
of the Amyklaion sanctuary at the hill of Ayia Furtwangler. Part of his report was published in 1918,
Kyriaki.7 However, the literary testimonia as a section in Fiechter's article on the Amyklaion
(Fiechter 1918, 114-117). Furtwangler noticed archi-
mainly consist of short notices dating from the
tectural fragments of friezes with palmette and lotus or-
Archaic age down to the late Roman period. As naments built into the wall of the church, and assumed
the aim of this study is to give an overall inter- that they originated from the major reconstruction of the
sanctuary taking place in the sixth century BC, and at-
pretation of the cult and, consequently, every
tributed to Bathykles from Magnesia. According to
piece of information has to be taken into con- Furtwangler, the semicircular foundation, which Tsoun-
sideration, the chronologically varied literary tas had interpreted as the base of the sanctuary, was the
remnant of an altar, since Tsountas had found a layer of
testimonia pose a methodological problem.
ashes with animal bones and bronze votives close to it
Was the Hyakinthia mentioned by Herodo- (Fiechter 1918, 117). Furtwangler also came to the con-
tos and Thucydides in the fifth century BC or- clusion that the sanctuary must have been situated
where the church was located. In 1907 he had planned
ganized in a different way from the cult de-
to carry out a second expedition, but he died and the di-
scribed by Polykrates c. 300 years later? Are rection was taken over by E. Fiechter. The Greek gov-
the details concerning the cult mentioned by ernment had given permission to dismantle the church,
and this work led to discoveries of architectural ele-
lexicographers in late Roman and Byzantine
ments such as friezes, balks, fragments of columns and
times valid for the cult of the Geometric, Proto- console capitals. These elements were dated by Fiechter
geometric or even Mycenaean period? Were to the end of the sixth century BC.
there any alterations in the organization of the The third expedition to the Amyklaion was carried
out in 1925 under the direction of E. Buschor. The old-
cult over the centuries? Well aware of this
est evidence of human presence on the hill was found in
methodological problem, I will still maintain the shape of Early and Middle Helladic pottery: grey
that the basic structure of the cult, with two dia- and black Minyan ware (Buschor 1927, 5-10). The
most important event was the excavation of a layered
metrically opposed parts, remained unaltered
deposit outside and below the terrace-wall which en-
from the eighth century to late Roman times.8 closed the sanctuary. This layer provided a stratigraphy
A dual structure was probably developed even consisting of layers with objects datable from the Late
Mycenaean to the Byzantine period (Buschor & von
earlier and, as I will argue in Chapter Five, the
Massow 1927, 28, 32f.).
polarity between the two parts of the cult be- 8 Calame 1977,313.
