The Mysteries of Artemis of Ephesos: Cult, Polis, and Change in the Graeco-Roman World

529 Pages·2013·6 MB·English

by  Guy MacLean Rogers

THE MYSTERIES OF ARTEMIS OF EPHESOS
SYNKRISIS
Comparative Approaches to Early Christianity in Greco-Roman Culture
SERIES EDITORS
Dale B. Martin (Yale University) and L. L. Welborn (Fordham University)
Synkrisis is a project that invites scholars of Early Christianity and the Greco-
Roman world to collaborate toward the goal of rigorous comparison. Each vol-
ume in the series provides immersion in an aspect of Greco- Roman culture, so
as to make possible a comparison of the controlling logics that emerge from the
discourses of Greco- Roman and early Christian writers. In contrast to older
“history of religions” approaches, which looked for similarities between reli-
gions in order to posit relations of influence and dependence, Synkrisis em-
braces a fuller conception of the complexities of culture, viewing Greco- Roman
religions and early Christianity as members of a comparative class. The differ-
ential comparisons promoted by Synkrisis may serve to refine and correct the
theoretical and historical models employed by scholars who seek to understand
and interpret the Greco- Roman world. With its allusion to the rhetorical exer-
cises of the Greco- Roman world, the series title recognizes that the comparative
enterprise is a construction of the scholar’s mind and serves the scholar’s theo-
retical interests.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Loveday Alexander (Sheffield University)
John Bodell (Brown University)
Kimberly Bowes (University of Pennsylvania)
Daniel Boyarin (University of California, Berkeley)
Fritz Graf (Ohio State University)
Ronald F. Hock (University of Southern California)
Hans-Josef Klauck (University of Chicago)
Stanley K. Stowers (Brown University)
Angela Standhartinger (Marburg University)
The Mysteries
of Artemis of
Ephesos
Cult, Polis, and Change in
the Graeco- Roman World
(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)
GUY MACLEAN ROGERS
New Haven and London
Copyright © 2012 by Yale University.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rogers, Guy MacLean.
The mysteries of Artemis of Ephesos : cult, polis, and
change in the Graeco-Roman world / Guy MacLean
Rogers.
p. cm. — (Synkrisis : comparative approaches to early
Christianity in Greco-Roman culture)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-17863-0 (alk. paper)
1. Artemis (Greek deity)—Cult—Turkey—Ephesus
(Extinct city) 2. Ephesus (Extinct city)—Religion.
I. Title.
BL820.D5R64 2012
282.080939′23—dc23
2012011998
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO
Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Nancy L. Thompson
Only you beneath the moon and under the sun
Wo bin ich? Ist’s Phantasie, daß ich noch lebe?
Oder hat eine höhere Macht mich gerettet?
Where am I? Is it a dream or am I still alive?
Or have I been saved by some higher power?
—Tamino, Die Zauberflöte, Act 1, scene 1
Contents
Preface: Anathema, ix
Maps, xiii
PART I: Muesis—Initiation
1: Continuity in Change, 3
2: Funeral Games, 33
3: Mysteries and Sacrifices, 61
PART II: Teletai—Rites
4: Mystic Sacrifices, 91
5: Kouretes eusebeis, 122
6: Kouretes eusebeis kai philosebastoi, 145
7: Kouretes eusebeis kai philosebastoi kai bouleutai, 171
8: “The Nurse of Its Own Ephesian God,” 205
9: “Our Common Salvation,” 230
PART III: Epopteia—Viewing
10: Cult, Polis, and Change in the Graeco- Roman World, 259
Appendix 1: The Other Mystery Cults of the Polis, 293
Appendix 2: Cults of the Prytaneion, 303
Appendix 3: Chronological Chart of Kouretes, 309
Appendix 4: Chart of Mysteries and Change, 311
List of Abbreviations, 313
Notes, 315
Glossary, 437
Select Modern Bibliography, 441
viii CONTENTS
General Index, 481
Index of Ancient Authors, 495
Index of Inscriptions, 497
Color plates follow page 118
Preface
ANATHEMA
Accipite et bibite ex eo omnes:
hic est enim calix sanguinis mei
novi et aeterni testamenti,
qui pro vobis et pro multis effundetur
in remissionem peccatorum.
Hoc facite in meam commemorationem.
And with those words, Father Griffin leaned over the row of blue-s uited
thirteen- year- olds who kneeled before him at St. Theresa’s in 1964, and one by
one placed Jesus’s body on their tongues. Then, as he began to pour out small
cups of the savior’s blood for the boys to drink, the chorus at the back of the
church started to sing:
“Mysterium fidei . . .”
Thirty-s ix years later in the same church, moments before another line of
kneeling youths prepared to taste Christ’s body and blood, Father Kwiatkowski
spoke these words:
Take and drink this all of you:
for this is the chalice of my blood
of the new and eternal covenant,
which shall be poured out for you
and for the many in remission of sins.
Do this in commemoration of me.
Just as the Father recited the last line, the chorus at the back of the church broke
into song:
“The mystery of faith . . .”
When and how do a wafer and a cup of wine become the body and blood
of Christ? Are Jesus’s body and blood the same in Latin and English? Does it
ix