Great book! Still
reading. Some stretches of great
writing. The beginning had a little too
much of the “tell ‘em what you are going to tell ‘em, tell them, then tell ‘em what
you told ‘em” But heroic cult is a complex topic and might be difficult for the
uninitiated. Just random quotes and my thoughts below.
“She is a satellite
of her husband.” That sounded
demeaning at first, but what is the point of a star without an inhabitable
planet and what is point of such a planet without a sun.
“The heroic
cults in any Greek city shows that a very small percentage were actually
devoted to Homeric figures. Instead we
find a strange world of anonymous daemonic beings, epichoric figures of
strictly local importance (where local means at the neighborhood level), cult, city
founders and others.”
“Familial
connections between heroic cults are at least as common as the much discussed
connections between hero and god.” I wonder how many people know about god/hero antagonism. Or my lingering doubts on the topic.
“Cult relationships
between mother and daughter are almost entirely lacking.” Which amazes me, because among the goddesses
I thought immediately of Demeter/ Persephone and Leto/Artemis.
“Heroic
cult became widespread during the eighth century…simultaneous with, the spread
of Homeric Poetry” Also, the rise of the Polis?
“Libation
to the heroes as a group were customary at meals and foot that fell from the
table was said to belong to the souls of the dead or to the heroes.” Or the dogs. Ha, ha!
“I have found a
fairly clear distinction between heroines and nymphs. In that heroines belong
to human genealogies and have tombs and cults more or less identical to those
of heroes, while nymphs are associated with natural features and have distinctive
cults. Their shrines tend to be located
in grottoes and they are not associated with focal points of the city as heroic
figures are. …Finally, they typically
have cult association with figures such as Hermes, Apollo and Pan rather than
with heroes.”
In reference to Dirce wife of Lycus and rival of Antiope,
Larson says she had a tomb and “its location
was kept secret like the tombs of Neleus and Oedipus.” (page 19)
“Why don’t you
hang yourself and become a Theban hero?” Plato Comicus
“The British
Museum contains a relief showing Kyrene being crowned by Libya… Apollonius sys
that Apollo in token of his love “made her a long-lived nymph.” The relief is museum number 1861.1127.30
“Melite (the eponymous
heroine) after whom the deme Melite was name.
She was a mistress of Heracles. Who
as Heracles Alexcacos had a shrine in (the deme of) Melite…Melanippos was her
grandfather, also had a shrine there.
Her father was Myrmex, the eponymous of the Myrekos atrapos, path of Myrmex in Scambonidai not far
away. Melite is mentioned in the Hesiodic
Catalogue of Women as the daughter of Myrmex” (page 35)
“Hekale is
unique among the deme eponyms as a female with a well-attested cult. Hekale belongs to a group of “hospitality
heroes” those who are honored for receiving an important personage, usually a
god. The most famous members of this group
are probably Baukis and Philemon. Either
the hero founds a cult or is the first priest or priestess of the cult. This pattern continued in historical times,
when the poet Sophocles was heroized a Dexion for ceremonially “receiving “Asclepius.
“
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