Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion

Matthew Dillon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781134365081
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Altertum

It has often been thought that participation in fertility rituals was women's most important religious activity in classical Greece. Matthew Dillon's wide-ranging study makes it clear that women engaged in numerous other rites and cults, and that their role in Greek religion was actually more important than that of men. Women invoked the gods' help in becoming pregnant, venerated the god of wine, worshipped new and exotic deities, used magic for both erotic and pain-relieving purposes, and far more besides.
Clear and comprehensive, this volume challenges many stereotypes of Greek women and offers unexpected insights into their experience of religion. With more than fifty illustrations, and translated extracts from contemporary texts, this is an essential resource for the study of women and religion in classical Greece.

Part I

PUBLIC RELIGIOUS ROLES FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN

1

WOMEN AS DEDICATORS

Of the nearly 900 inscribed dedications from throughout the Greek world collected by Lazzarini, ranging from the early archaic period (eighth century BC) to the end of the fifth century BC, eighty, or nearly 10 per cent, were dedicated by women.¹ Some of the more important examples of these are discussed below in order to consider what dedications by women can reveal about the role which they played in Greek religion, and the way in which their offerings differed from dedications made by men, in expense, the wording of dedications, type and aim; in addition examples from the fourth century BC, mainly from Athens, also need to be considered. Several dedications by women are well known, such as those by Nikandre of Naxos, Telestodike of Paros, and Iphidike at Athens. Inscribed dedications often took the form of korai (singular: kore): statues, usually life-size or larger of female figures, generally goddesses. Other statues were dedicated and placed on top of inscribed columns. In addition, pins, mirrors, and the like were dedicated; there were other types of dedications as well, which have not survived but which are recorded in inscribed lists of temple possessions. Into this category in particular fall the lists of dedications, by both men and women at Athens, to the deities Asklepios and Athena. All such dedications, but in particular the ones which would have been expensive, such as the korai, raise several socio-economic questions. Did the women who dedicated these, such as Nikandre with her votive offering of a 1.75-metre kore, actually pay for these dedications from their own resources, or do these indicate that the women only dedicated the votive in name, with a male relative or husband meeting the expense? Before considering these questions, a representative selection of women’s dedications will be examined.

A statue of Artemis dedicated by Nikandre of Naxos

A well-known dedication by a woman is that of Nikandre of Naxos, who presented to Artemis a larger than life-size statue on the sacred island of Delos (Figure 1.1). It is possibly the earliest dedication in the archaic period by a woman; its date is only approximate, c. 650 BC. The statue, at 1.75 metres, was discovered in the sanctuary of Artemis on Delos, and clearly represents the goddess. Her peplos is belted at the waist and is tight-fitting, rather than being loose with numerous folds. Careful attention has been paid to the hair, most of which falls down her back, but with four plaits arranged each side of her face and falling over the front of the body. Traces of paint in rectilinear patterns could once be seen on the front of the statue, indicating that her dress was patterned. The whole effect of the statue is formal but pleasing.

Figure 1.1 Marble statue of the goddess Artemis, dedicated by the woman Nikandre, on the island of Delos; marble; one piece; 650 BC; overall height: 200 centimetres, statue itself: 175 centimetres; greatest thickness of statue: 17 centimetres.

(courtesy, ©National Archaeological Museum, Athens: inv. 1)

Usually described as being ‘plank-like’ the statue is not ‘in the round’ but rather is carved from a long thin piece of island marble and is almost rectangular in character. The inscription recording the dedication is on the left side of the statue, in three vertical lines not heavily incised. The statue speaks to the reader:

Nikandre dedicated me [the statue] to the goddess [Artemis] the far-shooting rainer of arrows, Nikandre, the pre-eminent daughter of Deinodikes of Naxos, sister of Deinomenes, and now wife of Phraxos.²

As a larger than life statue it represents the goddess rather than Nikandre, with ‘far-shooting’ referring to Artemis.³ The hole in each hand means that the goddess was represented holding objects, probably cult attributes, such as her bow and arrows.

The Ionian island of Naxos is close to Delos, and Ionian women and children accompanied their husbands to Delos for the festival which the Ionians celebrated together on the island in honour of the god Apollo.⁴ Nikandre herself presumably went to Delos for the dedication of the statue, probably with members of the family listed on the inscription. Commentators have not picked up on the force of the ‘now’: this could indicate that Nikandre is dedicating this statue to Artemis in thanks for her marriage, as women did pray to this goddess for husbands, and the dedication would be appropriate at this time of transition in her life, with marriage bringing the promise (and danger) of childbirth.⁵ It has been suggested that Nikandre mentions her brother in addition to her father because the father is dead and the brother is now the head of the family.⁶ It is just as possible that both father and brother were well-known figures and are mentioned for that reason; certainly the dedication of this monumental statue of the goddess and its presence in the sanctuary attest to the wealth and importance of the family. A priesthood for Nikandre is sometimes suggested, but in this case the dedication might more properly have been made on Naxos, and she might well have been expected to mention such in her inscription along with her other personal details. What is clear is that this is a very large and public dedication made at the least in the name of if not actually by a woman, and apparently a recently married one; by it, Nikandre openly asserts her religiosity, and uses the dedication as a way of expressing her status and perceptions of herself.

‘Artemis, to you Telestodike dedicated this statue’

Telestodike, over a century after Nikandre, appears to have made two offerings to Artemis, if the woman Telestodike in the two following inscriptions is one and the same person, as is usually assumed. The first is on a small marble column probably from Paros, of about 500 BC. Telestodike identifies herself by reference to her father and son,

Artemis, to you Telestodike dedicated me, this statue,

Mother of Asphalios, daughter of Therseleos.

I [the statue] boast that I am the work of Kritonides of Paros.⁷

In another inscription, from Paros, on a statue base also from about 500 BC, a Telestodike (the same?) refers to her husband:

Demokydes and Telestodike having made a vow

Together erected this statue to the virgin Artemis

On her sacred ground, the daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus;

To their family and livelihood give increase in safety.⁸

That in one she refers to her father and son and in another her husband suggests that these are two different women, or perhaps that she has simply identified herself in different ways in each. Once again, as with Nikandre, women’s concern with Artemis is made clear. The goddess is to be imagined as having had a special place amongst women’s religious interests not simply as a goddess of childbirth but also as a major deity.

Dedications of kore statues

Statues of young women, life-size or larger, are known today as korai statues, and their male counterparts, those of young men, as kouroi statues (singular: kore and kouros respectively). The dedication of Nikandre, for example, was a kore statue, and here the kore represents a goddess. But some kore statues were funerary in nature, as in the case of the well-known Phrasikleia, over whose grave (c. 540 BC) a kore was placed which acted as a grave marker; the kore clearly represented her: ‘The marker (sema) of Phrasikleia. I shall always be called kore (“girl”), having been allotted this name, instead of marriage, by the gods.’⁹

Most of the korai are from Athens, where many were dedicated on the acropolis from about 570 to 480 BC, when the Persians sacked the acropolis and the korai were damaged. Some of them have inscriptions, like that of Phrasikleia, indicating that they were dedicated by both men and women, but in non-funerary contexts; however, many of them have no inscription at all. Nearchos the male potter dedicated a statue of a kore to Athena (and in this sense it is obviously Athena that is being represented). Alkimachos, also a male, dedicated a kore to Athena.¹⁰ When there is no inscription, it has been suggested that the korai could represent young girls, in particular the arrephoroi, the 7-year-old girls chosen each year to serve Athena on the acropolis. But, when there is no inscription, it seems best to interpret these statues along the lines of those with inscriptions: the korai are for the goddess Athena, dedicated to her by grateful worshippers, both male and female.

Dedications of mirrors

Korai were but one form of dedication; expensive, they were limited to the well-to-do, and clearly not all of them were dedicated by women. In fact korai went out of fashion at the beginning of the classical period. Mirrors, as a feminine item, were particularly appropriate as a dedication by women, and were also relatively inexpensive; despite this, very few have survived as inscribed dedications, and most of these consist of mirror handles, with the bronze mirror itself having been long since melted down for another purpose.¹¹ Large numbers of mirrors are recorded in the inscribed lists from the Athenian acropolis of the dedications made to Artemis Brauronia in the fourth century BC. A well-preserved inscribed bronze mirror found at Brauron itself reads: ‘Hippylla, daughter of Onetor, dedicated (this) to Artemis at Brauron.’¹²

The mirrors recorded in the inscribed lists of dedications to Artemis Brauronia were usually grouped together, and one entry simply reads: ‘bronze mirrors: 119’,¹³ indicating how common these dedications were. In another list which records garments dedicated to Artemis, an entry in 347/6 BC concerning a mirror has slipped in: ‘Aristodamea dedicated a mirror… with an ivory handle’.¹⁴ This mirror with its ivory handle was more elaborate than most and considered worthy of individual mention.

A bronze mirror handle from Athens bears an inscription that it was dedicated as a dekate (‘tenth’, or tithe) by Glyke.¹⁵ Another dedication was made on the Athenian acropolis by a Glyke of the same period, about 480 BC, as a dekate to Athena,¹⁶ and this might even be the same woman. Phila dedicated a bronze mirror (handle and disc both survive, cast as one piece): ‘Phila dedicated to Elythia (i.e. Eileithyia, the goddess of birth-pangs)’.¹⁷ ‘Charias dedicated to Athena’ reads an inscription on a bronze disk, probably a mirror, found on the Athenian acropolis.¹⁸ Women dedicated mirrors at places other than Athens. Aristeia dedicated a mirror at the sanctuary of Hera, the Heraion, in Argos.¹⁹ Similarly, at Delphi, Archippa dedicated a bronze disc, almost certainly a mirror, to Eileithyia.²⁰ A handle of a bronze mirror from the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora near Corinth has the inscription, ‘Chrysanthis dedicated to Hera’.²¹ ‘Euonyma dedicated to Athena’ reads a mirror handle from the sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos (Athena of the Bronze House) at Sparta.²² Another well-known dedication is an early fifth-century BC bronze woman statuette on an Ionic capital, part of a mirror stand, from Poseidonia (modern Paestum): ‘Phillo, daughter of Charmylidas (dedicated this as) a tithe to Athena.’²³ Also in Italy, Xenodoka at Lokris in the sixth century BC dedicated a mirror to Persephone, wife of Hades.²⁴ All the mirrors are dedicated to goddesses, as might be expected, as items which women could afford, or would have possessed.

Dedications to the goddess Hera at Corinth

Small domestic items were clearly preferred by many women, because these fell within the scope of their private expenditure and/or because they had personal relevance or were appropriate to their gender, and could be dedicated at rites of transition (such as marriage, or the birth of a child) which were important for women; many were cheap household objects. At the coastal sanctuary of Hera at Perachora, near Corinth, terracotta spindles were favoured dedications. While the Demeter sanctuary at Corinth presumably attracted women worshippers in large numbers, the archaeological record there is ambiguous, and the many thousands of Demeter statuettes might have been dedicated by either men or women, but presumably mostly by women as Demeter was a favourite deity of theirs. But at the sanctuary of Hera, there is clear evidence for women worshippers of the goddess Hera, patron of marriage. The sanctuary’s origins have been dated to the early eighth century BC, and from that period on there was increasing activity at the sanctuary.²⁵ The evidence comes in the form of women’s items found, and so obviously dedicated, within the sanctuary. About sixty terracotta spindle-whorls were excavated there, as well as some bobbins and loom-weights. The largest number of ivory ‘spectacle-fibulae’, used in fastening dresses, from any site in the Greek world were found at this sanctuary.²⁶ These decorated pins were of bone or ivory with two circles either side of a ‘bridge’, and usually decorated with incised designs. These were particularly appropriate dedications for women to make.

Particularly associated with fertility rites are cakes (koulouria) of various sorts, and terracotta models of these have been found at Perachora, indicating Hera’s role as a kourotrophic (child-rearing) deity. These were dedicated from the geometric period onwards. Cakes wer...