Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 828

F. S. NAIDEN

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Histories refer to cults of Athena at ATHENS (Pallas Athena), DELPHI (Athena Pronaea), TEGEA (Athena Alea), SALAMIS, Ilium (TROY), ASSESUS, SAIS, and in LIBYA. Herodotus mentions this goddess by name more often than he does ARTEMIS, APHRODITE, and HESTIA combined. This emphasis confirms the importance of civic gods and goddesses as well as the importance of Athens.

Only in regard to Pallas Athena does Herodotus describe a temple of the goddess or valuable DEDICATIONS, or mention an individual priest (in fact, a priestess chosen from among the Eteoboutadae). Pallas Athena is also the only Athena cult for which he specifies a NOMOS relating to the qualifications of worshippers (no DORIANS in the temple) or relates an anecdote (the attempt of the Dorian CLEOMENES to worship). Besides these cultic details, Herodotus offers his only local MYTH—how Athena and POSEIDON vied for the status of civic god by presenting competing gifts to the Athenians—and adds his only report of a miracle wrought by the goddess within living memory, the rebirth of her sacred olive. Most striking is the unparalleled story of how this goddess was impersonated, thanks to the tyrant PEISISTRATUS, who paraded a disguised peasant girl (PHYE) on a cart in order to win backing for his return to power (1.60).

Besides identifying Athena by place of worship, Herodotus sometimes identifies her by name, by attributes, and by myths, and in doing so can mix cultures. At Sais in EGYPT, Athena is said to be Neith, and the interchangeable names are justified by the shared emblem of the owl, found on coins of the Saitic nome. Herodotus describes a feast of Athena, or Neith, that is part of ISIS’ mourning for OSIRIS. Yet Neith, unlike either Athena or Osiris, is mother of the sun, with myths to match (2.59, 62). A similar, but less complicated case is Athena Ilias. Persian MAGI make Greek sacrifices (thusiai) to her, while pouring LIBATIONS to Greek HEROES. Here the goddess is Greek save for the cult, which is culturally mixed because of the personnel. The heroic sacrifices are either gestures of good will towards the Persians’ Greek subjects, or Herodotus has misunderstood them (7.43.2).

Athena Alea, where FETTERS put on Spartan captives were hung up as a memorial of a Tegean victory, illustrates how objects in shrines have stories attached to them, for Herodotus evidently heard this story when he visited the shrine (1.66.4).

SEE ALSO: Acropolis; Gods and the Divine; Priests and Priestesses; Sacrifice; Tegea; Temples and Sanctuaries