Primitive Athens as described by ThucydidesHarrison, Jane Ellen
History
Primitive Athens as described by Thucydides
Harrison, Jane Ellen
Athens (Greece) -- Antiquities; Athens (Greece) -- Description and travel
[327] Porphyr. _de Abst._ II. 54 ἐθύετο γὰρ καὶ ἐν Ῥόδῳ μηνὶ
Μεταγειτνιῶνι ἑκτῇ ἱσταμένου ἄνθρωπος τῷ Κρόνῳ ὃ δὴ ἐπὶ πολὺ κρατῆσαν
ἔθος μετεβλήθη· ἕνα γὰρ τῶν ἐπὶ θανάτῳ δημοσίᾳ κατακριθέντων μέχρι μὲν
τῶν Κρονίων συνεῖχον, ἐνστάσης δὲ τῆς ἑορτῆς προαγαγόντες τὸν ἄνθρωπον
ἔξω πυλῶν ἄντικρυ τοῦ Ἀριστοβούλης ἕδους οἴνου ποτίσαντες ἔσφαττον. In
this connection it is strange that the tradition of human sacrifice
before the battle of Salamis, possibly apocryphal, attaches itself to
Themistocles; see my _Prolegomena_, p. 489.
[328] Plut. _Vit. Them._ 1.
[329] Aug. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen_, p. 160. Probably Mommsen is
right in his conjecture that the sacrifice of the Metageitnia mentioned
by Plutarch was an actual part or at least preliminary to the _Herakleia_.
[330] I selected the worship of Herakles for discussion because we have
definite evidence that Herakles is connected with Diomeia as well as
Melite. An equally striking case of the shift of a foreign cult from
Melite to the district of the Ilissos is that of Aphrodite Ourania.
Pausanias (I. 14. 7) saw the sanctuary in Melite, noted its oriental
origin and the current story that Porphyrion founded a sanctuary of
Aphrodite in the deme Athimoneus, _i.e._ on the way from Marathon. When
he came to the Ilissos to the district of the Gardens (I. 19. 2) he
sees the sanctuary of Aphrodite Ourania, her image as a _herm_ and the
inscription says she is eldest of the Fates. He notes that there is ‘no
local legend.’ How should there be if the cult was transplanted? From
this sanctuary he passes on next to Kynosarges.
[331] Paus. I. 19. 5.
[332] Plat. _Phaedr._ 229 A.
[333] See _Myth. and Mon. Anc. Athens_, p. 226 and Fig. 17. Since I wrote
that account excavations have been undertaken by the Greek Archaeological
Society on the supposed site of the Enneakrounos on the Ilissus; traces
of channels for the conducting of water have been found, but the water so
conducted is not drinkable. For report see Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀρχ. Ἑταιρίας,
1893, pp. 111-136.
[334] _Etym. Mag._ Ἐννεάκρουνος· κρήνη Ἀθήνησι παρὰ τὸν Ἴλισσον, ἡ
πρότερον Καλλιρόη ἔσκεν ἀφ’ ἧς τὰ λουτρὰ ταῖς γαμουμέναις μετίασι.
Πολύζηλος Δημοτυνδαρέῳ
‘ἴξει πρὸς Ἐννεάκρουνον, εὔυδρον τόπον.’
See Koch, _Frag. Com._ vol. I. pp. 790-2. Polyzelos is of course not
responsible for the statement about the Ilissos.
[335] Hesych. _s.v._ Ἐννεάκρουνος takes his account and acknowledges it
ὥς φησι καὶ Θουκυδίδης.
[336] Suidas, _s.v._ νυμφικὰ λουτρά—τὰ εἰς γάμους ἐκ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἀπὸ
κρήνης λαμβανόμενα.
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