Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (6.1890-1897 (1897))

A SACRIFICIAL CALENDAR FROM THE EPAKRIA. 383

Heracles. In fact, that plain was so associated with Heracles21
and his train that, according to the scholiast to Soph. 0. C. 701,
the Spartans saved the Tetrapolis in their invasions of Attica
during the Peloponnesian T\rar, 8ia tow 'Hpa/cXet'Sa?. The temp-
tation is strong to hring irapa tov irvpyov also into connection
with the foundations in the middle of the plain of Marathon now
known as the irvpyo<;. But it is better not to weaken a strong
case with mere possibilities.

"Was our stone, then, set up originally in the Marathonian plain
and afterwards brought up to the place where we found it ? At first
glance it almost seems as if it must be so. And yet so strong is
the presumption that a large stele remains where it is set up, that
it seems necessary to account if possible for its original presence
here. Perhaps Milchhofer's theory, that here lay Hecale,22 is
correct. In that case we have a centre for sacrifice for all the
demos lying round about. For Plutarch (Thes., xiv.) says:
"JLBvop yap 'JL/caXi'iaiov oi irepi^ 8i)/xoi avviovTes 'E«:a\w All /cat Trjv
']LKdXi]v eTi'fjLcov. This case of other demes sharing in the sacri-
fices of the deme of Hecale is characterized thus by Stengel in
Midler's Ilandbuch, v. 3, p. 83: " Eine seltene Ausnahme ist es
dass andere gauze Demen sich betheiligen." Now, if any demes
were to share sacrifices with a deme that lay at Koukounari, the
most natural candidate for such communion was the Marathonian
Tetrapolis. It is just about two hours' walk from either the
northern or the southern part of the Marathonian plain to this
point. In fact, from Vrana it is not more than an hour and a
half. The inscription itself is singularly tantalizing on the point
of locality. Line 2 says that the demarch of the Marathonians
is to sacrifice iv—but just what we wish to know is broken off.
Again, in line 23, when we think the same chance is coming
again, the phraseology is changed just at the critical point, and it

21 Patjs. 1, 32, 4. Mapaduiviot (pd^voi 7rpw70ts 'EMiJewf a<pl(jiv 'HpatcXta debf
voiuaBrivai. The association of Heracles and Athene Hellotis suggests that Hera-
cles, who came to Athens with such popularity in early times as to have several
temples, and to become the prominent figure in the old poros gable sculptures, came
from Marathon, where he was brought to shore by the Phoenicians. This is quite
as likely as an advent from Corinth.

22 Demenordnung des Kleisthenes, p. 21 f. For a contrary view see Loepeb,
Mitih., 1892, p. 384 f.