DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0121
VOTIVE HAIR-OFFERINGS IN ANCIENT GREECE 477
comrade's hands.1 So, too, Orestes, as Aeschylos tells us,2 offered at the
same time his 'childhood's lock', and another, of mourning, to the river of
Aro-os. In modern Greek folk-lore, Charos, who keeps in memory the old
ferryman of Styx, still claims a fore-lock of the departed.3
Votive gifts of locks of hair were made to various divinities.'1 They
were very generally offered by girls before marriage, to Hera Teleia,
Artemis, and the Fates. In Paros a series of dedications have been found
in the name of children and youths whose hair was offered at the age of
puberty to Asklepios and Hygieia,5 while at Titane, near Sikyon, Pausanias
was shown a cult statue of the latter Goddess so covered with women's
hair-offerings that it could not be easily seen.0 Like dedications are
recorded to Poseidon and Dionysos, to Nymphs and Heroes, and over the
graves of the Hyperborean Maidens at Delos. But of most abiding record
in the memory of mankind were the tresses dedicated by Queen Berenice, in
the temple of the Zephyrian Aphrodite, for her husband's safe return from his
Assyrian expedition, which later—found to be missing in the temple itself—
were rediscovered in the sky as the constellation 'Coma Berenices'.
At Delphi, where the early cult was so closely connected with that of
Minoan Knossos,7 it was customary for boys about to enter on the estate
of manhood to have the forepart of their hair cut ott at the spot where
Theseus was said to have practised the same rite. This form of tonsure
was thence known as the theseis?
It does not appear whether the theseis involved the actual shaving-
bare of the hair at the front of the head, or whether it simply meant the
cutting of front locks. In the case of the ivory figure the tonsure was
accompanied by a cutting off of the 'childhood's locks', both on the front
and the back of the head. This is clearly seen from a comparison with the
hair of the younger boy-God as shown in Fig. 393.
Gaston Deschamps and Georges Cousin,
Bull, tie Car. Arch., xii (iSSS), p. 48! seqq.,
and cf. Frazer, Pausanias, iii, pp. 279-81.
,r' E.g., C. f. G. 2392 {'~ep rov -ai8iov
&7ra<f>pooLTOV ti)v —utoiKiyr Tptya Yyio. A<ritXij~Lui.
11 Paus. ii. 11.
7 See P. ofM., ii, Pt. II, pp. S40, S4r.
s Plutarch, Theseus, c. 5 etiitparo oeri/s *e(pa-
Ai/s ret —pvuQt-V flavor, wcr-ep "Op.qpo'; Z<py Tors
*A/3arT(K. The explanation there given of
cutting off the forepart of the hair was that in
hand-to-hand fighting the adversary might not
be able to seize the forelock.
Cutting
off of
'Child-
hood's
locks at
age of
puberty :
the
theseis at
Delphi.
1 Iliad xxiii. r4i seqq. :
(ttus &7ravewe irvpjj? £av$Tjv awcKeipaTO
XaiViji'
Trjv pa %-cpxeiw Trorup.<Tj rpe(pe TvXeOwotrta''
■ ■ - hi x*po~i xojx.fjv erapoio (piXoio
th\KtV, TOUTl (Se TTUtTW V<p' "p~.<ipOV SptTG
Chocph. 6, 7. This is referred to there
as -AoV-apoi' Bpa-r-qptor, the other lock as
mvOrjrrjpiov.
3 Schmidt, Volksleben der Neugriechen,
p. 230.
For the classical examples, see especially
comrade's hands.1 So, too, Orestes, as Aeschylos tells us,2 offered at the
same time his 'childhood's lock', and another, of mourning, to the river of
Aro-os. In modern Greek folk-lore, Charos, who keeps in memory the old
ferryman of Styx, still claims a fore-lock of the departed.3
Votive gifts of locks of hair were made to various divinities.'1 They
were very generally offered by girls before marriage, to Hera Teleia,
Artemis, and the Fates. In Paros a series of dedications have been found
in the name of children and youths whose hair was offered at the age of
puberty to Asklepios and Hygieia,5 while at Titane, near Sikyon, Pausanias
was shown a cult statue of the latter Goddess so covered with women's
hair-offerings that it could not be easily seen.0 Like dedications are
recorded to Poseidon and Dionysos, to Nymphs and Heroes, and over the
graves of the Hyperborean Maidens at Delos. But of most abiding record
in the memory of mankind were the tresses dedicated by Queen Berenice, in
the temple of the Zephyrian Aphrodite, for her husband's safe return from his
Assyrian expedition, which later—found to be missing in the temple itself—
were rediscovered in the sky as the constellation 'Coma Berenices'.
At Delphi, where the early cult was so closely connected with that of
Minoan Knossos,7 it was customary for boys about to enter on the estate
of manhood to have the forepart of their hair cut ott at the spot where
Theseus was said to have practised the same rite. This form of tonsure
was thence known as the theseis?
It does not appear whether the theseis involved the actual shaving-
bare of the hair at the front of the head, or whether it simply meant the
cutting of front locks. In the case of the ivory figure the tonsure was
accompanied by a cutting off of the 'childhood's locks', both on the front
and the back of the head. This is clearly seen from a comparison with the
hair of the younger boy-God as shown in Fig. 393.
Gaston Deschamps and Georges Cousin,
Bull, tie Car. Arch., xii (iSSS), p. 48! seqq.,
and cf. Frazer, Pausanias, iii, pp. 279-81.
,r' E.g., C. f. G. 2392 {'~ep rov -ai8iov
&7ra<f>pooLTOV ti)v —utoiKiyr Tptya Yyio. A<ritXij~Lui.
11 Paus. ii. 11.
7 See P. ofM., ii, Pt. II, pp. S40, S4r.
s Plutarch, Theseus, c. 5 etiitparo oeri/s *e(pa-
Ai/s ret —pvuQt-V flavor, wcr-ep "Op.qpo'; Z<py Tors
*A/3arT(K. The explanation there given of
cutting off the forepart of the hair was that in
hand-to-hand fighting the adversary might not
be able to seize the forelock.
Cutting
off of
'Child-
hood's
locks at
age of
puberty :
the
theseis at
Delphi.
1 Iliad xxiii. r4i seqq. :
(ttus &7ravewe irvpjj? £av$Tjv awcKeipaTO
XaiViji'
Trjv pa %-cpxeiw Trorup.<Tj rpe(pe TvXeOwotrta''
■ ■ - hi x*po~i xojx.fjv erapoio (piXoio
th\KtV, TOUTl (Se TTUtTW V<p' "p~.<ipOV SptTG
Chocph. 6, 7. This is referred to there
as -AoV-apoi' Bpa-r-qptor, the other lock as
mvOrjrrjpiov.
3 Schmidt, Volksleben der Neugriechen,
p. 230.
For the classical examples, see especially