DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4377#0085
AND PLUTO EPIMAOHOS. 41<r)
the Peloponnese, near the temples of Demeter and
Pluto, was an inclosure dedicated to Pluto, in which
was a fissure in the earth, ?% y^aa-^a, through
which it was supposed that Herakles had brought
Cerberus from the nether world. At Ilierapolis,
Nysa, and Thymbria, in Asia Minor, were caves
exhaling mephitic vapours/ called Plutonia and
Charonia ; and, in like manner, Poseidon and
other cosmic deities were worshipped in those
places where their supposed influence was directly
felt in earthquakes and other portents.
In the case of the temenos, the singular regu-
larity in the surface of the rock must have struck
the Greeks as a phenomenon such as they would
connect with supernatural agency, and may have
been the original cause why this spot was dedi-
cated to Pluto and Persephone.
To the eye of the Greek the form of the ground
might have suggested the idea that a chasm in the
earth had opened here, and thus local tradition
would claim this spot as the scene of the rape of
Persephone.
Such a temenos, inclosed by its peribolus, Pausa-
nias saw near Lerna, in Argolis.
" Here," he remarks (ii. 36, 7), "it is said that
Pluto, on carrying off Persephone, descended into
the infernal regions."
t<1> tov HXvfihuv Kni yi}Q ^<i<r^a" cia tovtov ce HpaKAfjg nvfjys tov
Awov tov kt/ra Kara r'a Xtyo/jci'a vwo 'Epfxtoyinit'.—ii. 35, 7. Com-
pare the account of the cave of Trophonius at Lebadea,—Strabo, ix.
p. 414.
' Strabo, xiii. p. 029, xiv. p. 019, and Leake, Asia Minor,
p. 342.
the Peloponnese, near the temples of Demeter and
Pluto, was an inclosure dedicated to Pluto, in which
was a fissure in the earth, ?% y^aa-^a, through
which it was supposed that Herakles had brought
Cerberus from the nether world. At Ilierapolis,
Nysa, and Thymbria, in Asia Minor, were caves
exhaling mephitic vapours/ called Plutonia and
Charonia ; and, in like manner, Poseidon and
other cosmic deities were worshipped in those
places where their supposed influence was directly
felt in earthquakes and other portents.
In the case of the temenos, the singular regu-
larity in the surface of the rock must have struck
the Greeks as a phenomenon such as they would
connect with supernatural agency, and may have
been the original cause why this spot was dedi-
cated to Pluto and Persephone.
To the eye of the Greek the form of the ground
might have suggested the idea that a chasm in the
earth had opened here, and thus local tradition
would claim this spot as the scene of the rape of
Persephone.
Such a temenos, inclosed by its peribolus, Pausa-
nias saw near Lerna, in Argolis.
" Here," he remarks (ii. 36, 7), "it is said that
Pluto, on carrying off Persephone, descended into
the infernal regions."
t<1> tov HXvfihuv Kni yi}Q ^<i<r^a" cia tovtov ce HpaKAfjg nvfjys tov
Awov tov kt/ra Kara r'a Xtyo/jci'a vwo 'Epfxtoyinit'.—ii. 35, 7. Com-
pare the account of the cave of Trophonius at Lebadea,—Strabo, ix.
p. 414.
' Strabo, xiii. p. 029, xiv. p. 019, and Leake, Asia Minor,
p. 342.