DOI Kapitel:
The mythology of Athenian local cults
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0046
xxxiv
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
and this is strong evidence for its originality. Moreover,
in the two earliest inscriptions where the word occurs
(C. I. A., iii. 318, 319) it is spelt ϊρσηφόροι. So strong
has been the feeling that this form was original, that much
ingenuity has been expended in finding a plausible mean-
ing. "Έφση means “ dew,” and some say the 'Ερσεφόροι are
the dew-carriers. Preller (i. 173) speaks confidently — The
ceremony is conducted “ ohne Zweifel mit Hindeutung auf
den nachtlichen Thau und die Erfrischung der schmacht-
enden Feldfriichte, denn άρρηφόροι, oder ερσ-ηφόροί. sind
wortlich Thautragerinnen.” That young maidens clad in
white should carry dew-laden boughs would be a pretty enough
ceremony, if somewhat unpractical; but if this were all, why the
strict secrecy ? What was the mystery in a dew-laden bough
that neither priestess nor child might know, and the discreet
Pausanias could not tell? Some countenance is lent to the
interpretation of Herse as the dew-goddess, and Hersephoroi
as the dew-bearers, by the other sister’s name, Pandrosos,
if understood as meaning the all-dewy. As a fact, it may
be taken as almost certain that the names of both sisters have
less poetical significance. The two words, δρόσος and epcr-p,
mean not only “dew,” but “young things,” young animals,
lambs, sucking pigs, and the like. Apollo Hersos was wor-
shipped in the cave of Pan at Vari (p. 544), no doubt as god
of young things. In the Agamemnon (v. 147) Artemis is
addressed as the fair goddess who is kind to the uncouth
offspring (δρόσοισι) of creatures who are fierce, where the
δρόσοι are manifestly in a kind of apposition to the sucklings
(φιλόραστοι) of the next line. I take it, then, for the present
that the Hersephoroi may have been the carriers, not of dcw-
laden boughs, but of very young animals—sucklings.
3. It happens that a scholiast on one of Lucian’s dialogues,
quoted on p. 102, gives a full account of the ceremony of the
Thesmophoria. It consisted of casting pigs into certain chasms,
where the flesh was allowed to putrefy. This done, the flesh
was taken up, laid on altars, and afterwards sown on the fields
as a charm to produce a good crop. The same ceremony,
the scholiast says, is called the Arretophoria. Clement of
Alexandria (Protr. 14, 15) also says that the Thesmophoria,
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
and this is strong evidence for its originality. Moreover,
in the two earliest inscriptions where the word occurs
(C. I. A., iii. 318, 319) it is spelt ϊρσηφόροι. So strong
has been the feeling that this form was original, that much
ingenuity has been expended in finding a plausible mean-
ing. "Έφση means “ dew,” and some say the 'Ερσεφόροι are
the dew-carriers. Preller (i. 173) speaks confidently — The
ceremony is conducted “ ohne Zweifel mit Hindeutung auf
den nachtlichen Thau und die Erfrischung der schmacht-
enden Feldfriichte, denn άρρηφόροι, oder ερσ-ηφόροί. sind
wortlich Thautragerinnen.” That young maidens clad in
white should carry dew-laden boughs would be a pretty enough
ceremony, if somewhat unpractical; but if this were all, why the
strict secrecy ? What was the mystery in a dew-laden bough
that neither priestess nor child might know, and the discreet
Pausanias could not tell? Some countenance is lent to the
interpretation of Herse as the dew-goddess, and Hersephoroi
as the dew-bearers, by the other sister’s name, Pandrosos,
if understood as meaning the all-dewy. As a fact, it may
be taken as almost certain that the names of both sisters have
less poetical significance. The two words, δρόσος and epcr-p,
mean not only “dew,” but “young things,” young animals,
lambs, sucking pigs, and the like. Apollo Hersos was wor-
shipped in the cave of Pan at Vari (p. 544), no doubt as god
of young things. In the Agamemnon (v. 147) Artemis is
addressed as the fair goddess who is kind to the uncouth
offspring (δρόσοισι) of creatures who are fierce, where the
δρόσοι are manifestly in a kind of apposition to the sucklings
(φιλόραστοι) of the next line. I take it, then, for the present
that the Hersephoroi may have been the carriers, not of dcw-
laden boughs, but of very young animals—sucklings.
3. It happens that a scholiast on one of Lucian’s dialogues,
quoted on p. 102, gives a full account of the ceremony of the
Thesmophoria. It consisted of casting pigs into certain chasms,
where the flesh was allowed to putrefy. This done, the flesh
was taken up, laid on altars, and afterwards sown on the fields
as a charm to produce a good crop. The same ceremony,
the scholiast says, is called the Arretophoria. Clement of
Alexandria (Protr. 14, 15) also says that the Thesmophoria,