DOI chapter:
The mythology of Athenian local cults
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0047
OF ANCIENT A TH ENS
XXXV
Skirophoria, and Arrephoria are the same in kind. In the
Thesmophoria, as well as the pigs’ flesh mysterious sacred
objects were in use, made of the dough of wheat, and in the
shape of forms of snakes and men. The whole gist of a
mystery among the Greeks was the handling and transferring
of mysterious symbols, among which snakes were frequent.
The exact details of the Arrephoria I do not pretend to
reconstruct, but—given that it had a general analogy to the
Thesmophoria—the origin of the foolish myth of the child, the
chest, and the snake is clear. The maidens of the Hersephoria
carried on their heads some objects whose nature was a secret
to them. We may suppose that these objects were shut up in
cistae, something like the olive-crowned cista from which in
fig. 4 the child springs up. From the name of the maidens
(Hersephoroi), understood as explained above, and from their
connection with Pandrosos we may suppose that the objects
in question were in part figures (πλάσματα) of young things,
among them possibly the figure of a human child. From the
analogy to the Thesmophoria there would also be figures of
snakes. If any maiden broke the rule she would see within
the chest images of snakes and a child; it was most un-
desirable she should ; hence the scare story of the faithless
sisters.
4. It is worth noting that the maidens carried their secret
burden to a peribolos near the precinct of Aphrodite in the
Gardens. Pausanias does not say where or what exactly the
precinct was; perhaps he did not know, perhaps he might not
tell. The two inscriptions mentioned above give a hint of the
manner of cults with which Hersephoroi were connected. In
the one (C. I. A., iii. 319) we have ‘Ερσ^φόροι? β. ΕίλιΑυίψ]
ev ’Άγραις (“ To the two Hersephoroi of Eileithyia in Agrae ”);
in the other, 'Ερσ^φόροι? β. [Γ]'ί)ς θερ,ιδο? (“To the two Herse-
phoroi of Ge Themis ”). Eileithyia, goddess of child-birth;
Ge Themis, the great Earth-Mother—the one for human, the
other for agrarian fertility. The precinct of Eileithyia could
not (p. 210) be very far from the Gardens, though this would
scarcely be the precinct of Eileithyia in Agrae. It seems to
me highly probable that to this precinct of Eileithyia near the
Gardens the maidens went down.
XXXV
Skirophoria, and Arrephoria are the same in kind. In the
Thesmophoria, as well as the pigs’ flesh mysterious sacred
objects were in use, made of the dough of wheat, and in the
shape of forms of snakes and men. The whole gist of a
mystery among the Greeks was the handling and transferring
of mysterious symbols, among which snakes were frequent.
The exact details of the Arrephoria I do not pretend to
reconstruct, but—given that it had a general analogy to the
Thesmophoria—the origin of the foolish myth of the child, the
chest, and the snake is clear. The maidens of the Hersephoria
carried on their heads some objects whose nature was a secret
to them. We may suppose that these objects were shut up in
cistae, something like the olive-crowned cista from which in
fig. 4 the child springs up. From the name of the maidens
(Hersephoroi), understood as explained above, and from their
connection with Pandrosos we may suppose that the objects
in question were in part figures (πλάσματα) of young things,
among them possibly the figure of a human child. From the
analogy to the Thesmophoria there would also be figures of
snakes. If any maiden broke the rule she would see within
the chest images of snakes and a child; it was most un-
desirable she should ; hence the scare story of the faithless
sisters.
4. It is worth noting that the maidens carried their secret
burden to a peribolos near the precinct of Aphrodite in the
Gardens. Pausanias does not say where or what exactly the
precinct was; perhaps he did not know, perhaps he might not
tell. The two inscriptions mentioned above give a hint of the
manner of cults with which Hersephoroi were connected. In
the one (C. I. A., iii. 319) we have ‘Ερσ^φόροι? β. ΕίλιΑυίψ]
ev ’Άγραις (“ To the two Hersephoroi of Eileithyia in Agrae ”);
in the other, 'Ερσ^φόροι? β. [Γ]'ί)ς θερ,ιδο? (“To the two Herse-
phoroi of Ge Themis ”). Eileithyia, goddess of child-birth;
Ge Themis, the great Earth-Mother—the one for human, the
other for agrarian fertility. The precinct of Eileithyia could
not (p. 210) be very far from the Gardens, though this would
scarcely be the precinct of Eileithyia in Agrae. It seems to
me highly probable that to this precinct of Eileithyia near the
Gardens the maidens went down.