DOI chapter:
The mythology of Athenian local cults
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0048
XXXVI
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
The gist of the ceremony is now clear enough. The purport
of the Thesmophoria was, the scholiast tells, to secure the
fertility of the fields, and, he adds, the same ceremony is used
to produce the “ fruit of the earth and the offspring of men.”
The Hersephoria was a perfectly practical ceremonial, direct
and plain in its symbolism, and intended to be magical in its
effect. The girl child, even at the early age of eleven, must
propitiate Eileithyia. She must carry on her head to the pre-
cinct of the goddess young animals and snake symbols, but
she must not know what she is doing. The full-grown woman
of the Thesmophoria performs the rite with distinct knowledge
of its significance, but the child undergoes this unconscious
initiation. No religion worth the name cares to postpone
initiation till its ritual is understood. By and by the child
would have to dance as a bear before the maiden goddess
Artemis (p. 402) on this same Acropolis. With Artemis and
Eileithyia to either hand, the Athenian maiden must begin the
work of propitiation betimes.
Probably quite early the strictly practical significance of
the Hersephoria was lost sight of. The Hersephoroi were
thought of as maidens who wore white raiment and wove
the peplos for Athene. But the shut chest and the
underground ceremony went on as before, and the priestess,
who surely did not know the real reason any more than the
children, would be keen to invent a story to account for it
all. So bit by bit grew up the myth of Erichthonios. It
is not often we are fortunate enough to know these ritual
details, or many a foolish seeming myth might yield up its
practical secret.
Cecrops had a son Erysichthon, but he died before his
father. Erysichthon is a shadowy personality, who has mani-
festly more to do with Delos (p. 186) and the local cult of
Prasiae than with Athens. When the worship of the Delian
Apollo became popular, Theseus and his ship were associated,
as will be seen, with Apolline feasts. Perhaps this did not
satisfy the theological imagination. They desired a more
primitive association, and so gave Cecrops a son, who dedicated
the earliest xoanon at Delos. But he was always a stranger,
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
The gist of the ceremony is now clear enough. The purport
of the Thesmophoria was, the scholiast tells, to secure the
fertility of the fields, and, he adds, the same ceremony is used
to produce the “ fruit of the earth and the offspring of men.”
The Hersephoria was a perfectly practical ceremonial, direct
and plain in its symbolism, and intended to be magical in its
effect. The girl child, even at the early age of eleven, must
propitiate Eileithyia. She must carry on her head to the pre-
cinct of the goddess young animals and snake symbols, but
she must not know what she is doing. The full-grown woman
of the Thesmophoria performs the rite with distinct knowledge
of its significance, but the child undergoes this unconscious
initiation. No religion worth the name cares to postpone
initiation till its ritual is understood. By and by the child
would have to dance as a bear before the maiden goddess
Artemis (p. 402) on this same Acropolis. With Artemis and
Eileithyia to either hand, the Athenian maiden must begin the
work of propitiation betimes.
Probably quite early the strictly practical significance of
the Hersephoria was lost sight of. The Hersephoroi were
thought of as maidens who wore white raiment and wove
the peplos for Athene. But the shut chest and the
underground ceremony went on as before, and the priestess,
who surely did not know the real reason any more than the
children, would be keen to invent a story to account for it
all. So bit by bit grew up the myth of Erichthonios. It
is not often we are fortunate enough to know these ritual
details, or many a foolish seeming myth might yield up its
practical secret.
Cecrops had a son Erysichthon, but he died before his
father. Erysichthon is a shadowy personality, who has mani-
festly more to do with Delos (p. 186) and the local cult of
Prasiae than with Athens. When the worship of the Delian
Apollo became popular, Theseus and his ship were associated,
as will be seen, with Apolline feasts. Perhaps this did not
satisfy the theological imagination. They desired a more
primitive association, and so gave Cecrops a son, who dedicated
the earliest xoanon at Delos. But he was always a stranger,