DOI chapter:
Division A: The Agora and adjacent buildings lying to the west and north of the Acropolis, from the city gate to the Prytaneion
DOI chapter:Section V
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0275
SEC. V
OF ANCIENT ATHENS
103
about the chasms, are snakes who devour the greater part of
what is thrown in. Therefore, a noise is made when the women
are drawing up the flesh, and when they are putting the images
in place of it, so as to drive back the snakes, whom they con-
sider the guardians of the adytum. The same feast is also called
the Arretophoria, and the same ceremonial is used to produce the
fruit of the earth and the offspring of men. On this occasion
also mysterious sacred objects, made of the dough from wheat,
in the shape of the forms of snakes and men, are deposited
in the chasms. They + take shoots of the pine tree on account
of its fertility. They throw into the adyta, also called ‘ megara,’
both these and pigs, as already said, these being also chosen
for their fertility, so as to unite the production of fruit and the
procreation of children.”
These “megara” are explained as “underground chambers 191
of the two goddesses—i.e., of Demeter and Kore.” Pausanias,19'2
describing Megara, says—“ They say that the city was so called
by Kar, the son of Phoroneus, who was king in that country.
They say that there first were places sacred to Demeter, and
that men called them ‘ megara.’ ” The etymology seems at least
probable. The “ megara ” certainly were not confined to Attica.
At Potniae, in Boeotia,193 there was a grove to Demeter and Perse-
phone, and there certain ceremonies were performed which con-
sisted in part of letting newly born pigs loose into places called
“ megara.” That the same ceremony as the scholiast describes
went on in the sanctuary of Demeter at Cnidus is proved by the
stone pigs 194 (πλάσματα) found there.
The account of the scholiast is confirmed by Clement of
Alexandria in his ProtrepticusN^ The Christian Father has, for-
tunately for us, no scruples in revealing the to him trivial and
disgusting details of mysterious rites. How better can he win
souls to a purer and higher faith ? “ Shall I tell you,” he asks
in his indignant protest, “ of the flower-gatherings of Pherephatta
and the basket, and the rape of Aidoneus, and the cleft of the
earth, and the swine of Eubouleus that were swallowed down
with the goddesses, on account of which in the Thesmophoria
the women who perform the ‘ megara ’ ceremonies dig out the
pigs ? This story the women celebrate in diverse fashion in the
city, as Thesmophoria, Skirophoria, Arrephoria, dramatising the
rape of Pherephatta in manifold ways.”
There is no doubt from these passages that the megara cere-
mony formed part of the Thesmophoria ; but that other rites were
OF ANCIENT ATHENS
103
about the chasms, are snakes who devour the greater part of
what is thrown in. Therefore, a noise is made when the women
are drawing up the flesh, and when they are putting the images
in place of it, so as to drive back the snakes, whom they con-
sider the guardians of the adytum. The same feast is also called
the Arretophoria, and the same ceremonial is used to produce the
fruit of the earth and the offspring of men. On this occasion
also mysterious sacred objects, made of the dough from wheat,
in the shape of the forms of snakes and men, are deposited
in the chasms. They + take shoots of the pine tree on account
of its fertility. They throw into the adyta, also called ‘ megara,’
both these and pigs, as already said, these being also chosen
for their fertility, so as to unite the production of fruit and the
procreation of children.”
These “megara” are explained as “underground chambers 191
of the two goddesses—i.e., of Demeter and Kore.” Pausanias,19'2
describing Megara, says—“ They say that the city was so called
by Kar, the son of Phoroneus, who was king in that country.
They say that there first were places sacred to Demeter, and
that men called them ‘ megara.’ ” The etymology seems at least
probable. The “ megara ” certainly were not confined to Attica.
At Potniae, in Boeotia,193 there was a grove to Demeter and Perse-
phone, and there certain ceremonies were performed which con-
sisted in part of letting newly born pigs loose into places called
“ megara.” That the same ceremony as the scholiast describes
went on in the sanctuary of Demeter at Cnidus is proved by the
stone pigs 194 (πλάσματα) found there.
The account of the scholiast is confirmed by Clement of
Alexandria in his ProtrepticusN^ The Christian Father has, for-
tunately for us, no scruples in revealing the to him trivial and
disgusting details of mysterious rites. How better can he win
souls to a purer and higher faith ? “ Shall I tell you,” he asks
in his indignant protest, “ of the flower-gatherings of Pherephatta
and the basket, and the rape of Aidoneus, and the cleft of the
earth, and the swine of Eubouleus that were swallowed down
with the goddesses, on account of which in the Thesmophoria
the women who perform the ‘ megara ’ ceremonies dig out the
pigs ? This story the women celebrate in diverse fashion in the
city, as Thesmophoria, Skirophoria, Arrephoria, dramatising the
rape of Pherephatta in manifold ways.”
There is no doubt from these passages that the megara cere-
mony formed part of the Thesmophoria ; but that other rites were