DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2532#0026
_
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vgos,
kings
ANTIQUITY OF THE CULT OF THE ARGIVE HERA 5
There can hardly he a doubt that all the other cults of Hera, such as those of Samos,
Corinth, Olympia, Attica, Boeotia, Euhoea, those hi Thrace, on Lesbos, and many other
islands of the Aegean, as well as the important cults of Sicily and Magna Graecia, e. g.
at Croton and on Eryx, are all directly derived from the Argive cult.1 The most
important of all these other cults, after that of the Heraeum (in later times perhaps
surpassing this in splendor), was the famous sanctuary on Samos. But all the evidence
goes to show that this Samian cult was derived and imported from Argos. Tradition
had itJ that the Samian temple Avas founded by the Argonauts, who brought their
sacred image with them from Argos. The Samians, of course, maintained that Hera
was born on their island, on the banks of the Imbrasus or Parthenius,3 under a
willow (Xuyo?), which was preserved in the Samian Heraeum in the times of Pausanias.
But the development of the Epidaurian myths concerning the birth of Asclepius,
a divinity evidently imported from the north, and many similar instances in ancient
mythology, show too well the prevailing tendency to make a divinity and a cult au-
tochthonous, to allow us to attach much weight to an isolated tradition. Moreover, this
tradition may have arisen merely out of a confusion of the traditions grouping round the
XiJyos, itself again a survival of a still more ancient rite of which the original meaning
was lost. According to Menodotus of Samos4 the Samian Heraeum is an Argive foun-
dation by Admete, daughter of Eurystheus. We stand on much firmer historical ground
when we hear that the first human-shaped (avSpiavToebSes) image of Hera was intro-
duced into Samos from the Argolid (Epidaurus) iirl UpoK\eov<; dpxovTos," i. e. about
the time of the Ionian migration. At all events, the change from the board to the
image assigned by Clement to the immigration of Procles seems to me to imply the
importation by him of the cult of his house. These traditions, all of which indicate
the dependence of the Samian on the Argive Heraeum, while this dependence is reversed
in none, establish the primacy of our sanctuary and cult.
The nature and evolution of the Argive Hera and her worship is a question of
great complexity, and would demand an elaborate exposition.0 In studying carefully
all the indications in ancient authors concerning this divinity, the customs and rites of
her worship, and the archaeological evidence concerning her sanctuaries, we see that
long before she had been defined by the Homeric " theology" in the Olympian circle
of divinities as the spouse of Zeus, she was the supreme goddess of an earlier i^eople,
or of earlier peoples. Whether we call the people who originally worshiped her as
"Hpa HeXacryis,' Pelasgians, or by any other name, this fact remains : that all the
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1 Cf. (). Miiller, Dorier, I. 396.
2 Paus. VII. 4. 4.
3 ScJwl. Apoll. Rhod. I. 187 ; Appuleius, Met. 6. 4.
4 Ap. Atlien. XV. 672 a-e.
5 Clem. Alex. Protr. IV. 46. See infra the evidence
furnished by the terra-eottas found in our excavations.
6 Most of the passages relating to Hera and the cult of
Hera will be found in Roseher's able monograph on Juno
und Hera, 1875, and his article in Roseher's Lexicon, as well
as an account of the literature which deals with the sub-
ject. His work, however, seems somewhat vitiated by his
tendency to consider Hera above all as a " moon-goddess,"
which, so far as her primitive nature is concerned, is un-
tenable. I would also make special mention of two older
monographs which enumerate the greater part of the
literature on the subject of her cult, namely, R. Pointer's
Die Hochzeil des Zeus und der Hera (Breslau, 1867), and
Ueber die altesten Herabilder (1868). Of course for her
cultus, Iwan Midler's Handbucli (vol. v. part 3) on Gr.
Sakralalterthhmer, by Stengel, A. Mommsen's Heortologie
and Feste Athens, and the older works, K. Fr. Hermann's
Gottesdiensil. Alterthilmer, and Schomann's Gr. Alterlh.,
are important. In the Argonautic tales Jason is also
founder of temples of Hera : Strabo VI. 1. 1 ; Paus.
VII. 4. 4.
7 I leave it to my friends, Professor Ridgeway and
Mr. J. G. Frazer, to enlarge upon the ethnological signif-
icance of this female deity, as well as to explain further
the interesting features in the Samian rites, the tephs
yd.lj.us, by means of the excellent methods of compara-
tive mythology which Mr. Frazer has applied to good
purpose.
fl««
j1(%
vgos,
kings
ANTIQUITY OF THE CULT OF THE ARGIVE HERA 5
There can hardly he a doubt that all the other cults of Hera, such as those of Samos,
Corinth, Olympia, Attica, Boeotia, Euhoea, those hi Thrace, on Lesbos, and many other
islands of the Aegean, as well as the important cults of Sicily and Magna Graecia, e. g.
at Croton and on Eryx, are all directly derived from the Argive cult.1 The most
important of all these other cults, after that of the Heraeum (in later times perhaps
surpassing this in splendor), was the famous sanctuary on Samos. But all the evidence
goes to show that this Samian cult was derived and imported from Argos. Tradition
had itJ that the Samian temple Avas founded by the Argonauts, who brought their
sacred image with them from Argos. The Samians, of course, maintained that Hera
was born on their island, on the banks of the Imbrasus or Parthenius,3 under a
willow (Xuyo?), which was preserved in the Samian Heraeum in the times of Pausanias.
But the development of the Epidaurian myths concerning the birth of Asclepius,
a divinity evidently imported from the north, and many similar instances in ancient
mythology, show too well the prevailing tendency to make a divinity and a cult au-
tochthonous, to allow us to attach much weight to an isolated tradition. Moreover, this
tradition may have arisen merely out of a confusion of the traditions grouping round the
XiJyos, itself again a survival of a still more ancient rite of which the original meaning
was lost. According to Menodotus of Samos4 the Samian Heraeum is an Argive foun-
dation by Admete, daughter of Eurystheus. We stand on much firmer historical ground
when we hear that the first human-shaped (avSpiavToebSes) image of Hera was intro-
duced into Samos from the Argolid (Epidaurus) iirl UpoK\eov<; dpxovTos," i. e. about
the time of the Ionian migration. At all events, the change from the board to the
image assigned by Clement to the immigration of Procles seems to me to imply the
importation by him of the cult of his house. These traditions, all of which indicate
the dependence of the Samian on the Argive Heraeum, while this dependence is reversed
in none, establish the primacy of our sanctuary and cult.
The nature and evolution of the Argive Hera and her worship is a question of
great complexity, and would demand an elaborate exposition.0 In studying carefully
all the indications in ancient authors concerning this divinity, the customs and rites of
her worship, and the archaeological evidence concerning her sanctuaries, we see that
long before she had been defined by the Homeric " theology" in the Olympian circle
of divinities as the spouse of Zeus, she was the supreme goddess of an earlier i^eople,
or of earlier peoples. Whether we call the people who originally worshiped her as
"Hpa HeXacryis,' Pelasgians, or by any other name, this fact remains : that all the
,„j E°rlp'
f He'''
1 Cf. (). Miiller, Dorier, I. 396.
2 Paus. VII. 4. 4.
3 ScJwl. Apoll. Rhod. I. 187 ; Appuleius, Met. 6. 4.
4 Ap. Atlien. XV. 672 a-e.
5 Clem. Alex. Protr. IV. 46. See infra the evidence
furnished by the terra-eottas found in our excavations.
6 Most of the passages relating to Hera and the cult of
Hera will be found in Roseher's able monograph on Juno
und Hera, 1875, and his article in Roseher's Lexicon, as well
as an account of the literature which deals with the sub-
ject. His work, however, seems somewhat vitiated by his
tendency to consider Hera above all as a " moon-goddess,"
which, so far as her primitive nature is concerned, is un-
tenable. I would also make special mention of two older
monographs which enumerate the greater part of the
literature on the subject of her cult, namely, R. Pointer's
Die Hochzeil des Zeus und der Hera (Breslau, 1867), and
Ueber die altesten Herabilder (1868). Of course for her
cultus, Iwan Midler's Handbucli (vol. v. part 3) on Gr.
Sakralalterthhmer, by Stengel, A. Mommsen's Heortologie
and Feste Athens, and the older works, K. Fr. Hermann's
Gottesdiensil. Alterthilmer, and Schomann's Gr. Alterlh.,
are important. In the Argonautic tales Jason is also
founder of temples of Hera : Strabo VI. 1. 1 ; Paus.
VII. 4. 4.
7 I leave it to my friends, Professor Ridgeway and
Mr. J. G. Frazer, to enlarge upon the ethnological signif-
icance of this female deity, as well as to explain further
the interesting features in the Samian rites, the tephs
yd.lj.us, by means of the excellent methods of compara-
tive mythology which Mr. Frazer has applied to good
purpose.
fl««