DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2532#0027
GENERAL L\'TK()DUCTION
indications seen in a careful study of the material now before us point to Hera
among these early peoples, not as the spouse of the supreme King, but as herself the
Queen,1 though she may have had her consort. Had these peoples dwelling in the
Argolic plain remained in supreme and unbroken possession of the land, and retained
the sway over it, and had Argolis maintained its hegemony over the Greek peoples in
historic times, the Heraeum might have become the Olympia of Hellas, and would have
brought the Greek peoples together in the highest form of national federation, as in the
oldest Greek colonies the cultus of the Lacinian Hera at the promontory near Croton
brought all the Greek communities of Magna Graecia together at her festival." We
might then have had a Panhellenic Hera as the presiding Hellenic divinity; and Zeus
might possibly have found his place as Consort to the Queen of the gods.
Of this primitive divinity we can single out several clear characteristics, some of
which the subsequent adaptation to the prevailing theology accentuated or repressed.
That Hera was, as we have said, the chief divinity of the peoples who dwelt in the
Argolic plain, and of those who were derived from them, is evident from the simple fact
that her worship remained supreme in this region through all times. She is then the
chief guardian of the city and the citadel, and from this conception must be derived the
epithet Acria, which maintained itself at Argos3 and places which derive their cult
from Argolis.4 For as the selection and fortification of such a citadel was one of the
first acts of a community which had come to occupy fixed habitations, so the consecra-
tion to the national divinity would be a necessary consequence. There can be but little
doubt that Tiryns and Midea had a worship of Hera on their citadels; though the
importance of these cities and, in consequence, of the worship on their citadels was
destroyed at a comparatively early date.
Thus we may suppose that the Argive Hera guarded the land and the life and pros-
perity and presided over the occupations of the people who spread about the foot of this
fortified stronghold. The dwellers in the lirirofioTov and iroXvirvpov Argive plain clearly
led a pastoral and agricultural life. The name Euboea ' given to the hillock upon which
the Heraeum stood clearly points to it as a favorable site for the grazing of cattle, and
the intimate connection with the cow, the sacred herds at the temple,''' the position
of the white cows in her rites,7 and perhaps the immediate relation of the /3owttl<,
goddess herself to the cow into which she is once changed and with which the myth
of Io is so curiously connected, and finally the transplanting of these associations into
the Hera-cult of other districts, — all this clearly indicates the original life of the early
1 C. I. A. 172 KAeiSuvxos pacriAyiSos "Hpas. Cf. Find.
IVem. i. 59 (39); Horn. Hymn. xii. 1 seq.; Nounus, Dionys.
viii. 207; Kaibel, Epig. 268. 3; 822 a, 7; Kinkel, Epic.
Grace. Fragg. p. 211.
2 Aristot. Mirab. 9G ; Strab. VI. 1. 11 (Kramer); Dion.
Perieg. 371.
8 Pans. II. 24. 1; Hesych. s. v. o/cpi'o. Cf. Panofka,
' Die Gottheiten auf Larissa, der Ilochburg von Argos,'
Ahh. d. Bed. Alcad. 1854, pp. 552-554. It is a notewor-
thy fact that the district of the Heraeum was divided into
Euboea, Aoraea, and Prosymna ; Pans. II. 17.
4 Among these the most important is the one on the
Acropolis of Corinth (Apollod. I. 9. 28 ; Eurip. Med.
1379; Musaeus ap. Schol. Eur. Med. 10; Didymus and
Creophylus ap. Schol. Eur. Med. 273. Another very ancient
sanctuary of Hera Acraea lay between Lechaeum and Pa-
gae, probably the same as the one mentioned in Strabo
(VIII. G. 22), which was an ancient oracle, and thus
points to a primitive goddess of the land. Liv. XXXII.
33; Xen. Hell. IV. 5. 5. Cf. Bouche'-Leclercq, Hist, de
la divination dans I'Antiq. II. pp. 395 f.
6 Pans. II. 17. 1. The whole island of Euboea was
sacred to Hera (Apoll. Rhod. iv. 1138), and here, too, the
lepbs ydfws takes an important place. She is especially
associated with the mountains Oches and Dirphys. It is
also worthy of note that similar importance is given to
her, and similar rites are found in Boeotia, especially on
the Cithaeron (Eurip. Plioen. 24). Cf. Cephal. ap. Malal.
p. 45, and Schol. to 24 as well as 1760. Cf. also Pint.
ap. Euseb. Pr. Ev. III. 83; Pans. IX. 2, 7; III. 1-9.
6 Arg. Pind. Nem. iii. p. 425 (Boeckh) ; Palaepl). 51 ;
Herod. I. 31.
7 Sem. Again. 354.
indications seen in a careful study of the material now before us point to Hera
among these early peoples, not as the spouse of the supreme King, but as herself the
Queen,1 though she may have had her consort. Had these peoples dwelling in the
Argolic plain remained in supreme and unbroken possession of the land, and retained
the sway over it, and had Argolis maintained its hegemony over the Greek peoples in
historic times, the Heraeum might have become the Olympia of Hellas, and would have
brought the Greek peoples together in the highest form of national federation, as in the
oldest Greek colonies the cultus of the Lacinian Hera at the promontory near Croton
brought all the Greek communities of Magna Graecia together at her festival." We
might then have had a Panhellenic Hera as the presiding Hellenic divinity; and Zeus
might possibly have found his place as Consort to the Queen of the gods.
Of this primitive divinity we can single out several clear characteristics, some of
which the subsequent adaptation to the prevailing theology accentuated or repressed.
That Hera was, as we have said, the chief divinity of the peoples who dwelt in the
Argolic plain, and of those who were derived from them, is evident from the simple fact
that her worship remained supreme in this region through all times. She is then the
chief guardian of the city and the citadel, and from this conception must be derived the
epithet Acria, which maintained itself at Argos3 and places which derive their cult
from Argolis.4 For as the selection and fortification of such a citadel was one of the
first acts of a community which had come to occupy fixed habitations, so the consecra-
tion to the national divinity would be a necessary consequence. There can be but little
doubt that Tiryns and Midea had a worship of Hera on their citadels; though the
importance of these cities and, in consequence, of the worship on their citadels was
destroyed at a comparatively early date.
Thus we may suppose that the Argive Hera guarded the land and the life and pros-
perity and presided over the occupations of the people who spread about the foot of this
fortified stronghold. The dwellers in the lirirofioTov and iroXvirvpov Argive plain clearly
led a pastoral and agricultural life. The name Euboea ' given to the hillock upon which
the Heraeum stood clearly points to it as a favorable site for the grazing of cattle, and
the intimate connection with the cow, the sacred herds at the temple,''' the position
of the white cows in her rites,7 and perhaps the immediate relation of the /3owttl<,
goddess herself to the cow into which she is once changed and with which the myth
of Io is so curiously connected, and finally the transplanting of these associations into
the Hera-cult of other districts, — all this clearly indicates the original life of the early
1 C. I. A. 172 KAeiSuvxos pacriAyiSos "Hpas. Cf. Find.
IVem. i. 59 (39); Horn. Hymn. xii. 1 seq.; Nounus, Dionys.
viii. 207; Kaibel, Epig. 268. 3; 822 a, 7; Kinkel, Epic.
Grace. Fragg. p. 211.
2 Aristot. Mirab. 9G ; Strab. VI. 1. 11 (Kramer); Dion.
Perieg. 371.
8 Pans. II. 24. 1; Hesych. s. v. o/cpi'o. Cf. Panofka,
' Die Gottheiten auf Larissa, der Ilochburg von Argos,'
Ahh. d. Bed. Alcad. 1854, pp. 552-554. It is a notewor-
thy fact that the district of the Heraeum was divided into
Euboea, Aoraea, and Prosymna ; Pans. II. 17.
4 Among these the most important is the one on the
Acropolis of Corinth (Apollod. I. 9. 28 ; Eurip. Med.
1379; Musaeus ap. Schol. Eur. Med. 10; Didymus and
Creophylus ap. Schol. Eur. Med. 273. Another very ancient
sanctuary of Hera Acraea lay between Lechaeum and Pa-
gae, probably the same as the one mentioned in Strabo
(VIII. G. 22), which was an ancient oracle, and thus
points to a primitive goddess of the land. Liv. XXXII.
33; Xen. Hell. IV. 5. 5. Cf. Bouche'-Leclercq, Hist, de
la divination dans I'Antiq. II. pp. 395 f.
6 Pans. II. 17. 1. The whole island of Euboea was
sacred to Hera (Apoll. Rhod. iv. 1138), and here, too, the
lepbs ydfws takes an important place. She is especially
associated with the mountains Oches and Dirphys. It is
also worthy of note that similar importance is given to
her, and similar rites are found in Boeotia, especially on
the Cithaeron (Eurip. Plioen. 24). Cf. Cephal. ap. Malal.
p. 45, and Schol. to 24 as well as 1760. Cf. also Pint.
ap. Euseb. Pr. Ev. III. 83; Pans. IX. 2, 7; III. 1-9.
6 Arg. Pind. Nem. iii. p. 425 (Boeckh) ; Palaepl). 51 ;
Herod. I. 31.
7 Sem. Again. 354.