Edinburgh Leventis Studies 5
THE GODS
OF ANCIENT
GREECE
Identities and Transformations
Edited by Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine
THE GODS OF ANCIENT GREECE
Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine
Edited by
Edinburgh
EDINBURGH LEVENTIS STUDIES 5
THE GODS OF ANCIENT
GREECE
Identities and Transformations
Edited by
Jan N. Bremmer and
Andrew Erskine
Edinburgh University Press
in this edition, Edinburgh University Press, 2010
in the individual contributions is retained by the authors
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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19
READING PAUSANIAS: CULTS OF THE
GODS AND REPRESENTATION OF THE
DIVINE
Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge
Over the past couple of decades Pausanias has become the centre of a
minor academic industry, a point made recently by Glen Bowersock.1
The growing scholarship in this area has taken Pausanias profile seri-
ously and his work at face value. One of the major trends has been
the appreciation of Pausanias work as a complex literary enterprise
and not just as a databank to be plundered without taking into con-
sideration the context of each piece of information, be it chronologi-
cal or narratological. Such a flourishing interest in Pausanias work
has also been inspired by the increasing interest in the Greek world
under Roman rule, the world to which Pausanias belonged, and the
related question of what it meant to be Greek when power was held
elsewhere.2
Pausanias was a serious scholar and a tireless traveller. Maybe
he can also be considered as dry, sober and pedantic , as a German
I would like to thank Jan Bremmer warmly for his invitation to this prestigious
conference and Andrew Erskine for the wonderful hospitality of the University
of Edinburgh. The argument presented here in English depends on a larger
research project, which is published in French: Retour ą la source: Pausanias et
la religion grecque = Kernos, Suppl. 20 (LiŁge: CIERGA, 2008). The translations
of Pausanias text are taken from the Loeb edition by W. H. S. Jones (London,
1918 35) and slightly adapted to be more literal.
1 G. Bowersock, Artemidorus and the Second Sophistic , in B. Borg (ed.), Paideia:
The World of the Second Sophistic (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2004), pp. 53 63 at
53. Many monographs, collective books and individual articles in journals have
been published over the last twenty-five years, following Christian Habicht s
Sather Classical Lectures, Pausanias Guide to Ancient Greece (Berkeley, Los
Angeles and London: University of California Press, 19982), and the very useful
introduction to the Italian edition of Pausanias by Domenico Musti in D. Musti
and L. Beschi, Pausania: Guida della Grecia. I: L Attica (Milan: Mondadori,
1982).
2 Cf. the well-balanced and lucid book of W. Hutton, Describing Greece: Landscape
and Literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2005).
376 vinciane pirenne-delforge
scholar described him in 1890.3 Perhaps he is almost one of us , as
Snodgrass concluded in a wonderful paper on Pausanias and the Chest
of Kypselos in 2001.4 However true these identifications may be and
perhaps all are true Pausanias had many problems to solve and many
choices to make in order to transpose his vision and understanding of
the material and cultural landscapes of Greece into a literary work.
The Periegesis is the result of these choices and not a photographic
image of what Greece was like at this time.5 This is true for every piece
and type of information. It is even truer as far as religion is concerned,
especially since Pausanias still belongs to the system he describes. On
this level, he is not one of us. Therefore, reading Pausanias in order
to consider the question of Greek gods implies that we should take
into account his own position on the matter, on the one hand, and
the way he reports the many results of his visits on the spot, combin-
ing them with literary references, on the other hand. These points of
view are not completely independent, since Pausanias presents himself
as a pious man, who pays respect to the local religious traditions he
refers to. Such an attitude has been understood as a literary affectation
rooted in the intellectual praxis of the time.6 I do not agree with such
a statement and I follow William Hutton when he says that literary
effect is not necessarily the same as literary affectation .7
Regarding the gods and their local cults, Pausanias is an important
literary source that enables us to understand the so-called local Greek
pantheons, particularly when we are able to compare his testimony
with the epigraphic evidence.8 In this case, one of the main problems
that needs to be thoroughly discussed is the chronological background
of so much information. On the other hand, as far as the very concept
of god in Greece is concerned, other questions different from the
3 W. Gurlitt, ber Pausanias: Untersuchungen (Graz: Leuschner and Lubensky,
1890), p. 126 ( mit den trockenen, nchternen, pedantischen Pausanias , tr.
Snodgrass [here below], p. 128).
4 A. M. Snodgrass, Pausanias and the Chest of Kypselos , in S. Alcock et al. (eds),
Pausanias: Travel and Memory in Roman Greece (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2001), pp. 127 41.
5 The huge bibliography on this subject has been exhaustively treated in Pirenne-
Delforge, Retour ą la source.
6 J. F. Gaertner, Die Kultepiklesen und Kultaitia in Pausanias Periegesis , Hermes
134 (2006), pp. 471 87. A very different approach is that of J. Elsner, Pausanias:
a Greek pilgrim in the Roman world , Past and Present 135 (1992), pp. 3 29, repr.
in R. Osborne (ed.), Studies in Ancient Greek and Roman Society (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 260 85, with a postscript 2003, and in
Alcock et al., Pausanias: Travel and Memory, pp. 3 20.
7 Hutton, Describing Greece, p. 11.
8 See different papers on Pausanias in V. Pirenne-Delforge (ed.), Les panthons des
cits, des origines ą la PrigŁse de Pausanias = Kernos, Suppl. 8 (LiŁge: CIERGA,
1998).
reading pausanias 377
pantheonic reading though complementary to it need to be asked
of the Periegesis. The first question is: can we find a definition or defi-
nitions of what a god means to a Greek intellectual such as Pausanias,
living and writing during the Roman period? The second question is:
to what extent can his review of all things Greek (Ąq ą p ąq ,
1.26.5) provide us with information on the point of view of his local
informants on the same question of what a god is?
In order to present these questions, I shall limit myself to certain
aspects only. First, if we agree that by defining a god, we are essen-
tially speaking about status, I shall present the different places where
Pausanias confronts divine and heroic ranks. Which interpretative
tools does he use as regards divine or heroic status? Secondly, what
happens with figures whose divinity is not a matter of discussion?
What kind of mechanisms does Pausanias identify to explain the
beginnings of a cult in a community? Answering each of these ques-
tions will provide some material for reflection on the Greek gods.
GODS BORN FROM HUMAN BEINGS
In book 10, Pausanias describes Delphi in particular. In the sanctuary
of Apollo, the paintings of Polygnotos in the lesche of the Knidians
deserve special attention, and Pausanias takes a long time to describe
the different scenes depicted on the walls. One of them is a complex
image of the Underworld with many different figures. Some are epic
and widely known, others are not, like the anonymous people carrying
water in jars. We inferred , writes Pausanias, that these people were
among those who held the rites at Eleusis to be of no account. For the
Greeks of an earlier period looked upon the Eleusinian Mysteries as
being much higher than all other acts of piety, just as they honoured
gods much more than heroes (10.31.11). Pausanias reverence for the
Eleusinian Mysteries is featured throughout his work. Scholars have
understood and studied such reverence for a long time.9 However,
the contrast made in this passage between honouring heroes and hon-
ouring the gods has not been assessed. In this text, Pausanias considers
that the gods are the recipients of an early reverence, which therefore
manifests a deeper and higher piety. It is interesting to highlight the
contrast with heroes: Greek gods extend beyond space and time while
heroes are rooted in the human condition.10 But what about human
9 For example, J. Heer, La personnalit de Pausanias (Paris: Les Belles Lettres,
1979), pp. 132 4.
10 On the birth of the category of the heroes see now J. N. Bremmer, The rise of the
hero cult and the New Simonides , ZPE 158 (2007), pp. 15 26.
378 vinciane pirenne-delforge
beings becoming gods in the Periegesis? Pausanias criteria are still
the same: people of ancient times were more pious and righteous;
accordingly, some extraordinary stories of divinization are believable
in so far as they are placed in remote periods of time. In one place,
Pausanias explains his point of view on this matter: a metamorphosis
is believable if it concerns, for example, an ancient king of Arcadia,
such as Lykaon. Pausanias says in book 8:
For the men of those days, because of their righteousness and
piety, were guests of the gods, eating at the same board; the good
were openly honoured by the gods, and those who did wrong
were openly visited with their wrath. In those days gods were
even born from human beings, gods who down to the present
day have honours paid to them Aristaeus, Britomartis of Crete,
Herakles the son of Alkmene, Amphiaraos the son of Oikles, as
well as Pollux and Castor [ . . . ]. But at the present time, when
sin has grown to such a height and has been spreading over every
land and every city, no longer are gods born from human beings,
except in the flattering words addressed to the power, and the
wrath of the gods is reserved until unjust people have departed to
the next world.11
We cannot completely exclude that such self-presentation is, at least
partly, a literary posturing dictated by the wish to criticize the imperial
cult of his time. However, the connection of divine status, with honours
paid to these figures born from human beings in a bygone age, is strik-
ing in the Periegesis as a whole, and this is what I would like to show.
In some of the cities he visits, Pausanias points to the place where the
divine status of these human figures has been recognized. The Greek
expression used by Pausanias is always x żźw śą. It has long been
recognized how difficult it is to translate this expression.12 It implies
11 Paus. 8.2.4 5 (translation more literally adapted from W. H. S. Jones): ąv źs
ł A y łż żW ż Ąw ą, s łąą r Q Ąx ńq Ąąąążć , ąv x 0 x ąP
Ąńy ą. ż1 łp ń t y ńĄżą s żą ąv A źżńq Ąśżą ż & ą Q Ąx ąąąż{
ąv P w ą, ąw ąą ąńł Ąu ą Ąąńp ąźu żV ą łąż ąv
ąu ąą a ą{ ! @ ńłu , Ąw żą ąv żv y łw żż ń} Ą, ż3 łs ńą ąv
y ą żą a ńąą ż ąv łńąy źąńą ! ńąt ąv ) ńąĆ A źu
ąv źąq ńąż A H ąs ż, Ąv r ąP ż ż{ ąv q ń . . . Ąż źżć s
ąw ą łp ń t Ąv Ą ż T ż ąv łĆ Ąs źż Ąś ą ąv Ąy ą Ąq ą żT
x łw ż żP v ą ń} Ąż, Ąt E ż y łó ąv żąw ł Ąńx x Q Ąńs ż,
ąv w żą x źu ąźą x @ s ąv Ążć ą s Ąy ąąą. On
this passage, see Hutton, Describing Greece, p. 305 11, and, with a slightly differ-
ent point of view, Pirenne-Delforge, Retour ą la source, pp. 67 72 and 333 41.
12 Cf. W. Fahr, Śżz żźw śą: Zum Problem der Anfnge des Atheismus bei den
Griechen (Hildesheim: Olms, 1970), pp. 160 2, and passim.
reading pausanias 379
both the affirmation of a status and the customary honours paid in a
community. I will translate it by an inelegant but efficient periphrasis:
to consider and honour as a god .
Herakles first appears in this context.13 Describing the Stoa Poikile
at Athens, Pausanias declares that the people of Marathon associated
Herakles with the depiction of the battle because, according to the
text: The Marathonians, according to their own account, were the
first to consider and honour Herakles as a god. 14 This is confirmed
in Marathon itself, where Pausanias says: The Marathonians worship
. . . Herakles, saying that they were the first among the Greeks to
consider and honour him as a god. 15 The same applies to the inhab-
itants of Oropos as regards Amphiaraos. According to Pausanias:
The Oropians were the first to consider and honour Amphiaraos
as a god, followed by all the Greeks. 16 In this case, an epiphany
of Amphiaraos is associated with this veneration. People who were
cured of their diseases had to throw a coin into a spring. This is where,
according to the Oropians, Amphiaraos rose up as a god, after having
been swallowed by the earth with his chariot.
Two different passages concern another figure born from human
beings and who became a goddess . The Megarians are the only
Greeks who say that the corpse of Ino was cast up on their coast and
buried in their city. According to Pausanias, they said that they were
the first to name her Leukothea and that every year they offer her
sacrifice .17 In Messenia, the inhabitants of Korope tell a similar but
slightly different story. They considered the place on the shore where
Ino rose from the sea as sacred, once she was already considered and
honoured as a goddess, and called her Leukothea instead of Ino.18
The difference is the epiphanic element in the Koropean version of
the story, as in the case of Amphiaraos. Pausanias gives no comment
about the Megarian version but we may infer that the presence of a
tomb, pointing to a dead body, does not support the local claim, in so
far as the visitor explicitly refutes a similar appropriation of Iphigeneia
13 For the status of Herakles see also Stafford, this volume, Chapter 12.
14 Paus. 1.15.3: śąńąw żą łq ń, a ąP żv s łżą, ńąĆ żźw x Ąń} żą.
15 Paus. 1.32.4: s żąą r ż1 śąńą} ążą . . . ńąs ą, q źżą Ąń} żą u
w ą ńąs ą x żźąĆ ąą.
16 Paus. 1.34.2: x r ż ęźąq ńąż Ąń} żą ż ńĄw żą ąs żźw śą, U ńż r
ąv ż1 Ąq % łąą.
17 Paus. 1.42.7: źy żą s 0 ą u śłąń ż1 s łż x ńx Ć ż żć
p Ąąńąąq ąq ąą Ą Ć } ńą [ . . . ] ąv żs ą @ żźąĆ ąą
Ąąńp w ą Ąń} żą ąv ąP t ąv w ą łą p Ąś ż.
18 Paus. 4.34.4: p r t A x ą{ v Ąv ąq ńw ż, C ż żć 1 ńx
6 ąą żźw śżą ĄąąĆ ąą łp ń ąć ą ąq ąv ąP t y $
żźąśżźs ąv żs ą ążźs v ż żć .
380 vinciane pirenne-delforge
by the Megarians some lines further on. Amphiaraos and Ino, just like
Herakles, are gods born from human beings, but their human flesh
has disappeared. Pausanias judgement on the Dioskouroi story is
more difficult to evaluate. In Sparta, he describes the tomb of Castor,
over which a hieron has been constructed: For they say that it was not
before the fortieth year after the fight with Idas and Lynceus that the
sons of Tyndareos were considered and honoured as gods. 19 Perhaps
this calculation in time was connected to one of the numerous epipha-
nies of the Tyndarides to which Pausanias himself sometimes refers
(3.16.2 3).
In the Arcadian book, we find all these figures, except for Ino,
present in the list of the gods born from human beings (8.2.4 5, quoted
above). One exception is Asklepios, who rather unexpectedly does
not appear in this list. The treatment of Asklepios divine status by
Pausanias in his second book is highly significant. We first learn that
the Athenians associated their worship of Asklepios with Epidauros:
it was after he arrived from this place that he was considered and hon-
oured as a god in their own city.20 But Pausanias discussion is centred
on the necessity of arguing against a transformation of Asklepios
status. Pausanias insists on the fact that he was considered and hon-
oured as a god ńĆ , from the beginning . Several signs show that
the god did not owe his divine reputation to events over time. This is
mainly proved by his interpretation of a Homeric passage: the fact
that Machaon is said to be the human son of Asklepios implies that
he is the son of a god . Therefore, Asklepios is not a x ń} Ąż,
a god born from a human being .
The case of Trophonios in Lebadeia, who is also absent from the
list in the eighth book, is more complicated. In the Boeotian book,
Pausanias says when visiting Lebadeia that he is convinced that
Trophonios is the son of Apollo and not of Erginos, as does everyone
who has gone to Trophonios to inquire of his oracle .21 Pausanias
oracular experience is at the core of his conviction. Trophonios is a
god and the quality of his oracle proves it. However, in the first book,
explaining the transformation of Amphiaraos into a god, he writes
that some other humans from the past receive divine honours (
ąźąw ) in Greece. Some of them even get a whole city of their own, such
as Protesilaos in Elaeus or Trophonios in Lebadeia (1.34.2). Therefore,
19 Paus. 3.13.1: ą r ąv q żńż źĆ źą, Ąv r ąP ąv 1 ńx ĄĄżw ąą
ąńąż łp ń U ńż ą Ć źq Ć Ąńx ą ąv łs ą żz żz
ńq ń Ąą ą ąv żP Ąńy ńż żźąĆ ąw ąą.
20 Paus. 2.26.8: . . . ąv x Ąż w ż ąv ż ꥹy ąą żźąĆ ąą.
21 Paus. 9.37.5: s łąą r A ńńż} ąż Ąy ż 6 ąą ąv żP ńłw ż ąv ł}
Ąw żźąą ąv E ą Ąąńp ńńż} ąż & t źąy źż.
reading pausanias 381
the comparison with Asklepios needs to be qualified: Trophonios
is the son of Apollo, just like Asklepios, but Asklepios is a god from
the beginning, while Trophonios has become a full god in the course
of time by the divine honours received in Lebadeia, and through the
reputation of an oracle unworthy of Apollonian paternity.
The divine status attributed to some human beings of old is a
complex theological problem in a religious system without any central
authority or dogmatic profile. Here and there in the Periegesis,
Pausanias refers to the different stages for recognizing a divinity:
worship in a local community and thereafter the force of a reputation
that spreads progressively. He confirms that the duration of the ven-
eration and the vitality of the cult are essential criteria, providing the
basis of divine ranking for some humans of old.
By chance, this point of view is supported by the Greek version
of a senatus consultum preserved in an inscription from Oropos, the
favourite city of Amphiaraos referred to above. The inscription dates
from the year 73 BC and refers to a dispute concerning the taxation of
the land in Amphiaraos sanctuary. In fulfilment of a vow, Sulla had
once given a considerable amount of land, which was not to be vio-
lated, to Amphiaraos sanctuary. Some years later, after Sulla s death,
the publicani (tax-farmers) attempted to collect taxes from this area
and were informed by the Oropians of Sulla s decisions. The publicani
did not honour the arrangement. An envoy was sent to Rome and the
representative of the publicani defended their opinion, arguing that
the exemptions granted by Sulla referred only to those lands that were
sacred to a god and that Amphiaraos was not a god.22
Finally, the Roman Senate confirmed Sulla s decision, calling to
mind the decree of 86 and the senatus consultum of 80, which ratified
the former decree. In these two former documents, Amphiaraos name
is systematically defined by the word theos. We no longer possess the
Latin version of the senatus consultum but we may suppose that the
Greek version was a faithful translation of the original. The point is
that the argument does not mention the Greek word heros to identify
Amphiaraos status. For Latin speakers such a notion did not make
sense.
In his treatise De natura deorum, Cicero refers to the situation in
philosophical discussion concerning rank within the supra-human
world. The passage reads:
22 I.Oropos 308 (= Syll.3, 747). Cf. R. K. Sherk, Roman Documents from the Greek
East: Senatus Consulta and Epistulae to the Age of Augustus (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1969), pp. 133 8, no. 23; E. Famerie, Les documents
officiels romains de la Rpublique et du principat d Auguste: Documents pi-
graphiques et sources littraires (212a 14p), Paris, no. 48 (forthcoming).
382 vinciane pirenne-delforge
If Ino is to be deemed divine, under the title of Leukothea in Greece
and Matuta at Rome, because she is the daughter of Cadmus, . . .
are [others] to be not counted in the list of the gods?23 . . . Or if
we allow Ino, are we going to make Amphiaraos and Trophonios
divine? The Roman tax- farmers, finding that lands in Boeotia
belonging to the immortal gods were exempted by the censor s
regulations, used to maintain that nobody was immortal who had
once upon a time been a human being.24
In Pausanias language, this means that żv ń} Ą, gods born
from human beings , do not exist. On a more general level, it means that
the theological problem had very concrete implications. However, it is
difficult to follow Albert Schachter when he writes that Amphiaraos
seems to have been the only hero who was legally declared a god for
tax purposes. 25 For the Oropians, their god was a full god. Such evi-
dence explains why Pausanias carefully pleaded for an original divine
status to be attributed to Asklepios. Two centuries earlier, the case was
not evident for another healing god such as Amphiaraos.
Additional information is given in two other stories told by
Pausanias. The first refers to an Olympian athlete called Kleomedes of
Astypalaia, who lived in the fifth century BC. During a boxing match,
he killed his adversary and was deprived of his prize by the umpires. He
became mad through grief and returned home to Astypalaia. There, he
pulled down the pillar that held up the roof of a school and killed the
children who were attending classes. Pelted with stones by the citizens,
he took refuge in the sanctuary of Athena, hiding in a chest where the
Astypalaians, breaking into it, were unable to find him, dead or alive.
When questioning the oracle of Delphi to find out what had hap-
pened to him, the Astypalaians were told that Kleomedes was the last
hero and to be honoured with sacrifices as being no longer a mortal.
Therefore, Pausanias concludes: From this time the Astypalaians
have paid honours to Kleomedes as to a hero. 26
23 Cic., Nat. D. 3.48 (tr. H. Rackham, Loeb, 19512).
24 Ibid. 3.49: Nostri quidem publicani cum essent agri in Boeotia deorum immortalium
excepti lege censoria negabant immortalis esse ullos qui aliquando homines fuissent.
Cf. Cic., Div. 1.40 (88): Amphiaraum autem sic honoravit fama Graeciae, deus
ut habetur, atque ut ab eius solo, in quo est humatus, oracula peterentur, As for
Amphiaraos, his reputation in Greece was such that he was honoured as a god,
and oracular responses were sought in the place where he was buried (tr. W. A.
Falconer, Loeb, 1923).
25 Schachter, Cults of Boiotia, vol. I = BICS, Suppl. 38.1 (London, 1981), p. 25.
26 Paus. 6.9.6 8: . . . 8. ż{ żą ńu ąą t w ą ąw U ąż ! } żźu
ż ꥹąą{ , C w ąą ąźś ż a żP s ą x y ą. żźu ą źr żV
ż ꥹąą Ąx ż{ ż ąźp [] a % ńó . Cf. H. W. Parke and D. E. W.
reading pausanias 383
A more famous athlete, Theagenes of Thasos, won no less than one
thousand four hundred crowns, according to Pausanias. When he
died, one of his enemies insulted his statue every night until he died in
turn, killed by the falling statue. The son of the dead man prosecuted
the statue for murder. When Theagenes was condemned, the Thasians
threw his statue into the sea. In the course of time, the earth yielded
no crops to the Thasians and the oracle of Delphi instructed them to
retrieve the exiles. Among them, Theagenes statue had to be recov-
ered, a problem resolved by chance during a fishing expedition. The
statue was then erected in its original position and the Thasians estab-
lished sacrifices to Theagenes as if he were a god.27 Pausanias states in
a conclusion on this subject that he knew of many other places, among
both Greeks and barbarians, where images of Theagenes were erected.
He cures diseases and receives honours from the natives. 28 Since
Kleomedes and Theagenes were contemporaries, the time factor is not
relevant in their respective cases. What is at stake is the geographical
extent of Theagenes protection and benevolence, which is essential
for the recognition of this figure as divine. Kleomedes forever remains
an Astypalaian hero, whose excessive deeds must be contained and
controlled by an appropriate cult within his own community.
Accordingly, the status of all these supra-human figures poses a
theological problem, to which scholars like Cicero or Plutarch pro-
posed philosophical solutions. Pausanias position is different, as
far as his main interest focuses on local practice, even expanded by
some information acquired in a library. He echoes local claims, such
as we were the first of the Greeks to consider and honour Herakles,
Amphiaraos, and so on, as a god , or some Delphic oracles that
specify the status of an angry dead person and the cult he deserves.
Except in the case of Asklepios, Pausanias does not very often qualify
such a statement. Nevertheless, the authoritative statement of the
Arcadian book implies that, for him, a long-lived local tradition and
great vitality in worship are important factors that attest to the divine
dimension of a hero. The geographical extension of a cult is another
criterion, be it a multiplication of places of cult, as for Asklepios and
Theagenes, or the foreign dimension of the audience, as in the case of
Trophonios and perhaps Amphiaraos. Geographical extent, however,
Wormell, The Delphic Oracle. II: The Oracular Responses (Oxford: Blackwell,
1956), pp. 38 9, no. 88.
27 Paus. 6.11.8: żźw śżą { ą. Cf. J. Pouilloux, ThognŁs de Thasos . . .
quarante ans aprŁs , BCH 118 (1994), pp. 199 206 at 204.
28 Paus. 6.11.9: Ążążć r ąv s ńą ą ż6 ą ąv Ąąńp ąńq ńżą
łq źąą 1 ńźs ą Śąłs ż ąv żu źąq ąP x 0 } źż ąv żą Ąąńp
Ąąńw ąźq .
384 vinciane pirenne-delforge
is not enough without the time element, as attested by his scepticism
about Theagenes.29
DEITIES WITHOUT ANY DISCUSSION
Local claims are also present in the appropriation of figures whose
divinity is not a matter of discussion. The same objective is at stake:
to be the first community to have worshipped a divinity. The example
of Eileithyia in the first and third book of the Periegesis is significant.
In book 1, Pausanias is in Athens, near the Prytaneion. A temple
of Eileithyia had been built very close by. According to Pausanias,
Eileithyia was coming to Delos from the Hyperborean land when
the goddess Leto was pregnant and ready to give birth to the twins
Artemis and Apollo. According to the local tradition, Delian people
taught the others Eileithyia s name.30 Sacrifices and a very old hymn
were the components of her worship on the island. Afterwards,
Pausanias refers to the Cretan tradition of Eileithyia s birth (the child
of Hera) in Amnisos, near Knossos. Finally, he gives some informa-
tion on the Athenian iconographic type of the goddess statues. Two
of them are Cretan, consecrated by Phaedra. The oldest was brought
by Erysichthon from Delos.
In this passage concerning the cult of Eileithyia, Delos is the place
where the divine identification was made. The goddess name came
from this place, where she appeared in a remote past and where she
had been honoured for a long time. Such a description is a narrative
transposition of the expression x żźw śą, as confirmed by another
passage in book 3. Visiting the Spartan sanctuary of Eileithyia,
Pausanias refers to the local tradition of the cult s origin. The sanctu-
ary was built and Eileithyia was considered and honoured as a god
after an oracle was given in Delphi. Presumably, Apollo was asked:
To which god or goddess is it necessary to sacrifice in that circum-
stance? , and the god s answer was a name and the recommendation
for worshipping a specific goddess whose honours had to be inaugu-
rated in the community.
In his passage on the Athenian Eileithyia, Pausanias might well
have been influenced by Herodotus. First of all, he gives more credit
29 Compare IG XI 2.1109, l. 8 17 = LSCG 83: . . . D ż ńąw ż żć źąw ż
ąv Ąńżąźźs ż ąp Ąńżły , Ąąńąłążźs r ąv s Ąąy Ąv x
ńu ńąż, because of the antiquity of the oracle and its high reputation enjoyed
for generations and also because it is visited by foreigners in large number , tr.
adapted from E. Stavrianoupoulou, Kernos, Suppl. 16 (LiŁge: CIERGA, 2006),
pp. 137 38.
30 Paus. 1.18.5: żz r ż Ąąń ąP ąą Ć 0 ąw ą źą x D żźą.
reading pausanias 385
to Herodotus than to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, since the historian
seems to associate Eileithyia with the Hyperborean land and not with
Mount Olympos as the hymn does.31 Secondly, the D żźą that is, the
name of Eileithyia which the Delian people taught to the rest of the
world could refer to Herodotus second book, where he discusses
the origin of Greek gods. Within the undetermined divine world, the
Pelasgoi worshipped generic żw . Afterwards, under Egyptian influ-
ence, Greeks gave names to the gods and the divine world acquired
its Greek configuration (Herod. 2.50). Without addressing the huge
problem of the Herodotean ounomata,32 divine names , it seems that
the authoritative representation of the origins of Greek religion deliv-
ered by Herodotus might have been present when Pausanias wrote
that Delians taught the others Eileithyia s name. The expression
clearly implies cult-spreading based on theonymic knowledge. Such
spreading was also assumed by the Delphic oracle, as confirmed by
the Spartan tradition of Eileithyia s cult. The expression x żźw śą
for a real goddess is unique in the Periegesis, where it usually refers
to a change of status. The application of the expression to Eileithyia
clearly shows, however, that the mechanisms of ranking or cult inau-
guration may be described by this single expression.
SEARCHING FOR SOME THEOLOGY
If we try to search for some theology in ancient Greek religion, that
is, definitions concerning its gods, we can find it in passages such as
these, whether they concern the early cult for Eileithyia, the divinity of
Asklepios or the impressive deification of Herakles. It would be inter-
esting to know what kind of arguments the defenders of the Oropians
put forward to convince the Roman Senate that Amphiaraos was a
god. Although we are given no information, we can perhaps surmise
that a long-lasting veneration based on an epiphany and on the quality
of his oracular and therapeutic expertise were part of it.
For Pausanias, gods are present from the beginning, ńĆ , even
though their identification by name in a specific community is a matter
of time or circumstance. Other gods, born from human beings , żv
ń} Ą, justify their rank by an old veneration, connecting them
31 H.h.Apoll. 97 101; Hdt. 4.35.6.
32 For example: A. B. Lloyd, Herodotus Book II: Commentary 1 98 (Leiden: Brill,
1976), pp. 203 5; W. Burkert, Herodot ber die Namen der Gtter: Polytheismus
als historisches Problem , Museum Helveticum 43 (1985), pp. 121 32; T. Harrison,
Divinity and History: The Religion of Herodotus (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000), pp. 251 64; J. Gould, Myth, Ritual Memory, and Exchange (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2001), pp. 359 77 ( Herodotus and Religion , 1996) at 374 5.
386 vinciane pirenne-delforge
to bygone days, when gods and men could meet and interact. As for
the others that is to say, all those local heroes deeply rooted in the
human condition, and the powerful people of the time who were
honoured as though they were gods they have another ranking.
Another passage in book 8 confirms such a point of view. The text
is well known and has often been commented upon. Pausanias refers
to a theogonic story told by the Arcadians. Rhea had given birth to
Poseidon and hidden him among some lambs. The goddess declared
to Kronos that she had given birth to a horse and gave him a foal to
swallow instead of the child, just as she did later to save Zeus himself.
Pausanias says:
When I began to write my synthesis,33 I was inclined to count
these stories as foolishness, but on getting as far as Arcadia I
grew to hold a more thoughtful view of them, which is this. In the
days of old, those Greeks who were considered wise spoke their
sayings not straight out but in riddles, and so the stories about
Kronos I conjectured to be one sort of Greek wisdom. In matters
of divinity, therefore, I shall adopt the received tradition.34
Speaking of foolishness, Pausanias points to a well-defined category:
these logoi are stories referring to gods. The pious Pausanias, just
as Xenophanes many centuries earlier, does not subscribe literally to
such a conception of the divine. But the confrontation with ancestral
Arcadian traditions changes his opinion regarding the understanding
of these stories. I do not have time to go deeper into the interpretation
of such an Arcadian conversion here I have done so elsewhere but
this statement shows the different ways in which Pausanias refers to
Greek logoi. On the one hand, there is fiction (źżżłu źąą), which
means stories referring to human actions including the heroic sphere.
As Pausanias says, Those who like to listen to the miraculous are
themselves apt to add to the marvel, and so they ruin truth by mixing
it with falsehood (8.2.7). On the other hand, there is the register of the
enigmatic, which means hidden discourse about the divine. As far as
fiction is concerned, several levels and various criteria of plausibility
33 For this meaning of łłńąu , see Pirenne-Delforge, Retour ą la source,
pp. 23 40.
34 Paus. 8.8.2 3 (translation adapted from W. H. S. Jones): ż{ żą u ł|
ż y łżą ńy źż źr Ć łłńąĆ P w ą źż Ąs ż, r p ńq
Ąńż| Ąńy żąą Ąńv ąP żąq q źąż u żz żźąśżźs ż
żżz ąż ą0 ąłźq Ąq ąą ąv żP żć P s ż s łą żz y łż, ąv p
0 ńźs ą żV x ńy ż żw ą 6 ąw ąą 4 ąśż u . źr t x
ż < >! y ż 0 ńźs żą ńy źą. < >! y is a correction pro-
posed by Habicht, Pausanias Guide, pp. 156 7 n. 65.
reading pausanias 387
are applicable. As far as gods are concerned, Pausanias suspends
judgement: In matters of divinity, therefore, I shall adopt the received
tradition. 35
Let us return to Oropos to conclude. Amphiaraos was a problem
for the publicani who saw him as a man of the past. For the Oropians,
the tradition of his epiphany and the quality of his therapeutic exper-
tise were old enough to justify the most favourable ranking. For
Cicero, Amphiaraos was a good object to think about in a philo-
sophical discussion about figures that were absent from Rome s divine
background. For Pausanias, he belonged to the second rank: a x
ń} Ąż, due to long-lasting veneration. As Amphiaraos was a god,
even of a second rank, Pausanias did not comment upon the Oropian
stories about him: he adopted the received tradition and transmit-
ted this to his readers without any critical statement. Conversely, in
Troezen, in front of the place where Semele was thought to have been
brought out of the Underworld by Dionysos, Pausanias decisively
states that he cannot even bring himself to believe that Semele died at
all, seeing that she was the wife of Zeus.36 We may suppose that what
was at stake was not Semele herself but the rank of Dionysos: a god
ńĆ , a god of the first level, whose mother did not even die and
whose wife became a goddess as soon as he married her.
In Pausanias Periegesis, we find gods (żw ), gods born from
human beings (żv ń} Ą), heroes of old or heroes of yester-
day. We also find the gods of his time, born from flattery. All these
figures offer a broad range of possibilities for reflection on divinity
and supra-human status. My focus was Pausanias, but I do believe
that his insider/outsider perspective gives us a lot of material to ques-
tion afresh some of the main theological issues of the Greek system.
Regarding religion, the Periegesis is much more than a convenient
databank of Greek cults and sanctuaries.
35 Paus. 8.8.3. This statement deserves close analysis. I address the problem elsewhere:
Pirenne-Delforge, Retour ą la source, pp. 71 2 and Under which conditions did
the Greeks believe in their myths? The religious criteria of adherence , in Chr.
Walde, U. Dill (eds), Antike Mythen, Medien, Transformationen, Konstruktionen.
Festschriften fr Fritz Graf (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009), pp. 38 54.
36 Paus. 2.31.2: ł| r Łźs źr żP r Ążą ńt Ąw żźąą "ąy ł żV ą
łą ą.
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