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Heracles Thasios
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
Extract
The excavations of Thasos conducted with patience and skill by the École Françhise d'Athènes since 1911 brought to light many important documents enriching largely our knowledge of the political, economic and religious history of this island. Many interesting papers and books have been published on different subjects dealing with ancient Thasos; others are in preparation. It is a real pleasure for the historian of Greek religion to find in these publications numerous documents of a religious character. They are of course fragmentary and difficult to interpret, but nevertheless extremely important. And one must be grateful to the editors for their laborious efforts to present them to us in a comprehensible form.
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- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1956
References
1 Picard, Ch., Un rituel archaique du culte de l'Héraclès Thasien, Bull. Corr. Hell. XLVII (1923), pp. 241–274CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Seyrig, H., Quatre cultes de Thasos, Bull. Corr. Hell. LI (1927), pp. 185–198Google Scholar. Launey, M., Le verger d'Héraclès de Thasos, Bull. Corr. Hell. LXI (1937), pp. 380–409CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Martin, R., Un nouveau règlement de culte de Thasos, Bull. Corr. Hell. LXIV–LXV (1940–1941), pp. 163–200Google Scholar. Launey, M., Le sanctuaire et le culte d'Héraclès à Thasos, Études Thasiennes I, Paris 1944Google Scholar. Pouilloux, J., Recherches sur l'histoire et les cultes de Thasos, Paris, 1954Google Scholar.
2 Harv. Theol. Rev. XLVII (1954), p. 158Google Scholar.
3 Ch. Picard, op. cit., p. 242; Suppl. Ep. Gr. II, 505; I G XII, suppl. 414.
4 Her. II, 44; Paus. II, 10, 1.
5 Bull. Corr. Hell. LXI (1937), pp. 381–382Google Scholar.
6 Op. cit. p. 138.
7 Amer. Journ. Arch. LII (1948), pp. 299–301Google Scholar.
8 Harv. Theol. Rev. XXXVII (1944), pp. 145–147Google Scholar.
9 Op. cit. p. 89, n. 2.
10 Leg. Gr. Sacr. I, 4, 23–24 (Syll.31024); I G XII, suppl. 353, 414. Pouilloux, op. cit., p. 32, n°. 10.
11 Leg. Gr. Sacr. I, p. 17; Syll.31024 n. 18. Cf. Stengel, Opferbräuche, p. 132.
12 Leg. Gr. Sacr. II, 29, 11 foll.; My Lois sacrées de l'Asie mineure n°. 39, 24. Cf. n°. 32, 56; 70, 6.
13 Cf. Puttkammer, F., Quo modo Graeci victimarum carnes distribuerint, Königsberg 1911, p. 15Google Scholar foll.
14 My Lois sacrées n°. 72, 41–44.
15 Leg. Gr. Sacr. II, 29, 11 foll.
16 Athen. VI, 235 b: τὸ μὲν τρίτον μέρος εὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα τὰ δὲ δύο μέρη, τὸ μὲν ἕτερον τῷ ίερεῖ, τὸ δὲ τοῖς παρασίτοις. Cf. Jahresh. VIII (1905), p. 161, 1. 18 foll.
17 Cf. Ziehen, , RE XVIII (1949), pp. 1378–1380Google Scholar. Deneken, F., De Theoxeniis, Berlin 1881, p. 26Google Scholar. Gruppe, RE, III Supplb. (1918), p. 924; Hug, RE XII (1924), p. 1109. Eitrem, , Symb. Osl. X (1932), pp. 37–38Google Scholar. Nock, A. D., Harv. Theol. Rev. XXXVII (1944), p. 152Google Scholar, n. 40. The sale-contract of the Heracles priesthood of Chios contains the following stipulation: If the priest is absent, the others called ὦν αἱ λόγχαι replace him in assisting the sacrifice, Leg. Gr. Sacr. II, 113, 12–13. The term λόγχη is explained by the lexicographers as “portion, part,” which is received at banquets. The above mentioned substitutes seem to be parasites of Heracles. Diodoros the comedian informs us, that in a certain city, probably Athens, 12 men were chosen for the celebrating of the banquet of Heracles, Athen. VI, 229 d. The parasites were familiar figures in the cult of Heracles in Kynosarges, Athen. VI, 234 e. In the cult of Athena Pallenis there were three parasites chosen from the demes, Athen. VI, 234–235 (Cf. Schlaifer, R., Harv. Stud, in Class. Philol. LIV (1943), p. 35–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar). They helped in collecting the contributions for the feast and took an official part at the banquet. According to the so-called king's law, they received portions from the parts of meat reserved to them and banqueted in the temple. Incidentally I should like to suggest the following reading of Athen. VI, 235 c: τοὶς δὲ παρασίτους ἐκ τῆς βοὸς κοιλέας ἐκλέγειν 〈καὶ μερίδας〉 ἐκ τοῦ μέρους τοῦ ἑαυτῶν 〈καὶ〉 ἐκτέα κριθῶν. For the κοιλίαι cf. Syll.31025, 51; Arist. Equit. 160; Plut. 1169. I suggest also the following reading in the lease-document of Heracles' garden of Thasos, I G XII, suppl. 353, 10: ὅπως ἃν … ἐ]νατευθῆι δτι δ᾽ἃν ἀπόσταθμον γίνηται, τῶμ μὲν [ἐξαιρεθέντων τῶι ἱερεῖ καὶ τοῖς … τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν δώ]ςει τοῖς πολεμάρχοις.
18 Op. cit., p. 369.
19 I G XII. 8,361.
20 Cf. Th. Wächter, Reinheitsvorschriften, p. 83, 87.
21 Cf. Syll.31024, 9. My Lois sacrées n°. 42, A 3; 72, 41.
22 Cf. Athen. IV, 137 e. Perhaps the reading ἐις τὰ ἀρχεῖα, Athen. VI, 235 c, should be retained. It seems to be an allusion to the ξενισμός of Apollon. Cf. R. Schlaifer, op. cit. p. 61.
23 Pouilloux, op. cit. p. 97.
24 During the θεοξένια in Paros a public banquet was prepared for the people, I G XII, 5, 129.
25 I see the same details in the fragmentary regulation of Heracles' cult in Milet, My Lois sacrées n°. 42, A, B. In the text A we see the interdiction of eating: οὐ βρῶσις. In the text B the sacrifice of ox supposes the banquet. The interdiction seems to prohibit the public banquet not the ξενισμός of Heracles.
26 Bull. Corr. Hell. LXIV-LXV (1940–1941), p. 166f.
27 Symb. Osl. X (1932), p. 38Google Scholar.
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