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The Cults of Olbia (Part I.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

G. M. Hirst
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Extract

The object of the present essay is to bring together whatever fragments of evidence we possess which may throw light upon the cults of Olbia, the colony founded by the Milesians at the mouth of the Borysthenes about 647 B.C. But by way of preface it may be worth while briefly to indicate the claims that Olbia has to be the subject of special study. All the Greek settlements on the North coast of the Euxine must have had in common many traits which marked them off from Greek colonies elsewhere, but Olbia, while in many respects it may be regarded as a typical city of the locality, was also undoubtedly possessed of an individuality of its own.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 22 , November 1902 , pp. 245 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1902

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References

1 So Eusebius (Hieron.). Cp. Busolt, , Gr. Gesch. ii.2 p. 483Google Scholar, note 4. Holm, (History of Greece, English trans., i. 296)Google Scholar, says: ‘The dates of the founding of the eastern colonies [of Miletus] require fresh investigation.’ The date above given may however be considered as approximately correct. See Strabo, vii. 306.

2 Gr. Gesch. i. 194, 5.

3 iv. 28.

4 iv. 53.

5 Travels of Madame de Hell, p. 56, quoted by Rawlinson, on Herod. iv. 53.

6 Herod. iv. 79.

7 Latyschev, , Inscr. Antiq. Orae Septerdr Pont. Eux. i. 145Google Scholar. Loewy, , Inschr. Gr. Bildhauer, 76a. P. 383Google Scholar, quotes this inscription from Latyschev, and approves the identification. He notes that Pliny, (N.H. xxxvi. 22)Google Scholar, mentions an Eros of Praxiteles at Parion in the Propontis. The letters of this inscription are of the fourth century B.C. Cp. Lat. iv. 82, a marble basis from Chersonesus, inscribed Πολυκράτης ἐπόησε with Latyschev's note.

8 Xenophon, , Anab. vii. 5, 14Google Scholar.

9 Bergk, , Lyrici Gr. 48Google Scholar. B, quoted by Kustath., ad Dionys. Per. 306Google Scholar.

10 Nem. iv. 49.

11 Mémoires sur les îles el la course consacrées à Achille dans le Pont Euxin. St. Pétersbourg, 1827. (Mémoires de l'Acad. Imp. des Sciences, Sér. v. vol. x.)

12 iv. 59.

13 iv. 78, 79.

14 Stephani, Compte-Rendit, (passim); Antiq. du Bosp. Cimm., Pl. 45, 46 (vase of Xenophantos).

15 Pauly-Wissowa, , Real-Encycl. i., p. 240Google Scholar.

16 Greek Hist. (Engl. transl.), i. chap. xxi. p. 275.

17 Gr. Gesch. i. chap. vi. p. 193, note 2; Busolt, , Gr. Gesch. ii.2, p. 482Google Scholar; Strabo, xii. 546.

18 Journal of Hellenic Studies (1884), vol. 5, p. 16.

19 Der Ep. Cyclus ii. p. 221.

20 Pausan., iii. 19, 11.

21 See Holm, i. p. 117.

22 Odyssey, xii. 69, 70.

23 Agam. 1390.

24 Electra, 531, 2.

25 Pyth. xi. 22.

26 Assuming that the latter part of Iph. in Aul. is from Euripides' hand.

27 Iph. in Aul., 1405, 6.

28 See Wilamowitz, , Hermes, xviii. (1883), 250Google Scholar.

29 Herod, iv. 59–62, alluded to ahove.

30 Latyschev, i. 16, B.

31 Sylloge,2 226.

32 Orat, xxxvi.

33 Herod. iv. 17.

34 Also the fragmentary one given by Lat. i. 19, and assigned hy him to the second century B.C., which seems to contain the name of Apollo.

35 Lat. ii. 6, 10, 15, 348.

36 Beschreibung der Antiken Münzen, Berlin 1888, vol. 1, No. 124 in the series of coins of Olbia.

37 Thrakische Münzbilder, Jahrbuch d. Deutschen Arch. Instil., xiii. (1898), Pl. x. 31.

38 Through the courtesy of Dr. H. Dressel of the Berlin Museum, I have obtained easts of coin 124 (as well as of others referred to below). From the cast it appears even more clearly than from the illustration given by Pick, that the head-dress is undoubtedly the calathus.

39 See Roseher's, Lexicon, i.1452Google Scholar.

40 Gardner, P., Types of Greek Coins, p. 68Google Scholar, et seq.

41 Lat. i. 50–74, iv. 15, 16.

42 It may be noted here that it is from the last two words of this inscription that the title, otherwise unknown, of Apollo Ithyporos has been evolved. Boeckh, C.I.G. 2072Google Scholar, reads the last eight letters of the inscription as Ι⊙ΥΠΟΡΥ Latyschev, in his comments on this inscription, points out that the dedication is to Apollo Προστάης and adds, ‘Jam igitur valere jubeamus necesse est Apollinem ilium Ithyporum, qui Koehlero duce in omnes libros et commentationes de Olbia scriptas irrepsit.’

43 For references to stones or representations of deities, see Frazer's note on Paus. x. 16, 3; and for Apollo in particular, Aristoph., Wasps. 875Google Scholar. These representations not infrequently occur on coins, e.g. coin of Ambrakia: Head, , Hist. Num., p. 270, fig. 181Google Scholar; and coin of Imhoof-Blumer, Megara and Gardner, , Num. Comm. on Paus., J.H.S., vi. (1885) p. 55Google Scholar. Also Evans, , Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, J.H.S. xxi. (1901) i. p. 173Google Scholar, fig. 49.

44 No. 135 in Berlin Catalogue.

45 See Prof.Gardner, P., Countries and Cities in Anc. Art, J.H.S. ix. (1888) p. 51Google Scholar.

46 Meid. 531.

47 An Attic monument quoted by Welcker, (Gr. Götterlehre, vol. i. p. 496)Google Scholar, links these titles, C.I.G., 465.

48 C.I.A. ii. 390, 392, 408, 417, 431, 432, 459.

49 Lat. i. 185.

50 Gr. Myth, i.1 p. 276, sq.

51 See Wernicke's, article, Pauly-Wissowa, , Real-Encycl. i. p. 54Google Scholar.

52 Zeituchr. f. Num. 5, 108.

53 Bull. Corr. Hell. 2, 508, 2.

54 Jahrbuch, loc. cit. Pl. x. 29, 30.

55 loc. cit. Pl. x. 26–28.

56 Strabo, 7, 6, 1; Pliny, , N.H. 34, 39Google Scholar; Appian, , Illyr. 30Google Scholar.

57 Dumont, , Mél. d' Arch. p. 459Google Scholar, n. Ill, d 7.

58 Monuments et Mémoires, Fond. Piot. tome 2, 57–79, Pl. vii.

59 Die Antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands, i. 1, Pl. xi. 20.

60 Pick, loc. cit., Pl. ix. 17, 18.

61 Scholiast on Pindar, , Nem. v. 81Google Scholar.

62 Paus., ii. 32, 2.

63 Ant. du Bosp. Cimm., Pl. 45, 46.

64 Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, J.H.S. 1901, vol. xxi. part. 1.

65 Daremberg-Saglio. s.v. Gryphon.

66 Pindar, , Olymp. iii. 17Google Scholar.

67 ὑπέκ. Herod., iii. 116Google Scholar.

68 Furtwängler, , Arch. Zeit. 1882, p. 332Google Scholar.

69 Ctesias, , Indica, 12, ed. Bähr, Google Scholar.

70 viii. 2, 7.

71 iv. 33–35.

72 Early Age of Greece, i. p. 368.

73 viii. 21, 3.

74 x. 5, 7.

75 See references in Pauly-Wissowa, , sub ii.1 p. 44Google Scholar, to cults of Apollo under this title.

76 Quoted by Himerius. See Bergk, , P.L.G. iii. p. 146Google Scholar.

77 Compare Cic., , Tusc. i., 30, 73Google Scholar, (quoting from Plato, , Phaedo, 85Google Scholar B.) ‘Itaque commemorat ut cygni, qui non sine causa Apollini dicati sint, sed quod ab eo divinationem habere videantuv, qua providentes quid in morte boni sit cum cantu et voluptate moriantur, sic omnibus bonis et doctis esse faciendum.’ Also see Preller-Robert, , Gr. Myth., i.1 p. 243Google Scholar.

78 Two of these (Lat. ii. 7, 20), are of the fourth century B.C.; the other (Lat. ii. 13), to Demeter Θεσμοφόρος of the third century B.C.

79 For some beautiful-representations of these vases, see the Compte-Rendu, passim.

80 iv. 53.

81 Cp. Preller-Robert, . Gr. Myth. i.2 p. 754Google Scholar. For other references to worship of Demeter in Ionian cities, see Herod., vi. 16 (Ephesus); ix. 97 (Miletus); Strabo, xiv. 633; Dittenberger, , Sylloge 2655Google Scholar; I.G.A. 501; Diog. Laert., ix. 43; Athen, ii. p. 46, F.

82 Gr. Myth. i.2 p. 781.

83 See C.I.A. i. 9, 13, ii. 49, b. 578.

84 Hist. Num. p. 233.

85 No. 30, Taf. ii. 18. Similar to Pick's example, Pl. ix. 18, though not the same coin.

86 Musée du Prince Kotschoubey, i. p. 64, 65.

87 La Monnaie dans ľ Antiquité, i. p. 158.

88 B. M. Cat. Pontus, P. 95 et seq, Pl. xxi. xxii.

89 If the dorsal fin is really the decisive feature, perhaps it may help to decide the question of the fish-shaped coins of Olbia in favour of Mr. G. F. Hill's alternative explanation—that they are degenerate representations of pigs of bronze, as a pig of metal was sometimes called δελφίς (cp. French saumon), (Handbook of Gr. and Rom. Coins, p. 3). The most marked characteristic of these fish-shaped pieces is the dorsal fin just behind the head.

90 Note that Von Sallet describes the head of a fish, which appears with a grain of corn as the reverse type of No. 83 in the Berlin catalogue, as a sturgeon's. Apollo's head is on the obverse of this coin, which is the same as Pick, Pl. ix. 14, and is of very good style.

91 The tunnies on the altar from Cyzicus described by Mr.Hasluck, (J.H.S. xxii. (1902), p. 128)Google Scholar, were recognized as such by peasants on the spot; it would be interesting to know if a South Russian peasant would identify the Olbian coin-type as a sturgeon. The fish on Pick's Pl. ix. 3, also ix. 22, is not at all like the typical dolphin that appears, e.g. on coins of Tarentum. (See Gardner's Types of Greek Coins, Pl. i. 22, etc.)

92 Similar to No. 1 in the Brit. Mus. Cat., given in fig. 4, where the fish seems to resemble the sturgeon rather than the dolphin.

93 Pick, Pl. x. 1–4. Pl. x. 1 is No. 119 in the Berlin catalogue, and is given in the accompanying figure 5. Is the choice of the archer as reverse type significant of local feeling, like the bow and battle-axe on the Borysthenes series?

94 Especially in Cyprus, see Farnell, , Gk. Cults, ii. p. 704Google Scholar.

95 E.g. on coins of Amasteis in Paphlagonia, eaily third century B.C. See B. M. Cat. (Pontus).

96 Farnell, , Gk. Cults, ii. p. 585Google Scholar.

97 Von Sallct says under coin No. 4 (Berlin Cat.) Taf. i. 6. ‘Artemis, as City-Goddess, seems here to resemble Tyche, as very probably Demeter on the copper coins of Oltiia (with the archer as reverse).’

98 The two kinds of mural crowns should of course be carefully distinguished, that belonging to the Tyche type, and the much heavier one with the veil, worn by Cybele. A reference to the accompanying figures will make this clear. See also De Koehne on this point (loc. cit. p. 68). He sets the date of these Olbian coins at 250–200 B.C., just at the time when the personification of the Tyche of the City was becoming common throughout the Greek world.

99 i. 107.

100 ii. 17.

101 Pl. x. No. 35.

102 loc. cit. p. 66.

103 loc. cit. p. 67.

104 By pheidias according to Paus. i. 3, 5. and Arrian; according to Pliny, (N.H. 36, 17)Google Scholar, by Agoracritus. It represented the goddess with a cymbal in her hand, and lions under her chair.

105 Peripl., p. 9.

106 Stephani, , Herakl., p. 67Google Scholar.

107 Verg., Aen. vii. 785Google Scholar, Ovid, , Fast. iv. 219Google Scholar. See Jahn, O., Arch. Zeit. 1864, 174Google Scholar, A. 3, who says the tower-crown probably came from Asia to Greece (Böttiger, , Kunst. Myth. i. p. 286)Google Scholar; when it became prevalent is not known. See also Mr.Evans, A. J., Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, J.H.S. vol. xxi. (1901), p. 166Google Scholar.