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The ‘Proskynesis’ and the Hellenistic Ruler Cult

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Lily Ross Taylor
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Extract

When a Persian came into the presence of the great king he greeted his lord by a form of salutation which the Greeks denoted by the verb προσκυνεῖν and the noun προσκύνησις. The verb, a compound of κυνεῖν, to kiss, means ‘to send a kiss toward.’ It is the word used to describe the commonest Greek act of devotion to a god—the custom of bringing the hand to the mouth and wafting a kiss toward the image of a god. This act, represented on a number of Attic vase paintings, was commonly performed by the Greeks and Romans when they passed the numerous images and shrines of the gods along their streets. Under the guise of performing the proskynesis to Poseidon, Demosthenes is said to have deceived the emissaries of Antipater and to have brought the poison to his lips. The idea of the kiss as a concrete sign of worship is originally strong in the word and usually persists in it, though sometimes the meaning seems to be little more than to worship. The use of the word to describe the Persian greeting indicates that the Greek saw in the salutation of the king a kind of cult kiss. By a custom familiar in the East from very ancient times until to-day, the subject threw himself on the ground to perform the salutation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , 1927 , pp. 53 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1927

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References

1 See the illustrations in Saglio's excellent article, Adoratio (the Latin equivalent of proskynesis), in Daremberg and Saglio. On the meaning of the word see Stephanus and compare Schnabel, discussion, Klio, xix. (1923–1925), pp. 118 ff.Google Scholar

2 Lucian, , Demosth. Encom. 49.Google Scholar

3 Herod. vii. 136; cf. Xen. Anab. iii. 2, 13; Plut. Artax. 22; Nepos, , Corion 3.Google Scholar

4 See Kaerst, , Geschichte des Hellenismus, I 2, pp. 293 ff.Google Scholar; Meyer, Eduard, Alexander der Grosse und die absolute Monarchie, Kleine Schriften, I 1, pp. 283 ff.Google Scholar; Bevan, s.v. Deification, Hastings, E.R.E.

5 Weissbach, , Die Keilinschriften der Achaemeniden (1911).Google Scholar

6 On the origin of the type see Meyer's, Eduard important discussion, Reich und Kultur der Chetiter, (1914), pp. 29–36.Google Scholar

7 See Meyer, Kleine Schriften and Kaerst, I.c.

8 See Plutarch, comments, Artaxerxes, 1, 6, 11.Google Scholar Though Plutarch usually doubts Ktesias's reliability, he has confidence in him in the Artaxerxes because of his special opportunities for securing direct knowledge. See Jacoby, s.v. Ktesias, Pauly-Wissowa.

9 Athenaeus, vi. p. 252. F.H.G. i. p. 301.

10 Theopompus was born in 376. He published the Philippica, from which this citation comes, after 324. For the evidence see Christ, , Griechische Literaturgeschichte, i. (6th ed.), pp. 531 ff.Google Scholar

11 In connection with the worship of the king's daimon the evidence for the celebration of the Persian king's birthday may be important. Cf. Plato, , Alcibiades, i. 121 C.Google Scholarέπειδὰν δέ γένηται ὁ πς In Greek and Roman belief the birthday was the day when the daimon was strongest. See Schmidt, , Geburtstag im Altertum, R.G.V.V. vii.Google Scholar But public celebrations of rulers' birthdays are too commonly attested to justify one in drawing any definite conclusions from this evidence. Similarly inconclusive is the reference to the daimon in the address of the chorus to Atossa in the Persae, though the passage is an excellent indication that the Greeks believed that the Persians worshipped their rulers. Cf. Aeschylus, , Persae, 157–8Google Scholar:

12 Appian, , Mithridates, 66.Google Scholar In the description of the king's to we find these words:

13 Arrian, , Anab. vi. 29Google Scholar, where Aristobulus seems to be the source of the whole account. After the description of the monument and of the chamber containing the king's body comes the following account of the cult at the tomb:

14 Le Zend-Avesta, translation of Darmesteter, in Annales du Musée Guimet, 1892–1894.Google Scholar See Jackson, s.v. Avesta, E.R.E. On Persian religion see Pettazzoni, , La Religione di Zarathustra nella storia religiosa dell'Iran (1920)Google Scholar; Huart, , La Perse Antique (1926), pp. 96–103Google Scholar; Gray, G. B., in Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. IV. (1926), pp. 205 ff.Google Scholar

15 They are suggestive in explaining many of the puzzling problems of Greek and Roman cult; for example, the ancient identification of Lar and Genius and the use of Genius and more often of the Greek agathos daimon for the dead as well as the living.

16 See Darmesteter, op. cit. i. 188. In the Avesta, Yasna 26 and Yasht 13 are devoted to the fravashis.

17 The fravashi of the king Vishtaspa who shielded Zoroaster (identified by some with the father of Darius, but probably belonging to a much earlier period) is frequently mentioned. The names of the Achaemenidae do not occur at all in the Avesta. On the fravashis see the following articles in Hastings: Fravashi, by Moulton: Ancestor Worship, Iranian, by Lehmann; Zoroastrianism, by Carnoy. See also Moulton, , Early Zoroastrianism, London (1912)Google Scholar, Lecture VIII; Söderblom, , Rev. Hist. Rel. xxxix. (1899), pp. 229 ff., 373 ff.Google Scholar; Clemen, , Die griechischen und lateinischen Nachrichten über persische Religion in R.G.V.V. xvii (1920)Google Scholar, index, s.v. fravashi.

18 See Jackson, s.v. Art, Persian, in Hastings. As Söderblom notes, op. cit., p. 409, these figures correspond to the light and airy nature of the fravashis as described in the Avesta. See, however, the evidence he cites for inscriptions beside two figures of this type which have been thought to preserve a form of the name Auramazda.

19 See Meyer's, Eduard discussion of the type, Reich und Kultur der Chetiter, pp. 29–36.Google Scholar Is it possible that the figure on Assyrian royal monuments is also not the god Assur but the king's double? After all, the belief in spirits is universal, and a form of ruler cult that makes use of it is not impossible even under the jurisdiction of the jealous gods that characterised the local monotheism of the Semitic peoples.

20 I have had the good fortune to be able to discuss with Professor Franz Cumont this point and several others connected with Persian religion.

21 Against the belief that the Achaemenidae were Zoroastrians see Pettazzoni, op. cit., ch. iv.; in favour of their Zoroastrian connections see Meyer, Eduard, Ursprung und Anfänge des Christentums, ii. (1921), pp. 58 ff.Google Scholar

22 Practically all the evidence that has been cited for the cult of the Persian kings is found in the admirable articles of Rapp, , Die Religion und Sitte der Perser und übrigen Iraniër nach den griechischen und römischen Quellen, Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, xix. (1865), pp. 1–89Google Scholar, especially pp. 68–9; xx. (1866), pp. 49–140. See also Cumont, , Les Mystères de Mithra,3 p. 94.Google Scholar

23 Pfister, , D.L.Z. 1909, col. 1486 ff.Google Scholar See the same writer's Reliquienkult im Altertum, R.G.V.V., v. passim, and his article Kultus, Pauly-Wissowa, esp. col. 2125 ff.

24 Papiri della Societa Italiana, iv. 361 (dated under Ptolemy Philadelphus, 251—0 B.C.): The oath is a private one and does not correspond to the official form. It is therefore all the more important as an indication of popular belief that it was by the king's daimon that men swore. See also Aegyptische Urkunden aus den Museen zu Berlin, Griechische Urkunden, v. 1264, 10 (quoted by Preisigke, Wörterbuch der griechischen Papyrusurkunden, s.v. ):

25 It is cited by Meyer, Eduard, Kleine Schriften, p. 326Google Scholar, as the most reliable account of the proskynesis. (Cf. also Jacoby, s.v. Kallisthenes, Pauly-Wissowa.)

26 Schnabel, , Die Begründung des hellenistischen Königskultes durch Alexander, Klio, xix. (1923–1925), pp. 113–127.Google Scholar

27 Birt, , Alexander der Grosse und das Weltgriechentum (1924), pp. 491–493Google Scholar, and Berve, , Klio, xx. pp. 179–186Google Scholar, have both attacked Schnabel's interpretation. Neither scholar has provided any real explanation for the phrases and Berve's attempt to prove that Arrian's account of the second version of the proskynesis is nearer to Chares's original than Plutarch's is not convincing. See Schnabel's reply to Berve, article, Klio, xx. pp. 398–414.Google Scholar

28 The toast is most frequently mentioned in Old Comedy: See Aristophanes, , Knights, 85Google Scholar; Peace, 300; Wasps, 525, and the scholia on the passages; Zenarchos, frag. 2 in Koch, C.A.F. ii. p. 468. Cf. also Diodorus, iv. 3, 4; Philochorus, ap. Athen. ii. 38 c; Suidas, s.v. Further references will be found in Cook, A. B., Zeus, ii. p. 1129.Google Scholar Two fragments of a red-figured cup have on them figures occupied with libations. Besides one figure is the inscription out of the mouth of the other, a man about to pour a libation, come the words This is evidently a representation of the other common libation at banquets, that of diluted wine to Zeus Soter. See Benndorf, , Griechische und sicilische Vasenbilder, Pl. 29 and p. 49.Google Scholar For discussions of the toast to agathos daimon see Kircher, , Die sacrale Bedeutung des Weines im Altertum, R.G.V.V. ix. pp. 24 ff.Google Scholar; Ganschinietz, s.v. agathos daimon, Pauly-Wissowa, Suppl. III. Writers on the toast of agathos daimon have failed curiously to realise its analogous character to the toast to the Genius. The failure has been due chiefly to insistence on the chthonic character of agathos daimon. But as ‘the mask or functional form which each individual hero is compelled to wear’ (Harrison, , Themis, p. 277Google Scholar), agathos daimon, like the Persian fravashi, is applied to the living and the dead alike.

29 Theophrastus, , ap. Athen. xv. 693.Google Scholarτὸν ἄκρατον, φησίν, οἶνον τὸν ἐπὶ τῷ δείπνῳ διδόμενον ὅν δὴ λέγουσιν ἀγαθοῦ δαίμονος εἶναι πρόποσιν, ὄλίγον τε προσφέρουσιν, ῶσπερ ἀναμιμνήσκοντες μόνον τῇ γεύσει τὴν ἰσχὺν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ δωρεάν, καὶ μετὰ τὴν πλήρωσιν διδόασιν, ὄπως ἐλάχιστον ᾗ τὸ πινόμενον καὶ τρίτον προσκυνή-σαντες λαμβάνουσιν ἀπὸ τῆς τραπέζης ὤσπερ ἱκετείαν τινὰ ποιούμενοι τοῦ θεοῦ μηδὲν ἀσχημονεῖν μηδ᾿ ἔχειν ἰσχυρὰν ἐπιθυμίαν τοῦ πότου τούτου καὶ λαμβάνειν ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὰ καλὰ καὶ χρήσιμα

30 The personal daimon, long known in Greek conceptions, tends in early Hellenistic times to be thought of as good. The trend of the times is clear from some much-quoted lines of Menander (frag. 550–1). See the very probable combination of the fragments in Allinson, , Menander, Loeb. Series, pp. 490–1.Google Scholar It is possible that the identification of Alexander with agathos daimon had its effect in bringing about the change. In any case we find agathos daimon prominent in Hellenistic household cult. He appears frequently in the private inscriptions of Thera (von Gaertringen, Hiller, Thera, iv. p. 174Google Scholar); in Delos he is represented in household shrines much as the Genius is at Pompeii. Cf. Bulard, , Monuments Piot, xiv. (1908), pp. 18 ff.Google Scholar In an inscription, probably of the third century B.C. from Halicarnassus (Dittenberger, , Sylloge 3, 1044Google Scholar) a certain Poseidonius makes provision for sacrifices by his household to the agathos daimon of himself and his wife. Compare the colleges of mentioned in the inscriptions of Rhodes and other places. The whole subject of Greek household cult needs careful investigation.

31 Plutarch, , Quaest. Conviv. 623Google Scholar F–624 A: Cf. Plutarch, , De cohibendaira, 454Google Scholar E: … The use of πιόν with the genitive, the regular case for the drink taken, indicates that Alexander and the drink were identical. The ceremony seems to be a form of communion service.

32 I am inclined to agree with Schnabel that wounded vanity, rather than real opposition to Alexander's divinity, which he had hitherto furthered, explains the attitude of Callisthenes.

33 The event is said to have taken place early in 327, just after Alexander's marriage with Roxane.

34 Alexis, frag. 244, Koch, , C.A.F. ii. p. 386Google Scholar:

If the toast seems too abundant to represent the swallow usually taken for agathos daimon, I would refer to Xenarchos, frag. 2, Koch, , C.A.F. ii. p. 468.Google Scholar

35 Besides the toast of unmixed wine to agathos daimon there was regularly at the Greek banquet a libation of diluted wine to Zeus Soter, another god prominent in household cult. See note 28 above. The Athenians at Lemnos named this libation Seleucus Soter, thus indicating the identification of Seleucus with Zeus Soter. Cf. Phylarchos, ap. Athen. vi. 254. The passage is cited by Schnabel, p. 120, but without full appreciation of its significance. See, however, Bevan, , J.H.S. xx. (1900), pp. 27–8.Google Scholar

36 It is found too in the household cult where unmixed wine is the regular libation to the Master's Genius. There was also a ceremony at Trimalchio's banquet which recalls the cult kiss. Three statues representing the two Lares and the Genius of the master were brought in, and the guests were expected to kiss the statue of Trimalchio's Genius. Cf. Petron, , Satyr. 61Google Scholar: nos etiam veram imaginem ipsius Trimalchionis cum iam omnes basiarent erubuimus praeterire. The passage provides a good parallel for the scene at Alexander's banquet in that a man's genius received honours in the man's presence. Moreover, the way in which the small statues of Lares and Genius were brought in shows how the difficulty (mentioned by Berve, l.c.) of supposing the altar of the household gods to be in the triclinium may be met. The altar and its statuettes were probably portable.

37 Diog. Laert. vi. 2, 63:

38 In a forthcoming paper in Classical Philology I shall try to show the close relation between the cult of Alexander at Alexandria and the temple of agathos daimon, the tutelary divinity of the city. I shall discuss more fully the general bearing of the question in a book on the origin of the Roman imperial cult on which I am at present engaged.

39 See Cumont, , Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra, i. pp. 285 ff.Google Scholar