Coping With the Gods Religions in the Graeco-Roman World Editors D. Frankfurter J. Hahn H.S. Versnel VOLUME 173 Coping With the Gods Wayward Readings in Greek Theology By H.S. Versnel LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 On the cover: ‘Titan’ from 1978 by Igor Mitoraj. Marble, 130 cm × 25 cm × 31 cm. Photograph by Erik Hesmerg, courtesy of the Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen/the Hague, the Netherlands. Reproduced with kind permission. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Versnel, H.S. Coping with the gods : wayward readings in Greek theology / by H.S. Versnel. p. cm. — (Religions in the Graeco-Roman world, ISSN 0927-7633 ; v. 173) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes. ISBN 978-90-04-20490-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Greece—Religion. I. Title. II. Series. BL783.V47 2011 292.2—dc22 2011008358 ISSN 0927-7633 ISBN 978 90 04 20490 4 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Brill has made all reasonable efforts to trace all right holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where these efforts have not been successful the publisher welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission matters. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. For my beloved Isabel and Liselot Τοῦτο ἔχω δῶρον ἐξ ἀθανάτων πάντων Misschien betekent het helemaal niets en moest het alleen maar rijmen. (Perhaps it does not mean anything at all; perhaps it had only to rhyme) Isabel (in her seventh year) Je moet de klassiekste, geheimste woorden schrijven en niemand begrijpt ze. Ik zal ze op de piano voordoen. (You must write the most classic, most secret words and nobody understands them. I’ll play them for you on the piano) Liselot (in her fifth year) CONTENTS Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xi Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Chapter One Many Gods: Complications of Polytheism .......................... 23 1. Order versus Chaos ................................................................ 23 The Greek pantheon: kosmos or chaos? ................................. 26 2. Ingredients for Chaos ............................................................. 37 In search of identities ............................................................... 37 Names and surnames: one god or many? ............................. 60 3. Creating Order: Taking Place ................................................ 88 “The gods who dwell in our city” ........................................... 88 Beyond the polis border (and back) ....................................... 102 Ducking out: gods in personal religiosity .............................. 119 4. Conclusions ............................................................................... 142 Chapter Two The Gods: Divine Justice or Divine Arbitrariness? .......... 151 1. Introduction .............................................................................. 151 Controversial diction in archaic poetry ................................. 151 Modern Voices .......................................................................... 160 2. Homer ........................................................................................ 163 3. Herodotus ................................................................................. 179 Two tales, many perspectives .................................................. 179 Modern voices: fear of diversity .............................................. 187 4. Saving the Author .................................................................... 190 5. Solon Again .............................................................................. 201 6. Once More: Chaos or Order? ................................................ 212 Paratactic multiplicity ............................................................. 213 ‘Gnomologisches Wissen’ ......................................................... 218 The rehabilitation of parataxis ............................................... 226 Thinking in gnomai—speaking in parataxis ........................ 229 7. Putting to the Test: Hesiod .................................................... 231 8. Envoy ......................................................................................... 234 viii contents Chapter Three One God: Three Greek Experiments in Oneness ................. 239 1. Introduction .............................................................................. 239 2. One and Many: The God(s) of Xenophanes ....................... 244 One or many? ........................................................................... 248 One and many .......................................................................... 256 Concluding remarks ................................................................. 266 3. One is Many: The Gods, the God, and the Divine ............ 268 On singular plurals .................................................................. 268 Concluding remarks ................................................................. 278 4. “One is the God” ..................................................................... 280 Praising the god ........................................................................ 280 Aretalogy .................................................................................... 283 Nine characteristics of henotheistic religion ......................... 289 The nature of oneness in henotheistic religion ..................... 296 Questions of origin ................................................................... 301 Concluding remarks ................................................................. 303 5. Conclusion ................................................................................ 304 Chapter Four A God: Why is Hermes Hungry? ............................................... 309 1. Hungry Hermes and Greedy Interpreters ........................... 309 2. Hermes: The Human God in the Hymn ............................. 319 3. Hermes: The Eternal Dupe in the Fable .............................. 327 Burlesques .................................................................................. 329 Paying a social call ................................................................... 332 4. Hermes: The Present God in Visual Art ............................. 335 Socializing .................................................................................. 337 More burlesques ........................................................................ 343 Herms and sacrifice .................................................................. 348 5. Hungry Hermes: The Sacrificial Meal .................................. 352 “The warm splanchna which I used to gobble up” .............. 353 “The titbits Hermes likes to eat” ............................................. 364 “Companion of the feast” ( δαιτὸς ἑταίρε ) ............................ 367 6. Conclusion ................................................................................ 370 Plates for Chapter Four are on pages 338–339, 344–345, and 377 contents ix Chapter Five God: The Question of Divine Omnipotence ......................... 379 1. God: Self and Other ................................................................ 379 Self .............................................................................................. 379 Other .......................................................................................... 384 Self and other ............................................................................ 385 Gods: self and other ................................................................. 388 Some inferences ......................................................................... 391 2. God: Powerful or All-Powerful? ............................................ 396 3. Miracles in Double Perspective: The Case of Asklepios .... 400 4. God: Powerful and All-Powerful .......................................... 422 Omnipotence, ancient philosophers and modern theologians ............................................................................ 427 Inconsistency in religious expression ..................................... 431 5. Conclusions ............................................................................... 436 Chapter Six Playing (the) God: Did (the) Greeks Believe in the Divinity of their Rulers? ....................................................... 439 1. Men into Gods ......................................................................... 439 A swollen-headed doctor: the case of Menekrates ............... 439 A charismatic prince: the case of Demetrios Poliorketes ............................................................................ 444 2. Modern Perplexities ................................................................ 456 3. The Construction of a God .................................................... 460 Language .................................................................................... 460 Performance .............................................................................. 463 4. Did (The) Greeks Believe in the Divinity of their Rulers? ....................................................................................... 465 5. Ritual Play: Sincere Hypocrisy .............................................. 470 6. Birds Into Gods: Comic Theopoetics ................................... 480 7. Making a God: A Multiple Perspective Approach ............. 485 Epilogue ............................................................................................. 493 Appendices ........................................................................................ 499 I. Grouping the Gods .................................................................. 501 All the Gods ............................................................................... 501 The Twelve Gods ....................................................................... 507 x contents II. Unity or Diversity—One God or Many? A Modern Debate ...................................................................................... 517 III. Drive Towards Coherence in Two Herodotus-Studies .... 527 IV. Did the Greeks Believe in their Gods? .............................. 539 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 561 Indices Index of Passages Cited ................................................................. 577 Greek Words ................................................................................... 584 General Index ................................................................................. 587 ABBREVIATIONS Books and articles for which I use the name-date system are given in the bibliography. Works that are cited by abbreviated title only are given here. The abbreviations of periodical titles follow the conven- tions of l’Année philologique. Corpora of inscriptions are referred to as (e.g.) I.Priene, according to the conventions of SEG , or form part of the series Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien (1972–). ABV J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase painters (Oxford 1956) AE L’Année épigraphique (Paris 1888–) ANRW H. Temporini & W. Haase (edd.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (Berlin 1972–) ARV J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase painters I–III (Oxford 1963 2 ) BE Bulletin épigraphique (annually in Revue des études grècques ) CAF T. Kock, Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta (1880–1888) CEG P.A. Hansen, Carmina epigraphica graeca saeculorum VIII – V a.Chr.n. (Berlin-New York 1981–) CIG Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum (1828–1877) CIL Corpus inscriptionum latinarum (1863–) CIRB Corpus Inscriptionum Regni Bosporani (Leningrad 1965) DDD K. van der Toorn, B. Becking & P.W. van der Horst (edd.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden etc. 1995) D-K H. Diels & W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (Berlin 1951 6 ) EBGR A. Chaniotis (ed.), Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion (annually in Kernos ) EG G. Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta (Berlin 1848–1859) ER M. Eliade (ed.), The Encylopedia of Religion (New York 1987, 2005 2 ) ERE Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (1908–1922) FGrHist F. Jacobi , Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Berlin- Leiden 1923–1958) xii abbreviations GGR M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion I–II (Munich 1967 3 , 1961 2 ) HrwG H. Cancik et alii (edd.), Handbuch religionswissenschaftlicher Grundbegriffe (Stuttgart 1988–2001) HWP Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie (Darmstadt 1971– 2007) IC M. Guarducci (ed.) , Inscriptiones Creticae I–IV (1935–1950) IG Incriptiones Graecae (1873–) IGR R. Cagnat e.a. (edd.), Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes I–IV (Paris 1911–1927) ILS H. Dessau (ed.), Inscriptiones Latinae selectae I–III (Berlin 1892–1916) KRS G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven & M. Schofield, The Presocratic Phi- losophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts (Cam- bridge 1983 2 ) LfgrE Lexikon des frühgriechischen Epos (Göttingen 1955–) LIMC Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (Zürich 1981– 2009) LSAM F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrés de l’Asie Mineure (Paris 1955) LSCG F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrés des cités grècques (Paris 1969) LSJ H.G. Liddell, R. Scott & H.S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford 1940 2 ) LSS F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrés des cités grècques. Supplément (Paris 1962) NDIEC G.H.R. Horsley et alii (edd.), New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity (1981–) NGSL E. Lupu, Greek Sacred Law. A Collection of New Documents (Leiden 2005) NP Der neue Pauly (Stuttgart 1996–2003) OCD Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford 1996 3 ) OGIS W. Dittenberger (ed.), Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae I–II (Leipzig 1903–1905) PCG R. Kassel & C. Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci (1983–1991) PMG D.L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford 1962) PGM K. Preisendanz et alii (edd.), Papyri graecae magicae I–II (Stuttgart 1973–1974) P.Oxy The Oxyrynchus Papyri (London 1898) RAC Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum (Stuttgart 1950–) RE Pauly’s Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissen- schaften (Stuttgart-Munich 1893–) abbreviations xiii RGG Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (1957–65 3 ; 1998–2007 4 ) RML W.H. Roscher et alii , Ausführliches Lexicon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (Leipzig 1884– 1937) SB F. Preisigke & F. Bilabel, Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten (Berlin 1926) SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (1923–1971, New Series ed. H.W. Pleket et alii , Amsterdam 1976–) SGO R. Merkelbach & J. Stauber, Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten I–V (Stuttgart und Leipzig 1998– 2004) SIRIS L. Vidman, Sylloge Inscriptionum Religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae (Berlin 1969) Staatsverträge H. Bengtson, Die Staatsverträge des Altertums I–III (Munich 1962–1969) Suppl.Mag. R.W. Daniel & F. Maltomini, Supplementum Magicum I–II (Opladen 1990–1992) SVF H.F.A. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta I–III (Stuttgart 1903 = 1968) Syll. W. Dittenberger et alii, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graeca- rum I–IV (Leipzig 1915–1924 3 ) TAM Tituli Asiae Minoris (Vienna 1901–) TER UNUS H.S. Versnel, TER UNUS. Isis, Dionysos and Hermes: Three Studies in Henotheism (Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion I, Leiden 1990) ThesCRA Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum antiquorum I–V (Basel- Los Angeles 2004) ThR Theologische Realenzyklopädie (Berlin 1977–2007) Tod M.N. Tod, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions I (Oxford 1946 2 )—II (1948) TrGF B. Snell, R. Kannicht & St. Radt, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Göttingen 1986–) TWNT R. Kittel et alii , Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament (Stuttgart 1933–1979) INTRODUCTION Pas dan zal ik tegen hem zeggen dat ik denk dat het een schrijver bij ieder boek dat hij schrijft telkens weer overkomt dat hij bang zal zijn eraan te sterven, dat ik het niet zo’n gekke angst vind om te denken dat een boek je het leven kan kosten. Connie Palmen I.M Words of Gratitude This book is based on the Sather Lectures that I gave at the University of California at Berkeley in spring 1999. These words evoke happy memories and feelings of gratitude that merit further clarification. Even given the exceptional quality of its faculty, its wealth of mate- rial scholarly amenities, the grandeur of its campus and the splen- dour of the Bay Area, it cannot be an unqualified pleasure to serve the university of California at Berkeley as a member of the Department of Classics. The annual advent of yet another fresh Sather professor, who, going by the panegyrical portrayal of the Sather chair in the let- ter of invitation, cannot be blamed for deeming herself the world’s top mastermind, is only the briefest summary of a wide array of arduous obligations. Regular participation in the time consuming (as I am told) explorations of the Sather committee, followed by the departmental disputes concerning the qualifications of a new candidate, not seldom ending up in a screaming row (as I am told); a moral commitment to attending six Sather lectures—or at least some (or one) of them—on a subject miles out of one’s own field of interest—; cheerfully comply- ing with (as in my case) the request to mend the English of one or more lectures including the pronunciation; taking the genius out for lunch before one of his lectures or accommodating one of the recep- tions after it. All this prettied up with the bonus of having at least one certainty in life, namely, that a member of the department will never taste the glory of a Sather professorate. This bouquet of corollaries might easily deter scholars of a less noble and selfless disposition from joining the Berkeley Classics Department. Hence, instead of detailing a long list of colleagues who showered me with their kindness and hospitality in any of the qualities just 2 introduction listed (and hence not even commemorating the party at which I was regaled on a sizzling sucking pig on the spit), I feel that the best way of expressing my gratitude is by wholeheartedly thanking all colleagues present at the time for never having made me notice how demanding all these obligations must have been. As to the participants in my seminar on ancient magic, I am still looking back with delight to those magical hours in the company of a fine and enthusiastic bunch of students. On being asked they hastened to instruct me that an A was the normal rating for normal fulfilment of normal assignments, while B and C were functionless folkloristic relics like the human appendix, never to be put into use. On shar- ing this—in Dutch perspective suspicious 1 —information with the Chair he told me that indeed I was misinformed: besides A one could also give an A+. 2 This tip now proved very opportune. Albeit clearly more versed in Latin prose composition (clausula included) than in the intricacies of such magical strings as MASOLABEO MAMAXO- MAXO ENKOPTODIT, the class quickly adapted and it soon turned out that the rating A+ came in handy. If, on the other hand, not all participants struck me as being conspicuously more gifted than their Dutch colleagues, yet they all did display a remarkably greater eager- ness to pronounce (and defend) an opinion (whatever opinion). I keep hoping that the sometimes hilarious fits of laughter during our ses- sions were not exclusively due to my more audacious ventures in the pronunciation of non-existent American words. In sum: Guys, thank you for putting up with me. I loved every day of my stay at Berkeley. This, then, is the right moment for an exception to the rule by laud- ing two of the Berkeley friends for their invaluable help. Laura Gibbs, by common consent the pivot of the magic class, omniscient guide and generous rescuer in cases of emergency (very much including the intri- cacies of the computer), threatened to break off her friendship unless I sent her the manuscript of the book for inspection. Concentrating on the main text she showered me with suggestions, corrections, and heartening comments. In the meantime, Donald Mastronarde, hospi- table and helpful chairman in my Berkeley year, had accepted the task to assess the book for publication on behalf of the Sather committee. 1 For clarity’s sake, the Dutch rating goes from 1 up to 10 and I have yet to meet the colleague who would favour putting 1 through 8 out of action. 2 To be honest, he also suggested the option A-, which for rhetorical reasons I preferred to leave unmentioned in the main text. introduction 3 Far exceeding this assignment he meticulously scrutinized the total text, including footnotes and punctuation, saving it from a hoard of typos and errors (the English preposition will always remain a treach- erous pitfall to (for?) the non-native speaker) and an occasional very embarrassing misinterpretation of a Greek text. That his knowledge of the Greek language (including the accent) far excels mine is nothing to be ashamed of, but his corrections in French, German and other cita- tions set me purple with shame. A magician on the computer, he also conjured my antiquated GreekKeys Universal into Unicode Greek. I have not been able to find the appropriate words to adequately express my gratitude for the efforts of these two magnanimous benefactors. It should not be taken as a lack of gratitude, on the other hand, if I shall not comply with the modish lore of the preface to spend half its space on an exhaustive list of academic institutes, audiences and hosts due to whose hospitality and endurance I had the occasion of trying out each of my lectures more than once. One of the reasons for my reticence lies in what I believe to be the real function of such a poly- onymia , for which see p. 54 f. of this book. The ever increasing number of these guest lectures, I hasten to add, was directly related to the inor- dinate amount of time that has elapsed between giving and publishing my Sather lectures. I am particularly grateful for the fact that, besides stimulating correction, clarification, and above all reconsideration, these try-outs helped me to constantly keep in mind the necessity of publishing the book before the predicate after its title in the website list of Sather professors would shift from ‘not yet published’ into ‘not published’. Recently this urge received some extra impetus from the wish to have the book out before Robert Parker publishes his Sather lectures. On no account, however, may I omit to express disertis verbis my deep gratitude for the generous and enduring hospitality offered to me over the years by my friend Angelos Chaniotis, at New York Univer- sity and above all at the Seminar für Alte Geschichte at Heidelberg. I realize that this book would never have been finished without the mul- tiple, often extended, periods of my stay in this ideal ambiance and the personal stimulation by my host as well as by that other ambassador of Greek hospitality, Eftychia Stavrianopoulou. That the present final words in the process of completing this book are being written at the Fondation Hardt, “that classicists’ haven where a week’s work equals a month’s work at home,” may be taken as sym- bolic. Numerous have been my visits over the years and they have 4 introduction been seminal to the genesis of this book. One last time I sing a song of praise on—to restrict myself to the friends of old—unforgettable Suzanne, Bernard, and Heidi. On the Contents of the Book When I received the frightening invitation for the Sather lectures in 1996, the one responsibility that did not really agitate me was that about the choice of the subject matter. 3 After the ‘ritual craze’ of the second part of the last century (to which I confess complicity) I thought it might be time for a return to the gods of the Greeks. And as its title indicates that is what this book is about. Nearly all topics of the present book have a prehistory in my research or at least in my interest over the years since the seventies of the last century. In my TER UNUS of 1990 I expressed my aspiration to continue my research on modern reactions to dissonance and inconsistency as apparent in issues such as, first, the bewildering divergence in the assessments of polytheistic systems as exemplified by Jean-Pierre Vernant and Walter Burkert; secondly, the archaic Greek struggle with theodicy—divine arbitrariness versus divine justice—; and third, the divergent responses to divine rulership among both Greek contemporaries and modern scholars. My wish has been fulfilled and its upshot can be found in the present book. Polytheism had always had a prominent place in my teaching, but so far this had not resulted in a publication. My ideas can now be found in Chapter I. On the second topic mentioned I gave a paper at a Bristol conference “From Myth to Logos?” of 1996. I did not make it available for publication in the conference proceedings 4 but reserved it for the Sather lectures: Chapter II is a radically revised and expanded version of that paper. On ruler cult I published one of my first articles (in Dutch). Particularly in this case I was happy to obtain an opportunity to rethink the whole issue, which now appears 3 Remaining feelings of anxiety were soothed away by a very reassuring passage from the Sather website (quoted from Joseph Fontenrose): “There are now [1970] about fifty volumes of Sather Lectures published, valuable contributions to their fields, although, as one might expect, some are better than others, and not many attain the eminence of,—for example, Dodds’s The Greeks and the Irrational, Shorey’s Platonism, Nilsson’s The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology, Page’s History and the Homeric Iliad , Kirk’s Myth , Vermeule’s The Greek View of Death .” 4 R. Buxton, From Myth to Reason? Studies in the Development of Greek Thought (Oxford 1999). See for some background information below Ch. II n. 1. introduction 5 as Chapter VI. Chapter III is the only one that in a more concise form has appeared in print (Porter 2000, 79–163). That, over the years, insights on all these subjects have under- gone sometimes considerable development and change, is a matter of course. Even during the fifteen years since I began my research for the present book the rapid progress in scholarship sometimes has caught up with my ideas as laid out in the lectures. This never necessitated radical modifications of my own ideas. It did mean, inter alia , that interpretive strategies similar to the ones I had initiated in my works on Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion (1990 and 1993) and which in a more elaborated form I continue putting to the test in the present book, in the meantime had independently found niches in the works of others. To give a few examples (which all will be dealt with in extenso in the relevant chapters). Suggestions about the double (or multiple) nature of divine identities depending on the contexts in which they operated (Ch. I) were rather rare when I embarked on trying them out with my students in the seventies of the last century. Though initially not very popular due to the influence of the then so-called structuralistic approach of the ‘École de Paris’, they have been gaining ground since the nineties and are now widespread in recent scholarship. As will become apparent however, heated discussions continue to rage to the present day and hence validate further reflection. In the discussion on ruler cult (Ch. VI) a landslide has taken place. While a number of scholars including myself (1973) had already suggested that modern distinctions such as the ‘genuine’ versus the ‘political’ nature of its reli- giosity were leading into a deadlock, it was the study of Simon Price 1984 that turned the scales and opened new perspectives. However, by simultaneously launching his first crusade against the use of the modern term ‘belief/believe’ in the study of Greek religion he risked closing the door on upcoming new insights in and redefinitions of the notion ‘belief’. When, for the present occasion, I continued following my own track by introducing new approaches to an understanding of the religious overtones of ruler cult this called for a preliminary critical discussion of the now fashionable idea that, as one title has it, “The Athenians did not believe in their gods.” I soon found that recently scholars of different denominations have been testing alter- native strategies concerning the notion ‘belief ’ which turned out to be of great benefit to my own argument (the results can be found in Appendix IV). Comparably, recent trends in linguistic pragmatics