A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion?Author(s): Herbert AbramsonSource: California Studies in Classical Antiquity, Vol. 12 (1979), pp. 1-19Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25010736Accessed: 06/04/2009 02:51

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HERBERT ABRAMSON

A Hero Shrine For Phrontis At Sounion?

I. "L'HEROON DE PHRONTIS AU SOUNION."

Charles Picard, writing in 1940, asserted that he had solved the last re

maining topographical question pertaining to Sounion.1 This was the

identity of the enclosure with rounded exterior corners built up against the late fifth-century fortification wall just northeast of the sanctuary of Poseidon (figs. 1 and 2). A postern gate in the fortification wall served as entrance to the enclosure. The latter measures 14.20 m. by 17.25 m. and is built of carefully laid ashlar masonry. The lower part of the walls is of marble, the upper part of limestone. The walls are two courses thick. They survive to a height of 4.00 m. in places. There were no signs of roofing materials. Some traces of paving and a small rectangular foundation just south of the entrance to the enclosure survive. Although stelai are reused in its structure and it is built up against two projecting towers of the fortification, Picard believed that the enclosure was con

temporary with the fortification.2 Small finds from the enclosure were limited to spear heads, sling balls, and a cog-wheel.3

Picard compared the entire assemblage to the "Heroon" just west of the altis of Olympia (fig. 3).4 The latter is a rectangular structure con

sisting of a porch on the long west side and two smaller rooms, both of which are entered from the porch. This structure was built not long after Pheidias' workshop, but owes its current name to an altar of the Helle nistic period in the northern room. The word fipco was painted repeat edly on the successive layers of plaster that covered the altar.5 The

1

2 Herbert Abramson

SE TAVERNAS N

\ \ // ATHENA

POSEIDON SANCTUARY

1 / , TOURIST 4 \ PAVILION

EASTERN H.LL

FIG. 1. Sounion area plan (after Dinsmoor, Jr. plan facing p. 1).

"Heroon" at Olympia, like the enclosure at Sounion, was entered from the west. Picard concluded that the enclosure at Sounion also honored a hero.

Unlike the "Heroon" at Olympia whose cult figure remains a mys tery, a cult figure for Sounion was at hand. Picard headed his article

with lines 278-283 from Book Three of the Odyssey:

XX' 60te OVIOvtov ip6pv &(pc6K00v', 6cpov 'AlvC0V, v09a KipepvrITIV MEvwadoo doi1pog 'At6oXov

olg &yavowi; PEXECaatv Troit6Oevog KaTxre9E( e, 7rr6d6XIov re&h Xepai 09eo5cr 6s vr|q6; ovta,

opovitv 'OvropiS6Iv, 6; cKaivoTo (pvX' d&vpcEdrcov vria KuCpepvfcaal, 6oor6e aCTIpxo0ev &e6Xat.

But when we came to holy Sounion, the cape of Athens, there Phoibos Apollo, with a visitation of his painless arrows, killed the

A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion? 3

Tor'orPA'PI KO .N (KAPIT'"HM 'A-- . '.-"

FIG. 2. The southern end of Poseidon Hill, Sounion (after Staes, 1917 pl. 4).

steersman of Menelaos, the one who held in his hands the steering oar of the running ship. This was Phrontis, Onetor's son, who sur

passed all the breed of mortals in the steering of a ship whenever

stormwinds were blowing.6

Menelaos, who until then had been sailing with Nestor, stayed to

bury his companion and give him his due rites:

et '~".,..

' '

5 6 0 v g vi &Va KartaXT', ?nXtiyo'vo6q 7tep 68010,

Opp' Tapov i9diTo01 Kai STEi KTUpEa KTepiEl?v.

So Menelaos, though straining for the journey, was detained there, to bury his companion, and give him due rites.7

Picard took the death and burial of Phrontis as the poet's acknowledg ment of an already existing cult of the steersman at the cape.8

,, .. . ,Y . ::~:~~ ,~ -...,.........,,

Fro. 2. The southern end of Posidon Hill, Sounion (after Staes

stomwnd w e r b oing.

Meelos w h ni l t h nhdbe alnihNso, stye t bury his companion and give him his due rites:~~?

&g 6 !~v v~a ~a~(Ze~', ~et6g~v6~ rep 68oio 6q~p ~mo (i?o a[ ~x ~ge }e ~v

o I M e eas though` strinigfrtejuny aeandtee to

bury his

companoadgehiderts.

Picr d okth et a nd br i lo P rnis stepe'cnweg mentof a a reayeitn uto h tesa ttecp?

4 Herbert Abramson

FIG. 3. "Heroon" just west of the Altis of Olympia (after E. N. Gardiner, Olympia fig. 50).

In support of his identification Picard adduced two main pieces of

evidence, a Protoattic plaque and a severe-style relief (pls. 1:1 and 1:2).9

These, however, come not from the rectangular enclosure but rather from the sanctuary of Athena some 500 m. to the north.

The plaque was found in a deep pit east of the temple of Athena."'

It is broken off at the left side. Its surviving dimensions are 0.15 by 0.09 m. The right half, with a hole for suspension in the upper corner, sur

vives intact. The painting is of a ship underway. Although six oars are

visible, the rowers are completely hidden by the deck and sides of the

ship." Five hoplites, armed with helmets, shields, and two spears each, stand on the deck. The thickset steersman sits in the stern and controls

the ship with two very large steering oars. It is indeed tempting to iden

tify this figure with Phrontis who died with the steering oar in his hands. One could hardly ask for a more appropriate dedication to a steersman

hero.

The severe-style relief, found very close to the surface of the artifi

cial fill east of the temple of Athena, is not definitely linked to a cult of

Phrontis, yet might not be inappropriate.'2 This relief is broken at the

top and bottom. The surviving dimensions are 0.61 by 0.49 m. The

Plate 1 Abramson

adjustingt his wreath (afte

Picardfig. .3-.

MI .._ ..i..

1. Protoattic plaque attributed to the Analatos Painter (after Cook, BSA 35 (1934

935) plf. 40b).

: . . -.

Picard f i g . 3 ) . :: .v:~ =='=:==S:? ==:========:======L~~~~~~~~~~?'l

A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion? 5

beginnings of a palmette finial are evident to the left of the figure's up raised hand. A well-muscled, athletic looking young man adjusts a crown of victory, added in metal, on his head. Only the holes for the attachment of this metallic headpiece survive. Both Picard and Lullies

interpreted this half life-size stele as a victor's thank offering. Picard

speculated that Phrontis may have been the patron of the naval games that were a part of the Lesser Panathenaia and thus the recipient of the dedication.'3

In summary, Picard interpreted the Homeric account of the death and burial of Phrontis as an aition for a cult of the steersman. He at

tempted to identify the shrine itself in the marble enclosure built up against the late fifth-century fortification that defends the sanctuary of Poseidon. He supported his interpretations with a very appropriate plaque dating to the first decade of the seventh century and a relief of about 460 B.C.

II. THE BEGINNINGS OF HERO WORSHIP AND PHRONTIS

Although Picard postulated both a cult and shrine for Phrontis, a com

panion of Menelaos, there are few references to "L'Heroon du Phrontis" in the growing body of literature addressed to the thorny question of

hero worship in the "age of Homer.'14 Boardman took note of the heroon only to dismiss it because the Protoattic plaque was found so far from it."5 Berard merely called attention to the shrine in his survey of heroa.16 But before accepting or rejecting Picard's identification of the

enclosure, the possibility of the presence of a cult must be examined

against this body of literature. This is especially the case because the text of Homer gave Picard an initial basis for speculation.

Affirmations or denials that hero worship was practiced in the Homeric age have been based on the evidence of the epics themselves,

archaeological finds, or some combination of literary and physical material.

On the surface, hero worship is absent from the Homeric epics.'7 Upon the death of a warrior the soul went to the underworld and con tinued as a strengthless image or eidolon.18 The survivors burned the

body, collected the bones, and heaped a mound over them.'9 The mound then became a source of continuing kleos or fame both for the victim and, especially, for the conqueror.20 Yet, in spite of the promi nence of the tomb and the one-time importance of the person buried in

it, neither the remains nor the eidolon commanded regular libations or sacrifices. According to L.R. Farnell, who relied almost totally on the evidence of the poems, the spread of the epics engendered hero cult.21

6 Herbert Abramson

W.K.C. Guthrie called hero worship "a flat denial of Homer's strength less dead."22

This interpretation gained archaeological support when J.M. Cook

published the results of his excavations at the Agamemnoneion, about one kilometer south-southwest of Mycenae.23 He noted the absence of hero cults in the Homeric poems, the Late Geometric date of the earliest

pottery at the Agamemnoneion, the similar date of the earliest clear dedications at the Menelaion in Therapne, and the presence of Late Geometric offerings at several Bronze Age tombs, such as the tholos at Menidi. He concluded that the worship of heroes began in the Late Geo metric Period and reflected the spread of the epic. G.S. Kirk accepted Cook's conclusions.24

Cook's work meshed very neatly with that of G.E. Mylonas who at about the same time maintained, "There seems to be no definite evi dence that will prove or even indicate the existence of a general cult of the dead in Helladic times. ..." "The cult of the dead seems to have become popular in post Mycenaean, late Geometric times."25 Mylonas further demonstrated that the supposed continuity of cult from the Bronze Age to the Geometric Period did not really exist at the tholos of Menidi and the tomb of the Hyperborean Maidens on Delos, as Nilsson had thought.26

Thus the failure to establish continuity of cult at Menidi and on

Delos, taken together with the large number of Late Geometric offerings at Bronze Age tombs, supported the view that the epics did encourage the foundation of hero cults.27

Yet upon closer examination of the cult of the dead in Homer, one finds more than one level of practice and belief. Helpless and cultless dead may have been the general rule, but both Rohde and Stengel saw in the elaborate funeral of Patroklos an aura of mollifying the soul. They

interpreted the elaborate funeral as a survival of an ancient worship of the dead.28 Rohde also considered the sacrifices which Odysseus made and promised to Teiresias in order to aid his return to Ithaka to be like later sacrifices to heroes.29 Teiresias alone among the dead had the

powers of will and understanding.30 The portrayal of the Dioskouroi does not harmonize with the usual

picture of Homer's strengthless dead. In the Iliad they are dead under the earth, but in the Odyssey they are cult figures who are alive on alter nate days and receive honor equal to gods'.31 Deneken maintained that the elevated status of the Dioskouroi in the Odyssey acknowledged the cult which had developed since the composition of the Iliad. 32

The promise to Menelaos that after death he would live in the Ely

A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion? 7

sian Fields may be another example of the poet's recognizing a cult, that of Helen and Menelaos in Therapne.33 Finally, as Coldstream recently noted, Homer himself described the hero cult of Erechtheus.34 Athena had established Erechtheus in her own temple. As the years went by the Athenians propitiated him with rams and bulls.35

In view of comparisons of the Homeric heroes to gods, the powers which Teiresias had after death, the sacrifice offered to Teiresias, the treatment of the Dioskouroi in the Odyssey, and the propitiation of Erechtheus in the Iliad, T.H. Price concluded that Homer knew about hero worship.36 In answer to the question why Homer did not have nu merous examples of worship at the tombs of warriors, Price followed R.K. Hack, who maintained that this was the case because the action in Homer's poems took place in the time of the Trojan War. The genera tion of god-descended men who fought in the Trojan War was regarded in antiquity as among the first to have been recipients of cults. Therefore

descriptions of the lifetimes of heroes ought not to include scenes of hero

worship as an everyday activity.37 Closer examination of the physical remains of early hero shrines re

veals more complexities than Cook or Mylonas saw. If one posits no con

tinuity in shrines from the Bronze Age to the Geometric Period, there must be no exceptions. But an exception is readily available in the cave of Odysseus and the nymphs on the bay of Polis in Ithaka.38 This cave was functioning as a shrine in the thirteenth century B.C. The popularity of tripod dedications suggests that as early as the late ninth century the ancients identified this cave as that in which Odysseus hid tripods and other gifts brought from Phaiakia.39 Benton convincingly assigned cups decorated with concentric loops and ruled triangles to the period transi tional between the Late Bronze Age and the Protogeometric Period.40

The Late Geometric Period house at the intersection of Marathono machon and Telephanous Streets in the Academy district of Athens served an ancestral cult that definitely went back to the eighth century B.C., and possibly to the tenth.41 The house was filled with sacrificial re

mains, ashes, and pottery. While sacrifices were being made in the Geo metric house, the foundations of an oval house of the EH II Period were visible a few meters to the north.42 Stravropoullos proposed that when the oval house was accidentally discovered in the eighth century, its orig inal inhabitant was identified as Akademos, the eponymous hero of the district.43 A votive deposit of some 200 kantharoi, found 150 m. away, shows that a cult existed in the Academy from the late tenth century.44

But whether these kantharoi were offered to the cult figure who was later honored in the Geometric house remains a question.

8 Herbert Abramson

Quite recently, J.N. Coldstream thoroughly reviewed the archaeo

logical evidence for hero cults in the age of Homer while keeping at hand the passages of the Iliad most suggestive that the poet had knowledge of such cults. He concluded that the spate of Late Geometric offerings at tombs in Messenia, the Argolid, Boiotia, and Attika, where the Iron

Age tombs were radically different from the Bronze Age chamber and tholos tombs, reflects the influence of the epics.45 Yet at the same time he saw the Athenian young men's propitiation of Erechtheus as proof that "Homer himself was aware of hero-worship."46 He maintained that the cults of Erechtheus, Akademos, and Odysseus have a "higher anti

quity" than those which started in the Late Geometric Period.47 In

places, such as Athens and Ithaka, which did not suffer powerful discontinuities at the end of the Bronze Age, "local heroes may have been venerated all through the Dark Age, long before the circulation of the Homeric epic. .. ."48

Thus it seems reasonable to conclude that (i) there were some hero cults before the "age of Homer," (ii) the epics are not completely free of

signs of hero worship, and (iii) a considerable number of cults were in

spired by the spread of the epics.

III. A SHRINE FOR PHRONTIS AT SOUNION?

With these conclusions in mind we may return to Cape Sounion. Follow

ing the burial of Phrontis, Menelaos went on his way, but Zeus had a storm off Maleia drive the fleet off course. The winds forced Menelaos to land in Egypt, where he raised a tumulus in honor of his brother and tarried for eight years. Was the death of Phrontis vital for the develop

ment of the narrative? Could Zeus not have caused the storm to separate the ships of Menelaos and Nestor and force one of them off course with out killing the steersman? I believe Picard was correct; it seems possible to understand the narrative as an aition for a cult which the poet knew at the cape. But even if this were not the poet's intention, a hero cult

surely would have developed, just as one sprang up near Mycenae, pos sibly on the spot where Agamemnon was believed to have been

murdered.49 Several epic heroes had their tombs or shrines on promontories or

by the sea. The tomb of Achilles and Patroklos dominated a promontory that jutted into the Hellespont.5s The mound that Menelaos raised for

Agamemnon in Egypt was on the coast.51 Pandion, son of Kekrops, died in Megara and was buried on a promontory sacred to Athena.52 Meli kertes had an altar at the Isthmus on the spot where he was believed to have been washed ashore.53 Kinados, another steersman of Menelaos.

A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion? 9

had his tomb on Cape Onougnathos on the southeast coast of the

Peloponnesos.54 Odysseus, the hero with the strongest marine connec tions, received worship in a cave on the shores of Ithaka.s5

In all probability there was a shrine of Phrontis at Cape Sounion. Either it inspired Homer's account of Menelaos' actions at Sounion, as Picard and I believe, or it arose in response to the epic. Yet Picard's identification has found virtually no acceptance. His comparisons of the enclosure with the "heroon" outside the altis in Olympia were very strained. Aside from being rectangular and giving entrance on the west the two structures have little in common. Further, the "heroon" in

Olympia became a shrine only in the Hellenistic Period; originally it may have served as a bath.56

Studies more recent than Picard's have shown that the enclosure at Sounion was Hellenistic in date and probably served to support a plat form for catapaults.57 W.B. Dinsmoor, Jr. labels it a bastion on his plan of Poseidon Hill and suggests that the corners were rounded for extra

strength.58 Indeed, Vitruvius advised against square towers because the

angles made them vulnerable.59 The spear heads and round stone balls found inside the enclosure support its identification as a bastion.60

Finally, as J. Boardman pointed out, the Protoattic plaque and the

severe-style relief were found within twenty meters of the temple of Athena, approximately 500 m. north of the temple of Poseidon, far from the hypothetical heroon.6'

Thus the likelihood that the rectangular enclosure was a bastion in combination with the absence of any finds in or near it appropriate to a hero shrine totally invalidates Picard's identification. But at the same time it seems most probable that Phrontis did have a shrine at Sounion.

We might begin the search for a shrine with the location of Picard's most convincing piece of physical evidence, the Protoattic plaque.

The plaque comes from a rock-cut pit southeast of the temple, but within the temenos of Athena (fig. 4).62 This pit, 15 m. deep, measured

approximately 1.70 by 3.00 m. at the top and narrowed to 1.00 by 0.50 m. at the bottom. Its original purpose is uncertain. Staes suggested a well, Dinsmoor a mine. From the ninth century B.C. it was used as a bothros for the deposition of offerings. When the eastern part of the hill was filled in the second half of the fifth century to provide a level surface for the construction of the temple of Athena, the builders covered the

pit. The unbroken state of most of the offerings recovered from the pit

proves that they were carefully deposited rather than thrown. The delib erate inclusion of the pit in the new temenos walls shows that the spot was venerated. Two iron swords, possibly of the ninth century B.C.,

10 Herbert Abramson

' .... ';':S"?...

F . A n Ill/e,

.,:!l i: i ,,.,,,',:,,,. .I.

~' /

'' ' '

/li l

early seventh century the pit began to be filled with various votive ob

FIG. 4. Athena Hill site plan (after Dinsmoor, Jr.

plan p. 38).

come from the bottom of the pit.63 Nothing datable to the early or mid

dle eighth century was found, but beginning at the end of the eighth or

early seventh century the pit began to be filled with various votive ob

jects. These included terracotta figurines of men, women, and horses.

The pottery included Protocorinthian aryballoi and oinochoai and various plastic vases.64 In addition to the plaque mentioned above,

twenty-nine other fragments or entire plaques came to light.65 The

painting on most of these has completely disappeared. The bronzes in

cluded miniature tripods, miniature shields, and pins and clasps.66 Similar dedications, pottery, and one gold and six silver rings came from

the fill east of the temple of Athena.67 Aside from these small dedica

tions, a lead kouros and fragments of five marble kouroi also came from

the fill.68

A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion? 11

Some of these dedications easily could have been made to Athena. Yet others such as the swords, plaques, shields, tripods, and horses are

frequently found in hero shrines. Votive swords were found in the ash

bearing strata in the north and northwest part of the Olympion Pelo

pion.69 A large iron sword, almost identical to the examples from Sou

nion, was wrapped around the amphora containing the remains of a warrior buried in the Athenian Agora at about 900 B.c.'7 The Late Geo metric heroes worshipped near the West Gate of Eretria were buried with their swords.71

Fragments of five votive plaques, their paint worn off, were found

among the heroic offerings in the dromos of the tholos in Menidi.72 Votive plaques also come from a Protoattic deposit in an oval structure near the southwest corner of the Athenian Agora. One of them has a female raising high her arms between two snakes. The symbolism is at least chthonic, very possibly heroic.73 A fragmentary terracotta pinax came from the pit with heroic offerings west of the Panathenaic Way.74 Two plaques, one with traces of paint surviving, were found in a con text of Geometric and Protocorinthian pottery in the Menelaion at Spar ta.75 A plaque with decoration in relief, a kneeling man and a goat feeding on a bush, comes from the Agamemnoneion near Mycenae.76

The votive deposit in the oval structure at the southwest corner of the Athenian Agora contained terracotta shields,77 as did the dromos of the tholos at Menidi.78 A terracotta shield was among the offer

ings in the pit west of the Panathenaic Way in the Athenian Agora.79 Miniature lead shields come from the Menelaion in Sparta.80 Fragments of actual shields come from the archaic strata on the east and southeast

slopes of the Pelopion in Olympia.8' A votive tripod of bronze was found placed inside a kantharos in

the votive deposit in the oval structure at the southwest corner of the Athenian Agora.82 Remains of tripods come from the ash-bearing strata beneath the Archaic Pelopion.83 Tripods were offered to Odysseus in Ithaka and Ptoios, the hero of Akraiphia.84

Miniature horses are found at most hero shrines including the Aga memnoneion, the Pelopion, the tholos at Menidi, the shrines in Athens to which reference has been made above, two heroic enclosures recently discovered in Corinth, the Menelaion, and the shrine of Ptoios.85

Nor are goddess figurines necessarily inappropriate for heroes.

They are found in the Agamemnoneion and in the enclosure built to honor a male of the Protogeometric Period in Corinth.86 Female as well as male figurines were found among the dedications made to Ptoios on the lower terrace of the sanctuary that he shared with a goddess.87

12 Herbert Abramson

Can the heroic dedications from the pit and artificial fill near the

temple of Athena be connected with a surviving shrine? On the northern

part of the hill is an oval peribolos wall of the Archaic Period that only partially survives. It encompassed an area of thirty by forty meters.88

Slight traces of a rectangular structure of more than one room have been uncovered in the southern part of this peribolos. Staes had suggested that the peribolos was a sanctuary.89

A Classical temenos runs up against the Archaic enclosure. This enclosure contains not only the temple of Athena and pit filled with ded ications but also an ideal candidate for a shrine to Phrontis. The main structure in the Classical temenos is of course the temple of Athena,

which is well known for its unusual plan.90 But there is another sacred

building in the peribolos, a small one-roomed temple. I propose that this

temple, 8.5 m. north of the Athena temple, was the shrine of Phrontis

during the Classical Period (fig. 5).91

JiIIV !~ ~~

i---- fSJ

FIG. 5. Small temple north of the temple of Athena, Sounion (after Staes, 1920

pl. 5).

A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion? 13

This temple has an east-west orientation slightly different from that of the temple of Athena. The single room of the temple measures 4.97 by 6.80 m. on the exterior. The two surviving plinths for the columns of a

porch (measuring 0.82 by 0.95 m. each) are 1.60 m. in front of the tem

ple.92 The facade was marble, the rest of the cella was local stone. The interior and exterior walls were coated with a limestone plaster. The in terior walls and floor were painted red. A reused statue base (1.08 by 1.33 by 0.40 m.) was found inside. It is made of two pieces, one of which had been turned upside down since its original use. The top, in its re used state, contains a rectangular socket for the reception of a plinth. The socket measures 0.80 m. long by 0.50 m. wide. The left foot of the statue was advanced. The foundations of an altar (1.55 by 2.66 m.) lie in front of the temple but are not oriented to it. Dinsmoor suggests that the altar may have been associated with an older building which has left no trace. Staes called the small temple Archaic, but Dinsmoor says it is

Classical.93

Early in his guide to Sounion, Dinsmoor noted that the plaques found in the pit in the sanctuary of Athena were "suitable for dedi cations to a hero."94 He suggested, although he did not say why, that the statue base was more suitable for a hero than for a divinity.95 B.S.

Ridgeway accepted, even thought probable, the presence of a cult of Phrontis at Sounion, but says of the identification proposed above, "It has been suggested that it (the small temple) could belong to a hero, but it is of standard temple form and was probably for a divinity."96

The assertion that temples were for divinities and the implication inherent in this assertion that other types of shrines were for heroes dis torts the varied nature both of heroes and of hero shrines. The heroes of

Classical times included not only the epic heroes, but also ancient daimones or divinities (such as Hyakinthos) who under the pressure of the Olympian gods descended to the ranks of heroes; historical figures

who were given elevated status for bravery in war or for founding a city or institution; historical figures of known or unknown identity whose souls were thought to demand appeasement; transparent eponymous creations such as Parnassos; and equally transparent functional crea tions such as Taraxippos, the confuser of horses. Both ancient and

modern writers dispute whether certain heroes, such as Amphiaraos, the hero of epic worshipped as a god at Oropos, were fallen divinities or elevated mortals.97 The very learned student of Greek religion, J.

Fontenrose, questions whether there is even a real distinction to be made between gods and heroes in earliest times: ". .. the farther back one

goes into early Aegean religion, the more one wonders whether the distinction can be maintained for the earliest period, and whether god

14 Herbert Abramson

and hero alike are not derived from a daimon who was closely related to

ghosts on the one hand, and who was a superhuman power on the other."98 Given the various possibilities pertaining to the origin of heroes and the fact that some heroes were worshipped as gods, is it any wonder that some heroes have temples as shrines?

Ajax, for example, had a temple in the agora of Salamis. The tem

ple, in ruins in Pausanias' day, still contained an ebony cult statue."9 The Classical remains of the temple of Helen and Menelaos at Therapne provide a good example of the heroon as a small temple.100 Isokrates was informed that both Menelaos and Helen received divine honors there, so it is safe to assume that the temple contained cult statues.'10 Yet the pair

who were believed to be buried there were figures of epic and their cult local.102 A small temple, platform, and many dedications found on a hill southeast of Sparta are incontrovertibly linked to Menelaos and Hel

en.'03 This temple, also without a peristyle, measured 5.45 by 8.60 m., dimensions not very different from those of the small temple in Sounion.

Ptoios, an oracular hero, had a shrine on the north slope of Kas

traki, near the village of Akraiphia in Boiotia. He too had a small tem

ple, roughly nine by four and a half meters, as a shrine. There are two altars fifteen meters northwest of the temple.'04

Both the small size of the shrine in Sounion and the location of the small temple off to one side of the major temple have parallels in the temenos of Pelops near the temple of Zeus in Olympia, the temple of Palaimon near the temple of Poseidon at Isthmia, the enclosure of Neo

ptolemos near the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and the tomb of

Iphigeneia near the temple of Artemis at Brauron.'05 The existence of a shrine of Phrontis has not been proven. Yet

Homer's treatment of Phrontis suggests that a cult existed as early as the late eighth century B.C. The earliest remains at Sounion are the offerings in the pit near the temple of Athena. Since nothing comparably early has been found in the sanctuary of Poseidon, it is probably due to a cult in the temenos of Athena that Homer described Sounion as hiron. The

swords, bronzes, and terracottas have parallels in the offerings made at well-studied hero shrines. The size and location of the small temple in the temenos of Athena again suggest comparison with several other heroa in sanctuaries of divinities. That Pausanias said nothing about a cult of Phrontis at Sounion is not significant. His treatment of the prom ontory is poor. He mentioned only one temple and probably mistook the

temple of Poseidon for that of Athena.'06 The combination of literary, dedicatory, and architectural evidence

makes it extremely likely that the steersman of Menelaos, perhaps

A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion? 15

identified with a local daimon of Sounion, received offerings in the small

temple to the north of the shrine of Athena. When the goddess came to the promontory, Phrontis might have welcomed her. She is, after all, the

protector of heroes, goddess of skills, the sometime enemy of Apollo, and far less tempestuous than Poseidon.

Franklin and Marshall College Lancaster, Pennsylvania

NOTES

The abbreviations used in the notes are those recommended in the AJA 80 (1976) 1-8, together with

the following:

Andronikos: M. Andronikos, Totenkult: Archaeologia Homerica 1II:W (Got tingen 1968).

Athenian Agora XIV: H.A. Thompson and R.E. Wycherley, The Agora of Athens: The Athenian Agora XIV (Princeton 1972).

Benton (1935): S. Benton, "Excavations in Ithaka, III: The Cave at Polis, I,"

BSA 35 (1934-1935) 45-73. Benton (1936): S. Benton, "A Votive Offering to Odysseus," Antiquity 10 (1936)

350. Berard: C. Berard, L'Heroon d la porte de I'Ouest: Eretria III (Bern

1970).

Boardman: J. Boardman, "Painted Votive Plaques and an Early Inscription from Aegina," BSA 49 (1954) 183-201.

3urr: D. Burr, "A Geometric House and a Proto-Attic Votive De

posit," Hesperia 2 (1933) 542-640. Coldstream: J.N. Coldstream, "Hero-cults in the Age of Homer," JHS 96

(1976) 8-17. Cook: J.M. Cook, M. Holland, M.S.F. Hood, and A.G. Woodhead,

"Mycenae, 1939-1952," BSA 48 (1953) 1-93. Deneken: F. Deneken, "Heros," Roscher's Ausfiihrliches Lexicon der grie

chischen und romischen Mythologie, 1:2 (1886-1890) 2441 2589.

Dinsmoor, Jr.: W.B. Dinsmoor, Jr., Sounion (Athens 1971).

Farnell: L.R. Farnell, Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality (Ox

ford 1921).

Guillon (1936): P. Guillon, "Les Offrandes en Terre-cuite de la terrasse supe rieure de Castraki (Ptoion)," BCH 60 (1936) 416-427.

Guillon (1943): P. Guillon, Les Trepieds du Ptoion (Paris 1943).

Kirk: G.S. Kirk, The Songs of Homer (Cambridge 1962). Mallwitz: A. Mallwitz, Olympia und seine Bauten (Munich 1972).

Olympia IV: A.D. Furtwangler, Die Bronzen und die ubrigen Kleinfunde:

Olympia IV (Berlin 1897). Picard: C. Picard, "L'Heroon de Phrontis au Sounion," RA 6th ser., 16

(1940) 5-28.

16 Herbert Abramson

Price: Th. H. Price, "Hero-Cult and Homer," Historia 22 (1973) 129 144.

Rohde: E. Rohde, Psyche, translated from the 8th ed. by W.B. Hillis

(New York 1925).

Staes (1917): V. Staes, "Souniou Anaskaphai," ArchEph (1917) 168-213.

Staes (1920): V. Staes, To Sounion (Athens 1920).

Stavropoullos (1958): Ph.D. Stavropoullos, "Anaskaphe Archaias Akademeias,'

Praktika 1958 (1965) 5-13.

Thompson, 1958: H.A. Thompson, "Activities in the Athenian Agora: 1957," Hes

peria 27 (1958) 145-160.

Wace, Thompson, and Droop: A.J.B. Wace, M.S. Thompson, and J.P. Droop, "The Men

elaion," BSA 15 (1908-1909) 108-157.

Williams, 1973: C.K. Williams, II, "Corinth, 1972: Forum Area," Hesperia 42

(1973) 1-44.

Wolters: P. Wolters, "Vasen aus Menidi, II," JdI 14 (1899) 103-135

Many of the conclusions presented here were first formulated in my thesis, "Greek Hero

shrines" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley 1978), and read as a paper, "L'Her6on de Phrontis au Sounion Reconsidered," at the 79th General Meeting of the AIA, Atlan

ta, Ga., 30 December 1977. A debt of thanks is owed to Mr. W.B. Dinsmoor, Jr. who kindly al

lowed me to reproduce his excellent plans of Sounion. I am also grateful to Professor Homer A.

Thompson for reading this manuscript and making several useful suggestions. These scholars are

not, of course, responsible for any errors or deficiencies in this paper.

1. Picard 5.

2. Picard 8; cf. Staes (1917) 171-172; Dengate: "Observations on the Sounion Fortifications,'

AJA 71 (1967) 185-186; Dinsmoor, Jr. 29-31.

3. Picard 18.

4. Picard 8, 17-18; cf. F. Adler, R. Borrmann, W. Dorpfeld, F. Graeber, and P. Graef. Die

Baudenkmaler von Olympia: Olympia II (Berlin 1892) 105-107, figs. 59-60, pls. 71-72; E.N.

Gardiner, Olympia: Its History and Remains (Oxford 1925) 204-205, fig. 50-51; Mallwitz 266-269.

5. Adler (supra n. 4) 165; W. Dittenberger and K. Purgold, Die Inschriften: Olympia V (Berlin

1896) no. 662, col. 605, figs. a-k.

6. Translation of R. Lattimore, The Odyssey of Homer (New York 1965).

7. Od. 3.284-285.

8. Picard 13.

9. Picard 19-24.

10. Athens, National Museum 3588; J.M. Cook identified it as a work of the Analatos Painter.

"Protoattic Pottery," BSA 35 (1934-1935) 173, pi. 40b; Kirk, "Ships on Geometric Vases," BSA

44 (1949) 119-120, fig. 7; Boardman 198, note 151; R.M. Cook, Greek Painted Pottery2 (London

1974) 67.

11. Conceivably the pairs of short lines extending from the deck to the oars could be the hands of

the rowers. Kirk 120 (supra n. 10) thinks they are the loops which held the oars to the thole pins. 12. Athens, National Museum 3444; Staes (1917) 204-205 thought that it did not belong in the

fill at all, but had been buried there by illicit dealers in antiquities. But his conviction that the relief

had to be funerary and therefore inappropriate for a sanctuary of Athena may have prejudiced him;

idem (1920) 53; Picard fig. 3; R. Lullies and M. Hirmer, Greek Sculpture, rev. and enlarged ed.

(New York 1960) 70-71, pi. 96; B.S. Ridgway, The Severe Style in Greek Sculpture (Princeton

1970) 49, fig. 70. 13. Picard 18.

14. I will follow Kirk who accepts the eighth century "as the probable date of the composition of

the Iliad-and probably too, close to its end, of the Odyssey." "Again, the formation of the large scale Odyssey might easily have been as late as the first years of the seventh century." Kirk

A Hero Shrinefor Phrontis at Sounion? 17

287. Coldstream puts the age of Homer "within the approximate limits of 750 and 650 B.C.,"

Coldstream 8. 15. Boardman 198 n. 151.

16. Berard 63.

17. M.P. Nilsson, A History of Greek Religion2 (New York 1964) 135-136; cf. Andronikos 1-37. 18. II. 23.100. Od. 10.495; 11.207; 11.219-220. 19. II. 1.52; 6.416-420; 7.427-432. Od. 12.11-15, etc. 20. II. 7.84-91.

21. Farnell 340-342.

22. W.K.C. Guthrie, The Greeks and their Gods (Boston 1951) 267. 23. Cook (1953); idem, "The Cult of Agamemnon at Mycenae," in Geras Antoniou Keramo

poullou (Athens 1954) 113-115.

24. Kirk 51 and 285.

25. Mylonas, "The Cult of the Dead in Helladic Times," in Studies Presented to D.M. Robinson

on his Seventieth Birthday (1951) 105. Mylonas did think that Grave Circle A in Mycenae was an

exception to the general absence of such cult.

26. G.E. Mylonas, Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age (Princeton 1966) 181-186; M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der Griechischen Religion2 (Munich 1955) 380 and 382. Andronikos does not accept Mylonas' conclusions in spite of the absence of Dark Age pottery at both Menidi and Delos, An dronikos 128. Price supports Mylonas on the absence of continuity, Price 131.

27. The distribution of Bronze Age tombs which received offerings is summarized in A.M. Snod

grass, The Dark Age of Greece: An Archaeological Survey of the Eleventh to the Eighth Centuries B.C. (Edinburgh 1971) 194-195 and Coldstream 9-12.

28. Rohde 12; P. Stengel, Die Griechischen Kultusaltertumer (Munich 1920) 139; cf. the burial

of witless Elpenor whose eidolon threatened to become the curse of the gods, &)cv guilvtlpa, if his

body went unburied, Od. 11.70-78. 29. Rohde 36-37; cf. Deneken 2456; Farnell 134; F. Robert, Thymele: Recherches sur la signifi

cation et la destination des monuments circulaires dans I Architecture religieuse de la Grece (Paris

1939) 164. 30. In addition to other offerings Odysseus slaughtered two sheep over a pit in order to attract

the dead and promised to sacrifice a black ram once in Ithaka, Od. 10.515-530; 11.25-33 and 50.

31. Il. 2.243-244. Od. 11.298-304.

32. Deneken 2456.

33. Od. 4.561-570; Deneken 2455-2456.

34. Coldstream 16.

35. II. 2.548-551. ". . the Athenian contingent was led by the feeble Menestheus, in himself

the weightiest argument against this passage being a later Athenian insertion," Coldstream 16.

36. Price 142.

37. Price 129 and 133; Hack, "Homer and the Cult of Heroes," TAPA 60 (1929) 60.

38. Benton (1935), idem (1936). 39. Benton (1935) 52-53, and 58, nos. 1 and 2, 64 and 113, pls. 10-17, figs. 14-17; Benton

(1936) 350; "The series of tripods runs parallel with that of Olympia beginning with two examples of the small, functional vessels which are unlikely to be later than 800 B.C.," Coldstream 16.

40. Benton, "Excavations in Ithaka, III: The Cave at Polis, II," BSA 39 (1938-1939) 16-17, pi. 9a. no. 1; cf. nos. 2-6.

41. Stavropoullos (1958); J. Travlos, Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens (New York 1971) 50,

fig. 62; H. Drerup, Griechische Baukunst in geometrischer Zeit: Archaeologia Homerica II:O (G6t

tingen 1969) 21-32; Price 142; Coldstream 16.

42. Stavropoullos, "Anaskaphe Archaias Akademeias," Praktika 1956 (1961) 53-54.

43. Stavropoullos (1958) 8. 44. Stavropoullos (1958) 8-9, pl. 6.

45. Coldstream 12-14.

46. Coldstream 16.

18 Herbert Abramson

47. Coldstream 15.

48. Coldstream 17. 49. Od. 4.617; Cook 113. 50. Od. 24.80-84. 51. Od. 4.580-585. 52. Paus. 1.5,3; 1.39.6.

53. Paus. 2.1.3. 54. Paus. 3.22.10. 55. Benton (1935) 45; idem (1936) 350. 56. Mallwitz 269. 57. Young, "An Epigram at Sounion," Studies Presented to D.M. Robinson (St. Louis 1951)

II.353-357; cf. Dinsmoor, Jr. 11 and 31.

58. Dinsmoor, Jr. plan p. 9.

59. "The towers therefore are to be made round or polygonal. For engines more quickly demol

ish square towers, because the battering rams beat and break the angles; whereas in the case of

rounded surfaces, even when they drive the battering rams wedge fashion towards the center, they

cannot hurt them," Vitr. De Arch. 1.5.5, translation of Frank Granger. 60. Dinsmoor, Jr. 31; cf. Staes (1917) 170-171; idem (1920) 39-40. Staes' interpretation of the

enclosure as a granary is as unconvincing as Picard's heroon; cf. Picard 9-13.

61. Boardman 198 n. 151; Dinsmoor, Jr. 2 and 4; Staes (1917) 207-209.

62. Staes (1917) 207-213; idem (1920) 48-55; Dinsmoor, Jr. 2-4, plan p. 38. 63. Staes (1917) fig. 18. A.M. Snodgrass, however, dates them to the seventh or sixth century,

possibly as early as the Late Geometric, Early Greek Armour and Weapons (Edinburgh 1964) 96, nos. 26 and 27. Cf. infra note 70.

64. Staes (1917) fig. 20. 65. Staes (1917) 209, fig. 18. 66. Staes (1917) 207, fig. 18. 67. Staes (1917) 207, fig. 17. 68. Staes (1917) 202-204, figs. 13-15. These are the only Attic kouroi besides those excavated

from a pit east of the temple of Poseidon that come from a votive rather than funerary context, B.S.

Ridgway, The Archaic Style in Greek Sculpture (Princeton 1977) 52. 69. Olympia IV 2-3, pi. 62. 70. Blegen, "Two Athenian Grave Groups of about 900 B.C.," Hesperia 31 (1952) 279-282, 289

no. 1, fig. 3, pi. 75c.

71. Berard 13-25, 31, figs. 2, 3, pls. 9.37, 10.40. 72. Wolters 121; H.G. Lolling, Das Kuppelgrab bei Menidi (Athens 1880) 5-6; Boardman 198. 73. Burr 604-607, figs. 72-73; Boardman 197. Burr originally interpreted the structure as a

house unrelated to the votive deposit, 550-551. But more recently it has been called a "temenos

open to the sky," Thompson (1958) 160. 74. Thompson (1958) 150, pi. 421; Athenian Agora XIV 119. 75. Wace, Thompson, and Droop 117, fig. 2.2, pi. 6.28.

76. Cook 61-62, fig. 35.

77. Burr 609-614. 78. Wolters 118-121.

79. Thompson (1958) 150, pi. 42k; Athenian Agora XIV 119. 80. Wace, Thompson, and Droop figs. 7.25-30, 8.31, 32-34. They are identical to the shields

carried by miniature armed warriors, also of lead, fig. 10.1-25.

81. Olympia IV 3.

82. Burr 621, fig. 87. 83. Olympia IV 2-3, pi. 27; F. Willemsen, Dreifusskessel von Olympia: Olympische Forschun

gen III (Berlin 1957) 161, 163.

84. Benton (1935) 52-53, pls. 10-17, figs. 14-17.

85. Cook 64; Olympia IV 2-3, pi. 62; Wolters 112; Burr 617-621; cf. the nearby triangular

A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion? 19

"hieron," Lalonde, "A Fifth Century Hieron Southwest of the Athenian Agora," Hesperia 37 (1968) 131, pi. 36e; Williams, 1973 pi. 3; idem, "Corinth, 1973: The Forum Area," Hesperia 43 (1974) pi. 5; idem, "Corinth, Excavation Report, 1977," Hesperia 47 (1978) 10; Wace, Thompson, and Droop pi. 5.76; Guillon (1936) 422-427; idem (1943) 11.89 and 91.

86. Cook 62-63; Williams (1973) pi. 33.

87. Guillon (1936) 422-427; idem (1943) 11.89 and 91. Interestingly, no male figurines were found on the higher terrace, which honored a female divinity.

88. Dinsmoor, Jr. plan p. 38.

89. Staes (1920) 41. 90. Vitr. De Arch. 4.8.4.

91. Staes (1917) 187-188; idem (1920) 42-43; Dinsmoor, Jr. 50-51. 92. Staes (1917) 188 idem (1920) 42. 93. Staes (1920) 42; Dinsmoor, Jr. 50. 94. Dinsmoor, Jr. 4. 95. Dinsmoor, Jr. 51.

96. Ridgway (supra, n. 68) 52. 97. Paus. 1.34.1; cf. Fauth, "Amphiaraos," Der Kleine Pauly 1 (1964) 308; Deneken 2448; Far

nell 61.

98. Fontenrose, "The Cult and Myth of Pyrros at Delphi," University of California Publications

in Classical Archaeology 4:3 (1960) 211 n. 32.

99. Paus. 1.35.3. Other heroes and less than Olympian figures who had temples include Pan

drosos, Paus. 1.27.3; Amphiaraos, Paus. 1.34.2; Kyamites, Paus. 1.37.4; Hippolytos, Paus. 2.32.1; Klymenos, Paus. 2.35.9; Hipposthenes, Paus. 3.15.7; Menelaos, Paus. 3.19.9; Achilles, Paus. 3.19.11; the Dioskouroi, Paus. 2.22.5; 3.20.2; Kassandra, Paus. 3.26.5.

100. Wace, Thompson, and Droop pi. 5. 101. Isoc. 10.63. 102. Paus. 3.19.3. 103. Catling, "Archaeology in Greece, 1975-1976," AR 22 (1976) 14. 104. Guillon (1943) 11.70 and 198, pls. 9-11. 105. Mallwitz fold-out plan; O. Broneer, Topography and Architecture: Isthmia II (Princeton

1973) plan 3; Lerat, "Fouilles de Delphes (1934-1934): Rapport preliminaire," RA, 6th ser., 12 (1938) pi. 1; Papadimitriou, "Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron," SciAm 208 (1963) fig. p. 114.

106. Paus. 1.1.1.