Category: Ancient world

Did the Adonia last two days?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I have been hunting around for the origins of the following statement, which I first found in the Wikipedia article on the Adonia (the festival of Adonis), and then as copied from Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, p.14:

ADOʹNIA (Ἀδώνια), a festival celebrated in honour of Aphrodite and Adonis in most of the Grecian cities, as well as in numerous places in the East. It lasted two days, and was celebrated by women exclusively. On the first day they brought into the streets statues of Adonis, which were laid out as corpses; and they observed all the rites customary at funerals, beating themselves and uttering lamentations. The second day was spent in merriment and feasting; because Adonis was allowed to return to life, and spend half of the year with Aphrodite. (Aristoph. Pax, 412, Schol. ad loc.; Plut. Alcib. 18, Nic. 13). For fuller particulars respecting the worship and festivals of Adonis, see Dict. of Biogr. s.v. Adonis.a

A Google books search on “adonis adonia two days” gives some interesting results.  In the Analytical review: or history of literature, domestic and foreign …, Volume 8 of 1790, page 292, we get this (and the plain text version given at Google was extraordinarily good, given the very old font and long-s):

‘ P. 11. ADONIA, solemn feasts in honour of Venus, and in memory of her beloved Adonis. The Adonia were observed with great solemnity by molt nations. Greeks, Phœnicians, Lycians, Syrians, Egyptians, &c. From Syria they are supposed to have passed into India. The prophet Ezekiel is understood to speak of them. They were still observed at Alexandria in the time of St. Cyril, and at Antioch in that of Julian the apostate, whose arrival there during the solemnity was taken for an ill omen. The Adonia lasted two days, on the first of which certain images of Venus and Adonis were carried with all the pomp and ceremonies practised at funerals ; the women wept, rent their hair, beat their breasts, &c. imitating the cries and lamentations of Venus for the death of her paramour. This rite called Adwniasm?, the Syrians were not contented with observing so far as respected the weeping, but also gave themselves discipline, shaved their heads, &c.—Among the Egyptians the queen herself used to bear the image of Adonis in procession. The women carried along with them shells filled with earth, in which grew several sorts of herbs, especially lettuces, in memory of Adonis having been laid out by Venus upon, a bed of lettuce. These were called khpoi, or gardens ; whence Adwnnidoj khpoi are proverbially applied to things unfruitful, or fading ; because those herbs were only sown so long before the festival as to sprout forth and be green at that time, and then were presently thrown into the water. The flutes used upon this day were called ?????, from ?????, which was the Phœnician name of Adonis. This sacrifice was termed kaqedra, probably because the days of mourning used to be called by that name. The following day was spent in every expression of mirth and joy, in memory of Venus’s having obtained the favour of Proserpina, that Adonis should return to life, and live with her one half of the year. According to Meursius, the two offices of mourning and rejoicing made two distinct feasts, which were held at different times of the year, the one six months after the other, Adonis being supposed to pass half the year with Proserpina, and the other half with Venus. St. Cyril mentions an extraordinary ceremony practised by the Alexandrians: a letter was written to the women of Byblos, to inform them that Adonis was found again : this letter was thrown into the sea, which, it was pretended, failed not to convey it to Byblos in, seven days, upon receipt of which the Byblian women ceased their mourning, sung his praises, and made rejoicings as if he were restored to life. The Egyptian Adonia are said by some, to have been held in memory of the death of Osiris ; by others, of his sickness and recovery. Bishop Patrick dates their origin, from the slaughter of the first born under Moses. The Adonia were otherwise called Salambo.

No question but this is the same narrative, but with references to Cyril of Alexandria and Julian the Apostate, and also a reference to Meursius who also turns up in the Wikipedia article.  No references, tho.  An evidently derived source is here (1816), with the extra snippet that “the Abbe Banier wrote a memoir on the subject”.  There are several early 19th century reference books, all containing the same material it seems.

John E. Thorburn, The Facts On File companion to classical drama, p.11, gives the story again:

A Greek festival (usually lasting two days) that honored Adonis.  The first day of the festival involved mourning for Adonis’ disappearance; the second day was devoted to a search for his body by the community’s women, with whom the Adonia was quite popular.  This ritual search celebrated Adonis’ return to life and a six-month reunion with his lover, Aphrodite (compare the arrangement among Hades, Persephone and Demeter).  The festival first appears in the fifth century B.C.E. {sic} but may not have been officially sanctioned by the Athenian government during that time.  [Ancient sources: Aristophanes, Peace, 420; Plato, Phaedrus, 276b].

Bibliography:

Detienne, M., The gardens of Adonis: spices in Greek mythology.  Translated from the French by Janet Lloyd.  Introduction by J. P. Vernant.  Hassocks.  U.K.: Harvester Press, 1977.

Simms, R. Mourning and community at the Athenian Adonia, Classical Journal 93, no. 2 (1997-8), 121-144.

Sommerstein, A. H., The comedies of Aristophanes, vol. 5. Peace, Warminster, U.K.: Aris & Philips, 1985, 152.

Well, that gives us some modern references to search for ancient sources at the very least.  A preview of Detienne is here, which apparently does not contain the words “two days”.  I have located a pirate copy of the book, which I will consult.  Let us see whether it gives us ancient sources for the claims above.  It would be nice to have the Simms article, but I don’t have access to that.

The passage in Plato is the following (full English here; Perseus here):

Phaedr. You mean the living word of knowledge which has a soul, and of which written word is properly no more than an image?

Soc. Yes, of course that is what I mean. And now may I be allowed to ask you a question: Would a husbandman, who is a man of sense, take the seeds, which he values and which he wishes to bear fruit, and in sober seriousness plant them during the heat of summer, in some garden of Adonis, that he may rejoice when he sees them in eight days appearing in beauty? at least he would do so, if at all, only for the sake of amusement and pastime. But when he is in earnest he sows in fitting soil, and practises husbandry, and is satisfied if in eight months the seeds which he has sown arrive at perfection?

Not much in this, I’m afraid.

UPDATE: The excellent Charles Anthon comes to our rescue in his A Classical Dictionary, p.18, 1869 (There seem to be several editions of this book; the earlier ones have different and less useful text).  The “two day” concept is attributed to Lucian, De dea Syria.   Here’s what he says:

ADONIA, a festival in honour of Adonis, celebrated both at Byblus in Phoenicia, and in most of the Grecian cities. Lucian (de Syria Dea. — vol. 9, p. 88, seqq., ed. Bip.) has left us an account of the manner in which it was held at Byblus. According to this writer, it lasted during two days, on the first of which every, thing wore an appearance of sorrow, and the death of the favourite of Venus was indicated by public mourning. On the following day, however, the aspect of things underwent a complete change, and the greatest joy prevailed on account of the fabled resurrection of Adonis from the dead. During this festival the priests of Byblus shaved their heads, in imitation of the priests of Isis in Egypt. In the Grecian cities, the manner of holding this festival was nearly, if not exactly, the same with that followed in Phoenicia. On the first day all the citizens put themselves in mourning; coffins were exposed at every door; the statues of Venus and Adonis were borne in procession, with certain vessels full of earth, in which the worshippers had raised com, herbs, and lettuce, and these vessels were called the gardens of Adonis (‘Adwnij kh/poi). After the ceremony was over they were thrown into the sea or some river, where they soon perished, and thus became emblems of the premature death of Adonis, who had fallen, like a young plant, in the flower of his age. (Histoire du Culte d’Adonis: Mem. Acad, des Inscrip, etc., vol. 4, p. 136, seqq.—Dupuis, Origine de Cultes, vol. 4, p. 118, seqq., cd. 1822.— Valckenaer, ad Theoc. Adwniuz in Arg.) The lettuce was used among the other herbs on this occasion, because Venus was fabled to have deposited the dead body of her favourite on a bed of lettuce. In allusion to this festival, the expression ‘Adwnioj khpoi became proverbial, and was applied to whatever perished previous to the period of maturity. (Adagia Veterum, p. 410.) Plutarch relates, in his life of Nicias, that the expedition against Syracuse set sail from the harbours of Athens, at the very time when the women of that city were celebrating the mournful part of the festival of Adonis, during which there were to be seen, in every quarter of the city, images of the dead, and funeral processions, the women accompanying them with dismal lamentations. Hence an unfavourable omen was drawn of the result of the expedition, which the event but too fatally realized. Theocritus, in his beautiful Idyll entitled A)dwniazousai, has left us an account of the part of this grand anniversary spectacle termed h( eu)resij, “the finding,” i. e., the resurrection of Adonis, the celebration of it having been made by order of Arsinoe, queen of Ptolemy Fhiladelphus. Boettiger (Sabina, p. 265) has a very ingenious idea in relation to the fruits exhibited on this joyful occasion. He thinks it impossible, that even so powerful a queen as Arsinoe should be able to obtain in the spring of the year, when this festival was always celebrated, fruits which had attained their full maturity (w~ria). He considers it more than probable that they were of wax. This conjecture will also furnish another, and perhaps a more satisfactory, explanation of the phrase Adwnioj khpoi, denoting things whose exterior promised fairly, while there was nothing real or substantial within. Adonis was the same deity with the Syrian Tammuz, whose festival was celebrated even by the Jews, when they degenerated into idolatry (Ezekiel, 8, 14); and Tammuz is the proper Syriac name for the Adonis of the Greeks. (Creuzer’s Symbolik, vol. ii., p. 86 ) (Vid Adonis.)

It’s quite a journey, this, in the underworld of ideas, repeated from one encyclopedia to another.  And if we look at Lucian, online here, do we find our two day festival, with Adonis alive on the second day?  We do not (* see below, tho).  And we find a great mess of syncretistic ideas, some relating to Attis and the Galli, not Adonis.

6. I saw too at Byblos a large temple, 10 sacred to the Byblian Aphrodite 11: this is the scene of the secret rites of Adonis: I mastered these. They assert that the legend about Adonis and the wild boar is true, 12 and that the facts occurred in their country, and in memory of this calamity they beat their breasts and wail every year, and perform their secret ritual amid signs of mourning through the whole countryside. When they have finished their mourning and wailing, they sacrifice in the first place to Adonis, as to one who has departed this life: after this they allege that he is alive again, and exhibit his effigy to the sky. They proceed to shave their heads, 13 too, like the Egyptians on the loss of their Apis. The women who refuse to be shaved have to submit to the following penalty, viz., to stand for the space of an entire day in readiness to expose their persons for hire. The place of hire is open to none but foreigners, and out of the proceeds of the traffic of these women a sacrifice to Aphrodite is paid. 14

A. J. M. Wedderburn, Baptism and Resurrection, (1987) pp.201-2 gives us more.  He too thinks that De dea Syria means a two day festival — reading “at the end of” as “on the day after”.  But we also learn that Cyril talks about the “resurrection” of Adonis in the Commentary on Isiah, 18.1 f. (PG 70, 441AB), and compares this with Procopius of Gaza, PG 87.2, 2140AB).  This is the most interesting reference yet.  But I must leave it for another time.

UPDATE: Andrew Eastbourne has written to correct the above:

For what it’s worth, the passage from Lucian *does* in fact explicitly say “on the next day” — the translation of De Dea Syria is faulty in that spot.  Here is the Greek of the relevant sentence (from TLG) with the words underlined:  μετὰ δὲ τῇ ἑτέρῃ ἡμέρῃ ζώειν τέ μιν μυθολογέουσι καὶ ἐς τὸν ἠέρα πέμπουσι καὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς ξύρονται ὅκως Αἰγύπτιοι ἀποθανόντος Ἄπιος.

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The Lexicon of Photius

Posted on by Roger Pearse

One of the references to the festival of the Adonia is supposedly in “Photius”.  Perhaps his Lexicon would help, perhaps under Adonis or Adonia?  This led me to wonder where this text might be found.  I quickly found that a Google search needs “lexicon photii” to find anything at all.  Is there no Wikipedia article, even, for this text?

Google books showed me an 1823 edition here.  But unfortunately there is a lacuna of ca. 100 pages at precisely the point we want.  More modern editions exist.  But an 1864 edition has the same problem.   All these are based on the Codex Galeanus (Cambridge, Trinity College, O.3.9/5985, once no. 306), a 12th century parchment ms. of 149 leaves.

A preview of a much more modern edition (1982, De Gruyter, vol. 1 – A-D) by Christos Theodoridis is here.  And this has a much fuller text, and much of the introduction is also online, from which the following notes are taken.

It seems that in 1959 an academic at the university of Thessalonika named Linos Politis made an journey into western Macedonia for research purposes, and discovered at the monastery of Zavorda a manuscript (codex Zavordensis 95) of the 13-14th century, containing the complete text of the Lexicon.  The editor comments (p.ix) that a find of this kind, outside of papyri, is a rarity.  But it was 1974 before editing began.  The manuscript is 406 leaves, written on bombycin in two columns.  It is the only complete manuscript of the text.  The manuscript contains other items also.

Besides the Cambridge and Zavorda manuscripts, there is also a manuscript in Berlin: ms. Berolinensis graec. oct. 22, a 13th century parchment ms. of 111 leaves, mostly of miscellaneous contents.  It was bought in 1901 from Valentin Rose, and contains a portion of the text.  It was thought lost in World War 2, but Theodoridis set out to locate it.  During the war the mss. of the Prussian Staatsbibliothek were first sent to Furstenstein for safety, and then to the Benedictine monastery of Grüssau (now Krzeszow) in Silesia.  The monastery escaped the war, and the manuscript ended up in 1946 in Krakow, in the Jagellonen University Library there.

There are a couple of other sources: Atheniensis 1083, a 15-16th century paper ms. containing a 4 leaf extract of the work; and a manuscript in Mar Saba in Jerusalem, Sabbaiticus 137, a miscellaneous ms. of the 14-15th century of 169 leaves, with an extract on f.162-9.  A couple more minor sources are also given by Theodoridis.

But back to the Adonia in Photius.  In the 1982 edition, on p.46 – 47 we get the following, which gives us exactly what we want:

Anyone care to do a translation?  The latter entry (401) clearly identifies the connection with Phoenicia and Cyprus.

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More on the scholia on Aristophanes

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still looking for a scholion on Aristophanes which gives real extra information on the festival of Adonis, the Adonia.

The Koster volumes mentioned by Eleanor Dickey in the previous post turn out to be Scholia in Aristophanem, Groningen 1960.  I doubt I can access this.

But I find a bibliography (with horrible pop-ups etc) of Aristophanes material here.  In the section on the scholia I find this:

Scoli:

  • W.Dindorf  Aristophanis comoediae IV/1-3: Scholia Graeca ex codicibus aucta et emendata, Oxford, 1838
  • F.Dübner Scholia Graeca in Aristophanem, cum prolegomenis grammaticorum Parigi, 1842 (1877²) -si rifa per buona parte a Dind.-
  • solo Ravennate: W.G.Rutherford  Scholia Aristophanica I-II London 1896 (il III: A Chapter in the History of Annotation, being Scholia Aristophanica, vol III, 1905) 
  • cfr. anche lo studio di G.Zuntz Die Aristophanes-Scholien der Papyri, Berlin, 1975²

W.J.W Koster – D.Holwerda (dal 1974 o 5? a c.di) Scholia in Aristophanem, Groningen 1960-

PARS I
W.J.W. Koster  1A Prolegomena de Comoedia, Groningen, 1975
N.G.Wilson 1B Scholia in Aristophanis Acharnenses, Groningen, 1975
D.Mervyn Jones 2 Scholia vetera in Aristophanis Equites et N.G.Wilson Scholia Tricliniana in Aristophanis.Equites, Groningen, 1969
D.Holwerda 3,1 Scholia vetera in Nubes et W.J.W.Koster Scholia scholiorumque partes editionis Aldinae propria Groningen, 1977
W.J.W.Koster 3,2 Scholia recentiora in Nubes, Groningen, 1974

PARS II (Scholia in Vespas, Pacem Aves et Lysistrata)
W.J.W.Koster 1 Scholia vetera et recentiora in Aristophanis Vespas, Groningen, 1978
D.Holwerda  2 Scholia vetera et recentiora in Aristophanis Pacem, Groningen, 1982
D.Holwerda  3 Scholia vetera et recentiora in Aristophanis Aves, Groningen, 1991
J.Hangard  4  Scholia in Aristophanis Lysistratam, Groningen, 1996

PARS III (Scholia in Thesmophoriazusas; Ranas; Ecclesiazusas et Plutum)
M.Chantry IVa  Scholia vetera in Aristophanis Plutum, Groningen, 1994
M.Chantry  IVb  Scholia recentiora in Aristophanis Plutum, Groningen, 1996 (-5?)
Mancano tuttora gli scoli a Thesm. (1), Ran. (2), Eccl. (3)

PARS IV (Ioannis Tzetzae commentarii), 1960-64, 4 voll. (l’ultimo di indici)
L.Massa Positano 1. Prolegomena et commentarium in Plutum, Groningen, 1960
D.Holwerda  2. Commentarium in Nubes, Groningen, 1960
W.J.W Koster  3. Comm. in Ranas et in Aves, Argumentum Equitum Groningen, 1964 (-2?)

That gives a lot more information (in Italian) on what and when are where. 

The first couple of these should be accessible, I would have thought.  And so it proves: the 1846 edition of Dindorf is indeed online: vol. 4 pt1 is here, pt 2 is here, pt 3 here.  But one problem with these volumes is the lack of a table of contents.  I was obliged to look through the PDF’s by reducing the magnification to “fit the page”, then skimming down with the scroll page at 100 page intervals looking at the titles.  The scholia in pacem — we’re looking for a scholion on Peace, 412, for stuff about the Adonia — is in vol.4, pt3, and 412 is on p.56 of the printed text (p.61 of the PDF). 

However the scholion did not seem to be what we are looking for.  It is very common to find that obscure references are inaccurate, precisely because few have the opportunity to verify them!  Here it is anyway:

Transcription:

412.  ἵνα τὰς τελετὰς αὐτοὶ λάβοιεν : Ἡμῶν ἀπολλυμένων καὶ τῶν βαρβάρων αὐτοῖς θυόντων.   παρατηρητέον δὲ ὅτι ἀντὶ τοῦ τὰς θυσίας κεῖται τὸ τελετάς.

Would someone with better Greek than me care to translate?

In the mean time I’m going to OCR the PDF using language = Greek, and see if a search will bring up anything on “Adon”!  I do believe a scholion is there somewhere.

UPDATE: Just scrolling down the page, 419 is it!  (link here)

Transcription: 

419.  τὰ Διπόλεια : Τὰ Διπόλεια τῷ Διὶ, τὰ Ἀδώνια τῷ Ἀδώνιδι καὶ τῇ Ἀφροδίτῃ.

419.  The Dipoleia: the Dipoleia of Zeus, the Adonia of Adonis and Aphrodite.

Which doesn’t give us much.  Hmm.

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The Project Hindsight translations of ancient astrological texts

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A few weeks ago I wrote of my discovery that a bunch of ancient astrological texts existed in an largely unknown English translation by Robert Schmidt of Project Hindsight.  These can be obtained by emailing the site and sending money by Paypal (a price list is here, but prices are actually more flexible than the flat $45 per booklet).  A table of contents for each volume is on the site (e.g. Antiochus of Athens is here).

These translations have remained unknown.  I cannot check l’Année Philologique, but I don’t know that they have ever received an academic review.  COPAC, the UK union catalogue for research libraries, did not reveal a single copy in any of them.   They were originally sold on a subscription basis to interested people in the astrological community, and so did not circulate more widely.

The Project Hindsight early translations of Hellenistic textsNow I’m not very interested in ancient astrological texts.  The existence of astrology and astrologers in our own times is something of a curiosity.  I have found those I have dealt with to be rather civilised folk, somewhat gun-shy and afraid of being taken for cranks and cultists when they write.  

It was important to get rid of astrology so that astronomy could be born.  But since they are so harmless, we may see these people, and their interest in the astrological tradition, as a genuine survival from ancient times.  It’s a part of our own day that would be thoroughly comprehensible to a Roman.  It’s as if the worship of Apollo lingered in some mountain fastness; wrong, no doubt, but of great historical interest.  This has led me to take an interest in the matter, and perhaps to write more than I might otherwise have done.

I believe that all ancient literature should be accessible to anyone who wants to click on a link.  At the very least, it should be easy for people to find out about them!  So I invested some of my own money and obtained three volumes from the series; Antiochus of Athens, The Thesaurus; and Hephaistio of Thebes, Apotelesmatics vols.1 and 2.  I was warned that these were not of professional quality, that they were reprints, perhaps even photocopies, and that this was why they are not widely advertised.

A package arrived this morning from the US.  On opening it, I found three A5 booklets, a card cover, bound as a single-quire with two staples in the spine holding the quire together.  My first impression was positive.  The text is typeset professionally, the tone is calm and sensible, and the introduction by Robert Schmidt a model of professionalism. 

An opening of the Antiochus of Athens booklet from Project HindsightI attach a couple of photographs.  You should be able to click through on these to the full-size images.  Unfortunately it is rather dim here today, and I am never that handy with a camera taking images of pages anyway.

The volumes, as far as book production is concerned, seem to me to be perfectly acceptable and nothing to be ashamed of.  A few of the pages betray the odd mark indicating that a photocopier has been involved — the odd dust speck, the odd hair.  But all of us have photocopies of that kind!  The text is always perfectly clear and readable with none of the blodges that you get from photocopying old paper.

The prices are rather high, it must be said at once.  But you can haggle.  The team at Project Hindsight have reprints on the shelf of some of the volumes, which they are willing to let go at a discount.

The introduction to the Antiochus by Robert Schmidt is a model of how this should be done.  He indicates his sources, he states what text he is translating, and he gives an appendix indicating how he has translated specific technical terms.  The additional editorial work and notes by Robert Hand also look good.

This issue of technical terminology is a real one, which must obstruct all progress in this field until a specialist lexicon is compiled.   Mark Riley, while working on Vettius Valens, did start compiling such a lexicon, and he has placed his notes online.  It is interesting that Robert Schmidt has found the same need, and I could wish that the Project should place online a digest of how these terms were rendered.  In fact Dr Schmidt might be well advised to publish an article in some technical journal on this very subject. 

A number of volumes of Vettius Valens are in the Project Hindsight list.  It seems that Dr Riley and Dr Schmidt worked independently, neither aware of the other.  But the result is probably of benefit to everyone.

Robert Schmidt is now reworking his translations, with the benefit of 17 years experience, into a new series of hardbacks, again to be sold on subscription.  We must all wish this enterprise well, and I hope  that the translator reaps a handsome financial reward, for his efforts have benefitted mankind to an extraordinary degree.

I wish I knew how to get some of the major libraries here to subscribe, for it is clear to me that these volumes need to be held in research libraries, and will otherwise be very hard of access.  Anyone any ideas?

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The Realencyclopadie on the festival of the Adonia

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A commenter asked about the date of the Adonia.  I confess I had never considered the matter, and posted the German text of the Realencyclopadie entry in the comments.  Here is a translation. 

Adonia. The feast of Adonis, celebrated in midsummer festival, whose main component is the lament for the death of Adonis who was represented by wooden dolls. The festival, of uncertain origin, is certainly an ancient one on the soil of Greece, Asia Minor and Syria, first mentioned at Athens under the name A)dwnia (Aristophanes Peace 419. Plutarch Nicias 13; Alcibiades 18) on the occasion of the Sicilian expedition as a private celebration for women.  In the 4th century B.C., the comic writers several times refer to it as for courtesans. So in Diphilus, fragment 43, 39 (II 554 K., ibid. 557; in the Theseus of Diphilus, the courtesans gave each other obscene riddles at the Adonia).

An honorary decree of the Thiasotai of Aphrodite for their leaders from the year 302 (Dittenberger Syll. 427) sets out his services in the πομπή (solemn procession) of the Adonia, which must therefore have been a major festival.

There is a portrayal of a splendid celebration of the Adonia in Alexandria, favored by Ptolemy Philadelphus, in Theocritus, 15th Idyll; a description of the celebration in Byblos, probably from the 1st century A.D., in [Lucian] de dea Syria 6ff; in Antioch in 362 AD (Ammianus Marcellinus XXII 9, 15) the festival was still celebrated annually. For the history of the god and its importance see Adonis.

The opening of the 15th idyll of Theocritus, and a link to the full English version, is in the post referenced above.  The hymn that is sung refers to Adonis receiving all the fruits — late summer, perhaps? — while another bit refers to “Oh dear, oh dear, Gorgo! my summer cloak’s torn right in two”, and the footnote suggests that it may have been held on the longest day.

Of course this is Ptolemaic Alexandria.  We need not suppose the festival was held on the same day everywhere.  Indeed in the Greek world, where each city could have different months, where the year started at different times, and there was no agreement on any universal chronology, it would be quite difficult to hold a festival on the same day throughout the Greek world, except by tying it to the solstice or some other astronomical event. 

We’re used to the Christian chronology, which is universal.  But that was a product of late antiquity, of the labours of Eusebius of Caesarea.  It did not exist in the classical Greek period.

UPDATE: Aristophanes, Peace, is here:

HERMES: Is it then for this reason that these untrustworthy charioteers have for so long been defrauding us, one of them robbing us of daylight and the other nibbling away at the other’s disk?

TRYGAES: Yes, certainly. So therefore, Hermes, my friend, help us with your whole heart to find and deliver the captive and we will celebrate the great Panathenaea in your honour as well as all the festivals of the other gods; for Hermes shall be the Mysteries, the Dipolia, the Adonia; everywhere the towns, freed from their miseries, will sacrifice to Hermes the Liberator; you will be loaded with benefits of every kind, and to start with, I offer you this cup for libations as your first present.

Plutarch, Alcibiades, is here.  The time is the arguments at Athens over sending the disastrous expedition to Syracuse.

After the people had adopted this motion and all things were made ready for the departure of the fleet, there were some unpropitious signs and portents, especially in connection with the festival, namely, the Adonia. 3 This fell at that time, and little images like dead folk carried forth to burial were in many places exposed to view by the women, who mimicked burial rites, beat their breasts, and sang dirges.

 Plutarch, Nicias, here refers to the same events:

7. Not a few also were somewhat disconcerted by the character of the days in the midst of which they dispatched their armament. The women were celebrating at that time the festival of Adonis, and in many places throughout the city little images of the god were laid our for burial, and funeral rites were held about them, with wailing cries of women, so that those who cared anything for such matters were distressed, and feared lest that powerful armament, with all the splendour and vigour which were so manifest in it, should speedily wither away and come to naught.

These last two come from Lacus Curtius, the splendid site created by Bill Thayer.  Here the Adonia is being celebrated at Athens when the expedition is despatched — but when was this, I wonder?

Bill has linked ‘adonia’ in the Alcibiades to a dictionary article that he has digitised, here.

ADOʹNIA (Ἀδώνια), a festival celebrated in honour of Aphrodite and Adonis in most of the Grecian cities, as well as in numerous places in the East. It lasted two days, and was celebrated by women exclusively. On the first day they brought into the streets statues of Adonis, which were laid out as corpses; and they observed all the rites customary at funerals, beating themselves and uttering lamentations. The second day was spent in merriment and feasting; because Adonis was allowed to return to life, and spend half of the year with Aphrodite. (Aristoph. Pax, 412, Schol. ad loc.; Plut. Alcib. 18, Nic. 13). For fuller particulars respecting the worship and festivals of Adonis, see Dict. of Biogr. s.v. Adonis.a

And Bill  has added his own note:

a For a different set of references altogether, see Prof. Crosby’s note on the 62d Discourse of Dio Chrysostom.

But Dio reads:

On the contrary, it was his custom to slip away into the women’s quarters in his palace and there sit with legs drawn up on a golden couch, sheltered by purple bed-hangings, just like the Adonis who is lamented by the women [5],…

and the note is:

5. As early as the fifth century Athenian women honoured him with a two-day festival in which the lament was prominent; cf. Aristophanes, Lysistrata 389.  A celebration in Alexandria forms the background of Theocritus’ fifteenth idyl; cf. also Bion’s Lament in Edmonds, Greek Bucolic Poets (L. C. L.), pp386‑395.

Few sites indeed, other than Lacus Curtius, would give us so much for a few clicks. 

Aristophanes, Lysistrata is here:

MAGISTRATE: Have the luxurious rites of the women glittered
Their libertine show, their drumming tapped out crowds,
The Sabazian Mysteries summoned their mob,
Adonis been wept to death on the terraces,
As I could hear the last day in the Assembly?
For Demostratus–let bad luck befoul him–
Was roaring, “We must sail for Sicily,”
While a woman, throwing herself about in a dance
Lopsided with drink, was shrilling out “Adonis,
Woe for Adonis.” Then Demostratus shouted,
“We must levy hoplites at Zacynthus,”
And there the woman, up to the ears in wine,
Was screaming “Weep for Adonis” on the house-top,
The scoundrelly politician, that lunatic ox,
Bellowing bad advice through tipsy shrieks:
Such are the follies wantoning in them.

MEN: O if you knew their full effrontery!
All of the insults they’ve done, besides sousing us
With water from their pots to our public disgrace
For we stand here wringing our clothes like grown-up infants.

This gives us little new information, tho.

Bion’s Lament for Adonis is here.  However, while it makes clear that the festival was annual, it gives no indication as to when it took place.

The only remaining reference in that lot is the scholia on the passage in Aristophanes.  I’m not at all sure, tho, where these might be found.

Next a search in Google books, which gave me Matthew Dillon, Girls and women in classical Greek religion.  Page 164-5 talk of Menander’s Samia, much of which was recovered in 1907 from papyri, and more in 1959 in the Bodmer papyrus, giving us four out of five sections.  This does not seem to be accessible online, however.  Dillon tells us that the festival was not a state event, but conducted in private houses, a women-only event, including both respectable women and prostitutes involved,  and he gives the Samia as his reference for this.   But he also tells us that Photius mentions the Adonia (unfortunately I cannot see the footnote 155), as coming to the Greeks from Cyprus and Phoenicia.  Interestingly he also says:

But Adonis was in no sense an eastern dying and reborn vegetation god.  The Adonis images laid out as in death, and the seed garden that never bear fruit, honour him once each year.  After the Adonia, he will not make an appearance until the next celebration of the festival (i.e. his death is commemorated each year; only late sources mention a resurrection).[156]

On p.167-8 Dillon adds that the date of the festival is disputed.  The Sicilian expedition referenced in Aristophanes was in early Spring in 415, but Plutarch gives the Adonia happening in the middle of a whole series of ill-omens before the expedition, all taking place in mid-summer.  Two passages of Theophrastus say that the Gardens of Adonis were sown in the Spring.  On p.168 he refers to, not one, but three decrees of the thiasotai (members of the thiasos), found at Piraeus.

All this is interesting.  I wish I could see the references.  The mention of Photius is perhaps a reference to the Lexicon, rather than the Bibliotheca.

There is also an entry in the Suda, although the online site doesn’t seem to allow us to link to articles.  But it gives us nothing useful.

All of which is very inconclusive.  I think we have to say, in truth, that we do not know for certain when the Adonia was celebrated.

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The Serapeum of Alexandria, described by Aphthonius of Alexandria

Posted on by Roger Pearse

For the last day I have been hunting down a description of the Serapeum in Alexandria.  I learned of it from Philip Amidon’s translation of Rufinus.  The description is recorded — of all places — in the handbook of rhetoric by Aphthonius of Antioch.  This writer was a friend of Libanius, and lived in the late fourth century.

The description is there, not for its content, but rather as an example of a relaxed style (!).  It has been no mean hunt to locate the materials, but in fact a complete translation of the text is available from Malcolm Heath here, and here.  The word “Serapis” does not appear in the text — on the face of it, the description is of the acropolis.  But in fact it is the Serapeum.

A text in Greek is available in Rhetores Graeci, vol. 2, 1854, p.47-49.  The 1926 Teubner by Hugo Rabe, with the commentary of the 9th century John of Sardis (compiling much earlier information), does not seem to be online.

Rather than quote the Heath translation, here is the translation by George Kennedy, who has translated and annotated four rhetorical handbooks, and some of John of Sardis.   The Google books preview only gives the opening bit.  Page numbers in Rabe are marked with R, the other numbers in [] are from the Rhetores Graeci text, whose page numbers have become standard.

ECPHRASIS OF THE SHRINE OF ALEXANDRIA, WITH ITS ACROPOLIS

Citadels, then,87 have been built in cities for the common security; for they are the highest points in the cities, and they are not themselves more fortified with buildings than they fortify their cities. The middle of Athens has embraced the acropolis of the Athenians, and Alexander had a height prepared in his own city, constructed to suit the name he gave it;88 for he set it on the highest point of the city, and it is more sensible to call it an acropolis than that on which the Athenians took counsel.89 Its appearance is as this account will describe.

An ”akra” projects up from the land, going up to a considerable height, and is called an “acropolis” for two reasons: because it is raised to a height and because it has been set on the high point of a city. Roads leading to this acropolis are not alike; for here there is an incline (”anodos”) and there an entrance way (”eisodos”). The roads change their names, being called by their function: here it is possible to go on foot and the way is public and a road for those going by carriage; on another side, flights of steps have been constructed [39R] where it is not possible for carriages to go. Flight of steps follows flight of step, always increasing from the lesser and leading upward, not ceasing until there have been a hundred steps; for the limit of a number is the end [48] that reaches perfect measure.90

At the top of the stairs is a Propylaeon, enclosed by latticed gates of moderate height, and four very large columns rise up, providing several openings into one entrance passage. Above the columns stands the Oecus, fronted by many smaller columns which are not all of the same color, and when compared they add ornament to the design. The roof of the building rises in a dome, and around the dome is fixed a great memorial of things that are.91

On going into the acropolis itself, one enters a single open space, bounded by four equal sides, and its figure is rather like that of a war machine (i.e., a hollow rectangle). In the middle is a courtyard, surrounded by a colonnade. Stoas continue the courtyard and the stoas are divided by equal columns, and as for their measure, it is the largest possible. Each stoa ends [40R] in another crosswise colonnade and a double column divides it from another stoa, one ending and the other beginning again. Small covered structures are built inside the stoas; some are reading rooms for books, offering an opportunity for the studious to pursue knowledge and arousing the whole city to the possibility of wisdom; others were built as shrines to the ancient gods. Gold adorns the roof of the stoas and the capitals of the columns are made of bronze, overlaid with gold. The decoration of the courtyard is not all the same; different parts were done differently. One part has a representation of the contests of Perseus. A column higher than the others stands in the middle, making the place conspicuous.92 A visitor, up to this point, does not …

87 Unlike the other examples of composition, this begins with connective particles (”de ara”), contributing to the relaxed style; see John of Sardis’ commentary on this ecphrasis, translated below.
88 I.e.. the name “acropolis,” but the sentence is clumsy and possibly the text is corrupt. Alexander’s city is of course Alexandria.
89 The Areopagus?
90 “In its completed form the plateau on which the Temple stood was approached from the north and south sides by a carriage road and from the east side by a flight of 200 steps,” John Marlowe, The Golden Age of Alexandria (London: Victor Gollancz, 1971). p. 60. For more information about the Serapeum, see I. A. Rowe, “Discoveries of the Famous Temple and Enclosure of Sarapis at Alexandria”, Annales du Service de l’Antiquite de l’Egypte, Cahier supplementaire 2 (1946).
91 “At the top of the steps was a Propylaeum supported by four large columns and approached between two obelisks. Immediately inside the Propylaeum was an Oecus, or circular hall, covered by a gilded dome resting on a double ring of columns,” Marlow ibid. The “great memorial of things that are” was probably a religious and historical fresco.
92 This monument, some 80 feet high, was known as “Pompey’s Pillar,” but was actually erected to commemorate a visit to Alexandria by Diocletian in A.D. 297, when he suppressed a revolt.

Unfortunately the Google Books preview breaks off there.

Doesn’t that translation seem good!  Of course the Heath translation was made earlier, and is merely a rough draft.  Here is the remainder of the entry, from Heath:

…. where he is going, unless he uses the pillar as a sign of the direction) and makes the acropolis stand out by land and sea. The beginnings of the universe stand round the capital of the column. Before one comes to the middle of the court there is set an edifice with many entrances, which are named after the ancient gods; and two stone obelisks rise up, and a fountain better than that of the Peisistratids. And the marvel had an incredible number of builders. As one was not sufficient for the making, builders of the whole acropolis were appointed to the number of twelve.

As one comes down from the acropolis, here is a flat place resembling a race-course, which is what the place is called; and here there is another of similar shape, but not equal in size.

The beauty is unspeakable. If anything has been omitted, it has been bracketed by amazement; what it was not possible to describe has been omitted.

Who would have thought that so obscure a writer was nevertheless online in several Greek versions, older Latin translations, and two English versions?  Truly we live in a blessed age!

UPDATE: My thanks to Domenico in the comments for pointing out my mis-spelling of Aphthonius as Apthonius.  Aargh!

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Vettius Valens translation revised

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A note from Prof. Mark Riley to say that he has fixed a few bugs in his translation of Vettius Valens, and uploaded a revised PDF here.  Grab it while it’s hot!

I’m getting snippets suggesting that the upload of this complete translation to the web is causing rather a stir in astrological circles.  Which is all to the good, of course!

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Serapis and Osiris-Apis

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I always get a bit jumpy when I read statements like “Serapis is the same as Osiris-Apis.”  I want to know how anyone knows.

Today I was reading the Realencyclopadie article on Sarapis (col. 2369), which goes some way to answer this question:

Die ägyptische Schreibung des Namens S. ist Osiris-Apis, wie aus den bilinguen Inschriften mit zweifelloser Sicherheit hervorgeht. Die älteste hieroglyphische Schreibung in einer Bilinguis findet sich auf einem Goldplättchen, das in Alexandria gefunden ist und von Ptolemaios IV. Philopator (222-205 v. Chr.) und Arsinoe mit griechischer und hieroglyphischer Inschrift als Grundsteinbeigabe geweiht ist (Maspero Recueil de travaux egypt. assyr. VII (1886) 140-141). Eine demotische Bilinguis mit Osiris-Apis für Σαραπις bei Brugsch Thesaurus inscript. aegypt. V 917. Wo ägyptische Denkmäler den Apis-Stier darstellen, nennen sie ihn in der hieroglyphischen Beischrift häufig Osiris-Apis, z. B. Berlin 7304: Grabstein des Imhotep. Erman Relig.2 (1909) 238 Abb. 134.

Which translates as:

The Egyptian spelling of the name Serapis was Osiris-Apis, as shown in the bilingual inscriptions with indubitable certainty. The oldest hieroglyphic inscription is found in a bilingual text on a gold plate which was found in Alexandria, and dedicated to Ptolemy IV Philopator (222-205 BC) and Arsinoe, with Greek and hieroglyphic inscriptions, as a foundation deposit (Maspero, Recueil de travaux egypt. assyr. VII (1886) 140-141). A demotic bilingual text with Osiris-Apis for Serapis in Brugsch Thesaurus inscript. aegypt. V p.917. Where Egyptian monuments represent the Apis bull, they frequently call him  in the hieroglyphic inscription ‘Osiris-Apis’, for example, Berlin 7304: grave stone of Imhotep. Erman Relig.2 (1909) 238 Fig 134.

I wasn’t able to find the Maspero book online, but the Brugsch book is accessible, and there is indeed an inscription referring to Serapis.  (Ideally we would translate both sides, but I don’t know ancient Egyptian!) 

A couple of bilingual texts seems like evidence of a perceived equivalence in Ptolemaic times, at any rate.

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Serapis, his origins and sources

Posted on by Roger Pearse

It is often said that Serapis was a fake god, invented by Ptolemy Soter in order to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his realm.   This has led me to wonder what the sources are for this statement.

A look at the Wikipedia article gives very little information. 

Gibbon tells us that Macrobius, book 1, chapter 7, gives us some info; also   Tacitus, Hist. iv., 83.  From Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 28 we learn of the importation of the cult from Pontus by Ptolemy Soter.

But nowhere do I find “Ptolemy invented this.”  Hum.

While looking for information, I came across some other interesting translations online at Google Books: Pausanias, Description of Greece, tr. Thomas Taylor (1824), online vol.1, vol.2, vol.3. Also there is Arrian’s Voyage around the Euxine sea (1805)

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Daryn Lehoux’s thesis on ancient astronomical calendars is online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still thinking about parapegma, the ancient peg-calendars to predict star- and weather-movements.  A google search has revealed that the opening parts of Daryn Lehoux’s 2007 book are a version of his 2000 PhD thesis, which is online at ScribD here.   It’s a Canadian thesis, which leads me to wonder whether Canadian theses are online for free, and if so where?

The thesis doesn’t include the texts and translations.  But it doesinclude the key question, “what is a parapegma”?  The general quality of writing, tho, is considerably inferior to the final version, and it is not nearly so readable.   Those with a library room in their country estate, and $155 to spare, will be better advised to buy the book.  We peasants, however, will still gain value from the thesis.

in this work I address the broader question of how one mode of prediction, cyclical astrological prediction, functioned in the ancient world. I examine a diverse set of texts and instruments collectively known as parapegmata. These were used for predicting and tracking such things as astronomical events, day-to-day weather changes, lunar phenomena, and certain types of astrological influences. …

The word parapegma (pl.: parapegmata] refers to an ancient instrument which was used to keep track of astronomical, astrological or astrometeorological cycles using a moveable peg or pegs. By extension, the word also refer to a group of texts which were derived from these instruments, and which tracked the astrometeorological cycle typically by linking it to a calendar.

 …  they provided some means for locating the current day in the context of the larger temporal scheme, either by indexing the cycle to a calendar, or by indicating the current day with a peg. I call this process tracking a lunar or astrometeorological cycle. In inscriptional parapegmata, each entry would have a hole drilled beside it to receive a moveable peg. The peg would be shifted on each consecutive day, and thus the inscription beside the peg would contain the information pertaining to the current day.

There were also non-inscriptional, literary parapegmata in both Greek and Latin. A typical example of these would list the dates of a coming year in, for example, the Roman or Egyptian calendar, and, for particular dates, offer astronomical and weather predictions for that year. In this respect, they are rather like a pared-down version of a more modern Farmer’s Almanac. These calendars were used in Greece from at least the fifth century B.C., and there are Western European and Byzantine examples dating well into the Middle Ages and beyond.

The Romans translated Greek parapegmata into Latin, and they were developing their own versions by the first century B.C., with some interesting modifications. In particular, their inscriptional parapegmata were often used to keep track of lunar days, hebdomadal days and nundinal days. There was also a corresponding Egyptian tradition dating from at least the fourth century B.C., which may or may not be independent from the Greek.

The astronomical phenomena frequently recorded in the parapegmata are the solstices and equinoxes for a given year, and what are called the ‘phases’ of the more important fixed stars.  …

Until the early twentieth century, the only known parapegmata were found in the astronomical or divinatory manuscripts of, for example, Ptolemy, Geminus, and Johannes Lydus. A typical entry from one of these looks like this:  …

(Month of] [Thoth,] [day] 1: [at the latitude where the day is 14 1/2 hours [long], the (star) on the tail of Leo sets.  According to Hipparchus , the Etesian winds stop. According to Eudoxus, rain, thunder, the Etesian winds stop.

Looking at entries such as this, it was unclear why this sort of text was called a parapegma in Greek, which derives from the verb parapegnumi meaning ‘to fix [something) beside something else.’ The sense of this derivation remained obscure untii the discovery of the Miletus parapegmata at the beginning of the twentieth century. These newly discovered parapegmata differed from the literary ones in three respects: They were carved in stone rather than being written down in manuscripts, they contained no calendrical information [i.e., no dates in any civil or religious calendar], and they had holes bored into them beside or near the weather or astronomical entries. These holes corresponded to the number of days between, for example, two phases of a star.  …

It seems therefore probable that there was only one peg which was moved each day frorn hole to hole, thus indicating only the current date, and the current astronomical or astrometeorological situation. The empty peg holes would aliow one to count the number of days between now and the next significant event.

All this is extremely interesting, although an edition of the texts and translations, and ideally a corpus of inscriptions, is required to substantiate this.  It seems that Lehoux realised the same, when preparing the book version.

All this reminded me strongly of the calendar in the Chronography of 354, which displays the nundinal days.  I never found a good account of how these worked, but the thesis contains an explanation of these too.

Lehoux’s thesis is good.  But it remains just a thesis.  The final product, the book, is infinitely better.  I just wish I could afford to buy a copy!

Books like this one are a real blessing.  This is a book that takes a field in which there is only scholarship in German — and English-speaking scholars do not, on the whole, display much in the way of German language skills — and makes the whole subject accessible to English speakers, places it in context, and deals with questions of the kind that I have struggled with, while working on Antiochus.  It’s like a travel handbook to a new and totally unfamiliar country.  But once he has this, the interested reader will be able to locate the major cities, find a hotel, and know which sites to visit!

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