The Parthenon Enigma (77 page)

126.
Lykourgos,
Against Leokrates
100 and Euripides,
Erechtheus
F 360.1 Kannicht. On the importance of not acting slowly, of responding without delay, see discussion by A. Chaniotis, “A Few Things Hellenistic Audiences Appreciated in Musical Performances,” in
La musa dimenticata. Aspetti dell’esperienza musicale greca in età ellenistica
, ed. M. C. Martinelli (Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore 2009), 75–97 and especially 89–92 (on spontaneity).

127.
Lykourgos,
Against Leokrates
101. Translation: Burtt,
Minor Attic Orators, II
, 90–91.

128.
Lykourgos,
Against Leokrates
100. Translation: Burtt,
Minor Attic Orators, II
, 85, 87.

129.
Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War
2.37.2, where the verb used is
mimoumetha
, “we copy.” I am indebted to Nickolas Pappas for this observation and to James Diggle for help with the passage.

4 THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

1.
P. Jouguet, “Rapport sur les fouilles de Médinet-Madi et Médinet Ghoran,”
BCH
25 (1901): 379–411.

2.
“Secrets Cooked from a Mummy,”
Life
(international ed.), November 15, 1963, 65–82.

3.
See C. Austin, “Back from the Dead with Posidippus,” in
The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book
, ed. K. Gutzwiller (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 67–69, and C. Austin,
Menander, Eleven Plays, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society
Supplementary Volume 37 (2013), remarks in preface.

4.
Personal communication with Colin Austin.

5.
M. A. Schwartz,
Erechtheus et Theseus apud Euripidem et Atthidographos
(Leiden: S. C. van Doesburgh, 1917).

6.
The dating of the play is problematic. Kannicht (394) gives the time frame set by Cropp and Fick, that is, sometime after Euripides’s
Elektra
(422–417
B.C.
) and before his
Helen
(412
B.C.
). See M. Cropp and G. Fick,
Resolutions and Chronology in Euripides
(London: University of London, 1985), 79–80, who go on to suggest 416
B.C.
as the statistically “most likely” date for the first performance of the play. Jouan and Van Looy,
Fragments: Euripides
, 98–99, and Sonnino,
Euripidis Erechthei
, 27–34, give helpful overviews of the various chronologies that have been proposed. Most argue that the
Erechtheus
was first performed around 423/422
B.C.
, during the one-year armistice between Athens and Sparta, the so-called Peace of Nikias. This is because Plutarch,
Life of Nikias
9.5, quotes lines from the
Erechtheus
(F 369.2–3 Kannicht), and says these lines could be heard sung by choruses at Athens during this year of the truce. For a date in 423
B.C.
, see Austin,
Nova fragmenta Euripidea
, 22; M. Treu, “Der Euripideische Erechtheus als Zeugnis seiner Zeit,”
Chiron
1 (1971): 115–31; Carrara,
Euripide: Eretteo
, 13–17; R. Simms, “Eumolpos and the Wars of Athens,”
GRBS
24 (1983): 197–203. For a date in 422
B.C.
, see Calder, “Date of Euripides’
Erechtheus
”; Clairmont, “Euripides’
Erechtheus
and the Erechtheum”; Calder, “Prof. Calder’s Reply.” C. Austin, “De nouveaux fragments de l’
Érechthée
,” 17, proposes a date of 421
B.C.
or before. Collard, Cropp, and Lee,
Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Plays
, 155, place the play near 420 or shortly thereafter. For dating of the play to ca. 412
B.C.
, see M. Vickers, “Persepolis, Vitruvius, and the Erechtheum Caryatids: The Iconography of Medism and Servitude,”
RA
1 (1985): 18. It should be noted that Aristophanes quotes from the
Erechtheus
in his
Lysistrata
1135 (performed in 411
B.C.
) and in his
Thesmophoriazusae
120 (performed in 410
B.C.
).

7.
Austin, “De nouveaux fragments de l’
Érechthée
,” 12–13n3.

8.
Austin, “De nouveaux fragments de l’
Érechthée
.”

9.
Austin,
Nova fragmenta Euripidea
, 22–40.

10.
Martínez Díez,
Euripides, Erecteo;
Carrara,
Euripide: Eretteo
.

11.
M. J. Cropp, “Euripides, Erechtheus,” in Collard, Cropp, and Lee,
Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Plays
, 148–94; Collard and Cropp,
Euripides VII: Fragments
, 362–401.

12.
Connelly, “Parthenon Frieze and the Sacrifice”; Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
.”

13.
Stobaeus was a late antique compiler of Greek extracts who lived in Stobi, a city within the Roman province of Macedonia. For citations of the
Erechtheus
in other sources, see Kannicht 390–94. Kannicht’s edition of the
Erechtheus
text, 2004, will be used throughout
The Parthenon Enigma
unless otherwise noted.

14.
Personal communication with Colin Austin.

15.
For Erechtheion building accounts see Paton et al.,
Erechtheum
, 277–422, 648–50;
IG
I
³
474–79; Dinsmoor, “The Burning of the Opisthodomos,” among others.

16.
For an overview of the dating of the Erechtheion, see M. Vickers, “The Caryatids on the Erechtheum at Athens: Questions of chronology and symbolism” (in press), 6–16; W. Dörpfeld, “Der ursprünglichen Plan des Erechtheion,”
AM
29 (1904): 101–7, put the start of construction at 435
B.C.
; Lesk, “Erechtheion and Its Reception,” 68, puts it at 427/426. Those who date the start of work on the Erechtheion to 422/421 include A. M. Michaelis, “Die Zeit des Neubas des Poliastempels in Athen,”
AM
14 (1889): 349, and P. Spagnesi, “L’Eretteo, snodo di trasformazioni sull’Acropoli di Atene,”
Quaderni dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Architettura
9 (2002): 109–14. The discovery of the
Erechtheus
fragments in the 1960s led to the association of the building of the temple with the first performance of the play, perhaps at the City Dionysia of 422/421, see Calder, “Date of Euripides’
Erechtheus
.” See also Clairmont, “Euripides’
Erechtheus
and the Erechtheum”; and Calder, “Prof. Calder’s Reply.” In
Erechtheus
F 90–91 Kannicht, Athena does seem to allude to the construction of the Erechtheion.

17.
West,
Hesiodic Catalogue of Women
, 106.

18.
Homer,
Iliad
2.546–51. Xenophon,
Memorabilia
3.5.10, says that Erechtheus was nursed by Athena.

19.
Homer,
Odyssey
7.80–81.

20.
Herodotos,
Histories
5.82. For important discussion of Erechtheus and
Athena Polias, see D. Frame,
Hippota Nestor
(Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2009), 348–49, 408–13. For joint worship of Erechtheus and Athena, see Mikalson, “Erechtheus and the Panathenaia”; Kearns,
Heroes of Attica
, 210–11; Kron,
Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen;
M. Christopoulos, “Poseidon Erechtheus and ΕΡΕΧΘΗΙΣΘΑΛΑΣΣΑ,” in
Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Archaeological Evidence
, ed. R. Hägg (Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i Athen, 1998), 123–30; Parker,
Athenian Religion
, 19–20; Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals
, 52.

21.
Herodotos,
Histories
8.44, 8.51, 8.55.

22.
Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals
, 51–89; Kearns,
Heroes of Attica
, 110–15, 160–61; Mikalson, “Erechtheus and the Panathenaia,” 141n1; Parker, “Myths of Early Athens,” 200–1; Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 55–60.

23.
Homer,
Iliad
2.546–51, and Herodotos,
Histories
8.55, have Erechtheus as born of Earth, as does Sophokles,
Ajax
201–2. Those who identify Erichthonios as the son of Earth include Pindar, frag. 253; Euripides,
Ion
20–24, 999–1000; Isokrates,
Panathenaikos
126; Eratosthenes,
Constellations
13; Apollodoros,
Library
3.14.6; and Pausanias,
Description of Greece
1.2.6, 1.14.6.

24.
According to Euripides’s
Erechtheus
(F 370.63 Kannicht), Erechtheus is married to Praxithea, daughter of the Kephisos. Lykourgos,
Against Leokrates
98, and Apollodoros,
Library
3.15.1, also have Praxithea as the wife of Erechtheus but in Apollodoros,
Library
3.14.6–7, we hear that Erichthonios is married to Praxithea.

25.
The scholia on Aelius Aristides’s
Panathenaic Oration
43 (Lenz and Behr) = Dindorf 3:62 = Jebb 107, 5–6; 1.3.50 (Lenz and Behr) = Dindorf 3.317 = Jebb 187, 2, describe Erechtheus as the inventor of the chariot. The Parian Marble A 10 (
IG
XII, 5 444 =
FGrH
239, A, lines 1–3; inscribed 264/263
B.C.
) tells us that Erichthonios was the first to yoke horses and to institute the Panathenaic Games. See also Eratosthenes,
Constellations
13; Apollodoros,
Library
3.14.6. For Erichthonios as the first to celebrate the Panathenaic festival, see Harpokration Π 14 Keaney, s.v. Παναθήναια, which cites Hellanikos,
FGrH
323a F 2; and Androtion,
FGrH
324 F 2. See also the scholia on Plato,
Parmenides
127a. Photios,
Lexicon
, s.v. Παναθήναια; and
Suda
, s.v. Παναθήναια.

26.
Apollodoros,
Library
3.14.6. For Hephaistos, see J. N. Bremmer, “Hephaistos Sweats; or, How to Construct an Ambivalent God,” in
The Gods of Ancient Greece
, ed. J. N. Bremmer and A. Erskine (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010), 193–208. I am indebted to Jan Bremmer for sharing bibliographical references and for helpful discussions of this material.

27.
See Hyginus,
Fabulae
166; scholiast on
Iliad
B 5475;
Etymologicum magnum
, s.v. Ερεχθεύς. See also Deacy,
Athena
, 53; Powell,
Athenian Mythology
, 1–3. Guy Smoot offers an alternative etymology for the name Erechtheus, “Very Earthly” (
Eri
= “very” as an intensive prefix +
chthonios
).

28.
Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals
, 88, is among those who see Erechtheus and Erichthonios as one and the same individual. See also Vian,
La guerre des géants
, 254–55; Kearns,
Heroes of Attica
, 110–15; Mikalson, “Erechtheus and the Panathenaia”; Kron,
Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen
, 37–39; Parker, “Myths of Early Athens,” 200–1; P. Brulé, “La cité en ses composantes: Remarques sur les sacrifices et la procession des Panathénées,”
Kernos
9 (1996): 44–46.

29.
Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals
, 51–89.

30.
RE
(1907), s.v. “Erechtheus”; Mikalson, “Erechtheus and the Panathenaia,” 141–42; Kearns,
Heroes of Attica
, 133; Parker,
Athenian Religion
, 19–20; Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals
, 51–89, 96.

31.
British Museum, 1864, 1007.125, pelike. H. B. Walters, E. J. Forsdyke, and C. H. Smith,
Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum
, 4 vols. (London: British Museum Publications, 1893).

32.
LIMC
4, s.v. “Erechtheus.”

33.
Staatliche Museen, Berlin F 2537, cup by the Kodros Painter from Tarquinia,
ca. 440–430
B.C.
ARV
²
1268.2;
Para.
471;
Addenda
²
177;
LIMC
4, s.v. “Erechtheus,” no. 7; Kron,
Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen
, 250, no. E 5, plates 4.2, 5.2; A. Avrimidou,
The Codrus Painter: Iconography and Reception of Athenian Vases in the Age of Pericles
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011), 33–35.

34.
Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 55–60.

35.
Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals;
J. P. Small,
The Parallel Worlds of Classical Art and Text
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

36.
Herodotos,
Histories
8.44.2, says the people of Athens were first called Athenians during the reign of Erechtheus. Pindar,
Isthmian Ode
2.19, and Sophokles,
Ajax
202, both use the term “Erechtheidai” to mean all Athenians. See Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals
, 96; Kearns,
Heroes of Attica
, 133; Parker,
Athenian Religion
, 19–20.

37.
Herodotos,
Histories
8.48.

38.
For Kekrops:
LIMC
6, s.v. “Kekrops,” nos. 1–11; for Erechtheus, see
LIMC
4, s.v. “Erechtheus,” nos. 1–31.

39.
Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals
, 95: Powell,
Athenian Mythology
, 17.