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Coping With the Gods

Religions in the

Graeco-Roman World

Editors

D. Frankfurter

J. Hahn

H.S. Versnel

VOLUME 173

Coping With the Gods

Wayward Readings in Greek ?eology

By

H.S. Versnel

LEIDEN € BOSTON

2011
On the cover: 'Titan" from 1978 by Igor Mitoraj. Marble, 130 cm × 25 cm ×

31 cm. Photograph by Erik Hesmerg, courtesy of the Museum Beelden aan Zee,

Scheveningen/the Hague, the Netherlands. Reproduced with kind permission. ?is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Versnel, H.S.

Coping with the gods : wayward readings in Greek theology / by H.S. Vers nel. p. cm. " (Religions in the Graeco-Roman world, ISSN 0927-7633 ; v. 1 73)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes. ISBN 978-90-04-20490-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Greece"Religion.

I. Title.

II. Series.

BL783.V47 2011

292.2"dc22

2011008358

ISSN 0927-7633

ISBN 978 90 04 20490 4

Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, ?e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijho? Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, tran slated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means , electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Brill has made all reasonable e?orts to trace all right holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where these e?orts have not been successful the publisher welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission matters. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directl y to ?e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,

Danvers, MA 01923, USA.

Fees are subject to change.

For my beloved Isabel and Liselot

Misschien betekent het helemaal niets en moest het alleen maar rijmen. (Perhaps it does not mean anything at all; perhaps it had only to rhyme)

Isabel (in her seventh year)

Je moet de klassiekste, geheimste woorden schrijven en niemand begrijpt ze. Ik zal ze op de piano voordoen. (You must write the most classic, most secret words and nobody understands them. I"ll play them for you on the piano)

Liselot (in her ??h year)

CONTENTS

Abbreviations ........................................................................g............. xi

Introduction ........................................................................g................ 1

Chapter One

Mnde Gxof: Cxpasgcntgxdf x?g Pxsetrygfp .......................... 23

1. Order versus Chaos ................................................................ 23

e Greek pantheon: kosmos or chaos? ................................. 26

2. Ingredients for Chaos ............................................................. 37

In search of identities ............................................................... 37

Names and surnames: one god or many?

............................. 60

3. Creating Order: Taking Place ................................................ 88

e gods who dwell in our cityŽ ........................................... 88 Beyond the polis border (and back) ....................................... 102 Ducking out: gods in personal religiosity .............................. 119

4. Conclusions ........................................................................g....... 142

Chapter Two

Try Gxof: Dgkgdy Jwftgcy xl Dggkgdy Al?gtlnlgdyff? .......... 151

1. Introduction ........................................................................g...... 151

Controversial diction in archaic poetry ................................. 151 Modern Voices ........................................................................g.. 160

2. Homer ........................................................................g................ 163

3. Herodotus ........................................................................g......... 179

Two tales, many perspectives .................................................. 179 Modern voices: fear of diversity .............................................. 187

4. Saving the Author .................................................................... 190

5. Solon Again ........................................................................g...... 201

6. Once More: Chaos or Order? ................................................ 212

Paratactic multiplicity ............................................................. 213 'Gnomologisches Wissen" ......................................................... 218 e rehabilitation of parataxis ............................................... 226 inking in gnomai"speaking in parataxis ........................ 229

7. Putting to the Test: Hesiod .................................................... 231

8. Envoy ........................................................................g................. 234

viii cxdtydtf

Chapter ?ree

Ody Gxo: Trlyy Glyy? Eaylggpydtf gd Odydyff ................. 239

1. Introduction ........................................................................g...... 239

2. One and Many: ?e God(s) of Xenophanes ....................... 244

One or many? ........................................................................g... 248 One and many ........................................................................g.. 256 Concluding remarks ................................................................. 266

3. One is Many: ?e Gods, the God, and the Divine ............ 268

On singular plurals .................................................................. 268 Concluding remarks ................................................................. 278

4. One is the GodŽ ..................................................................... 280

Praising the god ........................................................................g 280

Aretalogy ........................................................................g............ 283

Nine characteristics of henotheistic religion ......................... 289 e nature of oneness in henotheistic religion ..................... 296 Questions of origin ................................................................... 301 Concluding remarks ................................................................. 303

5. Conclusion ........................................................................g........ 304

Chapter Four

A Gxo: Wre gf Hylpyf Hwdle? ............................................... 309

1. Hungry Hermes and Greedy Interpreters ........................... 309

2. Hermes: ?e Human God in the Hymn ............................. 319

3. Hermes: ?e Eternal Dupe in the Fable .............................. 327

Burlesques ........................................................................g.......... 329 Paying a social call ................................................................... 332

4. Hermes: ?e Present God in Visual Art ............................. 335

Socializing .......................................................................g........... 337

More burlesques ........................................................................g 343 Herms and sacri?ce .................................................................. 348

5. Hungry Hermes: ?e Sacricial Meal .................................. 352

e warm splanchna which I used to gobble upŽ .............. 353 e titbits Hermes likes to eatŽ ............................................. 364

Companion of the feastŽ (

. Conclusion ........................................................................g........ 370 Plates for Chapter Four are on pages 338-339, 344-345, and 377 cxdtydtf ix

Chapter Five

Gxo: Try Qwyftgxd x? Dgkgdy gOpdgaxtydcy ......................... 379

1. God: Self and Other ................................................................ 379

Self ........................................................................g...................... 379

Other ........................................................................g.................. 384

Self and other ........................................................................g.... 385 Gods: self and other ................................................................. 388 Some inferences ........................................................................g. 391

2. God: Powerful or All-Powerful? ............................................ 396

3. Miracles in Double Perspective: ?e Case of Asklepios .... 400

4. God: Powerful

and All-Powerful .......................................... 422

Omnipotence, ancient philosophers and modern

theologians ........................................................................g.... 427 Inconsistency in religious expression ..................................... 431

5. Conclusions ........................................................................g....... 436

Chapter Six

Psnegd (try) Gxo: Dgo (try) Gglyy?f Bysgyky gd try Dgkgdgte x? trygl Rwsylf? ....................................................... 439

1. Men into Gods ........................................................................g. 439

A swollen-headed doctor: the case of Menekrates ............... 439

A charismatic prince: the case of Demetrios

Poliorketes

........................................................................g.... 444

2. Modern Perplexities ................................................................ 456

3. ?e Construction of a God .................................................... 460

Language ........................................................................g............ 460 Performance ........................................................................g...... 463

4. Did (?e) Greeks Believe in the Divinity of their

Rulers? ........................................................................g............... 465

5. Ritual Play: Sincere Hypocrisy .............................................. 470

6. Birds Into Gods: Comic ?eopoetics ................................... 480

7. Making a God: A Multiple Perspective Approach ............. 485

Eagsxwy ........................................................................g..................... 493

Aaaydogcyf ........................................................................g................ 499

I. Grouping the Gods .................................................................. 501 All the Gods ........................................................................g....... 501 e Twelve Gods ....................................................................... 507 x cxdtydtf

II. Unity or Diversity"One God or Many? A Modern

Debate ........................................................................g.............. 517 III. Drive Towards Coherence in Two Herodotus-Studies .... 527 IV. Did the Greeks Believe in their Gods? .............................. 539

Bibliography ........................................................................g................ 561

Indices

Index of Passages Cited

................................................................. 577

Greek Words

........................................................................g........... 584

General Index

........................................................................g......... 587

ABBREVIATIONS

Books and articles for which I use the name-date system are given in the bibliography. Works that are cited by abbreviated title only are given here. ?e abbreviations of periodical titles follow the conven- tions of l"Année philologique.

Corpora of inscriptions are referred to

as (e.g.) I.Priene, according to the conventions of SEG, or form part of the series (1972-). ABV J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-?gure Vase painters (Oxford 1956)

AE L"Année épigraphique (Paris 1888-)

ANRW

H. Temporini & W. Haase (edd.),

Aufstieg und Niedergang

(Berlin 1972-) ARV J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-?gure Vase painters I-III (Oxford 1963
2

BE Bulletin épigraphique (annually in

Revue des études grècques

CAF T. Kock, Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta (1880-1888) CEG P.A. Hansen, Carmina epigraphica graeca saeculorum VIII-V a.Chr.n. (Berlin-New York 1981-)

CIG Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum

(1828-1877) CIL

Corpus inscriptionum latinarum (1863-)

CIRB Corpus Inscriptionum Regni Bosporani

(Leningrad 1965)

DDD K. van der Toorn, B. Becking & P.W. van der Horst (edd.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden etc. 1995)

D-K H. Diels & W. Kranz,

Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker

(Berlin 1951 6 EBGR A. Chaniotis (ed.), Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion (annually in Kernos) EG G. Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta (Berlin 1848-1859) ER M. Eliade (ed.), e Encylopedia of Religion (New York

1987, 2005

2

ERE Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics

(1908-1922) FGrHist F. Jacobi, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Berlin-

Leiden 1923-1958)

xii n??lykgntgxdf GGR M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion I-II (Munich 1967 3 , 1961 2 HrwG H. Cancik et alii (edd.), Handbuch religionswissenscha?licher

Grundbegrie

(Stuttgart 1988-2001) (Darmstadt 1971- 2007)
IC M. Guarducci (ed.), Inscriptiones Creticae I-IV (1935-1950) IG

Incriptiones Graecae (1873-)

IGR R. Cagnat e.a. (edd.), Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes I-IV (Paris 1911-1927) ILS

H. Dessau (ed.),

Inscriptiones Latinae selectae

I-III (Berlin

1892-1916)

KRS G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven & M. Schoeld,

e Presocratic Phi- losophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts (Cam- bridge 1983 2

LfgrE Lexikon des frühgriechischen Epos

LIMC Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (Zürich 1981- 2009)
LSAM F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrés de l"Asie Mineure (Paris 1955) LSCG F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrés des cités grècques (Paris 1969) LSJ H.G. Liddell, R. Scott & H.S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford 1940 2 LSS F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrés des cités grècques. Supplément (Paris 1962) NDIEC G.H.R. Horsley et alii (edd.), New Documents Illustrating

Early Christianity

(1981-) NGSL E. Lupu, Greek Sacred Law. A Collection of New Documents (Leiden 2005)

NP Der neue Pauly

(Stuttgart 1996-2003)

OCD Oxford Classical Dictionary

(Oxford 1996 3 OGIS W. Dittenberger (ed.), Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae I-II (Leipzig 1903-1905) PCG R. Kassel & C. Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci (1983-1991)

PMG D.L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford 1962)

PGM K. Preisendanz et alii (edd.), Papyri graecae magicae I-II (Stuttgart 1973-1974) P.Oxy e Oxyrynchus Papyri (London 1898) RAC Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum (Stuttgart 1950-) RE n??lykgntgxdf xiii RGG

Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (1957-65

3

1998-2007

4 RML W.H. Roscher et alii, Ausführliches Lexicon der (Leipzig 1884- 1937)
SB F. Preisigke & F. Bilabel, Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten (Berlin 1926) SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (1923-1971, New Series ed. H.W. Pleket et alii, Amsterdam 1976-)

SGO R. Merkelbach & J. Stauber, Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten I-V (Stuttgart und Leipzig 1998-

2004)
SIRIS L. Vidman, Sylloge Inscriptionum Religionis Isiacae et

Sarapiacae

(Berlin 1969) (Munich 1962-1969) Suppl.Mag. R.W. Daniel & F. Maltomini, Supplementum Magicum I-II (Opladen 1990-1992) SVF H.F.A. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta I-III (Stuttgart 1903 = 1968) Syll.

W. Dittenberger

et alii, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graeca- rum

I-IV (Leipzig 1915-1924

3 TAM

Tituli Asiae Minoris (Vienna 1901-)

TER UNUS

H.S. Versnel, TER UNUS. Isis, Dionysos and Hermes: ree Studies in Henotheism (Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion I, Leiden 1990) esCRA esaurus Cultus et Rituum antiquorum I-V (Basel-

Los Angeles 2004)

R Tod M.N. Tod, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions

I (Oxford 1946

2 )"II (1948) TWNT

R. Kittel

et alii

Testament

(Stuttgart 1933-1979)

INTRODUCTION

Pas dan zal ik tegen hem zeggen dat ik denk dat het een schrijver bij ieder boek dat hij schrij? telkens weer overkomt dat hij bang zal zijgn eraan te sterven, dat ik het niet zo"n gekke angst vind om te denken gdat een boek je het leven kan kosten.

Connie Palmen I.M

Winde ix Gnofpfads

gis book is based on the Sather Lectures that I gave at the University g of California at Berkeley in spring 1999. gese words evoke happy memories and feelings of gratitude that merit further clariccation. Even given the exceptional quality of its faculty, its wealth of mate- rial scholarly amenities, the grandeur of its campus and the splen- dour of the Bay Area, it cannot be an unqualiced pleasure to serve thge university of California at Berkeley as a member of the Department of Classics. ge annual advent of yet another fresh Sather professor, who, going by the panegyrical portrayal of the Sather chair in the let- ter of invitation, cannot be blamed for deeming herself the world"s tgop mastermind, is only the briefest summary of a wide array of arduous obligations. Regular participation in the time consuming (as I am told)g explorations of the Sather committee, followed by the departmental disputes concerning the qualiccations of a new candidate, not seldom g ending up in a screaming row (as I am told); a moral commitment to attending six Sather lectures"or at least some (or one) of them"gon a subject miles out of one"s own celd of interest"; cheerfully gcomply- ing with (as in my case) the request to mend the English of one or more lectures including the pronunciation; taking the genius out for lunch before one of his lectures or accommodating one of the recep- tions a?er it. All this prettied up with the bonus of having at leastg one certainty in life, namely, that a member of the department will never taste the glory of a Sather professorate. gis bouquet of corollaries might easily deter scholars of a less noble and seltess disposition fgrom joining the Berkeley Classics Department. Hence, instead of detailing a long list of colleagues who showered me with their kindness and hospitality in any of the qualities just

2 p?fnidarfpi?

listed (and hence not even commemorating the party at which I was regaled on a sizzling sucking pig on the spit), I feel that the best wagy of expressing my gratitude is by wholeheartedly thanking all colleagues present at the time for never having made me notice how demanding all these obligations must have been. As to the participants in my seminar on ancient magic, I am still looking back with delight to those magical hours in the company of a cne and enthusiastic bunch of students. On being asked they hastened g to instruct me that an A was the normal rating for normal fulclment of normal assignments, while B and C were functionless folkloristic relics like the human appendix, never to be put into use. On shar- ing this"in Dutch perspective suspicious 1 "information with the Chair he told me that indeed I was misinformed: besides A one could also give an A+. 2 gis tip now proved very opportune. Albeit clearly more versed in Latin prose composition (clausula included) than in the intricacies of such magical strings as MASOLABEO MAMAXO- MAXO ENKOPTODIT, the class quickly adapted and it soon turned out that the rating A+ came in handy. If, on the other hand, not all participants struck me as being conspicuously more gi?ed than their Dutch colleagues, yet they all did display a remarkably greater eager- ness to pronounce (and defend) an opinion (whatever opinion). I keepg hoping that the sometimes hilarious cts of laughter during our ses- sions were not exclusively due to my more audacious ventures in the pronunciation of non-existent American words. In sum: Guys, thank you for putting up with me. I loved every day of my stay at Berkeley. gis, then, is the right moment for an exception to the rule by laud- ing two of the Berkeley friends for their invaluable help. Laura Gibbs, g by common consent the pivot of the magic class, omniscient guide and generous rescuer in cases of emergency (very much including the intri- cacies of the computer), threatened to break oy her friendship unlesgs I sent her the manuscript of the book for inspection. Concentrating on the main text she showered me with suggestions, corrections, andquotesdbs_dbs27.pdfusesText_33

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