The transmission of religious knowledge in sanctuaries of classical Athens (original) (raw)

How is knowledge about the gods and rituals transmitted to the population and the cult personnel in the sanctuaries of classical Athens? This communication will briefly explore different approaches to this question. I will first consider the active and passive participation in cults. Athenians can acquire ritual knowledge through observation, especially during festivals. Moreover, already as children, some of them play an active role in rituals, for instance when young girls become arrhephoroi, aletrides, kanephoroi and arktoi (Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 641-646). During festivals, musical performances transmit knowledge about deities and myths. For instance, the Iliad and the Odyssey performed during the Panathenaea convey general knowledge about the gods, the audiences of Euripides’ and Sophocles’ tragedies can learn about Theseus’s myth (cf. Pausanias 1.3.3), and hymns such as the pseudo-Homeric Hymn to Demeter provide more specific knowledge about the cults. I will then explore iconographical representations such as statues of gods or scenes depicted on temple pediments, that can spark curiosity and questioning. They can be interpreted by someone who recognizes attributes or myths, but on their own, they can seldom transmit any knowledge. Their comprehension mostly rests on information transmitted orally and on personal opinions. Therefore, they can be misinterpreted and give rise to new traditions, a phenomenon known as iconatrophy. In the third place, I will investigate the transmission of ritual knowledge among the cult personnel of sanctuaries. New members can acquire knowledge through observation and imitation of their predecessors but can also rely on writings, such as ritual norms inscribed on stone. In some cases, the sanctuaries can also turn to religious specialists known as exegetai, and religious knowledge may be transmitted between sanctuaries, for instance at the time of the foundation of the Piraeus and Acropolis Asklepieia. Finally, I will look into the work of atthidographers such as Kleidemos and Phanodemos, studying sanctuaries and rituals and transmitting knowledge about attic cults outside the sanctuaries.