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AITIA, ASTRONOMY AND THE TIMING

OF THE ARRHE PHORIA

byEfrosyni Boutsikas* and Robert Hannah

*Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies, University of Kent

Department of Classics, University of Otago

This paper deals with the cult and myths of the daughters of the mythical king of Athens,

Erechtheus, who lived on the Acropolis. The myth, preserved in Euripides tragedy Erechtheus,

establishes the deceased daughters as goddesses who are owed cult by the Athenians. It furtherequates them with the Hyades, a prominent star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, which

they form after their deaths. We examine here the possibility that this myth not only narrates the

placement of the girls after their death in the sky in the form of the Hyades, but also may have

bound the constellation to certain festivals held on the Acropolis, which through their aetiological

myths were connected to the daughters of Erechtheus and in which the participation of young

girls (arrhephoroi) was important. To explicate this cult, we explore its context on the Acropolis

as fully as possible, through the visual arts, the literary myth, the festival calendar, and the

natural landscape and night sky, so as to determine whether the movement of the Hyades was

indeed visible from the Acropolis during the time when the young maiden cult rites were

performed on the hill. This study investigates for the first time the role of the night sky andastronomical observations in the performance of the nocturnal festival of the Arrhe phoria.

INTRODUCTION

In Euripides Erechtheus, Athena proclaims that the souls of Erechtheus daughters have

not gone to Hades. Instead, she has caused their spirit to dwell in the upper reaches of

the sky and [she] shall make a famous name throughout Hellas for men to call them the

Hyakinthian goddesses (Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .; Hard

, ). A scholiast to Aratos identifies these with the star cluster of the Hyades

(Schol. Aratos, Phaenomena ). This proclamation of the emplacement of the girls

in the night sky as the Hyades is followed by another proclamation from Athena that

the girls are from now on to be considered goddesses. The Athenians are to offer them

annual sacrifices, and choral dances are to be performed by young girls (Euripides,

Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .; Calame , ). Other sources concur

The research for this project was funded by a British Academy-Association of CommonwealthUniversities grant for International Collaboration. We would like to thank the British Academy for

its support. For a discussion of the reason for calling them Hyakinthidai rather than Hyades see Davidsonb, .

The Annual of the British School at Athens, , page of The Council, British School at Athens

doi:./S


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with this myth of the girls death, informing us that it was the result of an oracle from

Delphi, ordering that one of them had to be sacrificed so that their father, Erechtheus,

could win the war against the Eleusinian Eumolpos. The youngest daughter of

Erechtheus was chosen to be sacrificed, but her sisters, who had sworn that they

should all die together, killed themselves (Apollodoros ..; Euripides, Ion ;

Hyginus, Fabulae ; Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .). The myth

related by Euripides forms one of the most prominent versions of the catasterism myth

of the star cluster of the Hyakinthidai or Hyades.

Epigraphic records have helped in shedding some light on the existence of a cult of the

Hyakinthidai, but our knowledge of their cult and its location remains frustratingly

inadequate. A fragment from a fifth-century BC inscription found in the Agora testifies

that the young girls were indeed offered annual purificatory offerings in Athens (Agora

I , Face B.), although it has not been possible to reconstruct the month in

which these rites were performed (Gawlinski , , ). It is because of

another inscription that we know of the existence of a Hyakinthion in Attica,

mentioned in a list of restored monuments of the Augustan period (Kirchner ,no. .), but the location of the shrine has, regrettably, not survived.

We are left, then, with the events which are narrated in the myths as taking place on

the Acropolis. According to the literary sources, this was the location of Erechtheus

dwelling (Homer, Odyssey .; Homer, Iliad .), the place where the girls met

their death, and also Erechtheus burial ground. In this paper we investigate the

possibility that the catasterism myth of the Hyades may have linked the star cluster to

certain cult rites held on the Acropolis, in which the participation of young girls

(arrhe phoroi) was important and which connected the daughters of Erechtheus/

Erichthonios with the aition myths of those cult rites.

FESTIVALS AND TIMING

Two myths narrate the death of maidens on the Athenian Acropolis: one is that

mentioned by Euripides (discussed above), of the sacrifice of the young daughters of

Erechtheus. The second is the myth of the three daughters of Kekrops (Aglauros,

Herse and Pandrosos), also of young age (Apollodoros, Library ..; Philochoros

[Jacoby ] F ), who were entrusted by Athena with the box containing the

newborn Erichthonios (Euripides, Ion ). The girls threw themselves from theAcropolis in a frenzy of madness sent upon them by Athena as punishment for

disobeying her orders not to open the box (Apollodoros, Library ..; Pausanias

..). As both Kekrops and Erechtheus/Erichthonios were mythical kings of Athens

believed to have lived with their families on the Acropolis, the myths of the maidens

deaths are also associated with the same location. The presence of these young girls on

the Acropolis was in a sense commemorated by the Athenians through the office of the

arrhe phoroi, young girls at the service of Athena, who also dwelt on the Acropolis

There are other versions of the catasterism myth of the star cluster of the Hyades/Hyakinthidai

(see for example Kearns,; Apollodoros..). On the active role performed by Euripides,and his contemporary Sophocles, in populating extensive areas of the night sky with newconstellations derived from catasterised characters in Greek mythology see Hannah .

EFROSYNI BOUTSIKAS AND ROBERT HANNAH


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( . . . [Pausanias ..]). The

arrhe phoroi were associated with the weaving of Athenas peplos (robe) (Hurwit ,

) and played a significant role in at least three Acropolis cults: the Kallynteria, the

Plynteria, and the Arrhephoria.

The Kallynteria (held on Thargelion), a small nocturnal purification rite, were

associated with the east part of the Acropolis. The rite involved the cleansing of the

Athena Polias shrine, and the relighting of the eternal flame of the goddess. Photios

also links the festival with Aglauros (a daughter of Kekrops and the first priestess of

Athena), who was the first to adorn the gods (Photios, Lexicon s.v.

, cf. Parker , , ). A few days later (on the night of

Thargelion), the purification rites continued with the Plynteria, which involved the

stripping of the cult statue of the goddess, the removal of its jewellery, and

the wrapping (Plutarch, Alkibiades .; Xenophon, Hellenika ..) and carrying of

the xoanon in a night procession to the seashore, to bathe and purify it in running

(salt) water, while also washing its robe (Burkert , ). The participation of

maidens (called or ) in this procession was essential, as they werethe ones performing the ritual bathing (Aristophanes, frag. : Photios and

Hesychios, s.v. ). The statue was then returned to the Acropolis, clothed with

the clean peplos and adorned with jewels. Apart from the participation in this festival

of young maidens, who were drawn from the clan of the Praxiergidai (Mansfield ,

), it is believed that the rite commemorated the death of Aglauros, as the sacred

vestments of Athena were now washed for the first time during the Plynteria, a year

after Aglauros death (Hesychios, s.v. ; Photios, Lexicon s.v.

; Philochoros [Jacoby ] , F ; Lexeis Rhetorikai, s.v.

[Bekker , .]). The association of the festival with the death of

Aglauros makes it apparent that the way the cult statue of Athena was treated duringthis festival was as if it were the dead Aglauros, since several aspects of the rite

resemble Greek funerary practices (Mansfield , ). These similarities with the

treatment of the dead are confirmed and epitomised by the ancestral sacrifices that

were offered by the Praxiergidai either during or a day before the Plynteria (Kirchner

, no. .). That this day was a day of mourning is also confirmed by

For further discussion of the myths of the daughters of Kekrops and Erechtheus, in thecontext of their artistic iconography, see Shapiro and Kron . Or, according to Mansfield, the adorning of Athenas statue, as Photios derives the word from

, meaning to make splendid or adorn (Mansfield , , ). Mansfieldinterestingly argues that the idea that the Kallynteria were associated with the cleaning ofAthenas shrine and the relighting of Athenas lamp is mistaken. He argues that if the fire wasrenewed every year when the new oil became available, then this should have happened in thewinter, not at midsummer (Mansfield , and n. ). Priestess of Athena: Hesychios, s.v. . (Latte ); Philochoros (Jacoby)

F. There appears to be no explicit evidence of a similar association between certain Athenian

families and the Kallynteria or the Arrhephoria. On the festival being initially founded in honour of Aglauros, see also Connelly , ;

Harrison, ; Valds Gua , n. . Mansfield discusses, for example, the similarities between the closing of the temple (Plutarch,

Alkibiades .) and the closing of the house of the deceased, the bathing of the statue and itswrapping in a shroud (Xenophon, Hellenika ..; Plutarch, Alkibiades .) (to be transferredto the sea shore) and the similar preparation of the deceaseds body, etc.

AITIA, ASTRONOMY AND THE TIMING OF THE ARRHE PHORIA


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Plutarch, who states that no Athenian would venture the undertaking of important

business on the day of the Plynteria (Plutarch, Alkibiades .), and by other writers,

who state that on the day of the Plynteria the sanctuaries were closed (Polydeukes,

Onomastikon Attikon .; Phanodemos [Jacoby] F).

The Arrhephoria, associated with the north to northeast part of the Acropolis, were a

secret fertility rite held in honour of Pandrosos and Athena (Herrington , ). The

rite took place in Skirophorion (Burkert , ; Mikalson , ) and was the

re-enactment of the myth of Athena entrusting newborn Erichthonios to the three

daughters of Kekrops. On the night before the day celebrating the festival, the priestess

of Athena gave the arrhe phoroi (young girls in the service of Athena) baskets with

unknown contents to take to the sanctuary of Aphrodite through a secret passage,

descending from the north slopes (Pausanias ..; Broneer , ; Hurwit ,

). The girls were to leave the baskets they were carrying, pick up some new ones

from the sanctuary of Aphrodite (again with unknown contents) and bring them back

to the Acropolis. A steep staircase has been unearthed in the area of the north slopes,

which during Mycenaean times would have led to a spring, thought to have been theone used by the arrhe phoroi (Broneer , , ; Broneer , ; Broneer

, ). Archaeologically, the rite that was eventually named Arrhephoria (which

started and ended on the Acropolis) seems to have been either resumed or initiated in

the eleventh century BC, when the Mycenaean stairway appears to have been restored

(Broneer, ; Burkert , ).

The conversion of ancient Athenian calendar months to our Gregorian calendar can

be achieved only with an accuracy of within three to four weeks because of the nature of

the Athenian calendar. This is because New Years Day in the Athenian calendar was

similar to Christian Easter and Jewish Passover, in being tied to both a lunar

phenomenon of variable date and a solar event of more or less fixed date in the caseof Easter and Passover to the first full moon after the spring equinox, and in the case

of ancient Athens, to the first new moon after the summer solstice. As a result, New

Years Day in Athens, Hekatombaion, could shift from one year to the next by about

three weeks, and over a period of years by as much as four weeks between the earliest

occurrence of New Years Day and the latest. The date Hekatombaion would fall

generally in mid to late July, but in some years it would occur earlier, in late June to

mid-July. Consequently, Thargelion, two months earlier, could start in mid to late

May in some years, but as early as late April or the first half of May in others.

Therefore, since the festival of the Kallynteria was celebrated towards the end of

Thargelion, it would often take place around our end of May

beginning of June.

THE ASTRONOMICAL MOVEMENT OF THE HYADES AND AURIGA

Table shows a correlation between the timing of the above rites associated with the

young girls (the arrhe phoroi, and the daughters of Kekrops and Erechtheus) and the

movement of the Hyades, the star cluster believed to be the catasterism of some of

these mythical young girls. As seen in Table , the Kallynteria, which marked the

commencement of three consecutive rites timed within three weeks of one another

(Kallynteria, Plynteria and Arrhephoria), were timed at the time of, or very close to,

the most astronomically significant period of the Hyades and the constellation of



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Auriga. Auriga was, for the Greeks, the stellar representation of Erechtheus/Erichthonios

(Eratosthenes, Katasterismoi; Hyginus, Astronomica .).

The heliacal rising of the star cluster of the Hyades would have taken place between

our and June in the years between and BC(calculated through reconstructions

of the ancient night sky, and using Aldebaran, Tauri, as the focal star in the cluster).

The heliacal rising marks the reappearance of the star cluster in the night sky, seen to

rise in the east, approximately an hour before dawn, after its annual invisibility period,

which started on April. Until the time of the heliacal rising, the star cluster had beenrising (and for much of this time setting) during the day and was therefore invisible at

night. The star cluster became visible again for the first time for a few minutes before

dawn. It would be seen to rise in the east approximately one to two hours before the

glare of the rising sun made it invisible at dawn. From that date on and for the next

few months, the Hyades would rise earlier and earlier every night until the following

April/May, when they climbed above the horizon just after sunset, while it was still too

bright for them to be visible. The rising Auriga is located in the northeast part of the

night sky, in the section of the horizon visible between the Erechtheions north porch

and the entrance to the sanctuary of Athena Polias. Between and BC, Aurigas

heliacal rising occurred between and June and its invisibility period started on

May. In the years when the month would have started earlier, the heliacal rising of the

Hyades ( June) may not have been visible during the Kallynteria, but it would have

Table . Calendrical correlation between festivals involving young girls and the movements of the

Hyades and Auriga, visible from the Acropolissouth, southeast, east and northeast horizons, in the

years BC.

Gregorian months Attic months Festivals Hyades Auriga

JulyAugust Hekatombaion Panathenaia

AugustSeptember Metageitnion

SeptemberOctober Boedromion Genesia -th

OctoberNovember Pyanepsion Weaving of

peplos starts

Acronychal rising

(Oct)

Cosmical setting

(Nov)

Acronychal rising

(October)

November

December

Maimakterion Cosmical setting

(Nov)

DecemberJanuary Poseideon

JanuaryFebruary Gamelion

FebruaryMarch Anthesterion

MarchApril Elaphebolion Heliacal setting

(April)

Heliacal setting

(April)

AprilMay Mounychion Invisibility period

(April)

MayJune Thargelion Kallynteria

(nd)

Plynteria

(th)

Invisibility period

(June)

Heliacal rising

(June)

Invisibility period

( MayJune)

Heliacal rising

(June)

JuneJuly Skirophorion Arrhephoria

(rd?)



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been visible at the very latest by the time of the Arrhephoria in the following month of

Skirophorion.

This phenomenon of the heliacal rising, which is culturally the most significant in theannual movement of a star or constellation, took place very close to the time of the

celebration of the aforementioned three festivals associated with young maidens on

the Athenian Acropolis. In addition, not only were these festivals nocturnal, but they

also took place in the eastern part of the Acropolis, from where the rising Hyades

would have been seen best.

The Hyades are seen to rise in Greece in the east part of the sky, almost due east (at

azimuth). This part of the sky is visible from the Athenian Acropolis if one is standing

in front of or near the entrance of the Parthenon, the Great Altar and the Athena Polias

shrine (Fig. ). This eastern horizon visible from the east part of the Acropolis is not

particularly high. Its outline is formed by Mt Hymettos across the east and with MtLykabettos rising sharply at a much closer distance in the east-northeast (Fig. ).

The catasterisms of Erechtheus/Erichthonios and his daughters would become visible

on the eastern horizon of the Acropolis, in front of the Parthenon, the Great Altar and the

Athena Polias cella, at the time when the nocturnal Kallynteria, Plynteria, and

Arrhephoria rites would be coming to completion, at the end of the night around that

part of the Acropolis. The Great Altar in particular was the focus of cult rites

performed on the Acropolis; with the exception of the sacrifices offered to Athena

Hygeia and those to Athena Nike, all sacrifices were offered on the Great Altar

(Herrington , ). The chthonic character of the Kallynteria, Plynteria, and

Arrhe

phoria and their association with the death of the maidens has been argued hereand elsewhere. This period is marked by the reappearance of the virgin Hyades and

Auriga in the night sky during their heliacal rising.

A similar astronomical association occurs at the time when the weaving of Athenas

peplos would have commenced, in Pyanepsion (OctoberNovember). This is the time

when the acronychal rising (the star cluster is seen to rise at dusk just after sunset)

( October) and the cosmical setting (the star cluster is seen to set just before

dawn) ( November) of the Hyades would have occurred. Between and

Fig. . Panoramic view of the horizon if standing near the entrance of the

Parthenon, and the Athena Polias shrine and the Great Altar (photo: E. Boutsikas).

Hannah (, , and , ) has argued that the use of a parapegma and/or the

-year Metonic Cycle could have helped to regulate the Athenian lunar festival calendar and soto keep the festivals within reasonable bounds in the seasonal year. See note above.



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October the acronychal rising of Auriga would have also been visible (Table ). The

peplos was offered to the goddess nine months later, during the Panathenaia upon thearrival of the Panathenaic procession to the Acropolis. The Parthenons west frieze

the location from which the Hyades would have been seen to set at the time the

weaving was starting has been interpreted as depicting either the preparations for the

procession, at the end of which the peplos would have been dedicated to Athena

(Nagy , ; Root , , , Stillwell , , ), or the

commemoration of Eumolpos military threat which led to the sacrifice of Erechtheus

daughters (Connelly , ). Whether the weaving of the peplos by the arrhe phoroi

was a symbolic re-enactment of the role of the two sisters in weaving the funeral cloth

for the one to be sacrificed (Connelly, ), or whether it was the new robe of the

goddess who catasterised the Hyades, the mythological and ritual association between

the young girls, their death and Athena, is strengthened further at a temporal level by

the timing of this weaving.

THE EASTERN LANDSCAPE

The Kallynteria, Plynteria, and Arrhephoria were nocturnal rites and with the exception

of the Plynteria, which involved at some point a trip from the Acropolis to the sea for the

cleansing of the cult statue all of these rites were performed in the north and

northeastern part of the Acropolis, from where the heliacal rising of the Hyades would

have also been visible. At the bottom of the east slope of the Acropolis rocks, a small

Fig.. Heliacal rising of the Hyades over the Hornsof Mt Hymettos, as seen from

the east end of the Parthenon in Athens, BC. Auriga is already risen and sits over

Mt Lykabettos to the northeast (Voyager ., with Athenian horizon incorporated

by R. Hannah).



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cave-sanctuary dedicated to Aglauros has been discovered (Dontas; Hurwit,

), probably commemorating her and her sisters deaths (Fig. ). It is possible that the

location of this sanctuary was not accidental, but instead was believed to have marked

the spot where the young girls died after jumping from the east part of the Acropolis.

Interestingly, part of the festival celebrated in honour of Aglauros and her two sisters

in Aglauros sanctuary also had a mystical character and included a night-long

pannychis (Lexeis Rhetorikai, s.v. w [Bekker , .]; Athenagoras,

Legatio .; Dontas , and n. ). Even though the cave of Aglauros is located at

a considerably lower altitude, at the foot of the Acropolis hill, the eastern horizon is

still visible, as the ground in front of the cave slopes sharply (also visible in Fig. ). At

the time of the festival of Aglauros the rising Hyades would therefore have still been

seen over the horizon which the cave faces.

We have then a spatio-temporal association which links the mythological narratives

used asaitiaof cults on the Acropolis with the optimal location from which the relevant

astronomical observations could be visible during the rites; a case where time and space

entwine. In addition to the spatial association, the rites were timed on the occasion of themost astronomically significant phases of the same stellar bodies. This cosmic association

between, on the one hand, the myth of the death of the young maidens, the timing of

religious rites in which these girls were commemorated, and the location where the

rites would have taken place, and, on the other hand, the astronomical observations,

would have come together once a year, at the precise moment in time when the

cosmos would transition from night to day. This transition between night and day is

also depicted on the Parthenons east pediment, where Selene is seen to dive in her

Fig.. Southeast corner of the Athenian Acropolis. The cave of Aglauros dominates

the lower east slope to the right (photo: R. Hannah).



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chariot below the base of the pediment and, on the opposite corner, Helios is depicted as

climbing above the horizon.

A further link may be seen in the surviving sculptural decoration of the Parthenon.

The Parthenons east frieze depicts a larger number of maidens than any other

sculptural decoration on the Acropolis. Here, over maidens are depicted, while the

place of prominence in the frieze is occupied by the depiction of three girls and a

woman, who may represent either the daughters of Erechtheus (Connelly , ), or

the arrhe phoroi (Hurwit , , ). The narration of the eastern sculptural

decoration of the Parthenon is therefore linked by projecting ones field of view from

the east frieze to the east horizon, where the Hyades would have been visible.

At the end of the Erechtheus, Athena instructs the wife of Erechtheus, Praxithea, to

establish a temenos at the place where her daughters were buried and to build a stone

peribolos around her husbands precinct (sekos) in the middle of the Acropolis

(Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. ., ff). Two locations have been

proposed as containing tombs on the Acropolis: the Erechtheion and its peribolos as

Erechtheus precinct, and the area occupied by the Classical Parthenon as the burialground of his daughters. This last idea has been argued on the basis of other tombs

of heroic maidens being located close to the temples of the goddesses with whom they

were associated (Connelly , ), such as Iphigeneias tomb at the sanctuary of

Artemis at Brauron (Euripides, Iphigeneia at Tauris ). Early literary evidence

may support this idea: Euripides tells us that the sacrificed daughter was buried at the

place of her sacrifice and that her sisters were buried in the same tomb (Euripides,

Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .). In support of this argument could also be

taken the Roman inscription (first century BC) referring to the Hyakinthion (Kirchner

, no. .) mentioned above, which was found on the Acropolis. If the

hypothesis of the girls tomb on the Acropolis is accepted, it is possible that the westroom of the Parthenon the remains of which show that both in the Classical

structure and in its predecessor the room was accessible only from the west (Fig. )

rested atop the tomb of the virgins, the parthenoi, just as the tomb of Erechtheus may

have been believed to rest under part of the Erechtheion (Connelly , ). If the

word was initially used as a locality referring to several parthenoi, such as the

maidens quarters or the place of the maidens (Connelly , ), then the west

section of the Parthenon would have been associated with Erechtheus daughters.

Appealing as this interpretation seems, it is not possible to conclude with certainty that

this was the location where the young girls were buried. In any case, however, this part

of the Parthenon can (like the eastern part) be linked with the constellation of theHyades: the heliacal setting of the Hyades would have been visible from this location, a

month before the Kallynteria and their cosmical setting at the time when the weaving

of the peplos would have started (Table ).

Cosmic themes of the Parthenons east pediment and the north metopes, in both of which theevents depicted take place at dawn, have been discussed elsewhere (Davidson b, ). A number of other locations have been considered for the tombs of the girls: on a hill called

Hyakinthos at Sphendonai (?) (Phanodemos [Jacoby] F ); or at the tomb of the Kyklops

Geraistos (Apollodoros, Library..); or on the slopes of Aigaleos, the hill which lies betweenAthens and Eleusis and which is crossed by the Sacred Way (Davidson b, n. ). For a more extensive discussion in favour of this idea see Connelly, .



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The astronomical movement of the Hyades coincides with rites associated with the

arrhe phoroi and the parthenoi. The association of the heliacal rising of the Hyades with

the Arrhe phoria is also consistent with the identification of the rite as a possible

fertility rite (Herrington , ). The heliacal rising of the Hyades, just like that of

the Pleiades, marked the time of harvesting and their setting the beginning of the

ploughing season (Hesiod, Astronomia fr. MW; Hesiod, Works and Days ;

Hannah , ). Although the worship of the moon and the sun may have been

considered a barbarian practice during the Classical period (Davidson a, ), the

divinity and worship of stars was proclaimed and is testified in the literary sources

(Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .; Plato, Timaeus de, b;

Chrysippus,Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta , , ). It is also confirmed

in Athenas statement in the Erechtheus that the Hyades should be worshipped as

goddesses (Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ], fr. .).

Observing the heliacal rising of stars and constellations was common practice in

Greece from at least the time of the Iliad (Homer, Iliad. for Sirius). Evidence

for the use of stellar observations for the timing of religious festivals in Greece can be

dated to at least as early as the fourth century BC. Exemplifying such a practice are the

Keans, who anticipated the heliacal rising of Sirius and offered sacrifices to the star

(Apollonius, Argonautica .). Watching the movement of stars during the

Fig. . Plan of the Athenian Acropolis (drawn by L. Bosworth).

But when from heaven Sirius burned the Minoan islands, and for a long time there was no

remedy for the inhabitants, then by the command of the Far-Shooter they summoned a

protector from the plague. And at his fathers command he left Phthia and settled in Keos,

gathering together the Parrhasian people who are of the race of Lykaon, and he made a greataltar to Zeus Ikmaios, and duly offered sacrifices on the mountains to that star Sirius, and to



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course of religious rites is explicitly recorded in early, as well as later, sources. Alkman in

his Partheneion (middle of seventh century BC), for example, describes a ritual that was

taking place just before dawn at the time of the heliacal rising of the Pleiades (Alkman,

Partheneion , ; Boutsikas and Ruggles , ) and Euripides seems to

describe Helen watching Hyakinthos, i.e. the constellation of Orion (Euripides, Helen

; Davidson a, ; Davidson b, ). Similarly, Aristophanes times

the beginning of the fifth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the hiera would be

returned to Eleusis, to the sighting of the morning star (the light-bearing star of our

nocturnal rite, Aristophanes, Frogs ). In view of this evidence, it is possible that

when Athena declares the divinity of the young girls after their death and their

placement in the sky, and orders that sacrifices should be made to them, it is assumed

that the sacrifices and festival would take place at the time of the heliacal rising of the

Hyades. In this way, rites and sacrifices would be offered to the stars in

commemoration of their once mortal existence.

CONCLUSION

Although the content and interpretation of the sculptural elements of the Acropolis

structures (especially for the Parthenon) have been widely debated and discussed, the

role of the surrounding landscape, and the timing of festivals in relation to the local

sky and horizons, have been absent from studies of Athenian religion and cult

performance. In this paper we argue that the structures and their architecture, the

cult rites with their timing and foundation myths, were all tightly interwoven in

expressing a religious and cosmological narrative and context. This study would have

benefited immensely from definitive answers on the exact location of the Hyakinthion

in Attica and the month in which the rites to the Hyakinthidai mentioned in the Agora

inscription took place, but even in the absence of such evidence it is possible to

conclude that there was an astronomical relationship between the cults of young girls

on the Acropolis and the movement of the star cluster of the Hyades.

[email protected]

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