Much debate has focused on the origins of heroic cult and to what degree it was influenced by the rise of Homeric epic. Most authorities agree that a major flowering of heroic cult took place in the eighth century, contemporary with the genesis of the Greek city-state and the dissemination of epic poetry in written form. An older scholarly model made epic the impetus for the development of hero cults, while more recent approaches focus on the role of heroes’ tombs as “nodes of power” to be contested by different groups claiming land or social status in rapidly changing social and political contexts. During the eleventh through eighth centuries, there was a wave of interest in Bronze Age tombs, particularly in the Argolid and Messenia. In the late Classical and Hellenistic periods, a similar phenomenon is attested over a broader area including Messenia, Lakonia, Boiotia, and Krete. Sometimes the locals reused the ancient tombs for burials, but other times they simply left gifts to honor the tomb occupants. Unlike proper heroic cults, these “tomb cults” usually involved one-time offerings or were sustained only a short while.2 Special rituals in honor of ancestors also seem to be attested from time to time in the material record, and it is likely that heroic cult evolved from tribal and familial ancestor cults to serve the differing needs of the polis.3 Unlike the ancestor, who was the actual progenitor of those bringing offerings, the hero was not always a real person, and his cult was not defined by family descent but by other common interests of the group he (or she) represented. In spite of their differences, tomb cult, ancestor cult, and heroic cult are related phenomena, as all share the assumption that, through ritual, the living can carry on a dialogue with the powerful dead, appeasing their anger or benefiting from their goodwill.
There were hundreds, if not thousands of hero and heroine cults in the ancient Greek world. In this chapter, I select a few for more detailed discussion, and information about others appears in the chapters on the gods. The tombs of many heroes and heroines could be found in the very sanctuaries of the gods, overturning the normal prohibition on contact between the Olympian gods and the dead. In such cases, the hero’s death was often attributed to the god (Apollo and Hyakinthos, or Artemis and Iphigeneia), yet the identities of deity and mortal might overlap and converge.4 With a hero or heroine functioning as a sort of alter ego, the festivals of these gods were rich in contrasting rites of mourning and celebration, evoking a full range of emotional experience in the worshipers. The festival of Hyakinthos at Sparta, which opened with a day of mourning for the hero and continued with a festive celebration, is a case in point.
World History
