The religious life of the colonists in the west developed differently from that of people in the mother cities for several reasons. First, the entire pantheon of major and minor deities could not be reproduced in a colony; the settlers were forced to focus on a limited number of cults selected from those they knew at home. As it happened, Demeter’s cult was particularly well suited to the fertile soils of Sicily. Second, Greek religious assumptions required that the local gods be recognized (preferably as Greek deities in a new guise), and their cult places respected. The native Sikans and Sikels worshiped a number of goddesses, among them Hyblaia, Anna, and local water spirits, whose functions and personalities were easily assimilated to those of Demeter and Kore/Persephone. In particular, the dominance of Persephone, who was often worshiped quite independently of her mother in this part of the world, may be due to syncretism with local underworld goddesses.
During the Archaic period, much of Sicily was ruled by tyrants of the Deinomenid family including Gelon and Hieron. The Deinomenids played an important role in the dissemination of the cults of the Two Goddesses, for their ancestor Telines held a family priesthood of the chthoniai theai (earth goddesses, i. e., Demeter and Kore). When a group of Geloans seceded, Telines was able to win them back by displaying the sacred objects of the goddesses. In return for this service, he demanded a civic priesthood, which he passed to his descendants. The Deinomenids seem to have exported cults of Demeter and Kore/Persephone to Gela’s daughter city Akragas and to several other sites in the hinterland.25 Already in the sixth century, Pindar (Pyth. 12.1-2) described Akragas as the “seat of Persephone,” and by the first century, Cicero (Verr. 2.4.106) could remark that all Sicily was sacred to Demeter and Persephone. The names of Sicilian festivals such as Anakalypteria (Unveiling of the Bride), Theogamia (Divine Marriage), and Koreia (Festival of the Maiden) suggest the importance of Kore/Persephone’s cult and show that its principal focus was her marriage to Hades.26
Founded on the south coast of Sicily by seventh-century colonists from Rhodes and Krete, Gela lies on a hill beside the mouth of the Gela river. While Athena and Hera were worshiped in the city proper, Demeter and Kore seem to have possessed at least three sanctuaries outside the walls, all quite modest in terms of architecture, yet rich in votive gifts. A pot graffito
Indicates that the sanctuary across the river at Bitalemi was a Thesmophor-ion, and to judge from the votive deposits, the other two sites served a similar function. Excavation of Bitalemi revealed some mud-brick structures, the remains of ritual meals cooked on the spot, terracotta figurines, and interesting deposits of vessels buried upside down in orderly rows. The early settlers signaled the importance of this site by burying a hoard of ingots and other objects in bronze, a custom borrowed from the natives. They also laid down a ploughshare and other agricultural tools as offerings to Demeter and Kore.27
The sanctuaries of Predio Sola, on the seaward side of the Geloan akro-polis, and Via Fiume to the north, similarly possessed small buildings and a wealth of votive objects including a large number of lamps and the “masks” or busts so characteristic of the worship of Demeter and Kore in Sicily and Italy. Other terracottas considered diagnostic of the cult include standing women with torches and piglets and certain types of enthroned goddesses with pectoral decoration; many of these types were locally made but derive from Rhodian models. These sites are notable for the care with which votives were buried. In many Greek sanctuaries, old votives were unceremoniously dumped in pits to make room for newer offerings, but in the chthonic sanctuaries of Sicily, burial was a form of communication with the deities, so vessels and terracottas were carefully positioned face down, and every available space was used. In some cases, rings of stones were arranged around pits in which sacrificial remains, vessels, and figurines were deposited. Sanctuaries closely resembling Bitalemi have been uncovered at Akragas and the Syracusan colony of Heloros.28
Founded from Gela in the sixth century, Akragas was a major center of Persephone’s worship. Its tyrant Theron is portrayed in Pindar’s second Olympian ode (56-83) as a believer in afterlife judgments, reincarnation, and final salvation in the Isles of the Blessed. It is very likely that Theron’s convictions about the afterlife were intertwined with the cult of Persephone, who played an important role in the Bakchic/Orphic mysteries so popular in the Greek west. Several cult places at Akragas date to Theron’s day or before. On the north side of the city, just outside the wall, the rupestral sanctuary of S. Biagio consists of a series of artificial caves or tunnels in the rocky hillside. These were filled with votive deposits, including many large busts. The excavation of the tunnels seems to have been a method of conveying the offerings to divine power(s) conceived of as present within the earth. Opposite the rupestral sanctuary and within the walls, the present church of S. Biagio was constructed over an early fifth-century temple, beside which are two circular altars with hollow depressions in the center. These were used to direct libations and perhaps other offerings into the earth. At the south end of the city, the area known as the “Chthonic sanctuary” of Akragas was probably devoted to Persephone and/or Demeter.29
Selinous, westernmost of the Sicilian Greek colonies, is famous for a group of well-preserved Doric temples, none of which can be assigned with certainty to a specific deity. West of the akropolis was a more modest, extraurban sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros (Bearer of Fruit), a goddess imported from the mother city of Megara in mainland Greece. The Malophoros sanctuary, founded in the seventh century, is actually a compound containing smaller shrines of Hekate (who appropriately guards the entrance) and Zeus Meilichios. Demeter’s temple stood within a second inner boundary wall, emphasizing its inviolate nature. The rear of the temple was hidden under a large mound, giving the appearance that the entrance led into the earth. A water channel bisected this area, carrying water to the long platform altar facing the temple. Wherever visitors walked within the sanctuary, they were standing on carefully buried ritual deposits. Among these were numerous clay pomegranates, ideal gifts for the fruit-bearing goddess, and terracottas of standing women holding torches and piglets. The Malophoros sanctuary is also famous for its many early curse tablets, inscribed on lead. As the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone (or Pasikrateia, the All-ruling, to use her local name) was a particularly appropriate recipient of these missives to the underworld powers.30
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