Greek mythology and religion held in common a lively interest in the first authors of rituals, founders of cities and sanctuaries, and inventors. Such founder figures, whether real or invented, were often made the objects of cults.12 One such hero who deserves to be better known is Anios, the priest-king of Delos. His father Apollo taught him divination and established him on Delos, while his grandfather Dionysos gave Anios’ daughters Spermo (Grain-Girl), Oino (Wine-Girl), and Elais (Oil-Girl) the magical power to create food and drink. The epic Cypria told how Anios offered the services of his daughters to provision the Greek armies setting out for Troy.13 On Delos, however, Anios’ importance was far greater than the literary sources suggest. The Delians called him the Archegete (Founder), a title that shows he was considered their first ruler and corporate ancestor. His is one of the few fully excavated and securely identified hero shrines of the Archaic period, and its architectural pattern was often used for heroic cults, though by no means unique to them. Established in the late seventh or early sixth century, Anios’ shrine first consisted of a small open-air court, about 10 m by 11 m, edged by a wooden colonnade and wall. Within the court was an altar with a drainage conduit. This was soon tripled in size, and a prohibition on entry by strangers was carved at the thresholds. The sanctuary held numerous dedications including a marble kouros; vases deposited at the site were inscribed to Anios, the Archegete, or the King. A few meters away stood a long, multi-chambered building, which surely functioned as a dining facility. Seven Archaic tombs marked with stelai, survivors of the purifications of Delos, were also part of the complex; perhaps they belonged to figures connected with Anios.14
A similar but better-known founder-figure is Aiakos, the primordial king of Aigina and son of Zeus. Through the odes of Pindar (e. g. Ol. 8, Nem. 3-8), who often wrote for elite Aiginetan patrons, we gather that the aristocratic families of the island considered themselves Aiakidai, descendants of Aiakos, and thereby partook of the immense prestige of this mythic lineage, which includes Peleus, Telamon, Achilles, Ajax, and Neoptolemos. Like Anios on Delos, Aiakos had a special priestly relationship with his father. When a drought hit all of Greece, the Delphic oracle told the anxious petitioners that only the prayers and sacrifices of Aiakos could bring rain from Zeus. Thus Aiakos founded the mountain sanctuary of Zeus Hellenios (parts of the Aiakid myth, including the lineage of Peleus, are shared with Thessaly, the ancestral home of the “Hellenes”). Like the hero-shrine of Anios, the Aiakeion seen by Pausanias (2.29.6) was a rectangular enclosure with low walls of stone. Carved at the entrance was the story of the drought, while the interior held a few olive trees and a low altar reputed to be Aiakos’ tomb. Here, in Pindar’s ode for the victor Pytheas (Nem. 5.53-54), a procession brings floral crowns to the “door of Aiakos.” During the long struggle between Athens and Aigina, the Athenians attempted to appease Aiakos by building him a hero shrine in Athens. This structure has now been convincingly identified as a large enclosure (the “rectangular peribolos”) in the southwest corner of the agora. Still later, the Athenians sent a ship to retrieve Aiakos and the Aiakidai (either cult statues or relics) from Aigina before the battle of Salamis, believing that the heroes would function as allies.15
The cults of founders were especially important in the Greek colonies, and in these cases the cult was normally observed at the centrally located tomb of the historical oikist, the leader of the original colonial expedition. The founder’s death marked the end of the first phase of occupation, and gave the residents their first state cult that was not derivative of the mother-city. The best example of a heroized founder is Battos of Kyrene, who led Theran colonists to the coast of Libya (c. 630). Local legend had it that Battos (whose name seems to mean “stammerer”) consulted the Delphic oracle to ask about his voice. The Pythia ignored his query and told him to found a city in Libya. Kyrene’s subsequent prosperity was attributed in part to the personal qualities of Battos; Pindar describes him (Pyth. 5.89-95) as a pious king who founded the groves of the gods and laid a processional road for the celebrations of Apollo. His tomb lay in the agora, set apart from those of his descendants: “Blessed while he dwelled among men, afterwards he was a hero worshiped by the people.” The tomb, which has been located and dated to around 600, turned out to be a cremation beneath a large heap of sacrificial ashes, covered in turn by a mound of earth and a ring of stone slabs. Nearby, a preexisting sanctuary contained a one-room structure that was enlarged around the time of the burial. Within it were a sacrificial pit and a number of vases from Battos’ time. This has been described as a hero-shrine for Battos, though it could also be an early temple or funerary chapel. In the late Classical period, as the level of the agora rose, the mound was no longer visible, so an elaborate cenotaph was constructed beside it.16
World History
