Pindar’s seventh Olympian Ode, written for the boxer Diagoras of Rhodes in 464, celebrates the prominent cult of Athena in the city of Lindos, one of the three original Greek cities on the island. Like the people of Alalkomenai in Boiotia or Alipheira in Arkadia, the Rhodians believed that their island witnessed the birth of Athena from Zeus’ head. Helios, the patron deity of Rhodes, urged his children to be the first to honor the goddess with an altar and the smoke of sacrifice. But climbing to the peak of the Lindian akropolis, they forgot to bring live embers, establishing instead the custom of fireless sacrifice. Zeus confirmed these events by sending snow of gold on the city, while Athena herself taught the Heliadai the skills to create wondrous works of art that moved like living creatures.34 An alternative legend attributed the founding of the sanctuary to Danaos and his daughters as they fled from Egypt, while the Archaic temple was built by the sixth-century tyrant Kleoboulos, one of Greece’s Seven Sages and an associate of Pharaoh Amasis of Egypt. Amasis dedicated to Athena Lindia two stone statues and a linen corselet embroidered with figures in gold thread.35 These connections between Rhodes and Egypt are borne out by actual fragments of Egyptian sculpture discovered near the temple of Athena Polias at Kameiros.
Around 392, the temple on the akropolis and its contents were completely destroyed, perhaps in the violent struggles between the supporters of Sparta and Athens, and a lengthy period of recovery followed. Roughly a century after its destruction, the Rhodians began to rebuild the sanctuary on a lavish scale. Conscious of Athena Lindia’s distinguished past, but lacking the rich variety of heirloom dedications to be seen in other sanctuaries, they eventually decided to create a list of all the famous gifts that had been lost, and to display it in the sanctuary. This inscription, known as the Lindian Chronicle, dates to 99 and contains a catalogue of fabulous gifts from ancient heroes (e. g. Herakles, Helen, Tlepolemos) and historical figures (Alexander the Great and Pyrrhos) as well as descriptions of three epiphanies of the goddess. The votive catalogue, complete with “footnotes” which cite written sources for each entry, is an interesting mixture of legend and history. In spite of its late date, it is an invaluable resource for Athena’s cult. It shows, for example, how colonists from Rhodes maintained a relationship with Athena Lindia by sending gifts to her shrine. The votive catalogue lists gifts of Archaic and Classical date from Lindian colonists at Kyrene, Phaselis, Gela, Akragas, and Soloi, all of which are probably authentic dedications.36
World History
