with more than one deity. If Greek society was highly concerned with the growing up of youths (as I believe), then it is not a surprise there are so many gods of initiation in religion: Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Dionysos, Hera, Aphrodite. All these deities assumed the role of patronage of youths on some occasion or another. In reality, there may have been many `initiations' in the life-time of a male or a female. The education of the Greek city-state (polis) is yet to be fully understood. It seems almost certain, however, that the task was realized within the frame of the religion of the polis. Competitions (agoªnes) in athletics, music, dance, and choral singing helped define age groups and provided the tests for advancement from one level to the next.3
One final observation: the ancient Greeks had no word for `initiation'; it was the Jesuit Lafitau (1670^1740) who first applied the model to ancient religions (see Fritz Graf in this volume).
Hermes and Aphrodite in the sanctuary of Kato Syme on Crete:
a forum for puberty rites
We now turn to Hermes and Aphrodite. On Crete the two deities occur several times together within the same inscription. At Dreros and Lato, for example, they are invoked (along with other deities) in connection with oaths and treaties of the Hellenistic period.4One wonders why Hermes and Aphrodite would be relevant to military affairs. The argument that will be developed below is that the function of these deities, since the archaic period, was to oversee the transition of young men to adulthood. For this reason they were appropriate patrons of young soldiers or soldiers to be, and they witnessed their oaths.
Our starting point will be one particular sanctuary: Kato Syme on Crete. It deserves special attention because it was dedicated to Hermes and Aphrodite.
It was a large sacred site located on the slope of the Dikte mountain, overlooking the Libyan sea.5It was founded in the Bronze Age and continued an uninterrupted existence into the Roman period. Its popularity throughout the history of ancient Crete is made manifest by the wealth of its finds. The sanctuary was never part of a city, throughout its long history. Rather, it was an `extra-urban' cult site and may well have been a center for the congregation of several communities.6The finds suggest that pilgrims came from far away, from east and central Crete, even from Knossos.7Consequently the sanctuary was a center of activities within a broad region, it had a rich clientele and reached is peak during the archaic Greek period.
The architecture is difficult to disentangle because the stratigraphy is complex and the layers of cult activity continuous. It is worth noting that no `temple' has been found. In the archaic period the salient features were an altar, a hearth and three terraced platforms replete with sacrificial material. All the above testify to sacrifices and banqueting.8Banquets enforce communal bonding and may seal events of some significance.9
In summary, the cult activities at Kato Syme involved congregation of various communities at the sanctuary in order to worship, celebrate, and enforce communal ties.10As for the gods, graffito and inscriptions testify to the worship of Hermes Kedrites and Aphrodite.11For the particular qualities of the patron deities we must take a close look at the votives.
The most interesting objects for our purposes consist of bronze figurines and flat bronze plaques. The latter were found in the vicinity of the archaic altar: `the altar and the hearth were evidently the focal point around which the bronze plaques were deposited', writes the excavator.12It is thus certain that they were not affixed to the walls of buildings, perhaps they were hung on trees.13We owe much to the meticulous study of the style and meaning of the figural scenes to the excavator, A. Lebessi, who has made possible the overall assessment of the cult within the sanctuary and who has arrived at important conclusions, some of which will be repeated here.
• The votives with human subjects give information about the social status of the dedicators. Since bronze is not a cheap material and the work of the metal smith is costly, it is almost certain that the dedicators represented the social elite of their community.14
• The votaries of both the plaques and the figurines are mostly males (there are rare female depictions).15
• These males can be classified into the following social categories: the warrior/hunter, the symposiast (figurine holding a cup), the musician (flute and lyre player).16
• The men represent two distinct age groups: beardless youths or bearded adults.17
The votives mirror the social world of Cretan aristocrats in the archaic period:
they hunt, feast, and play music. The figurines that hold a lyre or a flute may reflect the role of music and dance in Dorian education.18
Let us now turn to hunting activities that are especially well represented among the votive plaques of the sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite at Kato Syme. The role of hunting in connection with the training of youths in ancient Greece is well known and finds confirmation in iconography as well as myth.19Yet the plaques tell a more complicated story than mere hunting.20 Wild animals are captured alive and wrestled (Fig. 7.1).
Sometimes they are led by force to the sanctuary.21Alternatively they are bound and carried on the shoulders of men; they may be alive or dead (Fig.
7.2).22In some cases the beast is already dismembered, so we must assume that the meat is being carried to the altar or the place of the feast.23Thus, shooting the animals was not the only or even the primary subject of the plaques. Wrestling with the animal is a common theme. Important also is the sacrifice and the feast. All this is relevant to the initiation scenario.
Animal wrestling may be interpreted plausibly as a test of strength. As we shall see further on, Hermes also performs a similar task of wrestling the
cattle that he has stolen from Apollo. Let us look at one example more specifically. On one plaque a crouching young man carries a huge goat on his shoulders( Fig. 7.3). His posture suggests that he is burdened by the animal.24Why is the carrying of the animal important to depict? We may turn to a later ritual for an explanation when the Athenian ephebes lifted bulls on their shoulders before sacrifice.25 This was a test of physical prowess. There is literary testimony as well. Theseus, upon his return from Crete to Athens lifted the oxen off his cart and threw them up in the air
`higher than the roof of the temple', says Pausanias (1.19.1). Note that, in the narrative, Theseus' act proves to the bystanders that he is a man.26In Figure 7.1 Youth wrestling a goat. (After Lebessi (1985) pl. 35, no. A12)
short, the plaques from Kato Syme reflect a process that ranges from the capture of the animal to its defeat, to its ultimate sacrifice.
Let us now focus on the relationship of bearded men to beardless youths. One plaque depicts a pair of male figures facing each other (Fig. 7.4). To the right, a bearded man holds a bow, but no animal, whereas the youth carries a bound goat Figure 7.2 Youth carrying a dead goat on his shoulders. (After Lebessi (1985) pl. 46,
no. ÿ8)
on his shoulders.27The older figure touches the elbow of the young man in affection or praise. He is probably his tutor. Lebessi has interpreted this scene as depicting the homosexual relationship of lover and beloved.28The excavator points out, that institutionalized homosexuality was part of the Dorian agoªgeª, attested on Crete by later authors. The penis, visible under the tunic of the youth may be a sign of social significance indicating youthful manhood, as Lebessi suggests.29
It is hard to escape the conclusion of the excavator that the sanctuary was used for rites of maturation and that it provided a place for the activities of youths who were trained in the wilderness.30In this case, Van Gennep's period of separation seems to apply well. It is not insignificant that there is a Greek word for liminal space: `eschatia'. The young men were presumably trained to be hunters and to capture wild animals. It may be suspected that they also patrolled the borders of their city-state, but this is an issue that deserves exploration in itself.31
Figure7.3 Young man lifting a bound animal on his shoulders (After Lebessi (1985) pl.
40, no. ÿ7)
In summary, the votive plaques suggest that many activities of the young men at the sanctuary of Kato Syme on Crete were related to initiation. The sanctuary provided a formal forum for ceremonies of age transition that ended in feasting, although other types of rituals cannot be excluded.
Hermes at Kato Syme and beyond
It was necessary to discuss the social frame of the maturation rituals conducted at Kato Syme before we turn to Hermes. That he was a patron deity of the sanctuary already in the orientalizing and mature archaic periods is certain because the god is depicted on plaques of the archaic period. A youthful Hermes can be identified on one plaque. We know he is a god here, rather than an ordinary mortal because he holds a small scepter. (Fig. 7.5).32He is also depicted as a bearded adult, however. He is a hunter with a bow with winged sandals and a wreath on his head (Fig. 7.6).33What is of importance
Figure 7.5 Adolescent Hermes. Metal blade from Kato Syme. (After Lebessi (1985) pl. 52)
for the initiation scenario is that he has two guises: that of a youth and that of an adult.34What does his double guise signify?35I shall be arguing that the double appearance of Hermes reveals his mediating function between adolescence and mature adulthood and that his role was to be a `guide' across boundaries.36But we must also look beyond Kato Syme. One way to understand the Greek god is though his images. And if we look at those, the same pattern is revealed as on the plaques from Kato Syme: Hermes has a double guise as an unbearded youth and a bearded mature man.
Let us start with a seventh-centuryBCECorinthian aryballos (Fig. 7.7a).37 A young man stands on the branches of a lotus plant, flanked by two sphinxes. He wears an animal hide over his tunic and holds a caduceus, a magical snake wand. The caduceus identifies him as Hermes. The animal hide shows that the god belongs to the wilderness (the same type of animal skin is Figure 7.6 Bearded Hermes. (After Lebessi (1985) pl. 32, A58)
Figure 7.7b Bearded Hermes on a Corinthian Aryballos. (After Seibert (1990) no. 230)
worn by Artemis, Maenads, Amazons and even Dionysus).38The hide indicates the as yet 'untamed' status of the youth, alternatively, it identifies him as a hunter.39And what about the lotus plant? Does it show that Hermes is a vegetation god? I think not. The prototype for this iconography is almost certainly inspired by the Egyptian formula of the young sun god born from a lotus plant. This type of image was spread in the Levant in the Iron Age and is frequently represented in amulet seals of Phoenician^Israelite provenance in the ninth and eighth centuriesBCE.40The same arrangement, namely Hermes between two sphinxes, appears on another Corinthian aryballos of the same period.41This time, however, the god has a beard (Fig. 7.7b). Thus, the two figures of Hermes, dating to the same period and expressing the same iconographical formula, show the dual nature of the god as a youth and a mature man.
The Amasis Painter (c. 640BCE) has furnished us with another youthful Hermes (Fig. 7.8). Two gods are present, a beardless Hermes and a bearded Dionysos.42The latter holds a cup and receives a beardless young man who greets him. The youth is followed by Hermes who is recognizable by his winged sandals and staff. Hermes' role as the youth's companion is clear on this vase; we can further deduce that the god introduces him to the Dionysiac adult world of the symposium.43A satyr, standing in front of Dionysus, is a reminder that the realm of this god involves sexuality as well.
To the far left is a man with a long robe who may be a tutor or some other adult figure.
Hermes and Dionysos are not strangers to each other in mythical narrative and cult.44Both oversee adolescents as they cross the boundary to maturity.
The relationship of Dionysos to ephebes in vase imagery has been demonstrated recently by C. Isler-Kerenyi; she has shown that this god is a
Figure 7.8 Adolescent Hermes on black figure vases by the Amasis painter. (After Seibert (1990) no. 709 and Gaspari (1986) no. 806)
patron of youths engaged in athletics or hunting.45Nor is homosexual courtship lacking from Dionysiac imagery: a bearded man courts a beardless ephebe on a vase by the `Affecter' painter.46The association of Hermes and Dionysos cannot be accidental; in fact they tread on common ground since they both oversee age transition and metamorphosis from adolescence to adulthood.
Let us finally note that the youthful Hermes survives the archaic period. In later times he is the patron of the gymnasia; as such he is attested also on votives of classical times from Kato Syme.47
The Homeric Hymn to Hermes dates to the late sixth centuryBCEand belongs to the chronological horizon of the votives from Kato Syme. In this song the god is presented as a baby but he grows up fast and his actions suggest that he has reached adolescence within the time span of the narrative although this is never actually stated (see also S. Iles Johnston in this volume). 48The infant Hermes accomplishes extraordinary feats. He steals cattle that may be plausibly interpreted as a trial of cunning, stealth, and skill. But he also learns how to sacrifice and there he accomplishes a feat almost beyond his strength. He drags two cattle out of the herd and throws them on their backs, turning and rolling them. Then he stabs them (Hymn Herm. 115^20). The descriptions invoke the feats on the plaques from Kato Syme where youths wrestle wild goats (Fig. 7.1).
As for Hermes' theft of cattle, stealth is a skill that youths had to learn as Vidal-Naquet has demonstrated.49By deceiving Apollo, Hermes proves his worth to his older brother. At the end of the poem, Hermes and Apollo are reconciled as the young Hermes gives Apollo the lyre. The lyre cannot be dissociated from the paean, the dance and song that male youths sang in honor of Apollo and which belongs to the sphere of maturation rites.50The lyre player is attested also at Kato Syme, as we have seen above.
The Homeric Hymn to Hermes may be pan-Hellenic, according to Clay, so that it provides an official version of what it means to grow up.51
So far I have stressed the two guises of Hermes as a pre-adult and adult. But his overall function has not been addressed yet. Was he primarily a child god, as in the Hymn? A messenger? A fertility and pastoral god?52Is there any point in looking for a general function of Hermes, a pan-Hellenic identity? I think yes.The name of the god derives from herma, ``a pile of stones''. It has been sometimes interpreted as a sign of his primeval nature.53Stone worship is said to be a sign of a primitive mentality betraying 'animism'. Alternatively, according to Simon, the key to the nature of Hermes is the stone heap that marked graves.54However, Burkert proposed another hypothesis regarding the herma: the heap of stones represents elementary boundaries between fields or territories.55I suspect that the unifying aspect of all the sides of Hermes in the archaic period is the idea of boundary-crossing in its ritualized form, which entails both territorial and symbolic transitions.56An important aspect of crossing boundaries is age transition, from infancy, to preadolescence, to adolescence,
to mature manhood. The further crossings of Hermes into unusual realms are well known and need no extensive discussion here. Suffice to mention how he appears on vase paintings. As chthonios, he brings souls to the underworld. At the same time he does the reverse as he leads up Persephone and Heracles from Hades.57He crosses the boundaries that divide earth from heaven as he leads Heracles to Olympus.58Even on earth he helps mortals cross dangerous areas:
he takes Priam into Achilles' presence (Iliad 24, 354^467), he enables Perseus to escape Medusa. In general, he helps with passage through dangerous domains.59The ancient Greeks obviously thought of Hermes as a guide through both territorial and symbolic markers. This digression on the nature of the god was necessary in order to understand why he came to be considered a god appropriate to maturation rites in addition to his other functions.
Growing up is a special form of crossing boundaries.
Hermes and Aphrodite: the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite We now turn to Aphrodite. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, the goddess seduces the young prince Anchises.60The goddess is portrayed as both irresistibly beautiful and powerful; her ability to induce desire affects both men and beasts, yoking them to her power (HymnAphr.69^72). Even Zeus has fallen victim to Aphrodite. However, in this poem, Zeus takes his revenge. He makes her fall into her own trap and she succumbs to irresistible sexual desire for the mortal Anchises. The latter is a young shepherd living in the mountains. He may thus be regarded as the mythological counterpart of youths who live on the mountains such as the youths of Kato Syme. Like them, Anchises is also a hunter. We know this because he makes his bed by piling up animal hides of bears and lions that he has killed in the mountains (HymnAphr. 159^60). Anchises' sojourn in the mountains can be construed as the `liminal period' during which young men prepare for their adult roles. Whether we accept Van Gennep's model or a variation of it, it seems that the Greek polis demanded (in myth at least) that its young men be acquainted with the wilderness and that they meet the rough challenges of nature.61
To return to the Hymn: Aphrodite meets Anchises and seduces him. The goddess, however, conceals her divine identity so as not to scare her mortal lover away. She pretends to be a virgin who will be herself initiated into sexuality. And how did she get to the mountains? She claims that a god brought her and this god is none other than Hermes who supposedly snatched her away from the chorus of Artemis and led her to the young man (Hymn Aphr.116^ 20). Here the role of Hermes as a mediator becomes clear: he leads Aphrodite from maidenhood to womanhood. Anchises is overwhelmed by desire and makes passionate love to the disguised goddess. After this, Aphrodite discloses her true identity assuring him that she will bear his son and all ends well.
The Hymn reveals two important sides of the gods under discussion.
The Hymn reveals two important sides of the gods under discussion.