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Sketches in the Religious Antiquities of Asia Minor1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2013

W. M. Ramsay
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Extract

It is well known that in pre-Greek time a large part of Asia Minor was portioned out in theocracies, i.e. priest-kings representing the god, at great sanctuaries ruled over a considerable district whose population were servants and subjects of the central hieron. Such were Pessinus, Comana Pontica, Comana of Cappadocia, Venasa, Tyana, Antioch of Pisidia, the hieron of Sabazios in the Milyadic country, etc. It would appear to be a necessary characteristic of such a theocracy that there should be only one centre, one hieron, one sanctuary. In the case of Antioch, however, this seems not to have been the case. Strabo, p. 577, indeed describes the hieron at Antioch as if it were a single centre ruling a wide tract of country peopled by a large population; but in p. 557 he says that there were two sanctuaries in the Antiochian country, ‘the hieron of the Askaian (Men), which is beside Antioch-towards-Pisidia, and the hieron (of Men) in the region of the Antiochians.’ The meaning of ‘the region of the Antiochians’ as a geographical term I hope shortly to discuss in the Journal of Roman Studies, and will only say here that it applies to the entire Phrygian region of the Galatic province, of which Antioch was the metropolis. But why has Antioch apparently two hiera? Why has this ancient theocracy two seats of the god?

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 18 , November 1912 , pp. 37 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1912

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References

page 37 note 2 On this hieron, whose exact site is unknown, but about which we have learned more than we know about any other of the great hiera, see my Cities and Bish., i. ch. ix.

page 38 note 1 In both cases Ἀσκαία denotes the land of the god.

page 38 note 2 It may possibly have been at Saghir: see later in this paper.

page 39 note 1 The best things found were taken to Constantinople: the rest were piled in this local museum : some were buried where found, such as pottery (all valueless), large inscribed stones, etc.

page 40 note 1 In 1913 we found that there was a second narrow door, 3 it. wide, in the S.E. wall, 1 ft. 8 in. from the corner E. inside. This door was blocked in ancient times very roughly. Its purpose is obscure. A sort of Pronaos was added to the initiation hall, as shown in the plan, at some later time (whether before or after this door was blocked remains as yet uncertain): its floor was paved with large stones, and under these stones we found many bones, probably of sacrificial victims (though some were declared to be human), also some pottery fragments, which seem to imply that the Pronaos was a very late addition. The floor of the initiation hall consists of a layer of small stones close packed (exactly like the flooring of the stadium, except that the stones are smaller). The soil above the floor, both in hall and Pronaos, is full of bones and teeth of animals. Beneath the Pronaos floor and elsewhere teeth of pigs or wild boar were found, showing that the pig was not forbidden at this sanctuary (see Histor. Geography of Asia Minor, p. 32).

page 40 note 2 In 1913 we found it to be nearly 4 ft. broad, like the N.W. and S.E. walls. All measurements in the Sanctuary and surroundings are only approximate.

page 40 note 3 It is also strengthened by eight buttresses and two projecting gate posts, built contemporaneously with the wall.

page 43 note 1 The limestone blocks of the Sanctuary were taken in part to build the church close by.

page 43 note 2 About the purpose of this building as a hall of initiation no doubt can exist; and no doubt was felt by us after the clearing of the building was completed. We began the hall under the impression that it was the residence of the priest of Men. Its situation, outside the Sanctuary and oriented in the same direction, suggested this opinion; but the progress of the excavation showed clearly the nature of the building.

page 43 note 3 Of course this view is not special to myselt; I merely define my position.

page 44 note 1 Oest. Jahreshefte, 1906 and 1912.

page 44 note 2 Bodies of hymnodoi were common in Phrygia and Asia Minor generally, e.g. at Akmonia and Hypaipa : see Cities and Bish. of Phrygia, ii. pp. 630, 646, 359Google Scholar; Keil-v, Premerstein, Oest. Jahreshefte, 1908, p. 105Google Scholar.

page 44 note 3 Cities and Bish. of Phrygia, i. p. 53Google Scholar.

page 44 note 4 Mr. Head has cut this coin out of the new edition of his Hist. Num., evidently regarding the authority as insufficient. Eckhel quotes it from Gori, Mus. Flor.; but no good numismatist has verified the coin.

page 45 note 1 It is published by Professor Petrie, A. in my Studies in the History and Art of the Eastern Provinces, p. 128Google Scholar.

page 45 note 2 Published by Buresch in his Klaros, and more correctly by Keil, and Premerstein, v. in their first Reise in Lydien in Wiener Jahreshefte, 1910, pp. 8 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 45 note 3 Makridi Bey published an earlier article on his excavations in the Jahreshefte for 1906. One of the two texts is in that first article.

page 45 note 4 See art. Mysteria in Daremberg and Saglio's, Dict, des Antiquites, iii. p. 2142 A, note 6Google Scholar.

page 46 note 1 On this see an article in the Contemporary Review, 1913, also a short letter in the Athenaeum, Jan. 25, 1913.

page 46 note 2 Some features in these persecutions as revealed by inscriptions are described in a paper on Pagan Revivalism and the Persecutions (see the writer's Pauline and other Studies in the History of Religion, Art. IV.).

page 47 note 1 Vaillant has Apollo Ἐμβάσιος on an Ephesian coin; but Mr. Head considers that this (otherwise unknown) coin is misread, and is a bad specimen of the Ἱκέσιος coin.

page 47 note 2 It is found also at Thebes in Thessaly and at Elaious of the Chersonese.

page 47 note 3 In what follows I do little more than select from what is said by DrImhoof-Blumer, F. in Nomisma, v. pp. 25 ff.Google Scholar, vi. 1. He differs from the interpretation suggested by DrRegling, in Klio, viii. pp. 489 ff.Google Scholar, and recurs to the usual and accepted interpretation.

page 47 note 4 Regling takes him as Hector or Aeneas on Phrygian coins, and does not take the other coins into consideration.

page 48 note 1 Allied cases are at Dardanos, the hero Dardanos embarking on a voyage: at Thebes of Phthiotis, Protesilaos from Thebes newly landed on the coast of Troy, which was to be his home in death; at Elaious in the Thracian Chersonese Protesilaos, whose grave and shrine were here, stands on a ship's prow looking forward. At Samos, Imhoof thinks that the hero (of the usual type) is Ankaios starting on the Argonautic expedition.

page 49 note 1 The appearance of the tops proves that cut stones or other material must have rested on the slabs which are still standing in the hall. Thus the entrance formerly had an even stronger resemblance to a door than at present. (PI. I, 4 )

page 49 note 2 Section III, p. 46.

page 50 note 1 The same idea, which in these examples is expressed in an antique religious form that remained throughout the later pagan period, appears also in epitaphs in a philosophic form : all (material) things spring from the earth and return to the earth (ἐκ γῆς εἰς γῆν τἀγαθά and other variations): on which see Keil-v, Premerstein, ii. Reise in Lydien, p. 46Google Scholar and the references which they mention.

page 50 note 2 The channel runs far into the pool, and is bordered by two small slabs of stone, 2 ft. 6 in. long, 6 in. broad. It is at the bottom of the pool. The sides of the pool were never cemented, so that it could never have held water, except in very small quantity.

page 51 note 1 De Corona, 259 f.

page 51 note 2 They had been cowering before.

page 52 note 1 Less accurate representation in Wagener's, art. in Mémoires Couronnés par l'Acad. de Belgique, xxxGoogle Scholar. The relief has often been described.

page 53 note 1 See the inscription which I published in B.C.H. 1883, p. 276Google Scholar, and which has frequently been reprinted and commented on.

page 53 note 2 On the meaning and nature of the rite see my article on Anatolian Religion in Hastings' Die. Bib. V. p. 127AGoogle Scholar.

page 54 note 1 The spelling varies, and the second vowel: Atis occurs in an official Pessinuntine inscription of the second century B.C., Atyochorion in the Hyrgalean plain near Dionysopolis, Attioukome at Orkistos, and Attoudda on the Phrygo-Carian frontier.

page 54 note 2 Zeus of Heliopolis is once mentioned as consecrated in the sanctuary.

page 55 note 1 On the whole process see Anderson in J.R.S. 1913: he states the evidence and proves the inferences fully.

page 55 note 2 This temple is too ruinous to give positive evidence; but probably it is older than the central Sanctuary. It stands on the highest peak of the mountain, close under the summit, and is perhaps pre-Hellenic, representing the original sanctity of this spot as an isolated lofty mountain (clearly divided from Sultan Dagh by a deep chasm) among the old Phrygian and pre-Phrygian natives. In my article in the Contemp. Rev. 1912, stress was laid on the spring near the top of the mountain, close to the church, as being probably an element in causing the sanctity: this is corroborated by a dedication to the Nymphs (Nyphai) found in the wall of the church in 1913. The surface of the mountain top is strewn with scraps of haematite iron ore; but we saw no sign that the ore was smelted.

page 55 note 3 Anderson, l.c.

page 57 note 1 Ramsay's an verschiedenen Stellen ausgesprochene Ansicht, dass die beiden grossen einheimischen Gottheiten Kleinasiens, die er sich zu einander im Verhältniss von Mutter und Sohn stehend denkt, unter den mannigfachsten Namen, je nach den verschiedenen Seiten ihres Wesens, uns entgegentreten, verdient ja gewiss Beachtung. Aber … then he assigns a larger share than I think right, to the Greek element in the population of inner Asia Minor.

page 57 note 2 I made the following corrections on Sterrett's copy, comparing it with the stone : 3, for ΤΗΝ read ΤΗΡ (as St. corrects in transcription), 8, for ΙΑС read ΡΑС. Λ and С are difficult to distinguish from Α and ϵ.

page 57 note 3 Farnell, , Cults of the Greek States, iii. pp. 138 f.Google Scholar, 338 and the ancient authorities and modern scholars quoted by him on Daeira.

page 58 note 1 I know no other example.

page 58 note 2 In B.C.H. xi, 1887, p. 63Google Scholar the text (which I have vainly sought in repeated visits) is published by MM. Radet and Paris: their copy seems almost perfectly correct, but not their transcription. The copy needs only one correction: Κ three times should have a short horizontal stroke in the angle, making it a lettre liée of κ and ϵ. This ligature is very common, but is not often observed by copyists.

page 58 note 3 Various examples of this class of inscriptions of the pagan reaction are given in a paper on Pagan Revivalism and the Persecutions of the Early Church, in my Pauline and Other Studies, pp. 103 ff. (where, as I observed too late, the inscription of Ma is quoted and restored).

page 59 note 1 Sir Cecil Smith's description p. 157 is as follows: ‘modelling somewhat rough: feet not indicated: part in columnar form, but from feet up more carefully treated. She holds in each hand at her waist, a hawk. The dress is the usual girt Ionic chiton. The hair is arranged like that of No. 1 without the tettix, and the surface of the head itself is carved in a series of ridges concentric with the crown.’

page 60 note 1 In Vol. V. of Hastings', Diet. Bib. pp. 109 ff.Google Scholar: published 1904, but written two years earlier.

page 60 note 2 Ibid. V. p. 111.

page 61 note 1 Hermes, iv. p. 64Google Scholar: Ramsay, , Histor. Comni. on Galatians, p. 219Google Scholar.

page 61 note 2 The opinion of Professor Sterrett (who in many ways did much service in the discovery and correct copying of these monuments) and DrZiebarth, (Gr. Vereinswesen, p. 67)Google Scholar and DrJudeich, (Alt. von Hierapolis, p. 120)Google Scholar, that Tekmorion was a place, is now antiquated.

page 61 note 3 Pauline and Other Studies, pp. 163 ff.

page 61 note 4 It is quoted henceforth as Q.

page 61 note 5 It is quoted henceforth as Journal.

page 62 note 1 Q No. 24 p. 345 and Journal, p. 162.

page 64 note 1 On this see MissHardie, (Mrs. F. W. Hasluck) in J.H.S. 1912, p. 147Google Scholar.

page 64 note 2 ι for ϵι: the name Ἀρτέμϵις is common.

page 64 note 3 Κτιμϵνηνός fills the gap, and τϵμι ( = θϵμι ?) must be the beginning ot a word.

page 64 note 4 See Joụrnal, pp. 153, 163.

page 66 note 1 To it belong also Q 18 (St. 376), which is very much dilapidated and of small use, and perhaps Q 20 as enlarged in Journal, p. 160.

page 66 note 2 A person named after Valerian at birth would imply a date 280–300, which seems too late. Valerianus was used without reference to the Emperor, as was Maximianus at Antioch (see Anderson, l.c.).

page 69 note 1 Probably the Hittites, in their turn, may have been conquerors; and the best term to use is ‘Anatolian.’

page 70 note 1 In the same house, the inscription of the Archigallos Q 22 is built into the wall, and inside is the fragment of a Tekmoreian inscription.

page 71 note 1 Previously I took Luna here as Men. The inscription was copied by Sterrett in 1885, and by me in 1886 and by Calder and me in 1911, 1912. Quodannis is certain.

page 76 note 1 Letters to the Seven Churches, p. 164.

page 76 note 2 See Religion of Anatolia in Hastings', Dict. Bib. V. 126Google Scholar; and above, p. 43.

page 78 note 1 γυναικί is inadmissible: the preceding letter was not Κ, but might be ω.

page 79 note 1 Professor Sterrett considered the village an ancient site; but he mentions no proof except the stones of the mosque, which furnish no evidence: mosques are usually built by a contractor who brings stones. The cemetery does not suggest a site.