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Korybas of the Haemonians
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
Hippolytus, Refutatio omnium haeresium, V. 9. 8, p. 99, Wendland preserves a curious hymn to Attis: εἲτε Κρόνον γένος εἲτε ‘Pέας μεγάλης, χαῖρ’ ὦ τ κατηϕς ἂκουσμα ‘Pέας Ἄττι σ καλοσι μν’ Ασσύριοι τριπόθητον Ἄδωνιν, δλη δ' Αἲγυπτος Ὄσιριν, πουράνιον μηνς (Μηνς Wilamowitz) κέρας ‘Eλληνς σοϕία, Σαμοθρᾷκες Ἅδαμνα σεβάσμιον, Αίμόνιοι Κορύβαντα, κα οἱ ϕρύγες ἃλλοτε μν IIάπαν, ποτ δ’ αὖ νέκυν ἥ θεν… It is preceded by a long exegetical disquisition, which treats the various divine names in the order in which they occur in the hymn, and includes the remarks, 8. 13, p. 91, τοτόν, ϕησι, θρᾷκες οἱ περ τν Αἷμον οἰκοντες Κορύβαντα καλοσι, κα θρᾳξν οἱ Φρύγες μοίως… τν αὐτν δ τοτν, Φησι, Φρύγες κα IIπαν καλοσιν (after about a page of explanation). The statement here made is obviously at variance with the hymn: Αἱμόνιοι are properly Thessalians, and have nothing to do with Mount Haemus. Moreover, we have evidence for the cult of a Korybas, more commonly called a Kabeiros, at the foot of Mount Olympus, and as Mount Olympus lies on the borders of Thessaly and Macedonia, this may be designated as a cult by Thessalians. Αἱμόνιοι therefore agrees with facts, and the explanation given by Hippolytus or by the authority whom he was following can be explained as due to a confusion of place-names. It led here to the further error of θρᾷκες; the attribution of orgiastic cults to Thracians was natural, but there seems a lack of evidence for Korybas or Korybantes in Thrace.
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References
page 41 note 1 Cf. Pape-Benseler, Wörterb. gr. Eigenn.,3 s.v., and note that in the references there given for Αἱμόνιοι as meaning ‘Macedonian’ it has its normal sense of ‘Thessalian.’
page 41 note 2 Cf. Clem. Al. Protrept II. 19. p. 15j, Stählin, quoted by A. B. Cook, Zeus I. 107 sq. The main centre of the cult was Thessalonica, where the cult-name used was Κάβειρος, if we may judge from the coins. This Kabeiros was in the age of syncretism regarded as a Korybas; cf. O Kern, P.W. X. 1416 sq.
page 41 note 3 Cf. Kroll, W., Studien zum Verständniss der römischen Litteratu, 294, sqq.Google Scholar, for the geographical errors of the Roman poets. The explanation given by Hippolytus makes Schneidewin's Μαιόνιοι and Bergk's Ἀκμόνιοι unacceptable.
page 41 note 4 Cf. Poerner, Diss. phil. Hal. XXII. ii. 385 sq. We find them in neighbouring Samothrace, which would not be to the point here, as its relevant cult has been mentioned.
page 41 note 5 So remarks, Wilamowitz, Hermes XXXVII. 329Google Scholar.
page 41 note 6 σὐκ είδώς ἄ λέγει. είδώς is used in the sense of ‘having deeper understanding (gnosis) of,’ as in the Bezan insertion in Luke 6. 4: τ αὐτ ήμέρᾳ θεασάμενός τινα ργαζόμενον τῷ σαββάτῳ εἲπεν αύτῷ, Ἂνθρωπε, εἰ μν οίδας τί ποιεῑς, μακάριος εῑ εἰ δ μ οιδας, πικατάρατος κα παραβάτης εῗ το νύμου; cf. Pausan. 10. 38. 7, οί μέν εῑναι Διοσκούρους, οί δέ Κούρητας, οί δέ πλέον τι πίστασθαι νομίζοντες λέγουσι.
page 41 note 7 Rohde, , Kleine Schriften, II. 297Google Scholar, explains the performance described by Philostratus as a decadent form of the Anthesteria; a preliminary competition thereat of writers of comedy had been instituted by Lycurgus; cf. Cook, A. B., Zeus I. 688Google Scholar. For theatres used for ceremonial in Syria and elsewhere (as at Delos for άγνή Ἀϕροδίτη, in the precinct of the Syrian deities). cf. Cumont, , Syria IV. 206 sq.Google Scholar, V. 354 sqq.: we cannot always be confident as to their purpose.
page 42 note 1 Cf. von Fritze's, H. instructive observations, Nomisma IV. 40Google Scholar .