Summary
This contribution contains a critical re-assessment of the earliest archaeological material originating from the Valley of the Muses, i.e. archaic vessels and figurines, two examples of hydriai allegedly linked with the Muses, and an iconographic testimony. In the current historiography, these sources are still considered to confirm the archaic, or even earlier, origin of the cult of the Muses at the foot of Mount Helicon. An analysis of testimonies is complemented with an overview of a broader cultural context (i.e. the musical agones, the Muses and nymphs and the emergence of the cult of poets/intellectuals); this enables us to assess the sources and chronological considerations. Conclusions drawn from the re-assessment of testimonies are of key importance not only to the dating of the cult of the Muses at this site, but also to our assessment of the phenomenon of the cult of these goddesses in the Greek world in general.
Bibliography
Aravantinos 1996: V. L. Aravantions, Topographical and Archaeological Investigations on the Summit of Helikon, in: A. Hurst – A. Schachter (eds.), La Montagne des Muses, Geneva 1996, 185–192.Search in Google Scholar
Barret 2015: C. E. Barret, Material Evidence, in: E. Eidinow – J. Kindt (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, Oxford 2015.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199642038.013.10Search in Google Scholar
Barrigon Fuentes 1996: M. del C. Barrigon Fuentes, Sobre el culto de las Musas en Delfos, Cuaderno de Filologia Classica 6, 1996, 237–250.Search in Google Scholar
Beaulieu 2004: M. Beaulieu, L’héroïsation du poète Hésiode en Grèce ancienne, Kernos 17, 2004, 103–117.10.4000/kernos.1403Search in Google Scholar
Bershadsky 2011: N. Bershadsky, A Picnic, a Tomb, and a Crow. Hesiod’s Cult in the Works and Days, HSPh 106, 2011, 1–45.Search in Google Scholar
Bintliff 1996: J. Bintliff, The Archaeological Survey of the Valley of the Muses and its Significance for Boeotian History, in: A. Hurst – A. Schachter (eds.), La Montagne des Muses, Geneva 1996, 193–210.Search in Google Scholar
Bintliff – Howard – Snodgrass 2007: J. Bintliff – P. Howard – A. Snodgrass, Testing the Hinterland. The Work of the Boeotia Survey (1989–1991) in the Southern Approaches to the City of Thespiai, Exeter 2007.Search in Google Scholar
Bonanno 2009: M. Bonanno, The Helikon and its Environs, in: A. Vlachopoulos (ed.), Archaeology. Euboea and Central Greece, Athens, 260–269.Search in Google Scholar
Bundrick 2005: S. Bundrick, Music and Image in Classical Athens, Cambridge 2005.Search in Google Scholar
Buxton 1994: R. Buxton, Imaginary Greece, Cambridge 1994.Search in Google Scholar
Calame 1996: C. Calame, Montagne des Muses et Mouseia: la consécration des Travaux et l’héroisation d’Hésiode, in: A. Hurst – A. Schachter (eds.), La Montagne des Muses, Geneva 1996, 43–56.Search in Google Scholar
Calame 2001: C. Calame, Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece. Their Morphology, Religious Role, and Social Functions, Lanham 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Clay 2004: D. Clay, Archilochos Heros. The Cult of the Poets in the Greek Polis, Cambridge (MA) 2004.Search in Google Scholar
Farnell 1909: L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States V, Cambridge 1909.Search in Google Scholar
Grünhagen 1977: W. Grünhagen, Die Statue einer Nymphe aus Munigua, MDAI(M) 18, 1977, 272–283.Search in Google Scholar
Hardie 2006: A. Hardie, The Aloades on Helicon. Music, Territory and Cosmic Order, A&A 52, 2006, 42–71.10.1515/9783110186345.42Search in Google Scholar
Herington 1985: J. Herington, Poetry into Drama. Early Tragedy and the Greek Poetic Tradition, Berkeley 1985.Search in Google Scholar
Kimmel-Clauzet 2013: F. Kimmel-Clauzet, Morts, tombeaux et cultes des poètes grecs. Étude sur la survie des grands poètes des époques archaïque et classique en Grèce ancienne, Bordeaux 2013.Search in Google Scholar
Kivilo 2010: M. Kivilo, Early Greek Poets’ Lives. The Shaping of the Tradition, Leiden 2010.10.1163/ej.9789004186156.i-272Search in Google Scholar
Koning 2010: H. H. Koning, Hesiod: The Other Poet. Ancient Reception of a Cultural Icon, Leiden 2010.10.1163/ej.9789004186163.i-440Search in Google Scholar
Langdon 2000: M. Langdon, Mountains in Greek Religion, CW 93.5, 2000, 461–470.10.2307/4352439Search in Google Scholar
Lamberton 1988: R. Lamberton, Plutarch, Hesiod, and the Mouseia of Thespiai, ICS 13.2, 1988, 491–504.Search in Google Scholar
Larson 2001: J. Larson, Greek Nymphs. Myth, Cult, Lore, Oxford 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Manieri 2009: A. Manieri, Agoni poetico-musicali nella Grecia antica, I: Beozia, Rome 2009.Search in Google Scholar
Mari 1998: M. Mari, Le Olimpie macedoni di Dion tra Archelao e l’età romana, RFIC 126, 1998, 137–159.Search in Google Scholar
Mojsik 2011a: T. Mojsik, Antropologia metapoetyki. Muzy w kulturze greckiej od Homera do końca V w. p.n.e., Warsaw 2011.Search in Google Scholar
Mojsik 2011b: T. Mojsik, Between Tradition and Innovation. Genealogy, Names and the Number of the Muses, Warsaw 2011.Search in Google Scholar
Mojsik 2013: T. Mojsik, Some Reflections on the Muses and the Cult of the Dead, Przegląd Humanistyczny 437, 2013, 79–85.Search in Google Scholar
Mojsik 2015: T. Mojsik, Arist. Rhet. 2.23.1398b and the Cult of Pythagoras, Classica Cracoviensia 16, 2015, 275–292.10.12797/CC.18.2015.18.17Search in Google Scholar
Moloney 2014: E. Moloney, Philippus in acie tutior quam in theatro fuit … (Curtius 9, 6, 25). The Macedonian Kings and Greek Theater, in: E. Csapo et al. (eds.), Greek Theatre in the Fourth Century BC, Berlin 2014, 232–248.10.1515/9783110337556.231Search in Google Scholar
Müller 1996: C. Müller, Les recherches françaises à Thespies et au Val des Muses, in: A. Hurst – A. Schachter (eds.), La Montagne des Muses, Geneva 1996, 171–183.Search in Google Scholar
Murray 2015: P. Murray, Poetic Inspiration, in: P. Destrée – P. Murray (eds.), A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics, Oxford 2015, 158–174.10.1002/9781119009795.ch10Search in Google Scholar
Murray – Wilson 2004: P. Murray – P. Wilson, Introduction, in: P. Murray – P. Wilson (eds.), Music and the Muses. The Culture of Mousike in the Classical Athenian City, Oxford 2004, 1–8.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199242399.003.0001Search in Google Scholar
Nagy 2009: G. Nagy, Hesiod and the Ancient Biographical Traditions, in: F. Montanari et al. (eds.), Brill’s Companion to Hesiod, Leiden 2009, 271–312.10.1163/9789047440758_012Search in Google Scholar
Otto 1955: W. Otto, Die Musen und der göttliche Ursprung des Singens und Sagens, Darmstadt 1955.Search in Google Scholar
Pingiatoglou 2010: S. Pingiatoglou, Cults of Female Deities at Dion, Kernos 23, 2010, 179–192.10.4000/kernos.1578Search in Google Scholar
Plassart 1926: A. Plassart, Fouilles de Thespies et de l’hiéron des muses de l’Hélicon, BCH 50, 1926, 383–462.10.3406/bch.1926.2963Search in Google Scholar
de Ridder 1922: A. de Ridder, Fouilles de Thespies et de l’Hiéron des Muses de l’Hélicon, BCH 46, 1922, 217–306.10.3406/bch.1922.3035Search in Google Scholar
Ridgway 1990: B. S. Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture I, Bristol 1990.Search in Google Scholar
Robinson 2012: B. A. Robinson, Mount Helikon and the Valley of the Muses. The Production of a Sacred Space, JRA 25, 2012, 227–258.10.1017/S1047759400001203Search in Google Scholar
Roesch 2007: P. Roesch, Les Inscriptions de Thespies (IThesp), Lyon 2007.Search in Google Scholar
Roux 1954: G. Roux, Le Val des Muses, et les Muses chez les auteurs anciens, BCH 78, 1954, 22–48.10.3406/bch.1954.2431Search in Google Scholar
Schachter 1981: A. Schachter, Cults of Boeotia, I: Acheloos to Hera, London 1981.Search in Google Scholar
Schachter 1986: A. Schachter, Cults of Boeotia, II: Herakles to Poseidon, London 1986.Search in Google Scholar
Schachter 1996: A. Schachter, Reconstructing Thespiai, in: A. Hurst – A. Schachter (eds.), La Montagne des Muses, Geneva 1996, 99–126.Search in Google Scholar
Scott 2015: M. Scott, Temples and Sanctuaries, in: E. Eidinow – J. Kindt (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, Oxford 2015.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199642038.013.17Search in Google Scholar
Slings 1989: S. R. Slings, Poet’s Call and Poet’s Status in Archaic Greece and Other Oral Culture, LF 112, 1989, 72–80.Search in Google Scholar
Snodgrass 1985: A. Snodgrass, The Site of Ascra, in: P. Roesch – G. Argoud (eds.), La Béotie antique, Paris 1985, 87–95.10.1007/BF00152399Search in Google Scholar
Sommerstein 2010: A. Sommerstein, Aeschylus Epitaph, in: A. Sommerstein, The Tangled Ways of Zeus, and Other Studies In and Around Greek Tragedy, Oxford 2010, 195–201.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199568314.003.0014Search in Google Scholar
Sowder 2009: A. Sowder, Greek Bronze Hydriai, unpublished PhD thesis, Emory University 2009.Search in Google Scholar
Sporn 2013: K. Sporn, “Der göttliche Helikon”. Bergkulte oder Kulte auf den Bergen in Griechenland?, in: R. Breitwieser et al. (eds.), Calamus: Festschrift für Herbert Graßl zum 65. Geburtstag, Wiesbaden 2013, 465–477.Search in Google Scholar
Taback 2002: N. Taback, Untangling the Muses. A Comprehensive Study of Sculptures of Muses in the Greek and Roman World, unpublished PhD thesis, Harvard University 2009.Search in Google Scholar
Thomas 1995: R. Thomas, The Place of the Poet in Archaic Society, in: A. Powell (ed.), The Greek World, London 1995, 104–129.Search in Google Scholar
Vasilopoulou 2013: V. Vasilopoulou, Prehistoric Use And Ancient Ritual Worship At the Cave of Hagia Triada on Helikon, in: F. Mavridis – J. T. Jensen (eds.), Stable Places and Changing Perceptions. Cave Archaeology in Greece, Oxford 2013.Search in Google Scholar
Vokotopoulou 1975: J. Vokotopoulou, Le trésor de vases de bronze de Votonosi, BCH 99, 1975, 729–788.10.3406/bch.1975.4833Search in Google Scholar
Walde 2000: C. Walde, s.v. “Musen”, in: DNP VIII, 2000, 511–514.Search in Google Scholar
Wallace 1979: P. W. Wallace, Strabo’s Description of Boiotia. A Commentary, Heidelberg 1979.Search in Google Scholar
Wilson 2007: P. Wilson (ed.), The Greek Theatre and Festivals, Oxford 2007.Search in Google Scholar
Zanker 1995: P. Zanker, The Mask of Socrates. The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity, Berkeley 1995.10.1525/9780520310018Search in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston