The Annual of the British School at Athens, , page of The Council, British School at Athens

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AITIA, ASTRONOMY AND THE TIMING

OF THE ARRHE PHORIA
by Efrosyni Boutsikas* and Robert Hannah
*Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies, University of Kent

Department of Classics, University of Otago

This paper deals with the cult and myths of the daughters of the mythical king of Athens,
Erechtheus, who lived on the Acropolis. The myth, preserved in Euripides tragedy Erechtheus,
establishes the deceased daughters as goddesses who are owed cult by the Athenians. It further
equates them with the Hyades, a prominent star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, which
they form after their deaths. We examine here the possibility that this myth not only narrates the
placement of the girls after their death in the sky in the form of the Hyades, but also may have
bound the constellation to certain festivals held on the Acropolis, which through their aetiological
myths were connected to the daughters of Erechtheus and in which the participation of young
girls (arrhephoroi) was important. To explicate this cult, we explore its context on the Acropolis
as fully as possible, through the visual arts, the literary myth, the festival calendar, and the
natural landscape and night sky, so as to determine whether the movement of the Hyades was
indeed visible from the Acropolis during the time when the young maiden cult rites were
performed on the hill. This study investigates for the first time the role of the night sky and
astronomical observations in the performance of the nocturnal festival of the Arrhephoria.

INTRODUCTION

In Euripides Erechtheus, Athena proclaims that the souls of Erechtheus daughters have
not gone to Hades. Instead, she has caused their spirit to dwell in the upper reaches of
the sky and [she] shall make a famous name throughout Hellas for men to call them the
Hyakinthian goddesses (Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .; Hard
, ). A scholiast to Aratos identifies these with the star cluster of the Hyades
(Schol. Aratos, Phaenomena ). This proclamation of the emplacement of the girls
in the night sky as the Hyades is followed by another proclamation from Athena that
the girls are from now on to be considered goddesses. The Athenians are to offer them
annual sacrifices, and choral dances are to be performed by young girls (Euripides,
Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .; Calame , ). Other sources concur

The research for this project was funded by a British Academy-Association of Commonwealth
Universities grant for International Collaboration. We would like to thank the British Academy for
its support.

For a discussion of the reason for calling them Hyakinthidai rather than Hyades see Davidson
b, .

EFROSYNI BOUTSIKAS AND ROBERT HANNAH

with this myth of the girls death, informing us that it was the result of an oracle from
Delphi, ordering that one of them had to be sacrificed so that their father, Erechtheus,
could win the war against the Eleusinian Eumolpos. The youngest daughter of
Erechtheus was chosen to be sacrificed, but her sisters, who had sworn that they
should all die together, killed themselves (Apollodoros ..; Euripides, Ion ;
Hyginus, Fabulae ; Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .). The myth
related by Euripides forms one of the most prominent versions of the catasterism myth
of the star cluster of the Hyakinthidai or Hyades.
Epigraphic records have helped in shedding some light on the existence of a cult of the
Hyakinthidai, but our knowledge of their cult and its location remains frustratingly
inadequate. A fragment from a fifth-century BC inscription found in the Agora testifies
that the young girls were indeed offered annual purificatory offerings in Athens (Agora
I , Face B.), although it has not been possible to reconstruct the month in
which these rites were performed (Gawlinski , , ). It is because of
another inscription that we know of the existence of a Hyakinthion in Attica,
mentioned in a list of restored monuments of the Augustan period (Kirchner ,
no. .), but the location of the shrine has, regrettably, not survived.
We are left, then, with the events which are narrated in the myths as taking place on
the Acropolis. According to the literary sources, this was the location of Erechtheus
dwelling (Homer, Odyssey .; Homer, Iliad .), the place where the girls met
their death, and also Erechtheus burial ground. In this paper we investigate the
possibility that the catasterism myth of the Hyades may have linked the star cluster to
certain cult rites held on the Acropolis, in which the participation of young girls
(arrhephoroi) was important and which connected the daughters of Erechtheus/
Erichthonios with the aition myths of those cult rites.

FESTIVALS AND TIMING

Two myths narrate the death of maidens on the Athenian Acropolis: one is that
mentioned by Euripides (discussed above), of the sacrifice of the young daughters of
Erechtheus. The second is the myth of the three daughters of Kekrops (Aglauros,
Herse and Pandrosos), also of young age (Apollodoros, Library ..; Philochoros
[Jacoby ] F ), who were entrusted by Athena with the box containing the
newborn Erichthonios (Euripides, Ion ). The girls threw themselves from the
Acropolis in a frenzy of madness sent upon them by Athena as punishment for
disobeying her orders not to open the box (Apollodoros, Library ..; Pausanias
..). As both Kekrops and Erechtheus/Erichthonios were mythical kings of Athens
believed to have lived with their families on the Acropolis, the myths of the maidens
deaths are also associated with the same location. The presence of these young girls on
the Acropolis was in a sense commemorated by the Athenians through the office of the
arrhephoroi, young girls at the service of Athena, who also dwelt on the Acropolis

There are other versions of the catasterism myth of the star cluster of the Hyades/Hyakinthidai
(see for example Kearns , ; Apollodoros ..). On the active role performed by Euripides,
and his contemporary Sophocles, in populating extensive areas of the night sky with new
constellations derived from catasterised characters in Greek mythology see Hannah .

AITIA, ASTRONOMY AND THE TIMING OF THE ARRHE PHORIA

( . . . [Pausanias ..]). The

arrhephoroi were associated with the weaving of Athenas peplos (robe) (Hurwit ,
) and played a significant role in at least three Acropolis cults: the Kallynteria, the
Plynteria, and the Arrhephoria.
The Kallynteria (held on Thargelion), a small nocturnal purification rite, were
associated with the east part of the Acropolis. The rite involved the cleansing of the
Athena Polias shrine, and the relighting of the eternal flame of the goddess. Photios
also links the festival with Aglauros (a daughter of Kekrops and the first priestess of
Athena), who was the first to adorn the gods (Photios, Lexicon s.v.
, cf. Parker , , ). A few days later (on the night of
Thargelion), the purification rites continued with the Plynteria, which involved the
stripping of the cult statue of the goddess, the removal of its jewellery, and
the wrapping (Plutarch, Alkibiades .; Xenophon, Hellenika ..) and carrying of
the xoanon in a night procession to the seashore, to bathe and purify it in running
(salt) water, while also washing its robe (Burkert , ). The participation of
maidens (called or ) in this procession was essential, as they were
the ones performing the ritual bathing (Aristophanes, frag. : Photios and
Hesychios, s.v. ). The statue was then returned to the Acropolis, clothed with
the clean peplos and adorned with jewels. Apart from the participation in this festival
of young maidens, who were drawn from the clan of the Praxiergidai (Mansfield ,
), it is believed that the rite commemorated the death of Aglauros, as the sacred
vestments of Athena were now washed for the first time during the Plynteria, a year
after Aglauros death (Hesychios, s.v. ; Photios, Lexicon s.v.
; Philochoros [Jacoby ] , F ; Lexeis Rhetorikai, s.v.
[Bekker , .]). The association of the festival with the death of
Aglauros makes it apparent that the way the cult statue of Athena was treated during
this festival was as if it were the dead Aglauros, since several aspects of the rite
resemble Greek funerary practices (Mansfield , ). These similarities with the
treatment of the dead are confirmed and epitomised by the ancestral sacrifices that
were offered by the Praxiergidai either during or a day before the Plynteria (Kirchner
, no. .). That this day was a day of mourning is also confirmed by

For further discussion of the myths of the daughters of Kekrops and Erechtheus, in the
context of their artistic iconography, see Shapiro and Kron .

Or, according to Mansfield, the adorning of Athenas statue, as Photios derives the word from
, meaning to make splendid or adorn (Mansfield , , ). Mansfield
interestingly argues that the idea that the Kallynteria were associated with the cleaning of
Athenas shrine and the relighting of Athenas lamp is mistaken. He argues that if the fire was
renewed every year when the new oil became available, then this should have happened in the
winter, not at midsummer (Mansfield , and n. ).

Priestess of Athena: Hesychios, s.v. . (Latte ); Philochoros (Jacoby )

F.

There appears to be no explicit evidence of a similar association between certain Athenian

families and the Kallynteria or the Arrhephoria.

On the festival being initially founded in honour of Aglauros, see also Connelly , ;
Harrison , ; Valds Gua , n. .

Mansfield discusses, for example, the similarities between the closing of the temple (Plutarch,
Alkibiades .) and the closing of the house of the deceased, the bathing of the statue and its
wrapping in a shroud (Xenophon, Hellenika ..; Plutarch, Alkibiades .) (to be transferred
to the sea shore) and the similar preparation of the deceaseds body, etc.

EFROSYNI BOUTSIKAS AND ROBERT HANNAH

Plutarch, who states that no Athenian would venture the undertaking of important
business on the day of the Plynteria (Plutarch, Alkibiades .), and by other writers,
who state that on the day of the Plynteria the sanctuaries were closed (Polydeukes,
Onomastikon Attikon .; Phanodemos [Jacoby ] F).
The Arrhephoria, associated with the north to northeast part of the Acropolis, were a
secret fertility rite held in honour of Pandrosos and Athena (Herrington , ). The
rite took place in Skirophorion (Burkert , ; Mikalson , ) and was the
re-enactment of the myth of Athena entrusting newborn Erichthonios to the three
daughters of Kekrops. On the night before the day celebrating the festival, the priestess
of Athena gave the arrhephoroi (young girls in the service of Athena) baskets with
unknown contents to take to the sanctuary of Aphrodite through a secret passage,
descending from the north slopes (Pausanias ..; Broneer , ; Hurwit ,
). The girls were to leave the baskets they were carrying, pick up some new ones
from the sanctuary of Aphrodite (again with unknown contents) and bring them back
to the Acropolis. A steep staircase has been unearthed in the area of the north slopes,
which during Mycenaean times would have led to a spring, thought to have been the
one used by the arrhephoroi (Broneer , , ; Broneer , ; Broneer
, ). Archaeologically, the rite that was eventually named Arrhephoria (which
started and ended on the Acropolis) seems to have been either resumed or initiated in
the eleventh century BC, when the Mycenaean stairway appears to have been restored
(Broneer , ; Burkert , ).
The conversion of ancient Athenian calendar months to our Gregorian calendar can
be achieved only with an accuracy of within three to four weeks because of the nature of
the Athenian calendar. This is because New Years Day in the Athenian calendar was
similar to Christian Easter and Jewish Passover, in being tied to both a lunar
phenomenon of variable date and a solar event of more or less fixed date in the case
of Easter and Passover to the first full moon after the spring equinox, and in the case
of ancient Athens, to the first new moon after the summer solstice. As a result, New
Years Day in Athens, Hekatombaion, could shift from one year to the next by about
three weeks, and over a period of years by as much as four weeks between the earliest
occurrence of New Years Day and the latest. The date Hekatombaion would fall
generally in mid to late July, but in some years it would occur earlier, in late June to
mid-July. Consequently, Thargelion, two months earlier, could start in mid to late
May in some years, but as early as late April or the first half of May in others.
Therefore, since the festival of the Kallynteria was celebrated towards the end of
Thargelion, it would often take place around our end of Maybeginning of June.

THE ASTRONOMICAL MOVEMENT OF THE HYADES AND AURIGA

Table shows a correlation between the timing of the above rites associated with the
young girls (the arrhephoroi, and the daughters of Kekrops and Erechtheus) and the
movement of the Hyades, the star cluster believed to be the catasterism of some of
these mythical young girls. As seen in Table , the Kallynteria, which marked the
commencement of three consecutive rites timed within three weeks of one another
(Kallynteria, Plynteria and Arrhephoria), were timed at the time of, or very close to,
the most astronomically significant period of the Hyades and the constellation of

AITIA, ASTRONOMY AND THE TIMING OF THE ARRHE PHORIA

Table . Calendrical correlation between festivals involving young girls and the movements of the
Hyades and Auriga, visible from the Acropolis south, southeast, east and northeast horizons, in the
years BC.
Gregorian months

Attic months

JulyAugust
AugustSeptember
SeptemberOctober
OctoberNovember

Hekatombaion
Metageitnion
Boedromion
Pyanepsion

November
December
DecemberJanuary
JanuaryFebruary
FebruaryMarch
MarchApril

Maimakterion
Poseideon
Gamelion
Anthesterion
Elaphebolion

AprilMay

Mounychion

MayJune

Thargelion

JuneJuly

Skirophorion

Festivals

Hyades

Auriga

Acronychal rising
( Oct)
Cosmical setting
( Nov)

Acronychal rising
( October)

Panathenaia
Genesia -th
Weaving of
peplos starts

Cosmical setting
( Nov)

Kallynteria
(nd)
Plynteria
(th)
Arrhephoria
(rd?)

Heliacal setting
( April)
Invisibility period
( April)
Invisibility period
( June)
Heliacal rising
( June)

Heliacal setting
( April)

Invisibility period
( May June)
Heliacal rising
( June)

Auriga. Auriga was, for the Greeks, the stellar representation of Erechtheus/Erichthonios
(Eratosthenes, Katasterismoi ; Hyginus, Astronomica .).
The heliacal rising of the star cluster of the Hyades would have taken place between
our and June in the years between and BC (calculated through reconstructions
of the ancient night sky, and using Aldebaran, Tauri, as the focal star in the cluster).
The heliacal rising marks the reappearance of the star cluster in the night sky, seen to
rise in the east, approximately an hour before dawn, after its annual invisibility period,
which started on April. Until the time of the heliacal rising, the star cluster had been
rising (and for much of this time setting) during the day and was therefore invisible at
night. The star cluster became visible again for the first time for a few minutes before
dawn. It would be seen to rise in the east approximately one to two hours before the
glare of the rising sun made it invisible at dawn. From that date on and for the next
few months, the Hyades would rise earlier and earlier every night until the following
April/May, when they climbed above the horizon just after sunset, while it was still too
bright for them to be visible. The rising Auriga is located in the northeast part of the
night sky, in the section of the horizon visible between the Erechtheions north porch
and the entrance to the sanctuary of Athena Polias. Between and BC, Aurigas
heliacal rising occurred between and June and its invisibility period started on
May. In the years when the month would have started earlier, the heliacal rising of the
Hyades ( June) may not have been visible during the Kallynteria, but it would have

EFROSYNI BOUTSIKAS AND ROBERT HANNAH

Fig. . Panoramic view of the horizon if standing near the entrance of the
Parthenon, and the Athena Polias shrine and the Great Altar (photo: E. Boutsikas).

been visible at the very latest by the time of the Arrhephoria in the following month of
Skirophorion.
This phenomenon of the heliacal rising, which is culturally the most significant in the
annual movement of a star or constellation, took place very close to the time of the
celebration of the aforementioned three festivals associated with young maidens on
the Athenian Acropolis. In addition, not only were these festivals nocturnal, but they
also took place in the eastern part of the Acropolis, from where the rising Hyades
would have been seen best.
The Hyades are seen to rise in Greece in the east part of the sky, almost due east (at
azimuth ). This part of the sky is visible from the Athenian Acropolis if one is standing
in front of or near the entrance of the Parthenon, the Great Altar and the Athena Polias
shrine (Fig. ). This eastern horizon visible from the east part of the Acropolis is not
particularly high. Its outline is formed by Mt Hymettos across the east and with Mt
Lykabettos rising sharply at a much closer distance in the east-northeast (Fig. ).
The catasterisms of Erechtheus/Erichthonios and his daughters would become visible
on the eastern horizon of the Acropolis, in front of the Parthenon, the Great Altar and the
Athena Polias cella, at the time when the nocturnal Kallynteria, Plynteria, and
Arrhephoria rites would be coming to completion, at the end of the night around that
part of the Acropolis. The Great Altar in particular was the focus of cult rites
performed on the Acropolis; with the exception of the sacrifices offered to Athena
Hygeia and those to Athena Nike, all sacrifices were offered on the Great Altar
(Herrington , ). The chthonic character of the Kallynteria, Plynteria, and
Arrhephoria and their association with the death of the maidens has been argued here
and elsewhere. This period is marked by the reappearance of the virgin Hyades and
Auriga in the night sky during their heliacal rising.
A similar astronomical association occurs at the time when the weaving of Athenas
peplos would have commenced, in Pyanepsion (OctoberNovember). This is the time
when the acronychal rising (the star cluster is seen to rise at dusk just after sunset)
( October) and the cosmical setting (the star cluster is seen to set just before
dawn) ( November) of the Hyades would have occurred. Between and

Hannah (, , and , ) has argued that the use of a parapegma and/or the
-year Metonic Cycle could have helped to regulate the Athenian lunar festival calendar and so
to keep the festivals within reasonable bounds in the seasonal year.

See note above.

AITIA, ASTRONOMY AND THE TIMING OF THE ARRHE PHORIA

Fig. . Heliacal rising of the Hyades over the Horns of Mt Hymettos, as seen from
the east end of the Parthenon in Athens, BC. Auriga is already risen and sits over
Mt Lykabettos to the northeast (Voyager ., with Athenian horizon incorporated
by R. Hannah).

October the acronychal rising of Auriga would have also been visible (Table ). The
peplos was offered to the goddess nine months later, during the Panathenaia upon the
arrival of the Panathenaic procession to the Acropolis. The Parthenons west frieze
the location from which the Hyades would have been seen to set at the time the
weaving was starting has been interpreted as depicting either the preparations for the
procession, at the end of which the peplos would have been dedicated to Athena
(Nagy , ; Root , , , Stillwell , , ), or the
commemoration of Eumolpos military threat which led to the sacrifice of Erechtheus
daughters (Connelly , ). Whether the weaving of the peplos by the arrhephoroi
was a symbolic re-enactment of the role of the two sisters in weaving the funeral cloth
for the one to be sacrificed (Connelly , ), or whether it was the new robe of the
goddess who catasterised the Hyades, the mythological and ritual association between
the young girls, their death and Athena, is strengthened further at a temporal level by
the timing of this weaving.

THE EASTERN LANDSCAPE

The Kallynteria, Plynteria, and Arrhephoria were nocturnal rites and with the exception
of the Plynteria, which involved at some point a trip from the Acropolis to the sea for the
cleansing of the cult statue all of these rites were performed in the north and
northeastern part of the Acropolis, from where the heliacal rising of the Hyades would
have also been visible. At the bottom of the east slope of the Acropolis rocks, a small

EFROSYNI BOUTSIKAS AND ROBERT HANNAH

cave-sanctuary dedicated to Aglauros has been discovered (Dontas ; Hurwit ,

), probably commemorating her and her sisters deaths (Fig. ). It is possible that the
location of this sanctuary was not accidental, but instead was believed to have marked
the spot where the young girls died after jumping from the east part of the Acropolis.
Interestingly, part of the festival celebrated in honour of Aglauros and her two sisters
in Aglauros sanctuary also had a mystical character and included a night-long
pannychis (Lexeis Rhetorikai, s.v. w [Bekker , .]; Athenagoras,
Legatio .; Dontas , and n. ). Even though the cave of Aglauros is located at
a considerably lower altitude, at the foot of the Acropolis hill, the eastern horizon is
still visible, as the ground in front of the cave slopes sharply (also visible in Fig. ). At
the time of the festival of Aglauros the rising Hyades would therefore have still been
seen over the horizon which the cave faces.
We have then a spatio-temporal association which links the mythological narratives
used as aitia of cults on the Acropolis with the optimal location from which the relevant
astronomical observations could be visible during the rites; a case where time and space
entwine. In addition to the spatial association, the rites were timed on the occasion of the
most astronomically significant phases of the same stellar bodies. This cosmic association
between, on the one hand, the myth of the death of the young maidens, the timing of
religious rites in which these girls were commemorated, and the location where the
rites would have taken place, and, on the other hand, the astronomical observations,
would have come together once a year, at the precise moment in time when the
cosmos would transition from night to day. This transition between night and day is
also depicted on the Parthenons east pediment, where Selene is seen to dive in her

Fig. . Southeast corner of the Athenian Acropolis. The cave of Aglauros dominates
the lower east slope to the right (photo: R. Hannah).

AITIA, ASTRONOMY AND THE TIMING OF THE ARRHE PHORIA

chariot below the base of the pediment and, on the opposite corner, Helios is depicted as
climbing above the horizon.
A further link may be seen in the surviving sculptural decoration of the Parthenon.
The Parthenons east frieze depicts a larger number of maidens than any other
sculptural decoration on the Acropolis. Here, over maidens are depicted, while the
place of prominence in the frieze is occupied by the depiction of three girls and a
woman, who may represent either the daughters of Erechtheus (Connelly , ), or
the arrhephoroi (Hurwit , , ). The narration of the eastern sculptural
decoration of the Parthenon is therefore linked by projecting ones field of view from
the east frieze to the east horizon, where the Hyades would have been visible.
At the end of the Erechtheus, Athena instructs the wife of Erechtheus, Praxithea, to
establish a temenos at the place where her daughters were buried and to build a stone
peribolos around her husbands precinct (sekos) in the middle of the Acropolis
(Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. ., ff). Two locations have been
proposed as containing tombs on the Acropolis: the Erechtheion and its peribolos as
Erechtheus precinct, and the area occupied by the Classical Parthenon as the burial
ground of his daughters. This last idea has been argued on the basis of other tombs
of heroic maidens being located close to the temples of the goddesses with whom they
were associated (Connelly , ), such as Iphigeneias tomb at the sanctuary of
Artemis at Brauron (Euripides, Iphigeneia at Tauris ). Early literary evidence
may support this idea: Euripides tells us that the sacrificed daughter was buried at the
place of her sacrifice and that her sisters were buried in the same tomb (Euripides,
Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .). In support of this argument could also be
taken the Roman inscription (first century BC) referring to the Hyakinthion (Kirchner
, no. .) mentioned above, which was found on the Acropolis. If the
hypothesis of the girls tomb on the Acropolis is accepted, it is possible that the west
room of the Parthenon the remains of which show that both in the Classical
structure and in its predecessor the room was accessible only from the west (Fig. )
rested atop the tomb of the virgins, the parthenoi, just as the tomb of Erechtheus may
have been believed to rest under part of the Erechtheion (Connelly , ). If the
word was initially used as a locality referring to several parthenoi, such as the
maidens quarters or the place of the maidens (Connelly , ), then the west
section of the Parthenon would have been associated with Erechtheus daughters.
Appealing as this interpretation seems, it is not possible to conclude with certainty that
this was the location where the young girls were buried. In any case, however, this part
of the Parthenon can (like the eastern part) be linked with the constellation of the
Hyades: the heliacal setting of the Hyades would have been visible from this location, a
month before the Kallynteria and their cosmical setting at the time when the weaving
of the peplos would have started (Table ).

Cosmic themes of the Parthenons east pediment and the north metopes, in both of which the
events depicted take place at dawn, have been discussed elsewhere (Davidson b, ).

A number of other locations have been considered for the tombs of the girls: on a hill called
Hyakinthos at Sphendonai (?) (Phanodemos [Jacoby ] F ); or at the tomb of the Kyklops
Geraistos (Apollodoros, Library ..); or on the slopes of Aigaleos, the hill which lies between
Athens and Eleusis and which is crossed by the Sacred Way (Davidson b, n. ).

For a more extensive discussion in favour of this idea see Connelly , .

EFROSYNI BOUTSIKAS AND ROBERT HANNAH

Fig. . Plan of the Athenian Acropolis (drawn by L. Bosworth).

The astronomical movement of the Hyades coincides with rites associated with the
arrhephoroi and the parthenoi. The association of the heliacal rising of the Hyades with
the Arrhephoria is also consistent with the identification of the rite as a possible
fertility rite (Herrington , ). The heliacal rising of the Hyades, just like that of
the Pleiades, marked the time of harvesting and their setting the beginning of the
ploughing season (Hesiod, Astronomia fr. MW; Hesiod, Works and Days ;
Hannah , ). Although the worship of the moon and the sun may have been
considered a barbarian practice during the Classical period (Davidson a, ), the
divinity and worship of stars was proclaimed and is testified in the literary sources
(Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ] fr. .; Plato, Timaeus de, b;
Chrysippus, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta , , ). It is also confirmed
in Athenas statement in the Erechtheus that the Hyades should be worshipped as
goddesses (Euripides, Erechtheus [Kannicht ], fr. .).
Observing the heliacal rising of stars and constellations was common practice in
Greece from at least the time of the Iliad (Homer, Iliad . for Sirius). Evidence
for the use of stellar observations for the timing of religious festivals in Greece can be
dated to at least as early as the fourth century BC. Exemplifying such a practice are the
Keans, who anticipated the heliacal rising of Sirius and offered sacrifices to the star
(Apollonius, Argonautica .). Watching the movement of stars during the

But when from heaven Sirius burned the Minoan islands, and for a long time there was no
remedy for the inhabitants, then by the command of the Far-Shooter they summoned a
protector from the plague. And at his fathers command he left Phthia and settled in Keos,
gathering together the Parrhasian people who are of the race of Lykaon, and he made a great
altar to Zeus Ikmaios, and duly offered sacrifices on the mountains to that star Sirius, and to

AITIA, ASTRONOMY AND THE TIMING OF THE ARRHE PHORIA

course of religious rites is explicitly recorded in early, as well as later, sources. Alkman in
his Partheneion (middle of seventh century BC), for example, describes a ritual that was
taking place just before dawn at the time of the heliacal rising of the Pleiades (Alkman,
Partheneion , ; Boutsikas and Ruggles , ) and Euripides seems to
describe Helen watching Hyakinthos, i.e. the constellation of Orion (Euripides, Helen
; Davidson a, ; Davidson b, ). Similarly, Aristophanes times
the beginning of the fifth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the hiera would be
returned to Eleusis, to the sighting of the morning star (the light-bearing star of our
nocturnal rite, Aristophanes, Frogs ). In view of this evidence, it is possible that
when Athena declares the divinity of the young girls after their death and their
placement in the sky, and orders that sacrifices should be made to them, it is assumed
that the sacrifices and festival would take place at the time of the heliacal rising of the
Hyades. In this way, rites and sacrifices would be offered to the stars in
commemoration of their once mortal existence.

CONCLUSION

Although the content and interpretation of the sculptural elements of the Acropolis
structures (especially for the Parthenon) have been widely debated and discussed, the
role of the surrounding landscape, and the timing of festivals in relation to the local
sky and horizons, have been absent from studies of Athenian religion and cult
performance. In this paper we argue that the structures and their architecture, the
cult rites with their timing and foundation myths, were all tightly interwoven in
expressing a religious and cosmological narrative and context. This study would have
benefited immensely from definitive answers on the exact location of the Hyakinthion
in Attica and the month in which the rites to the Hyakinthidai mentioned in the Agora
inscription took place, but even in the absence of such evidence it is possible to
conclude that there was an astronomical relationship between the cults of young girls
on the Acropolis and the movement of the star cluster of the Hyades.
E.Boutsikas@kent.ac.uk

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EFROSYNI BOUTSIKAS AND ROBERT HANNAH

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