The multi-symbolic profile of caves: spiritual landscapes, disaster environments and cultural monuments AMANDA LAOUPI – Dr Archaeologist / Environmentalist / Disaster Specialist https://archaeodisasters.blogspot.gr/ alaoupi@gmail.com
Abstract The circum-Mediterranean area , rich in geodiversity, became the cradle of strong poetic images, symbols of fear, admiration and magic, all related to the mystic world of the caves. Places of death beyond the realm of the livings, nurseries for the gods, shelters for the goddesses, sites for initiation or education, cult sceneries, sites of divine revelation, idyllic environments where the Nymphs lived and played or dwellings of monsters and chthonic creatures, caves’ multi-dimensional symbolic motif travelled as psychic ‘kit’ with Homo Sapiens, all the way into the heart of the Neolithic, and beyond.. Zeus and Hephaistos, Persephone and Hades, Odysseus , Aiolos and Calypso, the pastoral gods Hermes, Pan and the Nymphs , Centaurs and heroes who were born or nurtured within them, shared these chthonic wombs of life and destruction. In addition, humans created allegories by transforming the caves into powerful symbols, the Spartan Kaiadas, the Minoan labyrinth/womb, the Platonic cave and the archaeoastronomical archetype of the two portals, being among them. Furthermore, karst formations, apart from their ecological and environmental value, have played a prominent role in the study of man’s adventure on Earth. From Palaeolithic Times onward, humans used, worldwide, these geological formations for a variety of reasons. Throughout the whole human history, caves and rock shelters have provided Archaeologists, Anthropologists and other scientists of multidisciplinary origin with a plethora of artefacts / mentifacts of our ancestors (e.g. the famous rock art, the Palaeolithic tool industries,
the first fire hearths, burials), along with palaeoanthropological remains of tremendous scientific value, creating thus, unique archaeoenvironments which require autonomous investigating methodologies. Modern interdisciplinary research has already detected the scientific pathways between cave environments and Disaster Archaeology, as well as the need for the adoption of a more flexible methodological framework which incorporates the caves into the cultural landscapes of modern societies. Keywords sacred landscapes, cultural heritage, cave mythology, Disaster Archaeology, Astromythology 1. Introduction: the caves as cultural monuments Rock shelters and caves, apart from their ecological and environmental value, have played a prominent role in the study of man’s adventure on Earth. From Palaeolithic Times onward, humans used, worldwide, these geological formations for a variety of reasons, as residence, animal pen / shelter, work / production place, water source, storage place, mine / quarry, dump, burial place, sacred place, ceremonial place, tourist site, place of execution / disposal of bodies, refuge for danger, . refuge for outlaw / resistance fighters, refuge for cast out / victims of epidemics and as scientific destination. Nowadays, cave formations are acknowledged as vivid parts of the worldwide heritage. As cultural heritage can be assigned any kind of
evidence related to human action, any ‘product’ of human creativeness and expression, widely accepted for its scientific, historic, artistic and anthropological value. On the other hand, natural landscapes are also included in the lists of patrimony objects that must be protected. Apart from the Greek constitutional framework, international meetings can provide all the terms needed for further analysis , e.g. UNESCO General Conference 17 October - 21 November 1972, Paris (Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage) ; NATURA 2000 network, Directive 92/43/EEC; Rio Convention 1992 e.t.c. The definition of a natural heritage site is slightly less tangible than the definition of cultural sites, as it ranges from the outstanding representation of major stages in Earth’s history to the significant examples of on-going ecological or biological evolution of ecosystems, from superlative natural phenomena of exceptional beauty to significant natural habitats. All the same, the natural landscapes as forms of the cultural heritage, are a fragile and usually non-renewable and irreplaceable resource. The aim of safeguarding such sites is to maintain their longevity, their authenticity and the environmental surroundings in which they belong. Furthermore, the concept of Biodiversity and its protection, terms firstly used during the famous Rio Conference, is included in the natural heritage and is built on a four - level schema (a. genetic diversity, b. species biodiversity, c. habitat diversity, and d. landscape diversity). Consequently, caves contribute significantly both to the concept of cultural heritage and of geodiversity , meaning the range or diversity of geologic (bedrock), geomorphic (landform) and soil features, assemblages, systems and processes within specific geographical areas. A rich differentiation of cave types allow scientists to estimate, register, analyze and exploit a wide range of these formations accordingly to various geological, geomorphological and other criteria. Either active / live / wet or dead / dry, of aeolian, wave, fault, ice, lava, sandstone or
limestone origin, show or unexplored / wild, horizontal or vertical, fissure, pothole, rockshelter, doline, polje or maze, caves enrich the landscape and form bio-spaces and ecosystems that create unique environments. Most karst cave passages are less than one million years old, though Relict Caves could be hundreds of millions of years old. 1 In Greece the formation of caves took place in the Tertiary and Pleistocene periods. They formed in solid Upper Cretaceous, Eocene, Jurassic and Triassic limestone, in more recent argillaceous limestone and in recent conglomerate beds. Because limestone is a very easily eroded rock, it is also the rock in which caves are most frequently found. 65% of Greek terrain is limestone. This preeminently karst landscape has a vast number of caves, both large, small, vertical, horizontal and littoral; it has also the highest number of caves found in any one country. Show caves of Greece (a cave that has been made accessible to the public for guided visits), such as Petralona (Chalkidiki), Diros (Mani) and Koutouki (Attica), are internationally accepted among the most important in their kind. 2 Equally important is the scientific role of the caves, which function as ‘archives’ of past environmental changes, providing Disaster Archaeology with valuable data / information in order to detect hazardous phenomena, climatic oscillations and other natural perturbations that took place thousand, even millions of years ago. This fact is noteworthy, but beyond the scope of this paper. 2. Caves as Spiritual Landscapes 2.1 The labyrinth as cave /cosmic womb Caves being ambiguous spaces, offer both protection and shelter, but can also trap and imprison. Because of their location within the Earth, which many cultures have identified as female, the caves have been identified as the 1
Australian Speleological Federation Inc. 1998, The Glossary of Speleological and Caving Terms. 2 Petrocheilou 1994.
womb of Mother Earth, being associated with regeneration and birth. Although sacredness may have been invested in many other natural forms and objects, during the Prehistoric Times, the earliest known sacred places where shamanic initiations took place, are naturallyformed caves. The cave as a spiritual landscape, acts like an ‘ interiority’. Its direction is inward, but it is also down and the cave journey involves ‘getting down’. The heart, womb, and cauldron are all inward, earthy spaces. As such, they involve a directness toward core and away from periphery, toward depth and away from surface, toward concentration and away from dispersion. 3 Moreover, labyrinths appear in various countries throughout the world as a strong symbolic archetype. This mystical symbol is at once the universe, the individual life, the temple, the town, human existence, the cave / womb or intestines of the Mother Earth as its counter-image, the convolutions of the brain, the consciousness, the heart, the pilgrimage, the journey and the way. In its duality, it is cosmos to those who know the way, and chaos to those who lose it. It is Ariadne's thread, whose windings create the world and yet enable us to unravel it or ravel it... This symbolic ‘conjunctio oppositorum’ is the place where opposites such as life/death, light/dark, male/female, are transformed and melt into each other, in the dance of the spiral. 4 The Cretan labyrinth had been a dancing ground made for Ariadne rather than for Minos (Hom. Il. 18.590 - 593). ‘Homer compares the dance worked by Hephaistos on the shield of Achilleus to a dance made by Daidalos, because he had never seen more clever workmanship’ (Paus. Guide of Greece 8.16.3). The paths in the maze are dances that are performed by the participants in the ceremony. These dances prove that though many paths are taken, and some are a dead-end, life continues through. This is the key of the
Dionysian rituals, Dionysos being her immortal husband. 5 In the original story, Ariadne was a Goddess, who provided guidance through the mysterious temple maze of ancient Crete, where she presided as priestess. Her famous spiral-like thread helped seekers to find their way safely in and out. The real hero is one who can keep hold of the labyrinth's thread, not fearing it, but following it to find self-actualization, spiritual rebirth and love. Another version of the story of Ariadne makes her a Goddess and lover, but also a destroyer. The labyrinth is her womanly cycle, the cave her womb and Minotaur her heart. Therefore, the traveller of the labyrinth learned lessons of ecstasy, transformation and immortality.6
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Levy 1963; Eliade 1964 & 1972; Sjoo & Mor 1987. Matthews 1985; Freitas 1987, 413; Gimbutas, 1989; Savard 2003.
2.2. The archaeoastronomical / astromythological archetype of the two portals The strongest and deepest symbolism of Sirius’ cult among the circum-Mediterranean civilizations is its connection to the idea of ‘beginning’. Ancient Egyptians greatly celebrated their New Year’s Day (Peret Septed), which coincided with the reappearance of Sothis (heliacal rising) after a 70 days of invisibility (the solemn ceremonies of mummification lasted for 70 days also) and the beneficent annual flooding of river Nile. This recurring pattern actually functions as the basis of Egyptian chronology ( ascensions of pharaohs) and is the only method that allows modern scientists to date ancient events down to the year. Moreover, the decans (time division of the‘ twelve’ hours from sunset to dawn using the rising of the brightest stars) of Sirius And the stars of Orion Belt are the only decans Egyptiologists have safely identified. 7 Consequently, the beginning of the year in Egypt, as it was later in Classical Athens as a remnant of Pelasgian origin, is not Aquarius as among the Romans, but Cancer, for the star Kerenyi 1996. Farrar 1987; Mountainwater 1991. 7 Laoupi 2006c.
Sothis (Sirius) borders on Cancer. When this star was rising, they used to celebrate the calends of the month and the beginning of their year. So, this is the place of the heavens where generation commences. On the other hand, the doors of the Homeric cavern (Porphyry, On the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs 2 - 3, 21 - 24 & 28) are not dedicated to the East and West, nor to the equinoctial signs ( Aries and Libra), but to the North and South, to those ports or celestial signs which are the nearest of all to these quarters of the world (the two platonic ‘gates’ : Cancer / Moon = the gate through which souls descend and Capricorn / Saturn = the gate through which souls ascend ). Consequently, the sacred cave described by Homer, is sacred to Nymphs (immortal souls of beings), having the two gates of the Sun (2. 8. 393 - 5). 8
From another point of view, the Platonic cave in which the prisoners sit, is our bodies. Our bodies stop us from seeing true reality as they concentrate us on matter. True knowledge which would shine on everything would come from the sun in this analogy, but our caves stop it from reaching us. Plato believes that the soul is trapped in the body, and if we can travel with our soul to the exit of the cave, we can see true reality. So, he denies the values of Homeric oral poetry and of Greek tragedy, where the full, kaleidoscopic range of experience was celebrated in voice and music, body and mind. Modern scholars (e.g. Jung) believe that human beings should integrate light and dark, conscious and unconscious, known and unknown into some kind of positive relationship. 9 Furthermore, a famous night-adventure in Homer, which symbolizes the return to life / 2.3. The Platonic allegory: the myth of return to light is found in Iliad (10.547). In this episode, life/ light Diomedes and Odysseus volunteer to venture A cave is like a womb - or an ancient memory of into the Trojan camp by night to spy on their the womb - before the violent trauma of birth. enemies and learn their plans. They do not do Indeed, Plato presents Socrates as a midwife of this, however, but instead slay the Thracian ideas (Rep. 7. 514a-520a.; Theaet. 148e-151e). king Rhesus in his sleep and drive off his But woman's organ of life represents growth, horses. Interesting enough, Rhesus, according protection, preparation, and a kind of to tradition, was a cave daimon in his native immortality through regeneration. The baby is Thrace (Cf. Eur. Rhes. 962 & Hipp. 871 - 873). umbilically connected with the womb wall, When the two Achaean heroes drive off his touching it and kicking it upside-down, bathorses (like sheep Odysseus free from the cave like, waiting for the time when it is ready to of Cyclops), Nestor, in greeting them, says that leave this closure and breathe the fresh air. The their new white horses are terribly like the rays fire at the mouth of the cave would protect its of the sun.. vulnerable inhabitants from outside attack. Finally, Calypso, daughter of Atlas, was a Consequently, the cave - the womb - is a source beautiful nymph lived on the island of Ogygia, of life as the sun is. On the contrary, Plato within a cave, where Odysseus stayed for seven seeing the darkness of the cave as all bad, the years (Hom. Od. 12.403 - 453). The goddess light as all good, forgets a strong natural promised Odysseus immortality and eternal /psychological / spiritual and social / political youth if he continued to be her mate. The motif reality. A child can leave the womb too soon, a of god Hermes whose mission is to free bat can leave the cave before winter's end or the Odysseus from Calypso, in the same episode, caveman could venture too far outside the cave reminds of Hermes’ role in the journey to the at the wrong time. underworld and a consequent return to life (Cf. the episode of ransom of Hector, Il. 24. 343 & 8
Larson 2001, 231-2: Ithaca and Polis cave.
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Jung 1961 ; Nietzsche 1990.
694). He can both put mortals to sleep and reawaken them, so, he can offer a journey into darkness and death, and a return to life and light. 10
as Hephaistos, Hermes, Athena, Apollo, Pan, Hercules and Achilleus (Paus. 10.423.30). Today, Chiron is widely considered as the first example of a similar case. When the centaur was grown up, he established the aforesaid process, 2.4. Caves as Places of Initiation, Education according to which a therapist treated a group of and Healing handicapped children away from the city-states. Centaurs were the initial inhabitants of The appearance of the first educator celebrated mountainous Greek inland, especially of the area in western civilization has been preserved since of Thessaly, where horse breeding was classical antiquity in the most durable of media: exercised since the Early Antiquity. They were in glazed ceramics and in an astronomic firstly mentioned by Homer (Il. 1.262; 2.743. constellation. On a clear night his figure can be Od. 21.295). Chiron, the son of Kronos and seen in that tracery of stars called Sagittarius, half-brother of Zeus, was the most famous the archer. Ceramic vessels of the 7th and 6th among them, even though he was not part of the centuries BC bear representations of Chiron as a Centaur tribe, for he was semi-divine. Chiron's centaur. 12 original home was his cave / sanctuary on The Pelion region was known as the 'healing Mount Pelion. Many heroes came to Chiron's mountains' because the slopes were prolific cave, to be fostered, trained, initiated and with both medicinal and magical plants. prepared for the heroic trials and labours that lay 'Healing waters' flow in the crystal clear before them. Their master teacher was Chiron, a mountain streams. Homoeopathic, herbal, flower hybrid and healer; gentle, wise and just. He essence and even poisonous remedies were incarnated the archetype of the wise master, as distilled from the carpet of herbs that cover he was the great teacher of Hercules, Jason, the Pelion: meadow saffron (Colchicum, named for Dioscouri, Achilles, even Asclepios himself (Il. Medea's homeland of Colchis), hemlock, 11.332. Hes. Theog. 1005. Theocr. Id. 6.150. henbane, nightshade, mandrake, St. John's wort, Apoll. Bibl. 3.10.3). But the chthonic healing mullein, yarrow. Today they are just as profuse legacy of Chiron was being forgotten by the as in Antiquity, still gathered in the fields, and 11 Geometric Period onwards. sold in markets and villages throughout Pelion. The mythical figure of Chiron was also Modern scholars detect a shamanistic influence connected to another aspect of on Greek thought, interpreting the ancient palaeopathological and social reality. When poems as " been modelled on the psychic children with congenital disorders (for example, excursions of northern shamans". 13 spina bifida, meningocele, myelomeningocele and other malformations of the spinal cord, 2.5. Caves as Places of Eros, Birth & Creation hydrocephaly) were born, their mothers • The Homeric epics often refer to caves with followed a specific 40-days ritual and then they the words : antron , meaning the interior, and abandoned them into caves, where the poor b) speos (? σπαFοs) meaning the exterior of the creatures were supposed to be protected and cave (e.g. Il. 4.279; 18.65 & Od. 9.216, 298, raised by the Nymphs and gods or heroes such 312; 12.210; 13.363, 366 - 367; 24.6). The god Hephaestos was thrown from Olympos 10 (heaven) by Hera or by Zeus himself, and he Frame 1978; Zusanek 1996. 11 was rescued by the Nereids Thetis and LIMC, "Chiron" ; RE "Chiron," col. 3, 2303-7; 3. W. H. Roscher, Ausfährliches Lexicon der griechischen und Eurynome (Hom. Il. 18.136. Quintus römischen Mythologie, "Cheiron," vol. 1, c. 888-892; Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines (Graz, 1963), vol. I, 2, 1105a-1106a, entry for "Chiron".
12 13
Colvin 1880, 107-167. Dodds 1951, 141.
Smyrnaeus Fall of Troy, 2.549). The majority of ancient writers claim that Hephaestos landed in the sea near Lemnos, and was washed up on the shore, where he lay broken until rescued by the Nereids (Hom. Hymn 3 to Pyth. Apol. 310. Paus. 8.41.5). Secretly Hephaestus lived with these goddesses in their underwater caves for nine years. He lived in their "mykhos", a Greek word meaning both innermost place and the women's apartments of a house There, in the caves of the deep sea, the god began to craft beautiful jewelry from the underwater coral reefs and metals found underwater, although he was partially paralyzed. Helped by the Cyclops, he continued to develop his skills with decorative iron and other metals, creating beautiful gifts for his surrogate mothers (Il. 18. 423- 432). • Amaltheia was the nurse of the infant Zeus after his birth with the milk of a goat. The god after being left within a Cretan cave by his mother Rhea, he was nurtured by local nymphs. The two most famous Minoan caves were those reputed in classical traditions to be the birthplace of Zeus. One is on Mount Ida and the other on Mount Dicte. 14 The ancients themselves appear to have been as uncertain about the etymology of the name as about the real nature of Amaltheia. Hesychius derives it from the verb amaltheuein, to nourish or to enrich (Hes. s.v. amaltheuein; Schol. Kall. Hymn to Zeus 49) ; others from amalthaktos, i.e. firm or hard; and others again from amalê and theia, according to which it would signify the divine goat, or the tender goddess. The common derivation is from amelgein, to milk or suck. According to some traditions Amaltheia is the goat who suckled the infant Zeus (Arat. Phaen. 163), and who was afterwards rewarded for this service by being placed among the stars (Apoll. 1. 1. 6). According to another set of traditions Amaltheia was a nymph (Schol. ad Hom. 2.21. 14
For Zeus and a general overview of the Greek religion and later traditions, cults and rituals see: Cook 1940; Guthrie 1950; Kluckhohn 1961; Nilsson 1964; Burkert 1985; Armstrong 1986; Lévèque & Séchan 1990; Hägg 1992; Robertson 1992; Dillon 1997.
194; Eratosth. Catast. 13. Apoll. 2. 7. 5, 2.148. Hyg. Astr. 2.13 & 16; Hyg. Fab. 139. Lactant. Instit. 2. 22), called Adamanteia and she was related to the famous story about the origin of the celebrated horn of Amaltheia, commonly called the horn of plenty or cornucopia, which plays such a prominent part in the stories of Greece, and which was used in later times as the symbol of plenty in general (Diod. Libr. 3.68, 4. 35). The horn of plenty was frequently given as an attribute to the representations of Tyche or Fortuna (Paus. 4.30.4, 7. 26. 3). Amaltheia was placed amongst the stars as Capra (Ovid, Fast. 5. 115), the star Capella on the arm of the Constellation Auriga (the Charioteer). The goat on the arm, no doubt represents the stormy aigis-shield of Zeus, which in Classical art was sometimes shown slung across his arm. The rising of Capella marked the onset of stormy weather for the Greeks. This large and bright constellation, known also as the Goat, has received honours among the Phliasians, because on its rising causes continual damage to the vines ( Arat. Phaen. 162. Paus. 2.13.6. Ant. Lib. Met. 36. Hyg. Astr. 2.13. Ov. Fast. 5.111. Nonn. Dion. 23.28. Suidas s.v. "Aiges"). • In addition, the gods Hermes and Pan were primely Arcadian deities (Hom.and Orph. Hymns to Hermes & Pan). Maia was the eldest of Pleiades and said to be the most beautiful. Being shy, she lived quietly and alone in a cave on Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia. Zeus, however, discovered the beautiful young woman, and fell in love with her. He came to her cave at night, to make love to her away from the jealous eyes of his wife, Hera. As a result, Maia bore Zeus a son, Hermes. When still an infant, Hermes stole some cattle from the god Apollo, and hid them in his mother's cave. Some time later, Maia helped Zeus when Hera had caused the death of one of his other mistresses, Callisto, who had borne him a son, named Arcas. Zeus ordered Hermes to give Arcas to Maia to raise as her own, which she did. Arcas and Callisto were eventually placed in the sky, becoming the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (Big
and Little Bear) to escape the wrath of the everjealous Hera. Pan, son of Hermes or Zeus and the Arcadian Nymph Callisto, was born on the mountain Lycaion at Arcadia and raised by the local nymphs (Arist. Eccl. 1001. Paus .8.30). His worship was conducted into the caves. 15 On the other side, in Greek imagination, nymphs were inseparable from the landscape, being closely associated with certain topographical features. The rocky karst landscape of Greece is riddled with caves, which formed a specific landscape feature, so nymphs were worshipped as cave deities. 16 The nymphs (Hom. Il. 6.120; 20.8 & Od. 7.105, 123; 9.154; 10.350; 12.318; 13.107; 17.240. Hom. Hymn to Aphr. 259) were virginal deities of benevolent character, representing the forces of nature. They did not lived in the sky but on the Earth (in the woods, the springs, the caves, the lakes, rivers and coasts, in the sea, in the mountains , the valleys and the plains), free and autonomous, and they used to help people in many ways. Whether as agents of divine intervention, religious and mythopoetic figures, symbols of irresistible eroticism with a sensual and sexual aura, or paranormal creatures of the landscape, nymphs caught and held the ancient imagination and left behind a colorful yet pervasive record . The works of Homer, Hesiod, and Ovid include familiar figures such as Echo, Thetis and Daphne. The use of dolls representing nymphs in the socialization of girls during Antiquity, the phenomenon of nympholepsy, nymphs' relations with other deities in the Greek pantheon, and nymphs' role in mythic narratives of city-founding and colonization indicate their crucial role within the socio-cultural structures of past societies. Korykion Andron or Corycian Cave were Pan’s and Nymphs’ two beloved places both on mount ains, Parnitha and Parnassos. The cave on mountain Parnassos was excavated by
French archaeologists in 1969. Their 30 day investigation produced a tremendous number and range of objects from all periods of Antiquity, from Neolithic Times onward. 17 Its powerful symbolism goes back to the times of Deucalion Flood, when local people found refuge within this cave.Later on, during 5th century BC, local people took refuge in the cave from the Persians (Her. 8.36), and in more recent times from the Germans in 1943. The name Korycian is from the nymph Korycia. In poetry the Muses are sometimes called Corycides or the Korycian Nymphs (Strab. Geogr. 8.3.1; 9.3.1. Paus. 10.6.1, 10.32.7. Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 2. 710. Ov. Met. 1. 318 -320; Heroid. 20. 221). It is said that during the winter months the governing gods at Delphi celebrated Orgiastic rite at the cave with the local women acting as nymphs. From this cave that Menader got the idea as a setting for one of his plays. But its strongest interrelation with the spiritual landscape of Delphi refers to the Sibyl of Delphi (Pythia), who deliver her divine oracles sitting within it, perhaps before her removal to the neighbouring Oracle of Delphi (Hom. Hymn. to Herm. 550 - 556). 18 3. Disaster Archaeology and Cave Environments: Cave - figures in Disaster Mythology • Homer first, and then other writers of Antiquity often mention the realm of Hades (Pluton), the kingdom of the deads (Il. 8.43, 369 & Od. 5.185; 10.508, 513; 11.14, 539, 564, 573, 627; 24.13. Hes. Theog. 311, 361, 383, 775. Verg. Aen. 6.543, 548). Ancients believe that there were many entries to the Underworld via deep dark chasms and caves, for example at Tainaro - Laconia, at Kolonos - Athens and at Cumae - Italy. The underworld realms of Hades call to mind firstly that there are more than 24.000 linear kilometers of caves underlying the greater part of Europe, and also that during the various
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LIMC; RE; Farnell 1907; Bremmer, J. 1986; Wickens 1986; Deligiorgi - Alexopoulou 1985, 45-54; Cole 2004. 16 Larson 2001, 8.
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Amandry 1972, 1981 & 1984. Shaw 1992, 8 & 176; Larson 2001, 234.
glacial periods these caves were the home of man as well as a variety other animals. Modern scholars interpret the world of Hades as being drawn graphically from the world of the caves, because ghosts live there, the spirits of the dead, too. For example, when Homer calls the "powerless heads of the dead" which flit by Odysseus in his underworld venture, may have been referred to the flight of sonar-guided bats. The "hateful" Styx (< Gr. 'styg-' = hate ), may symbolize the dead, unoxygenated waters which flow beneath the Earth. Cerberus of the three mouths is probably nothing more than the triple echo of the sounds of cave-dwellers calling out to each other in the infernal darkness. Lacking physical understanding of sound waves, reflection and echoes, ancient men would naturally infer a real agent, so that a muted, echoing roar would be taken as the sound of the Dog of Hell. Finally, the less known river, Pyriplegithron "the burning, fiery one", may show knowledge of underground coal-gas or methane conflagrations, spontaneously combusted. 19 • In one of the most famous passages of Homer's Odyssey (9.162; See also Apoll. 5. 7.7), the hero Odysseus encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and Thoosa, who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country. Another member of this group of Cyclopes was Telemus, a seer. This tale from the Odyssey is more humorously told in the only surviving satyr play, entitled Cyclops by Euripides. In the encounter of Odysseus with Polyphemus, the identity of Cyclops with volcanoes becomes clear. Odyssey puts out the one eye of the monster, which is patterned on the red rim of an active volcano, with a burning brand. When Odysseus is on ship again he taunts the monster, who roars and hurls huge stones at him, clear evidence of his volcanic origin. Homer placed the cave of Polyphemus, who captured Odysseus and his comrades, on Etna's slopes. Etna ( < Greek ‘aitho’, meaning’ I burn’),
towers above Catania, on the eastern coast of Sicily. 20 • Odysseus had been warned by both Teiresias and Circe of the two monsters Scylla and Charybdis. In Greek mythology, Scylla was a sea monster who lived underneath a dangerous rock at one side of the Strait of Messina, opposite the whirlpool Charybdis. Terrible and horrible freak of the sea, she devoured the unfortunate seamen, when the heavy sea threw their ship into her cave. The myth of Scylla and Charybdis, is first known by Homer in his epic poem Odyssey (7.55 - 126, 201 - 259, 426, 446; 12.73, 235. Ov. Met. 3.732. See also Apoll. 5. 7.20 and Justin’s Epitome of the History of Pompeius Trogus, ch. 4). Scylla was initially a nymph. Homer mentions Crataeis as the mother of Scylla, but says nothing as to her father. According to Stesichorus, the mother of Scylla was Lamia (Schol. on Hom. Od. 12.124; Eust. on Hom. Od. 12.85) Apollonius Rhodius represents Scylla as a daughter of Phorcys by the night-wandering hag Hecate (Arg. 4.828).Hyginus calls her a daughter of Typhon and Echidna (Fab. 125, 151, and praefat. 31, ed. Bunte). Some said that the father of Scylla was Triton (Eustathius on Hom. Od.12.85, 1714). The crossing of all the Straits in the imaginary of the ancients, has always constituted a initiatory test for the hero, called to challenge the adverse strengths of the nature and open new horizons of knowledge. The navigation of the Straits of Messina has represented a situation of serious danger for the sailors, with their objective difficulties for the rapid and irregular tides, for the winds that exhale there violent and sometimes in conflict among them, for the oceanic depths of some lines of sea and for the richness of the varieties of the fish fauna that includes. The economic and political parameter has also been always present. The Straits of Messina are in crucial geographical position in the Mediterranean, constituting the strategic epicentre of an extraordinary net of exchanges
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www.middlebury.edu/~harris
Mondi 1983, 17 - 18; Hansen 2002; Laoupi 2006a.
and markets, a forced stop in the great voyages of Prehistory. In the Latin literature, the Homeric description of the ‘keepers’ of the Straits resounds in diviner Helenus's words that he exposes to Aeneas, the dangers of the shores of Sicily and the best itinerary illustrates him for a sure navigation (Virg. Aen. 3.420). The virgilian description accurately clarifies the geographical position of the two monsters. 21 • Echidna , called the ‘Mother of All Monsters’, was described by Hesiod (Theog. 295 - 305) both as an immortal and ageless nymph, and as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered with her mate Typhoeus or Typhon every major monster in the Greek mythology. Homer calls the site of her cave, Arima,"the couch of Typhoeus (Il. 2.783). When she and her mate attacked the Olympians, Zeus beat them back and punished Typhon by sealing him under Mount Etna. However, Zeus allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes. According to Herodotos (3.108), Hercules had three children by her. • The motif of the hunting lion shows three main versions in ancient Greece: I. Kea (mythological cycle of Aristaios and Sitius’ cult), II. Hymettos - Attica (Lion Cave) and III. Nemea - E. Peloponnesos (first labour of Heracles). "This we heard from old Xenomedes, who once enshrined all the island [the island of Keos] in a mythological history beginning with the tale of how it was inhabited by the Nymphai Korykiai whom a great lion drave from Parnassos: wherefore also they called it Hydrussa. Keos, son of Phoibos [Apollon] and Melia, caused it [the island of Hydrussa, now Keos] to take another name" ( Kall., Aitia Frag. 3.1 - from Oxyrhynchus Papyri 7). 22 Since former times, people of Attica knew about the existence of a cave near the area of Spata, on
the N.E. slopes of mountain Hymettos, the name of which was ‘ Lion Cave’. 23 Apart from the intense use of its space by shepherds and the later cult of god Pan and the Nymphs (cave sanctuary), the local traditions date back to prehistoric times. According to these traditions, a fierce lion having its den in the cave, used to terrorize the local population of the Mesogaia plain. The Nemean Lion (Latin: Leonem Nemeum) was a vicious monster in Greek mythology that lived in Nemea. Here, the lion’s story is strongly related to Hercules as a mythical heroic archetype (Hom. Hymn to Herc., 15). Heracles,a deity of Light, was considered as a solar spirit, an humanized incarnation of the Sun, an annual daemon of fertility and personification of the annual solar / lunar cycle. On the other hand, the fact that a ‘lion’ (that brings climatic disturbances, universal upheaval and disaster in human societies) is defeated by a ‘solar’ hero (e.g. Hercules, Aristaios) reminds us of the motif of a fierce ‘extra-terrestrial ’ power (incarnated by Phaethon) which was defeated by the Sun itself. This interpretative scenario is reinforced both by the disasters of Bronze Age caused by cometary / impact phenomena , and the ancient Greek tradition that speaks of the Nemean Lion. 24
According to this, the beast was the child of Typhoon and Echidna or of Zeus and Selene (moon) and was fallen from the sky onto Nemea’s ground (Hes. Theog. 327 - 332. Plut. Thes. 26 - 27. Apoll. 2.5.1. Hyg. Fab. 30 et al.). • Caves and chasms acted also as places of divine revelation. The most famous ancient Greek oracle, the sacred site of Apollo at Delphi, was initially located over the chasm where the god killed the monster Python (Hom. Hymn to Apol. 185; Aesch. Eum. 3; Diod. 17.26; Paus. 1.5). Especially Strabon (9.3.5) describes the vertical cave with a narrow entrance, from
21
Laoupi 2006a; http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/scylla.html 22 Laoupi 2006c.
23 24
Karali, Mavrides and Kormazopoulou 2005. Laoupi 2006c.
which poisonous air came out. There was the tripod of Pythia. Moreover, ancient Greeks have employed various techniques for provoking the eagerly desired ‘divine dream’. For example, fasting was required at certain dream oracles, such as Charon Cave in Asia Minor. The legends of Epimenides, who had slept for 57 years in the cave of the Cretan mystery-god (Plut. Sol. 2. Diog. L. 1.115), and Pythagoras speak of withdrawal to a sacred cave in quest of visionary wisdom. 25 On the other hand, Trophonios, grand -son of the king of Orchomenos at Boeotia, was told to be the builder of the first temple of Apollo at Delphi, the Thesaurus of Augeias at Elis and of king Hyrieus at Orchomenos. Due to an unfortunate coincidence with his brother, he disappeared into a chasm near Levadeia. There, into a subterranean cave, a solemn oracle / incubatio was built (Her. Hist. 1.46; Eur. Ion 300; Arist. Cl. 502; Diod. 14; Paus. 9.21, 37, 40; ), from which the pilgrims run out stupefied and sullen for the rest of their lives. Similarly, the great seer Amphiaraos, son of Apollo and descendant of the famous Melampous, was disappeared near the riverbanks of Ismenos at Thebes, into a chasm along with his chariot drawn by four horses. After this event, the area was deserted, as the animals did not pasture there and the birds did not sit at the pillars of the temple raised in honour of the hero (Her. 8.134; Paus. 9.8.2; Ov. 15.244; Phil. Vit Apoll. Rhod. 2.37). • The Sibyllae (< Gr. sibylla, meaning prophetess) of the ancient world were women with the special charisma of prophecy, the first being the mythical Kassandra of Troy. They dwelled in caves, for example at Erythrai -Ionic polis on the coasts of Asia Minor , at Marpessos - near Troy- and Klaros - near Kolophon-, at Rhodes island. Other Sibyls existed in Phrygia, Thessaly, Libya, and elsewhere (Paus. 10.12.1 11. Suidas s.v. ‘sibylla’). There were known to be nine famous sibyls in the ancient world. To
these nine the Romans added their Albunea, calling Her the Tiburtine Sibyl after the town where Her worship was centered. She was said to have written certain books of prophecies, which were stored in Rome with the more famous Sibylline Books, which had been sold to the legendary King Tarquin by the Cumaean Sibyl, and which were consulted by the Senate in times of trouble. Albunea's statue was said to have been found in the bed of the Anio, and showed Her as a Nymph holding a book. But the most famous of them was the mythical Cumaean Sibyl, otherwise known as Amaltheia, who was consulted by Aeneias when he was fleeing Troy (according to Virgil) to give him instructions to descend to the Underworld. The entry to the underworld (Hades) was at the nearby volcanic crater of Avernus. The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. Vergilius called her residence ‘Euboean Rock’. Her importance in the legends of early Rome, she became one of the most noted and famous, often simply referred to as The Sibyl. She was said to inhabit a cave with one hundred mouths. The Cave of the Sibyl was rediscovered in May 1932 by the renowned Neapolitan archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri (1886 - 1963). 26 • Cybele (Her. 4.76 - 77; 5.102.1. Paus. 2.4; 8.37. Diod. 5.49. Strab. 3.10.18. Liv. Hist. 29. 10, 11, 14. Arnobius Adversus Gentes 5.5-7; 13-17), originally a Phrygian goddess, insofar as the Hellenes were concerned, was a deification of the Earth Mother who was worshiped in Anatolia from Neolithic times. Like Gaia or her Minoan equivalent Rhea, Cybele personified the Earth in its savage state and worshipped in caves and on mountaintops, as a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals (especially lions and bees). She becomes a life-death-rebirth deity in connection with her consort, her son Attis. The cult of Cybele was directed by eunuch priests called Korybantes, who led the faithful in
25
26
Dodds 1951, 110, 142 & 160.
Dodds 1951; Parke 1967; Park 1994; Laoupi 2006a & b.
orgiastic rites accompanied by wild cries and the frenzied music of flutes, drums, and cymbals. Her annual spring festival celebrated the death and resurrection of her beloved Attis. Ancient Greeks called her simply Meter oreia (Mountain-Mother), or Idaea, inasmuch as she was supposed to have been born on Mount Ida in Asia Minor, or equally Dindymene or Sipylene, due to her sacred mountains Mount Dindymos (in Mysia) or Mount Sipylos . 27 . • In addition, the descent and return of Kore/Persephone was commemorated in ritual at Locri Epizephyrii, where her shrine enjoyed singular prominence in Antiquity, but had a focus that was markedly different from the narrative of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. In Magna Graecia and in Sicily the significance of the disappearance of Kore was incarnating theogamy, a sacred marriage. The famous terracotta plaques (pinakes), dated from the second half of the 5th century BC, that were unearthed by Paolo Orsi in the early 20th century from Persephone's shrine on the Mannella hill at Locri, honour Kore as bride and as Queen of the Dead. During 4rth century BC ritual activity combines nuptial with other Underworld elements elsewhere in Locri, for example in a Cave of the Nymphs. The cave, known as the Grotta Caruso, has been published in a recent monograph . The cave opening was described by Paolo Arias, who excavated it in 1940. 28 Nymphê is the Greek word for ‘bride’, or more accurately, for ‘nubile young woman’ since words like nymphê or parthenos reflect a social, not a technical, legal, or physical reality. The Greek mythical nymphs, like their male companions (silens), were sexual creatures. Nymphai, mortal and mythical, were sexual beings by definition, as Jennifer Larson has pointed out . 29 27
Vermaseren 1977; Lane 1996; Roller 1999. Sourvinou-Inwood 1978; Barra Bagnasco 1990; Costabile & Mannelli (Catanzaro) 1992; Lattanzi et al. 1996; Lardinois & McClure 2001; Larson 2001, 251 - 8; Dillon 2002; Redfield 2003. 29 . Larson 2001, 3.
Nympholepts like Narcissos or Sicilian shepherds were victims of these female erotic predators, deinai theai (Theocr. Id. 13.43). James Redfield has drawn attention to the consequences of the fact that in Locri women were foregrounded in ways we have not as yet encountered on the Greek mainland. 30 The eroticism of Greek nymphs was also combined with two other important features, the chthonic and the playful. 31 In Greek myth and iconography nymphs also formed part of the Dionysiac thiasos, being indistinguishable from maenads in many instances . And we must not forget Heracleitos’ verse, "Hades and Dionysos are one" (fr. 15 DK). Like the Persephonenymph depicted on the pinakes, the nymphs in the cave possessed chthonic features. On the other hand, caves were not infrequently represented as entrances to the Underworld. The cave in which Odysseus takes refuge (Od. 13.96-112) has two entrances, one of which allows the "descent of mortals," while the other is reserved for immortals. Shrines honoring nymphs were frequently found in proximity to those of other chthonic gods such as Zeus Meilichios. (A nymphê whose shrine was located in the Athenian Agora may have been the consort of this god). 32 Another parallel to the Grotta Caruso ritual may be suggested by one of the Sacred Laws of Cyrene (SEG IX, 72.16), which prescribes a katabasis to appease Artemis for the loss of virginity at marriage. Noteworthy are the votive artefacts from the Locrian cave including a large number of terracotta nude females, kneeling or sitting but with truncated limbs. These figurines have been found in women's tombs all over Magna Graecia and in Sicily . The dolls, who wear the polos, are likely votive gifts intended for a goddess who would oversee a young girl's transition as nymphê. One of the better known epigrams from the Hellenistic Anthology (AP
28
30
Redfield 2003. Larson 2001, 91-96. 32 Larson 2001, 112. 31
6.280) honours Timareta, a korê who died before her marriage, but after she had dedicated her dolls to Artemis Limnatis. Another chthonic aspect of nymphs’ worship is detected both at Eleusis, where the caves that make up the Ploutoneion were part of Demeter’s sanctuary, and at Brauron, where Iphigeneia’s tomb site in a cave was part of the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia. 33 • Finally, the abysmal cave of Kaiadas, situated in the area around Sparta and recently identified by P. Themelis as being the karstic hole of Trypi (in a distance of 8 km away from Sparta, 730 m. asl), was used by the Spartans mainly during the period of the Messenian Wars (8th - 5th centuries BC) to hurl down in the Messenian captives, as wells as sick or weak children, the sacrilegious, the traitors of the state and the sentenced to death criminals (Thuc.Hist. 1.134.1; 4.80.4. Plat. Gorg. 5.16. Dem. 8.41. Xen. Hell. 1.7.20. Paus. 1.24.6; 4.18.4-7. Plut. Kim. 16.4). Though well known from the 1960’s, further investigation began only in 1983 and a systematic excavational research continues since then. 34 4. Conclusions The caves hold a prominent position in the mythology, cult and daily life of past human communities. Their deep dual symbolism range from idyllic sceneries and wombs of birth to dens for monsters and chthonic creatures, creating unique cultural landscapes that need protection, management and integration into the heritage’s agenda of modern societies. Life and death, light and dark, rejection and healing, eros and mania, inspiration and terror, are the Ianos’ face of the archetypal cave. Ceremonies and celebrations took place within them, asking for protection, abundance, wealth, power, divine revelation and prophecies .. 33
Larson 2001, 226 - 267. Cameron 1932, 105-114; Bonner & Smith 1942, 113 129; Beccaria 1955; Hymphreys & King 1981; Garland 1985; Themelis 1985, 55 - 60; Little & Papadopoulos 1998, 375-404; Cantarella 2005; Gagarin & Cohen 2005. 34
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