In this contribution,1 I will try to elucidate the relationship between the island of Paros and the Apolline sanctuaries of Delos and Delphi through the lens of lyric poetry, especially Archilochus and Pindar. Apollo, in fact, represents an important god in the pantheon of Paros, as Archilochus’ poetry first demonstrates; the Mnesiepes inscription also testifies to a sort of exclusive protection of the poet by Pythian Apollo. In fact, in the age of Archilochus, the Parians looked for the protection of Pythian Apollo, instead of Delian Apollo. Such a preference must be probably explained in the light of Paros’ colonizing effort in the seventh century (patronized by the oracle of Delphi) and by rival Naxos’ influence over Delos in the same period (as the erection of the oikos of the Naxians testifies).
However, things changed at the end of the sixth century because the Parian presence at Delos became more relevant, and a Delion was erected on Paros. Such a new orientation of Parian cult towards Delos is testified to by Pindar’s paean for the Parians (fr. 140a M.), which draws on local traditions in order to reshape Parian history in the light of the new Delian hegemony.
1 Archilochus and Pythian Apollo
The god of Delphi shows an undisputable and unusual predilection for the poet Archilochus. The story begins when his father Telesicles, around 680 BCE, received the following response from the Delphic oracle:
ἄγγειλον Παρίοις Τελεσίκλεες ὥς σε κελεύω νήσῳ ἐν Ἠερίῃ κτίζειν εὐδείελον ἄστυ .
Announce to the Parians, Telesicles, that I bid youto found a conspicuous city in the island of Eeria.2
We do not know the reason why Telesicles was sent to Delphi, but what is clear is that the oracle designates Telesicles as oikist of Thasos and commands him to announce to his fellow citizens the order to found the colony of Thasos.3 While no safe grounds confirm the authenticity of this oracle, Archilochus’ family certainly played an important role in the foundation of Thasos, as his poetry also shows,4 and had an early and stable contact with Delphi.5 Although Archilochus’ biography was rewritten in later times in order to emphasize Apollo’s protection of the poet,6 several elements may possibly be traced back to his life and poetry. This is what the Mnesiepes inscription suggests, whose content is now generally considered to be actually based on material dating back to the archaic age and, possibly, to Archilochus’ poetry.7 According to the inscription, Telesicles interrogated the oracle again, and later more oracles were delivered to the inhabitants of Paros. The oracles elected Archilochus as the leading poet of the island and made him the object of a hero cult.8
The first oracle mentioned by the inscription concerns the encounter Archilochus had with the Muses,9 and declares that the poet was going to become immortal and famous, thus establishing the protection of Apollo over the poet and his work.10 Two more oracles concerning Archilochus are mentioned in the inscription: the first one reports that when Archilochus was killed by a Naxian, named Calondas, the god of Delphi ordered a punishment for his killer; the second one, in the third century BCE, gave enthusiastic approval to Mnesiepes’ idea of building an Archilocheion devoted to the cult of the poet. There he was honored and received sacrifices together with Apollo, the Muses, and Mnemosyne.11 In sum, we can say that, according to tradition, the whole life of Archilochus, until his post-mortem cult, was protected by the oracle and by the god of Delphi.
A few fragments from Archilochus’ literary production seem to confirm that the poet reciprocated Apollo’s favor by composing a poem (fr. 121 = Athenaeus 5.180d–e), where he presented himself as a performer of paeans:
αὐτὸς ἐξάρχων πρὸς αὐλὸν Λέσβιον παιήονα .
I myself taking the lead in the Lesbian paean to the aulos’ accompaniment.
Although this fragment is still quite obscure (why is the paean called ‘Lesbian’, or is the adjective better connected to the auloi, i.e. ‘Lesbian auloi’?),12 it reflects the image of Archilochus as a public poet, engaged in celebrating the local gods on behalf of his fellow citizens. The same image also emerges from the scanty fragments of his public and possibly choral songs in honor of other Parian gods, like the dithyramb for Dionysus or the ode to Demeter.13 No wonder that he also performed a paean for Apollo, a god who played such an important role in his own life and in the history of Paros and Thasos.
Another fragment that may reveal a special connection between Archilochus and Apollo is fr. 26.5–7, a few iambic verses preserved by Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.17.9–10) and by POxy. 2310 (fr. 1), where Archilochus vehemently asks Apollo to ruin his enemies and, presumably, to favor him and his comrades, playing with the false etymology of the name Apollo as deriving from the verb
ὦναξ Ἄπολ ⸤λον ,καὶ σὺ τοὺς μὲν αἰτίους πήμαινε ⸤καὶ σφας ὄλλυ᾽ ὥσπερ ὀλλύεις ἡμέα̣ς̣ δ̣ὲ̣ .[
Oh Lord Apollo, ruin the guilty ones and destroy them, as you know how to destroy, but to us …
2 Seventh Century BCE: Paros and Delphi
However, the safest evidence in support of an actual relationship between Archilochus and the god of Delphi derives from the historical and archaeological context which characterizes his hometown Paros. The favor accorded by Pythian Apollo to Archilochus illustrates the close relationship between the island and the Delphic sanctuary in the seventh century BCE and represents a good starting point to investigate the political and religious connections between the Cycladic island and the major Apolline sanctuaries, namely Delphi and Delos.
Paros’ interest in Delphi can easily be explained in the light of her involvement in the colonization of Thasos. As is well known, the Delphic sanctuary played a leading role in the promotion of the colonial movement and Paros’ conquest of Thasos is no exception in this regard.15 The Parians’ first contact with the oracle, in fact, establishes Telesicles as oikistes of Thasos, and even if one dismisses Oenomaus’ version of the oracle,16 it is undisputable that Pythian Apollo was the most important god venerated in Thasos, together with Athena Poliouchos. The Pythion of Thasos was located on a terrace of the acropolis, and although the remnants of the temple now excavated date to fifth century BCE, there are safe grounds to assume that it replaced an older and smaller temple, installed by the Parian colonists as a form of thanksgiving to the god who had encouraged the expedition.17
Paros’ connection with Delphi is not unique among the Aegean islands: the best parallel is that of Siphnos, which in the sixth century BCE commissioned the erection of the great treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi, to testify to the power and wealth of the small island and its regular frequentation of the sanctuary. As Neer has demonstrated, such a great expenditure was promoted by only one group of the citizens, namely the aristocracy, which looked at Delphi, an Alcmaeonid enclave, as a sort of aristocratic zone of influence, against the increasing power of the Athenian and popular forces sponsored by Pisistratus.18 A similar political organization must be posited for Paros, too, where an oligarchy, enriched by the revenues deriving from the marble quarries and silver mines, ruled over the island until the fifth century BCE, when the Athenian influence established the democracy. A part of the frieze of the Siphnian treasury has been attributed to a Parian sculptor, and several other monuments erected in Delphi in the sixth century BCE, including the façade of the temple of the Alcmaeonids, were made of Parian marble.19 This confirms that Parian artists and artisans visited the sanctuary of Delphi at this time.
Even Naxos, which was the main sponsor of the embellishment of the Delian sanctuary in the seventh century BCE, received colonial sponsorship from the oracle of Delphi. The sanctuary had promoted the colonization of Naxos in Sicily by a mixed contingent of Chalcidians from Euboea and Cycladic Naxians, under the command of the Chalcidian Theocles.20 When they disembarked, they erected an altar in honor of Apollo Archegetes, who had led the expedition; Appian adds that next to the altar there was a statuette of Apollo Archegetes erected by the Naxians.21
Sanctuaries devoted to Pythian Apollo were also erected on some Aegean islands, including Ceos, Thera, and Paros itself.22 The Pythion of Paros has been identified with a sixth-century BCE sanctuary dedicated to Apollo and located on a terrace overlooking the sea a few kilometers south of Paroikia.23 It may be argued that even in Paros, as in Siphnos, the cult of Pythian Apollo was connected with the aristocracy of the island, and particularly with families, like that of Archilochus, who had been involved in the most ancient history of the island and the colonization of Thasos.
But what about Delos? What were the connections between Paros and the major Ionic sanctuary of the Aegean Sea, located at a close distance and visible from its peaks? Delian Apollo apparently finds no place in the poetry of Archilochus or in the anecdotal tradition surrounding him.24 This should not come as a surprise, considering that at that time Delos was a sort of Naxian enclave and was dominated by Paros’ most hated enemy. In the course of the seventh century, the Naxians embellished the sanctuary of Apollo with buildings and monuments, such as the oikos of the Naxians (a sort of treasury or hestiatorion which included a nine-meter-tall kouros), the stoa, and the Terrace of the Lions; in addition, a great number of offerings are inscribed in the Naxian alphabet, which testifies to a deep penetration of the Naxians into the life of the sanctuary.25 On the contrary, there is no significant archaeological evidence of Paros’ presence at Delos until the mid-sixth century BCE. Until that time, the Parians seem to be orientated northward, attracted by the mines and the fertile lands of Thasos, under the protection of Pythian Apollo.
At that time the Ionian world, which had elected the sanctuary of Delos as its meeting point, was far from the Parian horizon, as the mythology connected to the island also demonstrates. Although Paros had a political and commercial alliance with Miletus,26 there is no trace of the Ionian myths connected with the Neleids, who left Pylos and colonized the coasts of Asia, passing through Athens and various islands, such as Naxos. The main Parian hero is Dorian Heracles, who liberated the island from the domination of the sons of Minos and the local nymph Pareia;27 Heracles also established a new form of government, and gave the Parians possession over Thasos. Heracles similarly appears in some of Archilochus’ scanty references to the mythical heritage: his son, Telephus, is the protagonist of the recently discovered elegy (POxy. 4708 = fr. 17a–h Swift), and the name of the hero, according to some scholars, arguably appears in the last lines of the preserved fragment;28 the encounter between Nessos and Deianeira was possibly the topic of a narrative elegy on the deeds of Heracles;29 and finally, Archilochus was credited with being the inventor of the tenella kallinike, an epinician song dedicated to Heracles and performed at Olympia in honor of the athletic victors.30 The mythical heritage of Paros is thus connected first with Cretan Minos and then with Heracles, whose cult and devotion were particularly rooted in Thasos.31 There he overlapped with the Phoenician Melqart, and in his honor a great Heracleion was built, which hosted festivals and celebrations.32 We cannot exclude that Heracles’ cult was imported to Paros from Thasos, due to its ancient origins in the latter site, and that Archilochus played a role in this transfer.
3 Sixth to Fifth Century BCE: Paros and Delos
Things gradually changed over the course of the sixth century BCE, when Paros started being integrated with the Ionian world surrounding her. The archaeological evidence shows that the Parians began visiting the sanctuary of Delos and attending the Apolline celebrations: several kouroi manufactured by Parian workshops have been excavated in the sanctuary which date back to the second half of the sixth century BCE. The remnants of a building which has been interpreted as an oikos of the Parians date from the same period and confirm a permanent presence of the Parians on the island and their attempt to have a share in the Naxians’ control of the sanctuary.33 The strange hexagonal decoration of this building has been connected to a relief found in Thasos and suggests a Parian influence.34
Nonetheless, the beginning of Athenian control over Delos in the age of Pisistratus (in 540 BCE he purified the island)—which was to continue in the following years through Athens’ emerging role as the leader of the Ionians, and result in the foundation of the Delian league in 475 BCE—forced Paros to limit her ambition over Delos and to invest more proficiently in sanctuaries on its own island. The investment on local sanctuaries devoted to the cult of Delian Apollo started at the beginning of the sixth century BCE, with the erection of a great extra urban sanctuary dedicated to the Apollo–Artemis couple on the neighboring island of Despotiko.35 This small and uninhabited island, now separated from modern Antiparos by a strait only a few meters wide, was in ancient times connected to the mainland by an isthmus and its protected bay represented a safe harbor for travelers and mariners. Recent excavation campaigns conducted by the archaeologist Yannis Kourayos have brought to light the remnants of a complex cultic site, articulated into several buildings and a main temple, whose acme is dated to the period between the mid-sixth century and the mid-fifth century BCE, when a sudden destruction seems to have put an end to the life of the sanctuary. The findings attest that the main god venerated there was Apollo, accompanied by his sister Artemis as on Delos, and the presence of a big hestiatorion suggests that the sanctuary was intended to house a mass of pilgrims. The number of buildings and storage rooms makes it the second biggest sanctuary in the Cyclades after Delos. The materials used for the construction show that the impulse and sponsorship came from Paros, whose richness was in this period assured by the marble quarries located on the island. However, the sanctuary was also attended by people, mainly mariners and traders, coming from all corners of the Aegean Sea. The great expenditure exhibited by Parian aristocrats in dedicating marble statues of kouroi reflects the ideology of the ruling class and its attempt to stand out from the elites of neighboring islands.36 Although no literary or documentary source attests to the existence of this sanctuary, the archaeologists argue that it was built by the Parians in competition with Naxos and Delos, in order to establish a local cult of Delian Apollo which would attract visitors from all parts of the Aegean world, as Delos had done.37
In the same years, a monumental Delion was erected on Paros, on a hill located north of Paroikia, facing towards Delos. The visual connection with Delos and the presence of some dedications to Apollo Delios and Artemis Delia confirm that this sanctuary was a Delion.38 The most ancient findings date back to the eighth century BCE, testifying that some cults had been in existence from the geometric epoch; nonetheless, its monumentalization, in overt imitation of the Delian sanctuary, dates back to the mid-sixth century BCE. The cult focused on a couple of gods—Artemis and Apollo, as in Delos—but the main deity, to whom the temple was dedicated and whose worship was probably more ancient, was Artemis. She was given a great Doric temple, erected between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century BCE, with a colossal statue inside it. The sanctuary was mainly visited by women, who offered the goddess jewels, fibulae, statuettes and everyday objects.39 The altar and the temenos were dedicated to Apollo, but he did not have a cult statue. The lesser emphasis on Apollo in the Parian Delion may be due to the fact that Apollo had other cult sites on the island: the Pythion and the extra-urban sanctuary of Despotiko, where the dominant venerated deity was Apollo (not Artemis), especially in connection with the trading and maritime dimension.40
Nonetheless, in the fifth century BCE Despotiko was destroyed (possibly by Miltiades in his punishing campaign against Paros, guilty of having supported the Persians during the Persian Wars41). The site was abandoned, and the Delion remained the main Apolline sanctuary on the island.
The founding of this Delion was attributed to Heracles, who had liberated the island from the Cretan oppressors represented by Minos’ sons. This is the object of a 40-line Pindaric fragment (140a M.) preserved by POxy. 408 and 2442, and which D’Alessio has convincingly labeled as a paean for a chorus of Parians in honor of Apollo.42 The text is highly fragmentary, so that any discussion relies on precarious interpretations of the preserved lines; however, Rutherford’s reconstruction possibly detects some important points that are in line with Parian contemporary history. In this paean, Pindar draws on local traditions in order to reshape Parian history in the light of the new Delian cultic hegemony.
Π ]αρίοις [εἰς Ἀπόλλωνα (?)[…]b20 φ [ι ]λ̣ [.]ν̣ μ̣ι̣ [– –τοὶ πρόϊδ [ο ]ν αἶσαν α̣ [ζοι̣ τ̣ότ᾽ ἀμφε̣ .ο̣υτα̣τ̣ .[Ἡρακλ̣έης · ἁλίᾳ [δ᾽ ἐ ]πὶ . [ναῒ μολόντα σ [.]υ̣ […]π̣ [.].[.].σ̣ο̣εν̣ b25 θο …οι φύγον ον̣ [......].[.] …πάντων γὰρ ὑπ [έ ]ρβιος ἄνα̣ .σ̣ ἔφα [ψυχὰν κενεῶ [ν ]ἔμ̣᾽ ἕ [η̣ ]κ̣᾽ ἐ̣ρ̣ύ̣κ̣ε̣ν̣ … [λαῶν ξενοδα [ΐ ]κ̣τα βα̣σι̣λ̣ῆ̣ -ος ἀτασθαλίᾳ κοτέω [ν ]θαμά ,b30 ἀρχαγέτᾳ τε [Δ ]άλου πίθετο παῦσέ̣ν̣ [τ᾽ ]ἔ̣ρ̣γ̣᾽ ἀ̣ναι̣δῆ̣ · [βοᾷ ]γάρ σε λ̣ [ι ]γ̣υσφα̣ρ̣ά̣γων̣ κ̣λ̣υ̣τ̣ᾶ̣ν̣ ἀ̣υ -τά ,Ἑκαβόλ̣ε̣ ,φορμίγγων .μνάσθηθ᾽ ὅτι τ̣οι ζαθέας b35 Πάρου ἐν γυάλοις ἕσσατο ἄ [ν ]ακτι βωμὸν πατρί τε Κρονίῳ τιμάεν -τι πέραν ἰσθμὸν διαβαίς ,ὅτε Λαομέδον -b39 τι πεπρωμένοι̣᾽ ἤ̣ρ̣χ̣ε̣τ̣ο̣ ⸏μόροιο κᾶρυξ .ἦν̣ γάρ τι̣ παλαίφατον […] …ο̣ν̣ ἷκε συγγ̣ό̣νους τρεῖς π̣ […].ε̣ω̣ [.]ν̣ κ̣ε̣φα̣λ̣ὰ̣ν̣ …ρ …τ̣αι̣ [ἐπιδ [..........]αι̣μ̣α […].[....]
For the Parians
… They foresaw their fate … then … Heracles; … (someone) coming on a ship on the sea … they fled … superior to all in might … he said (?) … ‘(Apollo) sent me to suppress the spirit of foolish people, often angry at the arrogance of the people’s guest-killing king …’ And he obeyed the leader of Delos and stopped shameless deeds … Since, Far-shooter, the sound of bright-sounding famous lyres reaches (?) you, remember that he founded in the hollow of holy Paros an altar for the lord (Apollo) and the honored Cronian father, striding over the neck of land, when he began the appointed doom for Laomedon, a herald of it. For it was something long proclaimed. He came to the three relatives … head.43
Rutherford reconstructs the narration thanks to Apollodorus’ account of the story of Heracles on Paros, even though the two texts only partially coincide.44 Pindar’s story is apparently divided into two sections: the first one recounts how Heracles came to Paros, obeying the order of Delian Apollo, and slew the guest-killing king of the island and the sons of Minos (the expression ‘they foresaw their fate’ probably alludes to them; ll. 27–30 possibly constitute a direct speech pronounced by Heracles himself to the inhabitants of Paros); then there are a few connecting lines which contain a reference to the current performance (‘the sound of bright-sounding famous lyres’) and the foundation of an altar to Apollo and Zeus in the valleys of Paros; finally, the fragment ends with the mention of Heracles’ journey across the Corinthian isthmus (he actually came from Thrace, where he had killed the mares of Diomedes), and with an allusion to his expedition to Troy to punish Laomedon. The fragment perhaps continued either with the punishing of Laomedon or with the Parian story: for we know that Heracles lifted the siege of Paros when the Parians agreed to give him as hostages two of Androgeos’ sons, Minos’ grandsons.45
This is not the only possible reconstruction: Lucarini, for example, discusses Rutherford’s reconstruction of the fragment and argues that the
The two myths of Paros and Laomedon thus emphasize Heracles’ justice in punishing treacherous and unjust kings.49 In particular, the killing of Minos’ sons and of the king of Paros is presented as having been commanded by Apollo, upset by the arrogance of the Parian rulers, who had killed two of Heracles’ companions, as they disembarked from the ship (
As for the occasion for the performance of this paean, several possibilities may be advanced: Rutherford and D’Alessio suggest a local celebration in the Parian Delion, and a fleeting reference in Aristophanes’ Wasps (l. 1184) seems to allude to some theoriai sent to Paros.52 Papadopoulou recently proposed the sanctuary of Despotiko, since the mention of the isthmus at l. 37 might refer to the neck of land that once connected Despotiko to Antiparos.53 A seal (dated around 700 BCE) engraved in a votive deposit in the sanctuary shows a group of dancers and might testify to the importance of musical and dancing celebrations at this site since early times.54 In both cases, we would have a poem composed for Delian Apollo, but meant for an original performance in a local sanctuary.
Kowalzig, on the other hand, advances the idea of a performance or reperformance in Delos, too.55 In fact, the munificence that lies behind the commissioning of an ode to a famous poet may be understood as a display of power before a Panhellenic audience; it could also be interpreted as a sign of the renewed frequentation of Delos by the Parians, also confirmed by coeval archaeological sources, and by their desire to emphasize the connection between the local Delion (either on Paros or on Despotiko) and the main Delian sanctuary.
The praise of Delian Apollo in this ode reconciles the Parians with the Ionian world they belong to. But can we really say that Delian Apollo has now surpassed Archilochus’ Pythian Apollo? The epithet by which Apollo is addressed in this ode is indeed curious. At l. 30 he is named
4 Fifth Century BCE: Paros and Athens
Of course, this was not the first time the Delian and Pythian aspects of Apollo were joined together. As everyone knows, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo has exactly the same goal and its composition must be understood in the context of Polycrates’ policy of integration of the two cults.58 The same attempt was made in the same years by Pisistratus, who in Athens adopted a policy of integration between the cult of Pythian Apollo, traditionally connected with Athens and its aristocratic families, starting from the Alcmaeonids, and the cult of Delian Apollo, the god of the Ionian world, who was becoming an object of interest for the growing maritime power of Athens.59 Pisistratus, arguably because of his bad relationship with Delphi, also promoted the building of a Pythion, southeast of the Acropolis, near the banks of the Ilissus,60 which included the cult of both Pythian and Delian Apollo.61 The most important festival celebrated in this shrine was the Thargelia, which featured musical contests similar to those celebrated at Delos,62 and evoked the ritual of purification imposed on the Athenians after the killing of Minos’ son Androgeos.63 A Pythion was also installed by the Athenians at Delos, inside the sanctuary (located between the Keraton and the Artemision) in the fourth century BCE. It looked like a typical Athenian temple, with a frieze representing the deeds of Theseus.64
The integration of the cults of Pythian and Delian Apollo was thus promoted on several occasions by Athens and we may wonder whether this aspect of Pindar’s paean is due to Athenian influence. The relationship between Paros and Athens is contradictory and oscillates between fierce opposition, fueled by Paros’ great wealth and power, and unavoidable submission in the years of the Delian league.
The first important contacts between Paros and Athens possibly occurred at the time of Pisistratus, who started looking with interest at the Aegean world, and whose contacts with Lygdamis of Naxos, Polycrates of Samos, and the sanctuary of Delos are well known.65 Around 499 BCE, Paros was for a short period under the control of Naxos and this may have encouraged more contacts with Athens.66 However, in the following years, even though the Athenian influence and pressure on the Cycladic islands was becoming greater and greater, Paros’ fierce opposition to Athens is evident in the support given to the Persian army during the Persian Wars.67 The Athenian reaction culminated in the unsuccessful 26-day siege led by Miltiades in 490–489 BCE,68 a failure which confirmed the island’s great wealth and power, and her capacity to resist Athenian control. Nevertheless, a few years later the Parians adopted a more submissive approach to Athens, trying to win Themistocles’ favor by paying a considerable amount of money in order to avoid a new attack.69 This was the first step towards the entrance of the island into the Delian League, where she emerged as one of the first and main contributors.70 From this moment onwards, until the end of the fifth century, Paros remained within the Athenian sphere and disappeared from the sources, meaning that she had now lost her political and military power and that her wealth was only devoted to maintaining her position in the league.
At the same time, Delos itself had gradually become an Athenian enclave.71 From the beginning of the fifth century onwards, the Delian festivals were celebrated under Athenian patronage and the musical program was reformed in accordance with Athenian customs.72 This Athenian pressure was perceived by the Ionian people who attended the sanctuary and the Delia. The preferred form of attendance of the rites at the sanctuary and of adherence to the ideological program imposed by Athens upon her allies was sending choruses (or theoriai) to the Delian festivals. As Kowalzig notes,
sending a choros formed part of the religious tribute to the god. It almost seems that sending a (theoric) choros was ‘obligatory’ for membership in the worshipping community; the ‘choral tribute’ marked, along with the offerings, participation in the cult. … The ritual song thus ties the community to the centre.73
However, Kowalzig adds shortly afterwards:
It is tacitly assumed that the choruses … and the phenomenon of fifth-century Delian theoria are theatrical expressions of sympathies on levels other than religious, the songs instruments of crude and direct political propaganda.74
Bacchylides’ Dithyramb 17, composed to be performed at Delos by a chorus of Ceans, offers the best example of this tendency: an allied polis, willing to gratify Athens and to pay reverent homage to her political and maritime power, commissioned a Panhellenic poet to compose a poem that dealt with a specifically Athenian myth, such as Theseus’ underwater journey to the house of Poseidon; the public, composed either of Athenians or of members of the allied poleis, was meant to perceive the ‘Athenian tone’ of the myth and approve the direct homage paid by Ceos to Athens.75
I follow Kowalzig in arguing that Pindar’s paean for the Parians was composed with the same intention:76 the Parians, wishing to regain the favor of Athens after the shame of Medism, commissioned a paean from Pindar to be performed at the Delian festival, controlled by the Athenians. Pindar, moreover, was on good terms the Athenian aristocracies, as Pythian 7, Paean 8, dithyrambic fr. 75 M. and the threnos for Hippocrates show, so that his ode may have been particularly appreciated by the Athenian circles which hosted some of his most prodigal patrons.77 Although no safe date has been proposed for this ode, in accordance with Pindar’s biography it might date back to the first phase of the Delian League, before the treasury was moved from Delos to Athens in 450 BCE, when Athens was still on good terms with the allied cities and her imperialistic domination had yet to reach its peak.
The narrated myth emphasizes the connections between Paros and Athens by recalling the episode of the killing of Minos’ sons; furthermore, if the paean also narrated the subsequent events that we learn from Apollodorus, Heracles accepted as hostages the sons of Androgeos, who was killed by the Athenians.78 Minos and his sons were Athens’ traditional enemies, because of their connection with the figure of Theseus, who in the same years was becoming the Athenian national hero (as Bacchylides’ Dithyrambs 17 and 18 also presuppose). Their depiction in the paean as unjust and bloody rulers was in all likelihood meant to please the Athenian audience.79 Such a negative image of Minos was possibly an Athenian trait, unknown to the most ancient tradition connecting the Cretan king with the island.80 As Callimachus and Apollodorus state, the news of the killing of Androgeos by the Athenians was reported to Minos while he was offering a sacrifice to the Charites in Paros; furious, he threw his garland away and silenced the flutes; this was the origin of a special Parian sacrifice to the Charites, which was celebrated with neither garlands nor flutes.81 This seems to imply that Androgeos’ killing was originally perceived in Paros as a mournful event and that it left a trace in the practice of the popular cult of the Graces.82
The Parian traditions were appreciated in Athens at the time: the painting of the Nekya in the lesche of the Cnidians in Delphi, commissioned by the Cnidians as a homage to Cimon, who had liberated Cnidos from Persian domination in 468 BCE,83 included the oikists of Thasos Tellis, Archilochus’ grandfather, and Cleoboea. The decoration of the building was entrusted to Polygnotus, the painter from Thasos, who was in close touch with Cimon, and had already decorated the Stoa Poikile and the Theseion in Athens. The choice of the Parian subject was thus intended as a homage to Polygnotus’ hometown Thasos, but also as a favor towards the Athenians, who had finally placed Paros under their influence.84
To sum up, several elements in Pindar’s paean for the Parians present an Athenian flavor: the mythical content, with the negative depiction of the early Cretan domination over the island, and the cultic implications underlying the mention of Apollo Delios and Archegetes, which points to a cultic peculiarity typical of Athens: the joint worship of Delian and Pythian Apollo. In doing so, Pindar was sure to satisfy both his Parian audience, who had a particular devotion to both Pythian and Delian Apollo, and, most of all, the Athenian elites, who were distrustful of the rich island which had given support to the Persian king, but which was now part of the Delian league and was trying to be culturally reintegrated into the Ionian world she geographically belonged to.
I wish to thank Lucia Athanassaki and André Lardinois for organizing an amazing conference on the spectacular island of Spetses, and I am grateful to them and the participants for the useful comments and suggestions; in particular, I wish to thank Giambattista D’Alessio for reading and commenting on an earlier version of this paper.
Transmitted by Oenomaus of Gadara (fr. XVI 37–38 Hammerstaedt apud Eus. PE 6, 7, 8 314 Mras = Test. 116 Tarditi) and Stephanus of Byzantium (s.v.
On the problems connected with a correct interpretation of the oracle and the possibility that Telesicles was indeed the oikist of Thasos, see Pouilloux (1954) 24–27, and (1964); Graham (1978) 75–80; Malkin (1987) 56–60.
Critias DK6 B 44 (from Ael. V.H. 10.13); Strabo 10.487. See Graham (1978) 72–86; Lanzillotta (1987) 58–71; Berranger (1992) 170–184; Aloni (2009b); Marcaccini (2001).
Pausanias (10.28.3) refers to the fact that the painter Polygnotus of Thasos depicted in the lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi a Nekya, where—among others—Archilochus’ grandfather, Tellis, appeared with the priestess of Demeter Cleoboea. She is referred to as the one who brought the rites of Demeter from Paros to Thasos, so both of them may have been among the founders of the colony. See Ornaghi (2009) 183–205.
In this regard, see Giuseppetti (2022).
Corrêa (2008); Swift (2019) 260–261.
Podlecki (1974); Lanzillotta (1987) 34–47; Marcaccini (2001) 62–93; Clay (2004) 24–26; Swift (2019) 2–7.
Mnesiepes inscription, E1, col. II, ll. 40–55. On this episode see Brillante (1990); Ornaghi (2009), 133–155; Aloni (2011); Swift (2019) 2–6.
Mnesiepes Inscript. E1 col. III, 12–44. See Clay (2004) 16–23.
On Archilochus’ cult in Paros, see Clay (2004).
See Corrêa (2009); Swift (2019), 306–307.
Grandolini (2001); Aloni (2009b).
For similar instances, see Arch. frs. 6, 126 W2.
Malkin (1987) 56–60; Londey (1990); Dougherty (1993); Detienne (1998) 85–134; Donnellan (2015); see also Graham (1978); Pouilloux (1954) 24–27.
See above n. 3.
See Pouilloux (1954) 27–28, 116; Grandjean and Salviat (2000) 109–112. Thasos was not Paros’ only colony: see Berranger (1992) 162–170.
Neer (2001).
Berranger (1992) 254–256.
Thuc. 6.3.1. See also Steph. Byz. s.v.
App. B Civ. 5.12.109.
See Angliker (2017) 33–34.
Schuller (1982); Berranger (1992) 97–103; Daifa, Angliker, Kourayos, and Tully (2018) 141; Angliker (2022), 250–251. Melfi (2002) suggests that an older temple dedicated to Apollo (not necessarily the Pythian one) was later replaced by a cult site dedicated to Asclepius.
An epigram by Theocritus (21.1–4) seems to imply a sort of favor granted by Delian Apollo to Archilochus, but such an association is probably invented by the Hellenistic poet on a geographical basis.
Bruneau and Ducat (1965) 39–43, 77–82; Constantakopoulou (2007) 42–46; Angliker (2017) 29–31.
Berranger (1992) 203–216, 312–315.
[Apollod.] 2.5.9. See Aloni (2009b); Aloni and Iannucci (2007) 213–226.
See Nobili (2009); Bowie (2017); Swift (2019) 240.
Arch. frs. 286–288 W. See Bowie (2003).
Arch. fr. 324 W (= Schol. Pind. Ol. 9.1a). According to a scholion to Aristophanes’ Birds (1764), the tenella narrated the fighting between Heracles and the Moliones and the institution of the Olympic games.
Papadopoulou (2018) also stresses the connections between Paros, Thasos, Heracles, and Apollo, although her arguments are mainly based on a hypothetical priority of Delian Apollo cult over the Pythian in both islands.
Hdt.
Constatakopoulou (2007) 46–47. The Naxians, however, continued to attend the sanctuary and its festivals as Pindar’s Paean 12 for the Naxians in Delos shows.
Bruneau and Ducat (1965) 98–99.
See Kourayos and Burns (2004); Daifa, Kourayos, Ohnesorg, and Papajanni (2012); Daifa and Kourayos (2017); Angliker (2017) and (2022); Daifa, Angliker, Kourayos, and Tully (2018); Daifa, Kourayos, and Sutton (2018).
Daifa and Kourayos (2017).
For the Delian characterization of Despotiko, see Papadopoulou (2010 and 2013); Angliker (2022).
See Rubensohn (1962); Berranger (1992) 81–82; Angliker (2017); Daifa, Angliker, Kourayos, and Tully (2018) 140–141, 148–150.
Daifa, Angliker, Kourayos, and Tully (2018) 148–150; Angliker (2022) 259–261.
On the differences between the cult of Delian Apollo on Paros and the Despotiko sanctuaries, see Angliker (2022).
Daifa and Kourayos (2017); Daifa, Kourayos, and Sutton (2018).
D’Alessio (1997) 44–45. See also Lucarini (2011). Lavecchia (1996b) advances the hypothesis that the fragment belonged to the same poem as fr. 158 M.
Pindar, fr. 140a.20–42. The text and translation provided are by Rutherford (2001) 378–379, who attempts a fuller reconstruction of the fragment in accordance with Apollodorus’ account.
Rutherford (2001) 380–382. See also Ferrari (1990b).
[Apollod.] 2.5.9.
Lucarini (2011). Lavecchia (1996b) also advances the hypothesis that the fragment belonged to the same poem as fr. 158 M.
Lucarini (2011) 6, based on Zardini (2009), 95–96 and 103–104.
Lucarini (2011) 12 himself only advances the week hypothesis that the leitmotiv del nostro frammento fosse l’accostamento di alcune benemerenze di Eracle nei confronti di Apollo.
See Rutherford (2001) 380–382.
Rubensohn (1962) 44–45. Another temple of Zeus Hypatos existed on adjoining Mount Kounados. See Daifa, Angliker, Kourayos, and Tully (2018) 150–151.
Rubensohn (1962) 45.
D’Alessio (1997) 44–45; Rutherford (2001) 382; see also Lavecchia (1996b). Rubensohn (1962) 48–50 also argues that the Parian Thargelia was celebrated in the Delion and possibly included some choral performances, as in Athens, on the basis of a corrupt fragment of Archilochus (Arch. fr. 255 W2 = Hesych. s.v.
Papadopoulou (2010 and 2013) 410–415; Hestia was also venerated in the sanctuary with the epithet of Isthmia. See also Constantakopoulou (2018) ix–x. D’Alessio revised his previous position and independently supported this idea in a seminar held in London in 2013. However, the relationships between the newly discovered site of Despotiko and Delos still need to be carefully investigated, so that any connection between the Pindaric fragment and this sanctuary is, at the current state, immature (see also the perplexities raised by Angliker [2022] 253).
See Angliker (2020), who also examines other ceramics representing dancing and musical scenes found at Despotiko.
Kowalzig (2007b) 95–97.
The title archegetes may be applied to all the oikists of colonies; nevertheless, when it refers to Apollo, it normally implies Pythian Apollo, who encouraged the founding of new colonies. In this is sense it is used by Pindar also in Pyth. 5.60 (see also Thuc. 6.3). See Malkin (1987) 241–250; (2011) 97–118.
See also Pind. Pae. 2.96–98 (fr. 52b.96–98 M.), where Apollo is addressed as Pythian and Delian. This poem is characterized by colonial traits, as Dougherty (1994) has shown. In Pind. Pae. 5, Delian Apollo also plays an important colonial role in the Athenian history.
Burkert (1979b); Janko (1982); Aloni (1989); Papadopoulou (2014).
Aloni (1989) 57–61; Shapiro (1989) 48–52; Constatakopoulou (2007) 63–66; Papadopoulou (2014). For some time Pisistratus himself was banned from Delphi, which was under the protection of the Alcmaeonids, and turned to Delos for support. This is the reason behind his purification of the island. Aloni (1989), 118–121, argues that the Homeric Hymn to Apollo may have been reperformed by Cynaethus in Athens, possibly for the dedication of an altar in the temple of Pythian Apollo in 522/521 BCE.
See Travlos (19802) 100–103; Shapiro (1989) 59–60; Marchiandi (2011) 430–434.
Matthaiou (2003); Wilson (2007) 153–155, 175–182.
The tripods dedicated by the winners in the musical contests of the Thargelia were similar to those discovered in the temple of Apollo on Delos. See Ducat and Amandry (1973) and Amandry (1977).
Calame (1990) 308–319; Wilson (2007); Nobili (2018).
Bruneau (1970) 114–142; Roux (1979); Gallet de Santerre (1982).
Hdt. 1.61–64. On the relationship between Peisitratus and Lygdamis, see Costa (1996); Constantakopoulou (2007) 65–66.
Hdt. 5.31.2.
Hdt. 6.133 affirms that Paros sent a trireme to Marathon in support of the Persian fleet.
See Hdt. 6.133–135; Ephorus FrGrHist 59 F 63; Corn. Nep. Vita Milt. 7. See Lanzillotta (1987) 106–114; Berranger (2000) 87–89; Ornaghi (2009) 205–218; Daifa, Kourayos, and Sutton (2018).
Hdt. 8.112.
Lanzillotta (1987) 115–119.
Constatakopoulou (2007) 63–75.
On dithyrambic contests in Delos, see Strabo 15.3.2; CEG 2.838; IG XII.5.544.A2.34–47; Ieranò (1989). On their Athenian patronage, see Rutherford (2004); Fearn (2007) 142–156 and (2013).
Kowalzig (2007b) 71–72.
Kowalzig (2007b) 81 and, more generally, 59–110.
Fearn (2007) 242–256, (2011) 207–217, and (2013); Kowalzig (2007b) 89–94; Wilson (2007).
Kowalzig (2007b) 95–97.
For Pindar’s relation with the Athenian aristocracies, see Hubbard (2001); Athanassaki (2011); Neer and Kurke (2014) and (2019), 123–158; Catenacci (2919).
[Apollod.] 2.5.9; 3.15.7.
Kowalzig (2007b) 91–92, 95–97. Minos was also seen in the light of Athenian imperialism as the first thalassocratic ruler of the Aegean sea; the Athenians succeeded him in this role. See Constatakopoulou (2007) 90–97.
The same thing happens in Bacchylides’ Dithyramb 17, for a chorus of Ceans, because it represents Minos as an unjust tyrant, whereas in Ceos he was honored. See Kowalzig (2007b) 89–94.
Callim. Aet. frs. 3–7 Pf.; [Apollod.] 3.15.7.
Berranger (1992) 195–198.
Kebric (1983) 3–13; Ornaghi (2009) 183–205.
On the spread of traditions concerning the life of Archilochus in Athens in the years of Cimon’s ascendancy, see Ornaghi (2009) 232–244; Giuseppetti (2022); Zanetto (2023).