Mercury's Wings by J. A. Talbert Richard; S. Naiden Fred;

Author:J. A. Talbert, Richard; S. Naiden, Fred;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA - OSO
Published: 2017-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

Pilgrimage and Communication

Ian Rutherford

MUCH, EVEN MOST, long-distance travel in the ancient world was religious in motivation: primary forms included attending or advertising festivals, consulting oracles, undergoing initiation at special initiation centers, and seeking a cure for an illness.1 The visitors could be official delegates (theoroi) or private citizens (particularly for the purpose of healing or initiation). Sometimes symbolic pilgrimages were made by political or military leaders. All of these forms are attested in the context of traditional Greek polytheism, from the Archaic period through the Roman Empire. They are also attested in other parts of the ancient world, especially in Greco-Roman Egypt, but also in the Near East, particularly in the Jewish Diaspora; so the volume of sacred travel must have been high in all periods. We hear most about the larger sanctuaries, which drew visitors from a correspondingly broad area (Map 10.1); but there were also many smaller sanctuaries whose clientele was drawn from a regional “catchment area,” and these have left less evidence. The largest figure recorded for a single pilgrimage is that given for Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem—over three million annually, according to Josephus (see below). That number is presumably an exaggeration, but Herodotus gives the figure of 600,000 for the festival of Artemis-Bubastis in the Egyptian Delta (see below). Major pagan festivals in the Greek world must also have drawn tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands. Some of the so-called Puthais delegations sent by Athens to Delphi in the late second and early first centuries BCE seem to have comprised well over one thousand participants, including choirs, ephebes, and horsemen.2

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