The Greek World

Author:Hornblower, Simon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: EgyptianLibrary

Figure 14.1 The temple of Artemis, Ephesus

Figure 14.2 The temple of Athena (reconstructed) at Priene

THE EFFECTS OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

Figure 14.3 Labraunda: general view

well as socially enlarged by the addition of village populations from round about; but there are other possible candidates too. 72 This was done at the instance of wealthy satraps. Building work of this sort was to the advantage of individual Greeks, in that it created a market for their skills, and offered payment on a scale not available in their home states. 73 Skilled Athenians, for reasons already reviewed above, gravitated eastwards in numbers after 400, but they were not alone (cf. Stephanus of Byzantium, entry under 'Monogissa for the activity in Karia of the sculptor Daidalos of Sikyon). The resulting art was often hybrid (as at Labraunda in Karia where Doric and Ionic orders were mixed), resembling effects at some other half-hellenized places (p. 56).

Religion: change, and the absence of it

We may end this account of the effects of the Peloponnesian War with the religious changes it brought. But before discussing innovation in religion, the continuance of conventional beliefs and practices should be emphatically stressed, just as a balanced description of the hellenistic age ought to give space and prominence to the survival of the worship of the old Olympians no less than to the novel and the outre. The pious Xenophon, rather than the agnostic and very exceptional Thucydides, is the characteristic figure of the age: his belief in divine punishment for wrongdoing, 74 and his belief in oracles, are normal. It is an error, but a common one, to suppose that Delphi's 'medism' in the Persian wars damaged the oracle's reputation: 75 the Spartans approached Delphi as a matter of course at the beginning of the Peloponnesian

THE GREEK WORLD 479-323 bc

War (Hi. 1. 118. 3); and at the site of the Dodona oracle in Epirus (northwest Greece, see Fig. 14.4) ascertainable building activity starts only in the fourth century, though the oracle was allegedly the oldest in Greece. Inscribed metal strips have been found there, asking about journeys, marriage, childlessness (in Euripides' Ion, the visit to Delphi of Kreousa and Xouthos to consult about childlessness is an authentic touch) and so on; there has been an exciting recent increase in the volume of evidence from Dodona. 76 They mostly date from about 500-300 bc, with a noticeable increase in the fourth century. The kind of question asked of the oracle at Dodona leaves no doubt that religion for ordinary Greeks was no empty form. Here is an example (probably one of the latest in date, but typical of the everyday character of the inquiries throughout the period): 'Agis asks Zeus, Naos and Dione about the blankets and pillows which he has lost, whether someone from outside may have stolen them'. Two new items seem to be inquiries by slave, one of whom 'asks the god what he should do about his freedom' and another 'will Kittos get the freedom from Dionysios that Dionysios promised?'.

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