Hero cults

Ancient and classical Sparta enjoyed a reputation for piety unequaled among her Greek neighbors, allies, and enemies. The Spartan state was famous, and infamous, in the ancient world for her strict devotion to religion, especially in times of war. Modern scholarship on Spartan religious scruples has focused mainly on the offerings made by the Spartan kings before battles, which they would follow even if it proved disadvantageous, and the reluctance of the Spartans to disrupt their own festivals despite a clear advantage to doing so. Scholars have said little, however, about what role religious motivation may have played on the battlefield itself. The Spartans had numerous reasons to exhibit courage and bravery on the battlefield, even in the face of odds like those at Plataea and Thermopylae, in part because of their distinct hero cult

The study of myth is not just indulgence. It appears that myth provides us with information that is based on facts that can be deemed historical, albeit interpreted facts. In addition, myths can be informative of the state of scientific insight of the time frame in which they functioned. They are also existentially important in that they have an etiological, integrative or explanatory function with regard to important questions of existence and ultimate destination. It is from this perspective that the present study is undertaken.
The basic tenet is that the portrayal of Jesus as miracle worker and healer is not unique in the social and historical time frame of the first century Mediterranean world. The emphasis on his prowess in this sphere was intended to rival him to the Graeco-Roman healer-god, Asklepios, in order to present him (Jesus) as superior and therefore a leader worth following and believing in. In this way the Jesus myth had a propaganda and identity-forming motif.

The figure of the Gorgon Medusa, slain by the Greek hero Perseus, has lived in the Western imagination for more than 2500 years.  Who is she, and how and when did she appear, and why was she decapitated?  This complex image that spread throughout the Greek world did not arise in a vacuum. Its roots reach deep into the Neolithic cultures of the ancient world.  This article examines the polyvalent image of the Gorgon and related female imagery, coalesced from pre-Helladic elements, in relation to the cult of the hero that came to typify Greek society.

Above-ground burials in south-western Anatolia can be seen as result of the influence of both an older, local Lycian and the Persian-Anatolian tradition. Their adaptation within Greek part of population emerged new structural and decorative elements in funerary architecture. Rock-cut tombs can be found not only in the Lyco-Carian borderland, but also in central Caria, i.e. in areas where a substantial representation of the Carian ethnic group is attested. Among very common iconographic motifs are funeral feasts and offering ceremonies as well as depictions of riders or warriors (seeking to realism?). Banquet scenes are nowadays understood more in the context of social status than cult significance. However, at least partial cult meaning cannot be avoided. A space designated for cult activities (e.g. banqueting) is characteristic for almost all types of Hellenistic funerary monuments. The raised stepped podia of Hellenistic built tombs and al- tars elevated on pedestals (in the case of temenoi with an underground chamber) are similar in character to the rock-cut tombs carved above the ground. The presence of altars in front of rock-cut tombs can only be assumed in combined built and rock- cut tombs. However, the symbolism of offering (and consumption) is present as depiction of “funeral banquet” on the façades. On the other hand, in the case of built tombs, altars are important cult and decorative elements. Both an altar and a relief depiction of a funeral banquet can be understood as carriers of the same or similar ideological message. The tomb became not only a resting place of the deceased but also a place of “formal worship” - with perhaps more ideological than religious aspects.

The object of interest is examination of the epigraphic and archaeological evidence related to the
burial rites in the Hellenistic period characteristic by the variety of funeral monuments. New cogitations
and techniques of funeral architecture appeared in the whole Hellenistic world but in Caria strong local
tradition is in evidence. The heroic aspects of the deceased are best to be observed by examining the
particular monuments and their architectural symbols as well as epigraphic evidence and contextual
data. Aim is to accentuate that necropoleis and singular grave temenoi in particular were space where
living interacted with the world of dead. Burial rites can be partial reconstruct with the help of supportive
information however they did not survive in the form of material finds.

"This book argues that John 6:51c–58 makes christological rather than eucharistic claims. While scholars have often viewed the “Bread of Life Discourse” as a later addition of eucharistic theology to John’s supposedly anti- sacramental gospel, I propose that the narrative of consumption in this pericope functions to make Jesus “equal to God.” The moment when Jesus exhorts those around him to eat his flesh and drink his blood is when Jesus identifies himself with the God who put him on earth to die a sacrificial death. The series of statements in John 6:51c–58 brings about the identification of Jesus with God because of shared cultural expectations in the ancient Mediterranean world about the nature of heroic sacrifice: sacrifice, and the accompanying sacrificial meal, establish the identification of a hero with a deity when the hero and deity have an antagonistic relationship in narrative.

John’s Jesus emphasizes his submission to the will of God, who from the start of the gospel is described as having put Jesus on earth to die. Indeed, Jesus’ death is alluded to throughout John. While the pattern of antagonism in narrative and association in cult has previously been demonstrated in Homeric literature and historical cult practice in the work of Gregory Nagy, I trace the development of this trope through the Greek romances, where antagonism, death, and meal collide in narrative.

The romantic heroines are associated with divinities, are sacrificed, and are consumed. In other words, where antagonism and association as tropes occur in distinct realms in Homer’s time, by the Common Era, association and antagonism both occur at the level of narrative, juxtaposing divinely beautiful heroines with their horrific human sacrifices. The novels are therefore a lens through which to view John 6:51c–58. In light of Chaereas and Callirhoe, An Ephesian Tale, Leucippe and Clitophon, and An Ethiopian Story, it becomes apparent that John, not through direct literary dependence but through participation in the literary milieu of the ancient Mediterranean, manipulates this trope of association and antagonism, and in doing so, establishes Jesus as God in John 6:51c–58, where sacrifice, consumption, and divinity likewise intersect."

The figure of the Gorgon Medusa, slain by the Greek hero Perseus, has lived in the Western imagination for more than 2500 years. Who is she, and how and when did she appear, and why was she decapitated? This complex image that spread throughout the Greek world did not arise in a vacuum. Its roots reach deep into the Neolithic cultures of the ancient world. This article examines the polyvalent image of the Gorgon and related female imagery, coalesced from pre-Helladic elements, in relation to the cult of the hero that came to typify Greek society.

The characteristics of individuals deemed heroes occupy a prominent place for representing cultural ideals across diverse genres—ranging from ancient Near Eastern myth and classical Greek epic all the way to contemporary film studies, propaganda, art history, athletic competition, and beyond. In this book I examine the heroic world of ancient Israel within the Hebrew Bible, and show that ancient Israelite literature operated within and against a much broader world of heroic ideals in its ancient context. As evidence of this heroic interaction, I show that the Hebrew Bible’s focus on the heroic body indicates traces of heroic ideologies that were popular in the eighth–fifth century Mediterranean world, and to that extent the Bible shares a place in the discussion of heroic themes parallel to archaic and classical Greece. Even the Bible’s ambivalence toward heroic tropes mirrors Greek literature that may be read to call into question the value of “strong bodies” as the ultimate or only solution to political problems.

Although the muted presentation of the bodily characteristics of heroes in the Bible does comport with the muted terms of physical character description from ancient literature—at least relative to what contemporary audiences often expect—the Bible’s heroic bodies are markedly more muted, even paradoxical. When those physical properties are given, however, they provide crucial insights. Samson’s hair, for example, gives him power (perhaps both physical and sexual) through its linkage to his nazirite status but turns into the source of his undoing once the power-secret is uncovered. Absalom’s hair plays a similar role. The remarkably lavish description of David’s physical attractiveness cannot be disentangled from his own lust for beauty, and thus his own undoing, after he becomes king. Saul’s handsomeness and notable height, “a head taller” than his contemporaries, gives him a charismatic status but also proves a source of military and even spiritual humiliation—he cannot face the giant Goliath, and he emerges as the false choice of the people, based only on appearance and false charisma. In each of these examples, the efficacy of the heroic body is clear, yet in each case the hero’s downfall seems connected to the body.

On other fronts, the heroic body communicated the “code” of hero cult, a motif frequent in Aegean literatures and reflected in the Bible as well. Positively, Saul’s bones and the contest to secure those bones demonstrate the continued power of Saul as a signal of leadership and legitimacy; negatively, the prophet Ezekiel ridicules the bodies of ignominious foreign warriors in a manner that seems to acknowledge and mock the power of heroic bodies from beyond death. The heroic body in each case tells a story, of Israel’s remembered history in the making and of the eventual “end” of monarchic, heroic history in Israel and toward a new kind of individual power. To this end, exilic- and post-exilic-era compositions transform or displace the heroic body with new descriptions of readers, lamenters, interpreters, and administrators, parallel in key ways to the Platonic transformation of heroic tropes into the life of the philosopher (e.g., in the Apology and the Phaedo) and also the overarching transformation of national and monarchic themes in the Hebrew Bible into more local terms. Still, the heroic body could remain a point of inspiration and focus, or even a signal of hubris and danger, for audiences in an ongoing manner.

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Preserving of local customs is visible in Karia and neigboring regions, as well as the effort to enforce new ideas and fashion in funerary architecture. The continuity of chosen types of burying and keeping up the local elements continued also in the Hellenistic period, even if Karian language and culture assimilated into the Greek. One of the examples is the appearance of heroa that was unlike the common tombs and burials, situated directly or close to urban structures. Funerary structures of this type are in part given into correlation with ancestor cult and afterlife deification of local rulers. Karia is also characteristic by the presence of representative temple-like tombs and burial precincts that appeared to be separated from the profane country. Above ground tombs and burials may be explained by maintenance of native tradition as well as inspiration of foreign customs, both in a broad geographical and chronological scale. Especially notable appears proximity of Karian and Lykian material culture, becoming increasingly apparent in current scholar works. It is reflected in similar types of funerary buildings, importance of dynastic monuments, long-term tradition of heroa or modification of foreign stimuli according own needs. The common sign of identified heroa in the whole south-western Anatolia in the Hellenistic period was a combination of elements of several building types. Particularly significant seems to be so called temple tombs, which are nowadays understood as implication of older Anatolian tradion in funerary culture. Their origin, as well as the model of their façades, has been long debated, while it seems to be accepted now that they were shaped in order to reflect some kind of monumental, probably dynastic, buildings, rather than Greek temples.  However, religious importance should not be omitted. It is important to point out assorted meaning of tombs, connected with position of dead person within society. In Hellenistic period an increasing emphasis on certain ritual activities can be observed.
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Certain changes in understanding and organization of burial space, combining traditional view and new trends, can be traced in antiquity, even if variations happened slowly and gradually. Hellenistic period was not an exception, as it is demonstrated by findings from various localities. Numerous tombs can be considered as space devoted to specific activities in honor and memory of deceased. From this point, coexistence of poleis, mixed cities with various legal rights or numerous communities were crucial in western Anatolia. Modification of older ancestor cult in the burial customs was clearly visible yet in classical Caria or Lycia. Memorials of wealthy members of society and benefactors had become more and more common and popular in the following period. These monuments can be seen as partial and smaller scale inspiration of building programme of local dynasts, but their owners were more related to the aristocratic settings. Certain similarities were visible in the various types of arts in the Greek mainland, bearing message concerning public life, awareness, affiliation or legitimacy of ruling power already in pre-Classical period. This tradition had continued throughout antiquity in wide geographical sphere. Epigraphic evidence, presence of altars, iconography of built or rock-cut tombs in south-western Anatolia in the Hellenistic period suggest more emphasis on cult activities linked with sacrifice and banqueting. It may be indicated also by recent finds of Π-shaped tomb from Labraunda temenos.

Marko Miljanov: kult hrdiny v perspektivě transnacionální historie, In: Dana Bittnerová – Mirjam Moravcová (eds.), Etnické komunity - Hrdinové, šibalové, antagonisté Balkánu, Praha: FHS UK 2017,  pp. 111-172.
SUMMARY: Marko Miljanov: A Hero Cult from the Perspective of Transnational History. The contribution is devoted to the cult of Marko Miljanov (1833-1901), chieftain of the Kuči tribe from the present-day Montenegrin-Albanian borderland, general and writer, traditionally considered as an an epitome of "Montenegrin heroism" (crnogorsko junaštvo). It will primarily focus on the process of establishment of his cult from the perspective of transnational history. Miljanov is primarily a Montenegrin hero, but is also included in the imaginary Serb national pantheon. The image of Miljanov in the Albanian milieu is more ambivalent. Miljanov can be represented as a military foe of the Albanians, but also as their greatest friend among the South Slavs and sometimes even as a person of Albanian ethnic origin. The genesis of the cult of Marko Miljanov as a great hero and exemplary human being has a Prague context as well.  Czech Slavophiles, especially the writer, journalist and translator Josef Holeček, contributed to his glorification already during Miljanov´s lifetime in the 1880s and 1890s. In the 1930s and 1940s, the stories about Miljanov as well as his own writings attracted the attention of the leading German Slavicist Gerhard Gesemann, who taught at the German University in Prague at the time.  In Montenegro itself, the memory of Marko Miljanov was appropriated and instrumentalized by all political regimes throughout the 20th and 21st century. In recent years, Miljanov has been reinterpreted as an advocate of multiethnic coexistence of the South Slavs and Albanians. At the same time, critical efforts to deconstruct his cult have also appeared, especially among historians and contemporary writers.

The Hellenistic tradition of funerary monuments in Early Imperial Asia Minor was based equally on both, the form and decoration of tomb monument. Figurative decoration on panel reliefs or sarcophagi embodied political allegory and civic ideology together with the depiction of the deceased. Unfortunately, various free standing statues and mural paintings are nowadays considered lost, despite numerous references of ancient authors and epigraphic evidence. How much of funerary decoration should be understood in terms of traditional civic ideas of the Hellenistic world and how much in terms of Roman concept, is one of the most important issues related to the Roman sepulchral landscape in Anatolia. Early Imperial architectural forms followed Hellenistic tradition while communicating Roman ideas through orientation and organization of space. Similar system of public honors that Greek cities bestowed upon their citizens and foreign benefactors in previous period (praise, crown, statue, prohedria, tafé demosia) was maintained. Architectural changes in western Asia Minor came about in the Augustan Age, reflecting the major political transformation of the empire.

Neokoros (Gr. νεώκoρος/νεωκόρος) Roma İmparatorluk Dönemi'nde imparator kültüne bağlı olarak ortaya çıkan dini bir terim ve Hellen Küçük Asyası'nda bizzat imparator tarafından kentlere verilen unvandır. Neokoros teriminin kelime anlamı bir tapınağın günlük rutininden ve işlevselliğinden sorumlu kişiler, tapınak koruyucusu olarak açıklanmaktadır. Hellen-Küçük Asya'sında neokoros unvanına sahip kentler bu unvan sayesinde agonlar düzenleyebilir, tanrısallaştıran imparatoru bu şekilde onurlandırırlardı. Neokoros düşüncesi, özellikle Augustus Dönemi'nde, Roma İmparatorluk Dönemi'nin başlaması ile şekillenmeye başlar. İmparator Augustus sonrasında pek çok imparatorun öldükten sonra tanrı ilan edildiği bazılarının ise yaşarken tanrılaştırıldığı görülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, MÖ 3. binden itibaren ilk krallık kurumunun gelişim sürecini ve bununla ilişkili olarak tanrı-kral, kutsal krallık düşüncesini Roma İmparatorluk Dönemi'ne kadar izlemektir.

Archaeopress- Access Archaeology:
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SOMA 2015 Time, Space and People. Proceedings of the 19th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology.

Funerary architecture in western Anatolia reflects the cultural, religious and social life habits of various ethnicities, indicating the development of older religious ideas and beliefs. In the Hellenistic period certain changes in the burial cult appeared, which are traceable in material culture and also attested by written sources. Especially important was the role played by the Eastern Greek poleis, where the new diversity of civic culture occurred. Numerous epigraphic evidence attest to the rewarding of certain members of society in a spectacular way, which could be related to the transformation of the hero cult or to the resumption of the ancestor cult. It is expected that modification
to older practices was permitted by political and constitutional changes in the polis, the tradition of establishing heroes and praising certain members of Greek society or local customs at the same time.

Anatolia is considered one of the most diverse areas of settled Greek communities by topography, climate or history, as a place where multiple language and ethnic groups moved around, being influenced by and influencing each other. Many Greek poleis in Anatolia continued to flourish and prosper in the Hellenistic period. Some of them had to come to terms with a new position of subordination to a king, but the majority of them had been familiar with such rule before. Awareness of citizenship can be seen as a formal symbol of autonomy and independence. The individual character of the ruler or city-state representative appeared in a prominent place, standing, in iconography, between the divine and human sphere. Numerous Anatolian poleis awarded euergetai during their lifetime and legitimized declining state power in this manner. There are also signs of social transformations, if gradual ones. The huge increase in numbers of inscriptions is one of most striking features of the surviving epigraphic evidence. Written sources indicate that honors as well as memorials for citizens emphasized city-state autonomy, too. A similar tendency is traceable by a process traditionally defined as private hero cult, related to the religious life as much as to the political statements and social classification. Cultural interaction between Greeks and local ethnics is attested from as far back as the Late Bronze Age, as strong links between them are not merely limited to the political context, but also emphasized by archaeological sources. After the

This paperwork refers to the three selected funeral inscriptions on the round altars from Carian
site Stratoniceia, which represent the indisseverable element on the grave temenos in the Hellenistic
period in the specified area. Considering fact, that none of them was found in situ, selected epitaphs
helps us to better understand how they functionate did and how the world of living was connected with
the world of dead. However the necropolis in Stratoniceia was almost completely destroyed by modern
urbanization, we can find parallels in region nearby, especially on the necropolis of Cnidus.

This paper revisits some unusual buildings overlooked in mainstream classical archaeology, that were constructed at the non-Greek Mediterranean city of Xanthos in the mid-5th century BC. It points out that previous scholarship has not recognised their value as indicators of a new and particular urban identity constructed by a significant emerging power at an important juncture in Mediterranean history.

Although as the first examples of stone imitations of timber architecture these buildings are often mentioned in discussions about the origins of Lycian ‘house tombs’, and sometimes summarily discussed in terms of their function, the architectural phenomenon that these buildings represent has not received extensive consideration.  Here it is argued that their genesis can be located in the building of a monumentalised skyline, potentially drawing on other cities’ acropoleis as models.  In addition to this, the buildings also suggest new forms of commemoration. 

It is proposed here that while there could have been changes in eschatological beliefs and/or cult practice, these three innovative structures could also be related to the broader practice of erecting monuments to honor city founders in prominent public spaces. 

In this way, both the terms ‘acropolis’ and ‘heroa’ – loaded terms usually loosely applied in the literature – may have more particular meaning for the architectural projects that transformed Kuprlli’s Xanthos, and made it stand out in a Mediterranean world of increasing complexity, contemporary with the rise of the Delian League and the emergence of the early Classical style in Greek art.

Baylor Institute for Studies on Religion presents "Research on Religion" podcast interview hosted by Dr. Anthony Gill (professor of political science at the University of Washington and distinguished senior fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion) with link to full description and audio.