Heroön
A heroön or heroon (plural heroa) (/hɪˈroʊ.ɒn/; Ancient Greek: ἡρῷον, romanized: hērôion, pl. ἡρῷα, hērôia), also Latinized as heroum, was, in the ancient Greco-Roman world, a shrine dedicated to a hero and used in the practice of hero cult ritual. A heroön was often built over what was traditionally identified as a hero's tomb or cenotaph. Heroa were erected from the time of archaic Greece to the Augustan Roman period, from the 9th century BC to the first century AD. The practice was widespread in the ancient world; ruins of heroa have been found in Ai-Khanoum in Afghanistan.
Heroa in cult practice
[edit]Hero cults were a defining feature of ancient Greek religion. A hero was a legendary deceased mortal figure whose name was to be honored through ritual worship at a shrine—heroön—typically built over the hero's traditional burial site. [1] The cult typically centred on the the hero's shrine—heroön—which was believed to contain the hero's relic bones. Cultists believed that honoring a hero at these sites—either privately by leaving votive offering or publicly with ceremonial athletic games and feasts—allowed them to access a hero's lingering local power.[2]
These public ceremonies played a central role in the life of a polis, giving the city a shared focus for its identity.[2] Tradition held that Cimon of Athens avenged the death of the legendary hero Theseus in 469 BC by locating the hero's bones and bringing them to Athens. In his Histories, Herodotus recounts that a band of Spartans raided the shrine at Tegea and stole the bones of Orestes from his heroön there. By capturing Orestes's remains, the Spartans bound the hero's protective power to their polis and so assured their victory over Tegea, thus fulfilling a prophecy of the Oracle of Delphi.[3] (For an analogous practice in ancient Rome, see evocatio).
Heroa around the Greco-Roman world
[edit]Spread across the Mediterranean, heroa appear near Mycenaean tholos tombs and within civic sanctuaries. In Italy, notable examples include the Tomb of Theron in Agrigento, Sicily and a shrine in Paestum that yielded large metal vases.[4]
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in Greek Macedonia, a heroön at Vergina likely honored the family of Alexander the Great and may have housed a cult statue of Philip II. Within mainland Greece, the Heroön at Nemea in the sanctuary of Zeus honored the infant hero Opheltes.[5]
The heroa tradition extended into the Roman era; many can be found in modern Turkey. An Augustan-period heroön stands in Sagalassos, while Ephesus houses the Library of Celsus, a shrine to Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus.[citation needed]
History
[edit]Bronze Age and Archaic Greece
[edit]The earliest heroa in Greece appeared during the Mycenaean era of the Late Bronze Age. Builders constructed these sites using typical tombs of the era—either subterranean shaft graves filled with lavish grave goods or stone-walled tholos (beehive) chamber tombs.[6]
An unlooted shaft tomb at Pylos, dedicated to the "Griffin Warrior" contained a rich assemblage of goods including a large bronze sword, gold rings, jewels, and finely carved seals.[7] The mixed Mycenaean and Minoan styles of these artifacts indicates extensive cultural interaction across the Bronze Age Aegean.[8]
The tradition of building tombs to honor heroes continued from Mycenae into other areas of Greece.[6] This can be seen by the heroön found at Lefkandi in Euboea.[9] This site dates to around 950 BC during the Iron Age.[9] This site differs from earlier sites, as it was built in an apsidal style.[9] This means that one end of the tomb was shaped like a half-circle.[9] In addition, the site is much larger than previous tombs as it reaches up to 50 meters long.[9] The inside of this heroön contains two human remains, which have been cremated and placed in bronze amphoras.[9] One of these remains is the hero himself, who can be identified by the hunting scene found on his amphora, as well as the many swords that were left by his tomb as grave gifts.[9] The other set of human remains at this site is believed to be the hero's wife, who possibly was slaughtered with him when the hero died.[9]
Classical Greece
[edit]This idea of using a tholos tomb for heroa continued in Greece even into the Classical Age.[6] This is illustrated by a heroön found at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Olympia. This tomb, which was established around 450 B.C., follows the typical tholos tomb structure with a large dome with several other rooms flanking the tomb to provide the building with a square shape. Within the tomb, there is a large earthen mound that held the ashes of the cremated hero. This tomb must is likely to have been erected for an important figure that was known across Greece, as it was located at a Panhellenic Sanctuary rather than in the astu of a particular polis. This heroön also shows the wide variety of architectural styles used on heroa depending on time period and geography, as it differs considerably from the heroa found at Leftkandi and Acragas.[10][11]
Heroa were common not only on the Greek mainland but also in the colonies. This can be seen at the heroön of Acragas on the south coast of Italy. This heroön, known as the oratory of Phalaris, was much more similar to classical architecture, with the building being prostyle, tetrastyle, and having columns in the Ionic order and both triglyphs and metopes, as in the Doric style. The building was constructed in 1st century BC and is surrounded by many other Greek temples. It was used as a church for a time after the end of the Greek and Roman periods.[12]
References
[edit]- ↑ Parker, Robert (1986). "Greek Religion". In Boardman, John; Griffin, Jasper; Murray, Oswyn (eds.). The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press (published 2001). ISBN 9780191500626. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
The term 'hero' had a technical sense in Greek religion: a hero was a figure less powerful than a god, and to whom cult was paid. He was normally conceived as a mortal who had died, and the typical site of such a cult was a tomb. But various kinds of minor supernatural figure came to be assimilated to the class and, as in the case of Heracles, the distinction between a hero and a god could be uncertain.
- 1 2 Martin, Thomas R. "An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander: Hero Cults". Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University.
- ↑ Parkins, Helen (1997). Roman Urbanism. Routledge. p. 198.
- ↑ Bravo, Jorge J. (2016). "Erotic Curse Tablets from the Heroön of Opheltes at Nemea". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. 85 (1): 121–152. doi:10.2972/hesperia.85.1.0121. S2CID 247622264.
- ↑ Bravo, Jorge J. (2016). "Erotic Curse Tablets from the Heroön of Opheltes at Nemea". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. 85 (1): 121–152. doi:10.2972/hesperia.85.1.0121. S2CID 247622264.
- 1 2 3 Campbell, Gordon (2007). "Heroon". Oxford Reference. Oxford.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ↑ Wade, Nicholas (26 October 2015). "Grave of 'Griffin Warrior' at Pylos Could Be a Gateway to Civilizations". The New York Times.
- ↑ Waelkens, Marc (July 2010). "Northwest Heroon: Introduction. - Archeology's Interactive Dig". Archaeology Magazine.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 De Waele, Jake (1998). "The Layout of the Leftkandi Heroon". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 93: 379–384. doi:10.1017/S0068245400003506. S2CID 161561486.
- ↑ "Olympia Heroon". Tufts University Olympics. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023.
- ↑ "Tufts University - Perseus Digital Library". Tufts University Perseus Digital Library. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023.
- ↑ "Agrigento". Encyclopædia Britannica. 4 April 2013.
External links
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