SAMIAN AMPHORAS - The American School of Classical Studies at ...

SAMIAN AMPHORAS 65
We may perhaps frame our group chronologically by noting that discovery at
Alexandria of four duplicates of Haviaras types (1, 2, 25, and 26) suggests a date
after 331 B.C.; while the use of the Ionic genitive form 'Hpqr in 17-19 apparently
indicates a date before about 310 B.C.35
Occasion for the production of this unique small series of stamped Samian
amphoras might then be found in the festival or festivals inaugurated for the restoration
of the Samians to Samos in 322 B.C. (cf. Barron, p. 135, and Habicht's work
there cited, especially p. 160.) A description of an annual ritual on the shore near
the Heraion and a legend to account for it come to us from a Samian writer thought
to date in the 3rd century B.C.: Menodotos, as quoted by Athenaios (Deipiosophistai,
XV, 672) Each year the cult image was brought down to the sea and purified, and
barley cakes, #aor-a, were laid beside it, in memory of a propitiatory offering by some
pirates who once agreed to steal it. According to the legend, the image proved,
magically, far too heavy to be rowed away, and so the pirates put it ashore in
fear, placed the cakes, and escaped unnoticed. Next morning a search was instituted
for the image missing from the temple; and when it was found by simple
people, these secured it tightly with the long willow-like branches of the agnus castus
(Xvyos) that grew there, so it should not run away again. For this reason, says
Menodotos, the festival is called " Tonaia " or " Tight-pulling." Perhaps the story
is illustrated by the type incompletely represented by our 64 and 65, for which no
parallel has been found, and no other explanation. To the right, that may be Hera's
image, and the rather comically depicted central figure is perhaps engaged in tying
it up, his back arched in a pull, and something like the end of a cord hanging from
his left fist, while his raised right hand may be reaching for another long branch. In
the light of the story, what is spelled out by the bees and the bearded grains of our
31-34 may be the ritual 4al(ra6, since these were made of ground barley mixed with
honey and oil. In 28 and 29, then, we may see the image (&Ep&ara) back in the temple,
Elrt rov ,/3cpov, as replaced by Menodotos' priestess.
The types of our 1-7, and 17-27, possibly also our 28-29, reinforced by the
inscriptions in 17-19, 25-27, and perhaps 77, seem to show us who received those
who came to celebrate. " And the goddess would provide for the banqueters barley
meal and loaves of bread, wine and sweetmeats, and a portion of the sacrificial victims
from the sacred herd," as Xenophon says with reference to the festival he instituted
near Olympia; the food and drink offered were the produce of the land belonging to
the temple."8 Perhaps both wine and oil for Samian festivals were supplied in our
Sculpture, Athens, 1968, p. 131; relief illustrated G. M. A. Richter, A Handbook of Greek Art,
6th edition, 1969, p. 165, fig. 222. The figure in 62 and 63 rather combines the poses of the two
figures in the treaty relief.
35 Ch. Habicht, Ath. Mitt., LXXII, 1957, pp. 159, 260.
36 Anabasis, Loeb translation, V, iii, 7 ff. For the pleasure of festival at the Heraion itself, see
Nikainetos (2nd century B.C.) apud Athenaios, Deipnosophistai, XV, 673. For amphora stamps
which apparently identified the produce of a sanctuary, cf. Delos 27, under no. E 252.