"Hieroi Logoi" and "Hierai Bibloi": The (Un ... - TTe Teach & Text

"Hieroi Logoi" and "Hierai Bibloi": The (Un)Written Margins of the Sacred in 

Ancient Greece 

Albert Henrichs 

Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 101. (2003), pp. 207-266. 

Stable URL: 

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0073-0688%282003%29101%3C207%3A%22LA%22BT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q 

Harvard Studies in Classical Philology is currently published by Department of the Classics, Harvard University. 

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at 

http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained 

prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in 

the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. 

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at 

http://www.jstor.org/journals/dchu.html. 

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed 

page of such transmission. 

The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic 

journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, 

and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take 

advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. 

http://www.jstor.org 

Wed Aug 29 08:12:33 2007

HIEROI LOGOI AND HIERAI BIBLOI: 

THE (UN)WRITTEN MARGINS OF THE SACRED 

IN ANCIENT GREECE 

For Reinhold Merkelbach 

THE use of writing for religious purposes was widespread in Greek 

and Roman culture.' Apart from the iepai Pip101 attributed to 

Numa Pompilius, Roman religion lacked sacred books, but it made substantial 

use of written texts.2 The Romans maintained extensive priestly 

archives which contained large collections of religious documents on 

wooden tablets, stone and papyrus, including the libri sacerdotales of 

the various priesthoods, the libelli of the Arval Brethren, the libri 

haruspicini and libri rituales of the diviners, and the ritual records of 

the pont~$ces.~The Sibylline Books of the Republican period, written 

in Greek and destroyed by fire in 83 B.c.E., served as the oracular 

source for a uniquely Roman form of di~ination.~ Access to all of these 

' Leipoldt/Morenz 1953; Harris 1989.124 f., 170 f., 218-222. On holy scriptures in 

other Mediterranean and in Near Eastern cultures see Lanczkowski 1956. For a comparative 

approach to sacred writ ("Heilige Schriften") and the "religions of the book" 

("Buchreligionen") see Colpe 1987; Dennyrraylor 1985; Rudolph 1988, esp. 44 f. 

Beard 1991; Scheid 1994.173: "Sans appartenir aux religions du Livre, la religion 

traditionelle des Romains etait une religion de l'ecrit." The "books of Numa," believed to 

be papyrus rolls containing pontifical law or Pythagorean texts (Livy 40.29.3-14; Pliny 

NH 13.84-87; August. Civ. dei 7.34 = Varro, Curio de cultu deorum fr. 3 Cardauns), are 

characterized as "sacred books" (iepai PiPho~) by Plut. Numa 22; cf. Speyer 1970.51-55. 

Cf. Thulin 1905109, esp. 1.1-12 ("die heiligen Biicher der etruskischen Disciplin," a 

description called into question by Colpe 1987.198); Wissowa 1912.4-7, 513-515, 527, 

534-549; Norden 1939; Latte 1960.157-161, 195-212; Cancik 1989 (on the libri 

fatales); Linderski 1986.2241-2256; Beard 1985 (on the records of the Frarres Arvales); 

Colpe 1987.198-201; Scheid 1994. 

Potter 1994.73-75.

208 Albert Henrichs 

texts was restricted to the members of the appropriate priesthoods. 

With few exceptions, religious records were rarely inscribed on stone 

and displayed publicly in Republican R ~me.~ 

The picture is very different for Greece. Here, a large number of 

religious documents survive in the epigraphical re~ord.~ Among the 

most prominent writings are sacred calendars, oracles, cult regulations, 

ritual precepts, dedications to divinities, sales of priesthoods, statutes of 

religious clubs and associations, records of divine epiphanies, and collections 

of healing miracle^.^ Certain types of religious texts were 

inscribed on sheets of various metals. This category includes the questions 

addressed to the oracle of Zeus NaYos at Dodona as well as a 

small number of magical amulets inscribed with spells and prayers; 

more importantly, the category also includes the leaden curse tablets 

found in large numbers all over the Mediterranean world and the socalled 

"Orphic" gold plates with descriptions of the underworld and 

instructions for the dead.8 Magical papyri form their own category, 

Richter 191 1, Lade 1960.14. 

The majority of relevant inscriptions can be found in ProttJZiehen 188611906 and 

Sokolowski 1955, 1962, 1969. Several cult inscriptions from the Hellenistic and imperial 

periods stipulate self-referentially that the texts they contain be recorded in writing (e.g., 

SIG3 985.1-3, 54-60, "divine ordinances" governing a private cult of Zeus in Philadel- 

phia, Lydia, whose members are instructed to touch the stone with the inscription as a test 

of their piety; 1007.3543, on the cult of Asklepios in Pergamon; 1109.16-28, the cult 

statutes of the Athenian Iobakkhoi). 

See Nilsson 1961.67-119, 218-249, 372-384 and Henrichs 2003 for an overview; 

Parker 1996a.43-55 on Athenian cult calendars; Dillon 1994 and Giroue 1998 on the Epi- 

daurian healing miracles; Hamilton 2000 and Dignas 2002a, 2002b.16-20 on temple 

inventories. For a dated collection of the fragments of Greek authors who wrote about 

cults and rituals see Tresp 1914. 

Questions to oracles: Parke 1967.101 f., 259-273 (Dodona). Curse tablets: Jordan 

1985, 1988; Bravo 1987; Tomlin 1988; Faraone 1991; Gager 1992. Amulets: Kotansky 

1991. On the gold tablets variously classified as "Orphic-Pythagorean" (Dieterich 1913), 

"Pythagorean" (Wilamowitz 1931132 and Zuntz 1971), "Orphic" (Guthrie 1952.171- 

182). "Orphic-Dionysiac" (Graf 1993, Riedweg 1998). "Bacchic" (Burkert 1993) or 

"agyptisch, orphisch, bakchisch" (Merkelbach 1999), see Henrichs 1982.154, 229 

nn. 151-156 (with earlier bibliogr.); Janko 1984; Burkert 1985.290-304 (who shows that 

the terms "Orphic," "Pythagorean" and "Dionysiac" were not mutually exclusive in antiq- 

uity); Tsantsanoglou/Parissoglou 1987; Lloyd-Jones 1990; Segal 1990; Graf 1991, 1993, 

1996; Parker 1995.496500; Baumgarten 1998.89-96; Riedweg 1998; Burkert 

1999.61-72; BernabelJimBnez San Cristbbal 2001; Bremmer 2002.1 1-24; Calame 2002. 

The texts incised on the majority of the bone tablets from Olbia are certainly "Orphic" 

(SEG 28.659461; Vinogradov 1991; below, n. 15), but the oldest of these bone tablets 

(5251500 B.c.E., from the island of Berezan) bears a dedication to Apollo of Didyma and

Hieroi Logoi and Hierai Bibloi 

209 

which covers a wide and diverse range from individual texts and collec- 

tions of spells to entire papyrus books composed of magical incanta- 

tions and instruction^.^ 

Different though they are, all of these texts share several common 

traits that contribute to their high profile: they are still extant, they 

are easily accessible in modem editions, and they have been the subject 

of numerous studies. Although many of them would reward attention, 

they are not my main focus. Instead, I would prefer to explore the elu- 

sive domain of lost and nonexistent "sacred texts" and "sacred books," 

that is iepoi h6yo1 and iepai PiPhoa so marginal that they did not sur- 

vive, so sublime that they existed only in the religious imagination, or 

as with some iepoi h6yot, so secret that they were never committed to 

writing. Still, there was a time in the distant past when these texts had 

their dedicated readers and pious believers, which is why they deserve a 

special place in any discussion of sacred writ. For us, texts of this type 

are for the most part so intangible-so entirely lacking in individual 

characteristics-that we can come to terms with them only as a group 

or category, not as separate scriptures. The generic name most often 

applied in modern scholarship to this elusive category of religious 

records is hieroi logoi. Scholars tend to affix this phrase indiscrimi- 

nately to any religious text or sacred writ. Roland Baumgarten's com- 

prehensive 1998 monograph on the concept and the typology of hieroi 

logoi marks the current culmination of this trend.I0 But as we shall see, 

contains an esoteric text in the form of a riddle in which the number seven is prominent 

(SEG 36.694 and Burkert 1994b). 

PreisendanzMenrichs 1973174; Betz 1986; DanieVMaltomini 1990192; Merkel- 

bach/Totti 1990191; FaraoneIObbink 1991; Martinez 1991; Merkelbach 1992; Graf 1997; 

Faraone 2000. For a photographic edition of two of the longest magical books from 

antiquity see Daniel 1991. 

'O The book by Baumgarten (ni Ronald J. Miiller; see Miiller 1993) appeared more 

than four years after I gave the lecture on which the present article is based. My criticism 

of Baumgarten 1998 is twofold. The author perpetuates the indiscriminate use of the 

term hieroi logoi as the purported equivalent of "heilige Schriften" and as a convenient 

label for any sacred text or utterance ranging from formulaic ritual legomena to attested, 

putative or imaginary hieroi logoi, including collections of oracles (below, section 3), 

Orphic writings (above, n. 8; below, section 2), mystery texts (below, section 6), Isis are- 

talogies and other Egyptianizing texts (below, section 5). In addition, Baumgarten 

approaches the hieroi logoi primarily as evidence for the debate on literacy and orality, as 

if they constituted first and foremost real texts or tangible documents, rather than virtual 

texts and ideological constructs. In his review of Baumgarten, Parker 2000 singles out 

this lack of definitional clarity as the principal weakness of a book that compartmental-


ancient authors regard texts titled hieroi logoi as a highly exclusive and 

profoundly arcane form of sacred discourse-so arcane that Herodotos 

and Pausanias refused to reveal the contents of a single hieros logos. 

Exploration of the written and unwritten margins of the sacred 

reveals three interconnected pairs of concepts that loom large in the 

Greek discourse on religion and textuality: the relationship between 

sacred texts and sacred books, the interplay between oral and written 

tradition, and the dynamic tension between secrecy and revelation. 

Each of these concepts will be the focus of attention at different points 

in my argument. The pair that is most fundamental and least transpar- 

ent, and that needs to be discussed first, is that of texts and books. 

Strictly speaking, books in the modem sense of the word-that is, 

multiple copies of the same text, in a completely identical script and 

format, bound in the same color and material, and circulating in large 

numbers--did not exist in antiquity. Though often translated as 

"books" for lack of a better term, bibloi are papyrus rolls that do not 

look like books at all. Texts are what books are made of, but texts do 

not depend on the written medium for their existence or dissemination. 

And as far as Greek religion is concerned, texts are infinitely more 

ubiquitous, and more important, than books. 

1. TEXTS AND BOOKS 

Throughout antiquity, books and texts of various kinds coexisted in a 

precarious symbiosis. For the purposes of this paper, a text is defined 

as a verbal communication, either oral or written, and a book is an 

organized written text, or a collection of texts, identified by a title and 

inscribed on papyrus or parchment. Rolls and codices-the ancient 

forerunners of our books-served as repositories for written texts 

whose survival depended on the durability of the inscribed surfaces that 

transmitted them. Typically, texts copied and recopied on perishable 

materials such as papyrus or parchment had a much longer lifespan 

than the so-called books that contained them. Books existed for the 

sake of texts, not the other way around. A book's identity was more 

precisely defined by its textual contents than by its physical form or the 

izes its subject and deals admirably with the separate compartments without ever explain- 

ing or scrutinizing the three terms that appear in its title-"heiliges Wort," "heilige 

Schrift," and "Hieroi Logoi."

Hieroi Logoi and Hierai Bibloi 211 

material on which it was written." It follows that, in principle, books 

were more dependent on texts for their existence than texts were on 

books. After all, shorter texts were routinely recorded on material 

unsuitable for books, such as stone, metal, and pottery. Longer texts 

could most easily be accommodated on papyrus or parchment, the very 

materials from which books were made. More importantly, sacred texts 

did not have to depend for their survival on the written word alone; 

memorized, recited, and transmitted by word of mouth in religious 

communities, these texts often owed their continued existence to oral 

tradition. 

Whatever the precise relationship between ancient texts and books, 

it was surely one of mutual dependence in which the book helped to 

perpetuate the text while the text imposed its imprint on the book. 

Nowhere are the vagaries of that relationship more striking than in the 

area of Greco-Roman religion. In the Greek world in particular, where 

religion was intensely regional, religious texts lacked central control 

and their status was much more fluid than that of comparable texts in 

Rome. One of the many paradoxes of Greek religion is that sacred 

texts resisted becoming sacred books. So, what exactly was the status 

of the written word in the religious practice and consciousness of 

Greek-speaking antiquity, and what is the difference between a sacred 

text and a sacred book? 

In attempting to answer these questions, albeit in a tentative fashion, 

1 propose to discuss a series of lost religious texts, some of which are 

explicitly referred to as hieroi logoi by ancient authors, while others 

represent more conventional categories of sacred writ, such as collec- 

tions of apocryphal oracles. References to these elusive texts can be 

found in ancient works of literature dating from the fifth century B.C.E. 

to the second century C.E. Such attestations highlight some of the func- 

tions of written texts and books in pagan cult by locating each speci- 

men of sacred writ in a concrete cultural and ritual context. In addition, 

these references also suggest ways of defining the relationship between 

sacred texts and sacred books. 

l1 Even illustrated rolls or codices, which were rare, could not entirely do without writ- 

ten texts. See Weitzmann 1959and 1972: TurnerParsons 1987.136 f.


2. WRITTEN TEXTS, RELIGIOUS IDENTITY, 

AND MARGINALITY 

I begin with a passage from Attic tragedy. Hippolytos, son of The- 

seus, is the only male virgin in all of Greek myth. He hates women, 

abstains from sex, and refuses the advances of his stepmother. In 

Euripides' Hippolytos (428 B.c.E.), an irate Theseus characterizes his 

son as a radical fanatic who practices vegetarianism and reveres empty 

books (952-954): 

1'j6q vuv aij~et ~ai 6~' &yr6~ou pop&< 

toizot


213 

Although ypoi~~asa is ambiguous, the term clearly signifies the written 

word.14 The association with Orpheus suggests that Hippolytos is 

indeed perceived as an avid consultant of Orphic texts, whatever their 

format or their contents. 

Orpheus is a mythical figure, a poet with a compelling voice, whose 

name became attached to many apocryphal books as well as to some of 

the most elusive ritual experts of antiquity, the so-called 'Orphics.'15 In 

a fragmentary column of the Derveni papyrus, the unknown author supposedly 

observes that Orpheus "is recounting a hieros logos from the 

first to the last word" (iep[ohoy]~?zat ~kv o6v ~ ai &[nb zo]C nphsou I 

[&~i] ~kxpt o6l6 [z~hE]u~q~ou fi4pazoS).17 If supplemented correctly, 

l4 Guthrie 1952.12 renders Hippolytos' xohhh ypuppaza as "wordy volumes," Flory 

1980.19 n. 25 as "many letters," Burkert 1982.1 1 and Parker 1995.483 as "many books"; 

Wilamowitz 1931132.2.187 paraphrases them more accurately as "Schriften des 

Orpheus," Barrett 1964.345 as "Orphic writings," and West 1983.16 as "Orphic scriptures." 

In Euripides and elsewhere, the term yp&kpaza refers to any written text, regardless 

of the writing material (LSJ s .~. and Thomas 1989.35 n. 66; cf. IT 727-745 for yp6.kpaza 

on a wooden Gkhzo~). Papyrus rolls, called P6Phot or PuPhialP~Phia (below, 

n. 30) in Athenian parlance (Eup. fr. 327 K.-A,, Ar. Av. 974-989 [discussed below], fr. 

506 K.-A., P1. Ap. 26DE, Xen. An. 7.5.14; Kleberg 1967.6 f.; Thomas 1992.13; Adrados 

1994.763), are mentioned only once in extant tragedy (Aesch. Supp. 947 kv xrrzxai~ 

P6Phwv ruzeocppayoykva; according to Turner 1977.10, however. the passage refers to 

public records on folded sheets of papyrus). 

l5 Cf. Graf 1987 on Orpheus; Burkert 1982.3-12 on the problem of the "Orphics"; 

West 1983 on the hexametrical theogonic poems ascribed to Orpheus; Baumgarten 

1998.70-121 on the diversity of "Orphic" writings; Riedweg 1995 on the ongoing debate; 

Burkert 1999.59-86 on "l'orfismo riscoperto." The key word "Orphics" ('Opcp~~e{) has 

been read on an inscribed bone tablet from Olbia dated to the fifth century B.C E. (SEG 

28.659; West 1983.17 f.; Vinogradov 1991; Burkert 1999.70 f.). The last two letters are 

uncertain and not readily confirmed by the published photograph, but if the reading is 

correct, this could be the first and only ancient attestation of 'Opcptroi as a designation 

for members of a religious group rather than for authors or users of works ascribed to 

Orpheus (cf. Zhmudh' 1992; Parker 1995.485). 

l6 The dialect of the Derveni papyrus is "Ionic with an Attic overlay" (Janko 1997.62). 

If the text is sound, the prepositional use of ykxpt 05 followed by a genitive would be 

another ionicism (Tsantsanoglou 1997.123). Janko 2001.21 nn. 96 and 101 prefers p k~p~ 

(z)oC. 

l7 Col. VII 7 f. of the Derveni papyrus as first reported by Obbink 1994.133 ("speaks 

in a sacred discourse"), who had access to "a private transcript of W. Burkert corrected by 

M. L. West on the basis of new information provided by Professor Tsantsanoglou, April 

1993," and as edited by Tsantsanoglou 1997.95, 122 f. This text has been adopted by 

LaksMost 1997.12 ("he is uttering a holy discourse, and from the first all the way to the 

last word"), Baumgarten 1998. 102 f. ("und dementsprechend tragt er vom ersten bis zum 

letzten Wort eine heilige Rede vor") and Janko 2001.21 ("In fact he is speaking allegori-


the passage would suggest that hieroi logoi-whether a generic designation 

for "sacred texts" or the title of a particular work18-were 

attributed to Orpheus as early as ca. 400 B.c.E., if not earlier. In my 

opinion, however, the restoration of the key word i&p[ohoy]~?zat must 

be rejected on papyrological as well as linguistic grounds.19 Still, even 

without the testimony of the Derveni papyrus it remains highly proba- 

ble that by ca. 500 B.C.E. Orpheus' name had become associated with 

hieroi logoi composed in hexameter^.^^ In the Hellenistic period 

Orpheus was definitely thought to be the author of various theogonic 

poems titled "Sacred Stories" or "Sacred Discourses" ('I~poi A6y0t).~l 

Anonymous 'I~poi A6yot that would fit the description 'Orphic' are 

mentioned in phi lo demo^.^^ By the time of Plutarch and Lucian, 

cally from his very first word right through to his last"). Janko 2001.3, 19 n. 76 and 21 

treats iepohopiv as a synonym of aivi~zeo0at and associates it with allegorical speech, 

but nowhere else does iepohopiv cany this meaning (below, n. 19; Lampe 1961.670). In 

the late first century c.E., Philon of Byblos connects the vehrepo~ zGv iepoh6ywv with 

allegorical interpretation (FGrHist 790 F 1.26), and a passage in Damaskios several centuries 

later associates unidentified iepoGyot with aivi~~ecr~a~ (De princ. 38, I 78.18 

Ruelle = I 118.14 f. Westerink chq ijdq nvkq iepoh6yot .roGzo aivizrovzat, misquoted by 

Sider 1997.135 n. 17). But it can hardly be taken for granted that iepoh6yocjiepohopiv 

had the same meaning in the Derveni papyrus (if the terms occurred there) as in Philon of 

Byblos and Damaskios, who postdate the Derveni commentator by more than half a millennium. 

On the problematic reconstruction of col. VII as a whole see below, n. 19. 

l8 On this distinction see Obbink 1994.131. 

l9 As currently joined and supplemented (above, n. 17), the various fragments from 

which col. VII has been reconstructed do not produce a sound and coherent text. Several 

of the fragments that make up this column appear to be mismatched. One of the problems 

of the current reconstruction is the creation of the mediopassive iepohoy~icr0at with 

active meaning, which is without parallel. In its active and passive voices the verb is first 

attested more than five hundred years later in Lucian (Syr. D. 26 6hho~ G ipohoykouolv, 

"others tell a sacred story," in an aetiological explanation for the self-castration of the 

eunuch priests attached to the cult of the Syrian Goddess) and Synesios (below, n. 108). 

The incongruities of the published text are not sufficiently remedied by the changes proposed 

in Janko 2001.21,2002.14. 

20 Obbink 1994.130-134 on "Hymns and Hieroi Logoi." 

21 Several hexametrical poems with the title 'Iepbq A6yoq or 'Iepoi A6yot were ascribed 

to Orpheus in antiquity (Kern.1922.140-143; West 1983, Index s.v. hieros logos; Baumgarten 

1998.97 ff.;Riedweg 1993 and 1995.56). The Hieros Logos which Epigenes (4th 

century B.c.E.?) attributed to the Pythagorean Kerkops while associating it simultaneously 

with Orpheus (Clem. Alex. Strom. 1.21 = Kern 1922.63, testim. 222) was at least as old 

as the Hellenistic collection of Orphic Hieroi Logoi in twenty-four books (Suda o 654; 

fragments collected by Kern 1922.140-248; cf. West 1983.9,226,248). 

22~hld.On Piety (I? Herc. 1428 fr. 3, 23-27 ed. Obbink 1994.114): Kki8qkoq


Orpheus' name had become synonymous with hieroi logoi of an eso- 

teric nature.23 

Orpheus' followers relied heavily on arcane books and special diets, 

both of which were alien to the mainstream of Greek religion.24 As we 

shall see, sacred writings and, more specifically, hieroi logoi are typi- 

cally associated with isolated, marginal groups or esoteric cults in 

Greek tradition. Unlike Judaism, Christianity, or Manichaeism, "Greek 

religion was not 'a religion of the book'."25 "Things done"-dromena, 

or rituals-were more central to religious practice than 'things 

said'-legomena, the utterances that accompanied any ritual perfor- 

mance, from ritual exclamations and liturgical formulae to invocations, 

(FGrHist 323 F 25) 6k CPhav] I Mqzhpa 0eGv (sc. cpqcriv), 6[rrep] I ~6.v zoiq 'Iepoiq 

A[6] 1 yotq ztvkq i


prayers, and exegetical texts, including various kinds of hieroi l ~goi.~~ 

Whether in actual practice or as a pious construct, hieroi logoi were 

legomena, "things said in a given cultic context, but few legomena 

qualified as hieroi logoi. The vast majority of ritual utterances were not 

considered hieroi logoi in antiq~ity.~' 

As portrayed by Theseus, Hippolytos is clearly an aberration, even 

an abomination, in Greek eyes. His association with books of a reli- 

gious or ritual nature sets him apart from ordinary Greek habits and 

from the mainstream of Greek religion. This may sound strange to 

anyone who reads Theseus' condemnation of his son with a Judaeo- 

Christian mindset, but Hippolytos' very identification with religious 

writings-with "books" about the gods or about rituals-defines him as 

a social and religious marginal. 

3. "TAKE THE BOOK 

In the Birds of Aristophanes (414 B.c.E.), Peisetairos is in the process 

of performing the foundation sacrifice for his new city when he is 

interrupted by a succession of intruders, one of whom is a "collectorlreciter 

of oracles" (Xpqopo3L6.yoS).28 KhrZsmologoi were experts on 

the use of oracles who played an important role in Greek religion and 

Athenian society.29 In modem scholarship the khr2smologoi are often 

26 Henrichs 1998. The surviving legomena of Greek cult are now collected in Porta 

1999. 

27 Unlike Baumgarten 1998.122 ff., I am not prepared to blur the distinction between 

the two categories. 

28Ar. Av. 848-1057, esp. 959-991, on which see Sfyroeras 1992.71-97, Dunbar 

1995.501-576, esp. 540-550, and Baumgarten 1998.42 f. This is not the only Aristo- 

phanic parody of "oracle-mongers" (cf. Smith 89). In Pax 1045-1 126, Trygaios' sacrifice 

is similarly interrupted by another khr2smologos (1047), Hierokles from Oreos on 

Euboia-a genuine historical figure outside comedy-who peddles bogus oracles 

ascribed to Bakis; here Bakis' oracles compete with the authority of Homer, while Homer 

vies with the Sibyl (cf. Fontenrose 1978.160, 170 f., 176). See below at nn. 35-37 on Eq. 

997-1099. 

29 Cf. Stengel 1920.64 f.; Jacoby 1954.2.185 f.; Fontenrose 1978.152-158; Pritchett 

1979.318-321; West 1983.40; Garland 1984.81 f., 113 f., 1990.82-85; Smith 1989.150- 

154; Garland 1990.82-85; Shapiro 1990; Baumgarten 1998.3848. KhrZsmologoi were 

distinct from the more professional manreis (Parker 2000), experts in sacrificial divination 

(Parker 1996b; below, n. 46). Garland 1984.113 argues that the two terms were inter- 

changeable, but Plutarch, Athenaios and various scholia on Aristophanes are hardly 

indicative for classical Athens. On the two possible connotations of khr2smologos see


217 

referred to pejoratively as "oracle-mongers," a term likely inspired by 

this scene in Aristophanes. The khr~smologosof Birds is indeed a 

peddler of oracles, which he quotes from a sheet or roll of papyrus 

(pvphiov3O) and attributes to a legendary Boeotian seer named ~akis.~' 

He has just recited several hexameters from a purported oracle of Bakis 

that fits the occasion when the following exchange takes place between 

him and Peisetairos (980-989): 

ne. ~ai za6z' Zveoz' kvzacoa; 

XP. hapi: zb puphiov. 

ne. o66kv &p' iipot6~ ko0' 6, xpqopbs zouzoti, 

8v kyh nap& z&7c6hhovoq kCeypa~+i&pqv. 

"aGz&p kn4v G K ~ ~ ihv z o &vOPmno~ 

~ hhachv 

hurcfit 06ovzaq ~ ai onXayxve6etv intoupfit, 

64 z67~ xpi T~~TEIV a6zbv 7~kupi;)v zb p~zaci)--" 

Xp. o66kv hkyetv oCyai oe. 

ne. hapi: ~b puphiov. 

"~ai cpei6ou pq6bv yq6' aiezoc kv vecpihqto~v, 

piz' tv Adlpnmv 81pd~' fiv 6, piyaq ~~oneieqq." 

Xp. ~ai zak' Zveoz' kvzaCOa; 

n ~ . hapi: ~b pvphi0~. 

PEISETAIROS: That's in there too? 

KHRESMOLOGOS: Take the book! 

PEISETAIROS: Your oracle, doesn't match this one at all, 

an oracle I personally wrote down from Apollo: 

"Yea when a charlatan type who arrives uninvited 

Dunbar 1995.542 ("either oracle-collector or oracle-speaker, but the collector also did 

the speaking") and Garland 1984.113 ("one who collects, proffers, or recites khr2smoi"). 

Oracles composed in hexameters were "chanted during recitation by the klzr@smologos 

(Ar. Eq. 61 &18~~, Thuc. 2.8.2 and 2.21.3 qt6ov; cf. Pritchett 1979.321 n. 75, Baumgarten 

1998.41 f., 46 f., 67); Hierokles (preceding note) is also referred to as "oracle-chanter" 

(Eupolis fr. 231 Kassel/Austin ~pqopot861v). As religious experts and performers the 

khrZsmologoi combined the ritual expertise of the rnanteis and the performative skills of 

the aoidoi (cf. Burkert 1992h.546). 

30 BvPhiov was the prevalent spelling in fifth-century Athens (Threatte 1980.263) and 

has better manuscript support than PtPhiov at Av. 976 ff.; cf. Dunbar 1995.547 on Av. 

974. 

31 On the elusive Bakis see Trencsinyi-Waldapfel 1966.232-250; Fontenrose 

1978.145-158; Baumgarten 1998.50-52 (who vitiates his discussion of Bakis by deriving 

Paus. 4.37.4 Bdtlclv k&pct~ct E ~P~KOFU from kv~pdl~).


vexes the sacrificers and desire a share of the innards, 

then must you smite him in the place twixt the ribs-" 

KHRESMOLOGOS: You must be kidding. 

PEISETAIROS: Take the book! 

"-and spare not even an eagle 'midst the clouds, 

not if he be Lampon nor yet the great Diopeithes." 

KHRESMOLOGOS: That's in there too? 

PEISETAIROS: Take the book!32 

Even after due allowance is made for comic distortion, this dialogue 

suggests that written collections of traditional oracles existed, that they 

were in the hands of self-appointed religious experts who competed 

with one another, that these oracles were of dubious authenticity, and 

that oracles in general were susceptible to forgery. Historical confirma- 

tion for all of this can be found in hero do to^.^^ 

Apart from its intrinsic interest, the Aristophanic passage raises a 

number of more general issues pertaining directly to the status of sacred 

writings in classical Greece: 

(a) Ritual setting. The context in which the oracular verses are recited 

is highly ritualized, as is the actual oracle. Peisetairos is performing a 

goat sacrifice when the anonymous khrFsmologos arrives on the scene 

(848-903 and 958 f., cf. 1034, 1057, 1060 and 1 118). To the surprise 

of Peisetairos, the oracle quoted by the khrt?smologos prescribes a ram 

sacrifice to Pandora that deliberately mirrors and parodies the sacrificial 

setting of the occasion itself (971-976). Although the oracle is a bla- 

tant ad hoc fabrication, it nevertheless illustrates the close connection 

between sacred texts, oral recital, and ritual performance that seems to 

have been characteristic of Greek 

(b) Divine authority. While the khr~srnologos ascribes his oracles to 

Bakis, a mere mortal (962, 970), Peisetairos appeals to a higher author- 

ity when he quotes from an alleged oracle of the Delphic Apollo (982), 

only to have his oracle, which was similarly invented for the occasion, 

rejected by the khrZsmologos-"You must be kidding" (986 o66kv 

32Trans. Henderson 2000.15&153 (who renders Xap& ~b P~Phiov as "here's the 

book"). 

33 Hdt. 5.90-93,7.6.3-5,9.4244. Cf. Kirchberg 1965. 

34 See below, nn. 42, 51, 53, 71, and 114.


219 

Mptv ofpai 0s). In Aristophanes' earlier spoof on the Athenian oracle 

industry in Knights, Paphlagon and the Sausage-seller appear on stage 

each carrying a heavy load of written oracles. The Paphlagonian boasts 

that he owns a chest (mpwz65) full of additional oracles ascribed to 

Bakis, whereas his rival claims in turn that his upper floor and two 

apartment houses (i)nπ)~ov ~ai Cuvot~ia 660) are filled with oracles 

of "Glanis, Bakis' elder brother" (Knights 997-1099).~~Ironically, both 

collections of oracles claim to originate with Ap~llo.~~ In their final go 

at each other, the two rivals testify in hexameters-the meter associated 

with oracles-that "the goddess herself' (1090, 1092 i0 ~ a6z$, b ~ 

i.e., Athena, appeared to them in separate dreams (1090 kyh ET~OV 

bvap) to bestow her supreme blessings upon Athens.37 Here, in the 

competition's climactic finale, the mode of divine revelation thus shifts 

from oracular utterances to dream epiphanies, the oracle books give 

way to the oral testimony of the aretalogical eye witness,38 and Athena 

comically takes the place of Apollo as the highest source of divine rev- 

elation. It follows that from the insider's point of view, the status of 

oracles, like that of any sacred text, depends in the final count on the 

authority of the divine source from which they are believed to originate 

as well as on the credibility of the human intermediaries who transmit 

them.39 More specifically, an oracle's status depends on the acceptance 

of its authority by the audience that gave ear and credence to it. 

35 Cf. Baumgarten 1998.44 f. On Aristophanes' choice of the name Glanis see Weinre- 

ich 1973.267-271. 

36 Sommerstein 1981.197 on Eq. 1015: "Repeatedly in this scene (1024, 1047, 1072, 

1081, 1084) the supposed oracles of Bacis and Glanis are ascribed, or represented as 

ascribing themselves, to Apollo; the present one claims specifically (1016) to originate 

from Delphi." 

37 The two visions reported at Eq. 1090-1095 hardly represent "dream-oracles" (so 

Anderson 1991), which are often associated with incubation; rather, they ought to be clas- 

sified as symbolic dreams in epiphanic settings (Dodds 1951.107, 110f., 116 f.). By 

appending the two visions to a series of oracles and by couching the dream reports in 

oracular style, Aristophanes conflates dream epiphanies with common oracles for comic 

effect. 

38 On the link between visions and eyewitness reports in aretalogical texts and contexts 

(below, n. 64) see Henrichs 1978. Divine visions, including dream epiphanies, from 

Homer to late antiquity are discussed by Fox 1987.102-167 in a chapter titled "Seeing 

the gods." 

39 In her criticism of the Delphic oracle, Iokaste differentiates between the divine 

source (Apollo) and the human intermediaries liable to misrepresent the god (Soph. OT 

707-725).


(c) Orality. Like most ritual texts, oracles are intrinsically oral, that is 

to say they "speak to the human recipient in their own voice by 

addressing an issue, as at Birds 962 f.: "There is an oracle of Bakis 

explicitly referring to [lit. "speaking about"] Cloudcuckooland" (h< 

gozt B&mGo< xpqolb~ 

At the same time, oracles are read out aloud and verbatim by the ritual 

expert, who recreates and reactivates the oracular voice by "reciting the 

oracle" (960 xpqoyoh6yo

Hieroi Logoi and Hierai Bibloi 22 1 

oracle from his byblion and says "take the book," he invites Peisetairos 

to see for himself and to verify the accuracy of the quotation. Peisetairos 

in turn assures the khr&smologos that he "wrote down" (982 

8~~ypayrci~qv) Apollo's oracle, thereby guaranteeing its authenticity. 

In a comic reversal, he echoes the khresmologos's reliance on the written 

word and twice offers him his own collection of oracles to examine-"take 

(my) book" (986 and 989). Ironically, the audience knows 

that both sets of oracles are obvious forgeries that defy verification. 

Although Greek religion put an absolute premium on orality, there was 

an acute awareness that oral texts are more vulnerable to fabrications 

and distortions than are written versions. Only written texts pennit 

verification, but even they invite large-scale forgery. 

"Take the book!" (hapi: zi, pvphiov)-the phrase that concerns us 

most is repeated five times in this scene.43 BvPhiov is usually trans- 

lated as "book," but strictly speaking it suggests nothing more specific 

than a piece of papyrus with a written text on it. In his study of ancient 

literacy, William Harris understands the PvPhiov of the khrZsmologos 

as an "oracle sheet" rather than an "oracle-book."44 The difference 

between a sheet and a "book" is one of degree-several sheets of 

papyrus glued together make the beginning of a papyrus roll, that is, a 

"book." Only the Athenian audience who watched the original perfor- 

mance of Birds would know for certain whether the khrZsmologos read 

from a sheet or from a roll-in other words, whether his oracles were 

part of a larger "book or not. But a papyrus roll, as a prop in perfor- 

mance, would surely be more consistent with Aristophanes' habit of 

parodying the khrZsmologoi by emphasizing the sheer bulk of the prod- 

uct they peddled. 

The ultimate issue here is the relationship between religious texts 

and sacred books. Oracles are divine utterances (Bkocpaza), that is 

43 Ar. Av. 974, 976, 980, 986 and 989. Gregory Nagy reminds me of the divine voice 

in the form of a children's chant that instructed St. Augustine to "take it, read it" (Con$ 

8.12.29 tolle lege, tolle lege), prompting him to "seize" his copy of the Pauline Epis- 

tles-"the Book of the Apostle" (codicem aposto1i)-, to "open" it, and to "read the first 

passage on which his eyes fell (arripui, aperui et legi in silentio capitulum, quo primum 

coniecti sunt oculi mei). Augustine's deliberately haphazard consultation of the sacred 

book constitutes a form of bibliomancy (van der Horst 1998.152 f.). 

44Hanis 1989.83. For PuPhiov in the sense of "book" (papyrus roll) see Ar. fr. 506 

K.-A,, Ran. 11 14. The "'book' joke" occurs in several plays of Aristophanes (Denniston 

1927.118).


sacred texts, and a collection of oracles on a papyrus roll must rank as 

the equivalent of a sacred book-a iepbv P~Phiov."~ Technical "books 

on divination" (Piphot rcepi yclvrt~~), including oracle collections, 

were common in classical Greece.46 In fact many of the sacred books of 

antiquity were compilations of sacred texts. This is certainly the case 

with the lost Sibylline Books, Rome's official collection of Greek oracles, 

which were classified as "hidden books" (libri reconditi) and 

guarded like a state secret.47 It is equally true for many of the sacred 

books produced by pagan, Christian, and Gnostic groups. Among their 

collections of sacred texts that survive as sacred books are the various 

papyrus codices with magical texts; the New Testament with its 

gospels, epistles, Acts, and Book of Revelation; the codices of the Nag 

Hammadi library, each of which contains a medley of Gnostic texts; the 

various tractates of the Corpus Hermeticum; and the sayings, recollections, 

and teachings of and about Mani assembled in biographical form 

in the Cologne Mani Codex.48 

4. MYSTERIOUS BOOKS, INITIATION, AND 

READING ALOUD 

In his speech On the Crown (330 B.c.E.), Demosthenes presents an 

extremely unflattering portrayal of his political archrival Aiskhines. 

45 This is not the place to enter into the discussion of the criteria which define "heilige 

Scbriften" in modem scholarship (cf. Colpe 1987.184-201), but at least two of the qualities 

ascribed by the khrFsmologos to Bakis' oracles are commonly associated with the 

Greek understanding of iepoi hdyot, namely their divine origin or authority (Ar. Av. 965 

zb 0eiov) and their allusiveness, which invites spiritual or allegorical interpretation (970 

i~vikae'6 B&m


223 

When Aiskhines reached adulthood, he became involved in a private 

mystery cult of Sabazios, a Phrygian god similar to Dionysos and wor- 

shiped at the margins of Athenian religion.49 Aiskhines' mother was a 

priestess of this cult, and he helped her discharge her ritual duties. 

Demosthenes ridicules their activities by describing them in vivid detail 

(18.259): 

&v$p 6; YEV~~EVOSzijt pqzpi zeho6oqt z&q PiPhovq &ve- 

$~VW~KE


recited during the initiation rite. As in the scene from Birds,the written 

text serves as an aide-mCmoire to ensure the accuracy of the recited 

words. Both the recital of sacred texts and the stipulation that the texts 

to be recited had to be read from a written version can be paralleled 

from Greek and Roman Particularly remarkable in Demos- 

thenes' description is the emphasis on reading aloud during a ritual 

performance, on the interplay of the spoken and the written word, and 

ultimately on the transformative force of the solemn proclamation 

which concluded the nocturnal ritual: "I have escaped from evil, I have 

found what is better."54 These words constitute a performative utter- 

ance, but they, too, may have been recorded in the papyrus rolls from 

which Aiskhines read to his mother. 

Demosthenes treats Aiskhines in much the same way Theseus treats 

Hippolytos. Aiskhines is marginalized because of his participation in a 

foreign mystery cult that performs its most arcane rites at night and 

employs esoteric books. Typically, in pre-Hellenistic cult books were 

confined to the margins of the religious landscape; they had no place in 

the official religion of the polis. 

5. HIEROI LOGOI IN EGYPT: A ROYAL DECREE 

In 338 B.C.E. Demosthenes witnessed the battle of Chaironeia, where 

Philip I1 of Macedon won a decisive victory over Greece. Philip's son 

Alexander the Great founded Alexandria and was succeeded by the 

53 In a highly fictionalized account of the Roman Bacchanalia and the scandal of 186 

B.C.E., Livy provides an example of loud recitation during an initiation ceremony 

(39.18.3) qui tantum initiati erant et ex carmine sacro praeeunte verba sacerdote precationes 

fecerant. The carmen sacrum is the Latin equivalent of a iepb~ h6yo5 (Festugikre 

1954b.9698 = 1972.106108; Baumgarten 1998.138). Both Rohde 1936.64 ff. and Norden 

1939.1 15 provide parallels for the recitation of sacred texts from written copies and 

emphasize the importance of this practice in Greek and Roman cult (ex scripto legere or 

recitarei. 

54 On this ritual utterance, which scans as a paroemiac and is also attested as a proverb, 

see Parker 1996a.159 ("the initiate's acclamation . . . even seems borrowed from the 

Athenian mamage-ceremony"), Pulleyn 1997.176 n. 49 ("Clearly he spoke the words of 

this mystic acclamation and the initiates repeated them after him"), Porta 1999.96 f. (who 

discusses it under the heading "synthemata" or "little catchwords which . . . sum up what 

an initiate into a mystery has undergone"), and Yunis 2001.254 f. ("the acclamation . . . 

declares the transformative power of the ecstatic experience"). I would not characterize 

Bquyov K ~K~V, ~Spov&p~~vov as an "acclamation."


225 

Ptolemies, who ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years. The Hellenistic era 

was a period of massive change and expansion during which Greek culture 

was transported to faraway places where Greek myths and rituals 

would merge with the indigenous religions of foreign countriesincluding 

Egypt. 

Already for Herodotos and Plato, Egypt was the cradle of civilization, 

where hidden treasures of ancient wisdom waited to be discovered 

and pictorial writing had flourished long before the Phoenicians 

invented the alphabet.55 Since time immemorial, divine revelation and 

sacred writ had been intimately linked in Egyptian religion.56 In Greek 

eyes, Egypt was the proverbial land of "sacred tales" (iepoi 115~01~~) 

and "sacred books7' (iepai pip10t~~) containing "sacred records" (iepai 

&~aypacpai~~) written in strange characters known by the Greeks as 

"hieroglyphs" or "sacred letters7' (ieph yp&ypaza60) and deposited in 

55 Cf. Dornseiff 1922.6 f.; Leipoldt/Morenz 1953; Speyer 1970.110-124; Baumgarten 

1998.174-182. The Romantic notion that much of Greek wisdom and religious lore 

derives from Egypt was first propagated by Herodotos and Plato, reformulated by later 

Greek writers such as Josephus and Plutarch, and revived periodically from the early 18th 

century until the first half of the 19th, when the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing and 

the gradual rediscovery of Egyptian texts proved otherwise. 

56 Errnan 1934, esp. 12, 88-101, 295-313; Reitzenstein 1904, esp. 117-160; Norden 

1924.85 n. 1; LeipoldtJMorenz 1953; Roeder 1960. 

57 Numerous authors associate Egypt with i~poi h6yo1, e.g., Diod. 1.98.2 = Eus. 

Praep. evang. 10.8.13, Plut. Is. 3, 352e, Clem. Alex. Strom. 5.4.19, Lucian Sy% D. 2, 

Socrat. Epist. 28.3, Orph. Arg. 43, Philostr. VA 5.43, and Synes. De provid. or Aeg. 1.1 

(below, n. 108). 

58 For iepui Piphot of Egyptian provenance-"Priesterbiicher" according to Norden 

1924.85 n. 1-see the Canopus decree (OGIS 56.70); Manetho FGrHist 609 F 3b p. 25.1, 

F 8 p.88.6; Hecataeus of Abdera FGrHist 264 F 25 as quoted by Diod. 1.44.4, 1.70.9, 

1.73.4, 1.82.3, 1.95.5, 1.96.2 (cf. Baumgarten 1998.181); Horapollo Hieroglyph. 1.38; 

Ail. Arist. 8.29 (below, n. 61); Heliod. Aith. 2.28.2, 3.8.1; 11 OQ. 6.886 (below, n. 62); 

and the magical papyri (e.g., PGM 111424 and XI11 3; DanieVMaltomini 1990192.2.1 13). 

Cf. Hdt. 2.100.1; Sync. Clzron. pp. 72-73 Dindorf = Ps.-Manetho FGrHist 609 Tl la, F 

25. The Egyptian term for ieph PiP2.o~ was "book of the gods" (DanieVMaltomini 

1990192.2.1 13). Cf. Baumgarten 1998.171-221. 

59 Hecataeus of Abdera FGrHist 264 F 25 as quoted by Diod. 1.31.7, 1.43.6 and 

1.63.1, cf. 1.44.4, 1.46.7-8, 1.69.7, 1.96.2. On the history of this term see Fornara 

1994.4244 on Aristagoras FGrHist 608 F 10. The 'Ieph &vaypacpi of Euhemeros 

(FGrHist 63, esp. F 1-2 = testim. 8 and 77 Winiarczyk; translated as Sacra historia by 

Ennius, cf. Winiarczyk 1991 on Euhem. testim. 10) was not only written in Alexandria 

(Callim. fr. 191.10 f. Pfeiffer locates Euhemerus and his "impious books," d6uca Ptphiu, 

in the Alexandrian Serapeum), but also inspired by Egyptian models of sacred writ 

(Fraser 1972, 1.292f.; Henrichs 1984a.148 f. and 153 n. 59; Baumgarten 1998.182-192). 

60 The professional scribes who controlled Egyptian writ were called iepoypnp~atei~


the "sacred libraries" (iepai PtPhloefi~a~~~) or "sacred treasuries" 

(kp& za~teTa~~) of the Egyptian temples. In a Hellenistic inscription 

(Canopus decree OGIS 56.4, Diod. 1.70.9, Clem. Alex. Strom. 6.4.36, Oracle of the Potter 

in f? GrafG.29787 fr. 213.12, ed. L. Koenen, ZPE 2, 1968, 208; cf. Leipoldt/Morenz 

1953.89, 96 f., 172). For ieph ypkppaza (translated as "Priesterschrift" by Norden 

1924.85 n. 1)see Hdt. 2.36.4 and 2.106.4; Plat. Tim. 23e3; Hecataeus of Abdera FGrHist 

264 F 5; Strabo 16.4.4, 769; Diod. 1.81 and 3.3; Rosetta stone OGIS 90.54; RMichael. 4 

col. i 2 f., repr. in Stramaglia 1993 and StephensIWinkler 1995.451460; Dream of Nektanebos, 

UP2 I no. 81, col. iii 22, repr. in Longo 1969, no. 76; Self-praises of Isis on 

inscription from Kyme, IG XI1 Suppl., Berlin 1939, 98 no. 14.7 f. (first century B.c.E.). 

Cf. Boll 1908.62 F, 177" " Boudreaux/Cumont 1922.105.4 f.: "A book discovered in 

Heliopolis, Egypt, in the innermost shrine of the sanctuary, inscribed in sacred letters" 

(Piphos ~6ps6etoa kv 'Hhiou n6hEt zfq Aifirrzou kv z&t ieph kv &66zotq Pyyeypappkvq 

kv iepoiq yphppacn). Alternate names for the Egyptian hieroglyphs were yphypaza 

iepoyhucptr& (PGM 4.886 f., Iambl. Myst. 8.5), iepuztxri (Rufinus Hist. eccl. 

11.29), and Aifirma ypappaza (UP2 I no. 148.2 f., where it refers to demotic). On 

"Egyptian letters" see now P. Berlin 21243, col. i 1-5 (first published by Brashear 1979, 

reedited by DanielIMaJtomini 1990192, no. 72, and included as PGM CXXII in Betz 

1986.316 f.; cf. Faraone 1990, 2000.202-209): "Excerpt (?) of incantations from the (collection?) 

discovered in Heliopolis, in the sacred book called 'Of Hermes', in the innermost 

shrine, (written) in Egyptian letters and translated into Greek" (ktaywy) krrwt66v 

kr rqq E ~ P E ~ E kv ~ O'Hhiou I ~ ~ n6hEt hv zit iep&t P6Phwt zqt rahoupdvqt 'EppoQ kv r&t 

dt66rwt Aiyunziotq ypappamv rai 8teppeveu8kvzwv 'Ehhqvtro?~). The "discovery" of 

sacred books was a topos of religious propaganda (Speyer 1970; below, n. 62). For 

alleged translations of sacred Egyptian books into Greek and for the role of divine intervention 

in this connection see P. Ony. 11.1381 = Totti 1985 no. 15 (cf. Nock 1933.8688) 

and Speyer 1968169. On ieph yphpyaza in Jewish and Christian parlance see below, 

nn. 120 and 123. 

61 Hecataeus of Abdera FGrHist 264 F 25 p. 34 as quoted by Diod. 1.49.3 z$v iephv 

PIP~LO~{KI~V, kv' ?jS katy~ypdrcp0at 'yu~fiq iazpeiov' ("the sacred library, above which 

were written the words: 'Healing Place for the Soul'") and Ail. Arist. 8.29 vol. 2.361 Keil 

&v iepai 0ijrat PiPhwv iep&v &rreipouq apt6pohq Cxoum, a reference to healing miracles 

performed by Sarapis and recorded in the libraries of his temples (Weinreich 

1969.421424). Cf. f? Oxy.11.1382.5 f. = Totti 1985 no. 13 rai raza~wpi


227 

from Andros with a cult hymn to Isis, the Greco-Egyptian goddess herself 

claims to have discovered the art of writing and to have "engraved 

the awe-inspiring hieros logos for the initiates" (~hpaca cppt~a%ov 

p6ozat~ iepbv h6y0v).~~ While Egyptian gods like Isis and Thoth 

functioned as divine scribes and as sources of sacred writ, human storytellers 

commemorated divine miracles (aretai)both orally and in written 

form.64 Sacred books were monumentalized on a regular basis in 

Egyptian art from the Pharaonic to the imperial period; a procession of 

Isis officiants on a Roman relief includes a hierogrammateus holding an 

open papyus roll with both hands.65 

Nevertheless papyrologists and students of religion alike could 

hardly believe their eyes when the following royal decree on papyrus 

emerged from the sands of Egypt: 

pao[th]kw< ~poozh~avzo[


By decree of the king. Persons who perform initiation rites for 

Dionysos in the interior shall sail down to Alexandria, those 

between here and Naukratis within ten days from the day on which 

the decree is published and those beyond Naukratis within twenty 

days, and shall register themselves before Aristoboulos at the reg- 

istration office within three days from the day on which they arrive, 

and shall declare forthwith from what persons they have received 

the sacred rite st object^^^ for three generations back and shall hand 

in a sealed copy of the sacred text, inscribing thereon each his own 

name.67 

The unnamed king has been plausibly identified as Ptolemy IV Philopator 

(221-205 B.c.E.). An avid worshiper of Dionysos, he would have 

had an almost constitutional interest in the sacred texts of private 

Dionysiac groups active in his realm. This remarkable text has received 

continuous attention since its publication in 1917. Much of the discus- 

sion has concentrated on the political or religious reasons that might 

have persuaded the king to take such drastic action. Did he attempt to 

create a Dionysiac state religion, or to repress private cults by placing 

them under tight governmental control, as in the Roman Bacchanalia 

affair of 186 B.c.E.? Was the intervention a case of royal patronage, 

prompted by the king's zeal as a coreligionist? Or was it merely a way 

of raising new taxes? 

The conflicting answers that have been given to these questions ulti- 

mately depend upon the connotations of the term i epb~h6yo~not only 

66 In connection with mystery rites, the terms iep&, pu~.rip~a 

and 6ppa are often 

ambivalent: they refer either to the rites as such or to sacred objects or implements dis- 

played, carried or transferred during the ritual (cf. Henrichs 1969.226-229). Dunand 

1986.98 interprets the iep& of the royal decree tentatively as "les instruments nbcessaires 

i3 l'initiation." 

67 F! Berlin 11774 verso as translated by HuntEdgar 1934, 2.57 no. 208 (adapted). 

This papyrus was first published by Schubart 1916117.189-196 and reprinted as BGU 

6.121 1, Sammelb. 7266 and Lenger 1964.71 no. 29. Since the document on the recto of 

the same papyrus (BGU 6.1277) dates from 215114 B.c.E., the royal decree on the verso is 

usually assigned to the reign of Philopator. Alternative dates have been argued by Turner 

1983 (reign of Ptolemy 111 Euergetes, on the grounds that the apparent verso constitutes 

the original recto and that "1211 must have been written before 1277," 152) and Zuntz 

196311972 (Ptolemy V Philopator). Discussions since 1950 include Jesi 1956; Nilsson 

1957.11 f., 1961.161 f.; Fraser 1972, 1.204, 2.345-347 nn. 114-116; Henrichs 1972.60 f.; 

Dunand 1986.97-103; Burkert 1994a.37, 59 f.; Baumgarten 1998.134-136. On the pro- 

motion of Dionysos by the first Ptolernies see Dunand 1986; Burkert 1993.


229 

in this particular text but also in the larger context of Hellenistic mys- 

tery cults. The hieroi logoi that identified the different Dionysiac 

groups in the Alexandrian hinterland were clearly in the hands of 

religious experts, who had inherited the texts along with 

the ritual lore from their immediate predecessors.68 Sacred, written 

down, and sealed, these esoteric texts have been variously interpreted as 

"sacred books," "sacred tales," "sacred discourses," "sacred teachings," 

"sacred archives," or liturgical texts.69 Such interpretations acknowl- 

edge the fact that the hieroi logoi that Ptolemy collected were indeed 

sacred texts; furthermore, they suggest that in addition to being 

recorded in writing they had an oral dimension ("tales," "discourses") 

as well as a didactic function ("teachings"). 

A connection with orality and with religious instruction is indeed 

integral to the Greek concept of the hieros Yet most hieroi 

logoi share yet another important quality, one which interpreters of this 

In Greece as well as Egypt, religious expertise was often treated as an inheritance 

passed on from father to son or from spiritual father to disciple (above, n. 46). On the 

"Familienmodell in der Vermittlung des Heiligen" (Burkert 1994a.37) see Burkert 

1982.7, 1992a.4346 and Baumgarten 1998.117 f. for Greece; Versnel 1990.40 n. 2 for 

Egypt; Betz 1982.167 for instruction of a "son" in magical papyri; and Baumgarten 

1998.135 for P: Berlin 11774. 

69 Cf. Schubart 1916117.190 and 193 ("heilige Lehre" as represented by a "heilige 

Geschichte"), Roussel 1919.242 ("d6poser les archives sacrkes"), Norden 1924.85 n. 1 

("'heilige Lehre' der Dionysosmysterien"), Reitzenstein 1927.103 n. 2 ("schriftlich fest- 

gelegte Liturgien"), Wilamowitz 1931132.2.377 ("heilige Biicher" examined in order to 

promote "reine Lehre"), HuntIEdgar 1934.57 ("sacred book), Festugisre 1935.199 

=1972.20 ("la teneur de leur doctrine sacreen), Jesi 1956.236 ("discours sacrks," 

explained as "la description des cultes"), Dunand 1986.98 ("la 'doctrine sacrke' qui, dans 

les cerkmonies secrktes, est rtvtlee aux initiCsn), Burkert 1999.63 ("un insieme di rac- 

conti mitici e fomule rituali che dovrebbero essere comunicate solo agli iniziati"), and 

esp. Nock 1986.344: "Ancient cults created brotherhoods and not sects, and although they 

had liturgical books, like the iepoi ii6yot of Dionysiac societies mentioned by Ptolemy IV 

in his edict, and the Gurob scrap of an Orphic liturgy [below, n. 871, and the books men- 

tioned by Apuleius in connection with the initiation of Lucius [Met. 11.221. these were 

rituals for the use of the officiants and not a Bible which the faithful would study or know 

through quotations in sermons-which they did not have." Eitrem 1937.35 took iepbq 

h6yoq as a reference to financial records (a common meaning of h6yo5 in Ptolemaic 

Egypt) and translated "give in the account of the cult." Schubart 1916117.190 f. had 

already considered this interpretation, but he rightly rejected it in view of the text's 

emphasis on initiation and priestly succession (on which see Burkert 1982.7). 

70 Burkert 1994a.59 f. Cf. Leipoldt/Morenz 1953.17 n. 8: "Die Bezeichnung iepb~ 

%yo< erinnert wohl von vomherein daran, daB es hier auf den Vortrag im Gottesdienst 

ankommt."


papyrus have been reluctant to acknowledge. I refer to the secrecy that 

tends to surround the hieroi logoi and that, more than any other quality, 

defines their peculiar status.71 According to Walter Burkert's definition, 

a hieros logos is "that which is not to be disclosed to the uninitiated, so 

that a book with such a title is a priori ap~cryphal."~~ The hieroi logoi 

that attracted the king's attention are a perfect case in point. Despite a 

prolonged scholarly debate, their contents-and format-remain as 

mysterious as ever. Did they relate recondite Dionysiac myths, or contain 

an account of, or instructions for, some ritual? Were they written 

on single sheets or on rolls? In other words, did they consist of short, 

self-contained texts, or of entire books? Whatever the answer, the 

papyrus on which each text was written was sealed and signed with the 

name of the Dionysiac mystagogue who submitted that particular version. 

These people were presumably not the authors of these texts, but 

rather owners or custodians. As Burkert has emphasized, hieroi logoi 

are by definition anonymous, and whenever we find a hieros logos with 

an author's name attached to it, the names are those of mythical or 

quasi-legendary figures such as Orpheus and Pythagora~.~~ 

Sealing the texts was a precaution, the purpose of which seems to 

have been twofold: to establish ownership and authenticity, as well as 

to protect the written contents from profane use and prying eyes.74 In 

other words, these texts were sealed because they were secret, and they 

were secret because they were "sacred" (i~poi)-for the eyes and ears 

of the initiates only.75 Seals, whether real or imaginary, were an important 

means of authentication not only in the business world, but also in 

71 Burkert 1985.277: "Mysteries are accompanied by tales-some of which may be 

secret, hieroi logoi-mostly telling of suffering gods." The Hieroi Logoi of Ailios Aris- 

teides are the exception that proves the rule (below, n. 115). 

72 Burkert 1972.219 f. Compare the Orphic proclamation of secrecy first attested in 

column VII of the Derveni papyrus and referred to by several later authors (Porta 

1999.50-53; Riedweg 1993.28.47, 50, 64): "I shall speak to those for whom it is right (to 

listen). But as for you uninitiated, put doors before (your ears)." 

73 Baumgarten 1998.70-121, 146-170. 

74 Diehl 1938. Inscribed pieces of papyrus folded and sealed are first attested in 

Aesch. Supp. 947 (quoted above, n. 14). 

75 Their secrecy has been rightly emphasized by Leipoldthforenz 1953.99, Burkert 

1994a.37 ("geheime Lehre, ein 'heiliges Wort', das hier in geschiitzter Fom doch dem 

Zugriff der Behtirden ausgesetzt wird), and Burkert 1995.84 ("einen 'Bericht' [h6yo5], 

den man, als 'heilig', nicht weitersagen kann").


the realm of sacred writ. In the Book of Revelation, for instance, the 

angel asks: "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seal?"is 

heavenly scroll was "written on the inside as well as the back, and 

sealed with seven seals" (Ptphiov y~ypa~pkvov ~ ~ W ~ aE6nto€lev, iV 

~azeocppaylopkvov ocppayL^o~v Q~Z&).~~ 

Scholars naturally resist admitting ignorance, let alone recognizing 

secrecy as a virtue. Paradoxically, however, this kind of reluctance 

must be set aside if we want to do justice to the idea of the hieros logos. 

We may deplore the fact that we do not know what the hieroi logoi of 

the royal decree were about, but from the perspective of their ancient 

users-the Dionysiac initiates-this is precisely as it should be. 

6. WHAT EXACTLY IS A HIEROS LOGOS? 

With few exceptions, ancient authors who refer to hieroi logoi neither 

quote them nor reveal their contents. By contrast, modem scholars 

are quick to identify any extant document of a religious and esoteric 

nature as a hieros logos. Conflicting interests are clearly at work here. 

Bound by solemn oaths to protect the divine revelation, ancient believ- 

ers practiced secrecy and kept the hieroi logoi under lock and seal. 

Determined to unravel the religious secrets of the past, many Hellenists 

who have dealt with this issue have been prone to put caution aside, to 

go out of their way in their efforts to rediscover if not reinvent such 

secret texts, and to multiply the number of putative hieroi logoi in the 

process.77 

Walter Burkert's warning that books entitled hieroi logoi are "a 

priori apocryphal" (above, n. 72) applies not only to works explicitly 

titled iapoi h6yot in antiquity but also to modem attempts to identify 

newly discovered esoteric texts of a religious nature as specimens of 

76 ~ev. 

5.1-2; cf. Speyer 1971.56-59. 

77 Some of the more recent cases in point include Seaford 1981.252, who asserts "that 

just as elements of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter seem to derive from a iepbq h6yoq of 

the Eleusinian mysteries, so certain elements of the Bacchae derive from a iepbq h6yoq of 

the mysteries of Dionysos"; Baumgarten 1998, for whom the term hieros logos is synony- 

mous with all manner of "sacred writ" (above, n. 10); and Riedweg 2002 and 

1998.377-379, 387-389, who argues that the esoteric gold tablets of the B type (above, 

n. 8) contain excerpts "eine(s) orphischen iepbq h6yoq xepi rGv kv XLGOVoder nepi 765 

~iq"AtFou ~a~apcioewq."


hieroi logoi or similarly elusive categories of sacred writ. The most 

recent candidate is the Derveni papyrus (text ca. 425-400, extant copy 

350-300 B.c.E.), which has been judged a "heilige Schrift" by Carsten 

Colpe and a "kind of hieros logos" by Dirk Obbink.78 In reality, however, 

the Derveni papyrus is neither a hieros logos nor a sacred text but 

a multi-layered, syncretistic, 'interdisciplinary' commentary on a verse 

theogony ascribed to Orpheus. The identity of its author is far from 

transparent. At different points of the text, he emerges as an enlightened 

exegete of sacred lore,79 an allegorical expounder of religious 

texts as well as rituals,80 an acerbic critic of the conventional polis religion," 

and a maverick intellectual who advocates a Presocratic Weltbild 

derived from Anaxagoras and Diogenes of Apoll~nia.~~ Wearing 

multiple hats, the Derveni commentator resists being classified by his 

outlookg3 or identified with known figures of the late fifth-century 

enlighten men^^^ Passionately rationalistic and obscurely religious at 

78 Ohhink 1994.133, echoed by Funghi 1997.30, and especially Colpe 1987.197: "Fiir 

diesen Text sichem der mit Mythologie aus dem Bereich orientalischer Schriftkultur verwandte 

Inhalt (Kosmologisches wie in Agypten, Theogonisches wie in Babylonien und 

Kleinasien, Gotterkampf, Konigsinzest mit der Mutter) und die Art, wie er gehraucht 

wurde (Mitnahme ins Grab durch den Besitzer) eindeutig den Charakter als Heilige 

Schnft." The Deweni papyrus was not buried in the tomb, but burned with the corpse on 

the pyre (Baumgarten 1998.105). Unlike Obbink, Colpe does not differentiate between 

the Orphic poem proper and the commentary that expounds it. The fact that the Derveni 

papyrus served as a funerary offering does not make it a "sacred text." Literary texts of a 

non-sacred nature were regularly buried with the dead, at least in Egypt; the Louvre 

Partheneion of Alcman, the London Bakkhylides, the Berlin Timotheos and the Hawara 

Homer all survived on papyrus rolls found in Egyptian tombs (Speyer 1970.4348, 

Turner 1980.25,32,76 f.). On the Derveni papyrus see above, nn. 17 and 19. 

79 Burkert 1999.104. 

80 According to the author of the Derveni papyrus, unidentified magi (yoiyot) and initiates 

(p6o~at) "sacrifice innumerable cakes with many umbilici" (&v&pt@pa [~a]i 

xohu6~cpahaT& xonava 66oucnv) because the souls of the dead are equally "innumerable" 

(col. VI 5-10). See Henrichs 1998.4547; Burkert 1999.105-107. 

81 Janko 2001.2-6. 

82 Janko 1997. 

83 Here are some of the labels that have been pinned on him: "a self-employed mantis" 

(Kahn 1997.55, echoed by Tsantsanoglou 1997.1 17): an "initiate" or expert in initiations 

(West 1983.81; Baumgarten 1998.106 n. 141); a "mystic" (Obhink 1997.53); "an exponent 

of a private, intellectual mystery cult" (Tsantsanoglou 1997.1 17); a member of a 

Dionysiac group with Orphic leanings (Baumgarten 1998.106); "a speculative theologian" 

(Parker 1996a.210 n. 45); an author with a "non-Orphic or even anti-Orphic" attitude 

(Henrichs 1984h.255); and most recently, "at once a sophistical Orphic and an 

Orphic sophist" (Janko 2001.5). 

84 The Derveni author has been identified-implausibly, I believe-with, among oth-


233 

the same time, he does not speak in the name of a particular religious 

group, cult, or sect. He is very much sui generis, and so is his commen- 

tary. 

Like the Derveni papyrus as a whole, the Orphic poem excerpted in 

it has also been thought to be a "sacred text."85 Ascribed to Orpheus 

and concerned with the origins, actions and names of the gods, this 

poem may have circulated in the groups that used and produced hieroi 

logoi in the classical period. But can we be confident that it was ever 

deemed a hieros logos in its own right?86 A more likely candidate for 

the designation hieros logos might be f! Gurob 1, a fragmentary 

papyms at Trinity College, Dublin, which, like the royal decree dis- 

cussed earlier, dates from the second half of the third century B.c.E.~~It 

shares with the Derveni papyrus a preoccupation with both ritual mat- 

ters and Orphic poetry, but unlike the Derveni commentary, the Gurob 

papyrus has a strong Dionysiac flavor. A positively religious text with- 

out the slightest trace of Religionskritik, it mentions Eleusinian and 

Orphic divinities such as Brimo, Demeter, Rhea, Pallas, Dionysos, 

Eubouleus and Erikepaios,88 refers to sacrifices of rams and goats and 

to the consumption of sacrificial meat, quotes bits and pieces of hexam- 

eters from what is clearly an Orphic poem, and offers a rare array of 

ers, Stesimbrotos of Thasos (Burkert 1986). Plato's Euthyphron (Kahn 1997), and Diagoras 

of Melos (Janko 1997.87-94; 2001; 2002 n. 2). 

s5 Cf. West 1983.81, followed by Janko 1986.158 and Baumgarten 1998.104. 

86 If I could be sufficiently certain that iepohoyciv does indeed occur in the Derveni 

papyrus as a designation for Orpheus' authorial discourse in the poem attributed to him 

(above, nn. 17 and 19), I would not hesitate to conclude that this poem ranked as a hieros 

logos in the eyes of the Derveni commentator. 

s7 Edited as a "Ritual of the Mysteries" by Smyly 1921, no. 1 (col. 1 only), and as an 

Orphic text by Kern 1922.101-104, fr. 31 (cols. 1-2); described as a fragment of an 

Orphic book by Eitrem 1937.35; re-edited, with commentary and photograph, by Hordern 

2000, who dates the papyrus "to the third (probably mid-third) century B.C." (p. 131) 

and does not exclude the possibility "that the papyrus contains such a hieros logos" 

(p. 132). Zuntz 1971.342 was much more confident: "The GurBb papyrus, fragmentary 

and plebeian though it is, still shows that at the celebration of the Winkelmysterien of 

which it contained the iepb~ h6yo~ (i.e., the 'order of servive') exclamations in prose 

alternated with verse." See Nilsson 1961.244 f.; West 1983.170 f. (with an English trans. 

of the entire text); Burkert 1994a.59 f.; Baumgarten 1998.139-142; Porta 1999.112 f.; 

Morand 2001.276-282; BernabC 2002.415 f.; Calame 2002.391 f. 

On the enigmatic Erikepaios, who is associated or equated with Dionysos in the 

Orphic Hymns and other texts, see Wilamowitz 1931132.2.378; West 1983.171, 205 f.; 

Burkert 1999.70; Hordern 2000.138. BernabCIJimCnez San Crist6bal 2001.205 f.; 

Morand 2001.189-194.


mysterious words and phrases that point in the direction of the mystery 

cults of Dionysos and Sabazios: line 23 ~75 At6vuoo5, o6ppoha, 24 

0~65 6th K~~TGOU, 26 o6v0epa ("password), 29 [K]&VOS ("pinecone"), 

b6ppo5 ("spinning top"), ho~pciyahot ("knucklebones"), and 

k'oo~~zpov("mirror"), items that correspond to the toys with which the 

infant Dionysos plays in some versions of the Zagreus myth.89 

Scholars of the caliber of Wilamowitz, Zuntz and Burkert toyed with 

the idea that one of the hieroi logoi submitted to Ptolemy might have 

been identical with, or at least similar to, the Gurob papyrus.90 If their 

intuition is right, this papyrus would help us lift the veil of secrecy that 

surrounds the hieroi logoi of antiquity. For once, we would be able to 

put our hands on a bona fide specimen of an early Hellenistic hieros 

logos that may or may not be typical of the entire genre. If we could be 

sure that the Gurob papyrus ranked as a hieros logos in its time, we 

would have a partial answer to a question recently posed by Robert 

Parker: "Is a hieros logos simply one that treats of sacred matters (cf. 

hieros nomos), or is it sacred in some deeper way?"l The Gurob 

papyrus is concerned with gods and rituals, matters that were sacred. It 

also deals with more esoteric aspects of Dionysos and his religion-the 

Zagreus myth, the playthings of Dionysos, tantalizing passwords such 

as "god through bosom" (8~65 Gt& ~6hnou~~) and "one Dionysos" (E?S 

At6vuo05~~)-that are never mentioned by authors of the classical or 

Hellenistic period.94 The recondite nature of the Gurob papyrus suggests 

that it was written by initiates for initiates, and that it contains 

information on sacred matters that was considered secret.95 According 

89~lem.Alex. Protr 2.17.2 = Kern 1922.110 fr. 34; Guthrie 1952.120-126; West 

1973.154-159; Olga Levaniuk, "The Toys of Dionysos" (a paper presented to the 

Eleventh Corhali Colloquium at Lausanne on May 25,2000). 

90 Wilamowitz 1931132.2.378; Zuntz 1963.235, 238 = 1972.96,100; Burkert 1994a.60. 

91 Parker 2000. 

92 Burkert 1994a.90; Porta 1999.1 1 1-1 13. 

93 Versnel 1990,205,232-237; Porta 1999.1 15 f. 

94 Platon seems to allude to the Zagreus myth (Henrichs 1972.57 n. 5); the Derveni 

papyrus probably hinted at the incest of Zeus and Persephone, which produced Dionysos 

Zagreus (Burkert 1999.85; Janko 2001.28 n. 160, 32 n. 190); the earliest unambiguous 

references to the Zagreus myth can be found in Kallimakhos (frs. 43.1 17 and 643 Pfeif- 

fer) and Euphorion (fr. 12 Scheidweiler = fr. 12 Powell). 

95 On the association of hieroi logoi with esoteric cults in general and initiation rituals 

(teletai) in particular see Leipoldt 1954.703-705, Colpe 1987.187 f., 197 f., Burkert 

1994a.59 f. with 117.14 (select list of attestations), and Obbink 1994.130-134. Baumgarten 

1998.222 connects the hieroi logoi of the mystery cults with the performance of


235 

to Herodotos, secrecy is the hallmark of hieroi logoi in general, and as 

we shall see in the next section, the secrecy that went hand in hand with 

their esotericism did indeed make these texts "sacred in some deeper 

way." 

7.HIEROI LOGOI AND HERODOTEAN SILENCES 

From its first attestation in Herodotos to its final appearance in 

dozens of pagan and Christian writers of late antiquity, the very concept 

of the hieros logos is surrounded by an aura of deep mystery, extreme 

secrecy, and high religious authority. Almost by definition, a hieros 

logos would have been something so arcane that the term could function 

as the antonym of kppav4~ hdyoc,, that is, a tradition or logos that 

was out in the open and well-kt~own.~~ Whether they took the form of 

divine utterances, esoteric teachings or ritual texts, hieroi logoi occupy 

a prominent place in the history of ancient religious esotericism, from 

the earliest Greek mystery cults to the seclusive Hermetic, Gnostic, and 

Neoplatonic circles of late antiquity.97 

ritual, but the connection remains extremely tenuous, unless the Gurob papyrus is classi- 

fied as a hieros logos. 

96 Plut. IS. 7, 353d; Lucian Syl: D. 11. Authors of the imperial period tend to dwell on 

the secrecy of hieroi logoi (e.g., Philostr. Imag. 2.16, who uses the term semnos logos as a 

synonym for hieros logos in connection with the sacrificial rites [thysia]performed in the 

Corinthian mystery cult for the hero Palaimon). 

97 Hieroi Logoi in mystery cults: nn. 95, 113-114; in the Chaldaean Oracles (ed. des 

Places): frs. 110.3, 175.1; in Neoplatonism: Darnasc. Vita Isid. frs. 279, 353 Zintzen; as a 

designations for spells in magical papyri: PGM 1.62, 4.2245. The following titles are 

attested for various Hermetic texts: 'EppoG iepbq h6yoq (Corpus Hermeticum 3 

NocklFestugibre), 'EppoG Tptopeyiozov apbq zbv vibv T&r tv 6pet h6yoq a~6~pvqoq 

(13) and 'Eppof Tp~opeyiozou br zqq iepGq PiPhov tntxahovpdvr\q K6p115 x60pov 

(excerpt 23). The Gnostic Gospel of the Egyptians in the Nag Harnmadi Library carries 

the subscription "The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit" (codex 111 2, 69.19 f., in 

Robinson 1990.219). The Chaldaean Oracles are quoted as Hieroi Logoi by Procl. Ekl. 5 

p. 211 (Lewy 1978.445 section i). On secrecy and secret doctrines as distinguishing 

marks of marginal cults and other esoteric groups see Speyer 1971.6345 ("Gebote der 

Geheimhaltung") and KippenbergIStroumsa 1995, especially the contributions by Jan 

Bremmer ("Religious Secrets and Secrecy in Classical Greece"), Walter Burkert ("Der 

geheime Reiz des Verborgenen: Antike Mysterienkulte"), Luther H. Martin ("Secrecy in 

Hellenistic Religious Communities"), Hans Dieter Betz ("Secrecy in the Greek Magical 

Papyri"), and Kurt Rudolph ("Geheimnis und Geheimhaltung in der antiken Gnosis und 

im Manichaismus").


The history of these "sacred stories" begins for us appropriately with 

Herodotos (ca. 430 B.c.E.), who ranks not only as the "father of history," 

but also as the earliest Greek prose writer with a keen interest in 

religious matters.98 In his Histories the term hieros logos acquires for 

the first time the esoteric connotations later authors always associate 

with it and that make the term, as well as the concept, so elusive and 

frustrating wherever they occur. With minor variations, Herodotos uses 

the term four times as part of the same formulaic expression: "There is 

a sacred logos being said about this" (&sz~ ipb~mpi a6zoG h6yo~ 

hEy6p~vo


237 

or Egyptian cult practices, a connection that rendered them 6ppq.ro1, 

"~nutterable."~~~ The same reticence prevents him from commenting on 

the ritual mourning for Osiris and even from mentioning the god's 

name: "It would be irreverent for me to tell" (oii pot 6ot6v ion 

Gptv). In a related passage, he makes it clear that he is familiar 

(~i66zt pot) with the god's name and mystery rites but cannot reveal 

either (O~K ijolov, followed by ~iio'co~cx ~~ioew)."~ He is equally 

reluctant to divulge the rites of the Greek Thesmophoria, from which 

males were excluded, as well as the secrets of the Samothracian mysteries, 

into which he himself appears to have been initiated.'04 If so, his 

status as an initiate would explain why he seems to know more than he 

is willing to tell and why he reveals less than he knows. 

"There is a sacred h6yo~ being said (ky6~evo~) about this." Each 

time Herodotos uses this expression, he seems to imply that a hieros 

logos was a "sacred story" or "sacred account" exclusively or at least 

primarily in oral form, and that its function was to explain an existing 

sacred custom by means of narrative.lo5 This suggests at least for the 

time of Herodotos that strictly speaking hieroi logoi were aetiological 

'02 Cf. Hdt. 5.83.3 &ppq~ot ipopyh~,6.135.2 tippq~u ipdl; the hieroi logoi of Eleusis, 

one of the best kept secrets of antiquity, were called Clrr~5~pq.t~ (Lys. 6.51; cf. Richardson 

1974.304-310). Lateiner 1989.65 belittles Herodotos' respect for the mysteries ("an ele- 

gant excuse for avoiding an excursus into the irrelevant"); Gould 1994.92-97 and Ham- 

son 2000.186-189 take issue with Lateiner. Silence observed for religious reasons often 

went hand in hand with an exposure to esoteric teachings, a passive listening to 

&codo~u.tu. On this silence see Burkert 1972.178 f., who refers to Case1 1919, and Mar- 

tin 1995 on "the culture of silence." Herodotos' observance of authorial silence was 

adopted by Pausanias (below, n. 125). 

lo3 Hdt. 2.61.1 and 2.170.1-171.1, cf. 2.132.2. Since Herodotos identified Osiris with 

Dionysos (2.42.2 and 2.144.2), it is often assumed that he may have associated the name 

and fate of Osiris with Dionysos Zagreus and with the hieros logos of his dismemberment 

(Gilbert Murray in Harrison 1927.342 f.; Burkert 1994a.62 f.). On Herodotos' ritual 

silences see Linforth 1924 = 1987 (who minimizes the religious dimension of Herodotos' 

attitude); Mora 1981 = 1985.130-142 and 1987; Hamson 2000.182-191. 

'04 Hdt. 2.171.2 (eiio~op rei08w, repeated from 171.1) and 2.51.2 (6ott~ 6k r& 

KuPeipwv 6pyu p&pi)l).tu~, . . . 06~05 hvfip 016~ ~b Gym). Herodotos' status as a 

Samothracian initiate has been plausibly deduced from 2.51.2 (most recently by Burkert 

1985.282; Cole 1984.1 1, 38: Gould 1994.92). Paradoxically, Wiedemann 1890.235 drew 

the opposite conclusion, while Lateiner 1989.65 remains skeptical. On the Thesmophoria 

see Nilsson 1906.313-325 and Burkert 1985.242-246. 

lo5 The aetiological aspect of the hieroi logoi alluded to by Herodotos is emphasized by 

Mora 1981.213 = 1985.133; Obbink 1994.131; Baumgarten 1998.124f. See below, 

n. 107.


myths having to do with gods or rituals. According to A.-J. Festugibre, 

"the Greeks meant by Hieros Logos in the true sense of the word a 

sacred legend justifying a rite of special worship, such as a sacred interdiction 

or a ceremony of initiation."lo6 Festugibre was thinking of a 

passage in Pausanias, to which I will return, about the ritual prohibition 

of beans in the mysteries of Demeter at Pheneos. Perhaps with 

Herodotos rather than Pausanias in mind, Martin West more recently 

defined hieros logos as "a narrative about the gods, or at least a theological 

exposition of some kind, giving a basis for religious observance~.'"~~ 

While Herodotos may have been the first writer to explore 

the aetiological connotations of the term, he was certainly not the last. 

Several authors of the imperial period employ it in a similar sense. But 

unlike Herodotos, authors like Dio Chrysostom, Lucian and Synesios 

abandon secrecy and tell their sacred stories, evidently because they 

were not under the same religious constraint^.'^^ Their example suggests 

that the term hieros logos could be easily exploited for purely 

rhetorical or metaphorical purposes, as it often was.l0" 

Significantly, all four attestations of ipb~h6yoq in Herodotos occur 

in his account of Egypt. In later authors, too, hieroi logoi tend to be 

associated with foreign countries like Egypt, Persia, or Phoenicia, with 

legendary figures such as Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Zoroaster, or with 

great antiquity as in the "ancient and sacred discourses/accounts" 

(nahatoi ze ~ aiepoi i h6yo1) . . mentioned in Plato's Seventh Letter as 

proof of the immortality of the soul.110 All of these associations are part 

'06 Festugiere 1954a.88 on Paus. 8.15.4 (see below, section 9). 

lo' West 1983.13. Nilsson 1906.289, Famell 1921.172, Wilamowitz 1931/32.1.40 n. 1, 

Dowden 1992.95-101, and Porta 1999.10 also understand hieroi logoi as aetiological 

myths, whereas Wilamowitz 1932.356 f. nn. 2-3 and Burkert 1994a.59-61 extend the 

definition to include other types of sacred stories as well. 

log Cf. Dio Chr. Or. 1.49-84; Lucian Syr. D. 4, 11 and 15; Ail. H. A. 12.30; schol. T 11. 

13.589 on the Orphic and Pythagorean taboo on beans (below, n. 128), for which Kern 

1922.301, fr. 291 is quoted as a hieros logos (cf. Burkert 1972.183 f.). By telling one 

hieros logos (the Osiris myth) but refusing to reveal another, Synesios has it both ways 

(De provid. or Aeg. 2.4 iepo?ay~:mt 6k rui re0eiacrra~ zh 'Ocript60~ versus 2.5 pk~p~ TO~TWVdl~orezohp~cr00 T& 'OcriptGoq, rh 68 ivreO0ev ~iiozopa reicr0w [cf. Hdt. 

2.171.2, quoted above, n. 1041, cpqd rLq, &ljhaPij~ iepohoyiaq ayrdlp~voq, cf. 1.1 versus 

1.18). 

lo9 For instance Plut. De gen. 23.593a; Dio Chr. Or. 36.33; Them. Charist. 201a; Synes. 

Epist. 137; Procl. In R. vol. 1 p. 219.10, vol. 2 p. 78.13 Kroll. 

"OEgypt: above, n. 57. Persia: Dio Chr. Or. 36.41. Phoenicia: Philo of Byblos 

FGrHist 790 F 1.26. Orpheus: above, nn. 21-24. Pythagoras: Philolaos 44 B 19 Diels- 

Kranz ap. Procl. in Eucl. p. 22.9 f. Friedlein; Herakleides Lembos fr. 8 Miiller ap. Diog.


239 

of a deliberate strategy of distancing designed to separate the hieroi 

logoi from the world of normal experience, to attach them to a higher 

religious authority, and to mark them as spoken or written manifesta- 

tions of 'the Other.' 

8. WRITTEN VERSUS UNWRITTEN 

Equally distinctive and powerful qualities attributed to hieroi logoi 

after Herodotos include divine origin,"' secrecy,H2 and mysti~ism."~ 

Such qualities contribute to the aura of exclusiveness that defines the 

vast majority of hieroi logoi and puts them beyond ordinary reach. The 

tinge of orality often associated with hieroi logoi since Herodotos 

includes oral circulation as well as oral delivery and serves as a 

reminder of cultic origins; it is also an integral aspect of the code of 

L. 8.7; Diod. 1.98.2; Clem. Alex. Str: 1.131; Lucian Vit. auct. 4; Iambl. Vita Pyth. 146, 

152, 259, Protl: p. 109.7 Pistelli; Syrian. in Metaph. pp. 10.5, 123.2, 140.16, 175.4 Kroll; 

Eust. Cornm. 11. 13.589; cf. Burkert 1972.218, Baumgarten 1998.145-170. Zoroaster: 

Iambl. Theol. p. 57.5 de Falco. On Plat. Ep. 7.335a see Graf 1974.96, 121 f. and Baum- 

garten 1998.82; for the highly effective conjunction of "ancient" and "sacred compare 

Dion. Hal. A. R. 1.73.1 kr xahcctGv pkvzot h6ywv kv iepaiq Skhzotq oocopkvwv 

Eraoz65 71 napahaphv &vdypaqrev, Iambl. Protr p. 5.15 f. = p. 84.1 f. Pistelli hnb zGv 

xahcltGv h6ywv rai t6v iepGv p6Owv. 

"' Plut. Is. 2, 351 f. zbv iepbv A6yov 8v .E, Oebq .. . zapaGiGwot zoiqzehoupkvot< (cf. 

above, at n. 63), Heliod. Aeth. 7.1 1.9 6 eeioq rcci iepbq napeyyu&t h6yoq. According to 

Festugiere 1954a.88 and Dodds 1965.40 n. 3, the very term hieros logos "implies a divine 

revelation" (below, n. 130); both were primarily thinking of the Hieroi Logoi of Ailios 

Aristeides (below, n. 115). Divine inspiration was also claimed for Jewish and Christian 

hieroi logoi (cf. Aristoboulos ap. Eus. fl E. 13.12 = Kern 1922.260 ff., fr. 247). In certain 

contexts, iep65 was virtually synonymous with O~ioq, as in the phrase ieph ypoippara 

used either for documents belonging to local divinities and deposited in the temple 

archive (SIG3 781.10, from Nysa, Lydia, 1 B.c.E., sh ieph ypoippaza nepi z6v ee6v KU~ .ri< &ouhiaq a6r6v) or as the equivalent of Oeia yp&ppara and sacrae litterae, standard 

terms for imperial rescripts and letters (Deissmann 1923.321 f.; T. Drew-Bear and 

P. Hemnann in Drew-BeariEckFIenmann 1977.355-365; Jones 1984; Hauken 1998.1 1 1, 

119,222 f.). Hieros logos could also be used as a designation for monetary funds belonging 

to a god or temple (SEG 43.451.29, Pydna, ca. 168 B.c.E.). 

"* See nn. 71,75,96-97, 102, 125, 130, and 137. 

113 A iepb~ 

hcti p60zqq h6yoq is mentioned in a fragmentary inscription from Halikar- 

nassos having to do with mysteries of Dionysos (Wilhelm 1980.19 and SEG 28.841; cf. 

Burkert 1994a.117 n. 13) and by Philo Sacr 60 = Clem. Alex. Strom. 5.12. Riedweg 

1995.56 renders hieros logos as "Mysterienrede," in connection with Kern 1922.256-265, 

frs. 245-247.


silence that protects them."4 Recording sacred tales in writing would 

have jeopardized their secrecy and even invited pious fraud; not surprisingly, 

hieroi logoi ascribed to individual authors are with one exception 

pseudepigrapha. l5 

In Greece proper, hieroi logoi remained by definition unwritten. 

Outside Greece, and in other cultures, religion and writing were more 

intimately connected. If Philopator's edict is any indication, it was in 

Egypt, more precisely in Alexandria, that at least some hieroi logoi 

were written down, collected and transformed into hierai bibloi. These 

texts are said to have originated in the cult of Dionysos. But which 

Dionysos are we dealing with? Is it the Greek god in his own right, or 

his Egyptian counterpart Osiris, who was identified with Dionysos by 

Herodotos as well as in Hellenistic ~gypt?"~ Although the king rather 

than the god himself had the hieroi logoi recorded and collected, it may 

be relevant that in Egyptian and Greco-Egyptian religion gods were 

often instrumental in the recording of sacred texts, some of which are 

explicitly identified as hieroi l~goi."~ What looks like an aberration 

from a strictly Greek point of view was in Egyptian eyes an established 

mechanism for disseminating sacred texts. Like his predecessors, 

Philopator may indeed have tried to combine the best of both worlds, 

especially in matters of religion. 

Sacred writings were not only prominent in Egypt; they were even 

more central to Judaism and Christianity. Unlike Greek religion, 

Judaism and Christianity were "religions of the book,"118 and their atti- 

"4 The telling of, and listening to, hieroi logoi was common in esoteric cults (below, 

nn. 129 and 131; Burkert 1994a.5674). It is implicit in Herodotos' set phrase ipb~ 

h6yo~ hy6yevo~ (above, at n. 99, cf. n. 101); cf. Lucian Syi: D.2.4 and 2.15; Heliod. 

Aerh. 2.35.3. 

'I5 Cf. Burkert 1972.219 f. (quoted above, at n. 72) The notable exception are the six 

books of 'lepoi A6yo1, variously rendered as "Sacred Teachings," "Sacred Tales" or 

"Sacred Discourses," by Ailios Aiisteides (Or 47-52 Keil, last third of second century 

A.D.), which far from being hieroi logoi in any conventional sense, contain detailed 

accounts of his personal medical and religious history; the title was revealed to him by 

Asklepios in a dream (Aristeid. 01: 48.9). On Aristeides' Hieroi Logoi see Festugikre 

1954.85-104, Dodds 1965.40-45, Behr 1968. 

~dt.2.42.2, 144.2; cf. Henrichs 1972.5841. Reitzenstein 1927.103 took it for 

granted that the Dionysos of the royal decree was the product of religious syncretism, an 

Egyptian or Egyptianizing form of Dionysos. 

1' Above, nn. 63 and 11 1. 

'I8 On the history, definition, and appropriateness of the term "Buchreligion" see Lang 

1990.


tudes towards sacred texts differed fundamentally from pagan belief. In 

the eyes of Jews and Christians alike, God's word ranked as the ultimate 

religious authority. To reach large and diverse constituencies, the 

divine message had to be authentic, clear, and accessible-qualities that 

depended upon the concept of divine revelation, the process of written 

transmission, and the institution of scribal and exegetical schools. Jewish 

and Christian authors often used the same scriptural terminology as 

their pagan counterparts, but they gave it a new and different meaning. 

In the parlance of Philo of Alexandria, the principal representative of 

late Hellenistic Judaism, iepbq l6yoq does not refer to an esoteric religious 

tradition or doctrine, but more specifically to the divine word or 

to a particular biblical passage.l19 When Philo speaks of iepb ypcipyam, 

he is thinking of the Torah, while his pagan contemporaries 

associated the same term with Egyptian hierog1yphi~s.l~~ Along with 

the Old Testament and the concept of the scriptures, Christianity 

adopted from Judaism the terminology of Alexandrian biblical exegesis 

used by Philo. The Church Fathers employed the tenns iepoi h6yot121 

"9 In dozens of instances, Philo uses iepbq h6yoq, in the singular, to introduce or recall 

a passage from the scriptures (e.g., Leg. all. 2.105, 3.1 1, 3.110, 3.162, Sacr: 55, 76, Agr 

94, Ebr: 143, Migr: 17, 85, Congr: 40, 78, 85, 157, Fug. 196, Mut. 215). By contrast, the 

plural refers not only to the Torah in general (Sacr: 130, Ebr: 213, Mut. 138), but also to 

divinely inspired words or thoughts (Quod deter 134, Confus. 27 f., Fug. 144, Praem. 

122). On Philo's concept of the divine Logos see Winston 1985. 

Iz0 In Philo, kv zoiq iepoiq ypdtppaatv (Spec. leg. 2.238, Praem. 79.1, Vita cont. 75, cf. 

Jos. Ap. 1.54), kv (mi


("sacred texts"), iepai YPa(pai122 ("holy scriptures") and iep& yp&ppa~a'~~ 

("sacred writ") as alternate names for the divine word revealed 

and recorded in the Old and New Testament; Ev zaY5 iepa?~ Piphots 

means "in the sacred books," that is "in the Bible."'24 

9. THE GENEALOGY OF A SACRED TEXT 

In a further attempt to assess the ambivalent status of writing in 

the context of Greek religion, now in the imperial period, we return to 

central Greece with Pausanias as our guide. Nobody in antiquity 

explored the religious landscape of Greece as widely and thoroughly as 

Pausanias, but he does not always tell his readers everything he has witnessed. 

Like Herodotos before him, Pausanias is very reluctant to talk 

about esoteric cults or to discuss the arcana (cin6ppqza) of local religious 

lore.lZ5 For example, it would be a sacrilege in Pausanias' eyes if 

he were to divulge the nocturnal ritual for Dionysos that takes place 

every year at the Alkyonian Lake near Lerna in the Argolid (2.37.6 zh 

6' b~ adz4v Atovzioot 6phyeva bv vv~zi ~az& zzo~k~aozov06~ 

dotov k< 6~avza~ fiv pot yp&~at).'~~ While Herodotos taboos the 

name of Osiris, Pausanias refuses to reveal the name of the Despoina of 

Lykosoura in Arcadia-"I am afraid of writing down the (true) name of 

the Despoina for the uninitiated" (8.37.9 zqq Aeonoivq~ 6i zb l5vopx 

k6etoa k~ TOGS &ze%ozou~yp~icpetv).'~~ 

Pausanias twice employs the term iepb~ h6yo5 to refer to two distinct 

oral traditions which explained-presumably in the form of an 

Iz2 1 Clem. 45.2, 53.1 (Old and New Testament), Eus. H. E. 2.17.12, 7.32.16 (Old Tes- 

tament), Athan. De communi essentia 49, 28.76B Migne (New Testament); cf. Rom. 1.2 

iv ypacpcliq &$at< (Prophets) and Jos. Ap. 2.45 = Hecataeus of Abdera FGrHist 264 F 22 

ai zijv iepb ypacpGv Piphot for the Hebrew Bible. 

'23 2 Tim. 3.15 (Old Testament), Didym. Fragm. in Ps. 1266 Miihlenberg (Old Testa- 

ment); see Lampe 1961.322 s.v.y pa~~a 

2a. 

lZ4 1 Clem. 43.1 (Pentateuch), Theoph. Antioch. Autol. 3.29 (Old Testament), Acta Joh. 

7 (Proverbs), Greg. Nyss. Beat. 5, 44.1273.25 Migne (Old Testament), cf. Orig. Cels. 3.6 

iephq R ~VTEPiPhOuq (Pentateuch). Apoc. Joh. apocr: 13.6 f. Tischendorf ~3.58eiaq K U ~ 

ieph~Piphouq. 

125 Foccardi 1987 discusses the passages in which Pausanias makes an explicit vow of 

silence. She does not include the two hieroi logoi mentioned but not divulged by Pausa- 

nias (below, n. 128). 

126 Foccardi 1987.80 f. 

12' Foccardi 1987.86-88.


aetiological myth-why the grove of Hebe at Phl(e)ious near Corinth 

lacked a cult statue and why beans were considered impure in the cult 

of Demeter Eleusinia at Pheneos in Arcadia. In both of these instances 

Pausanias merely states the existence of such "sacred tales" without 

revealing their ~0ntents.l~~ 

At Pheneos in particular, the trieteric celebration of the mysteries of 

Demeter was wrapped in secrecy. The secret focused on a sacred text 

concealed in the so-called Petroma, a construction made of "two large 

stones fitted to each other" (Paus. 8.15.1). According to Pausanias, 

"every other year, when they celebrate the so-called Greater Mysteries, 

they open these stones; they remove from them certain writings (yphkpaza) 

which have to do with the mystery rite, read them so that the initiates 

can hear them, and deposit them again that same night."129 These 

secret texts, retrieved and recited under the cover of darkness, probably 

consisted of ritual instructions for the initiates; they may even have 

contained the hieros logos that explained the bean pr~hibition.'~~ Whatever 

their exact contents, they are another clear instance of an esoteric 

text being read from a sacred "book" on a ritual occasion.131 

Pausanias also knew of a peculiar text connected with the mysteries 

of Dionysos and Demeter at Lerna in the Argolid, in which the ritual 

proper ("things done," zh 6php~va) was accompanied by "things said 

(zh hEy6p~va). Composed in Doric, this text was a mixture of verse 

and prose written on a heart-shaped piece of ~0pper.l~~ As if to lend 

128 Paus. 2.13.4 iep6~ koztv adroi~ My05 and 8.15.4 &oztv iepb~ PIT' a6zii~h6yoq. On 

the bean taboo see Frazer 1898,4.240 f. and above, n. 108. 

'29 Paus. 8.15.2 ayovre~ Fk nap& &oq ijvnva zekzjv p~icova 6voplcouot zoh~ 

hi00~~ zo6zou5 zqvtraQza avoiyouot. hup6vzej (Fk) ypdtppaza kc a6rGv Exovza k~ 

zjv zehzjv lcai &vayv6vz~~ (65) knjroov tiiv puoziiv razk0evzo kv vu~d 241 

a6rijt. On the rites at Pheneos, said to be modeled after the Eleusinian mysteries, see 

Nilsson 1906.343 f. 

I3O Obbink 1994.133. By contrast, Festugihre 1954a.88 and 168 n. 4 speculates that the 

secret writings contained divine revelations made by Demeter in the distant mythical past 

on her visit to Pheneos (Paus. 8.15.3). Sauppe 1859.228 = 1896.270 and Burkert 

1994a.59 treat Paus. 8.15.2 as another instance of a mystery text or mystery book but do 

not comment on a possible connection between the secret grammata and the equally 

secret hieros logos. Baumgarten 1998.130 dissociates the telestic grammata from the 

hieros logos. 

I3l Nilsson 1961.96 speaks of a "sacred book" and compares it to the "book" read by 

Aiskhines to his mother during the initiation into the mysteries of Dionysos-Sabazios 

(above, n. 49); for the sacrum carmen recited at the Roman Bacchanalia see above, n. 53. 

132~aus.2.37.3 za ~kv oob hy6p~va ktci zoiq Fpopkvot~ Fijhci koztv o 6 avza ~ 

cipxccia. Fk I'jrouoa id zqt rapGiat yeyplcp0at zfit xexotqpbqt 700 bpet~lh~ou,


credence to Pausanias' account, two gold tablets in the shape of hearts 

or ivy leaves emerged fifteen years ago from a tomb in Pelinna, Thessaly, 

that has been dated to the end of the fourth century B.c.E.'~~ Placed 

on the chest of the deceased woman-clearly a Dionysiac initiateburied 

in the sarcophagus, these gold leaves are inscribed in a mixture 

of prose and hexametrical verse and contain ritual utterances preceded 

by a soteriological affirmation of a Dionysiac afterlife.'34 Like the mystery 

texts from Pheneos and Pelinna, the text associated with the mysteries 

at Lerna was apparently for the ears of the initiates only, which 

explains why Pausanias does not disclose its ~0ntents.l~~ By contrast, 

when he does report local oral traditions, he describes them as h6yot 

rather than as iepoi h6y0t.l~~ Whereas ordinary h6yot were addressed 

to the general public, iepoi h6yo1 were aimed at a more exclusive audience. 

For Herodotos as well as Pausanias, marginality and secrecy are 

o66k raijra 6vra @th&pkwvo~ 'ApptcpGv ~8pe.. .. ~ a6oa i 06 per& pkrpou pep~yphva 

qv rois Enem, rh x&vra Awp~ori xenoiqra~. Cf. Nilsson 1961.354. Pausanias adds that 

the authenticity of this text had been questioned by a certain Aniphon, who argued that it 

could not have been composed by Philammon, the mythical founder of the mysteries at 

Lerna, because it was written in Doric, whereas Philammon lived before the Doric 

invasion. The questions raised by Aniphon underline the connection between sacred writ 

and pseudepigraphy. 

133 T~ant~anoglou/Para~~oglou 1987 (with plates); Graf 1991, 1993; Riedweg 1998.392; 

Porta 1999.337-343; BemabBIJimCnez San Cristdbal2001.87-130,267 f. 

134 Unparalleled elsewhere, this declaration-"almost certainly a formula of mystic ini- 

tiation" (Seaford 1994.278)-amounts to a promise of life after death under the aegis of 

Dionysos (Pelinna tablets, lines 1-2): vuv %8ave< ~ avcv i kybvou, rp~adhpte. $)*an 

ru?tde. I eineiv @~po~cp6va1 a' 671 B&X(X)IOS a6rb~ &huoe ("Now you have died and now 

you have been born, 0 thrice-blessed one, on this day. Tell Persephone that Bakkhios 

himself has released you."). For various attempts to contextualize the afterlife expecta- 

tions expressed in these lines see Henrichs 1990.268; Segal 1990; Graf 1993.242-247; 

Parker 1995.497-499; Seaford 1997.4 1; Riedweg 1998.387-389; BernabCIJimCnez San 

Cristdbal 2001.88-107; Bremmer 2002.16, 21-22. 

135 Nor does Pausanias reveal the ''thlngs pertaining to the mystery rite" inscribed on a 

tablet of bronze or wood he saw in the stoa adjacent to the sanctuary of the Despoina in 

Lykosoura (8.37.2 n~varndv kart yeypappkvov, Zxov rh 65 ~fiv rekriv, cf. 5.20.7 and 

24.11). In his comment on this passage, Frazer 1898, 4.371 compares the Hellenistic 

inscription from Lykosoura containing regulations for the mysteries and published in 

1898 (IG 5.2 no. 514; Ziehen in ProttJZiehen 188611906, 2.197-199 no. 63; SIG3 999; 

Sokolowski 1969.137-139, no. 68; Loucas 1994; Voutiras 1999): "In fact we seem to 

have recovered the very inscription seen by Pausanias." But an inscription on stone is not 

the same as a xtv&~~ov; Frazer's comment reflects the familiar tendency of scholars to 

identify unknown sacred texts with known ones. 

'36~aus.2.13.8,4.34.5, 8.2.4, 8.20.2, 8.24.5, 8.48.7,9.12.1, 9.27.6f., 10.5.10.


245 

two of the hallmarks of the category of sacred texts known as hieroi 

logoi. 

Even more revealing is the purported pedigree of the sacred text that 

was used in the mystery cult of the "Great Gods" (Megaloi Theoi), 

known in the 2nd century C.E. as the mysteries of the "Great Goddesses," 

at Andania in Messenia, a region in the extreme southwestern 

corner of the Peloponnese. As told by Pausanias, the story moves from 

the distant past to the periegete's own time, and from a hidden text to 

its discovery on a tin tablet and to the generation of multiple copies on 

papyrus called "books" (bibloi). The tale begins in the archaic period, 

around 650 B.C.E., when the legendary Messenian hero Aristomenes 

received an oracle predicting that the Messenians would one day 

recover their country if they buried their most sacred and secret 

0bje~t.l~~ Aristomenes then buried the talisman on Mt. Ithome. The 

day of recovery came some 300 years later, shortly after the battle of 

Leuktra (371 B.c.E.), when the Theban general Epameinondas restored 

Messenian independence from S~arta.'~~ As he was looking for a site 

on which to build a capital for the new state, a mythical religious figure, 

the hierophant Kaukon, appeared to him in a dream and reassured him. 

At exactly the same moment he appeared to Epameinondas, Kaukon 

also appeared to another political figure, the Argive general Epiteles, 

who was an ally of Epameinondas: 

zoijzov o8v tbv Gvbpa k~khruev 6 iivetpo~, Ev0a iiv zfi


h


247 

as a teletz-the blueprint for an initiation ritual. He informs us that 

papyrus copies of it, bibloi, did exist, but their circulation was apparently 

limited to the members of a priestly clan, a measure designed to 

prevent their unauthorized use and to guarantee their secrecy. The 

immediate ancestor of these copies was the alleged tin scroll buried by 

Aristomenes and hidden for 300 years. What is more, the fate of the 

scroll-and no doubt its very existence-was intimately connected with 

the ancient oracle and with divine revelation. The supernatural intervention 

said to have led to the burial and eventual discovery of the 

scroll suggests that the secret text was believed to be of divine origin. 

Modern readers of Pausanias are reluctant to believe that this mysterious 

master copy ever existed.141 The religious history of the Mediterranean 

is full of books whose power and propaganda value lay precisely 

in their supernatural origins and, from a profane perspective, their 

n0ne~istence.l~~ Pausanias claims (4.33.5) to have seen with his own 

eyes the bronze vessel that once contained the tin scroll, but he did not 

see the scroll itself or its alleged copies on papyrus, nor does he tell us 

anything about its contents, or about the rites at Andania. Warned by a 

dream, he refuses to reveal the mystery (4.33.5): "As for the rites of the 

Great Goddesses, let me not talk about them" (~h 6k kq ~ hq e~&q T&G 

p~yhhaq. . . &n6ppr\.raEo~op o~).'~~ 

But Pausanias does not have the last word, let alone the last silence. 

In 1858, an inscription dating from 92/91 B.C.E. was found in Messenia 

near the site of ancient Andania. The document contains detailed regulations 

for the initiates into the mystery cult of Andania, but it, too, fails 

to reveal any secrets about the actual rituals or the sacred objects used 

in them.144 Inscribed on stone for everyone to read, this cult law cannot 

have been identical with the secret initiation text (teletz) of Pau- 

14' The historicity of the entire foundation legend, including the tin scroll, is rejected by 

Wilamowitz 1931132.2.539 ("Geschichtsklitterung"); the existence of the scroll is called 

into question by Miiller 1993.310 n. 11. 

14' Speyer 1970 and 1971. 

143 Paus. 4.33.5. Pausanias maintains the same silence when he talks about Eleusis and 

the Eleusinian Mysteries. In fact he explicitly compares the two silences and derives the 

mysteries at Andania from Eleusis (4.33.5 and 1.14.4). Pausanias' refusal to reveal the 

secret lore of the mystery cults reflects a common religious attitude, but it is also firmly 

placed in a literary tradition that begins with Herodotos (above, nn. 102-104). Cf. Wil- 

amowitz 1931132.2.537; Heer 1979.184 f.; Elsner 1992.22-27. 

144ZG5.1 no. 1390; Ziehen in ProttIZiehen 188611906.2.166-185 no. 58; SIG3 736; 

GDI4689; Sokolowski 1969.120-134, no. 65.


~anias.'~~ At one point the inscription makes reference to "the capsule 

(~hpnzpa) and the papyrus rolls (Ptbhia) which Mnasistratos provided" 

(line 11 f.), at another to "the spring named Hagna in the ancient 

writings" (line 84 76s 68 ~phvas765 cjvopaopkva< 6th zi3v &pxaiov 

iyyphcpov "yvas). These references point to a treasure trove of sacred 

texts-whether real or imagined-written prior to 92/91 B.C.E. and having 

to do with the celebration of the local mysteries. Even though we 

may speculate on the nature of these texts and on their relationship to 

each other, our most urgent questions are likely to remain unanswered. 

Are the "ancient writings" the same as those on the papyrus rolls 

made available by Mnasistratos, or are we dealing with two completely 

different dossiers?146 And how are the papyrus rolls (biblia) of the 

inscription related to the papyrus rolls (bibloi) mentioned more than 

two hundred years later by Pausanias but allegedly copied much earlier, 

at the time of Epameinondas, from the elusive tin scroll? It has been 

suggested more than once that the biblia and the bibloi may in fact refer 

to the very same papyrus rolls containing the same sacred text.147 However, 

it is unlikely that in Greece papyrus rolls had a physical life of 

three hundred years (from Epameinondas to Mnasistratos), let alone of 

five hundred (from Epameinondas to Pausanias). If the papyrus rolls in 

the possession of Mnasistratos and the ones known to Pausanias did 

indeed contain the same text, as has often been assumed, the two sets of 

papyrus "books" probably represented two separate copies made at different 

times. In other words, the copies made initially by the priests 

under Epameinondas had been replaced by more recent copies by the 

time of the Andania inscription, or at the latest by the time of Pausanias, 

provided the priestly copies ever existed to begin 

14' Muller 1993.310/Baumgarten 1998.127 f. 

146 Sauppe 1859.264 = 1896.299 and Meister 1905.132 on GDI 4689 speculate that 

Mnasistratos' PtPhiu as well as the &p~uiu k'r-rpucpa were copies of the original text on 

tin rescued by Epameinondas, but the existence of that text is extremely doubtful (above, 

nn. 136 and 140-141; below, n. 148). 

14' Their identity is assumed by Sauppe 1859.264 = 1896.299, Ziehen (in ProttfZiehen 

188611906, 2.179), W. Dittenberger and F. Hiller von Gaertringen (on SIG3 736.11), and 

Muller 1993.31 IBaumgarten 1998.128. By contrast, Wilamowitz 1931132.2.541 distinguished 

the content of the biblia from that of the alleged tin sheet ("die PtPhiu werden 

wohl die Traumgesichte des Epameinondas und Epiteles erhalten haben, da die Herkunft 

und Entdeckung der Bleirolle historisch begrundet werden muflte"). 

14' According to Wilamowitz 1931132.2.541, Mnasistratos forged the biblia (preceding 

note) as well as the "ancient writings" (&pxaiu i'yypacpa) mentioned in the Andania 

inscription.


249 

The inscription adds that the rolls as well as their container-the socalled 

~&ynzpa'~~-were to pass from the annually elected cult members 

known as iepoi, the "holy ones," to their successors. Mnasistratos, 

who held the rank of hierophant, must have belonged to the priestly 

clan that was in charge of the cult and in possession of its sacred texts. 

When, in 92/91 B.c.E., he was told by the Delphic oracle to reorganize 

the rites, he apparently released these sacred books from the family 

archives and turned them over to the elected leadership of the cult.I5O 

Thus control over the holy texts passed from the priestly families to 

another privileged group, the highest officials of the newly reorganized 

cult.Is1 The Andania inscription is the written record of this reorganization. 

Classified as a lex sacra in modem scholarship, it does not have 

the same aura and status as a text actually used and recited during a ritual 

performance. But like other cult regulations, it repeatedly lays 

claim to a special authority invested in the written word and affirmed in 

the formulaic phrase "as it is written" (~aOh5 y6ypanzat).152 The text 

of the inscription concludes with the ultimate assertion of its own 

authority: "This written ordinance shall be valid for all time to come" 

(zb 6i: Gtaypapya K ~ ~ L Okozo V E ~ navza G zbv xp6vov). 

The various mystery texts of Andania, whether extant or not, 

embody all the central issues associated with sacred writ. I conclude by 

applying the case of the mystery texts of Andania to the various problems 

I have raised in this paper: 

149 Like Greek ~lp0765 (Ar.Knighfs 1000, Plut. Alex. 26.1 f., cf. 8.2; Thomas 1989.80 

n. 214) or K~P~TIOV (Pollux 10.61) and Latin capsa, from which it is derived (Chantraine 

1983.507 s.v. ~atya), ~apnrparefers to the cylindrical case in which papyrus rolls were 

stored and carried (Sauppe 1859.228 = 1896.270, F. Hiller von Gaertringen on SIG3 

736.11, Pritchett 1956.224 f., and Oxford Latin Dictionary 273 s.vv. capsa and capsula; 

for a representation of such a container on a wall painting from Pompeii see Turnerparsons 

1987.34 pl. 9). Attempts to identify the xdtpnrpa of the inscription with the hydria 

of Pausanias (Meister 1905.132 on GDI 4689; ProttJZiehen 188611906.2.167 n. 2; Zuntz 

1963.235 = 1972.96; Ldpez Salv6 1997.73), with a box supposedly serving as a protective 

cover for the hydria (Wilamowitz 1931132.2.541 n. 1) or with one of the cistae mysticue 

(noraq hxo6oa~ i~ph KZ)OTIK&) mentioned in line 30 of the inscription are misguided. 

I5O Nilsson 1906.338. According to SIG3 735, Mnasistratos in his capacity as hierophant 

consulted the Delphic oracle "concerning the sacrifice and the mysteries" (nepi r6q 

8uoiwq rai rwv puorqpiwv); he was told by Apollo to "perform the mysteries (hn~tekiv 

rh puoripta) for the Messenians." 

15' Cf. Miiller 1993.311. 

'52 Andania inscription (above, I@), lines 44,59,94 f., 110, cf. 81.


First, the interplay between the written and the unwritten, as well as 

between old and new copies. Here we have a sacred text which is so 

secret that for its own protection it should have remained unwritten. 

According to Pausanias, it went through several stages of written repro- 

duction-on metal as well as papyrus--over an extended period of 

time. Still, it has kept its secret to the present day. 

Second, the association of sacred texts, whether written or unwritten, 

with marginal religious groups and special constituencies. The Anda- 

nia mystery text remained secret precisely because it was not available 

to the public at-large but was only in the hands of a select few. Limited 

circulation and restricted access were conspicuous hallmarks of sacred 

texts throughout antiquity. 

Lastly, the relationship between sacred texts and sacred books. 

According to Pausanias, the teletc was first recorded on tin, as a sacred 

text. It was later written down on papyrus rolls (bibloi),thus becoming 

a sacred "book." This pattern confirms that sacred books represent just 

one method of preserving and circulating sacred texts. 

Although religious texts tended to circulate in single copies,153 

sacred books were usually copied repeatedly. Thus the protected nature 

of hieroi logoi as emblems of religious nonconformity faced particular 

pressure from two conflicting tendencies: that of preserving the extraor- 

dinary status of the sacred text by treating it as if it were ineffable and 

by keeping it a secret to be shared with initiates only, and the equally 

strong but opposing tendency to preserve the text by writing it down 

and to make multiple copies as a precaution against the evanescence of 

writing and the perishability of b00ks.l~~ 

'53 The known exception are the "Orphic-Dionysiac" gold tablets (above, n. 8), several 

of which contain near-identical versions of the same texts (Riedweg 1998). In Pelinna, 

Thessaly, twin tablets with a long and a short version of the same text were found in the 

same sarcophagus (above, nn. 133-134). 

154 Originally delivered on October 2, 1993, to the Conference on the Greek and Roman 

Book at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, this paper was accepted in the spring 

of 1995 for publication in a volume of proceedings that has yet to materialize. A steady 

stream of pertinent publications, including a German dissertation on hieroi logoi (above, 

n. lo), has appeared since 1995, and it is time to join in the debate. For various help and 

advice I am grateful to Maura Giles, Miguel Herrero, Alexander Hollmann, Christopher 

Jones, Ludwig Koenen, Gregory Nagy, Dirk Obbink, and the late Charles Segal, as well 

as to the 1994195 Junior and Senior Fellows of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Wash-


REFERENCES 

Adrados, F. R. (ed.). 1994. Diccionario griego-espafiol IV, Madrid. 

Anderson, C. A. 1991. "The Dream-Oracles of Athena, Knights 

1090-95." TAPA 121.149-155. 

Barrett, W. S. 1964. Euripides: Hippolytos. Oxford. 

Baumgarten, R. 1998. Heiliges Wort und Heilige Schrift bei den 

Griechen: Hieroi Logoi und verwandte Erscheinungen. Script- 

Oralia 110, Altertumswissenschaftliche Reihe 26. Tiibingen. Same 

author as Miiller 1993. 

Beard, M. 1985. "Writing and Ritual. A Study of Diversity and Expan- 

sion in the Arval Acta." PBSR 53.1 14-162. 

-. 1991. "Writing and Religion: Ancient Literacy and the Function 

of the Written Word in Roman Religon. Question: What Was the 

R81e of Writing in Graeco-Roman Paganism?'In J. H. Humphrey 

(ed.), Literacy in the Roman World. JRA Suppl. Ser. 3. Ann Arbor, 

35-58. 

Behr, C. A. 1968. Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales. Amsterdam. 

BernabC, A. 2002. "La toile de PCnClope: a-t-il exist6 un mythe 

orphique sur Dionysos et les Titans?'In L'orphisme et ses Lcrit- 

ures: nouvelles recherches. Revue de l'histoire des religions 

219.401-433. 

BernabC, A. and A. I. JimCnez San Cristbbal. 2001. Instrucciones para 

el mas alla: las laminillas dijicas de oro. Madrid. 

Betz, H. D. 1982. "The Formation of Authoritative Tradition in the 

Greek Magical Papyri." In Meyer and Sanders 1982.161-170, 

236-238. 

-. (ed.) 1986. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including 

the Demotic Spells. ChicagoLondon. 

Boll, F. 1908. Catalogus codicum astrologorum Graecorum VII: 

Codices Germanicos descripsit Franciscus Boll. Brussels. 

Borgeaud, P. (ed.). 1991. Orphisme et OrphLe, en l'honneur de Jean 

Rudhardt. Recherches et Rencontres 3. Geneva. 

Boudreaux, P. and F. Cumont. 1922. Catalogus codicum astrologorum 

Graecorum tomi VIII pars N: Codicum Parisinorum partem quar- 

ington, D.C., who heard an earlier version of this paper. I dedicate this study with grati- 

tude and affection to Reinhold Merkelbach, my Cologne teacher, now in his eighty-fifth 

year, who inspired my interest in ancient books, sacred texts, and the religions of Greece 

and Egypt.


tam descripsit Petrus Boudreaux, edidit appendice suppleta Franciscus 

Cumont. Brussels. 

Brashear, W. 1979. "Ein Berliner Zauberpapyrus." ZPE 33.261-278. 

Bravo, B. 1987. "Une tablette magique d'Olbia pontique: les morts, les 

hCros et les dCmons." In Poikilia: ~tudes offertes a Jean-Pierre 

Vernant, Recherches d'histoire et de sciences sociales 26, Paris, 

185-218. 

Bremmer, J. N. 2002. The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife. The 1995 

Read-Tuckwell Lectures at the University of Bristol. Londoflew 

York. 

Burkard, G. 1980. "Bibliotheken im alten ;igypten." Bibliothek. 

Forschung und Praxis 4.79-1 15. 

Burkert, W. 1972. Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism. Cambridge, 

Mass. 

-. 1982. "Craft versus Sect: The Problem of Orphics and 

Pythagoreans." In Meyer and Sanders 1982.1-22, 183-189. 

-. 1985. Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical. Cambridge, Mass. 

and Oxford. 

----. 1986. "Der Autor von Derveni: Stesimbrotos nepi .rekz&v?" 

ZPE 62.1-5. 

-. 1990. "Herodot als Historiker fremder Religionen." In G. Nenci 

(ed.), Hkrodote et les peuples non grecs, Entretiens Hardt 35, 

VandaeuvresIGeneva, 1-39. 

-. 1992a. The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Injuence on 

Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age. Cambridge, MassLondon. 

---. 1992b. "The Formation of Greek Religion at the Close of the 

Dark Ages." SIFC 3rd ser., 10.533-55 1. 

-. 1993. "Bacchic Teletai in the Hellenistic Age." In CarpenterFaraone 

1993.259-275. 

-. 1994a. Antike Mysterien: Funktionen und Gehalt. 3rd ed. 

Munich (revised version of Ancient Mystery Cults. Cambridge, 

Mass./London 1987). 

-. 1994b. "Olbia and Apollo of Didyma: A New Oracle Text." In 

J. Solomon (ed.), Apollo: Origins and Injuences, Tucson/London, 

49-60. 

-. 1995. "Der geheime Reiz des Verborgenen: Antike Mysterienkulte." 

In KippenbergIStroumsa 1995.79-100.


-. 1999. Da Omero ai Magi. La tradizione orientale nella cultura 

greca. Venice. 

Calame, C. 2002. "La poCsie attribuCe B OrphCe: qu'est-ce qui est 

orphique dans les Orphica?" In L'Orphisme et ses Lcritures: nou- 

velles recherches. Revue de l'histoire des religions 219.385400. 

Cancik, H. 1989. "Libri fatales. Romische Offenbarungsliteratur und 

Geschichtstheologie." In D. Hellholm (ed.), Apocalypticism in the 

Mediterranean World and the Near East. 2nd ed. 1989, Tiibingen, 

549-576. 

Canfora, L. 1990. The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient 

World. BerkeleyJLos Angeles. 

Carpenter, T. H. and C. A. Faraone (eds.). 1993. Masks of Dionysus. 

IthacaLondon. 

Casadio, G. 1983. "Per un'indagine storico-religiosa sui culti di 

Dioniso in relazione alla fenomenologia dei misteri 11." SMSR 

7.123-149. 

-. 1990. "I Cretesi di Euripide e l'ascesi orfica." Didattica del clas- 

sic0 2.278-3 10. 

Casel, 0. 1919. De philosophorum Graecorum silentio mystico. RVV 

16.2. Giessen. 

Chantraine, P. 1983. Dictionnaire e'tymologique de la langue grecque, 

repr. of 1968 ed. Paris. 

Ciani, M. G. (ed.) 1987. The Regions of Silence: Studies on the Difi- 

cult_):of Communicating. London Studies in Classical Philology 17. 

Amsterdam. 

Cole, S. G. 1984. Theoi Megaloi: The Cult of the Great Gods at 

Samothace. EPRO 96. Leiden. 

Colpe, C. 1987. "Heilige Schriften." RAC 14, Stuttgart, 184-223. 

Daniel, R. W. 1991. Two Greek Magical Papyri in the National 

Museum of Antiquities in Leiden: A Photographic Edition of J 384 

and J 395 (= PGM XII and XIII). Papyrologica Coloniensia 19. 

Opladen. 

Daniel, R. W. and F. Maltomini. 1990192. Supplementum Magicum. 2 

vols. Papyrologica Coloniensia 16.1-2. Opladen. 

Deissmann, A. 1923. Licht vom Oste~z. Das neue Testament und die 

neuentdeckten Texte der hellenistisch-romischen Welt. 4th ed. 

Tiibingen. 

Denniston, J. D. 1927. "Technical Terms in Aristophanes." CQ 

21.1 13-121.


Denny, F. and R. L. Taylor. 1985. The Holy Book in Comparative Per- 

spective. Columbia, S.C. 

Diehl, J. 1938. Sphragis, eine semasiologische Nachlese. Doctoral diss., 

University of Giessen. 

Dieterich, A. 1913. Nekyia. Beitrage zur Erklarung der neuentdeckten 

Petrusapokalypse. 2nd ed. LeipzigJBerlin. 

Dignas, B. 2002a. '"Inventories' or 'Offering Lists'? Assessing the 

Wealth of Apollo Didymaeus ." ZPE 13 8.235-244. 

-. 2002b. Economy of the Sacred in Hellenistic and Roman Asia 

Minol: Oxford. 

Dillon, M. P. J. 1994. "The Didactic Nature of the Epidaurian Iarnata." 

ZPE 101.239-260. 

Dodds, E. R. 1951. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeleykos 

Angeles. 

-. 1965.Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety. Cambridge. 

-. 1973. The Ancient Concept of Progress and Other Essays on 

Greek Literature and Belief. Oxford. 

Dornseiff, F. 1922. Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie. Leipzigmerlin. 

Dover, K. 1993.Aristophanes: Frogs. Oxford. 

Dowden, K. 1992. The Uses of Greek Mythology. LondonINew York. 

Drew-Bear, T., W. Eck and P. Herrmann 1977. "Sacrae Litterae." Chiron 

7.355-383. 

Dunand, F. 1986. "Les associations dionysiaques au service du pouvoir 

lagide (IIIe s. av. J.-C.)." In L'association dionysiaque duns les 

socitftks anciennes: Actes de la table ronde organistfe par 1'~cole 

francaise de Rome (Rome 24-25 mai 1984), Collection de 1'~cole 

Franqaise de Rome 89, Rome, 85-104. 

Dunbar, N. 1995.Aristophanes: Birds. Oxford. 

Eitrem, S. 1937. "A Few Remarks on o.rrou6~), 8ahh65, and Other 

Extra Payments in Papyri." Symbolae Osloenses 17.26-48. 

Elsner, J. 1992. "Pausanias: A Greek Pilgrim in the Roman World." 

Past and Present 135.3-29. 

Erman, A. 1934. Die Religion der Agyptel: Ihr Werden und Vergehen in 

vier Jahrtausenden. BerlinlLeipzig. 

Faraone, C. A. 1990. "Aphrodite's KEETOE and Apples for Atalanta: 

Aphrodisiacs in Early Greek Myth and Ritual." Phoenix 44.219- 

243. 

-. 1991. "The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding Spells." 

In FaraoneIObbink 199 1.3-32.


255 

-. 2000. "Handbooks and Anthologies: The Collection of Greek 

and Egyptian Incantations in Late Hellenistic Egypt." Archiv fur 

Religionsgeschichte 2.195-2 14. 

Faraone, C. A. and D. Obbink (eds.). 1991. Magika Hiera: Ancient 

Greek Magic and Religion. New YorMOxford. 

Farnell, L. R. 1921. Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality. 

Oxford. 

Festugibre, A.-J. 1935. "Les mystbres de Dionysos." Rev. Bibl. 

44.192-21 1, 366-396 (= Festugi&re 1972.13-63). 

-. 1954a.Personal Religion among the Greeks. BerkeleyLos Ange- 

les. 

-. 1954b. "Ce que Tite-Live nous apprend sur les mystbres de 

Dionysos." MEFRA 66.79-99 (= Festugihe 1972.89-109). 

-. 1972.Etudes de religion grecque et hell&nistique. Paris. 

Flory, S. 1980. "Who Read Herodotus' Histories?'AJP 101.12-28. 

Foccardi, D. 1987. "Religious Silence and Reticence in Pausanias." In 

Ciani 1987.67-1 13. 

Fontenrose, J. 1978. The Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and Opera- 

tions. BerkeleyLos AngelesILondon. 

Fornara, C. 1994. Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 111 C, 

fasc. 1: Commentary on Nos. 608a-608. Leiden. 

FOX, R. L. 1987. Pagans and Christians. Oxford. 

Fraser, P. M. 1972. Ptolemaic Alexandria. 3 vols. Oxford. 

Frazer, J. G. 1898. Pausanias's Description of Greece. 6 vols. London. 

Funghi, M. S. 1997. "The Derveni Papyrus." In LaksMost 1997.25- 

37. 

Gager, J. G. (ed.) 1992. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the 

Ancient World. New YorMOxford. 

Gardiner, A. H. 1938. "The House of Life." JEg. Arch. 24.157-179. 

Garland, R. S. J. 1984. "Religious Authority in Archaic and Classical 

Athens." BSA 79.75-123. 

-. 1990. "Priests and Power in Classical Athens." In M. Beard and 

J. North (eds.), Pagan Priests, Ithaca, 75-91. 

Girone, M. 1998. 'Ioipaza. Guarigioni miracolose di Asclepio in testi 

epigrajici, nivare~3, Bari. 

Gould, J. 1994. "Herodotus and Religion." In S. Hornblower (ed.), 

Greek Historiography, Oxford, 9 1-1 06. 

Graf, F. 1974. Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens in vorhellenistischer 

Zeit. RVV 33. BerlinINew York.


-. 1987. "Orpheus: A Poet among Men." In J. Brernrner (ed.), 

Interpretations of Greek Mythology, London, 80-106. 

-. 1991. "Textes orphiques et rituel bacchique. A propos des 

lamelles de PClinna." In Borgeaud 1991.87-102. 

-. 1993. "Dionysian and Orphic Eschatology: New Texts and Old 

Questions." In CarpenterFaraone 1993.239-258. 

-. 1996. "Orphism." In OCD 3. 1079 

-. 1997.Magic in the Ancient World. Cambridge, Mass. 

-. (ed.) 1998. Ansichten griechischer Rituale. Geburtstags-Sympo- 

sium fur Walter Burkert. StuttgartlLeipzig. 

Grandjean, Y. 1975. Une nouvelle arLtalogie d'Isis a MaronLe. EPRO 

49. Leiden. 

Guthne, W. K. C. 1952. Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the 

Orphic Movement. 2nd ed. London. 

Hamilton, R. 2000. Treasure Map. A Guide to the Delian Inventories. 

Ann Arbor. 

Harris, W. H. 1989. Ancient Literacy. Cambridge, Mass./London. 

Harrison, J. 1927. Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Reli- 

gion. 2nd ed. Cambridge. 

Harrison, T. 2000. Divinity and History: The Religion of Herodotus. 

Oxford. 

Hauken, T. 1998. Petition and Response: An Epigraphic Study of Peti- 

tions to Roman Emperors 181-249. Monographs from the Nor- 

wegian Institute at Athens 2. Bergen. 

Heer, J. 1979.La personnnalite' de Pausanias. Paris. 

Henderson, J. 2000. Aristophanes: Birds, Lysistrata, Women at the 

Thesmophoria. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Mass. 

Henrichs, A. 1969. "Die Maenaden von Milet." ZPE 4.223-241. 

-. 1972. Die Phoinikika des Lollianos. Fragmente eines neuen 

griechischen Romans. Papyrologische Texte und Abhandlungen 

14. Bonn. 

-. 1975. "Philodems De Pietate als mythographische Quelle." 

Cron. Erc. 5.5-38. 

-. 1978. "Horaz als Aretaloge des Dionysos: Credite Posteri." 

HSCP 82.203-21 1. 

-. 1981. "Literary Criticism of the Cologne Mani Codex." In 

B. Layton (ed.), The Rediscovery of Gnosticism. Proceedings of 

the International Conference on Gnosticism at Yale, New Haven,


257 

Connecticut, March 28-31, 1978. Supplements to Numen 41, vol. 

2, Leiden, 724-733. 

-. 1982. "Changing Dionysiac Identities." In Meyer and Sanders 

1982.137-160,213-236. 

-. 1984a. "The Sophists and Hellenistic Religion: Prodicus as the 

Spiritual Father of the Isis Aretalogies." HSCP 88.139-158. 

-. 1984b. "The Eumenides and Wineless Libations in the Derveni 

Papyrus." In Atti del XVII Congresso Internazionale di Papirolo- 

gia (Napoli, 19-26 maggio 1983), vol. 2, Naples, 255-268. 

-. 1990. "Between Country and City: Cultic Dimensions of 

Dionysos in Athens and Attica." In M. Griffith and D. J. Mastronarde 

(eds.), Cabinet of the Muses. Essays on Classical and 

Comparative Literature in Honor of Thomas G. Rosenmeyer, 

Atlanta, 257-277. 

-. 1998. "Dromena und Legomena: Zum rituellen Selbstverstandnis 

der Griechen." In Graf 1998.33-7 1. 

-. 2003. "Writing Religion: Inscribed Texts, Ritual Authority, and 

the Religious Discourse of the Polis." In H. Yunis (ed.), Written 

Texts and the Rise of Literate Culture in Ancient Greece. Cambridge1New 

York, 38-58. 

Hoessly, F. 2001. Katharsis: Reinigung als Heilsverjahren. Studien zurn 

Ritual der archaischen und klassischen Zeit sowie zum Corpus 

Hippocraticum. Hypomnemata 135. Gottingen. 

Hordern, J. 2000. "Notes on the Orphic Papyrus from Gur8b (P. Gur8b 

1; Pack2 2464)" ZPE 129.131-140. 

Hunt, A. S. and C. C. Edgar. 1934. Select Papyri. 2 vols. Cambridge, 

Mass./London. 

Jacoby, F. 1954. Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker IIIb: A 

Commentary on the Ancient Historians of Athens. 2 vols. Leiden. 

Janko, R. 1984. "Forgetfulness in the Golden Tablets of Memory." CQ 

n.s. 34.89-100. 

-. 1986. Review of West 1983. Cl. Phil. 81.154-159. 

-. 1997. "The Physicist as Hierophant: Aristophanes, Socrates and 

the Authorship of the Derveni Papyrus." ZPE 118.61-94. 

-. 2001. "The Derveni Papyrus (Diagoras of Melos, Apopyrgizontes 

Logoi?): A New Translation." Cl. Phil. 96.1-32. 

-. 2002. "The Derveni Papyrus: An Interim Text." ZPE 141.1-62. 

Jesi, F. 1956. "Notes sur 1'Cdit dionysiaque de PtolCmCe IV Philopator." 

JNES 15.236-240.


Johnston, S. I. 1990. HEKATE SOTEIRA: A Study of Hekate's Roles in 

the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature. American Classical 

Studies 21. Atlanta. 

Jones, C. P. 1984. "The Sacrae Litterae of 204: Two Colonial Copies." 

Chiron 14.93-99. 

Jordan, D. R. 1985. "A Survey of Greek Defuliones Not Included in the 

Special Corpora." GRBS 26.15 1-197. 

-. 1988. "New Archaeological Evidence for the Practice of Magic 

in Classical Athens." In Praktika tou XII diethnous synedriou klassik&s 

archaiologias, Athens, 273-277. 

Kahn, C. H. 1997. "Was Euthyphro the Author of the Derveni 

Papyrus?'In LaksNost 1997.55-63. 

Keizer, L. S. 1974. The Eighth Reveals the Ninth: A New Hermetic Initiation 

Discourse (Tractate 6, Nag Hammadi Codex VI). Seaside, 

California. 

Kern, 0. 1922. Orphicorum fragmenta. Berlin. 

Kippenberg, H. G. and G. G. Stroumsa (eds.), Secrecy and Concealment: 

Studies in the History of Mediterranean and Near Eastern 

Religions. Studies in the History of Religions 65. LeidenINew 

York 1995. 

Kirchberg, J. 1965. Die Funktion der Orakel im Werke Herodots. 

Gottingen. 

Kleberg, T. 1967. Buchhandel und Verlagswesen in der Antike. Darmstadt. 

Koenen, L. and C. Romer. 1988. Der Kolner Mani-Kodex: ~ber das 

Werden seines Leibes. Kritische Edition. Papyrologica Coloniensia 

14. Opladen. 

Kotansky, R. 1991. "Incantations and Prayers for Salvation on Inscribed 

Greek Amulets." In FaraoneIObbink 199 1, 106-1 37. 

Laks, A. and G. W. Most (eds.). 1997. Studies on the Deweni Papyrus. 

Oxford. 

Lampe, G. W. H. 1961.A Patristic Greek Lexicon. Oxford. 

Lanczkowski, G. 1956. Heilige Schrifen. Stuttgart. 

Lang, B. 1990. "Buchreligion." In H. Cancik, B. Gladigow and 

M. Laubscher (eds.), Handbuch religionswissenschaftlicher 

Grundbegriffe, vol. 2, Stuttgart/Berlin/Cologne,143-165. 

Lateiner, D. 1989. The Historical Method of Herodotus. Phoenix Suppl. 

23. Toronto/Buffalollondon.


259 

Latte, K. 1960. Romische Religionsgeschichte. Handbuch der Alter- 

tumswissenschaft 5.4. Munich. 

Leipoldt, J. 1954. "Buch 11." RAC 2, Stuttgart, 696-717. 

Leipoldt, J. and S. Morenz. 1953. Heilige Schrifen. Betrachtungen zur 

Religionsgeschichte der antiken Mittelmeerwelt. Leipzig. 

Lenger, M.-Th. 1964. Corpus des ordonnances des PtolLmLes. Brussels. 

Lewy, H. 1978. Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy: Mysticism, Magic 

and Platonism in the Later Roman Empire. Nouvelle Cdition par 

Michel Tardieu. Paris 1978. 

Linderski, J. 1985. "The Libri Reconditi." HSCP 89.207-234. 

-. 1986. "The Augural Law." In ANRW I1 16.3, 2146-23 12. 

Linforth, I. M. 1924. "Herodotos' Avowal of Silence in his Account of 

Egypt." Univ. Cali$ Publ. in Class. Philol. 7.269-292 (=Linforth 

1987.21-44). 

-. 1987.Studies in Herodotus and Pluto. New YorkILondon. 

Lloyd-Jones, H. 1990. "Pindar and the Afterlife." In Greek Epic, Lyric, 

and Tragedy: The Academic Papers of Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, 

Oxford, 80-109. 

Longo, V. 1969. Aretalogie nel mondo greco I: epigraji e papiri. Pubblicazioni 

dell'Istituto di filologia classica dell7Universit8 di Gen- 

ova 29. Genova. 

L6pez Salvi, M. 1997. "El juramento de 10s misterios de Andania: 

Comentario lingiiistico." Cuadernos de Jilologia cla'sica: estudios 

griegos e indoeuropeos 7.71-104. 

Loucas, I. and E. 1994. "The Sacred Laws of Lykosoura." In R. Hagg 

(ed.), Ancient Greek Cult Practice from the Epigraphical Evidence. 

Proceedings of the Second International Seminar on Ancient Greek 

Cult, Organized by the Swedish Institute at Athens, 22-24 November 

1991. Acta Instituti Atheniensis Regni Sueciae. Series in 8", 

XIII. Stockholm, 97-99. 

Martin, L. M. 1995. "Secrecy in Hellenistic Religious Communities." 

In KippenbergIStroumsa 1995.101-121. 

Martinez, D. G. 1991. R Michigan XVI: A Greek Love Charm from 

Egypt (R Mich. 7.57). American Studies in Papyrology 30. Atlanta. 

Meister, R. 1905. In H. Collitz and F. Bechtel (eds.), Sammlung der 

griechischen Dialekt-Inschrifen, vol. 3.2, Gottingen.


Merkelbach, R. 1992. Abrasax. Ausgewahlte Papyri religiosen und 

magischen Inhalts. Band 3: Zwei griechisch-agyptische Weihezere- 

monien. Papyrologica Coloniensia 17.3. Opladen. 

-. 1994. "Novel and Aretalogy." In J. Tatum (ed.), In Search for the 

Ancient Novel, BaltimoreLondon, 283-295 (= Merkelbach 

1997.130-142). 

-. 1995. Isis Regina-Zeus Sarapis. Die griechisch-agyptische Reli- 

gion nach den Quellen dargestellt. StuttgartILeipzig. 

-. 1997. Philologica. Ausgewahlte Kleine Schriften. StuttgartLeipzig. 

-. 1999. "Die goldenen Totenpasse: agyptisch, orphisch, bakch- 

isch." ZPE 128.1-13. 

Merkelbach, R. and M. Totti. 1990191. Abrasax. Ausgewahlte Papyri 

religiosen und magischen Inhalts. Band 1-2: Gebete. 2 vols. Papy- 

rologica Coloniensia 17.1-2. Opladen. 

Meyer, B. F. and E. P. Sanders (eds.). 1982. Jewish and Christian Self- 

Definition 111: Self-Definition in the Graeco-Ronzan World. London 

(also Philadelphia 1983). 

Mora, F. 1981. "I 'silenzi erodotei'." SSR 5.209-222. 

-. 1985.Religione e religioni nelle Storie di Erodoto. Milan. 

-. 1987. "Religious Silence in Herodotus and in the Athenian The- 

atre." In Ciani 1987.41-65. 

Morand, A.-F. 2001. ~tudesur les Hymnes orphiques. Religions in the 

Graeco-Roman World 143. Leiden/Boston/Cologne. 

Miiller, R. J. 1993. "Tradierung religiosen Wissens in den Mysterien- 

kulten am Beispiel von Andania." In W. Kullmann and J. Althoff 

(eds.), Vermittlung und Tradierung von Wissen in der griechischen 

Kultur, ScriptOralia 61, Altertumswissenschaftliche Reihe 12. 

Tiibingen, 307-3 16. Same author as Baumgarten 1998. 

Nagy, G. 1990. Pindar's Homer: The Lyric Possession of an Epic Past. 

BaltimoreILondon. 

Nilsson, M. P. 1906. Griechische Feste von religioser Bedeutung mit 

Ausschluss der attischen. Leipzig. 

-. 1935. "Early Orphism and Kindred Religious Movements." Harvard 

Theological Review 28.181-230 (=Nilsson 1952.628- 683). 

----. 1952. Opuscula Selecta. Vol. 2. Lund. 

---. 1957. The Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic and Roman 

Age. Lund.


-. 1961. Geschichte der griechischen Religion. Zweiter Band: Die 

hellenistische und romische Zeit. Handbuch der Altertumswissen- 

schaft 5.2.2. 2nd ed. Munich. 

-. 1967. Geschichte der griechischen Religion. Erster Band: Die 

Religion Griechenlands bis auf die griechische Weltherrschaft. 

Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 5.2.1. 3rd ed. Munich. 

Nock, A. D. 1933. Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion from 

Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo. Oxford. 

-. 1986. Essays on Religion and the Ancient World. Ed. Zeph Stew- 

art. 2 vols. Rev. 2nd printing. Oxford. 

Norden, E. 1924. Die Geburt des Kindes. Geschichte einer religiosen 

Idee. LeipzigBerlin. 

-. 1939.Aus altromischen Priesterbiichern. Lundneipzig. 

Obbink, D. 1994. "A Quotation of the Derveni Papyrus in Philodemus' 

On Piety." Cron. Erc. 24.1 1 1-135. 

-. 1997. "Cosmology as Initiation vs. Critique of Orphic Myster- 

ies." In LaksIMost 1997.40-54. 

OCD 3. S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical 

Dictionary. 3rd ed. Oxford 1996. 

Parke, H. W. 1967. The Oracles of Zeus: Dodona, Olympia, Ammon. 

Cambridge, Mass. 

Parker, R. C. T. 1983. Miasma: Pollution and Pur$cation in Early 

Greek Religion. Oxford. 

-. 1995. "Early Orphism." In A. Powell (ed.), The Greek World, 

London, 483-5 10. 

-. 1996a.Athenian Religion: A History. Oxford. 

---. 1996b. "Divination, Greek." In OCD 3.487-488. 

- 1996c. "Sabazius." In OCD 3. 1341. 

-. 2000. Review of Baumgarten 1998. In BMCR 2000.1.12. 

Peek, W. 1930. Der Isishymnos von Andros und verwandte Texte. 

Berlin. 

Petzl, Georg. 1987. Die Inschriften von Smyrna. Teil II, 1. Inschriften 

griechischer Stadte aus Kleinasien 24.1. Bonn. 

Porta, F. R. 1999. Greek Ritual Utterances and the Liturgical Style, 

Ph.D. diss., Harvard University. 

Potter, D. 1994. Prophets and Emperors: Human and Divine Authority 

from Augustus to Theodosius. Cambridge, Mass./London.


Preisendanz, K. and A. Henrichs. 1973174. Papyri Graecae Magicae. 

Die griechischen Zauberpapyri. 2nd ed 1973174, repr. 2001. 2 vols. 

Stuttgart. 

Pritchett, W. K. 1956. "The Attic Stelai, Part 11." Hesperia 25, 

178-317. 

-. 1979. The Greek State at Wax Part 111: Religion. BerkeleyLos 

AngeleslLondon. 

Prott, J. von and L. Ziehen. 188611906. Leges Graecorum sacrae e 

titulis collectae. 2 vols. Leipzig (repr. Chicago 1988). 

Pulleyn, S. 1997. Prayer in Greek Religion. Oxford. 

Reitzenstein, R. 1904. Poimandres. Studien zur griechisch-agyptischen 

und friihchristlichen Literatur. Leipzig. 

-. 1906. Hellenistische Wundererzahlungen. Leipzig. 

-. 1927. Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen nach ihren Grundgedanken 

und Wirkungen. 3rd ed. Leipzig. 

Rice, D. G. and J. E. Stambaugh. 1979. Sources for the Study of Greek 

Religion. Sources for Biblical Study 14. Missoula. 

Richardson, N. J. 1974. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Oxford. 

Richter, F. 1911. Lateinische Sacralinschriften. Kleine Texte fur Vorlesungen 

und Ubungen 68. Bonn. 

Riedweg, C. 1993. Jiidisch-hellenistische Imitation eines orphischen 

Hieros Logos. Beobachtungen zu OF 245 und 247 (sog. Testament 

des Orpheus). Classica Monacensia 7. Tiibingen. 

-. 1995. "Orphisches bei Empedokles." A&A 41.34-59. 

-. 1998. "Initiation-Tod-Unterwelt. Beobachtungen zur Kommunikationssituation 

und narrativen Technik der orphisch-bakchischen 

Goldblattchen." In Graf 1998.359-398. 

-. 2002. "PoCsie orphique et rituel initiatique. ~ltments d'un 'Discours 

sacrC' dans les lamelles d'or." In L'orphisme et les Lcritures: 

nouvelles recherches. Revue de l'histoire des religions 

219.459481. 

Robinson, J. M. 1990. The Nag Hammadi Library in English. 3rd ed. 

New York 1990. 

Roeder, G. 1960. Kulte, Orakel und Naturverehrung im alten Agypten. 

Die agyptische Religion in Texten und Bildern 4. Zurich/Stuttgart. 

Rohde, G. 1936. Die Kultsatzungen der romischen PontiJices. RGVV 

25. Berlin. 

Roussel, P. 1919. "Un Cdit de PtolCmCe Philopator relatif au culte de 

Dionysos." CR Acad. Inscl: 1919, Paris, 237-243.


263 

Rudolph, K. 1988. "Texte als religionswissenschaftliche 'Quellen'." In 

H. Zinser (ed.), Religionswissenschaft: eine Einfiihrung, Berlin, 

38-54. 

Sauppe, H. 1859. "Die Mysterieninschrift aus Andania." Abh. der 

koniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen 7.2 17- 

274 (= Sauppe 1896.261-307). 

-. 1896.Ausgewahlte Schriften. Berlin. 

Scheid, J. 1994. "Les archives de la piCtC. RCflexions sur les livres 

sacerdotaux." In C. Nicolet (ed.), La mkmoire perdue. A la 

recherche des archives oublikes, publiques et privkes, de la Rome 

antique. Paris, 173-185. 

Schubart, W. 1916117. "Ptolemaios Philopator und Dionysos." 

Amtliche Berichte aus den Kgl. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 

38.189-1 96. 

Seaford, R. 1981. "Dionysiac Drama and the Dionysiac Mysteries." 

CQ 3 1.252-275. 

-. 1994. "Sophokles and the Mysteries." Hermes 122.275-288. 

-. 1997. Euripides Bacchae. Reprinted with Corrections. Warminster. 

Segal, C. 1990. "Dionysus and the Gold Tablets from Pelinna." GRBS 

31.411419. 

Sfyroeras, P. V. 1992. The Feast of Poetry: Sacrijice, Foundation, and 

Pe~ormance in Aristophanic Comedy. Ph.D. diss., Princeton University. 

Shapiro, A. 1990. "Oracle-Mongers in Peisistratid Athens." Kernos 

3.335-345. 

Sider, David. 1997. "Heraclitus in the Derveni Papyrus." In LaksIMost 

1997.129-148. 

Smith, N. D. 1989. "Diviners and Divination in Aristophanic Comedy." 

Cl. Ant. 8.140-158. 

Smyly, J. G. 1921. Greek Papyri from Gurob. Dublin. 

Sokolowski, F., 1949. "Encore sur le dCcret dionysiaque de PtolCmCe 

Philopator." JJP 3.137-141. 

-. 1955. Lois sacre'es de 1'Asie Mineure. ~cole Fran~aise d' 

Athbnes. Travaux et MCmoires 9. Paris. 

-. 1962. Lois sacrkes des citks grecques. Supplkment. ~cole 

Fran~aised' Athbnes. Travaux et MCmoires 11. Paris. 

-. 1969. Lois sacrkes des citks grecques. ~cole Fran~aise d' 

Athbnes. Travaux et MCmoires 18. Paris.


Sommerstein, A. H. 1981. The Comedies of Aristophanes 2: Knights. 

Warminster. 

-. 1987. The Comedies of Aristophanes 6: Birds. Warminster. 

Speyer, W. 1968169. "Angebliche ~bersetzungen des heidnischen und 

christlichen Altertums." Jahrbuch fur Antike und Christentum 

11/12.26-41. 

-. 1970. Bucherfunde in der Glaubenswerbung der Antike. Hypomnemata 

24. Gottingen. 

-. 1971. Die literarische Falschung im heidnischen und christlichen 

Altertum. Ein Versuch ihrer Deutung. Handbuch der Altertums- 

wissenschaft 1.2. Munich. 

Stengel, P. 1920. Die griechischen Kultusaltertiimer. 3rd ed. Munich. 

Stephens, S. A. and J. J. Winkler. 1995. Ancient Greek Novels: The 

Fragments. Princeton. 

Stramaglia, A. 1993. "Sul frammento di romanzo (?) PMichael 4 

(Pack2 2271)." ZPE 97,7-15. 

Thomas, R. 1989. Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical 

Athens. Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literary Culture 18. Cam- 

bridge. 

-. 1992. Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece. Key Themes in 

Ancient History 2. Cambridge. 

Threatte, L. 1980. The Grammar of Attic Inscriptions. Volume One: 

Phonology. Berlinmew York. 

Thulin, C. 0. 1905109. Die etruskische Disciplin. Goteborgs Hogskolas 

Arsskrift 11.5 (1905), 12.1 (1906), 15.1 (1909). Goteborg (repr. 

Darmstadt 1968). 

Tomlin, R. S. 0. 1988. "The Curse Tablets." In B. Cunliffe (ed.), The 

Temple of Sulis Minewa at Bath, vol. 2: The Finds from the Sacred 

Spring, Oxford, 59-277. 

Totti, M. 1985. Ausgewahlte Texte der Isis- und Sarapis-Religion. 

Hildesheim/Ziirich/New York. 

TrencsCnyi-Waldapfel, I. 1966. Untersuchungen zur Religionsgeschichte. 

Amsterdam. 

Tresp, A. 1914. Die Fragmente der griechischen Kultschriftsteller. 

RVV 15.1. Giessen. 

Tsantsanoglou, K. 1997. "The First Columns of the Derveni Papyrus 

and their Religious Significance." In LaksIMost 1997.93-128. 

Tsantsanoglou, K. and G. M. ParBssoglou. 1987. "Two Gold Lamellae 

from Thessaly." Hellenika 38, 3-16.


265 

Turner, E. G. 1977. "I libri nell'Atene del V et IV secolo a. C." In 

G. Cavallo (ed.), Libri, editori e pubblico nel mondo antico. Guida 

storica e critica, 2nd ed., Bari, 5-24, 135-140 (revised version of 

Athenian Books in the Fijih and Fourth Centuries, London 1952). 

-. 1980. Greek Papyri: An Introduction. Paperback ed. Oxford. 

----. 1983. "The Ptolemaic Royal Decree BGU VI 12 1 1 is to be Dated 

before 215114 B.C." In Festschrift zum 100-jahrigen Bestehen der 

Papyrussammlung der Osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek. 

Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer (P: Rainer Cent.). Textband. Vienna, 

148-152. 

Turner, E. G. and P. J. Parsons. 1987. Greek Manuscripts of the 

Ancient World. 2nd ed. BICS Suppl. 46. London. 

van der Horst, P. W. 1998. "Sortes: Sacred Books as Instant Oracles in 

Late Antiquity." In L. V. Rutgers, P. W. van der Horst, H. W. 

Havelaar and L. Teugels (eds.), The Use of Sacred Books in the 

Ancient World. Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 

22. Leuven, 143-173. 

Versnel, H. S. 1990. Ter Unus: Isis, Dionysos, Hermes: Three Studies 

in Henotheism. Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion I. 

Studies in Greek and Roman Religion 6. Leidemew York. 

Vinogradov, J. G. 1991. "Zur sachlichen und geschichtlichen Deutung 

der Orphiker-Plattchen von Olbia." In Borgeaud 1991.77-86. 

Voutiras, E. 1999. "Zur Kultsatzung des Heiligtums von Lykosura." 

Chiron 29.233-248. 

Yunis, H. 2001. Demosthenes, On the Crown. Cambridge. 

Wankel, H. 1976. Demosthenes, Rede fur Ktesiphon iiber den Kranz. 

Heidelberg. 

Weinreich, 0. 1969. Ausgewahlte Schriften I (1907-1921). Amsterdam. 

-. 1973. Ausgewahlte Schriften 11 (1922-1937). Amsterdam. 

Weitzmann, K. 1959. Ancient Book Illumination. Cambridge, Mass. 

-. 1972. Illustrations in Roll and Codex. 2nd ed. Princeton. 

Wessetzky, V. 1973. "Die agyptische Tempelbibliothek." Zeitschrift 

fur agyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 100.54-59. 

West, M. L. 1983. The Orphic Poems. Oxford. 

Wiedemann, A. 1890. Herodots zweites Buch mit sachlichen Erlau- 

terungen. Leipzig. 

Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. von. 193 1/32. Der Glaube der Hellenen. 

2 vols. Berlin.


Wilhelm, A. 1980. Griechische Epigramme aus dem Nachlass heraus- 

gegeben von Helmut Engelmann und Klaus Wundsam. Bonn. 

Winiarczyk, M. 1991. Euhemeri Messenii Reliquiae. Bibl. Teubn. 

StuttgartJLeipzig. 

Winston, D. 1985. Logos and Mystical Theology in Philo of Alexan- 

dria. Cincinnati. 

Wissowa, G. 1912. Religion und Kultus der Romer. Handbuch der 

Altertumswissenschaft 4.5. 2nd ed. Munich. 

Zhmud', L. 1992. "Orphism and Graffiti from Olbia." Hermes 

120.159-168. 

Zuntz, G. 1963. "Once More the So-called 'Edict of Philopator on 

the Dionysiac Mysteries' (BGU 121 I)." Hermes 91.228-239 

(=Zuntz, 1972.88-101). 

-. 1971. Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in 

Magna Graecia. Oxford. 

-. 1972. Opuscula Selecta: Classics, Hellenistica, Christiana. 

Manchester.

"Hieroi Logoi" and "Hierai Bibloi": The (Un ... - TTe Teach & Text

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?