The sacrificial rituals of Greek hero cults in the Archaic to the early ...

Epigraphical evidence 141
prepared. The following day, the Hero received a second, full-grown victim.
The decree ends with the detailed description of the distribution of the meat
by the host to the orgeones and members of their families (lines 17–23).
Orgeones who were present each received a full portion of meat. There is
some disagreement among the commentators on how the rest of the meat
was divided, but the sons and the women of the orgeones seem to have
received at least half a portion of meat each. 59
In his publication of the inscription, Meritt stressed the chthonian nature
of Echelos (as the Hero was named in the 3rd century), which he considered
to be further underlined by his being worshipped by a group of orgeones
and by the fact that a piglet was sacrificed to the Heroines connected with
Echelos. 60 This statement is surprising, since thysia here definitely refers to
an alimentary sacrifice, at which the distribution of the meat was carefully
regulated. Furthermore, the hieron of Echelos and the Heroines, at least
in the 3rd century BC, may have had a bomos, the kind of altar usually
assumed to be characteristic of Olympian, rather than chthonian, cults. 61 The
interpretation of the Hero/Echelos as chthonian depends, of course, on how
“chthonian” is defined, but it cannot be done on the basis of what we know
of the sacrifices performed in his cult, since they show all the signs of being
what is commonly called Olympian.
The division of meat is rarely as explicit as in the decree of the Hero and
the Heroines. In the deme Skambonidai, the citizens, and also the metoikoi,
could receive meat, when sacrifices were performed to the hero Leos. 62
The animal sacrificed was a teleon, i.e., probably a sheep, and the portions
handed out were probably worth two or three obols each. 63
Other instances of a division of the meat at the sacrifices to heroes are
to be found in the mid-4th-century sacrificial calendars of the genos of the
Salaminioi and of the deme Erchia, which will both be further discussed
below. In the calendar of the Salaminioi, it is stipulated that, when the
sacrifices to the gods and the heroes are performed, the raw flesh should
be equally divided between the two branches of the genos. 64 In the Erchia
calendar, it is stated that the women were to receive the meat from the goat
sacrificed to Semele on the 16th of Elaphebolion. This sacrifice took place
59 For di�ferent interpretations, see Meritt 1942, 287; Ferguson 1944, 73–76, and LSS 20,
commentary.
60 Meritt 1942, 286.
61 Lines 6–7,t[ònbwmòn]Çnt÷i°er÷i; cf. Ferguson 1944, 79.
62 LS 10 C, 4–9 = IG I 3 244 C; c. 460 BC.
63 LS 10 C, 5. The stone is damaged. Wilamowitz 1887, 255, suggestedlêq[sindúoÄ]bolôn;
LS 10 C,lêq[sinIIIÄ]bolôn; Berthiaume 1982, 63, three obols. IG I 3 244 C o�fers no restoration.
64 LSS 19, 19–24.