Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

ix] The Ennaeteric Festivals at Delphi 415
expedient of maligning his spiritual foes. What in his inspired
way he did see, both in the Supplices and the Ewnienides, was
that the old forces of the Earth must be purged from forcefulness,
from violence and vengeance, before Earth could in plenitude
bring forth her increase.
do we know of the ritual of Gaia at
ritual to Gaia under that name and definitely stated
It remains to ask, ' What
Delphi ? ' Of
to have been carried on at the omphalos-sanctuary, the answer, as
previously indicated, is, ' Nothing.' But it happens that we have
from Plutarch a fairly full account of three manifestly primitive
festivals which took place at Delphi every nine years, and these
festivals, on examination, turn out to be three acts in one dramatic
i
or rather magical ceremony, whose whole gist is to promote the
fertility of Earth. They are in short three factors in, or forms of,
a great Eniautos-Festival.
The Ennaeteric Festivals at Delphi.
In his Greek Questions Plutarch 1
the Delphians ? ' His answer begins as follows :
asks, 'What is Charila among
There are three Nine-Year Festivals that the Delphians keep in the
following order. One they call Stepterion, the next Herois, the third
Charila.
All that Plutarch states is that these three festivals were each
celebrated every nine years and that their sequence was as given.
Whether they were all enacted at the same time—on, e.g. three
successive days, or at successive periods in the year, cannot be
decided certainly. The order is not of great importance, as in the
cyclic monotony of the life of an Eniautos-daimon it matters little
whether death follows resurrection or resurrection death. We
shall begin therefore with the festival, the intent of which is
clearest and to us most instructive, the second in order, the
Herois or ' Heroine,' reserving for the end the festival with which
Plutarch begins, the Stepterion.
The Herois. This is a delightful festival to investigate, because
1 Q. Gr. XII. Tts 7/ irapa Ae\(pocs Xap/Xa ; rpeis ayovcri Ae\