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

ix] Apollo as Megistos Kouros 441
Among the ancients, as among ourselves, a man's christening,
his reception as a child into the congregation, was a family festival.
So also was his marriage. Neither concerned the state. But
there was another occasion, more solemn, charged with a civic im-
portance beyond that of either christening or marriage, and that
was his reception into the body of grown men as a full-grown
kouros. Then and not till then the youth became direWd^, a
'sharer in sacred rites'; then and not till then could he enter the
direWcu, the 'folds,' the 'assemblies,' the 'elections.' The
direWata I believe 1
to be the offerings made at puberty initiation.
Apellaios is the month of these rites and these offerings, Apellon
is the projection of these rites; he, like Dionysos, like Herakles, is
the arch-ephebos, the Megistos Kouros.
Apollo was Phoibos of the unshorn hair 2
, and now remembering
his double Herakles Alexikakos we understand why. Plutarch 3
tells us that in the days of Theseus
It was the custom for those who were passing from childhood to manhood
to go to Delphi and offer there the firstfruits of their hair to the god.
Theseus went there, and there is, they say, a place at Delphi that is called the
Tkeseion after him. He only shaved the forepart of his head, as Homer says
was the practice of the Abantes, and this sort of tousure was called Theseis
after hi in.
The tonsure may have varied with each group. All that concerns
us is that He-of-the-Unshorn-Hair is youth incarnate, youth just
about to be initiated.
When Pentheus will insult the Bacchos what outrage does he
choose 4 ?
First shear that delicate curl that tangles there,
and the daimon, the Greatest Kouros, makes answer,
I have vowed it to my God ; 'tis holy hair.
1 1 follow here Mr Homolle, op. cit. p. 45. The Apellaia are equated by
Mr Homolle with the Ionian Apatouria. 'C'est l'hominage de la majority, et
I'offrande recue fait de l'enfant nn homme et de l'incapable un citoyen.' This view
of the Apellaia is accepted by Dr Nilsson, Griechische Feste, p. 465, note 2. But
for the view that Apollo-Apellon is the projection of the ceremonial I am alone
responsible. For the Apatouria and other festivals in which traces of pubertyinitiation
survive, see the concluding chapter.
2 II. xx. 39 4>o?/3os aKepcreKdfiris.
8 Vit. Then. v. £0oi's 5e 6vtos fri r6re tovs fj-era^aifovras etc Traidwv eXdovras els
Ae\(povs airapxevdai t£ 0ei2 ttjs KOfi-qs. The word pera^aivav marks the rite de
passu fie.
4 Eur. Bacch. 493 He. TrpCirov ptv afipbv fioo-rpvxov rep-Q aidev.
At. lepbs 6 7r\6/c