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

508 Themis [ch.
of the group. What were once puberty rites change, as we have
already seen 1
, into other forms of initiation, as medicine or seer or
member of some secret society. A very singular instance of this
is preserved to us in the rites of Trophonios at Lebadeia which
are known to us in exceptional detail, and which cast considerable
light on the figure of Themis as she shifts from being a projection
of the social structure to her final form as a divinity of prophecy.
three
:
The Oracle of Trophonios.
The sources of our knowledge of the ritual of Trophonios are
1. The account of Pausanias when he visited Lebadeia.
2. The treatise of Plutarch on the Daimon of Sokrates, in
which he recounts the experiences of a young philosopher who
went down into the chasm of Trophonios to find out what the
Daimon of Sokrates was.
3. Plutarch's treatise on the Face in the Orb of the Moon, in
which he relates the rite of Trophonios to other ceremonies, and
thereby lets out their real nature.
(1) The account of Pausanias 2 is familiar, and also too long to
be quoted in extenso; it must for the most part be resumed. After
a description of the city of Lebadeia, which in splendour equalled
the most flourishing cities of Greece, and after stating that
Trophonios was in form and function analogous to Asklepios,
Pausanias describes the procedure of consulting the oracle. The
consultation is preceded by various rites of purification and
sacralization. The applicant lodges for a stated number of
days in a certain building sacred to the Agathos Daimon and
to Agathe Tyche. He bathes only in the river Herkyna, he
sacrifices to various divinities, among them of course Trophonios
and Demeter with the title Europa, whom they call the nurse of
Trophonios, obviously a divinity of the Ge-Kourotrophos type.
He feeds on sacrificial flesh, and omens are taken from the
victims, especially from the flesh of a ram sacrificed over a pit
to Agamedes.
Next comes the actual descent
The way in which he goes down is this. First, during the night two citizen
boys about thirteen years old lead him to the river Herkyna and anoint him
1 Supra, p. 52.
:
3 ix. 39. 1—14.