Scholiast on Aristophanes, Knights, 720; Suidas, s. vv. εἰρεσιώνη and προηροσίαι; Etymologicum Magnum, Hesychius, and Photius, Lexicon, s. v. προηρόσια; Plutarch, Septem Sapientum Convivium, 15; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 521, line 29, and No. 628; Aug. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 192 sqq. The inscriptions prove that the Proerosia was held at Eleusis and that it was distinct from the Great Mysteries, being mentioned separately from them. Some of the ancients accounted for the origin of the festival by a universal plague instead of a universal famine. But this version of the story no doubt arose from the common confusion between the similar Greek words for plague and famine (λοιμός and λιμός). That in the original version famine and not plague must have been alleged as the reason for instituting the Proerosia, appears plainly from the reference of the name to ploughing, from the dedication of the festival to Demeter, and from the offerings of first-fruits; for these circumstances, though quite appropriate to ceremonies designed to stay or avert dearth and famine, would be quite inappropriate in the case of a plague.
176
Hesychius, s. v. προηρόσια.
177
August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum, p. 194.
The view that the Festival before Ploughing (Proerosia) fell in Pyanepsion is accepted by W. Mannhardt and W. Dittenberger. See W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte (Berlin, 1877), pp. 238 sq.; id., Mythologische Forschungen, p. 258; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 note 2 on Inscr. No. 628 (vol. ii. pp. 423 sq.). The view that the Festival before Ploughing fell in Boedromion is maintained by August Mommsen. See his Heortologie (Leipsic, 1864), pp. 218 sqq.; id., Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 192 sqq.
L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie (Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 292 sq.; compare August Mommsen, Chronologie (Leipsic, 1883), pp. 58 sq.
184
For example, Theophrastus notes that squills flowered thrice a year, and that each flowering marked the time for one of the three ploughings. See Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, vii. 13. 6.
185
Hesiod, Works and Days, 383 sqq. The poet indeed refers (vv. 765 sqq.) to days of the month as proper times for engaging in certain tasks; but such references are always simply to days of the lunar month and apply equally to every month; they are never to days as dates in the solar year.
Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquit. Rom. i. 12. 2.
188
Xenophon, Historia Graeca, vi. 3. 6.
189
Isocrates, Panegyric, 6 sq.
190
Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 20 (vol. i. pp. 33 sqq.); E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, Part ii. (Cambridge, 1905) No. 9, pp. 22 sqq.
191
Aristides, Panathen. and Eleusin., vol. i. pp. 167 sq., 417 ed. G. Dindorf (Leipsic, 1829).
192
Diodorus Siculus, v. 2 and 4; Cicero, In C. Verrem, act. ii. bk. iv. chapters 48 sq. Both writers mention that the whole of Sicily was deemed sacred to Demeter and Persephone, and that corn was said to have grown in the island before it appeared anywhere else. In support of the latter claim Diodorus Siculus (v. 2. 4) asserts that wheat grew wild in many parts of Sicily.
193
Diodorus Siculus, v. 4.
194
This legend, which is mentioned also by Cicero (In C. Verrem, act. ii. bk. iv. ch. 48), was no doubt told to explain the use of torches in the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. The author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter tells us (verses 47 sq.) that Demeter searched for her lost daughter for nine days with burning torches in her hands, but he does not say that the torches were kindled at the flames of Etna. In art Demeter and Persephone and their attendants were often represented with torches in their hands. See L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, iii. (Oxford, 1907) plates xiii., xv. a, xvi., xvii., xviii., xix., xx., xxi. a, xxv., xxvii. b. Perhaps the legend of the torchlight search for Persephone and the use of the torches in the mysteries may have originated in a custom of carrying fire about the fields as a charm to secure sunshine for the corn. See The Golden Bough,2 iii. 313.
195
The words which I have translated “the bringing home of the Maiden” (τῆς Κόρης τὴν καταγωγήν) are explained with great probability by Professor M. P. Nilsson as referring to the bringing of the ripe corn to the barn or the threshing-floor (Griechische Feste, Leipsic, 1906, pp. 356 sq.). This interpretation accords perfectly with a well-attested sense of καταγωγή and its cognate verb κατάγειν, and is preferable to the other possible interpretation “the bringing down,” which would refer to the descent of Persephone into the nether world; for such a descent is hardly appropriate to a harvest festival.
196
Cicero, Pro L. Flacco, 26.
197
Himerius, Orat. ii. 5.
198
Μητρόπολις τῶν καρπῶν, Aristides, Panathen. vol. i. p. 168 ed. G. Dindorf (Leipzig, 1829).
199
Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 20, lines 25 sqq.; E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, ii. (Cambridge, 1905) No. 9, lines 25 sqq., κελευέτω δὲ καί ὁ ἱεροφάντης καὶ ὁ δᾳδοῦχος μυστηρίοις ἀπάρχεσθαι τοὺς Ἔλληνας τοῦ καρποῦ κατὰ τὰ πάτρια καὶ τὴν μαντείαν τὴν ἐγ Δελφῶν. By coupling μυστηρίοις with ἀπάρχεσθαι instead of with κελεύετω, Miss J. E. Harrison understands the offering instead of the exhortation to have been made at the mysteries (Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Second Edition, p. 155, “Let the Hierophant and the Torchbearer command that at the mysteries the Hellenes should offer first-fruits of their crops,” etc.). This interpretation is no doubt grammatically permissible, but the context seems to plead strongly, if not to be absolutely decisive, in favour of the other. It is to be observed that the exhortation was addressed not to the Athenians and their
