Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Volume/Issue:
Volume 63: Issue 2-3
Tales in Athenaeus of divine statues preventing or favoring journeys
Author:
Chiara Di Serio Department of Classics and Philosophy, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3256-3129
Pages:
153–167
Online Publication Date:
22 Apr 2024
Publication Date:
16 May 2024
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/068.2023.00101
Keywords:
divine statues; sea voyages; Hera of Samos; Aphrodite of Naucratis
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Abstract

This article focuses on two stories contained in Deipnosophists 15 by Athenaeus of Naucratis. Both stories are comprised in the section in which Athenaeus discusses the use of crowns in festive rituals. Athenaeus attributes the first story (672a–e) to Menodotus of Samos. Here we read that some Tyrrhenians went to Samos to steal the simulacrum of Hera. But, having boarded the ship with the statue, they were unable to set sail. Thus, they unloaded the simulacrum on the shore and left. Then the heroine Admete retrieved it and took it back to the temple. For this reason, every year since then, the inhabitants of Samos celebrated the feasts called Tonaia in honor of Hera. The second story, that Athenaeus draws from Polycarmus of Naucratis (675f–676b), tells of a certain Herostratus who, on his return journey from Cyprus to Naucratis, was saved from a storm thanks to the sailors' prayers to the statue of Aphrodite on board. Thereafter, Herostratus prepared a banquet at the temple of the goddess to honor her. These stories introduce the recurring motif, also found in other sources, of travelling divine statues, which display supernatural powers.

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Cover Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Print ISSN:
0044-5975
Online ISSN:
1588-2543

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Editor(s)-in-Chief: Takács, László

Managing Editor(s): Kisdi, Klára

Editorial Board

  • Tamás DEZSŐ (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
  • Miklós MARÓTH (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies)
  • Gyula MAYER (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Classical Philology Research Group)
  • János NAGYILLÉS (University of Szeged)
  • Lajos Zoltán SIMON (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
  • Csilla SZEKERES (University of Debrecen)
  • Kornél SZOVÁK (Pázmány Péter Catholic University)
  • Zsolt VISY (University of Pécs)

 

Advisory Board

  • Michael CRAWFORD (University College London, prof. em.)
  • Patricia EASTERLING (Newnham College, University of Cambridge, prof. em.)
  • László HORVÁTH (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
  • Patricia JOHNSTON (Brandeis University Boston, prof. em.)
  • Csaba LÁDA (University of Kent)
  • Herwig MAEHLER
  • Attilio MASTROCINQUE (University of Verona)
  • Zsigmond RITOÓK (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, prof. em.)

László Takács
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2023  
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Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
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