Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T11:53:20.647Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Theoria and Darśan: pilgrimage and vision in Greece and India*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Ian Rutherford
Affiliation:
University of Reading, i.c.rutherford@reading.ac.uk

Extract

THEORIA IN GREEK RELIGION

What was the Greek for pilgrim? If there is no simple answer, the explanation is the great diversity of ancient pilgrimages and pilgrimage-related phenomena. People went to sanctuaries for all sorts of reasons: consulting oracles, attending festivals, making sacrifices, watching the Panhellenic games, or seeking a cure for illness; there were variations in the participants (individuals or state-delegations, small groups or large), and variations in the length of distance traversed to get to the sanctuary; finally, changes occurred in the shape of pilgrimage over time: pilgrimage is not the same in the Hellenistic period as it is in the classical period, and pilgrimage in the Roman world is different again.

If we limit our scope to state-pilgrimage and to the classical period, we find a special vocabulary for pilgrimage in the word θεωρός and its derivatives θεωρέω, θεωρία, and θεωρίς2. θεωρία is the normal term for state-pilgrimage, as we see in the famous introduction to Plato's Phaedo (58b) describing the Athenian pilgrimage to Delos. The corresponding term for a pilgrim is θεωρός, found first in Theognis (Eleg 776), and frequently in the fifth century. The verb θεωρέω can mean ‘go on a pilgrimage to’, as in Thucydides' account of Ionian pilgrimage to the Delian festival (3.101). θεωρίς is the normal Attic term for a sacred ship used to convey sacred delegates to and from a sanctuary. One area where this family of words is never used is that of pilgrimage to healing sanctuaries; if we find any word used there, it is ἱκέτης, in later texts sometimes the neutral σνμϕοιτητής.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Essays on Religion and the Ancient World (Oxford, 1972), 2.603; originally in a review of Waagenvoort, H., Imperium, studihen over het ‘mana’-begrip in zede en taal der Romeinen (Amsterdam, 1941)Google Scholar in AJP 65 (1944), 101.

2 Contrast the view of Dillon, M., Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in the Ancient World (London, 1997)Google Scholar, xvi, that there is no specialized vocabulary for pilgrimage in ancient Greece.

3 Studies of the word-family, to which I will refer in the course of this article, include: Bill, C. P., ‘Notes on the Greek θεωρός and θεωρία, TAPA 32 (1901), 196204Google Scholar; Koller, H., ‘Theoros und Theoria’, Glotta 36 (1957–8), 273–86Google Scholar; Rausch, H., Theoria: Von ihrer sakralen zur philosophischen Bedeutung (Munich, 1982)Google Scholar; Redfield, J., ‘Herodotus the Tourist’, CPh 80 (1985), 97118Google Scholar; Siebart, G., ‘Reflexions sur la notion de pelerinages dans la Grece antique’, in Raphael, F.et al., Les Pèlerinages de I'antiquité biblique et classique à I'Occident médiéval (Paris, 1973), 3353Google Scholar; D. Wachsmuth, Der Kleine Pauly 5.730–1; Ziehen, L., REA V (1934), 2228–33Google Scholar s.v. Theoria; ibid., 2239–44 s.v. Theoros.

4 ἱκέτης IGiv2 537, 538, 121 (= Epidauria Iamata; Iines4, 15, 20, 23, 34, 72, 90); 1286.3, 1308, 1367; also in a much more general sense in IG iv 492; σνμϕοιτητής: Aelius Aristides, Hieroi Logoi frequently; σνμϕοιτάω was used of Egyptian pilgrims by Herodotus 2. 60; Philostratus, VA 4.34.

5 συνθύτης: Robert, L., Études Anatoliennes. Recherches sur les inscriptions grecques de V Asie Mineure (Paris, 1937), 318Google Scholar, n. 6; e.g. IGv 1.47: συνθύτας is ‘Ρόδον (‘representative to Rhodes’); θεηκόλος: in Lucian, Alex. 41; πανηγυριτής: Strabo 17.1.17, Lucian, De Dea Syria 55.

6 Robert, L., A travers VAsie Mineure. Poetes et prosateurs, monnaies grecques, voyageurs et geographie (Paris, 1980), 249Google Scholar, n. 30; Pindar, fr. 520: see Rutherford, I. C., ‘Two heroic prosodia: a study of Pindar, Pa. XIV-V’, ZPE 92 (1992), 5972Google Scholar; Isocrates, Areopag. 52–3, Aegin. 10.6.

7 Some manuscripts and Herodicus ó Κρατήτειος, cited in Athenaeus (216b), report the additional words ὄτι μὴ ἅπαξ εíς ᾽Ισθμόν. Fortunately, that issue does not affect the interpretation of the passage in any major way.

8 Buchanan, J. J., Theorikon. A Study of Monetary Distribution to Athenian Citizens during the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.C. (New York, 1962).Google Scholar

9 τοὺς μύστας … καì ςτοὺς ᾂλλονς `Ελληυας οῖ ἔνεκα τῆς ἔορτῆς <δεερο ἔρϰονται> ᾒ θύειν εἰς ταύτην πανήγυριν βονλόμενοι ᾒ θεωρεîν. θεωρε&icirc;ν could conceivably mean ‘celebrate (the festival)’ here. θεωρία καì θνσία is a common combination: cf. (Aristotle), Rhet. ad Alexand. 1424a: advice on how to make a ῾πρός … τàς θεωρίας λαμπρῶς᾿.

10 θεατής: e.g. Aristoph. Clouds 757; cf. also the similar θατήρ, attested at Bacchylides 9.23; θέα: e.g. Theophr. Chracacters 5.7. The ancient Atticists worried about how to distinguish these words: the grammarian Lysimachides argued against Caecilius of Caleacte that θεατής was the vox propria for watching a contest, whereas θεωρός, which he derived from θεός, meant a sacred delegate and was only incidentally concerned with ‘watching’ (FGrHist 366F9; Ammonius, Περì διαϕόρων λεξέων, s.v. θεωρός, ed. Valckenaer [Göttingen, 1789], 68; Caecilius 168 Ofenloch). Later on θέα is specially associated with sightseeing: see Th9 below.

11 Theognis, Eleg 776; Hdt., Hist. 1.48, 1.67, 5.79, 6.57, 7.140.

12 This sense occurs regularly in θεωροδοκία inscriptions, for example those linked to the establishment of the Magnesian festival of Artemis Leukophryene in 208 B.C. Olympia: IvO 36 = Syll. 171; IvO 3; unpublished decree: P. Perlman, The Theorodokia of the Peloponnese, thesis (Berkeley, 1984), 30.

13 Texts collected in J. Baillet, Inscriptions grecques et latines des tombeaux des rois ou syringes [= Memoires de I'Institut franfais d'archéologie orientale du Caire 42 (1926)], e.g. n. 255.

14 θεατής in the sense ‘tourist’ at Hdt. 3.139, Euripides, Ion 301.

15 Hdt. 1.29–31 Many scholars are sceptical about the historicity of this account: see Lloyd, A. B., Herodotus Book II (Leiden, 1975), 55ff.Google Scholar, though it is defended by Markianos, S. S., ‘The chronology of the Herodotean Solon’, Historia 23 (1974), 120Google Scholar, who puts it in the 570s; see also Freeman, K., The Work and Life of Solon' (Cardiff, 1926), 155ff.Google Scholar Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 11.1 says that Solon went off to Egypt (Lydia is not mentioned) κατ᾽ ἐμπορίαν ἂμα καì θεωρίαν. Trade is also a motive that Plutarch (in part at least following Hermippus the Callimachean) sees in Solon's absence; he discusses two absences, the first, as a young man (Solon 2.1 = Hermippus, fr. 7 Wehrli = FHG III38F9), when he left for the sake of trade, though some say that πολνπειρία and ίστορία were motives also; the second after the nomothesia (Solon 25.5), when the real motive is to avoid political strife, but the pretext is νανκληρία (literally, ‘possession of a ship’), which presumably is not much different from trade again; the second trip took him to Egypt, Cyprus, and Lydia, the destinations of the first are not specified. This scenario has the attraction of allowing for the possibility that the experience of foreign cultures which Solon picked up on his foreign travels was a stimulus to him in formulating constitutional reforms at Athens.

16 Hdt. 4.76: γῆν πολὴν βεωρήσας καì ἀποδεξάμενος κατ᾿ αὐτὴν σοϕίην πολὴν ἐκομίζετο ἐς ήθεα τà Σκυθέων. Cf. Dio Chrysostomus 32.45; Diog. Laert. 1.104.

17 Redfield, J., ‘Herodotus the Tourist’;, CPh 80 (1985), 97118.Google Scholar A similar connection is made by Drexler, H., Hewdot-Studien (Hildesheim, 1972), 25ff.Google Scholar

18 Helms, M. W., Ulysses' Sail. An Ethnographic Odyssey of Power, Knowledge and Geographical Distance (Princeton, 1988), 68–9.Google Scholar

19 See Bill (n. 3), 196; Ziehen (n. 3), 2239; Rausch (n. 3), 25ff; Graham, A. J., ‘On the great list of theoroi at Thasos’, AncW 5 (1982), 103ff.Google Scholar; IG xii 8, 89, nr. 263, 267.171ff.; but this came from Paros, Syll. 2.569 (= LSCG 111.10); also known for Tegea from Xen. Hell. 6.5.7; Mantinea: Thuc. 5.47.9; Oropus: IG vii 424; Naupaktos: SGDI, 1424–8. This scenario works particularly well if we assume that the information that the θεωρός gets from an oracle is of an extremely general type, for example the contexts of a lawcode, as Lycurgus derives such a lawcode from Delphi (Hdt. 1.65.4). Indeed, Aristotle, Pol. 5.8.3 (1310b22) actually seems to describe such a widening of power.

20 see Sommerstein, A., Peace (= The Comedies of Aristophanes 5) (Warminster, 1985), 157Google Scholar, on line 523; Rutherford, I. C., ‘Theoria as theatre. Pilgrimage in Greek drama’, PLLS 10 (1998), 141–5.Google Scholar

21 Koller (n. 3); more recently, Rausch (n. 3) inclines in Keller's direction. Ancient testimony: Caecilius 168 Ofenloch (see n.10).

22 For the etymology, see e.g. Chantraine, P., Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque (Paris, 1968), 433–4.Google Scholar For σμα, see Sihler, A. L., A New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin (New York and Oxford, 1995), 191.Google Scholar

23 Boesch, P., ΘΕΩΡΟΣ. Untersuchung zur Epangelie griechischer Feste (Berlin, 1908), 7Google Scholar

24 Morgan, C., Athletes and Oracles. The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century RC. (Cambridge, 1990).Google Scholar

25 Plut. Dem. 11; Arrian, Anab. 7.23.2; implied perhaps in Pindar, fr. 520: see Rutherford (n. 6), 61.

26 I think particularly of Koller (n. 3) and Rausch (n. 3). The visual aspect of Greek pilgrimage seems to be neglected also in Dillon (n. 2)

27 On this passage, see Rutherford (n. 20), 146–8.

28 Zeitlin, F., ‘The artful eye: vision, ecphrasis and spectacle in Euripidean theatre’, in Goldhill, S. and Osborne, R. (edd.), Art and Text in Ancient Greek Culture (Cambridge, 1992), 138–96.Google Scholar

29 Pythagoras: Porph. Vit. Pyth. 17, 25.17ff. Nauck; Parmeniscus: Ath. Deipn. 14.614b. The sequence is reminiscent of the two visititaions by Xuthus in Euripides' Ion, first to the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadeia, second to Delphi.

30 Plut. Dem. 26, Alc. 19–22. Mylonas, G. E., Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (Princeton, 1961), 239Google Scholar, 274. The θεωρός and ἐποπτής are explicitly distinguished in Samothracian inscriptions: see Cole, S. G., Theoi Megaloi: The Cult of the Great Gods at Samothrace (Leiden, 1984), 3856.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 On the vision of the initiate, see Seaford, R. S., ‘Sophocles and the Mysteries’, Hermes 122 (1994), 275–88Google Scholar; id., ‘Immortality, salvation, and the elements’, HSCPh 89 (1986), 91ff. For Lada-Richards, I., ‘Neoptolemus and the bow: ritual thea and theatrical vision in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, JHS 117 (1997), 179–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar, the presentation of Philoctetes' bow in Sophocles' tragedy suggests a form of ritual viewing associated with Eleusis, but I wonder if it is the more general form of ritual viewing that is implied there.

32 Good remarks on location of sanctuaries in Jost, M., ‘The distribution of sanctuaries in civic space in Arkadia’, in Alcock, S. E. and Osborne, R. (edd.), Placing the Gods. Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in Ancient Greece (Oxford, 1994), 217230.Google Scholar

33 see Coleman, S. and Elsner, J., Pilgrimage. Past and Present in World Religions (London, 1995), 204Google Scholar –5: ‘pilgrimage sites act as an embodiment of myth-history, allowing adherents to reinvoke elements of their faith in words, images and physical actions’.

34 On pilgrimage and identity, see Elsner, J., ‘Pausanias: A Greek pilgrim in the Roman world’, Past and Present 135 (1992), 3ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 There is a good discussion á propos of Pausanias in Elsner (n. 34), 3ff.; for a general discussion, E. Cohen, ‘Pilgrimage and tourism: convergence and divergence’, in Morinis, E. A. (ed.), Sacred Journeys: the Anthropology of Pilgrimage (New York, 1992), 4761.Google Scholar

36 Perdrizet, P. and Lefebvre, G., Inscriptiones Graecae Aegypti III (Paris, 1919)Google Scholar, n. 424; Masson, O., Les inscriptions chypriotes syllabiques; recueil critique et commenté (Paris, 1961)Google Scholar, n. 379; cf. the verb hzy = ‘see’ in a Phoenician inscription from Abydos published in Lidzbarski, M., ‘Phönische Inschriften’, Ephemeris für semitische Epigraphik 2 (1900), 170–1.Google Scholar

37 These are B.3.f.23 in Fitzmyer, J. A. and Kaufmann, S. A. (edd.), An Aramaic Bibliography (Baltimore, 1992-).Google Scholar The Aramaic papyrus purporting to commemorate the visit of Aramaic-speaking pilgrims in 417 B.C., published by Teixidor, J., ‘Un nouveau papyrus Araméen du régne de Darius II’, Syria 41 (1964), 285–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar, is a forgery: see Naveh, J., ‘Aramaica Dubiaca’, JNES 27 (1968), 317–25.Google Scholar

38 Pilgrim and tourist: Festugière, A. J., ‘Les proscynémes de Philae’, REG 83 (1970), 175ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar at 191; É. Bernand, , Les inscriptions grecques et latines de Philae (Paris, 1969), 1.22–8Google Scholar; Malaise, M., ‘Pèlerinages et pèlerins dans I'Égypte ancienne’, in Chelini, J. and Branthomme, H. (edd.), Histoire des pèlerinages non Chrétiens. Entre magique et sacré: le chemin des dieux (Paris, 1987), 5582Google Scholar, particularly at 63.

39 The union of these two propositions is that gods contemplate themselves, which is what is implied in Met. 12.9.4 (1074b) (although this is framed in terms of νοῦς and not of θεωρία). The religious application of θεωρία may be as old as Anaxagoras, who regarded θεωρία of the sun, moon, and heavens as the central purpose of human life: Anaxagoras: DK59A1 = Diog. Laert. Vit. 2.10, DK59A29 = Clement, Strom. 2.130; DK59A30 = Aristotle, EE 1.5 (1216al 1).

40 Not directly from the pilgrimage sense, contra Dubois, P., Sowing the Body. Psychoanalysis and Ancient Representations of Women (Chicago, 1988), 910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 Attribution to Pythagoras is doubted by Burkert, W., ‘Plato oder Pythagoras? Zum Ursprung des Wortes “Philosophie”’, Hermes 88 (1960), 159–77.Google Scholar See also the discussion of Joly, R., ‘Le thème philosophique des genres de vie dans I'antiquité classique’, Académie royale de Belgique, mémoires, classe des lettres 51.3 (Brussels, 1956)Google Scholar; compare Amphion's defence of the theoretical life in Euripides, Antiope; discussed by Snell, B. in ‘Vita Activa and Vita Contemplativa in Euripides' Antiope’, a chapter in Scenes from Greek Drama (Berkeley, 1967), 7098Google Scholar (= Szenen aus griechischen Dramen [Berlin, 1971], 77–103).

42 Riedweg, C., Mysterienterminologie bei Plato, Philo and Klemens von Alexandria (Berlin, 1987), 229.Google Scholar

43 Athenian inscription: IG ii2 886.8ff. Tod, M. N., ‘Sidelights on Greek philosophers’, JHS 77 (1957), 137CrossRefGoogle Scholar, n. 91; Robert, L., Bull. Épigr. 84 (1958), 109.Google Scholar A good example of how religious θεωρία might serve as a framework for secular exploration is suggested by the figure of Eudoxus of Cyzicus (second century B.C.); Strabo (Geog. 2.3.4–5), drawing on Poseidonius, says that he came to Egypt to the court of Ptolemy Physcon as a θεωρός and σπονδοϕόρος, presumably to announce the Cyzicean Koreia, but from there he embarked on an expedition to India. Subsequently he returned to Cyzicus, and from there set out again to attempt a circumnavigation of Africa, in which he failed.

44 Eade, J. and Sallnow, M. J., Contesting the Sacred. The Anthropology of Christian Pilgrimage (London, 1991).Google Scholar

45 Turner, V., ‘The center out there: pilgrim's goal’, History of Religions 12 (1972), 191fF.CrossRefGoogle Scholar = ‘Pilgrimages as social processes’, in Dramas, Fields and Metaphors. Symbolic Action in Human Society (Cornell, 1974), 166ff.; Turner, V. and Turner, E., Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (New York, 1978).Google Scholar

46 See Coleman and Elsner (n. 33), 203ff., 205.

47 Two such accounts are given, the first by the sage Pulastya (3.80–4), the second by Dhaumya (3.85–93).

48 Bhardwaj, S. M., Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India (A Study in Cultural Geography) (Berkeley, 1973)Google Scholar; Deleury, G., ‘L'Inde et la religion du pèlerinage’, in Chelini, J. and Branthomme, H. (edd.), Histoire des pèlerinages non Chrètiens. Entre magique et sacré: le chemin des dieux (Paris, 1987), 195216.Google Scholar; Gold, A. Grodzins, Fruitful Journeys. The Ways of Rajasthani Pilgrims (Berkeley, 1988)Google Scholar; Morinis, E. A., Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition. A Case Study in West Bengal (Delhi, 1984).Google Scholar

49 On darśan also Morinis (n. 48), 73; Eck, D. L., Darśan. Seeing the Divine in India2 (Charabersburg, 1985)Google Scholar; Gonda, J., Eye and Gaze in the Veda (Amsterdam, 1969), 56–8Google Scholar; similar themes in Buddhist tradition are discussed by Falk, Nancy, ‘To gaze on the sacred traces’, History of Religions 16 (1977), 281293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Some special aspects are discussed by Babb, L. A., ‘Glancing: visual interaction in Hinduism’, Journal of Anthropological Research 37 (1981), 387401CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stanley, J. M., ‘Special time, special power: the fluidity of power in a popular Hindu festival’, JAS 37 (1977), 2743CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Geden, A. S. in The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (New York, 1912), 402.Google Scholar At the sanctuary of Sri Venkatesvara at Tirumala-Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh in southern India darśan is much the most common motive among pilgrims there: Naidu, T. S., ‘Pilgrims and pilgrimage: a case study of Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams’, in Jha, M. (ed.), Dimensions of Pilgrimage. An Anthropological Appraisal (New Delhi, 1985)Google Scholar, 22, with table on 24.

50 The formation darśana may be reflected in a Cretan gloss preserved by Hesychius (1.47 Latte): δόρκανα (‘with keen vision’), though Burrow, T., The Sanskrit Language2 (London, 1973)Google Scholar, 137, says the Sanskrit noun reflects a PIE formulation in -en. This verb rarely has a specially sacred sense in ancient Greek religion and culture, though there may be isolated examples: cf. Sophocles, TrGF 4, fr. 837.

51 Vidyarthi, L. P., The Sacred Complex in Hindu Gaya (Bombay, 1961), 84–5.Google Scholar

52 see Laine, J. W., Visions of God. Narratives of Theophany in the Mahabharata [= Publications of the De Nobili Research Library 16] (Vienna, 1989), 40–1Google Scholar, referring to 3.129.18–19 (Yudhisthira has a vision of all the worlds while having a bath in the Yamuna river), and 3.145 (description of the Hermitage of Nara and Narayana). The antiquity of the term is also indicated by the traditional association between religious experience and sight: see Gonda (n. 49).

53 Eck (n. 49), 4, 57, 65.

54 On darśan in the pilgrimage to Pandharpur, Stanley, J. M., ‘The great Maharashtrian pilgrimage: Pandharpur and Alandi’, in Morinis, E. A. (ed.), Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage (New York, 1992), 6587Google Scholar; Deleury, G. A., The Cult of Vithoba (Poona, 1960), 73Google Scholar; Mokashi, D. B., Palkhi. An Indian Pilgrimage, trans. Engblom, P. C. with introductory essays by Engblom, P. C. and Zelliot, E. (Albany, 1987), 10.Google Scholar

55 Eck (n. 49), 18–22, 45–51; besides the devotional bhakti approach to images, Eck also distinguishes a Hindu attitude to images as yantra, where they are conceived as devices for focusing the mind.

56 Stanley (n. 52), 85.

57 Eck (n. 49), 53 (statues), 59 (temples).

58 Arati: Eck (n. 49), 47–8; Vidyarthi, L. P., Jha, Makhan, and Saraswatim, B. N., The Sacred Complex of Kashi (A Microcosm of Indian Civilisation) (Delhi, 1979), 46–8Google Scholar; jhanki: Linda Hess, ‘Staring at frames till they turn into loops: an excursion through some worlds of Tulsidas’, in Hertel, B. R. and Humes, C. A. (edd.), Living Banares. Hindu Religion in Cultural Context (Albany, 1993), 93.Google Scholar

59 The only testimony I know of which suggests it matters how a pilgrim looks at the statue is Herodas, Müm.4.76–8 in which a speaker threatens anyone who does not look on Asclepius or his works justly: ὄς δ᾿ ἐκεîνον ἤ ἐργα τà ἤκείνου | μὴ παμϕαλήσας ἐκ Ѕίκης όρώρηκεν, | ποЅòς κρέμαιτ᾿ ἐκεîνος ἐν γναϕέως οἲκῳ (‘if any gaze on him or his works save from a just point of view, may he be hung up by the foot at the fuller's!’).

60 Darśan and festivals: Eck (n. 49), 55–8.

61 Eck, D. L., Banares. City of Light (Princeton, 1982), 38–9.Google Scholar

62 Gonda, J., The Vision of the Vedic Poets (The Hague, 1963), 25–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarRadhakrishnan, S., Indian Philosophy I (London, 1927 [1948]), 43Google Scholar; Eck (n. 49), 58–9.

63 Klostermaier, K. K., A Survey of Hinduism (Albany, NY, 1989), 539Google Scholar; Radhakrishnan, S. and Moore, C. A., A Source Book of Indian Philosophy (Princeton, 1957)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, passim.

64 See Zaehner, R. (ed.), The Bhagavad-Gita (Oxford, 1969), 304.Google Scholar Similar apparitions of deities to mortals in the Mahabharata are discussed by Laine (n. 52).