Mitchell & Rhodes (eds) The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece

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.25The shrine s foundation date is controversial, but the most economical and widely accepted explanation remains primarydeposition of votives somewhere within the earlier cemetery from c.750 onwards.If the excavated sample of graves isrepresentative, then unlike other city plots the cemetery may already have been abandoned for some 50 100 years (from c.850 800, Thessalian Early Geometric).Allowing approximately 25 30 years per generation, this fits a three- to four-generation span of ancestral memory, and so the cemetery may have retained meaning for the living community.Were theunexcavated area to produce later graves, or the shrine to begin earlier, the association between cult and community ancestorswould be yet more potent.26Perhaps inevitably, given the quantity of votives and the later popularity of Enodia, the cult has been seen as holding pan-Thessalian or even international significance from its inception.Certainly, by the fourth century Pherai was the centre of acult attested across Thessaly, Macedon and beyond.Enodia appears on fourth-century, Pherai coin issues, for example, andwas later worshipped at the altar of the Six Goddesses.27 Yet there is little to suggest that the earlier cult was of more thanlocal significance,28 and its establishment is readily comprehensible in terms of regional settlement.Excavation and survey datafrom the southern part of the eastern Thessalian plain indicate activity at least from the eighth century onwards at the maincity locations of later historical significance, and the spacing of these sites carries clear territorial implications (seeFigure 14.3).29 This may, therefore, have been a time when reinforcement of local identity could appear advantageous; Arne(Philia) and perhaps Phthiotic Thebes30 also established or expanded their shrines at this time, and despite similarities invotives, local differences are strong.At the sanctuary of Athena Itonia at Philia, for example, evidence of sacrifice and diningand the sustained wealth of votives through the Archaic period contrast with the extant record of Pherai.31 The settlementstructure within which these shrines operated remained largely unchanged until the fourth century, and until then significantdevelopments concern fluctuations in investment between graves and shrines.The idea that the quantity and variety of metalwork imply an international role from the outset is also untenable.Quantityalone is no argument: Geometric Pherai was a big town (Argos may be an appropriate comparison), but it is hardly sensible tomatch levels of dedication to population.More pertinently, Imma Kilian-Dirlmeier s analysis of the style of eighth- and seventh-century metal votives shows that only 2 per cent are non-Thessalian, and of these half are Macedonian or Balkan (theremainder range from Italy to Egypt); the contrast with, for example, Olympia is striking.32 The presence of imports ispredictable; they occur at most Greek shrines, however local, and finds at Pherai are readily explicable in terms of contactsalong major neighbouring land routes or via Euboia.In the case of Thessalian votives, it is impossible to prove their preciseorigin or that of their dedicators; many fibulae probably came from a local workshop, perhaps linked to the shrine, but thisCATHERINE MORGAN 95Figure 14.3 Theoretical territories of poleis on the eastern Thessalian plainneed not imply a closely defined style or local clients.33 Their likely context is, however, suggestive.Allowing for post-depositional disturbance and the circumstances of excavation, there is no clear evidence for dining.34 The deposition of smallobjects, many linked with dress, perhaps around an altar among the graves of community ancestors, must therefore haveformed a key act of worship.This would make a strange regional panegyri, and, if the shrine played a wider role, one wouldhave to assume the acceptance of a distinctive practice across Thessaly, yet no other manifestation for over two hundred years.In short, the shrine of Enodia at Pherai was probably a local cult place belonging to a large and rich settlement, closelyrelated in its material development to local needs and values.From the late fifth century, the spread of the cult through Thessalyand beyond reflects Pherai s contemporary political role [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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