Welcoming Gods and Heroes

: the Dioskouroi cult of Athens and Attica

Abstract

The Dioskouroi were involved in a broad array of myths throughout Ancient Greece, from the Calydonian Boar to the voyage of the Argo. Appropriately for such popular figures, their cult was wide-ranging as it spread across the Mediterranean, presenting the Dioskouroi as divine sons of Zeus or Tyndareus who originated from a Spartan homeland. The growth of Dioskouroi worship was undoubtedly aided in no small part by veneration of these twins as both heroes and gods. But while the above is a general understanding of the Dioskouroi, there remain unanswered questions about them and their worship, particularly in relation to their cult in Athens and Attica: the Dioskouroi were Spartan heroes, so how, then, did Athens welcome them as gods and maritime saviours?

This study aims to examine the Dioskouroi in the context of the status they possessed as “ambiguous” foreign gods. As gods, they were adopted into the Attic cultural and religious sphere, undergoing a form of Atticisation and joining the greater panoply of Athenian cults. I argue that there were a series of processes utilised to introduce the Dioskouroi into Athens and Attica. These range from the ambiguity of their divinity – their origin as “mortal heroes” – to the use of the Eleusinian Mysteries in narratives of welcome, as well as the identification of the Dioskouroi with native Athenian gods, the Anakes, and consistent treatment of the twins as evolving divinities within an iconographic and cult framework.

Treating the Athenian cult of the Dioskouroi as an important node in a broader network of Dioskouroi cult and myth within Greece, I argue that this adoption, interpretation, and progression of understanding of the Dioskouroi in Athens from the seventh approximately through to the fourth century enhanced their image as not just Spartan heralds of victory, or aristocratic patrons of athleticism, but divine equestrian saviours of sailors and ships at sea.

Date of Award	21 Jun 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Isabella Sandwell (Supervisor) & Esther Eidinow (Supervisor)