Kerykes

The Kerykes (Greek: Κήρυκες) of Bronze Age Pylos 1200BC, home to the aged epic hero Nestor and the Neleidai (Hdt.4.148, 146-7), are listed in the Linear B tablets as ka-ru-ke serving the ra-wa-ko-ri, the commander of armed forces. In Athens, this office became ceremonial, functioning from the Leokoreion, a building site at the Dipylon Gate. Linear B tablets (Py Un219, Tn316) that refer to the kêryx mention the office in context with e-ma-a2 a-re-ja, Hermes Areias, meaning either the Warrior, or the Curser (aras). in Homeric epic, the Iliad heralds serve heroic nobility in humble tasks, as cooks, fire-kindlers, wine-pourers, and waiters during feasts and symposia, as scavengers of corpses on the battlefield for cremation and umpires during funeral games, as messengers between enemies, allies, and warriors during battle, and in other odd jobs that earned them rank as dêmiourgoi, "public workers (Hom. Odyssey 19.135)." Their ubiquitous yet "invisable" presence behind the scenes requires concentration, for to understand what they do demands a shift in focus, like watching the black and white striped referees in a football game rather than the players competing and scoring. Accordingly, dêmiourgoi alone demonstrate declining status (Bjorn Qviller SO 15 [1980] 312, 314) , hence the heraldic office itself declined in sanctity and authority (Robert Mondi, The Function and Social Position of the Kêrux in Early Greece, Harvard PhD 1978: 1, 87, 116-7), even though its exalted status survived in archaic Athens (Wm. Vocke The Athenian' Heralds, PhD University of Cincinnati 1970). Two of the most prominent kêrykes were the Spartan herald Talthybios, and the Trojan herald Idaios, both known by the epithet pepnumenô, (Hom. Iliad 7.274 "awesome"). By the archaic period 700-650BC, Hesiod (Theogony 938, Works & Days 80) identifies Hermes as the herald of the Olympians gods with special control over the daimonic winged- kêres in flight into and out of Pandôra, the earthenware wine-storage jars blamed for all of the ills of humans, where only Hope lingers. She is Demeter Anêsidôra, one aspect of the grain-goddess at Athens who preceeds the revenge-filled Demeter Erinys at Eleusis. The burial spot of herald Anthemokritos (Paus.1.36.3) helps identify the larger grave-mound of the Athenian Kêrykes with the massive Tomb 9 along the Eridanos River outside the Dipylon Gate (Ursula Knigge, Kerameikos 1991: 94-8). By the classical period, the Kêrykes were one of the sacred Eleusinian families of priests that ran the Eleusinian Mysteries during the Hellenic era. They popularized the cult and allowed many more to be initiated into the great secrets of Demeter and Persephone. Starting about 300 BC, the state took over control of the Mysteries, specifically controlled by two families: the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes. This led to a vast increase in the number of initiates. The only requirements for membership were a lack of "blood guilt" (meaning having never committed murder) and not a barbarian (i.e. Greek and able to speak Greek). Men, women and even slaves were allowed to be initiated.

Kerykes, which means in Greek heralds, were also part of the ritual and competitors at the Olympic Games (see Herald and Trumpet contest).

See also