Meilichios

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Consecrative relief to Zeus Meilichios from Piraeus . Inscription: [Κριτο] βόλη Διὶ Μειλιχίῳ ([Krito] boule to Zeus Meilichios)

Meilichios ( Greek  Μειλίχιος , "friendly", "weighed") is an epithet of several Greek gods, especially Zeus . It is unclear whether the epithet was used for an angry god who should be made friendly, or for a god who was basically benevolent; in ancient literature, both possibilities were accepted as explanations. Another meaning results from the derivation of the epithet from the Semitic root MLK (מלך, Moloch ), which means "to be king" or "to rule".

Zeus Meilichios

Remains of the Zeus Meilichios temple in the sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros in Selinunte
Relief of Zeus Meilichios in the form of a serpent from Eteonos in Boeotia

Zeus Meilichios is an example of how the "combination of God and epithet could assume a quasi-autonomous identity" both because of his iconography and because of his cult. His cult is attested by hundreds of documents in almost all of the Greek world. In consecrations his name is sometimes shortened to Meilichios or he is called Daimon Meilichios as in Lebadeia , on a votive offering from Thespeia he is even associated with the feminine form Meiliche .

His cult is characterized by two peculiarities: on the one hand, temples consecrated to him are extremely rare, the few examples include his temple in the sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros in Selinunt or a temple of Iuppiter Meilichios in Pompeii , on the other hand, no festivals consecrated to him are known Except for the Attic Diasia , which in turn is a specialty among the Greek festivals. Although participants from all over Attica came to the festival, it was not financed by the Athens Polis and also not celebrated jointly by the festival participants. Rather, it was committed by many small groups at the same time in the same place independently of one another. In various places in Greece, dedicatory offerings have been found with inscriptions addressed to a Zeus Meilichios of a family or even to a Zeus Meilichios of an individual, so that it is assumed that he was venerated by families or family-like communities, each of which venerated their own Zeus Meilichios . His offerings consisted of burnt offerings, gifts without libation that were atypical of Greek cult practice, and possibly meatless gifts.

According to Pausanias and Plutarch , he appears to be associated with purification , especially that of blood guilt; Xenophon calls him the bringer of prosperity.

Meilichios is often depicted as a huge snake on pond reliefs. In representations that show him in human form, he often wears a cornucopia as a sign of prosperity. In inscriptions he is occasionally associated with underworld deities such as the Eumenids , Enodia or Tritopatores , but without being considered a god of the dead himself.

Theoi Meilichioi

As Theoi Meilichioi ( θεοί μειλίχιοι ) a group of anonymous deities is called, whose cult in the western Locris and Thebes in Thessaly is detectable. Phlegon von Tralleis mentions them in his Olympiades as oracle deities. The only surviving information about their cult is that the sacrifice for the Locrian Theoi Meilichioi took place during the night and had to be finished before daybreak.

More deities

In addition to Zeus and the Theoi Meilichioi , the use of the epithet for the cult of the following deities is attested:

In the ancient literature, Leto , Hypnos , the Muses , Tyche and Aphrodite also appear with the nickname Meilichios and Meilichia. Nothing is known about the cult forms of the individual gods.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornutus 11; Plutarch , de superstitione 4, 166d.
  2. ^ Robert Parker: Meilichios, Meilichioi Theoi. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01477-0 , Sp. 1159 f.
  3. ↑ Charles Janoray: Nouvelles inscriptions de Lébadée . In: Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 64-65, 1940-41. Pp. 36-59; Inscriptions p. 49, Inv. 12 and 17 ; Archaiologikon Deltion 3, 1917, p 422, n. 2,2 .
  4. ^ Inscriptiones Graecae VII 1814 .
  5. ^ Robert Parker: Athenian religion. A history . Clarendon Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-815240-X . P. 78, note 41.
  6. ^ Laurent Dubois: Inscriptions grecques dialectales de Sicile . Librairie Droz, 2008. ISBN 978-2-600-01340-6 . Pp. 55-60.
  7. ↑ a b Xenophon Anabasis 7, 8, 1-6.
  8. ^ Franciszek Sokolowski: Lois sacrées des cités grecques . De Boccard, 1962. 18 A 37-43.
  9. ↑ Thucydides 1, 126, 6.
  10. ↑ Pausanias 2:20 , 1
  11. ↑ Plutarch Theseus 12, 1.
  12. ↑ Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 9, 327 (Kyrenaika); 20, 723 (Cyrene).
  13. ^ Inscriptiones Graecae I³, 1084 .
  14. ^ Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 43, 630 (Selinunt).
  15. ^ Pausanias 10:38, 8.
  16. ^ Inscriptiones Graecae IX 2, 1329 .
  17. ↑ Phlegon von Tralleis 1190, 26. In: The fragments of the Greek historians 257 F 37.
  18. ↑ Athenaios 78c. In: The Fragments of the Greek Historians 499 F 4.
  19. ↑ Inscriptiones graecae IV² 1, 282 .
  20. ↑ Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 38, 997 .
  21. ↑ Inscriptiones Creticae III 3, 14 .
  22. ↑ Inscriptiones Graecae XII 3, 199 .