Moving down the mountain: pathways for sacred landscape transformation at ancient Epidaurus and Nemea

ABSTRACT

This paper explores reciprocal relationships between landscape, human attention, and time. I present two sacred landscapes: Epidaurus and Nemea, located in Greece's northeastern Peloponnese. In both landscapes, worshipers created sanctuaries on prominent mountains. Eventually, their attention shifted downhill where they built larger, monumental sanctuaries on the flat ground. I trace each mountain’s role as a sacred landmark; I question what other social functions they had – if at all – after the new sanctuaries were built. I consider a wide range of evidence. I begin with a comparative example from Mount Fuji in Japan, and move on to archaeological excavation and survey data, ancient testimonials, and modern tourist reviews about the Greek sanctuaries. I also use Geographic Information Systems to quantify each Greek sanctuary’s visual impact in comparison to the surrounding topography. Woven together, these data reveal generations of sacral continuity. The Sanctuary of Asklepios and the Sanctuary of Zeus encircled new sacred temenoi, but worshipers’ collective memory guided their pathways and vision; through human senses, these mountains retained their role as sacred landmarks.

KEYWORDS:

• Greece
• landscape archaeology
• mountain
• sanctuary
• sensory
• vision

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Andrea Berlin for editing early versions of the manuscript. She would also like to thank Sarah Frederick and Yasuko Ta for sharing their Kongo cane resources.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Fujinomiya is located on the southwestern slopes of Mount Fuji.

2. Eboshi-wa is near the Eighth Station on Mount Fuji (Figure 2).

3. Women were initially banned from most of Fuji’s sacred sites, including Tainai (the cave). Women were also restricted from summiting more than once every 60 years (Earhart 2011, 94).

4. (Hägg 1997, 17) also connects Middle Helladic cult with the Late Helladic artifacts: ‘Although they belong chronologically to the Late Helladic period, they should be seen as associated with the rite of animal sacrifice that I think was performed here from late Middle Helladic times onwards.’

5. Observers were spaced 200 m apart to ensure all visible space was covered. All areas with slopes <49 were excluded; areas so steep were deemed inappropriate for observers to easily stand, based on where else cultic structures were located in the Argolid. Susmann (2020, 181, Table 1) describes this decision-making process in greater detail.

6. Measuring the prominence of Mount Kynortion was part of a larger study about sacred landscapes in the Peloponnesian regions of the Argolid and Messenia (Susmann 2019). Susmann (2020) discusses the methodological approach and includes step-by-step instructions.

7. Tied into these plans is Apollo Maleatas. Based on Fantuzzi (2010, 185) and McInerney (2013, 14–17) reading of the Paean of Isyllos, Maleatas is not an epithet to a deity. In the text, Maleatas is a reference to Malos, a mortal Epidaurian to whom Zeus gifted Erato as a wife. Malos eventually built the altar to Apollo on Mount Kynortion. Isyllos does not refer to Apollo Maleatas – largely considered a Lakonian invention – and instead Phoibos Apollo. Thus, the Epidaurians considered Apollo to be their local god; Maleatas was an epithet tying a close Epidaurian family to Apollo.

8. Their efforts were so successful that this sanctuary turned into the center of Asklepeios cult in Greece and eventually, gained notoriety as the birthplace of Asklepeios. Rumors of the miraculous cures happening there attracted regular crowds; Epidaurus reaped the economic benefits and was able to keep expanding the sanctuary, including adding its theater – a popular tourist attraction to this day – less than a century after the sanctuary was opened (Burke 2005, 215).

9. There is no published evidence describing to which deity was dedicated. Cook (2010, 892, no, 4) and Zolotnikova (2013) use oblique references in Hesiod (8^th or 7^th century BCE) and Pausanias (2^nd century CE) to make a case for the altar being sacred to Zeus Apesantios (Hesiod, 306; Pausanias, 2.15.3).

10. There are Bronze Age remains as well, but these are limited to ceramics and therefore cannot be associated with cultic activity specifically (Miller 1977, 20; Birge, Kraynak, and Miller 1992, 22–23; Zolotnikova 2013, 116).

11. The temple was eventually destroyed and rebuilt during the 4^th century BCE.

12. Elsewhere in the Peloponnese, there are examples of historical peak sanctuaries losing popularity to newer lower-lying sanctuaries closer to settlements. Mount Arachnaion, which Zolotnikova (2013, 121) describes as functionally similar to the cult on Mount Phoukas, was most popular between the 8^th–6^th century BCE. It was used through the Roman period, though votive deposits are far more sporadic at this time (Foley 1988,150).

13. (Weddle 2013, 149–150) excellently contextualizes the mixture of sounds emitted by animals and musicians at such festival days. Referencing extensive data from modern slaughterhouse studies, she argues that the ancient Greeks and Romans could have played music at festival days, in part to soothe animals.

Additional information

Funding

This research was completed with the following research grants: Boston University Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship, Boston University Graduate Student Organization travel grant, GeoEye Foundation Award for the Application of High-Resolution Digital Satellite Imagery, and Boston University Digital Humanities Seminar Start-Up Grant. Data collection at the Sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas was completed in compliance with permit number 6569, granted by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Argolida. Images of archaeological materials were taken by the author and were published with permission of the Ephoreia of Antiquities of Argolida and Corinthia.

Notes on contributors

Natalie M. Susmann

Natalie M. Susmann is a Mediterranean landscape archaeologist studying intersections between human constructions and nature, with a particular interest in religious architecture, place-making, and spatial memory. Her work integrates spatial and digital technologies to examine how natural features impacted peoples’ cultural and religious lives. She completed her PhD in Archaeology at Boston University. She is currently Visiting Lecturer in Classics at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts) and Visiting Research Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts).