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Chthonians in Sicily
Curbera, Jaime B
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1997; 38, 4; ProQuest
pg. 397

Chthonians in Sicily 

Jaime B. Curbera 

To the memory of Giuseppe Nenci 

S
ICILY WAS FAMOUS for her chthonic deities. 1 According to 
tradition, Hades abducted Kore at Syracuse, Henna, or 
Aetna; Pindar calls Acragas <l>EpoE<j)6vac; EDOC; (Pyth. 12.2); 

and the whole island was said to be sacred to Demeter and 
Kore (Diod. 5.2.3; Cic. Verr. 2.4.106). Indeed, archaeological 
and numismatic evidence abundantly confirms the literary 
sources.2 This paper deals with some previously unnoticed epi­
thets of Sicily's chthonic gods and with the reflection of their 
cult on personal names on the island. 

I. The Kyria 

Earlier in this century, a grave in ancient Centuripae, some 30 
km southwest of Mt Aetna, yielded an interesting lead curse 
tablet, first published by Domenico Comparetti after a drawing 
by Paolo Orsi, and again, in apparent ignorance of Comparetti's 
edition, by Francesco Ribezzo with a drawing from autopsy.3 
Neither text was satisfactory. Using Orsi's and Ribezzo's 
drawings, J. J. E. Hondius, "adiuvantibus Cr[onert] et Wil­
h[elm]," produced in 1929 what is now the best text, SEG IV 61. 

I Abbreviations: DTAud=A. Audollent, Defixionum tabellae quotquot in­
notuerunt (Paris 1904); DTWu=R. Wunsch, Defixionum tabellae (Berlin 
1897); IGDS=L. Dubois, Inscriptions grecques dialectales de Sicile (Rome 
1989); Jordan=D. R. Jordan, • A Survey of Greek Defixiones Not Included in 
the Special Corpora," GRBS 26 (1985) 151-97. 

2 See e.g. E. Ciaceri, Culti e miti nella storia della Sicilia antica (Catania 
1911) 187-214; B. Pace, Sicilia antica III (Rome 1945) 463-80; E. Mann~ Sicilia 
pagana (Palermo 1963) 105-29; A. Brelich, • La religione greca in Sicilia," 
Kokalos 10-11 (1964-65) 35-62, esp. 47-51; G. ZuntZ, Persephone (Oxford 
1971); L. Polacca. "n culto di Demetra e Core a Siracusa," NumAntCI 15 
(1986) 21-41; V. Hinz, Der Kult von Demeter und Kore auf Sizilien und in 
der Magna Graecia (Wiesbaden 1998). 

3 P. Orsi, ·Varieta epigrafiche siceliote," AStSicOr 16-17 (1919-20) 197-200; 
F. Ribezzo, ·Defissioni greche di Sicilia," RivIGI 11 (1927) 145ff. 

397 



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398 CHTHONIANS IN SICILY 

In October 1998 I examined the inscription 10 the Syracuse 
Museum and can present a few improvements to the SEG text 
and a new sketch: 

Syracuse H. 12.0, W. 16.4 cm 
M useo archeologico regionale 
(inv.39856) 

1(1)PE1U, E~UpOlC; tOY 'EAie[E]-
2 pov. av EyonJdjoOllC; ~E, 

7t010O> apYUPEUV 07tU0l1(uV, 
4 UV E~UPllC; ul)t'ov be to av-
5 epO>7tElVOU yEVEOC;. 

I-lIp 
Centuripae 

2: E(1()On1(ijaan~ SEC. 3: no"bw aprUpE[o]V amiOl1(U SEC. The cursive E, (, 
and 00, and particularly the :=:, formed almost in one continuous stroke, 
point to the Roman period. Forms such as 'EAt9EPOV {for 'EAEu9rpov) 
and an6:011(aV (for anUOl1(u) also point to a late date, and the spellings 
!CUpria and i:yOrl1(itO"au~, in which n is used for a short t, exclude a date 
prior to IP or IIp. The uncontracted forms apyuptuv (3) and ytvEO~ (5) do 
not contradict such a dating, for Doric forms are found even in Christian 
inscriptions from Sicily, e.g. (tEa (lC XIV 506), Aavip (IC XIV 150).nolaw 
(3) is not a faulty spelling of nOlijaw, for another inscription from 
Centuripae has the aorist EnonaE (IC XIV 576, IIP?) and similar forms are 
well documented in Greek.4 It would be also possible to read the future of 

4 E.g. P. Kretschmer, Die griechischen VaseninschriJten ihrer Sprache nach 
untersucht (Giitersloh 1894) 7 (btolaEv, VIla); ARV2 1531 (EnolOEv, Va); 
IOlympia 164 (EnolaE, ca 392 a ?); FdD III.2 70.51 (Enolouv"tO, 112/111"~ 
CorpPapRain 36 (no law, 266P), etc. The spelling with diaeresis nO"low (SEC) im­
plies nO(t)ijaw (with TJ=/i/) as the origin of this form, but the date of the earli­
est instances of the phenomenon is against an itacist explanation. 



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JAIME CURB ERA 399 

£1UqlEPCil, viz. ILt I 'noicrCil (D. R. Jordan, per litt. ), but nOlECil is well docu­
mented in this kind of offering with the meaning· make a dedication." 5 'to 
(4) is a popular variation of 'tou or an abbreviated 'to(u). 

The author asks an unnamed goddess to eliminate one Eleuthe­
ros and offers in exchange a silver cr1t(lih~. The text belongs to 
the category of prayers for justice motivated by the hope of re­
venge for wrongs suffered. 6 Unlike the authors of defixiones 
proper, authors of prayers for justice did not take the law into 
their own hands, but submitted their complaints to divinities. 
Typical features are the use of h()l1CEW (Lat. vindico), the 
offering of a votum to the deity, or the use of respectful forms 
of address. In this case the goddess is called 1(upda and she is 
addressed in the equally respectful optative E~apOtC;. It is worth 
remembering that Protagoras rebuked Homer for using the 
imperative in a prayer (liEl()£), where he should have used the 
optative (FVS 80A20). Now who is the Kupia? Preisendanz 7 

thought that she was Demeter, but she is more likely to be 
Persephone. 8 In fact, Persephone appears to be a 'vengeance' 
goddess;9 in contrast to Demeter she is often invoked in Sicilian 
curse tablets 10 and, as the wife of the lord of the lower world, 
she is known to have had titles of majesty and kingship 
(livacrcra, f3acrtAic;, ()Ecr1tOtva, 1tacrtKpa'tEla, 1to'tVta). In 
particular, the use of Kupta alone for Persephone must have 
been quite common, for it passed on to the Latins as her proper 
name, as we see in two inscriptions from Amaula (Mauretania 

5 A. E. Raubitschek, Dedications from the Athenian Acropolis (Cambridge 
(Mass.)] 1949) no. 331; M. L. Lazzarini, Le formule neUe dediche votive nella 
Crecia arcaica (=MemLinc SER. 4 19.2 [Rome 1976]) 112. 

6 H. S. Versnel, "Beyond Cursing: The Appeal to Justice in Judicial Prayers," 
in C. A. Faraone and D. Obbink, Magika Hiera (New York 1991) 60-104, 
esp.64f. 

7 K. Preisendanz, "Fluchtafeln (Defixion)," RA C 8 (1972) 1-29, esp. 8. 
8 Thus B. Bravo, ·Une tablette magique d'Olbia Pontique, les morts, les 

heros et les demons," in Poikilia: Etudes offertes a f.-P. Vernant (Paris 1987) 
185--218, esp. 192. 

9 A curse tablet from Cyrene explicitly identifies Praxidike and Kore: G. 
Pugliese Carratelli, ASAtene 23-24 (1961-62) 324f; cf Jordan no. 150. 

10 A. Brugnone, IV infra (ltapa <l>EpcrE<pOVat, end III a); SEC XXIX 929 (rii, 
'Ep~, <l>EpcrEcpOva, IP ?), XXXIV 953 ('tU 1('\Jpdct IItpcrEqloVn, 'tU 1('\JPEi<t o.lku[lCE'i], 
Ip); MonAnt 24 (1916) 154 (Kop<;t, IP?). The expression nap' 'tav hayvav eEOV 
on a fifth-century curse from the Malophoros sanctuary at Selinus (ICDS 38) 
could allude to Demeter, but the ayva eEOC; could equally well be Persephone, 
who was also worshipped there. 



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400 CHTHONIANS IN SICILY 

Caesariensis): Cl LVIII 9020 (I LS 4456: Pluto, Cyria, et Ceres) 
and 9021 (ILS 4457: Plutoni et Cyriae, Cereri).l1 Now from 
Diod. 14.70-77 and some ritual features it is generally accepted 
that the worship of Demeter and Kore (the so-called Cereres) 
came to Africa from Sicily.12 The inscriptions of Amaula, 
therefore, may be indirect evidence that the use of Kupia for 
Kore/Persephone was common in Sicily and that Kupia here 
should be identified with Persephone. 

The votum promised is an apYUPEa 0'1ta8l~. A 0'1ta8l~ is 
either a palm branch or a stringed instrument. Probably because 
of the detail about the silver, Comparetti interpreted 0'1t(i8l~ as 
the latter, and the editors of both SEG and LS] consider that 
possibility. 0'1t(i8l~ here, however, should rather be interpreted 
as "palm branch," for silver palms are well documented as offer­
ings to various gods: I LAfr 256 (palma argentea to Saturnus)j 
lLTun 709 (palma argentea to Saturnus), 868b (palma argentea to 
Aesculapius and Pantheus)j lLS 5471b (palma ex argento to the 
city-genius). A gold palm for an unknown god is documented 
at Cl L X 1598 (Pozzuoli).13 Indeed the offering of branches is 
not completely unknown in the cult of Persephone, for Vergil's 
aureus ramus was a gift (Am. 6.142: munus; 408, 632: don urn) to 
her. 

II. Plouto 

American excavations at Morgantina have produced six curse 
tablets Qordan 116-21: Ip-IIp). One has two illegible lines fol­
lowed by a phrase that has been edited as 't(xv A.l~Ep'tlav a{na<; 
1tap8£~CXl, I TIA.o{)'t(j} Kat fa Kat I 'EpJla. 14 The name of the first 
deity invoked is striking. Valentina Hinz, in a discussion of the 

II According to G. Wilmanns and H. Dessau, editors of CI L and I LS re­
spectively, Cyria in the second inscription is a title of Ceres (Plutoni et cyriae 
Cereri), but the copulative et indicates here the close relationship of Plouton 
and Kore, who were worshipped as a couple, as at IC XI.4 1235: nW{)"CU>Vl 

!Cal K6P1! . .1ftfJ.T\"CP1. 'EpfJ.£i, 'AvmJ~llh !Ca'tu 1tpOo'tayfJ.a 'tou Smu. 
12 See e.g. J. Carcopino, "Le culte des Cereres et les Numides," in Aspects 

mystiques de la Rome paiimne (Paris 1943) 13-47; P. Xella, ·Sull'introduzione 
del culto di Demetra e Core a Cartagine," StudM atStor Ret 40 (1969) 215-28. 

13 For similar metal offerings see W. Deonna, La vie privie des Diliens 
(= TravMimEFA 7.4 [paris 1948]) 87-99. 

14 R. Stillwell, AJA 67 (1963) 164f; N. Nabers, AJA 83 (1979) 46.3 no. 1 (SEC 
XXIX 927). The best edition is that of Jordan no. 116 (SEC XXXV 1011); cf 
ICDS 195. 



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JAIME CURBERA 401 

worship of Demeter and Kore in Sicily, speaks of this tablet as a 
dedication to Ploutos, Ge, and Hermes,15 as if IIA.o{)'too were the 
dative of IIA,OUtOC;. The parallel invocation ra, 'Epl!(X !Cat e£Ot 
!CataXeOVtot found in other tablets of the same series indicates, 
however, that the names of this text are vocatives and not 
datives. IIA,OUtOO here is usually interpreted as the vocative of 
IIA,outoo(v), and this interpretation is prima facie likely.16 
Among the six Morgantina tablets, however, this would be the 
only instance in which final - v is omitted, and we may note that 
in general, omission of the nasal before a guttural is not very 
common. 17 In order to explain this peculiarity one might think 
that the author confused the Latin form Pluto, but there is a like­
lier and more fruitful solution. An oracle reported by Phlegon 
of Tralles (FGrHist 257F36 X 24, 26, 31) calls Persephone IIA,OU­
tcovL; and an Orphic fragment refers to her as IIA,OUtrovll (Kern 
Orph. frag. 200). Now, goddesses' names in -ro, normally short­
ened forms or popular nicknames, are very common in Greek 
(e.g. 'Acppro, Bptl!ro, ~T\ro, 'Evuro, Lttro). My proposal is to read 
not IIA.outOO but II A,OUtro , a local epithet of Persephone formed 
on the analogy of the name of her husband. The form IIA,OUtro 
may be interpreted either as a shortened form of IIA,oU'toovic;l 
IIA,OUtrovll or as the feminine form corresponding to IIA,OUtOC; 
or IIA,Out£uc;-alternative names of Plouton.18 

This suggestion needs two clarifications. In classical Greek the 
vocative of a name IIA,OUtro would have been IIA,OUtot, but voca­
tives in - ro are well documented in later Greek: cf e.g. P. Gur. 
1.5 (oo)tOOl! l!£ Bptl!ro), SB I 5961 (Xatp£ 8wvro), Hymn. Orph. 
35 (Arrero lCUaV01t£1tA,£), and the observations of C. Brixhe (REG 
103 [1990J 225). One could also object that IIA,OUtro is the name 
of an Ocean nymph (Hes. Th. 355; Hymn. Hom. Cer. 422) and 
of the mother of Tantalus (e.g. Paus. 2.22.3), but such homo­
nyms are common in Greek. Thus, 'Epl!tOVll, in addition to 
being the name of the daughter of Menelaus and Helen, was 
also that of both Kore and Demeter at Syracuse (Hsch.). 

15 Hinz (supra n.2) 33, 133. Her assertion that the tablets from Morgantina 
document the manumission of a slave and her dedication to the deity (134) is 
plainly wrong. 

16 Cf SEC XXIX, index s.v. m.o{mov, or ICDS, index p.288. 
17 Such omission is much more frequent before a dental, but even so it is not 

documented in the texts from Morgantina: cf Jordan nos. 117, 119, 121: 
B£VoV(J't(lV 'tou 'Pou<j)O'IJ 'tuv eqxx,tUWuv. 

18 H. Usener, Colternamen (Bonn 1896; repro Frankfurt a.M. 1948) 1M. 



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402 CHTHONIANS IN SICILY 

If this interpretation is correct, the divinities invoked in this 
text would be the same as the triad ra, 'EpJla~, and <l>Epm:<pova 
invoked on another tablet of the same group (SEG XXIX 929) 
and frequently in other curse tablets (e.g. DTWii 101; DTAud 
69; L. Robert, Coll. Froehner 11; Ziebarth, SBBerl [1934] 1022-
50 nr. 13). Elsewhere I have noted the tendency of the Morgan­
tina tablets towards variation, both in the names ('Pou<p~­
'Pou<p~ L€~'ttO~- L€~'ttO~) and in the verbal forms used in every 
tablet (7tOtt()€lCEO'eal-7tOtt()€~EO'eat-(htO.ya:y£iv).19 That of <l>EP­
O'E<pova-IlA.ou'tro could be another instance.2o 

III. Gaos 

A lead tablet from Camarina (IV-IlIa) recording the purchase 
of an OtlCTlO'lV and a lCa7tTlAdav mentions a quarter "over the 
sanctuary of Gaos and Phersophassa," Aaupa [i:> ]7t£P raou lCat 
<1>[ E] pO'O'O'o<paO'a~ (probably for <l>EpO'o<paO'O'a~). 21 The occur­
rence of the localism <l>EpO'o<paO'O'a instead of <l>EPO'E<pova, the 
form usual in Sicilian curse tablets, has a good parallel in Attic 
epigraphy, where the 'poetic' form IlEpO'E<povTl is more frequent 
on curse tablets, while prose inscriptions have the proper Attic 
<l>Epp€<pa't'ta and its variants. 22 Here rao~ is a form of ya'io~/ 
yal~ with consonantal l dropped between vowels; his actual 
identity, however, is less apparent. Hinz speaks of a "Heiligtum 
von Gaia und Persophasa," but this is obviously not the case. 
Cordano interpreted rao~ as the name of a local and otherwise 
unknown 7tapE()pO~ of Persephone, but it would be odd to find 
an obscure figure named before the goddess herself. This 
difficulty can be avoided if we understand rao<; as an epithet of 
Hades and see in this tablet a sanctuary of Hades and Per­
sephone, a divine couple greatly honoured in Sicily.23 This 

19 J. Curbera, "Venusta and her Owner in Four Curse Tablets from 
Morgantina, H ZPE 110 (1996) 295ff. 

20 For a simlar proposal (IIAo\.)'t(o-the Ocean nymph?-instead of the 
transmitted IIA.o{)'twv in Lucian's Tragopodagra), see H. Gregoire and R. 
Goossens, "La nourrice de la deesse Podagra," AntCl22 (1953) 419ff. 

21 F. Cordano, BArte 26 (1984) 35-41 (IGDS 124, SEG XXXIV 940). For 
the sanctuary see now Hinz (supra n.2) 121. 

22 L. Threatte, The Grammar of the Attic Inscriptions I: Phonology (Berlin 
1980) 450f; F. Brauninger, "Persephone, H RE 19 (1937) 945. 

23 The Sicilians celebrated their wedding at the 'AVUlCUA\)1t'tTtpm (EPind. 01. 
6.160) and 8wyufltU (Poll. 1.37). 



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JAIME CURBERA 403 

interpretation presupposes that ya(t)o~ ("earthly") has been 
used in the sense of x8ovtO~ ("of the nether world"), a common 
epithet of Hades. Such a use is probably a Doric colloquialism. 
The terms x8ffiv, x8ovtO~, 1((l'tax8ovtO~, etc. were indeed 
typical of the language of poetry and religion and were alien to 
everyday speech,24 while yato~ and related terms were ordinary 
Doric words.25 The writer of the text from Camarina used rao~ 
instead of x80v to~, just as he used <l>£pcroq>acrcra instead of 
<I>£pcr£cpova: both rao~ and <I>£paocpaaaa were colloquial forms 
more suitable for a prose text than X8ovtO~ and <I>£pa£cpova. 26 

This interpretation may have some significance in the study of 
Aeschylus. At Supp. 156 Hades is called Z£u~ yai:o~ (-tOV yatov 
['tatOv M, corr. WellauerJ, 'tOY 1tOA:\)~£vffi'ta'tov Zilva).27 WeI­
lauer's yatov has been challenged on the grounds that yato~ 
does not elsewhere signify X80v tO~, 28 but the text from Cama­
rina may now prove that such a use was known in Greek. On 
the other hand, yato~ is one of the forms put forward by those 
who see Sicilian influence in the extant work of Aeschylus. Al­
though recent studies tend to diminish the value of his alleged 
Sicilian isms, yalo~ is one of the words still considered dis­
tinctively Sicilian. 29 This inscription provides more positive evi­
dence for a Sicilian origin, for it shows that this particular sense 
of yato~ (= X8ovtO~) applied to Hades was current in Sicily. In 
adopting yato~ for one of his songs, Aeschylus gave poetic 
dignity to this popular epithet of Hades. 

24 U. von Wilamowitz Moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen (repr. Darm­
stadt 1959) 205f. 

25 Cf Epich. 42.9 K; Etym. Mag. 223.24; Hsch. s.'1l. It is not surprising that 
an author like Pindar does not use the word: G. Bjork, Das Alpha impurum 
in die tragische Kunstsprache (Uppsala 1950) 332. 

26 It may be relevant that an epitaph from Centuripae (l G XIV 581, I-IIP?) 
shows, instead of the learned formula 8co"i~ KU'tax8ovtOl~, the more local 
expression 8co"i<; KmayatOtOl<;. 

27 For Zeus (Chthonios, Catachthonios, etc.) in the sense of Hades see M. L. 
West, Hesiod: Works and Days (Oxford 1978) ad 465; Wilamowitz (supra 
n.24) I 307. 

28 See the discussion in A. F. Garvie, Aeschylus' Supplices (Cambridge 1969) 
188f. 

29 Garvie (supra n.28) 52; M. Griffith, "Aeschylus, Sicily and Prometheus," 
in R. D. Dawe et aI., Dionysiaca: Nine Studies in Greek Poetry by Former 
Pupils Presented to Sir Denis Page (Cambridge 1978) 108. 



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404 CHTHONIANS IN SICILY 

IV. "Priestesses of Demeter"? 

We know that, from at least the fifth century B.C., the Eu­
menides received official cult in Selinus. 30 In 250 B.C. the entire 
population of Selinus was moved to Lilybaeum (Diod. 24.1.1), 
and it is possible that this or a similar cult was continued in the 
new city. A curse tablet from Lilybaeum recently published by 
Antonietta Brugnone may contain an unnoticed allusion to the 
Erinyes.31 The tablet has on Side A eight lines of text written 
retrograde; Side B has only three short lines in Greek followed 
by a list of nine Latin names in the Latin alphabet. Brugnone's 
text of Side A begins: 

~ lCa'taOECO ZC01tupicova 'tii~ Mu~/3up 7tapa <IlEPO"E-
2 ~ <pOval lCal TmxvEo"o"l lCa'taXeOV{Ol~ lCal 7tapa 
3 ~ 7t[p ]lXO~EVOlo"l VE1CUOl~ VA<.: E~ 'to'u~ cX'tEAiO"'tO'U~ lCal 7tap-
4 ~ a [.]apial~ .1.a~a'tp<><; 7tap' cX7tEUXO~£[V ]a[lO"]tV. 

(Ku'tu)x86vtoc; belongs to the realm of poetry and religion (cl 
supra III). Thus PGM IV 1444-55 contains an invocation of 
seventeen infernal powers, everyone followed by the (solemn) 
word X86vtoC; (,EPllll x86vlr KUt 'EK(l-tTl x8oviu, KUt 'AXEPWV 
x86vu: KUt wllo<payol x86vLOl KUt. 1tVrUIlUt(l x86vtu KUt. 'AIlUP­
'tim x86vlUl, etc. ).32 <t>rpor<p6vu is the form used by Pindar, Bac­
chylides, the Orphic Hymns but not in everyday Sicilian 
speech (supra III). To judge from Plato (era. 404c) this form 
was considered especially formidable, no doubt for it popularly 
connoted the word <p6voc; (cf Hymn. Orph. 29.16). The da­
tives in -OtOl and -UlOlV have a strong epic flavor. It is clear 
that the gods are named in the most elevated terms. This 
solemn character suggests a supplement for the small lacuna 
(one letter) of [.]upiulC; (line 4). Brugnone posits 1tUpa 
[W]UplUlC; (for 1tUpa uwplmc;), and understands UWPlUl as "Ie 
anomalie di stagione'" during the months that Kore must spend 

30 M. H. Jameson, D. R. Jordan, and R. D. Kotansky, A Lex Sacra from 
Selinous (=GRBM 11 [Durham (N.C.) 1993]). 

31 B. Bechtold and A. Brugnone, "Novitil epigrafiche da Lilibeo. La tomba 
186 della Via Berta," Seconde Giornate internazionali di Studi sull'area elima. 
Atti (Pisa 1997) 111-40. The editors date the tablet to the end of the III". For a 
new edition of this text see David Jordan's article in this volume. 

32 A similar text on a selenite tablet from Cyprus (IIIP) in D. R. Jordan, 
·Late Feasts for Ghosts," in R. Hagg, ed., Ancient Greek Cult Practice from 
the Epigraphical Evidence (=Proceedings of the Second International Seminar 
on Ancient Greek Cult, Swedish Institute at Athens, 22-24 November 1991 
[Stockholm 1994]) 131-43, esp. 140. 



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JAIME CURB ERA 405 

in the Underworld. The sense, however, is not what is required 
(we expect some infernal deity or being), and to solve a 
difficulty by positing an anomaly in a lacuna is always ques­
tionable. 33 My suggestion is to read [t]apicw;. viz. a late spelling 
of Doric tapdal<; (Attic iE;:pdat~) and a new instance, therefore, 
of the mixture of Doric and later forms seen insupra 1. Both the 
plural and the sinister purpose of the text suggest that the 
taPEtal ~alla'tPO~ were the Erinyes, who, as ministers of 
vengeance, are often invoked in curse tablets. 34 This proposal is 
supported by Eur. Or. 261, where the Erinyes are called EVEPffiV 
tEP£l<ll-"priestesses of the nether ones."35 The subordination 
of the Erinyes to Demeter is not documented elsewhere (they 
are often subordinated to Plouton), but we know that in several 
places Demeter had the title of Erinys.3b If this suggestion is 
correct, tEpnal could be a title of the Erinyes that was used 
independently by Euripides and this writer drawing on the 
same tradition. One cannot rule out, however, that this writer, 
who followed literary patterns, had Euripides or a tragic model 
in mind.37 

V. Personal Names 

The recent publication of P. M. Fraser and E. Matthews' Lexi­
con of Greek Proper Names III A (Oxford 1997) offers an im­
mense field of research for scholars interested in the religion of 
Greek Sicily. The Greeks were always conscious of the mean­
ings of their names; as a result they did not derive personal 
names from gods of ill omen. As Letronne put it, "les noms des 
divinites infernales ne sont jamais entres dans la formation des 

33 R. Merkelbach, "Lex Youtie," ZPE 38 (1980) 294. 

H On the Erinyes on defixiones see Versnel (supra n.6) 92 n.17. In Sicily 
they appear on MonAnt 24 (1916) 154 (Messina, I-lIP): ['EplV ju£~ (lu'tE IC0J.L[{­
orojv't£ UVepoYTCl[OICojV. 

3S According to C. W. Willink, Euripides: Orestes (Oxford 1986) ad i<Jc., the 
use of t€pnm adds connotations of blood and slaughter suitable for the 
Erinyes. 

36 E. Wiist, " Erinys," RE Supp. 8 (1956) 94f. 

37 A similar case in DT Aud 79, where r11 is called J.LT]'tTJP ovo.prov (sic) just as 
at Eur. H ec. 70f Xewv is called J.LT]'tTJP 6vdprov: E. G. Kagarow, Griechische 
Fluchtafeln (Lwow 1929) 60. 



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406 CHTHONIANS IN SICILY 

noms propres. "38 The name EUI1£vi.30'tO~ of Selinus (IDGS 50, 
ca 550 a) could allude to the kindly aspect of the Erinyes (E u­
j.1£Vi.3£~), but as d)Jl£v11~ is an epithet documented for various 
deities (e.g. Zeus, Hermes, Nymphs), EUJl£vi&01:0~ is likelier to 
allude to some other god or goddess.39 Similarly, the name 
'E1Ca'ta,'io~ of Himera (IGDS 14, ca 450a) is not to be referred to 
the goddess of sorcery and black magic, but to the benevolent 
goddess as described at Hes. Th. 411-20 and enthusiastically 
worshipped in Asia, where 'E1Ca'ta'io~ is frequent. Chthonic 
deities, however, may form personal names that are not proper­
ly theophoric. One of the oldest-and unnoticed-testimonia 
of the cult of Kore in Camarina is found in the personal name 
Kopnoc;.40 In Greek there is a group of personal names formed 
on the names of festivals and given to people born during those 
holidays. The personal names 'A1ta'toupto~, 8aprTtAto~, I1av­
aS11vato~, and 'Eop'ta'io~ are formed on the feast names 'A1ta­
'toupw, 8aprTtAta, I1avaS11vaw, and the generic £op't11.41 
Plutarch (Dian 56) documents a festival Koptta at Syracuse, 
during which Dion was killed in 353 B.C. The personal name 
Kop£toc; of Camarina derives from the Kop£w and shows that 
the festival was also celebrated at Camarina. 

It is not entirely clear what was celebrated during the Kop£w, 
for in Sicily the different episodes of Kore's myth were the 
subjects of several separate celebrations (e.g. KOPTl~ Ka'taywrTt, 
'AvS£O"<popw, 8EOyUI1W).42 One cannot rule out that KopHa was 
a generic name valid for any of these feasts. This sense is found 
in Strabo (2.3.4), who instead of using the official name of the 
festival of Kore in Cyzicus ('til LW't11pta) uses 'til KopHa (01tOV­
&oq>opov 'tou 'twv Kopdwv aywvo~): he had no reason to use the 
official name and he simply used a generic and more common 

38 A. J. Letronne, -Memoire sur I'utilite qu'on peut retirer de I'etude des 
noms propres grecs pour I'histoire et I'archeologie," CEuvres choisies IIF (Paris 
1885) 1-126, esp. 125. 

39 But, instead of I1(u)ppia, EUIlEVtcS61:o, I1EouXPXO, the text could also be 
read I1(u)ppia, EUIlEviO(a) 1:0 I1EOUJ.pxO: see Dubois' commentary; also see D. 
R. Jordan, -A Meilichios Stone from Selinous," ZPE 86 (1991) 279-82 (SEC 
XL 806). 

40 F. Cordano, Le tessere pubbliche del tempio di Atena a Camarina (Rome 
1992) no. 129, ca 450". 

41 See F. Bechtel, Die historischen Personennamen des Criechischen bis zur 
Kaiserzeit (Halle 1917) 522-26; R. Hirzel, Der Name (Leipzig 1918) 40-46. 

42 See e.g. Nilsson, Feste 358; Polacco (supra n.2) 26. 



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JAIME CURB ERA 407 

designation of the festival. 43 As for Sicily, Plutarch used 't a 
Kopno. to emphasize the impiety of Kallipos, who after 
swearing to Kore that he was not plotting against Dion, killed 
him at the feast of this very goddess ('tllv Eop'tllv ~~ Wj.tOOE SEQ), 
no matter which one this feast was. Similarly, the name Kopno~ 
shows that the child was born during a feast of Kore. 

The name of Demeter, unlike that of Persephone, does form 
theophorics. Curiously enough, however, these names do not 
seem to have been frequent in Sicily: there are some 100 theo­
phoric names of Apollo, some 100 of Heracles, some 80 of 
Zeus, some 70 of Artemis, but only 35 bearers of .1o.j.t(i'tpLO~ or 
.1o.j.to.'tpio.. It is significant that only one of the more than 
seventy Sicilian landowners and magistrates listed in Cicero's 
Verrines was called Demetrius (2.4.92). This is striking in view 
of the importance that literary sources ascribe to the cult of 
Demeter in Sicily: lEpav {l1tUPXEtV 'tllv vfloov MH.lTl'tpo~ Kat 
Ko PTl~ (Diod. 5.2.3). It would be tempting to interpret this 
dearth of 'Demetriac' names as a reflection of the chthonic 
connotations of her cult. Demeter's absence on Sicilian curse 
tablets suggests, however, that, unlike her fellow chthonians, 
she was not considered a goddess of ill omen. A non-religious 
explanation may be possible. Most onomastic evidence in Sicily 
comes from official inscriptions; the majority of the proper 
names that are preserved are thus those of magistrates and of­
ficials of Sicilian cities. It is true that Demeter was an immensely 
popular deity in Sicily, but her cult and festivals seem also to 
have had a strongly plebeian (and feminine) character. 44 It is fair 
to posit that-in contrast to the theophorics based on Apollo, 
Heracles, or Zeus-'Demetriac' names were not thought 
appropriate to the ruling classes, whose onomastics are the best 
known. Therefore, the evidence for the importance of this 
goddess in Sicily is not in conflict with the relative scarcity of 

4J L. Robert, Documents d'Asie Mineure (Paris 1987) 16M. 
44 D. White, "Demeter's Sicilian Cult as a Political Instrument," GRBS 5 

(1964) 261-79, esp. 264ff. 



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408 CHTHONIANS IN SICILY 

personal names derived from hers, just as Homer's rare 
references to Demeter do not prove her insignificance in his 
time. 45 

MADRID 

June, 1999 

45 J. Griffin, Homer on Life and Death (Oxford 1980) 18M: -[In the Iliad] 
the gods who would be irreconcilably out of place in the society of Olym­
pus-fertile Demeter, raging Dionysus-are as far as possible stylized out of 
the poem and the world" (my italics). 

I am grateful to David R. Jordan for his numerous suggestions regarding 
the improvement of this paper, and to Dottoressa Curcio and her staff for 
facilitating my work in Syracuse.