FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
Alcinous' Watchdogs , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 28:3 (1987:Autumn) p.257
Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern
Parallels for Alcinous' Watchdogs
Christopher A. Faraone
As ODYSSEUS enters the palace of the Phaeacian king he stops to
marvel at its richly decorated fa9ade and the gold and silver
dogs that stand before it (Od. 7.91-94):
, ~,t: I () \, I , ")"
XPVCHLOL u EKanp E KaL apyvpEoL KVVES l1CTav,
" ·'HA-. " C 'll I 'll ovs' 't'aLCTTOS' ETEV~ EV LuVL?1CTL 7rpa7rLUECTCTL
oWJJ.a aLUT()TEVKTOV E'p"'vxov) and gave it to Tantalus." When
Tantalus falsely swore to Zeus that he did not have the dog, Zeus
punished his perjury by burying him under Mt Sipylus. Hermes
retrieved the dog for Zeus, and Pandareus fled to Athens. A scholiast
to Pind. 01. 1.91 notes the prophylactic purpose the dog served within
the ternenus of Zeus' sanctuary on Crete: Kvva ..• 8v 0 ZEUS vAaKa TOV
• ~ I
LEpOV KaTEU'n]UE.
Pollux, \ ~;scussing the virtues of different breeds of hunting dogs,
quotes a story from the Hellenistic poet Nicander of Colophon
(Onom. 5.3Rf=Nic. fr.97 Gow/Scholfield): the excellence ofChaonian
and Molossiar. dogs was attributable to their descent from another in
this case brazen dog Hephaestus had made: 1Jut KVVOS
"aHA-. ' 'I. ~ A I \ I ,/, \ , 8 I ~ ~ OV 't'aLUTOS EK XaAKOV i...J..1JpOV1JULOV XaAKEVUapEVOS, ."VX1JV EV EtS, ()W-
pOV E'OWKE ~Ll K cpvAaKa Tij~ v~O"ov
, 8 "./, " (H " ) 7rOL7JCTaCT aL ffJ.." VXOV OVTa ermann: MSS. ov .
A recently edited Oxyrhynchus papyrus, dated palaeographically to
the second century, gives three versions of a previously unknown
story about another Hephaestean statue, a bronze lion hidden or
buried somewhere on Lesbos.1 4
, AAKaLo~ 0' 0 TOOl) £7roov
ca 7] 4>7JO"w C:Jn "H4>aLo"To~ Af.
OVTa KaTaCTKfvaCTa~ xaAKovv fL~
~ A-. ' "lI Q 8 ~ TOVTOV 't'apfJ.aKa !U7JKf fJ07J ovv-
~ , 8 ' [] M ' St'" Ta TOLS av pW7r 0 LS· aKap () aVTOV
, ~ m \' " ['] A' fK T7JS 'YOA07J~ fKOfJ.LCTfV f L ~ fCT-
f]ov ICC'l EKpV"'fV· oiJ[ T ]WS 'Yap E/.-t[ f]A
Af .]. (J8at T~V V[ijCT]OV. MVPTL-
Aos OE] KfKpv4>8at TO[V A]f.OVTa 4>7J
CTLV] 7rPOS TOL~ M 7J8vfJ.vaiwv 7rf.
ca 4]. 0' £V XP7JO"fJ.O)L Lt[jVAA7JS C:JT[t]
5] < \ ' ,',' < HA-. ' ca 0 AfWV fL7J fPYOV 't'aLCTTOV
ca 5]f 'YpafJ.fJ.aTa fLS 4>vAaK~v TijS
, ]' ,/, St' ~ M' V7JCTOV, K pv."aL ()f TOVTOV aKapa a-
6] ' , ~ "'I ca yap aVTOV YfVOfJ.fVOV wva~
ca 11 ] ... T • V T~V VfiCTOV
According to Alcaeu~, the [?] of the epics, Hephaestus made a
bronze lion and into this put pharmaka beneficial to mankind; and
13 ~ ad PI. Resp. 337A=Simon. fr.202a (Bergk)=Soph. fr.160 Radt. According to
this explanalion the phrase refers to the grimaces of the scorched victims. For similar
accounts see Zenobius Cent. 5.85; Eust. 1893 ad Od. 20.302; Suda s. v. /TapOcivlO~ Yf
Aws; Phot. Bib!. 443b. A. C. Pearson, The Fragments of Sophocles I (Cambridge 1917)
110-13, gives a detailed discussion of both traditions.
14 P.Oxy. LIB 3711 col. 1.14-32. The papyrus preserves two columns on Lesbian
lore. A lemma in ecthesis at col. 2.32f, quoting a previously known poem of Aleaeus
(fr.130.24-26 L.-P.) and a fragmentary discussion of Dionysus Omestes (cJ Ale. fr.
129.9) suggest that we have part of an extremely selective commentary on the poems
of Aleaeus, or a collection of Lesbian problemata that repeatedly (if not exclusively)
used the poetry of A1caeus as a starting point. The translation is that of M. Haslam
from the editio princeps. I wish to thank Professor Haslam for kindly sharing his work
with the Stanford papyrology seminar in the winter of 1984 and for providing an
advance copy of his edition.
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
Alcinous' Watchdogs , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 28:3 (1987:Autumn) p.257
262 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
Makar took it from Pholoe to Lesbos and hid it, for in this way he
was to safeguard(?) the island. But according to Myrtilus(?) the lion
had been hidden hard by the border(?) of the Methymnaeans, and
... in a Sibylline oracle that this lion was Hephaestus' work (and
had?) writing for the guarding of the island, but Makar hid it, for
once it had (disappeared?) the Ionians ... the island ....
Apparently a commentary on the phrase A(ovra rhv vO/J-ov in a poem of
Alcaeus, the papyrus gives us the testimony of three different sources:
( I) a hitherto unheard-of Alcaeus who wrote (?) in hexameters of some
sort; (2) a Myrtilus, who the editor suggests is the third-century
chronicler Myrsilus of Methymna (FGrHist 477); and (3) the Sibylline
Oracle. The testimony of this other Alcaeus (most likely an early local
epic poet cited by Myrsilus)15 gives a clear description of the two-step
process by which Hephaestus built a statue and then put pharmaka
into it. Although the last few lines are badly damaged, it seems most
probable that the lion was used to protect the island against attacks
from the mainland (Haslam ad lac.).
The close parallels between the Lesbian lion and the four other
Hephaestean works described above are unmistakable, although only
two accounts (Talos and the golden dog) preserve all the features in
one story: (1) Hephaestus forges a metal statue, usually of an animal;
(2) the statue is animated; (3) he gives this statue as a gift to a god or
mortal king; and (4) the statue is used as a phylactery for a building or
a kingdom. This underlying scheme can be outlined by comparing the
five statues (see Figure 1). The most detailed description of Hephaes
tus' technique (col. 1) is the two-step recipe for the bronze lion.
Pollux, in his paraphrase of Nicander's account of the creation of the
bronze dog, perhaps implies a two-step process by using two separate
aorist participles (xaAKEVvAa(]"(]"£j.t£vaL palace
threshold
tj>vAaf temenosof
a sanctuary
tj>vAat periphery
of Crete
ds tj>vAaK~v borders (?)
of the
Methymnians
Zeus' anger at Tantalus and his insistence on the return of the
golden dog to his temple on Crete seem to imply that its presence at
the temple was of great importance. Stories of theft (Pandareus' of the
golden dog or Makar making off with the bronze lion from Pholoe) are
commonly part of the mythology of Greek talismans; the Palladium
upon whose presence the safety of Troy depended was stolen by
Odysseus and Diomedes. In some versions of the story it too was said
to display signs ofanimation. 16 The golden ram of Atreus, the emblem
16 Virgo Aen. 2.170-75 and Servo ad lac.; Conan FGrHist 28F34; Apollod. 3.143. In
his Iliupersis, Arctinus (apud Dian. Hal. 69.3) claimed that the Achaeans stole a
decoy; the real Palladium had been buried or hidden (K£KPVP.P.£vov) in the sanctuary.
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
Alcinous' Watchdogs , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 28:3 (1987:Autumn) p.257
264 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
of his mandate to rule the island of his father Pelops,17 was stolen by
his brother Thyestes. Finally the repeated motif of the prophylactic
statue as a hand-me-down gift passing from divine to human owner
ship reminds one of the "silly story" scoffed at by Eustathius (supra
n.1), according to which the gold and silver dogs of Alcinous had been
given as a gift by Hera to Poseidon, who in turn gave them to the
Phaeacian king.
It is of great interest that the early epic or perhaps elegiac poet
Alcaeus quoted in P.Oxy. 3711 reports that Hephaestus placed "phar
maka beneficial to mankind" into the bronze lion that Makar subse
quently buried on Lesbos as a phylactery. The practice of putting
pharmaka (i.e. special powerful material, not necessarily herbal) into
hollow statues in order to animate them is well attested among the
theurgists l8 and magicians l9 of the imperial period, when it was often
traditionally linked with 'Chaldaean', i.e., Near Eastern lore.20 A
17 I. ad II. 2.105: SElV T~V fjauLAElav £XELV TOV T~V xpvufjv Cipva £xovTa; Sen. Thyestes
223: specimen antiquum imperio
! .• 'roclus (apud Psellus Ep. 187 [Sathas]), tells us that the theurgist "filled the
hollow parts of statues with matter suitable to their powers, i.e., with animal matter,
plants, herbs, roots, gems, inscribed objects and sometimes even scents that are sym
pathetic in nature," a process that "inspires the statue and moves it with unspeakable
strength." For a good discussion of this text and rituals of the theurgists see T.
Hopfner, RE 6A.l (1936) 258-70 s. V. "Theurgie," and E. R. Dodds, "Theurgy and Its
Relationship to Neo-platonism," JRS 37 (1947) 55-69 (reprinted with minor revi
sions in The Greeks and the Irrational [Berkeley 1951] 283-311).
19 Among the Greek magical papyri edited by K. Preisendanz and re-edited by A.
Henrichs, Papyri graecae magicae: die griechischen Zauberpapyri 2 (Stuttgart 1973-74)
are several recipes for the construction of figurines that seem to come alive at some
point in the process; some of these recipes prescribe the insertion of some special
material into a hollow part of the statue: e.g a hieratic papyrus inscribed with a logos
(?) is inserted into a statue in order to animate it (V 385f); a papyrus inscribed with
the name of Hermes is inserted into a hollow cylinder attached to the back of a statue
used to bring good luck to a house or workshop (VIII 55f); a hieratic papyrus
inscribed with names and commands is inserted into a hollow-based statue of Hermes
similarly intended as a good luck charm (IV 2362); and a magnet and a pittakion
inscribed with names and commands are placed into the hollow of the statue used as
a phylactery for a temple (IV 3142f).
20 The putative inventor of Greco-Roman theurgy, a charismatic philosopher
known as Julian the Theurge, was thought to have put together (or forged) a
collection of oracles known in late antiquity as the 'Chaldaean Oracles'; his father
and teacher was known by the epithet 'the Chaldaean'. See Suda s. v. 'IovALavds, and
Psellus in Scripta Minora, ed. E. Kurtz/F. Drexel, I (Milan 1941) 446.29-447.3. For
discussion see W. Kroll, De oraculis chaldaicis (=Breslauer philologische Abh. 7.1
[1894]); J. Bidez, Vie de /'empereur Julien (Paris 1920) 73-81; Dodds (supra n.18).
For the most recent scholarship see E. Des Places' text and translation (=Sources
Chretiennes 262 [Paris 1974]), and his review article "Les oracles chaldalques,"
ANRWII.17.4 (1984) 2299-2335. For the Greco-Roman use of the epithet 'Chaldae
an' see E. Reiner, "La magie babylonienne," in Le monde du sorcier (=Sources
Orientales 7 [Paris 1966]) 69.
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
Alcinous' Watchdogs , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 28:3 (1987:Autumn) p.257
CHRISTOPHER A. FARAONE 265
Hellenistic mythographer attributes this same practice to the eastern
sorceress Medea, who secretly builds a hollow eidolon of Artemis/He
cate and fills it with "every kind of pharmaka." In an elaborate ruse
she convinces the Iolcans that the statue thus animated will serve as a
talisman for the health and prosperity of their royal family and city.21
The locations of Hephaestus' talismans may also suggest some eastern
influence. The Phaeacian island of Scheria is a utopian Greek polis
impossible to place on a map,22 but the other mythological talismans
have been specifically situated on Lesbos and Crete, locations with
easy access to the Hittites in Anatolia and the Mediterranean trading
ports in north-western Syria. 23 This is true of two other animated
phylacteries: the Palladium, which originated in either Samothrace or
Troy,24 and the apotropaic brazen bulls on Mt Atabyrius that bel
lowed loudly to warn the Rhodians of the approach of enemies.25
21 Dionysius Scytobrachion FGrHist 32F14 {=Diod. 4.510 has been re-edited by J.
F. Rusten, Dionysius Scytobrachion (=Papyrologica Coloniensia 10 [1982]), as his
fr.36. Hyg. Fab. 24 tells a similar story but makes no mention of the statue.
22 Despite energetic debate in the first half of this century, all attempts at locating
the 'historical' Scheria have been unsuccessful. For the traditional view that Corcyra
is the home of the Phaeacians see V. Berard, Les Pheniciens et I'Odyssee I (Paris
1902) 574-76. For a detailed review of the arguments for Crete (W. Leaf/K. T. Frost),
Tunisia (A. Hermann), and Tartessus beyond the Straits of Gibraltar (R. Henning/E.
Bjorkman) see A. D. Frazer, "Scheria and the Phaeacians," TAPA 60 (1929) 155-78,
who adds his own choice, Cyprus. It is best to abandon the search for a particular
locale and accept the view of C. Segal, "The Phaeacians and the Return of Odysseus,"
Arion 1 (1962) 17-64, who points out that the land of the Phaeacians has remained
what the poet probably always meant it to be, a fairy tale utopia at the edge (both
figuratively and geographically) of the known world. It is interesting to note that on
account of the description of the palace fa9ade and its canine statues some scholars
suggested that the poet's vision of Scheria was inspired by contact with Near Eastern
architecture. The arguments are summarized in H. L. Lorimer, Homer and the
Monuments (London 1950) 97, 429, who tentatively suggests the fourteenth century
B.C. temple of Amenophis III at Egyptian Thebes (with its metal-plated walls and
doors, and an avenue of ram statues before it) as a distant forbear of Alcinous'
palace. T. B. L. Webster, From Mycenae to Homer (London 1958) 32, thought that
the description of Alcinous' dogs was reminiscent of the Hittite lions before the royal
palace at Boghazkoy.
23 W. Burkert, Die orientalisierende Epoche in der griechischen Religion und
Literature (=SBHeid [1984] 1-36), gives the best synthesis of recent work on the
commercial and cultural contacts between the Greeks and both the Hittites and the
Assyrians.
24 For the many and sometimes conflicting testimonia to the origins of the Pal
ladium see F. Chavannes, De Palladii raptu (diss.Berlin 1891) 27-29, 74-76. See
supra n.16 for the reports that it was animated. W. Burkert, "Reiiep-Figuren, Apollon
von Amyklai und die 'Erfindung' des Opfers aufCypem," GrazBeitr 4 (1975) 51-79,
discusses the Near Eastern prototypes for the early Greek manifestations of male and
female 'armed deities' such as the Palladium.
25 Timaeus FGrHist 566F39. Cj D. Morelli, I culti in Rodi (=Studi classici e
orientali 8 [1959]) 48f. These bulls are probably the model for the bronze bull erected
near the temple of Zeus Atabyrius on the acropolis of Acragas, a Rhodian colony; in
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
Alcinous' Watchdogs , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 28:3 (1987:Autumn) p.257
266 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
Actual statues, similar to the animal-shaped talismans built by He
phaestus, seem to have been in regular use in ninth- and eighth
century Anatolia and North Syria, where a great abundance of archae
ological and literary evidence testifies to a relative explosion in the
popularity of rituals aimed at the protection of thresholds and door
ways from daemonic influences and other ills.26 Although there are
much earlier, isolated Hittite and Assyrian examples of these 'portal'
or 'guardian' figures, it is at the palace of the Assyrian king Assur
nasirpal II (883-859) in Nimrod that we find the first fully-developed
example of the use of colossal stone figures in complicated groups at
entrances; fantastic winged creatures, human-headed bulls, lions,
mermen, 'scorpion-men', sphinxes, griffins, 'griffin daemons', and
many other grotesque shapes crowd the thresholds of palaces and
temples in increasing numbers throughout the next two centuries and
represent a strange flowering of traditional Mesopotamian, Hittite,
and local North Syrian traditionsY The building inscriptions of the
Neo-Assyrian kings suggest, moreover, that the large number of ex
tant stone statues was equaled if not exceeded by those rendered (like
Alcinous' dogs) in bronze, silver, and other precious metals. 28
The function of these 'portal' or 'guardian' figures was clearly
apotropaic. 29 The royal building inscriptions describe their power in a
variety of ways. King Esarhaddon (680-669)30 refers simply to a
statue's "form" as the operative force in the animals deployed, like
Alcinous' dogs, on either side of the door: "Protecting colossoi of
stone, which by virtue of their form ward off evil, guarding the
footfall, protecting the path of the king, their maker, I put them right
later times this bull was attached to the stories about the notorious tyrant Phalaris
and transformed into a macabre torture device (see T. J. Dunbabin, The Western
Greeks [Oxford 1948] 320 n.7).
26 Reiner (supra n.20) 93-96 and D. Kolbe, Die religios-mythologischen Charakters
in neu-assyrischen Paltisten (Frankfurt/Main 1981).
27 H. Frankfort, The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient 4 (New York 1970)
279-322; T. A. Madhloum, The Chronology of Neo-Assyrian Art (London 1970) 94-
117.
28 D. D. LUCKENBILL, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (Chicago 1927
[hereafter 'Luckenbill')), includes the following guardian statues made of metal:
bronze: nos. 367 (8 lions), 391 (12 lions, 12 bulls, 22 cows), 392 (colossoi), 431
("female protective deities"); copper: nos. 454 (fishmen and suhur-fish), 761 d (2 wild
oxen, 2 suhur-fish); silver: no. 915 (2 wild oxen, 2 lahme); silver and copper: no. 367
(4 mountain sheep); silver and bronze: 761 b (colossal lions, Anzu-bird creatures and
lahme); gold: 711 ("creatures of the deep").
29 J. E. Reade, "Assyrian Architectural Decoration: Techniques and Subject Mat
ter," BaghMitt 10 (1979) 17ff; Kolbe (supra n.26).
30 For the orthography of Assyrian proper names and for the regnal years I follow J.
A. Brinkman in A. L. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia: A Portrait of a Dead Civi
liza.tion 2 (Chicago 1977) 335-48.
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
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CHRISTOPHER A. FARAONE 267
and left of the (palace's) threshold" (Luckenbill nos. 693, 700). When
his father Sennacherib (688-681) boasts that he had "protecting co
lossoi" carved from a precious stone normally used only for making
neck amulets, one suspects that the medium could also be an impor
tant factorY Assurbanipal (668-627) credits his theriomorphic guar
dians with the power of doing physical harm to his enemies,32 while
Nergalsarosser (559-656) is more ambiguous when he boasts of set
ting up "eight talismanic figures of solid bronze," which were to "keep
all wicked and antagonistic people at a distance by fear of death. "33
Both in the myths about Hephaestus discussed above and in the
archaeological record it is the less fantastic animal shapes that seem to
have had most appeal for the Greeks. In the archaic period, for
example, we find monumental guardian lions in Greece and Etruria
for the first time. 34 Although the original settings for the archaic
Greek lions are generally problematic,35 the row of lions at the Letoon
on Delos, as well as several extant pairs of 'identical twin' lions, seems
to suggest that they were often used in symmetrical architectural
groupings at points of entrance. 36 The many stone lions discovered at
Sardis are probably to be connected in some way with Herodotus'
story (1.85) about the lion cub carried along the circuit of the de fen-
31 No. 430. The inscription describes the amulets in detail as "amulets for com
manding favor, for bringing on rain and for keeping disease from approaching a
man."
32 Nos. 886 ("silver wild-oxen who gore my enemies") and 915 ("two wild-oxen of
silver, to knock down my foes and trample my enemies").
33 F. Lenormant, Chaldaean Magic: its Origins and Development (London 1878) 47.
Unfortunately the size and shape of these talismans are not mentioned.
34 For discussion of the popularity of the lion in Greece from the seventh century to
the end of the classical period see O. Broneer, The Lion Monument at Amphipolis
(Cambridge 1941) 42-47, and C. C. Vermeule/P. von Kersberg, "Appendix: Lions,
Attic and related," AlA 72 (1968) 99-101. A. Wilhelm, "Fiinf Epigramme aus Lin
dos," SymbOslo 26 (1948) 78f, discusses the genre of tombstone epigrams in which a
stone lion perching atop the monument speaks or is alluded to as the guardian of the
grave, e.g. Simon. 141 (Diehl)=83 (Page, PMG) and IG XII.2 285.
35 Probably because they were readily reusable; more often than not they seem to
have been moved from their original setting. See e.g. T. L. Shear, "The Lion Group at
Sardis," ArtB 13 (1931) 127-37, for an eclectic grouping of an undatable eagle statue
and two lions (dated on stylistic grounds to the archaic period) arranged on a mound
containing fourth-century B.C. debris. A similar problem occurs with the Near Eastern
lions; see Frankfort (supra n.27) 281 f for the lions at Alalakh and Malatya, which are
older than the gates they guard, and T. S. Kawani, "Greek Art and Persian Taste:
Some Animal Sculptures at Persepolis," AJA 90 (1986) 260, for the difficulty of
discovering the original settings and dates for the pairs of dogs, wild goats, and bulls
found at Persepolis.
36 B. S. Ridgway, The Archaic Style in Greek Sculpture (Princeton 1977) 153-55,
mentions two pairs from Delos, one from Didyma, and one from Miletus. The last
mentioned were discovered in situ standing guard on either side of the entrance to a
tomb. G. M. A. Hanfman and N. H. Ramage, Sculpture from Sardis: the Finds
through 1975 (Cambridge [Mass.] 1978) 21, suggest that a colossal lion (no. 31) found
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
Alcinous' Watchdogs , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 28:3 (1987:Autumn) p.257
268 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
sive walls of that city as part of a ritual to ensure its protection.37 The
iconography and placement of these Greek, Etruscan, and Sardian
lions can in most cases be traced to the guardian lions that line the
gateways of Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Hittite cities and palaces.38
Monumental stone dogs begin to appear in Egypt in the eighth
century B.c.39 and in Persia in the mid-sixth century.40 Pairs ofmonu-
along the main avenue of Sardis was one of a pair of lions (nos. 32 and 33 are
fragments of a second statue, a mirror image of the first) that guarded a city gate. W.
L. Brown, The Etruscan Lion (Oxford 1960) 66-72, stresses that most of the stone
Etruscan lions from Yulci (which imitate East Greek lions stylistically) were found in
pairs guarding the entrances of tombs, and it would not be imprudent to suggest that
the Yulcians imitated the placement of the Greek lions as well as their iconography.
The heraldic lions over the Lion Gate at Mycenae come from a different Near
Eastern iconographical tradition and need not be discussed here, although they too
most likely served an apotropaic function: see E. T. Yermeule, Gotterkult (=ArchHom
III.5 [Gottingen 1974]) 50.
37 Hanfman/Ramage (supra n.36) rightly disagree with Shear's hypothesis (supra
n.35) that the lion became the heraldic image for the Lydian royal house because of
its mythological connection with Heracles, who wore a lion skin. They suggest that
the lion-as-guardian comes from a much deeper stratum of religious thought, perhaps
one that considered lions as the attendants of Cybele. They also believe that the lion
in Herodotus' story may have been a statue and mention (unfortunately without
citing the source) the existence of Hittite rituals for the circumambulation of
prophylactic statues. G. Bunnens, "Les presages orientaux et la prise de Sardes,"
Hommages a Marcel Renard II (=CollLatomus 102 [Brussels 1968]) 130-34, dis
cusses the story in light of a Babylonian omen text and a remarkably similar passage
in Cicero's De divinatione (1.53); he suggests a strong Babylonian influence here. Cf
Paus. 9.22.1 for the story of Hermes averting plague from Tanagra by carrying a ram
around the city walls.
38 E. Akurgal, The Art of Greece: its Origin in the Mediterranean and the Near East
(New York 1966) 60-63, 105-08. Portal or guardian lions were popular in early
Mesopotamian art and than again in the very late periods. Here too it is the products
of the late Hittite/late Assyrian/North Syrian period (roughly tenth through sixth cen
turies-scholars agree on the time-frame; the debate is over how to characterize the
period in ethnic terms) that interest us most; the Lion Gate at Malatya and numerous
examples at Zinjirli date to the tenth and ninth centuries, while eighth-century lions
appear quite frequently again at Zinjirli, as well as Tell Halaf, Sajegozi.i, Tell Tayanet,
Til Barsip, and Marash. For discussion see L. Delaporte, Malatya: la porte des lions
(Paris 1940); Madhloum (supra n.27) 100f. For the Near Eastern prototypes of the
Greek lions see Brown (supra n.36) 66-72, who argues an ultimate Egyptian ancestor
for the East Greek type found at Smyrna and Miletus, which then becomes the model
for the stone lions of Yulci; cf H. Gabelman, Studien zum fruhgriechischen Lowenbild
(Berlin 1965) 11-61, who gives a detailed study of the pervasive influences of late
Babylonian and late Hittite art on the representations of lions in archaic Greece,
excepting those from Miletus. Hanfman/Ramage (supra n.36) 65f no. 26 argue that
the earliest completely preserved lion statue at Sardis was based on a late Hittite
model.
39 H. G. Fischer in Lexikon der Agypto[ogie3, edd. W. Heick/E. Otto (Wiesbaden
1980) 79f s. v. "Hund." The great majority of the surviving examples, however, belong
to the Ptolemaic or Roman period.
40 Kawani (supra n.35) discusses the pairs of dogs, bulls, and wild goats found at
entrances and stairways in the royal compound at Persepolis.
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CHRISTOPHER A. FARAONE 269
mental dog statues are attested in archaic Greece in the late sixth
century, when they appear to have been stationed as guardians of
public places41 and tombs.42 Although there are no surviving exam
ples of monumental dog figures in Mesopotamia, literary evidence
points to their use in pairs at the threshold during the Neo-Assyrian
period, along with the other figures mentioned above. A building
inscription ofSennacherib (688-681) describes a temple entrance that
includes guardian dog figures, probably of life- or monumental size.43
There is, moreover, abundant testimony to the use of smaller statu
ettes of dogs in special rituals to protect the doors and gateways in the
Near East. A Hittite tablet speaks of the ritual of placing a figurine of a
dog on the royal threshold at night to drive away the nocturnal
daemons: 44 "they make a little dog of tallow and place it on the
threshold of the house and say 'You are the little dog of the table of
the royal pair. Just as by day you do not allow other men into the
courtyard, so too do not let in the Evil Thing during the night.'"
The Assyrian practice seems to have involved pairs of dogs, which
were buried beneath the threshold on either side of the door. Nebu
chadnezzar (604-562) is said to have buried two golden, two silver,
and two bronze dogs at the entrance to a temple of the goddess Gula.45
41 See H. Payne/G. M. Young, Archaic Marble Sculptures from the Acropolis
(London 1936) 51, for a pair of fragmentary stone dogs found on the Athenian
acropolis; they are life-size and date to the late sixth century. Cf Ridgway (supra
n.36) 142.
42 For the popularity of dogs in archaic Greek funerary sculpture see M. Collignon,
"Un monument funeraire de Pergame," RA 2 (1904) 48-51; P. Ohly, "Kerameikos
Grabung: Tatigkeitsbericht 1956-61," AA (1965) 322-27; C. C. Vermeule, "The Basil
Dog: A Vindication," AlA 72 (1968) 95-99. For a more general discussion see D.
Kurtz and J. Boardman, Greek Burial Customs (Ithaca 1971) 111, 135f.
43 Keilschrifitexte aus Assur historischen Inhalts, ed. L. Messerschmidt et al., II
(Leipzig 1922) no. 124=Luckenbill no. 454: "(To) the rooms right and left of the gate,
fierce dogs and scorpion-men supported the entrances." The pairing of the dogs with
"scorpion-men," which are extant in monumental form, suggests that the dogs were
also rather large. For a full discussion and reconstruction of this entranceway see H.
D. GaIter, "Die Bautatigkeit Sanheribs am Assurtempel," Orientalia 53 (1984) 433-
41.
44 Ritual of Huwarli (=Keilschrifitexte aus Boghazkoi IV [Leipzig 1923] no. 2=Cata
logue des textes hittites, ed. E. Laroche [Paris 1971] 398) I 23-26. For this translation
and brief discussion see O. R. Gurney, The Hittites 2 (Harmondsworth 1954) 163. H.
Kronasser, "Das hethitische Ritual KBo iv 2," Die Sprache 8 (1962) 89-107, provides
the most recent text and commentary.
45 S. Langdon, Neubabylonische Konigsinschrifien (= Vorderasiatische Bibliothek 4
[Leipzig 1912]) 164f no. 19 col. 6.20-24. Six small bronze dog statuettes were found
at Nineveh in the mid-nineteenth century, but their exact provenance is lost to us. A
small bronze dog was found under the floor of room 7 of the temple of Ningal. See E.
D. Van Buren, Foundation Figures and Offerings (Berlin 1931) 56f.
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270 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
A section of an elaborate 'Ersatzkonig' ritual prescribes the placement
of apotropaic figurines in and around the palace, beginning with two
dogs:46
Fashion two howling hounds out of tamarisk wood holding a cres
cent moon in their paws. On their left flank write the following:
"Get out, evil spirits! Come in, good spirits of the palace!" Inscribe
them like this and bury them at the door to the palace.
For many years five roughly-modeled terracotta dogs in the British
Museum (BM 30,001-5) were mistakenly thought to be models of the
hunting dogs of Assurbanipal (668-627), in whose ruined palace they
were discovered; each bore inscriptions that seemed to record their
individual names. The subsequent discovery of a clay tablet with a
long series of priestly recipes set the record straight; it described the
manufacture and deployment of a large number of apotropaic statu
ettes, including a set of dogs:47
17. [Figure] of a dog which is covered in gypsum, "Don't take counsel, open
your mouth." The name of the second, "Don't take counsel, bite."
18. [Figure] of a black dog, "Quick of his breath." The name of the second is
"Strong of his bark."
19. [Figure of a] red [dog], "Driver away of the asakku daemon." The name of
the second, "Conqueror of the unfriendly."
20. [Figure of a] green [dog], "Overthrower of the enemy's breast." The name
of the second, "Biter of his foe."
21. [Figure of a] spotted [dog], "Introducer of the good ones." The name of
the second dog, "Expeller of the wicked ones."
22. Bury [figures] of ten clay dogs in the kamu gate. Recite before them the
incantation "White dogs."
All five of the extant terracotta dogs in London were originally
painted in different colors and inscribed with names that match the
descriptions on this tablet. 48 A recent review of the archaeological
46 I translate the German version of D. Rittig, Assyrisch-babylonische Kleinplastik
magischer Bedeutung (Munich 1977) 174-79.
47 Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiOsen Inhalts, ed. E. Ebeling (Leipzig 1915 [KAR))
298 Reverse 17-22. For this translation see S. Smith in C. L. Wooley, "Babylonian
Prophylactic Figures," JRAS 1926, 700. O. R. Gurney, "Babylonian Prophylactic
Figures and their Rituals," AnnLiv 22 (1935) 31-96, reprints Smith's translation
together with two additional texts. For the most recent translation see Rittig (supra
n.46) 163-70, esp.168. F. A. M. Wiggermann's Babylonian Prophylactic Figures: the
Ritual Texts (Amsterdam 1986), reportedly containing new texts and translations of
this and related texts, was unavailable to me.
48 B. Meissner, "Magische Hunde," ZDMG 73 (1919) 176, first suggested that these
dogs had some magical use as talismans; for his reaction to the discovery of KAR 298,
see "Apotropalsche Hunde," OLZ 25 (1922) 202. C. J. Gadd, "Forms and Colours,"
RAssyr 19 (1922) 158f, discusses the colors of the dogs and points out that two of
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CHRISTOPHER A. FARAONE 271
reports indicates that Assurbanipal's putative pets were discovered in
a rectangular cavity at the base of a bas-relief standing in the entrance
to the west wing of the palace, and suggests that there was un
doubtedlya matching cache of five dogs, now lost, secreted in the wall
directly across the way.49 Three clay dogs (dated by archaeological
context to the sixth century), which were also painted and inscribed
according to the instructions quoted above, have been found in a
room ofthe library at Kish. 50
These buried figurines fashioned and deployed by specially trained
priests serve the same purpose as the larger monumental portal
statues discussed aboveY This is made clear by occasional similari
ties in the inscriptions they bear. The first of a pair of monumental
stone lions, for example, that guarded the palace of an Assyrian
governor (770-760) at Til Barsnip on the upper Euphrates bears the
inscription: "The impetuous storm, irresistible in attack, crushing
rebels, procuring that which satisfies the heart"; and the second: "He
who pounces on rebellion, scours the enemy, drives out evil and lets
the good in." These elaborate names are similar to those given to the
buried canine statuettes, especially the terms that refer to the general
magical function of barring the approach of evil and encouraging that
of good. 52 Even more revealing is the large relief of a lion-centaur on
an entranceway to Assurbanipal's North Palace that bears an inscrip
tion identical to that prescribed for a miniature talisman (also in the
them (BM 30,00 I and 30,004) closely resemble two out of three dogs depicted on a
Mycenaean wall painting in the 'Later Palace' at Tiryns. Meissner (ZDMG 179-81)
adduces two other texts that preserve rituals involving the manufacture of a dog
statuette, one for healing a sick man by driving out the daemon causing the disease
(KAR 26 Rev. 9-12), and another to avert an evil omen occasioned by contact with a
real dog (KAR 64.14-23), often the source of ritual pollution.
49 A. Green, BaghMitt 17 (1986) 202 nos. 95f.
50 S. Langdon, Excavations at Kish I (Paris 1924) 91. They are now in the
Ashmolean Museum (inv. nos. Kish 1924.301-03). See Van Buren (supra n.45) for
photographs of one of Assurbanipal's dogs (fig. 36) and all three from Kish (fig. 40).
Rittig (supra n.46: 116-21) discusses a number of other contemporary seventh
century dogs (both bronze and clay) that have come to light in recent years at Nippur,
Assur, and elsewhere. Three of her bronze examples (nos. 16.126-28) are from
Nimrud (Kalhu) and bear the inscription "Don't take counsel, bite," identical to line
17 of KAR 298 Rev., quoted above.
51 See also Kolbe (supra n.26) and Rittig (supra n.46) 14.
52 For this translation and discussion see Frankfort (supra n.27) 300. The twofold
function of barring the approach of evil and encouraging that of good is discussed in
greater detail below; cf also the inscription of Assurbanipal (Luckenbill no. 886):
"Two lahme ... who guard my royal step (and) who let in the products of the
mountains and the seas, I set up in my gate."
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272 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
shape of a lion-centaur) intended for burial in the foundation of a
building. 53
These Near Eastern guardian figures (both openly displayed at the
threshold or buried beneath it) are a complicated cultural phenom
enon and therefore raise some difficulties when we try to compare
them to early Greek beliefs and practices. 54 The lamassu and the
shedu (two different types of winged human-headed figures) are the
best documented and give a good idea of the range of beliefs con
nected with the whole group of guardian figures. They seem to have
been daemons originally, a small segment of that legion of minor
deities which informs so much of Near Eastern culture in the later
periods. From the start they were regarded as temple servants to the
major gods and goddesses, who employed them as their escorts or
intermediaries in their dealings with humans-figures perhaps mod
eled on the viziers in Near Eastern royal courts. It is this role as
intercessors that increased their importance to humankind, and it
may provide a link to their subsequent function at the doors of
temples where, standing on either side of the threshold, they were
thought to expedite the entrance of some petitioners and hinder the
transit of others. It seems, moreover, that each god or goddess had his
or her own specific set of such guardians, and that when the habit of
erecting portal figures was extended into the secular field, the lamassu
and schedu at the threshold of the palace evolved still further into the
53 C. J. Gadd in R. D. Barnett, Sculptures from the North Palace of Assurbanipal
(London 1976) 40, discusses the inscription in his commentary to PI. XX, and
translates: "You shall bar out the supporter of the evil head," the latter part ap
parently a designation for an evil daemon. This inscription is identical to that
prescribed at line 15 of KAR 298 Rev. (two lines above the recipe for the apotropaic
dogs quoted above) for a small unbaked clay statuette of a lion-centaur. E. Klengel
Brandt, "Apotropaische Tonfiguren aus Assur," FuB \0 (1968) 16, discusses an
example of precisely this type of inscribed statuette which was discovered at Assur
(=Rittig [supra n.46] no. 14.1.1). I should like to thank Dr Anthony Green for these
references. Recent scholarship provides additional parallels between the colossal
figures and their buried miniature counterparts: T. S. Kawani, "The Date of the Fish
Garbed Men from Assur," FuB 16 (1974) 9-13; R. E. Ellis, '''Lion-Men' in Assyria,"
in M. Ellis, ed., Essays on the Ancient Near East in Memory of Jacob Joel Finkelstein
(=Mem.Conn.Ac.Arts and Sciences 19 [Hamden 1977]) 67-78; A. Green, "Neo
Assyrian Apotropaic Figures: Figurines, Rituals and Monumental Art," Iraq 45
(1983) 87-96, and "A Note on the 'Scorpion-Man' and the Pazuzu," Iraq 47 (1985)
75-82.
54 For most of what follows, I am indebted to W. von Soden, "Die Schutzgenien
Lamassu und Schedu in der babylonisch-assyrischen Literatur," BaghMitt 3 (1958)
148-56, and D. Foxvog, W. Heimpel, and A. D. Kilmer in Reallexikon der Assyriola
gie 6 (Berlin 1980-83) 447-53 S.v. "Lamma/Lamassu." See also Madhloum 94f and
Frankfort 146-48 (both supra n.27), who discuss a relief at the palace at Khorsabad
depicting the transportation of lumber (destined for the new palace) across the sea;
amidst the ships and the waves, the figure of a lamassu bull appears overseeing and
protecting the operation.
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CHRISTOPHER A. FARAONE 273
personal 'guardian angels' of the king who lived there. 55 Although
their function in the later, Neo-Assyrian period becomes primarily an
apotropaic one, the wording of the building inscriptions and the re
lated incantations reveals some traces of their earlier functions, for
they were thought to ward off evil and encourage good luck to enter.
Such is the rich layering of meanings that confronts us when we
attempt to interpret the colossallamassu and shedu figures that tower
over the entranceways of palaces and temples in the later periods.
Esarhaddon (680-669 B.C.), for example, alludes to the "guardian an
gel" aspect of the figures he erected before his palace at Ninevah: "In
the palace may the good shedu and the good lamassu, who guard my
footsteps and gladden my liver, ever be mighty and never depart from
its sides." Modern readers looking for logical consistency here and
elsewhere in these texts might be struck by the apparent contradiction
that these statues are to guard the person ("footsteps") of the king,
while simultaneously being fixed as a stone image at the palace door.
This ambiguity is inherent in all Mesopotamian religious thought
(and that of many other cultures as well) and stems from the insepar
ably close relationship between a deity and its statue. 56 In the case of
the guardian statues (both large and small) there is sufficient evidence
for their divinity. One text (UrExT 6) refers to some colossal bulls as
"on the right and left ... the gods guarding the gate," and in two
different building inscriptions Sennacherib (688-681) refers to the
di vine nature of the portal statues he has erectedY A few texts
explicitly state that sacrifices and other cult practices are accorded the
monumental figures at the threshold, and many of the miniature
figures were found in situ buried in small brick boxes that also con
tained miniature plates and other appurtenances of cult offerings. 58 In
both miniature and colossal form these guardians appear to be deities
(albeit minor ones) who receive ritual attention and offerings compar-
55 Oppenheim (supra n.30: 198-206) has pressed this still further and suggested that
these guardian angels become a sort of external soul of the king.
56 Oppenheim's chapter "On the care and feeding of the gods," (supra n.30: 183-98)
remains the classic treatment for Mesopotamia. For similar popular Greek beliefs see
Clerc (supra n.3) and R. L. Gordon, "The Real and the Imaginary: Production and
Religion in the Graeco-Roman World," ArtH 2 (1979) 5-34.
57 He mentions four silver and copper mountain sheep as "protecting deities"
(Luckenbill no. 367) and closes another building inscription with the wish, "May the
bull colossos, guardian of life, the god who keeps (things) safe by day and night, not
leave its [sc. the palace's] side" (no. 433).
58 Lenormant (supra n.33: 46-50) translates texts from Khorsabad (Rawlinson,
WAI 4.2.1 and 4.17) that refer to guardian gods who must be fed and tended. Cf also
Van Buren (supra n.45) nos. 980 and 984. Woolley (supra n.47) 692 describes the
figures discovered in clay boxes at Ur: "In each box thert were found the remains of
foodstuffs such as grains and the bones of pigeons and other small birds." See M. E.
L. Mallowan, "The Excavations at Nimrud (Kahlu) 1953," Iraq 16 (1954) 85ff, and
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274 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
able, on a much smaller scale, to those given to the more important
cult statues of the major deities.
The rather wide spectrum of functions associated with these Near
Eastern talismans, ranging from simple apotropaic magic to the sym
bolic projection of the king's 'luck' into the community in the form of
his 'guardian angel', is impossible to separate into neat categorical
bands of 'magic', 'religion', and 'politics'. Taken together, however, as
a complex system of beliefs it can provide some interesting parallels
to the early Greek talismans described above. Hephaestus' theriomor
phic figures were fashioned of precious metals and either buried near
a boundary or openly dislayed at the threshold. Alcinous' dogs, more
over, were believed to be living deities capable of guarding a specific
place. Although the very few extant Assyrian and Hittite ritual texts
that deal with apotropaic figurines make no mention of the popular
'Chaldean' procedure (used by Hephaestus on the Lesbian lion) of
putting pharmaka inside statues, the widely attested practice of in
scribing powerful magical names or phrases on the sides of Assyrian
talismanic figures finds a parallel in the testimony of the Sibylline
oracle (quoted above) that the Lesbian lion also held inscriptions of
an apotropaic nature ("for the protection of the island"). Some of the
Greek myths involving talismanic statues reveal layers of belief com
parable to their Near Eastern counterparts. The myth of Talos (upon
which both Simonides and Sophocles drew) depicts a completely
ambulatory bronze man who could be sent out against the king's
enemies. This terrifying aspect of the guardian of the king is attested
in the earliest Egyptian depictions of the sphinx, who is seen trampl
ing the king's enemies. 59 The lamassu and several other Babylonian
guardian figures, as well as the Hebrew teraphim, were also able to
leave their defensive posts and to perform hostile acts; when seen
from the victim's point of view this leads in many cases to a popular
negative perception of these guardians as purely evil daemons.6o This
might help explain why Talos (at least in the Greek paroemiographi-
Klengel-Brandt (supra n.S3) 19ff, for descriptions of the two other large caches of
talismans found in situ in brick boxes.
59 H. Frankfort, "Notes on the Cretan Griffin," BSA 37 (1936/7) 106-22 figs. I1f. A.
Dessenne, "La sphinx, d'apres l'iconographie jusqu'a l'archalsme grec," in Elements
orientaux dans la religion grecque ancienne (=Trav.Centre d'N.sup. d'hist.re!. Stras
bourg [Paris 1960]) 159, shows how this early aspect of the sphinx is picked up and
developed by the Phoenicians.
60 Foxvog et at. and von Soden (both supra n.S4) discuss the negative aspects of the
shedu, an analysis that H. A. Hoffner, "Hittite Tarpis and Hebrew Teraphim," JNES
27 (1968) 61-68, extends to the Hittite daemon/guardian figure known as tarpish and
the Hebrew teraphim.
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CHRISTOPHER A. FARAONE 275
cal tradition) is often portrayed in an awful, nearly diabolical manner,
and why the horrible tales about the notorious bronze bull of Phalaris
can most likely be traced to a harmless apotropaic talisman modeled
on the brazen bulls that protected Rhodes, the mother city of Acra
gas.61
The data collected here raise some deeper questions about cultural
borrowing and the relations between myth and ritual. Recent scholar
ship has demonstrated that Bronze Age Greeks held many aspects of
their cultural and religious life in common with their Near Eastern
neighbors, and that the Mediterranean provided such easy access for
continual contact from that period onwards that one might speak of a
cultural substratum shared by all eastern Mediterranean civiliza
tions.62 Accordingly one might suggest that the Greek and Near
Eastern talismanic statues under discussion spring independently
from the same roots. On the other hand, the nearly overwhelming
influence of oriental art on the graphic and plastic arts of eighth
century Greece points to a special period of heavy cultural borrowing,
and there is mounting evidence that a similar trend occurred in the
literary and hieratic arts.63 Archaeological and linguistic evidence has
shown, for example, that the use of incense, purificatory rituals, hepa
toscopy, and foundation deposits in temples-all well-documented
Near Eastern practices-begin to appear in Greece and Etruria in the
eighth and seventh centuries.64 The archaic date of the Rhodian vase
painting depicting the golden dog of Zeus and the similar dates for the
extant stone lions and dogs in Greece and Etruria suggest that these
Greek talismans were also copies from Near Eastern models during
the so-called 'renaissance' of the eighth century.
61 Both talismans are connected with tales of torture and human sacrifice. For this
negative side of Talos see supra n.13 for the primary sources and discussion. For the
identification of the bull of Phalaris as a prophylactic statue see Dunbabin (supra
n.25), who credits the later myths about the bull to anti-tyrannical sentiment in Sicily
after the downfall of the tyrants.
62 For the most recent discussion and bibliography see B. Dietrich, The Origins of
Greek Religion (Berlin 1974) and Tradition in Greek Religion (Berlin 1986).
63 For the continuing discussion of the effect of the orientalizing period on the
Hesiodic and Homeric poems and early Greek religion and literature in general see:
Webster (supra n.22) 64-90; R. D. Barnett, "Some Contacts between Greek and
Oriental Religions," in Elements orientaux (supra n.59) 143-55; M. L. West, ed.,
Hesiod: Theogony (Oxford 1966) 18-21; G. K. Gresseth, "The Gilgamesh Epic and
Homer," CJ 70 (1975) 1-18; W. Burkert, "Oriental Myth and Literature in the Iliad,"
in R. Hagg, ed., The Greek Renaissance of the Eighth Century B.C. (=SkrAthen 30
[1983]) 51-56, and supra n.23.
64 Bttrkert (supra n.23) 43-80.
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276 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
There are, however, arguments against any absolute claim that
Near Eastern talismans were historically prior to and therefore the
prototypes for the Greek statues surveyed above. To begin with, the
dating of the popularity of the North Assyrian statues (ninth and
eighth centuries) is at best only roughly contemporaneous with the
formation of the Homeric epos in which we find the oldest testimony
to the Greek practice, Alcinous' dogs. The lines of influence and
transmission, moreover, of talismanic figures even from one Near
Eastern country to the next are often confused and contaminated;
similar figures (or at least literary testimonia to them) seem to appear
simultaneously at different points in the eastern Mediterranean. Lin
guistic evidence links the fantastic Cherubim (best known for their
role in protecting the Garden of Eden)65 and the strange idols known
in biblical texts as teraphim 66 with the Assyrian guardian figures
discussed above, suggesting that the belief in apotropaic statues was
probably a widespread phenomenon throughout Palestine, Syria, and
Anatolia. Unfortunately the actual statues have rarely survived out
side Syria and Mesopotamia. Further, in some cases talismanic figures
like the sphinx, the griffin, and the dog tum up in Minoan and My
cenaean iconography and can be traced back to even more ancient
Egyptian prototypes that have in turn been altered at some inter
vening period by Phoenician, North Syrian, or perhaps even Aegean
craftsmen.67 Although the reappearance of these figures in Greek
monumental art (where they are placed as guardian figures of temples,
palaces, cult statues, tripods, shields, and tombs) can be traced on
stylistic grounds to Neo-Assyrian or Phoenician productions,68 it is
65 Gen. 3.24. The word is cognate with the Akkadian terms korabu and kurfbu,
daemonic guardians similar to the lamassu; see R. H. Pfeiffer, "Cherubim," JBL 41
(1922) 249f.
66 Gen. 31.19; I Sam. 19.13, 16; Ezek. 21.26. The word is cognate with the Hittite
tarpish, which, in tum, appears in ancient lexica as the Hittite equivalent of lamassu
and schedu. See S. Smith, "What are the Teraphim?" JTS 33 (1932) 333-36; Hoffner
(supra n.60) 61-68.
67 Frankfort (supra n.59) and J. N. Coldstream, Geometric Greece (New York 1977)
360-66, discuss the complicated relationships between the Minoan griffin and its later
manifestations in the Geometric and Archaic periods. See A. Dessenne (supra n.59)
155-61, and Vermeule (supra n.36) 49f and Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and
Poetry (Berkeley 1979) 68-70, 171-73, for similar discussions on the earliest Greek
sphinxes. B. Schweitzer, "Hunde auf dem Dach," AM 55 (1930) 107-18, discusses a
wooden box with crouching ivory dogs attached to the sides, found in Shaft Grave V
at Mycenae and probably representing a building or treasury. He rightly interprets the
dogs as apotropaic statues and compares them to contemporary representations of
Seth in the form of a jackal that guarded Egyptian mastabas from above. For parallels
between the Assyrian prophylactic dog figurines and a wall painting at Tiryns see
Gadd (supra n.48).
68 See Coldstream (supra n.67) and Roscher, Lex. 2.2 (1886-90) s. v. "Gryps" (A.
Furtwangler) and IV (1909-15) s. v. "Sphinx, der griechische" (J. Ilberg). Herodotus
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CHRISTOPHER A. FARAONE 277
not clear whether the idea itself of talismanic statues has been re-in
troduced, or only their new iconography and more grandiose scale.
There is also some limited evidence that magical rituals were being
imported in an easterly direction (by the Hittites at least) from the
nascent Greek culture in the eastern Aegean and along the Anatolian
shore.69 Of particular interest is the reference to the statues of gods
brought from Ahhijawa (a powerful Mycenaean sea power in the west)
and Lazpas (usually equated with Lesbos) to cure the fourteenth
century king Mursilis II when his own priests were unable to heal him
by their traditional purificatory rituals. 70 In short it seems more
prudent to suggest that the use of magically animated statues at the
threshold and elsewhere is a cultural phenomenon shared by all east
ern Mediterranean cultures; but that building them in monumental
size and of durable stone is a separate practice that indeed seems to
have been transmitted to Greece in the eighth century-a phenome
non dependent not on any new-found belief in prophylactic magic,
but rather on political and economic factors that would encourage
large-scale building, as well as on the acquisition of the technical skills
necessary for producing them. Indeed, the very existence in the Near
East of simple wax or clay figurines to perform an identical prophy-
gives us a tantalizing bit of information about a group of sphinxes and griffins
guarding a palace, albeit one located at the very edge of the Greek world (4.79.2): the
sixth-century Scythian king Skylas was accustomed to spend long periods in the
Greek city of Olbia on the Black Sea; once within the walls of the city and out of the
sight of his countrymen, he would change into Greek dress and indulge himself in all
the refinements of Greek culture. He also married a Greek woman and built a large
and ostentatious palace for himself, "about which stood sphinxes and griffins of white
stone" (4.79.2). It is probably safe to assume that since the house stood within the
sphere of Skylas' fantasy life as a Greek, Herodotus expects the reader to understand
it as a Greek custom, albeit performed in a far-flung locale. For still more informa
tion on archaic sphinxes and griffins see Mazon's note ad loc. (Bude).
69 O. R. Gurney, Some Aspects of Hittite Religion (Oxford 1977) 44-47, notes that
the Hittite magical texts usually give the name, profession, and nationality of the
spell's creator, and that a large proportion of these practitioners come from 'the
provinces', most notably Kizzuwadna (Cilicia) and Arzawa (probably Lycia and
Pisidia: see D. L. Page, History and the Homeric Iliad [Berkeley 1966] 8-10; A.
Goetze, Kleinasien [Munich 1957] map facing p.228, would limit Arzawa to Pisidia
alone).
70 Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazkoi V (Berlin 1921) 6=G. L. Huxley, Achaeans
and Hittites (Belfast 1960) 5 no. 10. The tablet does not refer explicitly to statues but
only to the "GottheiC of Ahhijawa and Lazpas; Page (supra n.69: 26 n.18) must be
right, however, in adducing the parallel in the account given in a Tel el-Amarna tablet
in which a statue of Ishtar is sent from Nineveh to Egypt to heal the Pharaoh. For a
similar Greek example compare the summoning of the images of the Aeacidae from
Aegina on the eve of the battle of Salamis (Hdt. 8.64.2, 83.2, 84.2; c1 5.80.2). The
great debate over the equation Ahhijawa=Achaea has swung from the extreme skep
ticism of Sommer to Page's narrower reassessment (i.e., Rhodes settled by Achaeans)
and most recently to a public call for a further reappraisal of the original hypothesis
(Achaeans both in mainland Greece and in Ionia), for which see H. J. GiiterbockiM.
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
Alcinous' Watchdogs , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 28:3 (1987:Autumn) p.257
278 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
lactic function shows quite clearly that the size and durability of the
talismans were not factors significant to their efficacy.
An obvious discontinuity between the Greek and Near Eastern
statues can perhaps be best discussed in terms of the relationship
between myth and ritual. In the Neo-Hittite and Neo-Assyrian cul
tures there were elaborate sets of rituals for protecting buildings by
means of theriomorphic talismans both large and small. There are
not, however, to my knowledge any myths or legends about the crea
tion of these statues by a magician god or about their subsequent theft
and retrieval. On the other hand, although there are indeed several
extant examples of Greek portal lions and dogs, the most eloquent
testimony to Greek talismanic statues is to be found largely in just
these sorts of legends, which refer to animals wrought by Hephaestus
and given as presents to gods and men. In most of these stories the
theft of the talisman becomes a central theme, sometimes connected
with a foundation myth. The peculiar crossover between myth and
ritual that results in the portrayal of a Greek god as the performer of
an ostensibly human ritual seems to have been a particularly Greek
phenomenon, and it is somehow linked with the popular perception
(later exploited by Hecataeus, Prodicus, and various philosophical
schools) of certain gods as 'culture heroes' or protoi heuretai who
invented many if not all human activities, including-perhaps para
doxically-various forms of ritual and cult. 71 The most notorious
example is of course the 'invention' of animal sacrifice by Prometheus
at Mecone, with Hesiod's elaborate aetiology for the various details of
the rite (Theog. 535-60). Mystery cults were also thought to be the
invention of gods or demi-gods such as Erechtheus or Orpheus. 72
A similarly divine origin is regularly attributed to traditional folk or
magical practices. Pindar portrays Asclepius as the discoverer of
magical epodai and pharmaka, as well as the more mundane art of
surgery.73 The Erinyes seem to perform a 'magical' ritual when they
J. Mellink, AJA 86 (1982) 268. It is generally agreed that Ahhijawa lies to the west of
the Hittite empire and is a great seapower. The identification of Lesbos with Lazpas,
which is mentioned only once again in the entire corpus of Hittite texts, rests solely
on the very close verbal similarity.
71 A. KJeingunther, npWTOS EVPET~S (=Philologus Suppl. 36.1 [Leipzig 1933]). For
the later philosophical tradition of Euhemerus and others see W. Spoerri, Spiithel
lenistische Berichte aber Welt, Kultur und GoUer (=Schw.Beitr.zur Altertumswiss. 9
[Basel 1959]); T. Cole, Democritus and the Sources of Greek Anthropology (=APA
Monograph 25 [1967]) 1-25, 153-63.
72 F. Graf, Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens in vorhellenistischer Zeit
(Berlin 1974) 22-40, discusses the old popular tradition of Orpheus as founder of the
Eleusinian mysteries and adduces similar myths from Samothrace and elsewhere.
73 Pyth. 3.52f. L. Edelstein, "Greek Medicine in its Relation to Religion and
Magic," in O. Temkin and C. C. Temkin, edd., Ancient Medicine: Selected Papers of
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
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CHRISTOPHER A. FARAONE 279
are depicted on the Attic stage singing their hymnos desmios (Aesch.
Eum. 306ff), a "binding spell" strikingly similar in form and intent to
judicial binding curses popular in classical Athens. It is therefore not
surprising that Aeschylus, in his story of the 'invention' of Athenian
jurisprudence, should also include a cursing procedure that often ac
companied legal proceedings.74 In that very play Apollo is said to have
purified Orestes by the blood of a piglet (283). Contemporary vase
paintings of this story (and of the myth of the similar purification of
the Proetides) have been linked to actual procedures used in Attica in
historical times,75 as well as to the Asakki marsuti ritual of Assyrian
purification priests.76
Even in his role as the creator of animated statues, Hephaestus does
not stand alone in Greek mythology: Pindar refers to singing statues
in the pediment of Apollo's brazen temple at Delphi, built by Athena
and Hephaestus; and along the streets of Rhodes there were automata
made by the aboriginal Rhodians under Athena's direction. In neither
case is it clear what purpose these statues served. 77 The Telchines of
Rhodes and the Idaean Dactyls are described as wizards who invented
statues and amulets. 78 Daedalus, another putative inventor of statues,
Ludwig Edelstein (Baltimore 1967) 226 with nn.69 and 103, wrongly interprets the
meaning of epodai here as music or melody (i.e., modulis lenibus at Gell. 4.13.2),
which he tries to connect to a theory of musical therapy allegedly invented by
Democritus or Pythagoras. The epodai are surely the same kind of magical incan
tation as that used by Autolycus to heal the wounded Odysseus (Od. 19.457f) and the
carmen prescribed by Cato (Agr. 160) as part of the treatment for a dislocated bone.
For a thorough discussion see P. Lain Entralgo, The Therapy o/the Word in Classical
Antiquity, tr. L. J. Rather and J. M. Sharp (New Haven 1970) 45-47.
74 Faraone (supra n.1 0).
75 See R. R. Dyer, "The Evidence for Apolline Purification Rituals at Delphi and
Athens," JHS 89 (1969) 38-56.
76 Burkert (supra n.23) 58f.
77 Aside from the stories about the creation of mankind from clay (which do not
concern us here), Athena is the only other Olympian deity who seems to be involved
in the creation of animated statues. Pindar (fr.52i=Pae. 8.71 f Sn.-M.=Page, GLP no.
83a) described the third temple of Apollo at Delphi, with its six golden keledones
gifted with the ability to sing; for discussion see C. M. Bowra, Pindar (Oxford 1964)
373f; despite their position on the far;ade of the temple, there is no hint of any
apotropaic power here. See Pind. 01. 7.95 and scholia for Athena's assistance in
building the Rhodian automata. She also helped Epeius build the Trojan horse, which
appears as an animated statue in Arctinus' account; see S. Timpanaro, "Una
testimonianza finora inosservata del poema ciclico ' IA.{ov 7r€pcn<; in uno scolio
Virgiliano," StUrbsER.B 31 (1957) 156-71; R. G. Austin, "Virgil and the Wooden
Horse," JRS 49 (1959) 17 n.4.
78 For the Teichines as magicians and the inventors of metal-working and statues,
see ~ ad Pind. 01. 7.95, Diod. 5.55.2=Zeno of Rhodes FGrHist 523Fl (with Jacoby's
comments). The Idaean Dactyls (including Hercules) knew how to make protective
amulets for women (Diod. 5.64.4-7). Detienne (supra n.9) points out that both
groups were originally conceived of as priests and/or devotees of a more powerful
FARAONE, CHRISTOPHER A., Hephaestus the Magician and Near Eastern Parallels for
Alcinous' Watchdogs , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 28:3 (1987:Autumn) p.257
280 HEPHAESTUS THE MAGICIAN
was also said to have built automata, but these statues were so
energetic that they had to be bound to prevent them from running
off.79 The portrayal of Hephaestus in Greek myth as a 'magician' or
'theurgist' fits squarely into this kind of myth making: he is the mytho
logical prototype of those experts of traditional lore who created ani
mated theriomorphic statues that protect buildings and islands, and
which (like the Apolline purification rituals mentioned above) have
clear parallels in Near Eastern ritua1. 80
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
July, 1987
deity (like the Curetes of Zeus), and that they took on more sinister traits in later
tradition, when they were associated with black magic.
79 Paus. 2.4.5; 1: ad Pind. 01. 7.95; PI. Meno 798, Euthphr. 158; Arist. Pol. 1253b33,
De an. 406b 18f. Here too both ancient and modern commentators wrongly ra
tionalize these accounts into praise for the 'liveliness' of a realistic statue, which is
mistakenly perceived as moving; thus Diodorus at his euhemerizing best reports
(4.76-79) that Daedalus' statues were mistaken as living beings because, unlike his
predecessors, he made statues with open eyes, striding feet, and extended hands, that
seemed to be about to walk off their pedestals. Most modern scholars (e.g. R. S.
Bluck, ed., Plato, Meno [Cambridge 1964] ad 9701 f) follow suit, ignoring the work of
Clerc and others (supra n.3).
80 I should like to thank J. Winkler, W. Burkert, M. Edwards, M. Gleason, M.
Jameson, M. Munn, D. Obbink, S. Stephens, and the anonymous referees for their
comments on earlier drafts of this paper; I should like to give special thanks to A.
Green and R. Moorey for their kindness in giving much-needed advice on matters of
Near Eastern archaeology and philology. I should jealously claim as my own, how
ever, any and all defects that may remain in spite of their advice.