differently configured. TheHomeric Hymn III to Apolloand theHomeric
Hymn IV to Hermesboth refer to Pieria as the place where Hermes stole
the cattle of Admetos, king of Thessalian Pherai, from Apollo.^48 The
linkage between the main focus of the two poems on the one hand (on
festival performances at Delphi, and their overall preoccupation with
locations and communities in central Greece), and cattle breeding in the
north Aegean on the other, seems tenuous, but reflects active social
networks with the communities or rulers of Pieria that are not otherwise
particularly visible in the political record of Delphi, although it is per-
fectly possible that the royal and civic representatives listed there on
inscriptions of the fourth and third centuriesbcfollowed an established
tradition, whose roots simply cannot be demonstrated.^49
Leaving aside Thessaly, and parts of central Greece (particularly the
Krisaian Plain, south of Delphi and the meadow land around Lake Kopais
between the river valleys of the Kephisos and the Asopos), the scope for
pasturing large herds is limited in the southern parts of the Greek penin-
sula; not so in the north and north-east (Figure 7.2). Cattle are still
plentiful in the well-watered valleys of the great east Balkan river courses.
Pella prided itself on its cattle herds,^50 as did many northern Aegean
communities, if we consider their coin types alone.^51 The question we
need to answer, therefore, is whether or not there was a religious regime
in the northern Aegean similar to that farther south. McInerney has
exposed the socio-economic nexus between sacred festivals and sacrifi-
cial beasts. Festivals were theraison d’êtreof sanctuaries. Sanctuary
authorities had tofind a way of providing sacrificial animals for slaughter
at festivals. At Delphi the cultivable land of the Krisaian Plain was set
aside from early in the sixth centurybcto provide pasture for sacred
herds, while on Delos and at other sites where sacred laws and decrees
have survived, land was leased so that the tenants could provide such
animals.^52 The pattern of consumption throughout the festival year was
(^48) McInerney 2010, 138 and refs n.71, 142–5; for historical pasturing of Thessalian
animals in the foothills of Olympos, albeit near the Vale of Tempe rather than Pieria, there
is an inscription from Gonnoi (Chandezon 2003, no. 17, second centurybc).
(^49) Mari 2002, 291–302, listing Macedonian representatives at Delphi.
(^50) Pella also namedBïýíïìïòorBïıíüìåØÆ(Steph. Byz. 515.9–10); cf. Ch. 5, and
nn.95, 97.
(^51) Carradice 1987, Plate I, 1–4 (Fried: octadrachms of the Bisaltai); I, 5 (octadrachm,
Getas of the Edoni); cf. Plate VIII 1–2 (Jessop Price: octadrachms of the Bisaltai); VIII, 4
(octadrachm of the Derrones). 52
McInerney 2010, 152:‘there is a close connection between sacred land and sacred
herds’; 146–72 (citing documents from Delphi, Delos, Kalaureia, Ilion, and particularly an
exceptionally informative text from the sanctuary of Artemis Elaphebolos in eastern Phokis:
IGIX 1.87.20–75, with translation p. 159 and discussion, 159–62).‘it is important to notice
288 Dining cultures