though they might be tempted to push the envelope occasionally: Athena delays
dawn and extends the night so that Odysseus might tarry a while with Penelope
(Odyssey23.241–6), and after the death of Patroclus Hera ‘‘sent’’ Helios into the
ocean unwillingly, i.e. she hurried him up and shortened the day (Iliad18.240). But
when Helios discovers that Odysseus’ companions have eaten his beef, and threatens
of his own accord to shine in Hades, even Zeus must try to placate him (Odyssey
12.377–88).
Stars were also important. In the course of the night, the heavens seem to move,
new stars rising in the east, while in the west others set. It looks like a giant
hemisphere revolving, so that stars around the North Pole, for example the Great
Bear, Callisto, never rise or set, but simply go round and round a central point. And
each morning a star will rise a bit higher over the horizon, before dawn arrives, until
eventually, after many months it reaches the other side and can be seen setting.
The Greeks were especially interested in two dates in a star’s annual cycle: the first
time you saw a star set just before dawn, and its annual weeks-long holiday, its
vanishing, followed by a sudden reappearance in the east just before dawn: its
‘‘heliacal’’ rising. These dates varied, of course, depending on the landscape and
latitude: a Spartan in the deep valley of the Eurotas will have seen stars rising later
and setting earlier.
Unlike moons, the ‘‘sidereal’’ star cycle stays 99.99 percent synchronized with the
solar year. Hesiod inWorks and Daysuses the movements of stars to time the work of
the agricultural year, and the late July reappearance of Sirius before dawn was long
linked to the heat of the ‘‘dog days,’’ a time of drought and pestilence. Euripides’
Iphigenia at Aulis(1–8) begins with Agamemnon’s sighting of this star before dawn –
‘‘What is this star which makes its crossing?’’ – thereby dating the action of the play,
the sacrifice of his daughter, and the ensuing (Etesian) wind, to a particular time of
year, late July/early August. Plato’s ‘‘Athenian’’ puts astronomy on the curriculum
of his ideal city to ensure ‘‘the proper ordering of days into monthly periods, and of
months into a year, so that times [ho ̄rai], sacrifices, and feasts may each be assigned
their due position, according to nature [kata phusin]’’ (Laws809d). As in other
aspects of their culture, the rowdy throng of Greek communities kept in time with
each other by tracking universal supra-cultural facts.
Most extant star myths (‘‘asterisms’’) are first attested in a later(?) epitome of
Eratosthenes’Katasterismoi(third century BC) which has led to a popular but
implausible assumption that Greek religion ignored constellations until the early
hellenistic period; in fact, the author often cites earlier authorities (e.g. Euripides)
and the first attempt to collect asterisms, the lost HesiodicAstronomia,may have
been composed as early as ca. 600 BC. At any rate, the Greeks identified stars
with (mortal or formerly mortal) heroes and heroines from an early date, as if stars,
unlike divinities, were subject to the passage of time, even sojourning in the nether
regions of the underworld, i.e. partaking of death. Odysseus actually sees Orion on
his visit to the underworld (Odyssey11.571–4) and in winter months the very bright
constellation called Tortoise or Lyre sets and rises again in one night; hence it came to
be linked with (or informed) Orpheus’ journey into and return from the underworld,
and with Hermes, son of the Pleiad Maia, who guides the souls of the dead.
The popularity of night festivals (pannychides) and the practice of sacrificing to
heroes at night will have given plenty of opportunity for the links between heroes and
Ogden / Companion to Greek Religion 1405120541_4_013 Final Proof page 206 17.11.2006 10:11am206 James Davidson