could represent time itself. Hence when Plato imagines time in reverse he imagines
not just stars and luminaries moving backwards but men growing smoother-cheeked
and smaller day by day. In Sparta, Plutarch (Lycurgus21.2; cf. SosibiusFGrH595 fr. 5)
mentions performances of three choruses ‘‘in the festivals’’ organized ‘‘according to
the three age grades.’’ The old men (gerontes) first sang ‘‘once wewereboldneaniai,’’
then the chorus of men at their peak (akmazountes) ‘‘Weare; if you are willing, look,’’
and finallypaides,‘‘Andwewill bemightier far.’’ It seems quite likely that Plutarch is
referring to the dances called Gymnopaidiai, and it is quite possible therefore that the
middle chorus ofNeaniaiis directing the gaze of the spectators to their naked bodies
in explicit contrast with the older and younger males, their past and future bodies,
dancing and singing alongside. It is almost as if each body at any one time contains its
past and future selves; hence it seems to have been not uncommon for a mature man to
be represented as an ephebe in painting and sculpture.
There were age-grade heroes – the hero Neanias who was offered a full-grown
victim at Thorikos, the hero or god Pais at the Theban Cabeirion – and of course age
grades were important in images of gods: ‘‘They fashion Zeus as bearded, Apollo as
eternal boy, Hermes just getting his beard’’ (Lucian,On Sacrifices11). In Crete Zeus
could be shown as ephebe, the ‘‘Greatest Kouros’’ of the Hymn from Palaikastro, and
in Aigion he was worshiped as Zeus Pais. There are even some very rare and shocking
images of what seems to be a bearded Apollo. Similarly Hera could sometimes be not
matriarch but virginal girl, Parthenia. She was said to be restored to that status,
symbolically sent back in time, through taking a bath once a year at the Argive spring
Canathos (Pausanias 2.38). At Plataea she was worshiped as both ‘‘Bride to Be,’’
Nympheuomene ̄, and Teleia, ‘‘Complete’’ (Pausanias 9.2,7). At the climax of
Euripides’HeraclidaeIolaus, Heracles’ doddery old charioteer, becomes a young
man for a day, or at least he is given a ‘‘youthful’’ arm for holding the reins (857),
thanks to the intervention of Heracles and Hebe, appearing as bright lights on the
yoke of his chariot, sending youthfulness up the reins, as it were. Together with
Hebe, Heracles, and Heracles’ mother, Alcmene, Iolaus was one corner of the quartet
of powers worshiped by the youths who attended the gymnasium of Cynosarges.
Conclusion
Time is a richly and variously elaborated field in Greek religion, and it may seem
quixotic to attempt to summarize its peculiar characteristics. But if we compare it
with the time of neighboring and successor religions we notice certain emphases and
may begin to get some feeling for its distinctive shape. Most obviously there is no
single great founder, a Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, Jesus, or Zoroaster marking a
radical break with the past in historical time – though initiates into Mystery religions,
which looked back to a first teacher of holy secrets, may have felt less different in this
respect. And although a sense of the past and of origins is central and important in
Greek religion, although there is even evidence for belief in a ‘‘fall’’ from that closer
intimacy with the gods enjoyed by mortals in the Golden Age of Cronus, this ‘‘fall’’ is
narrated differently by different poets and in different places. Importantly, there is
almost no sense of a future reconciliation, let alone an Apocalypse, Last Days, Second
Coming. The present is it.
Ogden / Companion to Greek Religion 1405120541_4_013 Final Proof page 216 17.11.2006 10:11am216 James Davidson