This was the synoecism, the process whereby the towns of Attica were made into a
single political unit under the control of Athens. The ancient Athenians considered
the process to be the achievement of Theseus, whose feat they celebrated each year at
the Synoikia festival, but there has been extensive scholarly discussion concerning the
period to which it is attributable, with possibilities ranging from the late Bronze Age
to the early eighth century (see Parker 1996:12–17). In any case, by the time our
sources begin Athens was a centrally administered ‘‘monocentric’’ city, the main
urban sanctuary of which was the home of the principal cult of the whole polis, a
situation neatly expressed by Pausanias: ‘Both the city and the whole of the land are
alike sacred to Athena, for even those who in their parishes [‘‘demes’’] have an
established worship of other gods nevertheless hold Athena in honor’ (1.26.6
(Loeb trans.)). This made Athens unusual in the Greek world. Most cities were
‘‘bipolar,’’ with their major sanctuary located beyond the urban center. Argos’
principal cult site for example, the Argive Heraion, was situated around 8 kilometers
from the city, and the major sanctuary of Sparta, that of Apollo Hyakinthos, was at
Amyklai about 5 kilometers away. But Athena’s cult was situated at the heart of the
city. Argive Hera and Spartan Apollo both protected their cities, but Athena’s cult
had a visibility and accessibility lacking in any other major polis cult.
The synoecism determined the significance and development not only of the cult of
Athena, but of the religious system in general. This centralizing process is seen most
strikingly in the case of the Great Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis in honor of Demeter
and her daughter, Persephone or Kore. Originally an independent polis, Eleusis was
incorporated into Attica in the late seventh or early sixth century BC. Thereafter, two
Eleusinian families, the Eumolpidai and the Kerykes, who had been responsible for
the administration of the cult, retained their priestly roles, but overall control passed
to the King Archon, the official in charge of traditional cults. Moreover, from then
on, the cult’shiera(‘‘holy things’’) were housed in an urban headquarters, the
Eleusinion on the slopes of the Acropolis, and were taken to Eleusis by procession
at the time of the festival.
On one level, the Mysteries dwarfed in importance the cult of Athena Polias. Not
only was it a panhellenic cult open to any speaker of Greek, but it appears to have
addressed such universal concerns as the growth of the grain crop, and death and the
afterlife: I say ‘‘appears’’ because so secret were the rites that our knowledge of them
is frustratingly elusive (cf. Chapter 22). But far from ever challenging Athena’s pre-
eminence, the cult reinforced her place at the head of the pantheon. After the holy
objects reached Eleusis, an official returned to Athens to report their safe arrival to the
priestess of Athena. This bears out Pausanias’ comment quoted above, that however
much the demes had ‘‘an established worship of other gods,’’ they also paid homage
to the cult of the national deity.
Myth in the City: Gods, Heroes,
and the ‘‘Children of Athena’’The close association between Athens and its patron is evident in three myths that
taken together could be seen to constitute the principal ‘‘Athenian foundation
myth.’’ Not only do the stories establish Athena’s relationship with the major gods
224 Susan Deacy