reshaped into the form that Diodorus transmits (7.12.6). He claims to be citing a
Delphic oracle, whilst supplying a text very close to the paraphrase that Plutarch
attributes to Tyrtaeus (Lycurgus6.10). We see that the two gods most anciently
attested at Sparta are Zeus and Athene (the meaning of the epithet Skyllanios and its
feminine version Skyllania remains uncertain). We also find here an indirect mention
of Apollo, sinceapellai, the festivals in honor of the god, whose name is attested at
Delphi, are referred to and these had to be organized on a regular basis (the Greek
text literally says ‘‘from season to season’’). In the archaic period these festivals could
have provided the opportunity for the convocation of the assembly of the citizens.
(The termapellais improperly applied to the assembly itself; it should rather be
referred to as theekkle ̄sia, as at Athens, and this is the term by which it is referred to in
all classical period sources; cf. Ste. Croix 1972:346–7).
The overriding importance of these three divine powers is clear from other
evidence: the only priests we know to have existed at Sparta in the classical period
are the two kings (the two royal families, those of the Agiads and the Eurypontids,
each supplied a king, concurrently). Herodotus actually tells us, ‘‘These are the
prerogatives [gerea] the Spartans concede to their kings: two priesthoods, those of
Zeus Lakedaimo ̄n [of Lacedaemon] and of Zeus Ouranios [Of heaven].. .’’ (6.56).
His phraseology leaves it uncertain whether the king of one of the two ruling families
occupied the priesthood of one of these aspects of Zeus, whilst his colleague occupied
the other one. If this was the case, then, since the Agiad family seems to have enjoyed
a certain pre-eminence in status (6.51–2), we might be tempted to infer that the
former of the priesthoods mentioned devolved to this family. But it remains possible
that the two kings exercised both priesthoods collegially. At any rate, the great
importance attributed to the king of the gods at Sparta is demonstrated both by his
appearance in the Great Rhetra and by the fact that he had the kings for his priests.
Athene shared other epithets with Zeus: they are Agoraios and Agoraia, patrons of
the agora (Pausanias 3.11.9), Xenios and Xenia, patrons of strangers (3.11.11), and
Amboulios and Amboulia, counselors (3.13.6). Zeus and Athene are also associated in
coordinated sacrifices (Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians13.2). But
Athene’s principal epithets were Poliouchos, ‘‘Holder of the city,’’ or, we might say,
‘‘Mistress of the city,’’ and Chalkioikos, ‘‘Of the bronze house,’’ because the walls of
her temple on the Spartan acropolis were decorated with illustrated bronze panels
(Pausanias 3.17.2–3; for further references, see Wide 1893:49). This temple, the work
of Gitiadas, dated from the end of the sixth century. It may well have occupied a site
formerly occupied by another religious building. (For this temple, and in particular on
its name, see Piccirilli 1984 and the evidence collected by Musti and Torelli 1991 ad
loc., 228–9. For the sanctuary’s architectural arrangement, see the brief discussion at
Stibbe 1996:24–5. For its date, see Waywell 1999:6 and the references in n. 17).
Zeus and Athene aside, another god who can be seen to have watched over the
general prosperity of Sparta was Apollo. Honor was done to this god each year in the
Hyacinthia festival (for which see Richer 2004a, 2004b), and it is likely that this was
the occasion of the annual replacement of Apollo’schito ̄n, tunic, which was woven in
the sanctuary of the Leucippids, the wives of the Dioscuri (Pausanias 3.16.1–2; cf.
also Euripides,Helen1465). Indeed, among the many other divine powers worshiped
at Sparta, the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, seem to have been the object of particular
veneration. Plutarch describes their aniconic representation: ‘‘The Spartans call
The Religious System at Sparta 239