…descending within, as if into the cave of Trophonios[1]….
(Aristophanes Nephelae, verses 506-508)

Votive relief
Hellenic National Archaeological Museum
Sculpture Collection, inv. no. Γ 3942

Provenance: Livadia, Boeotia
Dimensions: height 0.33 m., length 0.93 m.
Date: 350-325 BC
Display: Room 25

Near the bed of the Hercyna[2] River in Livadia, Boeotia, a votive relief made of limestone was found in 1931. It is a tribute to the god-seer Trophonios, whose oracle was located in a cave near the river[3]. The relief is particularly elongated with a narrow frame, roughly worked, perhaps to conventionally indicate the space of the cave in which the multifaced representation is placed, on the theme of the initiation of a believer.

Twelve divine and four human figures are represented, the latter on a much smaller scale. From left to right, Cybele is depicted first, seated on a throne, with a lion, her sacred animal and symbol, next to her. The second, standing female figure holds a key, a distinctive symbol of the priestesses. Next to her is the initiate, with his head and face covered with a veil, dressed in a long chiton and a short one over. The young Dionysos follows, holding a kantharos (drinking-cup) in his right hand and a thyrsοs[4] in his left. Next to him is the goat-legged and horned god Pan. Hecate follows, holding torches in her hands. In the center of the relief, Trophonios is depicted with a horn in his left hand, flanked by snakes that rise from the ground. On the right side of the scene, a table of offerings with delicacies on it, popana and plakountes[5]. Behind the table, three beardless young men with helmets and shields. At the right end of the scene, two men with chlamydes (men’s cloaks) and helmets on a conical form (pilos), the Dioskouri. In front of the latter, on a much smaller scale, four worshippers are depicted, probably the family of the donor/ initiate.

The enigmatic and extremely multifaced representation has received various interpretations from its scholars, both for the identification of the depicted ones and for the deity to which it is dedicated. It has been interpreted as a theoxenia (entertaining of gods by humans at a meal) or as an imaginary posthumous initiation of a heroic deceased, either to the Mother/ Cybele or to the god-seer Trophonios, gods who share many common characteristics, in the presence of the living members of the family of the donor/ initiate and plenty of deities.

There are two mythical versions of Trophonios. In the oldest, he, along with his brother Agamedes, appear as the legendary architects of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. According to the second version, the two brothers also undertook to build the treasury of Hyrieus, the “eponymous“ hero[6], of Hyria in the area of Tanagra. Having the know-how, they secretly entered the treasury and stole from Hyrieus’ treasures. When the latter realized the theft, he set a trap, in which Agamedes was caught. Trophonios, in order to save his brother from certain torture, but also to prevent the identity of the thieves from being revealed, he beheaded him. The fratricide, during his escape, mysteriously disappeared into a trench in the Boeotian land. There his oracle was created, where those who dared to defy the terror of the nocturnal descent into it, which had all the characteristics of a true descent into the Underworld, received oracles.

References to the oracle of Trophonios and the form of his worship are mentioned in several passages of ancient Greek literature, from the 5th century BC to the 2nd century AD. The most complete description, however, of the oracle and its ritual belongs to the writer Pausanias (2nd century AD), who not only visited it, but also received an oracle himself. The evidence emerging from his testimony confirms the survival of many basic elements of a complex initiation ritual that included purifications, sleeping in the sacred space of the oracle, a special diet, bathing, oiling, drinking water, prayers, specific clothing and, finally, the underground descent, which already appears in the oldest sources.

[1] Aristophanes, Nephelae (Clouds) v. 506 (trans. William James Hickie. London. Bohn. 1853?): “Then give me first into my hands a honeyed cake; for I am afraid of descending within, as if into the cave of Trophonios”.

[2] Hercyna was the Naiad-nymph of the small river of the same name that still flows through the city of Livadia. In mythology, she is mentioned as a childhood companion of Persephone and a secondary deity of the chthonic oracle of Trophonios.

[3] Pausanias IX: 39. 1.

[4] Thyrsos: a pinecone tipped staff, crowned with ivy and vine leaves at the top, a symbol of the god Dionysοs.

[5] Popana: cakes related with religious ceremonies and chthonic worship. Plakountes: a type of sweet made from honey or cheese. They were offered to gods and heroes and played a primary role in the ritual of sacrifices.

[6] Eponymous hero: a hero whose name was given to a city.

Eugenia Mitrou-Georgiou

INDICATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bonnechere, P. 2003, Trophonios de Lébadée. Cultes et mythes d’une cité béotienne au miroir de la mentalité antique (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 150), Brill, Leiden, p. 318-322.

Kaltsas, N. 2001, National Archaeological Museum The Sculptures, Kapon Editions, Athens, pp. 216-217, no. 448.

Yfantis, P. 2022, The Oracle of Trophoniοs in Levadia, Postgraduate Dissertation, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of History and Archaeology, Athens, pp. 95-96.

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Connelly, J-B. 2007, Portrait of a priestess, Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, Princeton University Press.

Papachatzis, N. 1981, Description of Greece, Boeotia – Phocis. Athens.

Ustinova, Y. 2002, “Either a Daimon, or a Hero, or Perhaps a God:” Mythical Residents of Subterranean Chambers, Kernos 15.

https://www.fhw.gr/projects/boeotia/trophonio/index.php?view=page&sid=13&lang_id=gr (last visit 17/2/2025).

https://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheHerkyna.html (last visit 17/2/2025).