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Cynosarges (Ancient Greek: Κυνόσαργες Kynosarges) was a famous temple of Heracles, public gymnasium, and surrounding grove located just outside the walls of Ancient Athens^[1] on the southern bank of the Ilissos river and near the Diomeian gate.^[2] The modern suburb of Kynosargous is named after it.

Overview

Its exact location is unknown but it is generally located in what is now the southern suburbs of Athens.^[3]

Its name was a mystery to the ancients that was explained by a story about a white^[3] or swift dog, etymologising the name as Kynos argos, from genitive of kyon (dog) and argos (white, shining, or swift). The legend goes that on one occasion when Didymos, an Athenian, was performing a lavish sacrifice, a white (or swift) dog appeared and snatched the offering; Didymos was alarmed, but received an oracular message saying that he should establish a temple to Heracles in the place where the dog dropped the offering.^[4]

Herodotus mentions a shrine there in 490/89 BC,^[5] and it became a famous sanctuary of Heracles that was also associated with his mother Alcmene, his wife Hebe and his nephew/helper Iolaus.^[6] It appeared that Heracles and Hebe each had a dedicated altar whereas Alcmene and Iolaus shared one.^[2] A renowned gymnasium was built there;^[7] it was meant especially for nothoi, illegitimate children.^[8] The Cynosarges was also where the Cynic Antisthenes was said to have lectured, a fact which was offered as one explanation as to how the sect got the name of Cynics.^[9]

A festival was held at Cynosarges in honour of Heracles in the month of Metageitnion, at which twelve nothoi were chosen to be parasitoi (fellow diners), who ate a meal with the cult statue of the god. They returned for smaller meals each month for a year where a priest would perform sacrifices.^[2] People who refused to serve as parasitoi were liable to be prosecuted in the Athenian court system.^[10] Clement recorded that Philip II of Macedon, who claimed Heracles as an ancestor, was honoured with a cult at the site.^[2]

Suda writes that since Herakles was reputed to be a bastard, for that reason the bastards, those qualifying as citizens neither paternally nor maternally, used to exercise there.^[11]

Archaeological excavations were carried out in 1896-7 by Campbell Cowan Edgar, then a student at the British School at Athens.^[12]

Notes

^ Κυνόσαργες. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Fredricksmeyer, E. A. (1979). "Divine Honors for Philip II". Transactions of the American Philological Association. 109: 49–50. doi:10.2307/284048. JSTOR 284048.
^ ^a ^b The Stones of Athens, Wycherley, R.E., Princeton 1978.Pg 229
^ Suda, κ2721, ε3160. In another account, (Suda, ει290) a white dog was being sacrificed, and an eagle stole and dropped the offering.
^ Herodotus, Historiae 6.116
^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.19.3.
^ Plutarch, Themistocles, 1; Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica 393, 24; Diogenes Laërtius. "Book VI" . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers . Translated by Robert Drew Hicks – via Wikisource.
^ Demosthenes 23.213; Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 6.234E; Plutarch, Themistocles, 12
^ Diogenes Laërtius. "Book VI" . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers . Translated by Robert Drew Hicks – via Wikisource.
^ Parke, H. W. (1977). Festivals of the Athenians. Thames and Hudson. p. 51.
^ Suda, kappa, 2721
^ "Digging II: 19th-century Kynosarges and the Melos Campaign in the BSA SPHS Image Collection". British School at Athens. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.

References

Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae. Kaibel. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1887. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Herodotus, The Histories with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920. ISBN 0-674-99133-8. Online version at the Topos Text Project. Greek text available at Perseus Digital Library.
Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Suida, Suda Encyclopedia translated by Ross Scaife, David Whitehead, William Hutton, Catharine Roth, Jennifer Benedict, Gregory Hays, Malcolm Heath Sean M. Redmond, Nicholas Fincher, Patrick Rourke, Elizabeth Vandiver, Raphael Finkel, Frederick Williams, Carl Widstrand, Robert Dyer, Joseph L. Rife, Oliver Phillips and many others. Online version at the Topos Text Project.