ABSTRACT
In fact, the association of the ritual with disease and the purification necessary for its prevention is well documented and arguably quite ancient. According to Helladius (in Photo Bibl. 279, vol. 8: 182 Henry) the Athenian ritual was 'a means of averting pestilential diseases', and although sev~ral etymologies of 'pharmakos' have been proposed, the most plausible explanation (despite the occasional presence of a long alpha in the second syllable) is that the word is simply the masculine form of pharmakon ('drug, medicine'). The association of the rite with Apollo, therefore, may stem from the god's connections with purification and with disease and its prevention and cure. 9 It thus
seems possible that the pharmakos ritual was not originally a rustic ceremony connected with vegetation and fertility (as it has most often been regarded) and that the incorporation of the rite into a largely agricultural festival was a secondary development in its history.
