Religious cults of the Argolid

When Pausanias visited the Argolid, at many places which had been flourishing and even famous communities in earlier times he found only the local temple surviving, the cult continuing long after the population which had originally created it had left. This phenomenon (which is by no means confined to the Argolid) demonstrates the longevity and the capacity for survival of the Greek cults. Through the upheavals and wars, and the migrations and the turmoil that they caused, the religious practices and beliefs tenaciously remain. At the basis of the religion of the Argolid in classical times are the practices and beliefs of the Bronze Age. The newcomers who settled in the Argolid at the end of the Bronze Age could not but be aware of the deities that presided over and protected the region into which they had come and accepted the need to propitiate them. On the other hand, they were not without beliefs in the gods before they arrived and may be assumed to have introduced something of these into the Argolid. Contacts with other regions, in Greece and beyond, may also have led to the introduction of new cults and beliefs. To disentangle the various threads of classical religion in the Argolid with any hope of accuracy is an act of optimism; but it is possible to detect some of the connections and influences that created it. This is of historical and antiquarian interest and it is fascinating to consider the various facets of Argive religion and the complex movements of history that brought them together; but at the same time it must be remembered that this religion and its practices were a vital, living part of Argive society; that the Argives of the fifth century were aware only of the immediate importance in their daily lives that the gods exercised, not their historical origins. As in many Greek societies, the original simple piety becomes changed in the course of time. New superstitions flourish, minor deities become more important. It is possible to detect a certain cynicism in the manipulation of festivals and taboos for a completely non-religious political purpose—the blatant rearranging of the calendar to produce a religious truce is a device employed more than once when the Argolid was threatened by an invading army. ¹ But overall, the number of shrines, the offerings made at them and the way their significance persists through to the time of Pausanias and beyond, all this testifies to the importance of the cults to Argive society.