Asphaleius

Asphaleius or Asphalius (Ancient Greek: Ἀσφάλειος or Ancient Greek: Ἀσφάλιος) was a cultic epithet of the Greek god Poseidon,^[1][2][3][4] under which he was worshipped in several towns of ancient Greece and across the wider Greek world.^[5][6][7][8] His Greek name may also be transliterated as Asphaleus, Asphaleios, or Asphalios.

Name

In Greek, asphaleia means "safety", or an absence of instability.^[8] This epithet broadly describes him in a protector role, as the god who grants safety to ports and in sea navigation in general, a "guardian of the harbor".^[9][10]

In this aspect he was also a "bringer of stability", both in the personal sense, as a cane or walking stick might make an old man more stable, as well as in a more concrete sense, as in the stability of war fortifications. The Erythraeans regularly sacrificed to Poseidon Asphaleius to protect the city's walls, as did the Colophonians when in the 4th century BCE they built new fortifications for their town.^[8] Archaeologists have uncovered ancient inscriptions which urge townspeople to sacrifice to Poseidon Asphaleius in the aftermath of an earthquake, to bring stability back to their town.^[11]

Sites

Cults dedicated to Poseidon Asphaleius are known to have been in active in ancient Taenarum, Kalaureia, and Sparta,^{[12][13][14][8]}

There are ruins of an altar to Poseidon Asphaleius on Aigai.^[8] The Temple of Poseidon at Tainaron—modern Cape Matapan on the Mani Peninsula of the southern Peloponnese—was dedicated to Poseidon Asphaleius.

References

1. Strabo, Geographica i. p.57
2. Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.21.3
3. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Theseus" 36
4. Suda, s.v. Ἀσφάλειος
5. Harrison, Jane Ellen (1924). Mythology. Vol. 26. Marshall Jones Company. p. 48.
6. The Ancient World. Vol. 36–37. Ares Publishers. 2005. p. 23. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
7. Smith, William (1857). "Sparta". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. 2. Little, Brown and Company. p. 1027. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
8. Lebreton, Sylvain (2024). "Dionysos in the Mirror of Poseidon: Crossed Onomastic Portraits". In Bonnet, Corinne (ed.). The Names of the Gods in Ancient Mediterranean Religions. Translated by Häussler, Ralph. Cambridge University Press. p. 84. ISBN 9781009394789. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
9. Hasluck, F.W. (1902). "An Inscribed Basis from Cyzicus". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 22. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies: 129. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
10. Purvis, Andrea (2004). Singular Dedications: Founders and Innovators of Private Cults in Classical Greece. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135886707. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
11. Ambraseys, Nicholas (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: A Multidisciplinary Study of Seismicity Up to 1900. Cambridge University Press. pp. 193–195. ISBN 9781316347850. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
12. Harrison, Jane Ellen (1924). Mythology. Vol. 26. Marshall Jones Company. p. 48.
13. The Ancient World. Vol. 36–37. Ares Publishers. 2005. p. 23. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
14. Smith, William (1857). "Sparta". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. 2. Little, Brown and Company. p. 1027. Retrieved 2024-08-17.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Asphaleius". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 387.