Hermocopides

The business of Hermocopides is a scandal religious which shakes Athens in 415 av. J. - C., into full Peloponnesian War.

The business

Facts

Little before equipment Athenian fleet leaving for the Sicily, at the beginning of the month of thargélion (equivalent from May-June) under the command of Alcibiade, one discovers that all the Hermai of the city were mutilated, except one, that of the Égéide tribe. The Hermai are coarse representations of the god Hermes, often of the shape of a bust surmounting a quadrangular block. They have as a function to sanctify and mark the limits: thresholds, crossroads, etc Thucydide note that the hermai are found “mutilated with the front face ( περιεκόπησαν τὰ πρόσωπα )”. The nature of the mutilation remains prone to debate: the name employed, πρόσωπον / prósôpon , indicates the face, but the fact is that the hermai are decorated of a drawn up Phallus, in sculpture in the round, constituting an easy target for vandalism.

Certain historians, like Jean Hatzfeld, Jacqueline de Romilly or Eva C. Keuls, thus estimate that it is a question in an modest way of indicating the phallus. They are based in particular on a passage of Lysistrata , a comedy of Aristophane: whereas the chorus enters, equipped with a formidable erection, it is apostrophized by the Coryphée which note: “let us go, begin again you; give your coats. One would not need only one mutilator of Hermes sees you. ” In the same way, in a fragment of a lost comedy of Phrynichos, one of its characters addressing itself at Hermes declares: “Very dear Hermes, also do not fall you: you would castrate yourself, thus attracting the scandal. ”

Others, like Edmond Levy, stress that the verb περικόπτω/ perikóptô could not indicate a “castration”, and conclude that it is indeed about the face. In fact, excavations made it possible to put at the day of the hermai having the nose broken like the broken sex and a scholie of the passage of Thucydide gives a report on mutilations in these two places.

The investigation

The emotion is general at once, because the religious feeling, even superstitious, is very strong in Athens. Corinth, metropolis of Syracuse, is initially suspected, then isolated. The methodical character of the profanation dismisses the assumption of a group of young drunk people. The thesis of the plot is essential immediately, without one distinguishing the reasons of them, which throws the city in panic. It is feared that the democracy is not reversed in favor of a Tyran denies similar to that of the Pisistratides.

The magistrates offer then a strong premium (100 mine S) to encourage the denunciation. According to Thucydide, one issues that “whoever knowledge of some other sacrilege to denounce it, without fear for his person, that it citizen, foreigner, or slave. ”

It is on this occasion that a slave denounces a parody of the Mystères of Éleusis, to which would have taken part Alcibiade. Whereas this last forever mixed with the scandal with Hermocopides, its enemies bind the two businesses skilfully, and the denunciations rain. A Métèque named Teucros denounces in all 18 people like Hermocopides, and 11 people for the parody of the Mysteries. One named Diocleidès pays to have seen an assembly of approximately 300 people, divided into small groups, and to have recognized 42 of them, among which some of the citizens more for Athens. The state of alert is issued, of the worried individuals flee while the people take the weapons and stop those which could not flee.

Finally, the charge of Diocleidès is dismounted. Plutarque pays as follows:

“There was nothing sure nor solid in the depositions denouncers. One among them, of which one required how he had recognized the faces of Hermocopides, answered that it was thanks to the moonlight. They was absolutely false, considering the offense had taken place at the time of the new moon. ”

A new dramatic turn of events takes place then: among the stopped individuals Léogoras and its son Andocide, the future speaker appear. To save its head, this one denounces then its Hétairie (group of friends institutionalized), charge which recuts that of Teucros. The business of Hermocopides is thus buckled: among the culprits, all could flee; Andocide, in spite of the promise of impunity, is Exil E in accordance with the law on impiété. Thucydide nevertheless guard of the doubts about this business.

To date, no final solution was brought to the business. The majority of the historians see there the fact of part of the Athenian pouplation, opposed to forwarding. For the American historian Eva C. Keuls, the persons in charge are rather the Athenian women. According to this discussed assumption, they would have benefitted from the relative freedom conferred by the celebration of the Adonies and would have taken as a starting point the ritual the dionysiaques related to the Castration to protest against the Machisme reigning in Athens.

Etymology

The word “Hermocopide” (in Greek Ἑρμοκοπίδης / Hermokopídês , of the verb κόπτω / kóptô , “to strike, cut down while striking”) means “mutilator of Hermes”. He is used as well by Plutarque in his Vie of Alcibiade as by Aristophane in Lysistrata , like comic allusion.

Sources

Andocide, On its return and On the mysteries .
( Alcibiade , XVIII).
(VI, 24,2-28).

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