Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Water Sources and the Sacred in Modern and Ancient Greece and Beyond

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Water History Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The article presents contemporary Greek water-rituals and their relation to ancient pre-Christian traditions and sites, manifested by springs in caves. Formerly springs represented Water-Nymphs, and today springs are dedicated to the Panagia (i.e. the Virgin Mary), under her attribute of Zōodochos Pēgē (i.e. the Life-giving Spring). People have traditionally expressed their beliefs through rituals connected to purity and water by fetching Holy water from the caves dedicated to these divinities. The water is thought to be particularly healing and purifying during their festivals, such as the modern festival dedicated to the “Life-giving Spring”, which is celebrated on the first Friday after Easter Sunday. During this celebration Athenians come to Panagia’s chapel inside a circular Spring House hewn in the rock on the Southern slope of the Acropolis to fetch Life-giving water. The Sacred Spring is situated inside a cave over which is constructed a church. It is also important to be baptised in water from one of Panagia’s sacred springs. The cult dedicated to the personified sacred and healing spring-water, has traditionally been important for political purposes as well. Based on fieldwork on contemporary religious rituals, the author compares the modern evidence with ancient material, arguing for a continuous association of water sources with the sacred in Greece, as observed in the Athenian Acropolis Cave, a cult which is not very well-documented and therefore deserves to be better known. The comparison will also exploit the cult of springs in other Greek caves and similar cult found in parallel non-Greek contexts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The article is mainly based upon an extended fieldwork, which was carried out in Greece in 1991–1992, cf. Håland (forthcoming a, see also 2007a). The problems and fruitfulness of working with anthropological comparative approaches (such as using material from Modern Greek civilization as models) to Ancient Society are also discussed in my PhD dissertation; cf. further Winkler (1990). The material from the beginning of the 1990s is highly relevant, as has also been demonstrated through my return visits to the cave. Draft versions of the article were presented at the 4th International Water History Association Conference, Paris, 2005 and the 35th World Congress of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, Paris, 2006. The original paper-version is found on the CD-Rom from the IWHA-conference, distributed by the secretariat (post.iwha@yahoo.com.). A shortened version, “From Water in Greek Religion, Ancient and Modern, to the Wider Mediterranean and Beyond”, is published in Comparative Civilizations Review 56, Spring 2007: 56–75. Parts of the following also appeared in Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, Spring 2009, Shippensburg PA 17257-2299. © 2009 by Shippensburg University, and is included with permission.

  2. I have not attempted to disguise the location of my field research, although I have used pseudonyms to protect the identities of the individuals. The dialogue between myself and my informants is a condition of fieldwork. I had several conversations with Maria Melas particularly in 1991–1992, and I would like to thank her, as well as my other informants for their openness. This Saturday-visit to the caves was, I think, made particularly easy since my mother also was participating, and I would like to thank her as well.

  3. It may be noted that Saint in Greek is Agios (m.) or Agia (f.), Agioi (pl.). The short form is Ag.

  4. He worked at the Acropolis for 31 years.

  5. I am particularly grateful for this, because I would probably not have been able to track them down without his help. I learned this when talking with several other people, who found the ritual quite uninteresting compared to the other materials found in the Acropolis area. Certainly, the two other women may also have been present because of curiosity.

  6. Until puberty, Greek boys are still reared in an exclusively female environment. They are moulded and socialized by their mothers, wet-nurses or grandmothers, who exercise influence upon them in ancient, and modern society, Håland (2007a, Chap. 6). For an English (short) version, see Håland (2009a, p. 113).

  7. For the problem with different histories, see Håland (2007a, Chap. 2 f., 6), cf. Hastrup (1992).

  8. Here, we meet an evidence of Said’s (1979) “orientalism”, which does not understand the point in examining rituals that may not be important for the “Great History”, but only connected with the daily tasks of women. Although folklorist studies and archaeology enjoy great prestige within the Greek nation state, it may lead to misunderstandings when a foreign female researcher wants to compare modern and ancient popular religious rituals, because it is uncommon. “Only ‘survivalists’ do that, and this is a research-area which is despised by foreign researchers.” On another level, one may also observe the conduct, which is demonstrated when the guards at the Acropolis area emphasize to tourists, “this is our culture it is the other culture that we share with you”. Based on the background to this view, it may be regarded as an answer to Western orientalism. Cf. Håland (2007a, Chap. 2) for the two Greek ideologies, the “Romeic” and the “Hellenic”. See also (Chaps. 3 and 6). Cf. Herzfeld (1992). Additional sources on women’s ritual observance and the links to antiquity are attested in Alexiou (2002); Håland (2007a, Chap. 6).

  9. Cf. n.1 above. However, the modern ethnoarchaeology gives very interesting results. One definition of ethnoarchaeology is that it is “neither a theory nor a method, but a research strategy embodying a range of approaches to understanding the relationships of material culture to culture as a whole, both in a living context and as it enters the archaeological record exploiting such understandings in order to inform archaeological concepts and to improve interpretation [… it is] the ethnographic study of living cultures from archaeological perspectives”, Nicholas and Kramer (2001, p. 2). I would like to thank Dr. Terje Østigård for providing me with this reference.

  10. For several months, I was in conversations with the Acropolis authorities to find out whether the festival was going to be celebrated. In 1992, it was a great problem for them, because 1st May or Workers Day, coincided with the festival dedicated to the Life-giving Spring, which is a very important celebration for Athenians in the actual area.

  11. Such as the Anastenaria, cf. Håland (2007a, Chap. 3 f., 6) for discussions of the practical problems that may arise from the (sometimes) difficult relations between the official Orthodox Church and popular religion. In practical life, we meet another reality than the official one given by Alexiou (1974).

  12. She leaves the rest of the flowers in the other cave and departs soon afterwards.

  13. Eirinē always finishes her cleaning of the church dedicated to the Life-giving Spring before she goes up to the Crysospēliōtissa. Cf. the ritual on Aegina, where they fetch the icon of the Panagia to get rain, Håland (2005).

  14. When asking Panagiotis when and where the article was published, because as a researcher I have to produce documents in support of the information I give, the discouraging answer he gives is that “he does not remember where he found it, only that it is some years old.”

  15. Cf. Håland (2003, 2007a) for the Tinos-legend, etc., see also below. Cf. also Kephallēniadē (1990 and 1991).

  16. Cf. Hdt. 8.65, 8.84; Xen. Hell. 2.4,14 f.; Diod. 14.32,2 f. and Clem. Al. Strom. 1.24,163,1–3 for other pre-Christian parallels.

  17. So, in this instance another (local) meaning is added to the celebration of the 15 August, the Dormition of the Panagia.

  18. They also say that today the icon is to be found in the church dedicated to the Panagia Crysospēliōtissa, in the neighbourhood of Omonia square. They also call it Eirinē (i.e. Peace) or the “Sleep”, i.e. the “Death”.

  19. In 1992, the ritual was not performed. Some days before the festival Eirinē and Panagiotis were cleaning and tidying up both churches, but Eirinē goes to the church in Monastiraki on the festival day. She does not tell why, but it might be that they have difficulties when trying to find a priest. Early in the morning, a woman reaches the entrance to the theatre of Dionysos, asking whether the ceremony is going to be performed. But, she gets a negative answer.

  20. Over the table is a Byzantine wall-painting representing Agios Athanasios from the sixteenth century. Several dates are also scratched on the rock.

  21. Traditionally, there has been very much communication between Russia and Greece, both being Orthodox, cf., for example, the importance of Mount Athos for both countries. We have many stories about icons being brought from Greece to Russia, for example, if someone within the family of the Tsar was ill, see for example, Hatzifotis (1995). That an icon-painter was from Konstantinople, was (and still is for most Greeks) of course, particularly prestigious, cf. Håland (2007a, Chap. 2).

  22. Therefore one may suggest that even if the cult dedicated to Athena on the top of the Acropolis was prohibited in the fifth century, when Athena’s Parthenon was transformed into a church dedicated to the Panagia after the termination of the Panathenaia in 410 A.D., it has continued in one of the cave-churches on the slope of the same rock.

  23. According to the official Greek Orthodox account, the (not dated or authored) article in Road to Emmaus about the New Martyr Ephraim of Nea Makri (pp. 33 f.), he was taken captive and tortured by Islamic pirates on his birthday in 1425, his captors insisting that he deny Christ. He refused and his torment lasted for 8 months. On 5 May, he was taken out into the courtyard and hung upside down in a mulberry tree. Nails were driven into his hands and feet, and he was pierced through the centre of his body with a sharpened pole that had been fired until it was red-hot. We also learn that he lived from 1384 to 1426, i.e. not the same dates (and identical story) that I was told by my informants, see the following. In 1998, Ag. Ephraim was officially declared a saint by the Synod of the Orthodox Church in Greece, pending approval by the Patriarch of Konstantinople, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephraim_of_Nea_Makri; http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/back_issue_articles/RTE_04/Ephraim_of_Nea_Makri.pdf. I would like to thank Kiriaki Papadopoulou Samuelsen for giving me these links.

  24. I observe a cross, which looks like a phallus, and they tell that it is sewn.

  25. Cf. the story behind the “split column”, Economides (1986, pp. 22–24).

  26. It is worth mentioning that after a while, the leader of the guards working at the Acropolis area comes around. He got a copy of my permission letter to do research in the caves, and one may wonder whether it still seems strange that I am as interested in talking with the people performing their religious rituals as with the archaeologists.

  27. Cf. ancient Greek death-cult and the belief that the power of the dead was most strongly experienced in the neighbourhood of the grave, cf. Håland (2004); Garland (1985, p. 4 and Fig. 1) for a parallel to the bones of the saints in the cave.

  28. See also Fig. page 38 in the pamphlet mentioned in n.23 above.

  29. Cf. Fig. 9. Panagiotis also tells that the best candles are made of honey.

  30. I.e. the port of the village of Olympos, see below.

  31. May Day is also celebrated with other particular customs, i.e. people gather spring flowers. With these, they make wreaths and hang them on their front door.

  32. Cf. Håland (2007a, particularly Chap. 2), also for the following, (see also 2005) for traditional Greek customs.

  33. I was actually late, and the guards would not let me enter. They take me for a tourist, even though most of them know why I am here. They say that, “the festival is only celebrated for the Greeks.” Finally, they admit me into the area because I am able to present the letter I got from the Acropolis authorities, giving me permission to visit the caves in connection with my researches. Younger officers seem to be particularly eager to manifest their power in front of a female researcher who, according to them, is not present to do research on religious celebrations. Another example of the same power demonstration is when an old woman is not permitted to go under the icon during the procession on 15 August on the island of Tinos in Greece. The attitude of police officers to women worshippers in contemporary Greece might be compared with similar attitudes attested in the ancient sources, see, for example, Håland (2007a, Chap. 6) for discussion.

  34. Cf. Herzfeld (1992) for the term “disemia”, a two-way-facing system of meanings that can be part of a public discourse, cf. also Dubisch (1995, Chap. 9) for the distinction between insider and outsider, dikoi (our own) and xenoi (strangers or foreigners). Cf. Håland (2007a, Chap. 2 f., 6), see also forthcoming b.

  35. This is not to deny that during the celebration, I also note that there are frictions between the Acropolis-guards and the religiosity of the devotees, first and foremost represented by Eirinē who is a very proud woman.

  36. Cf. also n.37 below concerning the participating priest. This situation is also present in other festivals. For the contest-theme, see n.11 above concerning the Anastenaria, also discussed in Håland (2007b). See also my (forthcoming c) for the Charalampos-festival where the local priest denies sacrificing the compulsory bull, and has to be replaced by another, also discussed in Håland (2007a). See also n.8 above for the relationship between the official representatives and me/my informants, i.e. the gender-dimension in the contest-theme.

  37. Cf. above. When talking with him after the service, it appears that he belongs to the great group of Olympians (i.e. from the village of Olympos) from Karpathos living in the Piraeus’ area. When he learns that I just arrived from Olympos, having celebrated Easter in his own church of childhood, he welcomes me enthusiastically. He takes me by the hands and wishes “Many Years” (i.e. “Chronia Polla”), and he supplies me with a whole Holy bread, prosphoro. The priest is in his late forties/beginning of his fifties. From childhood he has been used to celebrate “water-festivals”, since the festival dedicated to the Life-giving Spring is celebrated several places on Karpathos, cf. above. In addition, the icon of the Panagia is immersed in the water during the procession on “White” Tuesday in Olympos, cf. Håland (2005).

  38. In Greek they use the word psomi for everyday bread, and artos, pl. artoi for the special ritual breads.

  39. Cf. also the real meanings of the terms “micro-society” as opposed to “macro-society”, the “domestic” versus the “public spheres” in Greece, discussed in Håland (2007a).

  40. See also Håland (2003, Fig. 4); Travlos (1971, pp. 127, 138, Fig. 178, cf. Figs. 192 f. Fig. 192). The latter (i.e. Fig. 192) is also dedicated to Pan, cf. the following. For the Athenian Acropolis, see for example Hurwit (2004).

  41. Hdt. 6.105, cf. Ar. Lys. 720–723; Eur. Ion. 492–502, see also Men. Dysk. 432–434.

  42. IG II² 4994.

  43. The ancient Athenian calendar year began in the summer of one of our years and ended in the summer of the next; accordingly, ancient dates are often expressed in slashed terms.

  44. Cf. Paus. 2.26,8.

  45. Cf. Paus. 2.27,1 f.

  46. Paus. 1.21,4–7.

  47. Paus. 1.21,4.

  48. Cf. also above. Håland (2007a, Chap. 6) discusses the problems we encounter when only emphasizing male gods/saints. Cf. also Tsotakou-Karbelē (1991, p. 99); Megas (1992, p. 187).

  49. Paus. 1.21,3.

  50. Cf. with the newspaper cutting hanging in the cave. Cf. further the comment of Levi (1984: Vol. 1, p. 59n.120), also for the following.

  51. For Artemis’ connection with springs, see Håland (2003). In the Acropolis cave, she is worshipped with her brother Apollo.

  52. Cf. the cult dedicated to Agia Marina beneath the Hill of the Nymphs at Athens were people fetch Holy water from the spring connected to the church sacred to Agia Marina, particularly during her festival on 17 July, Håland (2005, 2007a).

  53. Foskolos (1996) presents the most important miracles of the Megalochari of Tinos.

  54. For the similarities between life-cycle passages and the rituals performed in connection with important passages during the cycle of nature, see Håland (2006, 2007a). Graf and Johnston (2007) illustrate the importance of springs and water in connection with death and the afterlife in antiquity, cf. Håland (2003).

  55. In a patriotic sense, and this is probably also why the official and popular religion have a close relationship, despite some problematical incidents.

  56. Cf. Håland (2003, 2005), for the importance of the Water-Nymphs.

  57. Koran 5:8–9 is quoted from von Grunebaum (1981, p. 10).

  58. The following is mainly based on Kasas and Struckmann (1990).

  59. Latin: balneum, “bath”, cf. balneology, the science of baths or bathing, especially the study of the therapeutic use of thermal baths (medicine/complementary medicine): the branch of medical science concerned with the therapeutic value of baths, especially those taken with natural mineral waters; balneotherapy, the treatment of disease by bathing.

  60. Ath. 4.156e.

  61. See Hp. Insomn. 90, see also Aër. 7–10; Blum and Blum (1970, p. 137); Håland (2003).

References and Abbreviations

  • Alexiou M (1974) The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexiou M (2002) After antiquity: Greek language, myth, and metaphor. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Ar.=Aristophanes, tr. Rogers BB (1946 [1924]) Vol. 3: The Lysistrata (=Lys.), The Thesmophoriazusae, The Ecclesiazusae, The Plutus. The Loeb Classical Library, London

  • Ath.=Athenaeus, tr. Gulick CB (1928) The Deipnosophists. Vol. 2. The Loeb Classical Library, London

  • Blum R, Blum E (1970) The Dangerous Hour. The Lore of Crisis and Mystery in Rural Greece. Chatto and Windus, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Clem. Al. Strom. =Clément d’Alexandrie, Les Stromates, tr. Gaster M, Mondésert C (1951) Vol. 1. Sources Chrétiennes. Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris

  • Diod.=Diodorus of Sicily, tr. Oldfather CH (1954) Vol. 6. The Loeb Classical Library, London

  • Dubisch J (1995) In a Different Place. Pilgrimage, Gender, and Politics at a Greek Island Shrine. Princeton University Press, Princeton

  • Economides I (1986) Differences between the orthodox church and roman catholicism. 2nd edn. Athens

  • Eur.=Euripides, tr. Way AS (1946 [1912]) Vol. 4: Ion, Hippolytus, Medea, Alcestis. The Loeb Classical Library, London

  • Foskolos EA (1993, 1996 [1968]) Perigraphē tēs Eureseōs tēs Thaumatourgou Agias Eikonas tēs Euangelistrias stēn Tēno kata to etos 1823. Skopoi kai drastēriotētes tou Ierou Idrymatos. (English version from 1991, tr. Meihanetsidis C). Panellēniou Ierou Idrymatos Euangelistrias Tēnou, Tinos (Pamphlet distributed by the Church of the Annunciation of Tinos)

  • Garland R (1985) The Greek Way of Death. Duckwort, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Graf F, Johnston SI (2007) Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic gold tablets. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hastrup K (ed) (1992) Other histories. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatzifotis IM (1995) Ē kathēmerinē zōē sto Agio Oros. Papadima, Athens

    Google Scholar 

  • Hdt.=Herodotus, tr. Godley AD (1946, 1950 [1922, 1925]) Vols. 3–4. The Loeb Classical Library, London

  • Herzfeld M (1986) Ours Once More. Folklore, Ideology, and the making of Modern Greece. Pella, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzfeld M (1992 [1987]) Anthropology through the looking-glass. Critical ethnography in the margins of Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Hp.=Hippocrates, tr. Jones WHS (1948, 1953 [1923, 1931]) Vol. 1: Airs, Waters, Places (=Aër.), Vol. 4: Dreams (=Insomn.). The Loeb Classical Library, London

  • Hurwit JM (2004) The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (A longer version, The Athenian Acropolis. History, Mythology, and Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present, was published in 1999)

  • Håland EJ (1990) Ideologies and Mentalities: a journey from Ancient Greece to Modern Mediterranean Society. M. A. dissertation, University of Bergen (in Norwegian, unpublished)

  • Håland EJ (2003) Take Skamandros, my virginity: “The Ideas of Water” in connection with rituals linked to life-cycle passages in Greece, modern and ancient. Paper presented at The third International Water History Association (IWHA) conference, Alexandria, Egypt, December 2003. The paper is found on the CD-Rom from the conference, distributed by the IWHA secretariat (post.iwha@yahoo.com.) A later and somewhat different version is in The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity through the Renaissance. “Technology and Change in History” 11, edited by Kosso C and Scott A, Brill Publishers, Leiden, 2009, pp. 109–148

  • Håland EJ (2004) En historisk analyse av sammenhengen mellom gresk dødekult i dag og i antikken (An historical analysis of the relationship between Greek Death-Cult, today and in the ancient world). Historisk Tidsskrift (“Historical Review”) 83(4), pp. 559–591 (in Norwegian with English summary)

  • Håland EJ (2005) Rituals of Magical Rain-Making in Modern and Ancient Greece: A Comparative Approach. Cosmos: The Journal of the Traditional Cosmology Society 17(2), pp. 197–251. The article is based on a paper presented at the IWHA 2nd conference Bergen, 2001. A similar paper was presented at the PECSRL Conference (Permanent European Committee for the Study of the Rural Landscape), “One Region, Many Stories: Mediterranean Landscapes in a Changing Europe”, Limnos and Lesvos, 2004, and is published in European Landscapes and Lifestyles: The Mediterranean and Beyond, edited by Roca Z, Spek T, Terkeli T, Plieninger T, Höchtl F, Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, Lisboa, 2007, pp. 285–304

  • Håland EJ (2006) The ritual year as a woman’s life: the festivals of the agricultural cycle, life-cycle passages of Mother Goddesses and fertility-cult. In: “Proceedings” from the First International Conference of the SIEF working group on The Ritual Year, in association with the Department of Maltese University of Malta, Junior College, Msida, Malta, 2005, edited by Mifsud-Chircop G, PEG Ltd, Malta, pp. 303–326

  • Håland EJ (2007a) Greek Festivals, Modern and Ancient: A Comparison of Female and Male Values (in Norwegian). PhD dissertation, University of Bergen, 2004. Norwegian Academic Press, Kristiansand

  • Håland EJ (2007b) From the Ritual Year of the Modern Anastenaria to the Ancient Adōnia. In: The Ritual Year and Ritual Diversity—Proceedings. Second International Conference of the SIEF Working Group on The Ritual Year. Gothenburg, 7–11 June 2006, edited by Midholm L, Nordström A, Institutet för språk och folkminnen; Dialekt-, ortnamns- och folkminnesarkivet i Göteborg, Göteborg, pp. 222–239

  • Håland EJ (2009) Greek women and religion, modern and ancient: Festivals and cults connected with the female sphere, a comparison. Medelhavsmuseet. Focus on the Mediterranean 4, pp. 101–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Håland EJ (forthcoming a) Competing Ideologies in Greek Religion, Ancient and Modern (in Norwegian). Under review: Astrom Editions, Stockholm, 2009

  • Håland EJ (forthcoming b) 15 August, the Dormition of Panagia, the Virgin Mary, on the Aegean island of Tinos. Paper presented at the 1st International Congress on Greek Civilization. The Public Festival: A Diachronic glimpse at its Socio-Economic and Political Role, the Hellenic Open University and Democritus Univ. of Thrace, Soufli, 2005. The paper (approx. 20 pages) is forthcoming in Acts of the 1st International Congress on Greek Civilization, The Public Festival: A Diachronic Glimpse at Its Socio-Economic and Political Role, edited by Melas M

  • Håland EJ (forthcoming c) Festival of the Bull: Ox-offering, Summer- and Saint-feast on Mytilini/Lesbos: Agia Paraskeuē around the summer solstice 1992. Cosmos: The Journal of the Traditional Cosmology Society 26

  • IG=Inscriptiones Graecae (1927–1977) Consilio et auctoritate. Academiae litterarum Borussicae editae. Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno posteriores. Walteri de Gruyter et Soc., Berolini

  • Kasas S, Struckmann R (1990) Important medical centres in the antiquity. Epidaurus and Corinth. When the Medicine was still divine. Edition Kasas, Athens (Separate reprint from “Materia Medica Nordmark 30, 1978”)

  • Kephallēniadē NA (1990, 1991) Ē latreia tēs Panagias sta ellēnika nēsia. Vols. A–B. Laographia—Paradosē 11 and 12. Ekd. Philippotē, Athens

  • Loukatos DS (1982) Ta Phthinopōrina. Laographia—Paradosē 4. Ekd. Philippotē, Athens

    Google Scholar 

  • Loukatos DS (1985) Symplērōmatika tou Cheimōna kai tēs Anoixēs. Laographia—Paradosē 5. Ekd. Philippotē, Athens

    Google Scholar 

  • Megas GA (1992 [1956/1957]) Ellēnikes Giortes kai Ethima tēs Laïkēs Latreias. Odysseas, Athens (English edition: Greek Calendar Customs. Athens 1982)

  • Men.=Menander, tr. Arnott WG (1979) Vol. 1: Dyskolos (=Dysk.). The Loeb Classical Library, London

  • Nicholas D, Kramer C (2001) Ethnoarchaeology in Action. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Paus.=Pausanias, tr. Jones WHS (1954 [1918]) Description of Greece. Vol. 1. The Loeb Classical Library, London

  • Pausanias, tr. Levi P (1984 [1971]) Guide to Greece. Vol. 1: Central Greece. Penguin, London

  • Revett N, Stuart J (1762–1816) On the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus. In: The Antiquities of Athens, Measured and delineated by J. Stuart and Nicholas Revett, by Revett N, Stuart J. Vol. 2. Johan Haberkorn, London, pp. 29–36

  • (n.d.) New Martyr Ephraim of Nea Makri: A Greek Saint for Troubled Youth. Road to Emmaus: A Journal of Orthodox Faith and Culture 2.1(4), pp. 31–40

  • Said EW (1979 [1978]) Orientalism. Vintage Books, New York

  • Travlos J (1939/1941) Ē palaiochristianikē basilikē tou Asklēpieiou tōn Athēnōn. Archaiologikē Ephēmeris, Athens, pp. 35–68

  • Travlos J (1971) Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens. Thames and Hudson, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsotakou-Karbelē A (1991 [1985]) Laographiko Ēmerologio: Oi dōdeka mēnes kai ta ethima tous. Patak, Athens

  • von Grunebaum GE (1981 [1951, 1976]) Muhammadan Festivals. Curzon Press, London

  • Welter G (1938) Das Choregische Denkmal des Thrasyllos. Archäologischer Anzeiger (Jahrbuch des Deutsches archäologischen Instituts mit dem Beiblatt Archäologischer Anzeiger). Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, pp. 33–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Winkler JJ (1990) The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece. Routledge, New York and London

  • Xen. Hell.=Xenophon, Hellenica, tr. Brownson CL (1947 [1918]) Vol. 1. The Loeb Classical Library, London

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bergen, Norway

    Evy Johanne Håland

Authors
  1. Evy Johanne Håland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Evy Johanne Håland.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Håland, E.J. Water Sources and the Sacred in Modern and Ancient Greece and Beyond. Water Hist 1, 83–108 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-009-0008-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-009-0008-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation