Damia and Auxesia: Aeginetan Cult and Athenian Hostages (Herodotus)

Catalogue ID: 05-local-and-lesser/130-damia-auxesia-aegina-herodotus

Cycle: Local and lesser — Epidaurian–Aeginetan–Attic cult logos

Version line: Herodotean — olive-wood statues; Aeginetan theft; Athenian disaster

Sources: Herodotus 5.82–88; cf. Pausanias 2.30.4, 2.32.2 (Epidaurus/Trozen notices of the pair)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/05-local-and-lesser/130-damia-auxesia-aegina-herodotus.md

Characters

Aeginetans — steal and install the cult
Damia and Auxesia — fertility heroines / goddesses of the statues
Epidaurians — first makers of the olive-wood images
People of Crisa — ordains the statues in famine
Solon — grant olive; later fail to recover the statues

Places

Epidaurus — origin of the cult-images
Oenone — inland sanctuary of Damia and Auxesia
Troezen — failed expedition’s return

Themes

Narrative

Herodotus reports that Epidaurus, suffering famine, was told by Delphi to set up statues of Damia and Auxesia of olive wood. The Epidaurians asked Athens for sacred olive; Athens granted it on condition of yearly offerings to Athena Polias and Erechtheus. When the statues were made, the land bore again. Later the Aeginetans, in revolt from Epidaurian dependence, stole the statues and set them up inland on Aegina with local rites (kneeling choruses, mockery-songs). Epidaurus stopped the Attic dues; Athens demanded the statues from Aegina and was refused. An Athenian expedition tried to drag the images away with ropes; the statues fell to their knees (hence the cult pose), thunder and earthquake struck, and most of the Athenians were killed—only one survivor, Herodotus says, reached Phalerum, and the Attic women stabbed him with pins. Athens then required its women to change dress-style; Aegina and Argos instituted pin-offerings. The logos binds fertility heroines, interstate theft of cult-images, and aetiology of ritual posture and costume.