THEO´RI
THEO´RI (
θεωροί). There
can be little doubt that the origin of this word is not
θεὸς and
ὥρα,
as most of the ancient Lexicographers thought, but is the same as that of
θεάομαι (Curtius,
Gr.
Etym. 253; L. and S.). Hence it should follow that the original
offcial signification of the word (apart from its
simple meaning,
οἱ θεώμενοι) was a
magistrate, literally
“overseer,” like
ἔφορος. We
find this title
θεωροὶ or
θεαροὶ given, without any religious meaning, to
the chief magistrates of certain states; at Mantinea (
Thuc. 5.47); at Tegea (
Xen. Hell.
6.5,
7; see Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. 2.328).
Hence the word acquired the sense with which we are most familiar,
sacred ambassadors or
delegates (as though “overseers” of the sacred business),
i. e. persons sent on special missions (
θεωρίαι) to perform some religious duty for the state, to
consult an oracle, or to represent the state at some religious festival in
another land, where among other ceremonies sacrifice would be offered on
behalf of their state. Photius, though doubtless wrong in his etymology,
expresses the meaning rightly by
τοὺς τὰ θεῖα
φυλάττοντας ἢ τὸ θεῖον φροντίζοντας: Pollux (2.55),
misled by the double meaning, gives two different roots to the word. These
sacred
θεωροὶ were not permanent officials,
but were specially appointed from among the citizens for each occasion. The
title apparently belongs to delegates of this kind from any Greek state: e.
g. the
θεωροὶ of foreign states made
offerings for their own states at the Eleusinia on 17th Boedromion (A.
Mommsen,
Heort. 250;
ELEUSINIA Vol. I. p. 718; cf.
Soph.
O. T. 114), and similarly of the Great
Panhellenic games: so, when we find
πρόβουλοι καὶ
θεωροὶ sent by different Greek states yearly to the
ELEUTHERIA at Plataea, the
former have to do with the political affairs of the confederacy, the latter
with the religious part of the festival (Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. 1.91).
But we are specially concerned with the theori at Athens. Here also there
were no standing officials so called, but the name was given to those
citizens who were appointed from time to time to conduct religious embassies
to various places; of which the most important were those that were sent to
the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games, those that went for any
purpose to consult the oracle at Delphi, and those that led the solemn
procession to Delos for the Apollinean spring festival, in which
Pisistratus, from political motives, contrived that Athens should take a
leading part (see E. Curtius,
Hist. of Greece, 1.36 E. T.;
DELIA). I The expense of any
such embassy was defrayed partly by the state, partly by a wealthy citizen,
to whom the management was entrusted, called
ἀρχιθέωρος. This was a sort of
λειτουργία, and frequently a very costly one. In the case of
the Delphic theoria for consulting the oracle, the travelling money provided
by the state was not large, and the personal expense probably also moderate,
but a considerable sum was provided for the Delian theoriae, more than a
talent for each of the yearly (lesser) festivals, and (in Ol. 101. 3) nearly
1 1/4 talent for the greater quadrennial festival (see Fränkel's
note or Boeckh,
Staatshaush. i.3 272):
but the magnificence depended mainly on the liberality of the architheoros,
to whom it became a point of honour to discharge his office handsomely, to
wear a golden crown, to drive into the city with a fine chariot, retinue,
&c. Nicias is reported to have incurred unusual expenses in his
embassy to Delos; and Alcibiades astonished all the spectators at Olympia by
his display (Grote,
Hist. 6.389, 7.72;
Thuc. 6.16).
As to the offices of the Pythaistae (
Πυθαισταὶ) and Deliastae, which require some notice here, there
is a difference of tradition; but it seems tolerably certain that
Harpocration and Hesychius (s. v.
Δηλιασταὶ)are wrong in making the Deliastae =
θεωροί, and there is still less warrant for
concluding, as most modern authorities have done, that both the Pythaistae
and Deliastae had this meaning. What evidence we have leads rather to the
conclusion that they were not sent with the missions at all, but were two
priestly families, whose duty it was to regulate by observance of celestial
omens the time for starting sacred embassies to Delphi and Delos
respectively. For the
θεωρία to Delphi,
which made the yearly offering from Athens some time about June (A. Mommsen,
Heort. 315), the Pythaistae through a period of three
months (April-June) watched at the altar of
Ζεὺς
Ἀστραπαῖος, looking northwards to Harma, a district in
Mount Parnes near Phyle. Theoretically, no doubt, if no lightning appeared,
the offering could not be sent at its normal time in June; but as modern
observations (A. Mommsen,
Delph. p. 315) show that there is
always a great deal of lightning in that district during those months, it is
probable that there was rarely, if ever, an impediment. The omens having
been duly observed, when the embassy to Delphi was started the Pythaistae
offered sacrifice in the Pythium at Oenoe: the Deliastae (regarding whose
method of observing omens we have no, definite particulars) sacrificed for
the Delian embassy in the Delium at Marathon (
Strabo ix. p.404;
Athen.
6.234 e; Schol.
ad
Soph. Oed. Col. 1047;
Hesych. sub voce
ἀστράπτει δι᾽ ἅρματος: A. Mommsen,
Delphica, p. 314; Curtius,
Hist. of
Greece, ii. p. 8; Töpffer, in
Hermes, xxx. pp. 321 ff.). [For the sacred ships. employed,
see
THEORIS]
[
C.R.K] [
G.E.M]
