Stave of Egretes

[imported_supernaturalistMember]

I had a dream sometime in the morning of 9 May. I am reading something in a book. The first part is really very hazy, and all I could recall about it was something like how this ancient document would become encased in amber for protection if something were to happen to it. The next part is crystal clear; on the page I see written the phrase (and I can still remember seeing the actual words) “Stave of Egretes”. This stays with me as I awake.

Following this I tried researching the “Stave of Egretes”. I was unable to find the name Egretes in anything I have available to me, and there is almost nothing on the web, but I did discover that there was an Egretes who was a minor hero who was worshipped by a private cult near Athens some time before the 3rd century B.C.E. From my research so far it looks as though the only thing known about Egretes is that the orgeones (the general term for members of a private cult as opposed to state-sanctioned cult) owned a wooded sanctuary for Egretes, which they had let out to a person called Diognetos for ten years at a rate of 200 drachmas a year. The sanctuary was near the Hill of the Nymphs, and sacrifice was made to Egretes in the month of Boedromion (Diognetos had to make the sanctuary available for this as part of his lease).

Boedromion was the month (around September/October) during which the Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated in Athens, obviously I don’t know if there is any connection. It is also the month for sowing. The Hill of the Nymphs (Lofos Nymphon? once called the Hill of Hyakinthos) now has an observatory on top of it, next to which is the remains of the sanctuary of the Nymphs. As an aside it is interesting that the nymphs (the yenethliai) protected women in childbirth in exchange for gifts of honey, and now the hill has the Church of Santa Marina, patron saint of childbirth!

It is encouraging that my dream referred to a character so obscure that I almost certainly haven’t come across him before (I couldn’t even find him in my dictionary of classical names). However, this obscurity is becoming quite frustrating. Apart from the possibility that my sleeping brain just made it up, if anyone can give any information (psychic or otherwise) on the Athenian Egretes or any other Egretes (and his stave), or if this is relevent to anyone else, then please post away.

Michael

[imported_SimonMember]

Friday Synchronicity (1). Yesterday morning as I walked to the train station, I was mulling over the name “egretes” and wondered if it might have a link to the egret bird (and was reminded of the “Swan vs Pelican” post elsewhere on these forums). As I thought this, I stepped on a flier for a local Tai Chi class that must have blown off the nearby noticeboard. On it was some kind of bird (heron?) that looked very like an egret.

[imported_supernaturalistMember]

Thanks for that Simon. When trying to research Egretes I kept coming up with lots of egrets; I hadn’t heard of them before then (my knowledge of flora and fauna is generally appalling), and pretty much ignored them as irrelevant. But perhaps I should be taking more notice!

Looking at etymology, our English word egret comes from the Old French aigrette, from Old Provencal aigreta, both of which do look similar to Egretes. I wonder what the plural form would look like.

Googling around, the best thing I found about the egret was its appearance in Celtic iconography, especially the Nautes Pillar ([url:1mhfhi8n]http://www.chronarchy.com/esus/nautes-pillar.html[/url]). There is a good article here [url:1mhfhi8n]http://www.chronarchy.com/mjournal/patrons/aboutesus.html[/url] about the Gaulish god Esus – the egrets/cranes are with a bull and willow tree in conjuction with this Esus, who appears to be chopping at the said willow-tree. Lots here that I haven’t digested yet, but it’s quite interesting that this is from Gaul, which would possibly tie-in with the French etymology of egret. The article mentions that Esus may be a hero rather than a god, which would perhaps link up with the little-known Greek hero Egretes. But Esus may also be a Mercury or an Odin figure.

Totally speculating now, using the Gaulish material. If Egretes refers to a collection of egrets, say the three egrets on the Nautes pillar, then the stave could be a branch of the willow tree cut by Esus. So for Stave of Egretes read “willow-branch of the egrets”?

Well, that seems to be stretching it a bit, and still doesn’t mean much to me, but I’ll bear it in mind.

I’ve tried meditating and dreaming on this. All I’ve got is an indistict image of a large bearded man, who reminds me a little of Clive Prince (I got a name, but as soon as I surfaced it always left me), and the date 28 August 2007. I guess I’ll just have to be patient!

Any more comments on any of this, I’m open to pretty much anything at the moment.

Michael

[imported_YURIMember]

I havent posted anything on this yet because Ive never heard of Egretes

But I see recurring themes; – one of the main themes of Andy new book (out in the autumn) is of a heavenly bird upon a tall pole; this is a recurring image across many cultures and I’m reminded of Simons recent image of of bat type wings upon a roman standard. basically any pole with wings atop like the mercurial symbol the Caduceus… could the Stave of Egretes be a ‘winged stave’ somehow?

The impression I got when first reading your post (no pun intended) was of a Swan Knight but I guess that’s just a hero figure emblazoned with a big white/grey bird.

The bird that Simon saw on a tai chi poster would most definitly be a Crane, which is very Egret looking

Curiously I am meeting some chap from Oxford on monday who practices some traditional Viking martial art, with choreography/movement postures based upon the runic alphabet, apparentally this is a traditional art and is called ‘Stav’, so I’ll be able to evaluate it from a tai chi perspective, see if there are any ‘White Crane Spreads its wings’ movements in there.

[imported_supernaturalistMember]

Thanks Yuri, I hadn’t heard of Egretes either before my dream. What you say about Simon’s med image is interesting, as my dream occured two days after that.

Hmmm, a winged stave sounds interesting. I’m wondering if the Mercury figure that came out of Hooe Lake (which is probably not ancient though, see my post on Hooe Lake) was carrying a caduceus? I’ll have to go back to the library when I can (or Torquay museum where I think it’s supposed to be, but the library is closer).

Your Stav man sounds interesting, though that sort of thing isn’t my cuppa, but I just thought that the runic characters as drawn/carved are called staves. I think.

Michael

[imported_SimonMember]

Hi Michael,

The ever-dependable and extremely knowledgable Dr. S has got back to me with following expansion on your Egretes info above. Not sure that there is any silver bullet but the further details on the context is excellent and the reference may be useful:

“This is not a well known hero cult at all, but there is some detail on it in R. Parker Athenian Religion, A History (Oxford 1976). I use him in the following:

After the Klesithenes reforms (ie after the rule of the so-called Tyrants in the 6th century BC) there were a number of religious reforms in Athens & Attica.

Every Athenian citizen (male) almost certainly belonged to a hereditary association know as phratries (phratry singular). There were ancestral festivals (Apatouria) connected with each of these associations.
This is the common form of hereditary associations to which all citizens belonged. But there were also private ones which were confined to a minority. Genos is one of these and the Orgeones is another one. Various different orgeones are known and they function as a a hereditary society, a subdivision of a phratry (see above).

OK, so there are various different types of these more exclusive groups and the identification of the different groups is largely dependent on the inscriptional evidence. NOW what you should remember is that although the inscriptions may be dated to between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC (as many of them are), these societies were actually founded earlier, probably at the time of Klesithenes reforms in the 6th century BC.
So what you have quoted at the end is actually an inscription which identifies one of these groups through their activities. The inscription itself is 4th century BC and it identifies an orgeones who worshipped a local hero Egretes.

The actual inscription reads:

The orgeones have leased the sanctuary of Egretes to Diognetos son of Arkesilos of Melite for ten years at 200 drachmas per year. He should treat the sanctuary and the building built in it as a sanctuary. Diognetos shall stucco (?) such walls as need it, and do any other building or fitting he may wish. When the term of the ten years is out, he shall take with him the beams and the roof-tiles and the doors, but shall remove nothing else. He shall look after the trees growing in the sanctuary and replace any that die and pass on the same total. …. When the orgeones sacrifice to the hero in (the moth) Boedromion, Diognetos must make available the building where the shrine is open, and the hut and the oven and dining couches and tables for two triclinia.

So there was a private group (hereditary) who worshipped a local hero, Egretes, who had a sanctuary but it was only opened during the period of sacrifice and feasting of the group in the month of Boedromion (September). Outside of this period, the actual sanctuary was closed and the building and associated fields were put to secular use (very practical!!). This could be leased out and then this would provide an income to the group who could presumably use the cash to pay for their annual festival and feast.

So its a private group that has a private shrine to a lesser known hero, Egretes.

There are lots & lots of these small scale heroes that were sacrificed to at different periods. Some lasted for centuries, some even made it to god-like status (eg Asclepius who could have temples) but many just stayed as minor heroes like Egretes (good for shrines only!).

The location, the Hill of the Nymphs is where the observatory is now in Athens. The hill is opposite the Acropolis (on the west side). Just below the Pnyx (see photo below).

So finally a quote about Egretes from Parker 1997, 111
‘Even if we concede that Egretes, say, was inaccessible to ordinary persons and that is orgeones participated in no public rite, does it follow that the association was seen as no more than a hereditary dining-club in thin religious disguise? Perhaps the presence of Egretes had, by whatever means, been detected in the locality, and an association had been formed to propitiate the potentially dangerous hero by regular worship. The orgeones feasted in private for the public good’.

I being cynical go for the first option!!

Hope this is some help!”

Not sure where to suggest you go for more info but it seems like there definitely is some substance behind your dream image.

Cheers,

Simon

[imported_YURIMember]

Quote:

but many just stayed as minor heroes like Egretes (good for shrines only!).

Very interesting… made me mindful of the numerous Holy Wells in Cornwall named after ‘local’ saints and hermits… Also of the Anglo Saxon saints of Northumbria; – many of whom were warriors and kings, guilty of all sorts of violence and warfare (often against their own kin)… did’nt stop them becoming ‘sainted’ though.

It’s almost as if being ‘Sainted’ was an acknowledgement of divine blood… ‘Os’ (Oswald, Osric, Oswin etc) means ‘godly’.

With Egretes the emphasis was on ‘hereditary rites’, Like the Chinese worshipping their ancestors at a family shrine, those who nurtured Egretes shrine, could they be the descendents of a once ‘heroic’ ancestor?

[imported_supernaturalistMember]

Cheers Simon and Yuri (and the mysterious Dr. S). Very interesting. I am intreagued by the privacy (and secrecy?) and hereditary nature of the Egretes cult (sounds like a kind of archaic Greek version of the Freemasons – religious/mystical order or chaps getting together for a bun-fight? ). Yuri’s suggestion does sound plausible, that they considered themselves descendents of the hero, as does the comparison with the host of minor saints.

I wonder if the sanctuary trees are important, as the orgeones were evidently keen that they be looked after and their number kept constant. I wonder what species they were, and whether they are still there?

If there was a Stave of Egretes, perhaps it was cut from one of these sacred trees? Maybe it was the focus of the sanctuary? Perhaps it was passed down within the hereditary group after the organised cult came to an end? Perhaps I am of the lost line of Egretes, it having passed to Italy and from thence into my ice-cream selling ancestors in Florence? OK, I’m not being entirely serious (though it’s true about the ice-cream selling ancestors from Florence, not that you’d guess it from my blond-haired, blue-eyed Teutonic good looks).

It’s tantalising, but there’s so little to go on. I’ll just have to see if any more information surfaces, and encourage Egretes to give me some more (bun-fight anyone? All in honour of Egretes of course!).

That is assuming he is the right chap, and that I shouldn’t be chasing after egrets after all!

Michael

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