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For Antony Aveni, archaeoastronomy consists not only in finding astronomically significant

artefacts but also about highlighting the possibilities that the sites investigated might not

have any astronomical and astrological significance as well. 1 Regarding the methodology to

pursue such a research Aveni notes the problem of the semi-hard facts of archaeology in

need for illumination from the hard facts of the phenomenal world.2 Nevertheless, Aveni

concludes that in the process of interdisciplinary admixture of astronomical and

anthropological observations, there is always the possibility one discipline to overtop the

delicate balance and he particularly mentions how ethnological data cannot be treated so

rigorously in a quantitative mode.3 It seems then quite natural for him to question any careful

measurement to extreme arc minute accompanied by a rather sloppy and negligent historical

precision.4 In this respect Clive Ruggle’s work, was an example of combining the benefit of

rigid data in order to secure certain patterns within archaeological evidence in relevance with

ethno-historical information.5 Efrosyni Boutsikas is a scholar that adds in this enquiry on

methodology, the element of profound knowledge of mythological narratives of the

investigated cultures and cultic ritual but under the thorough examination of the reliability of

the sources.6

Regarding the current topic of archaeoastronomical research of the Leyphkopetra sanctuary

of the Mother of Gods in Greece, this can be located within a general debate running for over

two centuries among scholars. In this argument, modern scholars tend to question old

established ideas over the astronomical features of ancient temples and architecture in

general such as Boutsikas thesis versus Heinrich Nissen’s (1839-1912) and Francis Cranmer

Penrose’s (1817-1903), among others. 7 Or of Michael E. Smith versus the definite

astronomical hypothesis over Maya city plans advocated by Wendy Ashmore and Jeremy

Sabloff . 8 Finally another such debatable topic of argument was Ruggles’ questioning of

1 Antony Aveni (ed), Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, (Boulder CO:

University Press of Colorado, pp. 826, 2008), p. 7, [Hereafter Aveni, Foundations of New

World Cultural Astrology]. 2 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astrology, p. 158.

3 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astrology, p. 159.

4 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astrology, p. 159.

5 Clive Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, (New Haven CT: Yale

University Press, pp.285, 1999), p. 78, [Hereafter Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric

Britain and Ireland].

6 Efrosyni Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult: An application of

archaeoastronomy to Greek religious architecture, cosmologies and landscape, PhD

thesis for the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, university of Leicester,

February, 2007, 223 pp, p. 33,

http://kent.academia.edu/EfrosyniBoutsikas/Papers/329843/Astronomy_and_Ancient_Gr

eek_Cult_An_Application_of_Archaeoastronomy_to_Greek_Religious_Architecture_Co

smologies_and_Landscapes, [Accessed on 18 February 2012], [Hereafter Boutsikas,

Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult]. 7 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 12. 8 Michael E. Smith, ‘Can We Read Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans? Comment on Ashmore and

Sabloff’, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 2 (June, 2003), 221-228,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557596, [Accessed on 14 February 2012]

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Alexander Thom’s (1894-1985) “paradigm” which, ‘tended to close people’s eyes’, to other

possible astronomical features besides the already examined by older research. 9

Nevertheless, Aveni argues that on the research of cultures, quite or totally unknown to

investigators, a method of inclusive approach is preferred more than focusing on deficiency-

oriented systems of belief; this may also be useful in the way approach to the work of other

scholars in archaeoastronomy is attempted. 10

Lionel Sims is another scholar that has

engaged in such an attempt to complement past views with his theory on Stonehenge and the

possibility of having been the place of merging or political manipulation of two contradicting

cosmo-visions the lunar and solar religions; thus questioning past theories of solstitial-only

orientation.11

In such a mode, this paper will proceed as well, since Aveni too refers to such a

mental exercise of synthesizing already published data as helpful in organizing and

redirecting questions for future study, of course under the light of recent and certain

measurements on the site under discussion. 12

The underlying pattern of this current study is possibly more elaborately evident in Aveni’s

question whether the scientific community has underplayed the role of the use of

environment, architecture and hierophany in propagating knowledge of the social order.13

Nevertheless Smith notes that for some scholars research for astronomical features in

archaeological sites reveals more probably about the minds of modern researchers than about

the minds of the ancients and thus he suggests more rigorous and explicit methods of

archaeology as well.14

In this mode, Smith adds that the inverse situation may be possibly

helpful besides focusing on intended astronomical alignments on sites, which is that

apparently meaningful patterns may have arisen from random factors unrelated to any

cosmological ideas of the builders.15

Boutsikas notes that due to Penrose’ and Nissen’s work

researchers do not engage in discussions on the significance of a potential astronomical

orientation of ancient Greek religious structures while recent studies presuppose such

orientation without justification.16

Instead, Boutsikas suggests that an improved methodology

would combine archaeological evidence, historical and literary sources, and

archaeoastronomical data collection and analysis.17

9 Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, p. 149. 10 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 254. 11 Lionel Sims, ‘The “Solarization” of the Moon: Manipulated Knowledge at Stonehenge’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal (June 2006), 16 : pp 191-207,

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=441785,

accessed on 5 July 2012]. 12 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 270. 13 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 270. 14 Michael E. Smith, ‘Can We Read Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans? Comment

on Ashmore and Sabloff’, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 2 (June, 2003), pp.

221-228, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557596, [Accessed on 14 February 2012], p. 221,

[Hereafter Smith, Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans]. 15 Smith, Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans, p. 223. 16 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 33. 17 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 47.

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It is known that a substantial surviving written record of astronomical and astrological

observation and naming regarding female celestial figures has been the tablet from Akkadian

ruler Sargon around 2334-2279 BCE with reference to planet Venus.18

Venus was the visible

representative of Inanna or Ishtar the Queen of Heavens whose myth was that she descended

through seven gates to the underworld following her consort the shepherd king Dulmuzi or

Tammuz.19

This Venus tablet may have been, according to Nickolas Campion, the first

written evidence of subjection of divine power to natural mathematical or cosmic laws since

the cyclic appearance and disappearance of celestial deities was something observable,

predictable and in a certain way ruling over deities.20

This Mesopotamian culture was not

so unfamiliar to the Greek world since due to the Hittite Empire and its interaction with the

Egyptian culture evidence of astrological and astronomical interest has been abundant in the

wider Asia minor region around and after the fifteenth century BCE, whilst Indian influences

cannot be excluded as well.21

Campion recognizes the Greek world as, ‘on a crossroads in

the trade roots of ideas where not only the Mesopotamian literary tradition but also the

northern astronomical oral lore was probably accessible’.22

This knowledge, object of

ideological trading along the wider region, must have been for the inhabitants, unusual,

unique, innovative and perfect or monstrous according to the circumstances, as Mircae

Eliade notes.23

Eliade locates such beliefs within the larger and higher religious forms and

systems where elementary hierophanies fit in; also present there, are whole traditional

theories, not reducible to elementary theories, as for example myths about human condition

or underlying various rites and moral notions.24

For Michael Hoskin there is a false

dichotomy between ritual and folk practice on one hand and high-level predictive astronomy

on the other since he recognizes in Hesiod’s account on farmer’s use of a constellations’

heliacal rising to tell the season favorable to planting, a predictive nature.25

Aveni notes in

this respect that setting up the ritual of the agricultural calendars can be one of the principal

motives for cultures to practice sky watching. 26

For Boutsikas stars had been pivotal in the

formation of Greek philosophical and cosmological thought such as Anaximander’s (c.610-

c.546 BCE) reference to them as ‘cycles of fire’.27

Boutsikas argues that Greek astronomy

was expressed both by pre-scientific and scientific trends and that the Platonic Socrates

stressed its purpose within the research aspect and in pursue of truth and not in its common

18 Nicholas Campion, A History of Western Astrology: The Ancient World, 2 Vols,

(London: Continuum, pp.388, 2008), I, p. 51, [Hereafter Campion, A History of Western

Astrology I]. 19 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 52. 20 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 66-67. 21Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 132. 22 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 132. 23 Mircae Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska

Press, 1996), p. 13, [Hereafter Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion] 24 Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, p. 30. 25 Michael Hoskin (edit), The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 10, [Hereafter Hoskin, The Cambridge Concise

History of Astronomy] 26 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 71. 27 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 2.

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use from farmers, sailors and generals.28

Besides this dismissive attitude towards practical

use and the vague pursue of truth there can be detected a geometrical - partly Pythagorean

and partly Aristotelian - relationship of the Greeks with the celestial dome and through

Hesiodic naturalism and Hippocratic medicine, Hellenistic astrology was the climax in this

relationship. 29

Thus with few exceptions the Greeks preferred theoretical models to the

evidence of empirical observation in their astrological practices. 30

Besides what we can historically realize through the study of literary sources and

archaeological evidence the challenge for Kim Malville is to understand the ancient sky-

watchers and be able to see the heavens through their eyes.31

One of the functions of ancient

astronomy Malville adds must have been the providing of authority to emperors and kings

combined with a variety of techniques for preserving and transmitting of knowledge.32

This

non-religious approach to astronomy and astrology can be classified according to Eliade as

Kratophanies, that is the investment of political and social power with cosmic sacredness

perpetuated through ritual and rhythmic life.33

Under this pattern, many cultures have

transformed their homes and temples into miniature universes, which were smaller and more

manageable than the larger reality. 34

‘Mysterious in her cycles of life and death with her

power to provide and take it away, Mother Nature is an inscrutable benefactress not always

benign or fully predictable, especially in terms of agriculture and climatic change’ according

to Malville.35

Overlying this uncertainty the regularity of the sun and the planets in the

apparently unchanging order of the heavens must have led Plato and Aristotle to separate it

from the decay of the earth.36

This division did not inhibit Greeks to see the heavens in

anthropomorphic terms with Plato stressing in Epinomis of the divine nature of stars and

Stoics influenced by Heracletos who held that human beings were transformed into gods and

then to stars, suggesting thus a strong relation of astronomical philology and religious

belief.37

Boutsikas adds that divine presence or epiphany was sought in natural surroundings

with the belief that divinity of the skies was a primary agent in this process.38

This belief,

was also incorporated in the geometry of city planning and the organization of social life

with the example of Anaximander (c.610-c.546).39

Almost all the sky was depicted in Greek

mythology and vice versa; the myths were mapped onto the heavens.40

This was easily

demonstrated in the catasterism myths of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Orion, Perseus,

Andromeda, Centaur Cheiron, that is Sagittarious; Aquarious who was Ganymedes and

28 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 3. 29 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 217. 30 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 76. 31 J. McKim Malville, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, (Boulder CO:

Johnson Books, 166 pp., 2008), p. 3, [Hereafter Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric

Astronomy in the Southwest]. 32 Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 4-5. 33 Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, p. 14-15. 34 Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 26. 35 Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 26. 36 Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 26. 37

Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 3. 38 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 4. 39 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 5. 40 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 47.

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certain other constellations with names of gods, heroes and creatures. 41

The foreground of

Greek mythology incorporated a wider geographical region than Greece proper, suggesting

probably for religion what Campion notes about Greek philosophy, science and rationalism;

that it must have not developed as a reaction to any superstitious neighbours but by

appropriating and developing world-views. 42

Nevertheless and besides Mesopotamian

dominion in literary records on astronomical and astrological observation, during the fifth

century and almost contemporary with these Asian Minor’s aforementioned activities, Greek

sky-watchers made observations in Thrace, Macedonia, Cyclades and Athens apparently

using zodiacal signs to describe planetary positions.43

Two famous astronomers, related to

the technology of early parapegmata in this period, were Meton and Euctemon. 44

The

fundamental difference of the Greek thought on astronomical observations must have been

the Platonic ideal Cosmos upon which the natural world should conform, namely the EAE

paradigm over the PCP paradigm, where empirically correlating of celestial patterns with

events could provide helpful information through recognition of a pattern, practiced by the

Mesopotamian cultures.45

The most remarkable evidence of the sophistication of the

technical culture by the second century BCE was the Antikythera mechanism attributed to

Geminus of Rhodes containing thirty seven gears predicting sun and moon eclipses and

Hipparchus’ contemporary discovered lunar irregularities and the planets’ movements.46

Within this context of a syncretic cosmology in philosophy and religion the trends in Greek

mythology related in a certain degree with astronomical observation followed the general

flow from polyphonic pantheism towards the Zoroastrian and Orphic monotheism of the all

encompassing God Zeus and the fundamental duality expressed by the Eleatic philosopher

Parmenides (515 BCE). 47

During the Hellenistic period (first quarter of fourth century BCE

to the Roman conquest in the late first century BCE the admixture of cultures added to the

astronomical and astrological beliefs and knowledge of the Greek world.48

Philosopher

Claudius Ptolemy lived in Alexandria around 90 AD in a scholarly environment where

Gnostics, Hermeticists and members of the various mystery schools were advancing

astrology. 49

Ptolemy provided a scientific basis for astrology, involved with the natural

causes and effects of heavenly influences while resisted any spiritualizing trends of

Hermeticism and Mithraism.50

This was the environment as constructed by historical data relating to the Greek world of

astronomical and astrological knowledge related particularly to religious belief and practice

as the possible background of the development of the certain cult here examined. According

to Kaliope Hatzinikolaou this is an old deity known as Mother Μήτηρ connected with the

41 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 48. 42 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 128. 43 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 128 44 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 148. 45 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 151. 46 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 204. 47

Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 140,142. 48 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 209. 49 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 209. 50 Campion, A History of Western Astrology I, p. 209.

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indigenous Mother Earth aspect in the Central (or Upper according to Hatzinikolaou)

Macedonia’s , Phrygian Kingdom.51

The Phrygians with colonies in Asia Minor – related

according to Euripides to Troy – advanced it to an ancient female cult and returned to the

Greek mainland as the more elaborate goddess Kybele or Kubaba. 52

Identification with the

Greek myth of goddess Rhea was natural, the Titaness daughter of Ouranos – the sky not the

planet Uranus - and Mother Earth; Rhea married Chronus and bore Zeus who mutilated his

father for devouring his children. 53

Kybele was named also Ορεία/Oreia since she was

worshiped on mountain summits; equated with Venus during and after Hellenistic period was

concelebrated with the Attis cult, the shepherd who hunting a bore, dies and descends to the

underworld. 54

Athanasios Rizakis and Ioannis Touratsoglou mention how the Attis cult was

easily incorporated in the local belief system since Hercules the hunter-hero was related to

the Macedonian ancestry.55

In her service, the goddess had the Kourytes or Kourybandes.56

The cult comprised certain orgiastic/katharctic/purifying elements and the Goddess was

often depicted with either Attis or Dioscuroi(Zeus’ servants)/Gemini. 57

According to the archaeologist Liana Stephani, participant to the primary excavation that

revealed the Leyphkopetra settlement contingent to the temple, the site had been inhabited

from prehistoric copper Age (3600-1200 BCE) and later phases of iron Age (1200 BCE-300

AD) until Philip II and Hellenistic period.58

Located on the southern foothills of Mount

Vermion with vegetation and water supplies by the nearby Aliakmon River the place must

have been stationary for the ancestral Macedons emigrating from the northern, cold Epirus

towards the warmer seas of the Aegean.59

During second millennium BCE there is further

51 Kaliope G. Hatzinikolaou, Phd thesis on, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper

Macedonia in antiquity (Elimeia, Eordaia, Orestiada, Lygistida), (Thessaloniki: Aristotle

University , 351 pp., 2007), page 291, [Hereafter Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and

Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity] 52 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 291-

292. 53 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 292. 54

Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 292. 55

Athanasios Rizakis and Ioannis Touratsoglou, Cults in Upper Macedonia, Tradition

and Innovations, in Ancient Macedonia: Sixth International Symposium, Vol. 2,

(Thessaloniki: Institute of Balkan Studies, 1999), pp. 949-965, p. 953, [Hereafter Rizakis

Touratsoglou, Cults in Upper Macedonia, Tradition and Innovations, in Ancient

Macedonia]

56 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 293. 57 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 293. 58 Liana Stephani, ‘The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion:

The example of Leykopetra Himathia’, in The Archaeological Work in Macedonia and

Thrace 16, 706 pp., (Thessaloniki: Adam-Beleni, 2004), pp. 531-542, p. 531, [Hereafter

Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion]. 59 See Index, Photo 1/ Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of

Vermion, p. 531.

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expansion and resettling. 60

Towards the sixth to fourth centuries BCE impressive seven-

meter long habitual buildings are developing, with space for temporary food storage,

elaborate pottery and an organized copper-melting point. 61

For Stephani this was not a

typical agricultural settlement due to its long tradition and continuous participation in local

historical events.62

The settlement along with the temple was definitely in constant

communication with the contingent ancient town Veroia known from the New Testament as

one of the Macedonian cities where Apostle Paul taught the Christian dispensation.63

In

Veroia the Macedon Common, a prefectural political centre had its base which during the

Roman rule was the second most significant district after Thessaloniki. 64

From the

inscriptions of liberation acts that were found in the Mother’s sanctuary regarding slaves, it

is related that the temple’s priests were all after imperial names that is the most authoritative

recognition of citizenship and social status. 65

In 205/205 BCE the cult is transported to Rome as Mater Magna celebrated during spring

festivals and from there expanded to the whole empire. 66

While during the third century

BCE women presided over the cult, later on the second century AD male priests were

established called Galloi or Mitragyrtes practicing in public view. 67

The goddess was often

depicted with a fortress type crown signifying perhaps her faculty as patron of the settlement

while most frequently sanctuaries of Zeus Hipsistos were found near her sanctuaries.68

It is

also significant that the Leyphkopetra Mother according to inscriptions found in the site was

always regarded as indigenous that is Μήτηρ Αυτόχθονος besides any transmigration of cultic

beliefs.69

Nevertheless similar examples of local syncretism and production of religious

belief is also evident in southern Greek island Crete with definite relations with the

Phoenician and Egyptian worlds. 70

According to Mpousboukis, a Grammic A (proto-

Hellenic writing) inscription found there around the fifteen hundred BCE is also relevant.71

60 Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 533. 61 Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 535-6. 62 Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 536. 63 Acts, Chapter seventeen, The New testament, (Athens: O Sotir, pp. 1064, 1986), p. 552. 64 Dimitios K. Samsaris, Individual Allowances in Roman State (cinitas Romana) and

their distribution in the Roman prefecture of Macedonia. II: The case of Beroia, seat of

the Macedon Common, Macedonia Studies Company, http://www.ems.gr/analytikos-

katalogos-ekdoseon/makedonika/makedonika-27.html . [Accessed on 2 July 2012], pp.

327-382, p. 327, [Herafter Samsaris, Individual Allowances in Roman State]. 65 Samsaris, Individual Allowances in Roman State, p. 334,338. 66 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 294. 67 Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 294. 68 See Index, Photo 2/Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia

in antiquity, p. 208, 299. 69 Stephani, The Organization of Space in a Semi-mountainous area of Vermion, p. 539. 70 Antonios Mpousboukis, ‘The Ma “Mother” in Edessa and wider Macedonian space’,

pp. 111-123 and Miltiades B Hatzopoulos, The Cult of Goddess Ma in Edessa, pp. 125-

132, in G. Kiutuskas (edit.), Municipality of Edessa, Proceedings of the A΄ Pan-Hellenic

Scientific Symposium, “Edessa and its Region: History and Culture”, (Edessa: 4, 5 and 6

December 1992), (Edessa: Vourgoundis Printing, 1995), p. 113, [Hereafter Mpousdoukis,

The Ma “Mother]. 71 Mpousdoukis, The Ma “Mother, p. 113.

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This inscription is bearing the dedication, “Wanakasi, Nopina Ma, Siru Te”; or To the

dominant goddesses, the bride goddess Mother and the divine Sun. 72

Bousboukis confirms

that the cult of the Mother of the Gods as definitely evinced in the inscriptions from the

Leyphkopetra site, was the personification of spiritualized earth in its wildest aspect thus

accompanied in certain depictions by two lions. 73

The idea of the divine mother was a link

with the human soul and the archetype of the unconscious reflected on her, as the opposing

entity and the fear of the dominion she expressed. 74

She is also frequently depicted with a

pole in her head instead of fortress symbolic of the Mother’s womb in its higher cosmic

dimension relating the human head, the highest material part with the cosmic spheres. 75

The

most definite reference to the planetary relationship of the certain cult, can be regarded a

single inscription, No 139 from the site, which concludes the liberating act with an

invocation to the Sun and the Moon (Ήλιος και Σελήνη). 76

The text translated is, “To the

Mother of Gods Indigenous dedicated we wish …SO NOT of the aforementioned child

neither seller nor lender but be of the Indigenous serving as it can …Sun and Moon…”.77

Regarding the Archaeoastronomical survey of the sanctuary of the Mother of Gods in

Leyphkopetra the rectangular form of the temple was measured to be almost 24 meters

length and 11 meters wide. The primary orientation according to measurements with a

magnetic compass were East-West with temple’s Adytum, the innermost sanctuary facing

westward; that is the rear side exactly opposite to the four-column entrance facing

eastward.78

Magnetic bearing of the sidelines of the temple were taken starting from North

and turning clockwise around a central point for each of the four sides of the building. 79

It

was identified that local positive magnetic declination of 3, 51° imposed a correction

72 Mpousdoukis, The Ma “Mother, p. 113. 73 See Index Photo 3 & 4/Mpousdoukis, The Ma “Mother, p. 116. 74 Mpousdoukis, The Ma “Mother, p. 118. 75 Mpousdoukis, The Ma “Mother, p. 119, 124. 76 Harzopoulos et all, Inscreptions Du Sanctuaire De La Mere Des Dieux Autochtone De

Leukopetra (Macedoine), (Athens: Centre of Greek and Roman Antiquity , 364 pp.,

2000), p187, http://helios-eie.ekt.gr/EIE/handle/10442/7377, [Accessed on 2 July 2012],

p.187, [Hereafter Hatzopoulos et all, Inscreptions]. 77

Harzopoulos et all, Inscreptions, p.187./ Inscription No 139,

[ Μ]ητρί Θε-

4 [ών Αύτόχθονι άνέθ]ηκεν εύχο-

[μεν JIATOPOCAN

[ ]ΜΗΝ του προγε-

[γραμμένου] παιδαρίου μήται

8 [πωλητήν μ]ήτε δανιστήν είνε

[ μηδέ]να, άλλα είν' αυτό

[ ]HC εν Αύτόχθονι

[—ύπηρετ]οΰντα καθώς δύ-

12 [ναται —]OIC "Ηλιος, Σελήνη

78 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, Glossary, p. xiii. 79 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, Glossary, p. 50.

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“pushing” true north in a same angle towards north-western horizon. Accordingly, the four

directions should follow the same correction in relation to the directions of the temple.80

Then the mountainous landscape was measured for inclination variety that is the vertical

angle of the observer and the different features of the horizon. 81

The most obvious feature is

a slightly observable pit or swag of the opposite mountain line along the eastern alignment of

the temple. 82

This mountain line is several hundred miles away and no possibility of

conducting counter-measurements from up there was considered essential since the distance,

non-accessibility and no other technical aligning point between, indicated such need. The

rear sanctuary or the Adytum facing westward, was carved on schist-rock and there is no

evidence that windows would allow sight to the horizon; so celestial observation towards this

direction could be possible - if any - only from the opposite entrance side.83

The horizon

features were then put into a sketch in order to note graphically the measurements in a single

image with the temples’ ground plan at the center.84

Totally two visits on the site were

conducted one late April during day-light and with the presence of the excavation crew

when all the aforementioned measurements were done and one on mid- May full Moon in

the surrounding site.

Then the coordinates of the site from Google Earth were cross-referenced with the chief

archaeologist Ioannis Graikos; whose personal help was available through all this current

research. Then with the particular coordinates, that is 402609,67 and 221041,10 certain

simulations of the horizon activity in the past were examined using the Stellarium software.

The chronological checking-points were set according to the aforementioned archaeological

data as following. Four thousand BCE was the first point indicating the definite settling of

human activity. One thousand five hundred was the second point as the period with certain

changes –migration, wars, political organization - in the general Greek region. 750 BCE

successively, when archaic period brought changes in religious and national consciousness

and finally the ending Hellenistic (0-146 BC) and the Roman rule (146 BCE-500 AD) were

regarded as one period with almost the same religious-philosophical environment. These

time-brackets were useful in order to locate the specific chronological shifts in the

alignments of astronomical features with the temple’s orientation as related to known

historical changes. It was identified that the temple was facing 3,51° southward the true east

where the rising sun of late March tended to align as ages passed towards 750 BCE.85

The

month coincides with the aforementioned festivals of the Mother celebrated in Rome. During

those days temple doors would open allowing the solar light to reach the Adytum.86

The

celestial drama of the cult may be placed on the opposite direction though, since towards the

western horizon the Constellation Virgo pulled by the double Constellation Leo (Major and

Minor Leo) would follow Orion the hunter going down in the underworld after the

Constellation of the Bull. This would acquire specific importance when during May when

the sun would set somewhere near Constellation Taurus and the full moon would be rising

opposite in the south-east horizon; a correlation but not a definite alignment of the two

80 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 55. 81 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 54. 82 See Index, Photos 5 & 6. 83 See Index Photo 7. 84 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 54. 85 See Index, Photo 8. 86 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 12.

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cardinal directions in this May full moon might have been charged with a certain cosmo-

magical significance. 87

This night under the moon light would have been most opportune for

purifying ritual although each full moon would indicate minor festival rites as well. It was

also identified through simulation that the Constellation Virgo aligned its setting during the

ages finally with the west side of the temple from 750 BCE onwards moving its setting from

north-west to south-west. On the north horizon again somewhere about 750 BCE onwards

Polaris was acquiring its clock-star position and during the same period Bootees (the man

with the sickle) was diminishing below horizon. This direction should have been identified,

as the side of the shortest, dark and cold day of the year while on the opposite south direction

of the temple the new moon would rise along with the sun as the counter event of the

‘humiliated’ Bootes. Finally end-September the festival of the goddess would reach its

climax with Mother (Constellation Virgo) rising victorious before the sun drawing upward

the solar disk thus emerging again from the underworld. This drama in both its opposite

directions east and west reaches its definite alignment with the temple’s direction within the

Roman period somewhere between one to three hundred AD with archaeological data

identifying its foundation near the fist-second century according to oral information from

site-archaeologists. Inclinations of the surrounding horizon were measured into declination

and compared with certain stars’ declination that are known as parts of the constellations

involved in this observation thus deducing the software results to a more testable mode. The

declination of the four cardinal directions of the temple were corrected with azimuth

measurements increased to 3,51° magnetic declination.88

According to Boutsikas the majority of Greek cults were initially highlighted in a sanctified

landscape with recognized hierophanies later to be established with buildings.89

Moon phases

could also have been observed since the Parapegmata of Eudoxous (408-355 BC) were

already known from the fourth century BCE in the Greek world. Both the lunar and the solar

calendar would have been in use, as well as the seasonal one. 90

As seen from the statue

found in the nearby settlement the goddess was depicted with crescent moons on her crown

among three rectangular bands possibly indicating the cardinal cross with the fourth on the

back. 91

From the ethnographic research, the celestial activity around the site seems to

coincide with the aforementioned mythology of goddess Rhea or Kybele. The vicious

87

Malvile, Guide to the prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest, p. 103. 88

Constell./Star 4000 BCE

Declination

1500 BCE

Declination

750 BCE

Declination

100-400 AD

Declination

Virgo/ Spica East 18,22 7,82 5,22 Not found from other

source.

Leo Maj/. Regulous East 21,80 23,48 22,72 Not found from other

source.

Gemmini Castor East 19,55 30,30 31,65 Not found from other

source.

Temple’s eastern Direction. 3,47 3,47 3,47 3,47

Temple’s western direction 62,57 62,57 62,57 62,57

Bootes /Arcturus north. 49,87 37,73 34,97 Not found from other

source.

Temple’s northern

direction.

56,14 56,14 56,14 56,14

Temple’s southern direction -27,61 -27,61 -27,61 -27,61

89 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 187. 90 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 66. 91 See again Index, Photo 2.

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husband Chronus (the sickle man) should diminish, for the Mother to save her son (Zeus) or

lover (Orion-Hercules the hunter who was Zeus son) while helped from the overshadowing

Dioscuroi (Zeus-helpers) that is Gemini actually above the drama on the west with Mother

descending.92

Eliade would describe this drama as hierophanies in a dialectic phase among

what is sacred and what is profane. 93

Aveni would probably see also how the certain aspects

of the surrounding would appraise the environment assigning to it meaning.94

Aveni finally

would distinguish some dialectic too where the opposite phenomena could be simultaneously

regarded contradictory and supportive to each other.95

According to Sims, this may be

classified within the ‘solarization of the moon’ and the gradual assimilation of the old female

cult to the male state religion having already been established in northwestern Europe since

Stonehenge. 96

The aforementioned correlation of the Mother of Gods with both Venus and Jupiter must

have also been the object of cultic interest but there is not any written record, nor nay certain

patterns were found within this research; but this could be the subject of future investigation

along with updated archaeological data. Nevertheless, it has been obvious that Venus had

been almost always (besides her eight-year cycle) present in the rising and setting of the sun

either as drawing down Orion and Mother or as following her victoriously in the east. Aveni

points that we can never reconstruct the original meaning of the objects retrieved by

excavation and we should engage in a probabilistic argument keeping in mind only a partial

similarity and never a complete or exact identity. 97

Regarding the particular cult, it may be

related that it belongs to a wider need for the formation of world-views which according to

Ruggles are expressing contemporary ideologies.98

When time and ideology are related to

space, this landscape has a temporal use regarding its phenomenal relation with the cosmic

cycles.99

Thus, the hierophanies emerge, then diminishing and regenerating elsewhere

within different theoretical contexts.100

The inductions to archetypes then emerge, where

temporality transforms into symbology eternal, thus having the Mother of the Gods reporting

“allegedly” through Latin writer Apuleius, her real name “Isis” and thus claiming her

universal status. 101

The temple here examined is to be partially restored in commemoration

of its presence as the bright symbol of the Mother aspect and the sustainer of mater’s

inherent divinity, to be observed from the passing-by international highway. 102

92Hatzinikolaou, The Cults of Gods and Heroes in Upper Macedonia in antiquity, p. 293. 93 Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, p. 13. 94 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 726. 95 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 486. 96 Lionel Sims, ‘Solarization of the Moon: Manipulated knowledge at Stonehenge’,

abstact. 97 Aveni, Foundations of New World Cultural Astronomy, p. 740. 98 Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, p. 78, 146. 99 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 185. 100 Boutsikas, Astronomy and Ancient Greek Cult, p. 185. 101 Mpousdoukis, The Ma “Mother, p. 111. 102 See Index, Photos of the restoration plan and the rest of photographic material.

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Index: Photo 1.

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Photo 2.

Photo 3.

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Photo 4.

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Photo 5.

Photo 6.

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Photo 7.

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Photo 8.

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Photo 8.

Photo 9.

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Photo 10.

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Photo 11.