MILETUS on the Ionian coast, is called Branchidae; the only reference to “Didyma” occurs in the oracle from Delphi that foretells the sanctuary’s destruction by the Persians (6.19.2). The sanctuary was served by the priestly family of the Branchidae, said to be descended from a shepherd called Branchus, who had been granted the gift of DIVINATION. Herodotus describes the sanctuary as ancient (1.53.3); Pausanias (7.2.6) reports that the sanctuary of Apollo and the oracle had been there before the arrival of the IONIANS.
Three ORACLES (in prose) and one dedication survive from this period of its operation (Fontenrose 1988), and Morgan (1989) suggests that it was used largely for local civic business; one late inscription (Milet I.3.155) suggests its use to sanction COLONIZATION expeditions. However, Herodotus reports in passing that all the Ionians and AEOLIANS used to consult this sanctuary (1.157). He describes the Cymeans’ consultations when they are trying to decide whether or not to surrender the Lydian suppliant PACTYES to the Persians (1.157–59); it tells them to deliver him up and, when ARISTODICUS tests this instruction, appears to condemn the Cymeans for the impiety of even consulting on this matter.
According to Herodotus, consultants from further afield included NECOS II king of EGYPT who made DEDICATIONS there after his victory at MAGDOLUS (Megiddo), following a PROPHECY that he should stop building a canal linking the NILE River to the ERYTHRAEAN (Red) Sea (2.158–59). It is also one of the sanctuaries visited by the MESSENGERS of CROESUS when he tests the oracles (1.46), and although it is not listed as one that gave the correct answer, nevertheless, Herodotus reports that Croesus made offerings there that were equal to those he made at Delphi (1.92). These must have been ample: when Aristagoras was proposing the IONIAN REVOLT from the empire of DARIUS I, HECATAEUS is said to have recommended using these dedications to finance an Ionian fleet; but the plan was not approved (5.36.1–4).
The sanctuary was destroyed in 494 BCE (but later writers describe this happening under XERXES: see Hammond 1998) and the PRIESTS resettled in Sogdiana, at the northeastern extremity of the Persian Empire (Plin. HN 6.18). Cult activity may have continued in the sanctuary, but the oracle does not seem to have operated again until the 330s (pronouncing in favor of Alexander the Great: Strabo 17.1.43/C814); there are no historical oracle responses again until 228 BCE.
SEE ALSO: Cyme; Religion, Greek; Sogdians; Suppliants; Temples and Sanctuaries
REFERENCES
1 Fontenrose, Joseph 1988. Didyma: Apollo’s Oracle, Cult and Companions. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
2 Hammond, N. G. L. 1998. “The Branchidae at Didyma and in Sogdiana.” CQ 48.2: 339.
3 Morgan, Catherine. 1989. “Divination and Society at Delphi and Didyma.” Hermathena 147: 17–42.
FURTHER READING
1 Greaves, Alan M. 2012. “Divination at Archaic Branchidai‐Didyma: A Critical Review.” Hesperia 81.2: 177–206.
2 Gunther, Wolfgang. 1971. Das Orakel von Didyma in Hellenistischer Zeit: Ein Interpretation von Stein‐Urkunden. IM Beiheft 4. Tübingen: Wasmuth.
3 Parke, H. W. 1985. The Oracles of Apollo in Asia Minor. London: Croom Helm.
BRAURON (Βραυρών, ἡ)
DANIELLE KELLOGG
Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Located on the east coast of Attica at the mouth of the Eridanos River, Brauron was the site of an important sanctuary of ARTEMIS (BA 59 C3; Müller I, 639–41). Archaeological evidence indicates habitation in the area from the Neolithic period; Philochorus (BNJ 328 F94) includes Brauron on his list of the twelve settlements synoecized by THESEUS. Some literary sources associate the PEISISTRATIDS with the area: Photius links them with the sanctuary itself (Lexicon, s.v. Brauronia (B 264)), while Plato ([Hipparch.] 228b) associates them with the nearby DEME of Philaidai (see AJAX).
The sanctuary shows RITUAL evidence from the Protogeometric period through to the third century BCE, when flooding led the site to be abandoned. Brauron was particularly associated with the arkteia, a ritual in which young Athenian girls “played the bear,” which modern scholars associate with a rite of passage marking the onset of puberty. The ritual’s aetiological MYTH explains that a bear belonging to the sanctuary had been killed after becoming savage with a young girl (schol. Ar. Lys. 645). In addition to Artemis Brauronia, IPHIGENEIA was also worshipped at the site, and DEDICATIONS were made there in celebration of successful childbirths.
Herodotus mentions Brauron twice, both times in connection with the legend of PELASGIANS abducting Athenian woman from there during the celebration of the FESTIVAL and taking them to LEMNOS (6.138.1; 4.145.2).
SEE ALSO: Athens; Children; Rape; Temples and Sanctuaries; Women in Ancient Greece
FURTHER READING
1 Antoniou, Athanasios I. 1990. Βραυρών: ∑υμβολή στήν ἱστορία τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῆς Βραυρωνίας Ἀρτέμιδος. Athens: n.p.
2 Osborne, Robin. 1986. Demos: The Discovery of Classical Attika, 154–72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3 Sourvinou‐Inwood, Christiane. 1988. Studies in Girls’ Transitions: Aspects of the arkteia and Age Representation in Attic Iconography. Athens: Kardamitsa.
4 Whitehead, David. 1986. The Demes of Attica, 508/7–ca. 250 B.C.: A Political and Social Study, 11, 24, 54. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
BRIANTICE (ἡ Βριαντικὴ χώρη)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Coastal region of THRACE between the cities of MESAMBRIA and STRYME (BA 51 E3). XERXES’ invasion force passes through Briantice in 480 BCE (7.108.3). Herodotus notes that in ancient times Briantice was called Gallaice, a name which is otherwise unattested; in any case, he continues, it is most correctly called the land of the CICONES. The Roman author Livy (38.41.8) refers to Priaticus Campus in this region, and Pliny the Elder to a people, the Priantae (HN 4.41; see also SEG 46‐849).
SEE ALSO: Geography; Persian Wars
BRIBERY
MATTHEW A. SEARS
University of New Brunswick
Bribery features prominently in several episodes of Herodotus’ Histories. Persian GOLD was seen by the Greeks of Herodotus’ own day as having a potentially devastating effect on Greek unity, and the ADVISERS of the Persian general MARDONIUS are portrayed recommending bribery as a means to defeat the Greeks without the need for a battle. The Persians, however, do not seem to have used bribes to any effect during the invasion of Greece in 480 BCE (Flower and Marincola 2002, 104). The Greeks, on the other hand, offered and accepted bribes on several occasions, and once or twice even the Delphic ORACLE was corrupted.
Before the Battle of PLATAEA in 479, Mardonius was advised to send MONEY to the leading men in Greece, in order
