Necromanteion of Acheron

What it is

The Necromanteion was a Greek temple and oracle for contacting the dead, dedicated to Hades and Persephone. It was not a place for ordinary worship alone. People came to put questions to ancestors, and the name itself means Oracle of the Dead. Among the Greek shrines where the dead were consulted, this one at Ephyra was regarded as the most important. Devotees treated it as a threshold into Hades, the land ruled by Hades, and the surrounding rivers were thought to water that realm.

Where it comes from

Tradition links the oracle with Epirus, beside the Acheron and close to old Ephyra. The Acheron, Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus were said to join there; their names have been read as 'joyless', 'burning coals' and 'lament'. The shrine was held by the Thesprotians, an Epirot Greek people. Homer's Odyssey makes the place the entrance for Odysseus's katabasis, his journey down to the underworld. Herodotus tells of Periander, the sixth-century BC tyrant of Corinth, sending envoys to ask his dead wife Melissa questions. In 1958 a site at Mesopotamos in Epirus was proposed as the oracle, an identification that is now questioned.

How it is done

Consultation was staged as a ceremony. Those who wished to hear the dead gathered in a temple described as ziggurat-like and shared a meal that included pork, barley bread, oysters and broad beans, with a narcotic preparation. After purification and the sacrifice of sheep, they moved down winding corridors, leaving gifts as they passed iron gates. The nekromanteia put questions and sang prayers. The high point was the priest appearing to rise from the floor and fly through the building by means of theatrical cranes.

Tools and materials

Offerings were left at iron gates along the route. Sheep supplied the sacrifice, and the final sight depended on theatrical cranes. The excavated site has also produced household pottery, farming tools, weapons and Roman pila, the javelins of the destroying army. Twenty-one bronze washers came from at least seven catapults. Sotirios Dakaris took these washers for parts of a crane, a reading no longer accepted. These finds belong to the archaeology of the hill, not to the ritual described in the literary accounts.

What it is for

The oracle served people who wanted to question dead relatives and ancestors. Herodotus's story of Periander shows a ruler sending representatives to question a dead spouse, so the consulters could be powerful as well as ordinary. The shrine's reputation rested on the belief that the dead could be reached at this spot and that answers came through the ritual. It was the most important of the Greek oracles of the dead, although other such shrines existed at Taenaron, in Argolis, at Cumae and at Herakleia in Pontos.

Who does it

Priests officiated. The ceremony account names the nekromanteia, who questioned celebrants and recited prayers, and a priest whose rising and flight formed the climax. The faithful are called celebrants or devotees, people who came to consult the dead. The shrine was held by the Thesprotians, an Epirot Greek people, so its ritual life belonged to that local world. The account places the priest at the centre of the final spectacle.

Peoples and places

The Necromanteion belonged to the Thesprotians, an Epirot Greek people, and its home was Epirus in northwestern Greece. Greek speakers from elsewhere knew of it: Herodotus places Periander of Corinth among its clients, and Homer's Odysseus reaches the underworld through it. Other Greek shrines for questioning the dead are named at Taenaron, in Argolis, at Cumae and at Herakleia in Pontos. The Ephyra oracle is called the most important of these. The later archaeological site at Mesopotamos is in the same region but its link to the oracle is disputed.

What people believe

The shrine was dedicated to Hades, ruler of the dead, and Persephone. Worshippers held that the place opened onto Hades, the realm of the dead, and that ancestors could be addressed there. The rivers around it were thought to flow through and give water to that kingdom. Their names were interpreted as 'joyless', 'burning coals' and 'lament', fitting a landscape of death. The ritual's staged appearance of a flying priest belongs to this belief world: the ceremony presented a visible sign of contact with the underworld rather than an ordinary meeting.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Sotirios Dakaris identified the hill site at Mesopotamos as the oracle after work in 1958 and excavations in 1958 to 1964 and 1976 to 1977. He relied on its position and on resemblances to Herodotus and Homer. Later readers point out that a hill commanding the neighbourhood does not suit the traditional picture, and that the ruins are no earlier than the late fourth century BC. The site is now often taken for a fortified farmhouse of a Hellenistic type. Its pottery, farm tools and weapons support that reading, and the bronze washers were misread as crane parts.

Compare and confuse

The name Necromanteion translates as Oracle of the Dead. The same kind of shrine is known at the Temple of Poseidon in Taenaron, in Argolis, at Cumae and at Herakleia in Pontos, all places where the dead were consulted. Ephyra's oracle is singled out as the most important. The word is sometimes given in the form Nekromanteion.

Today

The site discovered in 1958 has been excavated and reinterpreted. Many specialists now regard the hill at Mesopotamos as a fortified Hellenistic farmhouse, not the oracle, and the old identification is questioned. The finds include household ceramics, agricultural tools, weapons and the bronze washers from catapults. A conference paper has discussed the acoustics of the crypt of the Acheron Necromanteion, showing continued study of the site and its sound.

Questions people ask about Necromanteion of Acheron

Good reading and sources

• Necromanteion of Acheron on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data