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ABSTRACT: Caves have always inspired human imagination and ancient Greece was no exception. This article focuses on the rituals performed in sacred caves in worship of Pan and the Nymphs. The hoofed-god Pan with his female companions, the Nymphs, were the natural inhabitants of places as such. Their worship, described vividly in the Dyskolus of Menander, required corporeal effort to access the sanctu-ary, mostly near rocky formations and mountains. Also included were the sacrifice, the preparation, the communal consumption of food and drink by the participants as well as the performance of ritual dances accompanied probably by chanting and music. The participants, when attending such rituals, were expe-riencing a landscape and a soundscape completely different from what they were used to in their open-air dwellings. This article is an effort to explain not only how the visual and aural qualities of these places inspired ancient thought but also stimulated or deprived human senses and made men believe that they were the abodes of sacred spirits. Pan and the Nymphs have special connections to sound and resonance and there seems to be a reciprocal connection between their ritual performances and the sonic qualities of grottos. It is true that most archaeological research in caves of Pan and the Nymphs was focused on the visual characteristics of the sites and make no reference to their aural qualities. The article suggests that an acoustic survey should be reinforced so as to understand whether sound was a determining factor in their selection as sacred sites appropriate to this cult or not.
ABSTRACT: Caves have always inspired human imagination and ancient Greece was no exception. This article focuses on the rituals performed in sacred caves in worship of Pan and the Nymphs. The hoofed-god Pan with his female companions, the Nymphs, were the natural inhabitants of places as such. Their worship, described vividly in the Dyskolus of Menander, required corporeal effort to access the sanctu-ary, mostly near rocky formations and mountains. Also included were the sacrifice, the preparation, the communal consumption of food and drink by the participants as well as the performance of ritual dances accompanied probably by chanting and music. The participants, when attending such rituals, were expe-riencing a landscape and a soundscape completely different from what they were used to in their open-air dwellings. This article is an effort to explain not only how the visual and aural qualities of these places inspired ancient thought but also stimulated or deprived human senses and made men believe that they were the abodes of sacred spirits. Pan and the Nymphs have special connections to sound and resonance and there seems to be a reciprocal connection between their ritual performances and the sonic qualities of grottos. It is true that most archaeological research in caves of Pan and the Nymphs was focused on the visual characteristics of the sites and make no reference to their aural qualities. The article suggests that an acoustic survey should be reinforced so as to understand whether sound was a determining factor in their selection as sacred sites appropriate to this cult or not.
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