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EXTREME RITUALS IN CHARON’S POISONOUS CAVE: INITIATIONS, INCUBATION, AND HEALING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2026

Yulia Ustinova
Yulia Ustinova*
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
*
yulia@bgu.ac.il
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Abstract

Ritual caves emitting poisonous gases were known in Asia Minor as Charonia. Greek Charon and the Canaanite god Hauron, a cave-dweller and lord of the netherworld, shared similar clusters of cultural characteristics. It is probable that during the archaic period the cult of Hauron-Horon arrived in Asia Minor and gave rise to the cult of Charon. Although the mephitic cave at Acharaca is no longer extant, the combination of literary, geological, and toxicological data suggests that the poisonous gas emitted at this Charonium was hydrogen sulphide. The sulphurous cave at Acharaca was used for two types of initiations, differing from each other in terms of their location in the cave and duration. Acharaca offers a unique example of a complex, two-fold initiatory cult based on an extreme ritual that made use of both olfactory effects and the chemical properties of poisonous gas.

Keywords

healinginitiationearthquakeAsia Minorpoisonous gascave ritual

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Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 73 , Issue 2 , October 2026 , pp. 425 - 450
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
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© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

Introduction

The sanctuary at Acharaca in CariaFootnote 1 was sui generis in many respects. According to Strabo, within its boundaries was a cave emitting deadly gases, known as the Charonium, where priests and sick pilgrims were able to stay for a long period of time. Not only did they not die, but the ailing suppliants were cured. Pilgrims to this site were also initiated into mysteries, which included an annual nocturnal rite. The combination of mystery rites and incubation in a poisonous cave presents several interesting problems. In order to suggest solutions, I will first survey the evidence on the Charonia, at Acharaca and elsewhere, and discuss their association with Charon. The following comparative study of written, archaeological, and toxicological data on these caves will lead to a tentative reconstruction of the ritual at Acharaca. Finally, I will demonstrate how the extreme rituals performed there elucidate some crucial features of both initiations and incubation.

The Charonia

Strabo describes the Charonium at Acharaca:

On the road between the Tralles and Nysa, not far from the city, is Acharaca, a village of the Nysaeans, where is the Plutonium, with a splendid grove and a temple of Pluto and Core, and also the Charonium, a cave (ἄντρον), by nature wonderful, that lies above the grove; for they say that those who are diseased and turn to the cures prescribed by these gods resort thither and live in the village near the cave among experienced priests (παρὰ τοῖς ἐμπϵίροις τῶν ἱϵρέων) who on their behalf sleep in the cave and through dreams prescribe the cures. These are also the men who invoke the healing power of the gods. And they often bring the sick into the cave and make them sit down there, to remain in quiet (ἱδρύουσι μένοντας καθ’ ἡσυχίαν), like animals in their lurking-holes (καθάπϵρ ἐν φωλϵῷ), without food for many days. And sometimes the sick give heed also to their own dreams, but still they use those other men, as priests, to initiate them into the mysteries (μυσταγωγοῖς) and to counsel them. To all others the place is forbidden and deadly. A nocturnal festival is celebrated every year at Acharaca; and at that time in particular those who celebrate the nocturnal festival can see and hear concerning the sick; and then about noon, the boys and young men of the gymnasium, nude and anointed with oil, take up a bull and with haste carry him up into the cave; and, when let loose, the bull goes forward a short distance, falls, and breathes out his life (Strabo 14.1.44, translation H. L. Jones, modified).

Plutonium and Charonium are commonly regarded as synonyms designating a sanctuary of Hades.Footnote 2 However, as a rule these terms referred to different types of sites, although occasionally they were used interchangeably (Plin. HN 2.95. 208; Cic. Div. 1.79).Footnote 3 For the most part, Plutonia were precincts containing temples of Pluto or Hades, and Charonia were caves sacred to Charon and emitting poisonous gases,Footnote 4 where healing rituals were performed. Sanctuaries of Pluto sometimes featured Charonia.Footnote 5

The term ‘Charonium’ is first mentioned by Antigonus of Carystus in the third century BCE, in conjunction with other mephitic locations, where the air was poisoned by noxious exhalations from the earth, such as the boiling lakes of the Palici in Sicily (Antig. Car. Mirabilia 121).Footnote 6 The text is rather enigmatic: ‘It seems that in many places there are features of the type called “clefts” or “Charonia” (τῶν βαράθρων καλουμένων καὶ Χαρωνίων), such as the pit called Cimbrus (ὅ τϵ Κίμβρος καλούμϵνος … βόθυνος) near Phrygia, as Eudoxus says, and the trench (ὄρυγμα) in Latmus’ (Antig. Car. Mirabilia 123).Footnote 7 Latmus is located in Caria southwards of the Meander, and there are several caves in its vicinity (Strabo 14.1.8); in Phrygia, Strabo mentions a mephitic cave that he calls ‘the Cerbesian pit’ (βόθυνος Κϵρβήσιος, Strabo 12.8.21).Footnote 8

Strabo reports the existence of three Charonia close to the Meander, at Acharaca, Hierapolis, and Thymbria near Magnesia, and explains the multiplicity of cave oracles by soil conditions favouring the formation of caves (Strabo 12.8.17; 14.1.11; Iambl. Myst. 4.1). All the Charonia mentioned by Strabo are located in the Meander valley (the Büyük Menderes Graben), one of the most tectonically active areas in Turkey,Footnote 9 where spectacular natural phenomena incited human imagination and gave rise to peculiar cults.Footnote 10

Strabo’s brief description of the cave in Thymbria, a village close to Magnesia on the Meander conveys the essence of the Charonium: ‘Aornum, a sacred cave (ἄορνόν ἐστι σπήλαιον ἱϵρόν), which is called Charonium, and emits deadly vapours (ὀλϵθρίους ἔχον ἀποφοράς, Strabo 14.1.44). The Greek word aornos means ‘birdless’, implying that the birds avoided the deadly place.Footnote 11 Thus, in Strabo’s opinion, a Charonium was a cave, emitting poisonous exhalations and dangerous to living beings, which served as a seat of a cult. Notably, the association of mephitic caves with Charon is characteristic of Asia Minor and the northern Levant.

Charon

Greek Charon is an intriguing figure.Footnote 12 He is a liminal deity, responsible for the transition between the worlds of the dead and the living. Charon’s first appearance in literature and art as a ferryman carrying the dead souls to Hades is dated to the sixth century BCE, and the provenance of this personage, as well as the etymology of his name, are obscure.Footnote 13 The image of an old ferryman of the dead, recurrent in Indo-European mythology, may be pertinent to Charon’s function as the transporter of the dead souls,Footnote 14 but this relationship is debatable.Footnote 15 Having no genealogical connections, and appearing in a single myth, of Heracles’ descent into Hades, Charon has never been integrated into the milieu of Greek mythology.Footnote 16

The connection between mephitic caves, where healing ritual and mystery rites were performed, and Charon is not self-evident. While in the Greek world many caves were commonly perceived as gates to Hades,Footnote 17 the role of the ferryman of the dead in caves featuring no rivers requires further elucidation. I suggest connecting Charon with the Canaanite god Hauron (Horon),Footnote 18 the cave-dwelling magician.Footnote 19 This could account for the location of the Charonia in Asia Minor, and the emphasis on healing and mystery rites in Charon’s caves.

According to the Ugaritic tradition, Hauron was an ambivalent deity, invoked to both inflict and prevent harm.Footnote 20 He was described as living in a hiding place or a cave, ms̩d or h̩wr, and his name is probably related to the latter word, referring not only to natural caves, but also to the netherworld.Footnote 21 In incantations, Hauron the enchanter is attributed exceptional magical powers, in particular healing.Footnote 22 He is often associated with snakes, as well as protection against snake bites; utilizing his magical powers, he can weaken a poison.Footnote 23 It has been suggested that Hauron was an earlier version of the Phoenician healing god Eshmun, identified with the Greek Asclepius,Footnote 24 or homogeneous to the apotropaic deity Shadrafa, whose name means ‘healing daemon.’Footnote 25

Greek Charon was the guardian of the border between the two worlds and a specialist in the transfer of the dead soulsFootnote 26 – an ultimate sorcerer’s vocation. Hauron of the Ugaritic texts was a subterranean dweller, sorcerer, and expert in incantations and healing. As healing, sorcery, and transition between the tiers of the world are closely connected,Footnote 27 Hauron and Charon shared similar clusters of cultural characteristics, in addition to the phonetic resemblance of their names.

Furthermore, a remarkable text combining an incantation and references to rituals hints at a link between Hauron and two goddesses.Footnote 28 The text narrates a story of a goddess called ‘the mother of a stallion’ seeking help against poisonous snakes, and her mother the sun-goddess Shapash, who addresses eleven gods, to no avail. When Shapash turns to Hauron, he succeeds in weakening and chasing the poison away with his charms. The text ends in a dialogue between a groom and a bride, alluding to snakes as the bride price for the marriage with ‘the mother of a stallion’. The tale of a male subterranean deity, a young goddess in distress, and her mother has been compared to the myth of Hades, Persephone, and Demeter.Footnote 29 The similarity is somewhat superficial, but it may have been sufficient to prompt the association of Charon’s caves with mystery rites, often explicated by foundation myths of a goddess’ suffering and divine marriage, especially given the fact that many sanctuaries housing mystery cults featured sacred caves.Footnote 30

Hauron has been mentioned intermittently in Egyptian, Ugaritic, and Mesopotamian sources since the nineteenth century BCE. In Egypt, Hauron’s cult is attested to by much more abundant sources than in Canaan.Footnote 31 He was depicted as a falcon and called upon as a protector against enemies, appearing in the latter capacity in four magical incantations in the twelfth-century Great Harris Papyrus, and had a temple in Giza, near the great sphinx, with whom he was probably associated.Footnote 32 In Mesopotamia, Hauron is mentioned in a seventh-century BCE incantation from Arslan Tash,Footnote 33 and the Phoenicians spread the cult of Hauron throughout the Mediterranean in the second half of the first millennium BCE.Footnote 34 Thus, it would not be surprising to find the cult of Hauron–Horon arriving first in Asia Minor, and then in other parts of the Greek world, during the archaic period.

The Charonia are thus reminiscent of Hauron in four respects: first, the cave environment; second, the emphasis on healing; third, the association with initiation rites; and fourth, the phonetic similarity between the names of Hauron and Charon. I suggest that the Greek cult of Charon arrived from the Levant and that, before Charon became the ferryman of the dead souls, he had been the master of the subterranean world and a sorcerer. Although this suggestion brings together the disjointed pieces of information on Charon, it remains hypothetical and requires additional evidence to be substantiated.

The Charonium at Hierapolis

Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale) is famous for its snow-white, terraced hot pools, that Strabo has seen. The geographer describes the mephitic Charonium there:

The Plutonium … is an opening of only moderate size, large enough to admit a man, but it reaches a considerable depth, and it is enclosed by a quadrilateral handrail, about half a plethrum in circumference, and this space is full of a vapour so misty and dense (πλῆρές ἐστιν ὁμιχλώδους παχϵίας ἀχλύος) that one can scarcely see the ground. Now, to those who approach the handrail anywhere round the enclosure, the air is harmless, since the outside is free from that vapour in calm weather, for the vapour then stays inside the enclosure, but any animal that passes inside meets instant death. At any rate, bulls that are led into it fall and are dragged out dead; and I threw in sparrows, and they immediately breathed their last and fell. But the galli, who are eunuchs, pass inside with such impunity that they even approach the opening, bend over it, and descend into it to a certain depth, though they hold their breath as much as they can (for I could see in their countenances an indication of a kind of suffocating attack, as it were), – whether this immunity belongs to all who are maimed in this way or only to those round the temple, or whether it is because of divine providence, as would be likely in the case of possession by a god, or whether it is the result of certain physical powers that are antidotes against the vapour (Strabo 13.4.14, translation H. L. Jones, modified).Footnote 35

Ancient accounts of gas discharge have been verified by modern scientists and found precise.Footnote 36 Recent excavations of the site revealed a complex located immediately above a seismic fault,Footnote 37 which developed during the Hellenistic period and was refurbished in the first century CE.Footnote 38 The complex is focused on a cave from which carbon dioxide (CO2) still emerges in a very high concentration,Footnote 39 through an arch with an inscription commemorating a dedication of a psalis (vault) to Pluto and Core,Footnote 40 and comprises also a rectangular theatre, where up to 800 spectators could watch the effects of the vapours on the priests and the sacrificial bulls, and a tholos, flanked by two pools of thermal water.Footnote 41

The concentration of carbon dioxide within the cavern nowadays is about ninety per cent, and it drops in the lower section of the theatre, where the density of the gas lake fluctuates in accordance with the weather and the hour of the day. Since odourless carbon dioxide is 1.5 times heavier than air, its concentration diminishes from ca. sixty per cent at the very bottom to nine to four per cent at the height of 20 and 30 cm respectively, while the oxygen level rises.Footnote 42 In these conditions, standing adult humans would experience only slight dizziness, whereas small animals or animals holding their heads down, such as bulls, would easily die.Footnote 43 Interestingly, in antiquity it was also known that one could walk unharmed, but not lie down, near the boiling craters of the Palici in Sicily; these craters also emit carbon dioxide.Footnote 44

The Hierapolitan galli were aware of the properties of the gas, particularly its density fluctuations, and used them to impress the pilgrims. They succeeded in arousing the curiosity of the ancient authors, who were unable to solve the puzzle of the extraordinary stamina of these people (Strabo 13.4.14; Cass. Dio 68.27; Amm. Marc. 13.6.17–18). The galli ventured into the cave, holding their breath, but even then, as Strabo noted, they displayed signs of suffocation.Footnote 45 The substantial height difference between the theatre and the area adjacent to the cave ensured the spectators’ safety. Thus, due to the empirical toxicological knowledge, the Hierapolis Charonium could be frequented safely by both the galli and the public, while at the same time maintaining its reputation as a deadly place, attracting visitors, and stirring the imagination of the educated and the common people alike.

The Charonium at Acharaca

Though the temple of Pluto at Acharaca has been excavated, its dating, probably to the Hellenistic period, and reconstruction are tentative.Footnote 46 The north–south orientation of this temple, as well as the interior arrangement with two parallel walls dividing the temple into three long spaces, is highly unusual.Footnote 47 Close to the temple, there is a deep gully with a sulphur-bearing stream, its rotten-egg smell particularly sharp in winter. Remains of ancient arched buildings on the rock walls of the gully presumably served as retreats for the priests and their patients.Footnote 48

In the early twentieth century, W. von Diest found another sulphur-bearing spring and the remains of an ancient spa, not far from the sacred enclosure.Footnote 49 The healing powers of sulphur water were still popular among the local population when von Diest worked there. At present, hydrogen sulphide at low concentration is considered therapeutic and is used to treat multiple disorders, mostly in spa complexes around the world.Footnote 50 The medicinal qualities of sulphur water were known in antiquity (Vitr. 8.3.4). The existence of two sulphurous springs probably contributed to the fame of Acharaca as a healing site.

The cave, which according to Strabo was located immediately above the temple and the grove (Χαρώνιον, ἄντρον ὑπϵρκϵίμϵνον τοῦ ἄλσους), is no longer extant.Footnote 51 It has been suggested that instead of a proper cave, the Charonium was in the above-mentioned gully.Footnote 52 However, Strabo repeatedly refers to a deep cave (antron), and therefore he could hardly have had a ravine in mind. The geographer’s account is particularly trustworthy because at about 40 BCE he lived in the nearby city of Nysa,Footnote 53 and undoubtedly visited Acharaca on multiple occasions.

The suggestion that the cave existed but was destroyed by erosionFootnote 54 or a powerful earthquake, is more persuasive. The site identified by von Diest as the remains of the Charonium features a cleft with precipitous walls formed by layers of sediment, where the characteristic sulphuric stench was smelt.Footnote 55 In von Diest’s opinion, the higher part of this crevasse may have been covered by a natural vault that collapsed.

I visited Acharaca in August 2022. The location determined by von Diest is situated about 120 m to the north-west of the Plutonium, in the western branch of a forked gully (Figure 1). A landslide has occurred there quite recently, almost completely covering the crevice visible in the photograph taken in 1909 (Figure 2). The rock consists mostly of grey shale, with noticeable concentrations of yellow sulphur and layers of calcite-like nodules (Figure 3). These sediments overlay a limestone stratum, which could be washed away, thus rendering the strata of shale particularly sensitive to environmental impact, especially earthquakes. Since antiquity, serious earthquakes have damaged the area of Acharaca more than once: a surface rupture that most probably occurred in Acharaca during an earthquake in the second–third centuries CE is traceable on the former road to the temple of Pluto.Footnote 56

Figure 1.

The suggested site of the Charonium at Acharaca, located in the western branch of the gully above the Plutonium: the view nowadays (photograph by the author).

A landscape view of Acharaca with a person standing on a rocky hillside surrounded by dry grass and trees.

Figure 2.

A 1909 photograph of the Charonium (von Dienst [n. 48], fig. 6).

Two individuals standing on a rocky hillside.

Figure 3.

Exposure of shale, sulphur, and calcite-like sediments (photograph by the author).

Rock formation with shale, sulphur, and calcite-like sediments.

It is noteworthy that the corresponding layers of shale in the eastern branch of the gully feature a small cavern (Figure 4). In the western branch, at the location determined by von Diest, several episodes of collapse appear to have destroyed the cave’s ceiling and damaged its walls; the most recent such episode is still apparent.Footnote 57 Remains of ancient structures, including a building with an arch, are located a few metres from this site (Figure 1), and were perhaps associated with the cave. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of Strabo’s definition of the Acharaca Charonium as a deep cave: this fact is mentioned no less than four times in the passage cited above.Footnote 58

Figure 4.

The shale rock and the small cave in the eastern branch of the gully (photograph by the author).

A landscape photo showing a rocky gully with a small cavern in the shale layers on the eastern branch.

Since there are two springs of sulphurous water in Acharaca, including the gully near the Plutonium, and sulphur-containing gases are attested in some caves in the vicinity of Nysa and Acharaca,Footnote 59 the cave described by Strabo probably contained a source emitting hydrogen sulphide (H2S), which is common in geothermal areas and harmful at high levels.Footnote 60 Poisonous sulphur caves were known elsewhere in the ancient world, and some of them have been identified and explored.Footnote 61 In modern caves emitting sulphurous gases their concentration is high at the back of the cave, decreasing towards the entrance.Footnote 62 Since hydrogen sulphide is slightly heavier than air (its relative density is 1.19), it tends to accumulate at the bottom of enclosed spaces.

If indeed the poisonous agent at Acharaca was hydrogen sulphide, it possesses several qualities that render it suitable for the procedures described by Strabo. At low concentrations (up to 5 ppm), the smell of the gas is easily discerned, and prolonged exposure may cause headaches, nausea, and eye irritation, but not long-term symptoms.Footnote 63 The priests who were aware of their limitations could easily spend time in the cave, especially close to its entrance, in conditions that seemed dangerous to laymen smelling rotten eggs, but were actually safe. In addition, some patients could benefit from exposure to hydrogen sulphide in low concentrations, as modern-day research and spa practices demonstrate. It is noteworthy that, according to Strabo, the patients who were brought to the Acharaca cave did not lie there, but were seated (ἱδρύουσι), thus keeping their heads above the cave floor, where the hydrogen sulphide would be denser and more harmful.

Much higher concentrations of hydrogen sulphide, 50–100 ppm, cause respiratory tract irritation after an hour, and concentrations of up to 200 ppm alter breathing and cause drowsiness after 15 to 30 minutes. Therefore, the youths who entered the inner part of the cave during the annual festival remained safe, having more than enough time to bring a bull into the cave and leave it to its death.

The supposition that the Acharaca Charonium was a sulphur cave rests on five foundations: Strabo’s account of a cave emitting mephitic gases; visible indications that a sulphur cave was located above the Plutonium; the existence of two sources of sulphurous water in the vicinity; the position of the patients, most unusual in incubation; and the detailed understanding of the proceedings at the Charonium at Hierapolis. Until a comprehensive archaeological and geological exploration of Acharaca is carried out, this proposal will remain a hypothesis corresponding to the data currently at our disposal.

Rites at the Charonia

Beyond the fact that the cave was considered sacred, spêlaion hieron, nothing is known of the rites at Thymbria. The rites at the Hierapolitan Charonium are attested to in some detail.Footnote 64 Bull sacrifices had been performed there since the Hellenistic period, but their frequency and exact circumstances remain unclear. The terms hierophantes (literally, ‘a person demonstrating sacred things’) and dadouchos or dadouchia (male or female torchbearer), occurring in inscriptions discovered in the city, may refer to officials in a mystery cult,Footnote 65 and numerous lamps discovered in the Plutonium attest to nocturnal rites.Footnote 66 Undefined initiates (tetelesmenoi), rituals of Cybele, and liberation from Hades, that is, an allusion to liberation from death, which is the ultimate aim of mystery initiations, are mentioned in the description of a catabasis in a nook (muchos) in the temple of Apollo, by a sixth-century CE Neoplatonic philosopher Damascius.Footnote 67 The worship of Pluto and Core at the Charonium is commemorated in an inscription above the entrance to the mephitic grotto. The cult of Zeus Sabazius and Core, attested to in the third century CE, probably featured mystery aspects.Footnote 68 In light of the accumulating evidence, initiation rites were most probably performed in Hierapolis, but their location and other modalities can be reconstructed only tentatively.Footnote 69

A grotto-like room, dated to the early imperial period, located directly above the fracture had two sets of benches,Footnote 70 suggesting that incubation was practised in the Plutonium.Footnote 71 A contemporary inscription discovered in the Charonium of Hierapolis refers to a dedication to Pluto by divine order, kata syntagên, implying that the dedicant experienced a direct encounter with the god, presumably during his incubation.Footnote 72 In the first century BCE Strabo did not mention incubation in Hierapolis, and the reasons for the emergence or development of this practice in the first century CE remain obscure. In addition, healing rituals at the Hierapolitan Charonium probably involved bathing in the hot springs, located on both sides of the tholos.Footnote 73 In sum, initiations and incubation in Hierapolis are suggested by archaeological and epigraphical evidence, but still require unequivocal proofs.

Acharaca: incubation and healing

In contrast, there is no doubt that initiations and incubation were performed at Acharaca. The brevity of Strabo’s account may be amended by its juxtaposition with toxicological and comparative data. Priests incubated on behalf of some pilgrims and provided counsel based on divinely induced dreams.Footnote 74 Since the concentration of hydrogen sulphide in the cave is unknown, the maximum duration of the stay in the Charonium can only be estimated, but it is plausible that the priests could spend hours in the ventilated area not far from the entrance without much damage to their health. After their ‘shift’ in the cave, they could take time to recover and return to their duties when they felt able.

As to the suppliants, their preparation for healing rituals at the Charonium began before their arrival in Acharaca. Pilgrimage was a complex project even for well-to-do healthy people,Footnote 75 and many suppliants travelled from distant places and were seriously unwell. The journey had to be planned in advance, which implies a building up of both anxiety and hope. The prolonged stay at the sanctuary, coupled with their familiarity with local lore, instruction from the priests, encouraging stories of people who had been cured, and conversations with other patients all heightened the suppliants’ anticipation.Footnote 76

It was at this stage that the priests could assess both the physical state of the pilgrims and their cognitive predisposition and decide who could be exposed to the extreme effects of incubation in the Charonium. Strabo underscores the long duration of the suppliants’ stay in the nearby village, where some of them received treatment under the priests’ direction but did not enter the cave.

Those pilgrims who were chosen to stay in the cave were certainly extremely impressed by the surroundings. Persuaded by the awful odour, they believed that they were exposed to poison, while in reality the concentrations of hydrogen sulphide were safe, especially since the suppliants were seated in the cave, rather than lying down, as would normally be the case during incubation.

During their sojourn in the Charonium, the suppliants, as Strabo says, had their own dreams, and presumably experienced direct contact with the divinity.Footnote 77 Hallucinations and visions can be induced by several factors, among them prior expectations (‘event models’) and a ‘designer environment’. Furthermore, anticipations formed before the main rite determine to a very considerable extent the contents of mental images that the mind accepts as actual reality.Footnote 78 In laboratory experiments, the ‘suggestiveness of the context’ and participants’ backgrounds influenced their ability to have mystery experiences.Footnote 79

In addition, the suppliants fasted all day during their sojourn in the Charonium. Fasting leads to hypoglycaemia and is commonly used by ascetics in combination with other methods to induce an alteration of consciousness.Footnote 80 These techniques are often employed in combinations that significantly amplify their effects and are intensified when a person is culturally and cognitively prepared for the alteration of consciousness.Footnote 81

The placebo effect was possibly involved in the mechanism of healing at Acharaca. Modern brain-imaging techniques have demonstrated the measurable influence of placebos on the brain and their capacity to induce chemical changes affecting such conditions as pain and depression. Healing by means of imagined treatments is attained due to a synergetic action of various cognitive factors, most notably prior expectations and the belief in the efficacy of the therapy.Footnote 82 The placebo effect appears to play a leading role in healing rituals cross-culturally, including in the classical world.Footnote 83 It probably contributed substantially to the recovery of some pilgrims at Acharaca. In fact, Asclepaea and other healing sanctuaries owe their popularity to social, religious, and psychological factors (such as inducing hope) no less than to their therapeutic success.Footnote 84 At Acharaca, the combination of incubation with initiations, focusing on endowing the participants with hope, enhanced the medicinal effect of the pilgrimage.

It is important to note that visions attained at the Charonium were interpreted by the priests, who could manipulate them expertly. The depletion of cognitive resources during rituals impairs the individual’s ability to make sense of their experience, causing the impact of prior expectations and post-ritual influences to be more significant than the person’s own muted, actual perceptions.Footnote 85 Believers, and especially highly hypnotizable individuals, are prone to have faith in statements made by experts or religious authorities, whose instructions may take over the believer’s own subjective experience.Footnote 86 The sojourn in the cave, involving anxiety, fear, and apprehension, depleted the cognitive resources of the suppliants, who therefore easily adopted the hinted suggestions of authoritative priests. A similar process took place in the sanctuary of Trophonius at Lebadeia in Boeotia, where the priests questioned the inquirer immediately after he emerged from the catabasis to the sacred grotto (Paus. 9. 39. 12–13).Footnote 87 Thus, when questioned by the priests after their return from the Charonium, the pilgrims could easily adopt the experts’ version of their dreams and follow their recommendations.

Acharaca: two types of initiations

Concurrently with its function as a medical oracle (iatromanteion), the Charonium at Acharaca served as a place of initiations. The suppliants who were admitted there were considered initiates, since the same ‘experienced priests’ who gave guidance to all the pilgrims, are called leaders of initiations (mystagôgoi) with reference to those who incubated in the cave. Strabo’s choice of words demonstrates that, in his eyes, the sojourn in the mephitic cave resulted not only in attaining a cure for the suppliants’ illnesses, but also in a fundamental change of their ritual status, as was the case in mystery cults. In this respect, the rites at the Charonium differed from incubation at Asclepaea or in other sanctuaries, which did not include initiations.Footnote 88

Most mysteries transformed the initiate’s personality through changing his or her attitude towards life, by attaining an awareness of a sort. Aristotle said that ‘the participants of initiations into mysteries do not have to learn anything, but rather to experience and to be inclined (οὐ μαθϵῖν τί δϵῖν, ἀλλὰ παθϵῖν καὶ διατϵθῆναι), that is to say, to become fit for the purpose (ἐπιτηδϵίους; Fr. 15 Rose)’.Footnote 89 In his view, the most important objective of the Greek initiations was to ensure that the mystai (initiates) undergo a certain experience. It appears to have involved two main components: first, a sensation of direct encounter with the divinity that imparted special perception and ineffable bliss; and second, ersatz-death or imitatio mortis (imitation of death),Footnote 90 changing the initiate’s attitude to life and death.Footnote 91

Both elements are evident in the rites at the Charonium. The illuminating encounter with the divinity was present in oracular, healing, and other activities, but the second key element, the physical – olfactory – brush with death, was unique to the Charonia. Each time the suppliants approached the cave, the stench of hydrogen sulphide stirred up images of the netherworld and hideous figures inhabiting it. Incubation in the poisonous cave at Acharaca was believed to be potentially deadly, and open only to select pilgrims. The process of selecting the candidates was important, as it endowed the chosen few with a sense of exclusivity.Footnote 92 The priests who acted as mystagôgoi ensured the appropriate disposition of the initiates and prepared them for the transformational experience awaiting them in the Charonium.

Caves were challenging and frightening, even when they did not emit poisonous gases, and frequently served as sites of initiation rites in the Greek world and beyond.Footnote 93 At Acharaca, the separation of the initiatory space from the rest of the world was powerfully emphasized by the smell of hydrogen sulphide, rendering the sacred cave an ultimate liminal place. The connection with Charon, along with the popular perception of caves as passages to Hades,Footnote 94 enhanced the awe of the suppliants. When finally seated inside the cave, after long anticipation and many preliminary rites, such as purifications and sacrifices, the initiates felt special and were convinced that they literally faced death, participating in the greatest trial of courage and endurance.Footnote 95

The use of the word phôleos (Strabo’s ‘lurking-hole’, Strabo 14.1.44) may hint at the temporal identification of the initiates with beasts lurking in a den, an excellent metaphor for the trance experienced by human suppliants in the subterranean oracular caves, used by several authors in reference to Greek transition cults.Footnote 96 The comparison to animals emphasized the liminal status of the initiates. Turning into beasts, they were liberated from human weakness and acquired a different nature that rendered them immune to the deadly gas and death itself, but the acquisition of a superhuman ability came at the price of a temporary loss of humanity.

The poisonous gas and netherworld associations played a significant role in the annual festival, which comprised two main parts. At night, the emphasis was on healing in the cave: the participants, presumably arriving from different places, could see and hear about the sick and their cure. We can only guess exactly how the nocturnal ritual was organized, but it should be noticed that mystery initiations were often performed at night.Footnote 97

At noon, nude youths from the local gymnasium carried a bull into the cave. This rite is probably depicted on third-century CE coins of Nysa, featuring a group of nude youths carrying a bull.Footnote 98 As Strabo stresses, the bull-carriers had to hurry, apparently because they entered the inner part of the cave, where the concentration of the gas was high and dangerous; the animal progressed into the depth of the cave and died immediately.

The annual festival encompasses two types of rites, both focused on the danger of staying in the poisonous cave but dependent on different effects arising from varying concentrations of the gas. Consequently, they had to make use of different locations in the cave. The long sojourn of the sick initiates who incubated in the cave was possible only in the ventilated area near the entrance. In contrast, healthy youths carrying the bull could proceed further inwards, but for a very short time. The picture drawn by Strabo is congruent with the toxicology of sulphur caves.

In the case of the youths, the ‘brush with death’ was quite real, and if they had stayed for a longer time, they would have been severely harmed, if not dead. In the area where the concentration was sufficient for a bull to die after having moved just a little further inside the cave, the danger was immediate. Even if it took the bull some time to die after it fell down, a higher concentration of hydrogen sulphide caused severe respiratory tract irritation after an hour, and the young men had to accomplish their mission rapidly.

Although Strabo does not define the annual festival as initiations, his choice of words and many details in his account suggest interpreting this event as a transition rite. Strabo describes the participants using two terms: neoi, young men, and ephêboi, youths on the verge of manhood, thus emphasizing the initiatory context.Footnote 99 Male transition rites are construed as tests of endurance, courage, and prowess all over the world, and the Mediterranean was no exception.Footnote 100 Performing bull-lifting in a suffocating cave required formidable strength, but the symbolic message of this action was also very significant. When Theseus arrived in Athens as a youth, he lifted bulls on multiple occasions in order to prove his manliness, and Attic ephebic inscriptions mention ‘lifting up bulls’ at sacrifices (Paus. 1.19.1; Plut. Thes. 14; IG ii–iii 1006, 1008, 1011, 1028–1029; SEG 15.104; 24.109).Footnote 101 It is certainly not accidental that it was a bull that a youth received from his abductor and maitre d’initiation upon completing the passage rite in Gortyn, on Crete (Strabo 10.4.21 [Ephorus FGrHist 70 Fr. 149]).Footnote 102 Ritual nudity was associated with rites of passage, particularly male transition rites, accentuating the candidates’ virility and virtue.Footnote 103 In the eyes of every person in ancient Greece, bull-lifting by a group of nude ephêboi could not be anything but an initiation rite. At Acharaca, the addition of two degrees of difficulty, entering the hellish cave and inhaling the mephitic gas, made this rite a real test of fortitude.

Entering a poisonous cave was a real test of stamina and bravery, not an imitation of death, but a confrontation with it. Since the essence of the transition rite is overcoming danger and transforming into a person of a higher status, this real-life experience of approaching death had a tremendous cognitive impact on the youths. The Charonium therefore was a perfect location for an initiation rite marking a passage in a man’s life.

Strabo observes that many people came to see the annual festival at Acharaca. Modern anthropological research on extreme rituals, such as fire-walking and self-flagellation, demonstrates the exceptional emotional involvement of the entire community in such festivals, not only the people who perform actions considered painful or dangerous, but also the relatives of active participants and even mere observers. The measured affective responses of observers are particularly important in terms of the social role of extreme rituals.Footnote 104 Quantitative analysis of the data on active participants in extreme rituals and related spectators indicates that related witnesses of collective extreme rituals are passionately involved and experience emotional highs during the ordeal and tremendous relief at its end.Footnote 105 While the nature of the experience conditions the effects on different groups of participants, the entire community is bound by ‘collective effervescence’.Footnote 106 In the ancient Mediterranean, extreme rituals bestowed the active participants with feelings of euphoria and salience of their experience, while the empathy of the spectators, especially related witnesses, brought about feelings of elation, as well as enhanced social cohesion.Footnote 107 These observations elucidate the cognitive and social roles of viewing the bull-bearers entering and leaving the Charonium: the relief of the relatives and friends of the youths matched the exultation of the young men. The social significance of the extreme form of initiations, both for the active and passive participants, ensued from the perceived danger of the rites.

The triple association of caves, initiation, and healing, as well as the comparison of participants in the ritual to animals, leads from Acharaca, located not far from Magnesia on the Meander, to its metropolis, Magnesia in Thessaly (IMagn. 17; Arist. Fr. 631 Rose [Ath. 4.173E], Strabo 14.1.11). These three elements are present in the cult of Chiron, ‘the one whose hand heals’, on Mt Pelion in Thessalian Magnesia. A dynasty of physicians, regarded as descendants of Chiron, lived at the foot of the mountain, where the centaur’s sacred cave was located, and abided by ethical norms regarded as sacred.Footnote 108 Chiron’s role as maître d’initiation is accentuated in the ritual: youths from distinguished Magnesian families went there annually, wearing new lambs’ skins, which probably implies that they were disguised as young animals and brought there as sacrificial victims.Footnote 109 It is likely that the Aeolian settlers brought the cult pattern combining initiations and healing in a cave, to the Meander valley, where they found plenty of suitable caves, some of which probably housed local cults. The shrine at Acharaca described by Strabo developed the Aeolian prototype, changing Chiron for Charon and enhancing the impact of the rites by the use of the poisonous gases.

Conclusions

The Charonia are caves sacred to Charon that usually emitted poisonous gases, where healing rituals were performed in Hellenistic and Roman times. The association of these chthonic cults with Charon is characteristic only of Asia Minor and the northern Levant. Greek Charon is a liminal deity, responsible for the transition between the worlds of the dead and the living. The Ugaritic cave-dweller and lord of the netherworld Hauron and Charon shared similar clusters of cultural characteristics, in addition to the phonetic resemblance of their names. It is likely that during the archaic period the cult of Hauron-Horon arrived in Asia Minor, and gave rise to the cult of Charon, which spread from there to other parts of the Greek world.

The layout and toxicological characteristics of the Charonium at Hierapolis have recently been elucidated. The Charonium there emitted carbon dioxide, and the acquaintance with some of the physical characteristics of this gas allowed the experienced priests to stage impressive rituals. Initiations and incubation were probably also conducted at the Hierapolis Charonium, but their details remain unclear.

Although the mephitic cave at Acharaca, described in detail by Strabo, is no longer extant, the combination of literary, geological, and toxicological data suggests that the poisonous gas emitted at this Charonium was hydrogen sulphide. The sulphur cave at Acharaca was used for two types of initiations, which differed in location within the cave and duration. For the suppliants who stayed for a long time in the relatively safe area close to the entrance, the initiatory ritual was associated with achieving oracular visions concerning their healing, and a firm belief that they had withstood an encounter with death. The combination of incubation with initiations enhanced the medicinal effect of the pilgrimage to Acharaca. The local youths who entered the Charonium underwent a rite of passage highlighting their manliness. The smell perceived as hellish and deadly, and the real danger of the prolonged exposure to the mephitic vapours in the depth of the cave, turned a brief stay there into an exciting victory over mortality and death. Acharaca thus offers a unique example of a complex twofold initiatory cult based on an extreme ritual that made use of both olfactory effects and the chemical properties of poisonous gas.

Footnotes

*

This paper was presented at the conference The Multi-Sensory Experience of Mystery Cults, organized by Katharina Waldner and Aikaterini-Iliana Rassia in Erfurt. I am very grateful to the organizers and participants for their observations and to the anonymous reviewer of this paper for their most valuable suggestions. I also owe thanks to Karolina Sekita, who offered important comments on the first draft of this paper; Francesco D’Andria, who generously shared several publications on Hierapolis that I had been unable to obtain; and Carolyn Gross-Baruch, who polished my English style. The research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant No. 367/21).

References

1 The site is located northward of the Meander, close to the modern village of Salavatlı, near the highway connecting Aydın (ancient Tralles) to Sultanhisar (ancient Nysa).

2 D. Ogden, Greek and Roman Necromancy (Princeton, 2001), 25–6.

3 Strabo lists the cave at Hierapolis with other Charonia (12.8.7), but uses the word Plutonium in its description (13.4.14). For an overview of sources on Plutonia and Charonia, see T. Ritti, Storia e instituzioni di Hierapolis (Istanbul, 2017), 232–40.

4 This feature of the Charonia is repeatedly mentioned by Galen in the references to poisonous gases: C. Nissen, Entre Asclépios et Hippocrate. Étude des cultes guérisseurs et des médicins en Carie (Liège, 2009), 109.

5 Nissen (n. 4), 109.

6 The site: L. Maniscalco and B. E. McConnell, ‘The sanctuary of the Divine Palikoi (Rocchicella di Mineo, Sicily): Fieldwork from 1995 to 2001’, AJA 107.2 (2003), 45–80.

7 For the reading Κίμβρος, corrected by some editors to Κίμμϵρος, see Ritti (n. 3), 233, 242.

8 Latmus: A. Peschlow-Bindokat, Feldforschungen im Latmos: die karische Stadt Latmos (Berlin/New York, 2005), 6; the Cerbesian pit: Ritti (n. 3), 233.

9 N. Mozafari, Ö. Sümer, D. Tikhomirov, S. Ivy-Ochs, V. Alfimov, C. Vockenhuber, U. Inci, H. Sözbilir, and N. Akçar, ‘Holocene Seismic Activity of the Priene-Sazlı Fault Revealed by Cosmogenic 36Cl, Western Anatolia, Turkey’, Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences 28 (2019), 410–37; F. D’Andria, ‘Nature and Cult in the Ploutonion of Hierapolis. Before and After the Colony’, in C. Șimșek and F. D’Andria (eds.), Landscape and History in the Lykos Valley: Laodikeia and Hierapolis in Phrygia (Cambridge, 2016), 189–218; H. Pfanz, G. Yüce, A. H. Gulbay, and A. Gokgoz, ‘Deadly CO2 Gases in the Plutonium of Hierapolis (Denizli, Turkey)’, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11 (2019), 1,359–71.

10 Another Charonium was located near Antioch (Malalas Chronographia 8.21) and created by an order of Antiochus Epiphanes (175–163 BCE) as a remedy against plague. The main feature of the site is a huge relief carved in Mount Silpius, in front of which an altar was probably erected (G. Downey, A History of Antioch in Syria [Princeton, 1961], 103–4, fig. 16). The face has never been completed, and has been badly damaged; the entire site is poorly preserved. St Peter’s cave is located nearby (Downey [n. 10], 284), and some other caves are scattered in the adjacent mountain area (H. Pamir, ‘An Underworld Cult Monument in Antioch: The Charonion’, in Ç. Maner, M. T. Horowitz, and A. S. Gilbert [eds.], Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology. A Festschrift in Honor of K. Aslıhan Yener [Leiden, 2017], 547). Water seeping from the rock at St Peter’s church, founded in the fourth or fifth century CE, is still credited with healing powers and collected (C. E. Fant and M. G. Reddish, A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey [Oxford, 2003], 239–40).

The defaced figure cannot be identified, and even the gender of the deity remains ambiguous. If the suggestion that it depicts Cybele (Pamir [n. 10], 543–59) is accepted, the cult at the Antioch Charonium is similar to that found in Hierapolis, where Cybele’s galloi performed dangerous rites in a cave, and female figurines, as well as a veiled head of a marble statue, have been discovered (F. D’Andria, ‘The Ploutonion of Hierapolis in the Light of Recent Research (2013–17)’, JRA 31 [2018], 106–7). In any case, the cave was probably considered salutary and served as a site of a cult long before the creation of the relief figures.

11 The word used by Strabo in the description of Avernus in the Phlegraean fields, Strabo 5.4.5; Y. Ustinova, Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind. Descending Underground in the Search for Ultimate Truth (Oxford, 2009), 76.

12 Charon’s origins and functions are still debated: C. Sourvinou-Inwood, ‘Reading’ Greek Death (Oxford, 1995), 356–61.

13 Minyas Fr. 1 Bernabé; Charon’s appearance in vase painting ca. 500 BCE: C. Sourvinou-Inwood, ‘Charon I’, in LIMC 3 (1986), 210–35.

14 B. Lincoln, ‘The Ferryman of the Dead’, JIES 8 (1980), 41–59.

15 F. Diez de Velasco, ‘Esquisse méthodologique de mythologie comparée: Charon indoeuropéen?’, in M. V. García Quintela, F. J. González García, and F. Criado Boado (eds.), Anthropology of the Indo-European World and Material Culture (Budapest, 2006), 333–44; E. Cook, ‘Ferrymen of Elysium and the Homeric Phaeacians’, JIES 20 (1992), 239–67.

16 Sourvinou-Inwood (n. 12), 308–9; Lincoln (n. 14), 41.

17 Ogden (n. 2); Ustinova (n. 11), 68–89.

18 This idea has been put forward by Pamir (n. 10), 550, though with a different line of reasoning.

19 On Hauron or Horon, see: W. F. Albright, ‘The Canaanite god Ḥaurôn (Ḥôrôn)’, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 53.1 (1936), 1–12; W. F. Albright, ‘The Egypto-Canaanite Deity Haurôn’, BASO 84. December (1942), 7–12; A. Caquot, ‘Horon: revue critique et données nouvelles’, Annales archéologiques arabes syriennes 29/30 (1979/80), 173–80; A. Caquot, ‘Horon: bilan critique et données nouvelles’, RHR 2 (1982), 243–4; P. Xella, ‘D’Ugarit à la Phénicie: Sur les traces de Rashap, Horon, Eshmun’, WO 19 (1988), 45–64; J. van Dijk, ‘The Canaanite God Hauron and His Cult in Egypt’, Göttinger Miszellen 107 (1989), 59–68; U. Rüterswörden, ‘Horon הרן’, in K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P. W. van der Horst (eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible Online (Leiden, 1999), 425–7.

20 Caquot, ‘Horon: revue critique et données nouvelles’ (n. 19), 177; Rüterswörden (n. 19), 426; C. Bonnet, Les enfants de Cadmos. Le paysage religieux de la Phénicie hellénistique (Paris, 2015), 195–6.

21 Albright, ‘The Canaanite god Ḥaurôn (Ḥôrôn)’ (n. 19), 10–12; van Dijk (n. 19), 62; Xella (n. 19), 55.

22 KTU 1.169 in KTU 2 M. Dietrich, O. Loretz, and J. Sanmartín, The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places, Münster, 1995 (original edition: M. Dietrich, O. Loretz, and J. Sanmartín, Die Keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, Neukirchen-Vluyn–Kevelaer, 1976); van Dijk (n. 19), 60–1; K. Spronk, ‘The Incantations’, in W. G. E. Watson and N. Wyatt (eds.), Handbook of Ugaritic Studies (Leiden, 1999), 276, 278.

23 KTU 1.100 (n. 22); Spronk (n. 22), 279–80; M. Dietrich and O. Loretz, Studien zu den ugaritischen Texten (Münster, 2000), 266–402.

24 J. Gray, ‘The Canaanite God Horon’, JNES 8.1 (1949): 33–4.

25 Caquot, ‘Horon: revue critique et données nouvelles’ (n. 19), 175; Caquot ‘Horon: bilan critique et données nouvelles’ (n. 19), 243; Bonnet (n. 20), 193.

26 Sourvinou-Inwood (n. 12), 309, 355: ‘psychopompos.’

27 These traits are interlinked in shamanic activities: M. Winkelman, ‘Shamanism and the Alteration of Consciousness’, in E. Cardeña and M. Winkelman (eds.), Altering Consciousness. Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Santa Barbara, 2011), i.162; J. L. Pearson, Shamanism and the Ancient Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Archaeology (Walnut Creek, 2002), 65–76.

28 KTU 1.169 (n. 22); Spronk (n. 22), 280.

29 Caquot, ‘Horon: revue critique et données nouvelles’ (n. 19), 176.

30 Ustinova (n. 11), 233–4, 246–7.

31 Albright, ‘The Egypto-Canaanite Deity Haurôn’ (n. 19), 11; van Dijk (n. 19), 59.

32 Albright, ‘The Canaanite god Ḥaurôn (Ḥôrôn)’ (n. 19), 3–4; van Dijk (n. 19), 62–4; Gray (n. 24), 29.

33 Albright, ‘The Egypto-Canaanite Deity Haurôn’ (n. 19), 11; Gray (n. 24), 29; Caquot, ‘Horon: revue critique et données nouvelles’ (n. 19), 174; van Dijk (n. 19), 60.

34 Rüterswörden (n. 19), 425.

35 Cassius Dio (68.27), who visited the Hierapolis Charonium, and Ammianus Marcellinus (13.6.17–18) reiterate Strabo’s information.

36 Before the excavations of 2010–12, a cavern below the temple of Apollo was considered as the Charonium (G. E. Bean, Turkey Beyond the Meander [London, 1989], 202–4; T. M. Cross and S. Aaronson, ‘The Vapours of One Entrance to Hades’, Antiquity 62 [1988], 88–9; S. Negri and G. Leucci, ‘Geophysical Investigation of the Temple of Apollo (Hierapolis, Turkey)’, Journal of Archaeological Science 33 [2006], 1,505–13; Ustinova [n. 11], 84–8). As a result of the new discoveries, this identification has been convincingly refuted by F. D’Andria (‘Il Ploutonion a Hierapolis di Frigia’, MDAI(I) 61 [2013], 184–91). Since both sanctuaries are located above the same tectonic fracture, the subterranean structure below the temple of Apollo contains high concentrations of carbon dioxide (Pfanz et al. [n. 9], 1365).

37 I. S. Stewart and L. Piccardi, ‘Seismic Faults and Sacred Sanctuaries in Aegean Antiquity’, Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 128 (2017), 718; Pfanz et al. (n. 9), 1359; D’Andria (n. 10), 97.

38 D’Andria (n. 36); D’Andria (n. 9); D’Andria (n. 10); F. D’Andria, ‘Des “mystères” à Hiérapolis de Phrygie?’, in N. Belayche, F. Massa, and P. Hoffmann (eds.), Les mystères au IIe siècle de notre ère: un tournant (Turnhout, 2021), 114; S. Bozza, T. Ismaelli, and P. Panarelli, ‘Nuovi dati sulle architetture di età ellenistica dell’area del Ploutonion’, in F. D’Andria, M. P. Caggia, and T. Ismaelli (eds.), Hierapolis di Frigia XV. Le attività delle campagne di scavo e restauro 2012–2015 (Istanbul, 2022), 539–58.

39 D’Andria (n. 36); D’Andria (n. 9); Stewart and Piccardi (n. 37), 717–18.

40 [---] Πλούτωνι καὶ Κόρῃ τὴν ψαλίδα καὶ τὸ ---] (to Pluto and Core a vault and…) D’Andria (n. 10), 92.

41 D’Andria (n. 36); D’Andria (n. 9); D’Andria (n. 10), 116–18. It is noteworthy that Dio Cassius (68.27) used the word theatron in his description of the Charonium. The local poisonous cave was probably a site of a ritual associated with Cybele, long before the foundation of the Hellenistic city: F. D’Andria, ‘The Cult of Cybele in Hierapolis of Phrygia’, in G. R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), Phrygia in Antiquity: From the Bronze Age to the Byzantine Period (Leuven, 2019), 479–500.

42 Pfanz et al. (n. 9), 1363. On the psycho-chemical properties of carbon dioxide, see H. Pfanz, G. Yüce, F. D’Andria, W. D’Alessandro, B. Pfanz, Y. Manetas, and G. Papatheodorou, ‘The Ancient Gates to Hell and Their Relevance to Geogenic CO2’, in P. Wexler (ed.), History of Toxicology and Environmental Health (Oxford, 2014), 98; D’Andria (n. 9), 198–200; D’Andria (n. 10), 102; D’Andria (n. 38), 113. Cf. Plin. HN 2. 95.

43 Pfanz et al. (n. 9), 1363. The palaeozoological evidence supports these conclusions: J. De Grossi Mazzorin and C. Minniti, ‘Gli animali alla porta degli Inferi di Hierapolis: uno studio preliminare’, in F. D’Andria, M. P. Caggia, and T. Ismaelli (eds.), Hierapolis di Frigia XV. Le attività delle campagne di scavo e restauro 2012–2015 (Istanbul, 2022), 525–38.

44 Maniscalco and McConnell (n. 6), 147.

45 Pfanz et al. (n. 9), 1369.

46 The sanctuary was probably founded by Seleucus I before 281 BCE: G. H. Renberg, Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World (Leiden, 2017), 296.

47 Bean (n. 36), 186; Nissen (n. 4), 118–21.

48 W. von Diest, Nysa ad Maeandrum, nach Forschungen und Aufnahmen in den Jahren 1907 und 1909 (Berlin, 1913), 24–7; Bean (n. 36), 187.

49 von Diest (n. 48), 24–7, map 3.

50 C. I. Szabó, ‘Hydrogen Sulphide and its Therapeutic Potential’, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 6 (2007), 917–35; I. D’Angeli, M. Vattano, M. Parise, and J. De Waele, ‘The Coastal Sulfuric Acid Cave System of Santa Cesarea Terme (Southern Italy)’, in A. B. Klimchouk, J. De Waele, A. Auler, and P. Audra (eds.), Hypogene Karst Regions and Caves of the World (Berlin, 2017), 161–8.

51 Remarkably, the fact that the most important feature of the site described by Strabo in minute detail has disappeared, is not even mentioned in recent commentaries on the Geography, for instance, D. W. Roller, A Historical and Topographical Guide to the Geography of Strabo (Cambridge, 2018), 807–8; S. Radt, Strabons Geographica (Göttingen, 2009), viii, 60.

52 Bean (n. 36), 187.

53 The hometown of his teacher Aristodemus: Strabo 14.1.48; D. Dueck, Strabo of Amasia (London, 2000), 7.

54 V. Idil, Nysa ve Akharaka (Izmir, 1999), 124; Nissen (n. 4), 122.

55 von Diest (n. 48), 26–7, fig. 6; map 3.

56 Stewart and Piccardi (n. 37), 718. N. Ambraseys (Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East [Cambridge, 2009] 491; 552) gives details on two earthquakes in Sultanhisar (ancient Nysa), in 1653 and 1737, during which the district was totally ruined, and many buildings sunk. See also Mozafari et al. (n. 9), 413: the map showing two major historical earthquakes, of magnitudes 9 and 8, in Salavatli (Acharaca) and Sultanhisar.

57 Entrances to many ancient caves have been covered up by debris or collapsed over the recent millennia. Notably, about 30 km eastward of Hierapolis the sulphur Kaklik cave, containing a thermal spring and featuring dangerous levels of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide in its inner part, collapsed a few decades ago, forming a sinkhole (S. Ulcay, O. Kurt, C. Mert Akcora, and M. Ozturk, ‘Environmental Monitoring in the Kaklik Cave (Denizli, Turkey)’, Natural Science 4.3 [2012], 159–65).

58 Strabo 14.1.44–5. The cavern was so deep that the other entrance was 30 stadia (almost six km) away, as Strabo reported relying on hearsay. Since nobody could enter the cave to explore it, this estimate could not have been based on more than people’s fantasies.

59 von Diest (n. 48), 26; Pfanz et al. (n. 42), 112.

60 Pfanz et al. (n. 42), 96.

61 For instance, the cave which emitted mephitic vapours, mentioned in the legend on the origin of Hirpi Sorani (Serv. Ad Aen. 11.785), has probably been identified, and features a deposit on its walls, indicating the existence of sulphurous gases in the past: G. D. B. Jones, ‘Capena and the Ager Capenas: Part II’, PBSR 31 (1963), 126; Y. Ustinova, ‘Hirpi Sorani and Modern Fire-Walkers: Rejoicing Through Pain in Extreme Rituals’, in A. Alvar Nuño, J. Alvar Ezquerra, and G. Woolf (eds.), Sensorium. Sensory Perceptions in Roman Polytheism (Leiden, 2021), 75.

62 Cf. the range of gas concentrations in the probes taken at different places at Cueva de Villa Luz in Mexico: L. D. Hose and J. A. Pisarowicz, ‘Cueva de Villa Luz, Tabasco, Mexico: Reconnaissance Study of an Active Sulfur Spring Cave and Ecosystem’, Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 61.1 (1999), 15. The explorers of this cave entered it without masks in the 1980s, feeling sick after prolonged stays in the toxic atmosphere, but recovering later.

63 Data published by the US Department of Labor: https://www.osha.gov/hydrogen-sulfide/hazards, viewed on February 22, 2022.

64 D’Andria (n. 10); (n. 41); (n. 38).

65 Ritti (n. 3), 78; D’Andria (n. 10), 121; D’Andria (n. 38), 110.

66 D’Andria (n. 10), 121.

67 Epitoma Photiana Fr. 131 in C. Zintzen, Damascii Vitae Isidori Reliquiae (Heidelsheim, 1967), 176; Ritti (n. 3), 238–40.

68 A. Filippini, ‘I culti di Zeus Sabazio e di Plutone e Kore nell’Asia Minore ellenistico-romana. Note preliminari di carattere epigrafico e storico-religioso’, in F. D’Andria, M. P. Caggia, and T. Ismaelli (eds.), Hierapolis di Frigia XV. Le attività delle campagne di scavo e restauro 2012–2015 (Istanbul, 2022), 897–920.

69 D’Andria (n. 38), 124.

70 D’Andria (n. 9), 196; D’Andria (n. 10), 111, 121, fig. 42; D’Andria (n. 41), 483.

71 Renberg (n. 46), 533, questioned this conclusion before the results of the latest excavations were published. On the basis of this evidence, D’Andria (n. 10), 123–4, convincingly argues that incubation was practised in Hierapolis.

72 D’Andria (n. 38), 119–20.

73 D’Andria (n. 10), 100, 123; Nissen (n. 4), 133.

74 This practice was quite common; on ‘proxy’ incubation, see Renberg (n. 46), 613–16.

75 M. Dillon, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece (London, 1997); I. Rutherford, State Pilgrims and Sacred Observers in Anciet Greece (Cambridge, 2013).

76 For the role of prolonged preparations, expectation, and priming in the success of a catabasis rite, see Y. Ustinova, ‘To the Netherworld and Back: Cognitive Aspects of the Descent to Trophonius’, in E. Eidinow, A. Geertz, and J. North (eds.), Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience (Cambridge, 2022), 44–66.

77 Renberg (n. 46), 297.

78 E. Asprem, ‘Explaining the Esoteric Imagination. Towards a Theory of Kataphatic Practice’, Aries 17.1 (2017), 17–50.

79 M. Andersen, U. Schjødt, K. L. Nielbo, and J. Sørensen, ‘Mystical Experience in the Lab’, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 26.3 (2014), 226, 237.

80 D. M. Wulff, Psychology of Religion (New York, 1997), 70–5; A.-I. Rassia, ‘Cultural Practices and Mentalities of Ancient Greek Religious Fasting’, in E. Galbois and S. Rougier-Blanc (eds.), Maigreur et minceur dans les sociétés anciennes. Grèce, Orient, Rome (Bordeaux, 2020), 291–304.

81 Wulff (n. 80), 76; A.-L. Siikala, ‘The Siberian Shaman’s Technique of Ecstasy’, in N. G. Holm (ed.), Religious Ecstasy (Stockholm, 1982), 105; D. Merkur, Becoming Half Hidden: Shamanism and Initiation Among the Inuit (Stockholm, 1985), 172; J. Austin, Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness (Cambridge MA/London, 1998), 102, 494; during mystery rites in Greece: W. Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults (Cambridge MA, 1987), 77; 133. Fasting for one day before incubation was required at the sanctuary of Amphiaeaus in Oropus (Vita Apollonii 2. 37; Ustinova [n. 11], 97–8). On fasting and incubation, Renberg (n. 46), 625–6.

82 F. Benedetti, Placebo Effects. Understanding the Mechanisms in Health and Disease (Oxford, 2009).

83 A. W. Geertz, ‘Brain, Body, and Culture: A Biocultural Theory of Religion’, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 22 (2010), 308; N. Humphrey, The Mind Made Flesh. Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution (Oxford, 2002), 255–88; Asclepaea: O. Panagiotidou, ‘The Asklepios Cult: Where Brains, Minds and Bodies Interact with the World Creating New Realities’, Journal of Cognitive Historiography 1.1 (2014), 14–23.

84 H. von Ehrenheim, ‘Placebo Factors at Healing Sanctuaries in Pagan and Early Christian Times’, TiC 13.1 (2021), 95–121.

85 U. Schjoedt, ‘Predictive Coding in the Study of Religion: A Believer’s Testimony’, in A. Klostergaard Petersen, I. S. Gilhus, L. H. Martin, J. S. Jensen, and J. Sørensen (eds.), Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis (Leiden, 2019), 367; U. Schjoedt, J. Sørensen, K. L. Nielbo, D. Xygalatas, P. Mitkidis, and J. Bulbulia, ‘Cognitive Resource Depletion in Religious Interactions’, Religion, Brain and Behavior 3.1 (2013), 39–55.

86 Schjoedt (n. 85), 365, 370.

87 Ustinova (n. 76), 58–60.

88 Renberg (n. 46), 571.

89 C. Riedweg, Mysterienterminologie bei Platon, Philon und Klemens von Alexandria (Berlin/New York, 1987), 128; A. Bernabé, ‘Aristotle and the Mysteries’, in M. J. Martín-Velasco and M. J. García Blanco (eds.), Greek Philosophy and Mystery Cults (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2016), 34–8; V. Rose, Aristotelis qui ferebantur librorum fragmenta (Leipzig, 1886).

90 Bernabé (n. 89), 28.

91 Y. Ustinova, ‘To Live in Joy and Die with Hope: Experiential Aspects of Ancient Greek Mystery Rites’, BICS 56.2 (2013), 105–23; Y. Ustinova, Divine Mania. Alteration of Consciousness in Ancient Greece (London, 2018), 126–44.

92 W. Burkert, Homo Necans (Berkeley/Los Angeles, 1983), 255; J. N. Bremmer, Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World (Berlin/Boston, 2014), 67; Ustinova ‘To Live in Joy and Die with Hope’ (n. 91), 116.

93 Ustinova (n. 11), 226–55.

94 Ibid., 69–89.

95 A combination of initiations and rituals aiming at attaining visions is attested to in other places, most notably at the Trophonium: P. Bonnechere, ‘Trophonios of Lebadea. Mystery Aspects of an Oracular Cult in Boeotia’, in M. B. Cosmopoulos (ed.), Greek Mysteries. The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults (London/New York, 2003), 169–92; Ustinova (n. 76).

96 Temporary comparison of the initiates to beasts lurking in a den ensues from Euripides’ use of the word thalamê, an exact synonym of phôleos, as a designation of the Trophonium: ‘Trophonius’ den’ or ‘Trophonius’ cave’ (Ion 394; Ustinova [n. 11], 198).

97 E. Parisinou, The Light of the Gods. The Role of Light in Archaic and Classical Greek Cult (London, 2003), 71–2, 118–23.

98 K. Regiling in von Diest (n. 48), 91–2, table 13; Nissen (n. 4), 116, fig, 5; Ritti (n. 3), 241, fig. 58.

99 Ephebeia as initiation: P. Vidal-Naquet, Le chasseur noir. Formes de pensée et formes de société dans le monde grec (Paris, 1981), 151–75; W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge MA, 1985), 263.

100 H. Jeanmaire, Couroi et Courètes (Lille, 1939); Vidal-Naquet (n. 99).

101 Jeanmaire (n. 100), 338; Burkert (n. 99), 263.

102 Jeanmaire (n. 100), 421–60.

103 Nakedness and initiations: I. Lada-Richards, Initiating Dionysus. Ritual and Theatre in Aristophanes’ Frogs (Oxford, 1999), 75–8; in male transition rites: Burkert (n. 99), 261; L. Bonfante, ‘Nudity as a Costume in Classical Art’, AJA 93 (1989), 551; nudity of Indo-European warriors: Ustinova Divine Mania (n. 91), 221.

104 R. Fischer, D. Xygalatas, P. Mitkidis, P. Reddish, P. Tok, I. Konvalinka, and J. Bulbulia, ‘The Fire-Walker’s High: Affect and Physiological Responses in an Extreme Collective Ritual’, PLoS ONE 9.2 (2014), e88355.

105 I. Konvalinka, D. Xygalatas, J. Bulbulia, U. Schjødt, E.-M. Jegindøa, S. Wallot, G. Van Orden, and A. Roepstorff, ‘Synchronized Arousal Between Performers and Related Spectators in a Fire-Walking Ritual’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108.20 (2011), 8,514–9; E. M. Lee, K. R. Klement, J. K. Ambler, T. Loewald, E. M. Comber, S. A. Hanson, B. Pruitt, and B. J. Sagarin, ‘Altered States of Consciousness During an Extreme Ritual’, PLoS ONE 11. 5 (2016), e0153126.

106 Fischer et al. (n. 104); D. Xygalatas, The Burning Saints: Cognition and Culture in the Fire-Walking Rituals of the Anastenaria (London, 2014), 182.

107 Cf. the example of the fire-walking Hirpi Sorani: Ustinova (n. 61), 80, 85.

108 Chiron as a prominent physician: E. Aston, ‘The Absence of Chiron’, CQ 56.2 (2006), 350–1; healers serving on Mt Pelion: Dicaearchus FGrHist 2 Fr. 60; Y. Ustinova, ‘Medical Fraternity: Initiations in the Hippocratic Corpus’, SCI 43 (2024), 58–9.

109 Burkert (n. 92), 112–13; P. Bonnechere, Le sacrifice humain en Grèce ancienne (Athènes-Liège, 1995), 147.

Figure 0

Figure 1. The suggested site of the Charonium at Acharaca, located in the western branch of the gully above the Plutonium: the view nowadays (photograph by the author).

Figure 1

Figure 2. A 1909 photograph of the Charonium (von Dienst [n. 48], fig. 6).

Figure 2

Figure 3. Exposure of shale, sulphur, and calcite-like sediments (photograph by the author).

Figure 3

Figure 4. The shale rock and the small cave in the eastern branch of the gully (photograph by the author).