Trophonius (/trəˈfoʊniəs/;Ancient Greek: ΤροφώνιοςTrophōnios) was aGreekhero ordaimon orgod—it was never certain which one—with a rich mythological tradition and an oracular cult atLebadaea (Λιβαδειά;Levadia orLivadeia) inBoeotia, Greece.
The name is derived from τρέφωtrepho, "to nourish".Strabo and several inscriptions refer to him asZeus Trephonios. Several otherchthonicZeuses are known from the Greek world, including Zeus ΜειλίχιοςMeilikhios ("honeyed" or "kindly" Zeus), and Zeus ΧθόνιοςChthonios ("Zeus beneath-the-earth"), which were other names forHades.
Similar constructions are also found in theRoman world. For example, a shrine atLavinium inLazio was dedicated toAeneas under the titleIuppiter Indiges (Jupiter in-the-earth).
Trophonius was a son ofErginus, king ofMinyanOrchomenus and brother ofAgamedes. ButApollo is said to be his actual divine father.[1]
According to theHomeric Hymn toApollo, he built Apollo's temple at theoracle atDelphi withAgamedes.Pindar relates how, once finished, the oracle told the brothers to do whatsoever they wished for six days and, on the seventh, they would get their reward. They did and were found dead on the seventh day.[2] Cicero mentions the same story, only shortening the number of days to three.[3] The maxim by Menander, "those whom the gods love die young", may have come from this story.[4]
Alternatively, according toPausanias they built atreasure chamber (with a secret entrance only they knew about) for KingHyrieus ofBoeotia. Using the secret entrance, they stole Hyrieus' fortune. The king was aware but did not know who the thief was; he laid a snare. Agamedes was trapped in it; Trophonius cut off his head so that Hyrieus would not know whose body it was. He was then immediately swallowed up by the earth and was turned into an immortal subterranean god.[5]
The cave of Trophonius was not discovered again until the Lebadaeans suffered a plague and consulted theDelphic Oracle. ThePythia advised them that an unnamed hero was angry at being neglected, and that they should find his grave and offer him worship forthwith. Several unsuccessful searches followed, and the plague continued unabated until a shepherd boy followed a trail of bees into a hole in the ground. Instead of honey, he found adaimon, and Lebadaea lost its plague while gaining a popular oracle.
The childlessXuthus inEuripides'sIon consults Trophonius on his way toDelphi.
Apollonius of Tyana, a legendary wise man and seer ofLate Antiquity, once visited the shrine and found that, when it came to philosophy, Trophonius was a proponent of soundPythagorean doctrines.
Plutarch'sDe Genio Socratis relates an elaborate dream-vision concerning the cosmos and the afterlife that was supposedly received at Trophonius' oracle.
Pausanias, in his account of Boeotia (9.39), relates many details about the cult of Trophonius. Whoever desired to consult the oracle would live in a designated house for a period of days, bathing in the River Herkryna (alsoErkina), named after his daughter who was a childhood friend ofPersephone's, and living onsacrificial meat. He would then sacrifice, by day, to a series of gods, includingCronus,Apollo,Zeus the king,Hera the Charioteer, andDemeter-Europa. At night, he would cast a ram into a pit sacred toAgamedes, drink from two rivers calledLethe andMnemosyne, and then descend into a cave. Here, most consultees were frightened out of their wits, and forgot the experience entirely upon coming up.
Afterward, the consultee would be seated upon a chair of Mnemosyne, where the priests of the shrine would record his ravings and compose an oracle out of them.
"To descend into the cave of Trophonios" became a proverbial way of saying "to suffer a great fright". This saying is alluded to inAristophanes'Clouds.
Several ancient philosophers, includingHeraclides Ponticus, wrote commentaries on the cult of Trophonios that are now lost. Trophonios has been of interest to classical scholars because the rivers ofLethe andMnemosyne have close parallels with theMyth of Er at the end ofPlato'sRepublic, with a series ofOrphicfunerary inscriptions on gold leaves, and with several passages about Memory and forgetting inHesiod'sTheogony.The Hellfire Club once constructed a "Cave of Trophonius" with obscene wall-paintings in which to conduct their revels. The philosopherSøren Kierkegaard references "the cave of Trophonius" when discussing his childhood and later philosophical revelations in his workEither/Or. The philosopherFriedrich Nietzsche makes a reference to "Trophonius" in the preface to hisDaybreak, alluding to his labor in the "underground" of moral prejudices.
