Sosipolis (Child deity)

Sosipolis (ancient Greek Σωσίπολις, state savior ‘) is a childlike deity of Greek mythology who was worshiped in Olympia and Elis from Hellenism onwards.

myth

The writer Pausanias narrates the legend of Sosipolis, according to which the inhabitants of the Elis, when they were at war against the Arcadians, saw a young woman in Olympia with her newborn son. She announced that on an instruction she had received in a dream, she was bringing the boy to the Eleans as an ally. The Elean military leaders put the child naked at the front line in front of their troops. When the Arcadians invaded, the boy turned into a giant snake that scared the attackers and drove them to flight. The Eleians thereby won the war. They therefore called the boy Sosipolis, the state savior. [1]
Sanctuary and cult

According to Pausanias, the sanctuary of Sosipolis was built on the Altis of Olympia at the foot of the Kronos Hill, where Sosipolis should have disappeared into the earth after the battle in the form of the serpent. His temple was also dedicated to the goddess Eileithyia, who was identified as the young mother of the god and worshiped there with the epithet Olympia. Their cult, which was practiced mainly by women and girls, is said to have taken place in an anteroom of the temple that was open to the public. The rear part of the temple, in which the cult of Sosipolis was practiced, was only allowed to be entered by an elderly priestess, who brought bath water and honey biscuits to the god. [2]

The temple of Sosipolis could not be clearly identified during the excavations in Olympia. The remains of a foundation that was uncovered between the nymphaeum and the treasury of the Sikyonians has a two-part structure, which roughly corresponds to the description of Pausanias, and therefore comes into question as the temple of Sosipolis and Eileithyia. However, the attribution has not been conclusively clarified. [3] [4]

According to Pausanias, Sosipolis was also considered a particularly venerable oath god for the most important matters. [5]
Sosipolis in other cities

There was also a sanctuary of Sosipolis in the city of Elis, where it was worshiped at a small shrine next to the sanctuary of the goddess Tyche. There the young god is said to have been shown in a painting in a garment adorned with stars and with a cornucopia in his hand. [6] The reason for the foundation must have been the same as in Olympia, since Elis was also threatened by the Arcadians in the battle in which Sosipolis appeared as savior.

In the city of Magnesia am Meander in Asia Minor, in the late 1st or early 2nd century B.C. The Zeus Sosipolis honored with a temple.

Pausanias 6:20, 2-5.

literature

Friederike Döhrer: Sosipolis. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9, column 774.
Alfred Mallwitz: Olympia and its buildings. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1972, pp. 155–158.
Johannes Schmidt: Sosipolis 2). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity science (RE). Volume III A, 1, Stuttgart 1927, column 1169 f.
Ulrich Sinn: Ancient Olympia. Gods, games and art. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51558-4, pp. 84-86.
Ludwig Less: Sosipolis 2). In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Ed.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology. Volume 4, Leipzig 1915, Col. 1222-1224 (digitized version).

Web links

Sosipolis in the Theoi Project
Sosipolis in the Greek Myth Index

Individual evidence
Pausanias 6:20, 4-5.
Pausanias 6:20, 2-3.
Alfred Mallwitz: Olympia and its buildings. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1972, pp. 155–158.
Ulrich Sinn: Ancient Olympia. Gods, games and art. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51558-4, pp. 84-86.
Pausanias 6, 20, 3.
Pausanias 6, 25, 4.

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