THE MONUMENTS THAT STOOD BEFORE MARATHON - TOMB CULT AND HERO CULT INARCHAIC ATTICA

This paper seeks to relate the form of the Marathon tumulus to both to mb and hero cult as practiced in Attica in the Archaic period. Distinc tions are made among various archaeological manifestations of hero cul t and between two senses of the term heros in Archaic Greece. The name d warrior heroes of the epic tradition are to be distinguished from th e anonymous heroes whose cult was often located in or over Bronze Age tombs. The popularity or prevalence of various kinds of hero and tomb cult can be shown to change considerably between the eighth and early fifth centuries B.C., partly in response to political change. The gene alogy of the Marathon tumulus can be traced back to the seventh- and e arly sixth-century aristocratic funerary complexes with tumulus, centr al cremation, and offering trench. Such practices seem to be a deliber ate evocation of those described in the Iliad. This fact considerably alters our interpretation of the Marathon tumulus, which can now be se en as an example of the appropriation of aristocratic values and symbo ls to serve the needs of the new democracy.