Athenian sacred ships

{{Short description|State triremes with religious functions in Athens}}

Image:Trireme.jpg.]]

Athenian sacred ships were ancient Athenian ships, often triremes, which had special religious functions such as serving in sacred processions (theoria) or embassies or racing in boat races during religious festivals.Jordan, Athenian Navy, 154-157. The two most famous such ships were the Paralus and the Salaminia, which also served as the messenger ships of the Athenian government in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.Jordan, Athenian Navy, 153. Other notable ships included one possibly named the Delia (Δηλία), a triakonter (thirty-oared galley) believed to be the ship in which Theseus had sailed to Crete, and which was involved in several traditional theoria to Delos; the vessel was constantly repaired by replacing individual planks to keep it seaworthy while maintaining its identity as the same ship.Jordan, Athenian Navy, 160-161. (For the philosophical question of the ship's identity, see Ship of Theseus.) After the reforms of Cleisthenes, a ship was named for each of the ten tribes that political leader had created; these ships may also have been sacred ships.Jordan, Athenian Navy, 179; see however Lewis, Athenian Navy, 71, for scholarly caution on expanding the number of sacred ships too far. Another known sacred ship was the Theoris (θεωρίς), a trireme kept for sacred embassies.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0063%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DT%3Aentry+group%3D2%3Aentry%3Dtheoris-cn A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Theoris]

Most probably the name of the ships derive from:

• Delia: was called like this because it was used (probably exclusively) for Delian theoriae
• Salaminia: was called like this because it was manned originally by natives of Salamis
• Paralus: was called like this because it was manned by sailors from the Paralia
• Theoris: from the term theori (θεωροί), who were sacred ambassadors or delegates and were dispatched on special missions (θεωρίαι) to carry out a religious task for the state, speak with an oracle, or represent the state at a religious celebration in another country.

The Paralus and the Salaminia, and possibly some other sacred ships, served in the Athenian combat fleet. Those two vessels, being particularly swift, were used as scout and messenger ships, but also fought in the line of battle.Jordan, Athenian Navy, 158-159, 167. The Paralus and Salaminia, meanwhile, also performed various tasks for the government; the Paralus appears to have carried most diplomatic missions,Jordan, Athenian Navy, 173. and the Salaminia carried official state messages;Jordan, Athenian Navy, 166. most famously, it was sent to arrest Alcibiades while that politician was commanding the Sicilian Expedition.Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 6.53. These two triremes also had dedicated treasurers, or tamiai.Treasurers for the Paralus and another sacred vessel, the Ammonias, are attested at Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 61; and most modern scholars, believing that the Ammonias had replaced the Salaminia, assign a treasurer to the Salaminia as well (see Lewis, Athenian Navy, 71), although Jordan (Athenian Navy, 167, 177) disagrees and assigns the treasurer only to the Ammonias.