IJDOD V: Indiana Jones and the Ear of Dionysius

SPOILERS for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

“Search where Dionysius... hears each whisper... like a hurricane.”

Using the Polybius Square, this is what Helena Shaw deciphers from the Grafikos recovered from the shipwreck off Antikythera, telling our (anti-)heroes where to find the tomb of Archimedes and the other half of the ‘Dial of Destiny’.

At first, this might seem like a riddle, forcing the reader into a second level of deciphering, possibly involving the myths and legends surrounding the Greek god of god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre, and trying to find a connection to one of the other deities linked to hurricanes or storms – Zeus/Jupiter, Poseidon/Neptune, Aeolus.

Instead, the solution is more historical than that. The ‘Dionysius’ in question here is a 5th/4th century BC tyrant of Syracuse, known as Dionysius I or Dionysius the Elder (c.405-367BC). Indy and Helena recognise in this Grafikos ‘riddle’ a reference to a cave connected to the Syracusan tyrant – the so-called ‘Ear of Dionysius’.

This cave would appear to be partially natural and partially man-made in the Temenites hill in what is now the Archaeological Park of Syracuse. The man-made aspect, at least initially, appears to be that it was originally a limestone quarry, with it up to 23 metres deep, 5-11 metres wide and about 65 metres long in something approaching an ‘S’ shape that tapers in at the top. Because of this shape, the ‘Ear’ has extremely good acoustics, making even a small sound resonate throughout the cave; this, along with the presence an aqueduct higher up in the cave and stories about it, has led to questions over its actual use.

The presence of the aqueduct backed suggestions that the cave was initially dug out and used to store water for Syracuse, only for an earthquake to damage the cave sufficiently so that the water would leak out. The further presence of a theatre above part of the cave has seen it suggested that the acoustics were used as part of the performances and/or the preparations for them.

However, he most famous usage of the ‘Ear of Dionysius’, and partly where its name comes from, is that of a prison, with the acoustics allowing the prisoners to be overheard in their complaints and plotting by the guards. This has all the hallmarks of an urban legend; however, the Syracusans had a long history of using quarries as prisons, at least as far back as the Sicilian Expedition during the Peloponnesian War. The sheer number of Athenian captives that Syracusans took in 413BC – 7,000 – may have necessitated a large space, leading to the authorities seeing these captives “deposited in the quarries, this seeming the safest way of keeping them” (Thucydides VII.86).

Although I doubt that the Athenians would have considered it ‘safe’...

“Crowded in a narrow hole, without any roof to cover them, the heat of the sun and the stifling closeness of the air tormented them during the day, and then the nights, which came on autumnal and chilly, made them ill by the violence of the change; besides, as they had to do everything in the same place for want of room, and the bodies of those who died of their wounds or from the variation in the temperature, or from similar causes, were left heaped together one upon another, intolerable stenches arose; while hunger and thirst never ceased to afflict them” (Thucydides VII.87)

By the time of Cicero, the use of the stone-quarries as prisons in Syracuse had become connected directly with Dionysius I, even if they had been used before his rise to power (cf. Cicero, In Verrem II.5.143).

“You have all heard of the Syracusan stone-quarries. Many of you are acquainted with them. It is a vast work and splendid; the work of the old kings and tyrants. The whole of it is cut out of rock excavated to a marvellous depth, and carved out by the labour of great multitudes of men. Nothing can either be made or imagined so closed against all escape, so hedged in on all sides, so safe for keeping prisoners in. Into these quarries men are commanded to be brought even from other cities in Sicily, if they are commanded by the public authorities to be kept in custody.” (Cicero, In Verrem II.5.68)

However, while the tradition positioning Dionysius as the builder of the cave is inaccurate, there is a connection of him to using quarries as a prison.

“In Sicily Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, now that he was relieved of wars with the Carthaginians, enjoyed great peace and leisure. Consequently he devoted himself with much seriousness to the writing of poetry, and summoning men of repute in this line, he accorded them special honours and resorted to them, making use of them as instructors and revisers of his poems. Elated by the flattering words with which these men repaid his benefactions, Dionysius boasted far more of his poems than of his successes in war. 2 Among the poets in his company was Philoxenus​ the writer of dithyrambs, who enjoyed very high repute as a composer in his own line. After dinner, when the compositions of the tyrant, which were wretched, had been read, he was asked what was his judgement of the poetry. When he replied with a good deal of frankness, the tyrant, offended at his words, found fault with him that he had been moved by jealousy to use scurrilous language and commanded his servants to drag him off forthwith to the quarries. 3 On the next day, however, when Philoxenus' friends made petition for a grant of pardon, Dionysius made up with him and again included the same men in his company after dinner. As the drinking advanced, again Dionysius boasted of the poetry he had written, recited some lines which he considered to be happily composed, and then asked, "What do you think of the verses?" To this Philoxenus said not a word, but called Dionysius' servants and ordered them to take him away to the quarries.” (Diodorus, Bib. 15.6.1-3)

It must be said that this Diodoran account does not specifically identify the quarry-prison that Philoxenus as the ‘Ear of Dionysius’; indeed, none of the ancient records about the Syracusan use of quarries as prisons seem to irrefutably refer to the cave with the ridiculous acoustics as that used by Dionysius.

With regard to its name, tradition has it that this specific stone quarry prison of Syracuse did not receive the name of ‘Ear of Dionysius’ until the early 17th century, when a certain Caravaggio was visiting Sicily (while on the run from a death sentence in Italy). When visiting the site with the architect Michele Mirabella, Caravaggio noted the similarity of its entrance to an ear (possibly also how the insides were similar to the ear canal) and, being a Renaissance man, seemingly knew and therefore connected this aural appearance to stories regarding its usage. Caravaggio later used the ‘Ear’ as the setting for his painting Burial of St. Lucy.

Before Caravaggio’s visit saw it rechristened, it seems that the ‘Ear of Dionysius’ was known as the crypta loquens, meaning ‘the cave that speaks’, also reflecting stories about it. Before that, it was likely just referred to as one of the many λατομείο  – quarries – around Syracuse and Sicily that were used as prisons, although Mirabella, through Jean Houel, suggests that it may have been called ‘Piscidina’.

Whether the name ‘Ear of Dionysius’ was ancient or not does not actually affect its depiction in Dial of Destiny as the ‘Grafikos’ does not mention ‘the Ear’ – it is Indy and Helena who use that term to identify the site described in the Archimedean inscription.

Bibliography

Pantano F.G. Jean Hoüel: voyage a Siracusa : le antichità della città e del suo territorio nel 1777, Palermo (2003)

Sanders, L.J. ‘Diodorus Siculus and Dionysius I of Syracuse’, Historia 30 (1981) 394-411