Category: Mythology/Religion
Is the scepter of Agamemnon a cult object?
| December 19, 2012 | Posted by Ioanna Patera under Blog, Mythology/Religion |
For the last post I have chosen a subject – the question of the scepter of Agamemnon as a cult object – that arose during the conversation I had at the CHS symposium on November 30. Statues representing gods and other cult recipients are usually classified as “cult objects,” an assumption which I shall question in this post. As far as I know, the scepter of Agamemnon, although a non-statuary object, is the single exception. Why is the scepter a recipient of cult, and can it in fact be considered a cult object? First mentioned in the Iliad, this scepter is the marker of authority of kings and of speakers in the assemblies: Then among them lord Agamemnon stood up, holding in his hands the scepter (skêptron) which Hephaestus had toiled over making. Hephaestus gave it to lord Zeus, son of Cronos, and Zeus gave it to the messenger Argeïphontes;… more
Odysseus and the Cult of Apollo at Delos
| December 6, 2012 | Posted by Jim Marks under Art/Archaeology, Blog, Language/Literature, Mythology/Religion |
For my final post, I would like to explore how the audiences for whom early Greek epics were composed and performed might have responded to representations of the cult of Apollo on Delos in epic poetry. This site, along with Delphi, was one of the god’s major Panhellenic sanctuaries—ones frequented by worshippers from many parts of the Greek world. As a consequence, references to Delos in Panhellenic epics—poems designed to appeal to audiences from many parts of the Greek world—would certainly have reached the ears of people who had visited the island or knew someone who had. Indeed, the epic tradition at some point identified Delos as the site of a competition between the two personifications of Panhellenic poetry, Hesiod and Homer, who were associated with either side of the Aegean, Askre and Ionia respectively (Hesiod fr. 357 MW=Schol. Pindar Nemea 2.1; Contest of Homer and Hesiod p.237.316 Allen; cf.… more
Ritual Practice and Material Support: Objects in Ritual Theories
| November 30, 2012 | Posted by Ioanna Patera under Art/Archaeology, E-journal, Mythology/Religion, Research Symposium |
Citation with persistent identifier: Patera, Ioanna. “Ritual Practice and Material Support: Objects in Ritual Theories.” CHS Research Bulletin 1, no. 1 (2012). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.essay:PateraI.Ritual_Practice_and_Material_Support.2012 Confined to the religious sphere [ritual] has some minimal utility. But used in the wide manner of ethologists (the rituals of copulation), archaeologists (with their ritual objects), the sociologists (discovering rituals of family living) and the anthropologists (rituals, more rituals, yet more rituals), there is little to be gained either from the term itself or from further subdivision. Goody 1977, 28 [1] Scholarly debates on “ritual” have so far attracted the attention of classicists in some very particular ways. For example, much ink has been spilled over the relationship between “ritual” and “myth.” Yet the origins of ritual remain a tricky and unresolved issue.[2] It is also taken for granted in classical scholarship that ritual practice stems from religious beliefs. In this paper I will try to distance my… more
Abstract: Ritual Practice and Material Support: Objects in Ritual Theories
| November 30, 2012 | Posted by Ioanna Patera under E-journal, Mythology/Religion, Research Symposium |
“Ritual” has long attracted classicists. While building on anthropological theories, however, the field of classics has not yet fully explored or integrated recent developments into its hermeneutics. While anthropologists have written and thought a great deal about “ritual” and the adequacy of the term for describing repetitive actions in religious as well as profane contexts, classicists continue to use the term without questioning its theoretical implications. “Ritual” conveys indeed dichotomies with which we can dispense, such as sacred/profane, and this is particularly the case when it is applied to objects to create the new category of “ritual objects.” This new category reifies a sharp opposition between belief and practice, between mind and material matter, and so on. Seen through this modern and rather reductive lens, “ancient ritual practice” loses its complexity and diversity. More importantly, modern thoughts and values are projected onto the interpretation of ancient practices, thus blurring and… more
Names, shapes and functions of ancient Greek objects: a changing relationship
| November 27, 2012 | Posted by Ioanna Patera under Blog, Mythology/Religion |
There is a long history in the typology of ancient Greek vases. Typological studies group ceramics according to their physical characteristics, such as material and shape. Each group is then assigned to a specific time period, which is often used to date archaeological contexts and vice versa. Attribution studies have gone a step further by identifying the hands of potters, artists, and production centers. In this process, Greek pottery shapes are largely identified with names well known in the ancient written sources. Athenaeus, a grammarian living in the end of the second and the beginning of the third century CE, wrote an extensive work on banqueting customs in a dialogue form. Book XI introduces the discussion on drinking-cups (ἐκπώματα). Quoting many works and authors, he relates descriptions of various vases. He also reports the open debates on names, such as the existence of two different names designating the same vase.… more
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