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Spartan Religion
Abstract
This chapter explains that Spartan religion was distinctive in relation to the religious systems of the other Greek poleis, and in particular to that of Athens. The Spartans believed in the existence of supernatural beings, that is in gods and heroes, who intervened in human affairs. Sacred space was enhanced and enlarged as Sparta grew in power and prosperity. The two colossal archaic statues of an armed Apollo, holding a spear in one hand and a bow in the other, protected the five villages that constituted the polis of Sparta. The Spartans had a distinctive ethos that was based on a collective mentality, similarity of lifestyle, communal institutions, and martial values. The three most important Spartan festivals, the Karneia, Hyakinthia, and Gymnopaidiai, were all in honour of the youthful god Apollo. Spartan women indeed participated in religious activities, but in ways that were peculiarly appropriate to and adapted for the Spartan ethos.
... Generally, lots of C&D waste is accumulated in landfills with landfill disposal [4,8,9]. In addition, cement is used in concrete for about 300-400 kg/m 3 and consumes 4-6 billion tons per year [10][11][12]. Cement is also a significant contributor to the carbon footprint of concrete, and its carbon emission in concrete production accounts for about 80% and accounts for 5-7% of global CO 2 emissions [13][14][15][16][17]. ...
Construction and demolition (C&D) waste has caused various economic, environmental, and social problems. This paper investigates the potential of recycled concrete fine powder (RFP) as a supplementary cementitious material. The effect of RFP with different replacement levels on the properties of cement and the mechanism of action were explored from the physical characteristics, mechanical properties, hydration kinetics, hydration products, and pore structure. In this study, scanning electron microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, Thermogravimetric analysis, and Isothermal calorimeter were applied. The results showed that RFP (less than 30%) shortened the setting time and improved the fluidity of cement. The early compressive strength increased by 17.62% of the cement mortar with 10% RFP. When the RFP content was 10%, the flowability of the blended slurry (175.5 mm) increased by 8.0% compared to the pure cement (162.5 mm). With the RFP content increase of the blended cement, the hydration induction period was prolonged, and the peak hydration exothermic rate and the accumulated heat release showed an apparent decreasing trend. The reaction rate of the nucleation and crystal growth (NG) process was much higher than that of the interface (I) and diffusion (D) processes. The low field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique revealed that RFP filled the large and medium pores of the mortar. The non-destructive layered scanning found that the pores were distributed mainly in the central zone and had a gradient distribution law of gradually decreasing from the middle area to the edge area. Visual analysis of the dynamic distribution of water molecules in the pores and the non-homogeneous characterization also demonstrated the good filling effect of RFP on the mortar. Therefore, RFP can be used as an economical and environmentally friendly cement mixing material to replace partial cement and contribute to reducing carbon emissions in the construction industry.
... In fact, he says virtually nothing about religion, which stands in sharp contrast to Spartan piety. On Spartans and religion see Flower 2009, Powell 2009, Parker 1989, Richer 2007, and Holladay and Goodman 1986 35 See Low 2006. Spartan burial practices for soldiers resembled those of many Greek cities; treatment of their kings was unusual. ...
This paper focuses on the very scarce epigraphic evidence related to the cult of the ‘founders of colonies’, that means, more precisely, on the votive inscription of Mnasithales to Antiphamos, from Gela, and the inscribed dedications from the archegesion of Anios, in Delos. These highly interesting documents allow us to discuss about the roots of the heroic status of the founders and about the relationship between the cult of the founder and the votive inscriptions.
This paper argues that the cult of Asklepios developed and spread fast due to a shift in mentality in Classical Greece. This change concerned both who might communicate directly with the gods in dreams, as well as the development of a new way of envisaging healing. It is argued that the notion that anybody could receive a godsent dream, as seen in numerous incubation sanctuaries, reflects a change in mentality in Classical times. It is further argued that religious healing in the cult of Asklepios was influenced by the development of Greek medicine in Archaic times, and the ease and low expense of consulting a Hippokratic doctor in Classical times.
This paper focuses on the very scarce epigraphic evidence related to the cult of the ‘founders of colonies’, that means, more precisely, on the votive inscription of Mnasithales to Antiphamos, from Gela, and the inscribed dedications from the archegesion of Anios, in Delos. These highly interesting documents allow us to discuss about the roots of the heroic status of the founders and about the relationship between the cult of the founder and the votive inscriptions.
This chapter applies Robert Orsi’s concepts of ‘real presence’ and ‘abundant history’ to the study of ancient Greek religion, using divination as a case study. It proposes that we should take real presence seriously as something that most Greeks took for granted. Although investigating religious experience is extraordinarily difficult, one of the best places to look is in the ubiquitous practice of divination. For it is in the context of the divinatory ritual that the real presence of the divine was commonly to be experienced. Case studies include the epiphany of Asklepios to Isyllos of Epidauros, the lead oracular tablets from Dodona, and the role of divination in the Athenian expedition to Sicily in 415 BCE. The latter event is compared to the belief of the Lakota Sioux that their ghost shirts would protect them from bullets at the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. In both cases, a collective belief in prophecy and in the real presence of supernatural forces instilled an assurance of victory, and this assurance was then followed by a rejection of the religious specialists who had promoted a positive interpretation of the message and the outcome.
This chapter highlights the fundamental problems of evidence which bedevil debates over Sparta's alleged exceptionality. It examines the central aspect of these debates: the question whether classical Sparta was marked by an exceptional domination of state over society. The chapter also purposely addresses just one issue, albeit one of the most central, in the wider debate over Sparta's exceptionality. It then addresses a further issue raised by the foregoing discussion – to what extent Spartiate citizens were able to exercise private influence over affairs of state – as part of a broader analysis of the character of the Spartan polis. On a long-term perspective, Sparta in the fourth and early third centuries had become a type of polis similar in key respects to archaic Sparta of the seventh century: a plutocratic society marked by severe inequalities of wealth and dominated by private interests and acquisitive behaviour of the rich.
Communal dining was at the heart of the classical Spartan lifestyle. Some ancient sources suggest that austere dinners in public messes served primarily military purposes: they organized men for war and prepared them for its hardships. Modern scholars have often followed suit and interpreted the creation of common messes as part of a process of militarization which Sparta supposedly underwent sometime between 650 and 550 bc. Most ancient authors called the public messes either syssitia, the generic Greek word for 'dining groups', or phiditia, if they used the technical Spartan term. Philitia were 'groups of friends', so if Xenophon was right the name referred not to drinking or eating or austerity but to the forging of harmonious relationships. From the late fifth century onwards, at the latest, it seems clear that a single mess group did indeed form the citizen core of a 'sworn band', the rest of which was made up of perioikoi.
The aim of this book is to provide a systematic examination of a crucial aspect of classical Sparta, her system of property, and to analyse the role of private wealth within her society. The volume falls into four parts. In Part I, Spartan perceptions, I shall outline certain misleading but highly influential images of Sparta's property system and attitudes to wealth which have prevailed since ancient times. Chapter I will sketch the prevalence of perceptions of Sparta as an economically egalitarian society in the works of key modern thinkers from the 16th to the 18th centuries - perceptions which have formed an influential backdrop to historical scholarship on Sparta during the last 200 years. Chapter 2 examines the creation and development of these images in antiquity under the influence of what is commonly known as the `Spartan mirage': that is, `the partly distorted, partly invented, image created by and for non-Spartans (with not a little help from their Spartan friends) of what Sparta ideally represented' (Cartledge 1987, 118).
Part II, The anatomy of the Spartiate property system, attempts to uncover the `reality' obscured by these `Spartan perceptions', focusing on the balance between private and public elements in Spartan property-holding. Chapter 3 analyses the nature of landownership and inheritance, emphasising - contrary to the pervasive images of egalitarian state control - the predominantly private character of land tenure. Chapter 4 examines the Spartiates' control over the servile helot population, focusing upon their relationship as landowners and cultivators, and the character and geographical extent of Spartiate agricultural exploitation of Lakonia and Messenia. Chapter 5 discusses private ownership and use of non-landed property, especially the controversial questions of Sparta's iron currency, the use of foreign coinage and the role of monetary wealth. Finally, Chapter 6 examines certain public limitations on private property ownership, placing them in a broader historical perspective.
Part III, Rich citizens and the use of private wealth, analyses the extent to which rich citizens were able to make use of their private resources and the impact of those uses upon Spartiate society. Chapter 7 considers certain restrictions upon the deployment of private wealth in Spartan life; Chapter 8 similar restrictions on burials and funerary practice. Chapter 9 investigates the sphere of religious dedications, assessing the degree to which it was marked by restrictions on the use of wealth or by its deployment for prestige displays. Chapters 10 and 11 discuss two particular spheres in which rich citizens were able to employ their surplus wealth with potentially significant socio-political consequences: through horse-rearing and engagement in equestrian contests, and through the establishment of personal and political relations of patronage and clientism at home and abroad. My overall thesis is that, despite manifold restrictions, their deployment of private wealth created a significant gulf between wealthy Spartiates and their poorer fellow citizens.
Part IV, Property and the Spartan crisis, pursues this point in examining the contribution of inequalities in wealth to the crisis of Spartiate society. Chapter 12 attempts the difficult task of quantifying the economic viability of `ordinary' citizen households, suggesting that their productive capacity would normally have been sufficient to meet their material demands, as long as the distribution of land remained only moderately unequal. Finally, Chapter 13 analyses the growth of excessive property concentration and the impoverishment of citizen households during the fifth and early fourth centuries. It also examines the impact of these developments on the crisis of Spartiate society, focusing especially on the growth of a plutocratic society, in which the dominance of wealthy citizens undermined the classical Spartan social order.
In this collection of new essays, an international group of experts explores the significance of reciprocity (the principle and practice of voluntary requital, of benefit for benefit or harm for harm) in ancient Greek culture. Reciprocity has been seen as an important notion for anthropologists studying economic and social relations. A key question has been whether reciprocity constitutes an alternative pattern to the commercial, political, and ethical relationships characteristic of modern Western society. This volume takes the question forward in connection with Greek culture from Homer to the Hellenistic period. Building on previous research on this topic (especially on Homeric society), it provides a wide-ranging examination of reciprocity in Greek epic and drama, historiography, oratory, religion, and ethical philosophy. It asks fundamental questions about the importance of reciprocity in different phases of Greek history, the interplay between reciprocity and the ideology of Athenian democracy, and between reciprocity and altruism in ethical thought. Clear and non-technical, with all Greek translated, this volume will make debate on this important subject available to a wide circle of readers in classical, literary, anthropological, and historical studies.
Pindar and the Cult of Heroes combines a study of Greek culture and religion (hero cult) with a literary-critical study of Pindar's epinician poetry. It looks at hero cult generally, but focuses especially on heroization in the 5th century BC. There are individual chapters on the heroization of war dead, of athletes, and on the religious treatment of the living in the 5th century. Hero cult, Bruno Currie argues, could be anticipated, in different ways, in a person's lifetime. Epinician poetry too should be interpreted in the light of this cultural context; fundamentally, this genre explores the patron's religious status. The book features extensive studies of Pindar's Pythians 2, 3, 5, Isthmian 7, and Nemean 7.
The seer (mantis), an expert in the art of divination, operated in ancient Greek society through a combination of charismatic inspiration and diverse skills ranging from examining the livers of sacrificed animals to spirit possession. Unlike the palm readers and mediums who existed on the fringe of modern society, many seers were highly paid, well-respected, educated members of the elite who played an essential role in the conduct of daily life, political decisions, and military campaigns. Armies, for example, never went anywhere without one. This book enters into the socioreligious world of ancient Greece to explore what seers did, why they were so widely employed, and how their craft served as a viable and useful social practice.
Robin Horton's critical and creative writings on African religious thought have influenced anthropologists, philosophers, and all those interested in the comparative study of religion and thought. This selection of some of his classic papers, with a new introduction and postscript by the author, traces Horton's theoretical ideas over thirty years. In attempting to understand African religious thought, he also tackles broader issues in the history and sociology of thought, such as secularisation and modernisation. Part I is a critical assessment of two established interpretive approaches, the Symbolist and the Theological. Part II proposes an alternative 'Intellectualist' approach that emphasises the structural and processual similarities between religious and scientific thinking. The postscript appraises the Intellectualist approach in the light of theorising about religion and world views.
The poems of Theocritus are our best witness to a brilliant poetic culture that flourished in the first half of the third century BC. This book considers the context from which these poems grew and, in particular, the manner in which they engage with and recreate the poetic forms of the Greek archaic age. The focus is not on the familiar bucolic poems of Theocritus, but on the hymns, mimes and erotic poems of the second half of the corpus. Recent papyri have greatly increased our understanding of how Theocritus read archaic poetry, and these discoveries are fully exploited in a set of readings which will change the way we look at Hellenistic poetry.
“Heroic Offerings sheds light on the study of religion in Sparta, one of Greece's most powerful city-states and the long-term rival of Athens. Sparta's history is well known, but its archaeology has been much less satisfactorily explored. Through the comprehensive study of a distinctive class of terracotta votive offerings from a specific sanctuary, Gina Salapata explores both coroplastic art and regional religion. By integrating archaeological, historical, literary, and epigraphic sources, she provides important insights into the heroic cults of Lakonia and contributes to an understanding of the political and social functions of local ritual practice.This volume focuses on a large group of decorated terracotta plaques, from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. These molded plaques were discovered with other offerings in a sanctuary deposit excavated near Sparta more than fifty years ago, but they have remained unpublished until now. They number over 1,500 complete and fragmentary pieces. In technique, style, and iconography they form a homogeneous group unlike any other from mainland Greece. The large number of plaques and variety of types reveal a stable and vigorous coroplastic tradition in Lakonia during the late Archaic and Classical period. Heroic Offerings will be of interest to students and scholars of Greek history, art, and archaeology, to those interested in ancient religious practice in the Mediterranean, and to all inspired by Athens' chief political rival, Sparta. This volume received financial support from the Archaeological Institute of America”.
The seer (mantis), an expert in the art of divination, operated in ancient Greek society through a combination of charismatic inspiration and diverse skills ranging from examining the livers of sacrificed animals to spirit possession. Unlike the palm readers and mediums who exist on the fringe of modern society, many seers were highly paid, well respected, educated members of the elite who played an essential role in the conduct of daily life, political decisions, and military campaigns. Armies, for example, never went anywhere without one. This engaging book, the only comprehensive study of this fascinating figure, enters into the socioreligious world of ancient Greece to explore what seers did, why they were so widely employed, and how their craft served as a viable and useful social practice.
In this book, Rachel Kousser draws on contemporary reception theory to present a new approach to Hellenistic and Roman ideal sculpture. She analyzes the Romans’ preference for retrospective, classicizing statuary based on Greek models as opposed to the innovative creations prized by modern scholars. Using a case study of a particular sculptural type, a forceful yet erotic image of Venus, Kousser argues that the Romans self-consciously employed such sculptures to represent their ties to the past in a rapidly evolving world. Kousser presents Hellenistic and Roman ideal sculpture as an example of a highly effective artistic tradition that was, by modern standards, extraordinarily conservative. At the same time, the Romans’ flexible and opportunistic use of past forms also had important implications for the future: it constituted the origins of classicism in Western art.
This book combines close literary analysis of Bacchylides' poetry with detailed discussion of the central role poetry played in a variety of differing political contexts throughout Greece in the early 5th century BC. In Bacchylides' praise poetry, it is argued, the poet manipulates a wide range of earlier Greek literature not only to elevate the status of his wealthy patrons, but also to provoke thought about the nature of political power and aristocratic society. New light is also shed on Bacchylides' Dithyrambs, through detailed discussion of the evidence for the kuklios khoros ('circular chorus') and its relation to a variety of different religious festivals, especially within democratic Athens. The links created between literary concerns and cultural contexts reinvigorate these underappreciated poems and reveal their central importance for the self-definition of political communities.
This book contains analyses both of Athenian religion and of the history of classical studies. It emphasizes that disciplinary history is an integral part of research, especially in interdisciplinary fields such as religion. It also highlights the intellectual aspects of religious thought and practice, and attacks the stereotype of religion and ritual as traditional and unchanging. The supernatural - like 'nature' in modern science - attracts speculation and experiment. Particular attention is given to the construction of classical studies and its subdisciplines in the 19th century university; to the genesis of the dichotomy rational/irrational in Greece in the 6th-5th centuries BCE (magnified in importance by 19th-century classicists); to the religious reforms of Lycurgus in Athens in the late 4th century BCE; to cultic innovation in the Attic demes; to the 18th-century origins of the idea that fertility cult was the earliest form of religion; and to the history of the Anthesteria festival.
This book develops an integrated religious, historical, and literary approach towards an old question in the study of religion - the relationship of myth and ritual. Focusing on ancient Greek religion, it exploits the joint occurrence of myth and ritual in archaic and classical Greek song-culture. The book shows how choral performances of myth and ritual, taking place all over the ancient Greek world in the early fifth century BC, helped to effect social and political change in their own time. Religious song emerges as integral to a rapidly changing society hovering between local, regional, and panhellenic identities and between aristocratic rule and democracy. Drawing on contemporary debates on myth, ritual, and performance in social anthropology, modern history, and theatre studies, this book establishes Greek religion's dynamic role and gives religious song-culture a place in the study of Greek history.
This major addition to Blackwell's Companions to the Ancient World series covers all aspects of religion in the ancient Greek world from the archaic, through the classical and into the Hellenistic period. Written by a panel of international experts. Focuses on religious life as it was experienced by Greek men and women at different times and in different places. Features major sections on local religious systems, sacred spaces and ritual, and the divine
This book makes use of recently discovered archaeological and epigraphical evidence to give an account of the religious life of ancient Athens. The city's many festivals are discussed in detail, with attention to recent anthropological theory; so too, for instance, are the cults of households and of smaller groups, the role of religious practice and argumentation in public life, the authority of priests, the activities of religious professionals such as seers and priestesses, magic, and the place of theatrical representations of the gods within public attitudes to the divine. A final section considers the sphere of activity of the various gods, and takes Athens as a uniquely detailed test case for the structuralist approach to polytheism.
L'organisation des Gymnopédies est entourée d'incertitude, qu'il s'agisse de leur lieu d'organisation (agora ou théâtre de Sparte) ou de la façon dont étaient constitués, par classes d'âge, les choeurs qui y concouraient. Organisées à un moment de forte chaleur qui, selon Platon, leur donnait le caractère d'une épreuve, les Gymnopédies devaient être une occasion de rendre hommage à Apollon. Elles ont pu, à partir du IVe siècle, incorporer les Parparonia qui, a-t-il été supposé, célébraient la victoire de Thyréa remportée par les Lacédémoniens sur les Argiens au milieu du VIe siècle. Les Gymnopédies (qui duraient sans doute entre deux et cinq jours) pouvaient s'achever à la pleine lune prévisible la plus proche de la date d'observation prévisible du lever héliaque de Sirius (soit entre mi-juillet et mi-août).
"Proceedings of the Conference held in Sparta, organised by the British School at Athens, the University of Nottingham, the 5th Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and the 5th Ephoreia of Byzantine Antiquities, 17-20 March 2005, organised by A. Bakourou, W.G. Cavanagh and A. Panagiotopoulou.".
The Hyakinthia of Sparta consisted in an annual commemoration of the links existing between Apollo and Hyakinthos. Those links were more specifically celebrated in the complex sanctuary of Amyklai. During the classical period the festival most probably lasted ten days (rather than only three). There were similarities between Athenian Dionysia and Laconian Hyakinthia. The Hyakinthia were a commemoration of the renewal of the world - their end probably coincided with the full moon following the Spring equinox. A Laconian cup dated around 540 BC (Taranto 20909) would appear to evoke the Hyakinthia.
Few have had quite as much impact in both the academy and in the world of theatre production as Richard Schechner. For more than four decades his work has challenged conventional definitions of theatre, ritual and performance. When this seminal collection first appeared, Schechner's approach was not only novel, it was revolutionary: drama is not just something that occurs on stage, but something that happens in everyday life, full of meaning, and on many different levels. Within these pages he examines the connections between Western and non-Western cultures, theatre and dance, anthropology, ritual, performance in everyday life, rites of passage, play, psychotherapy and shamanism.
Divination forms an unexpectedly high proportion of our total information on Sparta’s politics, internal and external. It should be studied diachronically, as well as generically. To abstract it from secular and political context would conceal both causes and effects of religious credulity. We read that Sparta’s hereditary dyarchs, the state’s chief generals, were appointed, controlled and deposed according to the interpretation of omens and oracles. Grand omens in particular were respected, such as earthquake or a succession of military failures. This was in keeping with the Spartan bias in favour of events that all could perceive. Sparta’s kings made famous and apparently extravagant claims to have privileged ancient links with the gods. But by studying the political vulnerability of the kingship, we see these religious pretentions as defensive, the most effective shield for an institution under threat.
This paper examines the Dionysiac features that the literary and archaeological sources apply to Spartan ritual dancing and whether these correspond to actual cult practice. The scarcity of evidence referring to ritual dances traceable to worship of Dionysos reaffirms his subordinate position in the Spartan pantheon and consequently in Spartan culture, this subordinate position being associated with the city's attitude towards drama in general./Les quelques sources littéraires et archéologiques qui s'intéressent aux danses rituelles à Sparte leur prêtent des caractéristiques dionysiaques et l'on peut se demander si elles correspondaient à une réelle pratique cultuelle. Le petit nombre de témoignages à leur sujet confirme que la place occupée par Dionysos dans le panthéon et dans la culture spartiates n'est que secondaire. En effet, elle est étroitement associée à l'attitude de la cité envers le théâtre en général.
Almost all the terracotta masks excavated from the Sanctuary of Ortheia at Sparta can be assigned to two types: grotesquely furrowed demons and idealized heroes. The prototypes for these two categories are traced through Old Babylonian, Canaanite, Cypriot, Phoenician, and Punic examples. The contexts of the Near Eastern and Punic masks, mostly sanctuaries, show that the deities associated with masks are a female fertility goddess and her consort. This goddess may be identified as a West Semitic goddess named Asherah or Tanit. Similarities between the Near Eastern and Punic cults and the Spartan cult suggest that the cult of this goddess may have been established at Sparta by Phoenicians. Ortheia may be the Greek name for Asherah-Tanit.
[ITALIANO] La tesi si propone di analizzare alcuni aspetti di Afrodite che risultano occultati dalla definizione univoca di “dea dell’amore”, e di esplorare la polisemia inerente, in Grecia antica, all’eros e alla mixis. La polivalenza della dea e percepibile sia nei racconti dei poeti che nei pantheon delle citta greche. In quest’ottica sono stati considerati con particolare attenzione il suo legame genetico con Urano, il Cielo, e la coppia che Afrodite forma con Ares, il dio del furore guerriero.
Il racconto di Esiodo, nella Teogonia, permette di evidenziare alcuni indizi essenziali riguardanti le prerogative di Afrodite, quali, ad esempio, l’inquietante ambiguita e il legame con il seme virile di origine urania (Cap. I). Nel disegnare il ritratto della divinita preposta alla genesi della vita e alla mixis dei corpi, i Greci hanno messo l’accento sulla dimensione cosmica e sul carattere autoritario della sua azione (Cap. II). Afrodite e la dea dell’aphros, la “schiuma”, e il discorso dei Greci sul teonimo ne conferma l’intima relazione con l’umidita vitale. Le sue competenze sulla fioritura, la fisiologia e la virilita hanno condotto a riconsiderare il rapporto di Afrodite con i giovani ragazzi nel fiore dell’eta (Cap. III). Contrariamente alla communis opinio, l’Afrodite greca puo prendere un aspetto guerriero e assumere, nella religione della polis, delle funzioni di ordine politico e militare. Le intersezioni tra il mondo di Afrodite e quello di Ares, tra mixis sessuale e mischia guerriera, tra furore erotico e ardore di lotta, permettono di comprendere che la dea sia chiamata a suscitare l’“eros della battaglia” (Cap. IV). / [ENGLISH] The aim of this study is to analyse some aspects of Aphrodite which the restrictive definition as “goddess of love” tends to overshadow, and furthermore to explore the intrinsic polysemy of eros and mixis in Ancient Greece. The polyvalence of the goddess is inscribed both in the poets’ stories and in the pantheons of Greek cities. Particular attention has been given to the genetic relationship between Aphrodite and Ouranos, the sky god, and to the couple that she forms with Ares, the god of warlike fury.
Hesiod’s Theogony sheds some light on several of Aphrodite's significant traits, among which her ambiguity and her bond with the manly seed of Ouranos (Chapter I). In depicting the goddess who rules over genesis and the mixis of bodies, the Greeks have underlined the cosmic dimension and the imperiousness of her influence (Chapter II). Aphrodite is the goddess of aphros, “foam”, and the writings of the Ancient Greeks concerning the theonym confirm her genetic link with vital humours. The study of her competences over flowering, corporeity and virile strength contributes to an improved understanding of her role alongside young blossoming boys (Chapter III). Contrary to common belief, the Greek Aphrodite can assume a warlike aspect as well as political and military functions within the city's pantheon. Considering the intersections of Aphrodite’s and Ares’ domains, of sexual mixis and close combat, of erotic fury and fighting ardour, one can understand why the goddess should be invoked to give rise to the “eros of battle” (Chapter IV).
M. I. Finley in his Politics in the Ancient World (Cambridge, 1983), 92–6 has recently cast doubt on the extent to which religious phenomena were taken seriously in ancient times. We believe that in stressing the reasons for scepticism he has overlooked much positive evidence for the impact of religious scruples on political behaviour and that in generalising he has undervalued the differences in this respect between ancient societies. The significance of some of this positive evidence is admittedly uncertain since in civilian life scruples might be easy to observe without great suffering. The acid test is in time of war, so that is the concern of our present enquiry. That attitudes varied can be shown only by comparing societies. We have here limited our discussion to three for which the evidence is well preserved: the world of the Greek city before Alexander the Great, Rome before Constantine, and the Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman period. Elucidation of the reasons for their distinct attitudes would reveal much about each of these societies and its religious practices and conceptions, but there will be space here only to show that considerable variety did indeed exist.
Most ancient peoples assumed that their gods approved of war; the pacifism of some pre-Constantinian Christians was exceptional. Nor did such rules in combat as were observed necessarily have a religious foundation. Ancient like modern scruples were often based on moral and humanitarian grounds, as in the treatment of corpses and civilians; the gods, as the guardians of general morality, might be involved in such matters, but only at a remove.
Plutarch, in his Apophthegmata Laconica (Ages. 25 = mor. 210d), records that the Thasians made an offer of divine honours to king Agesilaus, and that Agesilaus ostentatiously refused them. In the past, most scholars who have had occasion to comment on this anecdote have not doubted the veracity either of the report or of the language in which it is expressed. The situation, however, has now reversed itself. The current communis opinio is the contention of Chr. Habicht that the story is an invention of the Hellenistic or early imperial period and was intended to be a criticism of contemporary practices. The purpose of this note is threefold: to demonstrate that the anecdote derives from Theopompus' Hellenica, that it has a basis in historical fact, and that the incident thus narrated had far-reaching social and political consequences.
The Principal CultsThe Sacralized Structure of Daily LifeThe Manufacturing of Heroes for the City: The Dead LacedaemoniansConclusion
This paper reviews the use of the notion of “key symbol” in anthropological analysis. It analyzes phenomena which have been or might be accorded the status of key symbol in cultural analyses, categorizing them according to their primary modes of operating on thought and action.
The Partheneion, or âmaiden song,â composed in the seventh century BCE by the Spartan poet Alcman, is the earliest substantial example of a choral lyric. A provocative reinterpretation of the Partheneion and its broader context, Alcman and the Cosmos of Sparta excavates the poemâs invocations of widespread and long-lived cosmological ideas that cast the universe as perfectly harmonious and invested its workings with an ethical dimension. Moving far beyond standard literary interpretations, Gloria Ferrari uncovers this astral symbolism by approaching the poem from several angles to brilliantly reconstruct the web of ancient drama, music, religion, painting, and material culture in which it is enmeshed. She shows, for example, that by stringing together images of horses, stars, and birds, the poem evokes classical antiquityâs beloved dance of the constellations. Instrumental in shaping the structure of the lyric, this dance symbolizes the cosmic order reflected in the order of the state, which the chorus would have enacted in a ritual performance of the song. With broad implications for archaeology, art history, and ancient science, Ferrariâs bold new analysis dramatically deepens our understanding of Greek poetry and the rich culture of archaic Sparta.
"In four brief chapters," writes Clifford Geertz in his preface, "I have attempted both to lay out a general framework for the comparative analysis of religion and to apply it to a study of the development of a supposedly single creed, Islam, in two quite contrasting civilizations, the Indonesian and the Moroccan." Mr. Geertz begins his argument by outlining the problem conceptually and providing an overview of the two countries. He then traces the evolution of their classical religious styles which, with disparate settings and unique histories, produced strikingly different spiritual climates. So in Morocco, the Islamic conception of life came to mean activism, moralism, and intense individuality, while in Indonesia the same concept emphasized aestheticism, inwardness, and the radical dissolution of personality. In order to assess the significance of these interesting developments, Mr. Geertz sets forth a series of theoretical observations concerning the social role of religion.
Hamburg, Phil. F., Diss. v. 16. Juli 1952 (Nicht f. d. Aust.).