Athena

The attached is the abstract, handout and bibliography for my presentation at the Classical Association conference, 10-13 April 2015, Bristol University
Panel: Homer II (Wills Memorial Building) 1 p.m., Sunday 12th April
Title: “Procopius' sense of land and seascapes in Homer's Odyssey and his symbolism of Athena?”

«Quand les statues vivantes donnent la mort: voix, mouvements, protestations», Actographe 1 (4), 2020, p. 67–98 // Les mythes des statues vivantes sont nombreux, et les études qui s’y consacrent sont fréquentes. L’aspect qui nous intéresse plus, c’est celui de la nuisance ou de la vengeance, les statues qui donnent la mort sont effectivement loin d’être rares. Tout cela prend place dans un contexte assez large et nous avons décidé ici de mettre l’accent sur les événements de 2020, année  qui a vu un mouvement de revendication pour le déboulonnement de nombreuses statues de par le monde. Mais au-delà du thème de la mise à mort par une statue, nous avons plutôt voulu ouvrir des perspectives sur les débats qui font l’aller-retour entre mythes, actualités, et  interrogations sur la démocratie directe. Dans cette première partie (cet article est en deux parties), nous nous penchons plus particulièrement sur la statue du Commandeur dans Don Juan, Athéna, Pandore, le bolchévisme statufié, et leur avatar, le robot.

New decorative techniques were invented and developed by potters and painters in the context of Athens’ intense cultural activity in the Archaic Age, especially between 530-480 B. C. Not only did they invent the red-figure technique but they also developed more intense and contrasting colours (bilingual vases, coral-red gloss, white ground, gilding, Six’s technique…). These specific productions were studied by Beth Cohen in the exhibition The Colors of Clay, presented at the Getty Museum in 2006. The current paper extends and complements my original paper given at the exhibition’s inaugural conference and published in Lapatin 2008, p. 47-60. As vases decorated in such a fashion are well attested on the Acropolis, this bears testimony to their success with local consumers and to the desire of artisans working in the Kerameikos to enhance their creations, their “new products” in honour of their goddess Athena Erganē. This observation helps to show how much this competitive need for quality and virtuosity should be considered a distinctive trait among Athenian potters and painters, and how much it was appreciated by the Athenian public. Indeed, such expertise among craftsmen invalidates the term banausoi which is an irrelevant notion in the context of the Archaic period.

Women's mobility is central to understanding cultural constructions of gender. Regarding ancient cultures, including ancient Greece, a re-evaluation of women's mobility within the household and beyond it is currently taking place. This invites an informed analysis of female mobility in Greek myth, under the premise that myth may open a venue to social ideology and the imaginary.

Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth offers the first comprehensive analysis of this topic. It presents close readings of ancient texts, engaging with feminist thought and the 'mobility turn'. A variety of Olympian goddesses and mortal heroines are explored, and the analysis of their myths follows specific chronological considerations. Female mobility is presented in quite diverse ways in myth, reflecting cultural flexibility in imagining mobile goddesses and heroines. At the same time, the out-of-doors spaces that mortal heroines inhabit seem to lack a public or civic quality, with the heroines being contained behind 'glass walls'. In this respect, myth seems to reproduce the cultural limitations of ancient Greek social ideology on mobility, inviting us to reflect not only on the limits of mythic imagination but also on the timelessness of Greek myth.

This one-day conference will share current research on a deity that has been a topic of interest since the dawn of classical scholarship and through its various 'turns.' The event will appraise various ways to approach the goddess by drawing together current researchers from the following seven (a good Athena-related number…) countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK. The event takes place at a time of a resurgence of interest in the goddess evidenced, for instance, by the latest edition of the journal Pallas devoted to Athena-related papers. The event will both reflect and appraise this renewed interest. The Pallas volume will be on show, as will an Athena-related treasure owned by the University of Roehampton. This booklet contains the conference programme and abstracts. You will also find details of Athena-related work from Roehampton researchers and from scholars in Sri Lanka, Sweden and Switzerland.

Adam Room, Grove House, University of Roehampton, London - 3 June 2016
Supported by The Classical Association
Sustained by The Hive http://www.growhampton.com/hive-cafe
#AthenaUR @AthenaSharing http://athenatrickster.blogspot.co.uk/

In ancient Athens, the Panathenaia was the most important festival and it was celebrated in honour of Athena from the middle of the sixth century BC until the end of the fourth century AD. This in-depth study examines how this all-Athenian celebration was an occasion for constructing identities and how it affected those identities. Since not everyone took part in the same way, this differential participation articulated individuals' relationships both to the goddess and to the city so that the festival played an important role in negotiating what it meant to be Athenian (and non-Athenian). I apply theories of identity formation which were developed in the social sciences to the ancient Greek material and I bring together historical, epigraphical, and archaeological evidence to provide a better understanding both of this important occasion and of Athenian identities over the festival's long history.

Note that this book is now available in paper.

In this essay, I suggest a view of Homer's Odyssey as a dichotomy of heroic potentials and experience. While the goddess Athena has traditionally been regarded as the epic's divine planner and its hero's patron deity, I propose the theory that she is in fact the heroine of Homer's narrative. Through a fresh and innovative approach to Homer's most enigmatic female figure, I make a case for the Odyssey as a poetic symbol of masculine-feminine harmony, as well as a convergence of the human with the divine that is both beautiful and volatile.

“Batı Anadolu Kıyılarında Athena Tapınakları ve Kültü” başlıklı bu çalışmada, tanrıça için kült ve tarih belirli bir çerçevede düzenlenmiş ve Athena kültünün, Yunanistan'da göstermiş olduğu geniş alandan kaynaklı, araştırmada M.Ö. 12. ve 8. yüzyıllar arasında Batı Anadolu’ya yerleşim sağlamış belirli Yunanca konuşan halkların bölgelerinde bulunan demelerden tanrıçanın hem epitetlerini hem de somut varlığını gösterebilecek sunak, tapınak gibi örnekler ele alınmıştır. Bu bölgelerden şüphesiz Athena ile en iyi özdeşleştirilen Atina kentinde bulanan tapınakların ve bu tapınaklarla bağdaştırılan tanrıçanın epitetlerinin, festivallerinin detaylı tespiti yapılmaya çalışılmıştır. Aynı zamanda Athena’nın yaygın olan ve bahsi geçen bölgelerdeki epitetleri de farklı yönlerini ya da hareket alanını göstermek adına işlenmiştir. Böylece Athena’nın Anakara Yunanistan kimliği ve ne tür yönlere sahip olduğu gösterilmesi hedeflenmiştir.
Tanrıçanın hem Atina kenti ile özdeşleştirilmesi hem de Yunan mitolojisindeki betimlemeleri kökeninin sadece Anakara Yunanistan’da ortaya çıktığı yanılgısını oluşturmuştur. Tanrıçanın kökeninin Yakın Doğu etkisi de olabileceği göz önünde bulundurularak Minos ve Miken kültürlerinde ortaya çıkmış Büyük Tanrıçanın yönleriyle karşılaştırılarak kimliğinin kökeni anlatılmaya çalışılmıştır.
Batı Anadolu’da Athena’nın kökenin direkt oluşum göstermediği düşünülerek kimliğinin oluşabilmesi için Minos ve Miken kültürlerinin bu topraklarla çok yönlü bağlantısı ele alınıp, Yakın Doğu tanrılarını kendi panteonunda harmanlamış Anadolu’nun, Doğu ile Batı arasında bir köprü görevi görerek Kumarbi, İnanna ve İştar gibi tanrıların yönlerinin Yunan dünyasına nasıl aktarımda bulunduğu işlenmiştir.
Tunç Çağı, Erken Demir Çağı ve Arkaik Çağı dinamikleriyle şekillenen Yunanca konuşan halkların Batı Anadolu’ya göçleri ve sonucunda kurdukları düşünülen kentlerde bulanan Athena Tapınaklarına dair izlerin takibi yapılmıştır.

Do mythological stories contain elements which we may term "ecological"? And how do the story elements of myths negotiate the interaction between human society and the nonhuman world? Starting from these questions, the essay looks at the foundational myth of ancient Athens, namely the contest between Athena and Poseidon. The main argument is that the myth reflects on the interplay between the lifegiving elements, earth and (salt-)water, and how they relate to human social organization and processes of meaning-making. Highlighting the olive's central role for Athenian society and culture, the myth underscores the fundamental importance of a sustainable handling of the resource - an insight that found concrete expression in cult and "sacred law". Remarks on the role of religion for a theory and practice of sustainability conclude the discussion.

This dissertation explores the concept of catharsis and the use of 3,4-
methylenedioxy-N-methamphetamine (MDMA) within psychotherapy with
individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The research develops an expanded definition of catharsis to account for what often arises during therapeutic sessions related to healing trauma and PTSD. As part of this expanded definition, the Athenian cathartic integration is introduced, which is contrasted and synthesized with the Apollonian (focused on mental insight) and the Dionysian (focused on emotional release) views of catharsis. From there, the Athenian model is proposed within the psychedelic and therapeutic lens.The inquiry uses a transdisciplinary framework at the intersection ofJungian and transpersonal psychology, mindfulness, clinical research, and
consciousness studies. It explores archetypal catharsis, which helps create a framework for spirituality within the scope of cathartic and peak experiences, the Abyss Experience, and other non-ordinary states of consciousness.
The dissertation also reviews the historical and current literature around
the use of MDMA as a therapeutic tool, and analyzes possible cultural and clinical blind spots, such as legalities, difficulties around set and setting, and working with difficult traumatic experiences in altered states of consciousness. Possible solutions are explored in this Athenian integrative and cathartic theory that allow therapists and clients to create a framework of therapeutic goals for future models of clinical psychedelic uses.

Keywords: catharsis, abreaction, integration, psychology, Jungian,
entheogens, psychedelics, empathogens, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, spiritual emergence, spiritual emergency, peak experience, trauma, transdisciplinary, Athena, archetypal, mindfulness, transpersonal, PTSD, Dionysian, Apollonian,
mindfulness

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions
Key words: mythological mosaic, House of Aion, Nea Paphos, Late Antiquity, Roman art, allegorical narrative, allusive language of mythological pictures, wordplay (Marsyas-Messias), Jesus Christ, anti-Christian polemic, Dionysos, Cassiopeia, Apollon, Nereides, Abstract Personifications, Greek Mythology, ΚΥΠΡΟΣ

This paper reconsiders the ‘pseudo-autonomous’ coins of the types Athena/Telesphorus and Heracles/lion, which were most commonly issued in Lydian and Mysian cities during the  Roman period. Stylistic considerations on coins of Elaea (Aeolis) and Apollonis (Lydia) provide new arguments for dating the bulk of these series in the reign of Septimius Severus. This leads to consideration of the reasons for the diffusion of the Athena and Heracles coin types on pseudo- autonomous coins from Aeolis, Mysia, Lydia and Phrygia in the early 3rd century.

The paper publishes three bronzes from the Archaic sanctuary of Athena in Antikyra, in south-eastern Phokis. To set them in context it gives a brief presentation of the temple itself and the stone base for the original bronze cult statue, excavated back in 1954 and never published. The first small bronze is a Late Archaic base with a dedicatory inscription giving a name, tentatively identified with a civic subdivision of Antikyra. The second bronze is a mid-fifth century BC headless statuette of a kore. The third is a relatively large bronze statuette of Athena Promachos. It is considered to be the best surviving exemplar of an Attic series, which includes several similar statuettes found on the Acropolis. It is also the earliest, to this date, occurrence of inlaying on small scale bronzes and dates a little before 480 BC.

Chimère est emblématique des créatures hybrides : véritable assemblage de trois animaux réels,  « lion par devant, dragon par derrière et chèvre par le milieu»  pour reprendre la description d’Hésiode dans sa Théogonie, elle est un hapax, il n’y a qu’une seule Chimère qui a une histoire particulière et c’est donc de cette créature spécifiquement dont il sera question dans cette étude.

Chimère, tire son nom d’une chevrette, donc de l’animal au centre de son hybridation, l’animal le plus familier des trois dont elle est constituée, inoffensif en apparence mais qui peut, comme nous le verrons, nous réserver des surprises. Nous allons donc nous intéresser à la naissance, la vie et la mort de Chimère et à sa descendance directe, mais, afin de bien cerner notre propos, nous allons tout d’abord ouvrir cette enquête par une exploration du phénomène de l’hybridation dans son ensemble.

In this paper I focus on the Delphic myth of succession that ends with the establishment of Apollo at Delphi. I argue that the nature of Apollo’s relationship with Athena is determined by religious and political reality and that in some cases their relationship in turn affects reality either by idealizing it, or making it stronger, or criticizing it. I focus on four poetic texts that narrate the installation of Apollo at Delphi: the "Paean to Apollo" of Aristonoos and the "Eumenides" of Aeschylus, where Athena appears explicitly; "the Iphigeneia in Tauris" of Euripides and the "Homeric Hymn to Apollo" where the goddess’ role is implicit.

Grazie ad un inedito lavoro di rilievo ed analisi tecnica dei resti del portico orientale dell’Area sacra del Largo Argentina a Roma, sulla prospiciente pavimentazione in travertino di età imperiale, sono state individuate delle tracce di scalpellature attribuibili al posizionamento di 14 basi di statue (una per ogni pilastro del portico). Raggruppabili in base alla loro forma in due gruppi distinti, esse permettono la ricostruzione di uno “statue landscape” all’interno dell’Area Sacra mai individuato prima e che non trova confronti archeologici stringenti. Inoltre rileggendo due celebri passi di Plinio (Nat. hist., XXXIV, 54) e di Procopio (Goth., I, XV, 11) su di un'Atena in bronzo, opera di Fidia e portata da Emilio Paolo a Roma, si è riscontrata una descrizione topografica del luogo di conservazione della stessa che coincide, con notevole precisione, con la ricostruzione del contesto frutto della lettura delle tracce archeologiche. Due tipi di letture quindi, quella dei passi letterari e quella del dato archeologico, che si confermano a vicenda e che ci fanno intravedere ipotesi affascinanti ma che, allo stesso tempo, ci suggeriscono cautela.

Επαναφέροντας στη μνήμη ένα χαμένο σήμερα ενεπίγραφο βάθρο της λατρείας των Καβείρων στην Αμφίπολη, μέσα από 3 παλαιές δημοσιεύσεις, ερμηνεύοντας την επιγραφή και αναλύοντας την σχέση της Αθηνάς και του Ηφαίστου, με τους μεταλλοτεχνίτες, την μαντική, τον Διόνυσο και την Δήμητρα.

The term Doric order goes to the Dorians, one of the Greek tribes, back, in their settlement area - large parts of the Peloponnese, Rhodes, Crete and parts of Asia Minor - the architectural style was mainly developed. At the same time the concept of education emphasized the contrast to the second major building code of the Greeks, the ionic. This important order was used in many significant and magnificent buildings and I will analyze the Temple of Athena as a Doric temple.

The present paper focuses on the theme of Athena's sight, vs.
Ajax the Lesser's fault, enjoyed in Greek poetry from Alcaeus to Callimachus and Lycophron and such late epic authors as Quintus Smyrnaeus and Triphiodorus. Alexandrian poetry marks, in particular, a remarkable turning point in the reading of that myth. While Ajax drags Cassandra away from the statue of Athena, to which the maid had taken refuge, the goddess looks away as a disgust gesture - so as not to see the act of "hybris" by Ajax. The significant detail of Athena `withdrawing her eyes', by turning them away, during Cassandra's rape is meant to underscore all the expressive strength of sight. Through both the
glance and its negation, she keeps aloof from the impiety that is being committed in her presence, conveys her wrath and disapproval, and announces a terrible revenge.

Per scaricare gratuitamente l'ebook del volume clicca su:
http://www.iaphitalia.org/federica-castelli-il-pensiero-politico-di-nicole-loraux-iaph-italia-2016/

Nicole Loraux può essere considerata una delle più grandi e vivaci menti del panorama intellettuale contemporaneo. Storica, antropologa, classicista, filologa, ha saputo coniugare mondo antico e psicanalisi in un pensiero che, nei suoi esiti, raggiunge livelli di intenso valore politico. Coniugando lettura di genere e riflessione politica, Nicole Loraux fa parlare la classicità una lingua politica ben più ampia e generale, che arriva ai nostri giorni, pur nella ferma assunzione metodologica che colloca la grecità come alterità inassimilabile. Elaborando un discorso squisitamente politico l’autrice illustra una polis e uno spazio pubblico scisso, lontano dall’armonia razionale e dal logos, ma anzi preso tra irrisolvibili divisioni, costitutive e intrinseche – spiega Loraux – al concetto stesso di politico. Attraverso un intenso lavoro sull’immaginario e sulle rappresentazioni sociali, che Loraux rintraccia nelle pratiche di potere antiche – lavoro tanto sistematico da far parlare l’autrice di una vera e propria ideologia dell’Uno – appare come il politico trovi la propria forza e la propria essenza nella scissione e nel conflitto, configurandosi così come una politica del due. Il due della divisione, della stasis, della presa di posizione. Ma, in modo ancor più fondamentale, un due che è innanzi tutto il due della differenza sessuale.

Indice:

Introduzione – Il politico diviso di Nicole Loraux

I – Pensare l’Altro, pensare l’altrove
1- Senza ringhiera
2- Tra la cité e la polis, Freud
3- La politica del mito
4- E dunque la politica. La divisione, il conflitto, l’oblio
5- Un passo in più. La donna e le fessure della Storia

II – L’Altro, la donna
1- L’alterità come dispositivo politico
2- Pensare la differenza sessuale ad Atene
3- De-realizzazioni
4- Ancora sulla de-realizzazione

III – Il femminile come operatore politico
1- Soffrire come una donna, morire come un uomo. Il corpo virile tra maschile e femminile
2- Tra Omero, Eracle e Platone
3- L’operatore femminile

IV – Il Politico dell’Oblio
1- Alle porte sia la guerra. Il fantasma del conflitto e della divisione
2- Il Politico dell’Oblio
3- Il femminile, il conflitto. La doppia negazione del politico greco
4- Eris e il legame della divisione

Appendice – Atena. Il femminile non è una donna
1- Il femminile divino
2- Atena, dea civica par excellence

Conclusioni – Il due della politica

Bibliografia

A very important inscription dated to the IInd century A.D. was found in Arycanda, recording the Athena Temple and the cult. From this inscription, it is evident that one of the temples dated to the Imperial period in the city may belong to Athena. These temples were excavated; the Sebasteion, the Theater Temple, the Traianeum, the Podium Temple and the Great Basilica. It is known that two of these temples were dedicated to the emperors from the inscriptions, the Traianeum and Sebasteion. The Theater Temple, the Podium Temple, and the Great Basilica have not as yet been identified as to which emperor and/or god they were dedicated. For this reason, some suggestions are offered concerning the identification of the Temple of Athena at Arycanda, taking into account the architecture of the temples and the inscriptions.

Goddesses live in detective fiction by women in ways little noticed before The Sleuth and the Goddess; in particular, how Hestia, Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite breathe into and shape woman-authored mysteries, whether driving a hardboiled P.I., such as Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski, or haunting domestic oriented sleuth Hannah Swensen, composed by Joanne Fluke. Goddesses are structures of consciousness and being, archetypes divining various forms of art rooted in the soul. Although these archetypes defy gender boundaries (so that male gods creep into women’s writing, just as goddesses are seduced or pursued by, or summon a male author), these four goddesses: Hestia of home and hearth, Artemis of hunting, Athena of communal survival, and Aphrodite of wily desire, most deeply incarnate aspects of the sacred in women’s mysteries. Just as subgenres of women’s writing such as the detective “cozy” have not yet received their due of critical attention, so too the goddesses are demanding that more attention be paid to the feminine psyche. The Sleuth and the Goddess shows us that to read the works by renowned authors such as Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton, Diane Mott Davidson, Jacqueline Winspear, Lindsey Davis, and many more, is to summon the goddesses and be blessed by their vision, beauty, and call to danger.

The city of Comana Pontica was not only an important trade network hub in northern
Anatolia, but also a crossroads of civilisations. The goddess Ma, worshipped in her
temple-state as a tutelary goddess, was originally a Hittite divinity, which adopted
some attributes from other Assyrian, Persian and Greek gods. This paper discusses
several aspects of the civic and religious life of Comana Pontica, namely place names
and rituals, such as the practice of ‘sacred prostitution’ (as described by Strabo), that
still were kept in Roman times as part of a local Anatolian tradition. Additionally, it is
concerned with the struggle between the kings of Cappadocia and Pontus for the control of the sanctuary of Ma. Eusebḗs (‘pious’) was a royal epithet borne by the Cappadocian kings in honour of Ma, which became customary later on as a way to legitimate their rule in the region. This goddess – who was also worshipped in another
important temple by the Sarus river – was later assimilated to Athena Nike in Hellenistic times. However, in Roman times, her cult was related to Bellona and Selene,
emphasising not only her role as a warrior, but also a dark aspect recalling old Anatolian traditions.