Where Have All the Heroes Gone?: Cenotaphs and Remains’ Agency in Ancient Greek Hero Cult
By Itamar Levin (Brown University)
This paper challenges a dominant axiom in the field of ancient Greek religion: that remains were essential to the cult of heroes. The prevailing notion is that the bones of illustrious people, whether mythological or historical, were held as relics imbued with power (Nagy, 115–6; Burkert, 199–203).
The Materiality of Feasting in the Age of Alexander
By Rachel Kousser (City University of New York)
Chryselephantine couches — exquisitely carved and gleaming with gold, glass, and ivory — are among the most widespread manifestations of Hellenistic elites’ embrace of Near Eastern custom. Well-documented in archaeological remains and written texts (e.g., Andronikos 1984; Plaut., Stich. II.2.50-55), the couches offer a concrete material lens through which to analyze the transfer of cultural knowledge about feasting: an ephemeral activity as significant for Mediterranean aristocrats as for their Assyrian and Persian predecessors.
The Agency of Plants in Pliny’s Natural History
By Molly Schaub (University of Pennsylvania)
The Agency of Plants in Pliny’s Natural History
Textiles at the Interfaces of the Temple: Fillets and the Tectonics of Cult
By Mary Caroline Danisi (Cornell University)
This paper examines literary and epigraphic evidence for fillets in ancient Greek sanctuaries. Fillets, fabric bands crafted through varied textile techniques, featured prominently in ritual practices, including votive dedication and crowning ceremonies (Papadopoulou 2017; Brøns 2016; Rask 2016; Lichtenberger et al. 2012; Smith 1988). Since fillets have been studied primarily as a form of costume (Krug 1968), their adornment of cult topographies has lacked sustained treatment.
Rock beats plants: Magnetic magic in the Orphic Lithika
By Katharine S Stevens (Rutgers University)
The Orphic Lithika is, at its simplest, a poetic instruction on the proper use of various stones in medical treatments, amulet use, and propitiating the gods. It is a text deeply focused on its chosen subject matter, to the extent that it lacks the sort of references to contemporary events that often guide us in dating and contextualizing a given work.
“I am the cup of Nestor, good to drink from…but I was not necessarily used in a symposium”
By Christopher Ell (Brown University)
The Greek symposion has been extensively studied (e.g. Murray, ed. 1990, 2018; Catoni 2010; Lynch 2011; Topper 2012; Hobden 2013; Węcowski 2014; Corner 2015), and it is widely accepted that this convivial custom dates to the 8th century, largely based on influential interpretations of Nestor’s Cup from Pithekoussai by Murray (1994) and Węcowski (2014:127-139, 2017).