Tous les articles par Stéphanie Paul

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Upcoming conference on ancient associations

The announcement of a conference on ancient private associations to be held at the Danish Institute at Athens next month will certainly be of interest to those who study Hellenistic religion. It is organized by The Copenhagen Associations Project. Continuer la lecture de Upcoming conference on ancient associations

New Publication: M. Horster, A. Klöckner (eds), Cities and Priests

A new publication on the topic of priesthoods and cult personnel in Hellenistic and Roman times in Asia Minor and the Aegean islands. This volume is second to a first volume published in 2012, which was focused on Athens. See the BMCR review and the review in Kernos.

Cities and Priests. Cult Personnel in Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands from the Hellenistic to the Imperial Period, ed. by M. Horster, A. Klöckner, Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter, 2012 (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten, 64)

Cultural records such as dedications, honorific statues and decrees are keys to understanding the manifold and diverse social roles and religious functions of priesthoods in the cities of Asia Minor and the Aegean islands from the classical period to late antiquity. These texts and images indicate how the priests and priestesses saw themselves and were viewed by others.
The approaches in this volume are historical, religious, and archaeological, and they elucidate the religious functions that the cult personnel fulfilled for the city, and the perception of priests and priestesses as citizens of the polis. The volume focuses on developments from the Hellenistic period into Imperial times. Subjects include: gendered priesthoods and family traditions, the topography of honorary statues and the presentation of funerary monuments, federal and civic priesthoods as well as priests of private cult-foundations, benefactions and social pressure, and the religious, social and political functions of priests and priestesses within cities.

Source : http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/207815?rskey=urYjfM&result=1

Cos: A Typical Example of Hellenistic Religion?

This essay has first been presented at the workshop “Approaches to Greek Cult”, Institute for Classical Studies, London, March 2013. It is based on the conclusions of my book Cultes et sanctuaires de l’île de Cos (Liège 2013).

In the year 366 BC, various settlements of the island of Cos were united by synoecism to form a single polis. This political reform necessarily led to a reorganisation of older cults, including a reconfiguration of the local pantheon, which is evidenced in a number of inscriptions dated to the mid-fourth century BC. This reorganisation is the result of a careful blend of new cults and old traditions, aiming at providing all the members of the newly established polis with a shared religious identity.1 Consequently, the polis, its longevity, and its unity became a major concern that also reflected on religious representations, whether on the profile of certain deities, or on the orientation given to certain cults. Continuer la lecture de Cos: A Typical Example of Hellenistic Religion?

  1. For cult reorganisations after synoecisms, see recently Parker 2009. This essay is based on the conclusions of my book on the cults of the island of Cos: Paul 2013. []

XIVe Colloque du CIERGA

Université de Liège – 10-12 octobre 2013

 Pureté et purification en Grèce ancienne

Conceptions et pratiques

 Purity and Purification in the Greek World

Concepts and Practices

En 1983, Robert Parker publiait Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion. A ce jour, l’ouvrage n’a pas été remplacé et reste le point de départ de toute réflexion sur la pureté et la purification en Grèce ancienne. La rencontre bisannuelle du CIERGA, qui coïncide avec le trentième anniversaire de la parution de Miasma, est l’occasion de faire le point sur cette thématique, de prendre en compte de nouveaux documents et de s’interroger sur de nouvelles approaches.

In 1983, Robert Parker published Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion. This volume remains unsurpassed and the starting block for current thinking on purity and purification in the ancient Greek world. The biennial meeting of the CIERGA, which coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of Miasma, therefore seems a propitious occasion to take stock of the theme as a whole, to measure the impact of new evidence, as well as to propose new questions or approaches.

Programme