Classical Pasts

Classical Pasts
Author: James I. Porter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2021-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691225397

The term "classical" is used to describe everything from the poems of Homer to entire periods of Greek and Roman antiquity. But just how did the concept evolve? This collection of essays by leading classics scholars from the United States and Europe challenges the limits of the current understanding of the term. The book seeks not to arrive at a final definition, but rather to provide a cultural history of the concept by exploring how the meanings of "classical" have been created, recreated, and rejected over time. The book asks questions that have been nearly absent from the scholarly literature. Does "classical" refer to a specific period of history or to the artistic products of that time? How has its definition changed? Did those who lived in classical times have some understanding of what the term "classical" has meant? How coherent, consistent, or even justified is the term? The book's introduction provides a generous theoretical and historical overview. It is followed by eleven chapters in which the contributors argue for the existence not of a single classical past, but of multiple, competing classical pasts. The essays address a broad range of topics--Homer and early Greek poetry and music, Isocrate, Hellenistic and Roman art, Cicero and Greek philosophy, the history of Latin literature, imperial Greek literature, and more. The most up-to-date and challenging treatment of the topic available, this collection will be of lasting interest to students and scholars of ancient and modern literature, art, and cultural history.

Archaeology and History in Roman, Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece

Archaeology and History in Roman, Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece
Author: Linda Jones Hall
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351957554

The essays in Archaeology and History in Roman, Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece honor the contributions of Timothy E. Gregory to our understanding of Greece from the Roman period to modern times. Evoking Gregory's diverse interests, the volume brings together anthropologists, art historians, archaeologists, historians, and philologists to address such contested topics as the end of Antiquity, the so-called Byzantine Dark Ages, the contours of the emerging Byzantine civilization, and identity in post-Medieval Greece. These papers demonstrate the continued vitality of both traditional and innovative approaches to the study of material culture and emphasise that historical interpretation should be the product of methodological self-awareness. In particular, this volume shows how the study of the material culture of post-Classical Greece over the last 30 years has made significant contributions to both the larger archaeological and historical discourse. The essays in this volume are organized under three headings - Archaeology and Method, the Archaeology of Identity, and the Changing Landscape - which highlight three main focuses of Gregory's research. Each essay interlaces new analyses with the contributions Gregory has made to our understanding of Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece. Read together these essays not only make a significant contribution to how we understand the post-Classical Greek world, but also to how we study the material culture of the Mediterranean world more broadly.

The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii

The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii
Author: Roger Ling
Publisher:
Total Pages: 550
Release: 1997
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0199263124

The Insula of the Menander is one of the most completely excavated city blocks in Pompeii, with buildings ranging from small shops to large aristocratic houses. This volume, the third in a series of five volumes examining the Insula, is the first ever comprehensive study of the contents of Pompeian houses and buildings within their original contexts. It provides a great insight into living conditions in Pompeii during the final years of the city.

Facing the Gods

Facing the Gods
Author: Verity Jane Platt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2011-07-28
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0521861713

This book explores divine manifestations and their representations not only in art, but also in literature, histories and inscriptions. The cultural analysis of epiphany is set within a historical framework that examines its development from the archaic period through the Hellenistic world and into the Roman Empire.

Coping with Versnel: A Roundtable on Religion and Magic

Coping with Versnel: A Roundtable on Religion and Magic
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2023-05-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004538453

Henk Versnel’s work on ancient religion has been seminal. For his 80th birthday, a group of scholars assembled to celebrate and analyze his oeuvre. What have been his most important insights? What will he bequeath to the 21st century? Specialists hold up to the light the main strands of Versnel’s scholarship, and he reacts to their praise and critique. An introduction that seeks to contextualize this oeuvre, and a bibliography of Versnel’s publications, round out the picture of a scholar who has put his stamp on the study of ancient religions and magical practices, and who has promoted the field in many ways, especially as the driving force behind Brill’s flagship series Religion in the Graeco-Roman World, of which this fittingly is the 200th volume.

Athena Itonia: Geography and Meaning of an Ancient Greek War Goddess

Athena Itonia: Geography and Meaning of an Ancient Greek War Goddess
Author: Gerald Lalonde
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2019-10-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004416390

With Athena Itonia: Geography and Meaning of an Ancient Greek War Goddess Gerald V. Lalonde offers the first comprehensive history of the martial cult of Athena Itonia, from its origins in Greek prehistory to its demise in the Roman imperial age. The Itonian goddess appears first among the Thessalians and eventually as the patron deity of their famed cavalry. Archaic poets attest to "Athena, warrior goddess" and her festival games at the Itoneion near Boiotian Koroneia. The cult also came south to Athens, probably with the mounted Thessalian allies of Peisistratos. Hellenistic decrees from Amorgos tell of elaborate festival sacrifices to Athena Itonia, likely supplications for protection of the islanders and their maritime trade when piracy plagued the Cyclades after collapse of the Greek naval forces that policed the Aegean Sea. This will be an indispensable volume for all interested in the social, political, and military uses of ancient Greek religious cult and the geography, chronology, and circumstances of its propagation among Greek poleis and federations.

Houses of Ill Repute

Houses of Ill Repute
Author: Allison Glazebrook
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2016-03-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0812292693

The study of ancient Greek urbanism has moved from examining the evidence for town planning and the organization of the city-state, or polis, to considerations of "everyday life." That is, it has moved from studying the public (fortifications, marketplaces, council houses, gymnasiums, temples, theaters, fountain houses) to studying the private (the physical remains of Greek houses). But what of those buildings that housed activities neither public nor private—brothels, taverns, and other homes of illicit activity? Can they be distinguished from houses? Were businesses like these run from homes? Classical Athenian writers attest to a diverse urban landscape that included tenement houses (sunoikiai), inns (diaitai, pandokeia), factories (ergasteria), taverns (kapelia), gambling dens (skirapheia), training schools (didaskaleia), and brothels (porneia), yet, despite our knowledge of specific terms, associating them with actual physical remains has not been easy. One such writer, Isaeus, mentions tenement houses that hosted prostitutes and wine sellers, while his contemporary Aeschines refers to doctors, smiths, fullers, carpenters, and pimps renting space. Were tenement houses not simply multi-inhabitant spaces but also multipurpose ones? Houses of Ill Repute is the first book to focus on the difficulties of distinguishing private and semiprivate spaces. While others have studied houses or brothels, this volume looks at both together. The chapters, by leading scholars in the field, address such questions as "What is a house?" and "Did the business of prostitution leave behind a unique archaeological record?" Presenting several approaches to identifying and studying distinctions between domestic residences and houses of ill repute, and drawing on the fields of literature, history, and art history and theory, the volume's contributors provide a way forward for the study of domestic and entertainment spaces in the Hellenic world. Contributors: Bradley A. Ault, Allison Glazebrook, Mark L. Lawall, Kathleen M. Lynch, David Scahill, Amy C. Smith, Monika Trümper, Barbara Tsakirgis.

Hellenizing Art in Ancient Nubia 300 B.C. - AD 250 and Its Egyptian Models

Hellenizing Art in Ancient Nubia 300 B.C. - AD 250 and Its Egyptian Models
Author: László Török
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2011-07-12
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9004211284

Presenting a large body of evidence for the first time, this book offers a comprehensive treatment of Nubian architecture, sculpture, and minor arts in the period between 300 BC-AD 250. It focuses primarily on the Nubian response to the traditional pharaonic, Hellenistic/Roman, Hellenizing, and “hybrid” elements of Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptian culture. The author begins with a history of Nubian art and a critical survey of the literature on Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptian art. Special chapters are then devoted to the discussion of the Egyptian-Greek interaction in the arts of Ptolemaic Egypt, the place of Egyptian Hellenistic and Hellenizing art within the oikumene, the pluralistic visual world of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, as well as on the specific genre of terracotta sculpture. Utilizing examples from Meroe City and Musawwarat es Sufra, the author argues that cultural transfer from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt to Nubia resulted in an inward-focused adaptation. Therefore, the resulting Nubian art from this period expresses only those aspects of Egyptian and Greek art that are compatible with indigenous Nubian goals.

Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The J. Paul Getty Museum

Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The J. Paul Getty Museum
Author: Marit R. Jentoft-Nilsen
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 129
Release: 1994-08-11
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0892362782

This volume includes all of the non-Attic material, with the exception of the Etruscan pottery, in the Molly and Walter Bareiss collection of ancient vases. It also covers the Attic Geometric vessels and nonfigural Attic material in the same collection. The majority of the pieces in the volume are red-figured vases and fragments from South Italy and Sicily, with many of the best Apulian, Lucanian, Campanian, and Gnathian artists represented.

Imperium and Cosmos

Imperium and Cosmos
Author: Paul Rehak
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2009-04-08
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780299220143

Caesar Augustus promoted a modest image of himself as the first among equals, a characterisation that was popular with the ancient Romans. This work focuses on Augustus's Mausoleum and Ustrinum, the Horologium-Solarium, and the Ara Pacis. It also examines the artistic imagery on these monuments.