Worshipping Athena

Worshipping Athena
Author: Jenifer Neils
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1996-12-15
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780299151140

Ten papers from 1992 symposia at Dartmouth College and Princeton University are augmented by an original chapter and a translation of a Greek article, to explore the myth and cult of Athena, contests and prizes associated with her worship, and art and politics generated around her. Among the topics are women in the Panathenaic and other festivals, the iconography of shield devices and column-mounted statues on amphoras, and the Panatheniaia in the age of Perikles. Paper edition (unseen), $22.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Athena in the Classical World

Athena in the Classical World
Author: Susan Deacy
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2021-10-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004497293

This volume provides a fascinating insight into ancient and modern interpretations of Athena. It assembles the latest research in ancient religion, literature, politics, gender, language, art and archaeology. In so doing, it highlights recurrent themes, variations and contradictory elements alike.

Worshipping Virtues

Worshipping Virtues
Author: Emma Stafford
Publisher: Classical Press of Wales
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2000-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1914535243

The Greeks, in Dr. Johnson's phrase, 'shock the mind by ascribing effects to non-entity'. The culture of ancient Greece was thronged with personifications. In poetry and the visual arts, personified figures of what might seem abstractions claim our attention. This study examines the logic, the psychology and the practice of Greeks who worshipped these personifications with temples and sacrifices, and addressed them with hymns and prayers. Emma Stafford conducts case-studies of deified 'abstractions', such as Peitho (Persuasion), Eirene (Peace) and Hygieia (Health). She also considers general questions of Greek psychology, such as why so many of these figures were female. Modern scholars have asked, Did the Greeks believe their own myths? This study contributes importantly to the debate, by exploring widespread and creative popular theology in the historical period.

Athena

Athena
Author: Teri Temple
Publisher: Child's World
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-08
Genre: Goddesses, Greek
ISBN: 9781503832558

Introduces the Greek goddess Athena and explains her importance; features well-known Greek myths about this goddess; and includes a map of ancient Greece and a family tree of the principal Greek gods. Additional features to aid comprehension include a table of contents, informative sidebars, a list of Greek characters introduced in the text, a list of equivalent Roman gods and goddesses, sources for further research including websites, an index, and an introduction to the author and illustrator.

Hekate

Hekate
Author: Sorita D'Este
Publisher:
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2010
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9781905297351

A collection of devotional essays on working with Hekate.

Serving Athena

Serving Athena
Author: Julia L. Shear
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 555
Release: 2021-03-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108618022

In ancient Athens, the Panathenaia was the most important festival and 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). Julia Shear applies theories of identity formation which were developed in the social sciences to the ancient Greek material and brings 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.

Worshiping Women

Worshiping Women
Author: Nikos E. Kaltsas
Publisher: Onassis Foundation USA
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2008
Genre: Art
ISBN:

This exhibition catalogue, divided into three main sections, is an essential collection of images and descriptions of each of the 155 artifacts of the exhibition, containing also scrutinizing essays on the important role women played in Classical Athens. The first section, "Goddesses and Heroines", introduces the principal female deities of Athens and Attica, in whose cults and festivals women were most actively engaged: Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The second section, "Women and Ritual," explores the practice of ritual acts such as dances, libations, sacrifices, processions and festivals in which women were active in classical antiquity. Here the critical role of the priestess comes to light, specifically in her function as key-bearer for the temples of the gods. The final section, "Women and the Cycle of Life," looks at how religious rituals defined moments of transition. This section focuses on nuptial rites and wedding banquets but also death, another occasion on which Athenian women took on major responsibilities, such as preparing the deceased for burial and tending the graves of family members. Contributors include, in addition to the editors, Professor Mary Lefkowitz of Wellesley College; Professor Olga Palagia of the University of Athens; Dr. Angelos Delivorrias, director of the Benaki Museum; Professor Michalis Tiverios of the Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki; Professor Joan Breton Connelly of New York University; Professor Jenifer Neils of Case Western Reserve University; and Professor John Oakley of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, among others.

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.

Athena's Justice

Athena's Justice
Author: Rebecca Futo Kennedy
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2009
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9781433104541

Athena is recognized as an allegory or representative of Athens in most Athenian public art except in tragedy. Perhaps this is because tragedy is rarely studied as a public art form or, perhaps, because her character is not static in tragedy. Although Athena's characterization changes to fit the needs of a particular drama, her clear connection with justice remains true throughout and suggests that she is always the representative of the city and its institutions. Athens, the city Athena protected, experienced a dramatic transformation in the fifth century: its political institutions, physical landscape, military power and international prestige underwent dynamic change. Athena, its goddess and its symbol, simultaneously transformed as well, although not always for the better. Athena's Justice follows the question of civic identity and ideology in Athenian tragedy, focusing specifically on the link between tragedy and its influence upon identity creation and promotion during the period when Athens was asserting itself as an imperial power. Through examination of tragedies in which Athena appears, this book traces the process by which Athens came to identify itself with its legal system, symbolized by Athena on stage, and then suffered the corruption of that system by the exercise of imperial power. Athena's Justice is essential reading not just for classicists and ancient historians, but for anyone interested in the interaction between art and politics and the process by which human beings in any period seek to shape their identity as a people.

Worshipping Aphrodite

Worshipping Aphrodite
Author: Rachel Rosenzweig
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2004
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780472113323

"Worshipping Aphrodite fills a gap in scholarship that has largely ignored the worship of Aphrodite in classical Athens in favor of more prominent deities, such as Athena, Zeus, and Hephaistos. It is the first study in English to address the role Aphrodite played in the daily religious activities of the city's population by focusing on the archaeological material associated with Aphrodite's Athenian and Attic cult sites from a specific time period." "By examining this material together, Rosenzweig reveals that Aphrodite had a much more prominent position among the gods of classical Athens than previously understood, far greater than a deity who merely presided over matters of love and lust. Aphrodite aided in the overall maintenance and welfare of Athens' local government, business community, family life, and agricultural health and unified the people in both the public and private spheres." "This fascinating study will interest not only classical archaeologists, but those interested in the nature of Greek religion and cult practices, and those specializing in the development of the Athenian polis." "It provides a useful re-examination of scholarship on Aphrodite and enhances our understanding of her social and political importance in the Athenian environment."--BOOK JACKET.