published: The “Spatial Turn” in Ancient Greek Festival Research: Venues of the Athenian City Dionysia and the Great Panathenaia Pompai, in: L. C. Nevett (Hrsg.), Theoretical Approaches to the Archaeology of Ancient Greece: Manipulating Material Culture (Ann Arbor 2017) 230–245
In order to investigate ancient Greek festival culture archaeological, epigraphic and literary ev... more In order to investigate ancient Greek festival culture archaeological, epigraphic and literary evidence, although generally relevant, is in certain respects not really signifi-cant. For instance, the locations of festivals can be detected, events are depicted on some vases and reliefs, ancient authors describe feasts and rituals or inscriptions record about the winners of sacred competitions. Nevertheless, the essential part of the celebrations, the actions of people as well as the interaction of men, place and facilities is of course lost. Theoretical models focusing on the relation and interaction between the elements of acts – in the case of rituals people, place, equipment and actions – arguably offer a more insightful approach to all objective and processual components of such festivals.
The context of the choregic dedications is well known due to a wealth of relevant evidence. The erection of a large number of them in Athens – including, most promi-nently, the round temple of Lysicrates – in the Street of Tripods, not a sacred space in the strict sense, is at first puzzling. In the sense of the absolutistic container space, the buildings and bases were placed by the choregoi in the non-sacred site of the street and thus demonstrated only the magnitude of their donors. An approach of this complex phenomenon from the perspective of relativistic space theory, though, reveals a whole different significance of these monuments. Inscriptions and architectural forms of the anathemes testify their sacred character. Furthermore, the Street of Tripods was very likely a main part of the processions of the various Dionysia festivals. The element which links the monuments and the place, is the celebrative space, which came into being during and through rituals – here the pompai. Moreover, the interaction of place and facilities is possibly of greater importance after the ritual, when they come to constitute the memory space still associated with the Dionysiac cult, despite the absence of the processual element. In effect, celebrative cultic acts accorded a very much sacred character to the place and provided it consequently with a proper appearance by means of the choregic monuments, which stood as a permanent marker of the sacred space. In this way, the significance of the street for the polis and its citizens as an important place of cult and celebration of the community could be visually experienced and “read” by everybody .
In a similar manner, we can rethink the role of other places within and around ancient Greek cities if we consider them as the stage for certain civic activities. Religious festivals always offered an opportunity for the polis to represent itself to the population of the city and its territory but more important also to envoys of allies, colonies and other states. Processions and games were in this sense especially effective because of their high publicity. Moreover the numerous locations of such events affected extensive parts of the city. Some of them appear obviously significant for the history and thus for the identity of the polis, but others seem to have been chosen arbitrarily or simply based on practical considerations. The aim of this paper is to approach the venues of these religious and political acts as ritual and memory spaces in order to comprehend their significance for the identity and self-perception of the polis. In the course of these considerations, though, another aim is to show the potential and limitations of theoretical models in cases where the evidence is not very dense. The case study focuses on the two most important festivals of Classical Athens, the Panathenaia and the City Dionysia.
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The context of the choregic dedications is well known due to a wealth of relevant evidence. The erection of a large number of them in Athens – including, most promi-nently, the round temple of Lysicrates – in the Street of Tripods, not a sacred space in the strict sense, is at first puzzling. In the sense of the absolutistic container space, the buildings and bases were placed by the choregoi in the non-sacred site of the street and thus demonstrated only the magnitude of their donors. An approach of this complex phenomenon from the perspective of relativistic space theory, though, reveals a whole different significance of these monuments. Inscriptions and architectural forms of the anathemes testify their sacred character. Furthermore, the Street of Tripods was very likely a main part of the processions of the various Dionysia festivals. The element which links the monuments and the place, is the celebrative space, which came into being during and through rituals – here the pompai. Moreover, the interaction of place and facilities is possibly of greater importance after the ritual, when they come to constitute the memory space still associated with the Dionysiac cult, despite the absence of the processual element. In effect, celebrative cultic acts accorded a very much sacred character to the place and provided it consequently with a proper appearance by means of the choregic monuments, which stood as a permanent marker of the sacred space. In this way, the significance of the street for the polis and its citizens as an important place of cult and celebration of the community could be visually experienced and “read” by everybody .
In a similar manner, we can rethink the role of other places within and around ancient Greek cities if we consider them as the stage for certain civic activities. Religious festivals always offered an opportunity for the polis to represent itself to the population of the city and its territory but more important also to envoys of allies, colonies and other states. Processions and games were in this sense especially effective because of their high publicity. Moreover the numerous locations of such events affected extensive parts of the city. Some of them appear obviously significant for the history and thus for the identity of the polis, but others seem to have been chosen arbitrarily or simply based on practical considerations. The aim of this paper is to approach the venues of these religious and political acts as ritual and memory spaces in order to comprehend their significance for the identity and self-perception of the polis. In the course of these considerations, though, another aim is to show the potential and limitations of theoretical models in cases where the evidence is not very dense. The case study focuses on the two most important festivals of Classical Athens, the Panathenaia and the City Dionysia.
Things are somewhat different if we consider places connected by a procession route although located within a city, making their bond self-evident. The aim of the paper is to examine the evidence implicated in the connection of locations inside the same city by a religious procession, taking into account the claims of rulers, citizens and various groups of interests as well as the historical and mythological background of the rituals.
All seminars will be held at the Swedish Institute, Mitseon 9.
For any questions, please contact the organisers, Jenny Wallensten ([email protected]) or Soi Agelidis ([email protected]).
You can submit your abstract for our open session online in:
https://easr2019.org/call-‐for-‐individual-‐papers/
The abstract submission deadline is December 15, 2018.
Review results will be announced on January 15, 2019.