Monograph by Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis
Edited Volume by Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis
Chapters and Articles by Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis
Greek vases, and their reproductions in the form of luxury publications and vessels displayed ato... more Greek vases, and their reproductions in the form of luxury publications and vessels displayed atop bookshelves in libraries, were the domain of male elites in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Britain. Less well explored is the consumption of creative reproductions of Greek vases by elite and 'middling' women, and the participation of women across the social spectrum in the production of ceramics inspired by Greek vases. This article uses the Wedgwood archive to tell such stories. The subjects range from aristocratic designers through paintresses to women doing the hard labour of wedging. It argues for the importance of recognizing these engagements with Greek vases as part of the history of the reception of Greek vases in Britain. It explores the way that gender and class constrained the kind of contact women had with these materials, and it puts forward an interpretation of these engagements as independent embodied knowledge of Greek vases.
Parodic contrast between Hercules and a gryllos 2b. P.Köln IV 179 (detail, digitally reworked): H... more Parodic contrast between Hercules and a gryllos 2b. P.Köln IV 179 (detail, digitally reworked): Hercules struggling with the Cretan bull 3. Photograph of a view of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. Author's photograph. 4. Plan of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, end of the 2 nd century A.D. EfA/ D. Laroche 223 Treasury of the Athenians 422 Temple of Apollo 605 Cnidian Lesche; see J.-Fr. Bommelaer, Guide de Delphes, Le site, (1991) pl. V for full key to numbered monuments. 5. Photograph of the remains of the Treasury of the Athenians. Author's photograph. 6. Photograph of the remains of the temple of Apollo. Author's photograph. 7. Reconstruction drawing of the East elevation of the temple of Apollo. EfA/ E. Hansen. 8. Reconstruction drawing of the West elevation of the temple of Apollo. EfA/ E. Hansen.
Classical Greece offered. a panorama of votives. Many of the most famous pieces of Greek art, suc... more Classical Greece offered. a panorama of votives. Many of the most famous pieces of Greek art, such as the Delphi Charioteer, were set up in sanctuaries as offerings to gods while at the same time memorializing the name of the dedicant and sometimes the occasion for the dedication. It is therefore surprisirg that Greek votives have been relatively underexplored.l Robin Osborne has recently argued that this car^ in part be explained by rhe difficulty in identi$zirg votives now removed from their context of dedication and by the practice among archaeologists of classi$rirg and publishing finds accordirg to object type rather than by assemblage.z This practice has tended to obscure the votive nature of many objects. Healing votives perhaps form the exception to the rule, not least because some share features with healing votives from other periods and cultures. This essay examines a number of votive dedications from healing sanctuaries in Greece in the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods (fourth to second centuries BCE). After examining votive practice in the context of healing pilgrimages in Greece during this period, including the meanings of votives and references to them in marble inscriptions in sanctuaries, in poetry, and in painted pottery in the domestic sphere, a selection of healing votives will be considered in greater detail. The discussion explores the use of scale, fragmentation, and rearrangement in the depiction of the anthropomorphic deity an6 the bodies of pilgrims. Nthough many healing votives share features with nonhealing dedications, their healing context gives them a unique set of meanings. Compositional features reflect the sick pilgrim's experi-49
Al exia P et s alis -D iomidis pilgrims in classical Greece often undertook long and arduous jour... more Al exia P et s alis -D iomidis pilgrims in classical Greece often undertook long and arduous journeys in order to worship a particular god at one of a number of sanctuaries dedicated to him or her., The reason for this was that the god was thought to be more immediately and powerfully present in these sanctuaries, and therefore more directly efficacious. The foundation of a sanctuary was often connected to the goi's mythical activities and subsequent manifestations in that particular ptace. Imagls, both the central cult image and other votive images depicting ihe god and favours bestowed on previous pilgrims, played an important roleln this complex process of establishing and evoking the presence of the god within the sucred space of the sanctuary. This paper seeks to explore iays in which such images functioned, and what their visual language reveals about the nature of pilgrims' contact with the god, by means of a case study of a classical Greek sanctuary dedicated to the mythological hero Amphiaraos, who was worshipped for his healing and oracular qualities'' The Amphiareion was located in the oropeia, on the border between Attika and Boiotia.3 Founded in the last quarter of the fifth century nc, it was the largest and most famous sanctuary in honour of Amphiaraos, although there is e-vidence for the cult elsewhere.a It mostly attracted pilgrims from Attika and Boiotia, and in particular from Athens which was one day's walk away.5 I begin with a brief description of the physical layout of the Amphiareion sanctu-ary and the movements and ritual activities of pilgrims within it'
In the winter of 1 49 cn,the orator Aelius Aristides was sent by the god Asklepios on a pilgrimag... more In the winter of 1 49 cn,the orator Aelius Aristides was sent by the god Asklepios on a pilgrimage to Chios for bodily healing. He describes this jo,rrrrly in th-Solrrd Tilrt, a rexrwhich focuses on the author's contact with fuklepios. He makes reference to the difficulqF of the journey in adverse weather cond,itions, to stop-offs at various cities on the way,-and also ro a divinely-ordered..hrrrg. in the itinerarT'S'Tlng out from pergamon, rhe pilgrim and his companionr-g:r as far as Klazomenai via S*|rrra, but fro* here Aristides i, ,.rrt to Phokaia and the pilgrimage to Chio, is remitted. Finally, the god sends him on ro the warm springs at Genais and then back to Smyr"*. tt is emphasis on the pilgrirns location in rhe land.scape offuia Minor is linked io d.r.riptions of his visions of t1e god. The ioltowing is a description of what he saw in smyrna: when we arrived in smyrna, h. appeared to me in some such form. He was at the same time Asklepior, ,rd ApJlo, both the Klarian and he who is called This paper draws on research conducted during the 1yr5 of my fh'D' at The Counauld Instiute of Arr. I would th.r.fon. like to th*i my P-h.D. .,rp.*i"ors, D,rJas Elsner and professor Robin Cormack, for-,t .ir guidance. Thanla ,t. ito due to Professor Robin Osborne who read and commented. Jr, .rrlier versions of this research, as well as to Dr
Journeys, 2002
This paper explores a theme important in pilgrimage narratives from a I variety of cultures: the ... more This paper explores a theme important in pilgrimage narratives from a I variety of cultures: the expression of the author/pilgrim's developing understanding of the meaning and significance of his or her pilgrimage. It does so through three case studies: readings of three first-person narratives from widely differing chronological, cultural and religious milieux. The first narrative is Aelius Aristides' The Socred Tales, an ancient Greek text written AD c. 17O, which evokes the culture of Graeco-Roman healing pilgrimage; the second is Friar Felix Fabri's Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae ('Wanderings in the HoIy Land'), a Latin narrative of Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land writterl c. 1.484-8; and the third is Pierre Loti's Un pdlerin d'Angkor ('An Angkor Pilgrim'), a French text relating a personal (and initially nonreligious) pilgrimage to the temples of Angkor in what was then French Indo-China, published in 191,2. These three narratives were produced in cultures with profoundly different traditions of pilgrimage, including its practice, its cultural meanings and the modes of its description. These significant differences immediately raise the question of the meaning and usefulness of attaching the label 'pilgrimage narratives' to all three texts, and invite a reasonirg for the exercise of comparison across cultures and across time.
Book Reviews by Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis
Aurelius' coins when he himself was Caesar. B. notes, however, that Commodus' numismatic image wa... more Aurelius' coins when he himself was Caesar. B. notes, however, that Commodus' numismatic image was more varied than Aurelius' was as Caesar, which she connects to the turbulent nature of the period under study (338).
always faced up to the chronological tangles of posthumous ideology, or indeed its own place with... more always faced up to the chronological tangles of posthumous ideology, or indeed its own place within them.
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Monograph by Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis
Edited Volume by Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis
Chapters and Articles by Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis
Book Reviews by Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis