The Cult of Athena on the Cyclades

This one-day conference will share current research on a deity that has been a topic of interest since the dawn of classical scholarship and through its various ‘turns.’ The event will appraise various ways to approach the goddess by drawing together current researchers from the following seven (a good Athena-related number…) countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK. The event takes place at a time of a resurgence of interest in the goddess evidenced, for instance, by the latest edition of the journal Pallas devoted to Athena-related papers. The event will both reflect and appraise this renewed interest. The Pallas volume will be on show, as will an Athena-related treasure owned by the University of Roehampton. This booklet contains the conference programme and abstracts. You will also find details of Athena-related work from Roehampton researchers and from scholars in Sri Lanka, Sweden and Switzerland. Supported by The Classical Association @AthenaSharing http://athenatrickster.blogspot.co.uk/ Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page #AthenaUR 1 Sustained by The Hive http://www.growhampton.com/hive-cafe Programme 9.00 Arrival and coffee 9.45 Welcome and introduction– Susan Deacy: How long is a piece of string? 10.00 Session 1 (Moderator: Susan Deacy)   Sandya Sistac, Université Toulouse-2-Jean Jaurès, ‘Her do thou smite’ (Il. 5.132): A preliminary study of the relationships between Athena and Aphrodite in Homeric epic Christopher Lillington-Martin, University of Reading/Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity/Summer Fields, Oxford, Symbolism of Athena, and her metamorphoses, by means of the olive, in Homer’s Odyssey and Procopius’ Wars 11.00 Session 2 (Moderator: Susan Deacy)   Ellie Mackin, King’s College London, Weaving Athena: An object-focused study of girls and women approaching Athena as a poliadic deity Bartłomiej Bednarek, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Bringing stools to Athena? 12.15 Session 3 (Moderator: Tony Keen)   Manon Champier, Université Toulouse-2-Jean Jaurès, Athena in official images in the French 19th century Amanda Potter, Open University, UK, Goddess of wisdom, warfare and knitting: Athena in the popular imagination 1.15 Lunch 2.00 Session 4 (Moderator: Tony Keen)   Alessandra Abbattista, University of Roehampton, London and Fabio Lo Piparo, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, The two folds of Athena’s garment: Military and maternal aegis in Euripides’ Ion Owen Rees, Manchester Metropolitan University, The disappearance of Athena from classical warrior-departure scenes 3.00 Session 5 (Moderator: José Magalhães)   Marion Meyer, University of Vienna, Athena and her foster child Maciej Paprocki, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Trickster Athena as a granddaughter of Okeanos and Tethys 4.00 Tea 4.30 Session 6 (Moderator: José Magalhães)  Marianne Kleibrink and Elizabeth Weistra, University of Groningen, Cult in context: An early Athena in Calabria? Ingo Schaaf, University of Konstanz, Kyria Athenais: transformations of Pallas and Parthenon in Late Antique Athens 2  Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London Page 5.30 Close of conference – optional drinks, King’s Head, Roehampton Village June 3 2016 Abstracts Session 1 Sandya Sistac, Université Toulouse-2-Jean Jaurès, “‘Her do thou smite’ (Il. 5.132): A preliminary study of the relationships between Athena and Aphrodite in Homeric epic” Following in the steps of Jean-Pierre Vernant, Marcel Detienne and, more recently, the studies of Gabriella Pironti on Aphrodite, a major part of my PhD (started some months ago) will focus on identifying and analysing Athena’s interactions with other Homeric divine beings. This “divine network” will hopefully bring forward clues regarding the place held by Athena’s divine puissance in the poems, which in turn may call forth an assessment of the Homeric network’s potential specificities compared to Hesiod’s for instance. From these observations, I intend to achieve an accurate characterization of Athena’s puissance as the Greeks understood it at the time of composition of the poems and as they still received it when the Iliad and the Odyssey were eventually written down. Obviously, we must never forget that this study’s frame of reference is a carefully crafted, literary one, hence the particular attention that must be given to the codes of epic literature and to the intrinsic logic of the poems at all times. My paper will deal with the relationship between Athena and Aphrodite on which, as observed by Gabriella Pironti in her book (Entre ciel et guerre. Figures d’Aphrodite en Grèce ancienne, Kernos Supplément, 18, Liège, 2007), Diomedes’ aristeia in the fifth Book of the Iliad made a lasting impression. What can we learn of Athena from her part in these particular feats? As the openly conflictual relationship that she entertains with Aphrodite goes patently beyond a sibling quarrel, what does it tell us about the puissances in attendance? And how do they fit into the Homeric narrative and cosmic network? Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page Athena is present in many scenes of the Odyssey and is often portrayed as transforming characters. I shall consider some of her symbolised presences, and her metamorphosis of certain characters and argue for Homer signalling her symbolic presence by introducing forms of the olive tree (olive-wood tools, olive products and places to sleep and olive-wood tableware). These forms of presence are different from Athena’s other presences. Her presence is normally unknown 3 Christopher Lillington-Martin, University of Reading/Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity/Summer Fields, Oxford, “Symbolism of Athena, and her metamorphoses, by means of the olive, in Homer’s Odyssey and Procopius’ Wars” to characters but I shall show that they tend to act decisively when the olive is referred to in the poem. Cases of the olive symbolising Athena will be presented, involving Odysseus, Polyphemus, Calypso, Telemachus, Nausicaa, Eumaeus and Penelope, whilst contextualising and citing metamorphosis and the presence of both Athena and the olive within the Odyssey. I shall then examine Procopius’ treatment of Homer in the Wars. Procopius’ views on paganism and Christianity are still debated and those of his readership will have been diverse. I shall argue that Procopius offers symbolism to portray the goddess Athena as present in one significant scene by referring to a unique olive tree at the siege of Naples in 536, during the wars between Justinian's armies, led by Belisarius, and the Goths, reigned over by Theodahad. Session 2 Ellie Mackin, King’s College London, “Weaving Athena: An object-focused study of girls and women approaching Athena as a poliadic deity” This paper will present an ethnographic study of the lives of the girls and women who were involved in the annual adornment of Athena Polias at the Panathenaia. This will include both those who wove the peplos and members of the wider Athenian community who participated in the festival. Therefore, this study will include the young arrhephoroi, the Ergastinai (‘weavers’) who were maidens of marriageable age, the Priestess of Athena Polias, and the Athenian and metic girls who participated in the procession – in other words, a representation of every female belonging to the Athenian population. Through this study, I will discuss what the physical act of worship (the production of a specific object and the act of processing) can tell us about how individuals approached Athena as the goddess of their city, and how this was expressed specifically for women and girls. This study will articulate the specific influence that Athena had, both as a ‘female god’ and a poliadic divinity, in the lives of the individual females who were involved in her worship. Thus, it will comment on Athena as a living goddess to her worshipers. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page A handful of passages from old comedy, along with scholia and lexica, mention a category of ritual acolytes called diphrophoroi. As the etymology suggests, the word must have referred to someone whose role involved (but was not necessarily was limited to) carrying stools (diphroi). Some nineteenth century scholars associated diphrophoroi with some of the figures represented on the east side of the Parthenon frieze, on which, among others, two girls with stools on their heads 4 Bartłomiej Bednarek, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, “Bringing stools to Athena?” are approaching a bearded man. Since the publication of Ziehen's Panathenaea entry to RE, however, this identification has been rejected by most scholars on the basis, as I would like to argue, of some false assumptions. In most of the modern works in which the subject matter is addressed (e.g. in commentaries on the Aristophanic comedies), diphrophoroi are said to have been metic girls who accompanied the kanephoroi during the Panathenaea in order to serve them, not the goddess. Most scholars, therefore, claim that their ritual role was marginal and social status was low. Thus they maintain that the girls shown on the frieze must not be identified as diphrophoroi. In my paper I would like to address this problem, trying to explain why there seems to have been a very good reason for bringing stools to Athena. Seeing that the phenomenon lies at the intersection between the religion and public manifestations of ethnic and gender identity, I would like to touch upon also these matters, while arguing that there is no reason to believe that the status of diphrophoroi was necessarily lower than that of kanephoroi. Session 3 Manon Champier, Université Toulouse-2-Jean Jaurès, “Athena in official images in the French 19th century” During the 19th century, France went through many political changing. Monarchies, republics or empires succeeded each other, at the whim of revolutions, coups and wars. New governments needed to find some legitimacy and abundantly used images and symbols to affirm their power and identity, in reaction to or in agreement with what was done before. Antiquity was a prestigious reference and a model for art. Among the numerous Greek figures, Athena was very popular with both artists and public discourse. Why this goddess in particular? Why and how is she used in a period far from Antiquity, when polytheist cults do not exist anymore? What does her reinterpretation by the 19 th century artists say about their vision of Antiquity? We will try to go through these questions by analyzing the reception of the goddess in the different fields such as war, science and fine arts. We will compare how monarchies, empires or republics decided to use the goddess and enlighten differences or permanent features. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page My doctoral research on classical myth on television included an audience study focussed on the character of Athena in Xena: Warrior Princess episode ‘Amphipolis Under Siege’ (5.14). My research was not only into viewers’ 5 Amanda Potter, Open University, UK, “Goddess of wisdom, warfare and knitting: Athena in the popular imagination” reactions to the character of Athena in the episode, where Athena is on the opposing side to the hero, Xena, but also on their knowledge of the goddess Athena before they watched the episode. Viewers were ask to summarise all that they knew about the goddess, and where they obtained their information. This allowed me to build up a picture of what fans of Xena and other members of the general public think about the goddess, when compared with the knowledge held by classicists, who also took part in my study. What I found was that respondents are engaging with the goddess in different ways, including the pagan who prays to the goddess, and the viewers who think of Athena as a goddess who stands for women. In this paper, drawing on both my doctoral research, and a shorter audience study conducted at the Petrie Museum in 2013, I will share my findings on what Athena can mean to us today. Session 4 Alessandra Abbattista, University of Roehampton, London and Fabio Lo Piparo, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, “The two folds of Athena’s garment: Military and maternal aegis in Euripides’ Ion” Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page Owen Rees, Manchester Metropolitan University, “The disappearance of Athena from classical warrior-departure scenes” 6 The paper aims to investigate the gendered meaning of the aegis of Athena in and around Euripides’ Ion. With particular attention to the passages related to the aegis, the analysis will focus on the contradictory treatment of this garment, between danger and protection, in the text. The Euripidean version of the origin of the aegis from the Gorgon, the monster that was killed by Athena during the Battle of the Giants, portrays the figure of the goddess as promachos, the androgynous mistress of war. This aspect is embodied by Creusa in her failed attempt to kill her son with the poisonous blood scattered from the Gorgon’s body, beheaded and deprived of its skin. Furthermore, the snaky border and the gorgoneion in Ion’s swaddling cloth woven by Creusa suggest an accurate reproduction of its model, the real aegis. The use of the woven aegis in the exposition of Ion merges the motifs of the birth and the delivery of Erichthonius to the daughters of Cecrops by his foster mother Athena, a moment carefully replicated and ritualised by Creusa. This adds nurturing and child-caring features to the aegis and therefore to the two figures who bear it. Just as Athena, the tragic heroine appears both male/promachos and female/kourotrophos. References from Homer to lexicographers, as well as iconographic depictions on Attic vases, will demonstrate the gender conflation beyond the aegis in the Euripidean tragedy. The presence of Athena in ancient Greek warrior-departure scenes is considered a standard adaptation of the archetypal 'departure scene'. Her presence in these scenes has influenced their interpretation by modern scholars some of whom regard them as expressions of polis ideology, with Athena naturally interpreted as the embodiment of the polis. However, this paper will explore the extent of her prolificacy, and its relative demise during the classical period. It will then discuss the growing representation of winged-women, and the automatic identification made by scholars with Nike, based upon her association with Athena. Finally, this paper shall dispute the automatic association with Nike, propose an alternative identification for the winged woman, and challenge the Athena subtheme of departure scenes as being anomalous. Session 5 Marion Meyer, University of Vienna, “Athena and her foster child” The tale of a boy born of the Earth and raised by Athena is the Ur-Mythos of Athens. In early times its focus was the correlation of nature and civilization - Gaia (the Earth) comprising everything which occurred naturely (procreation, birth, growth), Athena comprising everything which needed techne (knowledge, training, education). A later version included Hephaistos and thus broke the balance of Gaia and Athena. Erechtheus obtained a father, Gaia was reduced to the role of mortal women (giving birth after having conceived), and Athena was highlighted (as the trigger of every move). Still later, the myth was told for a figure named Erichthonios (derived from Erechtheus). This is the version shown in images. As the new name is not attested before the second half of the 5th century, this innovation was dated to the Classical period (but actually occurred a little earlier). Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page Maciej Paprocki, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, “Trickster Athena as a granddaughter of Okeanos and Tethys” 7 In the course of time the role of Athena´s foster child changed: Erechtheus was (and remained) Athena´s prime cult associate on the Acropolis. Erichthonios, however, was the prototype of an Athenian and conveyed the notion that all Athenians were children of Athena. It is the purpose of the paper to present the varying views of Athena and her foster child as the result of a continuous process of “making” the city goddess. Athena, the sovereign mistress of cunning intelligence, has many an opposite number among Greek deities: for example, Vernant and Detienne in their Cunning intelligence in Greek culture and society observe and discuss functional similarities and contiguities between Athena, Metis, Thetis, Hephaistos and Hermes—archetypal trickster deities, deft at binding magic (1991/1974: 140-144, 181-183, 300-305). In this presentation, I build on Detienne and Vernant’s observations and postulate that such deities form a fuzzy ‘trickster’ class in the Greek pantheon, linked by their shared matrilineal genealogy in Hesiod’s Theogony, descending them from Okeanos and Tethys. Page Selected bibliography: BRACKE, E. (2009), “Of Metis and Magic. The Conceptual Transformations of Circe and Medea in Ancient Greek Poetry”, PhD, Department of Ancient Classics, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. CATALIN, A. (2009), “On the Mythology of Okeanos”, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 143–150. DELCOURT, M. (1957), Héphaistos ou, la légende du magicien, Bibliothèque de la Faculté de philosophie et lettres de l'Université de Liège, Vol. 146, Paris. DETIENNE, M., VERNANT, J.-P. (1991), Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society, J. LLOYD (trans.), University of Chicago Press, Chicago [first published as Les Ruses de l’intelligence: La Mètis des Grecs in 1974]. KONSTAN, D. (1977), “The Ocean Episode in the "Prometheus Bound"”, History of Religions, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 61–72. KORENJAK, M. (2000), “Die Hesperiden als Okeanos-Enkelinnen: eine unnötige Crux bei Apollonios Rhodios”, Hermes, Vol. 128 No. 2, pp. 240–242. VERNANT, J.-P. (1970), “Thétis et le poème cosmogonique d'Alcman”, [in:] Crahay, R., Derwa, M. and Joly, R. (Eds.), Hommages à Marie Delcourt, Latomus Collection, Bruxelles, pp. 38–69. 8 Shadowy, sly shapeshifters learned in magical arts, (great-)grandchildren of Okeanos comprise some of the craftiest and grandest trickster gods of Greece: into their group one may include descendants by birth (Kalypso, Maia, Hermes, Athena, Prometheus, Kirke, Medea, Metis, Thetis) and descendants by adoption (Hera through Tethys and Hephaistos through Thetis and Eurynome). In the Theogony, Hesiod’s obliquely expresses his theological convictions through carefully planned divine marriages and resultant offspring. I argue that the poet instinctively understood functional similarities between trickster-type deities and thus traced their descent from Okeanos and Tethys, primordial gods of transformation and change: transcending Hesiod, the Okeanos trickster genealogy lingers in later Greek works, with authors conceptually juxtaposing these deities in their works. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Session 6 Marianne Kleibrink and Elizabeth Weistra, University of Groningen, “Cult in context: An early Athena in Calabria?” In the 6th century BC the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta at Francavilla Marittima, Calabria, was devoted to Athena, as evidenced by a bronze votive inscription and numerous terracotta figurines. Largely abandoned in the 5 th century BC, the site continued to receive the latter dedications. In these centuries the main identity of the venerated goddess, Athena, is clearly recognizable, as opposed to the 8th and 7th centuries BC, in which the cult on the Timpone della Motta already flourished. The Groningen excavations (1991-2004) of the large 8th c. BC apsidal timber Building V.b. supplied data of large-scale feasts, of sophisticated textile production and of divine or substitute-divine anthropomorphic couple figurines. Besides possibly ritual weaving, another link to Athena is formed by the everincreasing evidence that Francavilla Marittima may be identified as ancient Lagaria, the town founded by Epeios, constructor of the Trojan horse, who dedicated his tools in an Athenaion along the Ionian coast. The late- 8th to mid-7th c. BC sanctuary, with its large timber buildings, abundant votive gifts and fascinating iconography, is the focus of this paper. By means of contextual and iconographical analyses of two of the most eye-catching objects: a matt-painted sherd with a dancing couple and a terracotta pinax known as the ‘Dama di Sibari’, it will be argued that the 7th c. BC cult and identity of the goddess comprise earlier traditions that continue into the 6 th c. BC. Aim of this paper is to decide whether or not the venerated goddess may be regarded as an Athena before the 6th c. BC. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page “In the whole history of the transformation of Ancient cult names and sanctuaries into Christian ones, there is no example of such an easy and total permutation as it is the one of Pallas Athena and the Virgin Mary” (Gregorovius 1889: 64). Statements like these are paradigmatic for approaching the Athenian goddess in her Late Antique urban environment (see also Kraus 1950). However, it is far from granted that ‘the Lady of Athens’ (cf. Marin. Procl. 30) – still a city of high cultural appeal to Pagans and Christians alike (Wenzel 2010) – handed over her residence that smoothly. In fact, as recently shown, one cannot exclude more violent forms of transition in the case of Athena’s temple on the Acropolis (Pollini 2008). 9 Ingo Schaaf, University of Konstanz, “Kyria Athenais: Transformations of Pallas and Parthenon in Late Antique Athens” Reviewing the textual narratives and the archaeological record pertaining to Athena and her most prominent cult site eventually turned into a “Christian Parthenon” (Kaldellis 2009), the paper investigates the goddess’s shifting role in her city, thus contributing to the larger discourse on Ancient mythology in Late Antique contexts (Leppin 2015). Page 10 Works cited Gregorovius 1889 Gregorovius, F., Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter 1, Stuttgart 1889. Kaldellis 2009 Kaldellis, A., The Christian Parthenon. Classicism and pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens, Cambridge 2009. Kraus 1950 Kraus, W., s.v. Athena, RAC 1 (1950), 870-881. Leppin 2015 Leppin, H., Einleitung: Antike Mythologie in christlichen Kontexten der Spätantike, in: idem (ed): Antike Mythologie in christlichen Kontexten der Spätantike (Millennium-Studien 54), Berlin-Munich-Boston 2015, 1-18. Mango 1995 Mango, C., The conversion of the Parthenon into a Church: The Tübingen Theosophy, DCAE 18 (1995), 201-203. Pollini 2008 Pollini, J., Christian desecration and mutilation of the Parthenon, MDAI(A) 122 (2008), 207-228. Wenzel 2010 Wenzel, A., Libanius, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the ideal of Athens in Late Antiquity, JLA 3 (2010), 264-285. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Further Athena-Related Work Here are some tasters of other recent/current Athena-related research by conference participants and others – from Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. If you would like to contact any other the scholars, email me ([email protected]) and I’ll put you in touch. Many of them are also google-able! Erica Angliker (University of Zurich) - The cult of Athena in the Cyclades Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page My research also focuses in detail on the cult of Athena on Paros. There the goddess played a prominent place within the island’s pantheon, occupying a central place in the ancient city’s sanctuaries. On Paros Athena was also worshipped under unusual epicleses, such as Pontia, which linked her to the maritime world, and Kynthia, a cult celebrated only on Delos (Mount Kynthos) along with that of Zeus. My studies also take into consideration the evolution of Athena’s cult on Delos—from that of a goddess celebrated through an anionic cult in an open-air mountain location to the one held inside banqueting halls. Finally, I also consider the relations between Athena and Apollo Pythios on the island of Kea, where monumental stairs were built for processions leading from one sanctuary to the other. 11 The cult of Athena in the Cyclades is relatively well represented on eleven islands that display varied amounts of evidence of her worship (inscriptions, sanctuaries, coins). It included her veneration under numerous epithets, such as poliouchos and polias (related to her protection of the city), promachos (related to warriors), and Ergane (patron of craftsmen and artisans). All these epithets reveal the same important functions performed by Athena as those known elsewhere in Greece. However the worship of Athena in the Cyclades also encompasses some of the divinity’s more unusual functions, and it is on these that my research concentrates. My work on Athena includes the study of her Archaic sanctuaries on Andros (Zagora) and Koukounaries (Paros). In both places she was initially celebrated through an hypaetral cult centered on the altar and only later received a temple. More interesting, however, is that her cult was maintained after the settlement was abandoned, and thus changed into an extra-urban one. Of particular interest are materials retrieved from Koukounaries in which votive deposits reveal that the cult of the goddess was linked to the female world. Even more fascinating, however, is the fact that chthonic sacrifices were made to Athena—ones that resemble those offered to Demeter and Dionysos at Cycladic sanctuaries. Likewise uncovered in Koukounaries are clay plaques with some of the most ancient depictions of Athena. Such research on the many manifestations of the cult of Athena in the Cycladic region is bound to shed light on the various manifestations of the goddess’s aspects. Susan Deacy (Roehampton) – Athena: Traitor to trickster As an undergraduate student in the late ’80s I was set an essay question that intrigued me – and that I have been engaging with since in some shape or form. The question was: was the Parthenon built in honour of Athens or of its patron deity? It got me thinking about what it meant for a deity to be a patron, and what it meant in particular for a female deity to be identified with a city. The approaches I have taken over the years have changed in light of the different lenses I’ve looked through – and I’d say that the question itself is based on faulty premises, though this have been a deliberate ploy by my tutor. I am currently writing a book (A traitor to her sex? Athena the trickster – for OUP) that challenges what I see as an overly narrowly way of understanding Athena – one that has been put forward even by scholars whose methods vary widely. This has been to assume that Athena is constructed, pretty consistently, as a dutiful daughter and a dedicated patron, whether of heroes or of cities. I am seeking a more fluid approach, informed by trickster studies and other approaches including third-wave feminism, poststructuralism and – now – transgender studies. This approach holds onto Athena as a civilising and normalising force while allowing for a more disconcerting, fluid and flexible deity. I love the project so much that I am finding it difficult to finish, although I hope to move towards completion this summer. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page The Panathenaia is an event celebrating Athena as the patron goddess of Athens. The agricultural setting in which the festival was inaugurated draws heavily on the offering of first fruits to Athena. The practice throws light on a significant distinction of the characteristic war-like nature of Athena and her acceptance of hekatombs. This distinction bears strong claims on Athena as a peacemaker, not from a political perspective but from a perspective that reveals a genuine concern for living beings in general. In this sense by accepting the sacrifice of first fruits and thereby saving the lives of living creatures Athena represents the concept of non-violence. A noticeable parallel to Athena’s role as peace maker in nature and Athena’s representation of the concept of non-violence persists in contemporary Sinhalese rituals performed for the gods, devas. The devas in Sinhalese culture represent the highest strata in the hierarchy of noetic beings. Devas represent 12 Isha Gamlath (University of Kelaniya) - Non-violence: A shared premise in Athena’s role as peacemaker in the Panathenia and contemporary Sinhalese deva rituals cleanliness and an immaculate purity which demarcates their superiority from other noetic beings. For this reason devas are offered bloodless substance such as first fruits. Blood, as is known to most cultures, ancient and modern, is a polluting agent. Sacrifice offered to the devas in the form of first fruits finds a striking parallel to Athena’s role as receiver of first fruits. The paper will argue that despite regional, cultural and chronological lapses between the perception of Athena and the devas in Sri Lanka, there survives common ground - both exemplify non-violence in the form of non-violation of animal life. Tony Keen (Roehampton/Open University) - Whose owl is it anyway? Investigating the repurposing of Minerva in imperial London Eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth-century images of Athena – or rather of Minerva, the name by which the goddess was most commonly known in the period – are to be found across much of London. In many cases she stands for the values that she was known for in antiquity – wisdom, knowledge, justified and defensive war, etc. I have lately become interested in how certain images from the imperial capital demonstrate the manner in which those values were extrapolated to make Minerva serve specific purposes for the British establishment – so on Croydon College she becomes a representation of handicrafts as opposed to (but in partnership with) manufacturing, and on the former Guardian Assurance building by London Bridge, an image of financial prudence. I’m also interested in how attributes of Minerva come to have an independent life as her avatars, especially the owl in the financial sphere, and how her attributes are also appropriated for other figures, most notably various renditions of Britannia, depicted with helmet, aegis and owl, but also figures of Bellona and Justice, and the personification of Science on the South Pediment of the British Museum. I plan to study this more, but in the meantime I’m collecting images of these representations of Minerva and starting an online photo archive (https://www.flickr.com/photos/37259598@N00/albums/72157669056569425). If you know of London Minervas or Athenas I’ve missed, or have more information about the ones I’ve got, please let me know at [email protected]. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page Sex and gender related discourses found in ancient mythology are too often employed in arguments of sex impression and the perpetuation of dictated gender roles and stereotypes. My dissertation The Age of Athena argues that such mythological evidence, in actuality, points to the existence of a ‘gender non- 13 Olivia Huntingdon-Stuart (Roehampton) - The Age of Athena binary norm’. The study attempts to highlight this new interpretation, concurrent with concepts of gender previously unconsidered, and a new non-binary lens incorporating post-structuralist, modern reception, destructionist, and gender identity theories. The study asserts that, perceivable and preserved in myth, are representations of innate understandings that the gender binaries are fallacious cultural constructs and supplant an anteceding non-binary norm. The study was initially motivated by Bachofen’s work, Das Mutterrecht (1861) which investigated the origins and developments of society. Taking the allegory of the Age of Apollo, the study demonstrates the emergence of a new ‘Age of Athena’, hallmarking the movement back in the direction of the original nonbinary norm, currently observable through the progression towards less distinct gender roles and a gender binary which is increasingly less enforced. The focus of The Age of Athena is indeed on the myth of the goddess herself via Hesiodic, Homeric, and Aeschylean literary sources. The Athena mythology is taken as an exemplification. Athena epitomises, within her narrative and character, the preservation and as such, proof, of the gender non-binary norm. José Magalhães (Roehampton) – The feminisation of Athena My researches focus on the evolution of the feminine aspects of Athena. The goddess is one of the most prominent figures in the Greek pantheon, being depicted since the Homeric Poems as a feminine figure filled with masculine attributes. Her role in war and as a companion of heroes, being a key factor in the success of many quests, are factors that highly contribute to the vision of a very masculine goddess. However, I believe that she possesses very feminine characteristics, several nuances of which primordial view of the goddess were developed through antiquity. It is possible to trace this process of feminization of Athena by following the evolution of the myths concerning the goddess from Homer and Hesiod to later sources, such as Callimachus, Apollodorus and Ovid. This development is also perceived in art, since it is possible to observe several differences from the most archaic representations of the goddess to the ones after the Persian wars. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016 Page In Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s recent six-volume Wonder Woman run, the eponymous character is obliged to take up the mantle of the God of War after the death of Ares and in the seeming-absence of Athena, and it is only by combining the attributes of both deities that she is able to prevail in both her new role and 14 Houman Sadri (Göteborgs Universitet) - “Submission is faith in the strength of others”: Synthesising male and female aspects of war in Azzarello and Chiang’s Wonder Woman her battle with the First Born. This synthesis has several implications, foremost of which is the idea that the embodiment of war represents a series of seemingoxymorons, with Diana’s ultimate refusal to save the First Born from what he characterises as a fate worse than death seen as an act of, as she puts it, “Tough Love.” This is a synthesis of violence and mercy, and as such represents the aforementioned fusion of gender aspects and is an affirmation of the original ideas of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston, who believed that triumph could only be achieved within submission, an idea characterised by Diana herself as, “Faith in the strength of others.” Finally, the trajectory of the heroic journey undertaken by central character of this set of tales hews closely to the monomythical pattern set out by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Page 15 The study was presented at the NNCORE conference at the University of Oslo last June and at a research seminar at Roehampton last autumn and is now under peer review. It produces wide ranging results, demonstrating the unity and cultural construction of myth, the pre-archaic basis for the non-binary norm, these non-binary attributes in the origins of Athena and maintained in the evolution of her myth, as well as highlighting the difficulties those whose gender identity is non-binary have to face. Thus, the study establishes the importance and need for Athena to figure head the movement into a reprised gender non-binary age. Athena: Sharing New Research University of Roehampton, London June 3 2016