The gods of ancient Greece : identities and transformations

553 Pages·2010·5.7 MB·English

by  Bremmer

Edinburgh Leventis Studies 5
THE GODS
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THE GODS OF ANCIENT GREECE G OF ANCIENT
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Identities and Transformations
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Edited by Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine S GREECE

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The Greek gods are still very much present in modern consciousness.
F
Yet even though Apollo and Dionysos, Artemis and Aphrodite, Zeus and

A
Hermes are household names, it is much less clear what these divinities
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meant and stood for in ancient Greece. In fact, they have been very much Identities and Transformations
neglected in modern scholarship. C
I
This book brings together a team of international scholars with the aim E
of remedying this situation and generating new approaches to the nature N
and development of the Greek gods in the period from Homer until Late T
Antiquity. It looks at individual gods, but also asks to what extent cult,
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myth and literary genre determine the nature of a divinity. How do the
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Greek gods function in a polytheistic pantheon and what is their
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connection to the heroes? What is the influence of philosophy? What
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does archaeology tell us about the gods? In what way do the gods in Late C
Antiquity differ from those in classical Greece? E

The aim of the book is to present a comprehensive view of the gods as
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they functioned in Greek culture until the triumph of Christianity. It will ad
have a broad appeal within Classics and Religious Studies. n Nited
. B b
ry
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Jan N. Bremmer is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University m
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of Groningen, the Netherlands. Andrew Erskine is Professor of Ancient
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History at the University of Edinburgh. r
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Edinburgh University Press s
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22 George Square in
Edinburgh EH8 9LF e
www.euppublishing.com
ISBN: 978 0 7486 3798 0
Jacket image: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Ed
Malibu, California. Attributed to the Palermo Painter, in
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Lucanian Red-Figure Volute Krater, 415–400 BC. Terracotta. u Edited by Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine
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Jacket design: Michael Chatfield h
EDINBURGH LEVENTIS STUDIES 5
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Previously published
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 1
Word and Image in Ancient Greece
Edited by N. Keith Rutter and Brian A. Sparkes
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 2
Envy, Spite and Jealousy: The Rivalrous Emotions in Ancient Greece
Edited by David Konstan and N. Keith Rutter
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 3
Ancient Greece: From the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer
Edited by Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy and Irene S. Lemos
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 4
Pursuing the Good: Ethics and Metaphysics in Plato’s Republic
Edited by Douglas Cairns, Fritz-Gregor Herrmann and Terry Penner
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EDINBURGH LEVENTIS STUDIES 5
THE GODS OF ANCIENT
GREECE
Identities and Transformations
Edited by
Jan N. Bremmer and
Andrew Erskine
Edinburgh University Press
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© in this edition, Edinburgh University Press, 2010
© in the individual contributions is retained by the authors
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 11 on 13pt Times NR MT
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 3798 0 (hardback)
The right of the contributors
to be identifi ed as authors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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CONTENTS
Preface viii
List of Illustrations x
Notes on Contributors xiv
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction: The Greek Gods in the Twentieth Century 1
Jan N. Bremmer
1 What is a Greek God? 19
Albert Henrichs
PART I SYSTEMATIC ASPECTS
2 Canonizing the Pantheon: the Dodekatheon in Greek
Religion and its Origins 43
Ian Rutherford
3 Gods in Greek Inscriptions: Some Methodological
Questions 55
Fritz Graf
4 Metamorphoses of Gods into Animals and Humans 81
Richard Buxton
5 Sacrifi cing to the Gods: Ancient Evidence and Modern
Interpretations 92
Stella Georgoudi
6 Getting in Contact: Concepts of Human–Divine
Encounter in Classical Greek Art 106
Anja Klöckner
7 New Statues for Old Gods 126
Kenneth Lapatin
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vi contents
PART II INDIVIDUAL DIVINITIES AND HEROES
8 Zeus at Olympia 155
Judith M. Barringer
9 Zeus in Aeschylus: the Factor of Monetization 178
Richard Seaford
10 Hephaistos Sweats or How to Construct an
Ambivalent God 193
Jan N. Bremmer
11 Transforming Artemis: from the Goddess of the
Outdoors to City Goddess 209
Ivana Petrovic
12 Herakles between Gods and Heroes 228
Emma Staff ord
13 Identities of Gods and Heroes: Athenian Garden
Sanctuaries and Gendered Rites of Passage 245
Claude Calame
PART III DIACHRONIC ASPECTS
14 Early Greek Theology: God as Nature and Natural Gods 273
Simon Trépanier
15 Gods in Early Greek Historiography 318
Robert L. Fowler
16 Gods in Apulia 335
T. H. Carpenter
17 Lucian’s Gods: Lucian’s Understanding of the Divine 348
Matthew W. Dickie
18 The Gods in the Greek Novel 362
Ken Dowden
19 Reading Pausanias: Cults of the Gods and Representation
of the Divine 375
Vinciane Pirenne- Delforge
20 Kronos and the Titans as Powerful Ancestors: A Case
Study of the Greek Gods in Later Magical Spells 388
Christopher A. Faraone
21 Homo fi ctor deorum est: Envisioning the Divine in
Late Antique Divinatory Spells 406
Sarah Iles Johnston
22 The Gods in Later Orphism 422
Alberto Bernabé
23 Christian Apologists and Greek Gods 442
Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta
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contents vii
24 The Materiality of God’s Image: Olympian Zeus and
Ancient Christology 465
Christoph Auff arth
PART IV HISTORIOGRAPHY
25 The Greek Gods in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-
Century German and British Scholarship 483
Michael Konaris
Epilogue 505
Andrew Erskine
Index 511
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PREFACE
The Greek gods are still very much present in modern consciousness,
whereas the ancient rituals have been long forgotten. Yet even though
Apollo and Dionysos, Artemis and Aphrodite, Zeus and Hermes are
household names, they have hardly been at the centre of the modern
study of Greek religion. From the most infl uential and innovative
students of Greek religion of the last half of the twentieth century,
Walter Burkert concentrated on myth and ritual, and Jean- Pierre
Vernant made his name with studies of the psychological and socio-
logical aspects of Greek culture. The gods were never the real focus of
their attention. In fact, their lack of interest continued a situation that
had already begun at the start of the twentieth century when classical
scholars started to turn their attention to ritual rather than myth and
the gods.
It is clear that a century of scholarly neglect of such an important
area of Greek religion cannot be remedied by the appearance of a
single book. That is why we have brought together a team of interna-
tional scholars with a view to generating new approaches to, rather
than providing a comprehensive survey of, the nature and develop-
ment of the Greek gods in the period from Homer until late antiquity.
Moreover, we have tried to go beyond the usual ways of handbooks
which traditionally concentrate on the individual divinities. Naturally,
the contributors look at specifi c gods, but they also pose questions
about the gods more generally: what actually is a Greek god? To what
extent do cult, myth and literary genre determine the nature of a divin-
ity? How do the Greek gods function in a polytheistic pantheon? What
is the infl uence of philosophy? What does archaeology tell us about
the gods? In what way do the gods in late antiquity diff er from those
in classical Greece? In short, the aim of this volume is to present a syn-
chronic and diachronic view of the gods as they functioned in Greek
culture until the triumph of Christianity.
The chapters that make up the volume have their origins in
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preface ix
a conference held in Edinburgh in November 2007 during Jan
Bremmer’s tenure as the Fifth Leventis Visiting Professor of Greek.
Our greatest debt has been to the A. G. Leventis Foundation and Mr
George David for the generous fi nancial support that made both the
conference and its publication possible. The biennial professorship
and its accompanying conference have since the late 1990s become a
central feature of Greek studies in Edinburgh.
Many helped at the various stages of the book’s development from
idea to publication. In particular we would like to thank Jill Shaw,
whose effi cient co- ordination of all elements of the conference con-
tributed to its success; Christopher Strachan, for allowing himself to
be persuaded to translate Claude Calame’s chapter from the original
French; Eline Veldt, who did so much editorial work on the chapters;
Douglas Cairns and Keith Rutter, whose experience on earlier volumes
has been invaluable to us; Marie McCallum, for preparing the index;
and, last but not least, Máiréad McElligott and Carol Macdonald, for
guiding the book through Edinburgh University Press.
Jan Bremmer
Andrew Erskine
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