Greek and Roman Social History

Jelen könyv a proszopográfia műfajába tartozó összeállítás, amely a római kori pannoniai társadalom azon ismert tagjait tárgyalja, akik a helyi szintet meghaladó potentia-potestas birtokosai voltak. Ekképpen a pannoniai születésű császárokat, az ordo senatorius és ordo equester pannoniai származású tagjait, a tartományi főpapokat, a pannoniai coloniák, municipiumok és az őslakos közösségek vezetőit. Ennélfogva az elképzelt provinciális társadalmi piramis csúcsát alkotó elitről szól, akik vagy az egyes közösségek vezetőiként, vagy társadalmi rangjuk-ból és helyzetükből fakadóan jelentős befolyással rendelkeztek a tartományban. Az egyes személyekről fellelhető adatokat és azok elemzését foglalja magában a pannoniai római uralom kezdetétől annak végéig, s egyfajta értékítéletként nem átrajzolhatatlan határt is von a pannoniai társadalom rétegei közé.

https://harmattan.hu/konyvek/dignitas-auctoritas-maiestas-es-potestas-pannoniaban/

This article considers the vocabulary of sexual violence in the Periegesis Hellados. The vocabulary of sexual assault in the Periegesis encompasses the related noun and verb pairings ἁρπαγή and ἁρπάζω, αἰσχύνη and αἰσχύνω, βία and βιάζω, and ὕβρις, ὑβρίζω. All denote ‘rape’ defined as ‘nonconsensual sex’ (though matters of consent are sometimes ambiguous), but they are not used interchangeably in the text. Several patterns emerge from this analysis: first, the language of violence and sacrilege correlates with suffering in Pausanias’ usage, so the more explicitly violent and transgressive the sexual assault, the more likely it is that aspects of the victim’s experience and agency will be included in the account. Second, racial formation is a key operator in the narratives
of sexual assault, so Greek stereotypes about barbarian alterity are amplified in the representations of rape in Pausanias’ text.

Gli antichi si drogavano? Se il ‘drogato’ o il ‘tossicodipendente’ è una presenza invariante nella cultura umana dovremmo trovarne traccia anche nell’antichità greco-romana, cui spesso guardiamo per individuare le radici o possibili chiavi ermeneutiche della civiltà occidentale. L’antichità offre infatti il vantaggio di essere sufficientemente lontana da noi per poter stabilire con essa un confronto, un dialogo a distanza, ma non totalmente ‘altra’, come lo sono ad esempio le culture del lontano Oriente: oltre ma non altrove.

In this paper, I explore Brauron’s material and spatial remains from the perspective of embodied ritual practice, especially the central choral performance associated with ‘playing the bear’ (arktos) for Artemis. While there are many uncertainties and gaps in our evidence, it is clear that young Athenian girls regularly attended the rural site to perform and thus serve as a kind of propitiatory offering on behalf of the city. The distinctive painted vases found in high concentration throughout the sanctuary show girls and women moving corporately within the sacred space, at times naked and in the presence of a bear. Where previous studies have treated these as docu- mentary images to be connected with references to the cult’s activities, I read them as part of a rich cultural imaginary that is integral to Artemis’ cult identity. Despite a lack of supporting evidence to fully situate the imagery in relation to the actual choreographies Athenian girls performed for Artemis, these prominent, ritually marked vessels convey something of the most ephemeral aspects of their performance in an embodiment of the relationship between the goddess, the dancing girls, and by proxy, the community of Athens.

After a brief survey of the textual sources for Brauron’s ritual activity, I turn to consider the iconography of the distinctive ritual vessels. With reference to the most substantial cult foundation myth for Artemis to survive in Bacchylides’ eleventh ode, I consider Brauron’s iconography through cultural ideas about ritual wildness and domestication that are integral to the goddess’ Arcadian cult identity. With this parallel in view, I interpret performance at Brauron as a process of ‘ritualization’: choruses of girls activate and maintain Artemis’ cult status by imbuing her sacred landscape with ritual kinesis – privileged forms of movement that rehearse and reaffirm the goddesses’ connection to the girls and thus to the city. Finally, I consider how the site’s architecture itself develops over time to formalize the performance of this ritual practice and better facilitate spectatorship. As a performance space, Brauron’s marked natural site becomes ritualized and monumentalized for Artemis through its containment of the dedicated bodies of her worshippers as they celebrate her cult identity.