Aporreta: Verbal and Ritual Obscenity in the Cults of Ancient Women

2007

Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Part 1. Introduction 1. Ritual and Gender: Critical Perspectives Angeliki Tzanetou Part 2. Sources and Methodology 2. The Scandal of Women's Ritual Deborah Lyons Part 3. Gender and Agency 3. Looking for the Images: Representations of Girls' Rituals in Ancient Athens Jenifer Neils 4. Improvising on the Athenian Stage: Women's Ritual Practice in Drama Barbara Goff 5. Sanctissima femina: Social Categorization and Women's Religious Experience in the Roman Republic Celia E. Schultz 6. Threat and Hope: Women's Rituals and Civil War in Roman Epic Vassiliki Panoussi Part 4. Performance 7. Folk Songs as Ritual Acts: The Case of Work-Songs Andromache Karanika 8. The Rise of the Demon Womb in Greco-Roman Antiquity Christopher A. Faraone 9. Thesmophoria and Eleusinian Mysteries: The Fascination of Women's Secret Ritual Eva Stehle Part 5. Appropriations and Adaptations 10. Worshipping Demeter in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt Maryline Par...

Under Roman rule, Aphrodisias in southwestern Turkey profited considerably from its self-proclaimed status as the city of Aphrodite. By the Late Antique era, however, this association with the pagan goddess of love and beauty was no longer an advantage; rather, it was a problem in an increasingly Christian culture. This article examines the means by which the citizens of Aphrodisias eradicated the cult of Aphrodite, and in so doing transformed the visual landscape of their city. Aphrodisias's rich archaeological and epigraphic record, and the prominence of Aphrodite there, make this a useful case study for the dissolution of a pagan goddess's cult in late antiquity. Early Christian attacks on pagan cults and images have recently attracted con siderably scholarly attention. Debate has focused on the extent of these attacks, and the range of attitudes Christians had towards pagan artifacts. What has not been addressed, however, is the dimension of gender. In what ways were pagan goddesses treated differently than their male counterparts? What forms might attacks on their worship take? And were certain goddesses particularly problematic? This paper argues that, while in theory all pagan deities were anathema to Christians, in practice Aphrodite was particularly targeted for attack. This was due to her visual form – her erotic charm, her frequent nudity – and to her divine 'personality', especially her concern with erotic desire and sexual love. In consequence, Aphrodite's cult and images attracted particularly violent responses, not only in Aphrodisias but in other Late Antique towns also. Her sacrifices were banned, her statues mutilated, and her temples torn down, or converted into Christian churches. Such treatment testifies to the dangerous power of Aphrodite for adherents of the new religion; it also offers illuminating insights into the transformation of the Late Antique city in the transition from paganism to Christianity. Zusammenfassung Unter römischer Herrschaft profi tierte Aphrodisias im Südwesten der Türkei erheblich von seinem selbst verbreiteten Ruf als Stadt der Aphrodite. In spät antiker Zeit jedoch war die Verbindung mit der heidnischen Göttin für Liebe und Schönheit nicht länger mehr ein Vorteil. Im Gegenteil wurde es ein Problem in einer zunehmend christlichen Kultur. In vorliegenden Artikel untersuche ich, mit welchen Mitteln die Bürger von Aphrodisias

Classical Review 58: 510-512

During the Classical and Hellenistic periods in South Italy and Sicily women performed rituals that involved transgressive behavior. Their actions fell outside the gender norms that operated in their non-ritual contexts. While conducting festivals for water nymphs, for example, or for Persephone and Demeter (although more commonly Persephone alone), the women often engaged in activity that fell under the category identified by ritual theorists as "rituals of inversion." Some of these analysts have proposed that religious performances of this sort can confer on the participants a type of agency that has the potential to carry over into non-ritual contexts. This theoretical position differs substantially from that taken by functionalists, who see these transgressive cult-related activities providing a pressure-valve by temporarily releasing tensions that accumulate in the lives of disadvantaged members of the population, such as women living under patriarchal control. On this reading a temporary relaxing of the rules would lessen the risk of destabilizing the normal social order. This paper makes the claim that certain festivals of the Greek West empowered women in other social contexts, enabling them to compose erotic songs, for example, or to enjoy the parody of comic theatre and even playfully to denounce wrongdoers in public venues. Examples of this will follow, but I begin with a look at the theoretical insights that have informed my reading of the evidence. This theoretical material will draw upon work in performance theory, anthropology, ritual theory, social and gender theory that argues for particular rites being sites for contestation of the norms operating in the participants' broader social context. This work challenges not only functionalist approaches to ritual but also other widely accepted interpretations of rituals of inversion.

Ethnologhia On-Line: 03: 2012: 1-32

Vetera Christianorum , 2022

Mediterranean Review (South Korea) Vol. 3, No. 1, 31-57, 2010

Medelhavsmuseet. Focus on the Mediterranean 4: 101-120, 2009