Hellenistic Research Articles

Supposititious Children and Athenian Civic Identity

ABSTRACT: Supposititious children may be defined as children smuggled into households and then presented as legitimate off-spring. This article considers the sources that refer to such children in the Classical and Hellenistic periods at Athens. It explores the underlying concern of the male citizen that these children might be enrolled in the citizen population. It explains that this anxiety was tied to the possible contamination of their imagined pure bloodlines, a contamination they believed threatened the legitimate operation of the social, cultural, and political mechanisms of the city.

‘Princely seats’ and Thessalian hillforts: pre-urban Greece and the diffusion of urbanism in Early Iron Age Europe

The origins of Iron Age urbanism in temperate Europe were long assumed to lie in Archaic Greece. Recent studies, however, argue for an independent development of Hallstatt mega-sites. This article focuses on developments in Western Thessaly in mainland Greece. The author characterises the Archaic settlement system of the region as one of lowland villages and fortified hilltop sites, the latter identified not as settlements but refuges. It is argued that cities were rare in Greece prior to the Hellenistic period so its settlements could not have served as the model for urban temperate Europe. Consequently, the social and political development of Greece and temperate Europe followed different trajectories.

Greeks Drawing Lots

The drawing of lots in ancient Greece was an institution that expressed the egalitarian values, practices, and mindset apparent for three centuries before the emergence of the Athenian democracy. Constituted by a large-scale mixture lottery, classical Athenian democracy with its choice of magistrates by lot, would never have seen the light of day without the broad spectrum of drawing of lots that preceded it. The first part of this article, by Irad Malkin, presents drawing lots’ distributive (e.g., land, booty, catch, inheritance, colonial plots), selective (e.g., magistrates), procedural (e.g., taking turns), and mixture functions. The concept of ‘equal portions’ moves from the concrete equal sharing of portions (isomoiria) to the abstract sharing of equal portions of the law, isonomia. A mindset with strong egalitarian features is revealed with a tendency to make equality and equity as close as possible: Equal chances before the lot and, when possible, equal outcomes. The role of the gods is mostly not to determine results, but to grant validity and legitimacy to a procedure under their auspices. The following section, by Josine Blok, examines why drawing lots for office created difficulties not encountered in the other, common uses of lots, how nonetheless this practice spread across the Greek world and due to the variety of political systems of the poleis came to highlight the diversity in ancient Greece.

Unity and Diversity in Greek Art

Athenian art was more or less dominant in the visual culture of the Greek world in the classical period but not in all areas. We explore here the influence of Athens on the art and architecture of regions that had developed their own local traditions. Thishappened in times of crisis, political as well as social. Such crises can be detected in the last decades of both the fifth and the fourth centuries BCE. We will begin by examining the impact of the Peloponnesian War on the artistic development of Arcadia and Laconiaand conclude with the aftermath of the Macedonian conquest of Athens after the Lamian War. It appears that in the last twenty years of the fourth century the Macedonians hired Attic masons to reproduce Athenian buildings in Macedonia, and the ban on luxurious grave monuments imposed on Athens by Demetrios of Phaleron drove Athenian artists to emigrate to Macedonia.

Unity versus Diversity in the Hellenistic Period

This paper offers a full description of the koinon hellenikon nomisma of the Hellenistic period and of almost all other coinages of the same period. The koinon hellenikon nomisma was issued on the Attic standard, while all other coinages were struck with different standards: Milesian, Aeginetan and reduced Aeginetan, Corinthian, Corcyrean, Persian, Nesiotic, Chian, the standard of Rhodes, that of the cities of Apollonia and Dyrrachium in Illyria, and of the kistophoroi. The use of these different standards pointed to previous monetary backgrounds of the cities and koina in question. It aimed, as was the case during the Archaic and the Classical periods, mainly to create different monetary zones, thus revealing, through the local circulation of coinages struck on the same standard, a sort of regional unity. This was not the case of the many Attic weight standard coinages. Alexanders, Antigonid, Seleucid, Attalid and other royal coinages, as well as coinages of cities minted with civic types and on the Attic standard, could circulate all around the vast Hellenistic world. The choice of kings and cities to mint on this standard and hoard evidence reveal that this was in fact the koinon hellenikon nomisma of the period. Epigraphic evidence supports this view: Alexanders – and other Attic weight coinages – served various military needs such as the payment of siteresia, the repair of walls, the payment of ransom to free prisoners, travel funds for theoroi and ambassadors, money for public subscriptions (epidoseis), and funds for various religious and other obligations. These were the needs that the koinon hellenikon nomisma of the Platonic Laws (742a-e) was supposed to fulfil. Thus, the Attic standard coinages refer to unity, while all others to diversity.

Plataean Remembrances

This article focuses, in a regressive approach going back in time from the Imperial to the Classical period, on the physical markers which became places of commemoration on the territory of Plataea after 479, and their significance in terms of the memory of the battle and the persistence (or otherwise) of a Panhellenic landscape. These markers fall into three categories: trophies, the altar of Zeus Eleutherios, and the graves of fallen soldiers. Trophies, initially ephemeral monuments celebrating a victory, were monumentalised before 380 BC to become concrete manifestations of Panhellenic values. The punctual sacrifice to Zeus Eleutherios on the agora was perpetuated by the construction of a marble altar and was enriched by the addition of a goddess, Homonoia, at least in the Hellenistic period, but perhaps as early as the end of the 5th century BC. Finally, the tombs of dead soldiers were the object of sacrifices that seemed to change in nature between the Classical and Imperial periods, with the enagismos ritual so well described by Plutarch. Two ceremonies are also discussed, the Eleutheria and the dialogos, which further encapsulate the memorial importance of the battle, perhaps as early as the end of the 4th century BC for the contest and the end of the 2nd century BC for the dialogos.

A Brief Essay on Sport and Greek Unity in the Late Archaic and Early Classical Period

This essay argues that athletics contributed significantly to whatever unity there was in the Greek world in the late archaic and early classical period. It does so by considering the significance of the so-called Panhellenic sanctuaries as one of the few contexts in which the collective appellation ‘the Greeks’ was appropriate and by emphasizing that what the four great sanctuaries of the periodos had in common was athletic competitions of great prestige. The crowds which assembled for the contests at the Panhellenic sanctuaries were discursively constructed as ‘the Greeks’ by contemporary sources. The athletic centrality of the four Panhellenic sanctuaries was a reflection of the fact that the festivals here were the ones that the athletes of the leisured elites valued most highly. By the classical period the agon gymnikos on the model of the Olympics had, by peer polity interaction, become a Panhellenic phenomenon and this allowed athletes to travel from festival to festival and compete in their chosen speciality.

Unity and Diversity in Ancient Greek Law

In the twentieth century there were several works that assumed the essential unity of Greek Law: Griechisches Bürgschaftsrecht by J. Partsch, Griechisches Privatrecht auf rechtsvergleichender Grundlage by E. Weiss, and The Greek Law of Sale by F. Pringsheim. In a review of Pringsheim’s book, and in an essay on the topic, however, M.I. Finley challenged the notion of the unity of Greek Law. Finley observed that the Greek world was divided into hundreds of different city-states, each with its own political institutions, laws, and legal procedures. According to Finley, there was just too much diversity in the laws of the Greek city-states to justify any discussion of ‘Ancient Greek Law’ as a unified body of statutes and legal concepts. He did however allow that there might have been some unity in commercial law. More recently, M. Gagarin has claimed in the Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law that there was unity in the laws of the Greek poleis in respect to procedure but not in respect to substantive provisions. This essay revisits this issue and shows that there was a considerable amount of unity in the laws of the Greek poleis in substantive and constitutional matters. The article examines several areas of unity: marriage law, contracts, real security, the status of freed persons, the accountability of officials, and the relationship between Council and Assembly. It will also examine the unity of Greek law in regard to legal terminology. On the other hand, it will show that there was considerable diversity in legal procedures, which often varied according to the political constitution of a state.

Female bodies and dynastic legitimacy in the Nereid Monument at Xanthos

Abstract This article reassesses the so-called Nereid Monument (ca 380 BCE) at Xanthos in Lycia by focusing on the narrative and symbolic role of female figures within its sculptural programme. Constructed as the tomb for the Lycian dynast Erbbina, the monument has been noted for its over-human-size sculpture of Nereids, its historicising city-siege reliefs, as well as its spectacular fusion of visual and architectural styles, motifs and themes from various contexts throughout the Aegean and Anatolia. Building on this scholarship, I turn specifically to the monument’s innovative representations of non-mythological women in prominent areas of its visual programme: Erbbina’s dynastic consort and a distressed woman who is caught in the throes of military violence. By focusing on the role of female bodies in Erbbina’s funerary qua triumphal monument, I argue for the important narrative function of female bodies in articulating dynastic legitimacy and continuity. Finally, this article comments on the importance of femininity in addition to masculinity in dynastic expressions in the fourth century, thus anticipating major art-historical changes in the art of power at the beginning of the Hellenistic period.

Forgetting the Seleucids

Abstract The place given to Antiochus III’s first edict for Jerusalem (Ant. 12.138–44) in the historiography of Hellenistic period Judea and Judaism, the Maccabean revolt, and the Hasmonean state is exceptional. But this is an internal Seleucid document that is absent of any local Judean perspectives, and in fact does not contain the actual instrument of royal benefaction. In recent years there has been a growing realization that empire and imperial rule relied on the acceptance of local elites that was guaranteed through negotiation. This paper traces Antiochus III’s Judean elite negotiants and the ways in which this decree was received and employed in Judea in Ben Sira, 1 and 2 Maccabees. It thus restores a local perspective to this crucial moment in Jewish history.

Концепция души христианских учителей Ранней Церкви

The article is devoted to the teachings about the soul, which were developed in the early Christian tradition before the 4th century. There is no shortage of research on this topic, how-ever, in this article, firstly, no attempt is made to develop a uni-versal patristic teaching, but, on the contrary, an overview of the entire variety of ideas that were formed in the Early Church is give; secondly, the observation is made that the opinion ac-cepted among scientists about the unconditional adherence of Christian authors to one or the other philosophical schools are not supported by the sources. Christian writers argue with their contemporary philosophy, and at the same time rely more on the authority of St. Scriptures and the church tradition, creative-ly reworking the philosophical heritage. Christians use only the general idea of the soul, which was developed by the Greek philosophical schools. Idealistic teaching was spread among the Hellenized Jews of the Diaspora. Christian church teachers used both the «Platonic» immaterial concept of the soul, as well as the «Aristotelian» materialistic one. The author of the article concludes that the choice in favor of one or another model de-pended more on regional specifics. In those provinces of the West and East where the degree of Hellenization was higher, there is a greater attraction to Platonic idealism. On the contra-ry, in Roman North Africa, where Hellenistic culture did not spread, and as the local population as a whole tended to reli-gious literalism and materialism, typical for Punic culture, the materialistic doctrine of the soul also spread. Since it is in Ro-man Africa that Latin Christianity was born, it is in it that Christian materialism would develop. It is precisely caused by cultural specifics of the Mediterranean regions, and not by the difference in Greek and Latin languages, that is usually esti-mated as a core factor of the split between teachings of the soul in the Eastern and Western Christian thought.

New Inscriptions from Aizanoi

New Inscriptions from Aizanoi

Раннобронзова керамична паница от колекцията на музея при Археологическия резерват „Тракийски и античен град Кабиле“

This publication is focused on the study of a single, but very interesting object – a ceramic bowl unearthed during the excavations at the “Thracian and Ancient City of Kabile” Archaeological Reserve. The characteristics of the vessel clearly distinguish it from the ceramic assemblage made by hand, and refer it to the time of the Hellenistic era of the 4th–3rdcenturies BC. The aim of the study is to clarify the chronology of the vessel, as well as to point out its parallels. The vessel presented in the study illustrates a detail of the interregional contacts between the Upper Thracе and Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age. In the last two decades, this tendency has been substantiated empirically through the recognition and inclusion in scientific circulation of imported objects or those that represent local imitations of objects of Anatolian and/or Aegean origin. Specifically for the Yambol/Kabile area, this is one of the few – and still isolated – artefacts with a marked Anatolian origin. It may fit in with observations of a two-way corridor transfer of objects, goods and populations (?) through some of the modern Aytos and Karnobat passes across the eastern divisions of the Balkan Mountains. Examples of this comprise both individual objects, and also burial structures situated along the presumed route connecting the territories located on both sides of the Balkan Mountains.

Византийская идентичность как фактор формирования русской идентичности

The article examines the components of the complex concept of “Byzantine identity”. The relevance is based on the request of the modern Russian person in gaining a stable historical identity, establishing the boundaries of national identity. Understanding Byzantium as a civilization and its identity can help modern Russians understand the historical roots of their culture, see the connection between the past and the present, and find new ways to express their values. The article examines the view of philosophers and thinkers on Byzantium as a great civilization that firmly laid the foundations of Russian identity. K.N. Leontiev in his work points to the enormous role of Orthodoxy as a system-forming link of the Byzantine state, which defined the key concept of Byzantine identity. F.I. Uspensky provably asserts the leading role of Byzantium for the formation of Russian identity, discovering “Byzantinism” as a concept and describing the Byzantine “spiritual element” as a synthesis of Hellenism, Roman consciousness and Orthodoxy. N.Ya. Danilevsky proved the importance and regularity of the formation of Slavic culture as a special type of historical identity of the individual, asserted the advantages of the Slavic type, Slavic culture and spirituality over Catholicism. The Roman Empire and Roman citizenship, elements of Hellenic culture, and Orthodox Christianity served as the basis of Byzantine identity. The author comes to the conclusion that the Russian civilization borrowed from Byzantium a number of fundamental foundations of civilizational identity.

Tapping on Collective National Trauma

Tapping on Collective National Trauma

Women’s Agency in the Cults of the Greco-Egyptian Deities in Hellenistic Athens

Abstract Cults for Greco-Egyptian gods such as Isis, Sarapis, Anubis, and Harpocrates enjoyed great interest in the Greek world of the Hellenistic period. This article analyses the agency of women in these cults in Hellenistic Athens and Delos. It poses the question whether the agency of women can be directly compared to the agency of men. It identifies, first, reservations in modern scholarship about women in positions of religious power, and, second, institutional boundaries that excluded women from official priestly positions. It demonstrates the ways in which women nonetheless held agency within family networks, and, third, possessed ritual competencies beyond formal offices and a relationship to deities on a personal level.

THE SOCIAL STATUS OF GREEK WOMEN IN THE HELLENISTIC ERA (ATHENS AS AN EXAMPLE)

When the situation in Greece shanged the beginning of the Hellenistic era, the city-state system has fallen, and the transformation of cities and their residents into the status of subordination to the great political powers of that time. Athens maintained some independence, which had an impact on the family and community. Women in the Hellenistic era, especially Athenian women, suffered from some unjust laws that were enacted by the famous legislator and politician Demetrius of Phalerum, which had a bad impact on the social status of women. However, these laws were soon repealed, and women relatively regained some of their independence. The research focuses on the problems of Greek women in Athens and the Greek world, including education, which is one of the important topics. The extent of freedom they enjoyed and the prominent social status that some women obtained, while showing examples of women who distinguished themselves in various social fields. The research paper also presents some social and economic problems for Greek women in general in the Hellenistic era, as well as the problem of population and wars and their impact. The status of Athenian women compared to the status of women throughout the Hellenistic world

Isaiah 23.1-14 and the Failure of the Sea God

In Isa 23, the ships of Tarshish, on their voyage home, howl to see the destruction of their home ports of Tyre and Sidon: “The sea says: ‘I am like one who has never borne children.’” Bible scholars struggle over the interpretation of this verse, wondering why a masculine voice speaks about writhing in labor and bearing children. To the mythic mind, however, this verse makes perfect sense, for the sea god, known in the Greek world as Poseidon, sired as many as 140 children, including two sons that are connected to places mentioned in this passage, Belus, an early king of Egypt, and Agenor, king of Tyre (with his son Phoenix = Phoenicia). Now that some of those places are destroyed, it is as if the Sea never fathered them. In contrast to the biblical God, the prophet states, the sea god has limited power and can only mourn the fate of his progeny. The use of the term מָעוֹז‎ “stronghold” in Isa 23 may refer to the protecting gods/avatars who lament over the destruction of the Phoenician nation-states, as the text gloats over their destruction.

A New Hellenistic Contribution List from Tymnos in Karia. The Kaletepe Inscription

This article introduces a new fragmentary inscription discovered on the hillside during the archaeological survey at Kaletepe, situated northeast of Bozburun, in 2022. The inscription, which dates to the Hellenistic period, lists eight non-natives of Tymnos along with their hometowns and monetary contributions for the augmentation (epauxesis) of an unidentified purpose. Parallel examples suggest that they may have been affiliated with a cult or a professional association.

The Aesthetics of Rhetoric in On the Sublime of Longinus

This article localizes the treatise On the Sublime in the Hellenistic culture of the 3rd century. It is by some scholars attributed to Cassius Longinus, while others reject this attribution and cultural context completely. We argue that On the Sublime is by Longinus written and a document that is both a piece of evidence for the cultural change of a decline in the practice of rhetoric and also exemplifies the transformation and subordination of rhetoric to newly emerging concepts in the Hellenistic culture of Late Antiquity. We interpret the changing rhetorical culture its author observes as a state of rhetoric at the end of the movement of the Second Sophistic. The historical frame and the name of the author of the treatise, Longinus, is documented by the Suda and other sources. On the Sublime itself puts rhetorical devices into a new framework exceeding the limits of traditional treatises called rhetorike techne. ‘The sublime’ is present in nature, in god, in humans, and in artifices like writings of rhetoricians, philosophers, poets, and historians. With this contextualization as a universal principle, the sublime, previously used as a criterion of style and thinking, is by Longinus established as a universal concept.