Hellenistic Research Articles

The perfumer’s garden: scent and well-being in some Greek and Roman sources

This paper explores the connection between scent and well-being (eudaimonia) in some ancient Greek and Roman sources. Focusing on the metaphor of the ‘perfumer’s garden’ — the blend of scents in ancient perfumes used to evoke faraway lands like Arabia Felix or Egypt — the paper discusses how these aromatic creations communicate more than the fragrance of the gardens they come from. Believed to possess medicinal properties mirroring their plant sources, perfumes offer a unique window into health and social life. While all classes sought well-being through scent, specific perfumes varied based on factors like social status and gender. This work focuses on these variations, examining medical and philosophical texts about the relation of scent and health alongside literary case studies: Herodian’s account of remedies used during the Antonine Plague, where class dictated perfume choice, and the use of Egyptian-inspired scents during the Hellenistic period, which expresses differences between men and women. In exploring these aromatic landscapes, we uncover a complexity where the essence of gardens and their fragrances reveal more than attempts at using scent to secure health; they show themselves to be rich sources of symbolic meaning reflecting the values and aspirations of ancient authors.

Luigi Taborelli (2022), Stamped Medicine Flasks nei ‘Virginia R. Grace Papers’ e i pogressi della ricerca, Roma: Edizioni Quasar, [2022

Luigi Taborelli is the world expert on microcontainers produced in the Hellenistic period and stamped with the word ‘lukion’, referring to a medicinal preparation. In the book reviewed, Taborelli examines the archives of the famous American archaeologist Virginia Grace on the matter of these microcontainers. Examining archival material allows scholars to identify exemplars of these microcontainers which remain unexamined. As more examples of these microcontainers come to light, scholars will be able to better understand the trade in medicinal substances in the Hellenistic world.

On some ancient Greek and Latin medical recipes in verse. Their position in the world. Part A

In Part A of our article, we examine medical recipes in verse within Greek literature, spanning from the Hellenistic period to the Roman Imperial era. We also briefly touch upon analogous recipes in Classical and Late Latin, as these two literary forms were intertwined for centuries. A comprehensive analysis of Latin literature in this domain remains a necessity. We explore the motivations behind these didactic poems and the metrical patterns employed in their composition. The article presents fragments of these recipes, all translated into English and several retained in their original language as well, arranged chronologically alongside succinct biographical details of their authors. These include Homer, considered their distant forebear, followed by Ovid, Aglaias of Byzantium, Andromachus the Elder, Philo of Tarsus, Damocrates, Nicander, Rufus of Ephesus, Eudemus of Pergamum, Galen, Serenus Sammonicus, The Carmen graecum de herbis, and Marcellus Empiricus. In Part B, we will continue to explore similar recipes from the Middle and Late Byzantine periods. This section will also feature examples from Medieval Latin and Islamic medical literature, illustrating the intercultural context in which these Greek verses stood. A General Discussion and Conclusions will be provided at the end of Part B.

Античная культура и буддизм на дальнем Востоке эллинистического мира

The topic of the book by Olga Kubica, a professor at the University of Wroclaw, is the interaction between ancient Greek and Indian civilizations in the far East of the Hellenistic world in the epoch from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the emergence of the Kushan Empire. The influence of ancient artistic traditions on the fine arts of northwestern India (the so-called “Gandhāra school”) is well known, and it has been suggested on this basis that the influence of Greece extended to the philosophical and religious views of Indians. It was seen, in particular, in the themes and structure of the early Buddhist treatise “Milinda’s Questions” (Pali Milindapañha). However, the author of the monograph proves that the actual interaction of Greek and Indian cultures in the intellectual sphere was not so large and profound and therefore the term “Greco-Buddhism”, widespread in Oriental studies, has no sense. This conclusion is based on an deep analysis of extensive material, including not only texts, but also archaeological sites, numismatic data and other sources. Analyzing the material, the author uses, along with the usual philological methods of working with sources, also methods of sociology and cultural studies, considering the Greeks in Bactria and northwestern India as a social group that obeys all the laws of behavior of such objects interacting with society as a social system.

Comparative Assessment of Asartepe/Konya Hellenistic Period Settlement and Contemporary Urban Fabric

The village of Yeniceköy (Amblada), located in the Seydişehir/Konya provience, has a history dating back approximatelyten tousand years. It is estimated that the nearby city of Ververit has a history older than Çatalhöyük. The remains ofthe city wall, found to the east of Asartepe, are from the Hellenistic Period and indicate the presence of a large templein that era. Additionally, the wide plain to the west of Asartepe, referred to as the marketplace by the villagers, isbelieved to have been the city's agora during the Hellenistic period. Interaction between the ancient settlement andthe current one is observed, with many building materials from the ancient period being used in current buildings.Many of these materials contain decorative elements and embellishments from the Hellenistic period. Historicalresearch has been conducted on this region, which holds significant cultural depth, comparing the settlement fromancient times to the present day. Evaluations have been made considering the relationship between a Hellenisticperiod city and a modern city, with a focus on urban conservation.

Characterization of İscehisar Andesite (Afyonkarahisar-Turkey), Used as a Building Stone Source of Historical Heritages from Ancient Times to the Present

Most historical structures that have survived to the present day are constructed from natural stones. One such natural stone is andesite. This study conducted a series of characterization studies on andesites used as building stones in Afyonkarahisar (Turkey). The building stones in question were determined by the petrographic-mineralogical (polarizing microscope, XRD, SEM), chemical, pore diameter distribution, and physico-mechanical properties. Although the İscehisar andesite is not as well-known as the İscehisar marble, it is a volcanic rock widely used in cultural heritage sites such as mosques, fountains, and bridges that have survived from the Seljuk and Ottoman periods to the present day in Afyonkarahisar. Despite the presence of pink, brown, and gray-black colors in the İscehisar andesite, it is evident that the preference in historical buildings is mainly for gray-black variants. Andesite, marble, and limestone, such as İscehisar Bridge from the Hellenistic period, Kırkgöz Bridge from the Byzantine era, Altıgöz Bridge from the Seljuk period, and Kanlı Göl Bridge from the Ottoman period, were used together in various combinations. Mosques are another group of structures in which andesite and other volcanic rocks are heavily used, such as bridges. While tuff is commonly used in examples of Seljuk and Ottoman architecture that have survived to the present day, andesite and other volcanic rocks along with bricks have also been used to construct dozens of mosques. Andesites found in the İscehisar region continue to be widely extracted, cut, and shaped using different surface processing techniques and are used today.

Farewell to Arms – Farewell in Arms: Depictions of Weapons on Stone and in Hellenistic Inscriptional Epigrams

Abstract Through four case studies I discuss the importance and frequency of the appearance of weapons (an important element of epic imagery) in funerary poetry, and its relation to representations of arms on gravestones and monuments in the Hellenistic period, geographically ranging from Lycia and Caria to the Black Sea, from mainland Greece to the Aegean islands. One of the most common features of poetic epitaphs for soldiers (including citizens, mercenaries, and soldiers belonging to royal armies) is the celebration of the military valor (arete) of the deceased; on the other hand, except for the spear, weapons are not mentioned often in funerary poetry. When they are not mentioned in the epitaph, or when an epitaph is not present, weapons are sometimes represented on the funerary monument itself, in the form of reliefs or paintings, either in the context of a battle scene, or carried by the standing deceased, or simply as isolated objects, as symbols of his profession or social rank in life.

Archaeometric characterization of a textile fragment recovered from a Byzantine Period tomb in Nysa ad Maeandrum in the light of archaeological and anthropological evaluations

Nysa ad Maeandrum (also known as the ancient city of Nysa) is an ancient city located in Western Anatolia of today’s Türkiye. It was determined during the excavations that an uninterrupted life continued in the ancient city of Nysa from the Hellenistic Period (330 BCE-30 CE) to the Byzantine Period (330–1453). The aim of this study is the anthropological evaluation of the skeleton in tomb chamber-11 (T-11) found during the excavations in 2023 and the characterization of the well-preserved textile fragment on the coin unearthed from the individual’s skull. In this study, the textile sample underwent analysis using a polarized optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), and high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (HPLC-PDA). As a result of the analysis, it is thought that the textile fragment has a tabby weave and the fiber is a cellulosic bast fiber, which is most likely flax fiber. In the dyestuff analysis, alizarin and ellagic acid dyestuffs were detected, and it was determined that the textile fragment was dyed by using the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum L.), which we frequently encounter in Anatolia, and a plant containing tannins. In addition, according to anthropological studies, it is thought that the individual in T-11 belongs to a female between the ages of 30–40 and was engaged in weaving based on the marks on her teeth.

Iron Age ceramics from Thracian rock-cut complexes from Bulgaria – Mineral magnetic relics of technological production and use

The Gluhite kamani Thracian rock-cut complex in the Eastern Rhodopes Mountain is famous with its more than 500 rock niches carved in the rock at heights up to 20 m. Continuous habitation starting from the final Chalcolithic (the second quarter of the 4th millenium BCE) until the Late Classical – Early Hellenistic period (late 5th – 4th century BCE) provides unique opportunity for studying diachronic changes in pottery production and use. In this contribution, systematic analysis of a collection of 135 ceramic sherds from five archaeological periods at the site was carried out using a combined mineral magnetic and geochemical approach. Magnetic susceptibility (χ), frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibility (χfd%) and firing temperature (Tfire), determined using the magnetic susceptibility method, were combined with data from elemental XRF analyses. Thermomagnetic measurements, employed for identification of magnetic minerals revealed the dominant presence of (titano)magnetite with low Ti-content and/or a fraction of single-domain magnetite and in few cases hematite. Although varying in a wide range, median χ values of ceramic sherds from the Early Iron Age (EIA) periods show similar distribution, while for Late Iron Age (LIA) with the introduction of the wheel-thrown pottery, χ values are higher, presumably due to decreased amount of silica-rich clastics in the clay. Concurrently, χfd% values decrease in ceramics from the LIA, indicating predominant presence of stable single-domain magnetite in the iron oxide composition of the ceramics. Firing temperatures (Tfire) estimations display a systematic pattern of two groups – higher (Tfire between 760 and 800 °C) and lower (Tfire ∼ 400–––600 °C). During the EIA periods both Tfire groups are present, characterized by systematic gradual decrease of the median value of the low Tfire when going from EIA1 towards the EIA2. Wheel-thrown pottery from the LIA show low Tfire ∼ 400 °C only. Based on the differences in thermomagnetic properties of ceramics, their magnetic parameters and Tfire estimates, two possible hypotheses are suggested to explain the observed changes in EIA ceramic characteristics: i) utilization of two differently sourced clay materials (illite-dominated and montmorillonite-dominated) for production of ceramics fired at higher and lower temperatures, respectively; and ii) utilization of one raw clay source, while using two firing regimes – firing at higher temperature for prolonged time, and fast firing to high temperature with successive stage of longer firing at lower temperature. Differences in thermomagnetic properties of wheel-thrown pottery from the LIA period leads to the assumption for utilization of diverse clay source for their production, as compared clay sources for the Early Iron Age periods.

The Orientalizing Period: Influence of Near Eastern on the Greek World

The Orientalizing period, which occurred from around the mid-8th to mid-7th centuries B. C. E. , was characterised by the obvious influence of Eastern culture on different aspects of ancient Greek material culture. This includes the spread of ideas, motifs, and techniques from the Near East to Greece and the wider Mediterranean region. The content of this paper is organised into three sections. The initial section will present the distinctive historical context of the Orientalizing period and its fundamental factors. The subsequent section will determine the specific geographic origins of this influence from the east and examine the processes through which it spread to the Greek realm. The third part will explore the significant cultural exchanges between the Greeks and the Near Eastern regions, especially between Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Syrians. These interactions had a significant impact on Greek society, influencing the development of arts and technology, as well as the broad social dynamics in the ancient Greek world.

Issues pertaining to posology in ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine medical texts

Researching medical texts of the past reveals that the preparation of a therapeutic recipe usually involved the use of several active ingredients. There are many detailed reports on the ratio of the ingredients in a recipe, but also on the dosage administered to the patient. In this article, we recorded the use of units of weight and volume in therapeutic recipes from antiquity, the Hellenistic era, the Roman Empire, Byzantium, and also empirical medical texts of the 19th century. The changes emerging over time from the growing trade in the wider Mediterranean area, with the introduction of both new products and new units of measurement, did not affect the basic principles of the therapeutic methods. Through the centuries, the main concern of physicians was to fight the disease without burdening the patient with any unwanted effects. In this context, we observe even dosage modifications when it comes to special vulnerable population groups, such as children, the elderly and pregnant women. The period covered is very large, which means that the approach is impressionistic not aiming to the philologists. We hope that this does not pose a problem to the interested historians of medicine.

Rethinking the Origins and Textual History of Ancient Jewish Literature: A Review of Recent Works by Emanuel Tov, James Nati, and Nathan Mastnjak

Abstract This essay discusses the current state of research on the origins and textual history of early Jewish literature in light of three recently published books. On the one hand, the current practice of textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, well presented in the standard handbook of the topic, is anchored in relatively traditional views on the origins of biblical books. On the other hand, two studies challenge current ideas about the ontology and materiality of ancient Jewish literature. An analysis of the Serekh ha-Yahad scrolls reveals that usual models of textual growth cannot account for the entirety of the intricate textual history of certain compositions. A material-historical perspective suggests that, before the Hellenistic period, literary works existed in the form of collections of scrolls, which has potentially profound implications for understanding how these collections became books. Whether conservative or innovative in outlook, these books show that theory and practice are inextricably linked in the field of textual criticism.

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.

The image of Neoptolemus in the genealogy of the Molossian Aeacidae

Some regions of Ancient Hellas, located on the border of the barbarian and Greek worlds and lagging behind in political and cultural terms, sought to prove their «Greek» origin in one way or another. This was especially true of the royal dynasties, which, deriving their genealogy from mythical heroes, thereby substantiated their claims to Greek origin. A similar example is the Molossian dynasty of the Aeacids, ruling in Epirus, which traced its origins to the mythical hero Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. This happened at a time when Epirus and the ruling dynasty emerged from the historical shadows and began to participate more actively in pan-Greek affairs. The main source for this was the stories from the Trojan War, telling of the return of the heroes after the defeat of Troy. Often, representatives of the royal dynasty were given the names of mythical heroes at birth, which was supposed to serve as confirmation of their high origin. Over time, the genealogy of the Molossian kings was supplemented and expanded by introducing new mythological persons. During the reign of King Pyrrhus, his wife Lanassa was included in the heroic genealogy of the Molossian kings. The name Neoptolemus was also borne by two real persons in Epirus history, but their fates were not happy.

‘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.