Hellenistic Research Articles

A recently discovered inscribed statue ‘plinth’ of a female votary from Idalion‑Moutti tou Arvili

During the 2022 field season of the Berlin-Idalion-Project, a fragmented part of a live-size limestone statue was found on the eastern acropolis (Moutti tou Arvili) of ancient Idalion. In addition to the few elements giving information about the iconography of the statue, the most important aspect of this find is certainly the inscription in Greek alphabetic script that initially covered a good part of the front of the ‘plinth’. In the present contribution we will briefly discuss the find context of the object, deal with the inscription, and try to understand the general setting of the statue in its original context, i.e. within the sanctuary of a female deity. From all objects, definitely or alledgedly found on the hill of Idalion-Moutti tou Arvili, this seems to be the first inscribed object, which therefore holds a particularly important place in the history of the site. The chronology of the statuary votive, undoubtedly dating to the Hellenistic period, is equally important, because it attests to the continuing functioning of the sanctuary until, at least, the Ptolemaic period of Cyprus.

Календарные праздники Египта греко-римского времени: специфика религиозного взаимовлияния

The article analyzes the main Egyptian festivals during the Greco-Roman period concerning the influence of Greek and Roman mystery religions, which significantly affected changes in Egyptian festive culture. Through the examination of Egyptian temple reliefs, including calendar lists and scenes of the Osirian Khoiak Festival, the Coronation of the Sacred Falcon, the Feast of the Beautiful Reunion, as well as lunar festivals, it becomes evident that, from the Hellenistic period onwards, gloomy mystical subjects prevailed in the programs of Egyptian festivals. The rituals were reminiscent of dramatic performances rooted in the myths of Osiris’ and Dionysus-Zagreus’ deaths. The festival concept strengthened the principles of dualism of ideas and things, which were seen in ancient mysteries and involved the immersion of the participants in the darkness and then their unexpected exit to the dazzling light. These actions were associated with initiation stages, symbolizing the soul’s transition from the material world to the spiritual realm, and its posthumous exit from the dark depths of the underworld to Elysium, or the Isles of the Blessed, linked to the Egyptian Fields of Iaru. This dualistic festival concept is expressed, for example, in the reliefs of Dendera and Edfu temples, representing the processions of priests descending into dark rooms and ascending to the temple roof with statues of deities for the rite Xnm itn (meaning “unity with the solar disk”). At the same time, the balance between solar and lunar cults inherent to the ancient Egyptian religion was violated during the Greco-Roman period. The religious practices proposed a shift of the emphasis towards the Osirian cult, correlated with the moon phases.

Reconstructing the history of Kition: new evidence from recent excavations

Adapted from the keynote lecture delivered on the occasion of the 18th PoCA conference in Basel, the article concentrates on three archaeological assemblages from recent excavations of the French Mission at Kition (Larnaka). Each assemblage corresponds to a transitional period: an infant jar burial illustrates the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age period; a fortification wall the late Classical-early Hellenistic period; a well with a water-lifting device the late Roman period. The three case studies give the opportunity to question the complex urban history of the city.

On the Origin of Federal Institutions of Hellenistic Lykia

The Lykian koinon that existed in the south of Asia Minor from the first half of the 2nd century BCE, had a federal organization, in many ways reminiscent of the structure of other federations of the Hellenistic world, especially that of the Achaian koinon. The Lykians may have deployed the Achaian-type organization of the supreme federal authority, namely a crowded meeting of delegations, the size of which depended on the cities’ dimensions. Some de-tails of the Achaian military organization could have been borrowed by the Lykians, as evi-denced by the rare title of the commander of the city militia in both federations (apoteleios). The same system of proportional representation of cities in the ratio 3:2:1 existed both in Lykia, where it determined the share of participation of each city in all the federal affairs, and in the board of nomographoi of the Achaian koinon. However, the Lykian koinon was not entire-ly built on the Achaian “model”. In the Achaian koinon, the ratio of 3:2:1 probably did not have the same universal meaning as in Lykia, the head of the federation had both military and administrative powers, while in Lykia they were divided between the Lyciarch and the strate-gos. Some similarities in the organization of both leagues can be explained by the fact that the Lykians could use some principles and practices that were widespread in many Greek koina. Some features of the structure of the Lykian koinon could well be the result of the original po-litical creativity of the Lykians.

Da Europa ad Ercina: Interscambi religiosi nella Beozia di età ellenistica

This article aims to analyze the cultic history and evolution of the nymph Hercyna. She was worshipped in the Boeotian town of Laebadea. Her cult, and even her name, seems to be linked with two toponyms of Celtic origin: Lake Ercina and the Hercynian Forest, located, respectively, in northern Spain and Germany. The article attempts to show how the policies of the Antigonid kingdom may have affected the religious life of a small community in the periphery of the Hellenistic world.

La bipolaridad Atenas/Esparta en las Helénicas de Jenofonte

The article traces the reflections found in the Hellenika on the theme of Athens/Sparta bipolarity, with the intention of illustrating Xenophon's interest in this international arrangement of the Greek world and of emphasizing its repercussions in Xenophon’s historiographical project.

The Lessons We Still Have to Learn from Nomima

The two volumes of Nomima, published in 1994–5, were of great scientific importance. With a total of 211 inscription, they enabled new questions to be raised. This valuable work illuminates a range of themes from the archaic Greek world, including: civic identity, interactions with the gods in sanctuaries, Greek laws and also relations between cities. Nomima’s methodology is also innovative because it tries to understand archaic Greece through the historical perspective of the inscriptions. Thus, it offers a history of this period through the words of the inhabitants of Greek cities, evoking the problems of their daily lives that got inscribed. This article treats about Nomima’s organization, detailing their contribution volume by volume. Although now dated, there is still much to learn from Nomima.

Sylvian Fachard, Edward M. Harris (eds.): The Destruction of Cities in the Ancient Greek World. Integrating the Archaeological and Literary Evidence. Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2021.

Sylvian Fachard, Edward M. Harris (eds.): The Destruction of Cities in the Ancient Greek World. Integrating the Archaeological and Literary Evidence. Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2021.

El banquete imperial: Gastropolítica y universalismo en la Atenas clásica

Inrecentyears,Historiography has reassessedthe aspirationfor universaldominationexpressed by Hellenistic rulers. It emphasizes on a marked influence of the predecessor kingdoms of theNearEast in the configuration of an idea of imperial universalism.However,ClassicalAthens was not immune to such particularity of ancient empires, that is, the claim to dominate the world. Hence, this article aims to look into Athenian universalism by connecting naval hegemony with the ability to manage access to food produced on the periphery of the Greek world. The main goal is to prove that even though Athens did not literally seek to dominate the world, it was eager to present itself as the center of the Earth, being capable of shipping products from all over the world to the Piraeus.

КАПИТАН ИВАН БОРИСОВ НА ОСТРОВЕ САМОС В АВГУСТЕ 1771 Г.: К ИСТОРИИ РУССКО-ГРЕЧЕСКИХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ В ПЕРИОД ПЕРВОЙ АРХИПЕЛАГСКОЙ ЭКСПЕДИЦИИ

The article considers the short staying of stay of the commander of the “Saint Ianuarius” ship, captain Ivan Borisov, on the Greek island of Samos in 1771. during the Russian-Turkish War of 1769–1774. The Russian naval forces were on the island for only about a month. But, thanks to the report of the ship commander preserved in the Russian State Naval Archives, we have the opportunity to analyze the social relations of the local villages among each other, as well as evaluate their attitude towards the Russian naval forces. The cited document shows that with apparent sympathy for Russia, there was no uniform opinion as regards whether to accept the patronage of the Russian Empire and whether to enter into open confrontation with Istanbul, in whose power they were. One part of the island’s population, including the clergy, had a conservative position and did not want to disrupt the more or less stable relations established with the Ottoman Empire. The other part was strongly opposed to such a position and persistently asked Borisov, as a representative ofthe Russian government, to take them as [Russian] subjects despite the threat of the punitive measures from Turkey in the future. That micro-narrative could be partially applied to the Greek people on the whole. Within that picture, the nature of such contradictory things becomes more clearly visible: on the one hand, it was the readiness of the Greeks to participate in the war on the Russian side, on the other – the failed uprising in the Peloponnese and the Russian ruling elite’s lack of understanding of the reasons of that failure.

Koineization and the Pamphylian alphabet

Abstract In the Hellenistic age, contact with the Ionic alphabet used to write koine Greek rapidly changed the Pamphylian alphabet, initiating the processes of koineization and standardization. The analysis of three case studies (personal names with -muu̯a; personal names built from the root ϝαναξ-; -αυ and -ευ diphthongs) shows how the need to write dialectal personal names led to the creation of a ‘local standard’ of spellings suited to the koine alphabetic set. However, some features of the epichoric alphabet survived in competition with this local standard. It is therefore argued that the process of standardization of the Pamphylian alphabet in contact with the koine alphabet affected different alphabetic features according to the social and identity values given to them by the community.

Religion and Education in the Ancient Greek World

Religion and Education in the Ancient Greek World

Divination and Prophecy in the Ancient Greek World

Divination and Prophecy in the Ancient Greek World

Preliminaries on an Unknown Greek Translation of the Covenant of Muḥammad by Sophronios of Kilis

Abstract This study offers preliminary remarks on a hitherto unknown Greek translation of the Covenant of Muḥammad by the Patriarch Sophronios of Kilis. The translation is preserved in a single miscellaneous codex entitled Sarakēnika, which was compiled between 1770 and 1780 by the renowned Phanariot scholar and bibliophile Nikolaos Karatzas, a former official of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (MS Gr. 112, Princeton University Library). As the inclusion of the translation in the codex is representative of the cultural transfers that took place between the Arabic-speaking and the Greek peoples during the 17th- and 18th-century Ottoman Empire, this study examines, in particular, the knowledge regimes for the production of the text. In the Appendix, an editio princeps of the translation is provided.

Aleksandar Veliki, “sin boga Amona” / Alexander the Great, “son of god Amon”

Alexander the Great, one of the greatest rulers the world has ever seen, in his conquests, among other things, reached Egypt. The focus of this paper is on the influence that Egypt had on Alexander the Great and the influence that Alexander had on Egypt. Particular attention was paid to the writings of various historical sources about Alexander’s stay in Egypt. The Egyptian aspect of Alexander’s life is very important. This country influenced Alexander to get lost in his desires. One of the big questions the paper deals with is whether Alexander really believed that he was the son of the god Amon / Zeus. For the Egyptians, Alexander was the savior. For Alexander, Egypt was a picture of what he wanted to be, and what kind of relationship he wanted to have with people. For a man who did not lose battles, a man who crossed a great path to worship Amon, a man who came to the land he conquered and received treatment, not like a conqueror but a liberator it may not have been hard to believe that he was something more than a ruler himself. For Egypt, the new ruler was not cruel to them. He was their friend. So they accepted him and accepted those who came after him as their own. Alexandria in Egypt, what is considered one of the greatest achievements of Alexander’s conquests, was something new – the center of Hellenistic culture, far from Hellas. In addition to the topics mentioned in the paper, attention is paid to Alexander’s legacy in Egypt and his body in Alexandria as well. The aim of the paper is to review Alexander’s stay in Egypt. A good part of the work is seen through the prism of Alexander’s stay in the temple of the god Amon. The reason for this is the influence that “conversation with Amon” had on this great ruler, but also the fact that through the journey to the temple, Alexander wanted to show the Egyptians what kind of ruler he would be.

“God Is One” or “the One Is God” in Hellenistic Jewish and Greco-Roman Theology

Abstract “God is one” is the theological foundation of many of the world’s religions. The Greek version of this expression, heis theos, was especially significant to ancient religious development. Past scholarship has tended to place its emergence early, among the sixth century BCE Presocratic philosophers. In this article, I argue that the expression “God is one” in Greek likely develops later, in Jewish writings of the Hellenistic period. My work supports a minority opinion in the scholarship that attributions in second century Christian apologetics of this expression to Presocratics such as Xenophanes should not be relied upon. Rather, I suggest that the expression heis theos emerged in the context of second to first century BCE Alexandrian Jewish theology in conversation with ideas from Greek philosophy.

Христианские символы в росписи склепов Херсонеса

The wall-paintings of 11 burial vaults of Chersonese, including mostly floral and vegetal designs, images of birds and imitation of marble wall-facing, correspond to the iconography of the early Christian funerary painting in the Late Roman Empire dating from the last quarter of the fourth to the early fifth century. Most likely, the outside painters of the Chersonesan vaults followed already established and well-known decorative and symbolic system by making a certain set of scenes. There is an image of undoubtedly Christian symbol, namely the Christogram, surviving on the vaulting of two structures only (uncovered in 1853/1905 and 2003/2006). There are four burial vaults more, featuring by the remains of paintings, possibly also of the Christogram. The line-drawing of the surviving images of Chersonesan Christogram meets with almost exact analogies, for example, in the tombs of Sophia, Thessalonike, and Sardis. For the first time, this article suggests that, apart from the Christogram, there was another Christian symbol used in the early Christian funerary painting of Chersonese, namely the four-petalled rosette, known from the walls of two burial vaults (the first located on N. I. Tur’s land, and the second uncovered in 2003/2006). The images of similar rosettes appeared on the pieces of art and in the funerary painting from the Hellenistic Period on. This extremely popular design of Classical art was primarily a decorative element and attribute of the garden of paradise. However, the Christians, especially in the age when the cult of the cross developed, most likely viewed the cruciform as a symbol. This observation concerns primarily the paintings with four-petal rosettes occupying an accentuated position in their decorative programme, actually replacing the image of the cross. A very vivid example of such use of the cross-shaped flower is the painting of tomb no. 37 in Thessalonike. In Chersonese, a case of the kind is the painting of the back wall of the burial vault located on N. I. Tur’s land. From the symmetrical location of three identical cross-shaped rosettes accompanied with two peacocks, with the middle rosette in the very centre of the composition, framed by a semi-circular fluffy garland, there are reasons to interpret them as cross-shaped symbols rather than simple plant designs.

Childhood Mediterranean Diet Adherence Is Associated with Lower Prevalence of Childhood Obesity, Specific Sociodemographic, and Lifestyle Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study in Pre-School Children.

The Mediterranean diet (MD) has been related with a decreased probability of overweight/obesity as well as central obesity at all stages of the human life, decreasing the risk of diverse disease states and improving quality of life. Over the last few years, the prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity and especially abdominal obesity has highly increased worldwide, being associated with a higher likelihood of overweight/obesity as well as central obesity at the next stages of the life during adulthood. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship of MD compliance with sociodemographic, anthropometry and lifestyle features in pre-school children aged 2-5 years old. This is a cross-sectional study, which includes 5188 pre-school children from diverse regions of Greece. Relevant questionnaires were applied to evaluate the sociodemographic features of the enrolled children. Anthropometric parameters were measured by relevant techniques. Qualified questionnaires were utilized for assessing several lifestyle factors such as physical activity, quality of life, breastfeeding practices, MD adherence, as well as the prevalence of childhood asthma and diabetes mellitus type I. Of the enrolled children, 41.7% showed low MD compliance and 36.4% of them indicated moderated compliance, while only 21.9% of them showed a high MD adherence. Overweight/obesity was noted in 24.2% of the assigned children, while abdominal obesity was noticed in 18.2% of them. Higher MD compliance was related with an elevated prevalence of sex (boys, p = 0.0005), Greek nationality (p = 0.0088), rural type of residence (p = 0.0099), childhood overweight/obesity (p < 0.0001) and abdominal obesity (p < 0.0001), lower childbirth weight (p < 0.0001), increased physical activity (p = 0.0041), improved quality of life (p = 0.0008), exclusive breastfeeding (p < 0.0001), childhood asthma (p = 0.0001) and diabetes mellitus type 1 (p = 0.0002). A higher MD adherence is associated with specific sociodemographic, better anthropometric, and beneficial lifestyle factors in pre-school children. However, MD compliance remains low or moderate in the vast majority of children aged 2-5 years old. Thus, future public strategies and policies should be performed to inform parents of the potential beneficial effects of MD against obesity and related chronic diseases at the next stage of their children's lives.

Gods, Religion and Its Criticism in the Greek Aesopic Fables

About a hundred Greek fables from the Aesopic tradition contain direct or allegorical references to religion. These references were not sufficiently studied. As a whole, they represent an anonymous, popular approach to religion from the Hellenistic period, with some sources in the earlier times. They have some importance for the history of Greek religion. These fables may be divided into two groups. The first group presents gods and mythology, with the dominant role of Zeus, near to henotheism; other gods are not really important. However, Prometheus is sometimes presented as the maker. The second group contains criticisms of religion, idolatry and misguided prayer (with Hermes as the butt of jokes).

Οπτικά ενθύμια του ροδιακού κωμωδεῖν

The comic theatrical act in Rhodes is represented by a catalogue of 45 comic masks and figurines, all recovered during rescue excavations in the city of Rhodes. This group of masks and figurines cover a period of about three centuries, consisting representative samples of an abundant Rhodian artistic production inspired by the theater during the Hellenistic period, when Rhodes emerges as a strong and prosperous naval power and becomes a cultural and intellectual center as well. The following catalogue includes depictions of comic types such as caricatures and grotesque figures along with protagonist types of the Rhodian comedians related to the New Comedy characters, guided by the literal source for information in stage presentation of drama theatrical types, the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux and the T.B.L. Webster’s catalogue.