Georgia Petridou

'Blessed Is He, Who Has Seen': The Power of Ritual Viewing and Ritual Framing in Eleusis

[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Horn. Hymn. Cer. 480-2 [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Pindar, fr. 121 Bowra [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Sophocles, fr. 837 Pearson-Radt Blessed is he, who has seen these, among the mortal men who live on earth; but he who is not initiated in the sacred rites, who has had no share in them, he does not have a lot of similar things when he is dead under the vast darkness, says the author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. These lines have traditionally been interpreted as referring to the spectacles offered to the initiates in the course of the secret initiation of the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of Eleusis, often referred to as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE INASCII] by our sources. (1) Analogous emphasis on the visual aspect of the spectacle is also given by several other sources, which are conventionally taken to refer to the secret initiation ceremony of the Greater Mysteries of Eleusis: Sophocles, fr. 837 Pearson-Radt (Thrice-blessed among the mortals are those who having seen these sacred rites enter Hades: for them alone there is life, but for the others all is evil); and Pindar, fr. 121 Bowra (Blessed is he who having seen these things has gone under the earth; he knows the end of life; but he also knows the god-given beginning). (2) None of these or any other of our sources gives us a detailed and reliable account of what the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] saw or, as a matter of fact, how the things seen conferred this sense of blessedness, and in what ways this blessedness eased the pain (or was it the fear?) of entering the chambers of Hades, and made the after-death existence endurable. Scholarly speculation on the nature of the things seen (and undoubtedly heard too) by the initiates is abundant. (3) A collage of textual evidence (consisting primarily of testimonies from late Christian and, therefore biased, authors) and iconographical evidence (not necessarily any less ambiguous) has been constructed and reconstructed in almost every possible way; and yet no account can be privileged without the essential leap of faith. Although a summary of some of the most learned reconstructions will be given here, the primary focus of the present essay is not so much on the nature of the things seen, as on the possible ways they were perceived by the initiates and the culturally defined scopic regimes that informed that perception. (4) Vision, Visuality, and Ritually-Centred Visuality A particular focus of this paper will be to introduce, and test the efficacy of, some recent and some more or less well-established developments in the disciplines of art history and visual culture in the study of the mysteric cults in general, and the study of the initiatory process ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) in the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] of Eleusis in particular. Effectively, I argue that, when studying the sources that speak of the process of mystic initiation in Eleusis, more may be gained if we shift our focus from the idea of unqualified and unmediated visual experience (vision) onto the cultural construct that mediates between the eye of the beholder and the things seen (visuality). The point of this exercise is to show that even if we could actually look at what happened within the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], it is quite unlikely that we would be able to see what the initiates saw, as it is extremely difficult to reconstruct with any certainty the complex nexus of sociopolitical and cultural discourses that shaped their gaze, their ways of viewing. Furthermore, I examine Jas Eisners notion of ritual-centred visuality, not as a possible conceptual framework for understanding the gaze of the pilgrim in the Imperial era, but for considering how ritual framing allows the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in the Eleusinian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] to see sacred visions beyond the constraints of secular visuality. …

Contesting religious and medical expertise: The therapeutai of Pergamum as religious and medical entrepreneurs

The paper focuses on the θεραπευταί of Imperial Pergamum, the religious entrepreneurs who operated within the complex of the healing sanctuary of Asclepius and who are usually seen as an innocuous cultic formation of elite patients. By contrast, this chapter argues that this group was one of the most dynamic, prolific groups of religious and to an extent medical experts. Examining this particular group of religious entrepreneurs has wider implications for both the history of medicine and the history of religion in the Imperial Era. Claims to a direct line of communication with Asclepius were made by both physicians and patients: the physicians craved divine legitimation of their methods, while the elite patients defied the need for expert intermediaries between god and knowledge and reclaimed ownership of their bodies.

Religion in the making: the Lived Ancient Religion approach

ABSTRACT For the past five years (2012–2017), the Max Weber Center of Erfurt University has hosted a project on ‘Lived Ancient Religion: Questioning “cults” and “polis religion”’, financed by the European Research Council and embedded in the research group on ‘Religious individualisation in historical perspective’ (see Fuchs and Rüpke. [2015. “Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective.” Religion 45 (3): 323–329. doi:10.1080/0048721X.2015.1041795]). It was designed to supplement existing accounts of the religious history of the Mediterranean area at the time of the long Roman Empire, accounts traditionally centred upon public or civic institutions. The new model focuses on the interaction of individuals with a variety of religious specialists and traditions, taking the form of material culture, spaces and text. It emphasises religious experience, embodiment and ‘culture in interaction’. On the basis of research into the history of religion of the Roman Empire, this co-authored article sets out to offer new tools for research into religion by formulating three major perspectives, namely religious agency, instantiated religion and narrated religion. We have tried to illustrate their potential value by means of 13 short case studies deriving from different geographical areas of the central and eastern Mediterranean area, and almost all relating to the period 150 BCE to 300 CE. These short descriptions are summarising research pursued by the members of the team of authors, published or to be published in extended form elsewhere, as indicated by the references.

On and beyond duty: Christian clergy at Oxyrhynchus (c. 250 – 400)

This paper presents a case-study of Christian clergy in the middle-Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus in the transitional period from mid-third to late fourth century, based on literary and documentary (papyrological) sources. Whereas in literary texts members of the clergy, mainly bishops, usually appear in connection with heresiological disputes, documentary papyri frequently show them ‘beyond duty’, for example engaged in business or travel. The papyri widen our historical understanding by preserving data on lower-ranking religious specialists, such as presbyters, readers, nuns and monks, who would otherwise remain quite unknown. They also provide evidence for the extension of the Christian order into the agrarian hinterland of the city.

Tertium genus? Representations of religious practitioners in the cult of Magna Mater

The representations of practitioners in the cult of Magna Mater/Cybele hold a special position in Roman imperial imagery. The male images in particular exhibit characteristic somatic features and types of clothing as well as striking attributes, connected to certain rituals, religious duties or to the expertise of divination. The images oscillate indeterminately between genders. The effect is to contruct a tertium genus by visual means. It seems that this marked otherness was chosen deliberately as a pictorial scheme to accommodate the specific religious status of the cult of Magna Mater and its practitioners.

Rhetorical indications of the poet’s craft in the ancient synagogue

The fourth to eighth centuries CE saw the emergence of a class of professional liturgical poets in the Palestinian synagogue. These poets, known as payetanim, composed a genre of intricate poetry known as piyyut and formed a religious class independent of the rabbinic movement. This study discusses indications of how synagogue poets saw themselves both in relation to the divine and to their communities, focusing on the rhetoric of early piyyut and attestations to its use in the early synagogue. Two methodological models are explored: the construction of a liturgical ‘self’ in the introductions to piyyutim; and the analysis of the use of ideal figures and construction of a past in these compositions. It is argued that ritual practitioners in the Jewish communities of late antiquity sought to distinguish themselves as worthy of consideration as members of a vocation that claimed a pedigree, identity, and singular status.

Best practice. Religious reformation in Philo’s representation of the Therapeutae and Therapeutrides

In De vitae contemplativa, the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria portrays a group called Therapeutae and Therapeutrides, living an ascetic life of study, fasting and religious celebration on the shores of Lake Mareotis outside of the city of Alexandria. His description strikingly resembles a group of Egyptian priests represented by his younger contemporary, the Stoic philosopher Chaeremon. This article focuses not so much on the reconstruction of the priestly group of the historical Therapeutae and Therapeutrides but rather on Philo, their historian and ethnographer, as a religious innovator. The first section places the writing in its literary context. The second presents a close reading of Philo’s representation of Therapeutic eusebeia in comparison to similar representations of Egyptian priestly groups from the first century CE. The third section demonstrates that Philo characterises the group as practitioners of a most eminent and ancient religious practice and thereby as a source of original and untouched truth. According to him, the group, with its methods of allegorical interpretation, also provides the most original philosophical interpretations of wisdom preserved in religious practices and writings. The final question raised is why in this text Philo hides not only the ethnic-religious identity of the Therapeutae and Therapeutrides but also his own Jewish identity behind a Greek narrative persona.

Enforcing priesthood. The struggle for the monopolisation of religious goods and the construction of the Christian religious field

Drawing on a Bourdieusian framework, this paper aims to sketch out the main strategies by which the ‘ecclesiastical party’ of successive bishops from the mid-second to the late third century CE managed to establish itself as mainline, to make its normative claims effective, and to see off the major forms of religious competition, thereby constructing the Christian religious field of the imperial era. To accomplish all this, what we might call the bishop’s viewpoint had to be brought to prevail over that of specialists endowed with different types of religious capital. Among these, three categories of religious providers were particularly competitive: the ‘charismatics’, the ‘great laymen’ and those who viewed themselves as ‘enlightened’, usually known as Gnostics.

Beyond Priesthood. Religious Entrepreneurs and Innovators in the Roman Empire

Above all, this volume assesses critically convenient terminological usage and offers a unique insight into a rich gamut of ancient Mediterranean religious specialists.

Introduction: Towards a History of the Ancient Patient's View.

This is a volume about the homo patiens in the Graeco-Roman world: the ancient suffering man, woman, and child, their role in ancient medical encounters and in broader cultural contexts,1 as well as their relationship to the health providers and medical practitioners of their time. The participle patiens is used here in its etymological sense denoting the ‘afflicted’, ‘the suffering’ person (who would be variously described in Greek as ho arrhōstos, ho nosōn, ho kamnōn, ho trōtheis, ho katakeimenos, or simply ho paschōn) and, as far as possible, freed from any Foucauldian connotations.2 The title of this collected volume, Homo Patiens: Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient world, stresses our particular interest in the ancient patient’s view, while simultaneously alluding